Iron Chef Optimization Challenge: E6 Appetizer Edition (Round V)

[Zaq]

Welcome back to the reborn Iron Chef Optimization Challenge E6 Appetizer Edition! Our first round with me as Chair had a few hiccups, but I hope we'll come out stronger for it.

The form of this challenge is to take a particular D&D 3.5 base class (our "secret ingredient," or SI) and turn it into a functional E6 (https://esix.pbworks.com/f/E6v041.pdf) build, which must feature the SI as heavily as possible. (The only hard rule about this is that you must take at least one level in the SI, though judges are encouraged to look favorably on builds that take all or almost all of their levels in said SI.) Your final build submission should consist of your 6 regular levels and your first 10 epic bonus feats, though providing a snapshot at earlier points through the progression is heartily encouraged. Entries are to be PM'd to the Chair (that would be me!), and they will be posted anonymously; our volunteer judges will then grade each build on a 1-5 point scale in four categories: Originality, Power, Elegance, and Use of the Secret Ingredient. The builds with the highest three scores will be awarded medals, with the Honorable Mention award going to the non-medaling build that the Chair likes best (and/or that receives the most votes for HM in this thread). And then we all have cake!*

*Note: You must provide your own cake.

This is basically like the regular Iron Chef, and let's be brutally honest with ourselves here: this isn't a gargantuan community, and we basically all know what we're talking about at this point. Make the builds, send 'em in, post some scores, and have fun. If you've got questions, lemme know. Still, let's lay out a few rules!

Cooking Time: Builds must be submitted via PM to the Chair by 11:59 PM GMT - 7 on Thursday, February 01, 2018 (6:59 AM GMT on Friday, February 02). The reveal shall be on the first evening the Chair has free following the cooking deadline, which is hoped to be the immediately subsequent evening. Judging is then expected (*cough*) to take no more than two weeks, so we'll put the judging deadline at two weeks after that. (You can do the math yourselves; I don't want to put two dates here and confuse people.)

Kitchen: Almost all first-party 3.5 sources are legal. Dragon Magazine is disallowed, but Dragon Compendium (and its errata) is allowed. Online material from the WotC website is legal except for unupdated 3.0 psionics, which are banned. (If you use online material, please provide a link to the source.) Unearthed Arcana is legal for paragon classes, alternate races, and alternate class features, but not for fractional BAB/saves, item familiars, generic classes, prestigious character classes, gestalt, bloodlines, LA buyoff, or similar rule variants. We will borrow the existing standard for traits and flaws; they are legal, but traits warrant a –0.5 point penalty in Elegance, and flaws warrant a –1 point penalty in Elegance. Leadership is banned, as is any other feat or class feature that gives you something equivalent. (Familiars and improved familiars are fine, Wild Cohort is fine, psicrystals and elemental envoys are fine, animal companions are fine, but Thrallherd is not fine, for example.) Official errata is considered to be in play. Judges are not to penalize for the use of a large number of sources, nor are they to penalize for using an "obscure" source in one's build. Judges may, however, penalize for using a source without listing it, so please provide a list of sources! It is up to the discretion of each judge whether it is inelegant to "cross setting lines" (by using, for example, Forgotten Realms and Eberron material in the same build). Pathfinder is not allowed. Unupdated 3.0 material is allowed, and the general-purpose 3.0-to-3.5 skill updates (Wilderness Lore and Intuit Direction become Survival, Read Lips becomes Sense Motive, etc.) should be used when appropriate. If 3.0 material has been updated to 3.5, use the 3.5 version instead. If you have questions about anything in this paragraph (or hell, in this ruleset), feel free to ask the Chair.

Character Creation: 32 point buy is assumed. For the purposes of this contest, Level Adjustment greater than +0 is banned. (This may be revised at a later point, but I don't feel that the E6 LA rules are conducive to fun in the context of this contest.) No more than two entries per chef per contest, please; if you submit two builds and somehow are so overcome with inspiration for a third that you can't help yourself, PM me and tell me which two you care about the most.

Speculation: Please do not post any form of speculation before the reveal. Just don't do it, guys. It's not cool.

E6: Here's how E6 works for the purposes of this contest. Build your character normally for the first six levels. After you reach level 6, you stop gaining levels and start gaining bonus feats every time you would gain 5,000 XP. Since we aren't actually tracking XP, you'll basically list your first ten epic bonus feats in the order that you take them, and we think of them as being kind of like levels. We will not use the LA-equals-reduced-point-buy rules, instead preferring to just ban races with LA (at least for now). We will not use the "capstone feats"; all feats that you take must be normal legal 3.5 feats, not homebrew E6 ones. You may not use the Epic feats from the Epic Level Handbook, though if for some reason there are non-Epic feats from the ELH that you qualify for, you may take those. (I don't think there are any, but I'm sure someone will prove me wrong.) It is up to the discretion of each judge whether this is a "hard E6" (magic above 3rd level spells is simply beyond mortal reach, items that have a listed CL above 6th are just plain not available, etc.) or a "soft E6" (if you can somehow get the magic on your character, it's yours, regardless of level), though I honestly don't expect it to come up. Don't go crazy with making assumptions about items and we probably won't have to find out.

Presentation: Here's a table for you to use. List your epic bonus feats (in clear order) after the table. If you find a clever way of formatting that that isn't annoying and that doesn't break anything, have fun; if it's portable, I may steal it for the next round. When sending your build or any disputes to the Chair, clearly include your build's name in the subject of the PM, and please present your build exactly as you want the Chair to copy and paste it into the thread.

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


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


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


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


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


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


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


Code for the table:

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


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


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


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


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


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


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


Contest houserules: Nearly the same as the main contest's rules here: all creatures are proficient with natural weapons they have or may acquire, bonus feats that are explicitly granted without meeting prereqs are usable even without those prereqs, and feats that affect which skills are class skills for you and/or how you spend your skill points (Able Learner, Martial Study, Truename Training, Apprentice, etc.) apply immediately at the level at which you take them (even though you normally spend skill points before taking a feat).

Judging guidelines: As with the main contest, we will follow the "One Mistake, One Penalty" guideline. I'm going to directly copy and paste this from the main thread, and hopefully the original author won't mind too much:
Judges are only allowed to penalise once for a given mistake. If someone messes up their skills and doesn't qualify for a PrC, ding them as hard as you like. Once. In one category. You don't then get to declare that because they didn't qualify for that PrC, they don't get those levels, and thus don't qualify for anything else. If Ranger is a common ingredient, ding them for Originality. Once. Don't also take off points for Two-Weapon-Fighting being a common ingredient.

Non-exhaustive list of examples:

Skills
Allowed:

Giving a penalty for miscalculating the number of skill points gained
Giving a penalty for not having enough ranks to meet a prerequisite
Increasing the harshness of a skill miscalculation penalty if it affects critical skills including prereqs


Not allowed:

Giving separate penalties for miscalculating skill points and for non-qualification where the non-qualification is solely caused by the miscalculation



Prereqs
Allowed:

Giving a penalty for not meeting prereqs
Scaling the penalty depending on how important the item that the build failed to qualify for is
Giving minimum score in UotSI for not qualifying for the SI
(Trial, may be disallowed later)Not giving credit for (note: not the same as penalising for) tactics using feats or classes other than the SI that were not qualified for (but see below)


Not Allowed:

"Cascading" failures to qualify - declaring that because a build doesn't qualify for a feat, for example, it also doesn't qualify for anything using that feat as a prereq
Treating a build as having fewer levels than it does because of FtQ for classes



Other general things that are no longer allowed:

Penalising because someone has chosen to build a tribute to an existing creative work
Deciding that a backstory has not met a fluff prerequisite well enough, or because its method of meeting it is "unrealistic". You may penalise if a fluff prereq is not addressed at all, but not for how well it is addressed.


Note that these are protections, not licenses. Deliberately taking a feat that you know you don't qualify for hoping to just suck up the judging penalty for a feat that you couldn't normally take is not okay, and may lead to your build being disqualified.

Other bits and bobs: If there's something major and relevant I haven't mentioned, assume that the way I handle it will probably be the same as the main contest unless stated otherwise or unless doing so would be an obviously absurd result. If you've got questions, I'll give you answers.

This round's secret ingredient: The NINJA, from Complete Adventurer! Allez Optimizer!


Round 4: Knight (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?542333-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(IV))

Round 1: Divine Mind (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?197000-Iron-Chef-Appetizer-Edition!-(e6))
Round 2: Monk (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?201548-Iron-Chef-Appetizer-Edition!-(e6)-II)
Round 3: Marshal (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?235221-Iron-Chef-Appetizer-Edition-(E6)-III)

The Builds:


Entry
Alignment/Race
Stub
Judge: Randuir
Judge: jdizzlean
Total
Chef


Shadow (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22810459&postcount=67)
CN Whisper Gnome
Ninja 5/Warlock 1
14
17.25
31.25
Long_shanks


Aeilash (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22810433&postcount=60)
NG Dragonborn Grey Elf
Scout 1/Ninja 4/Avenger 1
14.5
14.75
29.25
RaiKirah


Ondrej (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22810457&postcount=66)
NE Azurin
Ninja 5/Incarnate 1
15
13.5
28.5
Lapak


Flustern Undsack (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22810440&postcount=63)
NE Whisper Gnome
Ninja 4/Incarnate 2
13
15

28
PrismCat21


Shinda Suzume (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22810461&postcount=68)
NE Hengeyokai Sparrow
Ninja 2/HnR Fighter 2/Totemist 2
14
13
27
Darrin


Belle Bubbles Bloom (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22810438&postcount=62)
LN Strongheart Halfling
Rogue 1/Monk 2/Ninja 3
13
13.5
26.5
DEMON


Batninja (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22810436&postcount=61)
?? Anthropomorphic Bat
Ninja 6
13.5
12
25.5
3WhiteFox3


Helter Kari (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22810447&postcount=64)
LE Human Ghost
Ninja 3/Binder 1/Eidolon 2
13.5
11.5
25
daremetoidareyo


Talon (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22810463&postcount=69)
?? Anthropomorphic Screech Owl
Ninja 6
14.5
9
23.5
PrismCat21


Tellian d'Thurrani (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22810466&postcount=70)
CN Wood Elf
Barbarian 1/Ninja 4/Shadow Hunter 1
12
11.5
23.5
Falontani


Khal Krotu (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22810452&postcount=65)
LG Illumian
Ninja 3/Monk 1/HnR SA Fighter/Avenger 1
12.5
9.5
22
daremetoidareyo

[Zaq]

Oh, and for my evil piece here to rub in why this round's ingredient is SI-worthy, I just want to mention that the base rules expect an adventurer to face about 4 or more encounters per day, and unless you've got some real cheese under the hood, those encounters are likely to last at least 3-5 rounds each. And those are minimums; the reality likely skews higher. Just gonna throw that out there.

[DEMON]

I actually have an idea that might work. Too bad I will most likely fail to bring it to fruition...

[Hish]

I've been interested in IC for a while, but 20th level character builds are intimidating. I think I could submit an E6 build sometime. If not for this round then later.

I have little experience optimizing, but I can't hope to improve without practice! Just don't expect quality from me.

[WhamBamSam]

Might try playing around with this while I wait for the main competition. Ninja is sort of in an annoying place of simultaneously feeling like I'm spending too many levels on it in an E6 build, and feeling like I'm not spending enough, as the actual interesting features don't show up until a few levels past 6.

[Inevitability]

Definitely got a build concept for this.

[Jormengand]

I have an idea for this too, but it's exceptionally silly and only really works because it's in E6. Just as well it is, I suppose.

[Long_shanks]

I've been on those forums for a couple of years now and I've always wanted to participate in a competition, but IC or VC seem to demand an enormous investement in time. E6 seems simpler, so I read the previous contests and told myself I would try to participate with the next ingredient, but god damn is the ninja bad. I distinctly remember playing one in a one-shot and having a blast, but I'm that was another time, Before Optimization (or BO) sneaked into my life.
But hey, I'll dive in the books and see if an inspiration strikes.

[Long_shanks]

Question to the chair (or any contestant with more experience). Are multiclass penalties in effect or if we incur them they could just incur a penalty (in elegance I assume) depending on the judge?

[Zaq]

It’s technically up to each judge.

I’m personally not a fan of acknowledging multiclass penalties and I tend to ignore them, but I won’t make an official ruling either way unless there’s a really strong swell of support here one way or the other.

[Jormengand]

If I end up judging, I will, like every DM I have ever played with and ever been, ignore multiclass penalties, for what it's worth.

[daremetoidareyo]

Inspiration has struck. Get ready for insufficient fluff and a buttload of rules as written.

[Falontani]

Might be time to make my own "Debut"
These challenges have always piqued my interest and now that I have a voice I might as well try it out

[Inevitability]

I have an idea for this too, but it's exceptionally silly and only really works because it's in E6. Just as well it is, I suppose.

I say go for it: my own build last round wouldn't work outside of E6 either, and ended up doing pretty well.

[jdizzlean]

assuming the community doesn't want to roast me over an open fire, i'll stay on to judge this comp

[remetagross]

C'mon jdizzlean, I certainly wouldn't :smallsmile: nice to have your motivation!

I'm starting to wonder if I have a viable idea for this one.

[RaiKirah]

I would like to throw my hat in the ring to compete, assuming I can get an entry finished on time. I've got some ideas, but not sure how good they are. This format (E6) is somewhat odd.

[Thurbane]

I have a vague idea: in the very unlikely event I find some time, I may put an entry in.

[daremetoidareyo]

Anyone else struggling without bringing LA into this?

[Long_shanks]

Anyone else struggling without bringing LA into this?

I'm struggling with race, especially regarding originality. I mean, there are only a couple of LA +0 races that really fit the ingredient. I've tried to make my build with other races but always come back to the same two.

[WhamBamSam]

I've come to the conclusion that I somehow hate Ninja even more in E6 than I do normally. I may judge if I have time but I find myself either not liking the build ideas I've come up with or needing too many non-Ninja levels to make them work.

[Falontani]

how do we do equipment/fluff in E6? It's my first time posting to either of them and I've got the build finalized but am struggling with what levels to portray, how much money I have for equipment (WBL 6 or 16??)

[Zombulian]

Is Savage Species allowed?
I may have an idea.

[PrismCat21]

Is Savage Species allowed?
I may have an idea.

Reread the first post explaining what is and is not allowed under 'kitchen'. Savage Species is a 3.0 book.


how do we do equipment/fluff in E6? It's my first time posting to either of them and I've got the build finalized but am struggling with what levels to portray, how much money I have for equipment (WBL 6 or 16??)

You're assumed to have appropriate equipment for your level and build. Adding a section for suggestive equipment and how it would be beneficial to your build, somewhere in your entry will not hurt score. However, if your entry relies on specific equipment to make your entry work, that likely will be counted against you. Generally, I wouldn't worry about adding any equipment at all that the build does not specifically call for. (like Weapon Focus:weapon, or Kensei's signature weapon, or Ancestral Weapon, ect...)

[Zaq]

Hmm. Seems like my "no LA" rule is chafing a bit? I'm willing to discuss alternatives to it, at least for the next contest (might be a bit late to elegantly change the rule for this one). Let's open some dialogue here.

Basically, I don't think the "LA = reduced point-buy" rules adequately address things, especially on the high end of the LA spectrum. My biggest fear is that people are going to end up primarily playing their race instead of their class. In the main contest, it's one thing to delay your progression by a whole level to get, for example, HiPS from the Dark template, but losing a few points of stats (that are often, though admittedly not always, refunded by the stat bumps of the race/template in question) is a much smaller cost, and I don't think it's actually a balanced choice.

Leaving LA as LA is too big a cost when you've got a max of 6 HD to play with, but I don't think that paying PB points to get access to LA races/templates is something that we can prevent from overwhelming the SI, whatever it happens to be. (Yeah, yeah, overshadow it completely and risk tanking UoSI, but I think my greater point stands.)

Yeah, there are a lot of LA-based game elements that aren't really overpowered, but we're all optimizers here, and I'm not too worried about someone making a hobgoblin or a blue or a sharakim. But stuff like the Dark template seems like a no-brainer for any SI that has Hide as a class skill (and several that don't)—your dump stats might get a little dumpier, but you get benefits that are otherwise very expensive in E6, with no slowdown of your main progression. Half-Fey turns 32 PB into 18 PB but offers some nontrivial stat bumps to make up most of the difference—oh, and wings with double your base movement speed and a pile of noticeable racial SLAs. You're not playing a half-fey Ninja, you're playing a Ninja who happens to be half-fey. I don't think half-fey is overpowered in a normal 20-level game (and in an actual at-the-table-with-friends game rather than a build competition, I'm in favor of allowing LA buyoff or otherwise straight up reducing the cost of LA), but I think that what you gain from it is worth more than 14 PB points when you're trying to put together a usable build with the terrible ingredients I intend to inflict on you. Pixie has 0 PB, but a pixie's actual stats are entirely reasonable stats (higher than you'd get with 32 PB in most cases, as long as you aren't STR-primary and can mitigate a lowish CON), and a pixie has ridiculously massive DR/SR for an E6 game, has perma-invisibility, has rock-solid flight, and has friggin' Polymorph (a 4th level spell—normally not possible to get at all in E6 without shenanigans), but with no loss in progression of the main build. I would play an E6 pixie Ninja over an E6 human Ninja any day of the week, since I'd still get to put my unique spin on it with extremely little cost, but pixie would arguably be doing more heavy lifting than Ninja. Are pixies a fairly extreme edge case? Yeah, they are, but the fact remains that they aren't a problem that can be solved with PB alone, and they probably aren't the only case that would cause issues.

In the main contest, LA directly competes with the rest of your build. It reduces your skill point maximums, delays when you can enter the Secret Ingredient, and is basically a class. It's a cost that you pretty much pay out of the Secret Ingredient or out of your entry to it. (LA is arguably too much of a cost, which is why I'm in favor of buyoff or of reduced LA in an actual home game, but when the goal is to show off clever optimization skills, I want to err on the side of caution.) But that isn't the case with the E6 LA = -PB rules. The cost isn't paid out of the same account. It can't be (again, losing HD when you've only got a max of 6 is way, way too harsh), but I don't see a way to let the LA builds not overwhelm the non-LA builds. I'd love to make LA be an honest-to-god choice that some people will take and that some people won't take, without one side dominating the other by default. But I don't see a way to do that. PB cost is too small. HD cost is too high.

I feel like a large subset of chefs are going to end up gravitating towards the same small subset of races and templates that offer oversized bang for the buck, since it doesn't compete with your ability to enter or use the SI. A half-fey Shadow Sun Ninja (for example) is going to have a harder time qualifying for the SI, will enter it later, and will have a noticeably stunted growth progression over the course of a 20-level build (again, arguably too much, but it makes being half-fey a choice with meaningful upsides and downsides), but a half-fey Ninja isn't paying the same kind of cost for their power bump. There isn't as much of the chef's touch in selecting base stats (there's some, but significantly less than most of the other components that make your build your build), so I don't feel like base stats alone can compensate for "hey, now you've got weird SLAs and movement modes and special qualities that offer more utility than the SI itself does." And again, it's not exactly gamebreaking to show up with a dromite or a shadowswyft (neither of whom should have LA, honestly), but I don't trust myself to spot-ban all of the troublesome stuff in the same way that I'd try to do if I were GMing a game rather than chairing a competition. Doing so would honestly likely feel arbitrary, anyway.

I've said enough that I'm probably honestly coming off as defensive by this point, so I'll step back and let other folks weigh in. Basically, I don't see a way to actually make LA races balanced, so my solution is just to make you stick to LA 0 stuff. Now you've seen my thought process, so if you want to argue against it, I'm willing to listen. I'm almost certain to keep the LA ban in place at least for the current round just to be fair to those of you who've done most/all of the work on your builds already and don't want the playing field changed in the middle, but I'm willing to listen to counterarguments for the future.

[PrismCat21]

I'm all for keeping LA races out of it completely.
This is supposed to be a bit of a challenge. LA would largely make it easier and more predictable in getting the 'most powerful/best' builds. And as you said, overshadow what's supposed to be the important part of the build.
Let the SI shine. :smallsmile:

[Long_shanks]

I think the LA problem is more of a consequence of the awfulness of the first 6 levels of the ninja more than anything else. Even with what I said earlier, I don't think I'm for the inclusion of LA. It gives a unique challenge to E6, to have to work with less possibilities; it's the reason why I might have an entry in one of those GITP contest for the first time... it is way less daunting than the 20 level entries. So, I would argue to keep LA out of it.

[DEMON]

Hmm. Seems like my "no LA" rule is chafing a bit? I'm willing to discuss alternatives to it, at least for the next contest (might be a bit late to elegantly change the rule for this one). Let's open some dialogue here.

Personally, I'm fine with the ban on LA adjusted races. While I don't think it's necessary in actual games (the ones I was involved in), where players are working together and don't (or shouldn't) try to one up each other, in this challenge, I'd say it has it's place.

Everyone has an even playing field and should be working with the SI first and foremost. And there's still some 200 options for LA+0 & 1HD races out there to choose from.

[Zombulian]

Reread the first post explaining what is and is not allowed under 'kitchen'. Savage Species is a 3.0 book.



You're assumed to have appropriate equipment for your level and build. Adding a section for suggestive equipment and how it would be beneficial to your build, somewhere in your entry will not hurt score. However, if your entry relies on specific equipment to make your entry work, that likely will be counted against you. Generally, I wouldn't worry about adding any equipment at all that the build does not specifically call for. (like Weapon Focus:weapon, or Kensei's signature weapon, or Ancestral Weapon, ect...)

Ah yes, but it is an un-updated 3.0 book. So I suppose it's fair game. I know that the book has a bad reputation though so I figured I'd ask.

[daremetoidareyo]

I think the LA problem is more of a consequence of the awfulness of the first 6 levels of the ninja more than anything else.

This is what I've been dealing with. I found my way around the snag

[Falontani]

While I don't think that LA should make a common occurrence or be allowed in this E6 challenge, it could be interesting to have the SI be a certain template, or race. Like you said in E6 a half fey ninja is much more pronounced than in the normal Iron Chef competition where it would be a ninja with some Half Fey added in.

That said I could see subtracting the LA from the amount of feats you get in the epic portions of the E6 build as well as the pb cost.

[DEMON]

how do we do equipment/fluff in E6? It's my first time posting to either of them and I've got the build finalized but am struggling with what levels to portray, how much money I have for equipment (WBL 6 or 16??)

Definitely not 16.

In E6, you get an extra feat for each 5000 XP above 6th level, so getting 10 extra feats means 50K XP above 6th level. You need 40K XP to achieve level 11, and 51K XP to achieve level 12 (that is extra XP above level 6), so you should not have more wealth than that (a forgiving DM might grant you 12th level WBL, while a strict one would go with 11th level WBL... and maybe a bit more for that level's expendables).

[Zaq]

I've only got one entry so far. We're at about 3 days left before the deadline, and no weekends left. How's everyone doing?

[RaiKirah]

Still planning on getting a build in - basically finished save write up and formatting (which I hear can be difficult). Planning on starting formatting tomorrow.

[daremetoidareyo]

I just need to find a thin veneer of backstory to overlay my powergaming.

[Long_shanks]

I'm trying, but I don't know if I will make it. Plus, I'm not that enthused with my build (and I've not found all 10 of my epic feats yet).

[Zaq]

I'm trying, but I don't know if I will make it. Plus, I'm not that enthused with my build (and I've not found all 10 of my epic feats yet).

If you’ve got most of the build down, I say just gun the engine and hit ramming speed. Even if your build doesn’t work flawlessly, it almost always feels better to submit a non-medaling build than to live forever never knowing how you’d stack up. Hell, there’s been more than once when I Vizzini’d myself out of even trying, only to find out that no one else had even had the same idea!

That goes for everyone, by the way! This is all for fun. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good, you know?

[Jormengand]

I'm trying to do a decent build, but grafting other classes' abilities onto the ninja is even LESS fulfilling than with paladin! :smalltongue:

No, in reality I have a sorta idea, but it's pretty dumb. :smalltongue:

[DEMON]

If you’ve got most of the build down, I say just gun the engine and hit ramming speed. Even if your build doesn’t work flawlessly, it almost always feels better to submit a non-medaling build than to live forever never knowing how you’d stack up. Hell, there’s been more than once when I Vizzini’d myself out of even trying, only to find out that no one else had even had the same idea!

That goes for everyone, by the way! This is all for fun. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good, you know?

That's a hell of a motivational speech.
I'm sure you're going to get a couple more entries in the next few days, including mine, if I work out the finishing touches in time.

[Long_shanks]

If you’ve got most of the build down, I say just gun the engine and hit ramming speed. Even if your build doesn’t work flawlessly, it almost always feels better to submit a non-medaling build than to live forever never knowing how you’d stack up. Hell, there’s been more than once when I Vizzini’d myself out of even trying, only to find out that no one else had even had the same idea!

That goes for everyone, by the way! This is all for fun. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good, you know?

Fair words, my friend. Ended up having more free time that expected today, so I'm now almost sure i'll be able to submit. I've only one feat left to find and some fluff to had (it's going to be pretty minimalistic, but I've never been one for creative writing).

On a side note, it's my first experience with formatting an entry. Goddam... it isn't fun.

[daremetoidareyo]

Make your build in Google Sheets or Excel, make a one by one table, hit the top left button of the controls which is the what-you-see-is-what-you-get mode, paste your build into it, hit the what-you-see-is-what-you-get button again, and erase one set of the table brackets.

[Long_shanks]

Make your build in Google Sheets or Excel, make a one by one table, hit the top left button of the controls which is the what-you-see-is-what-you-get mode, paste your build into it, hit the what-you-see-is-what-you-get button again, and erase one set of the table brackets.

Oh wow, I didn't know about that button. Thanks you, that's gonna help a whole lot.

[MinimanMidget]

There's a build stub I can't get out of my head, but can't come up with anything to make it really work past level 1. I might try to submit something tonight if I can come up with anything that's vaguely close to good.

[DeTess]

Btw, what are the requirements for being a judge? I've been trying to come up with a valid built, but I couldn't come up with anything that wasn't ridiculously obvious, so I was thinking of judging instead.

[Lapak]

I’ve never done one of these but I’m toying with a build; I’ll try to get it in by the deadline.

[Zaq]

There's a build stub I can't get out of my head, but can't come up with anything to make it really work past level 1. I might try to submit something tonight if I can come up with anything that's vaguely close to good.

Do it! What’s the worst that can happen? We believe in you!


Btw, what are the requirements for being a judge? I've been trying to come up with a valid built, but I couldn't come up with anything that wasn't ridiculously obvious, so I was thinking of judging instead.

“Requirements” is a bit of a harsher word than I’d choose to use here. We ask that judges be fair and even-handed, that they stick to their own criteria, and that they understand the material at hand (definitely make sure to check as much source material as possible, and if you don’t have a key book, ask for an excerpt of the relevant text in order to render a key judgment).

There’s a limited number of judging guidelines in the OP (the most important ones being “One Mistake, One Penalty” and the admonition not to directly penalize solely for which/how many sources are used), but those are meant as sort of a few edge-case boundaries rather than “follow these instructions for a complete picture of how to judge.”


I’ve never done one of these but I’m toying with a build; I’ll try to get it in by the deadline.

Do it! Good luck! We believe in you!

[DEMON]

Just... a few more... finishing touches. How much more time do we have? So I don't miss this on a time zone difference...

[Zaq]

Roughly 24 more hours. Slightly more than that, but about one day.

If you’re in the US, the intent is midnight Thursday Mountain Time. For those of us outside the US, the time zone in question is GMT (UTC) - 7, so 7 AM Friday GMT (UTC). Pretty sure I did that math right. Someone can double-check me if desired.

[3WhiteFox3]

Haven't done an E6 IC competition before, but I'm going to be send a build in shortly. Let's see how this goes.

[remetagross]

Won't be able to participate. I was unhappy with either the race I picked or the use of certain class feature.

[Long_shanks]

Alright, I submitted my build. Pretty basic stuff, but hey. Let's just hope nobody had the same idea ;)

[RaiKirah]

Build Submitted! Hopefully doesn't suck quite as much as I currently think it does (marathon formatting is not conducive to positive thinking) :P

[Lapak]

Submitted. Hopefully I didn't mess up anything too obvious due to inexperience and/or last-minute adjusting!

[DeTess]

For all those that just submitted, or that are still planning to submit, did you list your sources? It helps a lot with the judging. Not that I have ever forgotten to include the sources in a build of mine. No sir, never, I tell you!

[jdizzlean]

yes, please do include your sources, for your sakes :)

[Zaq]

Okay folks, pencils down.

I do not have time to post the builds before I get to work, so the reveal will have to be later today, but we’ve passed the deadline with easily more than enough submissions. This is going to be fun.

[remetagross]

I'm looking forward to the reveal :smallsmile:

[daremetoidareyo]

Is the witching hour at hand yet?

[Zaq]

Yes, sorry everyone! It's been an unexpectedly busy couple of days, and I just got home.

Also, there are a lot of entries. Took me a while to make a table and organize them. No witty comments this round, but let's get to it!

[Zaq]

Entry the first!


Aeilash, The Chamber’s Shadow
Neutral Good Grey Elf/Dragonborn (Eberron)
Scout 1/Ninja 4/Avenger 1


It should have been a perfect day to wander the rolling steppes; the sun was high, the clouds scarce, and there was a breeze stiff enough to cut the heat of the day without being too insistent. And yet. Aeilash of the Tairnadal couldn’t shake the feeling that something was not right with the day. He had spent the morning enjoying the feel of sun and wind, too relaxed to put more than a passing effort into looking for the game that was ostensibly his reason for roaming so far from home in Valenshold. At first he’d attributed the lack of potential lunch to this distraction, but as the day wore on without sight nor sign an unease had gripped the young elf, and now he walked softly, eyes scanning the surroundings with care for he knew not what. Aeilash came upon an unusually deep fold in the plains, and in the shadowed folds found a scene of devastation. The corpses of deer and other animals littered the ground and the grass was torn up and trampled with blood. So shocked was he that didn’t see the creature until it was too late. With a shrieking hiss something out of a nightmare flew out of the remaining grass and sank its claws and teeth into the elf. Aeilash managed to throw the monster off with a yell, but when he tried to rise found his legs unable to bear his weight. Something on the creature’s claws must have poisoned him; all he could do was watch in horror as the monster stalked back, a look of malevolent glee on its face. Aeilash’s sight grew dim, consciousness fading. The last thing he saw before he passed out was a darkly clad woman flickering into view behind the creature and neatly piercing it through the heart.

Consciousness returned slowly. The first thing Aeilash noted was the lack of pain; he hadn’t expected to wake again at all. Aeilash stirred and opened his eyes to find night had fallen over the steppes.
“Welcome back.”
The elf started and looked around. In the soft light of moon and stars he made out two figures nearby; the woman who had rescued him and an older human looking his way, hair starting to silver at the temples.
Aeilash sat up, a rough blanket falling away. “Who are you?”
“You may call me Pendrag, and I believe you’ve met my companion Akari. We’re lucky she found you when she did; you very nearly died.”
“What happened?”
“You were attacked by an imp we had been tracking. Akari killed it and brought you to me.”
“What was an imp doing here?”
“Ah, now that is indeed the question. The imp was part of a group of fiends we had been following for the past while. They have been combing the steppes for some time now, moving with purpose and avoiding notice rather than causing havoc as is their usual wont. We believe that the group has been sent directly by the Lords of Dust, though for what reason we still don’t know, though likely they seek an entrance to the Underdark, a route through which their kin might arrive. They seem to have stopped in the area.” The old human sighed. “I fear that things will get worse before we stop whatever plan has brought the agents of the Lords of Dust here.”

Indeed, Pendrag was soon proved right. More fiendish creatures arrived all the time, and soon it wasn’t safe to travel beyond Valenshold. Occasionally some fiends tried to enter the village, but the Deathless Guard repelled them easily. However, there weren’t enough of the Deathless to both defend the village and search for the source of the attacks. Unable to sit idle while his friends and family were in danger, Aeilash joined Pendrag and Akari in searching out the entrance to the Underdark the fiends had found. Akari taught him how to pass unseen and strike true, how to become one with the darkness, and the two spent many nights moving through the steppes in search of the entrance to The Dragon Below.

One night while out scouting the steppes Aeilash felt a light touch on his back and turned to find Akari behind him.
“Come with me; I’ve found the entrance. Pendrag is already on his way there.”
Aeilash’s heart starting beating faster. Finally they could do something about the monsters that had been attacking his home. The two sped across the plains, fleeting shadows quickly catch Pendrag as he walked through the night. Following Akari’s directions the trio found themselves looking down into a fold of the land deeper than any Aeilash had seen before. Almost hidden in the shadows at the bottom lay a denser darkness from which a vaguely humanoid creature emerged, moonlight illuminating a feline head, sharp-toothed and striped. Pendrag took a sharp breath and stood up, walking into view of the fiend.
“Rakshasa. Whatever schemes the Lords of Dust have for this land end tonight.”
The creature’s muzzle twisted into a snarl and he spoke.
“You’re too late worm; even now the village burns, and once I kill you this area will become a new foothold of the Demon Wastes!”
Pendrag’s head snapped to Aeilash.
“Go Aeilash! Akari and I will deal with this beast. Go help Valenshold”
With that Pendrag began walking towards the Rakshasa, and as he did so he began to change. With each step he appeared taller, limbs lengthening. Within a dozen feet scales had replaced skin, glinting silver in the moonlight and with a roar wings unfurled and stretched wide. Standing where the old human had been was a silver dragon, majestic and terrible.
“What…” Aeilash stood rooted, Rakshasa, fiends, and Valenshold forgotten in his shock.
“There’s no time to explain, go!”
The Rakshasa roared and fiends came pouring out of the darkness, rushing towards the dragon and Akari who with a flicker disappeared into the shadows. Aeilash turned and ran.

The sounds of fighting and dying reached Aeilash before Valenshold came into view. Building were burning. Bodies lay crumpled in the dim light of the flame. A line of Elves and Deathless could be seen holding off a small horde of lesser fiends led by another Rakshasa, standing head and shoulders above the rest. Aeilash cut a path to the fiend, and after a long and harrowing conflict managed to slay the beast. With their leader dead the remaining fiends scattered, the stragglers cut down by the defenders. At long last Valenshold was safe.

The next morning Pendrag and Akari returned to Valenshold after the last of the wounded had been seen to and the last of the venerated dead given their final rest. They found Aeilash sitting covered in blood and ash, exhausted. Pendrag was once human, no sign of the dragon he had become.
“I owe you an explanation. Akari and I work for an organization that, among other things, opposes the works of the Lords of Dust wheresoever they might be. We call ourselves The Chamber. I hid my true nature from you not out of a desire to deceive, but out of a desire to avoid conflict. The elves or Arenal and the Dragons of Argonnessen do not have the best of relationships. I am sorry.” Pendrag sighed. “And now we must leave. With the Rakshasas dead and the entrance to the Underdark sealed the threat here has passed. The Chamber calls, and the work goes on.”
The seemingly elderly human and his companion turned to leave when Aeilash called out.
“Wait. I’m coming with you; I would join the fight against the Lords of Dust. No one else should have to suffer as Valenshold has.”
The dragon looked back. “Then welcome, Aeilash, to The Chamber. We leave at once.”
The young elf took one last look at the town he’d called home for all his years, squared his shoulders, and left.

Years passed and Aeilash became an indispensable agent for The Chamber. He often worked alone, slipping in unseen and removing threats before they materialized. Most of those he helped never knew they needed saving at all. Aeilash’s dedication to the Chamber was such that he eventually heard Eberron’s Call to undergo the Rite of Rebirth, emerging Dragonborn, marked as a champion of The Chamber. Stories of his exploits are whispered; the knife in the dark, bringing light to those in need, Bane of the Lords of Dust: Aeilash, The Chamber’s Shadow.




Ability
Score
Racial (G. Elf)
Lvl 4 Increase
Racial (Dragonborn)


Strength
12
10
10
10


Dexterity
14
16 (+2)
17 (+1)
15 (-2)


Constitution
12
10 (-2)
10
12 (+2)


Intelligence
14
16 (+2)
16
16


Wisdom
14
14
14
14


Charisma
14
14
14
14







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


1st
Scout
+0
+0
+2
+0
Balance 4, Bluff 2(4cc), Craft (poison making) 4, Hide 4, Iaijutsu Focus 4, Jump 4, Listen 4, Move Silently 4, Sense Motive 4, Spot 4, Tumble 4
Aereni Focus (Iaijutsu Focus)
Skirmish +1d6, Trapfinding


2nd
Ninja
+0
+0
+4
+0
Balance 5(+1), Bluff 4(+2), Craft (poison making) 5(+1), Hide 5(+1), Iaijutsu Focus 5(+1), Jump 4, Listen 5(+1), Move Silently 5(+1), Sense Motive 4, Spot 5(+1), Tumble 4

Ki Power, Sudden Strike +1d6, Trapfinding


3rd
Ninja
+1
+0
+5
+0
Balance 5, Bluff 6(+2), Craft (poison making) 6(+1), Disguise 1(+1), Hide 6(+1), Iaijutsu Focus 6(+1), Jump 4, Listen 6(+1), Move Silently 6(+1), Sense Motive 4, Spot 6(+1), Tumble 4
Darkstalker
Ghost Step (Invisible)


4th
Ninja
+2
+1
+5
+1
Balance 5, Bluff 7(+1), Craft (poison making) 7(+1), Disguise 2(+1), Hide 7(+1), Iaijutsu Focus 7(+1), Jump 4, Listen 7(+1), Move Silently 7(+1), Sense Motive 4, Spot 7(+1), Tumble 5(+1)

Sudden Strike +2d6, Poison Use


5th
Ninja
+3
+1
+6
+1
Balance 5, Bluff 8(+1), Craft (poison making) 8(+1), Disguise 4(+2), Hide 8(+1), Iaijutsu Focus 8(+1), Jump 4, Listen 8(+1), Move Silently 8(+1), Sense Motive 4, Spot 8(+1), Tumble 5

Great Leap


6th
Avenger
+3
+1
+8
+1
Balance 5, Bluff 9(+1), Craft (poison making) 9(+1), Disguise 4, Hide 9(+1), Iaijutsu Focus 9(+1), Jump 4, Listen 9 (+1), Move Silently 9(+1), Sense Motive 4, Spot 9(+1), Tumble 5
Weapon Finesse
Sneak Attack +1d6, Death Attack, Poison Use, Spellcasting


Spells Per Day/Spells Known


Level
1st


1st
-


2nd
-

3rd
-

4th
-

5th
-

6th
0+/2


Spells Known: Ebon Eyes, Disguise Self

Epic Feats:

1: Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Gnome Quickrazor)

2: Improved Initiative

3: Combat Expertise

4: Improved Feint

Become Dragonborn and retrain Aereni Focus --> Air Heritage

5: Dragonfire Strike

6: Flyby Attack

7: Martial Study (Shadow Jaunt)

8: Martial Stance (Child of Shadow)

9: Venomous Strike

10: Sickening Strike

Tome of Battle Maneuvers Known:

Shadow Jaunt @ Epic Feat 7
Tome of Battle Stances Known:

Child of Shadow @ Epic Feat 8




Level 1: Aeilash is a 1st level Scout. With max ranks in the four sneaking skills he makes a decent scout –which will continue to be his primary party role throughout – though he lacks the skill points to find and disable the locks and traps his Trapfinding class feature theoretically allows him to deal with. Iaijutsu Focus was picked up with the Eberron regional/racial feat Aereni Focus for a total modifier at level 1 of +9 which guarantees an additional +1d6-+4d6 damage on any attack on a flat-footed opponent when he draws a melee weapon. With no other tricks up his sleeve this likely won’t come up that often, particularly as with his low STR, CON, and Hit Die Aeilash’s optimal combat pattern mostly consists of running around with a shortbow to trigger Skirmish damage.

Level 2: Aeilash has picked up a level of the SI, which comes Sudden Strike (+1d6), a +2 bonus on Will saves from Ki Power (helping with one of his bad saves), and a second helping of Trapfinding which we will from now on pretend not to have. If Aeilash manages to sneak up on a foe and attack them while flat-footed, he can get extra damage from Skirmish, Sudden Strike, and Iaijutsu Focus for +3d6-+7d6 on his first melee strike. However, fragility, +0BAB, and a continuing lack of tricks to make opponents flat-footed or retrigger Iaijutsu Focus means he is still probably running around with a shortbow.

Level 3: With a second level of Ninja Aeilash picks up the ability to use his Ki Power to trigger Ghost Step three times a day, rendering him invisible for a round as a swift action. With the acquisition of Darkstalker this gives him a near certain way to make opponents flat-footed so as to trigger Sudden Strike or Iajutsu Focus. Being able to go invisible is also a nice get out of jail free card for when Aeilash realizes he really shouldn’t be in melee still. At this level we’ve managed to get Bluff maxed out as well, which begins to open up the possibility of using Feint in combat to make an opponent flat footed, as well as making Aeilash a vaguely useful secondary party face.

Level 4: At this level Aeilash picks up some additional Sudden Strike damage as well as Poison Use, which gives him a safe use for those max ranks of Craft (Poison Making). Arguments about alignment restrictions for poisons ensue, but in any case non-lethal options can be utilized without fear of role-play gymnastics. While Aeilash may have been using poisons earlier in his career, now he can do so without fear of poisoning himself. Assuming he can get the drop on his foes, Aeilash can start off an encounter with an attack that applies poison, +1d6 Skirmish, +2d6 Sudden Strike, and +1d6-+5d6 Iaijutsu Focus Damage, which can then be followed up with a Ghost Step to disengage and return to shooting poison coated Skirmish arrows.

Level 5: Cards on the table, this level is not good for Aeilash. Great Leap is wholly underwhelming, and while there are uses for it there was not space in the build to take advantage of its utility. Not to mention when Aeilash becomes Dragonborn he’ll be getting wings for an Ex flight speed and rendering Jump rather moot. The only real benefit of this level is a fourth daily use of Ki Power for use with Ghost Step.

Level 6: For the final class level Aeilash takes the Avenger class, which is a web supplement good-aligned reskinning of the DMG Assassin. This class gives Sneak Attack +1d6, Death Attack, Poison Use (whoops), and Spellcasting. Sneak attack is nice in that not only any time Sudden Strike or Iaijutsu Focus damage would apply so does Sneak Attack, but there are several easier ways to trigger it’s additional damage (namely flanking). Death Attack has a fairly low DC (14), but combined with poison application makes any target Aeilash manages to sneak up on have to make two saves right off the bat, as well as a potentially large amount of damage from the precision damage stacking and Iaijutsu damage. At this point in his career, a single surprise round attack from Aeilash forces two saves vs death/suckitude and deals a total of +6d6-+9d6 precision and Iaijutsu Focus damage, and with the pick-up of Weapon Finesse he has a decent chance of actually landing it. Avenger Spellcasting is exciting in that it opens up the use of wands for Aeilash (prepared spells are not terrible effective, having only 1 slot available which will have either Ebon Eyes or Disguise Self prepared depending on what the adventuring day looks like). There are a number of useful swift action spells that he can pick up to use such as True Strike, Shock and Awe, and Alter Self to name a few. Of particular note is the spell Insightful Feint, which allows Feinting as a move action in combat. Grab a wand of this and for 15gp a round Aeilash can render an opponent flat-footed reliably.

Epic Feats:

E1: Picking up the ability to use the Gnome Quickrazor opens up the door to triggering Iaijutsu Focus multiple times in a combat without having to carry many sheathed weapons. Wearing a spiked gauntlet on your off-hand allows you to remain armed for the purpose of threatening AoOs while still being able to use wands. If your DM allows you to wear Gnome Quickrazors at the same time as spiked gauntlets, then you get to have two pre-coated in poison for use in a single fight without having to waste an action, as well as likely being able to carry a shortbow at the same time so you can swap between melee and ranged at will.

E2: Aeilash relies rather heavily on getting the drop on his opponents, so getting +4 to initiative is always welcome

E3: Combat Expertise is rather underwhelming, but is required for…

E4: Improved Feint! Once Aeilash has this feat he has the means to render an opponent flat-footed each round without burning Ghost Step uses or losing standard actions. Pair it up with a wand of Insightful Feint and he can feint as a free action leaving an unused move action each round.

DRAGONBORN: At this point in his career Aeilash heeds the call of Eberron and undergoes the Rite of Rebirth, becoming Dragonborn and the Chamber’s Shadow. Aside from some racial bonus changes, this has two primary effects. First, Aeilash selects the Wings Aspect which grants him an Ex Fly Speed of 30ft with average maneuverability since Aeilash has 6HD. Secondly, no longer being an elf Aeilash doesn’t qualify for Aereni Focus (Iajutsu Focus) at this point and retrains it into Air Heritage, which gives him a fly speed of 60ft. While Iajutsu Focus is no longer a class skill, the skill points have already been spent as class skills and thus Aeilash retains his 9 ranks in Iajutsu Focus, which still grants +1d6-+5d6 additional damage without items.

E5: Now that Aeilash has the Dragonblood subtype we’ll pick up the Dragonfire Strike feat which allows for the damage from Sneak Attack, Skirmish, or Sudden Strike to be turned into fire damage with an additional +1d6. There is a strong argument for this applying independently to each of the three precision damage types, which would make use of this feat impart +3d6 damage to Aeilash’s attacks. However, it’s slightly ambiguous and should be cleared with the DM, and will be left to the Judge(s)’ discretion without dispute.

E6: Flyby Attack completes Aeilash’s combat style. Now every turn he can make a flyby attack triggering Skirmish and ending his turn not in base-to-base melee, which admittedly isn’t as important in E6 with at most one iterative, but natural attackers will still require pounce to be effective against him, as well as a fly speed. Swift action uses of Insightful Feint and Ghost Step can guarantee forcing an opponent flat-footed to trigger Sneak Attack, Sudden Strike, and Iaijutsu Focus.

E7: Shadow Jaunt is a nice get out of jail free card, and dovetails nicely into…

E8: Child of Shadow, which should be giving Aeilash 20% miss chance every round in which he triggers Skirmish. At this point it would be nice to get your hands on a Collar of Umbral Metamorphosis for Hide in Plain Sight to use with Child of Shadow and free up your swift action for some other use.

E9&10: Sickening Strike and Venomous Strike both provide an effective +4 DC on poison use and an effective +2 DC on Death attack. Both of these feats effects say that your Sneak Attack damage is reduced by 1d6, which may cause headaches as Aeilash has only 1d6 of SA. Whether they can both be used at once may be up for debate, as is whether or not Dragonfire Strike increases the +0d6 SA damage to +1d6 fire damage or cannot affect the SA portion of the precision damage.

A general note about Aeilash: this character is extremely, one might say entirely, dependent on precision damage sources save for Iaijutsu Focus damage. In any campaign populated with precision immune creatures (undead, constructs, etc.) the character will be extremely hampered.



Some of the choices made for feats somewhat dependent on the availability (or lack thereof) of certain equipment.

Of particular note if Gnome Quickrazors are not available some other method of reliably triggering Iaijutsu Focus needs to be found. There might be an argument made that a lawful Incarnate Weapon Soulmeld’s ability to return might allow it to show up sheathed should you hold your hand and sheath correctly. In that case you would need to swap out Exotic Weapon Proficiency for Shape Soulmeld, and likely find room for Extra Essentia, Open Least Chakra, and Expanded Essentia Capacity.
Should Feycrafted weapons be available, a Feycrafted Gnome Quickrazor would obviate the need for Weapon Finesse, which would open up a feat slot.

If a Collar of Umbral Metamorphosis is not available, the Martial Stance Child of Shadows loses some of its value. Concealment is nice, but may not be worth two feats without the HiPS synergy.

Should any of these feats need to be swapped out, some potential other epic feats might be: Expanded Ki Pool, Enduring Ki, Master of Poisons, Poison Expert, Craven, Shape Soulmeld (Kruthik Claws).

If flaws are available, pick up Hidden Talent to get access to Psionic Minor Creation for a reliable and free source of poisons.



Complete Adventurer (CAd) – Scout (p10), Ninja (p5)
Player’s Guide to Eberron (PE) – Aereni Focus (p20)
Oriental Adventures (OA) – Iaijutsu Focus (p58)
Planar Handbook (PlH) – Air Heritage (p37)
Lords of Madness (LoM) – Darkstalker (p173)
Races of Stone (RoS) – Gnome Quickrazor (p154)
Dragon Magic (DrM) – Dragonfire Strike (p18)
Monster Manual (MM) – Flyby Attack (p303), Gray Elf (p104)
Tome of Battle (ToB) – Martial Study (p31), Martial Stance (p31), Shadow Jaunt (p79), Child of Shadow (p76)
Drow of the Underdark (DotU) – Sickening Strike (p54), Venomous Strike (p54)
Dungeon Master’s Guide 2 (DMG2) – Feycraft (p275)
Web - Avenger (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/prc/20070401a)
Spell Compendium (SpC) – Insightful Feint (p124), Ebon Eyes (p77)
Races of the Dragon (RoD) – Dragonborn (~p8)
Tome of Magic (ToM) – Collar of Umbral Metamorphosis (p156)

All items not specifically called out are either described in a higher level item (such is the case for class features), in the PHB, or not part of the build as presented.

[Zaq]

Entry the second!


Race: Anthropomorphic Bat
Before racial modifiers:
Str: 14
Dex: 16
Con: 12
Int: 10
Wis: 16
Cha: 8

After racial modifiers + increase from level
Str: 10
Dex: 16
Con: 12
Int: 10
Wis: 22
Cha: 7

Level 4 ability increase: Charisma


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


1st
Ninja 1
+0
+0
+2
+0
Knowledge (Religion) 4, Autohypnosis 4, Hide 4, Move Silently 4, Spot 4, Listen 4
Apprentice (Knowledge [Religion], Autohypnosis)
Ki power, sudden strike +1d6, trapfinding


2nd
Ninja 2
+1
+1
+3
+1
Knowledge (Religion) 5, Autohypnosis 5, Hide 5, Move Silently 5, Spot 5, Listen 5
-
Ghost Step (Invisible)


3rd
Ninja 3
+2
+1
+3
+1
Knowledge (Religion) 6, Autohypnosis 6, Hide 6, Move Silently 6, Spot 6, Listen 6
Point-Blank Shot
Posion use, sudden strike +2d6


4th
Ninja 4
+3
+1
+4
+1
Knowledge (Religion) 7, Autohypnosis 7, Hide 7, Move Silently 7, Spot 7, Listen 7
-
Great leap


5th
Ninja 5
+3
+1
+4
+1
Knowledge (Religion) 8, Autohypnosis 8, Hide 8, Move Silently 8, Spot 8, Listen 8
-
Sudden Strike +3d6


6th
Ninja 6
+4
+2
+5
+2
Knowledge Religion 8, Autohypnosis 9, Hide 9, Move Silently 9, Spot 9, Listen 9
Precise Shot
Acrobatics +2, ki dodge

1: Zen Archer
2: Fell Conspiracy
3: Mindsight
4: Enduring Ki
5: Expanded Ki Pool
6: Rapid Shot
7: Darkstalker
8: Woodland Archer
9: Able Sniper
10: Flyby AttackThe Watanabe Clan has a great legacy and long history as one of the few primarily good-aligned Ninja clans. They were founded when Hitachi Watanabe realized that as a Bat, he had a natural gifting for the Ninja arts, and that he could use his keen senses and wings to protect people during the night while others slept. They've always used their power and training to protect the weak and innocent. They were also powerful, having used their reputation of protecting the helpless to gather many great ninjas and having many great nations indebted to their protection. This power was their undoing. Other ninja clans were greatly jealous and afraid of the Watanabe Clan, so they hired an assassin. One who claimed to be able to sneak into the Watanabe compound and kill them all. He was promised an exorbant amount of money if he could complete this task. Known only by his choice of attire, the Red Cloak.

Biru Watanabe and his human caretaker Alphonse was the only survivor of the Watanabe clan. As soon as the clan had realilzed that they were being slaughtered by one of the most powerful ninja they had encountered, they urged Alphonse to take Biru far away and hope that they could escape. Biru, now an orphan, was taught by Alphonse in the way of the ninja. They were always on the move, but Biru was a Watanabe through and through, he could not just let innocents suffer. So as they moved from village to village, rumors began to spread of a dark winged creature who protected the helpless. Biru grew up, finding that many had started to take up his example. Another orphan, a raptoran who used his wings to save travelers from bandits. A cleric of Eilistraee who had somehow found out that Biru was the one responsible for saving her father. She taught him a ritual that she had learned, one that had originally been used by an evil cult but had applications for the kind of work that Biru was attempting. For Biru's ambition was to recreate the Watanabes by finding those willing to save others, and those who would be able to help him get justice for the murder of his family. Biru is intended to be a ninja who is quite effective at killing ninjas, relying on his large Ki Pool to allow him to abuse invisibility (especially with enduring Ki, which lets him go invisible for two rounds in a row and isn't broken by attacking). He can fly, has a high wisdom and has blind sense, allowing him a decent amount of complementarity with his ninja abilities. His spot and listen are at +10 at level one, making him quite effective at finding hiding creatures.

At first level, he has 7 uses of Ki power thanks to his 22 Wisdom, which means that he should be able to get off sudden strike quite reliably assuming an average number of encounters a day. His high spot and listen, as well as flight make him great at scouting out good ambush locations, as well as a good party scout in general. Autohypnosis lets him feel more batmanny by letting him shrug off fear and resist death.

By sixth level, precise shot comes online and lets him operate more effectively in a party by singling out foes and bringing them down with a shortbow.

The epic feats are very important for the build, as they let him start using his high wisdom for attacks, and he picks of Fell Conspiracy for telepathy which enables Mindsight shenangigans. Once Mindsight is online, he can perform his duty of finding hidden creatures, especially assassins and ninja, and being better at their job than they are. Enduring Ki and Expanded Ki Pool mean that he can be invisible for twenty-four rounds a day, which is enough that he can actually afford to use his ki for other purposes when necessary. Darkstalker lets him out hide most things, making him extremely hard to find when he's hiding. Woodland Archer and Able Sniper help complement his ranged attacks, giving him better options in combat. Flyby attack lets him hit and run while invisible, meaning that it's hard to even guess where he is going to be.
Complete Adventurer: Ninja
Complete Warrior: Zen Archer
Complete Scoundrel: Enduring Ki, Expanded Ki Pool
Exemplars of Evil: Fell Conspiracy
Lords of Madness: Mindsight, Darkstalker
Races of the Wild: Able Sniper, Woodland Archer
Dungeon Master's Guide II: Apprentice
Monster Manual: Flyby Attack

[Zaq]

Entry the third!


Belle Bubbles Bloom

Strange, isn't it? How such a tiny weapon can do so much harm. Of course, if you don't know when and where to throw it, it barely scratch the skin. Fortunately, I do… as you sure know, I've always had a knack for thrown weapons... and the poison helps, too, I guess.
Remember when I was just a poor girl walking the streets of this town, begging, stealing things for you? I remember everything. Everything you put me, and others like me, through. You became wealthier, we remained beggars.
When I got caught by the old man, I thought it was it. I thought I'd see the rest of the days through a small jail window. I was mistaken, he saw something in me - a talent. He took me to a strange place, a monastery he called it, though it was more like a training camp.
You wouldn't believe the things they had there, like this one training dummy, really improved my leg work and mobility after a month of training.
Anyways, once I got through the basics, I was given a choice - further focus on punching people in the face, or focus more on invisibility and hitting where it hurts the most. I chose the latter and paid off nicely, as you can see. I became a new... employee of our fair lord, doing what the... more official authorities aren't suitable for.
So, you see, I volunteered for this mission. Getting rid of a crime lord in my home town, the one I have personal history with, was an opportunity of a lifetime. So here I am and here you are. And one of us is soon to be dead…

Stub
LN Strongheart Halfling Rogue 1 / Monk 2 / Ninja 3

ACFs
Rogue: Halfling Rogue substitution level 1, Mimic
Monk: Halfling Monk subsititution level 1, 2, Invisible Fist

Ability Scores
STR: 8 - 2 = 6 (-2)
DEX: 15 + 2 = 17 + 1 (@ level 4) = 18 (+4)
CON: 12 (+1)
INT: 12 (+1)
WIS: 18 (+4)
CHA: 8 (-1)



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


1st
Rogue 1
+0
+0
+2
+0
Disable Device: 2, Hide: 4, Listen: 4, Move Silently: 4, Open Lock: 4, Search: 4, Sleigh of Hand: 4, Spot: 4, Know: Local: 4, Know: The Planes: 1 (2 points)
Point Blank Shot, Precise ShotB
Ranged Sneak Attack +1d6, Mimic


2nd
Monk 1
+0
+2
+4
+2
Know: Arcana: 1, Know: Religion 5, Move Silently: +1
Stunning FistB
Bonus feat, Skimrish, Unarmed Strike


3rd
Monk 2
+1
+3
+5
+3
Hide: +2, Move Silently: +1, Listen: +2, Spot: +2
Knowledge Devotion, MobilityB
Bonus feat, Invisible Fist


4th
Ninja 1
+1
+3
+7
+3
Hide: +1, Move Silently: +1, Listen: +1, Spot: +1, Search: +2, Know: The Planes: +1

Ki power, Sudden Strike +1d6, Trapfinding


5th
Ninja 2
+2
+3
+8
+3
Hide: +1, Move Silently: +1, Listen: +1, Spot: +1, Search: +2, Know: The Planes: +1

Ghost Step (invisible)


6th
Ninja 3
+3
+4
+8
+4
Hide: +1, Move Silently: +1, Listen: +1, Spot: +1, Search: +1, Know: The Planes: +2
Two-Weapon Fighting
Sudden Strike +2d6, Poison Use


Epic Feats
Darkstalker
Martial Study (Cloak of Deception)
Far Shot
Neraph Throw
Weapon Finesse
Improved Initiative
Yondalla's Sense
Enduring Ki
Expanded Ki Pool
Martial Study (Shadow Jaunt)

Basically, you throw pointy things (i.e. shuriken) at people and/or punch them in the face for negligible damage, then add a couple d6s of sneak attack, sudden strike and skirmish (thanks to the Training Dummy of the Master you can take 10ft steps and still full attack), while mostly invisible during your turns. For shuriken, the bonus damage is +5d6 (+2d6 Sneak Attack (thanks to an extra +1d6 from the Halfling substitution level), +1d6 Skirmish, +2d6 Sudden Strike) +1 (Point Blank Shot) and whatever bonus damage you can squeeze from Knowledge Devotion. For melee attacks, we're down to +3d6 (no melee Sneak Attack) + possibly Knowledge Devotion.

With 18 DEX, Improved Initiative and Yondalla's Sense (and 18 WIS) you should be able to catch most opponents flatfooted in the first round. Then you follow up with Invisible Fist next round, Cloak of Deception afterwards and 2 rounds of Sudden Step, before using Invisible Fist again. In case of prolonged combat, you'll have to rely on rounds of Sudden Step (you have a total of 9 uses if my math is correct) while Invisible Fist recharges.

There's also Neraph Throw and Stunning Fist (3 uses in total) to help with qualifying for precision damage when need be.

Against opponents immune to precision damage, you’re really not contributing much, but oh well.

Out of combat, you got the usual scouting skills (hide, move silently, listen, spot), trapfinding and a couple of knowledges (mostly just for fueling Knowledge Devotion).

PS: This build could probably use a level of Sneak Attack + Hit and Run Tactics Fighter instead of Ninja 3, but that would cost another level of the secret ingredient, so I opted against it (also, skills are tight past the 1st level).


SRD: Rogue, Monk, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Far Shot, Two Weapon Fighting, Weapon Finesse, Improved Initiative
CAd: Ninja
CC: Knowledge Devotion
CSco: Expanded Ki Pool, Enduring Ki
RotW: Halfling substitution levels, Yondalla’s Sense
EoE: Invisible Fist, Mimic
PlH: Neraph Throw
ToB: Martial Study, Cloak of Deception, Shadow Jaunt
LoM: Darkstalker
A&EG: Training Dummy of the Master

[Zaq]

Entry the fourth! (Side comment: This build did not include the name in the title of its PM! Shame! Shaaaame!)



Flustern Undsack
NE Ninja4/Incarnate2
https://orig00.deviantart.net/140e/f/2007/070/8/e/whisper_gnome_by_spyders.jpg



Ability
Points
Score
Racial Modifier
Lvl 4 Bonus
Final Score


Str
4
12
-2
-
10 (+0)


Dex
10
16
+2
+1
19 (+4)


Con
6
14
+2
-
16 (+3)


Int
6
14
-
-
14 (+2)


Wis
6
14
-
-
14 (+2)


Cha
0
8
-2
-
6 (-2)




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


1st
Ninja 1
+0
+0
+2
+0
Balance +4
Bluff +4
Disquise +4
Hide +4
Jump +4
Move Silently +4
Sleight of Hand +4
Tumble +4
Weapon Finesse
Ki Power, Sudden Strike +1d6, Trapfinding


2nd
Ninja 2
+1
+0
+3
+0
Balance +5
Bluff +5
Disquise +5
Hide +5
Jump +5
Move Silently +5
Sleight of Hand +5
Tumble +5
-
Ghost Step (Invisible)


3rd
Ninja 3
+2
+1
+3
+1
Bluff +6
Craft (Poisonmaking) +1
Disable Device +1
Hide +6
Move Silently +6
Open Lock +1
Search +1
Tumble +6
Expanded Ki Pool
Sudden Strike +2d6, Poison Use


4th
Ninja 4
+3
+1
+4
+1
Bluff +7
Escape Artist +1
Hide +7
Listen +1
Move Silently +7
Search +2
Spot +1
Tumble +7
-
Great Leap


5th
Gnome Incarnate 1
+3
+3
+4
+3
Bluff +8 (crossclass)
Skill Trick: Timely Misdirection
-
Aura, Racial Defense


6th
Gnome Incarnate 2
+4
+4
+4
+4
Skill Trick: Group Fake-Out
Skill Trick: Second Impression
Bonus Essentia
Chakra Bind (Crown), Detect Thoughts


Epic Bonus Feats
1. Combat Expertise
2. Mobility
3. Spring Attack
4. Cobalt Expertise - (MoI)
5. Midnight Dodge (Acts like Dodge for Prerequisites) - (MoI)
6. Indigo Strike - (MoI)
7. Open Least Chakra (Feet) - (MoI)
8. Craven - (CoR)
9. Low Blow - (RoF)
10. Quicker than the Eye – (S&S)
(Expanded Ki Pool = CS; Bonus Essentia = MoI)

Level 1 - Racial Defense (Su): A gnome incarnate serves on the front line of defense for his village or town. He relies on the knowledge of the souls within him to guide him in battling his people’s most dangerous foes. A gnome incarnate gains an insight bonus on damage rolls made against kobolds, goblinoids, and giants equal to one-half the number of soulmelds he has shaped. If at least one other gnome ally is within 30 feet and visible to the incarnate, this insight bonus instead equals the number of soulmelds shaped. This benefit replaces the standard incarnate’s detect opposition class feature gained at 1st level.
Level 2 - Detect Thoughts (Sp): A gnome incarnate recognizes that foreknowledge of an enemy’s plans makes the best tool for battle. As long as a soulmeld is bound to his crown chakra, he can use detect thoughts once per day. The save DC is equal to 12 + his Cha modifier, and his caster level is equal to his meldshaper level. This benefit does not replace any class feature.

Flustern Undsack 'is' you typical Whisper Gnome. He's a creature of stealth and suspicion. "Few members of other races can match a Whisper Gnome's powers of stealth", and so the path of a Ninja is a natural career choice for them. With the general distrust and scorn from most of the other 'goodly' races, it's no wonder that Flustern strayed down the path of morality and embraced his evil and vicious nature.

Going into combat is an adrenaline rush of fun. He'll stand toe-to-toe with nearly any humanoid combatant thanks to his remarkable defenses from Ninja, Soulmelds, and Feats, and with a flourish strike without warning. Flustern takes special pleasure in flaunting his skill with Finesse-able weapons when the chance presents itself. When stalking a foe, Flustern seems to disappear into thin air and strike from the shadows. Rushing at an opponent, striking a crippling blow, and running past them to strike another. He believes that each worthy foe he kills adds to his power, and who's to say he's wrong, the power of his soulmelds have to come from somewhere...

Flustern's final stats looks something like this (Soulmelds offer a some variance)
HP: 5d6 +24, average of 42
AC: 17 unbuffed, up to 25 with Combat Expertise, Cobalt Expertise, and Indigo Dodge, typically 23
Essentia: 7
Sudden Strike: +2d6+10(Craven and Indigo Strike)
Additional ways to trigger Sudden Strike: Low Blow, Quicker than the Eye, Group Fake-out
Ki Powers/day: 7

Balance +11
Bluff +10
Craft(poisonmaking) +4
Disable Device +3
Disguise +5
Escape Artist +5
Hide +19
Jump +7
Listen +5
Move Silently +15
Open Lock +5
Search +4
Sleight of Hand +15
Spot +5
Tumble +13

Whisper Gnome: Low-Light Vision, Darkvision(60ft.), Speed 30 ft., small size, ability and skill modifiers, racial bonus for attacking goblinoids and kobolds, dodge bonus vs giants, 1/day SLA: Silence.

Soulmelds usually shaped
Impulse Boots bound to Feet Chakra: Uncanny Dodge and Evasion.
Necrocarnum Touch: +4 profane bonus on Sleight of Hand checks and Bluff checks to feint.
Dissolving Spittle (2 Essentia invested): +3d6 acid damage, ranged touch attack (Sudden Strike can apply for another 2d6+10)
Other soulmelds will be used when the situation calls for it.


3 extra daily uses of Ki Powers
As a full-round action, you can enter an area occupied by an opponent who is at least one size category larger than you. You can then make a single melee attack at your highest attack bonus against this creature, who is considered flat-footed against the attack. After your attack, you return to the 5-foot square from which you entered the opponent's square. Using this feat provokes attacks of opportunity.
While under direct observation, you can
make a Bluff check as a move-equivalent action, opposed by the Spot checks of any observers. If you succeed, your misdirection makes them look elsewhere while you take a partial action. If your partial action is an attack against someone who failed the opposed check, that opponent is denied a Dexterity bonus to AC.
You take a -2 penalty on saving throws against fear effects. However, when making a sneak attack, you deal an extra 1 point of damage per character level.
You gain 1 point of essentia. If you are capable of shaping soulmelds, you instead gain 2 points of essentia.
Once per day, you can invest essentia into this feat. You gain an insight bonus on attack rolls, skill checks, or ability checks made to succeed on a disarm attack, a feint in combat, or a trip attack equal to the invested essentia. You also gain an insight bonus equal to the invested essentia to AC when using Combat Expertise (up to a maximum value equal to the penalty accepted on the attack roll). Once the amount of essentia invested is chosen, it cannot be altered and remains invested for 24 hours.
You gain 1 point of essentia.
Once per day, you can invest essentia into this feat. You gain an insight bonus on damage rolls made when delivering attacks with the skirmish, sneak attack, or sudden strike class feature equal to twice the invested essentia. Once the amount of essentia invested is chosen, it cannot be altered and remains invested for 24 hours.
If you have more than one of the listed class features, the bonus applies only once on any given attack.
You gain 1 point of essentia.
Once per day, you can invest essentia in this feat. During your turn, you designate an opponent and receive a dodge bonus to Armor Class equal to the invested essentia against attacks from that opponent. You can select a new opponent on each of your turns.
You gain 1 point of essentia.
Special: Midnight Dodge can be used in place of the
Dodge feat to qualify for a feat, prestige class, or other special ability.
When this feat is selected, choose one of the following chakras: crown, feet, or hands. You can now bind a soulmeld or a magic item to that chakra.
In addition, you gain a minor benefit from this newfound chakra, depending on the chakra chosen:
Feet: +1 insight bonus on Balance and Move Silently checks.

You can use Bluff to feint in combat (PH 68) against more than one opponent. Make one Bluff check opposed by separate Sense Motive checks for each opponent. For each opponent after the first that you wish to affect, you take a cumulative –2 penalty on your Bluff check.
If an observer sees through your disguise with a successful Spot check, you can (as an immediate action) attempt a Bluff check to convince him that he’s mistaken. Use the observer’s Spot check result as the DC for your Bluff check; if you succeed, the observer ignores the evidence of his own senses in favor of what your disguise attempts to show.
You must be aware of the observer’s discovery in order to use this trick; for example, you can’t use it against someone viewing you secretly, nor can you use it against someone who sees through your disguise but keeps that information secret. When in doubt, the DM should allow a character to use this trick if she has any reason to fear that her cover has been blown.
You can use this trick only once per day, but its effect extends to all viewers within 30 feet of you. For example, you could attempt it against an entire patrol of guards confronting you just as effectively as against a single person.
This trick doesn’t let you maintain a disguise that has been defeated by other means; for example, if your disguise self spell is penetrated by a true seeing spell, Second Impression won’t help.
If you succeed on a Bluff check to feint in combat (PH 68), your opponent can’t make any attacks of opportunity against you until the start of its next turn. This effect is in addition to the normal benefits of a successful feint.

CA: Complete Adventurer
CS: Complete Scoundral
MoI: Magic of Incarnum
CoR: Champions of Ruin
RoS: Races of Stone
PH: Player's Handbook
RoF: Races of Faerun
S&S: Song and Silence

[Zaq]

Entry the fifth!



Helter Kari


https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/legendofthecryptids/images/b/bb/%28Suggesting%29_Shadow_Demon_Melaskia.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/342?cb=20170211104255


"From the shadows, comes what looks like a sparring dummy. It shambles over to our bard and disappears! A few seconds later, I tell you, this is true. The dummy is lying on the ground and the bard stabs himself in the heart with his own kukri. As he drops to his knees, pooling in his own blood, and then...and then he cuts off his own tongue. I never seen anything like it in my life, and I’ve seen a lot. Anyways, a shimmery blue broad appears, steps from the bard to the barbarian, and then he axes off his own feet in a single swipe! I didn’t see what happened next because I was running here. Yeah, I stopped at the pub first for my nerves, but you would too.” -Deputy Fujikama of the Undercity Haven First Responders Gang

LE Human Ghost (Ghostwalk p.163)
Ninja 3/ Binder 1/Eidolon 2

STR 8 INT 10
DEX 8 WIS 17
CON 8 CHA 18

Level up bonus added to WIS




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


1st
Ninja
+0
+0
+2
+0
Hide 4, move silently 4, craft (shellcraft), 4, disable device 4, search 4, intimidate (cc) 2, Tumble
Iron Will, Live My Nightmare (Unearthed Arcana p.94)
Ki power, sudden strike +1d6, trapfinding


2nd
Ninja
+1
+0
+3
+0
Hide 5, move silently 5, craft (shellcraft) 5, disable device 5, search 5, intimidate (cc) 2.5, Tumble 5

Ghost step (invisible)


3rd
Ninja
+2
+1
+3
+1
Hide 6, move silently 6, craft (shellcraft) 6, disable device 6, search 6, intimidate (cc) 3, Tumble 6
Improved Initiative
Sudden strike +2d6, poison use


4th
Binder (Tome of Magic p.9)
+2
+3
+3
+3
Intimidate 6

Soul Binding


5th
Eidolon (Ghostwalk p.16)
+3
+3
+3
+5
Intimidate 8, hide 7
Ghost Ride (Ghostwalk p.33)
Bonus Ghost feat, Free Multiclassing


6th
Eidolon
+4
+3
+3
+6
Intimidate 9, hide 9
Corpse Malevolence (Ghostwalk p.29), Minor Malevolence (p.37)
Bonus Ghost Feat



Epic Feats
1. Malevolence (Ghostwalk p.36)
2. Death Blow (Complete Adventurer p.106)
3. Expanded Possession: Monstrous Humanoid (Ghostwalk p.31)
4. Expanded Possession: Dragon
5. Snatch Trophy (Champions of Ruin p.22)
6. Bloodsoaked Intimidate (Champions of Ruin p.17)
7. Ability Focus (Monster Manual V p.204)
8. Expanded Possession: Abberation
9. Sudden Ability Focus (Tome of Magic p.74)
10. Expanded Possession: Animal


“I mentored alongside Helter Kari. She was a precocious young ninjitsu student, training day in and day out. Her ki was so powerful and raw. She had her demons about her, though. She claimed to have been midwifed by a nighthag who sought to enslave her and whatever happened in her childhood motivated her. By night, to pay for her mentorship, she toiled in an old gnome’s puppetshop. She always said that she was afraid to sleep.” -Mori Mori, Captain of the ninja spyguard of Everbright

“She just kept looking for ways to hide from what she called, “her reckoning.” She studied all sorts of abstruse texts and spoke to some of the creepiest mercenaries, always asking about ways to “hide from the darkness itself.” -Shinjo Kakita, librarian of Everbright school of religious devotion

“It was coming after her. A hulking being of pure black. Not black, like you can’t see through it black, but black that burnt your eyes to attempt to comprehend as a color. She used her ability to ghost step, as we had all been trained, but she really spend everything that she had in her fright. I’m telling you, I saw her step in between the worlds. Her body, her dead body laid there, but her ki itself, it..it stepped into the inbetween.

The inbetween is what she called the place where her witches drew their powers. If you think of reality as a cloth, the area between the threads is where the powerful entities of witchcraft can install themselves, like a porridge stain. Anyway, I watched her soul melt into the inbetween. I doubt we’ll ever see her again” -Marcus Waltz, ninja scout of shinobi academy, former classmate of Helter.

Machinations of Death
Helter Kari's first three levels are in ninja. This nets her +2d6 sudden strike and ghost step. She has craft (shellcraft) (ghostwalk p.27) ranks to make herself manikins (ghostwalk p.54) at a DC 20 craft check, and each of them have 50 hp apiece and can be used as possession vehicles. She learned this art from a gnome from the city of manifest. In her backstory. It just so happens to be really convenient when she eventually becomes a ghost. If you play with flexible ghost advancement (ghostwalk p.12), you can start play as a ghost. If you can swing it, why not just be gruesomely disfigured by death and get a +10 to intimidate checks. Just stay in your manikin.

You have the spell touched feat, live my nightmare, which makes any divination effect targeting her automatically send a phantasmal killer at the diviner. Iron will because she has an iron will and improved initiative to get them before they get you.

At level four, Helter picks up a level of binder. Bind Naberius for the faster ability healing.

Here, Helter needs to die. Ghostwalk to the otherside. She gets flight and the incorporeal subtype and the outsider type and +4 to hide checks.

Finish up with some eidolon levels. Go path of the dominator, and get ghost ride and malevolence and corpse malevolence. Now you can possess people. Death blow will allow you to possess someone, then force them to coup de gras themselves as a standard action. Snatch trophy lets you disfigure their tongue if they are a caster. When you coup de gras, you automatically crit and you add your sudden strike damage to it. After possessing people and forcing them to kill themselves and free action mangle themselves, you can make swift action intimidate checks.

Expand the number of creature types that you can possess, and up the save DC against possession with ability focus and sudden ability focus. Heal the charisma damage from possessions with naberius bound to you for the ability healing.

Watch as the DM sends oodles of spirit shamans and barbarians with ghost touch items at your party all of a sudden. You can possess them all, or a corpse, or a dragon, or a bugbear, or a mindflayer and fight them with their own allies and the corpses of the own dead allies.

Ghoststep allows an approach for possession to be invisible. Anyone who attempts to detect you gets a face full of phantasmal deathbeast. This ninja makes you stab yourself to death, what could be better for setting you up. Carry a ghost touch weapon with a X4 multiplier, drop it as a free action, possess your nemesis, and pick it up with a move action. Then coup de gras your nemesis and move on.

[Zaq]

Entry the [checks notes—almost lost track there] sixth!



Khal Krotu

Lawful Good
Illumian (Races of Destiny p.54)
Ninja 1 (Complete Adventurer p. 5)
Decisive strike (PHB2 p.51) monk 1
Ninja 2
Ninja 3
hit and run (DotU 58) sneak attack (UA p.58) fighter 1
Avenger Web (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/prc/20070401a&dcmp=ILC-RSSDND) 1

Stats
str 10
dex 15
con 10
int 16
wis 16
cha 8

At level 4, increase Dex to 16.



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


1st
Ninja 1
+0
+0
+2
+0
disguise 4, hide 4, move silently 4, disable device 4, Balance 4, Tumble 4, Escape artist 4, listen 4, sense motive 4
Sacred Strike (BOED p. 45)
Ki power, sudden strike +1d6, trapfinding, AC bonus, Illumian Racial Traits. Vaul Sigil


2nd
Decisive strike (PHB2 p.51) monk 1
+0
+2
+4
+2
hide 5, move silently 5, perform (dance) 5
Ascetic Stalker (Complete Scoundrel p.79)
Bonus Feat, Decisive Strike, AC bonus (doesn't stack), Unarmed strike, Illumian Uur Sigil. Power word VaulUur.


3rd
Ninja 2
+1
+2
+5
+2
hide 6, move silently 6, escape artist 6, tumble 6, disable device 6, balance 5
Martial Study: Shadow Blade Technique (TOB p.78)
Ghost step (invisible)


4th
Ninja 3
+2
+3
+5
+3
hide 7, move silently 7, escape artist 7, tumble 7, disable device 7, balance 7, Skill Trick 2
Nimble Charge (Com Scoundrel, p. 87)
Sudden strike +2d6, poison use


5th
hit and run (DotU 58) sneak attack (UA p.58) fighter 1
+3
+5
+5
+3
hide 8, move silently 8, Skill Trick 2
Shrouded Dance (complete Scoundrel p.89)
+2 initiative, dex to damage against flat footed opponents


6th
Avenger (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/prc/20070401a&dcmp=ILC-RSSDND)
+3
+5
+7
+3
hide 9, move silently 9, Skill Trick 2, escape artist 8, umd 1
Escape Attack (Complete Scoundrel p.86), Persistent Attacker (Complete Scoundrel, p. 80)
Sneak attack +1d6, death attack, poison use, spells



Epic Feats
1. Precise Strike (Dragon Compendium p.105)
2. Throat Punch (Complete Scoundrel, p. 81)
3. Enduring Ki (Complete Scoundrel, p. 77)
4. Extend Supernatural Ability (Tome of Magic, p. 73)
5. Intuitive Attack (Book of Exalted Deeds, p. 44)
6. Weapon Focus (Unarmed Strike)
7. Head Shot (Complete Scoundrel, p. 77)
8. Extend Supernatural Ability
9. Combat reflexes
10. Mortifying Attack (Champions of Ruin, p. 20)

Spells
Obscuring mist
Ghost sound

Backstory
Illumians are born into Cabals, where they are raised semi-communally and pushed to become experts in the things that they do best. Khal was born into a chain cabal, where he was pushed to become a holy assassin of those who threaten the cabal. He honed and honed his techniques for infiltration and escape and became a special "man on the outside" avenger of the chain cabal. Eventually, a frost mage of significant power named FreezeYa destroyed most of the cabal, orphaning the young illumian in a way. He sought refuge amongst an order of old but good monks who steered him away from some of the obeisance to the needs of the cabal and towards working for the higher exalted powers. None of it really clicked until he fell down the mountain on a training expedition and took a nasty knock to the head.

Now he is devoted to both good and law, with a skill set representing utter annihilation of life. So now he seeks to protect others against powerful threats. His long term goals is to set up his own monastery cabal to train other orphan illumians in how to protect and serve the cause of good.

The Build.
You know what’s weird about ninja? It’s like the only base class that doesn’t grant profession as a class skill.

Level 1
At level 1, we take our first level of ninja. We get wis to AC, 4 points of ki power, and sudden strike, the lesser cousin to sneak attack. The first RAWjutsu that the illumian learns is found in the tome of Complete adventurer on page 8.


SUDDEN STRIKE AND SNEAK ATTACK
For the purpose of qualifying for feats, prestige classes, and similar options that require a minimum number of sneak attack extra damage dice, treat the ninja’s sudden strike ability as the equivalent of sneak attack.

This means that we may apply feats that pertain to sneak attack to our sudden strikes. Considering the holy goodness of the character, they learn Sacred Strike (Book of Exalted Deeds, p. 45). The text of this will be important later, so here it is:


Sacred Strike (Book of Exalted Deeds, p. 45) Exalted
Prerequisite: Sneak attack class ability
Benefit When you use your sneak attack ability against an evil creature, roll d8s for your sneak attack dice (instead of d6s) and your sneak attack damage is considered good-aligned for purposes of overcoming damage reduction.

If we sacred strike the evil that plagues the fiefdom, we roll d8s instead of d6s.

We are an illumian (Races of Destiny p.51), and as such, we have our first sigil. Choose Uur to get a +1 bonus on initiative and dexterity skill checks.

Level 2
At level 2, we use our lawful nature and study the way of doublefisted unarmed combat and take a level of monk. We trade away flurry of misses for Decisive Strike from PHB2 p.51.


DECISIVE STRIKE Flurry of blows ... in practice it can lead to a flurry of misses.
Level: 1st. Replaces: If you select this class feature, you do not gain flurry of blows (or any later improvements to that class feature).
Benefit: As a full-round action, make one attack with an unarmed strike or a special monk weapon, using your highest base attack bonus but taking a –2 penalty on this attack roll. If the attack hits, it deals double damage (as does any other attack you make before the start of your next turn). If you use this strike to deliver a stunning attack, increase the save DC to resist the stun by 2. This is an extraordinary ability.

At second level, we also advance our rawjutsu and take the Ascetic Stalker feat from Complete Scoundrel p.73 as a bonus feat. We need not concern ourselves with the prerequisites because it is a bonus feat and the feat specifically says that we can do this.


Ascetic Stalker Complete Scoundrel p.73
Prerequisite: Ki power, ki strike (magic).
Benefit: Your monk and ninja levels stack for the purpose of determining the size of your ki pool. For example, a 4th-level monk/2nd-level ninja with this feat could use her ki powers a number of times equal to 3 (half the sum of her monk and ninja levels) + her Wisdom bonus (if any). Your monk and ninja levels also stack for the purpose of determining your unarmed strike damage, as well as your ki strike class feature. In addition, you can multiclass freely between the monk and ninja classes. You must still remain lawful in order to continue advancing as a monk. You still face the normal XP penalties for having multiple classes more than one level apart.
Special: A monk can select Ascetic Stalker as a bonus feat at 1st, 2nd, or 6th level instead of one of the other feats indicated for those levels.

Level 3: Time to get some base attack bonus
At level 3, we take our second level of ninja and gain ghost step to use that ki pool on. As a swift action we can turn invisible for a round.

At this level, we take the martial study feat found in TOB p.31 to learn the shadow blade technique TOB p. 78 from the shadow hand school. This feat allows you to roll 2d20 for an attack roll, as if you have advantage, once per encounter. This will be helpful later.

As an illumian we also get our second sigil: Vaul. This ameliorates our charisma penalty on checks, and it increases our dex check bonus from Uur by another +1. It also forms a word, Vauluur, which reads the following


Illumian Words (Su): Each combination of two power sigils' names makes an Illumian word of great power, and thus grants extra abilities to a character who possesses those two power sigils.
Vauluur: The illumian may expend a spell slot (but not a prepared spell) as a swift action to add 1d6 per spell level to her unarmed strike damage rolls and her sneak attack damage rolls. This effect lasts until the beginning of her next turn, and she may use it twice per day.

Remember, we treat sudden strike as sneak attack. And we use monk’s unarmed strike sometimes. This nets us a plus 2d6 damage on a sudden fist strike if we expend a first level spell slot. Don’t worry, we are only a few levels away from getting those slots.

Level 4: Ninja 3!
This is the level where you get +2d6 sudden strike and poison use. It is also the level where your ki pool expands to 4 and your unarmed strike becomes a d8. We apply our stat bonus to dexterity. You probably can’t use poison and still be exalted, but maybe if you find a sleep poison or something? At this level, the nimble charge skill trick has been taken, so that you can run across a ridge and slap your opponent with some lethal damage.

Level 5: Stealthy Hit and Run
At level 5, we take the sneak attack fighter Variant from Unearthed Arcana (p.58.) This allows us to trade away bonus fighter feats for sneak attack damage as a rogue. Having a sneak attack like this will be important later. We also trade away our heavy armor proficiency and tower shield proficiencies for the hit and run tactics variant from Drow of the Underdark p.58. This gives us another +2 on initiative checks (up to d20 + Dex +2 +2) as well as “when attacking a flat-footed opponent within 30 feet, you can add your Dexterity bonus (if any) as a competence bonus on weapon damage rolls.” Which is pretty sweet with sudden-strike-synergy. This brings our precision damage bonus to +3d6. Further, remember when we took 5 ranks in perform (dance) as a monk? That was a pre-requisite for the shrouded dance skill trick, which is taken at this level instead of using the fighter’s abysmal number of skill ranks on cross class skills. This allows a move action DC 20 hide check to gain concealment for a round.

Level 6: Assassin time!
Just kidding. We are an exalted lawful good ninja monk. We can’t be an assassin. They are evil and they make you kill someone just to join them. At level 6, we take a level in Avenger. Now we have that one spell slot that gives us +1d6 unarmed damage AND +1d6 sneak attack damage if we don’t want to use one of the two spells that we can learn. We have a death attack now! And if you do the death attack with a shadow blade technique you get to roll 2d20 to see if it hits.

If we spend our spell slot on the illumian power word, we have +5d6 sneak attack. This allows us to qualify for the persistent attacker feat (Complete Scoundrel, p. 80). The great thing about this feat is that if we are sneak attacking/sudden striking an opponent, we only have to subtract d6s. But if that opponent is evil, we don’t roll d6s, we roll d8s. This means that we can attack an opponent that we flank, not who is necessarily flat footed and the next round, no matter the condition of our opponent, we can stack our sudden strike and sneak attack damage, and we get to keep all of the damage from our first persistent attack strike! So if I’m attacking an evil orc while flanking, but he still has dex to AC, on round one my sneak attack deals 1d8 +1d6 (monk unarmed strike damage + vauluur) + 3d8 (fighter d8 + avenger d8+vauluur d8) +str (if any). On round two, we can use decisive strike, and gain (1d8+1d6 +4d8)x2, for an average second round hit of about 30 hp damage. Go read decisive strike again. It doubles your damage. We can use the trick again on round 2, subtracting persistent attacker 4d6 from our sneak attack damage that contains no d6s. If we use a swift action to go invisible for a round, we don’t have to worry about reprisal too much.

You may be thinking that the RAW is being read too closely, to which you should consider the wording on other ambush feats, which contain language about removing a number of dice, not specifically d6s. Maiming strike (Exemplars of Evil, p. 25) and Precise Strike (Dragon Compendium p.105) both refer a number of dice, not d6s. Roll a profession (RAWyer) check.

Plus we have death strike! We can kill those baddies on round 3 after hiding, approaching through ghoststep, and then blam! Dead.

The reason we are using the spell slots to power our racial ability is because the spell list for the avenger is trash compared to that of the assassin. TRASH. Obscuring mist is ok. Learn that one. If you can find a way to quicken it with a rod, get truestrike as your other avenger spell known. If you don’t think that your DM is going to handing out metamagic rods of quicken in an E6 game, get ghost sound instead. If you have DM permission to research assassin spells, shadow double is nice in the place of truesrike or ghost sound.

Lastly, we spend 2 points on the skill trick, escape attack, which makes an opponent flat footed against a swift action attack when you escape from a grapple. This pairs with all of the sudden strike optimization pretty well.

Epic Feats
Precise Strike (Dragon Compendium p.105)

Benefit When making an attack that would qualify as a sneak attack, you may take away any number of dice from your sneak attack damage and add a +2 circumstance bonus on your attack roll for each die reduction you make. You may convert as many of your dice from your sneak attack damage as you wish in this manner. However, if you make more than one sneak attack during a round and are using this feat, you must convert the same number of dice for each one.

Now you can actually hit on round two and do double damage! You don’t need to convert more than 2 d8s to make sure that you hit, but if you have a tough opponent, you keep persistent attacking them, and you keep hitting them. This alleviates your terrible BAB.


Throat Punch (Complete Scoundrel, p. 81)
Now you can roll your profession RAWyer check and subtract dice that can’t when punching bad guys in the throat. This is helpful against casters and talkers.

Enduring Ki (Complete Scoundrel, p. 77)
Now you can swift action ghost step for 2 rounds instead of 1.

Extend Supernatural Ability (Tome of Magic, p. 73)

Once per day, you can extend a supernatural ability that has a duration. When you use an extended supernatural ability, it lasts twice as long as normal. A supernatural ability that has a duration of concentration, that happens instantaneously, or that permanently affects a target is not affected by this feat. You must declare the use of this feat before you use the ability. Extending a supernatural ability does not require a separate action. Special This feat can be taken multiple times. Each time it is taken, you can extend a supernatural ability one additional time per day. You cannot extend a particular use of a supernatural ability more than once.

Now you can ghost step for 4 rounds. Or you can apply it to your vauluur sigil and get that bonus for two rounds. Do you want to death attack or deal two rounds of massive damage?

Intuitive Attack (Book of Exalted Deeds, p. 44)
Benefit With a simple weapon of your size or a natural weapon, you may use your Wisdom modifier instead of your Strength modifier on attack rolls.
Now you can have +3 to hit. Instead of +0.

Weapon focus (unarmed strike)
Just a prereq, but it also helps with your terrible BAB.

Head Shot (Complete Scoundrel, p. 77)

Your successful sneak attack with a bludgeoning weapon for which you have selected Weapon Focus leaves your foe confused for 1 round. A successful Will save (DC 10 + the number of extra damage dice normally dealt by your sneak attack + your Dex modifier) negates this effect. If you use this feat a second time on a target before 1 round has elapsed, the effect of the first use expires. Using this feat reduces your sneak attack damage by 5d6. Special You must be able to reach your foe's head to use this feat with a melee attack.
Subtract the d6s from your d8s to have a 50% chance of your opponents killing your opponents for you.

Extend supernatural ability again

Combat reflexes
Now if those confused opponents move through squares you threaten on round 2, you can decisive strike them.

Mortifying Attack (Champions of Ruin, p. 20)

Prerequisite Death attack class feature,
All creatures within 30 feet that witness you make a successful death attack must succeed on a Will save (DC equal to death attack damage dealt) or be shaken for 2d4 rounds. Any creature you consider your ally is unaffected. In addition, creatures that fail the save are so horrified by the attack that they lose their Dexterity bonus to Armor Class for 1 round. The target of the death attack must also make the saving throw if it survives. This extraordinary ability is a fear effect.

Make them flatfooted when you kill your opponent and smash them.

To sum up:
This illumian uses his enduring ki and extends it using extend supernatural ability to remain invisible for 4 rounds. The first three rounds he uses to decide you is getting this upcoming death attack. Then, he attacks you with his fists while setting up a flanking, flat footed situation, being invisible helps a great deal with that. As a swift action after moving into place to attack from 5’ feet away, he activates his sigil word to add more sneak attack dice to his attack to set up having the pre-requisites to use persistent attack. Then he initiates shadow blade technique maneuver to deliver the death attack, allowing him to get the equivalent of two attack rolls to choose the better of to hit with.

One of 3 things happen next:

1: If the target dies (Fort save DC 14), great! Intelligence boosting gear increases the save DC. It also boosts the number of spell slots that can be burned for the vauluur effect. If you have mortifying attack feat, all opponents within 30’ have to make a will save (DC equals damage done with the attack) or become flat footed. The victim also has to make that mortifying attack saving throw or be flat footed next round. Who gets an attack next?

2: If you are good aligned and you survive, tough break. A good aligned failed death attack victim takes a few extra d6’s of damage on the surprise round against an invisible opponent.

3: If you are evil, he can use d8s instead of d6s. This allows him to use the persistent attack and the head shot feat without subtracting any dice from damage. Persistent attack and headshot specifically tell you to subtract sneak attack d6s. You don’t roll d6s. Persistent attack guarantees that your next attack on this opponent is a sneak attack/sudden strike. Head shot causes a will save (10+5+dex) leaving the target confused for a round. If they move out of your threaten zone while confused, you can combat reflexes AOO them.

If you make it to round 2.

On that next attack, you can repeat the persistent attack headshot routine. As a swift action, you can activate an extended use of your vauluur power word using extend supernatural ability so that you can use if for two rounds to go with your use of the full round action of decisive strike to double your damage. You can repeat with persistent attack, head shot, or throat punch (if a caster) on this as well. If you suspect that this opponent has a very high ac, use precise strike and remove a few d8s to give yourself the ability to land a hit. If they are flatfooted, you get dex added to this damage twice: thats +6. If you hit with the decisive strike and the opponent moves out of your threat range, combat reflexes allows you to use AOOs to do double damage attacks.

You kill the one opponent you have to kill that day* and you go home to recharge all that ki and supernatural ability training.

Look, let’s be honest here. Ninja only has 3 good class levels and they are the first three. Enduring ki and extend supernatural ability augment the ghost step ability to 4 rounds of invisibility. Not the invisibility spell. Totally invisible, even when attacking invisibility. Sudden strike is maximized as much as possible by pairing it with sneak attack and a means of using a costless persistent attacker feat. There are a few creature types and a few abilities that are not sneak/sudden attackable by this character.




https://i.pinimg.com/564x/69/cd/b7/69cdb7869df2d7e59a7b9c2151dd8cbd.jpg



*Void where prohibited, such as in cases of undead (but he can use positoxins!), oozes, plants, and constructs.

[Zaq]

Entry the seventh!


Ondrej, the Blue-Eyed Death
NE Azurin Ninja 5/Incarnate 1

Vaclav smiled to himself as he poured out a small drink at his desk. The week had been profitable indeed. Far more profitable than the little customs inspector currently digging through his files would ever know, given that he was checking the set of ledgers that showed nothing at all amiss. The little man had been digging for days and had nothing to show for it.

The merchant tipped his head to swig the last of the spirit, and when his arm came back down he was startled to find the inspector standing in the office door. Had he left a window open? Fog seemed to be swirling in the doorway where the man stood. There was something different about him... he wasn't wearing the spectacles that he'd been using all along to read through the books, and his eyes!

Looking into those brilliant blue eyes, Vaclav remembered hearing a rumor that the local lord had retained some sort of assassin, one whose gaze froze the life out of law-breakers, and he paled.

The inspector smiled.


Ondrej knew from a very young age that he was meant to be a killer. Raised in a band of assassins, he learned the art of stealth and a sudden, immediate death early. But it took him quite some time to realize what even the other killers around him recognized early - while most in the ninja band killed because they were hired to, or for some other gain, he killed for the joy of it. Soon enough, he realized the truth of his heritage, that he was born to embody Evil, and was quite pleased to discover this opened paths that no other ninja in his troupe could walk.

Taking the opportunity to learn a trade other than assassination proved surprisingly helpful to his primary interest - a ninja is most effective when no one realizes what he is until it is too late, and acting as a bean-counter gives him a surprising degree of access to people who are rich enough that people will pay to have them killed. Even those who have heard the rumors about a mysterious assassin usually fail to consider him a threat right up to the moment they find themselves dying.

STR 10
DEX 16
CON 15 (level 4 bump will go here)
INT 12
WIS 14
CHA 10



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


1st
Ninja
+0
+0
+2
+0
Tumble 4, Bluff 4, Hide 4, Move Silently 4, Jump 4, Spot 4, Listen 4
Combat Expertise, [Azurin] Improved Feint
Ki Power, Sudden Strike +1d6, Trapfinding


2nd
Incarnate
+0
+2
+2
+2
Bluff 5(cc), Tumble 5(cc), Profession (Accountant) 1

Aura, Detect Opposition


3rd
Ninja
+1
+2
+3
+2
Tumble 6, Bluff 6, Hide 5, Move Silently 5, Jump 5, Spot 5, Listen 5
Shape Soulmeld (Lamia Belt)
Ghost Step (invisible)


4th
Ninja
+2
+3
+3
+3
Tumble 7, Bluff 7, Hide 6, Move Silently 6, Jump 6, Spot 6, Listen 6

Sudden Strike +2d6, Poison Use


5th
Ninja
+3
+3
+4
+3
Tumble 8, Bluff 8, Hide 7, Move Silently 7, Jump 7, Spot 7, Listen 7

Great Leap


6th
Ninja
+3
+3
+4
+3
Tumble 9, Bluff 9, Hide 8, Move Silently 8, Jump 8, Spot 8, Listen 8
Improved Diversion
Suddent Strike +3d6, AC Bonus +1

Epic Feats
Shape Soulmeld (Dissolving Spittle)
Skill Focus:Bluff
Tumbling Feint
Midnight Dodge
Expanded Soulmeld Capacity (Lamia Belt)
Mobility
Martial Study (Tiger Claw): Claw at the Moon
Martial Study (Tiger Claw): Sudden Leap
Indigo Strike
Martial Study (Shadow Hand): Shadow Jaunt

Typical Combat Soulmelds
Lamia Belt (always after level 3 feat)
Dissolving Spittle (always after epic feat 1)
Fellmist Robe
Lightning Gauntlets



Levels 1-3
Early on, Ondrej depends on his skills to get the drop on opponents and attempts to kill them as rapidly as possible by using Improved Feint to bring Sudden Strike into play. His level of Incarnate sets him back in BAB, but more than compensates by giving him the touch-attack sources that will be his primary attack modes for the rest of his career. Another major piece of his routine comes in with the level 3 feat, giving him an out-of-class soulmeld that boosts his Bluff check substantially. The Lamia Belt will typically be kept maxed out in essentia to keep this bonus high. When feints fail, Ghost Step will fill the gap and keep the pressure on.

Level 4-6
These levels give Ondrej more of what he already has - increased Sudden Strike damage and skills, poison to make his initial strike that much more damaging - but the primary change in tactics comes with his level 6 feat. Improved Diversion adds an important alternative to a feint when dealing with non-humanoid (or especially unintelligent) opponents. Ondrej can use the momentary distraction to move away (Tumbling if necessary) and hide as a move action; thanks to his Fellmist Robe he will essentially always have concealment available once he's out of melee range. Where possible, he'll use Great Leap to gain an advantage, moving to higher ground or across difficult terrain.

When dealing with enemies who simply aren't vulnerable to Sudden Strike, Ondrej pumps his essentia into the damage output of his soulmelds instead.

Epic Feats
The first feat completes the Diversion-and-snipe trick by giving Ondrej a ranged touch weapon to go with his melee touch. From there, he continues to improve both the feint- and the escape-and-hide tactics until he starts to hit the point of diminishing returns. Moving on to another type of martial arts, he begins to pick up Martial Study feats in order to make full use of Great Leap at every opportunity.

PHB, PHBII, Magic of Incarnum, TOB:Book of Nine Swords, Complete Adventurer

[Zaq]

Entry the eighth!


Shadow

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/55fc0004e4b069a519961e2d/t/55fc301ae4b01342ae9212a1/1442590746805/

When darkness falls, death is not far behind

CN Whisper gnome Ninja 5 / Warlock 1

Most are afraid of the dark; a few embrace it.
Too small, too weak. Invisible to the eyes of the big folks. He survived in the streets, stealing what he could, never stepping on any toes for too long. His talents were quickly recognized and utilized by a secret organization of mystic killers, the Ninja. Shadow learned eagerly, and pushed his studies way beyond what the Ninja intended. He entered pacts with dark beings; some even say the Plane of Shadow itself took him under it's wing. Having learned what he needed, he disappeared; his newfound talents would finally lead him to wealth and a comfortable life. So far, even the Ninja haven't been able to find him...

32 point-buy
Str 8 (0)
Dex 16 (10)
Con 12 (4)
Int 14 (6)
Wis 15 (8)
Cha 12 (4)

With modifiers
Str 6 (-2 racial)
Dex 18 (+2 racial)
Con 14 (+2 racial)
Int 14
Wis 16 (+1 at level 4)
Cha 10 (-2 racial)



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


1st
Ninja
+0
+0
+2
+0
Hide 4, Move silently 4, Craft (poison) 4, Sleight of hand 4, Tumble 4, Balance 4, Jump 4, Open lock 4
Darkstalker
Ki power, Sudden strike +1d6, Trapfinding


2nd
Ninja
+1
+0
+3
+0
Hide 5, Move silently 5, Craft (poison) 5, Sleight of hand 5, Tumble 5, Balance 5, Jump 5, Open lock 5

Ghost step (invisible)


3rd
Warlock
+1
+0
+3
+2
Hide 6 (cc), Craft (poison) 6, jump 6
At home in the deep
Eldritch blast 1d6, Invocation (Darkness)


4th
Ninja
+2
+1
+3
+3
Hide 7, Move silently 7, Craft (poison) 7, Sleight of hand 6, Tumble 6, Balance 6, Open lock 6

Sudden strike +2d6, Poison use


5th
Ninja
+3
+1
+4
+3
Hide 8, Move silently 8, Craft (poison) 8, Sleight of hand 7, Tumble 7, Balance 7, Jump 6, Open lock 7
Instinctive darkness
Great leap


6th
Ninja
+3
+1
+4
+3
Hide 9, Move silently 9, Craft (poison) 9, Sleight of hand 8, Tumble 8, Balance 8, Jump 7, Open lock 8

Sudden strike +3d6, AC bonus +1



Epic feats
1- Blend into shadows
2- Point blank shot
3- Quick draw
4- Martial study (Cloak of Deception)
5- Mortalbane
6- Martial stance (Child of shadows)
7- Shadow blade
8- Intensify darkness
9- Shape soulmeld (Impulse boots)
10- Open least chakra, feet (Impulse boots)


Whisper gnome won't win the originality contest, but fits the needs of this build really well : small size, bonus to hide and a few useful SLA for the sneaky type (silence 1/day chief among them).
First two level: Pretty much a run of the mill skillmonkey at first level, Shadow won't see much combat at this point. Darkstalker taken right away for use at later levels. At second level, he can use Ghost step 5/day to get out of sticky situations or to get a qucik quick with sudden strike.
Third level: The key to the build. One level of warlock to gain Eldritch blast, which will be Shadow's main weapon, and the Darkness invocation.
Fourth level +: Ninja all the way from level 4 to 6. Darkvision and Darkness as an SLA are necessary to gain access to those tasty Drow of the underdark feats. At home in the deep allows to see in magical darkness (at the level he can use Darkness at will as an SLA), giving Shadow a great tactical advantage. Instinctive darkness means he can use Darkness as a swift action, and he can even use his Darkness invocation to basically gain hide in plain sight with Blend into Shadows, again as a swift action. Later, even Daylight is only a roadblock with Intensify darkness.
Shadow works best when he can remain unseen, triggering sudden strike with every attack he makes. He has to remain in close range (EB only has a 30ft range, and thrown daggers omly a 10ft range increment). The idea is to have multiple Darkness active at once on many trinkets and daggers (which is not hard to do as the invocation lasts for 10 minutes) and using quick draw to drop those items around the battlefield as he moves, then using his swift action at the end of his turn to hide (be it with Blend in the shadows, Ghost step, or the Cloak of deception maneuver). Point-blank shot helps to land hits both with EB dagger throws, Shadow blade helps with damage output with daggers, Mortalbane does the same with EB. The investment in the daggers is necessary to be able to combat creature with Spell resistance, which would be almost unaffected by a CL1 EB. They also serve as poison-delivery mechanism (I would have loved to apply poisons to Eldritch blasts but I didn't find a way to do so). Last two feats helps to keep you alive if an enemy manages somehow to get the drop on Shadow (Uncanny dodge) and Evasion is great to slip unscathed from the randomly thrown fireballs those frustrated wizard are going to throw your way.
So, stealth, movement (using his solid Tmble, Balance and Jump skills), and one solid attack per round. Shadow is patient and won't take undue risks, and he knows he can just slip away unnoticed pretty easily if combat doesn't go his way, probably with some of the belongings of the enemy.


AC: 19 (+4 dex, +3 wis, +1 AC bonus, +1 size)
HP: 6+5d6+12 = avg 35 hp
Saves: Fort +3, Ref +8 (Evasion), Will +6 (+2 with a point in Ki pool)
Attacks: Eldritch blast, ranged touch attack +9 1d6+1 (+3d6 sudden strike, +2d6 mortalbane 5/day)
Daggers, ranged attack +9 1d3+5 (+3d6 sudden strike)
Key skills: Hide +21, move silently +18, craft (poison) +11, Sleight of hand +12, Tumble +14, Balance +15, Jump +13, Open lock +12


Fortitude saves. Not much to say about that one.
Ennemies immune to crits and sneak attack. Biggest drawback. If you can't land sudden strike, then the damage output is severely hampered. I juggled with the idea of investing in UMD and have him use Grave strike and Golem strike wands, but it would have needed a couple of feat to boost his UMD bonus high enough, so I discarded it. Still, you can always drop Quick draw and Point blank shot to get Skill focus and Magical aptitude if a specific game features a lot of crit immune creatures.
Enemies that can see in magical darkness. Fortunately, those are few and far in between.
Creatures with both high DR and SR. EB wouldn't work reliably and the daggers would do pitiful damage.
Teamwork. Darkness is not fun for enemies, and allies. However, if the other party members grab a way to see in magical darkness (At home in the deep feat, Ebon eyes spell, Devil's sight invocation, and I'm sure there are other ones), then the party might become almost unstoppable in E6.


Shadow functions pretty well without items, but still can gain from a few:
- Dex enhancer and items that boost Hide and Move silently: pretty self-explanatory
- Chasuble of fell power: More base damage for EB
- Belt of battle: the build is pretty intensive of swift actions


Book of Vile Darkness : Mortalbane (p. 49)
Complete Arcane : Warlock (p. 5)
Drow of the Underdark : At home in the deep (p. 47), Blend into shadows (p. 47), Instinctive darkness (p. 50), Intensify darkness (p. 50), Master of poisons (p. 51)
Lords of Madness : Darkstalker (p. 179)
Magic of Incarnum : Impulse boots (p. 71), Shape soulmeld (p. 40) , Open least chakra (p. 39)
Tome of Battle : Martial study (p. 31), Martial stance (p. 31), Shadow blade (p. 32), Cloak of deception (p. 76), Child of shadow (p. 76)
Races of stone : Whisper gnome (p. 94)

[Zaq]

Entry the ninth!


Shinda Suzume

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/8bittheater/images/b/bc/Episode_1087.png

Race: Hengeyokai Sparrow
Build Stub: Ninja 2/HnR Fighter 2/Totemist 2
Multiclass Penalty: No.
Languages: Common, Hengeyokai
Alignment: NE
Ability Scores:


Ability
Human
Hybrid
Sparrow
Racial
(Points)


Strength
9
9
1

(1)


Dexterity
17
19
23
+2 (Hybrid only)
(13)


Constitution
14
14
10

(6)


Intelligence
10
10
10

(2)


Wisdom
14
14
14
-2
(10)


Charisma
8
8
8

(0)


Ability Score Increase (4th): Constitution +1



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


1st
Ninja 1
+0
+0
+2
+0
DisableDevice 4, Listen 4, Hide 4, MoveSilently 4, Search 4, Spot 4
Point Blank Shot
Ki Power, Sudden Strike 1d6, Trapfinding


2nd
Ninja 2
+1
+0
+3
+0
DisableDevice 5, Listen 5, Hide 5, MoveSilently 5, Search 5, Spot 5

Ghost Step (Invisible)


3rd
Fighter 1
+2
+2
+3
+0
Craft:Weaponsmith 2(+2), DisableDevice 5, Listen 5, Hide 5, MoveSilently 5, Search 5, Spot 5
Hand Crossbow Focus, Dead Eye
Hit-and-Run ACF


4th
Fighter 2
+3
+3
+3
+0
Craft:Weaponsmith 4(+2), DisableDevice 5, Listen 5, Hide 5, MoveSilently 5, Search 5, Spot 5
Crossbow Sniper
Hit-and-Run ACF


5th
Totemist 1
+3
+5
+5
+0
Craft:Weaponsmith 4, DisableDevice 5, Listen 7(+2), Hide 5, MoveSilently 5, Search 5, Spot 7(+2)

Wild Empathy


6th
Totemist 2
+4
+6
+6
+0
Craft:Weaponsmith 4, DisableDevice 5, Listen 9(+2), Hide 5, MoveSilently 5, Search 5, Spot 9(+2)
Multi-Weapon Fighting
Totem Chakra



Additional Feats:
1. Rapid Shot
2. Cobalt Strike
3. Precise Shot
4. Expanded Ki Pool
5. Martial Stalker
6. Weapon Specialization (Hand Crossbow)


There was a quiet knock at Master Momochi's door. Sliding it open, he said, "Ah, Shinda-kun. Please, come in and sit down."

Shinda said, "Yes, Momochi-san." He bowed politely, stepped into the room, and sat down on the mat in front of Momochi. "Is this about the Fuku job?"

Momochi regarded Shinda with a wooden smile. "Actually, I wanted to discuss your performance review, but since you mentioned it... we can start with the Fuku job."

"Yes! Well... it did get a little messy, but it all worked out in the end. No survivors, everything according to Guild policy."

Momochi's wooden smile disappeared. "About that... you were aware, I am sure, that the Fuku job was a hostage situation?"

Shinda blinked. "Oh? Sure! Well, it started out that way, but... well, once the weapons come out, you're never really sure which way the arrows are going to fly. So, you know... Employee Handbook covers that pretty well. Kill everybody, no witnesses."

Momochi asked, "Including the hostages?"

Shinda nodded. "Well, once the fighting broke out, it was hard to tell who was who. So... I figured, just shoot everybody, let the healer monks sort it out later."

"And this strategy of yours..." said Momochi, pausing to collect his thoughts.

"Kill absolutely everything that moves with a crossbow?" finished Shinda.

"Yes, that one. This is the same strategy you employed with the General Tataki job last month?"

Shinda nodded, smiling. "Yes, same strategy! Kill everybody, no witnesses."

Momochi took a deep breath. "Do I need to remind you that the whole purpose of the General Tataki job was to infiltrate his fortress and gather military intelligence? What use is military intelligence if the general is dead?"

Shinda thought about this for a moment. "Well... it's important to know if the general is dead. That's important military information."

Momochi continued, "And what about the Umajiri job?"

"Same strategy. Shoot everything with a crossbow."

"That was a blackmail job. How are we supposed to blackmail someone who's dead?"

Shinda blinked. "Well... isn't there a spell for that? Raise dead, or resurrection? Sounds more like a shugenja problem than a crossbow problem."

Momochi stared at Shinda, unable to collect his thoughts for a few moments. "So..." he began, "This strategy of yours. Shoot absolutely everything that moves with a crossbow. You use this for every single mission?"

Shinda nodded. "Yes. Absolutely. 22 successful missions in a row. I mean, if it's working, why change it?"

Momochi noticed that several crossbows were already hanging from Shinda's belt. He cleared his throat. "And so... you approach everything this same way... such as... performance reviews?"

Shinda blinked. "I hadn't thought about it, but now that you mention it..."

Momochi smiled. "No need! I think we're done here. I will let the other masters know that I spoke with you about this. Good work! Just carry on the way you have been. Have a pleasant day."



Level 1: When it comes to sneaking and spying, Shinda is the consummate fly-(sparrow?)-on-the-wall. In sparrow form, Shinda has a +24 bonus on Hide checks (+16 size, +8 Dex). Also, anti-ninja defenses, such as high walls and nightingale floors? Shinda just flies right over them. He can sneak into any castle, hide up in the rafters or eaves, and use his Listen and Spot skills to gather invaluable information for blackmail, court intrigue, or battle strategy. If forced to fight in human or hybrid form, Shinda uses smokebombs and eggshell grenades to provide concealment, using his Listen/Spot skills to pinpoint his opponent, and attacking from range when possible.

Level 2: Ghost Step allows Shinda to go from nearly invisible to actually invisible. He can use this 3/day, making him a little more dangerous when in human or hybrid form. He can also use it as the ultimate escape plan: turn invisible as a swift action, shift into sparrow form as a standard action, then fly up to 50' away and hide as a move action.

Level 3: Shinda forgoes further advancement as a Ninja to progress his crossbow skills as a Fighter, using the Hit-and-Run Tactics ACF from Drow of the Underdark. This also allows him to take both Hand Crossbow Focus and Dead Eye. Dead Eye allows him to add his Dex bonus on damage against all targets within 30', and the Hit-and-Run ACF doubles this against flat-footed targets within 30': +6 damage in human form or +8 damage in hybrid form.

Level 4: With another level of Fighter, Shinda picks up Crossbow Sniper. This extends the range of his Sudden Strike out to 60', and adds 1/2 his Dex bonus on damage out to any range. Within 30' against flat-footed opponents, he gets x2.5 his Dex bonus on damage: +7 in human form, +10 in hybrid form.

Level 5: Totemist soulmelds add some additional utility to Shinda's repertoire. He can shape Kruthik Claws to buff his sneak skills (+6 to Hide/Move Silently), Yrthak Mask for buffing Listen, or Wormtail Belt for a Natural Armor bonus that stacks with his other AC bonuses regardless of which form he is in.

Level 6: Who's got four opposable thumbs, a pair of wings, and a bunch of teeny-tiny crossbows? Shinda does! With Girallon Arms shaped to his Totem Chakra, he is now armed and dangerous even in sparrow form. He can wield four fine-sized hand crossbows, which only deal 1 damage per hit, but against flat-footed opponents with 30', he can add x2.5 his Dex bonus to damage on top of Sudden Strike for an average of 19.5 damage per hit. (Q: How does he reload? A: He's got two feet that aren't standing on anything.) He's also got a nekkid AC of 29 (+8 size, +6 Dex, +2 Wis, +3 NA). Once he adds Rapid Shot on top of Multi-Weapon Fighting, he gets five attacks per turn, and if they all hit he does a minimum of 85 damage. For the rest of his feats, Shinda takes Cobalt Strike to push his damage up to 20+ per hit, Precise Shot to get rid of that pesky penalty for firing into melee, Expanded Ki Pool for more rounds of invisiblilty, and then Martial Stalker for another Ki point per day and Weapon Specialization: Hand Crossbow. After that, maybe some Bonus Essentia or Open Least Chakra to open up his crown/hands/feet chakras.



There are at least two "problem areas" that may require some finagling with the DM. First, it's not entirely clear what the physiological implications of adding four arms while in sparrow form might be. The flavor text for the Girallon Arms soulmeld mentions that these "spirit arms mirror the movements of your real arms", but a sparrow's "arms" are its wings. The descriptive text says the arms are "quite real - and quite sharp", but doesn't mention if they can wield weapons or if they are capable of completely independent motion. This last point should only be a concern if you're trying to fire at more than two targets. If the arms mirror each other, then pointing one arm at a single target should point the other arms at the same target. Using claws to wield a crossbow shouldn't be a problem, as most creatures in the Monster Manuals with claws can wield weapons, but if your DM throws a stink about this, you can enchant your crossbows with the Opposable property from Masters of the Wild.

The second problem appears on page 20 of Magic of Incarnum: "Your maximum number of simultaneously shaped soulmelds is equal to your Constitution score –10, or the number indicated in your class table, whichever is less." When in sparrow form, Shinda's Constitution is only 10. So... it's not clear that he can maintain his Girallon Arms soulmeld. However... I've been through MoI several times, and I can't find any rules text that actually states what happens if a meldshaper's Constitution drops below the number of soulmelds he currently has shaped. Page 49 says, "Once shaped, a soulmeld remains in effect until the character chooses to unshape it (typically to shape a new soulmeld in its place). A soulmeld can remain shaped for a day, a month, a year, or even a character’s entire life." On the next page under "Unshaping a Soulmeld", the text says, "Generally speaking, a soulmeld remains shaped until the meldshaper chooses to unshape it in favor of another soulmeld. Sometimes, however, a soulmeld is designed to unshape as part of its function." There are other ways to unshape a soulmeld, such as acquiring a negative level (page 52), getting hit with certain spells, various creature abilities, and you may lose access to a bind or chakra by changing forms, but there is no text in the book that says your soulmelds unshape if your Constitution drops to 10 or lower. So your best argument here is, "There's no rule that says dropping your Con score unshapes a soulmeld." The number of soulmelds you can shape appears to only be enforced when the soulmelds are shaped, which you can do in human form. Once they are shaped, they are supposed to stay with you until something unshapes them. The rules for changing forms even states that while a soulmeld binding might become unbound if your new form doesn't have the correct chakra, the soulmeld itself is still considered shaped until you unshape it and re-bind it (page 170).

That being said, if the DM rules that a sparrow with Con 10 can't maintain any soulmelds, then here's a few work-arounds for that. You get an ability score increase at 4th level, so you can ask if you can increase your sparrow's Con score to 11. As per the text in Oriental Adventures, hengeyokai's natural form is that of an animal. They change into human and hybrid forms via their own magical abilities, but their original form is an animal. Another work-around is a Con-boosting item that you can wear while in sparrow form. This may require adding a Wilding Clasp to an Amulet of Health +2, or putting on a Con-boosting amulet/belt/etc. while in sparrow form. If you want a much more hardcore solution, you could go Necropolitan (Libris Mortis p. 114) and take the Undead Meldshaper feat.



Complete Scoundrel: Expanded Ki Pool, Martial Stalker
Dragon Compendium: Dead Eye
Drow of the Underdark: Hit-and-Run Fighter, Hand Crossbow Focus
Magic of Incarnum: Totemist, Girallon Arms Soulmeld, Cobalt Strike
Monster Manual: Multi-Weapon Fighting
Oriental Adventures: Hengeyokai Sparrow
Player's Handbook II: Crossbow Sniper

[Zaq]

Entry the tenth!



Talon
Anthropomorphic Screech Owl, Ninja 6http://curlyartist.com/images/ninjaowl_slash_edgar_covarrubias_lowquality.jpg

Str – 10 (+0) (2 pts)
Dex – 16 (+3) (6 pts)
Con – 14 (+2) (6 pts)
Int – 14 (+2) (6 pts)
Wis – 21 (+5) (6 pts) (+1 @ lvl 4)
Cha – 12 (+1) (6 pts)



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


1st
Ninja 1
+0
+0
+2
+0
Balance: 4
Bluff: 4
Climb: 4
Jump: 4
Listen: 4
Move Silently: 4
Spot: 4
Tumble: 4
Weapon Finesse (Talons)*
Hidden Talent (Chameleon) - (XPH), Wis to AC
Ki Power, Sudden Strike +1d6, Trapfinding


2nd
Ninja 2
+1
+0
+3
+0
Balance: 5
Bluff: 5
Climb: 5
Jump: 5
Listen: 5
Move Silently: 5
Spot: 5
Tumble: 5
-
Ghost Step (Invisible)


3rd
Ninja 3
+2
+1
+3
+1
Bluff: 6
Craft (Poisonmaking): 1
Disable Device: 1
Listen: 6
Move Silently: 6
Open Lock: 1
Sleight of Hand: 1
Spot: 6
Air Heritage - (PlH)
Sudden Strike +2d6, Poison Use


4th
Ninja 4
+3
+1
+4
+1
Bluff: 7
Search: 1
Sense Motive: 5
Spot: 7
-
Great Leap


5th
New Class Level
+3
+1
+4
+1
Bluff: 8
Hide: 7
-
Sudden Strike +3d6, AC +1


6th
Ninja 6
+4
+2
+5
+2
Hide: 8
Listen: 7
Move Silently: 7
Spot: 8
Skill Tricks:
Wall Jumper
Group Fake-Out
Expanded Ki Pool (CS)
Acrobatics +2, Ki Dodge


Balance +12
Bluff +9
Climb +10
Hide +11
Jump +14
Listen +24
Move Silently +26
Sense Motive +10
Sleight of Hand +6
Spot +21
Tumble +12

Epic Bonus Feats
Mobility - (PH)
Expeditious Dodge - (RotW)
Flyby Attack - (MM)
Great Flyby Attack - (SS)
Improved Flyby Attack - (SS)
Hover - (MM)
Winged Warrior - (RotW)
Diving Charge - (RotW)
Agile Athlete - (RotW)
Quick Reconnoiter – (CAdv)

Talon isn't sure where he came from exactly. He's not like most other humanoid creatures he's encountered, he's much more aware of his surroundings. The faintest whisper around the corner, the slightest twitch in the shadows, it's all crystal clear to his senses. He's also been hard pressed to find those rare individuals that can hear him as he comes swooping in like the wings of death.

Talon likes to be mobile about the battlefield. Constantly flying to and fro, swooping in to attack the enemy without warning and leaving again in a flash. His talons raking through a line of foes like butter. If that's not a reliable option, he can certainly hold his own up close. He can make dust clouds to conceal his movements and make it impossible to attack him at range. When the enemy gets close, they see him standing calmly with his wings wrapped about him. As they approach to strike his wings unfurl and from the feathers come the knives, striking before the target can react. Talon can disappear in an instant becoming completely invisible before he strikes. If his enemy seems particularly ferocious and there's a chance of actually landing a hit, Talon can displace his form, making it shift and waver and more difficult to land a strike.

If his perceptions and silent stalking skills weren't dangerous enough, he has another skill he can't quite explain. Just by thinking about it, Talon can camouflage himself and his attire to blend in nearly seamlessly with his surroundings. Going unnoticed by even the most cunning of predator, or prey. Oftentimes the only way anyone can even know he's struck, is by finding a signature shuriken by the bodies. A shuriken shaped in the form of an owl's feather. A feather of Talon...

Racial Modifiers
Anthropomorphic Screech Owl (SS)(DMG; alternative familiar)
Size: Small
Speed: 20ft., Fly: 20ft.(40ft with Air Heritage) (Poor)
Talons: (1d4 dmg)
Racial Skill Bonus: Listen +12, Move Silently +16, Spot +8
Ability Score Modifiers: Dex +2, Wis +6, Cha -2
Natural Armor: +1
Bonus Feat: Weapon Finesse (*Talons only)
Darkvision: 60ft.

Basic Combat Stats
HP: 5d6+18 (Avg. 36)
Initiative: +5
Attack: Talons +8, Ranged +8
AC: 21, Touch: 20, Flat-Footed 18: 10+1(size)+1(NA)+3(Dex)+6(Ninja AC+WIS)
(+2 Dodge AC if moved 40ft.+) (+4 vs. AoO)
Fort: +4, Ref: +8, Will: +7
Sudden Strike +3d6 dmg
+2d6 dmg on Diving Charge
Ki Powers 11/day

Gain a 1st level Power known, and 2 Power Points in which to manifest this power.
Your fly speed increases by 30ft. (up to your normal maximum), +2 bonus on Balance and Jump checks
Gain 3 extra uses of Ki powers.
+4 Dodge bonus against AoO
If you move 40ft or more in a single turn, you gain +2 dodge bonus to AC. Can replace Dodge as a Prerequisite.
When flying, can take a standard action at any point during your move action.
Full-round Action. When flying, you can move up to your fly speed in a straight line and attack a number of targets equal to your dexterity bonus.
Make only one attack and damage roll to apply to all targets.
When using Flyby Attack, you incur no AoO for moving through squares threatened by your target.
When flying, you can halt any forward motion and hover in place as a move action. Then can fly in any direction at half speed regardless of maneuverability.
As a full-round action, can make a full-attack with all limbs/appendages except wings.
Tactical Feat: Enables the use of three tactical maneuvers.
Dustup: To use this maneuver, you must be standing in, or flying no more than 10 feet above, an area with a lot of loose debris. If you flap your wings hard as a move action, the draft creates a hemispherical cloud with a radius of 20 feet. Clear vision within the cloud is limited to 10 feet. Creatures 11 to 20 feet away have concealment. At over 20 feet, creatures have total concealment. Those caught in the cloud must succeed on a Concentration check (DC 10 + 1/2 your character level) to cast a spell.
Flying Leap: To use this maneuver, you must move a distance greater than your base land speed during the round. If you do, you gain a +4 bonus on Jump, Balance, and Climb checks because your wings give you lift and stabilize you.
Shroud of Feathers: To use this maneuver, you must spend a move action to pull your wings around your body. You cannot be flying during this maneuver. You can then attempt to feint in combat (as described in the Bluff skill description, page 68 of the Player's Handbook) as part of your attack, suddenly spreading your wings to reveal your weapon just as it's about to land a blow. The shroud of feathers maneuver works on a given foe only once per combat.
When charging while flying, if you move at least 30ft,
and descend at least 10ft, you gain a bonus to your damage roll based on your fly speed.(Not distance moved) 30ft or less = +1d6, 31ft-90ft = +2d6, 90ft+ = +3d6
Use Dex modifier on Climb and Jump checks
You can make one Spot and Listen check each round as a free action. Gain +2 on Initiative

You can use Bluff to feint in combat against more than one opponent. Make one Bluff check opposed by separate Sense Motive checks for each opponent. For each opponent after the first that you wish to affect, you take a cumulative –2 penalty on your Bluff check.
If you have succeeded on a Climb check to ascend or descend a wall during this or your previous turn, you can leap horizontally from that wall as if you had a running start.

Cost: 1PP, 10min/lvl; Your skin and equipment take on the color and texture of nearby objects, including floors and walls. You receive a +10 enhancement bonus on Hide checks.

Dungeon Master’s Guide (DMG)
Player’s Handbook (PH)
Monster Manual (MM)
Complete Adventurer (CAdv)
Complete Scoundrel (CS)
Savage Species (SS)
Planar Handbook (PlH)
Expanded Psionics Handbook (XPH)
Complete Psionics (CP)

[Zaq]

Entry the eleventh! (Note: This entry also did not include its name in its PM title! Shame! Shaaaame!)


Tellian d’Thuranni
The ghost in the darkness.



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


1st
Barbarian
+1
+2
+0
+0
Jump +4, Listen +4, Bluff +2, Hide +2, Move Silently +2
Least Dragonmark of Shadow (Darkness)
Fast Movement, Illiteracy, Whirling Frenzy


2nd
Ninja
+1
+2
+2
+0
Jump +1, Listen +1, Hide +3, Move Silently +2

Ki Power, Sudden Strike (+1d6), Trapfinding


3rd
Ninja
+2
+2
+3
+0
Jump +1, Listen +1, Hide +1, Move Silently +2, Tumble +2
Quicken Dragonmark
Ghost Step (Invisibility)


4th
Ninja
+3
+3
+3
+1
Jump +1, Listen +1, Hide +1, Move Silently +1, Tumble +3

Sudden Strike (+2d6), Poison Use


5th
Ninja
+4
+3
+4
+1
Jump +1, Listen +1, Hide +1, Move Silently +1, Tumble +3

Great Leap


6th
Shadow Hunter
+5
+5
+6
+1
Jump +1, Listen +1, Hide +1, Move Silently +1, Tumble +1, Extreme Leap
Lesser Dragonmark of Shadow (Shadow Conjuration)
Heir’s Mark, Improved Darkness



Epic
1





Dragonmark Adept (Blindsight)



Epic
2





Unlock Dragonmark



Epic
3





Heroic Spirit



Epic
4





Heroic Focus



Epic
5





Dragonmark Prodigy (Insightful Feign)



Epic
6





Dodge



Epic
7





Mobility



Epic
8





Spring Attack



Epic
9





Martial Study: Cloak of Deception



Epic
10





Expanded Ki Pool






] Eberron Campaign Setting: Least Dragonmark of Shadow, Lesser Dragonmark of Shadow, Heroic Spirit
Magic of Eberron: Heroic Focus
Dragonmarked: Shadow Hunter, Quicken Dragonmark, Dragonmark Adept, Dragonmark Prodigy
Player’s Handbook: Barbarian, Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack
Complete Adventurer: Ninja
Complete Scoundrel: Expanded Ki Pool, Extreme Leap
Tome of Battle: Martial Study
Unearthed Arcana: Whirling Frenzy


Tellian d’Thuranni was not always of Thuranni. At a the young age of 84 Tellian began work as a bandit. He excelled in quickly flanking a target, hitting them while their back was turned and then getting out of the way. It wasn’t a good life, but it was a profitable one. That changed when he manifested his mark. News spread that a dragonmarked elf was working as a bandit, and that this bandit was particularly bloodthirsty. House Phiarlan began hunting Tellian. Tellian learned that the bounty on his head rose dramatically and he decided it was time to seek stronger allies. He sought out House Thuranni who after learning who he was quickly married him into the house, and began training as an agent.

At 6th level Tellian’s training is complete, and his mastery of his mark has grown dramatically. He has the ability to turn invisible several times each day as well as using the darkness of his mark to effectively blind targets and make several sudden strikes in rapid succession. At this point he is a trusted member of House Thuranni, doing missions often alone that others couldn’t do with a partner.

By the end of Tellian’s career he could become invisible a seemingly infinite number of times per day, could ignore the very darkness that he seemed to use almost at will, and would fight more akin to a ghost than the barbarian he started as.

Making use of Blindsight and the mark of shadow you can set up situations that normal targets will be unable to see allowing you to get your Sudden Strike off as much as you please. I added in cloak of shadow because it seemed very in line for a ninja to use. Great Leap allowing us to always jump as if we had a running start combined with Extreme Leap and Spring Attack quickly allows you to use cat and mouse tactics whenever you fight. For Shadow Conjuration I’d employ the use of Obscuring Snow to quickly make it so that even if enemies can quickly leave the darkness you will hardly ever need to fight an up front battle. Adding in the ninja’s exceptional skills you should be able to perceive even those that hide from you without the employment of your blindsight. With Unlock Dragonmark you can spend your considerable action points to activate your dragonmark powers, and make use of dragonmark powers you don’t normally have access to, like Invisibility. While the Tellian has access to all martial weapons and a handful of exotic weapons, I suggest using a reach weapon to fight, a guisarme should work well, although in darkness any weapon should work. In a typical fight Tellian will poison several weapons using his Poison Use, prepare himself for combat using his dragonmarks, using quicken dragonmark where necessary. Once preparation is complete he’d enter into his whirling frenzy and fight with hit and run tactics. You should be able to make two good hits each round, more if you have access to haste or a speed item. I would invest in magic items that allow him to overcome obstacles that could be challenging. The whole idea would not work in a normal campaign as fairly soon nearly everyone will have access to something that would effectively ruin his abilities and it is heavily feat reliant.

I did not know whether to put any equipment in or not, after asking it seems that there is no real requirement to enter them in, but to not be reliant on the equipment. So with that said I’ll just say what kinds of equipment would be good. Equipment that enhances maneuverability is the best, as is anything that makes his shtick resistant to magic that would spoil his abilities. Several items in the Dragonmarked book would be useful in adding to his already large number of abilities. And as always adding in versatility to shore up anything that he couldn’t do (like flight) will harm the build in no way.


This is the first time I’m entering any of these competitions. I don’t care if I win or lose, although I’d love to win that is not why I’m here. That said please be fair in your judging, but kind in your words.

[Zaq]

Eleven! Eleven entries! Ah ah aaaaaaah!

You've got your work cut out for you, judges. In more ways than one. We've certainly got some entries here. Good job, everyone who entered! I'm going to go update the first page with links and then get some shuteye.

[Thurbane]

My build would have been Ninja 1/Cloistered Cleric 5 (with Able Learner) to do Ninja-ish things with spells.

Congrats to everyone who got an entry in.

[DeTess]

11 entries... and somehow none of them took their 6th level in swordsage, whihc seemed like the ridiculously obvious thing to do to me (and the reason why I didn't submit a build of my own, as I couldn't think of something else that wouldn't lose to much ninja-ness).

Ah well, I'm going to try judging here, bu it's going to take me a while to get it done. What's the expected deadline for judging?

[remetagross]

I would have made a Kobold Ninja 6 using the web enhancement for gaining Slight Build for extra skill bonuses, Hidden Talent for Psionic Minor Creation, and firing three poisoned darts a round with a Fukimi-bari. But I wasn't doing anything useful with either Trapfinding or Great Leap and that annoyed me.

Congrats to all that did make it to the submission :)

[MinimanMidget]

I was working on a Neraph Ninja (disappointed not to see one in the running), but couldn't come up with a good way to capitalise on a high Jump check and charging that denies Dex to AC. Leap Attacking was just not going to work out for him.

[Jormengand]

I was going to mess with some of the exalted feats, odd wordings and a few of the ninja class features in a way that I'll keep in a box for next time I have a chance to do something equivalent.

[PrismCat21]

11 entries... and somehow none of them took their 6th level in swordsage, whihc seemed like the ridiculously obvious thing to do to me (and the reason why I didn't submit a build of my own, as I couldn't think of something else that wouldn't lose to much ninja-ness).

I believe this competition requires at least one level in the secret ingredient to qualify to even enter.
So even if your did enter that way, it wouldn't have mattered.


I was working on a Neraph Ninja (disappointed not to see one in the running), but couldn't come up with a good way to capitalise on a high Jump check and charging that denies Dex to AC. Leap Attacking was just not going to work out for him.

I wrote one out, but ultimately decided on something else I felt more giddy about :P
It was aggravating working it out though.

[Lapak]

I believe this competition requires at least one level in the secret ingredient to qualify to even enter.
So even if your did enter that way, it wouldn't have mattered.I think Randuir meant taking Swordsage 1 as their sixth character level, not taking a 6th level of swordsage.

[DeTess]

I think Randuir meant taking Swordsage 1 as their sixth character level, not taking a 6th level of swordsage.

Yeah that was what I meant. My build would have either been ninja 5/swordsage 1, or ninja 4/swordsage 2. Maybe with one other class mixed in if I found something interesting that it could add. Hmmm, can you do telflamar shadowlord in 6 levels with a ninja base?

No, apparently you can't.

[RaiKirah]

Reading through all these submissions made me realize some things I had missed. Aw well, not going to get better without trying.

Really impressive stuff all around! Looking forward to judging!!

[PrismCat21]

Yeah that was what I meant.

My bad. :/ Completely misunderstood :elan:

[Zombulian]

I wish I had had time to get my build formatted in time for submission. I never expected it to win but it would've been a fun one.
Anthro-Baleen Whale 3/Ninja 3 for Sudden Strike + Echolocation shenanigans.

[PrismCat21]

-snip-

Please, no judging or critiquing of builds from the sidelines. That is the Judges' job only, in their official capacity.

Deleting it, so as to not influence any Judges, would be appreciated.

[WhamBamSam]

Some things I considered.

1. Strongheart Halfling Ninja 3/Cloistered Cleric 3 - Basically the only thing I could come up with to make the DC required to produce Black Lotus Extract with Psionic Minor Creation was Guidance of the Avatar. The rest of the build would have been a pretty standard Zen Archer with Yondalla's Sense, with either some sort of Psycarnum shenanigans or Greater Psionic Shot to take advantage of having Psionic focus.

2. Something Ninja 4/Totemist 2 - Uses Great Leap to shore up the Jump check for the Landshark Boots Totem bind, and doubles up on the things I'm doing to get enemies flat-footed to get Planar Touchstone (Oxyrhynicus) attacks with Quick Drawn Poisoned Weapons.

3. Silverbrow Human or Glimmerskin Halfling Ninja 4/Swordsage 1/Something 1 - Uses Great Leap to assist with Tiger Claw maneuvers. Psionic Minor Creation produces Elemental Rime with its more modest craft DC, which deals a bit of Dex damage and renders its victim vulnerable to fire damage, such as the damage from Dragonfire Strike and Desert Wind maneuvers.

Anyway, 11 entries is probably too much for me to judge in any reasonable amount of time, especially with the main competition likely coming back soon, but I will say that I like a lot of what people were able to do with a pretty terrible ingredient.

[remetagross]

Some things I considered.

1. Strongheart Halfling Ninja 3/Cloistered Cleric 3 - Basically the only thing I could come up with to make the DC required to produce Black Lotus Extract with Psionic Minor Creation was Guidance of the Avatar.

About that I considered the lesser Draconic Rite of Passage combined with Draconic Reservoir to gain, 3/day, that level 1 spell from Eberron that gives you +5 to a Craft check. I still needed masterwork tools and a +5 competence bonus item though, so that was pretty inelegant.

[WhamBamSam]

About that I considered the lesser Draconic Rite of Passage combined with Draconic Reservoir to gain, 3/day, that level 1 spell from Eberron that gives you +5 to a Craft check. I still needed masterwork tools and a +5 competence bonus item though, so that was pretty inelegant.I thought about Magecraft as well, but thought that the 'full day of work' clause might be an issue, and I too needed more bonuses. I guess dipping Truenamer 1 for Universal Aptitude leaves Ninja less overshadowed than making half your build Cleric, but I didn't think of that.

[Lapak]

With so many entries, we do still have some folks left who are judging, right? :smalltongue:

[DEMON]

With so many entries, we do still have some folks left who are judging, right? :smalltongue:

Randuir and jdizzlean, I believe. Not sure if anyone else is willing to step up to the challenge given the number of entries.

[jdizzlean]

i'm still in :)

[DeTess]

I'm still in as well. I plan to be done around wednesday or thursday.

[Darrin]

My initial idea was Tibbit Ninja 3/Soulborn 1/SA Fighter 1/Assassin 1, using the Flop/Interspecies Grace/Writhe combo, because it works *really* well with Death Attack! However, we just had an Appetizer entry with the same combo in the Knight round. So I submitted something else. I was still considering the Tibbit as a second entry, but didn't have enough time to put it together. Even so, eleven entries is a very good crop for this round.

[ATHATH]

Darn, inspiration had struck me, but the deadline has passed.

I was going to do something like Ninja 2/Spellthief 1/Sneak Attack Fighter 1/Rogue 1/Shadowthief of Amn 1, stacking up as much SA damage as I could, then using Ghost Step as an activator for said SA damage (I was going to use some of the feats that boost your ki capacity to give myself more uses of Ghost Step per day) if I couldn't activate it normally.

[daremetoidareyo]

I had a racial emulation changeling with cards over swords, cornered rat, and doomspeak. a battle dancer dip, and ascetic mage to get cha to a.c. twice. extra music and snowflake wardance round it out. precocious apprentice to get harmonize as a second level spell to make bardic music a move action.

round 1, move action extend supernatural ability doomspeak for -10 to most d20 rolls. swft action cards over swords to play 52 pickup, doesn't matter the result because we are going to invoke cornered rat to force a sense motive check at -10 penalty. now they flatfooted. sudden strike. repeat.

needed to get 5 epic feats before everything was online, all to set up +2d6 damage. and a gully dwarf can't have a charisma high enough for doomspeak so you know...it was the long way round

[DeTess]

To give a small update, I've finished going over all the builds, and expect to post my judging tomorrow. I still need some time to judge the originality aspect, and make sure that all the scores are balanced (equal power builds need to get equal scores for power and the like).

[DeTess]

Okay, below are my scores. I won't be able to react to disputes over the weekend, but I'll deal with them once I'm back.

Regarding my judging, 3/5 is the base for every category. Mistakes or deficiencies subtract, impressive things add. Outright build mistakes are penalized under elegance, but abilities not working as the Chef seems to think will often be dealt with under power (provided they impact that category). I've tried to be as fair as possible, but with 11 entrants it was difficult to keep relative power and similar things straight, so if you can show me that your character is the equal in power to someone that I gave a higher score in that category, I'll likely correct things in that regard.

Finally, this is my first time judging, so my apologies if I have made any obvious mistakes (apart from challenging chef number 6 to RAW-on-RAW combat).


Originality

You’re not the only one to use the avenger cap-stone, but a worked out back-story covereth a multitude of sins. You’re also the only one to pick up Iajitsu focus as a way to complement damage.

3.5/5

Power

Assuming all abilities are used, You’ll do 1d4+1d6(skirmish)+2d6(sudden strike)+1d6(sneak attack)+3d6(iajutsu focus average)+3d6(dragonfire strike), for an average of about 38 damage. That’s very decent, and the class has plenty of tricks that allow you to reliably use all of these abilities. However, if you’re facing an enemy immune to precision damage, that’ll drop significantly (leaving only the iajutsu focus damage for an average of about 13).

4.5/5

Elegance

The classes work together nicely, with no big clashes in alignment or other fluffy requirements. Given that Iajutsu focus is an important part of this characters’ damage, I don’t like that the feat making it a class skill is traded away when becoming a dragonborn, but it is all RAW-legal, and it can easily be explained why the character retains the training, so I won’t penalize this.

As you mentioned your built is dependent on a couple of specific piece of equipment which, depending on the campaign, might or might not be available.

3/5

Use of SI

You’ve taken 4 levels of the SI, and your overall build works with both the crunch and fluff of the class.

3.5/5



Originality

Nananananana Batninja!

4/5

Power

The character does decent damage when it can catch enemies flat-footed, but it’s means of doing so are somewhat limited. As long as its ki-pool lasts it can turn invisible, but it has only 12 ki, which means it gets 12 rounds of invisibility (enduring ki doesn’t double the length of ghost-step for free. It requires you to spend another ki-point). I don’t think that this is enough for a long adventuring day, and once the ki is gone, the bat’s damage will drop significantly, given that it uses a small-size weapon.

You’ll have a very decent AC because of your small size and high dex and wisdom, but your fort save is a bit of a weak point.

3/5

Elegance

You don’t qualify for woodland archer(it requires +6 BaB). Able sniper can’t be used together with sudden strike, as able sniper requires you to be more than 30 feet away, but I’m not certain whether you were planning on using that one together with sudden strike or not.

I also think using fell conspiracy to qualify for Mindsight is incredibly dodgy, given that fell conspiracy provides only a very limited form of telepathy. However, this does seem to be RAW legal(or at least ambiguous enough to be permissible), even though it doesn’t make sense from a fluff perspective.

2/5

Use of SI

All levels taken in the SI, build as a whole makes decent use of most abilities, though flight obsoletes the acrobatics and great leap powers.

4.5/5




Originality

You used monk levels, and somehow it worked out in favour of your build. Nice Backstory too.

4/5

Power

You add a decent amount of damage to your attacks, and have plenty of ways to keep forcing the flatfooted condition, even on a prolonged adventuring day. You have no way of doing good damage against targets immune to precision damage, however.

You also have good saves across the board, and high dex and wis ensure you’ve got decent AC.

4/5

Elegance

You can’t take the mimic alternate class feature as your CHA isn’t at least 12, which is a requirement. I also don’t understand where Mobility is coming from on your third level. The Halfling substitution level gives weapon finesse at that level, while the normal monk allows you to pick between combat reflexes and deflect arrows.

2/5

Use of SI

You’ve only take 3 levels of the SI, though the rest of the levels taken do complement the ninja fluff nicely.

3/5




Originality

A whisper gnome is probably one of the obvious races for this SI, though for some reason only two people used it. Nothing stands out to me in a positive or negative way in this category for the rest.

3/5

Power

You don’t get as much bonus dice on attacks as some other entrants, but you get a large flat bonus through Craven. You also have an option for fighting enemies immune to critical hits with the dissolving Spittle soulmeld, which also adds enough additional damage to put you in line with some of the other builds stacking precision damage.

You’ve got a number of sustainable ways of making opponents flat-footed so you can use sudden strike, but you lack improved feint, which is odd given that you’ve got a number of skill-tricks that enhance feint, as well as several other abilities that improve it. You can still make use of feint, but it turns into something that can't be combined with an attack on the same turn.

4/5

Elegance

To take the gnome substitution levels, you have to be NG, while you are NE. As you are required to be evil for the Necrocarnum touch soulmeld you listed this isn’t just a case of refluffing something without mechanical effects.

You also take a dodge equivalent after taking mobility and spring attack, both of which have dodge as a prerequisite.

2/5

Use of SI

4 levels of the secret ingredient. The build makes decent use of most of the class features.

4/5




Originality

It’s a ghost-ninja. Enough said.

5/5

Power

Your possession power is fenomenal, especially when it’s expanded. Unfortunately you can only do it a couple of times per day and need long days of rests in between, as you can’t bind Naberius like you planned to. Binding Naberius requires 4 ranks in either Bluff, a knowledge or a profession skill, so you don’t qualify.

Outside of dominating people you don’t have many other tricks, so unless you get short adventuring days with lots of down-time in between, or have someone in the party that can fix your Charisma, you can’t do it often enough to really make up for your more lacklustre abilities outside of possessing someone. And this is really a shame, as it can be fixed easily and would be fairly strong if it was fixed.

2/5

Elegance

The Live my Nightmare feat requires one to have been targeted by phantasmal killer before taking your first class-level. Though this is not impossible, at level 1 it’s also likely to be fatal(at level 0 your will save is nonexistant, while the save DC is at least 16, and might be higher, and failing the first save will mean taking 3d6 points of damage, even if you pass the second). This also means that this character probably can’t be built as is when starting from nothing, unless the DM is cooperative/evil enough to throw a lvl 4 save or die spell at the character.

The rest of the build fits together nicely enough.

3/5

Use of SI

Only 3 levels from the SI, but interesting use of the Ghost-step ability to close with your possession targets.

3.5/5





Originality

Hit and run fighter and avenger are not unique to your build, but you’ve got easily the most complicated attack routine of all the entrants, which is a good thing for this category.

3/5

Power

This build does good damage, and the extended invisibility is a good defensive tool. Do remember that you only get 7 ki points, and using enduring ki requires two ki points, so you’ll get at most 11 rounds of invisibility. That’s fine on a short adventuring day, but not for a longer one.

You’ve got enough ways to force opponents flat-footed, and you’ve got plenty of ways to deal very good damage.

4/5

Elegance
You miscalculated skillpoints on your fighter and avenger level, as you’ve got a +3 INT bonus you should have another skill point at those levels. I haven’t penalized this, but I did want to point it out.

You don’t qualify for Head shot or persistent attacker, as it requires you to have a sneak attack of +5d6 and +6d6 respectively, but you only have +4d6. You can sacrifice a spell slot to add another 1d6 to the damage roll, but this isn’t sneak attack damage.

The trick using d6’s and d8’s also doesn’t work, even by sticking to the letter of RAW: “Using this feat reduces your first sneak attack’s damage by 4d6.” It is stated that the damage is reduced by 4d6, not that you remove 4d6 from your dice pool. If you’re rolling d6’s, this is easy to do by removing the number of d6’s, but if you’re rolling another dice type you have to roll the number of d6’s and reduce your damage by the rolled amount.

2/5

Note: I'm quite willing to discuss the sneak attack damage tricks you sued in more detail, as I might have missed something important or obvious that does make it work.

Use of SI

3 levels, good use of the class features within those 3.

3.5/5





Originality

Yeah, that rank in profession(accountant) is worth a bonus point. Nice background and intro too.

4/5

Power

You can trigger the conditions for sudden strike reliably and all-day long if you have to. Your sudden strike damage is decent, and your total damage output can get as high as 5d6 with the right soulmelds. Furthermore, those hit on touch attacks, making it fairly easy to hit your opponents.

Your defences are nothing to write home about, but you’ve got plenty of mobility to try and stay out of your opponents reach.

Lastly, you aren’t completely useless when confronted with opponents immune to sudden strike damage, as your soulmelds would still be worth 2d6 points of damage, which is okay.

4/5

Elegance

Miscalculated skill points at second level. Incarnate only gets 2+int per level, but with the two cross-class skills you’ve taken, you’ve spent five (taking non-class skills always cost two skill-points, even if they are a class-skills of a different class you have, and count as class-skills for the maximum amount of ranks).

No other shenanigans (if we don’t count that rank in profession(accountant)) or other inelegant (or particularly elegant) actions.

2.5/5

Use of SI

5 levels in the SI, and manages to make actual use of great leap.

4.5/5




Originality

Warlock is an interesting addition. Your background is good enough. Whisper gnome is a pretty obvious pick.

3/5

Power

Being able to keep yourself covered by darkness near constantly is useful and can greatly help a party build around this ability. Your damage output is okay, but you’ve got no way to significantly harm creatures immune to critical hits.

3/5

Elegance

Small skill-point miscalculation or misrepresentation at level 5. You list that jump now has 6 ranks, but that was already the case. No score subtracted for this minor mistake.

You take a feat at level 5 with no explanation, but I assume that’s a tabulating mistake as you didn’t take one at level 6.

Using warlock to qualify for all those drow feats is interesting (<- a good thing).

4/5

Use of SI

5 levels in the SI, but you don’t seem to make particular use of its abilities apart from Sudden strike. This built seems more like whisper gnome warlock raised by drow, and any form of sneak-attacker could have worked as well as ninja here.

3/5




Originality

Funny backstory. You’re an actual bird most of the time, rather than that anthropomorphic stuff.

4.5/5

Power
You lack a way to reliably enforce the flat-footed condition all day long. You’ll likely win initiative and you get a couple of uses of ghost-step a day, but that’s it. You also suffer a rather large to-hit penalty with the hand crossbows, but that’s balanced out by your high dex and size modifier.

However, you don’t necessarily need your target to be flat-footed to do a lot of damage. Dead eye and crossbow sniper are always on, as is weapon specialization (12 damage per bolt, if math hasn’t failed me). Even against targets immune to crits you’ll still get weapon specialization and crossbow sniper, giving you 6 damage per bolt, which still adds up.

Your physical defences are great, but your will save leaves something to be desired, and many scary effects are based on will saves.

4.5/5

Elegance

I assume you meant indigo strike instead of Cobalt strike?

As you explained and pointed out yourself (thanks for that, btw, as I’m not that familiar with Incarnum), There are some issue with whether you maintain the extra arms in sparrow from, whether you can control them properly in sparrow from, and whether they can use hand-crossbows. I checked page 20, and the line about the maximum number of shaped soulmelds has no clause that suggests this is only checked at certain times. In fact, the full block of text refers to the number of soulmelds you can have shaped ‘at any one time’, so I’d rule you’d definitely need to boost your sparrow forms con in some way to use the arms.

Apart from all the shenanigans around the arms, I don’t really have anything else to comment on here.

2.5/5

Use of SI

Only 2 levels in the SI, though I do suppose you make use of all the abilities those two levels give you.

2.5/5





Originality

You know, I’ve come to realize that the anthropomorphic animals are probably a pretty obvious pick for ninja, now that I think about it. However, we’ve got one bat and one owl, so I guess it’s fine.

4/5


Power

You’ve got access to a way to force flat-footed all day long. Your damage is okay, unless you combine sudden strike and diving charge, but those can only be combined on the first round of combat if you win initiative, or by using ki-points.

Your flight and flyby attack feats give you great manoeuvrability around the battlefield, and combining improved flyby attack with invisibility and sudden strike should give good results.
Diving attack gives you a way to get okay damage even against opponents that are immune to precision damage.

3.5/5

Elegance

Took mobility before taking dodge. No other real complaints or praise here.

2.5/5

Use of SI

6 levels in the SI, and you make decent use of the class’ abilities, though great leap seems wasted on a flying creature.

4.5/5




Originality

Interesting use of barbarian on what is mostly a subtle build. Not much else to comment on here.

3.5/5

Power

You’ve got a large number of ways to trigger the conditions for sudden strike, but your sudden strike damage is only 2d6, which isn’t that much. For a single combat per day you can use whirling frenzy to double the number of attacks you get, but for the rest of the day you’re stuck with only a single attack with a 2d6 bonus.

Being able to cast darkness a number of times per day can be helpful, provided the rest of your party can see through it as well. Otherwise, it’s a useful defensive tool for yourself, but it can be a hindrance if there is a party with you.

You’ve got no damage boost against enemies immune to precision damage.

2.5/5

Elegance

No race given, no attribute stats given. That second problem in particular makes judging the build more difficult. I’m penalizing you for that in this category, and will write the power category under the assumption that you’ve made a sensible division of your attributes, rather than an array of all 10’s.

I’ve got no way to determine whether you qualify for the ‘Heroic focus’ feat, as that requires you to have some sort of psionic heritage. You don’t get it from your classes or feats, and you didn’t mention your race. I also don’t see how heroic focus benefits the build

2/5

Use of SI

4 levels taken, and the build makes some use of great leap, which is nice.

4/5

[jdizzlean]

Judges Note:

A LOT of people took Enduring Ki as a feat in the mistaken belief that it doubles all your ghost steps to 2 rounds. The text of the feat reads:


You can channel inner energy to make your
Ki powers last longer.

Prerequisite: Ki power.

Benefit: By spending an extra daily use of your ki
power when you activate it, the chosen effect lasts for an
additional round (ki power is a class feature of the ninja;
see the sidebar for details).

You also gain one extra daily use of your ki power


The key part of the feat is that you have to spend an extra use of your Ki power (ghost step) to make it last twice as long… Ghost step lasts 1 round. You are spending 2 uses, to make it last 2 rounds. You can do this w/o taking this feat. This feat does nothing for you beyond grant 1 extra use of Ki, when you could instead take Expanded Ki to instead gain 3 extra uses. Enduring Ki is useless on an e6 character.

Every build that took this option was penalized in Elegance.






I will be on vacation (granted I'm not going anywhere really) for the next 10 days. I will endeavor to answer the disputes that I'm sure are coming asap, but please give me some extra time before getting the pitch forks and torches out :)

Aeilish

Originality

Grey Elf, meh. Fully embracing the shadows aspect of ninja, awesome. Mixing in a maneuver/stance to further this even more, more awesome. Dragonborn is a bit cheesy for the abuse of the feat system, but it does fit into your background nicely.
Score 4

Power

Darkstalker allows you to force an opponent with Blindsense/Tremorsense/Scent or the like make a Spot/Listen check at whichever is a higher DC or be flat-footed, when you’re hiding. This helps against those enemies, but doesn’t help w/ anyone that doesn’t have one of those special senses. It does however grant you the ability to flank a creature w/ all around vision, but flanking isn’t sneak attacking.
Dragonborn flight: You can only do it 1 round at a time, or two if you want to be fatigued, you do get decent range, 60ft out of it, so that helps with your constantly moving attack pattern.
Dragonfire Strike is nice as you can choose to make your bonus damage fire based. I would rule that it only applies to the total damage, not an extra 1d6 for sudden strike, sneak and skirmish. I would not grant it to your I-F bonus damage as that’s not spelled out in the feat itself.
You mention that level 5 is basically empty space, not taking another class level is probably more detrimental than sticking out the SI for the sole purpose of another use of Ghost Step, especially when shadow jaunt will later allow you to “jump” once per encounter, which is more beneficial than a single 1 round invisibility per day.
As to your thoughts on your 9th and 10th epic feats both requiring you burn off 1d6 of sneak attack damage, I’d rule it the same as sudden strikes text, in that it qualifies as, and stacks with, sneak attack damage/bonus’s for the purpose of all things related to those. So you could simply lose 1d6 from each of those abilities and still use both feats at that time.
Score 3.75

Elegance

OA 62: I-Focus requires the feat Quick Draw in order to be used in the same turn, OR a BAB of +1, which you don’t get until lvl 3, so you can’t use I-F until then.
Air Heritage denotes some ancestry with a being from the Plane of Air, of which you don’t have or explain. It’s a bit cheesy as you’re doubling your flight speed w/ no apparent cost. Especially as this is taken as a retraining of your original racial feat, so you are keeping the original benefit, as well as gaining another once it no longer suits you to continue on.
You do list a few wand options for spells that you can’t cast. Avenger has a specific spell list, it’s not casting AS an assassin, but AS an avenger. So no ranks in UMD means you can’t use the wands for a different class..
Everything else appears legal.
Score 3.5

Use of SI

You take 4 of a possible 6 ranks, but I wonder if 3 ranks wouldn’t have been a better option for this build. You do utilize and maximize most of the SI’s abilities, but not all of the ones available to you. Your build does have a dependency on a few items of equipment (elegance issues aside), and so is a bit more tailor made then free form. That dependency doesn’t get fixed until your first epic feat, and later at your 8th epic feat.
Score 3.5
Total Score 14.75



Batninja

Originality

I would never have built anthro bat as a ninja, not even in my most wildest fever dreams.
Score 5

Power

Anthro Bat is dreadfully slow moving, 5 ft on land, 20 ft in the air. You’ve done nothing to help boost this.
Zen Archery does boost your ranged effectiveness substantially.
Fel Conspiracy can get completely out of hand as there’s really no limit to the bonus, depending on the status of your cabal’s current #’s.
Enduring Ki is somewhat of a wasted feat, your Ki ability lasts one round per use, you have to expend an additional use of your Ki to double the duration of your ki ability.. the only tangible benefit is a single extra use of Ki, but simply taking another stack of Expanded Ki Pool would benefit you more.
You have a few illegal feats, but that will be penalized in the elegance section.
You’re focused almost entirely on ranged combat, which is good since a bat would be quite horrible at melee, however you’re awfully slow moving, and will likely burn through your ki pool quickly in order to compensate.
Plunging Shot would have been beneficial to you as a flying archer as it gives bonus damage for being at least 30 feet in the air. That would seem to conflict w/ using your sudden strike (which like SA has to be w/in 30 feet), but you also take able sniper which requires you to be at least 30 feet away to activate it’s special damage, thus conflicting as well.
Score 3


Elegance

Apprenticeship grants you 2 class skills, and 2 skill points to spend on them. However none of the listed mentors have the skill Autohypnosis. You’re actually 2 skill points shy on your table because of this.
What is the point of even taking Autohypnosis? I get that it has benefits, but you don’t list what exactly you’re using it for specifically in this build.
Mindsight requires you to have Telepathy, of which you don’t. You state that Fel Conspiracy opens you up to it, but what it does is allow you to cast Message at will only to those others that also participated in the ritual.

Message spell text
you can whisper messages and receive replies with little chance of being overheard…When you whisper, the message is audible to all targeted creatures w/in range… NOTE: to speak a message, you must mouth the words and whisper, possibly allowing observers the opportunity to read your lips.

Darkstalker doesn’t affect how well you can hide, just how hard it is for certain things to find you when you are hiding.
Woodland Archer requires a BAB of +6, which you don’t have.
Score 1


Use of SI

Full 6/6 progression, and your feat choices are used to maximize your ranged attack ability as opposed to your melee skills. You choose to ignore several aspects of the ninja class, and instead focus almost solely on Ki use in combination w/ WIS based archery. I feel like you could’ve substituted a large majority of classes in place of Ninja and come to largely the same build.
Score 3

Final Score 12



B3

Originality

Halfling rogue is pretty much a goto staple. Dumping abilities for ACF’s that you won’t miss is good optimization fair, but also expected. Rogue/Monk/Ninja thrower focused is a bit more out there.
Score 3.5

Power

Improved Initiative, Yondalla’s Sense, and +4 from DEX on top of that brings your Initiative check to +12 meaning you’ll almost always go first, however it doesn’t guarantee flat footedness. Surprise rounds still come down to whether or not you’re noticed, not how fast you are in the combat rotation. If you’re rolling initiative, you’re already engaged.
Sparring Dummy of the Master is interesting, nothing like doubling your 5ft step for basically free 
Great at range, not so great close up.
Score 3.5


Elegance

Neraph Throw: You wouldn’t be able to use it while invisible as you have to be visible to your opponent for it to function. And since you’ve taken a lot of steps to be able to be invisible more often, it seems a mish-mash.
You also suffer from Enduring Ki not really adding anything to your build due to only having one Ki ability that lasts 1 round per use anyways.
Cloak of Deception is nice as it gives you 1 round invisibility per encounter, as opposed to a single use per day.
I don’t quite see the point of mimic in a build focused so highly on invisibility. It might be appropriate for a thematic sense, but you aren’t using it in any way to help in combat or otherwise.
You seem to take a lot of skills at level 1 simply because you have points to spend, but not for any reason otherwise. You don’t continue training them as you move forward which leaves you pretty underpowered on anything that isn’t hide/move silent/spot/listen.
Score 3

Use of SI

You excel at throwing weapons as your main attack, but you almost ignore the rest of the SI’s abilities. Probably you are poisoning your weapons, but you do nothing w/ trapfinding, and don’t even get access to great leap, ki dodge, or the skill bonus’s. Your maneuvers pair nicely with the utility that comes from ghost steps up to 8 uses a day.
Score 3
Total Score 13

F.U. (lol)

Originality

Whisper gnome would’ve been my goto for this ingredient. Magic of Incarnum, not so much.
Score 4

Power
Low Blow seems like a particularly nasty feat for SA-like abilities. Sure you provoke an AoO, but you can guarantee a flat footed opponent for every strike. You have lower overall bonus damage, but the ability to apply it more often.
I don’t quite agree that sudden strike damage would apply to your Dissolving Spittle, how do you critically strike w/ what basically comes down to a gob of spit?
The myriad ways of using Essentia acts as force multipliers for your various skills/attacks/etc, helping you get more out of your build’s particulars.
Score 3.75




Elegance

Gnome Incarnate requires an alignment of neutral good, you are neutral evil. This means your 5th and 6th class levels, are illegal. The base Incarnate class, without the racial substitutions is essentially the same, but you do get a penalty for using an illegal option.
You have a crown chakra available to you, but don’t list what you are binding to it, perhaps you’re not even using it?
Everything else appears legal.
Score 3

Use of SI

Bluff is the only skill you come close to maxing out, and you take a few feats to augment its uses within the build.
You only take a single rank in Disable Device, and Open Lock, and only 2 in Search, so your utility with Trapfinding is next to non-existent.
You only take 1 rank in Craft Poisonmaking, so your ability to use the poisons aspect of the SI is limited to what you can buy in all but the most exceptional cases.
Score 3.5
Total Score 14.25

Helter Kari

Originality

Ghost.
Score 5

Power

All of your spiffy Ghost Dominator powers can be stopped w/ a DC 17 Will save. You can do quite a bit to someone or something that fails it (for 10 mins until they get another save), but it’s not a particularly difficult number to reach. (especially for a dragon for example). DC 19 at epic feat 7, and DC 21 at epic 9th.
Live my Nightmare should probably be banned, and then the book it’s put into to be banned should probably be burned. Sickeningly OP, especially at first level.
Ghost has already been awarded, but as far as +0 LA templates go, it’s pretty much the most OP one ever, (I submitted a build w/ the Ghostwalk Ghost for IC, so I Know)
Score 4

Elegance

Naberius has a special requirement: You must have either 4 ranks in Bluff, any knowledge, or a profession. You list craft (shellcraft), which isn’t a profession, and you have none of the other listed skills at all. Which essentially means you’ve given yourself a level w/ no benefit beyond +2 to two saves.
Additionally, Binder requires you to physically draw a seal on the ground every day in order to bind a vestige. As a ghost, you can’t affect the physical world directly. You get past this at level 6 w/ corpse or minor malevolence, but you do lose the binding ability for levels 4&5 as you are now a ghost. A Maniken would allow you to draw on the ground, but you need to find one lying about to use, as you can’t actually craft one yourself (being incorporeal after all)
Snatch Trophy doesn’t work the way you think, it states you first have to reduce your opponent to negative hps, and THEN you can slice or pry something off. So those pesky casters aren’t stopped by this until they’re already toast in the first place.
You have no way of manifesting outside of the Manifest Ward, so you can’t craft manikens for example, or disable devices, (plus, you don’t need to, you can simply bypass them..). This further illustrates the fact that Ninja is irrelevant to this build.
Score 1.5

Use of SI

Ghost Step and Poison use become irrelevant once you become a ghost. The only thing you’re actually using is sudden strike once you kick the bucket. (A ghost can simply ‘step’ into the wall, or a tree, or in your case anyone else..) Unfortunately, this pretty much means your build could’ve been done w/ any other class that grants SA like abilities and still been just as awesome. You do mention that Ghost step can help make the possession’s unnoticeable, but as a ghost, you could simply come up from the ground underneath them, or hide within the ceiling, or their bed at night, or within their mount, or any of a 100 other ways w/o using Ghost Step.
Every single choice you’ve made is to make your ghost stuff better, not your Ninja stuff.
Score 1
Final Score 11.5


Khal Krotu

Originality

Illumian is pretty underused despite the staggering array of options it presents with sigils and power words.
Score 3.5

Power

You’re pretty powerful against an evil opponent, slightly less so against merely a chaotic, neutral, or lawful one.
Elegance issues aside, you have a lot of situational only bonuses, so if you get to pick your opponent and your fight, great, if not, you are a lot less likely to go the distance.
It’s not until epic feat 5 that you even have greater than a +3 to attack. Meaning your decisive strike is at only a +1 to hit, at best!
Lastly, and you do also mention it, you are super uber for ONE fight, and more than likely, ONE enemy, that’s pretty limiting.
Score 2.5


Elegance

I would probably have to hear a pretty good argument how a DROW ACF, listed under Drow Fighter, would apply to an Illumian.
Persistent Attacker requires 5d6 SA. Head Shot requires 6d6 SA. These are not “when you use this ability”, but when you take the feat. Since your base SA total is 4d6, you can’t take either of these feats. Vauluur only grants you bonus SA damage until the start of your next turn, not all day long.
I would further argue that you don’t get to keep all of your SA damage (d8’s) simply because the opponent is evil, and that you get to ignore the d6 subtractions. If you’re modifying part of the feat (based on the wording of another feat that your damage becomes a d8 instead of a d6), you don’t get to only modify the beneficial aspects of it and not the entirety of it. From that point on, anything that relates to d6 SA damage, becomes d8 when in the context of an evil opponent, and therefor is automatically accounted for in that way. Especially when in your own explanation for Head Shot you state

Subtract the d6s from your d8s to have a 50% chance of your opponents killing your opponents for you.
You can only sacrifice a spell slot to gain SA damage a few times a day.
You do offset the horribleness that is Enduring Ki with Extend Supernatural Ability, however I think burning 2 of your epic feats on granting yourself 2 separate 4 round uses of Ghost step is excessive, especially when each of those uses will still cost you 2 uses of your ki pool each. That’s assuming you’re using your 2 uses/day on Ghost step, if not, it’s still just as horrible as previously mentioned (enduring ki).
Score 1

Use of SI

You try to make sudden strike do more and apply to more things by giving yourself more options to use it. However, you do nothing with trapfinding, I feel you can’t poison your fist to use as an attack, and so you lose out on that as well. You have “some” augmentations to make ghost step last longer, but at a pretty steep cost in feats. You take ninja as a chasis and build on it, but it’s extremely situational and wouldn’t fit into every campaign. You do list a minor equipment reliance in INT gear to provide more spell slots, but that would at best get you 1 additional slot to burn.
Score 2.5
Total Score 9.5


Ondrej

Originality

Azurin seems an odd choice, taken for the sole reason of a single bonus essentia point.
Score 3

Power

You use Bluff and Tumble, and mix in Feints to accomplish the majority of your combat prowess, and do it well. You’re using the guile and underhanded side of the ninja to full effect.
Score 3.5

Elegance

While I believe alignment is pretty flexible most of the time, Azurins specifically state they are never neutral.
Your soulmeld choices, other than lamia belt, seem disjointed.
When listing your sources, kindly list what you got from each source, not just a list of books…
Score 3.5

Use of SI

You actually take multiple steps to maximize Great Leap, which as of your turn in the judging, no one else has done.
You do nothing w/ trapfinding.
You do seem to focus more on optimizing the skills you have, not the class abilities you have from Ninja.
Score 3.5
Total Score 13.5

Shadow

Originality

Embrace the Darkness.
Score 4

Power

A single level of Warlock can go a very long way provided you can find a way to optimize a single least invocation.
Actually using EB as a main focus of the build at only 1d6 is ballsy.
Minimum 4d6 EB damage every round, an extra 2d6 5x/day.
Your FORT save is abysmal.
Score 4.25

Elegance

Darkstalker is actually doing something for this build, considering that you are dropping pools of darkness like breadcrumbs on the battlefield. Bravo.
Whisper gnome is overdone, but using it for Darkvision on top of the other things it provides is nice.
You also do something to increase the effectiveness of poison use.
Can you provide a specific source and page for allowing a touch attack to benefit from sneak attack damage? I’m not seeing it. (( I did find it on another forum, but they don’t list the source. No penalty for this notation, just curious if you, or someone else, can clarify please ))
Everything appears legal
Score 5

Use of SI

One of the few, if not the only, to actually take craft poisonmaking beyond a piddling amount.
You only ignore trapfinding and great leap in your build table.
Score 4
Total Score 17.25

Shinda

Originality

A hand (talon) crossbow wielding sparrow ninja of doom.
Yea.
Score 5

Power

Does weapon size damage modifiers also effect bonus damage from sudden strike/SA? Not sure, but you could probably argue that it does.
I would interpret Giralion Arms as granting you simply 2 arms in sparrow form (since you don’t have any arms), meaning you could wield 2 hand xbows, but not 4.
Score 3

Elegance

Hengeyokai are a LA +1 race, which you haven’t accounted for in your build table, thus making your entire build illegal, sadly.
I follow your reasoning on shaping soulmelds and what happens when you change form. I would probably allow you to keep 1 soulmeld active regardless of what your con is in whatever form you are in. Standard WBL would at least allow for something to boost CON in your various forms when it becomes necessary for it to function as you have it built anyways. That does introduce ‘some’ equipment dependency however.
You only list 6 epic feats out of 10. (thus submitting an incomplete entry)
You likewise take a Drow alternate class feature, when you aren’t a drow.
Score 0


Use of SI

You only take 2 levels, but you do use all of the abilities you get for those 2 levels. You aren’t doing anything to increase sudden strike damage, and having left the SI so early could probably also have done this entire build minus a few ghost step uses, with a myriad of other base classes in those 2 levels.
Score 2
Total Score 10
on a personal note, your fluff is hilarity incarnate. Your image is perhaps the most amazingly proper one ever. Ever.


Talon

Originality

Anthro-owl(ish).
Score 3

Power

Elegance issues aside, you take quite awhile getting fully up to speed w/ your attack pattern of flying thru enemies and raking them with your talons or throwing tiny shurikens at them.
You do nothing beyond a bluff check to increase the utility of sudden strike.
You can flyby attack like a madman, but not much else.
Score 3.5

Elegance

I’m not a fan of suddenly gaining massive ranks in a skill you previously have had none in. Going from 0 ranks in Hide, to 7 ranks at level 5, not so Bueno.
Pretty much the only skills that should ever have only a single rank (imo) are tumble and UMD, and that only as a last resort. You have single ranks in Craft (poisonmaking), Disable Device, Open Lock, Search and Sleight of hand. Basically rendering all of those next to useless.
Agile Athlete seems a wasted feat, you can fly, and so therefor don’t really need bonus’s to climb and jump..
You also don’t get those massive skill bonus’s in your racial description. Those apply to an animal, or an animal companion, or a familiar, cohort, etc. As a PC, you most definitely aren’t going to get a free +12 to Listen, +16 to Move Silent, or +8 to spot checks.
You ignore trapfinding
Great Leap is almost useless to you
Anthro-Owl has a LA of +1, for which you don’t account for, making your build illegal.
I applaud you for thinking outside the box, but taking a familiar and trying to make it a PC is destined to fail. It can’t be done w/in the confines of this competition, certainly not as you have it listed in your entry.
Score 0

Use of SI

Full ranks, but essentially working off optimizing flyby attack, and nothing related to Ninja (other then 3 extra uses of ki). You also suffer from the “this could have been done w/ lots of other classes” sickness prevalent in this round.
Score 2
Total Score 8.5

Telian

Originality

Some kind of dragonmarked elf, but what kind?
Score 3

Power

Lots of utility and stacking of Dragonmark abilities, but not a lot of utilizing the Ninja class other then creating more opportunities for using sudden strike.
Action points can be game breaking, especially when you’ll have between 8 and 11 points to use depending on what level you are. Being able to effect the outcome of so many possibilities should come at much greater a cost. Apparently any table running this does so at no cost to the player whatsoever.
Score 3.5

Elegance

It’s easier to follow skill points if you put the total ranks each level as opposed to just a list of what you bought that level.
Heroic Focus is a psionic feat. You don’t possess any psionic ability, so you can’t take this feat.
You don’t list an Ability scores table. In the future, you want to do a 32 pt buy, like this one: https://www.myth-weavers.com/pointbuy.html , then apply racial modifiers, and finally add bonus’s from leveling up. In e6, you’re only going to get 1 point to add after any racial modifiers.
You also want to include an alignment in the future.
Take a look at some of the other entries if you haven’t yet, to see what the general info is you want to include on a build. The more info you give beyond the basics, the easier it is for the judges to determine exactly what you’re trying to do. All things considered, looking at the same blocks of text, we’ll all play it differently.
Score 2

Use of SI

You do something w/ Great Leap, by also using the skill trick Extreme Leap.
You ignore trapfinding
You can’t craft poisons, you can buy them, but you basically do nothing w/ this other than it’s available to you.
Shadow Hunter seems an odd choice for a last level, more of a continuation of the building of your dragonmark, and not one adding to the utility of Ninja.
Score 3
Total Score 11.5

On a personal note: Welcome to the competition! I joined the full IC not very long ago, and now find myself randomly researching and creating builds for ideas I have when there isn’t an active competition going. Thanks for using Eberron material, it is banned in the game I play IRL, so I have no experience with it.

[DEMON]

Thank you for judging, guys. Really appreciated.


Judges Note:

A LOT of people took Enduring Ki as a feat in the mistaken belief that it doubles all your ghost steps to 2 rounds. The text of the feat reads:


The key part of the feat is that you have to spend an extra use of your Ki power (ghost step) to make it last twice as long… Ghost step lasts 1 round. You are spending 2 uses, to make it last 2 rounds. You can do this w/o taking this feat. This feat does nothing for you beyond grant 1 extra use of Ki, when you could instead take Expanded Ki to instead gain 3 extra uses. Enduring Ki is useless on an e6 character.

Every build that took this option was penalized in Elegance.




A comment about the Enduring Ki feat, with regards to the above, since the analysis is not entirely correct.

Besides providing an extra ki use, the feat also frees your next turn's swift action/current turn's immediate action. It is also uncertain, whether you can take Expanded Ki pool multiple times (it doesn't say that you can, nor that you can't), so taking both is a way to get a total of 4 extra uses, on top of the prolonged duration.

As such, I don't believe the feat takers deserve an elegance penalty, if one was indeed applied. You may consider this a sort of "general dispute", not aimed at a single particular build.

[Zaq]

We’ve got some disputes! I’ll weigh in as requested later, though I have a long and busy day ahead of me, so it may be rather a bit later.


Thank you, judges! Very thorough and, most impressively, quickly done.



I assume you meant indigo strike instead of Cobalt strike?


Yes, I meant Indigo Strike. Sorry about that. No other disputes.



Does weapon size damage modifiers also effect bonus damage from sudden strike/SA? Not sure, but you could probably argue that it does.


I've never heard of sneak attack or sudden strike damage changing due to size. The only thing I'm aware of that changes the die type for precision damage is Sacred Strike, which was used by Khal Krotu.



Hengeyokai are a LA +1 race, which you haven’t accounted for in your build table, thus making your entire build illegal, sadly.


The level adjustment for Hengeyokai was removed in the 3.5 update for Oriental Adventures. This update was, unfortunately, published in Dragon Magazine #318. However, my understanding is we are using the standard Iron Chef rules, which allows the 3.5 update material to be used. This is mentioned in the current non-Appetizer Iron Chef rules, but not in the Appetizer edition. I would humbly request the chairperson to weigh in on this issue.



You only list 6 epic feats out of 10. (thus submitting an incomplete entry)


This was an oversight on my part. The Appetizer rules mention ten feats, but I am not aware that this is a hard requirement, rendering an entry "incomplete" if all ten are not explicitly listed. Six seemed sufficient for what I was trying to accomplish.



You likewise take a Drow alternate class feature, when you aren’t a drow.


Although it appears under the heading "Drow Fighter", there is no racial requirement listed for the Hit-and-Run Tactics ACF. In fact, Drow of the Underdark p. 57 says, "Alternative class features have no prerequisites; you simply select them at the proper levels in lieu of selecting the standard class features." There is no other text that explicitly states that these ACFs are unavailable to non-drow. If you need a fluff reason for non-drow to take this ACF: enemies of the drow are likely to study their tactics and use them against drow raiding parties. Also, drow frequently capture slaves and force them to fight in the slave pits, where they would likely pick up similar tactics, either taught to them by drow trainers or by frequently fighting against such tactics in the slave pits.



Your image is perhaps the most amazingly proper one ever. Ever.


It would have been more appropriate if I had managed to fit in dual-classed Ranger/Ranger, but... I didn't have space for that in E6.

[DeTess]

A comment about the Enduring Ki feat, with regards to the above, since the analysis is not entirely correct.

Besides providing an extra ki use, the feat also frees your next turn's swift action/current turn's immediate action. It is also uncertain, whether you can take Expanded Ki pool multiple times (it doesn't say that you can, nor that you can't), so taking both is a way to get a total of 4 extra uses, on top of the prolonged duration.

As such, I don't believe the feat takers deserve an elegance penalty, if one was indeed applied. You may consider this a sort of "general dispute", not aimed at a single particular build.

I'd say it's fine to penalize someone taking this feat if their write-up explicitly mentioned that they thought it would give them a free doubled duration for ghost step. I know that at least one build had this.

Edit: personally, I didn't penalize Elegance for this, but I used the actual amount of ghost-step uses when deciding the power score.

[Zaq]

More disputes!



No race given, no attribute stats given. That second problem in particular makes judging the build more difficult. I’m penalizing you for that in this category

You don’t list an Ability scores table. In the future, you want to do a 32 pt buy, like this one: https://www.myth-weavers.com/pointbuy.html , then apply racial modifiers, and finally add bonus’s from leveling up. In e6, you’re only going to get 1 point to add after any racial modifiers.
You also want to include an alignment in the future.
Take a look at some of the other entries if you haven’t yet, to see what the general info is you want to include on a build. The more info you give beyond the basics, the easier it is for the judges to determine exactly what you’re trying to do. All things considered, looking at the same blocks of text, we’ll all play it differently.

Some kind of dragonmarked elf, but what kind?
I did indeed forget to mention race and stats:
Wood Elf: +2 str +2 dex, -2 con, -2 int
Str: 16
Dex: 16
Con: 12
Int: 12
Wis: 14
Cha: 8
Level ups into str
(wood elf comes from MM1)
I do not ask you to change the score or regrade it based on my input here as these were all my mistake; however to answer your questions I did indeed use that link when I built Tellian and the alignment is Chaotic Neutral. I should have included all of this earlier.

I’ve got no way to determine whether you qualify for the ‘Heroic focus’ feat, as that requires you to have some sort of psionic heritage. You don’t get it from your classes or feats, and you didn’t mention your race. I also don’t see how heroic focus benefits the build

Heroic Focus is a psionic feat. You don’t possess any psionic ability, so you can’t take this feat.
I do not have the psionic subtype, and indeed didn't realize this feat was categorized as a psionic one. I only took the feat to gain an additional action point/level which I could spend on additional uses for the dragonmark

Action points can be game breaking, especially when you’ll have between 8 and 11 points to use depending on what level you are. Being able to effect the outcome of so many possibilities should come at much greater a cost. Apparently any table running this does so at no cost to the player whatsoever. While I agree that action points as a whole are rather potent, being able to utilize them in as many ways and having as many as I do did come at a great feat tax, which I would not be comfortable doing in a non E6 game.

It’s easier to follow skill points if you put the total ranks each level as opposed to just a list of what you bought that level.
Noted and will implement in the future, I apologize for the inconvenience

You can’t craft poisons, you can buy them, but you basically do nothing w/ this other than it’s available to you. Another mistake on my end, in the flavor (and name) I pointed out that he is of House Thuranni, however I did not mention what his ties to this house give to him other than training. It gives him access to resources per mission, and if I were to do the whole thing again I would put Favored in House (Eberron Campaign Setting page 53) instead of the aforementioned Heroic Focus, to show that I am using resources that this character would not usually have access to. Like poisons. That however is all flavor and in another Dungeon Master's eyes is completely worthless.


On a personal note: Welcome to the competition! I joined the full IC not very long ago, and now find myself randomly researching and creating builds for ideas I have when there isn’t an active competition going. Thanks for using Eberron material, it is banned in the game I play IRL, so I have no experience with it.
Thank you so much, it has been a pleasure thus far; and I am quite shocked on a ban on Eberron. I wont go into it here, but I must say that my local DMs all believe that Eberron is superior to the other published settings where DND is concerned, although from a storytelling point of view it is agreed that the Forgotten Realms is truly rich indeed.


To Randuir:

Thanks for the judging. I do have one little nitpick I would like to address.


Use of SI

5 levels in the SI, but you don’t seem to make particular use of its abilities apart from Sudden strike. This built seems more like whisper gnome warlock raised by drow, and any form of sneak-attacker could have worked as well as ninja here.

3/5

The only abilities I don't really use are Trapfinding and Great leap. I invested massively in craft (poisons) and get my uses from Ghost step. Sure, Shadow can hide or get invisible in other ways, but he does still use Ghost step when necessary.

As for the feat at level 5, I blame Pathfinder. I kept telling myself I was building for 3.5 and not Pathfinder, but it seems I've missed that one. So we can just shift it to level 6 without changing much.

To Jdizzlean:
Wow. I did not expect that score.

As for the touch attack / sneak attack thingy, I honestly just thought I could; it didn't even cross my mind that sneak attack and eldritch blast could not be working. I dug up a bit and I think the answer lies in the Weaponlike spells of Complete arcane (p. 71):
Any spell that requires an attack roll and deals damage functions as a weapon in certain respects. As such, several feats that improve weapon performance can be used to enhance weaponlike spells.
Since EB is an SLA that works as a Weaponlike spell, I see no problem for it to be a vessel for sneak attacks.

[DeTess]

The only abilities I don't really use are Trapfinding and Great leap. I invested massively in craft (poisons) and get my uses from Ghost step. Sure, Shadow can hide or get invisible in other ways, but he does still use Ghost step when necessary.

As for the feat at level 5, I blame Pathfinder. I kept telling myself I was building for 3.5 and not Pathfinder, but it seems I've missed that one. So we can just shift it to level 6 without changing much.


I'll be honest, I'd read over the emphasis on poison, but on a third re-read it is indeed there. It would have been helpful if you'd provided a couple of examples of the impact your poison-use would have on your performance, but that's a quality-of-life thing for me, and not something I would reduce your score for. I'm changing that to a 4/5 for Use of SI. I didn't reduce your elegance score for the level 5 feat as I figured it was just a mistake in making the table, so that score remains the same. The new total score for Shadow will be 14/20.




Yes, I meant Indigo Strike. Sorry about that. No other disputes.


Alright. I figured it was that feat, and that little mix-up didn't impact your score, so no change there.

[Zaq]

I’m still not home yet. There’s enough more disputes in my inbox that I don’t want to post them from my phone. I’ll try to post them when I get home, but to be perfectly honest with everyone, it might be tomorrow.

Doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t send disputes if you’ve got ‘em, of course. Just trying to be transparent and set some expectations. Sorry folks.

[Zaq]

Right, sorry about the delay. Here's some quibbles from Ondrej:




Elegance
Miscalculated skill points at second level. Incarnate only gets 2+int per level, but with the two cross-class skills you’ve taken, you’ve spent five (taking non-class skills always cost two skill-points, even if they are a class-skills of a different class you have, and count as class-skills for the maximum amount of ranks).
2.5/5
Well, I'll be damned. I knew that they were cross-class, but for some reason I read Incarnate as 4+int. Would've probably dropped the rank in Hide rather than Bluff as I have more stat support on that end. Good catch. No disputes, just wanted to thank you for judging and for pointing that out.



Originality
Azurin seems an odd choice, taken for the sole reason of a single bonus essentia point.
Score 3
I'll admit I bounced around a bit before landing there, but in the end it was both the essentia point which enhances all my Dex-denying tricks (hard to come by many in an E6 build without adding feats otherwise useless to the build) and also the bonus feat, which brings Improved Feint online at level 1. However, as you pointed out this choice does end up hurting me in Elegance.


Elegance
While I believe alignment is pretty flexible most of the time, Azurins specifically state they are never neutral.
Your soulmeld choices, other than lamia belt, seem disjointed.
When listing your sources, kindly list what you got from each source, not just a list of books…
Score 3.5
On alignment: that is a good catch. Though it may require you to double-ding me in Elegance, I feel compelled to point out that I've never noticed that about Azurin before because the same phrase 'extreme alignment' is used both for Azurin alignments and Incarnate alignments, and I assumed that it just meant Azurin couldn't be True Neutral. I picked my alignment to stick with Incarnate requirements accordingly, but apparently Azurin can't actually be that class due to conflicting alignment requirements?

With regard to the soulmeld choices, I'm guess I'm not entirely sure what you mean - all four revolve around enabling touch-attack Sudden Strike in either melee via Feint (Lamia Belt, Lightning Gauntlets) or ranged via Distraction, cover, and Hide (belt, spittle, robe for cover if none is available.) Is it a theme issue?

Thank you for the sourcing advice. I'll remember that for the future.

And some from Belle Bubbles Bloom:



First and foremost, a well deserved thank you to our judges!


You can’t take the mimic alternate class feature as your CHA isn’t at least 12, which is a requirement. I also don’t understand where Mobility is coming from on your third level. The Halfling substitution level gives weapon finesse at that level, while the normal monk allows you to pick between combat reflexes and deflect arrows.

Gahh. Mistakes/oversights on my part on both occasions. Good catches. Luckily, none of these are essential for the build in any major way.


Improved Initiative, Yondalla’s Sense, and +4 from DEX on top of that brings your Initiative check to +12 meaning you’ll almost always go first, however it doesn’t guarantee flat footedness. Surprise rounds still come down to whether or not you’re noticed, not how fast you are in the combat rotation. If you’re rolling initiative, you’re already engaged.
True. But the initiative boost is useful in encounters, when the surprise round is in my favor and when there's no surprise round at all. With maxed stealth and perception skills, these cases should happen more often than not.



Neraph Throw: You wouldn’t be able to use it while invisible as you have to be visible to your opponent for it to function. And since you’ve taken a lot of steps to be able to be invisible more often, it seems a mish-mash.

Neraph Throw, as well as Stunning Fist are backup options for when you can't use your invisibility tricks (e.g. your opponent can see invisible characters, or you're out of the options to use your invisibility, as unlikely as it may be), but your opponents are still vulnerable to precision damage.



You also suffer from Enduring Ki not really adding anything to your build due to only having one Ki ability that lasts 1 round per use anyways.

The feat was not taken in error. It grants an extra ki use and frees your swift action on the second turn. Both of these are reasonable and useful benefits, methinks.


I don’t quite see the point of mimic in a build focused so highly on invisibility. It might be appropriate for a thematic sense, but you aren’t using it in any way to help in combat or otherwise.

Mimic was only taken as a replacement for Trapfinding that is also gained from Ninja. Another option was Antiquarian, but that seemed mush less fitting to the overall theme. However, given it's actually illegal to take Mimic due to my low Charisma, let's just ignore it. Alternatively, you may want to give a more severe penalty to elegance for this mistake.



You seem to take a lot of skills at level 1 simply because you have points to spend, but not for any reason otherwise. You don’t continue training them as you move forward which leaves you pretty underpowered on anything that isn’t hide/move silent/spot/listen.

Firstly, you have to take a lot of skills at first level with a character like this (36 skill points, max 4 ranks per skill). Most importantly, though, there are both fluff and crunch reasons behind the skill choices: Disable Device, Open Lock and Sleight of Hand both reflect the character's background and open trained-only-skills for use (with the related ability scores, these skills are actually usable even with the somewhat low number of ranks invested in them. The build also has max ranks in Search skill and 4 trained Knowledges (Arcana, Local, Religion and Planes). Knowledge: The Planes is also required for the Neraph Throw feat. And while investing (cross-class) ranks in some other Knowledges would benefit Knowledge Devotion, I decided not to do it, as I felt those skills did not fit the theme of this character.


Probably you are poisoning your weapons, but you do nothing w/ trapfinding

As mentioned above, the build has max ranks in Search (an a +1 Intelligence bonus) and as such is also perfectly viable as a trapfinder. Open lock and knowledges are other viable out of combat options. Poison use was indeed alleged to in the background section of the build, but I've not invested any additional resources into this feature, so it's purely a money-based endeavor.

Also, Aeilash sends their regards:



Judges: No Disputes. Thanks so much for your work!


As a gentle reminder, folks, please please please include your build's name in the subject line of your PMs to me, both when sending the initial build and when following up with disputes and so on. I genuinely do not have more than maybe two or three builds matched to chefs in my head without looking at the table I made for myself, which I don't always have up (such as when I'm trying to post disputes during the day on my phone).

This round isn't over, but I'm still thinking about the next one. How weird of an ingredient are you folks up for? I've got some that are probably pretty challenging but aren't especially weird (one or more that have decent abilities but zero staying power, one or more that are thematic as hell but that don't serve their own purposes well, one or more where the main challenge is deciding how many levels to actually take, one or more where the main challenge will be trying to break free from the obvious well-known tricks and forge a new path . . .), and I also have some weird ones in mind. I know I'm being vague, but how weird are we feeling?

I'm still chewing on the problem of the Dragon Magazine update to Oriental Adventures. Part of the problem is that I do not actually have a copy of said issue of Dragon, and it will likely take me a little while to find it legally (unless someone knows a place where one can legally purchase a PDF copy of such a thing? Do Paizo or DriveThruRPG or anyone similar offer individual old Dragon issues for sale?). My gut reaction for the immediate situation is that the rules laid out in my OP did say, quote, "if there's something major and relevant I haven't mentioned, assume that the way I handle it will probably be the same as the main contest unless stated otherwise or unless doing so would be an obviously absurd result." Shinda is pretty well justified to rely on that, though perhaps it would have saved those of us involved some effort to have asked beforehand. I kinda wish I'd thought of it, but it actually didn't even occur to me until it became an issue.

I may revisit this later, but for the short term, I'm going to make a Chair ruling that because of my blanket "assume it's the same as the main contest" clause, Shinda's race is not illegal for this round. The Chair respectfully requests that any judges who based their judgment on the issue at hand revisit the relevant scores. For now, this applies to this round ONLY, and I have not made a final determination as to how we will handle OA's update in future rounds. As for the future, I'm honestly not sure, and my choice will likely depend on me hunting down a legal copy of the relevant Dragon issue so I can see for myself just how big a deal it is and how much it changes things.

I'm out of time to talk more right this minute, but discussion in the thread (or via PM) is always welcome.

[DeTess]

This round isn't over, but I'm still thinking about the next one. How weird of an ingredient are you folks up for? I've got some that are probably pretty challenging but aren't especially weird (one or more that have decent abilities but zero staying power, one or more that are thematic as hell but that don't serve their own purposes well, one or more where the main challenge is deciding how many levels to actually take, one or more where the main challenge will be trying to break free from the obvious well-known tricks and forge a new path . . .), and I also have some weird ones in mind. I know I'm being vague, but how weird are we feeling?


Weird is fine with me, as long as it's at least somewhat flexible.



I'm still chewing on the problem of the Dragon Magazine update to Oriental Adventures. Part of the problem is that I do not actually have a copy of said issue of Dragon, and it will likely take me a little while to find it legally (unless someone knows a place where one can legally purchase a PDF copy of such a thing? Do Paizo or DriveThruRPG or anyone similar offer individual old Dragon issues for sale?). My gut reaction for the immediate situation is that the rules laid out in my OP did say, quote, "if there's something major and relevant I haven't mentioned, assume that the way I handle it will probably be the same as the main contest unless stated otherwise or unless doing so would be an obviously absurd result." Shinda is pretty well justified to rely on that, though perhaps it would have saved those of us involved some effort to have asked beforehand. I kinda wish I'd thought of it, but it actually didn't even occur to me until it became an issue.


As a matter of fact, Paizo does sell PDF's of dragon magazines: http://paizo.com/products/btpy7tqt?Dragon-Issue-318

[Lapak]

The last couple of rounds have been classes with a defined role but issues fulfilling it kind of like what you describe, so I’d say now is a good time for an oddball class. Count me as a Weird vote.

[Falontani]

I like being weird

[daremetoidareyo]

weird is fun.

[RaiKirah]

I am 100% on board with weird!

[PrismCat21]

Since weird is gaining support, would not-weird be the new weird?

[DEMON]

Since weird is gaining support, would not-weird be the new weird?

I'm gonna vote for non-weird, too. Mostly because I don't want this option to be sad, because it lost to the other one big time... wait, is it weird for me to say that?

In all fairness, I think every base class deserves it's 5 minutes of fame in E6... and some PrCs on top of that.

Personally, I'd like to see Scout and Fighter as SIs in the near future, btw.

[DeTess]

Personally, I'd like to see Scout and Fighter as SIs in the near future, btw.

I'd love to see scout, as I already have two separate ideas for things that can be done with it. Fighter seems a bit overkill for e6 though. It's basically a solid hit-die with good BaB and more feats, but e6 already gives you more feat than you can shake a stick at. Maybe that just shows my lack of imagination(and lack of encyclopedic knowledge of all the fighter ACF's) though.

[DEMON]

Fighter seems a bit overkill for e6 though. I'ts basically a solid hit-die with good BaB and more feats, but e6 already gives you more feat than you can shake a stick at.

I see this argument made a lot, but there are at least 3 major paths one could take with Fighters - 2 solid and significantly different ACFs and a feat-heavy approach that can actually benefit from the extra feats. Then there is, of course, multiclassing that opens a top of other options.


Maybe that just shows my lack of imagination(and lack of encyclopedic knowledge of all the fighter ACF's) though.

I think that is actually the reason why Fighter might be a great SI. Balancing between taking its best ACFs and trying to avoid originality penalties would be the main challenge, in my book.

[Long_shanks]

I'm up for pretty much anything. I would only like to have an ingredient that don't present the same challenges as the last one (and is maybe a tiny bit better). Goddam ninja still haunts my dreams.

[Zaq]

Fighter's on the list, but it's not on the short list for the next round just yet.

I'd actually thought that Scout was too good, but I admit to having a bit more love for the class than is entirely rational. Especially in an environment where not getting a full attack isn't that big of a deal (considering that relatively few non-full-BAB classes can do it at all in a meaningful fashion) but getting a few extra d6s is pretty sweet and noticeable. I might throw it in somewhere down the line just to watch everyone Vizzini themselves like crazy. Either way, I probably shouldn't do two CAdv classes in a row.

I have a few ideas that I'm fairly certain folks aren't expecting. I mean, yes, there's a finite number of base classes, but I have a trick or two up my sleeve.

[WhamBamSam]

Let's get weird.

My first thought for weird is Mountebank, which I think might actually not be terrible in E6, but that'd be two roguish classes in a row. So I'm not sure what weird is, but I'm curious to find out. Maybe Shadowcaster, one of the Aura classes, or some version of Samurai?

[Long_shanks]

Unearthed arcana racial paragon classes? That would qualify as a trick up Zaq's sleeve.

[PrismCat21]

Dragon Shaman would be interesting.
D:10 HD, 2 good saves, variety of auras, and different breath weapons and skills depending on dragon

[Zaq]

We've got some more disputes coming in!


Randuir
Thank you for judging :)
I have no complaints with anything you said. It was short and sweet.

Elegance

Took mobility before taking dodge. No other real complaints or praise here
Whoops, I did not realize I typed it up that way. On paper it's different. Oh well :smalltongue:


jdizzlean
Thank you for judging :)
I have a few issues.


Originality
Anthro-owl(ish).
Score 3
Anthro-screech owl. Not owl. They are two different animals with different stats, even different sizes.
It would be similar to the differences between a brown bear and a black bear,
a mule and a donkey, a baboon and an ape.


Power
Elegance issues aside, you take quite awhile getting fully up to speed w/ your attack pattern of flying thru enemies and raking them with your talons or throwing tiny shurikens at them.
You do nothing beyond a bluff check to increase the utility of sudden strike.
You can flyby attack like a madman, but not much else.
Score 3.5
Sudden strike is pretty essential for him dealing damage, but Talon can do a bit more than that. Bluff is very useful with him, especially when combined with his other feats and skill tricks.
Skill Trick Group Fake-out lets Talon use Bluff to feint against multiple opponents once per encounter.
Shroud of Feathers from Winged Warrior allows him to feint as part of an attack, once per foe per combat.
Talon will often use Bluff to distract opponents so he can hide. Which with Chameleon is a bonus of +21. He's a sneaky character. He likes to be mobile and not backed into a corner. He'll use his abilities to try and make sure of that.
He prefers to attack while flying, it's what he's best at. But he can hold his own well enough while not flying. Half his class features and many feats are for just that.
I'll explain more in Use of SI


Elegance
I’m not a fan of suddenly gaining massive ranks in a skill you previously have had none in. Going from 0 ranks in Hide, to 7 ranks at level 5, not so Bueno.
Pretty much the only skills that should ever have only a single rank (imo) are tumble and UMD, and that only as a last resort. You have single ranks in Craft (poisonmaking), Disable Device, Open Lock, Search and Sleight of hand. Basically rendering all of those next to useless.
Talon relied on being mobile, unheard, and his +10 Hide bonus from his Chameleon power at the early levels to stay unnoticed. As he faces tougher opponents, that gets harder. He focused on improving upon his natural abilities. That's where the points from and why they're there.
Why is it acceptable to have 1 rank in Tumble and UMD, but not the others?
The 1 rank is there to make sure Talon can at least make the attempt. He won't have the best shot at exceeding, but he can try. Others have more limited options for those skills, if they can use them at all.
I didn't build him to be a thief. He's an observer, he watches, he spy's. Just like a ninja.


Agile Athlete seems a wasted feat, you can fly, and so therefor don’t really need bonus’s to climb and jump..
He 'can' fly, and he 'prefers' to fly. He will not always be flying. Being unable to perform or defend yourself when you're not flying would be foolish to the extreme. You'd just be asking for someone/thing to kill you. If you can't fly, you're useless.
Half his class feature and a few feats and skill trick are most useful for him when Talon is not, or cannot, fly. He does not even have prefect maneuverability, meaning in tighter spaces or places with many obstacles, he'll need to land somewhere, and may not be able to fly again immediately.
Air Heritage, Flying Leap, Agile Athlete, Great Leap, and Acrobatics all make sure he still has places to go, can get out of reach, and gives him a place and ability to start flying again if he chooses. Wall Jumper lets him jump from a wall, while climbing, as if he had a running start.(Something Great Leap may not allow) Climb will let him land on a wall or somewhere high and ensures he won't mistakenly fall.
It's all about mobility and options to keep him from getting trapped and being able to escape.
Again, you can't always be flying. Other options are needed to stay competent, let alone to just survive.


You also don’t get those massive skill bonus’s in your racial description. Those apply to an animal, or an animal companion, or a familiar, cohort, etc. As a PC, you most definitely aren’t going to get a free +12 to Listen, +16 to Move Silent, or +8 to spot checks.
If you look in Savage Species under Anthropomorphic Animals, you'll see otherwise.
"Creating an Anthropomorphic Animal: Skills: Same as the base creature (see Table A–58), except that Small anthropomorphic animals with class levels use the skill points granted by their class." - Nothing about excluding racial modifiers.
Now, take a look at the sample anthropomorphic donkey, the Onager.
"Skills: An onager gains a +2 racial bonus on Balance checks."
Animal Donkey: Skills: Donkeys have a +2 racial bonus on Balance checks.
The RAW seems pretty clear. Anthropomorphic Animals keep their racial skill bonuses.


You ignore trapfinding
It is not ignored. It's simply not 'a' focus of the build
You said Search was "next to useless" for Talon. I that was so, why would he care about it?
Talon is far from great at trapfinding, but he can do it. While flying, he would ignore many types of traps anyway. With a party, he can even be buffed to be better at it.


Great Leap is almost useless to you
I've already covered why that is far, far from the truth. Being able to jump from stationary positions, helps ensure that he stays alive.


Anthro-Owl has a LA of +1, for which you don’t account for, making your build illegal.
Yes, an Anthropomorphic Owl does have an LA of +1. That is irrelevant.
Talon is an Anthropomorphic Screech Owl. A completely different animal with different stats, and even a different size.
Screech Owl does not appear on the Savage Species table, so does not have a listed LA. Since the table doesn't give us the information for it, we use the template provided to figure out what its stats are. Since the table does not give it an LA, you have to compare it to other creatures similar to it that do appear on the table. Owl, is not a similar enough animal.
The closest we get to is Bat, another flying animal of diminutive size. The only other diminutive animal appearing on the table i believe, is Toad, which is not similar enough to apply.
When comparing them, the Screech Owl doesn't have too much going for it. The Bat flies faster, has better maneuverability, and possesses Blindsense. It also has skill bonuses, just not as big as the Screech Owl. It's LA as an Anpthropomophic Animal is +0. It's a better choice in many ways for a PC than a Screech Owl. So I decided the LA should be equal to it, as the only available comparable animal.


I applaud you for thinking outside the box, but taking a familiar and trying to make it a PC is destined to fail. It can’t be done w/in the confines of this competition, certainly not as you have it listed in your entry.
Score 0
Thank you, but I don't see how's it's 'destined to fail'.
I met the requirements of the competition. The template was applied correctly. The race is legal.



Full ranks, but essentially working off optimizing flyby attack, and nothing related to Ninja (other then 3 extra uses of ki). You also suffer from the “this could have been done w/ lots of other classes” sickness prevalent in this round.
Score 2
Total Score 8.5
Nothing related to Ninja? Talon makes great use out of everything but poison use and trapfinding, which, though not great at, he's still able to make use use of them. His feats and class features all work together and work better off each other.
Flyby attack is what he's best at and what is easiest for him, most of the class features help him do it better. Do you say the same thing about those whose attacks revolve around two-weapon fighting or range combat? 'Essentially working off optimizing those?'
Flyby attack is hardly all he does. He is a scout. He observes unseen. His purpose is to stay mobile and gather information, which with his Hide, Listen, Move Silently, and Spot modifiers, he is excellent at? He is 'decent' at combat. DnD is about more than combat.

Ghost Step lets him Talon turn invisible, avoid opponents, Hide, escape, and apply Sudden Strike. Ghost step with Flyby Attack means that he can turn invisible, fly in, attack, fly away somewhere out of sight. He has 11 Ki Points/day. Since this contest expects about 4 encounters per day roughly 3-5 rounds long, he can do this for most of the encounter, for most encounters per day, if he chose.

AC bonus works with the high Wis score to improve his AC

Sudden Strike is usable with his natural weapons and the weapons he wields. His flight, enhanced speed, attack options, and abilities to go unnoticed all help to apply the extra damage to his targets.

Trapfinding is not much use to him. As a solo PC he doesn't much care about traps as he can bypass many of them. As part of a group, it is tougher, but there are enough different ways to help him with traps that it wouldn't be much of an issue.

Poison Use he can get decent use out of. He has 1 rank in Craft(Poison-making), letting him even attempt to make his own poison to begin with. Ability modifier of +
2. Masterwork tools give a bonus of +2. Total modifier without any other assistance is +5. The simple poisons require a DC:15 to create, meaning that half the time he will be successful in making his own poisons. With Poison Use, he can apply them safely. Usually to his Talons or shuriken where he can have a variety of poisons and choose between them for specific situations.
I always saw Poison Use as more of a passive ability than active. The rank in Poison-making I believe would show that it was considered and being made use of.

Great Leap allows Talon to more easily escape and/or maneuver around the area.When he isn't flying, or not able to fly around, jumping and crawling up/down things is his best use of movement. Jumping will even let him take flight again in many situations. The multiple feats and skill trick to improve jumping should have made this clear.

Acrobatics improve the already respectable Climb, Jump, and Tumble skills. I believe I've already said enough about how Talon uses Climb and Jump, and why it's not useless for him to put points into just because he can fly. Tumble should be self-explanatory as you've stated your opinion about it.

Ki Dodge is almost as important to him as it would be for others, it simply just wouldn't come into play as often. Talon doesn't want to stay in melee too often. His strategy is to stay mobile and if he can, hidden. When knocked out of the sky, or when surrounded by multiple opponents he can't easily get away from, that 20% miss chance is very important to him. His best use of it, is usually to help him get away.

Skills he does what he can with. There are never enough skill points to do everything you want. Talon has most of his allocated to want is most important. The rest is so he'll be proficient enough to at least make attempts.


You also suffer from the “this could have been done w/ lots of other classes” sickness prevalent in this round.
Much of what he can do would work with other classes. That's true with most builds.
Those 'other classes' don't matter. This is about what can be done with the Ninja class. Every ability is useful to Talon. Some are fantastic for him. Trapfinding is more of an add-on since he doesn't care about most traps, but it's still useful.

This was a little longer than I intended. I'm sorry if it came off as a bit combative.

Is anyone else judging? I'm hoping we can get the answers to all our disputes taken care of within the next few days (I know you said you're on vacation, jdizzlean, but you also said that you'd be able to get to the disputes in a reasonable time frame), which would mean I could actually start the next round this week (two weeks to cook, two weeks to judge, and we're somehow actually on time!).

I procured a copy of Dragon 318 (thanks for the Paizo link, Randuir!). The changes are mostly pretty minor (lots of pointless changes to pointless feats that no one takes because they're pointless, for example), and the only new rules that are likely to have a major effect on this specific contest are the racial ones (which, of course, was the source of the issue in the first place). I'm leaning towards allowing the errata in future rounds unless someone can give me a convincing reason why that would be inappropriate, but I'm willing to listen to counterarguments.

[Zombulian]

Dragon Shaman would be interesting.
D:10 HD, 2 good saves, variety of auras, and different breath weapons and skills depending on dragon

I second Dragon Shaman as SI, if not for next round, for one in the near future. OOH. Or Divine Mind.

[Zaq]

They just keep coming! (Which isn't a bad thing in any way, of course.)


Randuir

I don't have too much to say

To take the gnome substitution levels, you have to be NG, while you are NE. As you are required to be evil for the Necrocarnum touch soulmeld you listed this isn’t just a case of refluffing something without mechanical effects.

You also take a dodge equivalent after taking mobility and spring attack, both of which have dodge as a prerequisite.
Yeah... I totally didn't see the alignment restriction on Gnome Incarnate. I mainly took it to add some flavor and didn't check it for that. Whoops.

For the feats, I believe I was typing them in from the sourcebook they were from first, and then forgot to arrange them in order. Well dangit. :D
Thank you for judging :) No complaints.

jdizzlean

I thought you were laughing at his name at first, and was happy you enjoyed it. Then I realized it was probably the abbreviation. :D lol

I don’t quite agree that sudden strike damage would apply to your Dissolving Spittle, how do you critically strike w/ what basically comes down to a gob of spit?
Because it requires a ranged attack roll and deals damage. It is weaponlike enough for sneak attack (and thus Sudden Strike to apply to it.
With soulmeld-magic transparency there's even less that could be argued against it.
It also critically hits on an attack roll of 20 :elan:


Gnome Incarnate requires an alignment of neutral good, you are neutral evil. This means your 5th and 6th class levels, are illegal. The base Incarnate class, without the racial substitutions is essentially the same, but you do get a penalty for using an illegal option.
You have a crown chakra available to you, but don’t list what you are binding to it, perhaps you’re not even using it?
I totally missed the alignment restriction. I chose the racial substitution level more for flavor than anything else. That's what I get for not looking closer. :/

The Crown chakra would be bound mainly to whatever magical item Fluster wore on his head. Since magic gear is usually not listed, I forgot to make a separate section explaining binding items to the chakra to gain insight bonuses.
When needed, he'd still bind a crown soulmeld to his crown chakra, but he typically wouldn't have one shaped.


Bluff is the only skill you come close to maxing out, and you take a few feats to augment its uses within the build. ...
... You only take 1 rank in Craft Poisonmaking, so your ability to use the poisons aspect of the SI is limited to what you can buy in all but the most exceptional cases.
Hide, Move Silently, and Tumble all have 7 ranks out of a possible 9, just 2 ranks shy of max. Bluff is just 1 away. I judged the skill tricks to be more useful than slightly increasing the already high skills. Especially since those skills were now cross-class.
Do you not consider a +15 base modifier for Hide and Move Silently high enough? Would +17 make that much more of a difference over the Skill Tricks taken?
Fluster Undsack is natural good at those, he doesn't need to work as hard or need to be the best ever.

With the use of basic Masterwork Tools, he has a bonus of +5 to craft his own poisons. Simple poisons have a DC of 15 to create. He'd be successful roughly half the time.
Gnomes are one of the longer lived races, he has plenty of time to craft, and will just get better as he grows older. :D

Thank you for judging :) Despite the many disagreements of we lowly contestants. :roach:

Since Flustern's name is under discussion, does anyone else reflexively insert names with meter like Flustern's (I think that's trochaic dimeter, but I might be totally wrong about that) into the SpongeBob theme song, or is it just me? I mean, I'm sure you're all doing it in your head right now, but in general.

[jdizzlean]

Shinda:

On weapon size affecting SA damage, this was more of an observation on my part. It seems drastically OP for a tiny size weapon that does 1 hp of damage to be able to miraculously do multiple d6's of extra damage just because. while it's also likely drastically underpowered for say a cloud giant who takes one level of rogue to do 1d6 extra on it's attacks. this is probably a discussion that's never been had. I would probably adjust accordingly on both accounts. you weren't dinged for it in your scoring.

on the chairs ruling, i'm eliminating the massive elegance penalty for a LA+1 race for this round.
on the drow ACF: the wording directly under drow fighter lists this text:



Drow fighters strike fast and melt away before their opponents have a chance to mount a counterattack. Rather than using
heavy armor or picking feats that emphasize direct assaults, drow fighters employ techniques that exploit their natural
advantages. In exchange for a fighter’s access to heavy armor, a drow fighter gains strong first-strike capability.

And then it lists the variants. That leads me to believe that a DROW is intended to use these racial substituion levels, and no one else. Score unchanged.

On only 6 of 10 epic feats listed: You may've been able to accomplish what you wanted in only 6 feats, but the entry requirements specifically state your first 10 epic feats. If you didn't want to use 4 more feats, you could've just done things like iron will, lightning reflexes, etc and explained that they were just filler as you'd completed what you wanted in only 6 feats, which probably would've gotten an elegance bonus instead, Score unchanged.

New score in elegance: 3
new total score 13


Tellian:

on action points: Simply being able to affect 11 dice rolls if you wanted to because you don't like the outcome of what you rolled is silly to me. While you may be using those action points to abuse your dragonmark uses, it's still just a wash in scoring. You might get a bump in power, and a reduction in elegance for the same thing in my book.

Shadow:

on the sneak attack/ranged touch. The answer I saw given on some other forum stated something to the effect of basically what you have quoted, with the exception that it didn't state feats could augment the damage. If i were to take your quote as evidence, I'd still ding you on it as it specifically states feats, of which you aren't using to gain SA'ish damage. You weren't dinged for it in the original score.

Ondrej:

On double dinging Azurin: not going to do that this round.
On soulmeld choices: they just seemed a bit disjointed to me as choices since they didn't all help w/ the same line of attack. Sure you have options, but each is weaker then if one was just the focus. score unchanged

B3:

on init/yond/Dex: initiative doesn't grant surprise rounds, that's purely a function of your skill points/roleplay. having a massive initiative bonus is nice, but it wouldn't matter if your init bonus was +1 instead in this instance, as you'd have the same outcome to apply SA. No score change

Neraph: I get your reasoning for it just being another option. Any gain you would've gotten from this is erased in my oversight that you can't take mimic in the first place. No score change

Enduring Ki: Burning a feat for the sole reason of freeing a swift action and gaining 1 additional ki use just makes no sense to me. From a power and optimization standpoint, that feat could've been so many other more beneficial things. there aren't that many swift actions you'll take each round anyways, at least none that you've spelled out in your OP as to why you'd want to take this. No score change

skill points: one of my biggest contentions is not building a character the entire way. yes you get lots of skill points at first level, everyone does, but you focus almost entirely on increasing your knowledge skills, so you can abuse knowledge devotion and neraph throw as you move along. neither is a class feature of ninja, and therefor is not optimizing ninja. having low ranks in a skill despite ability modifiers is still less good then having higher ranks in them. No score change

Trapfinding: I stand corrected on that, you can find them, I'm not so sure you can do anything about it after that tho. Score +.25 New Score 3.25

New Total Score: 13.25

Talon:

screech owl: noted, no change in score

All of those power issues: There is some merit for an increase, I still maintain it would be better to focus entirely on either ranged, or melee, but not split between the two. Score +.25 New Score 3.75

on single rank skills: yes it's better to have "some" ability than no ability. But if you're only going to invest a single rank into it in a build like e6, why bother at all? I'm not saying tumble and umd are acceptable at only 1 rank, just that those are typically the only ones where if i could only put 1 rank in them, that i'd be ok'ish with it. No Score change

Agile Athlete: I still think it's useless to you. If you can't fly, you probably can't climb either more often then not. I actually thought Wall Jumper was an exceptional choice for you. No Score Change

on racial skills: even if I were to agree with you, which i don't, and give you a non penalty for this, you would instead get a massive cheese rating for even further attempting to stack all of this into a LA+1 (+0 on your assertion). However, you can't compare a creature that was intended to be a familiar w/ that of a anthro bat or toad. The racial skill bonus's alone would increase the LA to 1 or higher. As you state, there is no table for it, so applying a template to it as you see fit, doesn't mean it's correct. Score unchanged

no change to elegance score.

use of SI:

My comment that you aren't doing anything w/ ninja is based off of:
Everyone does the standard using of whatever abilities ninja has for whatever level of them they have available. You only optimize your mobility in this build, not the things that ninja explicitly gives you. Just because you use those abilities, doesn't mean you're optimizing them. Virtually every decision you made was to optimize your racial ability to fly better, in combat or out. You didn't focus on what Ninja gives you, and that is my issue with your use of the SI. You do try to use Great leap, so there's that. +.25 New Score 2.25

New total score 9

[jdizzlean]

Flustern:

Dissolving Strike: i suppose that if it can crit, then it can apply sa damage. +.5

Power Score 4.25

Skill points: I didn't look at the total when ability mods are added in, your argument is sound with one exception. Requiring masterwork tools to make your crafting viable is an equipment dependency, and therefore a penalty. +.25

SI score: 3.75

New Total Score 15

[remetagross]

Flustern Undsack! Flustern Undsack! Flustern Undsack!

...yeah it works with Sponge Bob theme, though no it's definitely not something I do in general. He, might want to build a Sponge Bob joke character at some point just in case you judge Zaq :smalltongue:

[Zaq]

Lively conversations here. I love it. Keep it up! Until it's time for the next round, at least.


To Jdizzlean:

SRD on touch attacks (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/combat/actionsInCombat.htm) :
Touch Attacks
Touching an opponent with a touch spell is considered to be an armed attack and therefore does not provoke attacks of opportunity. However, the act of casting a spell does provoke an attack of opportunity. Touch attacks come in two types: melee touch attacks and ranged touch attacks. You can score critical hits with either type of attack. Your opponent’s AC against a touch attack does not include any armor bonus, shield bonus, or natural armor bonus. His size modifier, Dexterity modifier, and deflection bonus (if any) all apply normally.

In the end, it's the same for EB and the dissolving spittle soulmeld of Flustern. You can crit with it, so sudden strike applies. I knew there was a better argument to be made than the weaponlike spells one, and there it is ;).

[PrismCat21]

Thank you jdizzlean for the responses :)

Ooooohhhhh!!!
Who lives in a big burrow under a hill?
Flus Tern Und Sack!
Sneaky and Deadly and Happy to kill?
Flus Tern Und Sack!

What class would SpongeBob be I wonder?

[Long_shanks]

Thank you jdizzlean for the responses :)

Ooooohhhhh!!!
Who lives in a big burrow under a hill?
Flus Tern Und Sack!
Sneaky and Deadly and Happy to kill?
Flus Tern Und Sack!

What class would SpongeBob be I wonder?

I don't know what class, but he probably has a **** ton of luck feats.

[PrismCat21]

I don't know what class, but he probably has a **** ton of luck feats.

Favored Enemy: Jellyfish
Wild Cohort: Starfish

[Zaq]

Unwitting Favored Soul (he has no idea) of some kind of trickster deity. He is, after all, either supernaturally competent or supernaturally incompetent depending on what will be most annoying to everyone around him.

[PrismCat21]

Unwitting Favored Soul (he has no idea) of some kind of trickster deity. He is, after all, either supernaturally competent or supernaturally incompetent depending on what will be most annoying to everyone around him.

Cas. God of Spite. - He takes sick enjoyment in nursing rage and frustration.
"The Lord of Spite is perhaps unique in the way that he gathers his flock. Although many cults devoted to his worship do exist, Cas prefers to come to those who seem to call out to him with their private thoughts and repressed urges. The soundless laments of those who seek vengeance for wrongdoing are as clamorous gongs to the ears of He Who Balances the Scales, and he is drawn to them even more than he is to those who already revere him and revel in his purpose."

Just think about Squidward, Mr. Crabbs, Mrs. Puff... - It all makes perfect sense...!

[jdizzlean]

Lively conversations here. I love it. Keep it up! Until it's time for the next round, at least.

thanks shadow!

[Zaq]

What time is it? It’s dispute time!




First of all, thank you for taking the time to review and respond to my disputes. I'd like to add a few more points for clarity sake.


on init/yond/Dex: initiative doesn't grant surprise rounds, that's purely a function of your skill points/roleplay. having a massive initiative bonus is nice, but it wouldn't matter if your init bonus was +1 instead in this instance, as you'd have the same outcome to apply SA. No score change

I think there is some misunderstanding here. The initiative boost isn't about the surprise round. It's about the 1st regular round and getting off sneak attack against those who did not yet act.


At the start of a battle, before you have had a chance to act (specifically, before your first regular turn in the initiative order), you are flat-footed. You can’t use your Dexterity bonus to AC (if any) while flat-footed. Barbarians and rogues have the uncanny dodge extraordinary ability, which allows them to avoid losing their Dexterity bonus to AC due to being flat-footed.

Thus, getting a surprise round (thanks to the stealth skills and all the ways to turn invisible) or not, the high initiative is likely to allow for a sneak attack in the first (regular) round, without the need for invisibility (saves resources and works against creatures that can see invisible characters).


Neraph: I get your reasoning for it just being another option. Any gain you would've gotten from this is erased in my oversight that you can't take mimic in the first place. No score change

Fair enough. Makes sense.


Enduring Ki: Burning a feat for the sole reason of freeing a swift action and gaining 1 additional ki use just makes no sense to me. From a power and optimization standpoint, that feat could've been so many other more beneficial things. there aren't that many swift actions you'll take each round anyways, at least none that you've spelled out in your OP as to why you'd want to take this. No score change

Not disagreeing with you there. There are other options to spend the feat slot on, some of them better. I'm just questioning your statement to give out elegance penalties for using the feat. I did not misunderstand the feats meaning, it fits the character concept and it does give a benefit, however small it may seem. The saved swift action could be used, for example, to activate a magic item. And while not explicitly mentioned in the write up, there a few cheap magic items that are E6-legal and swift action activated.

Not picking a stronger feat should be, and I'm sure was, reflected in the power rating, that could have perhaps been higher if I went with something like Craven instead. If anything, I thought that picking a somewhat weaker, but obviously ninja-related feat would reflect positively in the elegance score, not the other way around.

That being said, please don't take this the wrong way - I'm just trying to explain my thoughts and choices here. Your judging - your approach to the scores. I only want to make sure you're working with the full picture.


skill points: one of my biggest contentions is not building a character the entire way. yes you get lots of skill points at first level, everyone does, but you focus almost entirely on increasing your knowledge skills, so you can abuse knowledge devotion and neraph throw as you move along. neither is a class feature of ninja, and therefor is not optimizing ninja. having low ranks in a skill despite ability modifiers is still less good then having higher ranks in them. No score change

Part of the "problem" here is that you get a lot of skill points at first level, but only can put 4 into any skill, so you need to pick a lot. And then you can't afford to improve all of these at higher levles.

My first level picks were, at least in part, backstory related - as explained, the character was a young street savvy rogue, before being recruited into the mysterious ninja/monk organization and some of the skill choices reflect that - sleigh of hand, disable device, open lock, knowledge: local all fit the bill. They are not improved further as the social status of the character has changed. Knowledge: The Planes is a purely mechanical choice,

On the other hand, from a mechanical perspective, the skills in question are also trained-only and having ranks in them makes them usable with at least some chance for success. Which for some of these skills, isn't that small, actually, if one considers masterwork tools, decent enough ability scores and take 10.


Trapfinding: I stand corrected on that, you can find them, I'm not so sure you can do anything about it after that tho. Score +.25 New Score 3.25

You're absolutely right. The disable device skill is only good for hitting a DC15 (including masterwork tool and Taking 10), but knowing where the traps are could be a lifesaver even if you can't disable them.

[Darrin]

Current standings after two judges and various disputes:



Entry
Alignment/Race
Stub
Judge: Randuir
Judge: jdizzlean
Total



Shadow (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22810459&postcount=67)
CN Whisper Gnome
Ninja 5/Warlock 1
14
17.25
31.25




Aeilash (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22810433&postcount=60)
NG Dragonborn Grey Elf
Scout 1/Ninja 4/Avenger 1
14.5
14.75
29.25



Ondrej (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22810457&postcount=66)
NE Azurin
Ninja 5/Incarnate 1
15
13.5
28.5



Fluster Undsack (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22810440&postcount=63)
NE Whisper Gnome
Ninja 4/Incarnate 2
13
15
28



Shinda Suzume (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22810461&postcount=68)
NE Hengeyokai Sparrow
Ninja 2/HnR Fighter 2/Totemist 2
14
13
27



Belle Bubbles Bloom (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22810438&postcount=62)
LN Strongheart Halfling
Rogue 1/Monk 2/Ninja 3
13
13.5
26.5



Batninja (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22810436&postcount=61)
?? Anthropomorphic Bat
Ninja 6
13.5
12
25.5



Helter Kari (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22810447&postcount=64)
LE Human Ghost
Ninja 3/Binder 1/Eidolon 2
13.5
11.5
25



Talon (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22810463&postcount=69)
?? Anthropomorphic Screech Owl
Ninja 6
14.5
9
23.5



Tellian d'Thurrani (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22810466&postcount=70)
CN Wood Elf
Barbarian 1/Ninja 4/Shadow Hunter 1
12
11.5
23.5



Khal Krotu (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22810452&postcount=65)
LG Illumian
Ninja 3/Monk 1/HnR SA Fighter/Avenger 1
12.5
9.5
22

[daremetoidareyo]

generic classes from ua, or jester or mountebank from Dragon compendium are weird...

[Zaq]

I'd like to get this wrapped up by tomorrow evening and start the next thread around when I get home from work tomorrow (so in about twentyish hours or so, all else being equal). Think we can put any lingering disputes to bed by then?

Also, any votes for HM? I can just pick one if no one else has a strong opinion, but I wouldn't mind hearing from the peanut gallery.

[jdizzlean]

First off,

No hard feelings from me, when i compete, i personally think the judges must be blind half the time :) Conversely, when i judge, I realize its going to come the other way too. You care about what you've created, I care about how I feel about it. D&D is a very subjective game, even when something is black and white in a rule book somewhere (and not overridden in another rule book somewhere) it all comes down to how someone determines it should be played/run. To help keep this from going on forever, i entertain 1 dispute and 1 rebuttal so everyone gets a fair shake at hearing or telling their side of it. After that, there's no convincing either side.

Secondly,

My HM goes to Shinda, cuz that's some cra cra right there.


Thirdly,

B3:

on initiative boosting. There has never been a game i've sat down for, where if I've gotten a sneak attack in, and we're in the initiative roll, that any DM i've ever played with would consider anyone flat footed and allow for more sneak attacks just off the basis of who goes first in the combat round. I clearly see your rule quote, I'm just telling you how I feel about initiative as it relates to SA. If you were hidden at the beginning of combat, you'd still get your SA in unless you were found before that, not sure that alone is worth 2 feats and some Ability score stacking. No Score change.

enduring Ki: I'll grant you that there is an extremely minor benefit to the feat, and so I would grant you a bonus back for taking it, but then since you've said you would use that freed action to use a magic item, that introduces an equipment reliance, and you'd lose what you just gained. No score change.

on skill points: I agree with what you're saying, but what I'm saying is that when you take a feat for nothing other then a pre-req, and then never do something w/ it again, or you take skill ranks for a pre-req and then never do anything w/ it again, it all amounts to wasted resources. I believe in BUILDING a character the entire way. There has to be a reason you took rogue at level 1 other than an extra d6 of sneak that you could've gotten from other sources. If you're not going to use every aspect of your build, then you get penalized just like anyone else. If you were never going to use those skills again, why spend points on them? If you intend to exploit knowledge devotion, why not just have a bajillion knowledge skills, or cross class into things that will benefit your build? That's my issue with it. Please note this for future builds that I might be judging. Score +.25

Final Score 13.5

[DeTess]

For the honorable mention, I'm incredibly torn between Shinda and Helter Kari. Both builds did something really unexpected and interesting, and I still think it's a shame that Helter missed the prerequisites for Naberius, which would have made her quite powerful.

However, my vote goes to Shinda, because his background made me laugh.

[Long_shanks]

Can we vote for HM if we participated in the competition? I dont know what the policy is on that.

[Zaq]

Sure, the more the merrier. Just be sporting and don’t vote for yourself.

[Long_shanks]

Sure, the more the merrier. Just be sporting and don’t vote for yourself.
Well, shoot. There goes my master plan.
My vote goes to Helter Kari. That build was unexpected and crazy, in a good way.

[Thurbane]

My HM goes to Batninja, with Talon a very close second choice.

[RaiKirah]

I'm going to have to give my HM to Helter Kari - really, really liked that idea!!

[Zaq]

Awright folks, pack up your smoke bombs and shuriken. Let's wrap this up and move on to the next round. Darrin, I'm stealing your table, and you'll never get it back, because it's mine now. Thanks for being way better at tables than I am.



Entry
Alignment/Race
Stub
Judge: Randuir
Judge: jdizzlean
Total
Chef


Shadow (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22810459&postcount=67)
CN Whisper Gnome
Ninja 5/Warlock 1
14
17.25
31.25
Long_shanks


Aeilash (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22810433&postcount=60)
NG Dragonborn Grey Elf
Scout 1/Ninja 4/Avenger 1
14.5
14.75
29.25
RaiKirah


Ondrej (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22810457&postcount=66)
NE Azurin
Ninja 5/Incarnate 1
15
13.5
28.5
Lapak


Flustern Undsack (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22810440&postcount=63)
NE Whisper Gnome
Ninja 4/Incarnate 2
13
15

28
PrismCat21


Shinda Suzume (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22810461&postcount=68)
NE Hengeyokai Sparrow
Ninja 2/HnR Fighter 2/Totemist 2
14
13
27
Darrin


Belle Bubbles Bloom (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22810438&postcount=62)
LN Strongheart Halfling
Rogue 1/Monk 2/Ninja 3
13
13.5
26.5
DEMON


Batninja (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22810436&postcount=61)
?? Anthropomorphic Bat
Ninja 6
13.5
12
25.5
3WhiteFox3


Helter Kari (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22810447&postcount=64)
LE Human Ghost
Ninja 3/Binder 1/Eidolon 2
13.5
11.5
25
daremetoidareyo


Talon (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22810463&postcount=69)
?? Anthropomorphic Screech Owl
Ninja 6
14.5
9
23.5
PrismCat21


Tellian d'Thurrani (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22810466&postcount=70)
CN Wood Elf
Barbarian 1/Ninja 4/Shadow Hunter 1
12
11.5
23.5
Falontani


Khal Krotu (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22810452&postcount=65)
LG Illumian
Ninja 3/Monk 1/HnR SA Fighter/Avenger 1
12.5
9.5
22
daremetoidareyo




Congratulations to our medalists: Long_shanks for taking gold with Shadow, RaiKirah for taking silver with Aeilash, Lapak for taking bronze with Ondrej, and daremetoidareyo for taking HM with Helter Kari (by popular vote)! Everyone who entered did an excellent job. Thanks to our judges for their time and effort! I look forward to seeing what you folks (and you folks who are watching but didn't participate this time, too!) come up with in the next round, which I'll have up shortly!

[Falontani]

I thank all the judges and Zaq for this round, thank you for letting me join in, and I feel as though if I didn't make such a grave error as forgetting stat/race and checking my feats (I'm looking at you random psionic action point feat) that I'd have done a bit better, but am happy with the results.

[Zaq]

New thread here! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?551174-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-VI))

Falontani, you did great for your first try. Keep it up and keep trying new stuff to find out what works!

[RaiKirah]

A big thank you to the judges and Zaq - your efforts are greatly appreciated! I really enjoyed participating and am thrilled to take Silver. Congrats to all the other competitors - there was some excellent stuff all around and I'm honored to have done so well with such strong competition. This was a lot of fun, and I look forward to the next one!!

~RaiKirah

[Long_shanks]

Wow. That was completely unexpected. I was unsure of my idea before submitting; turns out it wasn't half-bad.
Again, thanks to the judges and to Zaq.
Now I'm diving down into Unearthed arcana ;)