Villainous Competition XX​V: No Solicitors!

[Inevitability]

Welcome to Round 25 of the Villainous Competition!

Previous Competitions
Round One: Leader of Armies (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?395046)
Round Two: Nature's Revenger (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?400517)
Round Three: Double Agent (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?406015)
Round Four: Grave Keeper (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?413480)
Round Five: Crime Lord (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?420704)
Round Six: Ultimate Predator (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?430650)
Round Seven: Wicked Witch (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?444478)
Round Eight: Master of the Tundra (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?461482)
Round Nine: The Power of Villainous Thinking (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?474230)
Round Ten: Henchman Are Villains Too (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?478068)
Round Eleven: The Higher They Rise The Harder They Fall (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?483052)
Round Twelve: Power Comes at a Price (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?488846)
Round Thirteen: The Gadgeteer - You Are Not Batman (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?491932)
Round Fourteen: The Thing That Should Not Be (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?496091)
Round Fifteen: The Horsemen Are Drawing Nearer (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?500829)
Round Sixteen: Burn Baby Burn (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?503974)
Round Seventeen: It's Alive! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?507768)
Round Eighteen: This is Heresy (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?511933)
Round Nineteen: He Slimed Me! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?516535)
Round Twenty: Elder Evil (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?521560)
Round Twenty-One: Yarr! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?527415-Villainous-Competition-XXI-Yarr!)
Round Twenty-Two: I Am The Night! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?531199-Villainous-Competition-XXII-I-Am-The-Night!)
Round Twenty-Three: Two Heads Are Better Than One! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?535437-Villainous-Competition-XXIII-Two-Heads-Are-Better-Than-One)
Round Twenty-Four: Wrong For The Right Reasons! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?541650-Villainous-Competition-XXIV-Wrong-For-The-Right-Reasons)

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

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

Secret Laboratory:
Competitors will be free to use any official 1st party (WotC) 3.5 rulebook in constructing their builds. Dragon Compendium is allowed, but Dragon magazine is disallowed. Unearthed Arcana is allowed. Unupdated 3.0 materials, as well as web exclusives by WotC are expressly allowed, but take care to verify that an updated version did not appear in print elsewhere, as this may cause an Elegance deduction at the judges' discretion. Alternate rule systems from UA such as gestalt or Generic Classes are not allowed, as they create a different playing field. Item Familiars and Taint are also banned from the competition. Leadership and all similar abilities are banned for sanity reasons.
Builds that are fully monstrous are allowed at no penalty. All class levels are to be added on as associated class levels.

Elite array (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8) is the assumed ability score generation method.
Some monstrous characters can technically qualify for Epic feats as soon as their ECL is over 20. While regular Epic feats will be allowed, Epic Spellcasting and all other Epic feats that affect spells, psionic powers, or item creation are not permitted. Including these would give an unfair advantage over standard characters. For Incarnum characters, Epic Open Chakra feats are allowed; other Epic Incarnum feats are not. The Essentia Capacity increases for Epic capacity as described on p. 212. For all characters, please note that Racial Hit Dice do not count towards Epic Progression; use the regular progression even if the BAB ends up higher than 20.

Deadlines:
Contestants will have until 23:59 GMT Wednesday February 28th to create their builds and PM them to the Supreme Chancellor. Builds will then be posted simultaneously, to avoid copying. Judges will have until 23:59 GMT Wednesday March 14th to judge the builds and submit their scores. If no judges have scored by that point, only the scores of the first judge to submit will be counted. Deadlines are subject to extension as/if required.

Judging:
Judging will be based on the following criteria, with each build rated on a scale from 1 (very poor) to 5 (exemplary) in each area: Originality, Build Elegance, Competence and Power, Memorable Villainy.
Keep these questions in mind when judging each category:
Originality - Is it unexpected?
Build Elegance - Is it mechanically pretty?
Competence and Power - Can it do what the concept asks of it? Is this a powerfully-built character?
Memorable Villainy - Is this a villain with style? Will it be the BBEG players long to finally kill and then talk about for weeks?
Unearthed Arcana can be penalized for elegance if the specific feature seems unnecessary or makes the playing field unfair (In this case, you can give a 1 if it makes the field unfair.)
Power level is up to you. Cheese is acceptable, but should be kept to a sane level unless you're showcasing a new TO build you've discovered. As the Iron Chef competition states, a little cheddar can be nice, but avoid the mature Gruyere unless you're making a cheese fondue.
You may not judge if you entered the contest, unless you withdraw your submission.

Presentation:
Builds will be posted anonymously, in order to avoid the potential of bias towards a particular competitor. For this reason, please don't put your name in the build, as I'm likely to miss it when reviewing the entries!

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

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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


Code immediately below (spoiler).

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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


You can use the table below for Spells.

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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


Code Immediately Below,
Spells per Day/Spells Known
Spells per Day/Spells Known


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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



Speculation:
Please don’t post or speculate on possible builds until the reveal, in order to avoid spoiling the surprise if a particular competitor is producing a build along those lines.
Once builds are revealed, please do not comment on errors or rules issues on entries unless you are a judge. If you have such a comment, wait until the final reveal to post it.

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


Keeper of the Gate
You! Shall! Not! Pass!



Limitations



Must be a guardian spirit, warden, or other entity protecting or blocking access to a specific place.
As almost always, must be evil in alignment.


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

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

PM: Inevitability
Subject: Villainous Competition 25, Name of your Entry
For Revisions and disputes, do the same thing. It makes it easier for me finding the entries in my mail box.
More questions? PM me with Villainous Competition 25 Questions in the header.

Tips for submitting your entry, provided by Weaselguy:


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

As always: let's keep it nice.

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

New competition rule: if I feel an individual has been overly disruptive during the course of competition discussion, I will not be accepting and revealing any entries from that individual, and they will also not be allowed to judge. Any judging they enter will not be taken into account for the final tally.

It's sad that it had to come to this, but here's a list of permanently banned (from this Villainous Competition) members:

Novolin (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/member.php?148361-Novolin)
Yklikt (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/member.php?133435-Yklikt)

[Inevitability]

Clarifications

Unearthed Arcana variant rules are limited: The variant character options (such as Wildshape Ranger and Thug Fighter) should not be penalized. Flaws and traits may be penalized by judges, whereas item familiars, gestalt, alternate skill systems, alternate magic systems, alternate crafting rules, generic base classes, LA buyoff, fractional saves/BAB, and bloodlines are banned. Anything not mentioned here is up to individual judges.

d20 Rokugan is not allowed material.

The Dragon Magazine update for Oriental Adventures is in use.

Leadership is banned. Any material that grants you leadership without you specifically taking it should be ignored and may not be traded away for another feat or ACF. Undead Leadership and Dragon Cohort are likewise banned. Wild Cohort and Obtain Familiar are allowed. If you are not sure if a specific feat violates the 'no leadership' rule, err on the side of caution, or ask me.

However, Leadership may be taken to qualify for another feat or class (such as the Great Captain feat or Legendary Leader prestige class), though a character still doesn't get its usual benefit in those cases. This is to allow characters to access unproblematic material that'd otherwise be made unavailable because of the Leadership ban.

On the subject of messaging the chair (me), a few guidelines:
- I am not here to give critiques on your build or guess how the judges might score it!
- For entries, please keep the entry to no more than 2 message, if at all possible.
- For entries, don't expect me to search through your entry and edit in or out material. Entries should be sent to me complete - if there is a later revision, re-submit the full build. PLEASE DON'T INCLUDE TEXT IN YOUR SUBMISSION YOU WANT ME TO EDIT OUT FOR THE POST - SUBMIT IT TO ME EXACTLY HOW I WILL POST THE FINISHED PRODUCT.
- Please make sure the name of your entry is clearly present in the message.

https://gingersnapsandsnark.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/gatekeeper.jpg


Everyone, have fun!

[PrismCat21]

I'm up to enter for this one. :)
I finally have the time to write something up

[flappeercraft]

I'm in but you should probably update the deadline.

[WhamBamSam]

Okay, I've got some thoughts for this one. Definitely going to try to get a build in.

[Telonius]

I might have something for this one.

[Inevitability]

I'm in but you should probably update the deadline.

It has been fixed!

[PrismCat21]

I'm in but you should probably update the deadline.

Heck no! Giving people a full 10 months makes it so they have no excuse asking for an extension.
And 10 months to plan and build means we should see some fairly powerful Villians :D

[Thurbane]

I am 100% down to cook for this! :smallbiggrin:

[Technetium43]

Oh nice, this is back in action. Interesting concept, hopefully inspiration will strike in time for me to submit an entry.

[jdizzlean]

mmmm yes precious yes

[ben-zayb]

I have a weird idea that would probably get a 1 on competence/power/flexibility, but I'm sure I'd be having a blast making should I be able to squeeze some time

[Inevitability]

Also, I should probably inform people the leadership ban has been modified slightly: feel free to check the second post for details.

[GrayDeath]

I just cracked 2 eggs.
The spewed some strangely slimy stuff. Maybe I can make something doorblocking out of that. ^^

[daremetoidareyo]

I'm not super into competing in this one. depending on the number of entries, I may be down to judge again.

[Venger]

I'm down to build for this round.

[The Viscount]

Interesting idea. I'd like to be able to get something down for this.

[Lionheart]

I am also interested in this. I'll start working on a build, but might not get done in time. In which case, I'd be more than happy to judge.

[White Blade]

If we take a template like half-fiend on creatures that advance by HD like Aberrations, does that count as advancing as a outsider or aberration?

[Inevitability]

If we take a template like half-fiend on creatures that advance by HD like Aberrations, does that count as advancing as a outsider or aberration?

Depends on the specific template.


If a template changes the base creature’s type, the creature also acquires the augmented subtype unless the template description indicates otherwise. The augmented subtype is always paired with the creature’s original type. Unless a template indicates otherwise, the new creature has the traits of the new type but the features of the original type.

'Features' include stuff like BAB, saving throws, and racial skill points, so something like a half-fiend otyugh would still get aberration RHD when being advanced. However, if the template specifically doesn't give something the augmented subtype (skeleton and zombie are amongst the ones that do), use the new type's RHD when advancing.

[White Blade]

Depends on the specific template.



'Features' include stuff like BAB, saving throws, and racial skill points, so something like a half-fiend otyugh would still get aberration RHD when being advanced. However, if the template specifically doesn't give something the augmented subtype (skeleton and zombie are amongst the ones that do), use the new type's RHD when advancing.

I apologize for being unclear on this, I mean for advancing CR.

[GrayDeath]

If the respective Being has rules for advancing via RHD of the respective type, it does. Otherwise youc ant advance them that way and "have to" use classes.

Otherwise, Inevetabilities answer also answers the rest pretty well. :)

[Thurbane]

I've asked this same question in the RAW thread before many moons ago: there is no clear answer.

I think what White Blade is asking, to give an example, would be does a Half-fiend Beholder's CR increase by +1 per 2 RHD (as per Outsider), or +1 per 4 RHD (as Aberration, it's base creature type).

It's probably best to use your judgement, depending how much the creature is benefiting from it's RHD.

[White Blade]

I've asked this same question in the RAW thread before many moons ago: there is no clear answer.

I think what White Blade is asking, to give an example, would be does a Half-fiend Beholder's CR increase by +1 per 2 RHD (as per Outsider), or +1 per 4 RHD (as Aberration, it's base creature type).

It's probably best to use your judgement, depending how much the creature is benefiting from it's RHD.

Yeah, that's what I was asking. Thank you for the answer.

[Inevitability]

I've asked this same question in the RAW thread before many moons ago: there is no clear answer.

I think what White Blade is asking, to give an example, would be does a Half-fiend Beholder's CR increase by +1 per 2 RHD (as per Outsider), or +1 per 4 RHD (as Aberration, it's base creature type).

It's probably best to use your judgement, depending how much the creature is benefiting from it's RHD.

It's still basically getting aberration HD, right? Doesn't seem like that'd warrant the CR increase for outsider RHD.

[daremetoidareyo]

It's still basically getting aberration HD, right? Doesn't seem like that'd warrant the CR increase for outsider RHD.

Another way to look at it is to ask if the template inherited or applied. Did the creature ever really know of existence as a different type of critter?

[Telonius]

I don't think the rules are completely clear on that part of that, but let's take an example. So say you have a creature that was originally a Magical Beast, who changes to a Dragon by gaining a template. The creature's Type changes from Magical Beast, to Dragon (Augmented Magical Beast). The creature's current features (i.e. attack bonus, saves, hit dice, skill points) don't change, but its traits do (it now has immunity to sleep and paralysis, etc).

Most templates make it explicit that the features don't change; they have text saying things like, "don't recalculate hit points, saves, skill points." That's just reiterating the general rule that features don't change. There are a few exceptions, like the already-mentioned skeletons and zombies, where the template specifically says to change the dice to d12s.

Now that the creature has a new Type, it's not totally clear what would happen in advancement. Personally I think that any racial hit dice would belong to the new type. It wouldn't make sense for it to gain hit dice of a Type that it no longer possesses; but the rules don't state this explicitly.

EDIT: Regarding CR, I'd think that the Magical Beast HD would count a +1 CR per 3, and any Dragon HD would count as +1 CR per 2. So if it's Magical Beast 9/Dragon 4 on a CR 1 base creature and a CR +1 template, it would be CR 7.

[daremetoidareyo]

I don't think the rules are completely clear on that part of that, but let's take an example. So say you have a creature that was originally a Magical Beast, who changes to a Dragon by gaining a template. The creature's Type changes from Magical Beast, to Dragon (Augmented Magical Beast). The creature's current features (i.e. attack bonus, saves, hit dice, skill points) don't change, but its traits do (it now has immunity to sleep and paralysis, etc).

Most templates make it explicit that the features don't change; they have text saying things like, "don't recalculate hit points, saves, skill points." That's just reiterating the general rule that features don't change. There are a few exceptions, like the already-mentioned skeletons and zombies, where the template specifically says to change the dice to d12s.

Now that the creature has a new Type, it's not totally clear what would happen in advancement. Personally I think that any racial hit dice would belong to the new type. It wouldn't make sense for it to gain hit dice of a Type that it no longer possesses; but the rules don't state this explicitly.

unless you are applying the template to an advanced CR magical beast. it would have to be an acquired template, but you can advance the original type first, then the template acquisition, then advancing as the new type.

inherited templates tho, it makes sense to advance the template type: the creature was never something else. it was a born half fiend or whatever.

[Telonius]

unless you are applying the template to an advanced CR magical beast. it would have to be an acquired template, but you can advance the original type first, then the template acquisition, then advancing as the new type.

inherited templates tho, it makes sense to advance the template type: the creature was never something else. it was a born half fiend or whatever.

Yeah, the thing with inherited templates is that you get the template as soon as you exist, so there'd be no advancing the original creature. You would do whatever the template says for the traits. So if you had a half-dragon giant squid, the template explicitly says to keep the saves and attack bonuses, but modify the skills (to 6xInt) and hit dice (moving them up by one size), plus all of the other Half-Dragon stuff. The type is now Dragon (Augmented Aquatic Animal), the CR would be (9+2) = 11.

Advancing any further by RHD would use Dragon hit dice and count as +1CR per 2 HD.

(Apologies if I ruined someone's half-dragon giant squid entry).

[Deadline]

To add to what others are saying, I agree that CR bumps from advancing RHD would depend on the type of creature it is when the advancement happens. For inherited templates that change type, there's no issue. The creature was born with the template, so the type it grants is what is used for any RHD advancement. For acquired templates, things are a little more fiddly, as the creature may advance by RHD before it gets the template (which would follow the CR rules for the type it was before the template), and it may advance by RHD after it gets the template (which would follow the CR rules for the new type). Making it clear what type each advancement falls under would be a nice thing to do to make it easier on the judges too.

[GrayDeath]

Curses!

Now I need to redo and make a Half---whatever Giant Half Squid-halfconstruct-thingy....^^

[ben-zayb]

I ran into a similar problem on my last entry. From what I understand, SRD (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/improvingMonsters.htm) makes explicit usage of the term "original type" when classifying the CR increase of monsters when advancing HD.

[Falontani]

I think I'll enter into this contest, even though my half dragon half giant squid is out for the count

[Thurbane]

I definitely have a build in mind, but now the age old struggle to see if I can get it formatted and fluff written up by the deadline...

[Sejoran]

Not really one for forums, but this has piqued my interest enough that i have something that should be decent at least. I just hope i can calculate the CR correctly, not very good with determining associated and non-associated class lvls.

[WhamBamSam]

For the purpose of this competition, treat all class levels as associated. The class is, after all, something you chose for an optimized purpose.

[Falontani]

For the purpose of this competition, treat all class levels as associated. The class is, after all, something you chose for an optimized purpose.

Ah! If I were to do that it would completely nuke my build! Say it aint so...

[Inevitability]

Ah! If I were to do that it would completely nuke my build! Say it aint so...

All class levels are associated: says right so in the first post.

[Falontani]

All class levels are associated: says right so in the first post.

Yessir, it sure does and I failed reading comprehension. Going back to the drawing board, but I got this! I will submit a build!

[White Blade]

Submitted my build! I'm quite pleased with it.

[danielxcutter]

Do we have a specific reason for that part about associated classes besides what Sam said? Or at least a more detailed one?

I do suppose that it does prevent some wacky cheese, at least.

[The Viscount]

Do we have a specific reason for that part about associated classes besides what Sam said? Or at least a more detailed one?

I do suppose that it does prevent some wacky cheese, at least.

I mean it is part of the contest rules in the OP and has been from the beginning for a couple reasons. The first is, as mentioned, to reign in the insanity. If a monster could consider caster levels as nonassociated, it would give them an enormous edge in power. Many monsters that are brute have inflated HD for their CR, and caster classes would be considered nonassociated. A drowned is a CR 8 monster with 20HD. It could take 17 levels of wizard, and have an ending CR of 16 and a half. Not sure how rounding works here, but even if you round up, you've essentially added 20HD and drowned powers onto your wizard for free. You could get even stronger than this example with real work.

The second reason that all class levels are considered associated is that the guidelines for how to decide what class levels are associated are extremely vague and not helpful. The srd chunks the classes into three categories. Not all monsters fall that easily into these categories. In addition, the classes that are introduced after the players handbook aren't so easily lumped into one of three categories. Are incarnum users more like spellcasters than the rogue and ranger that use skills to their advantage? Where does binder go? The questions abound. If we used associated class level rules, then we would have to either make the judges decide whether a builds classes really deserve to be associated, or we flood the chair with questions about which classes are associated for what monsters. Neither one of these is good.

This option allows us to use all classes solely on their own merits of power and thematic linkage, so enables better variety in the builds.

[danielxcutter]

Ah, thank you Viscount.

Also side question to the chair: so bodyguards don't count for this comp?

[Inevitability]

Also side question to the chair: so bodyguards don't count for this comp?

Not per definition. If you somehow find a way to both be a bodyguard and fulfill the contest requirement of guarding a place (sentient location?), that's obviously fine though.

[Braininthejar2]

It will probably be horrible, but I'm actually tempted to give it a try for the first time.

[Braininthejar2]

a quick question.

For the purpose of the competition, which way of calculating saves do we use for multiclassing?

straight from the tables, or advance "strong" or "weak" save by an appropriate fraction value?

(in other words, would level 1 in 3 weak save classes give you a save of 0 or of 1 ) ?

[GrayDeath]

I dont think we ever used fractional save progression here.
Correct me if I am wrong.

[The Viscount]

I dont think we ever used fractional save progression here.
Correct me if I am wrong.

You are correct, we go straight from the table using integers.

[Telonius]

Build submitted! I'm glad to see a lot of interest in this round.

[PrismCat21]

I dont think we ever used fractional save progression here.

I did once. I thought it would be more fair to do so, and much easier to understand in my build. Since UA was allowed and other things from UA called out as being banned, I thought it was acceptable.
One judge agreed with me that it could be used. One judge said it couldn't be used.

This is another example of something I've brought up before, about certain unspoken rules that don't actually appear in the rules for the comp.
If we could get an official decision about it, and if banned, included with the rest of UA banned materials, I think that would be for the best.

[Thurbane]

Maybe a disclaimer similar to Iron Chef:


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

[PrismCat21]

As always. I approve of what Thurbane suggests :smallbiggrin:

[jdizzlean]

I have a legality/build question I'd like to ask, is there someone i can PM it to and get an answer back from in the near future?

Kind of stuck in the build until I know the answer to this :(

[Inevitability]

I have a legality/build question I'd like to ask, is there someone i can PM it to and get an answer back from in the near future?

Kind of stuck in the build until I know the answer to this :(

I, your humble chairman, am the dedicated person to bother with such questions, for the simple reason that nothing you say will give me any more knowledge of who made what than I'll eventually have. Go ahead and PM me your question.

[jdizzlean]

2 msgs sent

[Braininthejar2]

Almost finished, though the more I look at it, the less I like it.

Well, "sucking at something is the first step to being kinda sorta ok at something"

Now what awaits is to learn how to use the gopher-damned tables.

[daremetoidareyo]

Almost finished, though the more I look at it, the less I like it.

Well, "sucking at something is the first step to being kinda sorta ok at something"

Now what awaits is to learn how to use the gopher-damned tables.

too left button of the table tools is the what-you-see-is-what-you-get button. If you build a table, with that button on, you can type right into it, or you can build a 1x1 table and paste your build from Google sheets or Excel into it.

[jdizzlean]

build done, just need to write the fluffy bits and we're good to go :)

[Deadline]

Inspiration has struck! I may even get it completed in time!

[3SecondCultist]

Well, I have a workable concept that I'm pretty excited about, we'll see how it turns out. :smallbiggrin:

[jdizzlean]

done, and now the agony of waiting!

[Braininthejar2]

Also sent.

[GrayDeath]

Iw as out of time until now, but I have a (ridiculous) Idea.

Mayhap I`ll get it done in time.

[3SecondCultist]

The build has been sent in by PM!

[flappeercraft]

Ok, due to having some scheduling problems I have not been able to finish my entry. I have only been able to do around half and won't be able to finish.

[Inevitability]

Ok, due to having some scheduling problems I have not been able to finish my entry. I have only been able to do around half and won't be able to finish.

I'm willing to extend the deadline by a few days, as next week I've got lots of free time anyway.

[flappeercraft]

I'm willing to extend the deadline by a few days, as next week I've got lots of free time anyway.

Nonono, don't worry about it. I'm going to be busy for like two weeks with next to no time available and I'm also AFB for this weekend. I can wait for the next one. I wouldn't like to make everyone wait just because I had some problems with this.

[GrayDeath]

I'm willing to extend the deadline by a few days, as next week I've got lots of free time anyway.


Excellent, thatll allow me to ge tmy submission in, barring unforeseen circumstances. :)

[Inevitability]

Deadline extended to February 28th.

[Venger]

Deadline extended to February 28th.

much appreciated. I look forward to having more time to work on my build.

[WhamBamSam]

Got in just in time. I almost never get my act together for VC, so I'll count this as an accomplishment no matter how the build ends up doing.

[Braininthejar2]

Sent a new version, corrected for missing spaces - I don't know what was wrong with my keyboard.

[Inevitability]

Got in just in time. I almost never get my act together for VC, so I'll count this as an accomplishment no matter how the build ends up doing.


Sent a new version, corrected for missing spaces - I don't know what was wrong with my keyboard.

Your builds have been received.

[GrayDeath]

CLose, but got it in. :)

[3SecondCultist]

Got in just in time. I almost never get my act together for VC, so I'll count this as an accomplishment no matter how the build ends up doing.

Me too! I'm just so happy that I was able to submit a coherent build at all, so whatever happens I'm pretty pleased with the result. :smallsmile:

[Uncle Pine]

I'm too late to make it this time, but I'd like to ask a question about allowed material for reference in future editions should inspiration strike me: are unupdated 3.0 sourcebooks (i.e. BoVD, BoED, there are a few Faerun books as well) available to use? Looking at some entries from previous editions it seems to be the case, but this sentence got me confused:


Secret Laboratory:
Competitors will be free to use any official 1st party (WotC) 3.5 rulebook in constructing their builds. Dragon Compendium is allowed, but Dragon magazine is disallowed. Unearthed Arcana is allowed. Web-exclusive 3.0 or 3.5 materials by WotC are expressly allowed, but take care to verify that an updated version did not appear in print elsewhere, as this may cause an Elegance deduction at the judges' discretion. Alternate rule systems from UA such as gestalt or Generic Classes are not allowed, as they create a different playing field. Item Familiars and Taint are also banned from the competition. Leadership and all similar abilities are banned for sanity reasons.(emphasis mine)

[remetagross]

Pay heed to the fact that BoED is, indeed, a 3.5 book (it came from the earliest days of the edition if I'm not mistaken). Regardless, as far as I can tell, unupdated 3.0 books (and not only unupdated 3.0 web content, as the sentence you underlined would make one think), is indeed allowed in this competition. :smallsmile:

[Vaern]

It's still basically getting aberration HD, right? Doesn't seem like that'd warrant the CR increase for outsider RHD.

Half-fiend says "Do not recalculate Hit Dice, base attack bonus, or saves." It should still advance as though it were gaining Aberration hit dice (d8, 3/4 BAB, good will save, and bad fortitude + reflex saves), even though its creature type line now reads "Outsider." The only CR increase it warrants is the 'as base creature +1-3,' as listed in the "Challenge Rating" section.

[Braininthejar2]

Half-fiend says "Do not recalculate Hit Dice, base attack bonus, or saves." It should still advance as though it were gaining Aberration hit dice (d8, 3/4 BAB, good will save, and bad fortitude + reflex saves), even though its creature type line now reads "Outsider."

Hmm :smallconfused:

I always took it to mean "don't recount anything he already has, but any further racial dice he gets will be outsider dice" - since that's adding new stuff, and not 'recalculating'.

[Deadline]

Ugh, the slog through skill points is a pain. I'm pressed for time, and the new deadline looms, but I'm still trying to finish up my entry. I still have a few hours left, right?

[Falontani]

I hope I'm not too late, he said until the 28th, but I dont see them posted yet, I was going to send it last night, but my baby needed me. Just submitted mine now

[Vaern]

Hmm :smallconfused:

I always took it to mean "don't recount anything he already has, but any further racial dice he gets will be outsider dice" - since that's adding new stuff, and not 'recalculating'.
I can honestly see it being interpreted either way, but continuing to advance certain things as though it was gaining Aberration hit dice seems to make more sense to me. With half- templates generally being inherited rather than acquired templates, the base creature would be an Outsider before it ever even grew into its original racial hit dice.
Half-fiend does retroactively grant the outsider type's skill points for the base creature's existing racial hit dice. Since that particular Outsider trait follows through all the way back to the creature's first hit die and continues to advance as an Outsider afterward, it would make sense that the traits that the base creature retains from its original Aberration creature type following through all the way back to its first hit die (HD, BAB, and saves) should also continue to advance as such.

Progressing via Outsider hit dice after the fact also results in a bit of inconsistency. I'll use dragons as an example. You can pick a dragon of any age category off of the table and use it as the "base creature" for a half-template, after which they will advance naturally as they age. In this case, we'll use a young and a juvenile dragon examples. We'll say the young dragon has 10 HD and the juvenile has 13 HD.
If you use the juvenile dragon as the base creature and apply the half-fiend template to it, all of its hit dice are (basically) still treated as Dragon hit dice, so its HP and BAB are unaffected (saves are the same for Dragons and Outsiders).
If you apply it to the young dragon and then advance it to juvenile, it has 10 Dragon-equivalent racial HD and 3 Outsider HD. It will have about 6 less HP and 1 less BAB than a creature which one might think it should have ended up being identical to.

[Inevitability]

I'm too late to make it this time, but I'd like to ask a question about allowed material for reference in future editions should inspiration strike me: are unupdated 3.0 sourcebooks (i.e. BoVD, BoED, there are a few Faerun books as well) available to use? Looking at some entries from previous editions it seems to be the case, but this sentence got me confused:

(emphasis mine)

Unupdated 3.0 material is completely fine: the original post has been edited to reflect this.

[Deadline]

Progressing via Outsider hit dice after the fact also results in a bit of inconsistency. I'll use dragons as an example. You can pick a dragon of any age category off of the table and use it as the "base creature" for a half-template, after which they will advance naturally as they age. In this case, we'll use a young and a juvenile dragon examples. We'll say the young dragon has 10 HD and the juvenile has 13 HD.
If you use the juvenile dragon as the base creature and apply the half-fiend template to it, all of its hit dice are (basically) still treated as Dragon hit dice, so its HP and BAB are unaffected (saves are the same for Dragons and Outsiders).
If you apply it to the young dragon and then advance it to juvenile, it has 10 Dragon-equivalent racial HD and 3 Outsider HD. It will have about 6 less HP and 1 less BAB than a creature which one might think it should have ended up being identical to.

Dragons are probably a bad example, because both Dragon and Outsider RHD grant full BAB, and both advance CR at the same rate. Also, isn't Ashardalon a published dragon with the half-fiend template applied? I don't recall what book he'd be in.

[Vaern]

Dragons are probably a bad example, because both Dragon and Outsider RHD grant full BAB, and both advance CR at the same rate. Also, isn't Ashardalon a published dragon with the half-fiend template applied? I don't recall what book he'd be in.

My bad, I got the BAB for Outsider and Aberration mixed up once I got into the Dragon stuff.
Most monster entries will have a listing along the lines of "Advancement: 5-7 HD (Medium); 8-12 HD (Large)" or something like that. I just went with dragons as an example because the tables actually give detailed stats for every stage of advancement. But you're right, the only thing that changes is the hit die size, so it is a rather bad example...

[Venger]

furiously working on finishing mine. excited to see what other people made.

[Telonius]

The anticipation is killing me! :smallbiggrin:

[Inevitability]

The reveal is imminent! Please do not post for a while, good people!

[Inevitability]

Starting off with a build that truly rocks!


"You Shall Not Pass/This Way, Good Sir!


Lawful Evil Greater Stone Golem/Warblade 3/Sword Sage 1




Assuming Elite Array 15/14/13 to physical Attributes.
Rolled the other three as demanded by Awaken Construct, and put the +1 from Level 0 into Dex, nullifiyng its Malus.



YSNP/TWGS


Level
Base Attack Bonus
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Special


16th/Greater Stone Golem

+44/+44 (2*Slam)

+14

+12

+15
Standard Greater Stone Golem Elite Array + Awakened Construct (See Stats) Listen 19 Spot 19, Sense Motive 10


Warblade 1

+45/+40/+35

+16

+12

+15
Battle Clarity (Ref. Saves), Weapon Aptitude, Maneuvers 3/3, 1 Stance, Concentration +4


Warblade 2

+46/+41/+36

+17

+12

+15
Uncanny Dodge, +1 Man. Known, Concentration +4


Warblade 3

+47/+42/+37

+17

+13

+16
Battle Ardour (Crit Confirmation), +1 Man. Known, Concentration +4


Swordsage 1

+47/+42/+37

+17

+115

+18
Quick to Act +1, Discipline Focus, (Weapon Focus), 6 Man. Known, 4 readied, 1 Stance, Concentration +3, Listen +2, Sense Motive +1





Stats: Bonus

Stength: 39 +14
Dexterity: 10 -
Constitution: -
Intelligence 11 -
Wisdom: 12 +1
Charisma: 11 -


AC: 30 (-2 size, +21 natural, +1 Swordsage), touch 8,*flat-footed*27

HP: 271+3d12+1d8= 299hp

Initiative: +4


Attacks: +47/+42/+37

Not bad for a pile of Rocks...^^





At this, sadly, only Level this build works you have a huge, incredibly tough, Magic Immune Creature with a nice smattering of maneuvers (Among others giving ranged options and allowing for adding its Hit Dice to Saves) and (thanks to being Awakened) 16 feats to play with. Even with the 4 HD however, the skill pts are a weak point. At leas tthose he needs for his job are well developed.
And if everything else should fail, he can Iron Heart Surge himself out of it. ^^


Now without further ado, the numbers:


Stats: Bonus

Strength: 39 +14
Dexterity: 10 -
Constitution: -
Intelligence 11 -
Wisdom: 12 +1
Charisma: 11 -


AC: 30 (-2 size, +21 natural, +1 Swordsage), touch 8,*flat-footed*27 (Can be boosted by custom made Armor, given he should have fitting wbl, but not counting on it)

HP: 271+3d12+1d8= 299hp

Initiative: +4


Attacks: +47/+42/+37
Usually utilizees a huge Greataxe (giving him a base damage of 4d6+22 for his attacks.
However due to his immense Attack Bonuses, normally he Power attacks for around 15 pts, making his most normal attack: +32/+27/+22 with 4d8+52 damage per hit.
And all of that without utilizing his Bull Rush/Overrun Greatness or charging cheese.

Skillpts (assuming awaken Construct gives Skillpts retroactively): 90+ 18 (Classes, see class skills!)

Skills at Level 20: Concentration: 11 Listen 20 Spot 19, Sense Motive 11


Feats: 16 (14 from 40 HD, from the 2 left over HD and 4 Class Levels)

Power Attack, Cleave, Great Cleave, Blind Fight, Improved Initiative,
Adaptive Style, Sudden Recovery, Martial Study (3 times), Martial Stance (2 times), Ironheart Aura, Stormguard Warrior, Improved Overrun, Improved Bull Rush.







Maneuvers known: (* means gained via Martial Study/Stance)
total number: 4+6+3 man, 2+2 Stances

Diamond Mind: Avalanche of Blades, Diamond Defense*, Diamond Nightmare Blade, Moment of Alacrity, Time stands still, Rapid Counter. (6)

Iron heart: Steel Wind*, Iron heart Surge, Wall of Blades. (3)


Desert Wind: Inferno Blade*, Fan the Flame (2)

Shadow Hand: Shadow Blink* (1)


Stances known: Hearing the Air, Dance of the Spider*, Assassins Stance, Punishing Stance*. (4)




Well, he is a huge Stone GOlem. His background henc eis a bit...rocky. ^^

Jokes aside, "he" was created by a very very annoyed Wizard whose name shall be redacted, to prevent Idiots from pestering him.

As such, his front was inscribed with "YOu SHall Not Pass in all the 17 languages the WIzards Spoke, including such Gems as Draconic or Celestial, but also Udnercommon and Drow.

On his equally wide Back he carries a "THis Way, Good Sir!" Command, in the same languages. Just in case the WIzard ever WANTS visitors, he thought to simply turn his GOlem around.
One Golem, 2 Uses! Its pure Genius!

Sadly (or luckily?) the Wizards awakening of the Golem proved futile in the end. Hile this made his stoic Glem a grumpy anr MUCH more competent Guard, he only got to do his Job with renewed skill for a week, until the WIzard managed to annoy one too many Lords of Hell....

And so "YSNP/TWGS", or That huge Ass Rock Guy as he is more often called, decided that guarding somebody no longer there was too boring, and went to look for other things to guard.

he quickly went to, and through, less remarkable locations, some lacked Worth, some were rather...destroyed after he went there, but he kept on trying.

Finally achieving his goal by killing an ancient Red Dragon and guarding his hord instead, just before some nosy adventurers managed to arrive....

Or maybe he guards the exit of the Mega Dungeon the group just went through? After all, why should he leave such a place.

Whatever he guards, he is hard to beat if the thing guarded has only limited access (which should be the case, given this rounds theme^^).


Addendum: Sorry. I got swamped in the alst few days and had to dumb down the overall concept a wee bit, including the Backstory.
Lets hope the humor is enough. ^^






SRD, ToB




Sorry, jsut realized there was a part of the table missing. And in the wrong Tab.

Here is the correct one. :)

[Inevitability]

This one wouldn't have been out of place in the multi-headed round.



Sally
Four-headed Lernaean , Monster of Legend, Tauric Medusa/Drakkensteed, Scout 5, Warlock 2
https://artfiles.alphacoders.com/630/thumb-63021.gif



Ability
Elite
Array
Racial
Level
Increase
CR 13
CR 20


Str
12
+22
-
34
34


Dex
13
+10
@8
24
24


Con
14
+24
@20
38
39


Int
8
+4
-
12
12


Wis
10
+4
-
14
14


Cha
15
+8
@4, 12, 16
24
26



Sally was your typical hateful Medusa who just so happened to believe she wasn't TOO repulsive, and thought it was quite rude when people turned to stone when they looked at her. She became lonely and wanted a friend. She took to gouging out people's eyes so they couldn't see her, but could still talk.
They'd be her friend then, right?

yadda, yadda, yadda, Sally upset the status quo. Cue vengeful, powerful Big Bad who needs a new MacGuffin Guardian. He performs a little alchemy and fuses Sally the Medusa with a temper-mental local Drakkensteed, (Is she her own best friend now?), and just for kicks, used an unrelated MacGuffin to imbue her with Legendary Monstrous powers and grew a couple extra heads so she could keep herself company.

And Thus The Legendary Four-Headed Drakken-Medusa was BORN!!!
She can fly!
She can fight!
She can poison you and turn you to stone all in one turn or less!!!

Disclaimer:She was planned for awhile, but I never had enough free time to properly write her out and upload it. All the major points are here and I'm slipping in this entry at the last minute. I'm sure there are mistakes.
Enjoy. Feel free to make jokes and be underwhelmingly impressed :elan:



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


8
10
Tauric-Medusa
/Drakkensteed
+10
+7
+7
+7
Bluff-13
Diplomacy-5
Intimidate-5
Listen-5
Move Silently-6
Spot-5
Pervasive Gaze
Irresistible Gaze
Piercing Gaze
Flyby Attack
Petrifying Gaze
Poison
Trample
Darkvision 60ft.


11
16
Multiheaded
Template
+16
+10
+10
+10
Bluff-19
Intimidate-11
Listen-7
Move Silently-8
Spot-7
Improved Initiative
Combat Reflexes
Great Flyby Attack
Power Attack
Lernaean
Three more Heads
Superior Two-Weapon Fighting
Darkvision 90ft.



13
16
Monster
of Legend
+16
+13
+13
+13
-
Multiattack
Frightful Presence
Enhanced Attributes (+4 DC)
Reflective Hide
Saves +3


14
17
Scout 1
+16
+13
+15
+13
Balance-2
Craft(Sculpturing)-1
Jump-2
Sense Motive-2
Tumble-2
-
Skirmish (+1d6)
Trapfinding


15
18
Scout 2
+17
+13
+16
+13
Jump-5
Sense Motive-5
Tumble-5
Extend Reach (Snakes)
Battle Fortitude +1
Uncanny Dodge


16
19
Scout 3
+18
+14
+16
+14
Balance-5
Climb-1
Craft(Sculpturing)-3
Listen-8
Move Silently-9
Spot-8
-
Dungeon Specialist
Skirmish (+1d6, +1AC)
Trackless Step


17
20
Scout 4
+19
+14
+17
+14
Climb-3
Craft(Sculpturing)-5
Listen-10
Move Silently-10
Spot-10
Quick Reconnoiter
Bonus Feat


18
21
Scout 5
+19
+14
+17
+14
Climb-6
Craft(Sculpturing)-8
Listen-11
Move Silently-11
Spot-11
Improved Skirmish
Evasion
Skirmish (+2d6, +1AC)


19
22
Warlock 1
+19
+14
+17
+16
Bluff-22
-
Eldritch Blast +1d6
Invocation (Least)
(Beguiling Influence


20
23
Warlock 2
+20
+14
+17
+17
Bluff-25
-
Detect Magic
(See the Unseen)


Petrifying Gaze: 60 ft., DC:31 (Fort.)
Poison: (Snakes) DC:36 (Fort.)
Frightful Presence: DC:29 (Will)

LE Large Monstrous Humanoid (dragonblood)
Init +11; Senses low-light vision, Darkvision 90 ft.; Listen +15, Spot +15,
AC 28, touch 16, flat-footed 21 (–1 size, +7 Dex, +12 natural)
hp 300 avg. (16 HD: 16d8+224)
Fort +27, Ref +20, Will +15
Speed 50 ft., fly 60 ft. (poor)
Melee bite +8 (1d8+6)
Base Atk +16; Grp +32
Atk Options Petrifying Gaze, Poison, Frightful Presence, Trample
Abilities Str 34, Dex 24, Con 38, Int 12, Wis 14, Cha 24
Skills Bluff +26, Diplomacy +14, Intimidate +20, Listen +15, Move Silently +15, Spot +15
Petrifying Gaze (Su) Turn to stone permanently, 60 feet, Fortitude DC 31 negates. The save DC is Charisma-based.

Poison (Ex) Injury, Fortitude DC 36, initial damage 1d6 Str, secondary damage 2d6 Str. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Frightful Presence (Ex) Loud sound inspires terror in all creatures within 20 feet with fewer hit dice or levels than Sally. (Will DC 29) or shaken.

Trample (Ex) As a full-round action, a drakkensteed can
move up 100 feet and literally run over Medium or
smaller creatures, dealing 1d6+18 points of bludgeoning
damage (Reflex DC 30 half) to each target.

Reflective Hide (Su) Sally has a silvery sheen to her skin and is permanently effected by a spell turning effect.

Note: Racial bonuses were not applied for skills.

As part of her curse, Sally was forced into servitude as a protector to the entrance of the location of the MacGuffin. She doesn't get to travel, she can't make friends, and any people that do come across her are terrified, trying to kill her, and/or turned into stone permanently.
The area around the location of the MacGuffin is littered with statues of creatures and folk that came just a little too near. Obviously Sally grew bored. To pass the time, she began taking up crafting on her statues, remaking faces and clothing to suit whatever fancy her warped mind took her.

LE Large Monstrous Humanoid (dragonblood)
Init +12; Senses low-light vision, Darkvision; Listen +19, Spot +19,
AC 28, touch 16, flat-footed 21 (–1 size, +7 Dex, +12 natural)
hp 427 avg. (23 HD: 21d8+2d6+322)
Fort +29, Ref +24, Will +19
Speed 50 ft., fly 60 ft. (poor)
Melee bite +8 (1d8+6)
Base Atk +20; Grp +36
Atk Options Petrifying Gaze, Poison, Frightful Presence, Trample
Abilities Str 34, Dex 24, Con 39, Int 12, Wis 14, Cha 26
Skills Balance +14, Bluff +41, Climb +18, Craft(Sculptury) +9, Diplomacy +23, Intimidate +27, Jump +27, Listen +19, Move Silently +18, Sense Motive +7, Spot +19, Tumble +14

Petrifying Gaze (Su) Turn to stone permanently, 60 feet, Fortitude DC 32 negates. The save DC is Charisma-based.

Poison (Ex) Injury, Fortitude DC 36, initial damage 1d6 Str, secondary damage 2d6 Str. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Frightful Presence (Ex) Loud sound inspires terror in all creatures within 20 feet with fewer hit dice or levels than Sally. (Will DC 30) or shaken.

Trample (Ex) As a full-round action, a drakkensteed can
move up 100 feet and literally run over Medium or
smaller creatures, dealing 1d6+18 points of bludgeoning
damage (Reflex DC 30 half) to each target.

Reflective Hide (Su) Sally has a silvery sheen to her skin and is permanently effected by a spell turning effect.

Note: Racial bonuses were not applied for skills.

Sally went a little stir crazy and began exploring the area around her 'prison' with earnest. She became quite good at stalking through the woods, and up and down cliffs and trees. As she became accustomed to it, she started to enjoy her isolation.
She would toy with travelers as the passed through. Sometimes leading them to their doom, other times just messing with their mind by conversing with them out of sight, letting the think the place was even more haunted than believed.
Her master enjoyed her antics and granted her some of his dark power so she could have even more fun. *cough*warlocklevels*cough*

[Inevitability]

Come on and...



Quorcraft Warforged
Base Stats
15 str
14 dex
- Con
- Int
13 Wis
1 Cha
CN
Level ups are all in Con, and according to Soulfused Construct every 4th HD increases Dex and Wis by 1





CR


Class


Base Attack Bonus


Fort Save


Ref Save


Will Save


Skills


Feats


Class Features



1
Warforged Fighter
(1d12)
+1
+2
+0
+0
-
Adamantine Body(B)
Battle Hardened, Warforged traits sans Living Construct, Quorcraft Traits


2
Dungeon crasher Fighter (1d12+1d10)
+2
+3
+0
+0
-

Dungeon Crasher


3
Soulfused Construct
(1d12+1d10)
+2
+3
+0
+0
Intimidate +4, Speak Language: Common
Power Attack
Soulfused Construct Traits


4
Totemist
(1d10+1d12+1d8)
+2
+5
+2
+0
Intimidate +4.5
Improved Bull Rush
Wild Empathy


5
Totemist (1d10+1d12+2d8)
+3
+6
+3
+0
Intimidate +5

Totem Chakra Bind (+1 capacity)


6
Totemist (1d10+1d12+3d8)
+4
+6
+3
+1
Intimidate +5.5

Totem’s Protection


7
Totemist (1d10+1d12+4d8)
+5
+6
+3
+1
Intimidate +6
Improved Natural Attack: Slam



8
Totemist (1d10+1d12+5d8)
+5
+6
+3
+1
Knowledge Arcana +1

Chakra Binds (Crown, Feet, Hands)


9
Warforged Juggernaut (1d10+2d12+5d8)
+5
+8
+3
+1
Intimidate +7
Powerful Charge(B)
Armor Spikes +1d6, Expert Bull Rush, Reserved


10
Warforged Juggernaut (1d10+3d12+5d8)
+6
+9
+3
+1
Intimidate +8
Second Slam
Extended Charge, Charge Bonus +1, Construct Perfection


11
Warforged Juggernaut (1d10+4d12+5d8)
+7
+9
+4
+2
Intimidate +9

Superior Bullrush, Construct Perfection, Healing Immunity


12
Warforged Juggernaut (1d10+5d12+5d8)
+8
+10
+4
+2
Intimidate +10

Charge Bonus +2, Construct Perfection, Armor Spikes +1d8


13
Warforged Juggernaut (1d10+6d12+5d8)
+8
+10
+4
+2
Intimidate +11
Cobalt Charger, Greater Powerful Charge(B)
Construct Perfection


14
Fighter
(2d10+6d12+5d8)
+9
+11
+4
+2
Intimidate+12




15
Dungeon Crasher Fighter (3d10+6d12+5d8)
+10
+11
+5
+3
Intimidate +13

Greater Dungeon Crasher


16
Totemist
(3d10+6d12+6d8)
+11
+12
+6
+4
Knowledge Arcana +2
Shocking Fist
Totem Chakra Bind +1 level


17
Totemist (3d10+6d12+7d8)
+12
+12
+6
+4
Intimidate +13.5




18
Totemist (3d10+6d12+8d8)
+13
+13
+7
+4
Intimidate +14

Rebind Totem Soulmeld 1/day


19
Totemist
(3d10+6d12+9d8)
+13
+13
+7
+5
Intimidate +14.5
Cobalt Power
Chakra Binds (Arms, Brow, Shoulder)


20
Totemist
(3d10+6d12+10d8)
+14
+14
+8
+5
Intimidate +15






At Level 5 Slam has just gained sentience. He fights more like a golem than he fights like someone with "higher" reasoning. He slams people. Thanks to his quorcraft nature he has two slams each dealing 2d6 damage. With dungeon crasher and improved bull rush he can push people into walls for some good damage, and with his totemist levels he has Bound the Heart of Fire to his Totem Chakra, allowing him to deal additional damage with his slams. If he ever faces a creature immune to fire he can pour his essentia from his Totem to his Dread Carapace for pseudo power attack.

Slam
Medium Construct (Living Construct, Incarnum)
Hit Dice: 1d10+1d12+2d8 (28 OR 48 hp)
Initiative: +6
Speed: 20 ft. in full Adamantine Plating (4 squares); base speed 30 ft.
Armor Class: 24 (10 base, +1 Dex, +10 Adamantine Body, +3 Natural), touch 11, flat-footed 23
Base Attack/Grapple: +3/+5
Attack: Slam +4 melee (2d6+3 plus 2d4 fire)
Full Attack: 2 slams +4 melee (2d6+3 plus 2d4 fire)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Dungeon Crasher, Improved Bull Rush
Special Qualities: Living Construct Traits
Saves: Fort +6, Ref +6, Will +1
Abilities: Str 15, Dex 17, Con 11, Int 3, Wis 13, Cha 6
Skills: Speak Language Common, Intimidate +3
Feats: Adamantine Body(B), Power Attack, Improved Bull Rush
Environment: Material Plane
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 5
Treasure: 4th level adventurer
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Advancement: By Character Class
Level Adjustment: —
Essentia 3
3 Soulmelds, 1 soulmelds bound
Heart of Fire Bound to Totem 2 essentia Invested: +2d4 fire damage on natural attacks, +2 hit/damage vs [cold] subtype
Wormtail Belt 1 essentia invested: +3 Natural Armor
Dread Carapace: -1 hit +1 damage with Slam



He now is evil and completely fine with murdering any and all in his way, usually by charging them into a wall and then pounding away at them. Until they are little more than red smears on the wall. He is largely the same as level 5, although his immunities and defenses are highly improved, and he now has 3 slams each dealing 2d6 and an additional 3d4 fire. He's trying something out at this level, seeing if he can make his opponents tired while pounding them into the dirt.
Slam
Medium Construct (Living Construct, Incarnum)
Hit Dice: 1d10+3d12+5d8 (66 OR 77 hp)
Initiative: +7
Speed: 20 ft. in full Adamantine Plating (4 squares); base speed 30 ft.
Armor Class: 25 (10 base, +1 Dex, +10 Adamantine Body, +4 Natural), touch 11, flat-footed 24
Base Attack/Grapple: +6/+9
Attack: Slam +8 melee (2d6+2 plus 3d4 fire)
Full Attack: 3 slams +8 melee (2d6+2 plus 3d4 fire)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Dungeon Crasher, Powerful Charge, Improved Bull Rush
Special Qualities: Living Construct Traits, Immunity to Nonlethal, Critical Hits
Saves: Fort +10, Ref +7, Will +2
Abilities: Str 15, Dex 18, Con 12, Int 3, Wis 13, Cha 7
Skills: Speak Language Common, Intimidate +6, Knowledge Arcana -3
Feats: Adamantine Body(B), Power Attack, Improved Bull Rush, Powerful Charge(B), Second Slam
Environment: Material Plane
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 10
Treasure: 9th level adventurer
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Advancement: By Character Class
Level Adjustment: —
Essentia 5
4 Soulmelds, 1 soulmeld bound
Heart of Fire Bound to Totem 3 essentia Invested: +3d4 fire damage on natural attacks, +3 hit/damage vs [cold] subtype
Wormtail Belt 2 essentia invested: +4 Natural Armor
Winter Mask: Creatures touched must save or become fatigued DC 11 fort
Sphinx Claws: +1 on str checks and str skill checks (Grapple and bull rush are both str checks)



This is probably when he is his most powerful for his level, grabbing pounce and Cobalt Charge he is dealing a large amount of damage considering he doesn't have Shock Trooper. His defense is still amazing, he has all his immunities, and he can swap soulmelds when the occasion calls for it to improve his versatility.

Slam
Medium Construct (Living Construct, Incarnum)
Hit Dice: 3d10+6d12+5d8 (105 OR 111 hp)
Initiative: +7
Speed: 20 ft. in full Adamantine Plating (4 squares); base speed 30 ft.
Armor Class: 26 (10 base, +1 Dex, +10 Adamantine Body, +5 Natural), touch 11, flat-footed 20
Base Attack/Grapple: +10/+17
Attack: Slam +12 melee (2d6+2)
Full Attack: 3 slams +12 melee (2d6+2)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Greater Dungeon Crasher, Greater Powerful Charge, Superior Bull Rush
Special Qualities: Living Construct Traits, Immunity to Nonlethal, Critical Hits, Mind affecting spells/abilities, death effects, necromancy, ability damage, ability drain, and positive energy,
Saves: Fort +12, Ref +9, Will +5
Abilities: Str 15, Dex 19, Con 13, Int 3, Wis 14, Cha 9
Skills: Speak Language Common, Intimidate +12, Knowledge Arcana -2
Feats: Adamantine Body(B), Power Attack, Improved Bull Rush, Powerful Charge(B), Second Slam, Cobalt Charger, Greater Powerful Charge(B)
Environment: Material Plane
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 15
Treasure: 14th level adventurer
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Advancement: By Character Class
Level Adjustment: —
Essentia 7
4 Soulmelds, 1 soulmeld bound
Sphinx Claws Bound to Hands: Pounce (natural weapons only), +1 on str checks and str skill checks (Grapple and bull rush are both str checks)
Wormtail Belt 3 essentia invested: +5 Natural Armor
Blink Shirt Bound: Dimension Door as a standard action up to 10 ft
Girallon Arms 1 essentia invested: +4 on climb and grapple checks
Cobalt Charger 3 essentia invested: +3 to hit/damage on all charge attacks


His hit points are all averaged out and rounded up, with the first number being if you add con mod and the second number being if you add construct size mod. The Soulfused Construct template calls out that you must use this Living Construct subtype which does not include con mod to hit points, however I am uncertain if this is the Living Construct subtype that you would use, or if you would use the Eberron specific one which does allow con mod to hp.
His stat blocks look sub par but please remember that this is all without any equipment whatsoever. If we enchanted his body, his fists, and his armor spikes, while giving him magical items that enabled flight, gave boosts to his already impressive AC, boosted up his stats, and increased his saves then he would seem a lot scarier. As a warforged any magic item can be constructed to be an intrinsic part of him, allowing him to never leave home without any of his equipment. While he isn't as item dependent as some creatures or characters, his power increases with equipment much more than many other classes cough spellcasters cough but I don't want him to seem reliant on equipment.

Slam was built in ancient days. For hundreds of years he has sat. Eternally guarding. Until one day an incarnum user sought passage through his warded domain. Slam successfully fended off this "powerful" incarnum user. But he was changed for it. He became Soulfused. He ventured forth from his charge for the first time in a seeming millennia. He wandered the random areas of Xendrik. Impervious to many dangers with no natural predators he was.. happy. An emotion. What a strange thing. He became one with nature. Allowing his soul to adapt, to let in the ambient energies of Xendrik. And what ambient energies there were.
He grew more powerful learning and adapting from the beasts of Xendrik, until one day he found something... new. This place, this Stormreach he came to learn it to be called. He entered this city. Only to be the source of racial hatred against his brethren from another continent.
These Warforged. They were hated. As was he. They expected him to work like a machine,
to do any and all jobs presented without any resentment. He denied them. He fled to where the supposed warforged were supposed to take refuge. There he found even more racial slurs.
The warforged didn't trust him. He was different. More different than any other warforged they encountered. Slam told them that he had been in xendrik for millennia and the shocked warforged threw him out. Shunned him. Told him that he was an impossibility. That he should not be able to exist and therefore should not exist. They gave him one chance to flee. He fled.
but he took resentment to the other sentient creatures of the world. He hated them all.
He returned to his home, where he stood guard, but he was followed. Adventurers. They came one by one, two by two, eventually dozens came to attempt to kill slam. He killed them all.
It didn't matter anymore. He began hunting these other creatures. Hunting them to extinction if he could. They fled before him. He had apparently earned a name for himself. A creature appeared before him, one that he recognized as the warforged. He began to charge at this creature before another one showed him this thing. A symbol, and then the warforged commanded him to kneel. And he kneeled. Something was forcing his actions. So while he kneeled he watched. He learned what this warforged was. This warforged was bigger than any other he had seen. They called him the Lord of Blades. The Lord of Blades spoke to Slam.
Spoke and spoke and spoke. So many words, more words than he had ever known existed,
but somehow they just made.. sense. He agreed to whatever this Lord was speaking to him.
Apparently all of the fleshy sentient races are evil, and must be killed in order for him to have a home. This Lord of Blades had a plan to do exactly that, but he needed someone to guard this Creation Forge. Whatever that was. He needed a guardian to kill any that dared to enter that didn't have the Lord of Blades permission. So he accepted. He ventured with this Lord of Blades.
They came to the Mournlands. A place crawling to the brim with soul energy. It was a dangerous place. One that only the strong could survive. And survive Slam did. He continued to guard eternally for this Lord of Blades, waiting until his plan came to fruition. Waiting for all the fleshy creatures of the world to be wiped out. Waiting for him to be able to take his rightful place as the dominant species on this world. Eberron.
Eberron Campaign Setting: Warforged, warforged juggernaut, adamantine body, Improved Natural Attack
Races of Eberron: Warforged Fighter, Second Slam
Dungeonscape: Dungeoncrasher
Magic of Incarnum: Soulfused Construct, Totemist, Cobalt Charge, Cobalt Power, soulmelds
PHB: Power Attack, Improved Bullrush, skills, Fighter
Player's Guide to Eberron: Shocking Fist

[Inevitability]

[Insert cliched joke about vampires sucking here]


Villainous Competition 25, Mircea raviwr
Human unholy scion 1, vampire 4, vampire lord10

unholy scion 1/ hexblade 3/ Paladin of Tryanny 1/vampire 2/Paladin of Tyranny 2/unholy scion 2/warrior of darkness 1/ Tomb warden 3/ Paladin of Tryanny 3 / Vampire Lord 3/ unholy scion 3/ Hexblade 5
stats
Base stats Str 14, Dex 12, Con 10, Int 13, Wis 8, Cha 15
unholy scion Dex +2, Int +6, Wis +2, Cha +4
Vampire Str +6,Dex +4, Int +2, Wis +2, Cha +4
Vampire lord Str +6, Dex +4, Int +2, Wis +2, Cha +4
Stat improvements Level 4 int 8 cha, 12 char
Final stats Str 27, Dex 22, Con 10, Int 24, Wis 14, Cha 28



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


1
human unholy scion template




Skills
toughness
Armor Class: The unholy power of a scion grants it a deflection bonus to AC equal to its Charisma modifier + 4
Familial Charm (Su): An unholy scion’s mother is under a constant charm person or charm animal effect (as appropriate), generated by the scion. The mother might be aware that her actions are inappropriate, even that her child is evil, but she cannot shake her emotional devotion to it. The scion can switch between its own senses and its mother’s at will as a free action. The scion can use any of its spell-like abilities with its mother, rather than itself, as the source, much as wizards can deliver touch attacks through their familiars. Familial charm does not allow a save, and applies even before the scion’s actual birth (since the unborn scion is already intelligent and knowledgeable enough to have its own agenda).
Unholy Strike (Su): An unholy scion’s natural weapons and any melee weapon it wields are treated as evil-aligned for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction. In addition, all such attacks deal an extra 2d6 points of damage against good-aligned opponents
Spell-Like Abilities (Sp): An unholy scion with an Intelligenceor Wisdom score of 8 or higher has spell-like abilities depending on its Hit Dice, as indicated on the table below. These abilities are cumulative. Unless otherwise noted, an ability is usable once per day. Caster level equals the creature’s HD,
and the save DC is Charisma-based. Damage reduction 5/good or magic (if HD 11 or less) or 10/good or magic (if HD 12 or more).
Darkvision out to 60 feet.
Fast healing 4.
Immunity to poison and mind-affecting spells and abilities.
Resistance to acid 5, cold 5, electricity 5, and fire 5.
Spell resistance equal to creature’s HD + 10


2
Hexblade 1
+1
+2
+0
+2
bluff 4, Concentration 4, Craft alchemy 4, Diplomacy 4, Intimidate 4, Knowledge (arcana) 4, Spellcraft 4
Power attack
Arcane Attunement, Hexblade's Curse 1/day


3
Hexblade 2
+2
+3
+0
+3
bluff 5, Concentration 5, Craft alchemy 5, Diplomacy 5, Intimidate 5, Knowledge (arcana) 5, Spellcraft 5
-
Arcane Resistance


4
Hexblade 3
+3
+3
+1
+3
bluff 6, Concentration 6, Craft alchemy 6, Diplomacy 6, Intimidate 6, Knowledge (arcana) 6, Spellcraft 6
improved toughness
Mettle, spell like ability Desecrate


5
paladin of Tyranny 1
+4
+5
+1
+ 3
bluff 6, Concentration 7, Craft alchemy 7, Diplomacy 7, Intimidate 6, Knowledge (arcana) 6, Spellcraft 6, sense motive 4
-
Aura of evil, detect good, smite good 1/day


7
Vampire
-
-
-
-
+8 racial bonus on Bluff, Hide, Listen,
Move Silently, Search, Sense Motive, and Spot checks.
Alertness, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, improved Initiative, and Lightning Reflexes
Blood Drain (Ex):
Children of the Night (Su):
Dominate (Su):
Create Spawn (Su):
Energy Drain (Su):
Alternate Form (Su):
Damage Reduction (Su): 10/ silver and magic
Fast Healing (Ex): 5
Resistances (Ex): resistance to cold 10, electricity 10, acid 5, and fire 5Spider Climb (Ex):
Turn Resistance (Ex): A vampire has +4 turn resistance
Armor Class: The base creature’s natural armor bonus improves
by +6.
Armor Bonus increases to +6 from unholy scion


9
paladin of Tyranny 2
+5
+6
+1
+3
bluff 6, Concentration 8, Craft alchemy 8, Diplomacy 8, Intimidate 6, Knowledge (arcana) 6, Spellcraft 6, sense motive 8
-
Divine grace, deadly touch spell like ablility: Enervation, protection from good 3/day


10
Warrior of Darkness 1
+6
+8
+1
+5
bluff 9, Concentration 8, Craft alchemy 8, Hide 4, Diplomacy 8, Intimidate 6, Knowledge (arcana) 6, move silent4, Spellcraft 6, sense motive 8
Iron Will
Black Magic Oil (Su): Ensorcelled flesh; improves by +1


11
The Tomb Warden 1
+7
+10
+1
+5
bluff 9, Concentration 8, Craft alchemy 8, Hide 9, Diplomacy 8, Intimidate 6, Knowledge (arcana) 6, move silent 8, Spellcraft 6, sense motive 8, skill trick Group fake out, timely misdirection
-
Turn Immunity (Ex): As long as it is within the tomb, graveyard, or similar resting place that it protects, a tomb warden is immune to turning or rebuking attempts. It can still be bolstered as normal. Spell like ability Major image 3/day, poison 3/day


12
The Tomb Warden 2
+8
+11
+1
+5
bluff 9, Concentration 8, Craft alchemy 8, Hide 11, Diplomacy 8, Intimidate 6, Knowledge (arcana) 6, move silent 11, Spellcraft 6, sense motive 11, Spot 3 skill trick Group fake out, timely misdirection
-
Tomb sense


13
The Tomb Warden 3
+9
+11
+2
+6
bluff 9, Concentration 8, Craft alchemy 8, Hide 12, Diplomacy 8, Intimidate 6, Knowledge (arcana) 6, move silent 12, Spellcraft 6, sense motive 12, Spot 9 skill trick Group fake out, timely misdirection, Social recovery
endure sunlight
Power of the dead, Spell like ability Dominate animal or dominate person1,
baleful polymorph


14
paladin of Tyranny 3
+10
+11
+3
+7
bluff 9, Concentration 8, Craft alchemy 8, Hide 12, Diplomacy 13, Intimidate 6, Knowledge (arcana) 6, Knowledge (religion) 3, move silent 12, Spellcraft 6, sense motive 13, Spot 9 skill trick Group fake out, timely misdirection, Social recovery
-
Debilitating aura, divine health


17
Vampire Lord
-
-
-

+4 racial bonus to Scry and Sense Motive checks, and a +8 racial bonus to Diplomacy and Intimidate checks.
-
Domination (Su): As base vampire, except that a vampire lord can do this either by gaze or voice. It does not require line of sight to the target, but the target must be able to hear the vampire lord's voice when it speaks at a normal volume level.
Energy Drain (Su): As base vampire, but a living creature hit by a vampire lord's slam attack takes 3 negative levels.
Blood Drain (Su): As base vampire, but a vampire lord's blood drain inflicts 1d4+2 points of Constitution drain each round the pin is maintained.
Special Qualities: The vampire lord retains all the special qualities of the base vampire, except as modified below, and gains those listed below.
Alternate Form (Su): A vampire lord can assume the form of any animal, as the druid ability wild shape used by a 12th-level druid. The vampire lord can use this power at will as a move-equivalent action. The vampire lord can change from one animal shape to another without having to revert to its humanoid form.
Children of the Night (Su): As base vampire, but the creatures summoned forth serve the vampire lord until released. Further, the vampire lord can sense through the senses of any such commanded creatures, and communicate empathically with them, to a range of 10 miles.
Control Weather (Sp): A vampire lord can cast either control weather or fog cloud as a 12th-level sorcerer at will.
Create Spawn (Su): As base vampire, but vampire lords create only vampire slaves, never vampire spawn. The new vampire is enslaved to the vampire lord until its master's death, and the willpower of the vampire lord is too strong to allow it to break free of its enslavement.
Damage Reduction (Ex): A vampire lord is extremely tough; it has damage reduction 10/+3.
Fast Healing (Ex): As base vampire, but a vampire lord heals 8 hit points each round so long as it has at least 1 hit point. It has 24 hours to reach a place of rest (rather than 2 hours) if brought to zero hit points. A vampire lord can have many places of rest prepared, since the only requirement is some soil from its homeland (the place where the base vampire was born).
Telekinesis (Su): A vampire lord can use telekinesis (caster level 12th) at will.
Telepathy (Su): A vampire lord can communicate telepathically with any living creature within 100 feet that has a language, and with any vampire under its direct control to a range of 1 mile.
Turn Resistance (Ex): As base vampire +4
Saves: Same as the base vampire, plus the vampire lord applies its Charisma modifier to all saving throws in addition to its other ability modifiers (as a paladin does)



19
Hexblade 4
+11
+12
+3
+8
bluff 9, Concentration 8, Craft alchemy 8, Hide 12, Diplomacy 13, Intimidate 13, Knowledge (arcana) 6, Knowledge (religion) 3, move silent 12, Spellcraft 6, sense motive 13, Spot 9 skill trick Group fake out, timely misdirection, Social recovery, never outnumbered
-
Dark Companion, Spell like abilities Animate dead, true seeing 3/day


20
Hexblade 5
+12
+12
+3
+8
bluff 15, Concentration 8, Craft alchemy 8, Hide 12, Diplomacy 14, Intimidate 15, Knowledge (arcana) 6, Knowledge (religion) 3, move silent 12, Spellcraft 6, sense motive 13, Spot 9 skill trick Group fake out, timely misdirection, Social recovery,
Imperious Command
Bonus Feat: Ability Focus(Curse), Hexblade's Curse 2/day



Level 20
2 spells per day
2 spells known
Expeditious Retreat
Distract Assailant

Story
You might be wondering why I am doing this. Well let me tell you will call it you last request and I have time to kill.

The tale begins about 300 years ago. The lords of the lower planes encountered a problem, A Paladin, A saint, and more troublesome of all a Seer. The Seer would show up when and where he was most irritating, exposing Lies, killing spies, and uncovering cults. So they lunched a campaign to kill him, and succeeded and he was entombed in a mausoleum all well that ends well. BUT NO he refused to leave it at that and started giving prophecies through visitors once or twice a year. Leading to a new plan if they can't shut him up they will cut him off. Therefore I was conceived literally they targeted my mother the priestess who looked after this place. Once I was in place I set about making it more difficult, and much less pleasant for anyone to come and visit his coffin. Once I was born I began convincing, driving off and killing those pilgrimages who I could as my powers grew. Once I got powerful enough to began the desecration it drew a weak vampire to the location. While I wanted it power I had no interest in be his pawn, so while I pretend to accept to accept his offer I arranged for his destruction with my pawn. Unfortunate both he and my mother were destroyed.

Once I arose from the grave. I officially took over my mothers duties. now able to take turn others to my aid my task I started to begin the harvesting of adventures who wouldn't be missed. Some be came new defenders others became scape goats, and the most pathetic ones became food supplies for the larder so I don't have to risk leaving often to giving potentially giving some one the chance to reach the crypt or exposing my self to sunlight. Travelers even trying to come here had become much scarcer and I obtained and affinity with this place having complete awareness of all that happens in this domain.

Then I made a mistake and accidentally turning a someone stronger than I had the abilities to hold along with my other pawns freeing an older one who sought to destroy me fortunately he also underestimated my new pawn. Since then I have grown stronger still so now I reach out an as you noticed I claim fools like your self as food from the near by cities to feed myself and my children, and keep a watch out for what might be gathering in the way of expeditions against me


Goals
Get charisma items since they buff his AC, and saves triple before using power of the dead

Tactics
He will use his mother for buff and to provide misinformation. he tries to split parties up and take them one at a time being careful to never reveal him self as the perpetrator, with his diplomacy and charisma talking his way out of most problems.
once he becomes vampire his tactics change to turning the front liner of the party into his weapons be fore striking at the others.
He still prefers hit and run tactics since he can recover from anything.
when he becomes a vampire lord he becomes much more confident about his abilities, since can almost entirely avoid blows and he easy make almost any save

[Inevitability]

A Joyful build indeed.



https://medievalfragments.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/anc-pil11.jpg?w=640 Lorelai G’Elsewhere: Guardian of the Gate



The final door inside the dark dungeon ground inexorably downwards. Their rogue had disabled the final trap with his dying breath. People would hear tales of his bravery once their grim errand was done.

Matthias, the sole survivor of the doomed expedition trudged forward, his armor close and cloying around his skin, looming dread at what form the next horror he would face took. If their map was accurate, this was the last room before the fabled treasure with no name.

No monster lurked before him in shadow. A stout halfling woman sat at a table with a checked cloth, reading a book by an everburning torch, eating a cheese sandwich.

“Ah, you’re here. You can put that, uh, club away,” she said.

He lowered his weapon. “It’s a sugliin, actually. It’s been handed down in my family for generations,” he began, but didn’t finish when he saw she was only politely feigning interest. “Do you need a second to stretch or get ready? I figure you’ve been here a while.”

“Actually, I had something of a different idea,” she said and gestured to the seat opposite her. “I just finished with a group trying to get in there, and I think I pulled something.”

“Mm.” Matthias suppressed a superior smirk from within his helmet. It was important to stretch. Wizards always forgot.

“I’m sure if you just leapt at me from where you stand and smashed in my delicate, bird-like bones with that thing, you might be able to get a foot inside the door.” She nodded toward the entrance to Matthias’s fabled prize. “That is, assuming I don’t have enough juice to, y’know.”

“What, turn my blood into fire or something?” Matthias offered.

“Sure, let’s say that for example.”

“So what’re you suggesting? I hope it’s not a battle of wits, being transported into a shared mindscape between two enemies always makes me nauseous.” Matthias kept to himself that he didn’t like his odds since he got hit in the head a lot during his adventures.

“People still do that? No, don’t worry, I don’t want to catch you bare-brained. It’s not really sporting. I’d like to give you a fair chance. Well, fairish, anyway. Given how tired you are from all the fights before now, I’d wager your odds of walking through that door are 50/50 with someone like me standing in your way.” She broke her sandwich into two halves as if to illustrate the point. Matthias, though patronized, held his tongue.

“Figure you’re better at making odds than me,” he said.

“Sure. So why don’t we skip the fighting and just see what your odds are now? If you win, I’ll look the other way, drink some of that sleeping potion on the table, and say you overpowered me, if you lose, I’ll send you on your way. Sound good?” She held out a tiny set of knucklebones. Must’ve been made for halflings. They were hard for Matthias to read. Their rogue had always said he needed glasses, not that Matthias listened.

Matthias puzzled it over. “Okay. But we’ll use my dice. No offense.” He took out the dice he’d been left by the rogue.

“None taken.” She stood clear and let Matthias roll.

“High or low?” she asked.

“Low,” Matthias said. As usual, he guessed wrong.

“Blunted thing,” he swore. “Sorry, I’m just frustrated.”

“No hard feelings.” She extended her hand to shake his, and he took it.

And he was gone.

She picked up the large, human knucklebones from the floor and dusted them off. She tossed them into her bag of holding along with the rest, belonging to the interlopers before who’d thought using their own lucky charms would help and who now lay miles and miles below, dead and forgotten inside the earth forever.

The door had reset by now. She sat and leafed through her book, trying to find her place.

It opened again. A man atop a dying horse waddled in, his head scarcely avoiding scraping the ceiling.

“Tantivy! Your dark master will not protect you now! Step aside or feel my steel!”

She closed her book, marking her page.

“If it’s all the same to you, could we do something else?” she asked.

The orc before her lowered his bow and mopped at his brow. “Thank the Host, I’m dead on my feet here. What’d you have in mind?




CE strongheart halfling conjurer 3/master specialist 3/luckstealer 2/fatespinner 5/wayfarer guide 3/luckstealer 4/master specialist 5



str 8 -2 halfling
dex 12 +2 halfling
con 10
int 15 (increases here)
wis 13
cha 14





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


1st
Conjurer 1
+0
+0
+0
+2
k (arcana) 4, k (geography) 4, profession (gambler) 4, spellcraft 4
Dallah Thaun’s Luck, Lucky Start
Abrupt Jaunt, (bonus feat: spell focus (conjuration)) specialization: conjuration (ban enchantment and evocation)


2nd
Conjurer 2
+1
+0
+0
+3
k (arcana) 1 (5), k (geography) 1 (5), profession (gambler) 1 (5), spellcraft 1 (5)




3rd
Conjurer 3
+1
+1
+1
+3
concentration 1, k (arcana) 1 (6), k (geography) 1 (6), profession (gambler) 1 (6)
Unbelievable Luck



4th
Master specialist 1
+1
+1
+1
+5
concentration 2 (3), k (arcana) 1 (7), k (geography) 1 (7), profession (gambler) 1 (7)

Skill Focus (Spellcraft)


5th
Master specialist 2
+2
+1
+1
+6
concentration 2 (5), k (arcana) 1 (8), k (geography) 1 (8), profession (gambler) 1 (8)

Expanded spellbook


6th
Master specialist 3
+2
+2
+2
+6
concentration 2 (7), k (arcana) 1 (9), k (geography) 1 (9), profession (gambler) 1 (9)
cloudy conjuration
Greater Spell Focus


7th
Luckstealer 1
+2
+2
+2
+8
concentration 3 (10), k (arcana) 2 (10), k (geography) 2 (10)

Curse of the fatespurned, subtle magic


8th
Luckstealer 2
+3
+2
+2
+9
bluff 6, concentration 1 (11)




9th
Fatespinner 1
+3
+2
+2
+11
concentration 1 (12), spellcraft 4 (9)
dimensional jaunt
Spin fate


10th
Fatespinner 2
+4
+2
+2
+12
concentration 1 (13), spellcraft 4 (13)

Fickle finger of fate


11th
Fatespinner 3
+4
+3
+3
+12
concentration 1 (14), sleight of hand 3, spellcraft 1 (14)

Spin destiny


12th
Fatespinner 4
+5
+3
+3
+13
concentration 1 (15), sleight of hand 4 (7), spellcraft 1 (15)
survivor’s luck
Deny fate, resist fate


13th
Fatespinner 5
+5
+3
+3
+13
concentration 1 (16), sleight of hand 4 (11), spellcraft 1 (16)

Seal fate


14th
Wayfarer Guide 1
+5
+3
+3
+15
concentration 1 (17), k (religion) 2, spellcraft 1 (17), swift concentration,

Enhanced capacity, improved range


15th
Wayfarer Guide 2
+6/+1
+3
+3
+16
concentration 1 (18), k (religion) 3 (5), conceal spellcasting
make your own luck
Extra teleportation


16th
Wayfarer Guide 3
+6/+1
+4
+4
+16
concentration 1 (19), k (religion) 3 (8), false theurgy

Enhanced accuracy


17th
Luckstealer 3
+6/+1
+5
+5
+16
bluff 5 (11), concentration 1 (20), collector of stories,




18th
Luckstealer 4
+7/+2
+5
+5
+17
bluff 7 (18), concentration 1 (21)
quicken spell
Lucky magic, desperate recall 1/day


19th
Master specialist 4
+8/+3
+5
+5
+18
concentration 1 (22), k (religion) 6 (14)

Minor school esoterica


20th
Master specialist 5
+8/+3
+5
+5
+18
concentration 1 (23), k (religion) 6 (20)

Expanded spellbook




Spells per Day


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


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


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


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


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


5th
4
3
2
1
-
-
-
-
-
-


6th
4
3
3
2
-
-
-
-
-
-


7th DEAD
4
3
3
2
-
-
-
-
-
-


8th
4
4
3
2
1
-
-
-
-
-


9th
4
4
3
3
2
-
-
-
-
-


10th
4
4
4
3
2
1
-
-
-
-


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


12th
4
4
4
4
3
2
1
-
-
-


13th DEAD
4
4
4
4
3
2
1
-
-
-


14th
4
4
4
4
3
3
2

-
-


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


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


17th
4
4
4
4
4
3
3
2
-
-


18th
4
4
4
4
4
4
3
2
1
-


19th
4
4
4
4
4
4
3
3
2



20th
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
3
2
1





You’re up and running as a wizard. Abrupt jaunt, as ever, gives you additional defensive punch, as does Dallah Thaun’s luck. Lucky start begins laying groundwork for your later luck-focused goodies. Cloudy conjuration allows some free bfc, so make use of it whenever possible.



It begins. Welcome to luckstealer. For every 3 points you put into your luck pool (easily achievable with an item to boost charisma) via your curse of the fatespurned ability, you can use one of your luck rerolls. As your career goes on, you get more and more rerolls and more cool stuff to do with them.

Dimensional jaunt allows you to teleport without spending spells. Fatespinner, a cool flavorful class. You can boost your dcs, force friends or enemies to reroll, boost skills, attacks, and saves, automatically stabilize when dying, and even slam an enemy with a -10 to its next save (or boost an ally with a +10) this will become important thematically.



Welcome to wayfarer guide. In your travels across the world, you’ve picked up a few tricks. The extra 5th to use a teleportation spell shores up the level you lose in casting, and your accuracy and distance for teleportation is boosted, plus you can take more people with you.

Sling spells, use teleportation related goodies such as scattering trap, dimensional shuffle, and anticipate teleportation and master space and time.



It’s time to talk about my homegirl Nybor.

A number of 3.0 spells were named after her, and many were updated to 3.5 with her name removed. There were of course a few that slipped through the cracks.

I’d like to draw your attention to Nybor's joyful voyage (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mb/20041215a)

Cast it on a target and it teleports way the heck out of your life.

Check out the chart. While your component pieces function alone and do cool stuff on their own, they come together to serve this spell to help you keep people out of the place you guard:

Spin fate can boost your dc, seal fate can ensure an enemy fails the save, improved range makes sure you put your opponent out of your hair, enhanced accuracy allows you to roll twice and choose the result you prefer (read: shunt your enemy down which, thanks to your improved range, instantly kills them without a save) and lucky magic allows you to reroll some of those dice again in case they don’t meet your needs.

Even if your enemy makes the save with the odds stacked against it, it still takes a bunch of damage, so may die outright anyway. Cast it all the time, make some smoke since it’s a conjuration spell too, and enjoy life.

Desperate recall also allows you to recoup a slot up to a 9th in exchange for burning points from your luck pool, easily worth the level in spellcasting progression luckstealer costs and letting you finish with an effective 18/20 caster progression from your extra 9th.





srd: wizard, spell focus, quicken spell
phb2: abrupt jaunt
complete mage: master specialist, dimensional jaunt, cloudy conjuration
races of the wild: luckstealer, dallah thaun’s luck
complete arcane: fatespinner, wayfarer guide
complete scoundrel: lucky start, unbelievable luck, survivor’s luck, make your own luck
forgotten realms campaign setting: strongheart halfling
nybor's joyful voyage (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mb/20041215a)

[Inevitability]

Let's see what the next competitor has cooked up!


The Ghost of Grobzok the Guardian

https://orig00.deviantart.net/2327/f/2013/200/c/7/c7602e1a824cd774f6dd3aff1dd9de77-d64o4bg.jpg


You see an orc with a pie. The room is 10 feet by 10 feet.

Lawful Evil Orc Warrior 1/Dread Necromancer10/Tomb Warden2/Dread Witch 5
Medium Undead (Augmented Humanoid) (Incorporeal)

Str 12->16 (Orc)
Dex 14
Con 8-> null (Ghost template)
Int 13->11 (Orc)
Wis 10->8 (Orc)
Cha 15->13 (Orc) ->17 (Ghost Template)




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


1
Warrior 1
+1
+2
+0
+0
Intimidate 4, Craft (Pie) 2
Toughness
-


3
Ghost template
-
-
-
-
-
-
Special Attacks: Corrupting Gaze, Draining Touch, Malevolence


4
Dread Necromancer 1
+1
+2
+0
+2
Knowledge (Arcana) 1, Craft (Pie) (3)
-
Charnel Touch, Rebuke Undead


5
Dread Necromancer 2
+2
+2
+0
+3
Knowledge (Arcana) 2, Craft (Pie) 4
Ghostly Grasp
Lich Body DR 2


6
Dread Necromancer 3
+2
+3
+1
+3
Knowledge (Arcana) 3, Craft (Pie) 5, Spellcraft 1
-
Negative Energy Burst 1/day, +1 Intelligence


7
Dread Necromancer 4
+3
+3
+1
+4
Craft (Pie) 6, Spellcraft 3
-
Advanced Learning (Kelgore’s Grave Mist), Mental Bastion +2


8
Dread Necromancer 5
+3
+3
+1
+4
Craft (Pie) 8, Spellcraft 4
Quicken Manifestation
Fear Aura


9
Dread Necromancer 6
+4
+4
+2
+5
Craft (Pie) 10, Concentration 1
-
Scabrous Touch 1/day


10
Tomb Warden 1
+5
+6
+2
+5
Craft (Pie) 11, Concentration 2.5
-
Turn Immunity, +1 Charisma


11
Tomb Warden 2
+6
+7
+2
+5
Craft (Pie) 12, Concentration 5
Reach Spell
Tomb Sense


12
Dread Witch 1
+6
+7
+2
+7
Craft (Pie) 13, Concentration 7
-
Master of Terror, Unnatural Will


13
Dread Witch 2
+7
+7
+2
+8
Craft (Pie) 14, Concentration 9
-
Absorb Fear, +1 Spellcasting


14
Dread Witch 3
+7
+8
+3
+8
Craft (Pie) 15, Concentration 11
Practiced Spellcaster
Fearful Empowerment 1/day, +1 Spellcasting, +1 Charisma


15
Dread Witch 4
+8
+8
+3
+9
Craft (Pie) 16, Concentration 13
-
Delay Fear, Greater Master of Terror, +1 Spellcasting


16
Dread Witch 5
+8
+8
+3
+9
Craft (Pie) 17, Concentration 15
-
Fearful Empowerment 2/day, Horrific Aura, Reflective Fear, +1 Spellcasting


17
Dread Necromancer 7
+8
+8
+3
+9
Craft (Pie) 18, Concentration 16,
Fell Frighten
Lich Body DR 4, Summon Familiar


18
Dread Necromancer 8
+9
+8
+3
+10
Craft (Pie) 19, Intimidate 5
-
Advanced Learning (Touch of Vecna), Negative Energy Burst 2/day, Undead Mastery, +1 Charisma


19
Dread Necromancer 9
+9
+9
+4
+10
Craft (Pie) 20, Intimidate 7
-
Negative Energy Resistance


20
Dread Necromancer 10
+10
+9
+4
+11
Craft (Pie) 21, Intimidate 9
Positive Energy Resistance
Light Fortification 25%




Spells per Day/Spells Known


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


4th
3
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


5th
4
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


6th
5
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


7th
6
3
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


8th
6
4
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


9th
6
5
3
-
-
-
-
-
-


13th
6
6
4
-
-
-
-
-
-


14th
6
6
5
3
-
-
-
-
-


15th
6
6
6
4
-
-
-
-
-


16th
6
6
6
5
3
-
-
-
-


17th
6
6
6
6
4
-
-
-
-


18th
6
6
6
6
5
3
-
-
-


19th
6
6
6
6
6
4
-
-
-


20th
6
6
6
6
6
5
3
-
-




Masterwork Pie Tin, studded Leather Armor, falchion, javelin

Grobzok never intended to be a guard. But when the Orc tribe’s Master Piemaker left to deliver a shipment to a nearby pie distributor, Grobzok was given the task of guarding the master’s secret recipe (which had been taped to the bottom of a pie tin) as well as the pie he’d made for himself. Unfortunately for Grobzok, fate and a group of murderous adventurers intervened. On the first round, he was hit by a Cause Fear cast by the party’s Wizard. He cowered in the corner as the adventurers went in for the kill. They ransacked the room, swiping the recipe and devouring the pie. This was too much for his spirit to bear. He manifested as a ghost almost immediately, and destroyed the invaders as they tried to wait out their food comas. Now his spirit wanders the halls of the old bakery, slaying any who would steal its doughy secrets. His spirit will only rest when the Piemaker returns to relieve him of his duties.

Grobzok’s background would be an extremely obscure tale, equivalent to a DC 30 (or higher) Bardic Knowledge check. Piecing together clues to Grobzok’s origins could be an adventure in itself. The players might need to track down the Piemaker (or one of his descendants) to finally lay his spirit to rest.



CR 1: Grobzok, as he was before his untimely death. He wasn’t quite as strong or hardy as most Orcs, but was smarter and far more charismatic. (Maybe that’s how he landed a supposedly cushy pie-guarding job).

CR 5: Grobzok has changed into a Ghost, with all of the usual features that brings with it. Charnel Touch from Dread Necromancer allows him to heal at will. This synergizes extremely well with low-level ghostly tactics like retreating into a solid wall, or floating up where low-level groups can’t yet reach. Ghostly Grasp allows him to wield weapons and manipulate items normally on the Material Plane, giving him additional versatility (and removing the need for Ghost Touch ghostly equipment). His Ghost abilities are Corrupting Gaze, Draining Touch, and Malevolence.

At this level, Grobzok has been haunting the bakery for a few years. A friendly Cleric had buried his remains (including ghostly equipment) securely below the bakery’s basement, but since his task is not yet complete Grobzok's spirit is not at rest. The bakery taken on a reputation of being a haunted house, with rumors of buried treasure. This is fairly accurate; he’s tried to keep the bakery clean by moving the bodies of less-fortunate adventurers away from the ovens to the basement. The PCs might be hired by the new proprietor of the bakery, who’s trying to clear out the ghost.

CR 10: Grobzok has taken his first level of Tomb Warden, giving him immunity to being Turned. He is casting as a Dread Necromancer 6, which gives him 3rd-level spells like Summon Undead 3, Inflict Serious Wounds, and Ray of Exhaustion. While the Lich Body class feature’s description assumes a corporeal body to start with, there’s nothing preventing the bonuses from applying to a Ghost’s incorporeal body. Grobzok’s choice for Advanced Learning is “Kelgore’s Grave Mist,” a nice spell from Players’ Handbook 2 that deals automatic Cold damage to an area, plus the chance for Fatigue. Very nice for casting in hallways.

At this level, Grobzok has been haunting the bakery for several decades, and is now a regional legend. No one has even tried to set up shop in the bakery for years. The players might get word of the bakery through an Archivist who has taken an interest in the matter. The Archivist assumes there must be some tragic story behind the haunting; the rumor of long-lost lore hidden in his tomb provides the real motivation.

CR 15 (Sweet Spot): Grobzok has just taken his 4th level of Dread Witch, and is casting as a 9th level Dread Necromancer. Reach Spell is now online, helping him to avoid getting too close when delivering spells. He’s finally high enough level to use one of the classic Necromancy spells, Animate Dead, and Practiced Spellcaster helps make up for the caster levels lost from the template, Warrior level, dead level of Dread Witch, and two levels of Tomb Guardian. It also interacts very nicely with Greater Master of Terror. His caster level is now 13, meaning enemies with less than 17 hit dice are not immune to any of his Fear spells.

At this level, Grobzok’s Tomb has become a well-known place of paranormal activity. Dozens of adventurers have tried (and failed) to destroy him and gain the treasures that now fill the basement. The players might encounter the Tomb as part of an effort to secure peace between a nearby Orc tribe and a human kingdom. The Orc chieftain will consider peace if the party can lay Grobzok’s spirit to its final rest.

CR 20: Grobzok has reached the height of his spellcasting power, gaining the use of 7th-level spells like Create Undead, Destruction, and Finger of Death. Undead Mastery gives him a larger number of undead to be controlled. At 17th level, Grobzok summons a Vargouille familiar. At his option, he can use his Malevolence ability to inhabit the Vargouille and attack the party directly from the material plane. At 19th, he learns Touch of Vecna (a [Fear, Necromancy] spell from Complete Mage that can permanently paralyze on a failed save). Positive Energy Resistance can grant him a bit of protection against pesky Clerics and their Cure spells.

At this level, Grobzok is a truly legendary haunting presence. He has likely been haunting the bakery for centuries now, and the details of his origins are lost to the mists of time. He may have attracted the attention of a major Cleric of Gruumsh, who hopes to use the legend of Grobzok’s faithfulness beyond death as a rallying point in a war against humans. The PCs might need to destroy the ghost once and for all to thwart the Cleric’s plans. Or, the PCs might need to retrieve the Legendary Recipe of Grobzok from his burial place beneath the bakery as a component in an important ritual.


One of the most common tactics players will use against a Ghost is Death Ward. It offers a fairly low-level (4th-level spell) method of protection against [Death] and negative energy spells and effects. If the players have Death Ward up, they will be immune to many of Grobzok’s nastiest Dread Necromancer spells. Fortunately, the spell does have a limited duration (minutes/level). Grobzok’s Tomb Sense ability from Tomb Guardian can help him detect the adventurers and delay their progress until the Ward is down.

If he’s forced to attack while the players are still warded, he does still have a few options. Fear effects will still work normally (especially after Dread Witch 5), Summoned or animated undead will still hit the party for physical damage as usual, and some of his Ghost abilities will help out too. Ghostly Grasp allows him to take up items from the material plane; weapons seized from previous invaders would be fair game. None of his ghostly attacks are tagged as Negative Energy. Corrupting Gaze will still work.

Draining Touch is more problematic. If you take the interpretation that the “drain” in the title means it’s an Energy Drain effect, it will not work on a Death Warded character. If you interpret “Energy Drain” to be a specific Special Ability that deals negative levels, Death Ward will not protect against Draining Touch.


Reach Spell, Practiced Spellcaster: Complete Divine
Dread Necromancer, Dread Witch: Heroes of Horror
Orc, Ghost Template: Monster Manual 1
Tomb Warden, Quicken Manifestation, Ghostly Grasp, Fell Frighten, Positive Energy Resistance: Libris Mortis
Kelgore’s Grave Mist: Players’ Handbook II
Touch of Vecna: Complete Mage

[Inevitability]

Because some days, being a hideous shapeshifting horror in one way just isn't enough.



Giolt
Guardian of the White Tower


Giolt started his life as an outcast. Half Zern, Half-Farspawn, a result of the experiments of the Chaos Wars. Even among his own kind they reviled him, he was not pure of form like them.

Cast out from the undercity of Zaran'Thesk, Giolt wandered the dark reaches until he met with an interesting individual. Zath'Or by name, a Drow fleshwarper by trade. Zath'Or hired Giolt on as a bodyguard seeing as he was more than capable of handling himself, and that the two were evenly matched in terms of fighting prowess. The two wandered the planes, from the orderly workings of Mechanus, to the twisted streets of Sigil. While not much of one for the magical arts Giolt learned many things on his travels with Zath'Or, dark things, how creatures worked inside and out.

These skills served him well. For one day Zath'Or underwent a ritual to ascend to godhood, But many good creatures were against this. They succeeded in interrupting the ritual but not before Zath'Or could grant a small semblance of his power on his friend and bodyguard. Giolt used his newfound power to exterminate the weakened opponents who had killed Zath'Or. Wounded but alive Giolt went into hiding for a time. Only reemerging to hunt down the families of the ones who raised arms against them.

During this revenge Giolt came across a lich by the name of Adrovras. The lich had heard of Giolt and Zath'Or and was seeking any relics that might have been left behind, he didn't expect Giolt to still be alive, but offered him a job. Guarding his tower. Giolt agreed on the condition that Adrovras help him commit genocide against the other Zern. A task that both took to with a grin, Leaving the Zern cities in shambles and the remaining denizens in warped or undead states.

Giolt now remains as the Guardian of the White Tower that overlooks the reaches of the Magewrought Isle. Keeping all supplicants of the lich from entering when he wishes it, and sometimes working as an enforcer. Many undead and living citizens of the Magewrought isle have come to resent Giolt to some degree. As Giolt is rather harsh at times, leaving people dead instead of sending them away. The past few years has seen Adrovras withdrawn to the tower and many question whether the ruler of the White tower is to be seen again. Giolt continues with the last request from Adrovras "Do not let anyone or anything enter...or exit..."


Giolt CE CR 20 Half-Farspawn Monster of Legend Outsider(native)HD: 8d8,10d10(288), Fast Healing 5
AC: 32, 18 touch, 24 Flat-footed (8 dex, 14 natural)
BAB: 18/13/8/3.
Saves: Fort 23| Ref 20| Will 17
Resistances: Spell resistance 18, Acid 10, Electricity 10. DR 5/magic
Speed: 30
Immunities: Poison, Paralysis, Stunning, polymorphing and mind-affecting effects
Ability Scores: Str 28, Dex 26, Con 32, Int 20, Wis 21, Cha 21
Attacks: 4 tentacles (1d6, Treated as Magic), Ripper 2d6
Space: 5’, Reach 10’
Senses: Darkvision 60’, Blindsight 60’




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


8 (8 HD)
Zern W/Half-farspawn
+8/3
+2
+6
+6
Balance 1,Craft(Flesh Sculpting) 3, Escape Artist 8, Heal 9, Intimidate 10, Knowledge(The Planes) 3, Knowledge(Arcana) 3, Listen 10, Spot 10, Use Rope 4
(1)Combat Reflexes
(3) Evasive Reflexes
(6)Aberration Blood: Tail
Adaptive Defenses, Warping Energy, Malleable Form, Shifting Guise, Transmutation Affinity, Change Shape, Spell-Likes,
Blindsight 60’, Immunity to poison, Resistance 10/acid & electricity, DR 5/magic and natural attacks treated as magical, SR(10+HD)




9
Crusader 1
+9/4
+4
+6
+6
Balance 3, Knowledge(History)3, Knowledge(Religion)3
(9)Improved Natural Attack(Tentacle)
Furious Counterstrike, Steely Resolve 5.
Maneuvers: Vanguard Strike, Charging Minotaur, Stone Bones, Douse the Flames, Leading the Attack.
Stances: Leading the charge




10
Crusader 2
+10/5
+5
+6
+6
Balance 5, Knowledge(History)6, Knowledge(Religion)6
-
Indomitable Soul
Stances: Leading the charge, Martial Spirit


11
Crusader 3
+11/6/1
+5
+7
+7
Balance 7, Concentration 3, Jump 3
-
Zealous Surge
Maneuvers: Mountain Hammer


12
Crusader 4
+12/7/2
+6
+7
+7
Balance 9, Intimidate 13, Jump 6
(12)Inhuman Reach
Steely Resolve 10
Maneuver Swap: Stone Bones for Tactical Strike




13
Crusader 5
+13/8/3
+6
+7
+7
Concentration 5, Knowledge(History)9, Knowledge(Religion)9
-
Maneuver: Defensive Rebuke


14
Crusader 6
+14/9/4
+7
+8
+8
Knowledge(The Planes) 5, Knowledge(Arcana) 5
-
Smite 1/day
Maneuver Swap: Douse the Flames for Revitalizing Strike




16 (14 HD)
Monster of Legend
+14/9/4
+10
+11
+11
-
Bonus Feats:
Improved Initiative, Multiattack


Raging Blood:(Electricity)
Immunities: polymorphing, mind-affecting effects
Reflective Hide
Ability bonuses: Str +10, Dex +6, Con +10, Int +2, Wis +2, Cha +4
Saves: +3 to all




17
Crusader 7
+15/10/5
+10
+11
+11
Intimidate 18
Skill Trick: Never Outnumbered, Nimble Charge


(15)Deepspawn: gains two more tentacles


Maneuver: Divine Surge


18
Crusader 8
+16/11/6/1
+11
+11
+11
Balance 8, Spot 12
Skill Trick: Clarity of Vision, Spot the Weak Point


-
Steely Resolve 15
Stance: Thicket of Blades




19
Crusader 9
+17/12/7/2
+11
+12
+12
Bluff 2, Sense Motive 2.5
-
Maneuver: Tide of Chaos


20
Crusader 10
+18/13/8/3
+12
+12
+12
Bluff 4, Sense Motive 5
Robilar's Gambit
Bonus Feat: Die Hard


Die Hard





CR 8 - Giolt is little more than a powerful wandering monster. He is quick and dangerous though and his Malleable form helps him adapt to different situations.

CR 12 - Giolt has met and has been traveling with Zath'Or for a while now and has picked up a few tricks. He prefers using his ripper and maneuvers. He only uses his Change Shape when its in dire need.

CR 16 - Sweet spot - Giolt has lost Zath'Or but has gained considerable power, becoming a true force to be reckoned with. He uses his reach, reflexes, tentacles and maneuvers to outdo many or few opponents. Spells find a hard time gaining purchase on Giolt as well.

CR 20 - At this point Giolt is a whirling frenzy on the battlefield and quite intelligent when not. He keeps the stance Thicket of Blades or Robilar's Gambit up depending on the situation. He prefers to open using his skill tricks to get in a free touch attack with his Ripper, and using his reach and stances to harry opponents. He uses his skill tricks when outnumbered and will use his reflexes to strike against opponents depending on how many there are.


Adaptive Defenses(Ex): It is immune to all spells and effects that require a Fortitude save unless the effect also works on objects or is harmless. A zern can choose to allow an effect the requires a Fortitude save to affect it.

Warping Energy(Su): As a standard action, a zern can use this ability to make a melee or ranged attack that deals 1d6 points of damage per 2 HD plus the zerns int mod. The ranged version of this attack can reach 120’ and has no range increment.

Malleable Form(Ex): As a swift action, a zern can gain one of the following benefits. Each benefit has an unlimited duration. Generally, a zern remains in one form and then slips into another one as the situation dictates. When a zern uses a swift action to gain one of these forms it loses the benefit of the form it previously held.
Adrenal Surge: The zern’s upper body muscles bulge and grow with enhanced power. It gains a +2 bonus on attack rolls and +4 bonus on damage rolls, including those using its warping energy ability.
Boneless Form: The zern’s body seems to melt into a puddle of goo as its bones liquefy. It gains a +8 bonus on escape artist checks, which increases to a +16 on checks to squeeze through a tight area.
Impervious Hide: The zern’s skin shifts into plates of armor. It gains a +4 bonus to AC and DR 5/piercing.
Size Shift: The zern can shift into large or small size. Gaining the benefits or drawbacks those sizes give.
Speed Burst: The zern’s legs lengthen and its lower body muscles bulge and grow. Its base land speed increases by 30’.

Shifting Guise(Su): As the alter self spell; at will; caster lvl 8th. A zern can choose to shift into a different monstrous humanoid form or any humanoid form.

Transmutation Affinity(Ex): The save DC’s of any transmutation spells or spell-like abilities used by a zern increase by 4.

True Strike(Su): Once per day, the creature can make a normal attack with a +20 insight bonus on a single attack roll. The Half-Farspawn is not affected by the miss chance that applies to attacks against a concealed target.

-Half-farspawn’s natural attacks are treated as magic weapons for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction.

Change Shape(Su): As a standard action, a half-farspawn can take the form of a grotesque, tentacled mass. This ability functions as described for the change shape ability except as follows:
-The creatures movement modes do not change.
-The creature retains the tentacle attacks granted by this template and gains two additional tentacle attacks, that it can use when making a full attack.
-The creature becomes amorphous. It cannot be flanked, and is not subject to extra damage from crits.
-Creatures native to the material plane take a -1 morale penalty on attack rolls against a half-farspawn in its amorphous state.

Raging Blood(Su): Whenever damage is dealt with a slashing or piercing weapon, its blood sprays out in a 5’ cone dealing 1d4 points of damage of electricity to all within range(no save). A Monster of Legend is not harmed by its own blood.

Immunities(Ex): Immune to polymorphing and mind-affecting effects.

Reflective Hide(Su): The creature has a silvery sheen to its skin and is permanently protected by a Spell Turning effect as the spell.

Zern
- At will. Reduce Person(DC(15)
- 1/day. Baleful Polymorph(DC(19), Gaseous Form
Half-Farspawn (CL equals creatures HD, save DC is cha based)
-3/day. Blur
-3/day. Blink
-1/day. Touch of Idiocy
-1/day. Stinking Cloud



Devoted Spirit
-Vanguard Strike
-Defensive Rebuke
-Revitalizing Strike
-Divine Surge
-Tide of Chaos
Stone Dragon
-Charging Minotaur
-Mountain Hammer
White Raven
-Leading the Attack
-Tactical Strike

Leading the charge - Swift, 60’ rad centered. All allies who hear you and make a charge attack in the area gain a bonus on damage rolls equal to your initiator level. You are your own ally.

Martial Spirit - Swift. You or an ally within 30 feet heals 2 points of damage each time you make a successful melee attack. Each time you hit an opponent in melee, you can choose a different recipient within range to receive this healing.

Thicket of Blades - Swift. any opponent you threaten that takes any sort of movement, including a 5-foot step, provokes an attack of opportunity from you. Your foes provoke this attack before leaving the area you threaten. Your opponents also cannot use the withdraw action (PH 143) to treat the square they start in as no longer threatened by you.The Tumble skill cannot be used to avoid the attack of opportunity this stance grants. In addition, lower level maneuvers that specifically state that they do not provoke an attack of opportunity are subjected to Thicket of Blades' effect. Maneuvers of equal or higher level than the Thicket of Blades stance are unaffected.


+2 Keen Adamantine Ripper. 2d6 18-20 x3
Periapt of Health & Endurance: Immune to Disease, protected by the Endure Elements spell. (MiC 254, 253)
Finned Guantlets: Swim speed 30', can always take 10 on swim checks. (MiC 249)
Dimension stride boots of landing: take 2 fewer dice of falling damage & always land on feet. +2 on jump and 5/day 60' teleport. (MiC 248)



Monster Manual 4 Pg 195: For the Zern base creature
Monster Manual 2 pg 213: for the Monster of Legend template
Lords of Madness pg 152: for the Half-Farspawn template. Same book for many feats
Complete Scoundrel: for skill tricks
Planar Handbook: for the Ripper
Tome of Battle: for the Crusader class and a few feats

[Inevitability]

That's an... interesting name.



Narfle, The Garthog
Anthraxia Temple Guard, Chevalier First Class

Stub:

CE Shadow Faratsu (Fiend Folio 42) Fiend of Possession 6 (FF204)/Dread Necromancer 1 (Heroes of Horror 85)/Marshal 1 (Miniatures Handbook 11)
Total HP: 12d8+7d6+76

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-YtMOHVRf2_4/V4enN_M2toI/AAAAAAABO50/t-p2XJfOM_w/guan-yu-statue-42.jpg?imgmax=1600

Demodand/Faratsu/Shadow Traits

Continuous Freedom of Movement, Poison Immunity, Outsider Traits: All Good Saves, 8+INT skills per HD (x4 at 1st lvl = 32 +80 = 112 @CR12) Simple/Martial weapon proficiencies. Light Armor Proficiency, Shield Proficieny, don’t need to eat or sleep. Darkvision 60 ft, can’t be raised or resurrected except w/ limited wish/miracle/true resurrection.
Init +5, Speed 40, AC 25 (+1 DEX, +14 natural) touch 11, flat 24
BAB/Grapple 11/23 Attack: Claw (1d4+4) +15 Full: 2 claws +15, bite (1d6+2) +10
Size: Large
Skills at CR 1: Bluff 4, Concentrate 2, Hide 4, Initimidate 4, Knowledge Arcana 2, Knowledge Religion 4, , Spot 2, Sense Motive 4, UMD 4.
Add 80 total ranks for skills at CR 12: Bluff 12, Conc 6, Heal 10, Hide 14, Intim 14, Know Arc 10, Know Rel 12, Spot 6, Sense Motive 14, UMD 14

Shadow Template

Manual of the Planes 190 (only listing changes to base)
Speed: as base x 1.5 = 60ft
Gain Cold Resistance 5+1/HD, Lowlight Vision, Shadow Blend: in conditions other than full daylight, disappear into the shadows and gain 90% concealment. (Su) abilities based on HD: 4- +2 luck bonus on all saving throws, 8- Regenerate 2 hp/round, 12- Mirror Image 1/day, 16- Evasion
Skills: Move Silently +6


Special Attacks:

Adhesive Slime

A thick tarlike substance that is secreted and acts as a powerful adhesive. +8 bonus to Grapple and disarm checks. Any weapon strike requires a REF save DC 17 or it’s stuck. A STR check DC 17 is required to free it. Dousing in Oil dissolves the slime, requiring 10 mins to “regrow” it. Can dissolve at will, slime breaks down 1 minute after creature dies. Grants a +8 racial bonus to Climb.


Improved Grab

If it hits w/ claw attack, can attempt grapple as a free action w/o provoking AoO. Grapple Bonus is +23, or +25 when raging.


Rage

3/day. +4 to STR and CON, +2 to WILL saves, -2 AC. Following in effect at CR12 (will of course change as stats/classes change) 11d8+66 (110 hp), AC 23 (9 touch, 22 flat) BAB/Grapple +13/+25. Full attack: 2 claws +17, bite +12 (1d4+6/1d6+6). Lasts 7 rounds, NOT fatigued at end of rage.


SLA’s

At Will: Detect Magic, Clairaudience/Clairvoyance, Fear, Invisibility, Tongues
3/day: Fog Cloud, Ray of Enfeeblement
2/day: Dispel magic
CL 11, DC 13+ spell level


Summon Demodand

1/day attempt to summon 1d4 faratsu’s (as summon monster). success on 70-100% roll. Summons last for 1 hour. Once summoned, can’t use its own Summon Demodand ability for 1 hour.

Acid&Poison Immunity, Cold&Fire Resistance 10, DR 10/+1, Outsider Traits, Scent, SR 23


Stats:

Base:
STR 19
DEX 13
CON 14
INT 8
WIS 12
CHA 16

Elite Array:
STR 19-11+8= 16 (+3)
DEX 13-11+10= 10 (+0)
CON 14-10+14= 18 (+4)
INT 8-10+12= 10 (+0)
WIS 12-10+13= 15 (+2)
CHA 16-10+15= 21 (+5)
All points into CHA = CHA 25 at CR 19 (+7)


Background


Narfle was tired of being picked on by the damned Kelubar and Shator who just thought ‘SO MUCH’ of themselves. As a youngling he was forced to act as a scullery maid and clean up the summoning chamber after things went awry, as was more often than not. He was constantly subjected to a dimensional anchor as they kept an active gate in that room. Then one day, they slipped up and it wasn’t cast on him, he played the dummy, and at the first opportunity bolted through. The gate led to the Material Plane that he’d heard so much about, a dreamland of sorts in comparison to the hell that is Carceri.

He wandered for a time, eventually finding a home of sorts at the Temple Anthraxia, a sort of dumping ground for relics and items of power from across the land. The grounds were immense, several massive pryamids, surrounded on all sides by statues of every size and shape. They were made of every material imaginable, stone, steel, glass, even gold, diamond, cold iron, and adamantine!

The Temple’s guardians recognized in him something special, and took him in. His training began as a lowly Groundskeeper. Here he learned every nook and cranny of the enormous complex. At times he would stumble into a party of thieves bent on pillaging the sacred idols, and occasionally would fly into a seemingly endless rage while he tore them apart.

He was promoted to Temple Guardling, the lowest rank of that caste. He gained new powers by eavesdropping on some of the Temple’s guardians. He could now hide within his precious statues and spy unseen on the entire complex. He quickly became a vicious and feroucious Guard, promoted time and again. He surpassed his keepers again, and became the first outsider to be placed in charge of security for the entire complex.
The others, when he chose to appear before them, now bowed and scraped and showed him the respect, not the other way around. Those that chose to ignore him, or speak ill of him in the shadows soon found themselves suddenly in his thrall. Many never came back at all from that, or if they did, would walk about in a trance for hours at a time, as if automatons.

The constant desire to simply be more led to him adding grafts to himself, further increasing his abilities.

Narfle could be anywhere, at anytime, in anything or anyone. This was his POWER.

Build Table



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


12
Shadow Faratsu
+11
+7
+7
+7
Bluff 12, Concentration 6, Heal 10, Hide 14, Intimidate 14, Knowledge Arcana 10, Knowledge Religion 12, Spot 6, Sense Motive 14, UMD 14
1- Mad Foam Rager, 3- Blessing of the Godless, 6- Naturalized Denizen, 9- Craft Rune Circle (B) – Improved Grab
Continous Freedom of Movement, Outsider Traits, Shadow Template, Adhesive Slime, Rage, SLA’s, Summon Demodand


13
Fiend of Possession 1
+11
+9
+9
+9
Hide 15, Spot 7
Frightful Presence
Ethereal Form, Hide Presence, Possess Object


14
Dread Necromancer 1
+11
+9
+9
+11
Hide 16, Concentration 7
-
Charnel Touch, Rebuke Undead, Spells


15
Fiend of Possession 2
+12
+10
+10
+12
Hide 17, Spot 8
-
Curse, Magic Item


16
Fiend of Possession 3
+12
+10
+10
+12
Hide 18, Spot 9
Create Graft
Control Object


17
Fiend of Possession 4
+13
+11
+11
+13
Hide 19, Spot 10
-
Animate Object, Possess Creature


18
Fiend of Possession 5
+13
+11
+11
+13
Hide 20, Spot 11
-
Ally or Enemy, Possess noncontinuous object


19
Fiend of Possession 6
+14
+12
+12
+14
Hide 21, Spot 12
Ability Focus: Control Creature
Control Creature


20
Marshal 1
+14
+14
+12
+16
Hide (cc) 22 Spot 14
Skill Focus (Diplomacy)
Minor Aura: Motivate Charisma



Class’s Breakdown:
(( I actually think each level is more awesome then the one before it, and there for every level is the sweet spot ))

CR12:
At creation, you can summon 1d4 of your base self 1/day with a 30% chance of success, which means at any given time you could have 1-4 other farastu’s around for an hour to grapple things to death, or fly into a rage, or spam SLA’s to their hearts content. Mad Foam Rager means you can delay the effects of any harmful action until the END of your next turn, basically a “nope” button for a round. Later on this will become even more useful. Naturalized Denizen removes the Extraplanar subtype from you, meaning one of your greatest weaknesses no longer exists. Blessing of the Godless has 3 ceremonies, all of which are beneficial to you: Dark Pact grants your Class Level x number of participants (yourself and up to 5 others) in temporary health points per 24 hours that anyone can draw from. At CR 20, that’s 120 temporary HP’s that can be used for healing (if you’re not counting racial HD as class levels, then you have 8 levels X 6 participants for 48 hps). Anoint the Wicked grants a +4 bonus on checks to save against Intimidate as well as fear saves. Shield of the Godless grants +4 on saves vs Divine spells, DR 5/smites, and if any are affected by a divine spell, all participants w/in 60 ft get +2 on attack and dmg rolls for 1 round. Craft Rune Circle is picked up and can start to be used to create or repair others in the temple already. Improved Grab and Freedom of Movement work together to make it so you (and your summons) can grapple all they want w/o being grappled themselves. Shadow template gives 90% concealment anytime there’s a shadow around, as well as the first 2 special abilities: +2 to all saves and Regeneration 2. At this level you’re a beatstick, who might have a beatstick or 4 more next to you. You can spam invisibility for all of them at will, as well as several other SLA’s. Resistances, DR and SR on top of all that. Your summons can cast summon Damodand in the instant before they themselves wink out of existence, over and over, so assuming a continual chain of successes, you’ll always have at least 1 underling around.

CR13-15

Fiend of Possession and Dread Necromancer combine to allow you to be able to first and most importantly become Ethereal at will and possess mundane objects freely. Mad Foam Rager means you can be hit w/ something nasty, turn ethereal, no longer be effected by whatever hit you, and then go on about your day. Using clairvoyance/audience as an at will SLA allows you to be able to see normally whenever you’re ethereal or in possession of anything, knowing what’s coming from every direction as you can just create as many of them as you want and bounce between them. Once inside an object, you can spam fear as an SLA at will every round, driving enemies away.

Etherealness: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm
An ethereal creature is invisible, insubstantial, and capable of moving in any direction, even up or down, albeit at half normal speed. As an insubstantial creature, you can move through solid objects, including living creatures. An ethereal creature can see and hear on the Material Plane, but everything looks gray and ephemeral. Sight and hearing onto the Material Plane are limited to 60 feet. Force effects (such as magic missile and wall of force) and abjurations affect an ethereal creature normally. Their effects extend onto the Ethereal Plane from the Material Plane, but not vice versa. An ethereal creature can’t attack material creatures, and spells you cast while ethereal affect only other ethereal things. Certain material creatures or objects have attacks or effects that work on the Ethereal Plane (such as a basilisk’s gaze attack). Treat other ethereal creatures and ethereal objects as if they were material.
Dread Necro gives us our only actual spellcasting beyond SLA’s, most importantly undetectable alignment, meaning two castings will hide you completely as evil and chaotic. Maybe 1 casting depending on how you interpret the spell. Hide Presence allows you to make a hide check with a few extra benefits. Namely you could be possessing an object or creature and be carried through things like a circle of protection against evil, you could prevent a smite evil attack from working by denying the ability from detecting you as evil, etc (effectively stopping any alignment based spells or abilities). Curse combined w/ possess object allows you to use “bestow curse” freely as well. How about you possess the stones in a bridge, as the party walks over it, they’re all subject to -6 to an ability score, permanently. How about a door, a bridge, a trap, etc. Anything that’s one continuous slab. At these levels you can possess anything from Tiny to Huge. Add Magic Item into that, which allows you to also grant up to your class level in enhancement bonus’s to a mundane item, or increase an already magic item’s enhancement even further.

You leave a magic sword laying on the ground in the temple somewhere, a measely +1 longsword. Then you possess it and turn it into a +4 sword or anything. You make your hide check, you’ve cast undetectable alignment for the day so you can’t be detected by detect evil. The party comes along, identifies the sword as a +4 sword, you bestow curse on the idiot that picks it up (the item isn’t cursed until you decide it is), then abandon the sword by turning ethereal and possessing the next thing and bestow another curse applying another -6 penalty, wash rinse repeat. The text of Frightful Presence states “anytime you attack or charge” but doesn’t state you have to be visible. Anytime you’re activating any of your abilities, you’re obviously attacking, and so everyone in the area has to make a fear save or be shaken (unless they’ve saved against it in the last 24 hours).

CR16-18

Create Graft comes online to let you start augmenting yourself with Fiendish Grafts. You can use UMD or find someone in the temple to cast the spells necessary. Over time, you’ll just end up with every one in the book if you’re not killed. Control Object and Animate Object lets you possess any non-magical material object and animate it. So now all those huge statues around the temple can come alive and attack intruders. That Ballista can fire down the hallway, doors can shut again or refuse to open in the first place, traps can rearm, catapults can fire, wagons can roll, etc. You can now possess Gargantuan and then Colossal objects as well, nothing like a 32-64 ft tall statue, weighing up to 125 tons, (colossal is even bigger!) coming alive and trying to kill you w/ a massive stone sword/mace/shield/fist (that now has a +6 enhancement bonus of some kind) that when it touches you bestows a curse, and who’s controller can’t be banished out of it as you can’t detect him, nor cast spells targeting an extraplanar creature to force him out of possession. Possess Creature allows you to piggyback inside another being, your undetectable alignment means their protection against evil doesn’t stop you automatically. You merge with that creature, so can’t be targeted individually from it. (can you bestow curse on them from inside? They’re touching you technically..) Ally or Enemy means you can grant or penalize any ability score by 4 points, at will as a free action. On top of the -6 from bestow curse means a -10 to an ability score of an opponent that failed it’s possession save.. Non-continous object now allows you to possess things like a pool of water, dust clouds, whole sections of walls or flooring to continue the assault.


CR 19-20

Control creature comes online to now allow you to take over the PC’s entirely. An opponent failing their will save DC 29, or 36 w/ Marshal’s aura is now completely under your control for a minimum of 13 rounds with access to all the abilities, skills, feats, and spell knowledge, acting for all intents as the creature itself while using your own INT/WIS/CHA (remember you can grant a +4 bonus to yourself now while in control If you need to meet spell req’s..) while gaining all of its physical stats. (remember you can’t be banished or dismissed..) Marshal grants skill focus diplomacy, however in most other instances, an evil character has the ability to have diplomacy function as Intimidate, which we’d apply. Minor Aura Motivate Charisma lets us double up on our CHA modifier (+7) for everything it relates to, which happens to be every ability we use in the entire build, and especially DC’s for them.



Feats:


Minor Aura: Motivate Charisma - Add your CHA bonus (+7) to all CHA checks and skills. So we’re double dipping our CHA to increase the DC of all our spells, as well as our possession abilities.

1- Mad Foam Rager (PHB2 80) – once per rage, delay the effects of a spell, ability, or attack until the end of your next turn
3- Blessing of the Godless (EoE 23) – ceremonies based off Know: Religion. Each takes 6 mins to perform, lasts 24 hours.
6- Naturalized Denizen – (UA 94) Lose the extraplanar subtype, can no longer be banished/dismissed or the like that targets extraplanar creatures.
9- Craft Rune Circle – (Races of Stone 137 & 168)

The examples listed on 168 are for dwarves, gnomes, goliaths, but you can create a rune circle to affect those as you see fit, so modifying a few of the sample ones to instead target Fiends shouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility, or to conform w/ your CL restriction.
Most commonly used: Deep Hollow Circle- Grants 1 additional Faratsu when casting summon Demodand, meaning you’ll always get at least 2 provided you succeed. Or maybe you create one to increase the probability of your summon being successful..
Goliath’s Rage Ring – any round spent inside the 40 ft radius circle doesn’t count towards rage’s duration.

12- Frightful Presence – (Draconomicon 107) – when you attack or charge, all opponents within 30 ft of you who have fewer levels or HD than you become shaken for 1d6+CHA rounds, DC 10 + ½ char level + CHA negates. (doesn’t say they have to be able to see you…)
15- Graft Flesh (FF 207) – can create and apply Fiendish Grafts to yourself or another
18- Ability Focus (MM 303) Gain +2 DC to special ability: Control Creature

Dread Necromancer Spells (*’s most commonly used) can cast 5 per day (3 from class, 2 bonus)
Know: Bane, Bestow Wound, Cause Fear, Chill Touch, Detect Magic, Detect Undead, Doom*, Hide from Undead, Inflict Light Wounds, Ray of Enfeeblement*, Summon Undead 1, Undetectable Alignment*

Fun things:

Fiendish Grafts can be applied one at a time, over time. Any missing spells can be gotten via Fiend of possession 6, or UMD for wands/staffs.
Same for Craft Rune Circles, you can get spells you don’t have access to in that way, or use the ones you have to create runes beneficial to you.



Sources

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/typesSubtypes.htm#outsiderType

Draconomicon 107
Exemplars of Evil: 23
Fiend Folio 42, 204, 207
Heroes of Horror 85
Manual of the Planes 190
Miniatures Handbook 11
Monster Manual 303
PHB2 80
Races of Stone 137, 168
Unearthed Arcana 94

[Inevitability]

Screw this, it's 00:13 AM here and I already made a vamp joke. Read that one again if you must.



SHARLA THE BLACK ANGEL

Human vampire, Duskblade 13, Crusader 5

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/2d/ae/8c/2dae8c8f631f81c2085050e82a7d3277.jpg

There are many legendary sites on Toril, places filled with magic and danger. Few are as infamous as Larloch's Crypt, an ancient fortress build in the ruins of a crashed Netherese city. Ruled by Larloch, an unbelievably ancient and insane lich, for centuries it has been a place adventurers don't return from.

And Sharla is its first line of defense.

Born in Baldur's Gate, to a secret cult of Talona controlled by one of Larloch's vampire lords, she was bred for a single purpose – to kill any mortals that dare approach the crypt, so that the liches of the necropolis could work unbothered. She was trained since childhood to be a deadly combatant, learning of all the creatures she could face, and how to kill them, as well as how to channel the spite of her goddess to fulfill her master's goals. Once her skills were deemed sufficient, she received a vampiric embrace, her slower classmates soon dying at her fangs to become her first thraals.

Between her training, and the predatory instincts inherited with the kiss of vampirism, Sharla's mind has been twisted. She's a sadistic monster, delighting in the suffering of others, whose bloodlust is only tempered by her unquestioning loyalty to her master.

Sharla spends her unlife in the gatehouse build on the approach to Larloch's Crypt. Once the perimeter security spells are triggered, she leaves her post at the gate, and goes on a hunt, her bat servants and thrall spreading out through the perpetually dark forest to locate the interlopers, allowing Sharla herself to engage them in a war of attrition – using her flight ability, she engages the enemy in a series of hit and run attacks, draining their resources while her own injuries recover through fast healing. Eventually they all die, either butchered in combat, or dominated when their protection spells finally run out. Those that seem useful for her job, adventurers skilled at tracking or divination, Sharla transforms and enslaves, replacing any thralls she might have callously sacrificed in the battle. The rest are carried off to the fortress, doomed to become lesser undead.

Sharla is a long-haired,attractive blonde, embraced at the peak of her physical abilities.While she is never really off duty, she likes wearing expensive, elegant dresses when out of combat, about the only indulgence beyond torturing her victims that she allows herself. Sometimes she even wears them while stalking her prey, keeping her free from the noisy burden of armor while stealth might still be useful.

However,once the fight is imminent, it only takes her seconds to don herequipment – one twist of her magical armament ring, and theexpensive silks disappear, replaced by enameled mithral breastplate,white wings unfurl, no longer hidden by the elegant cape, and thelady's fan is replaced by a wicked-looking black spear.


Starting: STR 14 DEX 15CON 8 INT 13 WIS 12 CHA 10
Level 4 : STR 14 DEX 15 CON 8 INT 14WIS 12 CHA 10
Level 6 : STR 20 DEX 19 CON - INT 16 WIS 14 CHA 14
Level 8 : STR 20 DEX 20 CON - INT 16 WIS 14 CHA 14
Level 12 :STR 20 DEX 20 CON - INT 17 WIS 14 CHA 14
Level 16 : STR 20 DEX 20CON - INT 18 WIS 14 CHA 14



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


1
duskblade1
+1
+2
+0
+2
concentration 4, spellcraft 4, knowledge religion 4,knowledge local 4
power attack, arcane disciple (Talona, suffering domain)
arcane attunement
armored mage (light)


2
duskblade2
+2
+3
+0
+3
concentration 5, spellcraft 4, knowledge religion 5,knowledge local 5 knowledge dungeoneering 1
combat casting



3
duskblade3
+3
+3
+1
+3
concentration 6, spellcraft 4, knowledge religion 6,knowledge local 6 knowledge dungeoneering 1,
knowledge arcana 1
knowledge devotion
arcane channeling


4
duskblade4
+4
+4
+1
+4
concentration 7, spellcraft 4, knowledge religion 7,knowledge local 7 knowledge dungeoneering 1
knowledge arcana 2,knowledge planes 2, knowledge nature 2

arcane mage (medium)


5
duskblade5
+5
+4
+1
+4
concentration 8, spellcraft 4, knowledge religion 7,knowledge local 7 knowledge dungeoneering 2
knowledge arcana 2knowledge planes 2
knowledge nature 2

quick cast x1


8
duskblade6 vampire template
+6
+5
+2
+5
concentration 9, spellcraft 4, knowledge religion 7,knowledge local 7 knowledge dungeoneering 3
knowledge arcana 3knowledge planes 3
knowledge nature 4
martial study, alertness, combat reflexes, dodge,improved initiative, lightning reflexes
spell power+2

vampire traits


9
crusader1
+7
+7
+2
+5
concentration 10, spellcraft 4, knowledge religion 7,knowledge local 7 knowledge dungeoneering 3
knowledge arcana 3knowledge planes 3
knowledge nature 4 balance 5 intimidate 2

furious counterstrike
steely resolve 5


10
crusader2
+8
+8
+2
+5
concentration 11, spellcraft 4, knowledge religion 7,knowledge local 7 knowledge dungeoneering 3
knowledge arcana 3knowledge planes 3
knowledge nature 4 balance 5 intimidate 2

indomitable soul


11
duskblade7
+9
+8
+2
+5
concentration 12, spellcraft 4, knowledge religion 7,knowledge local 7 knowledge dungeoneering 3
knowledge arcana 3knowledge planes 3
knowledge nature 4 balance 5 intimidate 9
arcane strike
armored mage (heavy shield)


12
duskblade8
+10
+9
+2
+6
concentration 13, spellcraft 4, knowledge religion 7,knowledge local 7 knowledge dungeoneering 4
knowledge arcana 4knowledge planes 4
knowledge nature 5 balance 5 intimidate 9




13
duskblade9
+11
+9
+3
+6
concentration 14, spellcraft 4, knowledge religion 7,knowledge local 7 knowledge dungeoneering 6
knowledge arcana 6knowledge planes 5
knowledge nature 5 balance 5 intimidate 9




14
duskblade10
+12
+10
+3
+7
concentration 15, spellcraft 4, knowledge religion 7,knowledge local 7 knowledge dungeoneering 7
knowledge arcana 7knowledge planes 7
knowledge nature 6 balance 5 intimidate 9
practiced spellcaster
quick cast x2


15
duskblade11
+13
+10
+3
+7
concentration 16, spellcraft 4, knowledge religion 7,knowledge local 8 knowledge dungeoneering 8
knowledge arcana 8knowledge planes 8
knowledge nature 7 balance 5 intimidate 9
improved toughness
spell power+3


16
duskblade12
+14
+11
+4
+8
concentration 17, spellcraft 4, knowledge religion 8,knowledge local 9 knowledge dungeoneering 8
knowledge arcana 8knowledge planes 9
knowledge nature 9 balance 5 intimidate 9




17
duskblade13
+15
+11
+4
+8
concentration 18, spellcraft 4, knowledge religion 8,knowledge local 9 knowledge dungeoneering 8
knowledge arcana 8knowledge planes 9
knowledge nature 9 balance 5 intimidate 9

arcane channeling (full attack)


18
crusader3
+16
+11
+5
+9
concentration 19, spellcraft 4, knowledge religion 8,knowledge local 9 knowledge dungeoneering 8
knowledge arcana 8knowledge planes 9
knowledge nature 9 balance 5 intimidate 17

zealous surge


19
crusader4
+17
+12
+5
+9
concentration 20, spellcraft 4, knowledge religion13, knowledge local 9 knowledge dungeoneering 8
knowledge arcana 8knowledge planes 9
knowledge nature 9 balance 5 intimidate 20

steely resolve 10


20
crusader5
+18
+12
+5
+9
concentration 21, spellcraft 4, knowledge religion20, knowledge local 9 knowledge dungeoneering 8
knowledge arcana 8knowledge planes 9
knowledge nature 9 balance 5 intimidate 21
improved sunder








Level
0lvl
1st
2nd
3rd
4th


1st
3
2
-
-
-


2nd
4
3
-
-
-


3rd
5
4
-
-
-


4th
6
5
-
-
-


5th
6
5
2
-
-


6th
6
6
3
-
-


7th
6
6
3
-
-


8th
6
6
3
-
-


9th
6
6
5
-
-


10th
6
7
6
-
-


11th
6
7
6
2
-


12th
6
8
7
3
-


13th
6
8
7
5
-


14th
6
8
8
6
-


15th
6
9
8
6
2


16th
6
9
8
6
2


17th
6
9
8
6
2


18th
6
9
8
6
2





STARTING: 0 detect magic, read magic, touch of fatigue, ghost sound, acid splash,
I shocking grasp,true strike
Level 2 I bane (suffering domain)
Level 3 I obscuring mist
Level 4 I resist energy
Level 5 II dimension hop
Level 6 II see invisibility
Level 9 II invisibility
Level 10 II acid arrow
Level 11 III vampiric touch
Level 12 III dispelling touch
Level 13 III bestow curse (suffering domain)
Level 14 III ray of exhaustion
Level 15 IV fire shield





Level
known
readied
stances


7
5
5 (2)
1


8
5
5 (2)
2


16
6
5 (2)
2


17
6
5 (2)
2


18
7
5 (2)
2





Martial study: action before thought

level 7: crusader's strike, foehammer, charging minotaur, mountain hammer, revitalizing strike, stance: martial spirit
level 8: stance: thicket of blades
level 16: daunting strike
level 17: trade mountain hammer for elder mountain hammer
level 18: rallying strike


. At this CR , Sharla isn't yet powerful enough to be a proper guard of Larloch's Crypt. She's only been a proper vampire for a couple levels. However, the party might meet her guarding one of his side-projects elsewhere. Perhaps the party goes in search of a sage who went to explore underground ruins with some adventurer bodyguards and went missing. Upon arrival, they find that a research team from Larloch's Crypt has taken over the site – a lich loremaster descended the ruins, while leaving Sharla guarding the entrance while he works.

Her fighting strategy will be relatively simple. - use minions (low level undead that came with her, or dominated adventurers, possibly spawn if she had the time to embrace anyone) to guard the perimeter. Once she's alerted to the party's presence, she'll summon her bats, drain any non-combatant captives she might have to boost her HP, and armor up.

Once the battle starts, she'll start by trying to assess how well protected the party is – starting with an attempt to dominate the biggest party member. If it works, she'll continue dominate attempts until the party fights itself. If it doesn't, she'll check for death ward – if she doesn't have a wight to send forth, she'll have to punch someone herself. She'll use minions as meat shields to avoid getting swarmed.

Once she knows what's she's dealing with,she'll take to the air. Her idea is to fight at reach, reducing the number of characters that can attack her at once, using a combination of her damage reduction and fast healing with healing abilities provided by crusader features to keep her in a fight until her opponents run out of resources. She'll only go within arm's reach if she can slam an unwarded caster.

Her coffin is stored in the bag of holding of her lich superior – if she returns to him defeated, he'll teleport out, unwilling to jeopardize his well-being for whatever is left unexplored in the ruins.


There are two items needed for her fighting strategy. The first is any cheap item that grants flight.The other is a longspear. Beyond that, any equipment will do.

Her build provides the rest – being a vampire gives her high stats,damage reduction and fast healing, as well as special attacks –domination to take over weak willed opponents, and a bat swarm to sic on casters. Her duskblade abilities augment her attacks through knowledge devotion and channeled spells, while the crusader gives her some extra means to heal herself.

One key feature is martial study, granting her access to action before thought, before her first crusader level – so it will be usable once per encounter, but always available without having to be granted. Reflex save-or-die sunlight-based effects are bane of vampires, and it is essential for her to have a counter.

Suffering domain grants her access to bane, a useful spell to quick-cast as she enters battle.




With a couple more levels under her belt, Sharla gets better at what she does. First of all, her boss will now consider her important enough to bother upgrading her with a feathered wings graft, allowing her to fly without magic. She will also expand her arsenal of spells. Among other things, she can use bestow curse once a day.


On the other hand, any competent party at this level will all have flight, reducing the effectiveness of her primary tactic. She'll use minions to compensate, trying to tie up the party while she goes after her chosen target.

Now she can be met in the forest surrounding Larloch's Crypt. No sane party would try to meet Larloch himself, but perhaps the players can be sent to retrieve something from the area she guards, such as an important item from a body of a noble who was last seen heading in that direction with a retinue of knights.

Once alerted of the party's presence, Sharla will use her minions to search the area,while scouting from the air herself – she's aware of the magical traps set in the forest, and will take note if any activate.

Having located her targets, she'll first use minions to gauge their strength– losing a couple thralls to absorb a round of rocket tag is acceptable cost. After that she will continue with her tactics from CR 10. She will first approach invisible, and if she believes the party can't see her, she'll introduce herself with a full attack on the party wizard.

Since the wards in the forest make teleportation a risky prospect, the party will likely try to leave on foot. Sharla will hound them until they die or leave – with her unlimited flight duration she can hang out of reach, waiting for their buffs to run out, and if they manage to cut her down, the coffin in the gatehouse contains a negative energy trap to kickstart her as soon as she returns – if the party takes long to find whatever they are looking for, they may end up fighting her several times.

In almost every campaign there comes a time when the party has no choice but do something crazy. Perhaps this time they do need to talk to Larloch? Too bad the gatekeeper hasn't been informed of any breathing visitors.

There are two ways this may go. Either the party can't get through Larloch's screening wards to deliver a message spell, and have to literally show up on his doorstep, hoping that whatever bargain they have in mind will be good enough to prevent him from killing them on principle. In that case, a fight near the gatehouse will attract attention of about a dozen liches,who will show up 3 rounds after Sharla drops – the party will then have one round to explain themselves (since trespassing on Larloch's turf is already a capital offense, dusting Sharla won't decrease their chances)

Or they did manage to arrange a meeting, and Larloch neglected to have her informed, because he's an ass – also won't waste his time on weaklings.


At this level Sharla is much more dangerous. Her old methods are still applicable, but she can now channel her spells through a full attack, allowing her to hit multiple targets with bestow curse. She can also shake her opponents using her impressive intimidate score (possibly followed by daunting strike to send them running), and will be quick to sunder the holy symbol of any cleric that dares cast against her. A fireshield spell provides a small melee deterrent. Finally, she's now powerful enough to have a retinue of actual vampires rather than thralls under her command.


Sources: Player's Handbook, Player's Handbook II, Monster manual I, Monster manual V, Tome of Battle, Spell compendium, Fiend Folio.

[Inevitability]

"OH YEAH" indeed.



K.A.M.
Soulfused Construct, Lost, Advanced Alchemical Golem, Totemist 2, Fighter 2, Warblade 1

The intrepid adventurers were deep underground now, having finally found the long forgotten fortress they were searching for. Buried centuries before by some powerful mage duel gone wrong.
Kal-trax gathered together treasure seekers from across the land and led them down, convinced of salvaging powerful magic items. Everyone knew of the tale of the fortress, but no one knew where it was. Only rumors and tall-tales sung at taverns.

“We saw it, it’s real!” One of Kal-trax’s companions whispered wide-eyed to him. “Everyone thinks it’s just a legend, but we SAW it!”
“What exactly did you see?” Kal-trax demanded. He knew the stories of a guardian creature that fell with the fortress, that was never relieved of duty. Still tirelessly patrolling it’s Master’s home.
throom
“It was huge! Looked almost human or dwarf like, but everything was swollen and misshaped. Like it wasn’t fully formed!” His companion had a confused look on his face. As if searching for the right words to describe it.
He shook him, trying to get him to focus.
“It looked inside out. We could see inside it. Fluids and oils bulging all over it, swirling around like a dirty pint of mead. Everything was red! Looked like blood at first, but smelled like it was burning.”
throom
“Did it carry weapons?” Kal-trax asked.
“We didn’t see any. But it’s arms and legs were massive. Had on some weird boots and spiked gauntlets that just sort of melded into it. And mist was coming from it’s head. Like it was wearing a crow of ice.”
“It was stomping through rubble and crushing stone like it was nothing. Screw the treasure. Screw the gold. We gotta leave before it notices us.
Throom
Kal-trax stared at his companions eyes as they widened in fear. He’d been hearing that faint thumping sound for some time now. They all had. Now, each time it sounded, their eyes would grow bigger and they’d have a sharp intake of breath.
Throom
In a low voice, barely a whisper. “That’s the beast! It’s coming. I’m leaving now before it catches us!”
Kal-trax shook his head, let go of his companion, and watched him rush through the old archway that marked the entrance to cavern they decided to camp in. His other companion had made his way to the far side of the cavern and was rocking back and forth holding his head, muttering nonsense. “ohno ohno ohno...”
THROOM
That pounding sound seemed much louder now, as if it was coming closer.
“ohno ohno ohno...”
From outside the archway there was a scream. Moments later his companion came sprinting into the camp again, a look of panic on his face. Speechless.
THROOM
All three treasure hunters were staring at the archway. Kal-trax ready with a sword in his hand. One companion wide-eyed and in shock from what he’d just seen. The other still on the ground holding his head and crying ever louder. “Ohno... Ohno... Ohno...”
…
…
silence
…
…
From behind them, a faint crunching sound was heard by the one on the ground.
“Ooh Nooooo!”
NUHHKKRAACKSSHHH
The cavern wall busted apart and in burst the creature. Humongous and filled with bright red chemicals.
OHH YEAAAAAHH!!!!
Before they could react, it opened it’s mouth letting out a hate filled scream. Burning bile exploded from it's mouth covering the treasure hunters, instantly melting their faces, and they knew no more...
https://wallscover.com/images/koolaid-wallpaper-20.jpg

K.A.M. was created as a guardian long ago by a talented mage. She created and lived in one of the most spectacular fortresses of that time. The mage needed something to drive off intruders and thieves while she was away. As killing every creature that came by would eventually get her in trouble with the local authorities, and disposing of the bodies would become tedious and tiresome, she created a golem to handle of security. Golems are naturally not the best thinkers around, being completely mindless, so K.A.M. was given orders to destroy the weapons and armor of any intruder that came to her home. If that didn’t drive them off, K.A.M. would continue pulverizing the creatures until that wised up and ran for it, or were killed. It did this job for many, many years, and earned a reputation where most would-be thieves avoided the mage’s home completely.

Late one morning, the mage got into it with another powerful spellslinger over some slight and they had it out at her home. The ensuing battle destroyed much of the surrounding land and ended up burying her home deep underground. It was well protected by enchantments and survived with nearly everything intact, including it’s protector K.A.M.

Years passed and K.A.M. did it’s duty. Occasionally an intelligent creature would come along and find the fortress, K.A.M. would attack and sometimes they would get away. The legend of the fortress and it’s guardian persisted.

Eventually K.A.M. wore down, having no way to repair itself or even realizing that it needed to in order to keep existing. But still it did it’s duty protecting the mage’s home. The magics of the fortress were strong, but eventually they started to break down to as the mage wasn’t around to restore them. The magics started do strange things to K.A.M. Every creature he killed had a bit of it’s soul torn away by the magics and somehow attached them to K.A.M.

One day he woke up. He experienced sentience for the first time. He instinctively knew how to control and use all those bits of soul stuffed inside him. He could make decisions, experience emotions, ...pain. It quickly drove him insane and he became Lost. A creature full of nothing but hatred and barely more than an animal. Surviving on instinct alone.
Instinct combined with programming and he eventually regained a bit of it’s mind but couldn’t pull himself away from his home and his duty. It’s all he has ever known and all he cares to know. Nothing else interests him except guarding that which has been long abandoned to time.



Ability
Score
Elite
Array
Racial
Soulfused
Construct
Lost
Hit Dice
Total


Str
15
+12
+0
+4
+1 (HD 24)
32 (+11)


Dex
14
+2
+2
+0
+2 (HD 28,35)
20 (+5)


Con
10
-
10
+4
+0
14 (+2


Int
8
-
3
-6(Minimum 1)
+2 (HD 32,36)
3 (-4)


Wis
12
+0
+0
+0
+0
12 (+1)


Cha
13
-10
+4
+0
+1(HD 35)
8 (-1)





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


11
22 HD
+16
+7
+7
+7
-
-
Acidic Touch
Berserk
Breath Weapon
Alchemical Healing
Immunity to Magic
Rupture
Construct Traits, DR
-


12
26 HD
+19
+8
+8
+8
-
-
-
-


13
30 HD
+22
+10
+10
+10
-
-
-
-


13
31 HD
+23
+10
+10
+10
-
-
-
-


14
Soulfused Construct template
+23
+10
+10
+10
Speak Language – 1 (Common)
Speak Language – 1 (Ibixian)
Intimidate – 16 (32 points)
Power Attack
Improved Bull Rush
Improved Sunder
Knockback
Shocktrooper
Cleave
Power Lunge
Strength Devotion
Shape Soulmeld (Mauling Gauntlets)
Shape Soulmeld (Thunderstep Boots)
Open Least Chakra (Feet)
Essentia Pool
Soulbound Resistence
6


15
Lost Template
+23
+10
+10
+10
-
-
Bile of Hatred, DR, Twisted Mind
-


16
Totemist 1
32 HD
+23
+12
+12
+10
Intimidate – 16.5 (33 points)
-
Wild Empathy
Illiteracy
Meldshaping
7


17
Totemist 2
33 HD
+24
+13
+13
+10
Intimidate – 17 (34 points)
Cobalt Power
Chakra Binds
Totem Chakra Bind (+1 capacity)
9


18
Fighter 1
34 HD
+25
+15
+13
+10
Intimidate 18 (35 points)
Combat Brute
Fighter Bonus Feat
10


19
Fighter 2
35 HD
+26
+16
+13
+10
Intimidate 19 (36 points)
-
Dungeon Crasher
11


20
Warblade 1
36 HD
+27
+18
+13
+10
Intimidate 20 (37 points)
Bind Vestige (Aym)
Battle Clarity (Reflex Saves)
Weapon Aptitude
Manuvers
12



Basic Combat Stats: CR 20
HP: 33d10+2d8+1d12+30(Construct)+72(Con). Average 304
AC: 32 (If 10+ damage dealt, 5d6 acid (Ref) & 2 Con(Fort) damage is sprayed DC:30
DR:10/adamantine, 20/piercing or slashing, 10/magic
Immunity to Magic
Speed: 30 ft.
BAB/Grapple: +27/+42(up to +60 w/ essentia)
Breath Weapon: 15ft cone, 5d6 Acid(Ref) and 2 Con(Fort) damage
Breath Weapon: 30 ft cone, 36d4 Acid, Ref DC:30 for 1/2
2 Slams: +38(minimum), 2d8+11+2d6(acid), x much more from feats/maneuvers/soulmelds
Bull Rush: +37 w/ essentia, more with charging, ect…
Sunder: +42(minimum), massive bonuses on damage, ignoring hardness, ect...
This is where K.A.M. really comes online. Before now, he’s just a big basic hammer with a corrosive coating. A bit scary up close, but able to be chipped away eventually once you know what to avoid.
Now, he is a big hammer with a lot of accessories and industrial strength acid at his command. All he cares about is getting up close and personal and doing as much damage as he can. All his feats were taken at the same time he gained an Intelligence Score, and they’re all focused on damage to his opponents or their gear. He has two soulmelds to boost his strength checks and damage even higher than normal, and plenty of essentia to power them. He'll usually have a soulmeld bound to his Totem chakra, or Thunderstep Boots bound to his feet to stun opponents after they take damage. He’s a heavy hitter that you don’t want to get close to, but since you’ll only encounter him underground at his home territory you won’t have much choice in the matter.
K.A.M. likes to wail on his opponents with his slams, but his scariest attack is his Bile of Hatred that at this point spews a 30 ft. cone of acid doing 31d4 damage at a DC:27 Ref save (1/2).
They are going to know he’s coming. He’ll crash through walls and obstacles to get to his target no problem. When he charges he can plow through just about anything or anyone, knocking the players into each other or walls, taking away a good chuck of HP from even the heartiest of Barbarian, and absolutely destroying any physical weapon they bring to bear on him. They won’t hate him because he’s hard to beat. They’ll hate him because of what it costs them in gear.
Most of his essentia will go into mauling gauntlets and Sphinx Claws to boost Strength checks (i.e. Bull Rush), and Thunderstep Boots and Cobalt Power for damage. It can be moved around every turn if need be for whatever reason.
Dungeoncrasher helps insure that nothing can stand in his way. More soulmelds increases his options and adds fluff and flavor(mmm, cherry). The one level of Warblade at the end gives him a useful and flavorful stance and three powerful maneuvers that just screams his theme of breaking stuff and knocking people around. Binding Aym for double damage to objects is just icing, and it is sweet. No item barred against him is safe. He will destroy them all.

Immunity to Magic (Ex): An alchemical
golem is immune to all spells, spell-like abilities, and supernatural effects that allow spell resistance, except as follows.
A neutralize poison spell slows it (as the slow spell) for 2d6 rounds, with no saving throw.
A poison spell heals all lost hit points.
Acidic Touch (Ex): An alchemical golem’s surface gleams with acid. The merest touch of the construct deals 2d6 points of acid damage. Any creature that touches an alchemical golem (such as with a grapple attack or touch spell) takes this damage as well.
Berserk (Ex): The same noxious mixture of ingredients that gives an alchemical golem life also makes it unstable. When an alchemical golem enters combat, there is a
cumulative 1% chance each round that its elemental spirit breaks free and goes berserk. The uncontrolled golem goes on a rampage, attacking the nearest living creature, or smashing an object smaller than itself if no creature is within reach, then moving on to spread more destruction. Once the golem goes berserk, no known method can reestablish control.
Breath Weapon (Su): 15-foot cone, once every 1d4+1 rounds, 5d6 acid, Refl ex DC 21 half. All creatures in the toxic, acidic cone must also make a DC 21 Fortitude save to avoid breathing in the poisonous fumes taking 2 points of Constitution damage. The save DCs are Constitution-based.
Rupture (Ex): Any single hit that deals at least 10 points of damage punctures an alchemical golem’s membrane. This releases a spray of chemicals that fills a 5-foot square in the direction from which the attack originated, its effects are identical to the breath weapon listed above. The membrane then closes, reducing the spill to a mere trickle.
When an alchemical golem is reduced to 0 hit points (by any source), the membrane collapses, spilling out all the remaining chemicals. The noxious materials fill a 15-foot radius with the same effect as the breath weapon.
Soulbound Resistance: A soulfused construct can invest its essentia in this special quality as if it were a soulmeld. Every point of invested essentia grants it a +1 resistance bonus on all saving throws. The maximum essentia capacity of this quality is as normal for a character of the construct’s character level.
Bile of Hatred (Ex): Once every 1d4 rounds, a hateful lost can spew acidic bile in a 30-foot cone as a standard action. Every creature in the area takes 1d4 points of acid damage per character level of the lost. A successful Reflex save halves this damage. The save DC is Constitution-based.
Twisted Mind (Ex): A lost’s mind is demented and difficult to control. If the creature fails its saving throw against a mind-affecting spell or effect, it can attempt to save again 1 round later at the same DC. The lost gets only this one extra chance to succeed on its saving throw.
Dungeoncrasher: You excel at overwhelming traps, smashing through doors, and pushing aside your enemies. At 2nd level, you gain a +2 competence bonus on saves and to your Armor Class when attacked by traps. You also gain a +5 bonus on Strength checks to break a door, wall, or similar obstacle.
In addition, you gain a special benefit when making a bull rush. If you force an opponent to move into a wall or other solid object, he stops as normal. However, your momentum crushes him against it, dealing an amount of bludgeoning damage equal to 4d6 points + twice your Strength bonus (if any).
Punishing Stance: You hold your weapon overhead, allowing you to chop down with superior force. However, this fighting stance leaves you vulnerable to an opponent's attacks. Only an initiate of the Iron Heart tradition can manage the perilous balance between trading attack power for defense. A lesser warrior would leave himself nearly helpless to resist an opponent's attacks.
While you are in this stance, you deal an extra 1d6 points of damage with all melee attacks. You also take a -2 penalty to AC, because this fighting stance emphasizes power over a defensive posture.
Stone Dragon's Fury: Your attunement to Stone Dragon’s earth nature allows you to spot flaws in objects with uncanny precision. You use this knowledge to your advantage, allowing you to make devastating attacks against objects and constructs.
As part of this maneuver, you make a single melee attack. If your attack hits a construct or an object, you deal an extra 4d6 points of damage. You can use this strike in conjunction with the sunder special attack and attempt to damage held or carried objects. Against other targets, you gain no special benefit from this maneuver.
Mountain Tombstone Strike: Your attack causes damage to the structure of your foe’s body. As part of this maneuver, you make a single melee attack. If this attack hits, you deal 2d6 points of Constitution damage in addition to your normal damage.
Earthstrike Quake You channel ki into the earth with your mighty strike, causing the ground to rumble and shake briefly. Anyone standing on the ground in this maneuver’s area must make a successful Reflex save (DC 18 + your Str modifier) or be knocked prone. Any creature standing on the ground in this area that is currently casting a spell must succeed on a Concentration check (DC 20 + spell level) or lose the spell. You are immune to the effect of the earthstrike quake maneuver. Your allies must still save as normal against its effect.
Walls and similar barriers don’t block the line of effect of an earthstrike quake.

Typical Soulmelds shaped:
Thunderstep Boots
Mauling Gauntlets
Frost Helm (more for fluff than crunch)
Spinxclaws


Alchemical Golem- MM3
Soulfused Construct template- MoI
Lost Template- MoI
Advancing Constructs- MM
Totemist- MoI
Fighter- PH
Warblade- ToB

Power Attack- PH
Improved Bull Rush- PH
Improved Sunder- PH
Knockback- RoS
Shocktrooper- CW
Cleave- PH
Power Lunge- E&A
Strength Devotion- CC
Shape Soulmeld (Mauling Gauntlets)- MoI
Shape Soulmeld (Thunderstep Boots)- MoI
Open Least Chakra (Feet)- MoI
Cobalt Power- MoI
Combat Brute- CW
Bind Vestige (Aym)- ToM

Player's Handbook- PH
Monster Manual- MM
Monster Manual III- MM3
Complete Warrior- CW
Complete Champion- CC
Races of Stone- RoS
Dungeonscape- DS
Enemies & Allies- E&A
Magic of Incarnum- MoI
Tome of Battle- ToB
Tome of Magic- ToM

[Inevitability]

Ever played hide 'n seek with some air?


Rasharuach:
A cloud that resembles dense smoke curls against the shadows of the building, whirling silently like a wheel. The impression of eyes are visible from a moment, but the cloud is quite large - Well over thirty feet. It leers at you for a moment and then hurtles towards you, a sideways tornado reaching out for you.
Rasharuach was born in the darkest corner of the plane of air and resembles nothing more than a dark storm cloud. She had a life before he became the keeper of the gate, but that was an eternity ago. Rasha was chosen for her devotion to a particular god of darkness and bound by divine agreement as a guardian after the gods couldn't settle on what to do about the gate a group of dead cloud giants. Gods on favorable terms with the heavenly hosts wanted it salvaged and employed. Gods with unfavorable relations wanted it destroyed. Rather than initiating crusades and holy wars, the gods agreed to set watchers of comparable gifting. The good made the dawnbirds, summoned automatically every day from heaven, to give advice to any brave heroes and the wicked called up Rasha to kill them and bent her into something even more twisted.

Rasharuach has born the past few thousand years with relative genius and serenity. Still, she now has a terrible nervous tick of pacing incessantly - Rasha is never still, always darting up and down the halls and walls of the castle, spinning in the air, looping around the outer boundaries he is bound to (the walls of the castle). She is forbidden from damaging original parts of the castle, but she likes to move her kills' bodies around in exciting ways as displays. She also amuses herself by killing dawnbirds every morning. In theory, Rasharuach should probably spend most of his days lurking right around the research room. Rasha isn't even sure that the god she worships still exists. She's insanely old and has spent most of her eternity alone. She mostly doesn't fight it, but she isn't perfectly responsible.

Rasha is incredibly powerful, cruel, and somewhat unbalanced. She's not terribly worried about being killed, but she is afraid of mind control and tries to kill casters as quickly as possible accordingly.

The Crashed Castle:
The mountain of Castlecrown has an enormous castle jutting forth from near the peak where it resembles a wreck ship, a series of spires and walls with various levels of damage. If you rise at dawn, you can see a thousand golden stars sparkle and then watch a black cloud snuff them out in rapid succession.
There is a great, half-collapsed cloud castle jammed into Castlecrown Mountain near the peak from the age of giants. Cyclopean in stature, the massive castle's original inhabitants were holy cloud giants who had discovered how to open a gate into heaven permanently. Another band of cloud giants stopped them and the castle crashed into the mountain. The gods of good set mystic runes into the castle to summon dawnbirds* each morning and the gods of evil commissioned Rasharuach to protect it.

The castle's interior design was originally spartan like monastery with non-iconographic patterns and the flowing script of celestial etched into the stone, holy texts and implements, magical devices, and great open windows that enabled the cloud giant to contemplate nature. It's outer courts held great trees and magnificent walls.

Now, the walls of the courtyard are shattered and the state of the inner parts of the castle are varied, from nearly unchanged except for the bodies to utterly unrecognizable. Floors and roofs have fallen in on some rooms. Bodies, of the original cloud giants and of later adventurers (of every size, stripe, and sort) killed by Rasharuach, litter the castle. Holed are knocked, gouged, and toppled over in inner and outer walls and piles of horse sized stones lie in and out of rooms, corridors. A tower might have fallen, if it suits your purposes. Everything is scaled to the cloud giants that once filled the castle and thus likely to render the human sized adventurers rather small.

The gate, or its activating skeleton, is in a central tower that stands unbelievably tall. It is incredibly light, incredibly large, being about fifteen pounds and thirteen feet tall A great, spiraling staircase reaches the research room, which has been locked shut for centuries.

*The dawnbirds are effectively summoned Celestial Ravens with the ability to speak Celestial and Giant and permanent Daylight spells cast on them, designed to allow exposition if you prefer it to be available, but also because I like the image of birds made of golden daylight blooming across the castle at the first light of the sun. They're not necessary exactly, but I felt they added color.


Build Stub and Table:
Rasharuach
Dark (Cormyr Tearing of the Weave, Pg. 152) Corrupted (Book of Vile Darkness) Air Elemental 44
Base Stats: STR 12, DEX 13, CON 10, INT 14, WIS 15, CHA 8
Elemental: 24, 35, 18, 14, 15, 8
Corrupted: 28, 33, 22, 14, 13, 6
CR 16: WIS +1
CR 17-20: DEX +3


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


12
Dark Air Elemental, 24l
+18
+8
+14
+8
Hide 27, Move Silently 27, Listen 27, Spot 27
Combat Expertise, Improved Trip, Knock-down, Power Attack, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Mobility, Flyby Attack, Great Flyby Attack [SS35], Weapon Finesse(b), Improved Iniative (b)
Whirlwind, Elemental Traits,air Mastery, Hide in Plain Sight, Hide +8, Move Silently +6, DR 10/-, Cold Resistance 10


15
Corrupted Template
+18
+8
+14
+8
Hide 27, Move Silently 27, Listen 27, Spot 27
-
Slam 3d8, Fast Healing 10, Disruptive Attack 12, Acid Immunity.


16
Aberration 4
+21
+9
+15
+12
Hide 31, Move Silently 31, Listen 31, Spot 31
Improved Natural Attack
Disruptive Attack 14


17
Aberration 8
+24
+10
+16
+14
Hide 35, Move Silently 35, Listen 35, Spot 35
Improved Flyby Attack
Disruptive Attack 16


18
Aberration 12
+27
+12
+18
+16
Hide 39, Move Silently 39, Listen 39, Spot 39
Cleave, Great Cleave
Disruptive Attack 18


19
Aberation 16
+30
+13
+19
+18
Hide 43, Move Silently 43, Listen 43, Spot 43
Great Fortitude
Disruptive Attack 20


20
Aberration 20
+33
+15
+20
+20
Hide 47, Move Silently 47, Listen 47, Spot 47
Alertness, Iron Will




Tactics and Build Discussion:
Rasharuach is an ambush oriented character. She is usually hidden and uses Great Flyby Attack after lining herself up ideally, hitting up to 12 opponents that can be lined up within a hundred ten foot long, 35 feet wide lane (she flies over the opponents). She then automatically triggers Knock-down and rolls a trip attack (which almost always succeeds, and note that a creature need not be on land to be tripped). If that works, she gets another attack on the tripped target. After that, she either bolts to set up another ambush (if the research room is distant) or she turns around for another go (if it's close.). At higher levels, she remains hidden and silent throughout.

Ideal CR and CR 15 & 20
Rasharuach at CR 15 is a frightening combat monstrosity (Able to attack the whole party, average damage 60ish per opponent, fast healing 10) and a threatening stealth presence. (+40 to Hide/+46 to Move Silently) She can be a party killer if she's playing it smart, though after so many years, she has something of an inclination to play with her prey. She has excellent spot and listen.

Rasharuach's ideal CR is sixteen, where she benefits from a strong Will save and her damage is still high for an on level monster (4d8+9+12 for thirty eight per level without power attack. Usually two attacks.) She's quiet stealthy at this level. Her observational powers are also quite good, with a solid +13 against invisible opponents and a +31 to hear.

At CR 20, Rasharuach is basically invisible, since she can easily take the -20 to her Move Silently/Hide check from running/attacking (+40 to hide).

[Inevitability]

And that should be it! Judges, do your thing.

[GrayDeath]

Well, thats a very fun group of Guards....;)

[Falontani]

2 vampires, 2 soulfused constructs, 2 monsters of legend... geez

Can I talk about the build that I couldn't do anymore due to CR constraints? (another edit) guess so


I had a sandshaper mummy that could literally animate the sands of her tomb to turn into weapons and fight the party, very sandy, was fun but CR was too high due to levels

[Deadline]

That is an awesome collection of Guards!

My build stub (that I just couldn't find the time to finish) was a Mimic Psion(Shaper) 16. With Compression and Expansion, he could pretend to be just about any object. And he'd be the guardian of a treasure vault. :smallbiggrin:

[Sejoran]

This lot does look fun. Sad to see some overlap with some things but it was probably bound to happen a little.

Now for the second agony of waiting, for the judging to be done.

[Thurbane]

Great entries everyone!

My idea was an Awakened Runic Guardian Construct 17/Ur-Priest 10; guardian of a (demi) lich's lair.

The crunch was (mostly) fine, but I couldn't get the fluff to fit.




YSNP/TWGS (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22884851&postcount=89)
Sally (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22884857&postcount=90)
Slam (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22884861&postcount=91)
Mircea raviwr (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22884872&postcount=92)
Lorelai G'Elsewhere (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22884875&postcount=93)
Grobzok (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22884880&postcount=94)
Giolt (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22884884&postcount=95)
Narfle the Garthog (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22884891&postcount=96)
Sharla (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22884896&postcount=97)
K.A.M. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22884907&postcount=98)
Rasharuach (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22884910&postcount=99)
The Watcher (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22886106&postcount=109)
Claws-At-Heart

[Venger]

I dig that. I wanted to do something with maelephant, because they're such cool guys. They just want a cushy job as a security guard and to eat a lot of meat, something we can all relate to. But I couldn't do very many interesting things with him once his cr was assuaged.

[Inevitability]

I dig that. I wanted to do something with maelephant, because they're such cool guys. They just want a cushy job as a security guard and to eat a lot of meat, something we can all relate to. But I couldn't do very many interesting things with him once his cr was assuaged.

Did anyone say Maele (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=21126806&postcount=32)phant (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=21126808&postcount=33)?

[Inevitability]

My sleep-deprived self seems to have missed two entries. Apologies to the chefs.

[Inevitability]

Missed entry #1.



The Watcher
Lurker in Darkness, Lurker in Death
Ibrandlin Dracolich Soulbound Weapon Psychic Warrior 12

Legends tell of a gate deep in the bowels of the earth amid the bones of countless dead.

They say that beyond the gate lies the secret to eternal life.

Yet the legends also speak of a guardian. A monstrous sentinel that dwells within that deep darkness and indeed within death itself.

Those who seek to seek to plunder beyond the gates of death intrude into its domain.

Adventurers are not easily dissuaded by legends, however.

And so new corpses join the dead, and the watcher’s domain grows.


Ability ScoresElite Array: 12 Str, 13 Dex, 8 Con, 10 Int, 15 Wis, 14 Cha
Ibrandlin: 36 Str, 13 Dex, 22 Con, 4 Int, 15 Wis, 12 Cha
Dracolich: 36 Str, 13 Dex, - Con, 4 Int, 15 Wis, 14 Cha
All Stat increases go to Wis.
Build Table


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


5
Ibrandlin (10 Dragon HD)
+10
+7
+7
+7
Spot 12, Concentration 7cc
1 HD: Power Attack
3 HD: Area Attack
6 HD: Final Strike
9 HD: Improved Dragon Wings
Fire Subtype, SR 20, Pin, Breath Weapon, Bite, 4 Claws, Gargantuan Size


8
Dracolich
+10
+7
+7
+7
Spot 12, Concentration 7
-
Undead Type, Extra Damage, Control Undead, Paralyzing Gaze, Paralyzing Touch, DR 5/Bludgeoning, Invulnerability, SR 23, Supernatural Flight, Cha-based Breath Weapon


9
Soulbound Weapon Psychic Warrior 1
+10
+9
+7
+7
Spot 12, Concentration 8
Psychic Warrior 1: Practiced Manifester
Soulbound Weapon ACF: Weapon Focus (Greatclub)
Soulbound Weapon ACF


10
Soulbound Weapon Psychic Warrior 2
+11
+10
+7
+7
Spot 12, Concentration 9
12 HD: Flyby Attack
Soulbound Weapon ACF


11
Psychic Warrior 3
+12
+10
+8
+8
Spot 12, Concentration 10
-
-


12
Psychic Warrior 4
+13
+11
+8
+8
Spot 12, Concentration 11
-
-


13
Psychic Warrior 5
+13
+11
+8
+8
Spot 12, Concentration 12
15 HD: Psionic Meditation
Psychic Warrior 5: Quicken Power
-


14
Psychic Warrior 6
+14
+12
+9
+9
Spot 12, Concentration 13
-
-


15
Psychic Warrior 7
+15
+12
+9
+9
Spot 12, Concentration 14
-
-


16
Psychic Warrior 8
+16
+13
+9
+9
Spot 12, Concentration 15
18 HD: Expanded Knowledge (Psionic See Invisibility)
Psychic Warrior 8: Maximize Power
-


17
Psychic Warrior 9
+16
+13
+10
+10
Spot 12, Concentration 16
-
-


18
Psychic Warrior 10
+17
+14
+10
+10
Spot 12, Concentration 17
-
-


19
Psychic Warrior 11
+18
+14
+10
+10
Spot 12, Concentration 17, Autohypnosis 1
21 HD: Epic Expanded Knowledge (Schism)
Psychic Warrior 11: Epic Expanded Knowledge (Wall of Ectoplasm)
-


20
Psychic Warrior 12
+19
+15
+11
+11
Spot 12, Concentration 17, Autohypnosis 2
-
-



Psionics


CR
PP*
New Powers Known


9
0
Call Weaponry


10
1
Expansion


11
3
Prevenom Weapon


12
5
Dissolving Weapon


13
7
Psionic Lion’s Charge


14
11
Strength of My Enemy


15
15
Escape Detection


16
19
Hustle


17
23
Empathetic Transfer


18
27
Psionic Freedom of Movement


19
35
Schism, Wall of Ectoplasm, Truevenom Weapon

[tr]
20
43
Psionic Dimension Door*Does not count bonus PP for a high Wis Score.

SnapshotsCR 5We start with an Ibrandlin, a Gargantuan dragon out of Monsters of Faerun which has fluff centered around guarding things. We do spice things up by changing up the feat loadout. Area Attack in conjunction with Gargantuan size gives an extra attack option (albeit one that will be more important later). Per a poorly written rule in Races of the Dragon and Dragon Magic, dragons automatically qualify for anything requiring the dragonblood subtype. Automatically means automatically, so we pick up Improved Dragon Wings without bothering with the regular version for some mediocre flight. Finally, Final Strike offers a last threat between the party and their objective should they defeat the Watcher, though again, it’ll get more of a chance to shine later.

CR 10It transpires that the “secret to immortal life” that lies beyond the Watcher’s gate is really a Dracolich Phylactery. Final Strike will destroy his original body when he dies from consuming Dracolich Brew, so he has to do as the Kobold Dracoliches do and acquire some other corpses to possess. He’ll want them anyway, as Dracolich Invulnerability allows the Watcher to possess any corpse of a Medium or larger dragon or reptilian creature within 90 ft of his phylactery. That means that when a given body is destroyed (triggering Final Strike), he’ll just hop into another one and continue the fight. And what can he do while fighting? Well, first off, Dracolichdom confers Cold Immunity, covering the weakness of the Fire Subtype (though that’s a bit of a moot point what with dying being such a minor inconvenience). Next, despite no longer qualifying for Improved Dragon Wings, he can still fly as becoming a Dracolich explicitly converts a previous Extraordinary flight speed to a Supernatural one. Finally, and most importantly, he gets the super cool (pun intended) Dracolich version of Paralyzing Touch, which applies on “any physical attack,” which includes not just his full attack routine, but also Area Attack, allowing him to force saves against paralysis to multiple foes at once. From there, we go into Psychic Warrior. A Proto-Dracolich (one that has just possessed a corpse) can’t speak or cast spells, but the standard transparency rules aren’t enough for that to inhibit Psionics. Practiced Manifester allows for a bit more utility with powers, though they’ll become more impressive as we go on. CR 10 also brings Flyby Attack, which can be used with an Area Attack, as it only takes a standard action.

CR 15Now that the Watcher has a few more levels of PsyWar, he can do some more interesting things with manifesting. Soulbound Weapon allows him to use Call Weaponry to pull out a magic Greatclub which can be augmented for whatever non-flat enhancements will still work when it’s repurposed as an improvised weapon to make Area Attacks (and which can be recalled should he lose it when a body is destroyed). Expansion can bring the Watcher up to Collossal size, even when in the Proto-dracolich state in a corpse that’s merely Huge. Prevenom Weapon and Dissolving Weapon get a lot more bang for your buck on an Area Attack, making the mass paralysis attacks even more devastating.

CR 20Now we’re cooking. With Practiced Manifester, the Watcher’s ML is now high enough to augment his Soulbound Weapon up to a +4 equivalent bonus, allowing for enhancements like the +3 Force (for dealing with Incorporeal and Ethereal foes) or +4 Brilliant Energy (allowing for tricks like possessing a corpse buried underground or hidden behind the gate and making Area Attacks through solid obstacles – be sure to cultivate moss or something on the claws of his various bodies so that there’s living matter the brilliant energy won’t ignore). Epic Feats are now available, which allow the relatively option of picking up some 4th level powers from outside the PsyWar list via Epic Expanded Knowledge. Wall of Ectoplasm is the more straightforward, allowing for further protection of the Watcher’s gate, especially against ethereal threats. Schism is where things get especially hilarious though. Note that I’m assuming that Immunity to Mind Affecting can be voluntarily lowered, but I think that’s a reasonable assumption. If you disagree, then some other 4th level power from some list or other can go there instead, but Schism is way more fun. First off, the Schismed mind can handle all the usual things you might want it to do, such as manifesting powers while the regular mind directs the body to fight, but let’s go a step further and consider what happens when the Schismed mind is sent back to his phylactery. I had at first thought that the two minds might be able to possess corpses separately and thought about having a gate made out of a corpse which the partitioned mind would possess and then secure through powers like Immovability, but ultimately concluded that was a stretch of what the power actually says, and decided the parts of the mind would stick together when possessing new corpses. That does however free up the partitioned mind to handle corpse possessing duties, meaning the Watcher now effectively doesn’t have to stop fighting at all. If his body is destroyed, it explodes in the face of the attacker, and the Watcher is inside a new one making more Area Attacks by the following round. Regular PsyWar powers known also contribute with Psionic Freedom of Movement making it more difficult to incapacitate the Watcher in a way that won’t cause him to just blow up and reappear in another corpse, and Truevenom Weapon augmenting Area Attacks similarly to the earlier weapon powers. The Watcher also has a few metapsionic feats to play around with and Psionic Meditation for either his regular or partitioned mind to restore Psionic Focus mid-combat.

Using the WatcherPost Dracolichdom, the Watcher becomes very difficult for the party to destroy. Should they want to pass the gate, they will either have to do so with the Watcher attacking them, incapacitate the Watcher through some mechanism besides HP damage, or win through sheer attrition by exhausting his supply of corpses and/or PP. These should all be difficult, but not impossible if the party is clever and determined. While they won’t find the real secret to immortality hidden behind the Watcher’s gate, the sense of accomplishment and the treasure trove that is there ought to be some consolation.

SourcesComplete Psionic: Escape Detection, Psionic See Invisibility
Draconomicon: Dracolich
Monsters of Faerun: Ibrandlin
Races of the Dragon: Dragon auto-qualification rules, Improved Dragon Wings
Savage Species: Area Attack, Final Strike
The Mind’s Eye Expanded Classes: Part One (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070214a): Soulbound Weapon ACF
Everything else should be in the SRD.

[Inevitability]

And the other missed entry. Once more, deepest apologies to the chefs, I'm very sorry.



Claws-At-Heart (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MNJPzxRvGU)

http://i1299.photobucket.com/albums/ag75/3SecondCultist94/Brambleclaw_zpsucm9e014.jpg

Neutral Evil Greenbound Guardian Panther Druid 15

The Cat soared.

The heat of the jungle air pressed down around it, as it leapt from the choking morass of vines up towards the nearest tree branch. For that singular moment, the seven foot long panther was suspended, weightless.

Then its front paws landed on the limb, claw tips gouging slightly into the bark as it used the momentum to push itself higher above the ground. To anyone watching, these jumps would seem almost effortless, the rippling muscles and athletic frame belied by perfect balance.

A fearsome two hundred pound predator, fleeing for its life.

The very walls of the jungle parted for the Cat's pursuers. They had no need to climb the trees, not when the verdant expanse twisted and turned before their very whim. The Man had carved a new path, one which closed behind them as they walked. The other – the Woman in loose, flowing cloth – took flight, morphing into a hunting bat and soaring over the canopy.

Having no instinct but escape, the great black Cat pushed on.

It barely felt the first tendrils of the spell probing at its primitive mind. But when the Woman spoke, it was in a voice that the beast somehow understood.

The panther stopped in its tracks, transfixed by the airborne creature. Everything in its heart, the pounding call to run and hide as it did when faced with a superior predator, was forced into the darkest parts of its being. Fear and rage coiled helplessly in that place.

When the Woman called, the Cat came.


"Kaeleth, are you sure about this? The Rite of -"

"Yes, of course I am. The keeping of the pass has been entrusted to us. We're all that's left of the Circle of the Vale, or have you forgotten your oaths so soon? If the Justinians cross to the other side of the mountains…"

The path back to the obelisk had been quiet, but the Man broke the silence. The Cat had tried to get away, but the attempts were feeble, as though he were at the bottom of the river and looking at the glimmering surface from far away.

"I know the words. I was there too, when the Archdruid pronounced us. But he's dead, Kaeleth. They all are. The Circle is gone, and the outlying villages have been abandoned."

He raised his tree trunk arms in a gesture. The Cat watched, not comprehending its purpose. A lifetime of conserving energy had taught it not to waste motion.

"All the more reason to do this, then. Who else to watch the Vale, but us?" The Cat watched as the Woman stepped up to the Man, cupping his face with her hand. "A new generation of defenders, Marius. That's what we agreed on. I can't have you getting cold feet, not now. What happened to my ae'sha?"

The Man paused. "He's right beside you, Kae. Just like he's always been."

Without protest, the Cat continued to follow.


The black spear of hewn rock was an affront to the sky.

The stone under the Cat's paws felt too smooth, unnatural. Stepping closer to the monument, the panther noticed a circle of raised inscriptions around the central pillar. On all sides, walls of the same stone with no ceiling.

As the Woman directed him into the middle of the circle, the Cat heard the Man walk towards a small hole in one of the walls. Its golden eyes wanted more than anything to keep its gaze on him, on the obvious threat. But it could not move.

The Woman finished her incantation, kneeling next to the Cat as the beast slowly slumped to the ground in the shadow of the black spear. "You're so beautiful," she said. Her fingers ran gently through his panic-stained fur. "But you're not perfect. Not yet."

A sharp sound caught the Cat's ear. The Man had returned, with a few implements in hand. One was a concave piece of stone, the other a dark dagger. In the stone, the Cat saw something writhing. Leaving the Cat, the Woman moved to stand directly across the circle from the Man as he placed the stone next to the Cat.

"In the name of the Circle of the Vale, we invoke the Rite of the Green Heart. May the Lyra'ta guide our hands, and the Archdruids our spirits." The words, spoken in unison, shifted into an even stranger dialect, syllables from between the bones of time. The circle was suddenly awash with a green glow, words pulsing into the air like a cancer. For over a minute, the light grew.

Then, when the energy was at its strongest, the Man took the dagger and drove it into the Cat's chest.


He stood atop the gate, and stared out at his world.

The arch stood at least fifty feet off the ground, statues of figures long past wrapped in green creepers and flowers of a million viridian hues. On either side, the jungle walls rose in rocky cliffs and outcroppings. The mountain chain was unforgiving at the best of times, the storms near the peaks rarely abating.

For travelers going overland, the Vale was the easiest way through. Miles of jungle, all converging right here at his feet. The ruins of the druidic stronghold would make a new lair.

So many new ideas, now. Images flew through his head, with no words attached to them. But for all that, his mind was clearer.

As he flexed new muscles, the vines in his shoulders and torso moved along with him. There was an ache at the center of his chest, a wound that still occasionally dripped green ichor where he had been stabbed.

His heart. They had changed it, twisted it. And yet, he did not mind. Thinking back, he realized how useless his existence had been. Ranging through the trees, always looking for the next meal and having no thought to what came before or after.

The druids, they had spoken in a strange tongue. But the strangest thing, after the ritual, was that he could understand them now. "Protect", they had said, "keep watch." He was to be their foot soldier.

Instead, he had eaten them. Revelations aside, it was still the way of the jungle. But the Woman's last screams had awakened something in him. A desire for more. A new purpose. A name.

Looking down at his claws, he had his answer.


Ability
Starting
Leopard
Guardian
Greenbound
Sub-Total
4 HD
8 HD
12 HD
16 HD
Total


Strength
12
+6

+6
24




24


Dexterity
13
+8

+2
23




23


Constitution
14
+4

+4
22




22


Intelligence
8
Max 2


2
+1



3


Wisdom
15
+2
+4

21

+1
+1
+1
24


Charisma
10
-4
-2
+4
8




8




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


5
3
Leopard 3
+2
+9
+9
+6
Balance +14, Climb +15, Jump +15, Hide +11 (+19 undergrowth), Listen +12, Move Silently +11 (+19 undergrowth), Spot +12, Survival +7
Blind FightB, Improved Initiative, Multiattack
Low-Light Vision, Scent, Darkvision 160 ft, Blindsense 60 ft, Illuminated Eyes, Plant Traits, DR 10/Magic and Slashing, Fast Healing 3, Grapple Bonus +4, Resistance to Cold and Electricity 10, Tremorsense 60 ft


6
4
Druid 1
+2
+11
+9
+8
Spellcraft -4, Survival +9
-
Animal Companion (Eyes-In-Sky), Nature Sense +2, Wild Empathy


7
5
Druid 2
+3
+12
+9
+9
Spellcraft -3
-
Woodland Stride


8
6
Druid 3
+4
+12
+10
+9
Spellcraft -2, Listen +13, Spot +13
Surrogate Spellcasting
Trackless Step


9
7
Druid 4
+5
+13
+10
+11
Spellcraft -1
-
Animal Companion (Snarls-At-Night), Resist Nature's Lure +4


10
8
Druid 5
+5
+13
+10
+11
Concentration +7, Listen +14, Spot +14, Survival +15
-
Wild Shape (1/day)


11
9
Druid 6
+6
+14
+11
+12
Concentration +8
Practiced Spellcaster
Wild Shape (2/day)


12
10
Druid 7
+7
+14
+11
+12
Concentration +9
-
Wild Shape (3/day)


13
11
Druid 8
+8
+15
+11
+13
Concentration +10
-
Wild Shape (Large)


14
12
Druid 9
+8
+15
+12
+13
Concentration +11
Greenbound Summoning
Venom Immunity


15
13
Druid 10
+9
+16
+12
+14
Concentration +12
-
Wild Shape (4/day)


16
14
Druid 11
+10
+22
+18
+20
Concentration +13
-
Wild Shape (Tiny), Uncanny Dodge


17
15
Druid 12
+11
+23
+19
+21
Concentration +14
Eschew Materials
Wild Shape (Plant)


18
16
Druid 13
+11
+23
+19
+22
Concentration +15, Listen +15, Spot +15, Survival +16
-
A Thousand Faces


19
17
Druid 14
+12
+24
+19
+23
Concentration +16
-
Wild Shape (5/day)


20
18
Druid 15
+13
+24
+20
+23
Concentration +17
Natural Bond
Timeless Body, Wild Shape (Huge)



All-Day Buffs: wild instincts, primal instinct, primal speed, superior resistance
Spells per Day/Spells Prepared


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


6th
3
3
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


7th
4
4
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


8th
4
4
2
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


9th
5
5
3
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


10th
5
5
4
2
-
-
-
-
-
-


11th
5
5
5
3
-
-
-
-
-
-


12th
6
6
5
3
2
-
-
-
-
-


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


14th
6
6
6
4
3
2
-
-
-
-


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


16th
6
7
6
5
4
3
2
-
-
-


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


18th
6
7
7
6
5
4
3
2
-
-


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


20th
6
7
7
7
5
5
4
3
1
-



0th Level - create water, cure minor wounds, detect magic, fire eyes, guidance, preserve organ

1st Level - cloudburst, enrage animal, eyes of the avoral, faerie fire, instant of power, obscuring mist, segojan's armor, spider hand, wall of smoke

2nd Level - acorn of far travel, bite of the wererat, blinding spittle, kelpstrand, mass snake's swiftness, linked perception, splinterbolt, wild instincts

3rd Level - absorb mind, alter fortune, call lightning, forestfold, primal instinct, plant growth, sleet storm, speak with plants, stone shape, venomfire

4th Level - boreal wind, enhance wild shape[/I [I]friendly fire, scrying, sheltered vitality, vortex of teeth

5th Level - animal growth, bite of the weretiger, control winds, owl's insight, panacea, transmute mud to stone

6th Level - liveoak, mudslide, primal speed, superior resistance

7th Level - death by thorns, master earth, true seeing

8th Level - mass awaken, stormrage
At this point in the game, Claws-At-Heart (hereafter referred to as 'Claws') is mostly just a sentient, superpowered panther. Having been raised to that sacrosanct 3 Intelligence threshold, he is lashing out at the world around him. Becoming aware of his purpose in life, he takes to guarding the pass through the Vale, a jungle-choked mountain pass near the heart of a warm continent. This continent can fit into pretty much any setting, since the only setting-specific material here is the Greenbound Template.

In terms of encounters, Claws works best as an ambusher. His Hide and Move Silently modifiers are still pretty competitive, and his natural climb speed combined with his other skill checks gives him a bit of an edge when it comes to maneuvering the battlefield. He already has nearly all of the best vision forms in the game (Scent, Blindsense 60 ft, Darkvision 120 ft, Low-Light Vision, and Tremorsense 60 ft), plus a pretty respectable Spot and Listen modifier for players with Darkstalker. Chances are, he will see the party coming before they spot him.

When it comes to all-out fighting, Claws is an absolute machine. With Pounce and Rake, plus the Slam attack from Greenbound, he's making 6 attacks per turn, most of which are for healthy amounts of damage. His HP leaves a bit to be desired, but his AC is solid at 23, and he has tons of built-in immunities and resistances. And the DM should not forget the at-will entangle and 1/day wall of thorns, which Claws should use to turn the battlefield even more in his favor. Against a party of 6th level characters, it doesn't even matter that he can't effectively cast his Druid spells yet.

It's also worth noting that Claw gets his own Animal Companion at this level. I would have assumed that he would pick up some sort of jungle bird to help him with scouting, but DMs who are worried about his combat performance can just as easily pair him up with a flanker.
By this point, Claws will not only be watching the Vale's gate, but should have spread out to start to shape and monitor the jungle near the passage on either side. Taking the mantle of the Circle entirely to heart, he will take to hunting down and slaughtering any humanoid that tries to cross the mountain pass from either side. As he access to sheltered vitality, Claws can safely extract knowledge of the outside world from the brains of passing travelers through use of absorb mind (a Corrupt spell from BoVD). Not all of the facts will remain once the duration is up, but enough will stick to keep him coming back to learn more.

At this level, Claws has come into his own as a caster and a battlefield controller. His CL has been bumped up to near-parity with the PCs (sitting at CL 12th), and not only can he cast all of his spells in his panther form, he can summon his own cadres of Greenbound Creatures to shape the battlefield. In a jungle setting, 4-5 animals casting entangle or wall of thorns becomes a lot more effective, even if the party has good Reflex saves. Of course, he has other good BFC staples like sleet storm, plant growth, and wind wall. In terms of buffs, he has the standard Druid picks like barkskin, bite of the wererat, venomfire, and mass snake's swiftness to make him and his summons more combat effective. I tried to pick spells that would make sense in a 'jungle' setting, but some DMs can hand-wave or justify his use of more outlandish preparation choices.

It's worth noting that at this level, Claws should be using spells like forestfold, wild instincts, and eyes of the avoral to keep his senses and stealth skills up to par. It will also help with his Animal Companion, who at this level should be a panther just like him (albeit a fairly weak one).
And here we are, at last the king of the jungle. There are two abilities in particular that come online at this level in a way that work well together. First, Claws gets access to mass awaken as an 8th level Druid spell, turning the entire jungle into legions of friendly awakened trees and beasts. Now, the problem with this spell is that it takes a day to cast, and it costs XP. But Claws' other ability is Timeless Body, meaning that he should have the time to actually go hunt down animals to gain the XP needed to make his army. His influence should spread out to more or less the whole jungle.

A party of 20th level PCs is definitely powerful enough to cast greater teleport to just avoid the jungle altogether, but seeing as the theme of the round is 'guardian', I figured it would be on the DM to make sure that actually going into Claws' territory is somehow relevant to the story. Maybe the other side of the mountains is warded against teleportation? Maybe the kingdoms have heard horror stories about armies of sentient panthers and forests that eat people? Whatever it is, the PCs should have reason to either be crossing through the Vale pass or seeking Claws out themselves. He's the BBEG, so they need to confront him at some point.

As far as fighting Claws at 20th level is concerned... he's a 15th level Druid, with a CL of 18. I'm not going to delve too much into all of the spells - not to mention the Wild Shape forms - he has at his disposal by now, but a few points of note is that death by thorns works really well to shut down the noisome casters. Claws not only has access to the memories of countless slain enemies, but should also have armies of intelligent animals advising him. Plus, he can cast scrying and its greater version. He should have a few answers for tactics that the PCs are going to use on him. When games get to this high a level, it's usually rocket tag, barring some clever contingencies. He has an Initiative modifier of at least +15, probably closer to +20 with Dex buffs and Wild Shape forms.
Over the course of this build, there have been a few difficulties inherent in the concept of a druidic super-panther. The biggest was making it able to, you know, actually cast spells. Enter Surrogate Spellcasting, from Savage Species. Now, there have been some questions as to whether or not Surrogate Spellcasting actually works in Wild Shape. Personally, I would argue that it should, but depending on how closely you want to adhere to the exact wording, one could make a case for it only working in panther form. In that case, it might be easier to just swap around some feats and just pick up Natural Spell. It is a little weaker, insofar as it adds a few levels where Claws can't cast, and it means he can't cast when he's not in Wild Shape.

As for making Claws more powerful than he appears here, DMs have a few options. The first is to optimize his Animal Companion, which in this build's current form lags behind all the way to CR 20. In this build, the companion is weak enough to barely be worth it in combat. The second - and in my opinion, more potent - way to boost Claw's effectiveness is to give him magical items. Panthers can wear pretty collars, and who doesn't like a collar of wisdom +6? What about a few pearls of power embedded in his paws? An orange prism ioun stone to boost CL would be useful, and a monk's belt around a forearm or the panther's waist would be an absolute godsend. DMs could also get more ruthless with his spell selection, picking up gems like summon fey or ghost companion for some cheesier tactics.

I also did not pick up any Flaws or Traits, but DMs who are looking to improve Claws can go that route. Love of Nature makes a lot of sense, as does Terrain Specialist.

Another option that I came across when still stymied over the whole 'verbal and somatic components' thing was to make Claws an Ardent. If the DM wants to make Claws a superpowered psychic panther (and who doesn't want one of those, really?), they should consider giving him the Creation, Freedom, and Natural World mantles. Those really interested in maximizing his power should use the Substitute Powers and Dominant Ideal ACFs to fix up the power selection. It would make for a very different build, but what it gains in uniqueness I think it loses a little bit in flavor. The ties to the Greenbound template made it so that a Druid seemed the most natural choice.
Book of Vile Darkness - Corrupt spells
Complete Adventurer - Natural Bond
Complete Divine - Practiced Spellcaster
Player's Handbook - Druid class
Dungeonscape - Guardian Creature template
Lost Empires of Faerun - Greenbound Creature template
Monster Manual I - Leopard
Savage Species - Surrogate Spellcasting
Spell Compendium - Spells

[Jormengand]

My vague idea was to create the Dweller (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/incantations.htm#callForththeDweller), but the fact that he actually makes it easier to get through doors and that he's not particularly well-defined made it kinda hard to make him. I do love that there's an ability which calls a creature who insults you if you talk about anything other than doors. That's just hilarious.

[danielxcutter]

I had three ideas. First was a Knight of Thorn build, second was a charger type Zhentarim Skymage, third was a Fire Giant Swordsage. Didn't have enough time, and none of them would have stacked up to the builds shown here anyways. Nice entries by the way guys! Really went above and beyond for this round.

[GrayDeath]

So, not aiming to pressure anybody, but do we actually have Judges yet? :smallcool:

[Braininthejar2]

good question.

[Falontani]

I sure hope so

[Sejoran]

Same, there's only a few days left for judging to be done. Its quite the list though.

[GrayDeath]

Well, if there is noone to judge the Comp cannot really end", so:

All you potential Judges, please let us know if (and when) you will be able and willing to judge, thanks!

[Telonius]

In the past if it's gone over the limit, the first judge to reply would be the only one who has a say. So, if anyone wants to have ULTIMATE COSMIC POWER over a completely silly internet competition, step up! World domination is yours for the taking.

[Braininthejar2]

Nopony? What happens now?

[Thurbane]

I'd love to put my hand up to judge, but at the moment I've got far too much going on...

[remetagross]

Well, it's not the best thing, but provided you people could wait till the 25th, I'd be able to start judging at that time...but it's in a while, so I'd understand that that might not be suitable.

[Inevitability]

How do we feel about adding an additional perk to encourage judges, like letting people decide the next competition's theme? Would anyone be interested in that case?

[Falontani]

I would consider forfeiting and judging for that kind of perk

[Thurbane]

How do we feel about adding an additional perk to encourage judges, like letting people decide the next competition's theme? Would anyone be interested in that case?

I think that's definitely a good idea.

[GrayDeath]

Well, if 8 had known this I would bot have submitted anything.

If we simply CAN'T find anyone to judge u til say a week from now, I'll withdraw and judge instead.

Edit: and wasn't that the case with only the judges votes counting any way?

[daremetoidareyo]

3 and a half done.

They take about half hour apiece to judge. But man, in the future, can you please be mindful to put the sources for your templates and races in an easy to find place?

I think I should be able to finish up the first round of judgement by this Sunday night.

I'm gunning for a headless villain round.

[Venger]

3 and a half done.

They take about half hour apiece to judge. But man, in the future, can you please be mindful to put the sources for your templates and races in an easy to find place?

I think I should be able to finish up the first round of judgement by this Sunday night.

I'm gunning for a headless villain round.

In the interest of making your life easier, do you want to post or pm me the stuff you're having trouble finding and I can tell you where it is?

EDIT: here you go

srd: stone golem (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/golem.htm), vampire (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/vampire.htm), medusa (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/medusa.htm), ghost (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/ghost.htm), air elemental (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/elemental.htm)
savage species: lernean, multiheaded, tauric
mm2: monster of legend
dragon magic: drakkensteed
secrets of xen'drik: quorcraft
mm3: warforged, alchemical golem
heroes of horror: unholy scion
web: vampire lord (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mm/20021018a)
forgotten realms campaign setting: strongheart halfling
lords of madness: half-farspawn
mm4: zern
fiend folio: faratsu
magic of incarnum: soulfused, lost
Cormyr Tearing of the Weave: dark
book of vile darkness: corrupted


I'd be down for headless.

[Thurbane]

I'd love to see Headless, Harvester of Souls, or In Cold Blood.

[daremetoidareyo]

In the interest of making your life easier, do you want to post or pm me the stuff you're having trouble finding and I can tell you where it is?

I'd be down for headless.

That's not necessary, although I do appreciate the offer.

[WhamBamSam]

I still really want a round for villains that eat people, either via Swallow Whole, consuming corpses, or what have you.

[Venger]

I still really want a round for villains that eat people, either via Swallow Whole, consuming corpses, or what have you.

That sounds like fun too

[Falontani]

Why your afraid of the dark
Secrets of the deep
Evil clown
Cannibal
Doomsday
Are you sure you want to do that

[Braininthejar2]

No replies for a week, and the topic has drifted 3 pages down... :smallfrown:

[daremetoidareyo]

I'm still working on it, but family life has kicked into difficult socio-economic mode.

[GrayDeath]

Happens to all of us. Heck, last week I had no Internet for the first time since 2006.
Fun times. :/


Hey, since you are judging I dont have to drop my entry, so for me its more than alright for you to take your time. :)

[Telonius]

Bumping since the thread went down to page 4.

Real life intrusions can be the biggest villains of all...

[remetagross]

Hey folks so I have started judging as I told two weeks ago :) I'll strive to be done by the end of the week! I've judged the "Originality" category of everyone so far.

[Braininthejar2]

And I'm having more and more doubts about my build...

I can already see some things I could've done better.

[jdizzlean]

And I'm having more and more doubts about my build...

I can already see some things I could've done better.

I do that immediately upon submission, and for a few days after. The rest of the time i just think to myself 'how could anyone beat me?' lol.

[Thurbane]

Hey folks so I have started judging as I told two weeks ago :) I'll strive to be done by the end of the week! I've judged the "Originality" category of everyone so far.

Thanks for the update, and thanks for stepping up to judge. :smallsmile:

[daremetoidareyo]

5 more to go

[GrayDeath]

And I'm having more and more doubts about my build...

I can already see some things I could've done better.


I do that immediately upon submission, and for a few days after. The rest of the time i just think to myself 'how could anyone beat me?' lol.


I think most of us vary between these two extremes during any judging, no? ^^

[Braininthejar2]

Next time I'll playtest it before submitting

[jdizzlean]

eh, you never know til judging has been posted. I've read builds where i thought for sure they were going to win, and they didn't. It's all up to the judges in the end. don't count yourself out, ever.

[daremetoidareyo]

Two more left...

[daremetoidareyo]

YSNP/TWGS:
Lawful Evil Greater Stone Golem/Warblade 3/Sword Sage 1
Originality: 3.5 What I like: A big hulking martial brute that is magic immune. A wizard’s inside joke. A villain that isn’t 20 class levels.
What I think it lacks: personality and more importantly, motive!
Elegance: 5. I’m not seeing any problems yet.
Power: 4. Don’t get hit by this thing. Power attacking alone it should be able to kill a person per round with two connected hits. Wierdly enough, this thing is a little less powerful when confronted by straight up armored warriors (fighters, combat clerics, etc), especially if they have a source of miss chance.
Villainy: 2.5: A huge initiator awakened stone golem. Without a place to guard, I’m a little confused as to how to run this thing as anything other than a resource dwindler or dungeon boss. At CR 20, I feel like this a just a big pile of big numbers. But without some of the Golem’s personality, seeing as how it’s awakened and all, it’s hard to allocate much villainy to this beyond a boilerplate hp slugfest boss.
Total: 15


Sally
Four-headed Lernaean , Monster of Legend, Tauric Medusa/Drakkensteed, Scout 5, Warlock 2
Originality: 4.25 Straight out of the most metal part of the book of revelations. Did you find that picture first, Then build? Jeesh. The backstory is a bit hand wavy, but sure, maybe there’s a comically mad spellcaster out there.
What I like: Time to be scared of petrification again
What I think it lacks: It’s a bit unfocused between skirmish and eldritch blasting. Maybe the warlock levels are to obviate ambushes, or they’re flavorful throw away levels.
Elegance: 4.75 Oh my lord, a fellow optimizer who has discovered the brokentude of the tauric template. You could have gone with camel, to get a few more HD worth of class levels...Unless you were going to trample+ skirmish. Which is funny in its own right. Everything checks out, by my reckoning however. I do think that CR 13 is way too low for a party of 4 level 13 adventurers who encounter this thing unprepared. Probably on account of the tauric template. I’m going to dock a bit there for the tauric template being used to mask a more normalized CR, as most DMs would lean against using this.
Power: 4 Laernaean plus medusa is a monstrous combo, seeing as how you have to see the head to cut it off. There are precious few things that protect against petrification, except for type change. So this thing taxes all of the party.
Villainy: 3 I don’t know a whole lot about the motives of this guardian other than the professed loneliness. And I don’t see how any of the transformations that they’ve been granted would ingratiate her to her spellcaster patron. They are faustian transformations at best.
Total: 16

Slam
Quorcraft Warforged
Originality: 4.25 Ok, so golemlike critters are natural to a guardian theme. So no points gained or lost there. Here’s what I like about Slam: He has the three things I’m looking for. A place to guard, a reason to guard it, and a reason that it makes him evil. He also has a combat schtick. And he’s pretty good at it. I also appreciate your eberron lore weaving.
Elegance: 5 Everything appears legal.
Power: 4: For an incarnum beatstick, Slam is pretty goshdarn optimized. He has to be tactically dismantled by a group after any CR above 10 (4.5) Before then, Slam is just tough.(3.0) I’ll split the difference for an overall score of 4.
Villainy: 5 Name notwithstanding, I like Slam. I get him. He’s a bangarang guardian henchman. One gripe, don’t there need to be survivors for him to have gotten a nickname?
Total: 18.25

Mircea raviwr
Human unholy scion 1, vampire 4, vampire lord10 unholy scion 1/ hexblade 3/ Paladin of Tryanny 1/vampire 2/Paladin of Tyranny 2/unholy scion 2/warrior of darkness 1/ Tomb warden 3/ Paladin of Tryanny 3 / Vampire Lord 3/ unholy scion 3/ Hexblade 5
Originality: 5 Alright, the “guardian-ness” is baked right on in mechanically. I like that. Vampiric devilspawn is another good touch. Characterization about what he is guarding is good. And pretty tough for an undead.
Elegance: 5 I’m not seeing a problem.
Power: 5 Turn proof undead with a ton of debuffs and built in minions. The one weakness that I’m seeing is a weak reflex save, but then you took paladin on top all of that. So it’s more of a least strong save.
Villainy: 4.5 5: You got a thing to guard, you got benefits while guarding it, you have your mother??? This is a well built villain. There’s a lot of ways to weave this location and it’s guardian into a story or adventure goal. The only fly in the ointment for me is that this doesn't seem like a fun villain to play. They are born evil and do evil things at extreme power levels within the confines of their tomb, but I don't know. That seems like a hokey reason to penalize .5 points.
Total: 20

Lorelai G’Elsewhere: Guardian of the Gate
CE strongheart halfling conjurer 3/master specialist 3/luckstealer 2/fatespinner 5/wayfarer guide 3/luckstealer 4/master specialist 5
Originality 5: Lots of innovation here. Although she has summons, she specializes in luck rerolls and teleporting the assailants away. Cast against type, with the guardian being a small bookish type
Elegance 5: No problems here.
Power: 4.5: For a caster, there’s some sacrifices that were made for this build that affect overall potential power. On the other hand, what an exhausting encounter to have to deal with, over and over again.
Villainy: 4.5 I don’t have a sense of the outright villainy of this guardian. Her lifespan is short relative to the epochal nature of DND. I don’t have a sense of her Evilness or her chaoticness. And I don’t have a sense of her ethos or pathos, so it’s difficult to peg Lorelai as more of an ark to defeat a villain, as they come across as more of a creative but disgruntled intern of some magical location of some sort.
Total 19

The Ghost of Grobzok the Guardian
Lawful Evil Orc Warrior 1/Dread Necromancer10/Tomb Warden2/Dread Witch 5
Originality 5: What I like: Ghost orcs. There should be so many to deal with. The bardic knowledge check is a classy addition. This a a very well put together villain mechanically, and you demonstrated a mastery of knowledge over your dish’s weaknesses.
Elegance: 5 Everything seems copacetic.
Power: 4. Fear the ghost orc and his magics. Seventh level casting and fear and undeadomancy make this guy a real pain in the butt to deal with.
Villainy: 3.25: I mean, the stakes here don’t seem incredibly high. Oh No, a haunted bakery. What do we do? Seal it off from the outside world... On the otherhand, the politics of indiscriminate orc slaying having lasting effects as a moral issue is nice little bit of perspective. What Grobzok brings to the table is quite villainous within those limitations.
Total 17.25

Giolt
Half-Farspawn Monster of Legend zern
Originality: 4 5 You check off the bigs needs: A place to guard, a reason to guard it, and a reason that it makes him evil. Your race selection is bonkers, and with the exception of some resistances, I’m not seeing a whole lot of synergy, unless I’m missing something. I originally had a 4 in this category, but I'm changing that now. This build is weird. Therefor original.
Elegance: 5, I’m not seeing any issues
Power: 4.25 I’m seeing a lot of versatility but not a lot of expansion on how to use those zern abilities in companionship with the crusader class levels. So, on a switch hitter scale, Giolt stacks up similarly to an optimized gish, or anything else with access to alter self. Man are those stats big! I was inclined to go with a 4, in this category, but on second check, let’s make that a 4.25
Villainy: 3 The story of Giolt and lack of description of a few tactics for how he guards, doesn’t give enough narrative muster to consider him a villain in his own right. Giolt is probably very difficult to describe physically, what with the fly’s head and the number of stretchy tentacles. I get the impression of Giolt as more of a Henchman than a straight up villain in his own right.
Total 17.25

Narfle the Garthog
CE Shadow Faratsu (Fiend Folio 42) Fiend of Possession 6 (FF204)/Dread Necromancer 1 (Heroes of Horror 85)/Marshal 1 (Miniatures Handbook 11)
Originality: 4.5 I did not see fiend of possession coming, or any of the weird stuff from fiend folio. I appreciate your ability to be both treasure and guardian of treasure simultaneously. I dislike the mentions of grafts without the naming of what grafts you’d like to be on Narfle.
Elegance: 5 everything looks peachy.
Power: 4.75 This one is hard to judge on power because of the whole possession aspect. Going by CR, He seems a bit harder than equally CR critters straight out of the monster manual. Especially with his ability to debuff and harass.
Villainy: 4. I am lacking a sense of why he guards this temple of loot. I like that you gave me tactics and strategies on how to use this character. And those tactics can be nefarious and fun to DM.
Total 18.25


SHARLA THE BLACK ANGEL
Human vampire, Duskblade 13, Crusader 5
Originality: 3.75 Vampire duskblade crusader. I mean, vampires can be permanent guards, so it makes sense. What i like: tactical breakdowns at each CR. I like the physical description too. What i want to see more of: why is this guard guarding this thing? Who is this guard?
Elegance: 5: Easy to parse legal build.
Power 4: For a vampire, the crusader levels are helpful. Duskblade is a simple chassis mid range optimization chassis and crusader is solid also. Your feat selection seems non-optimized, at least by board standards, but not weak.
Villainy: 3.75 I don’t have enough understanding of this villains motives and drivers to really solidly place them in the halls of eternal villainy. Don’t get me wrong, this is a solidly built lieutenant type. And the fighting tactics may make the players fall in hatred with her.
Total 16.5

K.A.M.
Soulfused Construct, Lost, Advanced Alchemical Golem, Totemist 2, Fighter 2, Warblade 1
Originality: 4.75 A brilliant homage to a much loved monstrosity.
Elegance: 5 -1 point. I’m not seeing anything that states that you can retroactively select feats for your HD when you gain an intelligence score. If I’m wrong, gimme a source in your dispute. Nevermind, found it.
Power 4.25: This is a fun build. It combines what i like about rust monsters with some crazy nostalgia. Players will have to kite/run this guy, as his inability to heal over short time frames is really the only option. The other option is to attack his INT score, which he can’t protect.
Villainy 3.75: With an int of 3, KAM is more of an experience than a mastermindy villain. He’s probably really fun to run as a DM. He’s got a place to guard, but the reason for guarding is offset by the budding sentience and the death of his creator.
Total 17.75

asharuach
Dark (Cormyr Tearing of the Weave, Pg. 152) Corrupted (Book of Vile Darkness) Air Elemental 44
Originality: 5: I love your inclusion of the place being guarded. I like the physical description and other lore elements included. All around well conceived. All i missed were some more robust tactics descriptions, but air elementals all play similarly in my experience. Even crazy aberrant ones.
Elegance: 5: A simple build.
Power 4.25: Not a lot class features on this one... A tough pile of numbers that is hard to hit without special preparation
Villainy: 5 All around well executed. Who where and why all answered with some extra back up provided with the dawnbird additions. I also get the impression that diplomacy and/or subterfuge might actually work on a bored lonely and vain air elemental.
Total 19.25

The Watcher
Lurker in Darkness, Lurker in Death
Ibrandlin Dracolich Soulbound Weapon Psychic Warrior 12
Originality 5: I didn’t expect the dracolich. Cool build. Triggering many final strikes is fun. But don’t you need an excess of reptilians/dragons for possession?
Elegance: 4.75: The flight speed shenanigans may not fly at everytable. -.25 points
Power: 4.75: This is a super tough fight. Let’s hope the players stock up an anti-undead gear and abilities.
Villainy: 3.75 I like that you have a place to guard and a reason to guard it. But what else is the watcher doing? Why? Wouldn’t the whole eternal life thing being a sham only introduce difficulties in the watcher’s time? What’s the watcher’s goals?
Total 18.25

Claws at heart
Neutral Evil Greenbound Guardian Panther Druid 15
Originality: 5 Using timeless body is a great move. Especially on an animal. I usually get bored during stories, but that was well composed.
Elegance 5: no problems that I can see.
Power 4.5: 15 levels of druid about 5 levels late, but druids are tough, and the panther gets a bunch of resistances.
Villainy 4.75: I like that you have a place to guard, a reason to guard it, but why is the druid evil? Or...how does that evil manifest itself? I absolutely love the love/hate relationship that claws-at-heart has with his awakened existence. It gives a sense of loss to his existence that many of the abandoned guardians in this competition would be feeling.
Total 19.25

My HM goes to Lorelai G’Elsewhere: for the outside of the box thinking on what constitutes guardianship.

[Telonius]

Woohoo, one judge in! Thanks for stepping up! :smallbiggrin:

[GrayDeath]

Good, one down!



Ehm, just a question,as I am a bit confused: Why are you assigning the same amount of Eelgance to Single class, evrything easy and clear and wildly ... interesting 5+ Class builds? I mean Elegance is not Legality only, otherwise we would only have 5 pts and 1 pts scores ^^

Important:
Not critisizing, just very curious, as it seems to me a fair bit leass detailed/reasoned than your other Judging criteria.

Another point for judges always posting their criteria Explanation up front maybe?

[daremetoidareyo]

Good, one down!



Ehm, just a question,as I am a bit confused: Why are you assigning the same amount of Eelgance to Single class, evrything easy and clear and wildly ... interesting 5+ Class builds? I mean Elegance is not Legality only, otherwise we would only have 5 pts and 1 pts scores ^^

Important:
Not critisizing, just very curious, as it seems to me a fair bit leass detailed/reasoned than your other Judging criteria.

Another point for judges always posting their criteria Explanation up front maybe?



I don't care about the number of sources used. I only care that the build is legal (Prereqs met and competition legal) and RAW interpretation is reasonably likely to be used at a table. I start at five and just penalize downward. I'm pretty permissive.

The rest of the builds start at 2.5 and I sort of eyeball it. Adding for qualities that I believe are above average for niche and subtracting for aspects that I feel are below average or lacking. If the niche is unique like the soulbound dracolich, I just compare it with bog standard critters of the same CR, or imagine putting them against a party of 4 with a meatbag melee, a sneak, an arcane need, and a divine nerd to see how I imagine them fairing against the creature.

This contest was hard to judge because guardians are sort of sedentary. So their villainy is very limited compared to other archetypes. This paired with the mindlessness of guardian types made it a little worse. So a compelling place to guard, a reason to guard it, and why you are evil, villain personality and tactics became the way to really compare the competing entries.

[Braininthejar2]

A question for future builds I might try:

We normally start with an elite array.

But how to calculate mental stats for a creature that gets awakened somewhere during the build?

[Thurbane]

A question for future builds I might try:

We normally start with an elite array.

But how to calculate mental stats for a creature that gets awakened somewhere during the build?

There's no easy answer for that, and it's a question I've pondered myself.

[daremetoidareyo]

There's no easy answer for that, and it's a question I've pondered myself.

One option is to have a comp policy on any awakened creatures being treated as having a template that gives them the augmented subtype and +1 CR.

[Falontani]

Honestly I say we should create an "inherited Template" that we use for the competitions. One for animals, vermin, plants, oozes, undead, and constructs. One that we throw in the description of the future Competitions in the future as a spoilered thing.


"Awakened Creature" is an inherited template that can be applied to any Animal, Ooze, Vermin, Undead, Plant, or Construct with Intelligence 2 or less.
An Awakened Creature uses all the base creature's statistics and special abilities except as noted here.
An awakened Animal has it's intelligence set to 10, gains +2 charisma, and +2 Hit Dice. It's type changes to Magical Beast [Augmented Animal]


someone help me flesh that out?

[Inevitability]

Honestly I say we should create an "inherited Template" that we use for the competitions. One for animals, vermin, plants, oozes, undead, and constructs. One that we throw in the description of the future Competitions in the future as a spoilered thing.


"Awakened Creature" is an inherited template that can be applied to any Animal, Ooze, Vermin, Undead, Plant, or Construct with Intelligence 2 or less.
An Awakened Creature uses all the base creature's statistics and special abilities except as noted here.
An awakened Animal has it's intelligence set to 10, gains +2 charisma, and +2 Hit Dice. It's type changes to Magical Beast [Augmented Animal]


someone help me flesh that out?

I don't see why it shouldn't be Acquired, though. Being the child of two awakened animals doesn't make you an awakened animal yourself.

[Braininthejar2]

Another question: Any erratas I should be aware of that could turn up important?

[The Viscount]

Depends on the book
MM3 had a heavy amount of errata for the monsters within.
MM2 had a full update for every monster for the 3.5 rules.
Fiend Folio just updated crafting costs and DR for the monsters, creating a few oddities.

[Braininthejar2]

And where best to look for those? I've tried, especially for MM1, but kept getting redirected to V ed.

[WhamBamSam]

And where best to look for those? I've tried, especially for MM1, but kept getting redirected to V ed.There's an archive with most of the errata and 3.5 updates here (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/errata), though off the top of my head it's missing the Monsters of Faerun update from the PGtF Web Enhancment (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20040313a), and perhaps a handful of others.

As far as MMI goes, I think that d20srd (http://www.d20srd.org/index.htm) is up to date, unless you're worried about product identity stuff.

[remetagross]

I'm sorry for being late, this is taking considerably longer than what I though and I haven't found as much time to get to it as I expected. I am currently judging the Elegance category, and am done with 8 builds out of 13. However, I expect it to be the longest category to judge of them all, so I'm not losing hope :smallbiggrin:

[daremetoidareyo]

From Judge to judge, thanks for persevering.

What competition theme(s) are you excited about?

[remetagross]

Dunno...a duo of villains seems cool. I rather liked the whole list that was tossed around at some point.

Ah, yes, I also had another idea: the McGuffin villain. The idea is to have a villain built around a specific McGuffin. The PCs must absolutely prevent it from getting its hands on the McGuffin/ find and use the McGuffin in order to defeat the villain/ other. Either the villain does not know where the McGuffin is (in which case it has to be good at detection) or knows and hides it (it must be competent at keeping the PCs at bay) or maybe another way around it. Then, the villain has a crippling weakness to said McGuffin, or maybe becomes unbelievably powerful if it manages to get its hands on it, etc etc. Since a lot of campaigns resort to a McGuffin at some point or another, that'd be a round full of very useful and applicable villains for a lot of DMs I think :smallsmile:

[The Viscount]

We appreciate your efforts remetagross!

I think McGuffin villain would be a pretty interesting concept. Villain seeking to be reunited with their lost item is a real classic.

[Braininthejar2]

Bumping because page 4

[remetagross]

Sorry folks, I'm not done yet, and I haven't given up either. Tell you what: let's start the next comp by the end of the week, regardless of whether I'm done or not, so as not to let things drag on too much. How about that Inevitability?

[Inevitability]

I could definitely do that.

[Inevitability]

I would like to make an announcement:

I have chaired this competition for some time now, and while it's been great seeing the creative and diverse builds people came up with, I do find myself wishing I could participate again. For that reason, I was wondering if anyone would be willing to take over the mantle of chair.

I will obviously still be finishing up this competition once a judge presents themselves (if there's multiple people who want to chair, perhaps the one to present judgements gets to?). The new chair could start the next round before that, of course.

I'd also like to thank all competitors, judges, or fans for being involved in this competition. The reason it's awesome is because of you.

[jdizzlean]

while i do love building for VC, I'd be willing to chair it so you can get in on the action as well. I'd probably need a little info on how to do your job though :)

[Inevitability]

while i do love building for VC, I'd be willing to chair it so you can get in on the action as well. I'd probably need a little info on how to do your job though :)

Well basically it amounts to:

1. Making a new thread every so often. I just copy basically everything from the old one, add a few relevant details, and occasionally update the rulings.

2. Receive builds as they are submitted. Very easy: just inform people you received their build.

3. Answer questions. Most of the time these will be 'would doing X cause me to lose points in category Y' and most of the time the answer will be 'that is up to individual judges'.

4. Post builds after deadline has passed, maybe with witticisms.

5. Reveal builds after judging. Same as before, basically.



All in all, it's not a particularly hard job. :smalltongue:

[jdizzlean]

ok :)

I'm currently in book hell making a submission for JYW's. Once I'm done w/ that, assuming no one else wishes to chair, I'll work with you to get the next round going and take over from there.

[Thurbane]

I would like to make an announcement:

I have chaired this competition for some time now, and while it's been great seeing the creative and diverse builds people came up with, I do find myself wishing I could participate again. For that reason, I was wondering if anyone would be willing to take over the mantle of chair.

I will obviously still be finishing up this competition once a judge presents themselves (if there's multiple people who want to chair, perhaps the one to present judgements gets to?). The new chair could start the next round before that, of course.

I'd also like to thank all competitors, judges, or fans for being involved in this competition. The reason it's awesome is because of you.

Thanks for all of your efforts, Inevitability; I know first-hand how demanding chairing one of these can be. :smallsmile:

[jdizzlean]

Pm sent

extra characters for no reason than forum requires them to thus exist.

[jdizzlean]

New Thread Posted (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?556705-Villainous-Competition-XXVI-Swallow-Whole!)

[Inevitability]

Still waiting for a judge here! Someone? Anyone?

[Falontani]

Is it possible for the chair to judge our entries? I'd hate for there to have never been a judge, and with it being Inevitability's last time for the foreseeable future as chair, I think it would be appropriate that he can judge this one if he wants to.

[remetagross]

I still have 4 entries to deal with in Power, and then all of Memorability. And then, some formatting and harmonizing.

I takes me about an hour to deal with one category of one entry. Judges, is that normal? I've worked about 35 hours on that judgement already...

[daremetoidareyo]

I still have 4 entries to deal with in Power, and then all of Memorability. And then, some formatting and harmonizing.

I takes me about an hour to deal with one category of one entry. Judges, is that normal? I've worked about 35 hours on that judgement already...

That seems excessive. You could cut that time in half and just let disputes do the other half of the work.

[Inevitability]

I still have 4 entries to deal with in Power, and then all of Memorability. And then, some formatting and harmonizing.

I takes me about an hour to deal with one category of one entry. Judges, is that normal? I've worked about 35 hours on that judgement already...

That is considerably more time than I spent on it when I judged in the past.

[GrayDeath]

I agree.

Unless the entries are REALLY complicated I spend around 10 minutes on Power and Elegance each, and 5-10 on the other 2 eachish.....


Of course, if you have to look uop a lot this goes up massively.

[jdizzlean]

I still have 4 entries to deal with in Power, and then all of Memorability. And then, some formatting and harmonizing.

I takes me about an hour to deal with one category of one entry. Judges, is that normal? I've worked about 35 hours on that judgement already...

i usually just do 1 build at a time, instead of 1 category at a time. unless i have to book dive, or clarify the details, it usually takes me 30-45 mins a build. so 35 hours seems like an insane amount of time, especially if you're only half done

[remetagross]

Okay, points duly noted. I need to revamp the way I'm dealing with the judgements. Thanks for the answers.

[daremetoidareyo]

Okay, points duly noted. I need to revamp the way I'm dealing with the judgements. Thanks for the answers.

So delete what you got and start over ;)

[Falontani]

So delete what you got and start over ;)

Honestly I want to see what he's got! dont delete and start over, although maybe be a little less thorough on the ones that are left, try to grade them about the same as the others.

[GrayDeath]

So delete what you got and start over ;)

You`re an evil Evil ...something. ^^

@ Rematagross: Dont feel pressured to do things "our" way, we are only trying to help regarding making jusging easier and faster.

Inc ase it helps, I usually do it like this:

Read all Entries. Sort them by how easy they seem to judge.

Deending on if I feel full of energy or not (or depending on my time) I start with the easier or harder ones, and do one Entry at a time.

If one stumps me (be it because I need to check up sources not readily on hand, or its confusing in the details, or I simply dont "get" it) I pause it and switch to another one.

Often, though not always, I immedeately do the one that catches me most unaware or seems most to my immedeate liking.

[remetagross]

One more entry to deal with in Power, then onto Memorability. Since I won't have to open ten PDFs and look up twenty feats per entry for that one, it'll be way faster!

@Graydeath I'll definitely try that way in case I judge again. I think wanting to judge a whole category across all entries at once has made my judging uselessly longer, by having me forget what everything does between two reviews of one build and having to look everything up again.

[remetagross]

Alright, just three Memorability categories to judge, some formatting, and I'm over. Wich means I'll post everything tomorrow evening after work.

[Venger]

Alright, just three Memorability categories to judge, some formatting, and I'm over. Wich means I'll post everything tomorrow evening after work.

Thanks for the update

[Inevitability]

Deliverance at last! We have been blessed!

Kidding aside, thanks a lot remetagross. I really appreciate the work you've done.

[remetagross]

:smalltongue: Well, I cannot say I didn't deserve that one, Inevitability!

Anyway, here it goes. I first want to present my deepest apologies for having taken so long. 13000 words. I know how infuriating it can be, as a player, to wait and wait and wait for the scores to come, and not see the final ranking and...you'll have the opportunity to voice your annoyance when you contest my judgings :smallbiggrin:

Without further ado:



Well, not too bad. I can picture the thing perfectly well and it is indeed rather amusing ^^ Martial initiator classes on monsters with big amounts of HD is rather classic, and the backstory, if funny, is really succinct (plus I don’t really see the golem slaying an Ancient Red Dragon all by its own). Stone Golem is also rather expected as guardian-slow-and-powerful creatures go.

Two base classes, one after the other. Seems good to me.
Many small miscalculations, however.
The listed Str should be 41, not 39, though the attack bonus indicated for the slam attacks do corresponds to the correct Str score. The indicated Ref save should be 2 points higher, to account for the Dex of 10 instead of 6 for the regular Greater Stone Golem. The mental stats for Awaken Construct? (Not that big a deal, though, since they’re not used as a prerequisite for anything.)
Awaken Construct is from the Spell Compendium, not listed as a source. Also, I have been unable to find out exactly which skills the awakened Golem gains as a class skill. The text of the Awaken Construct spells throws back to MM p.290, which then says, “Some templates change how skill points are determined […] Treat skills listed in the base creature’s description (of which there are none, what with the Golem being a construct) as class skills, as well as any new skills provided with the template.” Of course, the Awaken Construct spell does not grant a template, but that was the most applicable thing I found in that section of the MM. A look at the Incarnate Construct template, for comparison, does not grant skills nor even feats to the newly fleshed out construct. I have to admit, I am quite clueless as to what to make of that by RAW. I humbly ask the community to help me shed light on the matter.
That said, I have no problems deciding as a GM to retroactively grant feats to the construct, but not skills. That would negate the Listen, Spot and Sense Motive skill points attributed to the Golem at CR 16.
Swordsages gain their Wis to AC at level 2, not at level 1, so the AC of the Golem is in excess of 1 here. Also, they grant +2 to Ref saves at level 1, and not +102 :p And you did not specify to which discipline the discipline focus applies. The average amount of HPs gained by the four class levels is 24, bringing the Golem to a total of 295 HPs and not 299 HPs (not that it will matter a lot). A total of 42 Construct HDs makes up for an attack bonus of +30, which means that once you put a greataxe in its hands, the Golem is allowed four iteratives, and not three as you wrote.
Adaptive Style can only be taken at the same time you reach your first level of either Warblade or Swordage, and you don’t get feats either at your Warblade 1 or Swordsage 1 level. That can be easily fixed by taking your Swordage 1 level before your Warblade 3 level though.
All in all, the entry is poorly formatted, and I had a hard time figuring everything. I gather you finished it in a hurry, so no hard feelings.

At CR 20, you have a reasonable number of HPs. Your saves are shored up by your maneuvers plus possible magic items. You are immune to a number of spells and effects, and those that don’t allow SR most often allow saves in exchange, so that’s not bad for you, and there’s Iron Heart Surge in addition to this.
You are slow but helped a little by Shadow Blink, Rapid Counter and Moment of Alacrity.
You have however very poor senses, even with the addition of Hearing the Air. This is particularly worrisome as a guardian, because you are supposed to prevent the PCs to slip past you. Blindsense added with Blind-fight somewhat helps you vs invisible opponents, but a Wind Walked party can walk straight past you, as can a party Polymorphed into a squad of rats (you have no way to bypass their Disguise check).
You can hit hard, especially with your maneuvers, are are most likely to succeed at your Bull Rush and Overrun attempts. On the other hand, apart from hitting hard, there is nothing much you can do, and in particular you can do nothing against enemies at range. You cannot really trigger the sneak attack provided by Assassin’s Stance.
You can do nothing against a party that kites at you from 100ft apart with composite longbows, even if the DR helps a little here.

Well, I can feel you. Backstory is often done last, and thus can get scrapped in case you lack time. Unfortunately, it means for your villain that while the PCs will laugh a good one when they first encounter it, they will forget it soon after. Golems are hardly unseen as far as guardian creatures go, and the very limited degree of interaction this one offers limits even further the point to which the PCs can feel connected to it.


I’m utterly impressed you managed to find a picture that matches with your random array of templates and creatures so closely. Did you decide to build Sally after finding it?
Apart from that, yeah, so not only this was completely unforeseen for the monsters, but also for the classes used. Scout puts the emphasis on movement, which is quite the opposite of the expected idea of the guardian. The skill ranks in Craft (sculpture) are so random! Actually, it almost seems they are here only for the sake of gaining points in Orginality…I’ll give you the benefit of doubt and behave as if not. Also, villains who focus on gaze attacks are quite rare, as are the Serpent Kingdom feats that come along.


She does not qualify for the Tauric template, since it needs a “Small or Medium-sized corporeal humanoid” for the upper part, while Medusas are monstrous humanoid. I do think the bolded humanoid word in the description quoted above does mean specifically the humanoid type, and is not a general word under which monstrous humanoid can be understood. I want it as a proof that a few lines later, it is specified that “A tauric creature’s type changes to monstrous humanoid.” The fact that the type is specified here as a different thing as an humanoid shows (to my understanding) that insofar as this description is concerned, the words humanoid and monstrous humanoid are indeed taken as the two different types they stand for in D&D typology, and thus monstrous humanoid cannot be understood as a subcategory of humanoid (which is the interpretation you seemed to have adopted here) .

No problems about qualifying for the other templates though. There is another big problem, however, with CR calculation. According to the Tauric template, the medusa is the “base humanoid” while the drakkensteed is the “base creature”. Then, the MMII says that the CR of the tauric creature should be equal to (CR of the base creature +1). In that case, we take the CR of the Drakkensteed, which is 4, and that brings us to CR 5. The table indicates CR 8. This seems to indicate that you mistook the “base creature” and “base humanoid” here, and took the CR of the medusa (CR 7) instead of that of the Drakkensteed for the calculation. This would indicate that the end CR of Sally is 2 higher than what it should be.
The mulitheaded and monster of legend templates then add the correct amount of CR, respectively 3 and 2. Curiously enough, probably due to a typo, being a Lernaean creature in addition to being a multiheaded one does not change the CR of the monster, which it certainly ought to do. Oh well.
The ability score increases for HDs that are inferior to the HD of the base creatures are not to be added to the total and are considered to be already included in the final ability scores of the base creatures. Here it is a little complicated due to the fact that there are two base creatures. But they so happen to have respectively 4 and 6 starting HDs for the Drakkensteed and the Medusa. This means that the ability increase for level 4 has already been included in their statblocks. As such, Sally should not benefit from that +1 in Cha for her 4th HD (not that it makes much of a difference in the end).
Your saves seem to indicate base saves for a racial HD with all good saves. But monstrous humanoids have good Ref and Will saves, not Fort saves. Also, it is better to indicate your total save bonus instead of your base save bonus, so that the judge can more easily assess the resistance of the character without having to calculate all the saves himself at each relevant level.
At CR 16, Sally is listed as gaining 10 skill points from her level of scout, but that should be 9. Besides, please highlights where skill points go in the table, since having to make substractions is much more error-prone for the judge ^^
Pervasive Gaze and Piercing Gaze both need an Int of 13, which Sally does not possess at any point of her build. The multiheaded template does not grant any bonus feats apart from Weapon Focus (bite) in some cases, which is not Sally’s case. As such, Sally should gain two feats, and not four, between CR 10 and 16. On the other hand, Improved Initative has probably been misplaced and should stand as a bonus feat from the Tauric template alongwith Improved Initiative.
The levels of Scout and Warlock at the end seem pretty random.
And finally, please list your sources ;)
As is customary, however, this mistake will be penalized only once, and the full build will be taken into consideration in the Power section.


You have a ton of HPs, high saves, permanent Spell Turning…and of course you’re a Lernaean creature, which makes you very hard to bring down. Also, due to your powerful gaze attacks (which are not a death effect, meaning the ubiquitous Death Ward won’t do here), most characters will need to close their eyes while fighting you (especially because of Pervasive Gaze), meaning you’ll get total concealment against most direct attacks, and thus will be immune to precision damage in addition to everything else!
Sally has a modicum of detection abilities between some ranks in Listen and Spot, big Darkvision, Quick Reconnoiter and See the Unseen (though that one at CR 20 only).
On the offensive side, since a successful save against a Medusa’s gaze attack does not give 24 hours immunity against it or anything of that kind, the four heads of Sally impose four successive saving throws versus petrification, at a very high save DC to boot. That alone is extremely powerful.
At low CRs, the Frightful Presence and the poison from the snakes, applied through Flyby Attack, will be devastating on the PCs. Later on, Heroes’ Feast and the like will neuter that.

Generally speaking, that’s the weakness of the build: Sally starts out extremely strong, but the later Scout and Warlock levels do not add much to her threat level, meaning the PCs can catch up more and more. Given how absurdly strong she is at CR 10, however, that means that by the time she gets to CR 18 or something, the PCs will be just evenly matched :p

Sally is a very unusually looking monster. The four-headed lernaean medusa is sure to be remembered, if only for that. In addition, the forest haunted with petrified and re-sculpted creatures has a good creepiness factor. The fact that her ranks in Craf (Sculpturing) increase alongwith her power level means you can depict to the PCs how the petrified creatures are getting better and better reshaped as time goes on. A Lernaean monster is also, by the nature of the way to dispatch it, very memorable in and of itself. And a creature with gaze attacks as well!
However, the “over the top” aspect of the monster might make it a little ridiculous (but perhaps that was the point), and downplay it a little towards the players. Also, Sally has little motivations and goals in life besides acting randomly around her lair. And who or what, exactly, is she guarding?



Yeah, so Soulfused Construct. Never ever heard of that. And Quorcraft Warforged. Ditto. Also, Totemist, that’s neat. Using Incarnum is always somewhat original, even more so when it’s more than just the Shape Soulmeld feat. The fluff is neat enough. Exploiting the Lord of Blades and the Creation Forge is coherent and flavorful. Focusing on Bull Rush, while nothing new, is a tad more original than your run-of-the-mill ubercharger, so I feel this should be rewarded. It is only the second time I ever set my eyes on the Juggernaut class, so points for that, and you clearly did not do it for the sole purpose of gaining originality points.
That said, when I look at your build, I keep saying “hey, that’s well done!” here and there, as I outlined above, but I never say “WTF is this thing??”


Since before the Soulfused Construct template gets applied, Slam is a mindless construct, it cannot advance by character class but only by HD. As such, he cannot take those first two levels of fighter. This, however, can be simply solved by applying the template before everything else during the progression of Slam. However, since all skills except Speak Language are considered cross-class for the purpose of spending the skill points Soulfused Construct grants, these 4 ranks in Intimidate at CR 3 should really be 2 ranks since Intimidate is cross-class. There again, though, if you switch the fighter levels with the application of the template, then Slam will gain 2 skill points for these 2 fighter levels (now that he has an Int score) that he can spend on Intimidate as well, bringing the total to 4 ranks in Intimidate by CR 3 all the same. For the matter of which Living Construct subtype to apply, Rules Compendium does not tell us anything about that subtype and thus does not supersede anything. As such, by RAW the subtype described in Magic of Incarnum should apply. This makes the increase in Con at each multiple by 4 level much less interesting. On that topic, the Soulfused Construct template is indeed rather unclear but seems to imply that Dex and Cha (not Wis) are increased by 1 at every 4 HD.
Your saves are slightly wrong: they should be 1 higher in Fort and Ref at CR 7. At CR 14, since you’re gaining your third level of fighter, your Ref and Will saves should increase by one, and not your Fort save. Your Fort save should then increase at CR 15.
You total only 4 levels of fighter, but 6 are needed to take the second Dungeoncrasher ACF, for which you thus don’t qualify.
Apart from those small slights, the build makes sense, apart from the two ranks in Knowledge (arcana) which I cannot explain. Warforged racial levels, warforged prestige class, warforged feats, a template that connects constructs and incarnum, a base class that builds off incarnum. Makes sense. Everything seems ordered. You got Pounce from a soulmeld instead of a Pouncebarian deep. You did not go standard ubercharger. You made a Bull Rush-oriented build and made it coherently. Losing your mind and gaining it back through Quorcraft Construct and Soulfused Construct was well thought out, too.


You’re a Warforged whose natural immunities are even further enhanced by the Juggernaut class. You’re immune to a ton of nasty stuff, and you have a high Fort save and a moderately high AC, as well as some DR that will make it a little harder for archers to down you. On the other hand, your Ref and Will saves are low, as are your HPs, as I’m ruling you don’t get extra HPs for a high Con score.
You’re a focused charger/dungeoncrasher. You have pounce and high numbers on a charge. You have a modicum of battlefield control through clever uses of Bull Rushes. I cannot help but think, however, that Shock Trooper would have greatly helped this build, instead of (for example) Cobalt Power that gives you flat bonuses but not really new options. I understand you might have thought of it as unoriginal, but in the context of a dungeoncrasher, rather than of you run-of-the-mill ubercharger, it would not have seemed only there for powergrabbing.
You will have a hard time catching the PCs up close, however. Your very low speed and the obligatory charge you have to perform to be useful in battle mean the PCS can easily outmaneuver you. Please list some items that would allow you to bypass that issue, because I feel you cannot just say “some items would shore up Slam’s weaknesses.”
Also, you suffer from extremely poor detection abilities. As a guardian monster, this is not to be neglected. As is, even a lowly Invisibility spell would allow the party to bypass completely a CR 20 Slam. I feel those ranks in Intimidate, that are not put to any use, would have been better spent in Listen and/or Spot.


A Warforged to guard the Creation Forge, that hates all fleshy creatures, and that serves the Lord of Blades. But a Warforged with Incarnum. That, you don’t see too often and the PCs might remember. Apart from that, Slam has only an Int of 3, which means he is not disposed to talking with the PCs and explain his goals and motivations (which are not much). That makes him a fairly shallow villain.




Alright, so this backstory, if short, is both compelling and downright creepy. Yikes. Then, about the build. Vampire is nothing if classical, and Vampire Lord is nothing too exciting either. I have never seen (nor in fact was I even aware of the existence of) the Unholy Scion template, so bonus points for that. What is original, however, is the way Mircea wan threaten the PCs in so many different areas, what with his negative levels, mind-affecting power, social skills, infiltration abilities, attrition potential…a multi-purpose villain such as him is not something you see that often.


You don’t have the required rank in Speak Language (Abyssal or Infernal) to qualify for Warrior of Darkness, nor do you possess the Iron Will feat: you have to have the feat before selecting your choice of advancement for your 12th level, and only after that choice is done, provided you qualify for it, do you gain your skills and feat as normal for your level. That can be easily fixed by swapping Iron Will with Power Attack for example, so not too much of a problem.
You made a slight mistake in your ability scores: your end Str should be 26, and your end Cha 29. That does not make much of a difference. Your Con should be – as befits an undead creature though.
You left some skill points unspent at CR 5 and 9 but then spent 2 too much on CR 11, so it evens out.
You qualify for everything else. About your choice of class, Tomb Warden fits very nicely thematically speaking, but the level of Warrior of Darkness seems to pop out of nowhere, and the alternated pattern of Hexblade and Paladin of Tyranny levels is somewhat unsettling.
Please list your sources too :D


You are extremely hard to bring down. You have very high saves, damage reduction, fast healing, very high AC, all the undead immunities plus spell resistance from Unholy Scion. And even if you do die, Vampire Lord makes you able to come back fairly easily. You even have turning immunity.
Thanks to Tomb Sense, there is no sneaking past you. For a guardian monster, this is plain excellent. Given this “this ability is similar to blindsense”, I think this means it can be foiled by Darkstalker. But on the other hand, there will be no more than 1 PC with Darkstalker in the team, and that one PC won’t be able to use precision-based damage against you (at least not before high CRs) anyway.
Between your hypnotic voice, your social skill tricks and good ranks in social skills, your spawns and the fact that you can use your mother (by the way, ewwwwww), this means you are quite able to gather minions and to approach the PCs without them necessarily discovering you’re the main villain.
When it comes to direct confrontation, you have a variety of options, ranging from stealthy telekinesis use to control weather to blow the PCs out there to transforming into a pouncing animal and dealing a ton of negative levels to debuffing through Dark Companion, Hexblade’s Curse, demoralization optimization and spell-like abilities.
I would note, however, that I am surprised you chose Ensorcelled Flesh as your Black Magic Oil effect from Warrior of Darkness 1: you already have a high AC, I think Blind-Fight would have been a better option.
On the offensive side, however, you are reasonably competent in a number of areas, but not especially good in any. Your Hexblade’s Curses and spell-like abilities are only a few times per day, except for Dominate Person (but that one’s pretty easy to become immune to); you don’t have a very good array of melee-oriented feats and abilities to support your slam; you don’t have any spellcasting; you can change shape into bruisers but then you’d lose your slam attack.


The sheer grossness of the Unholy Scion template is sure to be remembered by the PCs. But apart from that, the fluff you whipped up is very coherent and intelligent, if simple. The story of a Paladin-turned-seer-in-the-Abyss (after the forces of evil lunched a campaign against him, as you put it :D) is so vivid it can easily motor a whole campaign arc, if not a whole campaign. And the idea of a guardian put here that actually fights against what it is proctecting, rather than for it, is excellent as well. The possibilities offered by the Unholy Scion template as well as through the vampire pawns allow for many social encounters before the combats take place. Besides, provided the PCs manage to slip through and interrogate the Paladin, he can easily give them intel about Mircea that will make the PCs even more hell (haha, get it?) bent on destroying it. Plus, all the various ways to destroy a vampire, that later change when he turns into a Vampire Lord, give a lot of taste to the chase to destroy or at least bypass Mircea. Well done.




Ok, so what do we got here? Abrupt Jaunt focused conjurer, Quicken spell, Strongheart Halfling. Apart from that, this build completely blew me away. A luck-based villain is so rare. Not only is the concept completely out of nowhere, but the build efficiently pulls it off by using obscure classes and feats, that are here not for the sole sake of being obscure. Who has ever reread the [luck] feats of Complete Scoundrel, after having read the book from cover to cover for the first time? Now, I have^^ And the story is darn great as well!  long live Nybor!

You seem to have traded Scribe Scroll for Spell Focus (Conjuration), and I did not understand how. Is that an ACF or something? Enlighten me 
You spent 7 skill points instead of 6 for your last two levels.
Apart from than, you qualify for everything. The thematics of luck is strongly applied throughout the build, be it thanks to the [luck] feats (which I am seeing used for the first time ever) or the luck-based PrCs. Using many Halfling-themed items is also appreciated, it gives credence to the build, and makes you forgive the mandatory Abrupt Jaunt ACf.
The other reproach I would make is the somewhat zigzagging progression of the PrCs in the build.

A Conjurer Wizard. Your power will thus be measured against the metric of what wizards can do. You lose some caster levels, but on the other hand you still gain 9th level spells. You are mobile thanks to Abrupt Jaunt and Dimension Step. You can remain out of harm’s way by burning all your various luck rerolls to gain better Init, reroll a failed ray attack, a failed save, etc. Cloudy Conjuration combines nicely with the [teleport] spells, as does the extra range provided by Wayfarer Guide. Enhance Accuracy combines very neatly with Nybor’s Joyful Ride indeed. Fatespinner does wonders to one shot someone. The Minor School Esoterica allows you to gain somewhat tough minions to protect yourself during battle.
Nybor’s Joyful Ride is an extremely creative and elegant way to dispatch an opponent, bypassing almost every layer of protection the PCs will have thought of (Death Ward, Freedom of Movement, Mind Blank, Spell Immunity [Dimensional Anchor], etc). That can easily wipe out the PCs (all the more than even when it starts to kill PCs, the remaining one will have absolutely no clue of what is happening).
Luckstealer is neat as Desperate Recall grants you some versatility, but on the other hand spending a standard action on Curse of the Fatespurned seems a waste given how small the effect is, with a low save DC and a low Cha to stockpile on luck points (you said you would use Cha boosting items, but you have to buy Int boosting items first and NPC WBL isn’t as big as PC’s).
Also, you have next to no native detection abilities. Which means you have to burn a number of spells to prevent the PCs to sneak past you. See Invisibility at low levels, True Seeing later on, etc. Your lack of social skills makes it unlikely you can manage to bring about the kind of encounter described in the fluff, though that doesn’t mean less points in that category: it’s only fluff ^^
And you’re extremely fragile, despite your teleporting tricks. A fireball lobed at you is a lethal threat, given your low HPs and the fact that Abrupt Jaunt won’t let you evade it. Also, Nybor’s Joyful Ride (which comes online pretty late) needs a touch attack. You definitely do not want to have to get up close to deliver it. Provided you use a Spectral Hand though…but you did not mention it, though. Also, I am a little sad that none of your rerolling abilities let you do as is told in your backstory, that is, making a foe reroll any one die or coin flipping :smalltongue:.


I’ll be damned if I ever find again a villain that took me off balance as much as Lorelai did when I first read her fluff. Not only is it original, it is also from the stuff of D&D tales players tell to one another to show off how awesome their adventure was. A completely unexpected guardian, calmy offering to play dice (or any other game, really), instead of a direct confrontation (at least at the beginning of her career)? I wish I had faced such a colorful villain. She can provide so much calm-before-the-storm-breaks social discussions with the PCs. For example, I perfectly envision the know-it-all of the party politely enquiring about the etymology of Lorelai’s name, and as Lorelai answers and the PCs happens to have correctly guessed it, she compliments him on the breadth of his knowledge, just as if neither she nor him were perfectly aware that all hell could break loose at a moment’s notice. Well done.



Hmm, an Orc Ghost guarding a secret pie recipe in a haunted bakery. Great!! The backstory got me a smirk. I also enjoyed the rare fact of a funny villain that actually holds its own in a fight.
As far as character options go, nothing really sticks out. Tomb Warden might have, but it has been picked by other builds as well. Ghost template, Orc race, Dread Necromancer, Dread witch, all of this is rather standard fare. OK, these ranks in Craft (Pie) are neat.

At CR 11 you have assigned 6 skill points even though you are entitled to only 5, but then you did the opposite mistake at CR 18 by using only 2 skill points instead of 3, so it evens out.
Apart from those remarks, nothing to be said. Everything flows nicely into the build. The feats and skill points are coherent, as are the classes. Grobzok is a ghost that does ghost things (scaring people off, getting through walls) and takes options that allows him to be better at ghost things.
Just too bad you did not finish Tomb Warden, though once again it’s a nice class for this theme.

At low levels, this enemy is incredibly powerful. Turn resistance and etherealness are almost impassable defenses to PCs. Corrupting Gaze and Malevolence will decimate the team. Your one weakness is the possibility that a rogue will slip by unnoticed, but as a ghost you have unparalleled agility to scout around your bakery.

At around CR 10, the PCs wil have ways to go around your etherealness, through Magic Weapons, Banishment, etc, but that will still mean a certain expenditure of resources from them. That is when the versatility granted by Dread Necromancer kicks in. Stuff like Ray of Enfeeblement, Cause Fear or other debuffs you can apply. Besides, Malevolence is still incredibly effective at taking out an animal companion or a sidekick with no personal risk, or even a PC. Quicken Manifestation allows Grobzok to manifest, attack, manifest out, move out. Besides, at these CRs the chance for Grobzok to succeed on the check for Rejuvenation is very high, meaning the PCs won’t get rid of them easily.

At the high levels, Tomb Warden 2 makes it almost impossible to sneak past Grobzok and steal the pie recipe. Though the Absorb Fear class features of the Dread Witch are lost due to Grobzok’s immunity to mind-affecting effects, the ability to affect immune opponents is very powerful, all the more that the PCs will never be in the situation where they have more that four more HDs than Grobzok.
On the other hand, the PCs will catch up faster than Grobzok’s power as a caster improves. The ability damage inflicted by Corrupting Gaze or Draining Touch will most likely be promptly healed away, or at any rate be rendered less effective at these levels due to the fact that the PCs have higher ability scores. I’m not sold on the usefulness of the undead mooks, though. They are exactly that: mooks, and not really more than speed bumps for PCs of that level.
When Undead Mastery and Create Undead kick in, that simply allows you to make monsters that are still mooks compared to 20th level PCs.
Touch of Vecna is a nice find, what with Reach spell and the fact that it is a [fear] spell and thus enhanced by the Dread Witch class features.


The first thing is the goofiness. A ghost baker orc? Almost as good as a ninja pirate zombie robot. The PCs will have a good laugh, and then set to the fight. After their probable defeat, though, the interesting thing is that you provided credible plot hooks for Grobzok to be more than the comic relief of the dungeon. For one, the thematics of putting him to rest is a quest motor in and of itself. I like how you thought about how a bardic knowledge check would interact with him. Then, the job of the DM is to find something to do with that recipe. If the PCs manage to unearth it, how to use it to put Grobzok to rest? And indeed, as his tale grows, more and more local powers will start to gravitate around him, thus providing even more opportunity for the PCs to interact. The idea to make tribes of orcs center around him, or even priests of Gruumsh, can be easily exploited upon. Besides, the PCs could at high levels use diplomacy to persuade Grobzok to put those ranks in Cooking for them, and maybe try to squeeze the relevance of the recipe out of him. Using the recipe as part of an obscure ritual is also a good high level thematics.
The one reproach I’d make to Grobzok is that one can easily forget he’s a Guardian villain at some point. True, he endeavors to protect his recipe. But unless the DM carefully maneuvers around that item, he PCs will look for the recipe only insofar as it allows them to get rid of Grobzok, not because of any intrinsic value. The recipe as a legendary component of a ritual works, but only at high levels.

[remetagross]

A Zern. Never heard of those, and they’re a nice find! Same remark for the Half-farspawn template. It is more flavorful and makes more sense than Half-Fey or what have you. The story is nothing too unusual. Another Monster of Legend, though. Battlefield Control Crusader is well-known, as are reach-enhancing feats. Demoralizing optimization. Nothing really makes me say “woah woah, what the hell is going on?”.


You do not qualify for the Aberration Blood feat by virtue of not being a humanoid, however illogical that might seem. I have searched for caveats about [Aberrant] feats similar to those allowing true dragons to automatically qualify for feats requiring the dragonblooded subtype, but have found none.
You have spent only 4 skill points at CR 14. At CR 18, you have mistakenly indicated your balance score to be 8 instead of 10.
You haven’t indicated the ability score increases every four HD.
Half-Farspawn changes your type to outsider, which then makes you ineligible for the Monster of Legend template, since it does not accept outsider as a base creature type. This is a severe blow to your build.
There is also the matter of the templates with mobile CR adjustement. I am in the opinion that such templates do increase your CR at a later point if you achieve the required conditions (and thus also grant you the relevant additional abilities). Just like Mircea raviwr with the Unholy Scion template, the Half-Farspawn template increases your CR by an additional 1 when you reach 11 HDs (while also providing you with extra damage reduction, spell-like abilities, etc). As such, your last level of Crusader does not fit within 20 levels of CR.
That said, taking eight levels of Crusader makes perfect sense for a guardian monster. I also appreciate the focus in your build: battlefield control Crusader. It’s tried and true, but it’s properly done. Besides, increasing your reach via Inhuman Reach makes much more sense for Giolt than it does for your run-of-the-mill Human Crusader who just discovered his aberrant heritage, and also decided he was worshipping an Elder Evil, etc


First things first, you are a tough customer to bring down. The Zern’s immunity to almost anything targeting Fort saves is truly amazing. There is also the added NA. Add to that the NA, spell resistance and resistances provided by the Half-Farspawn template, the immunity to precision-based attacks granted by the grotesque form, and as soon as CR 8, Giolt is not easy to kill. Later on, Crusader levels provide with a bonus to Will saves, a 1/day reroll to saves that can make a world of difference especially given that monsters rarely if ever face the PCs more than 1/day, and Steely Resolve that basically grants additional HPs especially when combined with Revitalizing Strike.
With Monster of Legend, Giolt gains a ginormous amount of HPs, spell turning that protects it from mailman blasting, and immunity to mind-affecting effects. I have to admit, however, that picking “polymorphing effects” as the other immunity granted by Monster of Legend makes little sense to me, since Zerns are basically immune to such effects through their Adaptive Defenses special quality. Picking acid or electricity would have been a better choice.
Since Giolt’s AC is only moderately high, as is his Ref save, it seems that his weaknesses are uberchargers and ranged blasters. Fortunately, Blur and Blink can help with those, except at very high levels.

Then, on an offensive standpoint, Giolt is a melee beatstick with a few tricks. He has a high number of natural attacks, a high reach when combined Inhuman Reach and gaining a Large size through Malleable Form, AoO-oriented feats and a high Str. But his melee options are oddly limited. The story does not let suppose that Giolt has minions, nor does his build allow him to natively have some. That means that maneuvers like Vanguard Strike, Leading the Attack, Tactical Strike or Defensive Rebuke are more or less useless on him. I think selecting more Stone Dragon maneuvers that allow you to debuff the PCs, like Stone Vise or Bonesplitting Strike, would have made Giolt more polyvalent and ultimately more threatening up close. Similarly, Improved Natural attack makes up for a very marginal boost in Giolt’s power; picking Extra Granted Maneuver instead at this level would have been a more powerful choice. Touch of Idiocy will most likely never be a better option than initiating Divine Surge or even a simple melee attack, unless you manage to get a spellcaster within range (in which case said spellcaster has made a terrible mistake; Giolt’s native mobility is not good enough to make it likely that he will be able to catch a spellcaster pants down). I also must say that I am surprised to see you picked Raging Blood for the Monster of Legend’s offensive ability: Frightful Presence would have made sense thematically speaking for example, and been much more effective than the weak 1d4 damage Raging Blood deals. Finally, I don’t think Giolt will ever use the Demoralize combat action, even with Never Outnumbered. 1/day making PCs shaken with a not that high Intimidate check is not a good use of a standard action. Those ranks in Sense Motive that are not really put to use at the end of the build could have gone there.
Giolt does have some assets that give him both mobility and power, like Charging Minotaur, Tide of Chaos and Leading the Charge. He is not a complete sitting duck while at range, either. Warping Energy deals a fairly good number of damage at range, when it does not compete with the use of a maneuver. Stinking Cloud provides some battlefield control, and Baleful Polymorph has a high enough save DC that it’s actually a 1/day save or die (all the more than gaining immunity to polymorphing effects is, for the PCs, much more difficult that to death or mind-affecting ones).

From a detection standpoint, Giolt has the powerful Blindsight ability, as well as a modicum of ranks in Spot and Listen, and the Clarity of Vision skill trick. This means that as long as the PCs don’t have access to Etherealness, Greater Blinking and that kind of effect, they will have a hard time bypassing Giolt.

The sheer horribleness of Giolt certainly works in his favor as a memorable monster. Using his tenctacled form as well as his alter shape abilities from being a Zern, Giolt can surprise the PCs by the variousness of his appearances. The fact that Giot gains the Monster of Legend template partway through the build and in a way that has the PCs witnessing it, as you described in the story section, can make for a particularly impressive battle, and leave the PCs with a strong defiance towards Giolt. Finding him again as the hireling of another, unseen villain, means the PCs will maybe remember Giolt more than the villains he is defending. Also, the high mental stats of Giolt mean discussing with him, if futile, is possible, and provide him with some depth. All the more if the PCs can start him on a rant against the other Zerns.
Past the moments of awesomeness when Giolt changes form or gains the Monster of Legend template before the PCs, Giolt does not have much in the way of extraordinary things to do, however. And his motivations as a villain are rather bland.




A Farastu, fiend of possession, possessing objects….it’s the first time I see Fiend of Possession used with Farastus (and that I see those used at all). Second Dread Necromancer of the roster. I definitely see the PCs not seeing that encounter coming. The tactics you imagined, such as the sword trick, are probably standard Fiend of Possession fare, but since I’m discovering them with your entry, I’m impressed by their cleverness all the same! Rune circles and grafts are both original tactics to use (it is the first time I ever hear about rune circles).
The Shadow template seems pretty forced down through the build’s throat for the sole purpose of HiPS, though, and this is a very common way to do so, so small penalty here.


Using a Farastu, a demon that is by essence the jailkeeper of a whole plane, is very thematic! I appreciate how you took the time to justify the spelltouched feat in the backstory.
However, Narfle does not have anything to do with necromancy, and as such the Dread Necromancer dip feels a bit out of there. Fiend of Possession makes sense for a hidden guardian of some sort, as does the Shadow template. The Marshal dip feels somewhat out of place too, being there solely for the aura it provides.

You mention that combining Freedom of Movement with Improved Grab can allow you to grapple the opponents without being grappled yourself, but that is not correct: FoM makes you autosucceed vs the attempts of others to grapple you, or to escape the grapple, but that ends the grapple for everyone. Summoned Demodands cannot use their own summoning ability, as is explicitly written in the Fiend Folio, so you won’t always have a minion with you. Denying a blow by combining Mad Foam Rager and Etherealness doesn’t work either: it would if Mad Foam Rager was written as “the delayed spell or effect will start anew targeting you next round”, in which case indeed you’re not a valid target anymore, but it says “the damage or effect does not take hold until the end of the next turn”, that is, you’ve already been targeted. Frightful Presence wouldn’t activate all the time as you say: trying to possess a PC is certainly an attack, but possessing an item either isn’t, or is, but that is quite an inelegant way to trigger the ability.
Use Magic Device is not a class skill for Farastus.
Hide Presence does not allow to bypass the limit on Possess Creature set by Protection from Evil: indeed, that spell protects from mind-controlling abilities regardless of whether they stem from an evil source or not. There is no caveat that allows some mind-controlling effects to slip through, in which case one could argue Hide Presence would help here. Besides, this a matter of specific (Protection from Evil blocks Possess Creature) vs general (Hide Presences bypasses various abilities including Protection from Evil).
Save DCs are neither Cha checks nor Cha-based checks and as such are unaffected by the Marshal’s Motivate Charisma aura.


So let’s see. Narfle is a very unusual enemy to face for the PCs. At the beginning it’s a beatstick with a high Grapple check and 9/10 concealment most of the time! As soon as he gains levels of Fiend of Possession, his power increases greatly. The various tricks you’ve imagined to trigger the cursed item are very powerful! Bestow Curse is both powerful and polyvalent, and you can use it at-will. Besides, at will etherealness gives a great deal of mobility to Narfle. Fear will probably not work anymore at those CRs, given how easy it is to become immune to fear at levels 11 onwards. Control Object and Animate Object allow Narfle to interact more directly with the PCs. It requires that they fight it in the lair you’ve prepared so that it can possess the statues and stuff, but for a guardian monster, this is more likely than for an average villain. Graft Flesh is amusing, but given that Narfle wants to be possessing an object as often as possible (since it is a rather mediocre villain when facing the PCs with its own body as soon as CL 12ish), it won’t make use of much of them. Fearsome Eye and Fiendish Ear can be useful to improve his detection abilities, however.
That said, Narfle doesn’t have much in the way of directly killing a PC, apart from mauling it while possessing a Gargantuan Construct.
Rune Circles are, I think, a less interesting deal than what they initially seem. For one, they cost quite some money. Added to the costs of the grafts, that quickly starts eating into your budget for other equipment. Also, a Fiend of Possession will jump from item to item, from PC to PC, and won’t be likely to stand in one place long enough to benefit much from a circle. Finally, more often that not, Narfle will fight alone, and only sometimes with 1d4 Farastus. That doesn’t bring the supportive abilities of the circles to their fullest. Still, they will most probably take the PCs off-guard.
The way you offer to trigger Frightful Presence is rather amusing, but PCs will rapidly stop noticing they were threatened by the Shaken condition, and also the triggering of the ability (over which you have no control) may give you away when the PCs suddenly have to roll when the fighter grabs the sword.
A combination of Naturalized Denizen and Undetectable Alignment, as well as a good Hide check mean the PCs will have a hard time flushing Narfle out and busting it away from an item or PC. In particular once it can hide in discoporated objects, it will be very hard to prevent it from jumping from one hiding place to the next, using his etherealness and Freedom of Movement.

Clairaudience/voyance is a nice way to bypass the relative lack of perception of a fiend possessing an item. The lack of special senses (apart maybe from See Invisibility through the Fearsome Eye graft) is somewhat countereffected by the fact that the PCs have practically no chance to detect Narfle when they try to sneak past him.


The PCs have to rob a temple. Yawwwn. They find a possessed item. Yawww-what?? For the first encounter, or maybe the first few encounters, the PCs are quite likely to be utterly bamboozled by Narfle’s trick. It can take some time for them to even understand they are facing a Fiend of Possession. Good points for him. Fiend of Possession is a kind of a one-trick pony, but that one trick is sooo annoying for the PCs, they are certain to remember it. Getting negative levels for the whole party as they walk on a possessed tile of the floor? One the PCs getting possessed? His player will sure not forget that. Also, the presence of rune circles and grafts can provide with some new tricks to prevent a little the PCs from getting bored with Narfle’s antics. He even has some personality for the PCs to discover and maybe try to Diplomance him.
In the end though, the PCs might grow bored of frustrated of facing that kind of opponent, since he is so elusive; this is a small reproach I make.




A Duskblade Crusader Vampiress. And the second vampire at that, as well as the second Crusader. Nothing original here.


You used 8 skill points instead of 5 at CR 4, but then only 2 at CR 5. I suppose this is a typo from you since in the end the number of skill points spent is correct. You spent only 1 at CR 10 and 17 but then 8 at CR 11 instead of 6.
Apart from that, the Arcane Disciple feat to gain the Suffering domain is very thematic and appropriate. The rest of the character options are self-explanatory, which is a good thing as far as elegant builds go.
But for two small things: the other hand, the Improved Sunder feat comes out of nowhere at the end of the build, and the strange alternated pattern of Duskblade and Crusader levels.

Sharla is at the beginning of her carrier a run-of-the-mill duskblade. Up until CR 5, though, her low detection abilities, 8 in Con score and lack of tricks make her an unappealing villain. Fair enough, not all villains are designed to be used from CR 1 to 20. So, starting from CR 8. Vampire abilities to change shape, spider climbing and turn gaseous provide the usual mobility and escapability. Dominate gives some versatility on the offensive side. Combining a slam attack that deals two negative levels with Arcane Channelling is a nice combination. Later on, the levels of Crusader provide some added variety especially once the spells per day are over (maybe because of a liberal use of Arcane Strike). Arcane Channelling Bestow Curse as a full-round action is quite a powerful trick, though the save DC will be quite low.
Sharla is reasonably resistant what with her undead immunities, DR, and Action Before Thought. Also, she can make use of Dominated minions to provide with some meatshields to compensate for her low HPs, saves and AC. Rallying Strike allows to heal both her and the minions regardless of the usual issues of positive or negative energy, which is a neat trick. Nice on Martial Study bypassing the issue of whether the maneuver is granted or not.

On the other hand, Sharla does suffer from several shortcomings. For one, she has basically no means of threatening an opponent at range. Once again, in case of a guardian villain, it is a more serious issue than for a more general enemy, because that means Sharla is reluctant to leave the place she’s guarding to retaliate against ranged PCs. The dominating gaze won’t cut it quite fast, given that Protection from Evil is a 1st level spell, the PCs will ward them after their first encounter with Sharla. The class level progression is also, to my opinion, a little subpar. Picking the three levels of Crusader last would have provided Sharla with the ability to pick up to 4th level maneuvers as her first five maneuvers known. Picking Martial Spirit as the required 1st level stance means Sharla meets the prerequisites for Divine Surge, while Charging Minotaur and Mountain Hammer qualify you for Bonesplitting Strike, giving some versatility to Sharla. You still have one left for Revitalizing Strike.
Improved Sunder is an odd choice. While wanting to sunder the holy symbol of a cleric is not a bad idea in and of itself, Sharla is not really able to make a good use of that. First, she needs to get up close with said cleric. That means that either the cleric is a gish, in which case he won’t mind Sharla wasting an iterative on such an action and will be able to retaliate to his heart’s content. Or the cleric is behind the PCs’ lines, in which case Sharla will find herself surrounded by PCs. Besides, not that many spells need a divine focus, and turning is already a bad strategy vs Sharla because of her turn resistance. Another Martial Spirit, to grab a debuff like Entangling Blade, would have been a better choice. Similarly, Fire Shield is an odd choice as the sole 4th level spell. 20th level PCS don’t really care about suffering that amount of damage when getting up close to Sharla. Dimension Door would have been a better pick. Besides, this implies that Sharla has time to buff before meeting up with the PCs. But given her lack of detecting abilities, the PCs (or at least the skillmonkey) will more often than not sneak up upon her and not the other way round, which will catch her unaware. At party levels 15+, Invisibilty won’t cut it anymore.
The skill ranks in Intimidate are rather wasted, since there is no feat support for demoralizing. Spending a standard action to make one PC shaken, and then another one for Daunting Strike to make it frightened, is too action-heavy to be worth it. Investing skill points in the Never Outnumbered skill trick might have helped towards that goal; or you could have invested in Listen and Spot (even cross-class) instead.

Facing vampires is always interesting, due to the various ways one has to have to kill them, to their specific strengths and weaknesses. Here, that is compounded by the neat idea of stuffing her coffin into a bag of holding of her boss. Since the PCs will try to track her coffin down, they will be utterly puzzled not to find it with the divination means at their disposal at that level. The PCs will also bitterly remember the first time they suffer a massive Bestow Curse attack.
Apart from that, however, Sharla is not a very memorable villain. There is no clever trick to discover in her backstory to defeat her, and not much opportunity to discuss with her, given how brutal and direct she appears to be. And, to be honest, vampire villains are very likely to attract a ton of side jokes that will make them ridiculous. Mircea avoided that issue by being more than a vampire villain.




Hum, well. Another Soulfused Construct, and another Totemist, and another name that ends with “am”. I am surprised to see two builds that look like each other that much. But they are both quite original all the same. Focusing on Sunder is something I have never seen brought to such an extent before, as is demolishing walls to appear behind the PCs. Alchemichal Golem was a nice find too, and it really conveys the idea of an unstable, mercurial villain that complements the idea brought about by the Lost template (another one that is a first timer for me).

Your advancing from 30 to 31 HDs without increasing the CR of K.A.M. is maybe RAW, but extremely inelegant. I suppose the aim was to finish at 36 HDs instead of 35, so as to nab one extra point of essential from the Soulfused Construct template.
In all fairness, though that doesn’t change much, I will consider K.A.M. to gain the Dex and Cha increase every 4 HDs as is my judging for the other Soulfused Construct, Slam (but I’m surprised as hell to see two Soulfused Constructs this round!), .
I don’t understand where the two essential points you gain at CR 18 and 19 come from.
The choice of templates works nicely with the backstory.
But the choice of classes doesn’t feel very coherent. How come a barely mindless golem could become a Warblade, a warrior thirsting for glory and martial prowess? Similarly, where does K.A.M. take the divine inspiration that the fluff of Strength Devotion requires?


This is a bull rush optimizer, similar to Slam in that account too. But K.A.M. hits harder and has more tricks up its sleeve. K.A.M has the required high Strength, Power Attack/Shock Trooper combination, two slams to use with the Sphinx Claws or the Thunderstep Boots bound. The high BAB allows for a reckless use of PA even when not in a charge, which party compensates for the fact that the damage ratio is only 1:1 and works well with Momentum Swing from Combat Brute. Power Lunge is obscure, and probably less effective than Leap Attack, but why not. I particularly like how Sundering Cleave is greatly exploited here. As soon as CR 14, and even without activating Strength Devotion, by putting all his essential into the Thunderstep boots K.A.M. can deal an average of 67 damage to an object. This is enough to automatically destroy any +3 weapnon and below, thus ensuring the Sundering Cleave. Neat! Also, the two breath weapons give some polyvalence to K.A.M. Bile of Hatred deals ok damage while the original breath weapon deals dangerous Con damage. At the end of the build, Mountain Tombstone Strike arrives to give a serious boost to K.A.M.’s debuff ability, and Stone Dragon’s Fury, if mostly flavorful, is always that extra inch of stone wall destroyed.
By the way, I did all the math and calculated that at CE 20 a fully launched K.A.M., with Aym bonded, all essential invested in Thunderstep Boots and Cobalt Power, activating Strength Devotion, etc could pulverize a 10 in. thick stone wall in a charge. Damn! That’ll for sure catch the PCs unaware just as your fluff described, or allow for it to flee if things get dire (though its Int of 3 might prevent it from realizing it’d better flee).
K.A.M. has ok HPs (in accordance with how I ruled for Slam, Soulfused Construct does not grant extra), ok saves and ok AC. This is helped by its damage reduction, Slippery Mind, and numerous living construct immunities, as well as its immunity to magic. Puncture is actually a deterrent ability for anyone who would attack K.A.M. up close, which is fortunate since death by direct damage is one of its weaknesses.
On the other hand, K.A.M. is not mobile at all, which is all the more handicapping that it needs to get to contact or at least close range to attack the PCs. Yes, the battle will take place underground, but the PCs can have Xorn Movement, Burrow, Spider Climb maybe. At CR 20, it needs to touch the ground anyway to activate its maneuvers, while the PCs certainly won’t (thus neutering the effect of EarthStrike Quake). K.AM. also has no iterative attacks, which dampens its potential as an ubercharger. Even a humble Improved Unarmed Strike would have allowed it to make use of a full attack in case it has no space to charge someone.
Sundering won’t work on all opponents either: casters, ranged characters, Totemists, Psychic Warriors, Wild Shaped Druids are all far less affected by it than melee guys are.
K.A.M. has no detection abilities whatsoever (except with a bound Hunter’s Circlet to the totem slot for Scent). Conversely, its skill points in Intimidate are not put to any use; investing in Spot or Listen might have been a better idea.

Oooooooh yeahhhhh. Damn. The first time K.A.M. demolishes a whole section of wall to appear right behind the PCs, the players will utterly freak out. And when the DM will show them the picture you’ve chosen for K.A.M., they will freak out again. And when the melee guy will lose his weapon to K.A.M., the players will curse the DM now and for all of eternity, that is for sure. Not only that, but also the strange way Alchemical Golems work when you hurt them is striking as well. K.A.M. is choke full of strange tactics and strange monster origins with strange abilities.
On the other hand, what is K.A.M. guarding exactly? Some random stash of magic items. The “guardian” part of K.A.M. is one of the least detailed of all the presented entries, which I feel is too bad. Also, while sundering makes the players remember the villain, it can also ruin their fun. To exercise with caution.




A corrupted air elemental. The whole living tempest monster is far from new, especially when defending a remote castle atop a high mountain. The Dark Creature template. Nothing new either.
On the other hand, using vile damage to such an extent is very novel, and the Corrupted template makes perfect sense with the backstory here, making it original but not for the sake of being so. Using Improved Flyby Attack tactics as the selling point of the build is original as well.


Your base Fort save at CR 20 should be +14, not +13. Hide and Move Silently are not class skills for the air elemental since they are not listed in the skills in which it has invested in its base statblock. This means that Rasharuach effectively has half the listed skill ranks in those two skills.
Apart from those points, you qualifiy for everything, and simply increasing the HDs of Rasharuach is extremely simple and elegant.

Rasharuach has one trick. But what a trick! His excellent mobility allows him to dictate how the battle happens. Flyby Attack combined with Hide in Plain Sight means he can move, strike, move again and disappear in the shadows after. The Improved and Greater versions mean it is very likely to hit at least two PCs in a singe turn. The combination of Improved Trip and Knockdown, added to its high trip modifier, means that in a single attack from Flyby Attack, Rasharuach has dealt two slams, tripped the PC, and most importantly dealt 40 vile damage! Indeed, even if the slam only deals a mediocre amount of regular damage (though a high BAB allows for some audacious PA to compensate, all the more that tripped opponents gain a -4 to AC), the amount of vile damage is an absolute horror to face. The PCs will soon realize they are getting whittled down with no possibility of simply retreating on the spot healing.
Rasharuach’s senses are good. High Spot & Listen, Darkvision, though a lack of other special senses. That means for example that Rasharuach will have to proactively make checks to detect invisible PCs that don’t move, for example, and that costs a move action. Spending points on Clarity of Vision skill trick would have helped there.
Rasharuach is enormously resilient. Around 450 HPs at CR 20; elemental immunities (to critical hits in particular, and no Vinestrike/Gravestrike for that), DR, Fast Healing, and hard to pin down for a full attacl or a charge. His saves and AC are good.
The one thing that is a little of a letdown is Rasharuach’s inability to deal with concealment, etherealness or hidden foes, because it solely relies on melee attacks. Conversely, some of its feats are really subpar. Iron Will, Great Fortitude? I take it they were selected to better fit the theme of the SRD elemental, and in that regard it is a good idea; however, in order to increase Rasharuach’s power without sacrificing to elegance or thematics (which means I won’t suggest obvious choices like Martial Study), one could have replaced Alertness, Iron Will and Great Fortitude with Fiendish Heritage Fiendish Presence and Fiendish Legacy, from Complete Mage. These feats work with the theme of the corrupted elemental, and bring to the table some useful SLAs with a caster level equal to Rasharuach’ HD (so rather high) and with saves bumped by 4 by the Corrupted Template.

I like the idea of the dawnbirds. They give some relief to the setting; maybe PCs can try to salvage some of them and ask for guidance about how to best beat Rasharuach. That gives a modicum of depth to the setting of the battle. The team will most likely flee during their first battle vs the elemental, as soon as they discover she deals vile damage. The horror of such an ability is certain to leave a strong impression on the PCs; this battle is not one you deal with the regular way.
On the other hand, Rasharuach, being very much a one trick pony, will give off a strong impression the first time the PCs face her, but not so much on subsequent confrontations.




An obscure dragon race yet thematically fitting, a well-known but most unused template, and psionics added to the mix. It is a bit orderless, but is really unexpected. Besides, the tactics employed by the Watcher are really innovative. Focusing on Final Strike by association with Schism and Dracolich? Using Area Attack with various rider effects? That makes two 3.0 feats that I have never heard about that make up for the core of the Watcher’s strategy. Besides, as far as psionics go, one could have thought about Ardent to make up for the lost ML, but you picked Soulbound Weapon Psychic Warrior instead. I had to picture a dragon using a (Tiamat forbids!) manufactured weapon for a moment.

Though there is no denying you do qualify for Improved Dragon Wings, this is most unelegant. Using Paralyzing Touch in conjunction with Area Attakc is RAW too but horribly inelegant, since by RAI the part of the Dracolich that is paralyzing is its body, not the club it happens to carry around!
Also, you do not possess the required 4 ranks in Psicraft to qualify for Practised Manifester. You do not qualify for Epic Expanded Knowledge either: it requires you to have the “ability to manifest powers of the normal maximum power level” in one psionic class (Psychic Warrior here), but at the level you take it, you are only able to manifest powers of up to 4th level, whereas the “normal maximum power level” for the Psychic Warrior class is 6th. Which means you cannot learn Schism nor Wall of Ectoplasm. Using transparency to allow a Proto-dracolich to act is, once again, RAW but inelegant as hell.
Since Concentration is a cross-class skill for you, the max number of skill ranks you can put into it at CR 5 is 6.5, and not 7 as you did. Besides, you allocated only 26 out of your 39 available skill points. Not that this is illegal, it is simply a little strange.
That said, a Dracolich is a very nice monster to be a guardian of some sort, and Final Strike is very flashy, class, and novel. The layout of the race, template and class is simple and well explained. Ibrandlins are fitting as guardian monsters: a PC succeeding on a Knowledge check would receive RAW information that makes sense with the theme. I also appreciated the effort put into explaining the complicated tactics put to use.

Wow. This villain is a powerhouse. For starters, it can hit hard in melee thanks to its numerous natural attacks, bonus cold damage and high Strength. Its breath weapon and Paralyzing Gaze add some versatility. Then, the combination of Area Attack and Paralysing Touch does work, since a single attack roll is made for the whole area of the attack. The saves DC carries off of Charisma, since it can reasonably considered a “special attack” as described in the Dracolich entry. The fact that the save DC must be repeated each time even after a successful save is incredibly dangerous, and makes up for the fact that the save is not that high. Besides, with its 15fr reach, the Watcher can damage a huge part of the battlefield with it. Dissolving Weapon, Prevenom and Truevenom weapon and Strength of my Ennemy all work extremely well as rider effects upon that Area of Attack. The best thing is that since it only takes a standard action to perform, the Watcher is free to come in, swat the whole team with a debuff-ridden attack, and then flee out of reach thanks to Flyby Attack. A Maximised Truevenom weapon is extremely painful for the PCs, and the combination of Hustle and Psionic Mediation ensure you can pull off a Quickened or a Maximised power as often as you want. Fly (although through cheese) that is improved by Flyby Attack, Hustle, Psionic Freedom of Movement and Psionic Lion’s Charge all give a good mobility to the Watcher. At CR 20, Wall of Ectoplasm even gives solution vs incorporeal PCs, something few entries have been able to perform. The various tricks around Schism and not wasting a turn to possess a corpse are very good too. Final Strike deals a respectable HD*3/2d6 of fire damage, and the ability to repeatedly pull it off through various possessions of undead bodies is hilarious!
Since the Watcher’s ML caps at 16, the special augment of Call Weaponry for Soulbound Psychic Warriors means it can buy as much as a +3 weapon enhancement, and not a +4 one as you described. Still, It allows for very nasty stuff like Force as you described, or Marrowcrushing for Con damage.
The Watcher is also incredibly resilient. Usual undead immunities, plus fire, cold, and lightning are not too shabby. Some amount of SR that will prove a real pain at low levels. Then, the possession of a phylactery means the PCs really have to try hard before they get rid of the Watcher. PCs will want to go melee to target its weak AC but will fear its 15ft reach that even increases through Expansion.
On the other hand, the Watcher has mediocre detection abilities, and it doesn’t even have Blindsense as true dragons do. Some ranks in Spot, and Psionic See Invisibility are all it has.
The Watcher is also crippled by rather low AC, meaning it is vulnerable to power attackers that manage to get to contact. I also don’t see the point of the Escape Detection power, since the Watcher has no means to make it last throughout the day, it means an expense of 10 pp per day to cover 24 hours. Neither do I see the point of Empathic Transfer. More generally, the very low number of power points of the Watcher is one of its weaknesses, especially if it intents to burn through them at a fast rate by using metapsionic or heavily augmented Call Weaponry powers.

This guy is impossible to forget. First off, who ever faces Dracoliches? They’re of the stuff of legend, usually at impossibly high CRs where no adventure ever takes place. But applying it to an Ibrandlin gives it a reasonably low CR. Kudos for that, the PCs will boast after defeating him. Then is the matter of the way it fights. The area attack trick will catch the PCs utterly unaware the first time; in addition, since the Watcher has a varied array of rider effects to apply to it, the PCs will soon recognize it as its signature move, and yet with diverse enough applications that it remains a constant challenge to face. Remove Paralysis? Eat some Prevenom instead? Etc. Once the PCs manage to destroy one of its corpses, boom, Final Strike takes off. That, again, will dumbfound the PCs. Nothing like killing a player that was just savoring his hard-earned victory…and it wasn’t even a victory to begin with. Lots and lots of fun and unpredictable turnarounds in a fight vs the Watcher.
The one things that disappoints me a little is how shallow his guarding duty is. Once the PCs discover the tale was a lie, and that there is nothing behind the Watcher apart from the Watcher itself, they might want to disengage from that fight and move on to something else. Of course, the DM can then have the Watcher pursue the PCs, or wreak havoc on the land around, etc but then it’s not a guardian villain anymore.




Hey, an animal! And a Greenbound one at that! It’s funny to see Greenbound animals used as something other than druid summons! Quite unusual. Corrupted spells are not something you see too often, nor is a template that can only be added to Int <4 monsters. That Guardian template, though obvious in retrospect, is a nice find.
On the other hand, Druid is rather expected as far as guardian classes go, and the general layout of the feats is close to that of a standardized Druid build.

Greenbound changes your type to plant, which is not a suitable base type for the Guardian template. But Guardian changes your type to magical beast, which does not allow you to qualify for the Greenbound template. I suppose if you wanted to keep one of the two, you would like to conserve the Greenbound template, so the loss of the Guardian template does not represent that much of a loss in power.
You wrote your Darkvision as being of 160ft of range, but it is 120ft. At CR 8 your +1 in Wis grants you a +1 in Will save. Also, with the Greenbound template, your racial bonus on Hide and Move Silently checks in forested areas goes from +4 to +16, and not from +4 to +8 as was the case as a regular leopard, since racial bonuses don’t stack here. So that should be (+12 in forested areas) and not (+8) as you wrote.
Also, the way your skills is displayed makes it difficult to understand where the skill points went at each level. I think, since you invested 1 rank in Spellcraft at CR 4, that your skill bonus should be -3 and not -4.
Apart from that, both templates make complete sense for a gatekeeper creature, as does the Druid class taken from a certain viewpoint. No fuss about a complicated mess of class or obscure and hard to swallow RAW uses or feats. Neat  Your Mass Awaken trick is a very classy way to make something out of Timeless Body, even if that’s worth nothing in Power category (few campaigns will last long enouh to make Timeless Body matter by RAW).

What we have here, is a sort of Druid. How does Claws measure as a guardian villain compared to a Druid 20 dude? For one, at low levels (CR 5), Claws is incredibly powerful. A pouncing monster with a high Strength, Multiattack, Improved Grab, a good grapple modifier, but also an at-will powerful debuff and battlefield control spell in Entangle (the low save DC is not a problem here since the spell is useful even on a successful save), and a 1/day Wall of Thorns that the PCS will have almost no way to bypass at that level. Damn. A regular Druid cannot do that. At mid-levels (CR 10), Claws suffers the comparison a little more but still holds its own. Other druids have picked up Blizzard and Haboob already; Claws is still at Call Lightning but Wall of Thorns is now level-appropriate. I have to admit, too, that the combination of Absorb Mind and Sheltered Vitality is neat. It is mostly for fluff, but fluff that then gives the DM a RAW reason to have Claws actively prepare for the PCs instead of getting surprised by them. The delay in Wild Shape is compensated by the fact that Claws is, in a way, an already Wild Shaped character. My take on Surrogate Spellcasting is that it is an enhanced version of Wild Shape for which it is harder to qualify. At high levels (CR 14 and up), Greenbound summoning is a feat most optimized Druids would have taken too, but which is thematic here. Eschew Material is strange. What spells does it allow you to cast that you could not before? In case these are numerous and powerful spells, you ought to have picked the feat earlier. Once again, I admire Death By Thorns combined with Sheltered Vitality. Besides, picking corrupted spells is a nice way to compensate for the fact that Druid 7 spells are rather subpar. The Mass Awaken trick is a useful way to justify by RAW Claws having a ton of minions, and creatures like elephants or treants have enough HPs to take a little of the PC’s time to be killed off.
Claws is also a little tougher than expected from a Druid. Fast healing and damage reduction are carried over through Wild Shape, which compensate for its only ok HPs.
Where Claws shine is the detection area. Blindsense, Tremorsense, huge range Darkvision, high Spot and Listen, Scent. And having an animal companion doubles up your detection checks. Spells can further enhance that, as you underlined.

The funny thing is that if the PCs are somewhat versed in optimization, once they see the greenbound panther, they’ll start looking around for the druid who summoned him. To no avail. Claws is a decent opponent to face, what with his ambition to widen the territory he “protects” even more. What’s interesting is his trick to awaken the jungle around him. That definitely makes him leave his mark in the environment, which is a sign of a good villain. Even once he is defeated, creatures he has awakened will roam around, haunting the jungle forever. The PCs will most likely be dumbfounded by the corrupted spells too. Provide them with an occasion to Scry on Claws eating the brain of someone and visibly gaining his memories, and they will stop seeing him as yet another extremist druid who just wants to protect the forest, but as something far more sinister and that deserves its Evil alignment. Suggesting an Ardent version of him also makes him more adaptable to a wealth of settings and environments, which is nice.
That being said, at the end of the day, Claws’ build can be resumed in two words: Panther Druid. There isn’t much more than what I’ve mentioned that durably strikes the mind, neither in his tactics nor in his motivations, nor in the place he guards.




...wow, it did seem bigger on my Word file.

Thanks for your patience, all :smallsmile:

[daremetoidareyo]

Worth the wait

[Thurbane]

Worth the wait

Definitely. Thanks again remetagross!

[WhamBamSam]

Build
daremetodareyou
remetagross
Total
Place


Lorelai G’Elsewhere: Guardian of the Gate
19
17.75
36.75
Gold

Mircea Raviwr
20
16.25
36.25
Silver

Rasharuach
19.25
16.75
36
Bronze

The Ghost of Grobzok the Guardian
17.25
17.75
35
4th

Claws-at-Heart
19.25
15.75
35
4th

The Watcher
18.25
16.5
34.75
6th

Narfle, the Garthog, Anthraxia Temple Guard, Chevalier First Class
18.25
15.25
33.5
7th

K.A.M.
17.75
14
31.75
8th

Slam
18.25
13.25
31.5
9th

Giolt
17.25
13.5
30.75
10th

Sally
16
13.5
29.5
11th

SHARLA THE BLACK ANGEL
16.5
10.75
27.25
12th

You shall not pass ! This way, good sir!
15
7.5
22.5
13th

[Venger]

thanks for the chart, WhamBamSam

[Inevitability]

Lorelei jumps three spots ahead to first place! Claws-at-Heart finds itself dropping several places! Grobzok manages to be the only build to actually receive a higher rating this time, allowing it to take a massive leap to 4th place! All prior ties are broken, with only one popping up to replace them! This is truly an epic struggle for points!

Speaking of struggles for points, we've got a dispute!


Just going to dispute 2 things here, as alas I cant seem to find my notes any more:


Elegance. Even if, agreed, the entry is not perfectly formatted and there are 1 or 2 "Overlooked" Errors, its a simple, rule legal, 1 Monster + 2 classes build.

The retroactive Skill gainage was legal (It has lsited class skills and there are rules for gaining skillpts after being awakened,, I made sure of that, however I am pressed for time atm and cant seem to find it, mayhap someone will help me out?).

Even if you are harsh on penalizing the small errors, less than a 3.5 is a bit over the top, no? ^^
After all, you "understand" I was strapped for time and yet judge really harshly. Maybe a result of your method of doing categories instead of entries?



Power: You seem to misinteprret what power means, and often made mistake in judgings. Its not "WHat strengths and weaknesses does it have, what can it do, now compare to Wizard+PC as 5.0. Its how good is it at what its supposed to do.

This is, oibviously, meant to be a melee guardian for more or less not too open places (See the theme of the COmpetition!).
Now if the theme had been "Unusual Warrior" I would completely agree with your arguments, yet even then a score of 2 is ...harsh.

it is however "You shall not pass", and that, aside from having only regular senses and scent, he does exceptionally well. Shadow Blink allows to flank, and hence to apply sneak attack as well.

I would suggest a score in the high 3s or low 4s for it.


Your other scores, as with past jugdings, are simply a manifestation of very different sense of cool/Style. In my rounds that Golem (and, granted, a few of the other entries even mroeso, that awakened beast, wow!) would be MUCH more memorable than your average Dragon, a Creature I`d put at a flat 3, but again, I cant really argue here as you simply see these things differently.

May I suggest in the future to NOT judge one category in all entries, as it seems to tilt the score squite a bit by making direct comparisons, which following earlier competitions is NOT intended.


Now all this might come across as a bit harsh, but again, I rushed the entry in, managed it barely, then waited for 2 months for the judging, and got shot down hard", so mayhap understandable?

Also the suggestion is meant to help, not only would judging in a more entry focussed way be likely more fair to the respective entries, it should also be much faster. :)


No hard Feelings I hope?

[remetagross]

Alright so let's see what we've got.


Elegance. Even if, agreed, the entry is not perfectly formatted and there are 1 or 2 "Overlooked" Errors, its a simple, rule legal, 1 Monster + 2 classes build.

The retroactive Skill gainage was legal (It has lsited class skills and there are rules for gaining skillpts after being awakened,, I made sure of that, however I am pressed for time atm and cant seem to find it, mayhap someone will help me out?).

Well, it maybe is, but I have found no source for that. It would have greatly helped if you had put it somewhere! :smallamused: As told before, the Awaken Construct spell template sends us back to the Monster Manual p.290 which then says


Skills: [...]Some templates change how skill points are determined, but this change usually only affects skill points gained after the template is applied.
Besides, since the golem has no skills as class skills (contrary to what you say), all of his skills have to be bought cross-class. Provided we can determine that the golem does indeed retroactively gain skill points, that would amount to a total of (42+3)*2 = 90. But the golem spends 19*2 skill points on Listen and Spot, and 10*2 on Sense Motive, for a total of 96 skill points. [/QUOTE]


Even if you are harsh on penalizing the small errors, less than a 3.5 is a bit over the top, no? ^^
Hey, if you want to judge your own build, be my guest :smalltongue:
More seriously, there's a fairly big number of small errors. Beside, you will notice that K.A.M. received a 2 in Elegance just like the golem, sharing with it such oddities as gaining initiator levels when the background of the creature really does not hint at the possibility for the creature to be trained as a charismatic battlemaster.


After all, you "understand" I was strapped for time and yet judge really harshly. Maybe a result of your method of doing categories instead of entries?
I understand, which does not mean I will judge you in a more benevolent light than the others. That would be unfair to them. Besides, I don't think we're here to criticize my method of judging, but rather the result that came out of it :smalltongue:

No change (unless the skill point thing is sourced to be RAW, in which case I will increase the Elegance score by 0.5)




Power: You seem to misinteprret what power means, and often made mistake in judgings.
"WHat strengths and weaknesses does it have, what can it do, now compare to Wizard+PC as 5.0. Its how good is it at what its supposed to do.
Actually, I'm pretty sure this is how I have judged this comp :smallamused: notice how neither Lorelai nor Claws got a 5 in power because they had 15+ caster levels? And yet the Watcher, with his poor 4th level power manifesting, got a higher mark than them. Let alone Rasharuach, which does not have a single casting or manifesting ability, that still got a higher mark than both of those casters.



This is, oibviously, meant to be a melee guardian for more or less not too open places (See the theme of the COmpetition!).
Two things here. For one, this is an argument ("the terrain will help") that can be equally applied to all entries. As such, i cannot give (or deduct) points to any one entry because it can count on the terrain to compensate for its weaknesses.
Then, what does a closed space mean for ECL 20 PCs, which is the level at which the golem is supposed to be at its strongest? Etherealness, Xorn Movement, Burrow, Wind Walk, Gaseous Form, Overland Flight, Polymorphing the whole party into ants...



Now if the theme had been "Unusual Warrior" I would completely agree with your arguments, yet even then a score of 2 is ...harsh.

it is however "You shall not pass", and that, aside from having only regular senses and scent, he does exceptionally well. Shadow Blink allows to flank, and hence to apply sneak attack as well.

I would suggest a score in the high 3s or low 4s for it.
Once again, if you want to be your own judge...:smalltongue:
For one, Shadow Blink allows it to move fast...not to flank. You need a flanking buddy for that, and the golem has none. Besides, look, let's compare the Golem to other entries that can be resumed as "beatstick that tries to crush the PCs". Who do we get in that area? Slam, Giolt, K.A.M., Rasharuach, the Watcher. All of those entries have been rated in the power category as direct damage guys/debuffer guys. At level 20, the golem can hit for maybe 70 damage a round plus Time Stands Still, and move to position. Slam can bull rush the PCs and Pounce them for that much. Giolt can lock them down as a Crusader, plus has a couple spell-like abilities for battlefiled control. K.A.M can deal about as much as you but also destroys their items and has a respectable breath attack. Rasharuach hits less hard but deals vile damage. The Watcher deals less damage until it explodes, and has a ton of debuffing effects. At level 20, the golem is maybe the hardest-hitting of them all. But it is not the most mobile (nor are Slam or K.A.M., hence their score, whereas Rasharuach and the Watcher fly, and Giolt does not require moving as much since he prevents the others from doing so) as his maneuvers are more or less 1/encounter, it is not the most resilient as save buffers are 1/day and besides it cannot ready every maneuver at once (while Slam and Giolt are also immune to mind-affecting effects, the latter also having Spell turning and the power to heal himself, K.A.M. has slippery mind and deals Con damage to those that attack it at close range, the Watcher is a Lich and Rasharuach has ginormous HPs and saves) and it cannot detect the PCs all that well (Slam and K.A.M were similarly penalized).
Most of all, the Golem is only a CR 17-20 opponent. While it may best some of the aforementioned villains in certain areas at CR 20, it is greatly underwhelming at all other CRs. Being a respectable opponent at CR 17-20 in one's category (beatstick) but a weak one at CR 1-16 (that is, 80% of the game time) is a weakness that does not similarly cripple the other builds, hence their higher marks. Sharla wasn't penalized because she started at CR 8, which is twice as early as the golem.

Still, I'll admit reviewing the Golem in light of the other villains a second time has given me a slightly better sense of their comparative level. In regard of this, I deem it fairer to increase You Shall Not Pass/This Way, Good Sir! power score by 0.5.




Your other scores, as with past jugdings, are simply a manifestation of very different sense of cool/Style.

:smallconfused: this is the first time I judge, so I don't understant what you're hinting at...



In my rounds that Golem (and, granted, a few of the other entries even mroeso, that awakened beast, wow!) would be MUCH more memorable than your average Dragon, a Creature I`d put at a flat 3, but again, I cant really argue here as you simply see these things differently. Here you go :smalltongue:




May I suggest in the future to NOT judge one category in all entries, as it seems to tilt the score squite a bit by making direct comparisons, which following earlier competitions is NOT intended.
I haven't seen anywhere that this is not intended...my whole judging actually revolved around comparing the entries to one another, so as to get a fair judgement. If you don't do this, how can you expect to get an accurate ranking at the end? There is no absolute scale for measuring the power of a villain in D&D, hence any judging has to be relative. Heck, you yourself said I should (and I did, by the way) judge the golem as a beatstick villain, not as a Wizard villain. Doesn't that mean that you want me to compare your entry to an ideal beatstick villain to which I would give a 5/5 in Power? It entails that, since all the beatstick entries have been compared to that ideal calibrated villain, they have been indirectly compared to one another, regardless of any conscious effort from my part to then directly compare them!



Now all this might come across as a bit harsh, but again, I rushed the entry in, managed it barely, then waited for 2 months for the judging, and got shot down hard", so mayhap understandable? [...] No hard Feelings I hope?

It did come across a bit harsh, but hey, that's fair game. If one doesn't want to get some flak and some heated conflict, one does not agree to be a judge right? :smallbiggrin: besides, my answer to your dispute might seem a little harsh as well!




Also the suggestion is meant to help, not only would judging in a more entry focussed way be likely more fair to the respective entries, it should also be much faster. :)
Faster, that's for sure! Fairer...I actually think that judging that way allows for a better comparison between the various entries since you judge them side by side in each point from which they can be compared. Hey, what's the Playground take on that one?

[Death_Lord12]

May I suggest in the future to NOT judge one category in all entries, as it seems to tilt the score squite a bit by making direct comparisons, which following earlier competitions is NOT intended.


I haven't seen anywhere that this is not intended...my whole judging actually revolved around comparing the entries to one another, so as to get a fair judgement. If you don't do this, how can you expect to get an accurate ranking at the end? There is no absolute scale for measuring the power of a villain in D&D, hence any judging has to be relative. Heck, you yourself said I should (and I did, by the way) judge the golem as a beatstick villain, not as a Wizard villain. Doesn't that mean that you want me to compare your entry to an ideal beatstick villain to which I would give a 5/5 in Power? It entails that, since all the beatstick entries have been compared to that ideal calibrated villain, they have been indirectly compared to one another, regardless of any conscious effort from my part to then directly compare them

...I actually think that judging that way allows for a better comparison between the various entries since you judge them side by side in each point from which they can be compared. Hey, what's the Playground take on that one?

I think that, by comparing each entree to each other, you can make the scoring skewed. Say for example you are comparing the Power of the entries. If you automatically put the highest power build at 5/5, that doesn't mean it actually is that powerful, compared to say a monster in the Monster Manual, compared to something there it could be a 3 or 4 out of 5. You stated that you compare all of the same types of villain, in this case beatstick, to get your score. What happens if there's only one beat stick though? By your method of judging you would have nothing to compare it to, so do you give it a 5, a 1? That seems like it would be inaccurate most of the time.

Also, still using the Power example, if one entree is significantly more powerful than every other one, that gives you a way to justify making that entree a 5/5 and all of the others a 1/5. Conversely if one is significantly weaker than every other one, that gives you a way to justify making that entree a 1/5 and all of the others a 5/5.

I'm exaggerating these situations but hopefully you see my point. Personally I think the best way to judge is not to compare it to other entrees. If you need to compare it then you can compare to something that is already made, such as a monster or prebuilt villain in a book.

[remetagross]

I think that, by comparing each entree to each other, you can make the scoring skewed. Say for example you are comparing the Power of the entries. If you automatically put the highest power build at 5/5, that doesn't mean it actually is that powerful, compared to say a monster in the Monster Manual, compared to something there it could be a 3 or 4 out of 5. You stated that you compare all of the same types of villain, in this case beatstick, to get your score. What happens if there's only one beat stick though? By your method of judging you would have nothing to compare it to, so do you give it a 5, a 1? That seems like it would be inaccurate most of the time.

Also, still using the Power example, if one entree is significantly more powerful than every other one, that gives you a way to justify making that entree a 5/5 and all of the others a 1/5. Conversely if one is significantly weaker than every other one, that gives you a way to justify making that entree a 1/5 and all of the others a 5/5.

I'm exaggerating these situations but hopefully you see my point. Personally I think the best way to judge is not to compare it to other entrees. If you need to compare it then you can compare to something that is already made, such as a monster or prebuilt villain in a book.

These points are entirely valid. But I did not judge solely by comparing builds to each other; else, indeed, I would have put 5 to the best and 1 to the weakest. And indeed in case there is only one build of a certain type it doesn't work anymore. I combined both approaches: for Lorelei for example, I measured it against a Wizard 20. Hence she does not have 5 in power, nor 1. On the other hand, for the beatsticks, I first compared each of them to the ideal beatstick, hence similarly, the best did not get 5 and the weakest did not get 1. Then, on a second reading, I compared the grades I gave to each of the beatstick entries and tried to see if I had been consistent. Did I give the same mark to two builds of approximately identical strength? I used that second approach to fine-tune my judgement.

[Inevitability]

Lengthy disputes.


I just want to say thank you, for such an in depth judging, one where no matter how hard I try I can only point out a few small things that I think you've done incorrect for my Slam.

Class: The Quorcraft Warforged template advances "by class" even though it is mindless. This is the only mindless template that has that, and it truly is the exception to the rule. I believe usually you require at least 3 intelligence to take class levels, however specific trumps general. So slam *can* take fighter levels before he becomes sentient.

Skills: mindless creatures can not put ranks into skills. However I'm fairly sure it is RAW that inherited templates, and becoming sentient (in the case of - intelligence only) are the only ways to gain ranks after the fact. I unfortunately have been afb and will continue to be afb for several more days so cannot look up the actual information.

And I want to say that I am sorry for so many mistakes in the saves there, I don't know what happened there but it kind of sucks that I did. The 2 kn arcana was for a prestige class I was thinking about entering and never did. And I took cobalt charge entirely for the thematic appeal, I definitely agree about shock trooper

Thank you once again Remetagross!






Well, it maybe is, but I have found no source for that. It would have greatly helped if you had put it somewhere! :smallamused: As told before, the Awaken Construct spell template sends us back to the Monster Manual p.290 which then says


Besides, since the golem has no skills as class skills (contrary to what you say), all of his skills have to be bought cross-class. Provided we can determine that the golem does indeed retroactively gain skill points, that would amount to a total of (42+3)*2 = 90. But the golem spends 19*2 skill points on Listen and Spot, and 10*2 on Sense Motive, for a total of 96 skill points.

As I said, I cant find it atm, but overall I only used the SRD, MM and similar sources. Most likely it was somewhere in the "Advancing Mosnters Section and/or FAQ.





Hey, if you want to judge your own build, be my guest :smalltongue:
More seriously, there's a fairly big number of small errors. Beside, you will notice that K.A.M. received a 2 in Elegance just like the golem, sharing with it such oddities as gaining initiator levels when the background of the creature really does not hint at the possibility for the creature to be trained as a charismatic battlemaster.



Background is unimportant if theres a RAW legal explanation, unless its really cheesy. And awakeing a construct and teaching it initiatin isnt really,, is it? ^^




I understand, which does not mean I will judge you in a more benevolent light than the others. That would be unfair to them. Besides, I don't think we're here to criticize my method of judging, but rather the result that came out of it :smalltongue:

No change (unless the skill point thing is sourced to be RAW, in which case I will increase the Elegance score by 0.5)



See below for the method.




Two things here. For one, this is an argument ("the terrain will help") that can be equally applied to all entries. As such, i cannot give (or deduct) points to any one entry because it can count on the terrain to compensate for its weaknesses.
Then, what does a closed space mean for ECL 20 PCs, which is the level at which the golem is supposed to be at its strongest? Etherealness, Xorn Movement, Burrow, Wind Walk, Gaseous Form, Overland Flight, Polymorphing the whole party into ants...



That is something I ahve to agree to....if it wasnt a problem for ANY beatstick. And hence a thing that downgrades EVERY beatstick, and hence should not really make a hug impression in the judging, in my humble opinion.




For one, Shadow Blink allows it to move fast...not to flank. You need a flanking buddy for that, and the golem has none. Besides, look, let's compare the Golem to other entries that can be resumed as "beatstick that tries to crush the PCs". Who do we get in that area? Slam, Giolt, K.A.M., Rasharuach, the Watcher. All of those entries have been rated in the power category as direct damage guys/debuffer guys. At level 20, the golem can hit for maybe 70 damage a round plus Time Stands Still, and move to position. Slam can bull rush the PCs and Pounce them for that much. Giolt can lock them down as a Crusader, plus has a couple spell-like abilities for battlefiled control. K.A.M can deal about as much as you but also destroys their items and has a respectable breath attack. Rasharuach hits less hard but deals vile damage. The Watcher deals less damage until it explodes, and has a ton of debuffing effects. At level 20, the golem is maybe the hardest-hitting of them all. But it is not the most mobile (nor are Slam or K.A.M., hence their score, whereas Rasharuach and the Watcher fly, and Giolt does not require moving as much since he prevents the others from doing so) as his maneuvers are more or less 1/encounter, it is not the most resilient as save buffers are 1/day and besides it cannot ready every maneuver at once (while Slam and Giolt are also immune to mind-affecting effects, the latter also having Spell turning and the power to heal himself, K.A.M. has slippery mind and deals Con damage to those that attack it at close range, the Watcher is a Lich and Rasharuach has ginormous HPs and saves) and it cannot detect the PCs all that well (Slam and K.A.M were similarly penalized).
Most of all, the Golem is only a CR 17-20 opponent. While it may best some of the aforementioned villains in certain areas at CR 20, it is greatly underwhelming at all other CRs. Being a respectable opponent at CR 17-20 in one's category (beatstick) but a weak one at CR 1-16 (that is, 80% of the game time) is a weakness that does not similarly cripple the other builds, hence their higher marks. Sharla wasn't penalized because she started at CR 8, which is twice as early as the golem.

Still, I'll admit reviewing the Golem in light of the other villains a second time has given me a slightly better sense of their comparative level. In regard of this, I deem it fairer to increase You Shall Not Pass/This Way, Good Sir! power score by 0.5.



There is no need to do more than one CR writeup, and penalizing that with more than a say .5 would make many many more unique concepts lose from the get go.

But OK, lets say I judged my little Golem.

I would start with 3.0 for "Is a simple yet powerful beatstick that can do wqhat its supposed to do under simple circumstances".

Then I`d add 1.0 for "Is immune to any mind affecting and direct magic" and another .25 to .5 for "Can even without his shtick (Manuevers) hit REALLY REALLY hard and accurate.

Then I`d subtract .5 for "Many maneuvers are hard if not impossible to recover in a battle" and .25 to.5 for "Has only limited additional senses".

I never said Powe rwas supposed to be its rime category, but a 2 or .5 is "Barely able to do what its supposed to do", if we follow past competitions and the original formulation of the areas.

Ah well, if Ic ant change your ind, thats how it is.





:smallconfused: this is the first time I judge, so I don't understant what you're hinting at...



I could have sworn you had judged already, my bad.




I haven't seen anywhere that this is not intended...my whole judging actually revolved around comparing the entries to one another, so as to get a fair judgement. If you don't do this, how can you expect to get an accurate ranking at the end? There is no absolute scale for measuring the power of a villain in D&D, hence any judging has to be relative. Heck, you yourself said I should (and I did, by the way) judge the golem as a beatstick villain, not as a Wizard villain. Doesn't that mean that you want me to compare your entry to an ideal beatstick villain to which I would give a 5/5 in Power? It entails that, since all the beatstick entries have been compared to that ideal calibrated villain, they have been indirectly compared to one another, regardless of any conscious effort from my part to then directly compare them!

Simple, just about any judge so far has, logically, judged the Entries on their own merit.

After you have done that you MIGHT do one or 2 comparisons to fine adjust the pts, but if you set out with that, you judge them unfairly.

If you dont see that its no good idea to start with comparing the entries, and hence land with skewed results, lets give an example.

Lets say the theme is FIre. Lets also say, 3 of the entries were (very different) Dragons.
Now if you judge them all seperately, you ewill (rightly so) assauge their power, niche and style one by one, and maybe, if necessary, do a short side by side at the end to determine if one outpowers the others.

If you start comparing them, they will all lose in Originality (3 dragons) and the less maximum optimized will lose in Power, while the more complex lose in Elegeance, no matter if its actually necessary or not.

In the first case, the final point value speaks for themselves and provides a largely unbiased by competition ranking.

In the second case the Judge chooses clear "Winners" in a "VS Competition.

I for one would never compete in the second kind willingly and also never had the impression that this was the point of this Competition. (There are other comps for that on the boeard however :) ).

Please see this as a general dispute intended to HELP, I ahve already given up on getting more points anyway, as the way we see it seems incompatible AND the Judging has gone on soo long already.





Faster, that's for sure! Fairer...I actually think that judging that way allows for a better comparison between the various entries since you judge them side by side in each point from which they can be compared. Hey, what's the Playground take on that one?

Thew comparison is not the Judges job.

See above. :)


Summing it up: I hope I got my point across, not gonna argue points anymore, but if I get to help your future judging, that alone is worthwile.

[remetagross]

Alright so let's deal with them one at a time.




Class: The Quorcraft Warforged template advances "by class" even though it is mindless. This is the only mindless template that has that, and it truly is the exception to the rule. I believe usually you require at least 3 intelligence to take class levels, however specific trumps general. So slam *can* take fighter levels before he becomes sentient.

Wow. Nice find, then. I have to admit, I totally overlooked that. Anyway, you did not get points deducted for that, since it was really nothing to switch around the order of application between the two fighter levels and the template.


Skills: mindless creatures can not put ranks into skills. However I'm fairly sure it is RAW that inherited templates, and becoming sentient (in the case of - intelligence only) are the only ways to gain ranks after the fact. I unfortunately have been afb and will continue to be afb for several more days so cannot look up the actual information.

Well, this is the same issue as with You Shall Not Pass. I haven't been able to find a RAW source for that, but I'd gladly take one if you find one. Regardless of the outcome of this research, anyway, the aforementioned swapping neatly deals with these skill point issues, and no points were deducted for that either. You got 4.5 instead of 5 mainly because of that Dungeoncrasher issue.



As I said, I cant find it atm, but overall I only used the SRD, MM and similar sources. Most likely it was somewhere in the "Advancing Mosnters Section and/or FAQ.
Once again, it is entirely possible that the source is somewhere under our nose and we cannot find it, but as long as we do not have it, the elegance score is not changing.


Background is unimportant if theres a RAW legal explanation, unless its really cheesy. And awakeing a construct and teaching it initiatin isnt really,, is it? ^^
Well actually, I have a hard time seeing how a mage will teach a golem the Sublime Way :smalltongue: and besides, I do think background is important in the Elegance category, precisely because pulling off a RAW but unrealistic explanation to justify a part of the build is what I call an inelegant thing.


That is something I ahve to agree to....if it wasnt a problem for ANY beatstick. And hence a thing that downgrades EVERY beatstick, and hence should not really make a hug impression in the judging, in my humble opinion.

Not really. Look, Rasharuach and the Watcher are both flyers. This means that, beatsticks they might be, they are far less reliant on an enclosed battlefield than Giolt, You Shall Not Pass, Slam or K.A.M. to be effective. Or you can see it that way: while the other villains will have to blow 50k of their (fairly small) NPC wealth by level for a Phoenix Cloak, those two will buy a Ring of Freedom of Movement and a Fanged Ring instead. And then Rasharuach has no more ways of dealing with incorporeal villains than You Shall Not Pass! has: this has prevented her from netting a 5 in Power. On the other hand, the Watcher specifically though about that and mentioned the Force enhancement it can give to its melee attacks: it gained some points for that. Hence, this is far from being a problem with every beatstick.


There is no need to do more than one CR writeup, and penalizing that with more than a say .5 would make many many more unique concepts lose from the get go.
I can assure you that You Shall Not Pass did not get a higher reduction than that from being online that late.



But OK, lets say I judged my little Golem.

I would start with 3.0 for "Is a simple yet powerful beatstick that can do wqhat its supposed to do under simple circumstances".

Then I`d add 1.0 for "Is immune to any mind affecting and direct magic" and another .25 to .5 for "Can even without his shtick (Manuevers) hit REALLY REALLY hard and accurate.

Then I`d subtract .5 for "Many maneuvers are hard if not impossible to recover in a battle" and .25 to.5 for "Has only limited additional senses".

I never said Powe rwas supposed to be its rime category, but a 2 or .5 is "Barely able to do what its supposed to do", if we follow past competitions and the original formulation of the areas.
Alright, look. Let's assume we took your way. I'd start with 3.0 for the power of the golem including the power granted by its maneuvers, because without that it has no business fighting ECL 20 PCs. Hence, I won't separately add another 0.5 for "Can even without his shtick (Manuevers) hit REALLY REALLY hard and accurate." I'd then add 1 for "many immunities and save buffers, good HPs". I'd then substract 0.5 for "no way to detect the PCs" and then another 0.5 for "cannot ready all the maneuvers at the same time (teleporting, save buffing, time stands still) and they're practically 1/encounter which means it loses to time." Then there would be another -0.5 for "poor mobility and lack of versatility in how the PCs are threatened (only physical HP damage)". And that makes us reach 2.5 again.


Simple, just about any judge so far has, logically, judged the Entries on their own merit.
This is a very bold affirmation to make...have you had confirmation of that from just about any of those judges so far?



After you have done that you MIGHT do one or 2 comparisons to fine adjust the pts, but if you set out with that, you judge them unfairly.

If you dont see that its no good idea to start with comparing the entries, and hence land with skewed results.
In that regard, I suppose you posted your dispute before my exchange with Death_Lord12, wherein I explain that indeed, I did the comparisons to fine adjust the points, and not as a first analysis.



Lets say the theme is FIre. Lets also say, 3 of the entries were (very different) Dragons.
Now if you judge them all seperately, you ewill (rightly so) assauge their power, niche and style one by one, and maybe, if necessary, do a short side by side at the end to determine if one outpowers the others.
This is pretty much how I judged. My side by side comparison was a little longer than short, though.



In the first case, the final point value speaks for themselves and provides a largely unbiased by competition ranking.

In the second case the Judge chooses clear "Winners" in a "VS Competition.
Ah. I think I see your point. What you're saying is that this comp is here for people to get their villain judged mainly for itself, and almost as an afterthought for it being ranked and compared to the others. I do agree with that, and I can see how the way I explained my way of judging could be understood as a primarily competing way. I hope the anwser I gave to Death_Lord12 clears that misunderstanding.


Thew comparison is not the Judges job.
I believe it is, insofar as it is a tool to provide a fairer judgement across the board. It is not when it becomes the end-all, be-all of judging. But "comparison" should not become a forbidden word on this thread. Else, why bother comparing the grades of each entry and awarding medals?

[PrismCat21]

Two things I'd like to bring up and would appreciate confirmation to.

1. If you're not a contestant, I believe you should not interfere with a judges decision or how they came to that decision. I say don't even comment on it. If there's a real issue, message the Chair.
If you are a contestant, use the dispute process.
2. How a Judge decides to Judge is up to them. As long as they follow the guidelines set forth by the Chair, they're doing it the right way. No one else gets to decide they're doing it wrong, let alone try and call them out on it. If you have a real issue, message the Chair.

[NontheistCleric]

Two things I'd like to bring up and would appreciate confirmation to.

1. If you're not a contestant, I believe you should not interfere with a judges decision or how they came to that decision. I say don't even comment on it. If there's a real issue, message the Chair.
If you are a contestant, use the dispute process.
2. How a Judge decides to Judge is up to them. As long as they follow the guidelines set forth by the Chair, they're doing it the right way. No one else gets to decide they're doing it wrong, let alone try and call them out on it. If you have a real issue, message the Chair.

I don't think it's wrong for someone to ask a question about a judge's methods. Everyone is entitled to say what they want (provided it is in a civil manner). Similarly, though, a judge has no obligation to modify their judging or even respond if they don't want to, and if the person asking is suitably polite and respectful, they should just accept that and not pursue the matter further.

To put restrictions on what we can and cannot say, especially when, as remetagross demonstrated above, some judges are perfectly willing to discuss their own judgements with non-contestants, is not necessary.

Of course, if there's something you feel that really needs to be subject to official action, then the Chair is the only person to go to, but as long as discussion can be kept civil and feelings unhurt, there's no reason we can't simply talk about these things.

[Thurbane]

Two things I'd like to bring up and would appreciate confirmation to.

1. If you're not a contestant, I believe you should not interfere with a judges decision or how they came to that decision. I say don't even comment on it. If there's a real issue, message the Chair.
If you are a contestant, use the dispute process.
2. How a Judge decides to Judge is up to them. As long as they follow the guidelines set forth by the Chair, they're doing it the right way. No one else gets to decide they're doing it wrong, let alone try and call them out on it. If you have a real issue, message the Chair.

I agree with this 110%.

When I was chairing this comp, I shut down any "armchair commentary" raising rules issues with entries (and to a lesser degree, commentary on judging), and I shut it down hard.

I feel it detracts a lot from what is meant to be a "just for fun" internet competition, IMHO.

If spectators feel strongly enough about an entry or judging to comment on it, they should just step up and judge themselves. :smallbiggrin:

...and if it's other competitors, it's incredibly poor sportsmanship.

Just my 2 coppers.

[Braininthejar2]

Eh, a month waiting, and I end up near the very bottom, as expected...

My current motivation is focused on painting miniatures, but once it shifts again, I m ight give it another try.

[Braininthejar2]

A Duskblade Crusader Vampiress. And the second vampire at that, as well as the second Crusader. Nothing original here.

Oh.

I thought my very low grade was due to my entry being a blatant homage to an existing fictional character.

I didn't expect to be judged on what other people posted.


Interspacing duskblade and crusader levels was to get both classes online as early as I could, while giving me a little boost to the initiator level, so I don't have to choose too many low level maneuvers.

My bad on the skill points. it was the most tedious part of the build.

[Darrin]

I didn't expect to be judged on what other people posted.


It varies from judge to judge. Some of them will mark down Originality if you picked an "obvious" entry method or if a large number of contestants pick the same base class as the foundation of the build. It may seem unfair, since the chefs build and submit their entries without consulting any other chef, but it's mostly just an arbitrary mechanism to separate some of the unusual builds from the rest of the pack. Try not to think of it as a penalty and more of just a method to produce a series of numbers on a spectrum that aren't all 3's.

[daremetoidareyo]

In with Darrin and remetagross. You simply have to cross compare dishes to some degree. After reading 13 entries, all of which have a power floor much above typical CR, you gotta cross compare at least a little to better refine the scores

[remetagross]

Oh.

I thought my very low grade was due to my entry being a blatant homage to an existing fictional character.

I didn't expect to be judged on what other people posted.

Huh. Contestants are expected not to directly submit your disputes on an non-anonymous way, but to make them transit by the chairman. Nevertheless, well; I must admit my ignorance here: which one is that existing fictional character?
As for the comparison part, I feel this has been expressed well enough by Darrin and daremetoidaryeo just above (whom I thank), as well as by myself when I answered the dispute for You Shall Not Pass/This Way, Good Sir!



Interspacing duskblade and crusader levels was to get both classes online as early as I could, while giving me a little boost to the initiator level, so I don't have to choose too many low level maneuvers.

My bad on the skill points. it was the most tedious part of the build.

Well, in the peculiar case of a Duskblade/Crusader multiclassing character, it was a better idea not to separate the levels. If you wanted to get higher level maneuvers, your best bet was to put all the Crusader levels at the end, as I suggested - it is worth more than having an earlier access to Thicket of Blades (which I feel was less worth than 3 extra 2nd level spell slots and 2 extra 2nd level spells known) and Indomitable Soul (since the increase you got in Will saves was only +2, that is, only 1 more than what 2 levels of Duskblades would have given). Besides, it allowed you to gain your most powerful trick, Full Attacking Bestow Curse Chanelling, two levels earlier.

No change.

[ben-zayb]

I haven't checked the comps lately, so I'm a bit confused why there are two Villain comp contests running at the same time. Is that intended?:smallconfused:

[GrayDeath]

This ones judging has been going on for months, so the new one was started even if this one is not truly "finished" yet.

Its not intentionally confusing, just incidentally so. ^^

[jdizzlean]

I haven't checked the comps lately, so I'm a bit confused why there are two Villain comp contests running at the same time. Is that intended?:smallconfused:

if you read back through this one, inevitability asked for someone to take over, and remetagross for a new round to be posted while the 2nd judging on this one was delayed. This round has been going on for 3 months, so it was time to post another one despite judging not being completed.

it's a little weird as there are 2 different chairs for both VC's running, so questions on this one relate to Inevitability, and questions on the new one go to me. Plus, I feel weird submitting a grievance as i'm now the chair moving forward. it's all a bit of fun.

[Inevitability]

One more dispute!



Rememtagross:

First off, I’m not trying to get more points, on the whole I think for the most part, your judging to be fair, and frankly I’m so far out of medal contention, that this is more to clear a few things up.

Originality:
I took Shadow Template more to fit the theme of a lurking monster, not really for HiPs. That was a side benefit. Since I was going for Ethereal movement, HiPs is kinda useless. Plus the concealment for being in/around all those shadows works to his benefit.

Elegance:
The Dread Necro level was taken after “spying on some other temple folk” as stated in the backstory. The real reason to take the class was simply to gain the access to hide alignment. This stacks with the class ability from FoP, making Narfle that much harder to find in general.

Likewise, Marshal was taken at the end of the build to reflect on his growing stature w/in the Temple complex. He is becoming a leader of sorts, and as such Marshall fits in w/ that concept. Yes the aura is a great bonus, but neither of these should really be elegance penalties as they do function correctly.

Freedom Of Movement:
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/freedomOfMovement.htm
It doesn’t end the grapple, it just prevents me from being grappled, and combining that w/ improved grab means that I don’t suffer the shortcoming of opening myself up to a grapple when I attempt to do so.

We’ll agree to disagree on them summoning themselves, they last an hour, they can’t summon for an hour, but spending 6 seconds to attempt a summon before they disappear isn’t completely out of the realm of possibility, especially when you combine the rune circle for extending summoning as I stated in that section.

Class skills can be reassigned by racial HD w/o regard for entries in the book. I get a certain number of skill points to use wherever I feel like it when the creature is created.

Hide Presence: pretty much the entire entry on the class ability states that it does indeed prevent protection/resistance to specific alignments. When combined w/ Undetectable alignment and the Hide from this on top of that, it means that you are no longer a viable targeted source for any protection/circle/etc from X spells/abilities provided you make your roll.

Save DC’s are CHA based as stated in the first paragraph of Class Features for FoP. 10 + class lvl +CHA modifier. Marshall’s Aura simply doubles the CHA bonus, meaning it increases the DC for all saves vs the FoP’s abilities.

Power:
Graft Flesh is more for the rare times that Narfle isn’t ethereal. Wings to gain flying, as well as the skin graft were the initial thoughts, but as stated, over time, he’ll simply add them all. It’s just an option to add to his flexibility.

Rune Circles: I took that to both use one’s already on the temple grounds, as well as to create new ones. I don’t need other equipment, as all those needs are taken up by the vast array of statues/things that I possess… Likewise, with essentially free money laying around, cost is not an issue for this or the grafts. The rage circle for example means permanent rage as long as I’m in that circle, and likewise my summons are in a permanent rage, and their summons, etc. Nothing says I can’t fly into a rage while in possession of a gargantuan statue either..

[Braininthejar2]

No change.

I wasn't asking for any points changes, just discussing my build after the fact. :smallsmile:


which one is that existing fictional character?

Shalltear Bloodfallen, The Bloody Valkirie, guardian of the Great Tomb of Nazarick.

Doesn't do her justice, really, but then again Shalltear had epic levels to work with.

[remetagross]

Originality:
I took Shadow Template more to fit the theme of a lurking monster, not really for HiPs. That was a side benefit. Since I was going for Ethereal movement, HiPs is kinda useless. Plus the concealment for being in/around all those shadows works to his benefit.


Alright then, but the presence of the template wasn't justified in the fluff; Narlfe just happens to be a Shadow Farastu, and that's it. Besides, there's another monster with the Dark template in this comp as well. All in all, I admit this is a little less forced down than what I though. +0.125 in originality.



Elegance:
The Dread Necro level was taken after “spying on some other temple folk” as stated in the backstory. The real reason to take the class was simply to gain the access to hide alignment. This stacks with the class ability from FoP, making Narfle that much harder to find in general.


But the temple folks mentioned here have nothing to do with necromancy themselves, either. Besides, the temple is described as a sort of dumpin ground for relics; it is never stated or hinted at that is has a necromantic purpose. As you yourself readily admit, it is there solely for Hide Alignment, which is rewarded in Power for being a clever trick; but that dip remains dinged in Elegance. No change.



Likewise, Marshal was taken at the end of the build to reflect on his growing stature w/in the Temple complex. He is becoming a leader of sorts, and as such Marshall fits in w/ that concept. Yes the aura is a great bonus, but neither of these should really be elegance penalties as they do function correctly.

I'll give you that, Narfle is described as being promoted as a guardian. But for one, the build of Narfle does not include any leadership abilities, such as social skills, or buffing abilities, apart from the Marshal level. Besides, Narfle is described as terrorizing his fellow guardians, not really leading them up as the fluff of the Marshal class describes. No change.



Freedom Of Movement:
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/freedomOfMovement.htm
It doesn’t end the grapple, it just prevents me from being grappled, and combining that w/ improved grab means that I don’t suffer the shortcoming of opening myself up to a grapple when I attempt to do so.


It does end the grapple. What does it say?

The subject automatically succeeds on any grapple check made to resist a grapple attempt, as well as on grapple checks or Escape Artist checks made to escape a grapple or a pin. This means you automatically succeed on any grapple check that either prevent the grapple from beginning in the first place ("any grapple check made to resist a grapple attempt"), or to brings the grapple to an end ("grapple checks or Escape Artist checks made to escape a grapple or a pin"). In both cases, the grapple does not take place. And FoM helps with grapples only in those two very specific rolls you make relatively to grapples - not vs grappling in general!Then, if you use improved grab, you engage a grapple with the target. And then, FoM will help you only if you try one of the two rolls that are specifically covered by FoM: escaping the grapple you started yourself. In all other cases, FoM does not cover what happens, and does not help you. No change.



We’ll agree to disagree on them summoning themselves, they last an hour, they can’t summon for an hour, but spending 6 seconds to attempt a summon before they disappear isn’t completely out of the realm of possibility, especially when you combine the rune circle for extending summoning as I stated in that section.

Let's suppose that the duration of the summoning of the Farastus is one round, and that the Fiend Folio specifies that they cannot use their own summoning ability for one round. For all intents and purposes, this is identical to the case where both durations last one hour instead of one round, but I think it makes things clearer.
Round 1, Narfle's turn: starting to summon other Farastus.
Round 2, right before Narfle's turn again: the Farastus appear. They immediately act on Narfle's incoming turn. Since they last for 1 round, they will disappear on round 3, right before Narfle's turn. Since they cannot use their summoning ability for 1 round, they will only be able to start summoning more of their kind when they act on Narfle's turn in round 3.
Round 2, Narfle's turn: the summons do something, which cannot be the use of their own summoning ability.
Round 3, right before Narfle's turn: the summons disappear.
Round 3, Narfle's turn: the summons are now allowed to start summoning more Farastus. However, they have disappeared already.
Can you see my point through that example?

Now, by using a rune circle to extend the summons, you can indeed cleverly bypass that limitation. But you did not mention that in your original build. Besides, one has to remember that the chance of success in only 30%, so even when your aforementioned trick works, you only have a very small chance to keep the chain of summons going. No change.



Class skills can be reassigned by racial HD w/o regard for entries in the book. I get a certain number of skill points to use wherever I feel like it when the creature is created.

Could you source that? What I can find in the SRD on the other hand, and I think is the closest to the situation at hand, is:
"Some templates change how skill points are determined, but this change usually only affects skill points gained after the template is applied. Treat skills listed in the base creature’s description as class skills, as well as any new skills provided by the template.". I am well aware this is not a perfect application of the rule, hence my demand for a more exact source on the matter. However, this is the rule by which the comp has been playing since I discovered it, unless I'm mistaken. No change until proven otherwise.



Hide Presence: pretty much the entire entry on the class ability states that it does indeed prevent protection/resistance to specific alignments. When combined w/ Undetectable alignment and the Hide from this on top of that, it means that you are no longer a viable targeted source for any protection/circle/etc from X spells/abilities provided you make your roll.

You are entirely correct, and I misread what you said in your description. I thought you were saying that Hide Presence allows Narfle to try and possess a creature under the effect of a Protection from Evil spell (which I argued it does not, since Hide Presence allows Narfle to foil abilities that rely on the alignment or other specific characteristic of their target, and the line "the barrier blocks any attempt to possess the warded creature" then adds "This second effect works regardless of alignment.", thus indicating that this one aspect of Protection from Evil is not the kind of ability that can be foiled by Hide Presence), but you were not saying such a thing. My bad. +0.125 in Elegance.



Save DC’s are CHA based as stated in the first paragraph of Class Features for FoP. 10 + class lvl +CHA modifier. Marshall’s Aura simply doubles the CHA bonus, meaning it increases the DC for all saves vs the FoP’s abilities.

Save DCs are indeed Cha-based, this I am not denying. But the problem is that the Marshall's Motivate Charisma aura does not double the Cha bonus, as you put it. The exact effect is different. Let's see what it does:


"Motivate Charisma: Bonus on Charisma checks and Charisma-based skill checks." For those Cha checks and Cha-based skill checks, Motivate Charisma effectively double Narfle's Cha bonus. For all other purposes, the Cha bonus remains the same. A save DC is not a check nor it is a Charisma-based skill check. As such, it is not affected by Motivate Charisma.



Power:
Graft Flesh is more for the rare times that Narfle isn’t ethereal. Wings to gain flying, as well as the skin graft were the initial thoughts, but as stated, over time, he’ll simply add them all. It’s just an option to add to his flexibility.


Alright, but many grafts need some spells to be cast in their creation that Narfle cannot provide. This precludes all but only three grafts: Fiendish Ear, Fiendish Jaw, Long Arm. Once Narfle has grafted these three onto himself he is done with grafting. The wings are not included among the grafts Narfle can produce. As such, these grafts do improve Narfle somewhat, and we'll agree that even at the beginning, the idea was not for Narfle to be a graft-centered villain. But Narfle decidedly does not make an optimal use of the feat. No change.



Rune Circles: I took that to both use one’s already on the temple grounds, as well as to create new ones. I don’t need other equipment, as all those needs are taken up by the vast array of statues/things that I possess… Likewise, with essentially free money laying around, cost is not an issue for this or the grafts. The rage circle for example means permanent rage as long as I’m in that circle, and likewise my summons are in a permanent rage, and their summons, etc. Nothing says I can’t fly into a rage while in possession of a gargantuan statue either..


Well you cannot really say that you need no equipment, since you have all those big statues lying around: you need them, and those are your equipment. Also, on the matter of money, I perfectly realize that in Narfle's planned environment he has access to a basically unlimited amount of money. What you are saying by this statement, is that Narfle has unlimited Wealth By Level. Fine. But for the purpose of this contest, in order to set all villains on an equal footing when it comes to equipment, all villains are considered to all have the same amount of money at each level. That is, they follow the rules for NPC Wealth By Level (here's a link to the relevant amounts. (https://www.dndarchive.com/forums/depth-roleplay-qa/character-wealth-level)) Else, it would be unfair for villains who have not set up their lair in a place overflowing with money. As such, Narfle is considered to follow the NPC WBL as well, and thus to have a limited amount to spend on equipment each round.
The question of chained summons has been treated already. As for the question of raging inside a huge statue, I agree that Narfle can indeed do that (and it's a nice trick). However, in order for Narfle inside a statue to benefit from the Extended Rage circle for example (or from any other runic circle, for that matter), he would have to stay inside the circle, not moving away from it. This means the PCs can simply flee, or destroy him at range. In practise, Narfle cannot afford to do that. This is why I stated Narfle would most likely keep moving from one possessed object or PC to the next, and ths not benefit that much from a bonus linked to a static position. No change.





Shalltear Bloodfallen, The Bloody Valkirie, guardian of the Great Tomb of Nazarick.

Doesn't do her justice, really, but then again Shalltear had epic levels to work with.

Looked it up. Now I get it :smallbiggrin:

[Inevitability]

Narfle's creator has announced that they do not plan on continuing their disputes, in fear of making this round last even longer. They also expressed a desire to contact remetagross by PM after this round is over.

WhamBamSam, is that chart you posted some time ago updated?

[remetagross]

Alright, let's continue this by PM :smallsmile:

@Inevitability: it does not include the changes I made to You Shall Not Pass! and Narfle's scoring, but those do not change the ranking anyway.

[remetagross]

Build
daremetodareyou
remetagross
Total
Place


Lorelai G’Elsewhere: Guardian of the Gate
19
17.75
36.75
Gold

Mircea Raviwr
20
16.25
36.25
Silver

Rasharuach
19.25
16.75
36
Bronze

The Ghost of Grobzok the Guardian
17.25
17.75
35
4th

Claws-at-Heart
19.25
15.75
35
4th

The Watcher
18.25
16.5
34.75
6th

Narfle, the Garthog, Anthraxia Temple Guard, Chevalier First Class
18.25
15.5
33.75
7th

K.A.M.
17.75
14
31.75
8th

Slam
18.25
13.25
31.5
9th

Giolt
17.25
13.5
30.75
10th

Sally
16
13.5
29.5
11th

SHARLA THE BLACK ANGEL
16.5
10.75
27.25
12th

You shall not pass ! This way, good sir!
15
8
23
13th

Here we go for the updated table :smallsmile: let's wrap this up, I made this round lastlong enough already!

[Inevitability]

The final table, with thanks to remetagross!


Build
Chef
daremetodareyou
remetagross
Total
Place


Lorelai G’Elsewhere: Guardian of the Gate
Venger
19
17.75
36.75
Gold

Mircea Raviwr
SirNMN
20
16.25
36.25
Silver

Rasharuach
White Blade
19.25
16.75
36
Bronze

The Ghost of Grobzok the Guardian
Telonius
17.25
17.75
35
4th

Claws-at-Heart
3SecondCultist
19.25
15.75
35
4th

The Watcher
WhamBamSam
18.25
16.5
34.75
6th

Narfle, the Garthog, Anthraxia Temple Guard, Chevalier First Class
jdizzlean
18.25
15.5
33.75
7th

K.A.M.
Prismcat21
17.75
14
31.75
8th

Slam
Falontani
18.25
13.25
31.5
9th

Giolt
Sejoran
17.25
13.5
30.75
10th

Sally
Prismcat21
16
13.5
29.5
11th

SHARLA THE BLACK ANGEL
Braininthejar2
16.5
10.75
27.25
12th

You shall not pass ! This way, good sir!
GrayDeath
15
8
23
13th

Congratulations to all competitors! Chairing this competition has been a wonderful experience, and I wish you all the best.

[Falontani]

Inevitability since its your last tenure as chair I think you should name an HM.

[Telonius]

Woo, great competition everyone! Thanks to the chair and judges.

[Thurbane]

Congrats to all, especially Venger: and thanks again to our judges.

[Venger]

Congrats to all, especially Venger: and thanks again to our judges.

Thank you. Congratulations to SirNMN and White Blade as well. This was a really fun round.

[3SecondCultist]

Congrats to the winners! I was hoping to break top 3 with Claws, but couldn’t quite get there. Next time! :smallbiggrin: