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

[Zaq]

Welcome back to the Iron Chef Optimization Challenge E6 Appetizer Edition! With this round, I've now run more rounds than the previous Chair, so I don't think I need to call it "rebooted" anymore. This baby is mine now.

Note to our returning contestants and judges: There are some minor but significant updates to our presentation rules and our judging rules, so please actually read them and don't assume that you know what's coming.

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

*Note: You must provide your own cake.

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


Cooking Time: Builds must be submitted via PM to the Chair by 4:59 PM GMT - 8 on Friday, March 30, 2018 (12:59 AM GMT on Saturday, March 31). The reveal shall be on the first evening the Chair has free following the cooking deadline, which is hoped to be that evening or the immediately subsequent one. Judging is then expected (*cough*) to take no more than two weeks, so we'll put the judging deadline at two weeks after that. (You can do the math yourselves; I don't want to put two dates here and confuse people.)
Notice that this is slightly earlier in the day than previous deadlines; the goal is to have the deadline be around the time the Chair gets off of work on that particular day, thereby allowing him to post the builds without having to stay up super late or wait until the next day.

Kitchen: Almost all first-party 3.5 sources are legal. Dragon Magazine is disallowed except as noted below, but Dragon Compendium (and its errata) is allowed. Online material from the WotC website is legal except for unupdated 3.0 psionics, which are banned. (If you use online material, please provide a link to the source.) Unearthed Arcana is legal for paragon classes, alternate races, and alternate class features, but not for fractional BAB/saves, item familiars, generic classes, prestigious character classes, gestalt, bloodlines, LA buyoff, or similar rule variants.
We will borrow the existing standard for traits and flaws; they are legal, but traits warrant a –0.5 point penalty in Elegance, and flaws warrant a –1 point penalty in Elegance.
Leadership is banned, as is any other feat or class feature that gives you something equivalent. (Familiars and improved familiars are fine, Wild Cohort is fine, psicrystals and elemental envoys are fine, animal companions are fine, but Thrallherd is not fine, for example.)
Official errata is considered to be in play, including the Dragon 318 update to Oriental Adventures (but nothing else in Dragon 318).
Judges are not to penalize for the use of a large or small number of sources, nor are they to penalize for using an "obscure" source in one's build. Judges may, however, penalize for using a source without listing it, so please provide a list of sources! It is up to the discretion of each judge whether it is inelegant to "cross setting lines" (by using, for example, Forgotten Realms and Eberron material in the same build).
Pathfinder is not allowed. Unupdated 3.0 material is allowed, and the general-purpose 3.0-to-3.5 skill updates (Wilderness Lore and Intuit Direction become Survival, Read Lips becomes Sense Motive, etc.) should be used when appropriate. If 3.0 material has been updated to 3.5, use the 3.5 version instead. If you have questions about anything in this paragraph (or hell, in this ruleset), feel free to ask the Chair.

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

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

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

Presentation: Here's a table for you to use. List your epic bonus feats (in clear order) after the table. If you find a clever way of formatting that that isn't annoying and that doesn't break anything, have fun; if it's portable, I may steal it for the next round.
When sending your build or any disputes to the Chair, clearly include your build's name in the subject of the PM, and please present your build exactly as you want the Chair to copy and paste it into the thread.
If you're using a picture, cite the source and follow any relevant citation rules.
Because we have had issues with this in the past, when listing your skills, please make it very clear how many ranks you have at each level. There are multiple ways to do this and we do not wish to cramp anyone's individual style by dictating exactly how this must look, but make sure that somewhere in your entry there's an explanation of how many actual skill ranks you have. It's still fine to list total skill bonuses, if that's your style, but don't only list bonuses.

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


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


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


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


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


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


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


Code for the table:

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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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

Judging guidelines: The minimum score in a category is 1. Judges are expected to be fair, consistent, and open-minded, and they are expected to make a good-faith effort to engage with any reasonable disputes that arise, especially when RAW is in question.
Judges may not penalize for a build that is a tribute or homage to an existing creative work (in or out of D&D canon), nor may judges penalize based solely on sources used (whether those sources are plentiful, sparse, common, obscure, or something in between, you should judge the build elements and how they work together rather than what book or what books they came out of, as long as those books are legal for this contest and are cited in the entry).
As with the main contest, we will follow the "One Mistake, One Penalty" guideline, and it is very important that the judges adhere to it. I'm going to directly copy and paste this from the main thread, and hopefully the original author won't mind too much:
Judges are only allowed to penalise once for a given mistake. If someone messes up their skills and doesn't qualify for a PrC, ding them as hard as you like. Once. In one category. You don't then get to declare that because they didn't qualify for that PrC, they don't get those levels, and thus don't qualify for anything else. If Ranger is a common ingredient, ding them for Originality. Once. Don't also take off points for Two-Weapon-Fighting being a common ingredient.

Non-exhaustive list of examples:

Skills
Allowed:

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


Not allowed:

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



Prereqs
Allowed:

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


Not Allowed:

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



Other general things that are no longer allowed:

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


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

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

This round's secret ingredient: the HEXBLADE, from Complete Warrior! Allez Optimizer!

The Builds:



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



Erica D'zhar (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22958994&postcount=55)
CE Human
Hexblade 5/Thrall to Orcus 1
20
13.5
33.5
WhamBamSam




Tio Hexblahday (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22959008&postcount=58)
?E Hellbred
Hexblade 3/Sha'ir 28/Hexblade +3
16.5
15.5
32.0
daremetoidareyo



Boros (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22334559&postcount=56)
LN?CN Lesser Aasimar
Monk 1/Hexblade 4/Swordsage 1
16.0
14.5
30.5
Long_shanks



Gishy McGisherton (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22958999&postcount=56)
?? Human
Hexblade 1/Battle Sorcerer 1/Wizard 1/Hexblade +3
11
11.5
22.5
johnbragg



Sventir Shieldsling (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22959003&postcount=57)
CE Azurin
Barbarian 1/Cleric 1/Hexblade 4
11.5
11
22.5
Zombulian







Round 4: Knight (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?542333-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(IV))
Round 5: Ninja (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?548763-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-V))
Round 6: Racial Paragon Classes (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?551174-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-VI))

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

[Zombulian]

Ohhh hell yeah

[RaiKirah]

I'm not sure i've ever read the full Hexblade class. Should be interesting :)

[Zombulian]

I'm not sure i've ever read the full Hexblade class. Should be interesting :)

Well, you only need to have read 6 levels of it :^)

[AvatarVecna]

Every time I think I've got something, I remember those three damned words: "Once per day".

I think I'm not gonna spend a lot of time trying to figure something out for this, and just watch again.

[jdizzlean]

tracking...

[lylsyly]

I have an idea, not sure if it will work out tho. Plus I am moving from Ft. Liquordale to Orlando today, YAY!!

[Zaq]

Every time I think I've got something, I remember those three damned words: "Once per day".

I think I'm not gonna spend a lot of time trying to figure something out for this, and just watch again.

This is going to be a hard round, but I have faith in our group here. Including folks who haven't entered before. It's still not the worst SI I've got planned for you folks. It's probably close to the worst that's currently on the list, but I don't think it quite takes the cake.

Of course, if you don't feel like entering, we always also need judges!

[Long_shanks]

I have an idea. It takes advantage of E6 more than of the Hexblade, but if I can make it work, it would be pretty neat.

[WhamBamSam]

I have some fragments of thought on this. I'll try to get something in.

[DeTess]

I'll keep an eye on this one, but I want to get my junkyard wars build out first. If I don't compete, I should have time to judge.

[Doctor Awkward]

Out of curiousity, is this contest going to make use of the suggested fixes to the class?

Back on the old Wizards forums, Mike Mearls, one of the designers who helped create the class acknowledged how underpowered it was and suggested several quality of life changes to improve it's viability.

The link I had is no longer valid. But here is the text of post:


The hexblade suffers a little because he came on the scene relatively early in 3.5's life. As R&D pushes the boundaries of the game, we learn that some things we thought were risky or potentially broken aren't. Other times, we learn things that look fine don't actually work in play. Armored mages fall into the first category. Them seem really powerful, but in the long run they aren't. Spells and magic items allow an unarmored mage to build great defenses. The spell mage armor is as good as medium armor, and its duration allows most mages to keep it active at all times. If you compare the hexblade to the duskblade from PH 2, you can see how the thinking has changed. If you want to boost the hexblade, I'd try the following changes:
Good Fortitude save
Curse ability usable 1 + the hexblade's Cha modifier per day
Curse ability usable as a swift action
Curse ability does not count as used if the target makes his saving throw
Ability to cast in light or medium armor and while carrying a light shield or buckler
At 6th level, the hexblade can cast one hexblade spell per day as a swift action, as long as its original casting time is a standard action or faster. He gains an additional use of this power at levels 8, 11, 14, and 18.

[Zaq]

Nope, that's too easy. We're using the RAW Hexblade.

If there's sufficient interest, I could see a quick "bonus round" wherein we showcase builds using that common Mearls fix you mentioned, but actually making those builds and then judging them is likely to be more effort than most folks are willing to do when the real deal with the RAW Hexblade is in place.

[daremetoidareyo]

I'm following this.

I just gave it a read through. Hexblade is a terrible class.

[DeTess]

I'm following this.

I just gave it a read through. Hexblade is a terrible class.

Can't you see how well designed it is? Its only dead level is its 18th, it gets features on all other levels. This is truly the hallmark of a well-designed class, such as this one or monk. Not like Wizard, or even worse, Sorcerer, who only get a feature every other level at best.

[Zaq]

I'm following this.

I just gave it a read through. Hexblade is a terrible class.

A class bad enough that even your crazy op skills can't wring a weird trick out of it, dare? Dang. I'm impressed. I didn't think I'd hit NPC-class levels of badness yet. I see at least a couple directions to go with this one myself, though none are free from problems.

Think you might be up for judging?

[Jormengand]

Can't you see how well designed it is? Its only dead level is it's 18th, it gets features on all other levels. This is truly the hallmark of a well-designed class, such as this one or monk. Not like Wizard, or even worse, Sorcerer, who only get a feature every other level at best.

I take exception to the fact that wizard and sorcerer are badly designed being expressed sarcastically.

Hexblade is designed worse, of course, but still.



Vague ideas in the making. LA would have made one of my - highly silly - ideas work a bit better, but c'est la vie. I'm sure I can do something interesting... right?

[Long_shanks]

Can't you see how well designed it is? Its only dead level is it's 18th, it gets features on all other levels. This is truly the hallmark of a well-designed class, such as this one or monk. Not like Wizard, or even worse, Sorcerer, who only get a feature every other level at best.

Speaking of which, Hexblade level 6... what a capstone.

[RaiKirah]

This class is thoroughly uninspiring. I'll keep ruminating on it, but i'm not feeling sanguine about my chances of getting a build in :(

[daremetoidareyo]

A class bad enough that even your crazy op skills can't wring a weird trick out of it, dare? Dang. I'm impressed. I didn't think I'd hit NPC-class levels of badness yet. I see at least a couple directions to go with this one myself, though none are free from problems.

Think you might be up for judging?

I'm totally entering. I found a loophole that only truly terrible classes can help you scour for

[death390]

not entering, but i want to give a appetizer suggestion since i don't think it has been done (or at least haven't been able to google-fu it).

i think it might "work" specifically due to the E6 variation.

TRUENAMER!!!?!!

[johnbragg]

I was working with the idea that the signature focus of the hexblade is abilities that don't sybergize. I have to rework--my REDACTED and REDACTED REDACTED synergize.

[Zaq]

not entering, but i want to give a appetizer suggestion since i don't think it has been done (or at least haven't been able to google-fu it).

i think it might "work" specifically due to the E6 variation.

TRUENAMER!!!?!!

No need to shout. Anyway, Truenamer is reasonably functional in E6, but they’d also be fairly constrained and I doubt that there would be enough variation to make the round interesting.

Besides, you’d think I’d want to run a Truenamer round where I don’t get to judge?

[Inevitability]

No need to shout.

There is when you're a truenamer. :smalltongue:

[Jormengand]

Maybe I'm biased, but I would far, far rather be dealing with truenamer than hexblade about now.

[AvatarVecna]

Maybe I'm biased, but I would far, far rather be dealing with truenamer than hexblade about now.

I'd settle for the updated Hexblade where the original designer admitted that he'd come to realize it was complete utter garbage that couldn't even really use it's primary class feature.

[Zombulian]

Speaking of which, Hexblade level 6... what a capstone.

Uh excuse me sir, but haven't you checked the Dead Levels WotC article?
At level 6... Hexblade gets... get this.. drumroll please..


PRESTIDIGITATION
AS
A
1st
LEVEL
SPELL

wooooooooo

[AvatarVecna]

Uh excuse me sir, but haven't you checked the Dead Levels WotC article?
At level 6... Hexblade gets... get this.. drumroll please..


PRESTIDIGITATION
AS
A
1st
LEVEL
SPELL

wooooooooo

Didn't the chairman forbid that thing? Or is this a separate online admittance from the designers as to their utter incompetence?

[Zombulian]

Didn't the chairman forbid that thing? Or is this a separate online admittance from the designers as to their utter incompetence?

Yeah it's different. Dead Levels (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/cwc/20070227x) was an article series that is legitimate WotC material.

[Zaq]

Yes, the Dead Levels articles are legit.

[DEMON]

Speaking of which, Hexblade level 6... what a capstone.

Meh. +1 BAB, +1 to all saves, +1 caster level, +1 spell per day... you gotta enjoy the little things. :smalltongue:

The designers and the editors did, at least... :smallbiggrin:

But all that aside, I've got "something" in mind for this rounds, let's see how it turns out.

[Zombulian]

Please excuse my ignorance but I couldn't find an answer in the OP, are we working with 6th level WBL?

[Zaq]

Items and wealth are officially up to each contestant and then up to each judge.

Historically, many judges take a dim view of builds that rely heavily on items, but this is far from universal (certainly not in any way mandatory), and it’s entirely reasonable to argue that, for example, it’s unrealistic to act like a level 6+ character has no more resources than a level 1 character. You might feel like you can show off your chef’s touch better with some well-chosen items than with a more spartan build, which is great! But you’re on the hook if a judge doesn’t like it.

Basically, it’s a gamble to make a big deal about your items*, so if you do, make sure that you’re gaining something out of the discussion.

(*Autocorrect turned that into “it’s a gamble to make a big deal about your interns,” which seems like it could go in several directions.)

[lylsyly]

I am out. The best I could come up with was a [blank] and/or [blank] dip, and since it's already been mentioned ............

[Zaq]

I am out. The best I could come up with was a [REDACTED], and since it's already been mentioned ............

Dammit guys, this is precisely why we have the “no speculation” rule!

johnbragg, think you can edit your post to remove the speculative bits and limit the damage? lylsyly, perhaps you can remove it from your post too. And don’t be discouraged. There’s more to the chef’s touch than just which six class levels you take. It’s not like the builds in the Ninja round who each had six levels of Ninja all felt the same or were treated the same, right?

[Zaq]

The builds have started trickling in. Have I mentioned that I love you folks? Because I love you folks.

Keep 'em coming, everyone! This is going to be a good round.

[daremetoidareyo]

I can't wait to see what you guys did.

[MinimanMidget]

Yeah, I'm really curious to see what everyone's done to polish this turd into diamonds.

[Zaq]

Fewer than 48 hours remain. I know that the traditional last-minute flurry of submissions is called the last-minute flurry for a reason, but I confess that I had expected to see more by now. How many folks are still planning to get something in before the deadline?

[Falontani]

I forgot the deadline. I'll see if I can get something. Otherwise I'll judge

[WhamBamSam]

I have my build table done and was planning to finish the entry up tonight.

[Long_shanks]

I have one in and was working on a second, but I won't have time to finish it. And I don't think it deserves finishing either ...

[WhamBamSam]

Build submitted. Looking forward to the reveal.

[johnbragg]

Oh god this is taking so much longer than I thought.

I will finish what I thought was the quickie build. The carnival-of-dips build maybe not.

[lylsyly]

I am very interested in seeing what folks came up with myself.

[Zombulian]

Rushing to get all my formatting done and submitted while also working on my Capstone project.
Interested to see what ya'll came up with.

[DEMON]

Rushing to get all my formatting done and submitted while also working on my Capstone project.
Interested to see what ya'll came up with.

Out of curiosity... is the Capstone project related to the competition, or is it a list of E6 capstone feats for all the classes... or something else?

[Zombulian]

Out of curiosity... is the Capstone project related to the competition, or is it a list of E6 capstone feats for all the classes... or something else?

Capstone as in my project for my senior year of college :smalltongue:

[johnbragg]

Oh god this is taking so much longer than I thought.

I will finish what I thought was the quickie build. The carnival-of-dips build maybe not.

[My Entry] is in the contest.

His companion, the halfling Swashbuckler 1/Monk 1/Rogue 1/Wizard 1/Warlock 1/Hexblade 1, will not be appearing.

[Zaq]

[My Entry] is in the contest.

His companion, the halfling Swashbuckler 1/Monk 1/Rogue 1/Wizard 1/Warlock 1/Hexblade 1, will not be appearing.

That gives me a terrible idea to add very far down the list.

The deadline is basically right now. Think you can get your entry in within an hour, Zombulian?

[Zombulian]

That gives me a terrible idea to add very far down the list.

The deadline is basically right now. Think you can get your entry in within an hour, Zombulian?

*Downs pot of coffee*

If I need to!

Edit: Crap I've been working with PST time this whole time. Sorry about that

[Falontani]

I'm down for judging! I'll probably start on Monday

[Zaq]

Right, you've all got until I finish cooking dinner, and then I'm just going to post whatever we've got.

[Zaq]

I have no idea what happened to the picture. I've never actually seen the picture.



Boros, the Demon of Elysium

https://www.google.ca/search?biw=1212&bih=894&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=ki61WrYDzuT8Buj4vMAJ&q=the+demon+deviantart&oq=the+demon+deviantart&gs_l=psy-ab.3...10476.12519.0.12654.13.12.1.0.0.0.74.738.11 .11.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..1.3.208...0j0i30k1j0i19k1.0.yRk5V5Ordzc#imgrc= uFcT6i-idLjxpM:
Image by Cloister (https://cloister.deviantart.com/art/The-Demon-84931410) on DeviantArt


LN Lesser aasimar Monk 1 / Hexblade 4 / Swordsage 1

Str 14 (6)
Dex 10 (2)
Con 14 (6)
Int 14 (6)
Wis 14, 12 (4) +2 racial
Cha 18, 15 (8) + 1 at level 4, + 2 racial



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


1st
Monk
+0
+2
+2
+2
Concentration 4, Jump 4, Know (arcana) 2, Know (religion) 2, Listen 4, Spot 4, Tumble 4
Claws of the beast, Improved unarmed strike (Monk), Stunning fist (Monk)
Flurry of blows, AC bonus


2nd
Hexblade
+1
+2
+2
+4
Intimidate 4
--
Hexblade curse 1/day


3rd
Hexblade
+2
+2
+2
+5
Intimidate 6, Concentration 6
Vestigial wings
Arcane resistance


4th
Hexblade
+3
+3
+3
+5
Intimidate 7, Concentration 7, Know (planes) 1 (cc)
--
Mettle


5th
Hexblade
+4
+3
+3
+6
Intimidate 8, Concentration 8, Spellcraft 2
--
Dark companion ACF


6th
Swordsage
+4
+3
+5
+8
Intimidate 9, Concentration 9, Jump 5, Tumble 5, Listen 6. Skill trick: Never outnumbered
Ordered chaos
Quick to act +1, Discipline focus (weapon focus with Tiger claw)



Epic feats
1 Imperious command
2 Intimidating strike
3 Cloak of the obyrith
4 Otherwordly countenance
5 Poison talons
6 Demonic skin
7 Primordial scion
8 Keeper of forbidden lore
9 Eyes of the abyss
10 Precognitive visions


Ever felt you were the butt of a cosmic joke? “An angel and a demon walk into a tavern…”
And nine months later, a little cherub was born, looking like the perfect little angel. I don’t remember my parents. As far back as I can remember, there was only the monastery, the strict discipline of the monks, the tolling bells waking me up long before the sun would dare show its face, and the long days spent working and training. Training for what? They would never tell, but assured all of us it responded to a higher purpose. It felt like home, I guess, for a while at least, but something was burning inside me, something no meditation and overwork could ever truly quench.
And then, the “higher purpose” came for us. Demons… dozens, scores, hundreds of them. I can’t clearly recall the night our monastery fell, but the only thing I know is that as soon as demon blood touched my fists (or rather as soon as I punched a demon to death), something broke in me. Like a dam that burst, memories flowed, memories of a brutal demonic past, memories that corrupted my soul for a while and my body forever. My hands were now twisted, a clear indication of the taint within me.
As the monastery fell, so did I. I learned strange eldritch powers, from the whispers in my head, and wings started sprouting from my back. Society shunned me, and I shunned it right back. I hunted as many demons, devils and any other vile creatures as I could, avenging my order I kept telling myself. Now I know it was to make sure I was not becoming one of those creatures.
But there is always a light at the end of the tunnel, however long the tunnel might be. I found friends that could look beyond my hideous physique and see me for the tortured soul I was. With them, I regained control of myself and we continued on fighting evil creatures, but now it was to protect people, defend communities that could not defend themselves from evil.
As I grew in power, so did my curse. I have made my peace with it now; it is part of me and I can’t deny the power I gained from it. There is also a sweet irony killing demons with demonic powers.
And maybe I’m the still butt of a joke, but this joke can kill.



So, what exactly is the Hexblade good for? Not very much, as it turns out. However, it wants to be a combatant that debuffs enemies. So, let’s achieve that, with as many Hexblade levels as we can along the way.
First, the race. Lesser aasimar is only for the stat bonuses. To qualify for all our feats, we need Int 13, Wis 13 and Cha 15… Since we are already investing a lot in those stats, +2 wis and +2 cha (especially since most of our debuff options are keyed off those two stats) are invaluable to optimize a lot of abilities. Plus, the image of an angel-type slowly morphing in a not evil demon is pretty sweet.
Level 1 - Let’s start with another stalwart: Monk! It has a few benefits, the best being Improved unarmed strike and Stunning fist, our first debuff option. +2 to all saves is also nice, but he’ll never really use the AC bonus. Boros also starts on the path of the abyssal heritor, with Claws of the beast (for a +1 profane bonus on unarmed strike damage)
Level 2 – Here we go. Hexblade curse 1/day. Nice to add to our list of debuffs and use when needed. We also start investing in the Indimidate skill. That will come in handy later.
Level 3 – Arcane resistance with a +4 bonus to charisma means that spells and SLAs won’t be really likely to affect him. Demonic skin grants a +2 bonus to natural armour and the Claw of the beast bonus is now +2 as well.
Level 4 – Nothing really to note. Mettle is a fine ability, especially considering our saves, but I’m not sure how often it’ll come up. Still, better to have it than not have it.
Level 5 – Alright, here is our Hexblade capstone: the Dark companion ACF. It’s a free debuff for any enemy adjacent to it, always on and moves at your speed. That’s why Expeditious retreat is one of our spells known, to enhance the mobility of Boros and of the companion. The other spell is Magic weapon, to bypass any pesky DR/magic that could crop up.
Level 6 – Enough of Hexblade, as we got both the needed debuff options. It’s time to get other abilities that will shore up our attack and defences. Swordsage at IL 3 allows us to pick up second level maneuvers, which opens quite a few interesting and powerful options. Plus, a free weapon focus is not too shabby, since our AB is pretty low in the end.
Maneuvers known: Distracting ember (free flank, +2 to attack), Action before thought (concentration check instead of reflex save), Cloak of deception (swift action greater invisibility is great to set up an attack or to get away if we need to), Sudden leap (move the distance of a jump as a swift action. That will get handy with our soon to be gigantic jump bonus), Rabid wolf strike (small bonus to damage but big bonus to hit can come in handy vs tough opponents to hit) and Claw at the moon (small bonus to damage with a successful jump check, which we will always succeed on). Usually, his readied maneuvers will be Action before thought, Cloak of deception, Distracting ember and Rabid wolf strike.
Stance: Step of the wind is our best option. Boros can now move around the battlefield unimpeded.
Finally, Ordered chaos allows Boros to keep his alignment, making it consistent throughout his career.


We start with Imperious command and Intimidating strike. Now, Boros can make an opponent cower for a round before being shaken for another round, as a swift action after making a successful attack.
And then enter the other 8 abyssal heritor feats. The bonuses start scaling like crazy, and we add a couple of other debuff options along the way.
Abyssal heritor bonuses
Alright, let’s see some numbers for all those tasty feats.
Claws of the beast: +6 profane bonus to unarmed damage, -2 to sleight of hand
Demonic skin: +6 natural armour, -2 to escape artist
Cloak of the obyrith: DR 10/lawful, -2 survival
Otherworldly countenance: +10 intimidate, make opponent sickened as a full round action 10/day, -2 disguise
Poison talons: Once per hour, poison, 1d4 str damage, DC 15, -2 heal
Vestigial wings: +30 jump, feather fall as long as you take a move action each round, -2 swim
Primordial scion: Melee attacks considered chaotic aligned to overcome DR, +3d6 damage vs lawful creatures, -2 listen
Keeper of forbidden lore: +10 know (planes) and spellcraft, -2 gather info
Eyes of the abyss: darkvision 60ft, +10 spot and search, -2 diplomacy
Precognitive visions: 5 +1 insight bonuses (AC, attacks, will saves, reflex saves, and intimidate checks), -2 spot


Dark companion: -2 saves and AC. No save. Start softening the enemy; it’ll only make the other debuffs more likely to work
Hexblade curse 1/day: free action, -2 attacks, saves, ability checks, skill checks and weapon damage rolls, DC Sadly, once per day hurts, because it’s a solid debuffs, inflicting a penalty on pretty much everything except AC. Use on the biggest, baddest you are expected to fight in the day.
Otherworldly countenance 10/day: Full round action, DC 17 sickened. Sickened is another -2 to attack rolls, weapon damage rolls, saving throws, skill checks and ability checks. The full round is pretty bad, but it works at range, so we can use it if we can’t catch up to a target on one turn. However, the feat also grants a +10 bonus to intimidate, so…
Demoralize + Imperious command + Intimidating strike + Never outnumbered: The interaction between those feats and this skilltrick is a bit wonky. Intimidating strike allows for a swift action demoralize after a successful attack made as a standard action. So, we can cower that target for 1 round, then make it shaken. I’m not sure what happens with Never outnumbered (When you use Intimidate to demoralize an opponent (PH 76), you can affect all enemies within 10 feet that can see you, rather than only a single enemy you threaten) and Intimidating strike (If your attack hits, you can make an Intimidate check against the foe you struck): will it affect everyone within 10 ft or only the target? I would like the latter (hey, free cower) but it would need a DM ruling. Nice thing though, we can keep doing this each round to keep the enemy we’re hitting cowered as long has it can’t beat our intimidate check (clocking in at an impressive +24).
Stunning fist 2/day: DC 15, pretty low, but it goes up for every debuff that happens first. Can be used with Intimidating strike to double up on the nasty for a round when we really need it, or to use on enemies immune to fear.
Poison talons: DC 15, 1d4 str damage, 1/hour as a swift action. Not much, but it can still amount to a -1 or -2 penalty to attack and damage.
So, if everything is used and goes our way, we’ve got a possible -4 attack, -4 damage, -6 to saves, -4 skill checks, -4 ability checks, 1d4 str damage, -4 to AC, denied of dex and can’t take any actions. Furthermore, we can keep an enemy cowered as long as we hit; we only need to hit a first time and it goes downhill from there. And we got maneuvers to help with that.


Strenghts are covered. What about weaknesses? There are a few, but they are not that big.
Fort save: It’s not bad, but still mediocre. If it’s a spell, +10 is good, but a non-spell fort save could be hard to beat.
Ranged/flying enemies: The worst one. Boros has almost no options at range and enemies have to be close to get caught in his spiral of debuffs. Sure, expeditious retreat can help close a gap quickly, but an optimized ranged or flying enemy could take him down. Still, items or companions could help mitigate that one, but alone, that’s a major problem.
Society: Ya know, Boros is one ugly SOB. Walks around, looking like a demon, cursing people, making them piss their pants (voluntarily… or not), ripping them with his deformed hands… I know it’s not mechanical, but a setting would have to be pretty unconventional in order for him to freely walk around town.


More of a bucket list than needs. Boros is functional as is, but magic items are always fun to have
+1 fearsome (DotU) mithral breastplate: +7 AC, +5 intimidate, intimidate as a move action… Yes, please.
Amulet of mighty fists: always nice to have your fists be magical to overcome DR
Charisma and strength boosting items: Better DCs, better saves and better attacks.
Winged boots: Alright, this one’s a bit of a dream. Expensive, but it would get rid of the major weakness of the build.

Attack: Unarmed strike +8, 1d8+8 (+3d6 vs lawful enemies)
Flurry of blows: +6/+6, 1d8+8
AC: 20 (+6 nat armour, +2 wis, +1 precognitive vision), could be upped by 4 with a Mithral breastplate, or even by 2 with a simple chainshirt.
HP : 47, DR 10/lawful
Init: +1
Saves
Fort: +6 (+3 base, +2 con, +1 precog)
Ref: +5 (+5 base), concentration +11 (with Action before thought)
Will: +11 (+8 base, +2 wis, +1 precog)
+4 vs spells and spell like abilities, mettle
Intimidate +24
Concentration +11
Jump: +39
Spot: +15
Listen: +7
Spellcraft: +14
Knowledge (planes): +13


Complete warrior: Hexblade
PHBII: Dark companion ACF (p. 47), Intimidating strike (p. 79)
Tome of battle: Swordsage (p. 15), maneuvers and stance (chapter 4, p. 47)
Drow of the Underdark: Imperious command (p.50)
Fiendish codex II: Abyssal heritor feats (chapter 4, pp. 82-87)
Trashbin… erm PHB: Monk (p. 39)

[Zaq]

What a horrible night to have a curse.


Erica D’zhar
CE Human Hexblade 5/Thrall of Orcus 1

Cry Havoc’Twas a terrible shame what happened to Miss Eri’s young man. Poor lad just wasted away, and she was never the same after. She’d scarcely leave the room where he died, and when she finally did, she started to fall in with a bad crowd. It chills the blood to think that even half the things they say about what went on at those parties of hers are true. The sounds and smells coming off the old manor alone are enough to turn the stomach, and the townsfolk are starting to say the place is cursed. But no matter the debauchery she’s gotten up to, it hasn’t cheered her up any. She’s always been weeping, every time I’ve seen her since she lost her love. If you’ve the stomach for it, she’s hosting one of her shindigs tonight, and I’m sure you’d be welcome. After all, Miss Eri loves company.


Tears of BloodAbility Scores
Str 16, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 8, Cha 15
Increase Cha at 4th level.

Build Table


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


1st
Hexblade 1
+1
+0
+0
+2
Knowledge (Arcana) 2, Knowledge (Religion) 2cc, Concentration 2, Intimidate 4
Evil Brand, Thrall to Demon
Hexblade’s Curse 1/day


2nd
Hexblade 2
+2
+0
+0
+3
Knowledge (Arcana) 2, Knowledge (Religion) 2, Concentration 4, Intimidate 5
-
Arcane Resistance


3rd
Hexblade 3
+3
+1
+1
+3
Knowledge (Arcana) 2, Knowledge (Religion) 2, Concentration 6, Intimidate 6
Lichloved
Mettle


4th
Hexblade 4
+4
+1
+1
+4
Knowledge (Arcana) 2, Knowledge (Religion) 2, Concentration 7, Intimidate 7, Spellcraft 1
-
Dark Companion


5th
Thrall of Orcus 1
+5
+3
+1
+6
Knowledge (Arcana) 2, Knowledge (Religion) 2, Concentration 7, Intimidate 8, Spellcraft 1, Never Outnumbered
-
Carrion Stench


6th
Hexblade 5
+6
+3
+1
+6
Knowledge (Arcana) 2, Knowledge (Religion) 2, Concentration 9, Intimidate 9, Spellcraft 1, Never Outnumbered
Bind Vestige, Spell Focus (Enchantment)B
Hexblade’s Curse 2/day


Epic Feats
1. Improved Bind Vestige
2. Combat Reflexes
3. Stand Still
4. Obtain Familiar
5. Improved Familiar (Night Hunter Deep Bat)
6. Power Attack
7. Supernatural Instincts
8. Imperious Command
9. Shape Soulmeld (Impulse Boots)
10. Open Least Chakra (Feet)

Spells Per Day/Spells Known


Level
1st


4th
0/2


5th
0/2


6th
1/3

*Does not count bonus spells per day from a high Cha score.

Spells Known
Death’s Call
Hideous Laughter
Bloodletting

Break Down In Tears Initial LevelsGetting into Thrall of Orcus takes some doing, but Hexblade offers an easier time of it than most with full BAB and access to some Necromancy spells. So drop some poor sod down on a pile of skulls and give him a good stab. Like most Hexblades, Erica trades out her Familiar for the Dark Companion ACF, which gives you an extra little debuff to stack with your limited uses of Hexblade’s Curse and Carrion Stench from Thrall of Orcus. After dipping into Thrall of Orcus, she goes back to Hexblade to pick up the second use of Hexblade’s Curse.


Epic FeatsNow we’re really getting somewhere. With Improved Bind Vestige, Erica can bind Focalor for his Aura of Sadness (another debuff to stack with the aforementioned). She also makes up for trading away her familiar by burning a few feats to get an Improved Familiar, specifically a Night Hunter, one of the Deep Bats from Monsters of Faerun for its Frightful Presence ability. Have it swoop in after your other abilities have tanked enemy saves to then tank their saves (amongst other things) further by rendering them shaken (it’s also big enough to use your Intimidate ranks effectively to get the debuff that way if Frightful Presence doesn’t work and has 50ft (Perfect) flight and a four natural weapon full attack routine). If you burn a Hexblade’s Curse use, you can pile up a whopping -10 penalty to saves, and nearly as debilitating penalties to attack rolls and skill checks with basically no action investment. That’s essentially a way of saying that all their endeavors fail, especially in E6. Naturally, this will delight Erica’s caster friends who now have weak saves to target, but she can make some use of it herself as well. Tumbling past her or casting defensively is a tough propositon, and when she uses Stand Still on her AoO attacks, they fail the save. Supernatural Instincts which allows her to make AoOs against supernatural abilities as well (partially covering the gap left by Arcane Resistance, and partly just adding to the problems that she causes people by getting up in their grill). Finally, there are a few standard choices in there, and we finish things off with Shape Soulmeld (Impulse Boots) and Open Least Chakra (Feet) to pick up Evasion to work alongside her high saves and Mettle. Wade into battle with Spiked Armor and a polearm of your choice, and render enemies’ lives difficult and brief.


Something In My EyeBook of Vile Darkness: Thrall of Orcus
Champions of Ruin: Thrall to Demon, Evil Brand
Complete Arcane: Obtain Familiar
Complete Mage: Bloodletting, Death’s Call
Complete Warrior: Hexblade
Complete Scoundrel: Never Outnumbered
Drow of the Underdark: Imperious Command
Elder Evils: Lichloved
Fiendish Codex II: Supernatural Instincts
Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting: Night Hunter Bat as Improved Familiar
Magic of Incarnum: Shape Soulmeld, Open Least Chakra, Impulse Boots
Monsters of Faerun, minor updates in Player’s Guide to Faerun Web Enhancement (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20040313a): Night Hunter Deep Bat
Player’s Handbook II: Dark Companion
Tome of Magic: Bind Vestige, Improved Bind Vestige, Vestiges
Everything else can be found in the SRD

[Zaq]

Not going to go full meme and name the build Gishy McGishface? Maybe we should put it to a vote. I'm sure that'd end well.


Human, starting stats S 15 D 10 C 14 I 12 W 8 Ch 13.



Level
Class
Base Attack Bonus
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Skill Ranks
Feats
Class Features


1st
Hexblade 1
+1
+2
+0
+1
+4 Spellcraft,
+4 Knowledge Arcana,
+4 Intimidate
Power Attack,
Magical Training.
Hexblades’ Curse 1/day


2nd
Battle Sorcerer 1
+1
+2
+0
+3
+1 Spellcraft,
+1 Knowledge Arcana,
+1Intimidate

Sorcerer spells
Familiar


3rd
Wizard 1 (Conjurer)
+1
+2
+0
+5
+1 Spellcraft,
+1 Knowledge Arcana,
+1 Knowledge Religion
Alacritous Cogitation,
Sudden Still
Wizard spellbook
Abrupt Jaunt


4th
Hexblade 2
+2
+3
+1
+7
+1 Spellcraft,
+1 Knowledge Arcana,
+1 Intimidate
Ability increase to
Strength 16
Arcane Resistance


5th
Hexblade 3
+3
+4
+2
+7
+1 Spellcraft,
+1 Knowledge Arcana,
+1 Intimidate

Mettle


6th
Hexblade 4
+4
+4
+3
+8
+1 Spellcraft,
+1 Knowledge Arcana,
+1 Intimidate
Enlarge Spell
Hexblade spells
Dark companion



Gishy McGisherton, Male Human Hexblade 1/ Battle Sorcerer 1/ Wizard 1/ Hexblade 3

Start: Human, S 15 D 10 C 14 I 12 W 8 Ch 13.
Level 1. Hexblade 1. BAB +1, Fort +0 Ref +0 Will +2. 12 hp.
Class abilities: Hexblades’ Curse 1/day
Feats: Power Attack, Magical Training.
Skill Ranks: +4 Spellcraft, +4 Knowledge Arcana, +4 Intimidate
Magical Training. (Players Guide to Faerun 41) Sorcerer version—2 cantrips known, 3x/day. Choose Mage Hand, Prestidigitation.

Level 2. Battle Sorcerer 1 (SRD/UA). Adds BAB +0, Will +2. 18 hp
Class abilities: Sorcerer Spells Known 0x2, 1x1. Spells per day 0x3, 1x2. Familiar.
UA Variant class Battle Sorcerer loses 1 spell known, 1 spell per day per spell level, gains light armor, light armored casting, d8 hit die.
Sorcerer Spells Known: Ghost Sounds, Mending, Open/Close; Enlarge Person.
Skill Ranks: +1 Spellcraft, +1 Knowledge Arcana, +1 Intimidate

Level 3. Wizard 1 (Conjuration Specialist). Adds BAB +0, Will +2. 23 hp.
Class Abilities: Wizard spells (3 0th, 2 1st), Scribe Scroll, Abrupt Jaunt (1/day)
Feats: (3rd level, Wizard 1 Bonus). Alacritous Cogitation, Sudden Still
Spells Memorized: Unseen Servant, Alacritous Cogitation, plus 3 cantrips
Alacritous Cogitation (Complete Mage page 37) allows you to keep one spell slot open to be Schrodinger's Wizard for anything in your spellbook, and I expect it to be banned at many tables, but it's a WOTC source.
Abrupt Jaunt (PHB2 69, ACF for Wizard’s familiar). 10’ teleport, 1/day.
Skill Ranks: +1 Spellcraft, +1 Knowledge Arcana, +1 Knowledge Religion

Level 4. Hexblade 2. +1 BAB, Will +1. 30 hp.
Class Abilities: Arcane Resistance, + CHA to all saves.
Skill Ranks: +1 Spellcraft, +1 Knowledge Arcana, +1 Intimidate
Ability Score Increase. +1 Strength (16)

Level 5. Hexblade 3. +1 BAB. Fort, Ref +1. 38 hp.
Class Abilities: Mettle. Evasion, but for Fort and Will saves
Skill Ranks: +1 Spellcraft, +1 Knowledge Arcana, +1 Intimidate

Level 6. Hexblade 4. +1 BAB, Will +1. 45 hp.
Class Abilities: Hexblade spells (2 spells known, 1 spell per day)
Hexblade Spells Known: Expeditious Retreat, Karmic Aura (CM 108).
Dark Companion (ACF for Hexblade familiar, PHB2 p 47). Shadowy thing that gives -2 to AC, saves of adjacent enemies. Very goth.
FEAT: Enlarge Spell.

Epic Feats
1. Great Fortitude
2. Lightning Reflexes
3. Practiced Spellcaster (improves CL to 5)
4. Communicator (use arcane mark, message, comprehend languages as SLA)
5. Insightful (use detect magic, detect secret doors, read magic as SLA)
6. Battlecaster (Medium Armor, Sorcerer)
7. Battlecaster (Medium Armor, Hexblade)
8. Battlecaster (Heavy Armor, Sorcerer)
9. Battlecaster (Heavy Armor, Hexblade)
10. Improved Toughness (+6 HP)

Build concept: The hexblade is trash, so even an upgraded Hexblade isn't going to have level-appropriate firepower. So, in keeping with the spirit of the original class, Gishy has loaded up on minor spell effects that might have situational use--cantrips as SLAs, cantrips with metamagic, 1st level spells that, thanks to Alacritous Cogitation, are basically spontaneous. (Note that the wizard spells suffer from armored spell failure, and there is a RAW case that the SLA cantrips do so as well).

Lately, in his prosperous middle age, Gishy has started armoring up, from light armor to full plate.

Fluff: Gishy was a dark and emo boy. He was fascinated with the dark powers of blending swordsmanship and sorcery. Foolishly, he trained as a hexblade. Once out in the world with no magical powers to speak of, he sought out real spellcasters to learn their secrets. After a time, he achieved more peace with himself and resumed the path of the hexblade.

[Zaq]

I wonder if there's a story behind the name here . . .


Sventir
(Azurin Mage-hunter, CE Devotee of Sertrous)
https://i.warosu.org/data/tg/img/0377/41/1422688935761.png


"Ah ya got a bounty for a rogue apprentice of yours eh? Y'see that grumpy lookin fella over in the corner there with the bloody shield? That's Sventir, he's your man. Better not let him know who's apprentice he was though. Sventir hates casters. Always has. Always will. No one really knows why, but 'tween you 'n me I think he's got one o' them in-fee-ree-ohr-eh-tee complexes."
Str 16
Dex 10
Con 14
Int 14
Wis 8
Cha 15 (+1 at level 4)



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


1st
Lion Totem Whirling Frenzy Barbarian 1
+1
+2
+0
+0
+4 Jump, +4 Intimidate, +4 Listen, +4 Survival, +4 Survival, +1 Spot, +2 Swim
Improved Shield Bash, Combat Expertise (Azurin), Evil’s Blessing (Elder Evil)
Whirling Frenzy 1/day, Illiteracy, Pounce


2nd
Golarion Cleric 1
+2
+4
+0
+2
+4 Jump, +4 Intimidate, +4 Listen, +4 Survival, +4 Survival, +1 Spot, +2 Swim, +2 Spellcraft, +2 Knowledge (Religion)
Improved Shield Bash, Combat Expertise (Azurin)
Turn/Rebuke Undead


3rd
Hexblade 1
+3
+4
+0
+4
+4 Jump, +5 Intimidate, +4 Listen, +4 Survival, +4 Survival, +1 Spot, +2 Swim, +3 Spellcraft, +2 Knowledge (Religion), +2 Knowledge (Arcana)
Improved Shield Bash, Combat Expertise (Azurin), Mage Slayer
Hexblade’s Curse 1/day


4th
Hexblade 2
+4
+4
+0
+5
+4 Jump, +5 Intimidate, +4 Listen, +4 Survival, +4 Survival, +1 Spot, +2 Swim, +4 Spellcraft, +4 Knowledge (Religion), +2 Knowledge (Arcana)
Improved Shield Bash, Combat Expertise (Azurin), Mage Slayer
Arcane Resistance


5th
Hexblade 3
+5
+5
+1
+5
+4 Jump, +7 Intimidate, +4 Listen, +4 Survival, +4 Survival, +1 Spot, +2 Swim, +4 Spellcraft, +4 Knowledge (Religion), +4 Knowledge (Arcana)
Improved Shield Bash, Combat Expertise (Azurin), Mage Slayer, Insane Defiance (Elder Evil)
Mettle


6th
Hexblade 4
+6/+1
+5
+1
+6
+4 Jump, +8 Intimidate, +4 Listen, +4 Survival, +4 Survival, +1 Spot, +2 Swim, +5 Spellcraft, +4 Knowledge (Religion), +6 Knowledge (Arcana)
Improved Shield Bash, Combat Expertise (Azurin), Mage Slayer, Shield Specialization
Dark Companion


Shield Charge
Improved Trip
Shield Slam
Agile Shield Fighter
Divine Shield
Shield Ward
Parrying Shield
Shape Soulmeld (Mauling Gauntlets)
Cobalt Expertise
Animal Devotion

Necessary:
Net
Spiked Heavy Shield x2 (at least)
Thunderstones
Alchemist's Fire
Tanglefoot Bags

Optional and Depending on WBL:
Bashing Property and Valorous Property on Shield
Riverine Armor or Shield
Nightsticks for more Turning
Sventir tries to close the gap on any caster he's facing as fast as possible. He's not very sneaky, so generally he just makes a mad dash in their direction, possibly buffing his saves beforehand with Evil's Blessing and then throwing his net at the opponent. With both Parrying Shield and Shield Ward applying his Shield bonus to Touch AC and Divine Shield bumping up his base Shield AC in the first place, hopefully he won't get hit by any rays.
I think there's a strong case to be made that these feats stack based on their respective wordings. Shield Ward says that you "apply your shield bonus to your touch AC" (as well as to a few other maneuvers), meanwhile Parrying Shield says "you gain your shield bonus as an addition to your Touch AC." I take these different wordings to apply similarly to a Deepwarden/FotF applying their Constitution to AC. Different circumstances that are pulled from the same bonus.
Complete Warrior
PHB
PHB II
Complete Champion
Unearthed Arcana
Magic of Incarnum
Lord of Madness
Elder Evils
Complete Arcane
Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting

[Zaq]

It's one thing for a full-size build, but when I get an E6 appetizer build that's long enough that it needs to be PM'd to me in pieces, my interest is piqued.



Tio Hexblahday

Hexblade 3/ Sha’ir 27/ Hexblade 3

https://i.pinimg.com/236x/c4/82/75/c48275f2016cd85d741c7eba1bb95f54--dragon-creature-feature.jpg

Background:

Sit down, read the entry. Think, “How to optimize this.”
Look at the class features...Man this thing stinks.

Look up dead levels. Oh cool, you get prestidigitation at level 6, and if you already have that spell, you can choose any other 1st level spell. Put an overconfident emphasis on “ANY” and you might be able to argue that you can go off of the hexblade spell list. To the googles.

Devastating smite from the Forge of War! A first level spell that doubles smite damage! That can get built around. How do we get smite onto a hexblade?

Killoren from races of the wild get a smite! Awesome, we can take hexblade 6, and rules lawyer our way into using the dead levels prestidigitation to get a spell from the paladin spell list!

What else is cool about killoren? Scour. Fey type? Cool. Let’s check that fairies feature fey corner or whatever it’s called on the dnd archive. There is a fey only feat called Beauty’s Bounty! Get charisma to hit points! Yay.

What else is cool about killoren? Scour that book. They live forever!

What can we do with that?

Man Hexblade as a class really stinks.

Read closer, hmmm. They get a familiar.
A familiar that takes a year and a day to replace and...what am I doing?


Beginning at 4th level, a hexblade can obtain a familiar. Doing so takes 24 hours and uses up magical materials that cost 100 gp. A familiar is a magical beast that resembles a small animal and is unusually tough and intelligent. The creature serves as a companion and servant. The hexblade chooses the kind of familiar he gets. As the hexblade advances in level, his familiar also increases in power. Treat the hexblade as a sorcerer of three levels lower for determining the familiar's powers and abilities (see the Familiars sidebar on page 52 of the Player's Handbook). If the familiar dies or is dismissed by the hexblade, the latter must attempt a DC 15 Fortitude saving throw. Failure means he loses 200 experience points per hexblade level; success reduces the loss to one-half that amount. However, a hexblade's experience point total can never go below 0 as the result of a familiar's demise or dismissal. A slain or dismissed familiar cannot be replaced for a year and day. A slain familiar can be raised from the dead just as a character can be, but it does not lose a level or a point of Constitution when this happy event occurs. A character with more than one class that grants a familiar may have only one familiar at a time.

So you can drop a level...on purpose if you wanted to. Wait, didn’t beauty’s bounty give you bonus hit points whenever you gained a permanent stat increase. Dang it. It also takes that hit point away if you lose that stat increase.

Are there any other feats that give you free stuff for stat increases?

To the google. And the answer is, “Yup!”

Wisdom breeds caution racial feat from underdark.
And Mind over body regional feat from p. 41 in PGTF.

Wisdom breeds caution requires you to be a deep gnome, no good, killoren or bust. But the feat doesn’t have that pesky “if you lose that stat increase” clause that beauty’s bounty did. How about Mind over body?...AWW man, Expanded psionics handbook came later and published another feat called mind over body, and it stinks.

Anyways, then realize that you don’t really know the level loss rules so well.
So let’s look it up.

Here’s the relevant bits


DMG p.296 LEVEL LOSS: A character who loses a level instantly loses one Hit Die. The character’s base attack bonus, base saving throw bonuses, and special class abilities are now reduced to the new, lower level. A 2nd-level rogue, for example, normally has the evasion ability, but when she is drained to 1st level, she loses that ability. Likewise, the character loses any ability score gain, skill ranks, and any feat associated with the level (if applicable). If the exact ability score or skill ranks increased from a level now lost is unknown (or the player has forgotten), lose 1 point from the highest ability score or ranks from the highest-ranked skills. If a familiar or companion creature (such as a paladin’s mount) has abilities tied to a character who has lost a level, the creature’s abilities are adjusted to fit the character’s new level.

What can I do with this. Time to look at those feats again.

ReDiscover wisdom breeds caution from the underdark supplement. It’s a feat that can only be taken svinfergblin. But that race is disallowed due to LA. WAIT! There is an appendix to Player’s guide to Faerun that has a lesser Snivgerglkejr version. Sweet. Sorry Killoren, you didn’t have the feat support.

So if you have a few years between level 3 and level 4...you could dismiss your familiar every year, drop to third level, and do it over again.

Are snivergoijodij good at living a long time? Look it up. No. Base age is 20 years. That’s no good. Killoren got to stop aging at old age. Sniverlkglkjfg die as soon as humans do. But...Aren’t fey immortal. Back to fey corner. DM’s call, but yeah, basically.

So let’s add the unseelie fey template from dragon compendium.

Awesome, snighkjflkej also get a cool racial feat to summon elementals, and unseelie fey can tank saves.

Wait, I’m getting ahead of myself, there must be a better way to get permanent hit points through the tactical loss of levels. Get to the googlomobile.

Incarnum fortified body? +2 hp per incarnum feat. Psionic Body +2 hp per psionic feat. Draconic toughness: +2 hp per draconic feat. The problem is that these feats grant hp for every feat you have. If we’re losing levels, we want something that grants a bonus for feats taken.

Hmmm. Devil’s stamina gives you hit points for selecting the devil touched feat, not having the feat. Time to learn more about Hellbred.Sweet, they get a free devil touched feat at 4HD. Sorry unseelie fey lesser snivregldkjfo, we are hellbred fans now.

But do hellbred live forever like a killoren, so that we can gain lots of Hit points by adding a few per year and our familiar, when we finally keep it, will have half of that. Nope. Actually, there is no support for hellbred aging or size. Put a pin in that, let’s go see if there is a way to optimize 4th level through multiclassing. Because waiting a year for a familiar seems like terrible design.

SHA’IR! You only lose 200 xp when you dismiss your gen familiar. And you only have to wait a day to spend 100gp and summon a new one.

Wait. Do we have to choose the same class everytime we level up into a level that we’ve levelled up into before? FAQ to the rescue. Shroedinger’s validity as a primary source aside, there isn’t an answer in ye old PHB or DMG.



Rules faq (https://archive.org/stream/3.5FAQ/Main35FAQv06302008_djvu.txt)
When a character dies and comes back to life a level lower, are there any guidelines as to which level he must lose? Does it have to be the last level he gained? When he gains a level again later, can he choose a different class than he did originally? What about a lst-level character (who instead loses a point of Constitution)? Can he begin with a new class completely?The rules are silent on this issue, but it seems most logical if the character loses the class level he gained most recently. The same is true of any feats, skill ranks, or ability score adjustments gained due to the now-lost level. The character is under no obligation to make the same selection(s) when he next gains a level with XP. A character who regains a lost level from restoration or a similar effect must regain the same class level (and other abilities) that he lost. In other words, you can’t use level drain and restoration to rebuild your character. A lst-level character doesn’t lose a class level, so he can’t change his existing class level.

Sweet. Now we can gain +2 hp per day by taking sha’ir and dismissing the gen and selecting devil’s vigor at level 4 over and over again. We don’t need to live forever anymore. We don’t even need to be fey type. Man, hexblade stinks so bad, having to wait a whole year for a new familiar...

Now...What else can we add to that? Wait, we need to up our fortitude save to qualify for devil’s vigor. Double check the text...Nevermind, it’s a racial bonus feat. No pre-reqs required.

Ok, now we need to pay 100 gp each time we summon a gen. So let’s check the Wealth by level chart. 2700 gp for 3rd level and 5400gp for fourth. So inbetween 3rd and fourth level, we need to take between a month to six weeks to summon a familiar everyday and dismiss them. And we need a way to earn 200 xp per day as we move back and forth over the level 3-level 4 border. We need to kill/defeat a single CR 1 monster/trap every day to make this happen.

The create trap spell from races of the dragon has 12 hour long duration and creates a CR 1 trap. All of the traps listed are CR 20 disable device checks. All we need is a means of disabling that trap...off to the alternative ways to get class skills thread. Hmmm...noble from dragonlance might work...but if we dip that, then we lose that sweet prestidigitation capstone....

Masterwork thieves tools and bigby’s helping hand can net us a +4 to that check. Unskilled we can get 3 ranks by level 3. DMs will probably have an issue with you assuming that you can just cast your own trap spell and remove it with a skill check as a means of xp hacking. Maybe we should go look at item crafting feats that we can take. Or...wait!...we can also just...walk into the trap...also, we should really get to choosing our stats. We’ll get to that later.


DMG p.39 Overcoming the challenge of a trap involves encountering the trap, either by disarming it, avoiding it, or simply surviving the damage it deals. A trap never discovered or never bypassed was not encountered (and hence provides no XP award).

So maybe we just need a way to heal the damage from the traps. Basic arrow trap is the way to go here, it deals 1d6/X3 and attacks at a +10. All we need to do is get our AC to 21 by level 3. If we put an 18 in dex and wear a chain shirt and heavy wooden shield, we have an AC of 20. Wait, the trap probably catches you flat footed…

Maybe we should work on just healing the damage. It would probably help the overall character anyway if we stand to gain like 54 additional HP from these shenanigans anyway. Ok, we got hibernate from dragon compendium, rapid metabolism from a psionics book, faster healing from complete warrior (Trash. As much trash as the hexblade. You actually lose ability to heal ability damage with that feat) and draw from the land from a forgotten realms book. The only one with a favorable prerequisite is rapid metabolism. So we gain back our HD + 2x constitution modifier every night. So long as we have a constitution of 14 or higher, that is a better deal than the rest of those feats. And who knows, maybe there’s a soulmeld to help out even more or something.

Wait. We need to kill or dismiss our gen familiar everyday. We can just send him into the trap and dismiss him if he survives. Sweet. Economical.

We’ll just use all of that fey work as hellbred backstory. Once an unseelie fey snigvrfelfinb, tio hexblahday repented at death and was reincarnated as hellbred.

Ok. So we now have hellbred
1.Hexblade: devils favor, FEAT
2. Hexblade
3. Hexblade: FEAT
4.00 Sha’ir: Devil’s stamina
4.01 Sha’ir: Devil’s stamina
4.02 Sha’ir: Devil’s stamina
4.03 Sha’ir: Devil’s stamina
~
4.27 Sha’ir: Devil’s flesh
4.28 Hexblade: Devil’s sight
5.Hexblade
6. Hexblade: Feat

So, just read some more devil touched feats. They all have this weird language about selecting the feats. Devils favor, which you get for free from being a hellbred, grants you a pool of floating +2 to attack rolls. On your final go around as a temporary sha’ir, take devil’s flesh, which gives you a natural armor bonus equal to ½ of the number of deviltouched feats that you have selected. Which would be 28 at this point. That’s a +14 to natural armor and intimidate checks. Sweet.

Take Devil’s sight on the 28th time you join the land of level 4, and choose hexblade instead of sha’ir and get on your way to your epic feats. You can get blindsense for 5 rounds 29 times a day. That’s like at least an hour of blindsense…

Sweet. This T.O. Hexblade is coming together. Now all we have to do is select 13 feats that synergize with a high con score, charisma casting, full bab, an extra 50 hp, a familiar with an extra 25 hp, and an armor class of 24 at a minimum.

Let’s brainstorm some backstory.

Mental note: make a story about elemental gen who tell stories of Tio Hexblahday, this otherwordly force who traumatized an entire generation of tiny djinni’s. The new generation think of him as a boogey man tale. But the effect of Sha’ir for a day prince of lies and deceit really disillusioned a number of real gen.

Tio Hexblahday is restless and driven spirit reincarnated into the form of the hellbred. For atonement of his past crimes Tio has chosen not to drape his mantle over the class chassis of the paladin, with all of it’s splat support and cool alternative class features and substitution levels and decent charisma casting. Nope. Tio takes the high road. He is using the Complete Warrior’s hexblade class to prove how driven he really is to make good on his promise to repent. If he can be a warrior of light by using the power of the hexblade class, despite its terrible handicaps, then surely the good gods would smile down on him. He takes death devotion because he’s hellbred. Hellbred are edgy. Death domain is edgy. It’s like icecream and cake. They go together.

By level 2, Tio is wondering where his spells are. Duskblades get spells. Rangers get two bonus feats by now. Paladins add pluses to all their saves. The hexblade can only use his trick once a day. This road is much more difficult than he thought it would be. 2 skill points! C’mon!

By level 3, Tio is tired of being less effective than the warrior NPC class. At least he gets Mettle. Too bad he can’t take a hit to his fortitude save any better than a house cat can. Tio quits trying to be good. The only way to get ahead is to accumulate so much power and influence through the fear of destruction that you are unassailable. Only on this field of fate can poor Tio hope to eke out an eternity in hell. Resentful, Tio takes supernatural transformation to turn his edgy spell like ability of death devotion and boom, he’s got the poor mans 1/day enervation. More useful than a one time use -2 to other peoples rolls.

At level 4, Tio goes onto a spree of killing gens that he was taught to summon to retrieve spells for him, seeing as now his hexblade class chassis saddles him with a familiar weaker than a sorcerers while paladins are a level away from a golden mount of light. To rub salt into the wounds, he keeps sending the gen to collect the spells that will kill them. Meanwhile, this fluctuation of soul power from partitioning his life force to summon djinni to kill everyday for an entire lunar cycle, seemed to reverberate dissonance into the hellbred scourging pact. Tio’s power swelled from this weird performative beseeching of any force in the universe to give him more power. Tio takes and kills 27 gen in as many days. More if he gets a loan of a couple hundred gp from friends. Sure, he is evil now. But maybe when he returns to hell, it won’t be at the bottom.

Level 5. Still no spell slots? Daheck! And that spell selection sucks. Sucks. At least you get these useless feats.

Level 6: Tio has stuck through all crappy levels and achieved what only Tio Hexblahday could achieve: Working entirely around his class to not stink. He can now command spectral spawn. He can buy a high charisma horse, enervate it to death. You might need to burn some nightsticks, if you’re allowed to do that. That’s a mighty good start to your wightocalypse. That’s some mighty hellbred going to hell renegotiating term power right there. Man, Tio is so glad that he didn’t take any Eberron branded feats or equipment so that he could be a forgotten realms denizen. And after this we have 10 levels worth of feats to figure out what to do at the top of your mountain of power.

Node spellcasting hijinks with versatile spellcaster? Mother cyst feat with versatile spellcaster? Improved energy drain and spell drain? Familiar boosting feats? It’s hard to beat a 6HD hexblade with a 24 AC and 100 hp and a retinue of spectral spawned cronies.

Let’s assume that you can’t use nightsticks as death devotion fuel. First epic feat chosen then: Death Devotion again.

Ok, we can enervate more enemies if we use a double weapon. Let’s look for a double weapon that doesn’t need exotic weapon proficiency. Quarterstaff. Nice. Then we check the guide to getting free feats to see if we can catch ourselves a free TWF feat. Consider taking planar touchstone and finding a deity with a chosen weapon of quarterstaff and access to the war domain….Maybe later.

Let’s do TWF as our second feat. If you can snag gloves of the balanced hand (Magic Item Compendium) at 8,000 gp, you can choose a better feat. But let’s assume that your gracious DM isn’t going to let you get away with that seeing as how they were totally blindsided with your false sha’ir era.

Improved energy drain is a good way to yield a mild buff. And it allows spell drain, which you actually can use. Hexblade doesn’t give you enough casting, so you better go take it from others. You need caster level 5th for spell drain though. I guess we should do practiced spell caster. Wait, maybe one of those hexblade trash bonus feats from level 5 can help us. Nope, they don’t raise caster level. Practiced spellcaster it is. At sixth level, with the practiced spellcaster feat, you cast at 6th level! Hexblade is a wellspring of turd, that’s for sure.




Death devotion
TWF
Improved energy drain
Practiced spellcaster
Spell drain


I like this so far. You get 3 attacks per round. You drain levels. You have a hex that you can use to help with pesky saves against your energy drain. And if you kill them with that energy drain, they become your spectral minion if their charisma is 8 or above. If it is a spell caster you hit with your twf, you can rip off some sweet spells. Do we want to use this ability to become a magic item crafter? Attune gem looks like a good choice. It only takes an hour + spellcasting time. We can make that legal by taking the exceptional artisan feat. That gives you fourteen minutes 54 seconds to defeat your opponents that you’re stealing spells from and whip out a gem. Assuming that you can stand there at the scene of a mage murder for 45 more minutes. Do hexblades get rope trick? Now you can store your stolen spells for rainy days. And if the spell is so high level that you lose a level, by taking exceptional artisan after attune gem, you can still craft it in time.

Another option is to take arcane strike, and use the stolen spells as bonuses to hit and damage.

6. Attune gem
7. Exceptional artisan

Three feats left…
I reckon we could do mother cyst and versatile spellcaster. Finish it out with the ability to burn your 1st level slots to get cysts into others so that you can scry on them… That seems...less optimal though. Maybe we can upgrade the familiar? Any familiar feat requires a dismissal, and thus, a one year gap in adventuring.

Let’s do arcane strike. Nevermind, you need 3rd level spells.

Hmmm.
Let’s get weapon finesse. When twf with a quarterstaff, we can use our dex modifier instead of our strength. That’s at least a plus 2, which counteracts the TWF penalty. Come to think of it, combat reflexes works really well with your enervation quarterstaff abilities. Throw some life drain in for some easy temporary HP. Good enough.

8. Weapon finesse
9. Combat reflexes
10. Life drain

Tio Hexblahday just needs some spells and skills chosen, notably diplomacy, spellcraft, and craft(gemcutting). Besides that tho...he’s done. It’s been a long journey since the days that he was a killoren or an unseelie snvifrogjeoijsl gnome.

Do we cheese the prestidigitation dead level capstone? Who cares, you can kill a faerunian charisma 8 horse and begin your wightocalypse.




Level
Class
BAB
Fort
Ref
Will
Skills
Feats
class abilities


1
hexblade
1
0
0
2
12: spellcraft 4, diplomacy 4, craft (gemcutting) 4
Devil's Favor (Fiendish Codex II p. 81), Death Devotion (Complete Champion, p. 57)
Hexblade's curse 1/day


2
hexblade
2
0
0
3
3: diplomacy 5, intimidate 2

Arcane resistance


3
hexblade
3
1
1
3
3: diplomacy 6, intimidate 4
Supernatural Transformation (Death Devotion) (Savage Species, p. 39)
Mettle


4
Sha'ir
3
1
1
5
3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)
Devil's Stamina ( Fiendish Codex II p. 83)
Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting


4.01
Sha'ir
3
1
1
5
3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)
Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)
Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting


4.02
Sha'ir
3
1
1
5
3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)
Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)
Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting


4.03
Sha'ir
3
1
1
5
3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)
Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)
Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting


4.04
Sha'ir
3
1
1
5
3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)
Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)
Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting


4.05
Sha'ir
3
1
1
5
3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)
Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)
Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting


4.06
Sha'ir
3
1
1
5
3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)
Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)
Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting


4.07
Sha'ir
3
1
1
5
3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)
Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)
Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting


4.08
Sha'ir
3
1
1
5
3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)
Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)
Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting


4.09
Sha'ir
3
1
1
5
3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)
Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)
Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting


4.1
Sha'ir
3
1
1
5
3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)
Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)
Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting


4.11
Sha'ir
3
1
1
5
3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)
Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)
Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting


4.12
Sha'ir
3
1
1
5
3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)
Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)
Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting


4.13
Sha'ir
3
1
1
5
3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)
Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)
Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting


4.14
Sha'ir
3
1
1
5
3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)
Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)
Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting


4.15
Sha'ir
3
1
1
5
3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)
Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)
Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting


4.16
Sha'ir
3
1
1
5
3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)
Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)
Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting


4.17
Sha'ir
3
1
1
5
3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)
Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)
Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting


4.18
Sha'ir
3
1
1
5
3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)
Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)
Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting


4.19
Sha'ir
3
1
1
5
3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)
Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)
Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting


4.2
Sha'ir
3
1
1
5
3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)
Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)
Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting


4.21
Sha'ir
3
1
1
5
3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)
Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)
Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting


4.22
Sha'ir
3
1
1
5
3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)
Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)
Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting


4.23
Sha'ir
3
1
1
5
3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)
Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)
Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting


4.24
Sha'ir
3
1
1
5
3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)
Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)
Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting


4.25
Sha'ir
3
1
1
5
3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)
Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)
Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting


4.26
Sha'ir
3
1
1
5
3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)
Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)
Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting


4.27
Sha'ir
3
1
1
5
3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)
Devil's Flesh (Fiendish Codex II p. 82)
Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting


4.28
hexblade
4
1
1
4
3: intimidate 7
Devil's Sight (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)
Summon Familiar, spellcasting


5
hexblade
5
1
1
4
3: intimidate 8, craft (gemcutting) 6
Combat Casting
Bonus feat, hexblade's curse 2/day


6
hexblade
6
2
2
5
3: intimidate 9, craft (gemcutting) 8
Dragons of Faerun Web Supplement p.6
Prestidigitation




EPIC FEATS



1
Death Devotion


2
Two Weapon Fighting


3
Improved Energy Drain (Libris Mortis p. 27)


4
Practiced Spellcaster (Complete Arcane, p. 82)


5
Spell Drain ( Libris Mortis p. 30)


6
Attune Gem ( Magic of Faerun, p. 21)


7
Exceptional Artisan ( Eberron Campaign Setting, p. 52)


8
Weapon Finesse


9
Combat Reflexes


10
Life Drain ( Libris Mortis p. 28)



Abilities
Str: 12
Dex: 14
Con: 12+2: 14
Int: 15-2: 13
Wis: 8
Cha: 16

Add +1 to dex at level 4

Alignment: start at neutral
Shift to neutral evil at level 3


Other ideas and possible long term goals:
Find someone who has access to the ability rip spell from serpent kingdoms. If this means doing favors for yuan ti, so be it. Have that caster rip your racial Hellbound trait and give it to someone or something else.


Hellbound (Su):

[Zaq]

There you go, five Hexblades! I'll start working on a table for the OP. Judges, you know what to do!

[MinimanMidget]

I was planning to try judging, but it's more intimidating than I was expecting. I guess I'll see how I go.

[DeTess]

I'll judge. Expect writeups before wednesday.

[RaiKirah]

These are WAY better than anything I was expecting/able to come up with! My hat is off to the contestants!

[Thurbane]

Great entries everyone! :smallsmile:

[lylsyly]

They all TPK anything my befuddled brain could figure out. Short of making a real joke of it anyway.

[DeTess]

It's taking me slightly longer than expected, but I should have my judging up tomorrow. I've finsihed my first pass of all classes, but want to do a second pass to ensure I've judged power fairly.

[Zombulian]

It's taking me slightly longer than expected, but I should have my judging up tomorrow. I've finsihed my first pass of all classes, but want to do a second pass to ensure I've judged power fairly.

Thanks for putting in the effort!

[Darrin]

Judgementarianism Ensueth:

Boros 16.0

Originality: 4
So an angelic demon? Or demonic angel? Even better, it gives your build some great flavor! There's another contradiction here as well: Boros is considered demonstrably "ugly", but has an 18 Charisma. You don't see too many Abyssal Heritor feats in standard play, as feat slots are scarce, but piling them on in an E6 campaign is an intriguing idea.

Power: 4
Monks are often derided for being badly designed and underpowered, but this build has some "teeth" to it (well, claws, actually). I like how the profane damage bonus ratchets up your unarmed damage. Demoralize optimization is fairly well known, and it can be particularly effective in E6, but ratcheting up the Intimidate bonus with Abyssal Heritor feats is clever. In standard 1-20 campaigns, Intimidating Strike is often a waste of a standard action, as you have to give up your full attack to use it. As you are no doubt aware, it's much more effective in E6, where standard-action attacks are the norm. The Otherworldly Countenance debuff is also a great find. You don't see a lot of "sicken condition" optimization, so maybe that should be more of a "thing". Your biggest weakness in this build is dealing with ranged/flying opponents, which you acknowledge as a major problem, but I'm puzzled why you didn't mention Celestial Bloodline/Outsider Wings (Races of Faerun) as a possible solution. Well, other than it cuts into your selection of Abyssal Heritor feats. I have one other quibble: you rack up a +30 bonus on Jump checks and then don't do anything interesting with it! Well, ok, one interesting thing: Claw at the Moon.

Elegance: 4
There's only one questionable rules issue that I can find, but it's more of a quibble: you took Ordered Chaos at 6th instead of at 3rd. When you take Vestigal Wings at 3rd, this is your second Abyssal Heritor feat and your alignment switches to Chaotic as per FC1 p. 82. This means you're chaotic at 6th level, and thus ineligible to take Ordered Chaos, which requires a non-chaotic alignment. However, I can't imagine any DM getting all that nitpickish over this. Mechanically, there's no impact on the character, since non-lawful monks don't lose any of their class abilities and you have no intention of taking any monk levels after the 1st. It's easy to fix, either by switching when you take Ordered Chaos/Vestigial Wings, or getting a handwave from the DM. Other than that, the rest of the build looks fairly clean and straight-forward.

Use of Secret Ingredient: 4
As with the Monk, the Hexblade is considered underpowered, but with this build I believe you've proven that there is something Hexblade levels are good for: they are better than taking more Monk levels!



Erica D'zhar 20.0

Originality: 5
Huh. Well, that's an interesting way to solve the "Dead Level" problem of Hexblade 6. I can see lots of little details that suggests a staggering amount of book-diving went into this build. My only issue with originality was using "Human" as the race... you should have used Vashar. However, rather than ruin your chance at a perfect score, I'm going to bump this up to 5 for finding Supernatural Instincts. I was not previously aware of this feat, but the implications of how it could work in various Lockdown builds keeps filling my head with interesting ideas.

Power: 5
From a damage standpoint, this is not a particularly impressive build, even by Hexblade standards. From a debuffing standpoint, this build is an ABSOLUTELY TERRIFYING NIGHTMARE. On top of Hexblade's curse (2/day!) and the Dark Companion ACF, you've got Carrion Stench (Fort save vs. -2 penalty), Focalor's Aura of Sadness (another -2 penalty, no save), Intimidate/Imperious Command (shaken/cower) + Never Outnumbered, and then Frightful Presence from the Nighthunter Bat. (This last one only works on creatures with 1 HD, which means I probably shouldn't count it, but... still, it's a nice find, so I'll give it to you.) There's also a cascade effect: if they fail the save on Hexblade's Curse, then your target is more likely to fail on the save against Carrion Stench, which means they now have a -4 penalty to their save against Frightful Presence, and so on. If you manage to get every debuff working on your target, you can rack up a -10 penalty to attacks, saves, skill checks, etc. In an E6 campaign, that has the distinct possibility of being absolutely devastating.

Elegance: 5
I mentioned the book-diving earlier, but that suggests a jumble of kitchen-sink abilities thrown together with no consistent theme. You've done the exact opposite here, where everything added to the build enhances a Hexblade ability and also ties into the "thrall to a demon" theme. But there's a level of craftiness layered into this build that goes even deeper than that. For example, take "Supernatural Instincts". Never seen this feat before, had to look it up. Briefly: when opponents you threaten use an (Su), it provokes an AoO. I had just been looking at the spell death's call, which does some piddling damage and forces a Fort save vs. fatigue, which is yet another debuff to stack on top of all Erica's other debuffs. But it occurred to me, if you force your opponent to make a save, how often do they have an (Su) ability that gives them a bonus on saves? Quite often! Hexblade has Arcane Resistance, Paladins and Crusaders have Divine Grace, and a lot of other classes/creatures have abilities that grant them save bonuses. Almost all of 'em are (Su), which triggers an AoO via Supernatural Instincts. So Erica can get a weapon attack by casting a spell. Or force a save with Carrion Stench. Or with Frightful Presence from her bat. Armor spikes threaten adjacent, and can be used with the bloodletting spell for bleed damage. And if the target is immune to fear/enchantment/stench... is that due to an (Su) ability? Pretty darned likely! And if the target tries to move away from her? AoO + Stand Still with a -10 penalty to AC locks him down close enough she can stay adjacent with a 5' step. My only quibble is I'm not sure why you took Spell Focus: Enchantment instead of Necromancy, but I suppose failing a save vs. hideous laughter is much worse than death's call.

Use of Secret Ingredient: 5
You have everything a Hexblade 6 would have, and can do everything a Hexblade 6 can do, but you do it better along with flavor and style.



Gishy McGisherton 11.0

Originality: 3
Nothing really jumps out at me as unusual or unexpected. Actually, I take that back... taking Great Fortitude and Lightning Reflexes when they aren't required as feat taxes? That was kind of unusual.

Power: 3
Your build concept appears to be, "Well, if all I get is 1st level spells, then I'm going to bury my enemies with 1st level spells!" While this is an interesting concept to build a Hexblade around, your spell choices are functional but not particularly exciting. You also don't have a lot of swift-action or immediate-action spells, so you're forced to choose between spellcasting and melee attacks. This may be an issue of personal taste, but my idea of a "gish" is a build that uses a mixture of buffs and swift-action spells to mix melee attacks and spellcasting into the same turn. You've got some of that here with enlarge person and karmic aura, but the rest of your spell selections and SLAs have more of the whiff of "scatterbrained hedge-wizard" than "battle-scarred spell-scrapper". Compared to a Hexblade 6 or a Duskblade 6, your build is charging into battle and casting... comprehend languages and detect secret doors? Combat-wise, you've got Power Attack but aren't doing much with it later in the build. Taking Enlarge Spell at 6th is puzzling... are there any cantrips that particularly benefit from the increased range? Hard to tell, particularly when most of your spellcasting classes have only 1 or 2 caster levels. Taking Battle Caster four times feels excessive, although it's not clear how E6 treats the availability of things like mithral full-plate (medium armor). Outside of combat, your various spells/SLAs may be unfocused, but they do add some additional utility to the build.

Elegance: 2.5
You have a rules issue with your Wizard bonus feat at 3rd level. This is supposed to be Scribe Scroll, unless you're trading it away for something else, but it's not clear to me how you're swapping it for Alacritous Cogitation or Sudden Still Spell. As far as I'm aware, you can't trade Scribe Scroll away for any other wizard bonus feat at your first Wizard level. I expected to see Practiced Spellcaster in here somewhere, but it's not clear which of your three spellcaster classes needs +4 CLs, or which spells actually benefit from +4 CLs. It looks like you shorted yourself some points on your point build: 32 PB is the standard for Iron Chef, but you've only spent 25 PB. This isn't a penalty, but it's curious to have two of your spellcasting classes as Charisma-based, but only have a 13 in Charisma. You mention that Alacritous Cogitation might be banned, but I don't really see how this is contentious. Spontaneous casting has been a thing in the game since... well, "Sorcerer" existed as an option, and a wizard doing this 1/day (with a 1st-level spell) doesn't really sound like a game-breaker.

Use of Secret Ingredient: 2.5
Your build wasn't the only one to use the theme "OMG Hexblade was a horrible mistake, how can I salvage this?", and in that regard I think this build comes up with an interesting solution by capitalizing on one of the weakest abilities of Hexblade in E6: they get only one or two 1st-level spells from a limited list of spells. Dark Companion is nifty and useful, but the rest of those Hexblade levels... they're just sorta "there", and outside of providing HPs and BAB, it's not clear how they are being "gishy".



Sventir 11.5

Originality: 4
Azurin and Golarian cleric are certainly unexpected, the latter in particular because Pathfinder material is generally considered as not allowable in Iron Chef competitions. Still, unexpected! Worshiping Sertrous is also interesting, because really, can you ever have enough snakes spontaneously bursting from the ground? Your primary schtick is smacking things around with two heavy shields, which I highly approve of.

Power: 3.5
The focus of the build appears to be "anti-spellcaster", specializing in particular on shield-based defenses. Your "key combo" looks like stacking both Parrying Shield and Shield Ward onto your touch AC, which is an interesting combo that I haven't seen before. There's an argument against this, which is basically how can you apply your shield bonus twice to your touch AC, but you've got two solid counter-arguments here: 1) different sources so the bonuses stack and 2) you have *two* different shields so you can use Parrying Shield with one and Shield Ward with the other. This does give you an impressive touch AC vs. rays and orbs, so very clever thinking on your part, and a good defense against blaster-based spellcasters. I'm a little puzzled you don't mention using a riverine shield or Inlindl School/feycraft heavy shield (Drow of the Underdark) to take better advantage of dual-wielding two shields. Against non-blasters, you have several other defenses: Mettle, Arcane Resistance, and Insane Defiance all work well together to bolster your saves. You also have Mage-Slayer, but I'm disappointed you didn't pick up Blind-Fight or Pierce Magical Concealment (one of which is available via Darkness/Shadow domain), for skewering those tricksy spellcasters who like to use illusions and concealment effects. Sertrous allows you to pick any two domains in print, but as I understand it, Golarian clerics don't get domains. I am also puzzled that your only incarnum-related feats appear so late in the build. Cobalt Expertise + Mauling Guantlets looks like a decent combo for tripping, but there isn't much of a penalty for spellcasting while prone. Animal Devotion, your only counter to a flying/levitating spellcaster appears extremely late. Overall, you have some impressive defenses, a few debuffs (trip, Dark Companion), but your offensive capabilities are underwhelming compared to most other "Pouncebarian"-style builds.

Elegance: 1.5
Ok, so, the Elephant In the Room, as it were: I am not all that familiar with a "Golarian cleric", but apparently this is an ACF or archetype from the Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting that gets full BAB and d10 HPs in exchange for losing both cleric domains. Well, it's published by Paizo as OGL content, but it's not an official WotC-published book, so it's illegal in Iron Chef competitions. Scoring-wise, dropping Elegance to 1 feels a little too harsh, as removing or replacing the cleric level with something else doesn't hurt the build too much: mostly you lose an iterative attack. The non-cleric parts of the build appear to work well enough together, so I'll call it "1.5". The deity you worship is Sertrous, and I'm not sure this is an allowable deity in Golarian or a Pathfinder campaign world. However, Elder Evils are kinda known for crashing into campaign worlds, so that's fine (no penalty), but I would have liked to see a little more explanation on what Sertrous is trying to accomplish in Golarian, because that could be *really* interesting. Flavor-wise, there are a couple other elements that feel a bit off: Azurin doesn't seem to do much for you until really late in the build, no mention of Hexblade spells, no mention of Cleric spells, and you don't appear to be proficient with nets.

Use of Secret Ingredient: 2.5
One of the "signature" abilities of the Hexblade is the ability to mix melee and spellcasting into the same class, and... you don't really mention any spellcasting at all. From the terse write-up, it was hard to tell if Sventir's despise for spellcasting applies to even his own spellcasting, or just other spellcasters. The rest of Hexblade you use very well: full BAB, good Will save, and the Dark Companion ACF are all the best aspects of Hexblade. Hexblade's Curse isn't mentioned, and I presume you're using it to stack with other debuffs (Tripping, Dark Companion), but it's hard to get excited about a 1/day ability that is utterly meaningless on a successful Will save. Most of the focus of your build involves a variety of shield-based feats, but the Hexblade's lack of bonus feats works against you here, as most of your best shield-related feats are taken after 6th level and don't really appear to be related to any of your Hexblade abilities.



Tio Hexblahday 16.5

Originality: 5
http://www.quickmeme.com/img/bf/bf5b22eb30c408f22c69b35acdfb747706c476e75e1a756da4 b0734caeb0499d.jpg

Power: 5
This appears to be something rather rare in Iron Chef nowadays... a New Exploit. What to call it, though? "Gen Blender"? "Pet Shop Chop Shop"? "This Abottoir Looks Familiar"? "I Scream of Djinni"? At first glance, I thought "That's an awful lot of work to get 54 extra HPs", but it's more than that. If you kept Devil's Stamina (or haven't lost/replaced it yet), getting Fast Healing 28 for 5 rounds would be impressive in a normal game, much more so in E6. You've got also those 28 Devil's Favor +2 bonuses floating around. They don't stack with each other (at least I don't think they do), but that's a pretty sizeable resource for your attacks, skill checks, or a "check of any sort" (for a couple oddball corner cases). Devil's Flesh for +14 natural armor... okay, but if you lose/replace this feat, don't you lose the natural armor bonus? Even if a DM allowed all those extra HPs from Devil's Stamina, I can imagine a lot of them saying you lose the natural armor bonus if you lose/replace it with Devil's Sight. And then, when I'm still trying to wrap my head around the Devil-Touched feats... you're turning your horse into a Wightpocalypse with Death Devotion/Supernatural Transformation/Create Spectral Spawn... WTF? I like to reward chefs who are swinging for the fences, but now it looks like you're playing relativistic baseball (https://what-if.xkcd.com/1/). In light of that... full points for shear audacity.

Elegance: 4.5
There is a discrepancy in your build. Your build stub has "Sha'ir 27" crossed out, but you actually take Sha'ir 28 times. 4.1 through 4.27 is 27 times, plus the original 4.0 = 28. I am sure you are devastated by this embarrassing oversight. Outside the audacity of taking 35 class levels in an E6 competition, this is a fiendishly clever trick (pun intended). Other than the Sha'ir/familiar recycling stuff, does the rest of the build work? Well... yeah, about that. Your method to get "Energy Drain" as a supernatural ability is very iffy. First, the Death Devotion SLA is never identified as an "Energy Drain" ability. Second, Supernatural Transformation requires an "innate" SLA, and a lot of DMs would not consider a Devotion feat to be an innate ability.

Despite all that... the long-ish explanation of the path you took to put together this build is a lot more fascinating than it has any right to be, and reads a lot like a primer on "How to put together a medal-winning Iron Chef build". All of the dead ends, half-remembered tidbits, and the process you go through chasing down wrinkles in the rules mirrors a lot of my own experiences, and I hope this is helpful to a lot of current/prospective chefs still desperately trying to figure out, "How do I win this stupidly complicated contest?" So most of the points you lost in Elegance I'm going to give back for explaining how you put this thing together. I'm not sure if Elegance is the right place to do that, but I'm doing it anyway.

Use of Secret Ingredient: 2
The fact that you have six Hexblade levels is completely inconsequential to the rest of the build. Those Hexblade levels could be replaced by any other class and this build would be almost functionally identical. So while you've definitely got a couple jaw-dropping optimization tricks in here, your Hexblade abilities are mentioned mostly to joke about how bad the class is. Still... the somewhat thin description of a PC desperately trying to figure out how to overcome the useless stankitude of Hexblade is amusing and an interesting framing device, so I'm going to be more generous in this category than I probably should be.

[daremetoidareyo]

Darrin, you are the judge I wish to be some day

[Long_shanks]

That is some awesome and thorough judging, Darrin. No disputes from me. Hats off to you. You are a gentleman and a scholar.

[daremetoidareyo]

That is some awesome and thorough judging, Darrin. No disputes from me. Hats off to you. You are a gentleman and a scholar.

No disputes here.

[DeTess]

Boros, the Demon of Elysium: 14.5/20

Originality
The Imperious command+never outnumbered combo is fairly obvious for the debuffing aspect of the built. However, monk is a bit of a surprise, but I can see how it’d work well. Loading up on the abyssal feats likewise is an interesting direction, and I liked your backstory.
3.5/5

Power
You cannot take the ordered Chaos feat, as it requires you to be non-chaotic. You take two abyssal heritor feats before this feat, so your alignment becomes chaotic. This does not seem to impact your build in anyway though (you can’t take more levels in monk, but you keep all the levels you already had with all the benefits), so this is essentially a wasted feat.
Damage output is nothing special, but you’re very tanky with DR10 and decent saves against spells. A couple of wizards spamming arcane missile are going to ruin your day though.
Intimidating strike does not work with feats that work of the ‘demoralize’ use for intimidate, as intimidating strike doesn’t allow you to demoralize. It allows you to make an intimidate check to obtain an (admittedly similar) effect.
Overall your storm of de-buffs is pretty decent even without that interaction though.
4/5

Elegance
No real inelegant or elegant stuff happening (ordered chaos feat mishap was already deducted under power).
3/5

Use of SI
4 levels in the SI, and you make decent use of most of its abilities, though you don’t mention the 1 spell you get at all. Your build also works with the themes of Hexblade.
4/5



Erica D’zhar: 13.5/20

Originality
Imperious command+never outnumbered again. Nothing else stands out in a good or bad way.
2.5/5

Power
Power attack gives you some offensive power, and your debuffs would allow you to hit even if you sacrifice most of your BaB to power attack. You’ve got a couple of reusable debuff options in addition to hexblade’s curse, and stand still allows you to immobilize one or two opponents.
4/5

Elegance
Hideous Laughter is not on the Hexblade spell list as far as I can tell. You can’t take the obtain familiar feat as it requires 4 ranks in knowledge(arcana). This also stops you from taking the improved familiar feat.
2.5/5

Use of SI
5 levels, decent use of abilities and the build fits the overall theme of the class.
4.5/5



Gishy McGishterton: 11.5/20

Please try to show Skill-point totals for each level, that way the judge can easily see how many ranks you have in each skill for the purpose of checking prerequisites. You weren’t penalized for this, but fixing this in the future will make judging easier.

Originality
picking up lots of SLA's and first level spell slots for versatility is interesting. nothing else really stood out.
3.5/5

Power
You’ve got some out-of combat utility thanks to your ton of 1st level spell slots and 1/day SLA’s.
In combat though you don’t do much of interest. You’re either slightly tanky in full plate, in which case you’re doing almost no damage, as you’re not proficient with heavy armor and therefore take a very high bonus to hit, while your Charisma and Intelligence are fairly low so spells that give a save will mostly be passed by your enemies.
If you’re wearing light armor instead your AC will be very low, though you will be able to hit things.
2/5

Elegance
Wizard 1 does not get a bonus feat. You take practiced spellcaster but don’t specify which class you apply it to.
2/5

Use of SI
4 levels in the SI. Your build focuses somewhat on the armored spellcaster aspect, rather than the debuffer aspect, which is within the direction of the class
4/5



Sventir Shieldsling 11/20

Originality
Dual shield bashing. I suppose that works.
4/5

Power
You’ll have decent AC with heavy armor and a shield (shields give a typed bonus, so you only get the bonus of one for the purposes of AC), and your touch AC will be high enough to make life difficult for beam-spamming mages. Your Reflex save is very low though, so those same mages could just start spamming burning hands/fireball instead.
Between your various shield enhancements you can make a decent number of attacks (up to 2 against three different targets if your dice agree), but your damage per attack is nothing special (1d6+strength).
3/5

Elegance
Swearing allegiance to an elder evil is a quick way to turn a PC into an NPC in my opinion. It’s RAW legal I suppose, so I won’t reduce your score for his.
You didn’t list the shield type for shield specialization(minor mistake, not penalized).
‘Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting’ is not a first party source. This means that you can’t take Golarion Cleric. As far as I can tell, that level isn’t integral to the functioning of your build though, so i won't penalize you for this as heavily as I could have.
2/5

Use of SI
4 levels in the SI, but you don’t make special use of your class abilities. In fact, I’m fairly certain you could have taken any other full BaB class here instead of hexblade and have been better off (with the exception of the samurai classes, maybe).
2/5


Tio Hexblahday: 15.5

Originality
So, that thing you did with level 4 combined with the detailed breakdown of your design process? Have all the points.
5/5

Power
Your armor is ridiculous, you’ll probably have as much hp as the next two party-members combined…and that’s it. And if you manage to kill someone with energy drain, you get a permanent pet ghost, which is neat. You can inflict some negative levels a couple of times a day, and gain some benefits from that, but you’re not particularly impressive in combat apart from that. You’re not bad either, as you’ve got that +6 BaB, it’s just nothing special.
4.5/5

Elegance
You list a source for a feat at level 6, but no actual feat.
Then there's the fact that you took and lost 27 levels to be able to say you selected a certain class of feat to get enhanced benefits. It’s beautiful, in a 1/5 in elegance kind of way. It seems legal if you really stick to the letter of RAW, but it’s... *throws hands up in despair, and then chucks a DMG at you*
4/5 (<- not a mistake. As much as I’d like to penalize you for that Sha’ir shenanigan, I just can’t bring myself to do so)

Use of SI
As you said yourself, this build is good despite being a hexblade. Also you take less than 20% of your levels in Hexblade, which is a shame.
2/5

[Darrin]

Erica D’zhar: 13/20

Elegance
Hideous Laughter is not on the Hexblade spell list as far as I can tell. You can’t take the obtain familiar feat as it requires 4 ranks in knowledge(arcana). This also stops you from taking the improved familiar feat.


Tasha's hideous laughter is a 1st level Hexblade spell as per Complete Warrior pg. 116. The SRD version (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/hideousLaughter.htm) removes the name "Tasha" (proprietary IP).

Skill ranks for Knowledge (arc-- Oh, look! Cute kitten gif!

(I'm going to ignore the two missing skill ranks for... reasons. Looks like an honest mistake.)



Tio Hexblahday: 14

Elegance
You list a source for a feat at level 6, but no actual feat.


That threw me for a bit, but the source for "Create Spectral Spawn" is cited correctly:

http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070425a

An excerpt of the feat can also be seen here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?514470-Optimize-this-Feat-21-Create-Spectral-Spawn-from-Dragons-of-Faerun-Web-Supplement).

[DeTess]

Tasha's hideous laughter is a 1st level Hexblade spell as per Complete Warrior pg. 116. The SRD version (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/hideousLaughter.htm) removes the name "Tasha" (proprietary IP).


Huh. I had checked that, but somehow I must have missed it. I'll correct the scoring.



That threw me for a bit, but the source for "Create Spectral Spawn" is cited correctly:

http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070425a

An excerpt of the feat can also be seen here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?514470-Optimize-this-Feat-21-Create-Spectral-Spawn-from-Dragons-of-Faerun-Web-Supplement).

I think I'm going to stick with my scoring on that. He does mention at one point that he's now doing something with spectral spawn, but he really should have mentioned the feat properly, even if the source is correct. I'm giving that build too much points for elegance as it is anyway. :P

Though that trick would require an upscoring in power, which I'll add.

[Darrin]

Entablementation:



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



Erica D'zhar (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22958994&postcount=55)
CE Human
Hexblade 5/Thrall to Orcus 1
20
13.5
33.5




Tio Hexblahday (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22959008&postcount=58)
?E Hellbred
Hexblade 3/Sha'ir 28/Hexblade +3
16.5
15.5
32.0



Boros (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22334559&postcount=56)
LN?CN Lesser Aasimar
Monk 1/Hexblade 4/Swordsage 1
16.0
14.5
30.5



Gishy McGisherton (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22958999&postcount=56)
?? Human
Hexblade 1/Battle Sorcerer 1/Wizard 1/Hexblade +3
11
11.5
22.5



Sventir Shieldsling (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22959003&postcount=57)
CE Azurin
Barbarian 1/Cleric 1/Hexblade 4
11.5
11
22.5

[Falontani]

After reading the other judgings I feel as though I don't have anything really to add that hasn't been said. I also have not been able to start my own judging so I will drop out of the judging pool this round

[Zombulian]

Is that it for the judging then?
I wanted to respond to some judges to clarify certain things about the build, but I don't really consider them to be disputes or expect them to change my score.

[daremetoidareyo]

Is that it for the judging then?
I wanted to respond to some judges to clarify certain things about the build, but I don't really consider them to be disputes or expect them to change my score.

Then just clear the air after the comp. I plan on doing the same.

[Zaq]

A response!


To Randuir:
It won't change anything scorewise (and neither should it), but I did choose my spell known in the level 5 breakdown:
Level 5 – Alright, here is our Hexblade capstone: the Dark companion ACF. It’s a free debuff for any enemy adjacent to it, always on and moves at your speed. That’s why Expeditious retreat is one of our spells known, to enhance the mobility of Boros and of the companion. The other spell is Magic weapon, to bypass any pesky DR/magic that could crop up.

And since Hexblade is a spontaneous caster, then we use whichever is more useful in a day ;)

To Darrin and Randuir:
And yep. I completely missed the line that said two abyssal heritor feats = chaotic alignment. As Darrin said, we could just switch them up and it still works, but that is just a plain mistake on my part.

[lylsyly]

So, what's next?

[DeTess]

To Randuir:
It won't change anything scorewise (and neither should it), but I did choose my spell known in the level 5 breakdown:
Level 5 – Alright, here is our Hexblade capstone: the Dark companion ACF. It’s a free debuff for any enemy adjacent to it, always on and moves at your speed. That’s why Expeditious retreat is one of our spells known, to enhance the mobility of Boros and of the companion. The other spell is Magic weapon, to bypass any pesky DR/magic that could crop up.

And since Hexblade is a spontaneous caster, then we use whichever is more useful in a day ;)

To Darrin and Randuir:
And yep. I completely missed the line that said two abyssal heritor feats = chaotic alignment. As Darrin said, we could just switch them up and it still works, but that is just a plain mistake on my part.!

In case no one noticed yet, I'm a 'table' person, not a 'text' person. If your build takes something, and it isn't mentioned in a table or neat list, I might miss it. That's not really an excuse, but if you're submitting a build, and want to prevent having to make disputes about things like this, make sure things like spells, maneuvers, etc. are neatly tabulated :P.

If I was using a some kind of finer grade scale(0.1 point intervals instead of 0.5), this correction might have made a difference on your scoring. As it is the difference taking these into account is not significant enough to change your score on either power use of SI. 4/6 levels and good use of both SI powers and SI theme will generally get you a 4/5 on SI use with me, while that feat wasn't so much penalized as considered a loss of potential power. As I can only grade the power you have, it didn't particularly influence your score there.

[Zaq]

So, what's next?

Technically, we’ve got another week to judge. That said, if anyone else planning to judge? I could potentially see us accelerating a bit, given that we’ve had two solid judgments already. But if anyone is still actively planning to judge and/or has started judging, I don’t mind waiting, either. Thoughts and opinions on this matter are welcome.

I have the next ingredient all picked out. Its problems are, on the whole, very different from the Hexblade’s. The parts about it that are difficult will present a rather distinct challenge. It may be a bit deceptive, truth be told.

Any votes for HM?

[Long_shanks]

Does HM have to be an entry that is not in medal position? I mean, it's reeeeeaaaaally hard to look past Tio in this round.

[Zaq]

Does HM have to be an entry that is not in medal position? I mean, it's reeeeeaaaaally hard to look past Tio in this round.

Traditionally, yeah, HM is supposed to be a build that wouldn’t otherwise medal.

I admit that this gets weird in a very small field of entries, though.

[Zaq]

Seriously though, is anyone actively judging or seriously intending to judge? I'm all for following the rules and stuff, but the point of the rules is to facilitate fun, and there's not much point in just twiddling our thumbs for the better part of another week if we're all ready to move on. (I will say that it was nice to have a round that wasn't choked to hell with disputes. I don't mind encouraging dialogue between chefs and judges, and disputes are often necessary, but having a breather was also really nice.)

If I don't hear any serious objections to this plan soon, I'll try to post the new contest within the next couple of days. I'm excited for it. (I've actually got the next, like, three or four ingredients planned out, each with something special that they bring to the table—but one thing at a time.)

[lylsyly]

I am all for moving on. I may have bailed on this round but I am still interested In the Competition.

[johnbragg]

Seriously though, is anyone actively judging or seriously intending to judge? I'm all for following the rules and stuff, but the point of the rules is to facilitate fun, and there's not much point in just twiddling our thumbs for the better part of another week if we're all ready to move on. (I will say that it was nice to have a round that wasn't choked to hell with disputes. I don't mind encouraging dialogue between chefs and judges, and disputes are often necessary, but having a breather was also really nice.)

If I don't hear any serious objections to this plan soon, I'll try to post the new contest within the next couple of days. I'm excited for it. (I've actually got the next, like, three or four ingredients planned out, each with something special that they bring to the table—but one thing at a time.)

I accept the judgement.

[Long_shanks]

Bring on the next useless fantastic ingredient, I say.

[daremetoidareyo]

the plan to move along sounds good to me.

[Zaq]

Then let's get this show on the road! Thanks once more for making the table, Darrin.



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



Erica D'zhar (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22958994&postcount=55)
CE Human
Hexblade 5/Thrall to Orcus 1
20
13.5
33.5
WhamBamSam




Tio Hexblahday (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22959008&postcount=58)
?E Hellbred
Hexblade 3/Sha'ir 28/Hexblade +3
16.5
15.5
32.0
daremetoidareyo



Boros (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22334559&postcount=56)
LN?CN Lesser Aasimar
Monk 1/Hexblade 4/Swordsage 1
16.0
14.5
30.5
Long_shanks



Gishy McGisherton (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22958999&postcount=56)
?? Human
Hexblade 1/Battle Sorcerer 1/Wizard 1/Hexblade +3
11
11.5
22.5
johnbragg



Sventir Shieldsling (link) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22959003&postcount=57)
CE Azurin
Barbarian 1/Cleric 1/Hexblade 4
11.5
11
22.5
Zombulian




Congrats to everyone who got a dish in with this awful stinker of an ingredient, and particular congrats to WhamBamSam for taking gold, darematoidareyo for taking silver, and Long_shanks for taking bronze! I love how prompt and civil the judging was this time around, so many, many thanks to Darrin and Randuir for taking the time and the effort to judge.

I’ve updated the OP. New thread here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?555626-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-VIII))!

[Long_shanks]

As soon as I read Erica, I knew gold was gone. Basically the same idead I had, just done way better. Well done, WhamBamSam!

And dare, what the actual hell? Mind explaining what happened in that demented mind of yours :smalleek:?

[DEMON]

Haha, I am proud to say I have correctly guessed the chef of Tio H. :smallcool:

[Zaq]

And dare, what the actual hell? Mind explaining what happened in that demented mind of yours :smalleek:?

I dare say that he did an excellent job of explaining his thought processes . . .

[Long_shanks]

I dare say that he did an excellent job of explaining his thought processes . . .

Yeah, you're right. Guess I'm still flabbergasted by it. I've read it three times, and I'm still unsure of how it all works.

[Zaq]

Tio Hexblahday was an entertaining read not just because it showcased a new TO exploit but because it offered a wonderful narrative description of the brainstorming process of putting together something like this. And while I’ve never submitted something quite so, well, TO, I can vouch that I’ve been down a similar road many times. “Hmm, this is terrible. What tiny, slightly unique aspect can I play up? Huh, that feature’s weird, so what happens if I follow it down the rabbit hole?”

And then you bring in ideas to build around, and you go deeper down the rabbit hole and have to discard different parts of the scaffolding you built up (even as your failed ideas send you in wildly different directions), and eventually you’ve got something that seems to kind of hold up, but it’s nothing like what you expected when you started. But the thought process is entirely recognizable. That’s kind of how I felt when making Speeloxhuu (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22441645&postcount=106) and Opsablepsia (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=21320003&postcount=96). And to a lesser extent, Li’l Brudder (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=19553609&postcount=256).

Dare has absolutely succeeded at offering a delightful peek into the weird side of an Iron Chef’s mind. There are many paths to success in this contest, of course, but it often feels like this: just noodle around, riff on your weirder ideas, see if they lead to anything new (even if you have to throw away some of the stepping stones that got you there—whatever happened to using the Prestidigitation trick to gain a 1st level spell off-list?), and try to figure out when you’ve reached a point where it’s time to commit and make that submission. Even if you don’t go full TO, you might end up with something that you couldn’t have thought of from zero.

[Long_shanks]

My mind always goes to PO. I love crunching numbers, and since the group I play with is pretty low OP, I usually take a subpar build and try to make it as good as possible. That's what I did with both my entries so far for Ninja and Hexblade, trying to eke out as much as I could while staying within the "boundaries of the game".

I've given a read to your builds Zaq and again it all feels so alien. Guess I still have a lot to learn :smallwink:

[WhamBamSam]

As soon as I read Erica, I knew gold was gone. Basically the same idead I had, just done way better. Well done, WhamBamSam!Thanks. I do feel a little silly about missing the 4 ranks in Knowledge (Arcana) for Obtain Familiar though, especially as I could have spared the two skill points pretty easily. Ah well. Didn't end up mattering that much.

Also, Darrin asked why I didn't use Vashar instead of Human. It comes down to just not liking Vashar. I guess it might save you from effects that specify humans, but using Vashar because my human bonus feat happens to be Vile just feels like a cheap grab for originality to me. You also took a more permissive reading of Supernatural Instincts than I allowed myself (I mostly just threw it in there as a potential "screw you DM" for when they start trying to throw breath weapons and such at you to get around Arcane Resistance), but it does indeed have some potential for cheese. One exploit I'm fond of is a Venerable Dragonwrought Kobold (or Old Half-Dragon, but let's be realistic) with Evasive Reflexes, Supernatural Instincts, Improved Combat Reflexes, and some means of carrying around their Blink Dog familiar. The Blink Dog flips Blink on and off as a series of free actions, and each time the Kobold gets to make a 5-ft step.

And speaking of cheese, daremeto, you are a national treasure (or whatever the analogue is for a D&D forum instead of a nation, "dragon's hoard" maybe?). Never change.

[Zaq]

Thanks. I do feel a little silly about missing the 4 ranks in Knowledge (Arcana) for Obtain Familiar though, especially as I could have spared the two skill points pretty easily. Ah well. Didn't end up mattering that much.

Also, Darrin asked why I didn't use Vashar instead of Human. It comes down to just not liking Vashar. I guess it might save you from effects that specify humans, but using Vashar because my human bonus feat happens to be Vile just feels like a cheap grab for originality to me. You also took a more permissive reading of Supernatural Instincts than I allowed myself (I mostly just threw it in there as a potential "screw you DM" for when they start trying to throw breath weapons and such at you to get around Arcane Resistance), but it does indeed have some potential for cheese. One exploit I'm fond of is a Venerable Dragonwrought Kobold (or Old Half-Dragon, but let's be realistic) with Evasive Reflexes, Supernatural Instincts, Improved Combat Reflexes, and some means of carrying around their Blink Dog familiar. The Blink Dog flips Blink on and off as a series of free actions, and each time the Kobold gets to make a 5-ft step.

And speaking of cheese, daremeto, you are a national treasure (or whatever the analogue is for a D&D forum instead of a nation, "dragon's hoard" maybe?). Never change.

I swear that 4 ranks in K: Arcana for Obtain Familiar and 4 ranks in Spellcraft for Practiced Spellcaster have to be the most commonly missed prereqs among Iron Chef builds. You are very far from the first chef I've seen to mess up the prereqs on one of those two feats. Regardless, Miss Eri was an excellent build. Thrall of Orcus was an excellent replacement for the "standard" Paladin of Tyranny (3 levels for the Aura of Despair is a wee bit much in an E6 build). Does "D'zhar" mean/refer to/pun as anything in particular?

[WhamBamSam]

I swear that 4 ranks in K: Arcana for Obtain Familiar and 4 ranks in Spellcraft for Practiced Spellcaster have to be the most commonly missed prereqs among Iron Chef builds. You are very far from the first chef I've seen to mess up the prereqs on one of those two feats. Regardless, Miss Eri was an excellent build. Thrall of Orcus was an excellent replacement for the "standard" Paladin of Tyranny (3 levels for the Aura of Despair is a wee bit much in an E6 build). Does "D'zhar" mean/refer to/pun as anything in particular?I'd believe it. I've definitely caught the Practiced Spellcaster mistake when judging in the past.

D'zhar comes from contracting "dragzhar," the alternate name for the Night Hunter Bat from its MoF entry into something I thought looked good. In the lore, it comes from the name of the first Drow adventurer to tame one, so I thought about making her family a human house descended from Crinti nobility a part of her backstory (and probably would if I were inserting her into an actual game), but didn't end up bothering since the last name was just an afterthought to the "Miss Eri loves company" pun.

[remetagross]

And speaking of cheese, daremeto, you are a national treasure (or whatever the analogue is for a D&D forum instead of a nation, "dragon's hoard" maybe?). Never change.

I have to concur. I cannot believe I didn't guess earlier that this build was made by you, the specialist for TO exploits that leave you bursting in laughter at the sheer absurdity of where they lead you! :smallbiggrin:

[daremetoidareyo]

I like exploring the Frontiers of where legalese readings of the rules can take you. I mean, that's why I make those skill guides. From there, one can sort of see where in the entirety of the gigantic sprawling World multiple designers worked a decade to cocreate.

I remember as a kid, I used to find bugs in video games and just noodle around with them to see how I could make the game break. "What happens if I use this jump ability to land in the background?"

The DND ruleset is very much a kin to a computer program, written in a language I'm native to. In a way, it's like I'm exploring my own language as well. I've marveled and how one claws can be interpreted in two very different ways to have a Rippling effect throughout the very fabric of the game itself.

And the designers, the weird gods they are, gave kobolds draonic age categories, seemingly to draw thousands of characters of online text through the minds of Grognards 10 years later.

I imagine computer encoders sometimes feel this way.

[Doctor Awkward]

And the designers, the weird gods they are, gave kobolds draonic age categories kobold age categories...

Fixed that for you.

[Thurbane]

:smallamused: Here we go...

[daremetoidareyo]

I swear, I've "advanced through" this conversation before.

[Doctor Awkward]

I swear, I've "advanced through" this conversation before.

Possibly.
"Dragonwrought kobold" is basically my own personal, "Pazuzu!" at this point.

[Falontani]

Possibly.
"Dragonwrought kobold" is basically my own personal, "Pazuzu!" at this point.

I got away with abusing that in a campaign before. Nystrul's Magic Aura and bluffed the paladin. Paladin didn't realize I was CE and got him to say it 3 times fast

[lylsyly]

And the designers, the weird gods they are, gave kobolds draonic age categories, seemingly to draw thousands of characters of online text through the minds of Grognards 10 years later.

I imagine computer encoders sometimes feel this way.


Fixed that for you.


:smallamused: Here we go...


I swear, I've "advanced through" this conversation before.


Possibly.
"Dragonwrought kobold" is basically my own personal, "Pazuzu!" at this point.


I got away with abusing that in a campaign before. Nystrul's Magic Aura and bluffed the paladin. Paladin didn't realize I was CE and got him to say it 3 times fast


shall we not ....

[thorr-kan]

I was gonna participate in this one, but I ran out of time. Probably a good thing; I would have been the lowball in this field of ingenuity. Nonetheless, presented for amusement, the stubbiest of stub builds:
"Handsome" Hugh Harris, the Happy Hellbred (body) Hexblade 6
ACF: Dark Companion

Feats:
EWP Elven Courtblade
Weapon Finess
Power Attack
Ability Focus, and lots of it!

Bonus Devil Touched feats:
Devil Touched
?
?

[daremetoidareyo]

I grappled with the energy drain special attack and felt confident that supernatural transformation + death devotion is indeed a viable way to have a supernatural energy drain ability due to these two primary sources about energy drain.


Energy Drain And Negative Levels
Some horrible creatures, especially undead monsters, possess a fearsome supernatural ability to drain levels from those they strike in combat. The creature making an energy drain attack draws a portion of its victim’s life force from her. Most energy drain attacks require a successful melee attack roll—mere physical contact is not enough. Each successful energy drain bestows one or more negative levels (the creature’s description specifies how many). If an attack that includes an energy drain scores a critical hit, it drains twice the given amount. A creature gains 5 temporary hit points (10 on a critical hit) for each negative level it bestows (though not if the negative level is caused by a spell or similar effect). These temporary hit points last for a maximum of 1 hour.

A creature takes the following penalties for each negative level it has gained:

-1 on all skill checks and ability checks.
-1 on attack rolls and saving throws.
-5 hit points.
-1 effective level (whenever the creature’s level is used in a die roll or calculation, reduce it by one for each negative level).
If the victim casts spells, she loses access to one spell as if she had cast her highest-level, currently available spell. (If she has more than one spell at her highest level, she chooses which she loses.) In addition, when she next prepares spells or regains spell slots, she gets one less spell slot at her highest spell level.
Negative levels remain until 24 hours have passed or until they are removed with a spell, such as restoration. If a negative level is not removed before 24 hours have passed, the affected creature must attempt a Fortitude save (DC 10 + ½ draining creature’s racial HD + draining creature’s Cha modifier; the exact DC is given in the creature’s descriptive text). On a success, the negative level goes away with no harm to the creature. On a failure, the negative level goes away, but the creature’s level is also reduced by one. A separate saving throw is required for each negative level.

A character with negative levels at least equal to her current level, or drained below 1st level, is instantly slain. Depending on the creature that killed her, she may rise the next night as a monster of that kind. If not, she rises as a wight.

and this from the glossary in the Players Handbook p.308

energy drain: An attack that saps a creature’s vital energy giving it negative levels, which might permanently drain the creature’s
levels.

Energy drain is a game defined term. And it's defined in a way to allow anything that saps a creatures vital energy to give it negative levels. Trust me, I had to do a lot of losing levels research to finish Tio Hexblahday.

The real sour part is what Darrin pointed out: Is death devotion an innate spell like ability? It's def a spell like ability according to the feat description and the domain feats description. The "innate" part is the piece that is an argumentative because inherent likely pertains to how a race gets their spell like abilities and doesn't include feats or class features. But some feats can only be taken at first level or have words like heritage or bloodline in them so there is at least some place to argue that it isn't a hard and fast rule as to what constitutes an "innate" spell-like ability. In the case of a hellbred who fuels his powers through steadfast devotion to a religious element aligned specifically to the power of death itself, where does one rule about powers being inherent due to the character's faith (as represented by the feat)? The power of Tio's belief is the source of his spell-like ability. Why isn't that considered innate?

Further muddying the waters is the fact that the word innate is the definition of the word. Only 1/3 of the definition of the word innate is enough to argue that it precludes the use of feats or class features.


adjective
1. existing in one from birth; inborn; native:
innate musical talent.
2. inherent in the essential character of something:
an innate defect in the hypothesis.
3. originating in or arising from the intellect or the constitution of the mind, rather than learned through experience:
an innate knowledge of good and evil.


So...that's why i felt secure hitting the throttle on this monstroso.

[Doctor Awkward]

The real sour part is what Darrin pointed out: Is death devotion an innate spell like ability? It's def a spell like ability according to the feat description and the domain feats description. The "innate" part is the piece that is an argumentative because inherent likely pertains to how a race gets their spell like abilities and doesn't include feats or class features. But some feats can only be taken at first level or have words like heritage or bloodline in them so there is at least some place to argue that it isn't a hard and fast rule as to what constitutes an "innate" spell-like ability. In the case of a hellbred who fuels his powers through steadfast devotion to a religious element aligned specifically to the power of death itself, where does one rule about powers being inherent due to the character's faith (as represented by the feat)? The power of Tio's belief is the source of his spell-like ability. Why isn't that considered innate?

Further muddying the waters is the fact that the word innate is the definition of the word. Only 1/3 of the definition of the word innate is enough to argue that it precludes the use of feats or class features.

"Innate" means inborn, or natural. An innate trait is an expected and perfectly normal trait to find in a given species or related species.

Almost no feats are innate.