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

[Zaq]

Welcome back to the Iron Chef Optimization Challenge E6 Appetizer Edition! This one might be challenging in a few ways, but I trust us all to be mature adults if any rules disputes arise.

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 three builds with the highest 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. (HM may not always be awarded, particularly if the number of builds is very small.) 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, Oct 12, 2018 (12:59 AM GMT on Saturday, Oct 13). 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 approximately two weeks after that, with adjustments as necessary. (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: Let's break this one down a bit.

ALLOWED: Almost all D&D 3.5 material published by WotC: Core, Completes, monster books, Races Of books, alternate power source books (Expanded Psionics Handbook, Magic of Incarnum, Tome of Battle, Tome of Magic, etc.), Spell Compendium, Book of Exalted Deeds, Book of Vile Darkness, Eberron material, Forgotten Realms material, and other WotC-published 3.5 material. (This list is NOT exhaustive and there are many other legal books that I did not mention by name!)

ALLOWED: Material from the 3.5 archives of the Wizards of the Coast website (including, but not limited to, the Mind's Eye articles). If you use it, link it.

ALLOWED: Official errata from WotC. If you're relying on this in a material fashion, it's a good idea to link it and to discuss it.

NOT ALLOWED: Unofficial errata, including "class fixes" (regardless of the source, including from the original author if not published in a WotC book) or fan-created content.

ALLOWED: Unupdated WotC-published 3.0 material (e.g., Sword and Fist, Masters of the Wild, etc.) except for 3.0 psionics. No 3.0 psionics allowed. If you are using 3.0 material, use the general-purpose skill updates (Wilderness Lore becomes Survival, Innuendo becomes Bluff, etc.) and the general-purpose rules updates (spells with a casting time of "1 action" become "1 standard action," etc.) when appropriate.

NOT ALLOWED: 3.0 material for which a direct 3.5 update exists. Use the updated material instead.

ALLOWED: Dragon Compendium and its errata (http://paizo.com/download/dragon/compendium/DragonCompendiumVolumeIErrata.pdf).

NOT ALLOWED: Content from Dragon Magazine and/or Dungeon Magazine unless said content appears in an otherwise allowed source.

ALLOWED: Oriental Adventures, including the 3.5 update to Oriental Adventures from Dragon Magazine #318. This is a specific exception to the "no Dragon" rule!

NOT ALLOWED: Pathfinder content, regardless of whether it is "D&D 3.5 OGL" or not. If it didn't come from WotC, we don't want it.

ALLOWED: From Unearthed Arcana: racial paragon classes, alternate class features/variant classes, spelltouched feats, and variant races. (Traits and flaws are technically legal, but traits warrant a -0.5 point penalty in Elegance, and flaws warrant a -1 penalty in Elegance.)

NOT ALLOWED: Other Unearthed Arcana content, including (but not limited to) bloodlines, LA buyoff, fractional BAB/saves, alternate casting systems, alternate skill systems, item familiars, prestigious character classes, generic classes, gestalt, etc. When you're wondering if UA content is allowed, err on the side of caution and don't mess around with it.

NOT ALLOWED: Leadership, regardless of source. Game elements functionally equivalent to Leadership (including, but not limited to, Dragon Cohort, Undead Leadership, and Thrallherd) are similarly banned. (Familiars, Improved Familiar, animal companions, Wild Cohort, psicrystals, elemental envoys, and similar game elements are allowed, and they are not considered to be "Leadership." If the difference isn't obvious, feel free to contact the Chair with specific questions.)

NOT ALLOWED: Third-party content, homebrew, or other non-WotC content.

NOT ALLOWED: Epic feats from the Epic Level Handbook. Just because you're "epic" in E6 after 6th level doesn't mean that you're that kind of epic.

NOT ALLOWED: Any race or template with a level adjustment other than +0. (Or any other source of LA other than a race or template, if any such things exist.)

NOT ALLOWED: For our judges: penalizing solely based on legal sources used, regardless of whether those sources are plentiful, sparse, common, obscure, or something in between. If the material is legal, then it doesn't matter how many or how few books it came out of.

ALLOWED: Also for our judges: penalizing for using a source (other than material in Core; don't be vindictive about genuinely obvious stuff) that isn't listed in the build writeup. The chef may choose to present the sources in-line with the text, in a consolidated source list, or somewhere else, but if the source is listed (and is otherwise legal), it counts. If the source is not listed, you may choose to penalize for that.

If you have questions about anything in this section (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. This means NOT posting any of the following or anything substantially similar: what you think is going to be common, significant elements of your planned build or of other potential builds, or anything else that could directly influence someone else's build choices for good or for ill. (It's acceptable to ask for rules clarifications as appropriate, but try to avoid tipping your hand too much.) Speculation is bad because it can discourage people from posting builds and can also "taint the judging pool" when it comes to Originality, so please just try to be aware of how other people might react to your speculation.

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: Please use the table found below in the spoiler. 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; make sure that there is a clear listing somewhere of your ranks alone.

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:

[B]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, and the maximum is 5. 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. That said, contestants are asked to not dispute more than necessary; let's do everything in good faith and really only dispute when a judge is being inconsistent, being unfair, or is otherwise grossly misinterpreting a build.
Judges may not penalize Originality solely because a build is a tribute or homage to an existing creative work (in or out of D&D canon; note that this is not the same thing as penalizing Originality for using well-known optimization tactics), 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 FACTOTUM, from Dungeonscape!
Allez Optimizer!



The Builds:



Name
Race/Alignment
Stub
Score/Rank
Chef


Bastiat Fellpaw (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=23434228&postcount=47)
NE Cat Hengeyokai
Factotum 3 / Barbarian 2 / Psion 1
14/Silver
RaiKirah


Curse-mopolitan Dan (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=23434230&postcount=48)
? Human
Factotum 5 / Cleric 1
13.5/Bronze
daremetoidareyo


PFC Wallis (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=23434231&postcount=49)
CN Human
Factotum 5 / Totemist 1
17/Gold
Randuir





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 7: Hexblade (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?553767-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-VII))
Round 8: Shugenja (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?555626-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-VIII))
Round 9: Swashbuckler (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?559135-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-IX)")
Round 10: Crusader (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?562183-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-X))
Round 11: Soulknife (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?565669-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-XI))



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)

[Zaq]

A few potentially-relevant rulings in advance:

Inspiration resets to your normal amount at the start of a new encounter. (Please don't spend the bulk of your effort on splitting hairs trying to define when an encounter starts. Everyone just be reasonable, please.) It doesn't stack up arbitrarily high.
Your first Font of Inspiration is worth 1. Your second is worth 2, for a total of 3 from feats. Your third is worth 3, for a total of 6 from feats. Etc. It's added to your usual amount (so it does, in fact, reset every encounter rather than being a one-off benefit.)
You can only invoke Cunning Strike once per attack roll.

If anyone has a major problem with these rulings, now's the time to have that discussion. We can talk about it if you like. But I recognize in advance that there's some gray areas to the Factotum, so we may as well head this off at the pass to the extent that we can.

This isn't a "10-point Originality" round, but I still feel like Originality is going to be where medals are won and lost this time. Have fun, folks!

Oh, and just if I haven't said it enough, I'm still crazy busy with school, so there may be some posting delays here and there. I've just gotta get used to this sort of thing again.

[lylsyly]

Taking a pass on this one. Just marking the thread so I can watch the fun.

[DeTess]

I've got one idea, but it's rather similar to a build I did a couple of comps back. I'll see if I can come up with something different that'll work.

[RaiKirah]

I've never actually delved into the Factotum. I'll have to ponder and get back to you.

[daremetoidareyo]

I think that I would have more fun talking about e6 factotum than actually building one. Problem is, it would be chock full of speculation. Grrrr

[WhamBamSam]

This is another of those classes that'd be really cool in E8, but is significantly less interesting in E6. Well, I'll give it a shot.

[Zaq]

I think that I would have more fun talking about e6 factotum than actually building one. Problem is, it would be chock full of speculation. Grrrr

Think you might consider judging if you can’t find a clever exploit? (I mean, I’d be fairly surprised if you didn’t have an exploit, but such things happen from time to time.)

I mean, I’m noticing a fairly tepid response overall. Is this one too bland, or do we just need some thinking time?

[daremetoidareyo]

Think you might consider judging if you can’t find a clever exploit? (I mean, I’d be fairly surprised if you didn’t have an exploit, but such things happen from time to time.)

I mean, I’m noticing a fairly tepid response overall. Is this one too bland, or do we just need some thinking time?

I mean, i know one exploit, but it's definitely not a judge-pleaser.

I'd consider judging, but I'd rather see the number and complexity of entries before committing to be a judge.

[jdizzlean]

as promised, in to judge.. now to go read up on it :p

quick thoughts on how i intend to judge:

Originality: do you use the same old same old, or are you bringing something relatively new or unique to this round. did you build what i would've done, or something different? I don't necessarily compare different builds, but if 3 entries all have the same shtick, all 3 will get a ding in this field.

Power: How well does your build do what it says it should do? Are you a 1 trick pony, or can you fill multiple roles (especially important for this round!)? You don't have to be the star, and iterative attacks are off the board with this ingredient, but can you function enough with what you got?

Elegance: This for me is the biggest category, the legality of your build, and how things work together. Are you presenting multiple dips, do your skill points work, and do you take things to conclusion? Do you meet pre-reqs for everything? Do things work without bending over backwards and some serious RAWrey? I also tend to give a little weight to the FLUFF side of each class you're using, the theme of the build is just as important as the mechanics of it.

Use of SI: I don't judge based on whether you took the full 6 ranks, but what you did w/ the ranks you took. If your build can swap out any other class for the Factotum ranks you took and do the same thing or better, expect a lower score here.

I tend to use the "eyeball" measure, rather than have a table of .25 increments of bonus's and penalties.

AND CITE YOUR SOURCES!

[Zaq]

So seriously folks, is this too bland and/or too difficult an ingredient? I usually get at least a couple people expressing a bit more interest than we've seen so far, and I've had the thread up for a whole weekend now, so there's been a chance to see it. No offense to anyone who's posted here, but I'm really not seeing much enthusiasm for the Factotum. I don't want a repeat of the Shugenja round, after all—enthusiasm is the contest's lifeblood! I was expecting the initial response to be "huh, what's so hard about cooking with Factotum?" and then a later response of "wow, that turned out weirder than I expected, but I got something in" instead of an immediate, resounding "meh."

I'm willing to take at least a straw poll here: who actually wants to cook with Factotum, and who wants to scrap it in favor of something else? If possible, if you're voting against Factotum, an indication of what sorts of ingredients would trigger more enthusiasm would be appreciated.

I do have a short list of potential replacements, but I don't think I want to post it just yet, because I don't want to sway the vote too much. All I really want is a lively and interested competition.

[MinimanMidget]

I've only ever submitted once, but I take a look at each ingredient to see what inspires me. I keep looking at Factotum, and I just can't find any...points of inspiration.

[tterreb]

Factotum is one of my favorite classes, and some of my favorite characters have taken 1-4 level dips, but I've always used it for higher level builds. It will be interesting using it in a 6 level build.

[DeTess]

I'm starting to consider some ideas that are less obvious, but it does leave me with some questions about how some of the factotums abilities interact with prerequisites. Can a factotum with cunning strike qualify for feats/PRC's/whatever that requires +1d6 of sneak attack? Can a factotum with Opportunisitc piety qualify for things requiring turn undead?

[RaiKirah]

I'm starting to consider some ideas that are less obvious, but it does leave me with some questions about how some of the factotums abilities interact with prerequisites. Can a factotum with cunning strike qualify for feats/PRC's/whatever that requires +1d6 of sneak attack? Can a factotum with Opportunisitc piety qualify for things requiring turn undead?

This is part of my confusion. The Factotum seems interesting, and seems good at what it does, but I'm having a hard time seeing how to optimize ot, rather than using it as a dip for various obvious reasons, and even then it seems to lend itself to an ECL20 build more readily.

Another aspect of my reticence is due to being in the midst of finalizing my Junkyard Wars and Gamewarper's builds in. I would like to dive into this, because I suspect it will be interesting, though I'm going to need a few more days before I know if I have an idea that's worth following up. Probably on board to judge if not.

In short, I'm interested in the class, just haven't really had an opportunity to start getting ideas, and the versatility of the class makes specialization somewhat daunting.

[Macabaret]

...
I'm willing to take at least a straw poll here: who actually wants to cook with Factotum, and who wants to scrap it in favor of something else? If possible, if you're voting against Factotum, an indication of what sorts of ingredients would trigger more enthusiasm would be appreciated...


I say keep it. I've always liked the Factotum class.

I think the issue, at least for me, is that Factotum does a lot of little things without really excelling at any of them. (It's actually the point of the Factotum, really). It makes it a bit difficult to optimize something that way.
And, with that, there are a few handbooks and well-known 'tricks' for this class. Which makes Originality a more difficult thing to face here.

I think those two issues make the Factotum an interesting challenge. A different challenge, maybe, than people are used to with these contests, which could be the root of the level of expressed interest (or lack thereof). Don't shy away from offering such a challenge, Zaq.

I, for one, have an inkling of an idea forming. If life allows me time to play, I intend to enter a build.

[lylsyly]

So a Factotum, an Aristocrat, and a Marshal walk into an inn ....

I think a lot of peoples problem is that it not really good at anything, with cheese okay, you might be able to do something interesting. Without cheese? And E6? Not so much. I know for sure that no one in my group will even consider playing one, and we ain't optimizers by any stretch.

[RaiKirah]

Alrighty, I think I've got an idea I want to pursue. We'll see how it pans out!

[Zaq]

So a Factotum, an Aristocrat, and a Marshal walk into an inn ....

I think a lot of peoples problem is that it not really good at anything, with cheese okay, you might be able to do something interesting. Without cheese? And E6? Not so much. I know for sure that no one in my group will even consider playing one, and we ain't optimizers by any stretch.

I mean, it's not like all of our gold medalists have been dairy-free.

[DeTess]

It took a bit of thinking, but inspiration has finally struck. It's not a particularly serious build, but I'm in to cook.

[lylsyly]

I mean, it's not like all of our gold medalists have been dairy-free.

Of course, heck, I didn't even come close. How many times did I take hidden talent? That in itself is cheesy.

Problem is it's a great class for a quick dip but that is about it.

Want to start a pool on just how many levels everyone takes?

[jdizzlean]

Problem is it's a great class for a quick dip but that is about it.

Want to start a pool on just how many levels everyone takes?



I know where I would cut off, just not sure what i'd do w/ the rest (if any) levels that would be there. I do have 2 immediate ways i would run this, time will tell if one of the entrants does either of those :)

[Zaq]

Any progress, gentlefolk?

[tterreb]

I've come up with a few ideas, but none of them ended up working out. I'm still working on it.

[RaiKirah]

My idea hasn't fallen apart yet. So far so good!

[Piggy Knowles]

New job is seriously restricting my time these days but I have an idea that I think is neat, if I get the time to put it together into an entry...

[DeTess]

I'm still on track. Once I figured out what I wanted to do, this one pretty much wrote itself.

[Ripptor]

I had no ideas for this one, but I'll try to find the time to read and judge everyone who did find the time and inspiration! :smallsmile:

[AvatarVecna]

Just found this competition, have a vague idea for it but can't promise anything.

[Zaq]

Under 72 hours remain. I have no entries submitted to me yet. Is there going to be a big final push this weekend, or do we need to come up with an easier ingredient and push out the deadline a week? Be honest with me, folks. As much as I'd love to get a bunch of dishes over the next day or two and heartily encourage doing so if you're still game, an up-front and honest answer that you're not cooking this round is preferable to a declaration of entry that isn't going to pan out. (I mean, I'm sympathetic and know what it's like to run out of time or out of steam, but I'm perhaps a little paranoid about having a boring entry with insufficient dishes.)

[daremetoidareyo]

Under 72 hours remain. I have no entries submitted to me yet. Is there going to be a big final push this weekend, or do we need to come up with an easier ingredient and push out the deadline a week? Be honest with me, folks. As much as I'd love to get a bunch of dishes over the next day or two and heartily encourage doing so if you're still game, an up-front and honest answer that you're not cooking this round is preferable to a declaration of entry that isn't going to pan out. (I mean, I'm sympathetic and know what it's like to run out of time or out of steam, but I'm perhaps a little paranoid about having a boring entry with insufficient dishes.)

I'm working on one now, but it may not happen before the deadline.

[RaiKirah]

I've got a build sketched and intend to get it finished on time.

[Zaq]

I'm willing to talk about an extension if it means we have a meaningful number of entries. Don't be discouraged, my friends!

[DeTess]

I've got a build that just needs some polishing and formatting, which I'll do over the weekend.

[DeTess]

Welp, got in just before the deadline. How is everyone else coming along?

[Zaq]

Excellent question, Randuir. Yours is the only entry so far. How IS everyone else doing? Did I overreach on the ingredient again?

[daremetoidareyo]

There's no way that I'll finish tonight. I think the problem is that I keep on getting shunted down weird rabbit holes. At best I can finish by Wednesday, but that's not even a promise.

[RaiKirah]

This weekend threw me for a loop. I doubt I'll finish in time tonight. Just need write-up and formatting, but that's non-trivial. Could probably hit tommorow

[Zaq]

Howzabout Friday for an extension?

[daremetoidareyo]

Aight. I'll chip away at it

[RaiKirah]

Friday and I'm definitely submitting!

[jdizzlean]

I'm on vacation until the 21st with limited internet access beyond my phone, so any responses/pm's/post's etc requiring my attention will be delayed

for here, that also means i won't start my judging until then, depending on the number of entrants it'll either go really fast, or less so :)

[Zaq]

I updated the OP a while ago, but because I now realize that it wasn’t crystal clear in my last post, you’ve all got an extension until Friday.

Which means that we’re still in “under 72 hours remain” territory, but I trust you all.

[RaiKirah]

My build will be in this evening!

[daremetoidareyo]

still working on it, I'll get it to ya

[Zaq]

We’ve got the bare minimum of three entries waiting. I’d love to get at least one more if possible, so I encourage anyone who expects to realistically finish by tonight to send up a signal flare and let me know. Otherwise, I’ll post the builds after I get home from work. You’ve got a minimum of about 6.5 more hours, and realistically it’ll probably be a little longer, but that’s the plan overall.

[Zaq]

Fcatotum.length


Bastiat Fellpaw
Race: Hengeyokai, Cat
Alignment: Neutral Evil (really anything you want is fine, but fluff makes this the baseline choice)
Stub: Factotum 3/Barbarian 2/Psion 1
ACFs: Lion Spirit Totem, Wolf Totem, Whirling Frenzy


Bastiat felt his ears pull back and tail lash as he watched the ruffian stalking the well-dressed young couple in the alley below. He didn’t care much one way or the other about the fact that the oblivious young people were about to be robbed of their valuables or even their very lives, but he didn’t recognize the footpad trailing them through the shadows. If he didn’t recognize the man, then he didn’t have permission to hunt here, and Bastiat couldn’t have that. These were his streets, and no two-bit thug could be allowed to just waltz in and take a prize here without his say-so, particularly not so rich a prize as the young couple presented. Bastiat quickly flowed over the rooftops until he was right above the cloaked thug and prepared to pounce.

Jimmy the Knife spun as a low yowl rent the air above him, loosing sight of the two rich brats he’d been following as he did so. Outlined on a low-hanging eave was the biggest, meanest, ugliest looking tomcat Jimmy’d ever seen. The thing was as big as a dog and ragged with scars. Something about its limbs looked wrong, but Jimmy couldn’t figure out what. Jimmy was about to turn around and go back to his prey when the tomcat growled again and what Jimmy’d taken for two cords of scar tissue peeled way from its body and waved around in the air. Forgetting entirely about the reason he was here to begin with, Jimmy turned fully to face the not-cat and drew the blade from which he’d taken his name as the creature set itself to pounce. The creature bounded off the roof with such speed it seemed to bypass the intervening distance, and before he could react Jimmy’d been slammed off his feet and to the ground, knife spinning away into the darkness. And then there was only teeth, and claws, and pain.




Ability
Score
Racial
Lvl 4 Increase
Final
Hybrid


Strength
14


14
14


Dexterity
13

+1
14
16


Constitution
13


13
13


Intelligence
18


18
18


Wisdom
8
-2

6
6


Charisma
8


8
8







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


1st
Factotum
+0
+0
+2
+0
Balance 4, Hide 4, Jump 4, Know. (Arcana) 4, Know. (Dungeoneering) 4, Know. (Nature) 4, Know. (Religion) 4, Know. (The Planes) 4, Move Silently 4, Tumble 4
Improved Unarmed Strike
Inspiration (2pts), Cunning Insight, Cunning Knowledge, Trapfinding


2nd
Factotum
+1
+0
+3
+0
Balance 5(1), Hide 5(1), Jump 5(1), Know. (Arcana) 5(1), Know. (Dungeoneering) 5(1), Know. (Nature) 5(1), Know. (Religion) 5(1), Know. (The Planes) 5(1), Move Silently 5(1), Tumble 5(1)
-
Arcane Dilettante (1 Spell), Inspiration (3pts)


3rd
Factotum
+2
+1
+3
+1
Hide 6(1), Jump 6(1), Know. (Arcana) 6(1), Know. (Dungeoneering) 6(1), Know. (Geography) 1(1), Know. (Nature) 6(1), Know. (Religion) 6(1), Know. (The Planes) 6(1), Move Silently 6(1), Tumble 6(1), Balance 5
Knowledge Devotion
Brains Over Brawn, Cunning Defense, Inspiration (3pts)


4th
Barbarian
+3
+3
+3
+1
Jump 7(1), Know. (Architecture & Engineering) 1(2cc), Know. (History) 1(2cc), Know. (Nobility & Royalty) 1(2cc), Tumble 7(1), Balance 5, Hide 6, Know. (Arcana) 6, Know. (Dungeoneering) 6, Know. (Geography) 1, Know. (Nature) 6, Know. (Religion) 6, Know. (The Planes) 6, Move Silently 6
-
Fast Movement --> Pounce (Lion Spirit Totem ACF), Rage --> Whirling Frenzy 1/day (Whirling Frenzy ACF), Skilled City Dweller (Ride --> Tumble)


5th
Barbarian
+4
+4
+3
+1
Balance 7(2), Jump 8(1), Know. (local) 1(2cc), Know. (Psionics) 1(2cc), Tumble 8(1), Hide 6, Know. (Arcana) 6, Know. (Architecture & Engineering) 1, Know. (Dungeoneering) 6, Know. (Geography) 1, Know. (History) 1, Know. (Nature) 6, Know. (Nobility & Royalty) 1, Know. (Religion) 6, Know. (The Planes) 6, Move Silently 6
Improved Trip (b)
Uncanny Dodge --> Improved Trip (Wolf Totem ACF)


6th
Psion
+4
+4
+3
+3
Jump 9(1), Know. (Arcana) 7(1), Know. (Dung.) 7(1), Know. (Nature) 7(1), Know. (The Planes) 7(1), Tumble 9(1), Balance 7, Hide 6, Know. (Architecture & Engineering) 1, Know. (Geography) 1, Know. (History) 1, Know. (Local) 1, Know. (Nobility & Royalty) 1, Know. (Psionics) 1, Know. (Religion) 6, Move Silently 6
Extra Rage, Practiced Manifester (Psion) (b)
Bonus Psionic Feat, Discipline (Nomad), Skilled City Dweller (Ride --> Tumble) ACF


Spells & Powers:
Spells: 1 arcane of up to 1st level, choose to taste
Powers: Burst (Discipline Power), Expansion, Call to Mind, Dimension Hop (Expanded Knowledge)
PP/day: 15 (2 base + 10 bonus + 3 Warped Mind)

Epic Feats:

1: Improved Grapple

2: Scorpion’s Grasp

3: Battle Jump

4: Expanded Knowledge (Dimension Hop)

5: Weight Focus

6: Shape Soulmeld (Mauling Gauntlets)

7: Aberration Blood (Flexible Limbs)

8: Warped Mind

9: Deepspawn

10: Multiattack




In our fluff introduction to Bastiat we’re presented with him in his cat form. Hengeyokai have access to three forms; animal (cat), human, and hybrid. While everything Bastiat does works in cat form, he is in fact better at it in human or hybrid form. For the purposes of this write-up we’ll assume hybrid form. If you want to play as a grapple-cat all the time, see the variants section at the end.

Level 1-3: Factotum
We’re starting off with three levels in the SI. Factotum is a bit of an odd duck in that it can really be used/made into nearly any type of character. We’re going for a primary melee with a double major in knowledge bank and a minor in sneakiness. Hengeyokai gives us access to a cat form which makes us even sneakier, but without any Wisdom to speak of I’ve elected to neglect Spot and Listen, so really you’re only half a scout. The DCs to detect magical traps are high enough that it didn’t seem worth the skill ranks, so we’ve focused on the primary monster identifiers, and then added a rank in every other knowledge skill so we can make the checks. What we’re really interested from Factotum is the 3rd level ability Brains Over Brawn, which allows us to apply our Intelligence modifier to Strength checks. This will be important later on as we start picking up the tools of our primary schtick – grappling. Feat-wise, we’ve picked up Improved Unarmed Strike as a prereq, and Knowledge Devotion to make use of our many skills spent on knowing things.

Level 4-5: Barbarian
These levels are standard fare melee optimization. Not much else to say here. I debated going Bear Totem to pick up Improved Grapple for free, but Pounce is more useful with Natural Attacks, and Improved Trip benefits from Brains Over Brawn as well, giving us another combat option.

Level 6: Psion?
At first blush Psion seems an awkward choice, but it’s actually integral to our combat pattern. Grappling benefits from size increases, so we pick up Expansion as one of our Powers Known. Call to Mind gives a sizeable boost to a Knowledge check, furthering our ability to be the party Knowledge bank, and giving a potential +1 boost to a Knowledge Devotion result. Burst was chosen largely because the Nomad (Psychoportation) Discipline gives access to the Ride skill, which lets us use the Skilled City Dweller ACF to continue treating Tumble as a class skill. At level six we get to auto-succeed on moving through threatened squares without provoking AoOs. Using the bonus feat to pick up Practiced Manifester gives us a hefty increase in the number of Power Points we have, meaning even without a supply of Manifester Arrows we can use our powers a useful amount of times a day. Extra Rage gives us more consistency in our combat capability. At this point we’re still largely a normal melee combatant, but that’s going to change shortly into the Epic feats when we buckle down on become a full time grappler.

Epic Feats:

E1: Improved Grapple is rather self-explanatory; if you’re going to grapple you need it. An untyped +4 bonus and no AoOs is really good. It also serves as a prereq for:

E2: Scorpion’s Grasp is the non-monster way to get Snatch. When you hit with an attack with an unarmed strike, a light weapon, or a one-handed weapon you can start a grapple as a free action. In addition, if you used a light weapon (IUS, Natural Attack) you can make attacks with it in the normal fashion without the -4 penalty to hit. Now we’re cooking. We can also maintain a grapple with one hand with a -20 to the check. This might actually be practicable later on.

E3: Battle Jump is where it all starts to come together. This feat has two benefits. The first is the one that it’s better known for; namely that when you fall from at least 5’ above a target you count as charging. This means if we can pull it off (DC 40 jump for a medium creature, probably not happening without items), we can trigger Pounce to get a full attack (2 attacks with Whirling Frenzy). The second benefit is that when you do jump from at least 5’ above a target you count as one size category larger for the purposes of grappling. That means when in hybrid form with Expansion and a jump-start you count as Huge when initiating a grapple. At the moment with such a start you have a grapple check of +25 (+4 BAB +4 Improved Grapple +8 Size +5 STR (14 + Rage + Expansion)+ 4 INT). This does not include any items to boost strength or intelligence, or any specifically boosting grapple checks.

E4: “But managing to trigger Battle Jump is hard!” I hear you say. Enter Expanded Knowledge (Dimension Hop). Dimension Hop lets us teleport 10’+5’/pp as a swift action. This means that we can trigger the Battle jump condition against any medium or smaller creature easily, and combined with a jump check or extra pp can likely trigger it against larger creatures without issue. Add in that manifesting powers can be done while in a grapple and/or prone, and we can trigger this every round. If you can get the jump on someone to start, you can potentially pin two folks in one round with your grapple check, leaving them both prone.

E5: Now we’ve got our primary combo together, we move on to improving it. Being a Cat Hengeyokai should qualify us for the Feline feats (they are official WoTC material, regardless of being an April Fools joke), which lets us pick up Weight Focus. This nifty little feat is an attempt to explain why it is occasionally impossible to pick up your cat; you count as one size category larger. This has the benefit of making you always count as Large, so with Expansion you are always counted as Huge and can grapple anything always, and on the jump you count as Gargantuan. This gives a permanent +4 increase to grapple check from size. Current Total is now +29 on the jump without items.

E6: Mauling Gauntlets simply add a +2 morale bonus to Grapple (and Trip, and breaking things, and all strength checks). If we can find a source of Essentia (Essentia Helm or Ring of Essentia anyone?) we can boost this somewhat. Total is now +31.

E7: Aberration Blood (Flexible Limbs) makes us a little weird looking, with the benefit of adding a +2 racial modifier to our grapple check. Total comes to +33, which is the highest we get without additional items/magic. This means that if we want to hold someone down with one hand while going about our business we still have a +13 (+9 without jumping), which is likely better than anyone without Improved Grapple of Medium or smaller size anyways.

E8: While we’re dipping into Aberrant feats (and we’ve mostly tapped out ways to improve grapple), we might as well pick up Warped Mind, which gives us a Racial bonus on Will saves (+1) helping to shore up our weak save as well as boosting our available pp by one per Aberrant feat.

E9: With a couple Aberrant feats under our belt and a method for triggering full attacks it seems like it would be negligent not to pick up Deepspawn, giving us two tentacle attacks to add to our repertoire. This has the added benefit of making us into a Displacer Kitty while in cat form.

E10: This last feat slot is somewhat open for stylistic choice. I’m partial to Multiattack since you will have at least two tentacle attacks, and likely with items/grafts will also have claws and a bite. However, Knock-Down is a perfectly good alternative here, as would be Inhuman Reach/Extended Reach since you now qualify from Deepspawn. The choice is up to the player, though I suppose for judging purposes I should specify that Multiattack is the default.



If you want to stay as a Cat all the time you can swap out IUS and Scorpion's Grasp for Snatch and Improved Snatch respectively. Grapple on a jump would then be: +19 = +4 BAB -1 STR (Str 3, Rage, Expansion) +4 INT (BoB) +2 Racial +4 Size (Tiny -> Small (Expansion) -> Medium (Weight Focus) -> Large (Battle Jump)) +2 Mauling Gauntlets +4 Improved Grapple. With items and magic this of course improves. You can’t grapple the Tarrasque, but you still maul medium folks. As was mentioned with Deepspawn if you go this route then you get to be Displacer Kitty all the time (which I will not link to because I’m paranoid and don’t understand the forum rules about images, but it’s a very cute graphic if you aren’t familiar with it). You also probably do want to make sure you take Inhuman Reach/Extended Reach, as having a native reach of 0’ is not excellent. If you do this then the Aberrant feats probably want to be taken first, then the rest of the grapple improving feats.


Complete Warrior (CWar) – Extra Rage (p98)
Complete Psionic (CPsi) – Practiced Manifester (p57)
Complete Champion (CC) – Lion Spirit Totem (p46), Knowledge Devotion (p60)
Unearthed Arcana (UA) – Wolf Totem (p48), Whirling Frenzy (p66)
Sandstorm (Sa) – Scorpion’s Grasp (p52)
Magic of Incarnum (MoI) – Shape Soulmeld (p40), Mauling Gauntlets (p78)
Unapproachable East (Una) – Battle Jump (p42)
Expanded Psionics Handbook (XPH) – Psion (p19), Expanded Knowledge (p46)
Dungeonscape (Du) – Factotum (p14)
Oriental Adventures (OA) – Hengeyokai (p10, DragMag#318 update),
Lords of Madness (LoM) – Aberration Blood (p178), Deepspawn (p179), Warped Mind (p182), Inhuman Reach (p180)
Savage Species (SS) – Extended Reach (p34)
Monster Manual (MM 1-5) – Multiattack, Snatch, Improved Snatch
Web (Fabulous Cats (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fools/20030401c)) – Weight Focus
Web (Urban Class Features (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a)) – Skilled City Dweller

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

[Zaq]

All the work got lost when your computer ate it? Sounds like the curses may have been a little too pervasive.


Curse-mopolitan Dan

I lost all the work I did on this due to a computer glitch. So here’s the barebones: Human, Factotum 5/Cleric of Chronepsis 1. I had a clever name, Faux Kelly Gantz, and this neat build explanation using the character’s voice which I cleverly disguised as truename hijinx. But then, nothing saved, so now you’re getting this.

https://d1yn1kh78jj1rr.cloudfront.net/image/thumbnail/rDtN98Qoishumwih/pest-control-exterminator-worker-spraying_zyGosPUO_thumb.jpg

You want a backstory for a human factotum? Try this one. Boy is born. Boy has manageable ADHD. Boy becomes factotum. Boom.

Here’s some stats:
Str: 8
Dex: 9
Con: 10
Int: 17 add one here at fourth level
Wis: 16
Cha: 14

We are going book diving, so buckle up.

First off, you’re gonna want to keep this in your back pocket for when you want have an extra headache: Potion Miscibility Table (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dnd/20060401b)

Next, we are going to need dragon #318 update to Oriental adventures to get our first level human bonus feat: Blood Artisan.


Blood artisan [Ancestor]
You are descended from Asahina Yajinden, a shugenja of the Crane clan who became the greatest lieutenant of the dread sorcerer Iuchiban. Yajinden abused his power, creating the Bloodswords and other evil magic items used by the armies of Iuchiban. You have mastered the method of creating a certain kind of magic item.
Clan: Crane.
Benefit: When you make magic arms and armor or wondrous items, you pay only 75% of the normal gold-piece cost to create the item. However the item is always cursed, with the curse randomly determined by the DM using the tables in chapter 7 p.272 of the Dungeon master's guide. Special you cannot create normal items by forgoing this discount.

We are, of course, going to need a link to Font of Inspiration because we are going to do some persistomancy and more inspiration is necessary to get the number of turn attempts necessary.

Font of Inspiration (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/frcc/20070606)

We are going to need to know the potion rules and the cursed magic item rules.


Potions (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/potionsAndOils.htm)
Brew Potion Feat (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#brewPotion)
Creating potions (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/creatingMagicItems.htm)
Cursed Item Rules (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/cursedItems.htm#)


We are going to need access to Drow of the Underdark for the mister in the equipment section:


MISTER - This small steel hand-held device can contain a single dose of poison or a potion. As a standard action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity, you can use it to deliver that dose in droplet form to any single target within 5 feet as a ranged touch attack. The mister is an effective vehicle for both contact and inhaled poisons. Ingested poisons allow the victim to attempt a DC 15 Reflex save to avoid contact with the mist and escape the poison’s effect. Mister-borne injury poisons are effective only if the victim is wounded and hasn’t been treated with a Heal check. If the mister delivers a potion, that potion can be used against an adjacent creature that breathes. You can automatically do this to yourself or to a willing or disabled subject. Oils, salves, and elixirs cannot be delivered through a mister. Refilling a mister requires a full-round action and provokes attacks of opportunity.

We are going to need a way to determine the cursed properties of the potions we brew, so we will need Complete Adventurer, which has this gem:


Appraise Magic Value [General] Your ability to determine an item's worth and your knowledge of magic allow you to determine the exact properties of a magic item without the use of the identify spell or similar magic.

Prerequisite Appraise 5 ranks, Knowledge (arcana) 5 ranks, Spellcraft 5 ranks,

Benefit If you know that an item is magical, you can use the Appraise skill to identify the item's properties. This use of the Appraise skill requires 8 hours of uninterrupted work and consumes 25 gp worth of special materials. The DC of the Appraise check is 10 + the caster level of the item.

This feat is better than using identify by having 1/4th of the price, but a clear delineation that it isn’t a use of the identify spell, so that cursed item 1% to identify cursed item properties per caster level isn’t in play. This feat is roll a skill check, get the properties.

You’re definitely going to want to access to Races of Stone page 154 for the duh duh duhhhhh!



Light slashing exotic melee weapon: 45 gp; Damage (m): 1d4; Critical: 19-20/x2

The weapon is worn tied to the wielder’s wrist in a specially designed sheath. When you attack with a quickrazor, you flick it out in a quick, slashing circle, catching the hilt in your hand at the end of the arc and then snapping it back into its rest. Because of this flicking technique, drawing a quickrazor is always a free action, but at the end of your action, you must stow the quickrazor in order to use it properly again on your next turn. Stowing the weapon after attacking with it in this fashion is a free action. Because you must stow the quickrazor at the end of each attack with it, you are treated as unarmed during other creatures’ actions. If you draw a quickrazor and simply wield it instead of using its intendedattack method, it counts as an improvised weapon, imposing a –2 penalty on attack rolls even if you have the appropriate Exotic Weapon Proficiency feat. Quickrazors are easier to conceal than most weapons, and they grant a +4 bonus on Sleight of Hand checks to conceal them. Quickrazors grant a +2 bonus on Bluff checks made to feint in combat. Attaching a quickrazor and sheath to your wrist so that it can be wielded properly is a full-round action that provokes attacks of opportunity. A character can have only one quickrazor attached to each wrist at a time.

We are going to pair this with iaijutsu focus.

For skills, you’re going to have to have access to the following:

Oriental Adventures page 58 for iaijutsu focus
Tome of Magic page 195 for truespeak



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


1st
Factotum
+0
+0
+2
+0
40: Craft (alchemy) 4, knowledge dungeoneering, 4, disable device 4, truespeak 4, spellcraft 4, iajutsu focus 4, appraise 4, search 4, knowledge religion 4, knowledge arcana 4
Blood Artisan, Exotic Weapon proficiency (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#exoticWeaponProficiency)
Inspiration -2, cunning insight, cunning knowledge, trapfinding
-


2nd
Factotum
+1
+0
+3
+0
10: Craft (alchemy) 5, use magic device 1, disable device 5, truespeak 5, spellcraft 5, iajutsu focus 5, appraise 5, search 5, knowledge religion 5, knowledge arcana 5

Inspiration -3, Arcane dilettante (1 spell)
0


3rd
Factotum
+2
+1
+3
+1
10:Craft (alchemy) 6, use magic device 2, disable device 6, truespeak 6, autohypnosis 1, iajutsu focus 6, appraise 6, search 6, balance 1, sleight of hand 1
Brew Potion
Inspiration -3, Brains over brawn, cunning defense
1


4th
Factotum
+3
+1
+4
+1
Craft (alchemy) 7, use magic device 3, disable device 7, truespeak 7, autohypnosis 2, iajutsu focus 7, appraise 7, search 7, balance 2, sleight of hand 2, disguise 1

Inspiration -3, Arcane dilettante (2 spells), cunning strike
1


5th
Factotum
+3
+1
+4
+1
Craft (alchemy) 8, use magic device 4, disable device 8, truespeak 8, autohypnosis 3, iajutsu focus 8, appraise 8, search 8, balance 3, sleight of hand 3, disguise 2

Inspiration -4,
2


6th
Cleric
+3
+3
+4
+3
truespeak 9, iajutsu focus 9, knowledge planes 2
Extend Spell, Knowledge Devotion (Complete Champion page 60), Appraise Magic Value (Complete Adventurer page 103
Turn undead, spell casting, Planning Domain
x



Before we even get to the bonus feats, this guy can brew potions! All of which are cursed! And then he can spray his enemies with those cursed potions. You can’t brew personal range spells as potions, only spells that target a person. Here is the list that I started and probably won’t finish. Already, this is hilarious. I added what the optimal curse was in parenthesis. Drawback is awesome, if you’re in doubt as to what the best cursed potion curse is, it’s definitely drawback

Level 0: horizikals cough/sonic snap (opposite effect), daze (drawback), message (delusion), repair minor damage (opposite effect/drawback), unnerving gaze(! drawback), touch of fatigue (opposite effect, delusion, drawback), slash tongue (drawback, opposite effect), resistance (drawback, opposite effect)

Level 1: arcane sensitivity (drawback), armor lock (delusion), buzzing bee (opposite effect), bonerattle (opposite effect), bloodwind (delusion), bigby's tripping hand (delusion), bestow wound (?), benign transposition (?) Beckon person (! opposite effect), babau slime (opposite effect), cause fear (opposite effect), charm person (?), chill touch (?), combat readiness (opposite effect), corrosive grasp (delusion),

Go back and read that potion stuff again. The person imbibing the potion is both caster and target. This got real weird.

Anyway, every potion that you make is 25% cheaper, and there is a 5% chance of any potion becoming a 5,000gp potion of poison. A 5% chance of it being a flask of curses. There is a 15% chance that the opponent thinks that the potion is working when it is not (Delusion). Which is hilarious. There is a 20% chance of you creating an opposite effect or target potion. There is a 25% of intermitent functioning potions or potions with requirements. Keep those if the requirements are likely to occur, or go blend them with that miscibility table link that I gave you to see if you can’t get something worthwhile. And then, on the cursed item scale, there is a 15% chance of a completely different effect. But there is no list of completely different effects, so you can get potions of wildly inappropriate power by DM fiat.

You get the idea.

The cleric dip gives us 4 things that help us: 1: extend spell via the planning domain 2: the knowledge domain, which we trade away for knowledge devotion for even more damage on our iaijutsu quickrazor attack, 3: more turn attempts for persistomancy, 4: heavy armor proficiency.

Now all we need are epic feats

1.Font of Inspiration
2. Font of Inspiration
3. Persistent spell (Complete Arcane page 81)
4. Divine metamagic (Complete Divine page 80)
5. Ocular Spell (Lords of Madness page 181)

So now we can persist stuff like instant locksmith and critical strike on ourselves in the morning, or we can store our nonpersonal spells in our eyebeams or into a potion. We have 7 inspiration, and basically the entire list of wizard and cleric spells to persist on ourselves for the days needs. This is where you get permission to apply the rapid reload feat to your mister or ask for a gremma’s cauldron from expedition to undermountain page 217. If you get that cauldron, you can just plop your unused ocular spells into your potions. It says some weird stuff about scrolls (i wonder if it works with martial scripts?), and if you can get your DM to allow you to have access to this thing, get the scribe scroll feat.

Anyway, I’m counting 6 turns for factotum and 5 turn attempts for the cleric level. You can get a reliquary holy symbol (Magic item Compendium page 120) for a spare turn attempt or two. With that you can persist two spells a day. One of them can be a 2nd level wizard spell.

6. Obtain familiar (complete arcane page 81)
7. Extraordinary Artisan (Eberron Campaign setting page 53)
8. Extra turning (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#extraTurning)
9. Font of inspiration
10. Skill focus Truespeak

Your familiar will get you +2 on all of your skill checks by aiding another. Extraordinary artisan brings that potion brewing cost down another 25%. Extra turning nabs you 8 more turning attempts. But you’ll need more inspiration to use them.

And there it is. The factotum.

I hope you have down time, a grease pencil for your potion flask labels, and plenty of loot!

[Zaq]

The problem with being able to do anything is being asked to do everything.


Private 1st class Wallis

https://custom-gwent.com/cardsBg/c31a3224c01759532bd22d0aa1accd8c.jpeg


Being a mercenary isn’t all its made out to be.

“Private Wallis, report for latrine-digging duty!”

Most of the time, it’s boring, tiring work that pays even worse.

“Private Wallis, report for scouting duty. Between you and that ball of feathers I expect you to detect and report all enemy movement!”

When it’s not boring, it’s terrifying, and even then it’s still boring because almost nothing ever happens.

“Private Wallis, report to the surgeon’s tent. The doctor’s requested some extra hands!”

Your days are long, your nights are short and the food’s passable at best.

“Private Wallis, some undead are digging their way out of the eastern cemetery. Kindly go and get them to piss off!”

But, you know, sometimes…

“Private Wallis, could you please explain what that furry beast you call a pet was doing in the officer’s mess?”

Sometimes...

“Specialist Wallis, there’s an enemy fortification in the pass we’re supposed to cross 3 days from now. Take whatever men, equipment and explosives you need, but make sure it’s nothing but rubble when the main company arrives!”

Sometimes I get orders like these, and I'm reminded why it's all worth it.





Private Wallis, CN Human Factotum 5/Totemist 1
languages: common, Giant, draconic, dwarven
Attributes (point-buy cost in brackets)
STR 9 (1)
DEX 14 (6)
CON 14 (6)
INT 17 (13) +1 at level 4 for 18 total
WIS 12 (4)
CHA 10 (2)


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


1st
Factotum 1
+0
+0
+2
+0
truespeak 4, handle animal 4, Use magic Device 4, spot 4, diplomacy 4, knowledge arcana 4, bluff 4, search 4, disable device 4, open lock 4

hidden talent(minor creation, psionic), focused skill user(Truespeak, bluff, disable device)
Inspiration, cunning insight, cunning knowledge, trapfinding


2nd
Factotum 2
+0
+0
+3
+0
truespeak 5, handle animal 5, Use magic Device 5, spot 5, diplomacy 5, knowledge arcana 4, bluff 5, search 5, disable device 5, open lock 5, profession(siege engineer) 1

-
arcane dilettante (1 spell)


3rd
Factotum 3
+1
+1
+3
+1
truespeak 6, handle animal 6, Use magic Device 6, spot 6, diplomacy 6, knowledge arcana 4, bluff 6, search 6, disable device 6, open lock 6, profession(siege engineer) 1, knowledge(dungeoneering) 1

draconic aura (toughness)
Brains over brawn, cunning defense


4th
Factotum 4
+1
+1
+4
+1
truespeak 7, handle animal 6, Use magic Device 7, spot 7, diplomacy 7, knowledge arcana 4, bluff 7, search 7, disable device 7, open lock 7, profession(siege engineer) 1, knowledge(dungeoneering) 1, knowledge(religion) 1, knowledge(the planes) 1, hide 1

-
Arcan dilettante(2 spells), cunning strike


5th
Factotum 5
+1
+1
+4
+1
truespeak 8, handle animal 6, Use magic Device 8, spot 8, diplomacy 8, knowledge arcana 4, bluff 8, search 8, disable device 8, open lock 8,profession(siege engineer) 1, knowledge(dungeoneering) 1, knowledge(religion) 1, knowledge(the planes) 1, knowledge(architecture and engineering) 1, knowledge(nature) 1, hide 1, move silently 1

-
opportunistic piety


6th
Totemist 1
+1
+3
+6
+1
truespeak 9(cc rank), handle animal 7, Use magic Device 8, spot 9, diplomacy 8, knowledge arcana 5, bluff 8, search 8, disable device 9(cc rank), open lock 9(cc rank), profession(siege engineer) 1, knowledge(dungeoneering) 1, knowledge(religion) 1, knowledge(the planes) 1, knowledge(architecture and engineering) 1, knowledge(nature) 1, hide 1, move silently 1

minor utterance of the evolving mind(universal aptitude)
wild empathy, meldshaping



bind vestige
wild cohort(badger)
martial study (shadow jaunt)
skill focus (truespeak)
knowledge devotion
martial stance (child of shadow)
obtain familiar (hawk)
improved bind vestige
practiced binder
font of inspiration




Rationale
The factotum is meant to be a jack-of-all-trades. To this end, it gets all skills, trapfinding, some basic spellcasting, a sneak attack (but in a round-about way under a different name) and turn undead (but in a round-about way under a different name). You can’t take any features that require sneak attack or turn undead, because you don’t actually have class features with those names. This is like being offered an ice-cream choice with your choice of flavour, but all flavors are actually vanilla.

To correct this, I’ve decided to build the factotum as a true jack of all trades, being able to do a bit of everything.

Everything being:
• Martial intiator stuff
• Meldshaping
• Truenaming
• Having a buffing Aura
• Having an animal companion
• Having a familiar
• Being able to bind stuff like a binder
• Doing psionics

Through his pet he’s even capable of tracking people like a ranger could. The only obscure subsystem I wasn’t able to fit in was shadowcasting.

Playstyle
You’re fine as long as you don’t need to roll initiative. Your in-combat strength is pretty laughable, given that you’ve only got +1 BaB. Out-of-combat you’ve got a good mix of skills, with both social options and generally useful stuff like disable device. A combination of high intelligence, the Truename thingy that gives you +5 to all skills for a couple of rounds, and the factotum class feature that allows you to spend inspiration to add bonus to skills you have a rank in* means you can fill in for just about every skill related role if you have to.

Depending on the GM, profession(siege engineer) can be a particular rockstar, as you can leverage it as a permission slip for all kinds of combat-as-war tactics and other chicanery involving simple structures. If you’re playing in a social campaign, switch it out for profession(lawyer) and you’re set. As always with creative use of profession skills, talk to your DM to make sure you’re both on the same wave-length regarding what it does and doesn’t do.

You’ve got access to the Totemists entire selection of Soulmelds, but you can shape only 2 per day. Mostly you’ll want to pick melds that’ll enhance abilities you expect to be needing during the day. Depending on the situation, you might use one of the two Soulmelds that help with adapting to extreme circumstances, or you might shape any of the soulmleds that help with skill-checks. In particular, your available melds can fill in the lack of stealth skills (hide and move silently).

Your martial maneuvers help with your mobility and survivability. You can teleport 50 feet once every couple of minutes and once per encounter, while the stance gives people a 20% miss-chance against you as long as you keep moving around (and since your AC is pretty bad, this will make you about 20% more likely to not die).

You meet (or can meet without contradicting your alignment) the prerequisites of any of the vestiges you can bind, so you can pick the one you expect to need for the day, though you do need to take into account that you’re likely to fail the binding check for the higher level vestiges (which results in the vestige imposing some role-playing restrictions on you).

Your wild cohort has the scent ability and the track feat, allowing you to use them to track foes if you have to. It’s also not completely useless in combat. Likewise, your familiar can be used to scout ahead or spy on people, using its flight and small size to get where you need it to be.

In the end, you should do anything you can to avoid getting in combat, and instead leverage your skills and feathery and furry allies to solve situations in a smart way that minimizes your exposure to harm.

*this is the reason for the large number of skills with a single rank in them. Between inspiration, Truenaming and your high intelligence you can get decent bonuses on any of these skills.


HP: 20+5d8 (42 average)
AC: 18 (wearing a chain shirt and using a heavy shield)
Truename modifer: 9(ranks)+4(int)+5(skill focus and focused skill user)=+18 (check is DC27 for first cast of the day targeting yourself)
inspiration points: 5
Caster level: 5
Base Skill modifier*:
handle animal +7,
Use magic Device +8,
spot +10 (+13 in bright light),
diplomacy +8,
knowledge arcana +9,
bluff +10,
search +12,
disable device +15,
open lock +15,
profession(siege engineer) +1,
knowledge(dungeoneering) +5,
knowledge(religion) +5,
knowledge(the planes) +5,
knowledge(architecture and engineering) +5,
knowledge(nature) +5,
hide +7,
move silently +7

*note that any of these could be boosted by another +10 once a day using Truenaming and an inspiration point, and by +5 whenever the Truenaming thing is active.




Dungeonscape: factotum, font of inspiration
magic of incarnum: Totemist
Tome of magic: feats: Bind vestige, improved bind vestige, practiced binder, minor utterance of the evolving mind, other: Universal aptitude
Tome of battle: feats: Martial study, martial stance, maneuvers: shadow jaunt, child of shadow
dragon magic: draconic aura, toughness aura
online (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a): wild cohort
expanded psionic handbook: hidden talent, 'minor creation, psionic'

[Zaq]

And that's all you're getting! Everyone's getting a trophy this time. Congrats in advance to everyone who got something in!

Judges, do your thing!

[DeTess]

@Jdizzlean, I believe you asked about cut-off points for builds? I reckoned the points where either 5 (because lvl 6 only gets you a point of Bab), or level 3 (because that gives you brains over brawn). Seems I was right.

[tterreb]

And I just barely came up with a build idea... I suck at this.

[lylsyly]

And I just barely came up with a build idea... I suck at this.

So do I ;). But I keep plinking away at it when I can an inspiration.

[Doctor Awkward]

I wouldn't mind taking a crack at judging this round, if no one else minds...

[Zaq]

I wouldn't mind taking a crack at judging this round, if no one else minds...

Go for it. It's a lot of work, but it's usually fun work, and it's great experience!

[daremetoidareyo]

I can't wait to talk shop!

I wound up with so many ideas.

[DeTess]

I can't wait to talk shop!

I wound up with so many ideas.

My first idea was to do something with a level in the chameleon prestige class as capstone as ultimate all-rounder. Combining that with changeling, and you'd have a build whose first question of the day would be 'who shall I be today?' I discarded it because mechanically ti'd be too similar to a build I did a while ago.

After that I tried to find something silly to do with Brains over Brawn, as I'm convinced it's an incredibly broken ability. I just couldn't find anything that fit the bill. If I have time, i'm probably going to take another look at that, because I'm convinced there has to be something unique and interesting there that I couldn't find.

[daremetoidareyo]

I wanted to build a factotum with an intelligence penalty and argue that cunning insight gives you a bonus based on the magnitude of your modifier, thereby turning your ing penalty into a bonus.

" you can spend 1 inspiration point to gain a competence bonus on the roll equal to your Intelligence modifier"

Modifiers and bonus are in the phb glossary as defined game terms. A bonus is obligatorily positive and a modifier can be either a penalty or a bonus. Therefor, cunning insight turns your -4 intelligence modifier into a +4 competence bonus.

I didn't want any judges to have to deal with the absolute value of a negative modifier.

[daremetoidareyo]

On perusal, some races are great with factotum.

The spellscale gets free metamagics usable per day. Plus, if you're a spellwarped phrenic primordial giant eneko with human heritage, you get +8 intelligence at first level, there for 16 extra skill points, if you become a spellscale from there, you keep those skill points and all of those crazy subtypes while wiping your LA.

The illumian is a great factotum race too. Burning turn attempts to add metamagic twice a day. That pairs with twin spell, repeat spell, perstent spell, or any great metamagic.

[Doctor Awkward]

I have to apologize.
I know I offered to judge, but due to a work schedule conflict I almost certainly won't have time to review any of these entries properly by the end of the weekend.

[jdizzlean]

I am back from vacation and will attempt to get through these, hopefully before this weekend if possible. Work (where i get all my GitP time) has been stupid busy, so progress might be slow, especially as i only work the front half of the week.

[daremetoidareyo]

Just bumping this to the front page so that prospective judges may peruse...

[jdizzlean]

Sorry for the delay, I spent most of last week with the flu



This is a pretty tough ingredient for e6. At this level, INT fuels almost all of your class abilities. If you took all 6 ranks in Factotum you’d only end up w/ 4 inspiration points, good luck getting through one encounter w/ that much fuel. Iterative attacks are off the table.

My build would’ve been a high INT race, (possibly even considered primordial half giant for the extra INT) 5 class levels and burning as many feats as possible, if not all of them on Font of Inspiration to max out inspiration points into the teens. This class is all about flexibility, but w/o significant investment, it’s lackluster as a central core of any build.

One thing for this round that was universal: no one specified what they would use from Arcane Dilettante to apply to their specific build. It’s your build, please clarify what your choices would be for it!

Bastiat Fellpaw


I wish you would have picked a spell for your factotum level instead of “choose to taste”. This round is all about factotum after all. Cats get bonus’s to Balance, to which you also invest points, so why not Grease?
Dimension hop to trigger battle jump is awesome *Squee*
The problem w/ expansion is that it’s a standard action to manifest, meaning you can’t use it and attack in the same round, and w/ a short duration you need to set it up and use it in the next round, except you offset this w/ practiced manifester.
Score 4


Kitty wouldn’t have been my goto for this round, and such a “high” dex option seems like it should have some investment into rogue to take advantage of that part of the SI as well, which was skipped in the progression meaning it was taken solely to advance grappling.
Score 3


Finally a build w/ skilled city dweller that actually makes sense. Everything appears legal.
Score 5


Only 3 of 6 ranks, and this is obviously a Grapple build. You are using BoB, and the knowledges side of the SI, but you neglect to choose a spell, ignore trapfinding, and don’t spell out what you’re going to use your inspiration points for beyond knowledge checks. Unfortunately Grapple isn’t one of the things that a factotum can mimic from another class, so you could as you stated really be anything else other than a factotum and come to much the same result.
Score 2


Curse-Mopolitan Dan


Which familiar are you taking?
Appraise Magic Value is kind of a grey area, yes it’s sort of Identify w/o it being so, but it also takes EIGHT hours to identify a single potion, leaving your entire day gone practically. 16 hours of downtime a day is not in the usual adventurer’s future.
Cursed Potions as an attack method is great, but you’re mixing spells, a mister, quickrazors, potions and DMM all together w/o really focusing on any one thing, leaving all of them somewhat more lackluster than could have otherwise been.
Score 3.5


Positive: World’s greatest backstory.
Negative: DMM cheddar.
Score 3.5


The dragon 318 update to Oriental Adventures is only in use for the update to Hengeyokai, it doesn’t open the entire issue up for use. Never mind, I stand corrected.
Minor Equipment dependency – Mister.
Equipment dependency – Quickrazor.
Minor equipment dependencies-ish – dmm/turning stuff/cauldron
There are very few if any cursed items that would fit w/in the realm of e6’s restrictions, CL 6 and no higher than 3rd level spells/effects. This aspect of your build which is a core tenant would require DM fiat.
Minor error, extra turning only grants 4 extra turn attempts, not 8.
Score 3


5 of 6 and a natural progression into Cleric. However you also don’t say what spell choices you’ll make for your factotum levels or your cleric level, meaning it’s hard to say if your choice of Ocular spell is really amazing or not. You definitively bounce around quite a bit as a factotum would, melee/DMM/knowledge monkey and Iajatsu is a natural choice for a factotum as well. I don’t quite get Truespeak on this build however. You also don’t clarify what your inspiration points are for beyond fueling DMM/turn attempts. A potion master has little need of knowledge skills for devotion and this seems an odd choice to make in this regard.
Score 3.5


PFC Walls


Out of combat power can be just as much or more powerful than swinging a sword or slinging a spell.
DR 1 isn’t huge, but any mitigation is better than none.
Familiars and Cohorts can help to fill in for your inefficiencies in combat.
Score 4


Truespeak actually makes sense in this build. Human is nothing special, but binder is surprising.
Score 4


Minor nitpick not related to scoring. You can be a PFC/Corporal/SGT etc OR you can be a Specialist, you can’t be both.
Minor Error: A 5th lvl Factotum actually has a BAB of +3
Score 4.5


You take 5 of 6 ranks and do a pretty good job being a jack of all trades otherwise. You also don’t spell out what spells you’ll use from your factotum levels. Nor specify what you might use your limited Inspiration points for beyond more skill knowledge goodies. In this regard, being non-combat focused means you aren’t using BoB to increase your attack bonus’s, and so are only using this part of the SI to pump skills associated with those attributes.
Score 4.5

[DeTess]

Thanks for judging Jdizzlean, and no disputes from me.

Note to self: never mistake a class' Fort save progression for its BaB progression again.

[Zaq]

Thank you for judging, jdizzlean! I’ll leave a day or so for folks to send in disputes or to announce (out loud or via PM, whatevs) that they have none. Hope you’re over your illness by now or that you don’t have much longer to recover! (Everyone, get your flu shots if you haven’t already!)

I’ve got a few ideas for the next ingredient. I imagine that after a three-entry round, now is not the time to bring in a really hard SI (like Sohei or Mountebank), though if I get a massive swell of folks committing to either of those ingredients, I’m willing to reconsider.

I do have a few ideas that are more on the magical side, but I might leave those for a “high Originality” round like we did with Crusader. (Generally I’m thinking of classes where you kind of have to put in some legwork to break away from the pack, like Healer or Warmage or even Binder. Input on this topic is welcome.)

Right now I’m leaning towards an ingredient that allows a bit more variety, though. It’s another “group” ingredient like the racial paragon class round, which I thought was a great success (even if it ended up going in a way, way different direction than I anticipated). I was going to toss in a specific, rather skillful class as the ingredient, but two skillmonkeys in a row seems less than ideal, don’t you think? Alternatively, if we’re not feeling a group ingredient, I’ve got another oddball “this class’s niche is really not clear” ingredient (hint: it is from a book that one of the ingredients I’ve already hosted is from) that might be appropriate for E6. It’s another class that seems to have a certain intended flavor with very, very questionable ability to live up to said flavor, and I know people have had fun with that conundrum before (see: Ninja, Swashbuckler, Soulknife).

Might as well throw this out there, too: I eventually want Ranger as an ingredient, but there’s part of me that feels like the Ranger round will be much more varied and interesting if we simply ban Wild Shape Ranger for that round, since otherwise people are likely to pretty much just lean on WS (the king of wildcard abilities) as their primary trick. But there’s another part of me that feels like non-WS Ranger is SO weak and SO boring that we’ll end up with another minimum-participant round. Maybe that’s my bias? I admit to being biased against the perpetually disappointing Ranger (see, bias again). Input is appreciated here as well.

That said, the contest doesn’t exist without participants, which is why I’m being a bit more loose-lipped with this than I once was. If there’s anything in particular that you’d find especially fun or especially repulsive, I’d rather find that out up front, whether it’s a class that I’ve mentioned here or not.

I’ve got a few other ones planned as well, of course. I’m not tipping my entire hand to you just yet. But I’d love some discussion about what you want to cook with!

Don’t hold your breath for Truenamer, though. That ain’t happening unless I find time to judge rather than host, and since I’m super busy with work and school, that’s not happening at least until the summer, if not even later, like once I actually graduate.

[DeTess]

Hey Zaq, what about...

*reads white-text*

oh, never mind.

Another group ingredient could be quite interesting, though I struggle to imagine what other set of classes would fit the bill outside of the racial paragons.

[jdizzlean]

if you do the base classes like ranger, i'd be more happy if you opened up ALL variants including those in dragon mag like mystic ranger and just let it go. WS Ranger would be fine, if you get 5 WS rangers and 1 Mystic or other, then that 1 obviously gets a bonus for originality right?

if you want to ban things, ban the obvious options like elf.. or remove bows as an option, make people get creative.

[daremetoidareyo]

No sputes here.

[RaiKirah]

I'm going to tripple down on the no disputes. Thanks jdizzlean for judging!

[Zaq]

Then let's get this show on the road!



Name
Race/Alignment
Stub
Score/Rank
Chef


Bastiat Fellpaw (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=23434228&postcount=47)
NE Cat Hengeyokai
Factotum 3 / Barbarian 2 / Psion 1
14/Silver
RaiKirah


Curse-mopolitan Dan (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=23434230&postcount=48)
? Human
Factotum 5 / Cleric 1
13.5/Bronze
daremetoidareyo


PFC Wallis (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=23434231&postcount=49)
CN Human
Factotum 5 / Totemist 1
17/Gold
Randuir



Thanks for playing, everyone! I'll try for more entries next time. Thanks to jdizzlean for judging. New thread here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?572441-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-XIII))!

[daremetoidareyo]

I ran out of time to expound on it, but ocular spell has a weird interplay with potion brewing, especially with the quick potion spell being available, which could be fun.

The tome of magic spells are pretty powerful for 1st level spells, with a scramble position potion being a great paired with a readied action in the old mister.