Iron Chef Optimisation Challenge in the Playground XCVI

[Heliomance]

A dimly-lit library. Rows of bookshelves line the walls, and as the camera slowly pans over them, we see that they are filled with gaming books. From the original brown-cover D&D manuals to the newest fifth edition supplements, we are given a brief but breathtaking history of over four decades of gaming in visual form.

A pair of feet, clad in Converse, appear. The camera pans back to reveal the Chairwoman as she strides out into Optimization Stadium. Slowly, she looks around at the battleground. Rapidly, we are shown shots of the gaming materials here assembled: books, miniatures, maps, dice. The Chairwoman reaches down and picks up a twenty-sided die. She rolls it, then turns to the camera... and smiles.

The camera pulls back from the smile to reveal... the Iron Gamers. Row upon row they stand, clad in the uniform of their trade: t-shirts with fantasy images, buttons with obscure quotes from novels and movies, dice bags at the ready. The shot dissolves into flames and the logo:


Iron Gamer

A montage of the contestants plays, with summaries of their optimization triumphs and achievements. Interspersed are brief interviews. Finally, though, the introductions are over. The contestants stand arrayed before the Chairwoman.

Chairwoman: We unveil the ingredient!

Tense music plays as the pedestal containing the mystery ingredient rises from below. Stacked neatly on the pedestal are copies of Masters of the Wild.

Chairwoman: This month's theme is... Oozemaster! ALLEZ OPTIMISER!


-----------------------------------------------------------------

Welcome, contestants, judges, and guests to Iron Chef LXXXIV. Here in Optimisation Colosseum, contestants will endeavour to create an optimised and flavourful character using a specified D&D3.5 prestige class as a "Secret Ingredient".

Contestants: You will need to present a full 20-level build for your entry. Also required is a rundown of how your build works at lower levels, to demonstrate that it is a functional character that could be played from 1-20 in a real game. Traditionally contestants give "snapshots" of tactics and abilities at levels 5, 10, 15, and 20, as well as a "sweet spot" of their choosing that represents what they believe to be the high point of the build. The purpose of these snapshots is not just to showcase your use of the SI, it is to demonstrate that your character is playable at every level. For this reason, it's still worth giving a snapshot before you have entered the SI.

Menu: The "special ingredient" can be drawn from any legal source. Originally, the plan was to mostly use Core and Completes, but that was a long time ago, and we've started running out of interesting classes to use if we restrict ourselves to those.

32 point-buy is the presumed creation method, but we have generally allowed other levels of point-buy.
If you do use a different point-buy, please make your case for its necessity in your entry. Keep in mind that for using exceptionally large or small point-buys may warrant deductions in elegance and/or power.

Kitchen: Competitors will be free to use any official 3.5 rulebook in constructing their builds. Dragon magazine is disallowed, and Unearthed Arcana is allowed; but see Elegance below. Web-exclusive 3.0 or 3.5 materials by WotC are expressly allowed, but take care to verify that an updated version did not appear in print elsewhere, as this may cause an Elegance deduction at the judges' discretion. Alternate rule systems from UA such as gestalt or Generic Classes are not allowed, as they create a different playing field. Also, item familiars are forbidden because I hate 'em. Please refrain from using Taint unless it's necessary for the Secret Ingredient.
NB: Official Errata and 3.5 updates to 3.0 content are considered valid regardless of whether their sources would otherwise be legal. This includes the 3.5 update of Oriental Adventures given in Dragon Magazine, and the 3.5 updates of Dragonlance Campaign Setting content given in later third party Dragonlance books.

Cooking Time: Contestants will have until 07:59 GMT on Tuesday, January 1st, 2019 to create their builds and PM them to the Chairwoman, Heliomance. Please put the name of your build in the subject line of your PM. Builds will then be posted simultaneously, to avoid copying. Judges will have until 07:59 GMT on Tuesday, January 15th, 2019 to judge the builds and submit their scores. If no judges have scored by that point, only the scores of the first judge to submit will be counted.

Judging: Judging will be based on the following criteria, with each build rated on a scale from 1 (very poor) to 5 (exemplary) in each area: Originality, Power, Elegance, Use of Secret Ingredient.

Power level is up to you. Cheese is acceptable, but should be kept to a sane level unless you're showcasing a new TO build you've discovered. In the words of one of my predecessors, a little cheddar can be nice, but avoid the mature Gruyere unless you're making a cheese fondue.
Elegance could bear a little elaboration. It basically measures how skillfully you put your build together, and whether you sacrificed flavor for power. We're cooking here - if your dish doesn't taste good, it doesn't matter how well-presented it is. Use of flaws is considered in poor taste, and judges are asked to take a dim view of this option, taking it into account while grading. Other things that will cause penalties here are excessive multi-classing, and classes that don't fit the concept - using Cloistered Cleric in a front-line melee fighter, for example, will lose you points.Please note the following change: a legal source's relative obscurity should not be considered as penalizing Elegance, excepting the aforementioned issues with Unearthed Arcana. Using too many sources may result in a penalty to Elegance at the judges' discretion, but a book's relative obscurity may not. In that same vein, drawing solely from the Core 3 (and the d20 SRD) should not be punished for lacking Originality.
Presentation: Builds will be posted anonymously, in order to avoid the potential of bias towards a particular competitor. For this reason, please don't put your name in the build, as I'm likely to miss it when reviewing the entries!

Due to concerns about standardizing entry format, I'd like everyone to try to use the following table for their entry.NAME OF ENTRY


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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



Code immediately below (spoiler).

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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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



For entries with spellcasting, use the following table for Spells per day and Spells Known. (Spells Known only if necessary, i.e. Sorcerer or Bard, but not Wizard or Warmage)Spells per Day/Spells Known
Spells per Day/Spells Known


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


Code immediately below (spoiler)Spells per Day/Spells Known
Spells per Day/Spells Known


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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



For other systems (Psionics, ToB, Incarnum, etc.) keep track of PP/maneuvers/essentia separately, preferably in a nice neat list.
Speculation: Please don't post or speculate on possible builds until the "reveal," in order to avoid spoiling the surprise if a particular competitor is producing a build along those lines.

Leadership is banned; we're producing a meal, not a seven-course banquet for a hundred diners. If your entry includes a prestige class or ACF that grants Leadership or a Leadership-like ability as a bonus feat, the feat should be ignored and is not eligible to be traded away for another feat or ACF through any means.

So! Who wants to sign up as a contestant, and who wants to sign up as a judge? Looking for as many contestants and judges as feel like playing!

We will award 1st through 3rd places, as well as a shout-out for honourable mention. The honourable mention prize is given to the most daring or unexpected build. Judges, contestants and guests alike are invited to vote for honourable mention via PM. If there are no votes, Honourable Mention will go to the chairwoman's favourite build.

The Builds

Past Competitions

Courtesy of some wonderful volunteers, there is a handy-dandy spreadsheet guide to all previous builds here (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oyjVU5JmeCnC8YTMqDArDqE5PszHl0Ysadz630kuTGk/edit?ts=59a4835f#gid=0).

Iron Chef I: Entropomancer (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=142470)
Iron Chef II: Psibond Agent (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=146583)
Iron Chef III: Cancer Mage (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=148584)
Iron Chef IV: Stonelord (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=150595)
Iron Chef V: War Chanter (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=152543)
Iron Chef VI: Master of Masks (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=156876)
Iron Chef VII: Green Star Adept (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=158633)
Iron Chef VIII: Pyrokineticist (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=160266)
Iron Chef IX: Animal Lord (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=162702)
Iron Chef X: Mythic Exemplar (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=164381)
Iron Chef XI: Blade Bravo (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=166539)
Iron Chef XII: War Mind (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=9426386)
Iron Chef XIII: Vigilante (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=172233)
Iron Chef XIV: Seeker of the Song (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=174434)
Iron Chef XV: Drunken Master (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=176049)
Iron Chef XVI: Assassin (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=178202)
Iron Chef XVII: Ardent Dilettante (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=182492)
Iron Chef XVIII: Unseelie Dark Hunter (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=186097)
Iron Chef XIX: Dread Pirate (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=190607)
Iron Chef XX: Incandescent Champion (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=10976416)
Iron Chef XXI: Ghostwalker (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=198921)
Iron Chef XXII: Dervish (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=206576)
Iron Chef XXIII: Divine Crusader (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=210071)
Iron Chef XXIV: Tactical Soldier (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=214198)
Iron Chef XXV: Scion of Tem-Et-Nu (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=217441)
Iron Chef XXVI: Shadowdancer (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=220956)
Iron Chef XXVII: Mindbender (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=224008)
Iron Chef XXVIII: Cryokineticist (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=227304)
Iron Chef XXIX: Consecrated Harrier (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=229688)
Iron Chef XXX: Initiate of Pistis Sophia (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=233346)
Iron Chef XXXI: Shadow Sentinel (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=236908)
Iron Chef XXXII: Temple Raider of Olidammara (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=239786)
Iron Chef XXXIII: Drow Judicator (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=243052)
Iron Chef XXXIV: Dragon Disciple (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=246072)
Iron Chef XXXV: Death Delver (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=249542)
Iron Chef XXXVI: Acolyte of the Skin (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=252923)
Iron Chef XXXVII: Justiciar (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13865473)
Iron Chef XXXVIII: Hand of the Winged Master (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=255215)
Iron Chef XXXIX: Renegade Mastermaker (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=260333)
Iron Chef XL: Nightsong Infiltrator (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=263173)
Iron Chef XLI: Geomancer (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=266709)
Iron Chef XLII: Shadowblade (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=270196)
Iron Chef XLIII: Bladesinger (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=274122)
Iron Chef XLIV: Urban Soul (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=279116)
Iron Chef XLV: Talon of Tiamat (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=15216595)
Iron Chef XLVI: Cipher Adept (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=287314)
Iron Chef XLVII: Cold Iron Warrior (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=291294)
Iron Chef XLVIII: Shadow Sun Ninja (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=297327)
Iron Chef XLIX: Thrall to Orcus (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=302487)
Iron Chef L: Corrupt Avenger (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=307823)
Iron Chef LI: Black Flame Zealot (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=312773)
Iron Chef LII: Anointed Knight (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=317934)
Iron Chef LIII: Zerth Cenobite (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=325164)
Iron Chef LIV: Osteomancer (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=330890)
Iron Chef LV: Mountebank (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?336373-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LV)
Iron Chef LVI: Dwarven Defender (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?342807-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LVI)
Iron Chef LVII: Darkrunner (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?349040-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LVII)
Iron Chef LVIII: Spellsword (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?357412-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LVIII)
Iron Chef LIX: Fleet Runner of Ehlonna (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?364667-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LIX)
Iron Chef LX: Lasher (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?371835-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LX)
Iron Chef LX(II): Acolyte of the Ego (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?372145-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LX)
Iron Chef LXII: Dungeon Lord (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?376810-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXII)
Iron Chef LXIII: Witchborn Binder (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?382632-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXIII)
Iron Chef LXIV: Slime Lord (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?387166-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXIV)
Iron Chef LXV: Thunder Guide (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?394981-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXV)
Iron Chef LXVI: Dwarven Chanter (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?400810-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXVI)
Irogn Chef LXVII: Gnome Giant Slayer (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?406613-Irogn-Chef-Optimisatiogn-Challegnge-ign-the-Playgrougnd-LXVII)
Iron Chef LXVIII: Fang of Lolth (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?412530-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXVIII)
Iron Chef LXIX: Shiba Protector (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?420165-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXIX)
Iron Chef LXX: Order of the Bow Initiate (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?425634-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXX)
Iron Chef LXXI: Silver Key (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?431484-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXXI)
Iron Chef LXXII: Spellfire Channeler (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?439020-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXXII)
Iron Chef LXXIII: Flux Adept (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?448596-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXXIII)
Iron Chef LXXIV: Crinti Shadow Marauder (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?458711-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXXIV)
Iron Chef LXXV: Thief of Life (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?472831-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXXV)
Iron Chef LXXVI: Legacy Champion (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?477153-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXXVI)
Iron Chef LXXVII: Great Rift Skyguard (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?482249-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXXVII)
Iron Chef LXVIII: Risen Martyr (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?487560-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXXVIII)
Iron Chef LXXIX: Black Blood Hunter (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?492923-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXXIX)
Iron Chef LXXX: Master of Many Forms (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?498359-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXXX)
Iron Chef LXXXI: Serene Guardian (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?502666-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXXXI)
Iron Chef LXXXII: Elocator (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?505762-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXXXII)
Iron Chef LXXXIII: Winterhaunt of Iboorighu (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?510581-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXXXIII)
Iron Chef LXXXIV: Waverider (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?514631-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXXXIV)
Iron Chef LXXXV: Astral Dancer (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?519296-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXXXV)
Iron Chef LXXXVI: Twisted Lord (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?525401-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXXXVI)
Iron Chef LXXXVII: Shadowsmith (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?528361-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXXXVII)
Iron Chef LXXXVIII: Arboreal Guardian (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?533367-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXXXVIII)
Iron Chef LXXXIX: Thrall of Demogorgon (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?536247-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXXXIX)
Iron Chef XC: Bloodstorm Blade (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?542380-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-XC)
Iron Chef XCI: Fatemaker (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?550203-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-XCI)
Iron Chef XCII: Eye of the Xanathar (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?556092-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-XCII)
Iron Chef XCIII: Hoardstealer (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?560330-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-XCIII)
Iron Chef XCIV: Doomlord (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?564804-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-XCIV)
Iron Chef XCV: Gnomish Artificer (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?571065-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-XCV)

[Heliomance]

FAQ:
Q: What's this even about?
A: I'm glad you asked, actually... (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=15415117&postcount=1)

Q: Is Dragon Compendium Allowed?
A: Yes (as well as its Errata), but individual issues of Dragon Magazine are not.

Q: What about 3.0 materials?
A: 3.0 materials, whether online or in printed form, are allowed unless they've been officially updated to a 3.5 edition.

Q: Are Dragonlance, Ravenloft, Planescape, Dark Sun, or Kingdoms of Kalamar allowable sources?
A: The Dragonlance Campaign Setting is allowed, but the subsequent books for Dragonlance are considered 3rd party, and are therefore not eligible, despite the "WotC approved" status of those books. The same holds for Oriental Adventures (1st party) and the subsequent Rokugan books (3rd party). Materials from Ravenloft, Planescape, Dark Sun, and Kingdoms of Kalamar are considered 3rd party for purposes of this contest, and are therefore not allowed.

Q: What about online sources in general?
A: If the online source is a) published by WotC, and b) not replaced by an updated version at a later time, it is eligible. Use it, link it.

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

Q: What, exactly, does the ban on Leadership mean?
A: As folks have started to try to work around the edges of this one, I'm forced to spell it out more plainly. No Leadership, Draconic Cohort, or Feats that grant a similar ability are allowed EXCEPT Wild Cohort while Heliomance is chairman. Any PrC you choose with Leadership or a Leadership-analog has that ability entirely ignored for this contest, as it may neither be used nor traded away via any means whatsoever.

Q: What's the minimum score in a category?
A: Assuming an entry is legal, the minimum score in any category is 1. If a judge is convinced that an entry is mechanically illegal by the RAW, the judge may give the build a score of 0 in Elegance, and proceed to judge the entry as if the offending material was not included. Failing to meet a special requirement for a prestige class does not merit a 0, but may qualify for a penalty, at the judge's discretion. Because this contest focuses on Player Characters, an entry that is not technically allowed for a PC, but is viable as an NPC, counts as a legal entry, but may receive a minimum score at the judges' discretion.

Q: Creatures and templates with no listed LA are playable, right?
A: No. No listed LA is equivalent to LA: -. It is not suitable for PCs. If you use it, expect judges to look extremely disfavourably on it.

Q: So what's the deal with equipment, anyway?
A: There is no official policy on how much equipment you should list. Historically, judges have frowned upon "item dependent" builds, but unfortunately the definition of that has been applied to mean anything from builds that don't function if you remove one very specific item, to builds that so much as mention a particular weapon. Builds that don't list gear should be assumed to buy useful generics - items to boost their primary stats, cloaks of resistance, appropriate magical weapons and armour, and so forth. If a build would find particular items useful, they should be listed, but experience suggests that the more generic you keep them, the more favourably judges are likely to look upon them, as a build being shut down because the Thundering Bagpipes of Urist McTrumpetbritches were unavailable is considered a weakness. Similarly, requiring items in order to be able to qualify for things tends to be frowned upon.

Q: Do you have any other rules and guidelines on how to judge?
A: We do, actually, designed to try and avoid unpleasantness we've encountered in past contests. The things we've come up with to avoid repeating this are given below.

One Mistake, One Penalty

Judges are only allowed to penalise once for a given mistake. If someone messes up their skills and doesn't qualify for a PrC, ding them as hard as you like. Once. In one category. You don't then get to declare that because they didn't qualify for that PrC, they don't get those levels, and thus don't qualify for anything else. If Ranger is a common ingredient, ding them for Originality. Once. Don't also take off points for Two-Weapon-Fighting being a common ingredient.

Non-exhaustive list of examples:

Skills

Allowed:

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


Not allowed:

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



Prereqs

Allowed:

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


Not Allowed:

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



Other general things that are no longer allowed:

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


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

Q: Do you have any contest house rules or clarifications to ambiguous rules?
A: Some that have come up in previous contests and needed answers to:

All creatures are proficient with any natural weapons they may have or acquire.
Bonus feats that are granted even if you do not meet the prerequisites do not require you to meet the prerequisites in order to use.
Able Learner's benefit applies to the level you take it.


Q: Can I submit more than one entry?
A: You may submit up to two entries into a given competition.

[WhamBamSam]

Oooh, I've been waiting for this one. Merry Oozemas everyone!

[DeTess]

Is there a 3.5 update for this one out somewhere?

Anyway, I assume the charisma penalty scales to -5 total, rather than being a -15 cumulative penalty to charisma?

[Sian]

Anyway, I assume the charisma penalty scales to -5 total, rather than being a -15 cumulative penalty to charisma?

Let's be even more cheesy and assume that you don't get a charisma penalty at all, since it's not mentioned anywhere in the text, but only in the table :p

[DeTess]

Let's be even more cheesy and assume that you don't get a charisma penalty at all, since it's not mentioned anywhere in the text, but only in the table :p

That's an excellent point :smalltongue:

[Darrin]

Huh.

What the heck is "stunning damage"?

[RaiKirah]

Huh, that's definitely intriguing, and I'll have to think about it some more to know if I have any worthwhile ideas for building.

A general question for the competition, since it came up (at least in my mind) in the most recent Gamewarper's: What precisely does an ECL20 build mean for these competitions? Does it mean exactly 190K XP, or a hard cap on HD, or is it more permissive than that, or something else entirely? I believe I recall relaxing the XP usage requirements for crafting heavy SIs before, but I don't recall if we've ever specified how the ECL20 requirement is met. If you call out using an XP heavy spell combo (Dark Chaos Shuffling without paying for it) do you end up only at ECL19, or are you allowed to input an ECL20 build, or is it left to the Judge's discretion. Anyways, I thought it might be useful to explicitly define. If it's there and I just can't find it, I apologize for wasting everyone's time.

[WhamBamSam]

Huh.

What the heck is "stunning damage"?I read it as untyped damage that carries a stunning effect, and maybe doesn't damage creatures immune to stunning. We could probably do with a ruling though.


Huh, that's definitely intriguing, and I'll have to think about it some more to know if I have any worthwhile ideas for building.

A general question for the competition, since it came up (at least in my mind) in the most recent Gamewarper's: What precisely does an ECL20 build mean for these competitions? Does it mean exactly 190K XP, or a hard cap on HD, or is it more permissive than that, or something else entirely? I believe I recall relaxing the XP usage requirements for crafting heavy SIs before, but I don't recall if we've ever specified how the ECL20 requirement is met. If you call out using an XP heavy spell combo (Dark Chaos Shuffling without paying for it) do you end up only at ECL19, or are you allowed to input an ECL20 build, or is it left to the Judge's discretion. Anyways, I thought it might be useful to explicitly define. If it's there and I just can't find it, I apologize for wasting everyone's time.Judges discretion, generally. I remember a side-comp round from years ago that allotted one less exp than would be necessary to reach ECL 21 because they had thought Tippy would be judging, but otherwise it's never been explicit.

[Thurbane]

Wow. Yes, I have to have a crack at this one.

Bad time of year time wise, but I'll do my best...

[The Viscount]

This one will be challenging but I'm excited to muck about with it.

[RaiKirah]

I have two names already, but no idea how to make a build that does them justice :/

Also, can we have rulings on the 3.0 content that wasn't updated? Specifically Alchemy and Wilderness Lore skills, and 'Stunning Damage'

[Thurbane]

I have two names already, but no idea how to make a build that does them justice :/

Also, can we have rulings on the 3.0 content that wasn't updated? Specifically Alchemy and Wilderness Lore skills, and 'Stunning Damage'

Under the general conversion booklet, Alchemy becomes Craft (alchemy) and Wilderness Lore becomes survival.

I believe stunning damage = nonlethal damage, but I can't find a citation.

[RaiKirah]

Under the general conversion booklet, Alchemy becomes Craft (alchemy) and Wilderness Lore becomes survival.

I believe stunning damage = nonlethal damage, but I can't find a citation.


Thanks! My bad on the first two - was moving too fast to be thorough.

[Zaq]

AFAIK, stunning damage is unique to this ability. I mentioned it in the Dysfunctional Rules thread a while back. Treat it as similar to city damage, I guess?

I’m on winter break between semesters, so I’m going to see if I can slap something together before school starts up again. Can’t promise anything, of course (I don’t have any actual IDEAS yet, just a desire to participate), but I’m cautiously hopeful. (Of course, this is typed on mobile before I actually look at the class. The only thing I remember is the weird “stunning damage” bit, nothing else.)

[KrimsonNekros]

Is there a 3.5 update for this one out somewhere?

Anyway, I assume the charisma penalty scales to -5 total, rather than being a -15 cumulative penalty to charisma?

Could we get an official ruling regarding this? It could potentially impact builds depending on whether this penalty is against the ability score, or against skill and ability checks.

[Zaq]

Just got a chance to read the class in detail.

To be honest, I don't see what can be done with it other than diving into shenanigans. It seems highly underwhelming if played straight. That said, it might be fun to dive into shenanigans. I'll have to think about this for a while.

Why does it take 3rd-level spells to enter? That's really insulting on a half-caster class. At least you only need to light a single feat on fire. I guess we should be thankful that it doesn't also require, like, Self-Sufficient or something.

[Heliomance]

The Charisma penalty is an untyped penalty to your Charisma score, and the tables shows the total effect, not cumulative additions. (Even if that weren't the case, it's still a penalty from the same source, and thus only the highest penalty would apply, rather than stacking)

[SirNibbles]

Question about Minor Oozy Touch. Should we just read full attack action as full round action so we don't have any rules-lawyering shenanigans?

[RaiKirah]

Question about Minor Oozy Touch. Should we just read full attack action as full round action so we don't have any rules-lawyering shenanigans?

RAWyery is half (more?) the fun! :)

[WhamBamSam]

If an Oozy Touch deals multiple damage types, such as stunning damage and acid damage for the Ochre Jelly one, which type is the splash damage when it's used for Oozy Glob?

[Wolfem]

The ICO (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oyjVU5JmeCnC8YTMqDArDqE5PszHl0Ysadz630kuTGk/edit?ts=59a4835f#gid=0&range=A1001) Spreadsheet has been updated with a placeholder for the new cook.

[daremetoidareyo]

The ICO (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oyjVU5JmeCnC8YTMqDArDqE5PszHl0Ysadz630kuTGk/edit?ts=59a4835f#gid=0) Spreadsheet has been updated with a placeholder for the new cook.

Thank you for doing all of this leg work.

[KrimsonNekros]

I have an idea that I'm working on for this, got most of the build figured out just need to figure out a few more things.

[The Viscount]

While we're asking questions, does the capstone give you a nonability for intelligence when you change type, or do you retain your intelligence? Oozes have no intelligence score by virtue of type, but there does exist precedent of an ooze with an Int in the Summoning Ooze and Reason Stealer (temporarily).

[PrismCat21]

While we're asking questions, does the capstone give you a nonability for intelligence when you change type, or do you retain your intelligence? Oozes have no intelligence score by virtue of type, but there does exist precedent of an ooze with an Int in the Summoning Ooze and Reason Stealer (temporarily).

Your type does not change. It acts as if it's changed for how certain effects and abilities affect you.
Your type is still whatever it was before.

[Darrin]

I believe stunning damage = nonlethal damage, but I can't find a citation.

I dug into the 3.0, 2E, and 1E Monster Manuals, but I can't find any reference about ochre jellies having anything to do with stun. There was a stunjelly in the original Fiend Folio and the Monstrous Compendium, but it's 3rd Edition appearance was in a 3rd party book: Tome of Horrors from Necromancer Games. I can't find any indication in the text that it was intended to be nonlethal or carry a save vs. stun effect, so I'm inclined to suggest the following ruling:

Stunning damage is untyped damage that disrupts a creature's nervous system. Certain creature types that are immune to stunning effects are also likewise immune to stunning damage: constructs, elementals, oozes, plants, and undead.


Question about Minor Oozy Touch. Should we just read full attack action as full round action so we don't have any rules-lawyering shenanigans?

Yes, that sounds like a sensible ruling. If you want to make a melee touch attach with Minor Oozy Touch, it's a full-round action with a single attack roll.

This leaves open the question about what exactly can Minor Oozy Touch do with just a standard action, but that might be something for the chefs/judges to contend with.


If an Oozy Touch deals multiple damage types, such as stunning damage and acid damage for the Ochre Jelly one, which type is the splash damage when it's used for Oozy Glob?

For simplicity's sake, I think we can just rule that the splash damage for the Ochre Jelly option is 1 point of acid damage.

I don't think there are any other options for Minor Oozy Touch/Oozy Glob to do two different types of damage...?


While we're asking questions, does the capstone give you a nonability for intelligence when you change type, or do you retain your intelligence? Oozes have no intelligence score by virtue of type, but there does exist precedent of an ooze with an Int in the Summoning Ooze and Reason Stealer (temporarily).

There are a good half-dozen or so intelligent oozes:
Reason Stealer (MMII)
Conflagration Ooze (MMIII)
Summoning Ooze (MMIII)
Cesspit Ooze (Cityscape)
Assassin Jelly (WotC Article (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20040916a))
Sentry Ooze template (Dungeonscape)

The wording for "One with the Ooze" is not a straight-up type change, however:

"His type changes to ooze for determining what effects and items can affect him." (emphasis added)

So based on that, I'd say the Oozemaster retains his Int score and his vision abilities of his natural form. They do not get all of the immunities of the Ooze type, just those listed in the text. However, I'd add "immune to crits" as an oversight.

[Zaq]

I have had a horrifying idea that I'll attempt to put together over the weekend.

Have we progressed so far into this contest that it's impossible to put together anything approaching serious, or is that just me?

(I do have a different idea that's insane in a completely different direction, but I can't promise I'll have the time for it.)

[The Viscount]

I think it's possible to make serious concepts, but I'm definitely drawn more toward the funny ones. It's a way to inject something into an ingredient that gives you less, and the less an ingredient gives you, the more I think you have to throw into that funny part. My favorite example is Order of the Bow Initiate, in which every entry made a joke about firing an arrow in response to "what is truth".
This round my idea is definitely leaning more toward the absurd.

[Zaq]

Good hell but I hate formatting on this forum. Formatting is just the worst. Stupid freaking skill tables. Better get it right the first time, or else.

Build number one is in. Going to try to bang out a second one, but that may or may not come to fruition. I'm pretty pleased with what I've got, though!

[KrimsonNekros]

I need to do skills and write up, but since I have no obligations for a couple days, here is to hoping I finish.

[Zaq]

Didn't think I'd make it in, but I got in my second entry. Looking forward to the reveal! I bet you folks came up with some wacky entries. I certainly couldn't come up with anything non-wacky. There were a few directions I wanted to go in that I didn't get a chance to, though, so I'm interested to see if anyone followed the paths I had to abandon.

[Akal Saris]

Well, this PrC certainly oozes with flavor! I'm jelly-ous of anyone who can mold a build out of it :)

[WhamBamSam]

Submitted my oozes by the two-zes. Curious what everyone else came up with.

[The Viscount]

My idea is falling apart under its own weight. In all likelihood I won't have anything this round. I'll be happy to see what everyone brought to the table.

[Zaq]

My idea is falling apart under its own weight. In all likelihood I won't have anything this round. I'll be happy to see what everyone brought to the table.

I've had that happen in rounds past. It's frustrating. I generally say that it's best not to talk oneself out of things, but sometimes it can only be acknowledged that this just isn't getting anywhere and it's just going to be half-assed at best.

Given any thought to judging?

[The Viscount]

If people don't mind reading my ramblings twice in a row I'd be down to judge.

[Jopustopin]

What's the best way to get involved with this whole thing? Do you start as a judge or a contestant? Just out of curiosity. I'll be honest the oozemaster was like the first prestige class that I wanted to take back in the day.

[Falontani]

What's the best way to get involved with this whole thing? Do you start as a judge or a contestant? Just out of curiosity. I'll be honest the oozemaster was like the first prestige class that I wanted to take back in the day.

That depends on what you are more comfortable with. If you haven't much learning in 3.5 then I suggest watching a competition to see how its graded, how the builds are presented, etc (you can read any of the past competitions). Then presenting a build will take less time, however is generally more difficult than judging (you must become a master of your build). Judging other builds will take more time as you have to look over more material and attempt to understand the build, and put your rankings in clear concise blocks of text.

Generally the suggestion is to hop in feet first and try it out, see what you'd prefer doing, and don't be nervous! Not a one of us (except maybe the titans? nooo not even thurbane) is perfect, so you may make a mistake in judging, you may make a mistake in your presentation. But then you'll learn from it through the judging process. The judge will call you out on your mistake, or you'll give someone a grade and they will explain why you were wrong in your grading assessment. Remember, this isn't Teacher vs Student, this is Peer vs Peer. Some peers may know more, but no one here is capable of teaching everything, and no one here is always correct.

[daremetoidareyo]

What's the best way to get involved with this whole thing? Do you start as a judge or a contestant? Just out of curiosity. I'll be honest the oozemaster was like the first prestige class that I wanted to take back in the day.

Make an entry and submit bro. Remember the what you see is what you get mode buttons on the top left.

[Darrin]

What's the best way to get involved with this whole thing? Do you start as a judge or a contestant? Just out of curiosity. I'll be honest the oozemaster was like the first prestige class that I wanted to take back in the day.

I think most of the veteran chefs started as a contestant. "Inside the Kitchen: Mind of an Iron Chef (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?545591-Inside-the-Kitchen-Mind-of-an-Iron-Chef)" is maybe a good place to start as far as how you might want to approach your first build. If you don't have any immediate ideas on what to do with an ingredient, you'll probably start with something in the range of Category 3 to 6.

That being said... I have learned the *MOST* about making good Iron Chef entries by judging. It's a lot more work, as you have to essentially build every single entry in your head, break them apart, and put them back together again, but that's the fastest and most effective way to learn how to build around an exploit, how to stretch open a loophole, how to leverage or finagle the subsystems into something a little more interesting.

And also, while I said judging is a lot of work... I think we've deliberately made it a lot more work than what was originally intended. At the end of the day (or week... or month...), all that's required of a judge is to come up with a number between 4 and 20.

[The Viscount]

I'd recommend starting as a contestant, since I think it's a more straightforward process, but you're certainly welcome to judge. Feel free to jump right in.

[Zaq]

Do what feels right! I started as a contestant. I think that’s the most common approach. But it’s not the only one, as has been mentioned. Building makes you better at judging and vice versa.

Oh, and remember that we’re all crazy here. I mean, have you SEEN some of the crap we submit with a straight face? Don’t talk yourself out of things. I mean, stay grounded whenever you can, but if your work takes you down a rabbit hole, embrace that and tell us why it’s awesome!

[Jopustopin]

Hey thanks everyone for the feedback. This one is past the entry deadline, so nothing to do but wait at this point, right?

[Zaq]

So technically Helio could post the reveal at any minute. You might not want to dive too deep into it for fear of getting cut off.

That said, historically, the real deadline is "whenever the Chair actually posts the builds," so if you happened to have an entry right now, you'd probably be included with the others.

[Macabaret]

Or you can poke your head into one of the other, similar contests. There are a few Junkyard Wars that are currently open and accepting submissions, so you could just dive right in instead of waiting. Or E6 is (very) near the submission deadline, so if your interest is to judge first before entering a contest, that would be a good place to look into. The rules for each tend to be just a hair different than Iron Chef, but the structure of it all is basically the same.

So, there's plenty more to do than 'just wait'. Come and play! :smallbiggrin:

[Heliomance]

Aye, the deadline listed in the OP tends to be more of a "the deadline will not be before this time" jobby, because 1) I am bad at being organised, and 2) my new job is a lot more interesting than my old job, and I'm no longer underworked, so I no longer regularly have hours on end at work where I have nothing to do, which is where I used to do the reveals.

Speaking of, here come the builds!

[Heliomance]

Entry number 1:



Cynthia Yoht

The Light Within

http://rs135.pbsrc.com/albums/q122/Zagato-sama/Ro%20characters/angeling.gif~c200

Don't worry about a thing, friend.

Our cause is just. We seek no violence, no bloodshed, no death.

We will find a way to proceed peacefully, even if it takes some struggle before everyone sees the true path forward.

I know you inside and out. I've got you taken care of—and I know you've got me covered. Rather.

Just trust in your inner light to guide you. Know that I am within you, shining forth and giving you the strength you need to see this to the end. I won't let anything happen to you.

Now, open wide…

NG (Exalted) Human Healer 5 / Oozemaster 10 / Swordsage 1 / Apostle of Peace 2 / Contemplative 2

Stats:



Stat
Starting
PB Cost
Lv 4 (Net)
Exalted: Lv 7 (Net)
Lv 8 (Net)
Ooze: Lv 10 (Net)
Exalted: Lv 11 (Net)
Ooze: Lv 12 (Net)
Lv 12 (Net)
Ooze: Lv 14 (Net)
Exalted: Lv 15 (Net)
Ooze: Lv 16 (Net)
Lv 16 (Net)
Ooze: Lv 18 (Net)
Exalted: Lv 19 (Net)
Lv 20 (Net)
Final


STR
8
0














8


DEX
12
4












+2 (14)

14


CON
14
6








+2 (16)



+2 (18)

18


INT
14
6














14


WIS
16
10
+1 (17)
+2 (19)
+1 (20)

+2 (22)

+1 (23)

+2 (25)

+1 (26)

+2 (28)

28


CHA
14
6



-1 (13)
+2 (15)
-1 (14)

-1 (13)
+2 (15)
-1 (14)

-1 (13)
+2 (15)
+1 (16)
16



Quick starting/ending stats so you don't have to scroll:
Starting: 08/12/14/14/16/14
Ending: 08/14/18/14/28/16

Build table:


Level
Class
BAB
Fort
Ref
Will
Skills
Feats
Class Features


1st
Healer 1
0
2
0
0
CLASS:

Craft: Alchemy 4
Know: Religion 4
Handle Animal 4
Concentration 4
Heal 4
Diplomacy 4

CROSS-CLASS:

Swim 2
Ride 2


H: Sacred Vow, 1: Vow of Poverty, Exalted: Nymph's Kiss
Healer Spellcasting, Healing Hands


2nd
Healer 2
1
3
0
3
CLASS:

Know: Religion +1 (5)
Handle Animal +1 (5)
Concentration +1 (5)
Heal +1 (5)
Diplomacy +1 (5)
Sense Motive 1

CROSS-CLASS:

Swim +0.5 (2.5)
Ride +0.5 (2.5)


Healer: Skill Focus (Heal), Exalted 2: Vow of Nonviolence



3rd
Healer 3
1
3
1
3
CLASS:

Know: Religion +1 (6)
Concentration +1 (6)
Heal +1 (6)
Diplomacy +1 (6)
Sense Motive +2 (3)

CROSS-CLASS:

Swim +0.5 (3)
Ride +0.5 (3)


3: Great Fortitude
Cleanse Paralysis


4th
Healer 4
2
4
1
4
CLASS:

Know: Religion +1 (7)
Concentration +1 (7)
Heal +1 (7)
Diplomacy +1 (7)
Sense Motive +2 (5)

CROSS-CLASS:

Swim +0.5 (3.5)
Ride +0.5 (3.5)


Exalted: Vow of Peace
Cleanse Disease


5th
Healer 5
2
4
1
4
CLASS:

Know: Religion +1 (8)
Concentration +1 (8)
Heal +1 (8)
Diplomacy +1 (8)

CROSS-CLASS:

Swim +0.5 (4)
Ride +0.5 (4)

SKILL TRICK:

Healing Hands



Cleanse Fear


6th
Oozemaster 1
2
6
1
4
CLASS:

Concentration +1 (9)
Heal +1 (9)
Disguise 4
Know: Nature 2


6: Aberration Blood (webbed hands), Exalted: Intuitive Attack
Minor Oozy Touch (Brown Mold)


7th
Swordsage 1
2
6
4
6
CLASS:

Ride +6 (10)
Concentration +1 (10)
Heal +1 (10)

CROSS-CLASS:

Bluff 1


Discipline Focus: Weapon Focus (unarmed strike)
Quick to Act +1, Maneuvers


8th
Apostle of Peace 1
2
8
6
8
CLASS:

Concentration +1 (11)
Know: Religion +3 (11)
Diplomacy +2 (10)

CROSS-CLASS:

Ride +1 (11)


Exalted: Nimbus of Light
AoP casting, Turn Undead


9th
Apostle of Peace 2
3
9
7
9
CLASS:

Concentration +1 (12)
Know: Religion +1 (12)
Diplomacy +2 (12)
Bluff +2 (3)

CROSS-CLASS:

Ride +1 (12)


9: Inhuman Reach
Pacifying Touch


10th
Oozemaster 2
4
10
7
9
CLASS:

Concentration +1 (13)
Disguise +1 (5)

CROSS-CLASS:

Ride +1 (13)
Know: Religion +0.5 (12.5)
Bluff +1 (4)


Exalted: Stigmata
CHA penalty, +1 AoP casting (3), Oozy Glob 1/day, Slithery Face


11th
Oozemaster 3
5
10
8
10
CLASS:

Concentration +1 (14)
Disguise +1 (6)

CROSS-CLASS:

Ride +1 (14)
Know: Religion +0.5 (13)
Bluff +1 (5)



Minor Oozy Touch (phosphorescent fungus)


12th
Oozemaster 4
6
11
8
10
CLASS:

Concentration +1 (15)
Disguise +3 (9)

CROSS-CLASS:

Ride +1 (15)
Diplomacy +1 (13)


12: Mounted Combat , Exalted: Gift of Faith
CHA penalty, Malleability, Oozy Glob 2/day, +1 AoP casting (4)


13th
Oozemaster 5
6
12
8
10
CLASS:

Concentration +1 (16)
Know: Nature +1 (3)
Disguise +1 (10)

CROSS-CLASS:

Ride +1 (16)
Diplomacy +1 (14)



Major Oozy Touch (Gelatinous Cube)


14th
Oozemaster 6
7
13
9
11
CLASS:

Concentration +1 (17)
Know: Nature +1 (4)
Disguise +1 (11)

CROSS-CLASS:

Ride +1 (17)
Diplomacy +1 (15)


Exalted: Vow of Abstinence
CHA penalty, +1 AoP casting (5), Oozy Glob 3/day, Indiscernible Anatomy


15th
Oozemaster 7
8
13
9
11
CLASS:

Concentration +1 (18)
Know: Nature +1 (5)
Disguise +1 (12)

CROSS-CLASS:

Ride +1 (18)
Diplomacy +1 (15)


15: Mitigate Suffering
Major Oozy Touch (Black Pudding)


16th
Oozemaster 8
9
14
9
11
CLASS:

Concentration +1 (19)
Know: Nature +1 (6)
Disguise +1 (13)

CROSS-CLASS:

Ride +1 (19)
Diplomacy +1 (16)


Exalted: Exalted Turning
CHA penalty, +1 AoP casting (6), Oozy Glob 4/day, Slime Wave


17th
Oozemaster 9
9
14
10
12
CLASS:

Concentration +1 (20)
Know: Nature +1 (7)
Disguise +1 (14)

CROSS-CLASS:

Ride +1 (20)
Diplomacy +1 (17)



Major Oozy Touch (Green Slime)


18th
Oozemaster 10
10
15
10
12
CLASS:

Concentration +1 (21)
Know: Nature +1 (8)
Disguise +1 (15)

CROSS-CLASS:

Ride +1 (21)
Diplomacy +1 (18)


18: Healing Devotion; Exalted: Favored of the Companions
CHA penalty, +1 AoP casting (7), Oozy Glob 5/day, One With The Ooze


19th
Contemplative 1
10
15
10
14
CLASS:

Concentration +1 (22)
Diplomacy +3 (21)

CROSS-CLASS:

Ride +1 (22)



+1 AoP casting (8), Charm domain, Divine Health


20th
Contemplative 2
11
15
10
15
CLASS:

Concentration +1 (23)
Diplomacy +2 (23)
Heal + 1 (11)

CROSS-CLASS:

Ride +1 (23)


Exalted: Holy Radiance
+1 AoP casting (9), Slippery Mind


Spells, etc.:

Healer spells:


Level
0th
1st
2nd
3rd


1st
4

3
-
-


2nd
4
4
-
-


3rd
5
4
3
-


4th
5
4
4
-


5th
5
5
4
3




Apostle of Peace spells:


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


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


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


10th
5
3
1
0
-
-
-
-
-
-


11th
5
3
1
0
-
-
-
-
-
-


12th
6
3
2
1
0
-
-
-
-
-


13th
6
3
2
1
0
-
-
-
-
-


14th
6
3
3
2
1
0
-
-
-
-


15th
6
3
3
2
1
0
-
-
-
-


16th
6
3
3
3
2
1
0
-
-
-


17th
6
3
3
3
2
1
0
-
-
-


18th
6
4
3
3
3
2
1
0
-
-


19th
6
4
4
3
3
3
2
1
0
-


20th
6
5
4
4
4
4
3
2
1
0



NOTE: Tables do not include bonuses from high WIS. Cindy's WIS is always high enough to have a minimum of one bonus spell slot at every spell level she has access to.

Maneuvers (IL 4, 6 known, 4 readied, 1 stance):
Moment of Perfect Mind
Action Before Thought
Cloak of Deception
Shadow Jaunt
Burning Brand
Distracting Ember
Stance: Island of Blades
Priority is usually, but not exclusively, given to Action Before Thought, Moment of Perfect Mind, Cloak of Deception, and Shadow Jaunt.


ECL 1-5:
Cindy is a Healer! A Vow of Poverty Healer, at that. The various AC bonuses granted by VoP are, at this level range, better than what Cindy could get from mundane armor while still following the Healer's restrictions. She's not a skillmonkey, but she's got a wider array of trained skills (with various small bonuses here and there) than the average 2+INT Cleric. But at this level range, Cindy's job is mostly just to keep everyone else active and happy. If you really want offensive oomph, Cindy can use Sanctified spells like Divine Inspiration and heal the damage overnight or cast Lesser Restoration, too.

With Vow of Nonviolence and Vow of Peace, she obviously wants to make friends, smooth over differences, find alternative ways of settling disputes, and spare as many lives as can possibly be spared. She'll use as much magic as it takes to ward off disease and mend injuries, but she's also very highly capable of using mundane means to put bodies back where they should be, so to speak. She's popular among the common folk wherever she goes because she's always willing to make some mundane Heal checks to soothe pain and treat maladies.

From a mechanical perspective, please notice that per BoED pg. 30, a character with VoPov at level 1 does indeed get a bonus feat at level 1, even if the table on Pg. 31 neglects to mention such a thing. Text has priority over table, as we all know. Also, Nymph's Kiss explicitly states that its extra skill points apply at the level at which the feat is taken, so that's cool. The VoPov bonuses in this range amount to feat relief, nice AC, and some comfort aspects (no need to eat, protection from temperature).

ECL 6-9:
This can be thought of as Cindy's "awkward adolescence" from a build perspective. Philosophically, Cindy is starting to evolve towards an understanding that everything is more fluid and squishy than most people tend to believe. We're all one in the end, aren't we? Of course we are. Life—all life—is mostly a big, pulsing, uniform mass that just needs to be together and nurtured and fed and cultured.

Cindy notices some very strange effects as her beliefs bend this way. She becomes rather odd to look at, starting to lose her physical shape's consistency and starting to, well, turn into a glowing ooze-thing. With really long pseudopods. She thinks she's just channeling more and more positive energy until it suffuses her system. Who knows? Maybe she's right!

The Swordsage level is, honestly, unfortunate, but it's by far the least bad option. What we really need at this point is a class that gets good Will (to get into Apostle of Peace on time), gets Ride as a class skill (for a trick that will make sense very soon), and doesn't have a shameful number of skill points. Swordsage is the best fit for the description, and the maneuvers are occasionally useful, especially the Diamond Mind save-replacers. (Burning Brand was chosen with the belief that it will apply to touch attacks like Oozy Touch, if necessary targeting an unarmed strike; if that's not your interpretation, eh, just don't prepare that maneuver or take Blistering Flourish instead of something.) Discipline Focus: Unarmed Strike Is hopefully to be used to help with Oozy Touch as well, but if Oozy Touch doesn't count as an unarmed strike, just ignore the feature. Not a primary concern.

Apostle of Peace offers accelerated spellcasting, a specific exception to Vow of Poverty in the form of "defensive magic items" other than armor, and a no-save ability to calm people down with a touch. Cindy really believes at this point that differences are something that can be peacefully resolved no matter what, with everyone just part of one big squishy whole. She keeps up her Diplomacy score and starts taking advantage of the utility and buff spells that AoP offers and Healer doesn't.

Webbed Hands is chosen as the Aberrant Blood option because Cindy does have a small ability to swim. Slimy Skin is slightly less mechanically optimal and somewhat more thematic, but to be honest, we're not taking Aberrant Blood for its own sake. We want Inhuman Reach, which makes both touch spells and Oozy Touch easier to use.

The VoPov bonuses in this bracket continue being defensive. Cindy gets her first ability score enhancement, becoming ever wiser. Intuitive Attack makes a night-and-day difference now that we occasionally care about making attack rolls. Oozy Touch does nonlethal damage and is therefore 100% kosher for Vow of Peace. Please note that all Exalted feats from this point out are, at best, window dressing and aren't really intended as a primary source of power.

ECL 10-13:
This is where a few earlier choices really start paying off, so I guess we can call this a sweet spot.

Cindy's appearance gets weirder and weirder here, but she gets better at covering that up with Disguise so as not to scare away her patients. If it becomes appropriate to actually pretend to be someone else, well, she can probably make that work just as well.

Getting the gelatinous cube Oozy Touch is highly appropriate for someone with Vow of Peace, since it doesn't do damage. Perfect! The save DC is higher than usual because of Vow of Nonviolence, which is even better.

Malleability is the real defining feature that we want to talk about, though. The ability lets Cindy get into a lot of places that most PCs can't. The ability carefully restricts one's ability to expand in tight spots, but in no way does it restrict one's ability to chillax in tight spots without trying to expand, and that's exactly what Cindy is going to do here. Per the given example, someone with Malleability can squeeze into an "occupied suit of armor," so if you feel like staying away from the grosser choices, Cindy can do that—just hitch a ride in the party beatstick's armor and get to work. (Not like she has any heavy gear to carry, after all!) But really, what's a lot more fun is going, you know, deeper. Inside, shall we say.

See, Cindy is first and foremost a healer, one who seeks to remedy maladies. Some maladies are visible on the surface, but if your party Warblade has (for example) a really nasty upset stomach, who could possibly know exactly what the problem is from the outside? No, it would make far more sense to have the Warblade open wide and let the good doctor (I guess she's a doctor or something?) take a look around inside. All the way inside. She's got multiple ways of seeing what's going on in there (phosphorescent fungus and Nimbus of Light, at a minimum—phosphorescent fungus might even be used to mark out pathways!), thereby solving Groucho Marx's old conundrum*! As of 12th level (the exact level that Malleability comes online), she doesn't even need to breathe, so that's a concern fully addressed. She can't expand while within her friend's guts, but she doesn't need to. She can make Heal checks from the inside to really help diagnose and fix whatever maladies you may happen to have, and nothing says she can't cast heals or buffs on her external friend.

Even that's not quite goofy enough yet, though, is it? We can do better. Why does Cindy have so many ranks in Ride? Because now she's riding her beatstick friend from the inside. Arms and Equipment Guide pg. 85 provides an example of riding a creature from fully inside of it (just between you and me, that passage just might have inspired part of this build), so this is definitely kosher. Cindy has Mounted Combat. So if her beloved beatstick friend happens to take attacks while out there waging peace (always using nonlethal damage and seeking to spare whatever lives can be spared! ALL SHALL FOLLOW THE VOW), Cindy can use her Ride skill to try to negate some of those attacks! Aren't you glad you have Cindy for a friend? I knew you'd love having her along. We might even be able to make an argument about how Island of Blades works while riding someone this way, but don't push back too hard if that's shot down.

Don't forget that using someone in the party as a weird internal mount makes the "full attack action" required to use Oozy Touch less painful. Circumventing class limitations counts as using the SI, right? Cindy thinks so. You should too!

So yeah. We have a glowing peace-loving hippie ooze-lady who dives into your guts, heals (and buffs) you from the inside, protects you from attacks by skillfully riding your innards, probably causes your visible orifices to glow, and just might be able to reach out of your throat with inhumanly long, um, arms (?) and paralyze (and/or pacify) folks who aren't listening to reason. (Or I guess you can just stick her in your armor—which she is riding, not wearing—if you're THAT squeamish, but I will remind you that she can simply cleanse your fear away from you, so this is definitely fine.) That seems like a pretty sweet spot.

From the Vow of Poverty perspective, this bracket brings some mitigation to the CHA penalty and a bigger bonus to WIS, some very nice energy resistance, the ability to take CON damage to heal people (not very useful but kind of hilarious from inside someone's guts), a bit of DR, and the ability to not need to breathe. Most of these things are relevant!

ECL 14+

This level bracket's charms are mostly about spells. Cindy's WIS is significant enough to get lots of bonus spells (she always has at least one bonus spell whenever she attains a new spell level), and surprisingly enough, Apostle of Peace's spell list is actually really nice! It's not terribly different from the PHB Cleric's list; perhaps it's a bit smaller (no direct offense, after all), but Cindy still has buffs for days (from Magic Vestment and Protection from Energy up to Freedom of Movement, Spell Resistance, Heroes' Feast, Aspect of the Deity, AMF, and even Astral Projection or Etherealness), all the healing and condition removal one could reasonably ask for, some environment and/or travel spells (Water Breathing, Water Walk, Air Walk, Wind Walk, Plane Shift, Word of Recall, and so on), some divination (Augury, Divination, Scrying, even Discern Location), and more! She's even got some BfC spells like Wall of Stone or Control Weather for when you need to get really serious. Not bad! Oh, and of course, if things get really nasty, Cindy's got Gate. Yes, that Gate. 9th level spells are fun!

Let's not forget Sanctified spells, either! Cindy's been casting Sanctified spells for at least as long as she's had access to Lesser Restoration, but it's worth highlighting some of the higher-level ones now available to her. Exalted Raiment is a fun buff, Channel Celestial opens up some very wide doors, Animate with the Spirit (Champions of Valor pp. 52-3) is beyond crazy, and there are some other good minion spells as well.

Cindy started her career as a capital-H Healer, and it's kind of sad that she had to shift gears before getting the iconic unicorn mount, don't you think? Thankfully, that problem is solved as soon as she gets access to Valiant Steed. If you don't have a beatstick buddy, I suppose you could dive inside your unicorn friend! Or, you know, just have a unicorn around as a powerful and interesting ally. That's totally worth scrounging up the XP (VoPov characters can use XP as GP for expensive spell components) to cast Restoration once per year. A trick that might work even better is to cast some Sanctified spells that just do Strength damage (not drain) first, give yourself temporary ability points with Mitigate Suffering, cast Valiant Steed, apply the drain to the temporary ability points (temp HP are lost first, so why not the same for temp Strength points?), then just heal the missing Strength through overnight healing or through a basic Lesser Restoration.

Oozemaster's abilities from this point on are pretty much defensive in nature, though getting extra Oozy Globs of paralyzing jelly can occasionally matter. Oozy Touch for black pudding and green slime should never be used on a foe, but Cindy is now immune to them, and they can be used against inanimate objects as a way around obstacles. Slime Wave, admittedly, is very hard for a Vow of Peace character to use, but it can at least be used against a metal door if aimed carefully. Gaining permanent fortification is excellent, and One With The Ooze offers handy immunities with no questions asked.

Cindy's build is capped off with a jaunt into Contemplative. The Charm domain struck me as too funny not to use. (The Slime domain, while you'd think it would be appropriate, is actually very unfriendly to VoPeace!) Cindy is extremely charming and delights in ways to solve conflicts peacefully. Magic can help with that! Planar Ally means that Cindy can definitely have had contact with a direct servant of her deity, the details of which are likely to be funnier in your imagination than in my poor attempts at scribing them. The domain itself has basically no overlap with her preexisting spells, and all of the spells on it are handy to have around. I don't have a specific trick in mind for the sudden CHA boost, but I feel like there are times when it'd be entertaining to just suddenly become more charismatic, too.

Mitigate Suffering seems thematically appropriate and makes the use of Sanctified spells cheaper. Healing Devotion is, again, chosen mostly for thematic reasons, but there are probably worse ways to spend those otherwise vestigial Turn Undead uses.

From VoPov, this bracket has a couple of decent spell effects like constant Freedom of Movement (who says the beatstick's guts are hard to wriggle through?), constant True Seeing, more stat bonuses, and some completely superfluous feats that I honestly kind of picked at random.

So to sum up, Cindy starts life as a normal white mage, devotes herself fully to pacifism, evolves into being someone's "internal light" who heals and buffs them from inside while making extremely weird touch attacks on folks who need a bit more convincing to chill out and relax, and ends with a surprisingly powerful array of magic up to and including 9th level spells. Oozemaster is awesome!

Help with Judging:

Originality:
I think this mostly speaks for itself, doesn't it? I was inspired by the Amulet of Ooze Riding and wanted to find a way to use Oozy Touch's immunity to specific oozes to do something similar. I figured out that Malleability enabled some similarly hilarious nonsense by riding people rather than oozes, went through a Healer detour with the idea of being someone's internal repair system, realized that I couldn't get all the stuff I wanted out of Healer but that I COULD go in a wildly different direction with AoP while still keeping the Healer theme intact, figured out that Oozemaster is distressingly compatible with Vow of Peace, and ended up with far too many ways of making someone's guts glow. I mean, did you see that coming? Be honest. I still feel like it's part of a unified whole, though. This build would not be the same if it weren't an Oozemaster. I also liked the fact that Oozemaster, in contrast with Thrall of Juiblex or Slime Lord, doesn't require an alignment, so going as an exalted ooze (ooze of righteousness!) seems like a fun time.

Power:
Ending with 9th level spells despite having 10 levels in a half-casting SI, without relying on items, is pretty noteworthy. Every level of spells that Cindy has ends up mattering (between the base list, the Sanctified list, and her domain, she's got a surprisingly wide variety of options). Her numbers are more respectable than one might expect given the limitations of her class structure. Her benefit as a support character is considerable (I mean, a solid chance of negating one attack per round on your favorite frontliner is not to be ignored!), and while her tricks from her Healer levels do stop scaling, they never stop being relevant: Lesser Restoration and Close Wounds never go out of style, and honestly, just having a few actual Cures on tap really isn't a bad thing for most of the game. Oozemaster offers surprising defensive utility.

Elegance:
All prereqs are addressed unambiguously. While the build's unique tricks hinge on some lateral thinking, the foundation is strong enough that the build is still more than functional without a permissive GM. I staggered my level progression to minimize distance between new tricks coming online and the support structures for said tricks coming online. For example, Intuitive Attack comes online exactly when Cindy gets her first touch attack, the Malleability/Greater Sustenance (VoP)/Mounted Combat combo comes online perfectly at level 12, and Mitigate Suffering comes online right before Valiant Steed does.

I aimed to wring as much benefit out of each level as possible. A certain degree of cross-classing was inevitable (Ride is a bizarrely difficult skill to get on a caster who isn't a Druid), but I made sure that every class level I took had a reason to exist. I will confess to having a few strange skill ranks here and there, but that's mostly because I had gotten what I needed to out of a different skill and then needed somewhere to put the extra rank.

I found a use for a surprisingly large number of Vow of Poverty's benefits, including a few that I wouldn't have expected. I think the build is genuinely more cohesive with VoPov than without it, insane though that sounds.

Use of Secret Ingredient:
As stated above, it's really surprising how compatible Oozemaster is with Vow of Peace. I noticed a strangely pacifistic streak, dove in, and played it to the hilt. Oozemaster opens up options that a Vow of Peace user doesn't normally have access to, and once we get past the weirdness of "incandescent hippie jelly" as a character concept, the pieces really fit together nicely.

The build's primary unique trick relies on Malleability, which is only offered by Oozemaster. (Said primary unique trick was heavily inspired by some other ooze-related stuff, keeping the theme consistent.) The build also makes use of the peaceful options for Oozy Touch and Oozy Glob, and the fortification offered by Indiscernible Anatomy can't be easily matched by a VoP character, which is neat. The stat bonuses from VoP are used to mitigate Oozemaster's CHA penalty, preventing the class's baked-in downside from tanking our tricks. All ten levels of the SI are taken with some room to spare. The build does invest in Disguise to take advantage of Slithery Face.

Sources:

Oozemaster: Masters of the Wild
Exalted feats (all of them), Sanctified spells, Apostle of Peace: Book of Exalted Deeds
Healing Devotion, Mitigate Suffering: Complete Champion
Charm domain: Spell Compendium
Contemplative: Complete Divine
Healing Hands: Complete Scoundrel
Aberration Blood, Inhuman Reach: Lords of Madness
Swordsage, maneuvers: Tome of Battle
Healer: Miniatures Handbook
Human, Great Fortitude, Skill Focus, Weapon Focus, Mounted Combat, etc.: PHB/SRD

Elements from Champions of Valor and the Arms and Equipment Guide were also mentioned in passing but were not included in the main build table.

*"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." Though of course, Cindy isn't allowed to own books. Maybe if someone swallows one, though!

[Heliomance]

Entry number 2:



Humperdink d'Kundarak

Alignment: CE
Race: dwarf
Classes: wu jen 6 / oozemaster 10 / thrall of Demogorgon 1 / runesmith 3
Member of House Kundarak



HD

Class

BAB

F

R

W

Skills

Feats

Class Features



1st

Wu jen 1

0

0

0

2

20 points
Swim 2 cc, Craft (alchemy) 4, Knowledge (arcana) 2, Knowledge (religion) 2,
Knowledge (dungeoneering) 2,
Concentration 4,
Craft (stoneworking) 2

Least Dragonmark of Warding (Elder Evil: Willing Deformity)


Watchful spirit, bonus feat: Silent Spell



2nd

Wu jen 2

1

0

0

3

5 points
Swim 2.5 (+0.5 cc), Concentration 5 (+1), Craft (stoneworking) 5 (+3)







3rd

Wu jen 3

1

1

1

3

5 points
Swim 3 (+0.5 cc), Concentration 6 (+1), Craft (stoneworking) 6 (+1), Knowledge (dungeoneering) 4 (+2)

Great Fortitude

Spell secret (hail of stone permanently made Silent)



4th

Wu jen 4

2

1

1

4

5 points
Swim 3.5 (+0.5 cc), Concentration 7 (+1), Craft (stoneworking) 7 (+1), Knowledge (dungeoneering) 6 (+2)







5th

Wu jen 5

2

1

1

4

5 points
Swim 4 (+0.5 cc), Concentration 8 (+1), Craft (stoneworking) 8 (+1), Knowledge (dungeoneering) 8 (+2)

(Elder Evil: Thrall to Demon)





6th

Wu jen 6

3

2

2

5

5 points
Concentration 9 (+1), Knowledge (dungeoneering) 9 (+1), Knowledge (arcana) 5 (+3)

Lesser Dragonmark of Warding

Elemental mastery (Water)



7th

Oozemaster 1

3

4

2

5

7 points
Concentration 10 (+1), Disguise 6



Minor oozy touch (gray ooze)



8th

Oozemaster 2

4

5

2

5

8 points
Concentration 11 (+1), Disguise 11 (+5), Spellcraft 2



Oozy glob, slithery face



9th

Thrall of Demogorgon 1

5

7

2

5

8 points
Concentration 12 (+1), Bluff 5, Knowledge (arcana) 7 (+2)

Scribe Scroll

Scaly flesh +1, hypnosis



10th

Runesmith 1

5

9

2

7

6 points
Concentration 13 (+1), Appraise 5

(Elder Evil: Deformity: teeth)

Rune magic



11th

Oozemaster 3

6/1

9

3

8

8 points
Concentration 14 (+1), Disguise 14 (+3), Spellcraft 6 (+4)



Minor oozy touch (ochre jelly)



12th

Oozemaster 4

7/2

10

3

8

8 points
Concentration 15 (+1), Disguise 15 (+1), Spellcraft 8 (+2), Second Impression skill trick

Greater Dragonmark of Warding

Oozy glob 2/day, malleability



13th

Oozemaster 5

7/2

10

3

8

8 points
Concentration 16 (+1), Disguise 16 (+1), Spellcraft 10 (+2), Assume Quirk skill trick



Major oozy touch (green slime)



14th

Oozemaster 6

8/3

11

4

9

8 points
Concentration 17 (+1), Disguise 17 (+1), Spellcraft 12 (+2), Collector of Stories skill trick



Oozy glob 3/day, indiscernible anatomy



15th

Runesmith 2

9/4

12

4

10

6 points
Concentration 18 (+1), Knowledge (arcana) 10 (+3), Magical Appraisal skill trick

(Elder Evil: Deformity: tongue) Empower Supernatural Ability

Stonecraft expertise



16th

Runesmith 3

9/4

12

5

11

7 points
Concentration 19 (+1), Knowledge (arcana) 16 (+6)



Share runes



17th

Oozemaster 7

10/5

12

5

11

9 points
Concentration 20 (+1), Disguise 20 (+3), Spellcraft 15 (+3), Swift Concentration skill trick



Major oozy touch (black pudding)



18th

Oozemaster 8

11/6/1

13

5

11

9 points
Concentration 21 (+1), Disguise 21 (+1), Spellcraft 21 (+6), Craft (stoneworking) 9 (+1)

Grenadier

Oozy glob 4/day, slime wave



19th

Oozemaster 9

11/6/1

13

6

12

9 points
Concentration 22 (+1), Disguise 22 (+1), Spellcraft 22 (+1), Craft (stoneworking) 15 (+6)



Major oozy touch (yellow mold)



20th

Oozemaster 10

12/7/2

14

6

12

9 points
Concentration 23 (+1), Disguise 23 (+1), Spellcraft 23 (+1), Craft (stoneworking) 21 (+6)

(Elder Evil: Deformity: clawed hands)

Oozy glob 5/day, one with the ooze







STR

8



DEX

12



CON

14 + 2 = 16



INT

16



WIS

12



CHA

15- 2 = 13





Level-up points to INT. Oozemaster applies progressive penalties to CHA. Because of level-up bonuses, skill points per level increase at 8 and 16.

On the build table, a bold entry means that a prereq for a PrC has been reached.

Oozemaster:
4 Swim
4 Craft (alchemy)
Great Fort
3rd level spells

Thrall of D-dawg:
2 K: Arcana
2: K: Religion
2 K: Other
BAB 4
1st level spells
Willing Deformity
Thrall to Demon

Runesmith:
5 Concentration
8 Craft (stoneworking)
1st level spells
Proficient with heavy armor
Scribe Scroll

Lesser Dragonmark:
9 ranks, any two skills
Least Dragonmark

Greater Dragonmark:
12 ranks, any two skills
Least Dragonmark
Lesser Dragonmark

(Remember that skill points are spent before feats are chosen, so it's legal to take a feat at the same level that your skills let you qualify for it. PHB pgs. 58-59)

"So what's your friend's deal, anyway?" The barkeep gestured over at the heavily armored dwarf sitting on the floor at the end of the bar. "Something wrong with the chairs in my establishment?"

"Who, Humperdink?" replied the halfling. "He's got some weird habits. Something about how sitting on a wooden chair is 'taboo' or what have you. Maybe it's a dwarf thing? You know how those spellslingers get. I just sneak around and shank people. I know better than to question the magicians too much." A quick glance at Humperdink to make sure he was occupied with his drink, and the speaker added quietly, "especially the ones who're prone to ranting about the 'mother of monsters coming' given any opportunity. I try to keep my discussions with Big H over there strictly business."

The half-orc looked at Humperdink again and raised his eyebrows. He'd been running a bar in Fairhaven long enough to not be too worried about the cultish rantings of any particular adventurers, but there was another, more mundane matter that got his attention.

"What's that puddle forming around him? Your friend appears to be leaking. Is he, er, housebroken?"

"Housebroken? HOUSE BROKEN?" came the voice from the floor, clearly not drunk but also clearly not balanced. "I'll tell you what house is broken! KUNDARAK! KUNDARAK is a broken house!"

The halfling's long-suffering expression of you-see-what-I-have-to-put-up-with-these-days resonated with the barkeep like an unbreathed sigh. Another glass of brandy showed up on the counter. The good stuff, this time.

"I… have no idea what that goo is, but I don't think it's what you're thinking of. I'll make sure it's gone by the time we are. H's biology don't work like most folks's. He's convinced that he's preparing the world for some kind of flesh-warping apocalypse. He's got enough magic to start with himself. I don't understand it. I don't want to understand it. Maybe he just thinks that everyone's as messed up as he is. We used to have a priest with us, y'know. They bailed after H mentioned the sacrifice. Me, I'm just happy I need less sleep than he does. Magic must tire you out."
"Seems like your own form of challenge." The dwarf was still yelling some conspiracy theory about House Kundarak and how its choice to keep the demons out was an affront to the natural order, but the barkeep was fairly practiced at communicating through cacophany. "What makes you put up with it?"

"Heh. My goals aren't his goals. A means to an end of a greater mission, if you know what I mean. And I'll admit that he's really effective when he's laying traps for people who aren't me, or when doing his 'one-man slime-throwing team' trick, or when getting into places that he just shouldn't be. And at least he shuts up when doing his impression of an ooze. Those times are a nice relief…"

.
.
.

Humperdink d'Kundarak is pretty much like any other wu jen here. Your mark of warding gives you fire trap once per day, which is mostly amusing because it's a 4th level spell on a 1st level body. But hey, it's permanent and free for you while it's expensive for everyone else, so it's something. It's not your ultimate goal, anyway. Humperdink has a propensity for boom spells, but honestly, wu jen spells are sufficiently varied that you can probably solve your problems with careful selection. At least you've got better-than-average fortitude between your feat choice (that was totally a choice) and your dwarf heritage!

Humperdink is devoted to Ragnorra, the mother of monsters. He's way down with her flesh-twisting ways and is all about her arrival on the prime material and the resulting explosion of body horror. This will be relevant soon. His fascination with demons may have earned him the disfavor of his House, but what do they know, anyway?

Your dragonmark is up to glyph of warding, which is an amazingly abusable ability when it's a SLA instead of a spell (standard action casting time, no material component, life is good!) Use it to target things weirdly, to store up extra spell slots, to make a lair horrible, to take advantage of action economy, and so on.

A flurry of PrCs hit the table all at once here for a very specific trick. First, oozemaster gives immunity to the effects of gray ooze, which is about to be important. Thrall of Demogorgon gives a buttload of proficiencies, including proficiency with heavy armor, so get a nice suit of plate mail or something! That heavy armor proficiency lets you into runesmith, which lets you prep your spells as runes instead of as normal spells. This is thematically appropriate for someone spamming glyph of warding all over the place and also very mechanically useful, since not needing somatic components helps a lot when you transform into something without thumbs. Something like, say, a gray ooze. Hello, polymorph! It's like I timed this spell to come online right here. And, you know, you can also use it for its originally intended purpose of being an arcane spellcaster in heavy armor. With a big old shield, even! Thrall of Demogorgon gives proficiency with shields. It doesn't even specify non-tower shields, so you might be able to get away with a tower shield! But even a heavy shield puts you ahead of most casters, since AC actually does matter and since using armor and a shield means that you have a place for your friends to put buffs (like magic vestment or for you to potentially spend gold to get upgrades.

Anyway, back to polymorph. Did I mention that you're immune to the effects of gray ooze? You're immune to the effects of gray ooze. So while you're in gray ooze form, you're immune to your own effects.

This means that not only can you stand in your own horrible areas of effect without problem, but you can also cast spells that would ordinarily have bad effects on you without worrying, so long as you do so in ooze form. Corrupt spells are your friends here. Just time things such that you happen to be a gray ooze when the corruption cost comes due. If you rely more on spells that have durations, you can just shift into ooze form at the end of the duration. If you want to actually cast while in ooze form (which will let you cheese around the corruption costs of instantaneous spells!), just make liberal use of Silent Spell, scribe your runes on stones (gray ooze acid can't melt steel beams stone runes), drop your desired spells on the ground prior to polymorphing and slither over them to pick them up, and then never worry about components again. You can try arguing that since you still have the benefit of feats when you polymorph, you still have the bite attack granted by Willing Deformity: Teeth and therefore still have a mouth and therefore can make verbal components, but the build is still 100% functional if that doesn't fly. Ragnorra gave you that feat for the low cost of your immortal soul, after all, and you got that for free anyway.

Malleability is weird on a caster, but it's amusingly appropriate on someone who likes to turn into oozes the way you do. It's never bad to have some breaking-and-entering ability without spell slots, and your spells can help you get out of trouble that you slither your way into.

Worth noting is that you can also turn into and become immune to ochre jelly if being Large is advantageous to you, but gray ooze tends to be more manageable.

Start picking up skill tricks just to have something to spend your skill points on across a build that only ever keeps one skill as a permanent class skill. They won't turn you into a god, but they make you a little more interesting than you might be without them.

Around this time you start becoming really good at using Disguise. You've already had disguise self as a spell on your list since the beginning, but why spend spell slots when you don't have to? Plus, the spell stacks with your skill ranks and your slithery face bonus, so that's nice. When in ooze form, if you're dealing with genre-savvy enemies, you might be able to get away with being ignored as long as you act like an ooze and don't "aggro" on them (an ooze that isn't interested in you isn't your problem), potentially getting some scouting in or overhearing a conversation or something? Maybe not. But when you pretend to be an ooze, you're a lot more convincing than the average caster, so that's something.

Things get even stupider once you hit 7th level wu jen spells and we get the crown jewel of abusable magic: body outside body. After all, you're basically an ooze, and what do oozes do? They split. They split into copies of themselves with obnoxious action economy advantages. This is about the most thematically appropriate spell an oozemaster could possibly want.

There's no saving throw on the oozy glob for green slime. Getting hit with one glob of 1d6 CON damage is going to make something unhappy. Getting hit with a whole bunch from an army of clones, on the other hand, is going to absolutely wreck something's day. You don't have to give a damn about the daily use limit when your clones are the ones burning through their uses per day. Same goes for Empower Supernatural Ability—your clones have your feats, so each one can Empower their first oozy glob shot. That's a lotta slime. You're like Marc Summers or something. Or an entire splattering platoon, a phrase which we might end up shortening to save time at some point.

Clones have dragonmarks, too. You're up to greater glyph of warding. Getting one for free each day is nice. Getting one per day per clone can lead to some freaky shenanigans. All kinds of 6th level spells (or lower) make great fits here. Firestride exhalation (Dragon Magic) is silly when put into a glyph, for example, as long as you're prepared to teleport back to fight whoever activated your trap card. (And the way glyph of warding works, it can be a literal trap card!) Stick that firestride exhalation on your spellbook to keep it really safe. But really, any kind of obnoxious boom spell is just multiplied when you've got the action economy advantage like this.

Shared runes probably don't work with clones, but they do work with friends. Action economy is worth your effort most of the time. Ask your GM if it's "you" casting the spell from a shared rune if your friend is the one actually spending actions, because either answer will result in some kind of new trick for you. If it is "you" casting the spell, then you're immune to the effects (which means that you can still let your friends target big old cones—including classic booms like shout—if you're already in ooze form), but if it's not you casting the spell, then your friends can gain the benefits of personal-only spells this way. You come out ahead either way!

Oh, by the way! Major oozy touch makes you immune to green slime. Did you know that there's a corrupt spell (touch of Juiblex) that turns an opponent into green slime? You can absolutely just turn someone into a form that literally can't hurt you anymore. Cast it directly, put it into a glyph, whatevs. Hilarity awaits. It's even a 3rd level spell, so it'll fit in your smaller glyph if that's your thing.

Wu jen have access to a reasonably large number of spells that can force someone to move into the area of a glyph of warding, if you feel like doing that. Just as a few examples, magnetism, repel wood, telekinesis, and repel metal or stone are all on the list. The most important one is magnetism because it's low-level (so you don't have to wait forever and a day to get access to it!) and because it can draw in, not just push away. I'm assuming, at least, that targeting metal armor would draw the wearer closer, given that you can't traditionally disarm someone of armor, but nothing says you can't target armor with it. I mean, if your GM prefers to let you rip someone's armor off with magnetism rather than letting you use it to draw people in, that might even be more powerful in some cases. Aren't you glad you're a wu jen? But if you're drawing people to you, just set up a glyph of warding in an obnoxious location, reel 'em in with that magnetism, and watch the fireworks. If you're using an AoE boom spell that could target you,, shift into ooze form first to become immune. Magnetism is a good spell. And remember that glyphs of warding can be set up well in advance!


Slime wave is a spell-like ability, so your clones can all use it at once. That's messy as hell, ain't it? It is. Lots of ability damage to go around. And just because stat damage is nasty, Grenadier actually adds up when you've got an oozy glob bomb rush going on.

Skills get a little weird at the end because we basically run out of things to take, but the fundamentals are covered.

Humperdink ends with 8th level spells. Not too shabby. I was hoping to get transcend mortality and then shift into ooze form to become immune to it before it ran out, but that wasn't in the cards with 10 levels of oozemaster. So I guess we'll just have to settle for, like, polymorph any object (another inherently broken spell) as a capstone. Or death by thorns, or whatever other high-level spells you like. Casting is fun.

Being one with the ooze means that spells affect you as though you had the ooze type, so at the very end, it's cheaper than ever to go into ooze form—you just need alter self rather than polymorph. A small difference at the tail end of the game, perhaps, but an amusing one nonetheless.


Minor oozy touch: This is basically the focal point of the build. Oozy touch makes you immune to specific kind of ooze and therefore immune to yourself while in ooze form, so you can now get into all sorts of mischief with unfriendly spells, Corrupt spells, etc. Much of the build is devoted to making this combo tick.
Oozy glob:This combines hilariously with body outside body to turn into a massive amount of no-save CON damage all at once. Before you get your favorite spell, it's a nice backup ranged option. Nothing says it can't be used while polymorphed, either. Empower Supernatural Ability is fun when used 1/day and extra fun when used 1/day/clone. Grenadier makes both the base damage and the splash damage more dangerous (every point of CON damage hurts!).
Slithery face: Since you love using polymorph (which itself gives you a bonus on Disguise checks), this feature helps you become really good at pretending to be an ooze. Plus, you know, it stacks with other, less intense spells like disguise self and alter self, both of which you have access to. And, of course, you've got high ranks in Disguise for much of your career, and you even manage to snag the synergy bonus from Bluff during the single level you have Bluff as a class skill! Nice work!
Malleability: Full casters who can get into places they shouldn't be able to get are amusing. You can use wu jen spells like wall of stone and stone shape to create fortifications with small one-inch-wide holes that only you can easily enter, if that appeals to you. The oosy touch options that work on stone, wood, or metal (depending on what you're up against) might be useful, when combined with malleability, to let you gain passage somewhere that people don’t want you go. Also, technically, you can use this while under the effects of another signature wu jen spell, namely giant size. You know, if you felt like it. Tell me that doesn't make you giggle.
Major oozy touch: You're immune to green slime. You can turn people into green slime. This is a one-step method of making people stop being your problem. Or, you know, a several-step method if you feel like getting glyphs of warding and similar stuff involved.
Indiscernible anatomy: Passive defensive feature is passive and defensive, but you've got low enough HD that protection against the occasional lucky shot just might save your bacon.
Slime wave: See oozy glob. Clones make everything better.
One with the ooze: Immunities! As with indiscernible anatomy, passive defensive feature is mostly passive and defensive, but since you can now alter self into a gray ooze instead of needing to use polymorph, becoming immune to your own effects is both cheaper and longer-lasting.


Wu jen is here for the free Silent Spell, for access to polymorph, for access to body outside body. for very limited but still nonzero boost to CL for a small number of spells, for the ability to permanently Silence a spell, and for access to a reasonably wide spell list overall. I chose water as the element to master because it has the widest variety of useful spells (blasts, BfC, weird stuff), because it seems thematically appropriate with ooze, and because it has a remarkably large number of low-level spells that come with no verbal component. Oh, and magnetism. That spell is hilarious.
Thrall of D-Dawg is here for a way to get access to heavy armor proficiency without losing CL.
Runesmith is here for the ability to permanently Still (effectively) any spells we choose.
Mark of Warding is chosen because it combines well with body outside body shenanigans and because it fits the theme of wu jen being unusually well-suited for stockpiling stuff during downtime. Oh, and because it's another way to work around being in ooze form.
Grenadier is here for making oozy glob better. Same with Empower Supernatural Ability.
Dwarf is chosen for access to runesmith and Mark of Warding.
Deformity feats, other than the prereqs for ToD, are chosen mostly for flavor and also potentially for arguments about what body parts you might be able to keep in ooze form. Mostly for flavor, though. They aren't the build's primary source of power.
The class structure was designed to minimize the disruption to casting progression, to get oozy touch, runesmith, and polymorph together ASAP, and then to get major oozy touch and body outside body together ASAP.





Eff CL
HD
0th
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
6th
7th
8th


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


7
8th
4
4
3
2
1
-
-
-
-


8
9th
4
4
3
3
2
-
-
-
-


9
10th
4
4
4
3
2
1
-
-
-


9
11th
4
4
4
3
2
1
-
-
-


10
12th
4
4
4
3
3
2
-
-
-


10
13th
4
4
4
3
3
2
-
-
-


11
14th
4
4
4
4
3
2
1
-
-


12
15th
4
4
4
4
3
3
2
-
-


13
16th
4
4
4
4
4
3
2
1
-


13
17th
4
4
4
4
4
3
2
1
-


14
18th
4
4
4
4
4
3
3
2
-


14
19th
4
4
4
4
4
3
3
2
-


15
20th
4
4
4
4
4
4
3
2
1






1st:
Cobra's breath
Secret signs

2nd:
Ice blast
Ice knife
Hypnotic pattern
Devil's tongue
Fangs of the vampire king

3rd:
Corpse candle
Gaseous form
Serpents of Theggeron

These are not the only spells you'll cast, of course. You aren't in ooze form 24/7 and don't need to prepare ONLY spells that function in ooze form. You'll be casting plenty of normal spells, or at least normal runic spells once you have runesmith. Use your ooze form to take advantage of targeting, to take advantage of cheesing past corruption costs, and to just be kind of entertainingly surprising, but the build is not intended to ALWAYS be an ooze, and we understand that. And remember that preparation is your friend; you can put a nice boom spell in a glyph of warding and arrange for someone to trigger it while you're in ooze form, no Silent Spell required. You're remarkably flexible. Just about anything CAN be made Silent to make it ooze-compatible, but relatively few things REQUIRE the metamagic. You can do both! Don't get locked down!

Complete Arcane: wu jen, spells
Complete Mage: spells
Dragon Magic: spells
PHB2: Grenadier
Eberron Campaign Setting: dragonmarks
Book of Vile Darkness: thrall of Demogorgon, corrupt spells, Willing Deformity, Deformity (clawed hands), Thrall to Demon
Elder Evils: Ragnorra
Heroes of Horror: Deformity (tongue), Deformity (teeth)
Tome of Magic: Empower Supernatural Ability
Masters of the Wild: oozemaster
Races of Stone: runesmith
PHB: dwarf, spells, Great Fortitude, Silent Spell, skills, etc.
Complete Scoundrel: skill tricks

[Heliomance]

Entry number 3



Sir Bleu the Gouda, Holy Knight of the Curdling Path
LG Strongheart Halfling Cloistered Cleric 1/Oozemaster 10/Prestige Paladin 9
https://cdn.drawception.com/images/panels/2012/12-16/hqEHzNRtx2-4.png

The Heresy of the Curdling Path
They say that cheese was first discovered by a dwarven merchant traveling through the desert with a jug of milk. The milk curdled in the hot sun, creating the first incarnation of the delicacy we now know. The journey itself is now immaterial, but the cheese has melted through history. So it is when walking the Curdling Path. I travel as would any devotee of Fharlanghn, but the true journey is not from one end to another, but the change wrought upon myself. I become as the cheese, and am curdled into a greater servant of my god and foe to the forces of evil.

Ability Scores32 Point-Buy: 10 Str, 14 Dex, 14 Con, 10 Int, 17 Wis, 11 Cha
After Adjustments for Strongheart Halfling: 8 Str, 16 Dex, 14 Con, 10 Int, 17 Wis, 11 Cha
All increases from level ups go to Wis.


Build Table


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


1st
Cloistered Divine Magician Cleric 1
+0
+2
+0
+2
Craft (Alchemy) 4, Swim 4, Concentration 4, Knowledge (Arcana) 4, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Knowledge (Local) 4
1: Far Horizons, Strongheart Halfling: Heretic of the Faith, Murky-Eyed: Heighten Spell, Vulnerable: Divine Metamagic (Heighten), Dwarf Domain: Great Fortitude, Traded Knowledge Domain: Knowledge Devotion (Local)
Turn Undead, Lore, Dwarf Domain, Divine Magician ACF


2nd
Oozemaster 1
+0
+4
+0
+2
Craft (Alchemy) 5, Swim 4, Concentration 4, Knowledge (Arcana) 4, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Knowledge (Local) 5, Collector of Stories
-
Minor Oozy Touch (Gray Ooze)


3rd
Oozemaster 2
+1
+5
+0
+2
Craft (Alchemy) 6, Swim 4, Concentration 6, Knowledge (Arcana) 4, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Knowledge (Local) 5, Knowledge (Nature) 1, Collector of Stories
Mortalbane
Charisma Penalty -1, Oozy Glob 1/day, Slithery Face


4th
Oozemaster 3
+2
+5
+1
+3
Craft (Alchemy) 7, Swim 4, Concentration 7, Knowledge (Arcana) 4, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Knowledge (Local) 5, Knowledge (Nature) 1, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 1cc, Collector of Stories
-
Minor Oozy Touch (Ochre Jelly)


5th
Oozemaster 4
+3
+6
+1
+3
Craft (Alchemy) 8, Swim 4, Concentration 8, Knowledge (Arcana) 4, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Knowledge (Local) 7, Knowledge (Nature) 1, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 1, Collector of Stories
-
Charisma Penalty -2, Oozy Glob 2/day, Malleability


6th
Oozemaster 5
+3
+6
+1
+3
Craft (Alchemy) 9, Swim 4, Concentration 9, Knowledge (Arcana) 4, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Knowledge (Local) 7, Knowledge (Nature) 1, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 1, Ride 1cc, Collector of Stories
Shaped Splash
Major Oozy Touch (Green Slime)


7th
Oozemaster 6
+4
+7
+2
+4
Craft (Alchemy) 10, Swim 4, Concentration 10, Knowledge (Arcana) 4, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Knowledge (Local) 7, Knowledge (Nature) 1, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 1, Ride 2cc, Collector of Stories
-
Charisma Penalty -3, Oozy Glob 3/day, Indiscernible Anatomy


8th
Oozemaster 7
+5
+7
+2
+4
Craft (Alchemy) 11, Swim 4, Concentration 11, Knowledge (Arcana) 4, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Knowledge (Local) 7, Knowledge (Nature) 1, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 1, Ride 3cc, Collector of Stories
-
Major Oozy Touch (Gelatinous Cube)


9th
Oozemaster 8
+6
+8
+2
+4
Craft (Alchemy) 12, Swim 4, Concentration 12, Knowledge (Arcana) 4, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Knowledge (Local) 7, Knowledge (Nature) 1, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 1, Ride 4cc, Collector of Stories
Mounted Combat
Charisma Penalty -4, Oozy Glob 4/day, Slime Wave


10th
Oozemaster 9
+6
+8
+3
+5
Craft (Alchemy) 12, Swim 4, Concentration 12, Knowledge (Arcana) 4, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Knowledge (Local) 7, Knowledge (Nature) 1, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 1, Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty 2cc, Ride 4, Collector of Stories
-
Major Oozy Touch (Black Pudding)


11th
Prestige Paladin 1
+7
+10
+3
+5
Craft (Alchemy) 13, Swim 4, Concentration 13, Knowledge (Arcana) 4, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Knowledge (Local) 7, Knowledge (Nature) 1, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 1, Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty 2, Ride 4, Collector of Stories
-
Detect Evil, Smite Evil 1/day, Turn Undead


12th
Prestige Paladin 2
+8
+11
+3
+5
Craft (Alchemy) 14, Swim 4, Concentration 14, Knowledge (Arcana) 4, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Knowledge (Local) 7, Knowledge (Nature) 1, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 1, Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty 2, Ride 4, Collector of Stories
Serenity
Divine Grace, Lay on Hands, Special Mount


13th
Oozemaster 10
+9
+12
+3
+5
Craft (Alchemy) 15, Swim 4, Concentration 15, Knowledge (Arcana) 4, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Knowledge (Local) 7, Knowledge (Nature) 1, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 1, Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty 2, Ride 4, Collector of Stories
-
Charisma Penalty -5, Oozy Glob 5/day, One With Ooze


14th
Prestige Paladin 3
+10
+12
+4
+6
Craft (Alchemy) 16, Swim 4, Concentration 16, Knowledge (Arcana) 4, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Knowledge (Local) 7, Knowledge (Nature) 1, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 1, Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty 2, Ride 4, Collector of Stories
-
Aura of Courage, Divine Health


15th
Prestige Paladin 4
+11
+13
+4
+6
Craft (Alchemy) 17, Swim 4, Concentration 17, Knowledge (Arcana) 4, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Knowledge (Local) 7, Knowledge (Nature) 1, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 1, Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty 2, Ride 4, Collector of Stories
Ranged Smite Evil
Remove Disease 1/week


16th
Prestige Paladin 5
+12
+13
+4
+6
Craft (Alchemy) 18, Swim 4, Concentration 18, Knowledge (Arcana) 4, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Knowledge (Local) 7, Knowledge (Nature) 1, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 1, Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty 2, Ride 4, Collector of Stories
-
Smite Evil 2/day


17th
Prestige Paladin 6
+13
+14
+5
+7
Craft (Alchemy) 19, Swim 4, Concentration 19, Knowledge (Arcana) 4, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Knowledge (Local) 7, Knowledge (Nature) 1, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 1, Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty 2, Ride 4, Collector of Stories
-
-


18th
Prestige Paladin 7
+14
+14
+5
+7
Craft (Alchemy) 20, Swim 4, Concentration 20, Knowledge (Arcana) 4, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Knowledge (Local) 7, Knowledge (Nature) 1, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 1, Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty 2, Ride 4, Collector of Stories
Extra Smiting
-


19th
Prestige Paladin 8
+15
+15
+5
+7
Craft (Alchemy) 21, Swim 4, Concentration 21, Knowledge (Arcana) 4, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Knowledge (Local) 7, Knowledge (Nature) 1, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 1, Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty 2, Ride 4, Collector of Stories
Remove Disease 2/week
-


20th
Prestige Paladin 9
+16
+15
+6
+8
Craft (Alchemy) 22, Swim 4, Concentration 22, Knowledge (Arcana) 4, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Knowledge (Local) 7, Knowledge (Nature) 1, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 1, Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty 2, Ride 4, Collector of Stories
-
-


Spellcasting


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


1st
3
1+1
-
-
-
-
-


3rd
4
2+1
-
-
-
-
-


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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

*Does not include bonus spells for a high Wis score.

Divine Magician Spells
1st: Guided Shot
2nd: Arcane Turmoil
3rd: Shivering Touch
4th: Aboleth Curse
5th: Indomitability
6th: Greater Anticipate Teleportation


Level 1Bring on those Elegance penalties. With the extra feats from taking two flaws, Bleu can take Far Horizons to make Swim a class skill, DMM (Heighten) to meet the 3rd level spells requirement, and Heretic of the Faith so that he can get the Dwarf Domain for Great Fortitude and be LG while still worshipping Fharlanghn for Far Horizons. Thus, he has all of Oozemaster’s prerequisites covered, and can enter the SI right away.

Level 6Early access to Oozemaster abilities is snazzy (Gray Ooze at level 2 beats even the initiator’s lockpick in terms of low level ability to brute force obstacles), and Bleu has a few more tricks to further bolster them. Oozy Glob is (Sp), so Mortalbane can add extra 2d6 to it (including the splash damage) against most opponents, and Shaped Splash gets the Oozy Glob an additional direct hit and more control over the splash damage Mortalbane vector. Guided Shot as a Divine Magician spell makes it a little easier to work with Oozy Globs’ 10 ft range increment.

ECL 13Bleu has just enough Cha that he can always DMM (Heighten) a spell up to 3rd level up until he gains the ability to cast 3rd level spells normally. Prestige Paladin then opens up Serenity to make Turn attempts (among other things) key off Wis instead, so he suddenly doesn’t care about Cha at all and can Heighten spells requiring saves freely to make them harder to resist. He’s also now finished off Oozemaster. Mortalbane makes the Con damage from Green Slime Oozy Globs absolutely brutal, and might work with Slime Wave as well. As a small bonus to the general list of ways that it’s good, Blindsight from becoming an Ooze makes his Murky-Eyed flaw even more irrelevant, which is sort of fun.

ECL 20Bleu rides Prestige Paladin all the way to level 20. Ranged Smite Evil allows him to Smite with a fired projectile (including Oozy Globs) instead of requiring a normal melee attack, and thanks to Serenity, it keys off Wis instead of Cha. The way Smite Evil is worded makes me think that its damage bonus should apply to splash damage as well, so in conjunction with Mortalbane, we’re now looking at 2d6+10 Con damage with Green Slime just as collateral damage against Evil creatures (at least ones that aren’t Constructs, Undead, or Outsiders), and with Extra Smiting, he can deliver a Smite on a Mortalbane Oozy Glob in every encounter of the day if so inclined.


Book of Exalted Deeds: Ranged Smite Evil
Book of Vile Darkness: Mortalbane
Complete Divine: Divine Metamagic
Complete Mage: Arcane Turmoil
Complete Warrior: Extra Smiting
Frostburn: Shivering Touch
Masters of the Wild: Oozemaster
Power of Faerun: Heretic of the Faith
Races of Destiny: Far Horizons
Races of Eberron: Shaped Splash
Spell Compendium: Guided Shot, Indomitability, Greater Anticipate Teleportation
Stormwrack: Aboleth Curse
Everything else should be in the SRD.

[Heliomance]

Entry number 4:


Augustus d’Cannith
NE Changeling Wizard 5/Oozemaster 10/Alchemist Savant 5

“Two great tastes that go great together!” boasted the candy wrapper that Augustus absently dropped to the floor of his laboratory as he waddled past vials of smoking, bright colored liquids to the tables to which his test subjects were strapped.

“Let’s see…” the words squelched out as he mulled over the unconscious forms. “How would that mix in, I wonder?” A gloopy appendage slammed down over the face of an elf on the table to his right. “Hmm… That’s interesting… Very interesting indeed! I shall have to procure more for a later date!”

He grabbed a handful of vials from the nearby shelves and in an instant, disappeared from the library, only to return a few minutes later with a pile of unconscious elves coated in viscous liquid. At a touch, the remains of the deceased elf dissolved into an orange puddle. He strapped a captured elf in the corpse’s place and set about making arrangements for the others.

Ability Scores8 Str, 14 Dex, 13 Con, 18 Int, 13 Wis, 8 Cha
Increase Int at all opportunities.

The Build

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


1st
Wizard 1
+0
+0
+0
+2
Craft (Alchemy) 4, Swim 2cc, Spellcraft 4, Concentration 4, Knowledge (Arcana) 4, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 4
Racial Emulation, GrenadierB
Elven Generalist, Domain Wizard (Transmutation Domain), Martial Wizard, Summon Familiar, Draconic Rite of Passage (Ice Dagger 1/day)


2nd
Wizard 2
+1
+0
+0
+3
Craft (Alchemy) 5, Swim 2, Spellcraft 5, Concentration 5, Knowledge (Arcana) 5, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 4, Collector of Stories
-
-


3rd
Wizard 3
+1
+1
+1
+3
Craft (Alchemy) 6, Swim 3cc, Spellcraft 6, Concentration 6, Knowledge (Arcana) 5, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 5, Collector of Stories
Mortalbane
-


4th
Wizard 4
+2
+1
+1
+4
Craft (Alchemy) 7, Swim 3, Spellcraft 7, Concentration 7, Knowledge (Arcana) 5, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 5, Knowledge (Religion) 1, Knowledge (The Planes) 1, Collector of Stories
-
-


5th
Wizard 5
+2
+1
+1
+4
Craft (Alchemy) 8, Swim 4cc, Spellcraft 8, Concentration 8, Knowledge (Arcana) 5, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 5, Knowledge (Religion) 2, Knowledge (The Planes) 1, Collector of Stories
Great FortitudeB
Domain Granted Power ACF (Dwarf Domain)


6th
Oozemaster 1
+2
+3
+1
+4
Craft (Alchemy) 9, Swim 4, Spellcraft 9, Concentration 9, Knowledge (Arcana) 5, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 5, Knowledge (Religion) 2, Knowledge (The Planes) 1, Knowledge (Nature) 5, Collector of Stories
Shaped Splash
Minor Oozy Touch (Ochre Jelly)


7th
Oozemaster 2
+3
+4
+1
+4
Craft (Alchemy) 10, Swim 4, Spellcraft 10, Concentration 10, Knowledge (Arcana) 5, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 5, Knowledge (Religion) 2, Knowledge (The Planes) 1, Knowledge (Nature) 10, Collector of Stories
-
Charisma Penalty -1, Oozy Glob 1/day, Slithery Face


8th
Oozemaster 3
+4
+4
+2
+5
Craft (Alchemy) 11, Swim 4, Spellcraft 11, Concentration 11, Knowledge (Arcana) 5, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 5, Knowledge (Religion) 2, Knowledge (The Planes) 1, Knowledge (Nature) 11, Disguise 5, Collector of Stories
-
Minor Oozy Touch (Gray Ooze)


9th
Oozemaster 4
+5
+5
+2
+5
Craft (Alchemy) 12, Swim 4, Spellcraft 12, Concentration 12, Knowledge (Arcana) 5, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 5, Knowledge (Religion) 2, Knowledge (The Planes) 1, Knowledge (Nature) 12, Disguise 10, Collector of Stories
Brew Potion
Charisma Penalty -2, Oozy Glob 2/day, Malleability


10th
Oozemaster 5
+5
+5
+2
+5
Craft (Alchemy) 13, Swim 4, Spellcraft 13, Concentration 13, Knowledge (Arcana) 5, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 5, Knowledge (Religion) 2, Knowledge (The Planes) 1, Knowledge (Nature) 13, Disguise 13, Heal 2, Collector of Stories
-
Major Oozy Touch (Green Slime)


11th
Oozemaster 6
+6
+6
+3
+6
Craft (Alchemy) 14, Swim 4, Spellcraft 14, Concentration 14, Knowledge (Arcana) 5, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 5, Knowledge (Religion) 2, Knowledge (The Planes) 1, Knowledge (Nature) 14, Disguise 14, Heal 6, Collector of Stories
-
Charisma Penalty -3, Oozy Glob 3/day, Indiscernible Anatomy


12th
Oozemaster 7
+7
+6
+3
+6
Craft (Alchemy) 15, Swim 4, Spellcraft 15, Concentration 15, Knowledge (Arcana) 5, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 5, Knowledge (Religion) 2, Knowledge (The Planes) 1, Knowledge (Nature) 15, Disguise 15, Heal 8, Collector of Stories, Swift Concentration
Favored in House (Cannith)
Major Oozy Touch (Gelatinous Cube)


13th
Oozemaster 8
+8
+7
+3
+6
Craft (Alchemy) 16, Swim 4, Spellcraft 16, Concentration 16, Knowledge (Arcana) 5, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 5, Knowledge (Religion) 2, Knowledge (The Planes) 1, Knowledge (Nature) 16, Disguise 16, Heal 11, Survival 1, Collector of Stories, Swift Concentration
-
Charisma Penalty -4, Oozy Glob 4/day, Slime Wave


14th
Oozemaster 9
+8
+7
+4
+7
Craft (Alchemy) 17, Swim 4, Spellcraft 17, Concentration 17, Knowledge (Arcana) 5, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 5, Knowledge (Religion) 2, Knowledge (The Planes) 1, Knowledge (Nature) 17, Disguise 17, Heal 11, Survival 5, Collector of Stories, Swift Concentration
-
Major Oozy Touch (Black Pudding)


15th
Oozemaster 10
+9
+8
+4
+7
Craft (Alchemy) 18, Swim 8, Spellcraft 18, Concentration 18, Knowledge (Arcana) 5, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 5, Knowledge (Religion) 2, Knowledge (The Planes) 1, Knowledge (Nature) 18, Disguise 18, Heal 11, Survival 5, Collector of Stories, Swift Concentration
Assume Supernatural Ability (Reason Stealer’s Devour Mind)
Charisma Penalty -5, Oozy Glob 5/day, One With Ooze


16th
Alchemist Savant 1
+9
+10
+4
+7
Craft (Alchemy) 19, Swim 8, Spellcraft 19, Concentration 19, Knowledge (Arcana) 10, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 5, Knowledge (Religion) 2, Knowledge (The Planes) 1, Knowledge (Nature) 18, Disguise 18, Heal 11, Survival 5, Collector of Stories, Swift Concentration
-
Efficient Alchemy, Poison Use


17th
Alchemist Savant 2
+10
+11
+4
+7
Craft (Alchemy) 20, Swim 8, Spellcraft 20, Concentration 20, Knowledge (Arcana) 15, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 5, Knowledge (Religion) 2, Knowledge (The Planes) 1, Knowledge (Nature) 18, Disguise 18, Heal 11, Survival 5, Collector of Stories, Swift Concentration
-
Brew Spellvial


18th
Alchemist Savant 3
+10
+11
+5
+8
Craft (Alchemy) 21, Swim 8, Spellcraft 21, Concentration 21, Knowledge (Arcana) 20, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 5, Knowledge (Religion) 2, Knowledge (The Planes) 1, Knowledge (Nature) 18, Disguise 18, Heal 11, Survival 5, Collector of Stories, Swift Concentration
Sanctum Spell
Efficient Alchemy (2 potions/day)


19th
Alchemist Savant 4
+11
+12
+5
+8
Craft (Alchemy) 22, Swim 8, Spellcraft 22, Concentration 22, Knowledge (Arcana) 22, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 5, Knowledge (Religion) 2, Knowledge (The Planes) 1, Knowledge (Nature) 18, Disguise 18, Heal 14, Survival 5, Collector of Stories, Swift Concentration
-
Create Alchemical Mixture


20th
Alchemist Savant 5
+11
+12
+5
+8
Craft (Alchemy) 23, Swim 8, Spellcraft 23, Concentration 23, Knowledge (Arcana) 23, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 5, Knowledge (Religion) 2, Knowledge (The Planes) 1, Knowledge (Nature) 18, Disguise 18, Heal 18, Survival 5, Collector of Stories, Swift Concentration
-
Brew Universal Potion, Efficient Alchemy (3 Potions/day)





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


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


2nd
4
3+1
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


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


4th
4
4+1
3+1
-
-
-
-
-
-


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


7th
4
4+1
4+1
3+1
-
-
-
-
-


9th
4
5+1
4+1
3+1
2+1
-
-
-
-


11th
4
5+1
4+1
4+1
3+1
-
-
-
-


13th
4
5+1
5+1
4+1
3+1
2+1
-
-
-


15th
4
5+1
5+1
4+1
4+1
4+1
-
-
-


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


17th
4
5+1
5+1
5+1
5+1
4+1
4+1
-
-


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


19th
4
5+1
5+1
5+1
5+1
5+1
4+1
4+1
-


20th
4
5+1
5+1
5+1
5+1
5+1
4+1
4+1
2+1

*Does not include bonus spells for a high Int score.

[spoiler]ECL 5[spoiler]This build is going to require the mixing of a few different race specific ingredients, so Racial Emulation Changeling (born into House Cannith) is the way to go, and as long as we’re doing that, we may as well go all in, emulating an elf for Elven Generalist (Changeling Wizard would require banning schools we’ll end up wanting), and a kobold to pick up Ice Dagger as a Draconic Rite of Passage SLA. Mortalbane adds 2d6 to both the direct hit and splash damage, which makes it a pretty snazzy little ace in the hole. It even makes spending skill points on Swim a little better, as we can emulate the Aquatic subtype to breathe underwater. Finally, the Domain Granted Power ACF allows us to plunder the religious traditions, if not actual race specific material, of the dwarves to pick up Oozemaster’s Great Fortitude prereq.

ECL 10We’re into Oozemaster. Shaped Splash also kicks both the extant Ice Dagger SLA and Oozy Globs up a notch, as it will for any build based around slinging splash weapons. Mortalbane can be applied to Oozy Globs in the same way it is to Ice Dagger as well, which is especially fearsome when applied to the Con damage from Green Slime. Brew Potion is mostly a feat tax for later.

ECL 15We finish out the SI, getting more Oozy Glob uses per day, a few more Major Oozy Touches, and becoming One With Ooze. Counting as an Ooze means that we can take the form of the Reason Stealer from MMII, and pick up its Devour Mind ability with which we can now absorb the ability scores, BAB, skill ranks, feats, and prepared arcane spells of an enemy slain with a slam for 24 hours. Between spellcasting and the Gelatinous Cube Oozy Touch at-will, it should be pretty easy to keep enemies safely subdued to be devoured later at our convenience. Emulating a human allows us to take Favored in House (Cannith) as a feat tax, though we’ll disqualify ourselves from it most of the time to maintain qualification for Shaped Splash.
ECL 20Alchemist Savant finishes the build out. Shaped Splash on Alchemical Mixture Spellvials is fun (especially with the potential to devour the mind of a high level ranger or similar for BAB and ranged feats), and as Sanctum Spells count as one level lower outside of the Sanctum, spells of up to 4th level can be made into Potions and Spellvials (at least Quick Potion should work even if regular crafting and Universal Potions are ruled not to). We also scrape 8th level spells, which is nothing to sneeze at. I’m particularly fond of Arrow of Bone applied to splash weapons, and Spell Engine to rejigger spell selection of devoured minds. Craft (Alchemy) can be used to craft poisons to apply to the spellvials or whatever else with Poison Use at a small penalty. Thematically, it’s also fitting to play around with Potion Miscibility rules if your DM allows them. I’m a little disappointed that Devour Mind can’t absorb the results of a Discovery from a subdued test subject, but Spell Theft should work.

Book of Vile Darkness: Mortalbane, Making poisons with Alchemy
Complete Arcane: Sanctum Spell
Complete Champion: Domain Granted Power Wizard ACF
Eberron Campaign Setting: Favored in House
Magic of Eberron: Alchemist Savant
Masters of the Wild: Oozemaster
Player’s Handbook II: Grenadier
Races of Eberron: Changeling, Racial Emulation, Shaped Splash
Races of the Dragon: Draconic Rite of Passage
Races of the Wild: Elf Generalist
Spell Compendium: Arrow of Bone, Ice Dagger, Quick Potion, Spell Theft
Web (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dnd/20060401b): Potion Miscibility
Everything else should be in the SRD

[Heliomance]

Entry number 5:


Touchy McPhee
Human
Chaotic Neutral
Wu Jen 2/Binder 1/Wu Jen +1/Anima Mage 2/Oozemaster 10/Abjurant Champion 4




Stat
Initial
Racial Adjustment
1st
4th
8th
10th
12th
14th
16th
20th


Str
12
--
12
12
12
12
12
12
12
12


Con
12
--
12
12
12
12
12
12
12
12


Dex
12
--
12
12
12
12
12
12
12
12


Int
18
--
18
19
20
20
21
21
22
22


Wis
08
--
08
08
08
08
08
08
08
08


Cha
12
--
12
12
11
10
09
08
07
08



Level increases (included in table above): Int (4,8,12,16) and Cha (20).





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


1st
Wu Jen 1
+0
+0
+0
+2

4(4) Concentration
4(4) Craft: Alchemy
4(4) K: arcana
1(1) K: dungeoneering
1(1) K: history
1(1) K: local
1(1) K: religion
4(4) K: the planes
4(4) Spellcraft
4(2) Swim

1st: Vengeful Spirit; H: Hasty Spirit; B: Quicken Spell
Watchful Spirit


2nd
Wu Jen 2
+1
+0
+0
+3

1(5) Concentration
-(4) Craft: Alchemy
1(5) K: arcana
1(1) K: arch&eng
-(1) K: dungeoneering
1(1) K: geography
-(1) K: history
-(1) K: local
-(1) K: religion
1(5) K: the planes
1(5) Spellcraft
1(2.5) Swim

--
--


3rd
Binder 1
+1
+2
+0
+5

1(1) Bluff
1(6) Concentration
-(4) Craft: Alchemy
4(4) Intimidate
-(5) K: arcana
-(1) K: arch&eng
-(1) K: dungeoneering
-(1) K: geography
-(1) K: history
-(1) K: local
-(1) K: religion
-(5) K: the planes
-(5) Spellcraft
1(3) Swim

3rd: Improved Binding
Soul Binding


4th
Wu Jen 3
+1
+3
+1
+5

1(1) Bluff
1(7) Concentration
-(4) Craft: Alchemy
-(4) Intimidate
-(5) K: arcana
-(1) K: arch&eng
-(1) K: dungeoneering
-(1) K: geography
-(1) K: history
-(1) K: local
1(1) K: nature
1(1) K: nob&roy
1(1) K: psionics
-(1) K: religion
-(5) K: the planes
2(7) Spellcraft
1(3.5) Swim

--
Spell Secret (Extend Scales of the Lizard)




5th
Anima Mage 1
+1
+3
+1
+7

4(5) Bluff
1(8) Concentration
-(4) Craft: Alchemy
-(4) Intimidate
-(5) K: arcana
-(1) K: arch&eng
-(1) K: dungeoneering
-(1) K: geography
-(1) K: history
-(1) K: local
-(1) K: nature
-(1) K: nob&roy
-(1) K: psionics
-(1) K: religion
-(5) K: the planes
1(8) Spellcraft
1(4) Swim

--
--


6th
Anima Mage 2
+2
+3
+1
+8

3(8) Bluff
1(9) Concentration
-(4) Craft: Alchemy
-(4) Intimidate
-(5) K: arcana
-(1) K: arch&eng
-(1) K: dungeoneering
-(1) K: geography
-(1) K: history
-(1) K: local
-(1) K: nature
-(1) K: nob&roy
-(1) K: psionics
-(1) K: religion
-(5) K: the planes
1(9) Spellcraft
-(4) Swim
2(-) ST: Collector of Stories

6th: Great Fortitude
Exploit Vestige


7th
Oozemaster 1
+2
+5
+1
+8

-(8) Bluff
1(10) Concentration
-(4) Craft: Alchemy
5(5) Disguise
-(4) Intimidate
-(5) K: arcana
-(1) K: arch&eng
-(1) K: dungeoneering
-(1) K: geography
-(1) K: history
-(1) K: local
-(1) K: nature
-(1) K: nob&roy
-(1) K: psionics
-(1) K: religion
-(5) K: the planes
1(10) Spellcraft
-(4) Swim
-(-) ST: Collector of Stories
2(-) ST: Second Impression

--
Minor Oozy Touch (Ochre Jelly)


8th
Oozemaster 2
+3
+6
+1
+8

-(8) Bluff
1(11) Concentration
-(4) Craft: Alchemy
6(11) Disguise
-(4) Intimidate
-(5) K: arcana
-(1) K: arch&eng
-(1) K: dungeoneering
-(1) K: geography
-(1) K: history
-(1) K: local
-(1) K: nature
-(1) K: nob&roy
-(1) K: psionics
-(1) K: religion
-(5) K: the planes
1(11) Spellcraft
-(4) Swim
2(-) ST: Assume Quirk
-(-) ST: Collector of Stories
-(-) ST: Second Impression

--
Oozy Glob 1/day; Slithery Face


9th
Oozemaster 3
+4
+6
+2
+9

-(8) Bluff
1(12) Concentration
-(4) Craft: Alchemy
1(12) Disguise
-(4) Intimidate
-(5) K: arcana
-(1) K: arch&eng
3(4) K: dungeoneering
-(1) K: geography
-(1) K: history
-(1) K: local
4(5) K: nature
-(1) K: nob&roy
-(1) K: psionics
-(1) K: religion
-(5) K: the planes
1(12) Spellcraft
-(4) Swim
-(-) ST: Assume Quirk
-(-) ST: Collector of Stories
-(-) ST: Second Impression

9th: Knowledge Devotion (dungeoneering)
Minor Oozy Touch (Phosphorescent Fungus)


10th
Oozemaster 4
+5
+7
+2
+9

-(8) Bluff
1(13) Concentration
-(4) Craft: Alchemy
1(13) Disguise
-(4) Intimidate
-(5) K: arcana
-(1) K: arch&eng
3(7) K: dungeoneering
-(1) K: geography
-(1) K: history
-(1) K: local
4(9) K: nature
-(1) K: nob&roy
-(1) K: psionics
-(1) K: religion
-(5) K: the planes
1(13) Spellcraft
-(4) Swim
-(-) ST: Assume Quirk
-(-) ST: Collector of Stories
-(-) ST: Second Impression

--
Oozy Glob 2/day; Malleability


11th
Oozemaster 5
+5
+7
+2
+9

-(8) Bluff
1(14) Concentration
-(4) Craft: Alchemy
1(14) Disguise
-(4) Intimidate
-(5) K: arcana
-(1) K: arch&eng
3(10) K: dungeoneering
-(1) K: geography
-(1) K: history
-(1) K: local
3(12) K: nature
-(1) K: nob&roy
-(1) K: psionics
-(1) K: religion
-(5) K: the planes
1(14) Spellcraft
1(5) Swim
-(-) ST: Assume Quirk
-(-) ST: Collector of Stories
-(-) ST: Second Impression

--
Major Oozy Touch (Green Slime)


12th
Oozemaster 6
+6/1
+8
+3
+10

-(8) Bluff
1(15) Concentration
-(4) Craft: Alchemy
1(15) Disguise
-(4) Intimidate
-(5) K: arcana
-(1) K: arch&eng
3(13) K: dungeoneering
-(1) K: geography
-(1) K: history
-(1) K: local
3(15) K: nature
-(1) K: nob&roy
-(1) K: psionics
-(1) K: religion
-(5) K: the planes
1(15) Spellcraft
1(6) Swim
-(-) ST: Assume Quirk
-(-) ST: Collector of Stories
-(-) ST: Second Impression

12th: Minor Shapeshift
Oozy Glob 3/day; Indiscernible Anatomy


13th
Oozemaster 7
+7/2
+8
+3
+10

-(8) Bluff
1(16) Concentration
-(4) Craft: Alchemy
1(16) Disguise
-(4) Intimidate
-(5) K: arcana
-(1) K: arch&eng
3(16) K: dungeoneering
-(1) K: geography
-(1) K: history
-(1) K: local
1(16) K: nature
-(1) K: nob&roy
-(1) K: psionics
-(1) K: religion
-(5) K: the planes
1(16) Spellcraft
3(9) Swim
-(-) ST: Assume Quirk
-(-) ST: Collector of Stories
-(-) ST: Second Impression

--
Major Oozy Touch (Black Pudding)


14th
Oozemaster 8
+8/3
+9
+3
+10

-(8) Bluff
1(17) Concentration
-(4) Craft: Alchemy
1(17) Disguise
-(4) Intimidate
-(5) K: arcana
-(1) K: arch&eng
1(17) K: dungeoneering
-(1) K: geography
-(1) K: history
-(1) K: local
1(17) K: nature
-(1) K: nob&roy
-(1) K: psionics
-(1) K: religion
-(5) K: the planes
1(17) Spellcraft
3(12) Swim
-(-) ST: Assume Quirk
-(-) ST: Collector of Stories
2(-) ST: Quick Swimmer
-(-) ST: Second Impression

--
Oozy Glob 4/day; Slime Wave


15th
Oozemaster 9
+8/3
+9
+4
+11

-(8) Bluff
1(18) Concentration
2(6) Craft: Alchemy
1(18) Disguise
-(4) Intimidate
-(5) K: arcana
-(1) K: arch&eng
1(18) K: dungeoneering
-(1) K: geography
-(1) K: history
-(1) K: local
1(18) K: nature
-(1) K: nob&roy
-(1) K: psionics
-(1) K: religion
-(5) K: the planes
1(18) Spellcraft
3(15) Swim
-(-) ST: Assume Quirk
-(-) ST: Collector of Stories
-(-) ST: Quick Swimmer
-(-) ST: Second Impression

15th: Combat Casting
Major Oozy Touch (Gelatinous Cube)


16th
Oozemaster 10
+9/4
+10
+4
+11

-(8) Bluff
1(19) Concentration
2(8) Craft: Alchemy
1(19) Disguise
-(4) Intimidate
-(5) K: arcana
-(1) K: arch&eng
1(19) K: dungeoneering
-(1) K: geography
-(1) K: history
-(1) K: local
1(19) K: nature
-(1) K: nob&roy
-(1) K: psionics
-(1) K: religion
-(5) K: the planes
1(19) Spellcraft
4(19) Swim
-(-) ST: Assume Quirk
-(-) ST: Collector of Stories
-(-) ST: Quick Swimmer
-(-) ST: Second Impression

--
Oozy Glob 5/day; One With the Ooze


17th
Abjurant Champion 1
+10/5
+10
+4
+13

-(8) Bluff
1(20) Concentration
-(8) Craft: Alchemy
-(19) Disguise
-(4) Intimidate
5(10) K: arcana
-(1) K: arch&eng
1(20) K: dungeoneering
-(1) K: geography
-(1) K: history
-(1) K: local
-(19) K: nature
-(1) K: nob&roy
-(1) K: psionics
-(1) K: religion
-(5) K: the planes
1(20) Spellcraft
1(20) Swim
-(-) ST: Assume Quirk
-(-) ST: Collector of Stories
-(-) ST: Quick Swimmer
-(-) ST: Second Impression

--
Abjurant Armor; Extended Abjuration


18th
Abjurant Champion 2
+11/6/1
+10
+4
+14

-(8) Bluff
1(21) Concentration
-(8) Craft: Alchemy
-(19) Disguise
-(4) Intimidate
5(15) K: arcana
-(1) K: arch&eng
1(21) K: dungeoneering
-(1) K: geography
-(1) K: history
-(1) K: local
-(19) K: nature
-(1) K: nob&roy
-(1) K: psionics
-(1) K: religion
-(5) K: the planes
1(21) Spellcraft
1(21) Swim
-(-) ST: Assume Quirk
-(-) ST: Collector of Stories
-(-) ST: Quick Swimmer
-(-) ST: Second Impression

18th: Practiced Spellcaster
Swift Abjuration


19th
Abjurant Champion 3
+12/7/2
+11
+5
+14

-(8) Bluff
1(22) Concentration
-(8) Craft: Alchemy
-(19) Disguise
-(4) Intimidate
5(20) K: arcana
-(1) K: arch&eng
1(22) K: dungeoneering
-(1) K: geography
-(1) K: history
-(1) K: local
-(19) K: nature
-(1) K: nob&roy
-(1) K: psionics
-(1) K: religion
-(5) K: the planes
1(22) Spellcraft
1(22) Swim
-(-) ST: Assume Quirk
-(-) ST: Collector of Stories
-(-) ST: Quick Swimmer
-(-) ST: Second Impression

--
--


20th
Abjurant Champion 4
+13/8/3
+11
+5
+15

-(8) Bluff
1(23) Concentration
2(10) Craft: Alchemy
-(19) Disguise
-(4) Intimidate
3(23) K: arcana
-(1) K: arch&eng
1(23) K: dungeoneering
-(1) K: geography
-(1) K: history
-(1) K: local
-(19) K: nature
-(1) K: nob&roy
-(1) K: psionics
-(1) K: religion
-(5) K: the planes
1(23) Spellcraft
1(23) Swim
-(-) ST: Assume Quirk
-(-) ST: Collector of Stories
-(-) ST: Quick Swimmer
-(-) ST: Second Impression

--
Arcane Boost





Spells per Day


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


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


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


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


4th
4
2
1
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


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


6th
4
3
2
1
-
-
-
-
-
-


7th
4
3
2
1
-
-
-
-
-
-


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


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


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


11th
4
4
3
2
1
-
-
-
-
-


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


13th
4
4
3
3
2
-
-
-
-
-


14th
4
4
4
3
2
1
-
-
-
-


15th
4
4
4
3
2
1
-
-
-
-


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


17th
4
4
4
4
3
2
1
-
-
-


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


19th
4
4
4
4
4
3
2
1
-
-


20th
4
4
4
4
4
3
3
2
-
-





These are all pre-ooze set-up levels.
The point of it all is to be able to bind Paimon while maintaining casting levels enough to qualify for Oozemaster. Hence, Anima Mage.



Here's where we gish.
By a strict RAW reading, Paimon's Dance of Death should be useable with (Minor/Major) Oozy Touch. RAI may not agree. Consult your DM. If it's okay, use the combo. If not, keep a rapier handy for those times when it would be useful, but don't worry too much about it.
Gaining the Whirlwind Attack feat, however, does absolutely work with the Oozy Touches], so jump into a crowd and touch everyone you can!

At 9th level, Knowledge Devotion comes into play. Your skill set is enough to make it worthwhile. It'll do double duty with the Ochre Jelly touch!
Phosphorescent Fungus helps your human eyes. Smeer some on the blade of a rapier and unsheath it for a torch.

At 11th level, the Green Slime touch works with Knowledge Devotion and Whirlwind Attack. 1d6 + (1-5) Con damage to each creature you can reach is going to cause problems to many of your foes.

At 12th level, Indiscernible Anatomy and the Minor Shapeshift feat are going to help keep you alive.

At 16th level, Blindsight from One With the Ooze combos well for a gish with Obscuring Mist (or Solid Fog or...)



Rounding things out in basic gish-fashion. Abjurant Champion!
At 17th level, the Shield spell gets better. At 18th, it gets faster. (As do other Wu Jen spells, of course.)

At 19th level, 7th level spells become available. Including Giant Size (for extending reach with Whirlwind Attacks) and Body Outside Body (because why be only one Con damage dealing tornado?).

At 20th level, Arcane Boost adds options. Not least of which is a bonus to damage rolls. (Remember that Con damage attack?) It won't stack with Knowledge Devotion, but in those situations where you've rolled poorly and you're in position to strike, dropping a 6th-level spell to add 12 damage to all of your Whirlwind Attacks with a Green Slime touch could very well spell doom for your enemies.



Complete Arcane -- Wu Jen (p.14); Practiced Spellcaster feat (p.82)
Complete Mage -- Vengeful Spirit feat (p.48); Hasty Spirit feat (p.44); Minor Shapeshift feat (p.45); Abjurant Champion (p.50)
Tome of Magic -- Binder (p.9); Improved Binding feat (p.74); Anima Mage (p.50)
Complete Scoundrel -- Skill Tricks (p.82-90)
Complete Champion -- Knowledge Devotion feat (p.60)

[Heliomance]

And that's everything! Another small round this time. Judges, over to you!

[Zaq]

I am very much not disappointed with these results.

I see at least a couple people exploring avenues of optimization that I started with but had to abandon in favor of other tricks, which is neat. I’ll have to do a deep read of these entries after work today. Looks great so far, though!

Who’s judging?

[Wolfem]

Updated the ICO Spreadsheet (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oyjVU5JmeCnC8YTMqDArDqE5PszHl0Ysadz630kuTGk/edit?ts=59a4835f#gid=0&range=A1001:A1005) with the dishes for this cook.

[Thurbane]

Congrats to all who got an entry in.

My stub was as follows:

Ogmira Limus




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


1st
Rogue 1
+x
+x
+x
+x
40
Able LearnerB, Iron Will
Poison use, sneak attack +1d6, trapfinding


2nd
Duskblade 1
+x
+x
+x
+x
4
-
Arcane attunement, armored mage (light)


3rd
Duskblade 2
+x
+x
+x
+x
4
Combat CastingB, Spell Focus (evil)
Combat Casting


4th
Duskblade 3
+x
+x
+x
+x
4
-
Arcane channeling


5th
Rogue 2
+x
+x
+x
+x
10
-
Evasion


6th
Ur Priest 1
+x
+x
+x
+x
4
Great Fortitude
-


7th
Ur Priest 2
+x
+x
+x
+x
4
-
Rebuke undead


8th
Ur Priest 3
+x
+x
+x
+x
4
-
-


9th
Oozemaster 1
+x
+x
+x
+x
6
Practiced Spellcaster (ur priest)
Minor oozy touch 1


10th
Oozemaster 2
+x
+x
+x
+x
6
-
Charisma penalty -1, oozy glob 1 /day, slithery face


11th
Oozemaster 3
+x
+x
+x
+x
6
-
Minor oozy touch 2


12th
Oozemaster 4
+x
+x
+x
+x
6
Poison Spell
Charisma penalty -2, oozy glob 2/day, malleability


13th
Oozemaster 5
+x
+x
+x
+x
6
-
Major oozy touch 1


14th
Oozemaster 6
+x
+x
+x
+x
6
-
Charisma penalty -3, oozy glob 3/day, indiscernible anatomy


15th
Oozemaster 7
+x
+x
+x
+x
6
Knowledge Devotion
Major oozy touch 2


16th
Oozemaster 8
+x
+x
+x
+x
6
-
Charisma penalty -4, oozy glob 4/day, slime wave


17th
Oozemaster 9
+x
+x
+x
+x
6
-
Major oozy touch 3


18th
Oozemaster 10
+x
+x
+x
+x
6
*
Charisma penalty -5, oozy glob 5/day, one with the ooze


19th
Ur Priest 4
+x
+x
+x
+x
4
-
Divine spell resistance 15


20th
Ur Priest 5
+x
+x
+x
+x
4
-
-



As with most 1/2 casting PrCs, I was trying to bludgeon it with the hammer of Ur Priest. Couldn't do anything interesting with it, and the last two levels of Ur Priest felt like a waste, but couldn't find anything that felt like a better fit.

[The Viscount]

I'll be judging this round. Luckily I'm on break so I should be able to put up some scores in the next few days. Looking forward to going through these builds

Thank you as always for your swift efforts, Wolfem.

Criteria are as follows, a modified version of the criteria from OMG Ponies. All builds will start with a base score of 12, representing 3 points in each category. Those category scores will change based on my answers to a series of questions, presented below. An answer of "Yes" will earn a +0.5 boost to that category, an answer of "No" will earn a -0.5 penalty to that category, while an ambivalent "Yes and no" will not change the score of that category at all. If there's a yes or no with a big but, it may merit 0.25 bonus or penalty. Thus, it is possible for a build to score anywhere between 1 and 5 points in each category. The questions are below:

Originality
1 Does the build present a compelling backstory or concept?
2 Does the build enter the Secret Ingredient through interesting or distinctive classes, or use interesting or distinctive means to fulfill prerequisites?
3 Does the build make use of any interesting race, class, feats, or mechanical tricks that the judge hasn't seen in common use before?
4 Does the build avoid "known cheese" and overused optimization suggestions?


Power
1 Does the build utilize established power breakpoints and feat taxes for all classes and prestige classes taken?
2 Does the build function at the same power level throughout an entire adventuring day, rather than relying on "nova" powers?
3 Does the build thrive without requiring specific magic items, templates, or other "add-ons" to qualify for anything?
4 Does the build contribute significantly in terms of offense, defense, and utility?


Elegance
1 Does the build qualify for all classes taken outside the Secret Ingredient?
2 Does the build qualify for all feats taken?
3 Does the build avoid any rules errors, questionable rules interpretations, cross-setting material, or material specifically disallowed from this competition?
4 Does the build avoid excessive dipping (defined as taking 2 or fewer levels in 2 or more base/prestige classes)?


Use of the Secret Ingredient
1 Does the build qualify for the Secret Ingredient and make special use of entry requirements?
2 Does the build complete the Secret Ingredient or present a compelling reason why not doing so is actually a better use of the Secret Ingredient?
3 Does the build pair mechanical abilities of the Secret Ingredient with the rest of the build in unique ways (e.g. do something not every other entry can do)?
4 Does the build complement the concept of its chassis through use of the Secret Ingredient (i.e. does the entry feel like an Oozemaster)?

[Zaq]

Congrats to all who got an entry in.

My stub was as follows:

Ogmira Limus




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


1st
Rogue 1
+x
+x
+x
+x
40
Able LearnerB, Iron Will
Poison use, sneak attack +1d6, trapfinding


2nd
Duskblade 1
+x
+x
+x
+x
4
-
Arcane attunement, armored mage (light)


3rd
Duskblade 2
+x
+x
+x
+x
4
Combat CastingB, Spell Focus (evil)
Combat Casting


4th
Duskblade 3
+x
+x
+x
+x
4
-
Arcane channeling


5th
Rogue 2
+x
+x
+x
+x
10
-
Evasion


6th
Ur Priest 1
+x
+x
+x
+x
4
Great Fortitude
-


7th
Ur Priest 2
+x
+x
+x
+x
4
-
Rebuke undead


8th
Ur Priest 3
+x
+x
+x
+x
4
-
-


9th
Oozemaster 1
+x
+x
+x
+x
6
Practiced Spellcaster (ur priest)
Minor oozy touch 1


10th
Oozemaster 2
+x
+x
+x
+x
6
-
Charisma penalty -1, oozy glob 1 /day, slithery face


11th
Oozemaster 3
+x
+x
+x
+x
6
-
Minor oozy touch 2


12th
Oozemaster 4
+x
+x
+x
+x
6
Poison Spell
Charisma penalty -2, oozy glob 2/day, malleability


13th
Oozemaster 5
+x
+x
+x
+x
6
-
Major oozy touch 1


14th
Oozemaster 6
+x
+x
+x
+x
6
-
Charisma penalty -3, oozy glob 3/day, indiscernible anatomy


15th
Oozemaster 7
+x
+x
+x
+x
6
Knowledge Devotion
Major oozy touch 2


16th
Oozemaster 8
+x
+x
+x
+x
6
-
Charisma penalty -4, oozy glob 4/day, slime wave


17th
Oozemaster 9
+x
+x
+x
+x
6
-
Major oozy touch 3


18th
Oozemaster 10
+x
+x
+x
+x
6
*
Charisma penalty -5, oozy glob 5/day, one with the ooze


19th
Ur Priest 4
+x
+x
+x
+x
4
-
Divine spell resistance 15


20th
Ur Priest 5
+x
+x
+x
+x
4
-
-



As with most 1/2 casting PrCs, I was trying to bludgeon it with the hammer of Ur Priest. Couldn't do anything interesting with it, and the last two levels of Ur Priest felt like a waste, but couldn't find anything that felt like a better fit.

I thought about a Duskblade entry, initially Duskblade 13 / Oozemaster 7 to take advantage of Oozy Touch’s weird “full attack action” wording. I scrapped it when I realized that it didn’t actually take advantage of anything Oozemaster actually gives you. (Not that there’s much there, but there was enough for a couple of entries.)

[daremetoidareyo]

My idea was Maiden of pain to deliver oozy touches by whip. But I'm like completely out of free time until I'm less poor or the little one begins school.

[RaiKirah]

I got super distracted by holidays and ended up missing this entirely :/

I was initially looking to make a Shadowpouncer to get multiple Oozy touches a round, but we ruled against it being a Full Attack and made it a Full Round action instead.

Other thought was to start with Illumian for the Improved Sigil Krau shenanigans to get into Oozemaster at level 2 (looks like someone else managed it), and then probably go into Arachnomancer to get two full prestige classes, but it didn't really do anything. Good stuff all around!

[KrimsonNekros]

My plan was to start Wizard, and then use Oozemaster to qualify for Slime Lord and use the pseudopods for delivering the oozy touches.

[Karl Aegis]

I'm in the process of judging this round. Wish me luck. I need luck.

[Karl Aegis]

Originality: 2
I'm pretty sure I've seen a similar idea in the Fatemaker round. It wasn't particularly impressive that time, either.
Power: 2
You've got several levels that stop contributing to the build as soon as you gain a few levels. You stop using the bonus feats from Vow of Poverty. Healer gets dumped before you get the Celestial Unicorn (ECL 10) companion. Swordsage is just there for a few skill points. Even your write-up makes everything besides level 12 and level 20 seem lackluster. You get a decent method of paralysis, but you have to use a Full Attack Action to use it and don't exactly have good hit points to be taking hits. "I'm riding on the inside" isn't an advantage because you lose line of effect and line of sight which you need for your abilities to work.
Elegance: 1
This build is a nightmare. You ignore so many general rules and can't even pretend you have items that allow you to circumvent the general rules. Squeezing through is a defined form of movement. A creature must be both willing and able to be a mount. Allies can't fight effectively when they occupy the same square. Most abilities don't work without line of effect.
Swordsage pops up once and is never mentioned again. Swordsage looks like it would have been unneccessary if you had gone with Spirit Shaman 6 instead of Healer 5. Follow the Guide(Su) is like your 20th level Slippery Mind(Ex). I'm convinced that the Spirit Shaman skill list would have done more for you than the Healer skill list. Contemplative doesn't look like a proper capstone class because you dump so many skill points into Knowledge Religion when it contributes nothing else to the build.
Use of Secret Ingredient: 2
Most of what you wanted to do doesn't work. You've already been penalized for that with a poor elegance score, so I guess you don't have to be double penalized. If you had gone for something that actually worked you might have gotten more points here.
If you squint hard enough it's an Apostle of Peace build with Oozemaster tacked on.


Originality: 3
Splash weapons are an unusual thing to build around. I'm not even sure if Eberron dwarfs can worship Demogorgon, though.
Power: 3
I like the idea of throwing`more oozy globs than is necessary, but it comes online so late that fewer enemies than you would like are both flesh and not immune to constitution damage.
Elegance: 2
"Feats for nothing" leaves a bad taste in the mouth, especially since you apparently worship two Powers. Apparently you use Polymorph to make yourself immune to your own spells, but... Polymorph would be one of those spells."Effects". Your own reading shuts down your own trick. You spent some time on describing how you would use the trick without thinking how it doesn't work. Which is sad because you could attempt to use a polymorph trick to prepare additional shared runes from the high constitution score of oozes.
Use of Secret Ingredient: 3
At first I thought the build would make heavier use of Runesmith than it actually does. But, you do dedicate more resources than I feel comfortable to getting into Runesmith that could have been dedicated to making Oozemaster better.


Originality: 1
Known cheese is known cheese.
Power: 2
You're a cleric with a handful of class features. Smiting seem irrelevant as you don't seem invested in normal melee attacks or missiles you fire. Smiting doesn't work with oozy touch or oozy glob as they aren't normal attacks. Splash damage is always 1.
Elegance: 1
You probably would have gotten a 2 if the only problem with the build was the cheese. But you mix Eberron with Forgotten Realms, give the source for Serenity as the SRD and don't explain why you took so many alternate class features.
Use of Secret Ingredient: 1
You smite and have spells. Mortalbane oozy touch and glob are cool and all, but that's all you use. Mortalbane smites are cool, I guess, but are sort of collateral instead of intentional.


Originality: 2
You made me read an entire April Fool's Day article without telling me what I was looking for. Bleh.
Power: 2.5
You've got Mortalbane Oozy Touch and Oozy glob and 8th level spells. Alchemist Savant comes way too late to be useful to you. Reason Stealer's Devour Mind comes way too late to be useful. It's a 1d6+3 slam attack at level 15.
Elegance: 1.5
You have so many alternate class features, etc. at first level. You tell me Assume Supernatural Ability is in the SRD. You made me read an April Fool's Day article without telling me what I was looking for.
Use of Secret Ingredient: 2
You don't go into much detail on what you actually do from levels 7-14. Those are the levels you're taking the secret ingredient. Honestly, you probably would have gotten more points here if you didn't take Elven Generalist, Domain Wizard, Draconic Rite of Passage, Dwarf Domain or all this other crap that happens to benefit everything that isn't Oozemaster more than it benefits Oozemaster.


Originality: 1.5
You're a human Wu Jen that touches people. I don't see any backstory to distinguish you from other builds.
Power: 2
Oozy Touch uses a full attack action. Paimon doesn't give you more full attack actions. Just more attacks. You can't use full attack actions on everyone in reach with Whirlwind attack. You can't use full attack actions while using Dance of Death. That seems to be the crux of your build. I guess you're a Binder/Wu Jen multiclass with a few Abjurant Champion levels tacked on. You don't really expand on what you're doing with those spells outside Body Outside Body, but the other Wu Jen build explained what they did better.
Elegance: 3
Nothing wrong with it. Just nothing outstanding. You could have not dropped some skills as soon as you made the prerequisites.
Use of Secret ingredient: 2
You wanted to find a way to use your full attack action multiple times a round, but the rules don't allow it. I wish you had enough hit points to make use of your repeated constitution damage attack, but I would advise against it.


Judging is in. Someone make a cheesy Voltron joke.

[Zaq]

Wow! Really fast judgments. Thanks, Karl!

[DeTess]

Karl, has no one ever told you that you should take at least a week to judge? Now you make all the other judges look bad! \kinda-sarcasm :P

[Karl Aegis]

I was going under the assumption the deadline was tomorrow.

[The Viscount]

Karl is definitely putting me to shame. A week counts as a few days right?
A very entertaining round of oozes. Be sure to check my math. I await any disputes.

Cynthia Yoht 16.75
Originality 4.5
1. A healing exalted ooze using Healer? Definitely unique. I appreciate the use of image. Your story is brief but gives me a good idea of the tone for this build. Malleability to “ride” in party members is very funny. I like this concept. Fun, light, and playful. +0.5
2. Healer is something we almost never see in Iron Chef, and it goes with your concept, too. +0.5
3. I can’t say that I’ve ever seen somebody using Ride rules to crawl inside their party members. +0.5
4. Apostle of peace isn’t as worn out as ur-priest, but it’s still pretty stale as accelerated casting goes. Thematic it may be, but it isn’t new.0
Power 4.75
1. Your prerequisites are continued thematically with all your exalted feats. Works for me. +0.5
2. Your spells per day are sufficient to last, and you’re not going wild with using up your other abilities. +0.5
3. You don’t need any add-ons, and in fact you must do without them.+0.5
4. You’ve got some defense and utility in your build, but I’m not seeing much in the way of offense. Granted, you’re limiting your offensive ability to satisfy Vow of Peace, but self-imposed limitations are limitations nonetheless, and you’re preventing the rest of the party from offensive actions outside a very narrow stripe. +0.25
Elegance 3
1. You qualify for your prestige classes. +0.5
2. You qualify for all of your feats. I appreciate tagging which feats were bonus feats from VoP. +0.5
3. Using Amulet of Ooze riding puts you on some shaky ground. While you certainly can ride inside a gelatinous cube, stretching that to ride inside other members will be a bit hard for some DMs to swallow, if you pardon the pun Furthermore, you would need party members one size larger than you, and I don’t see spells on your list that would help you do this. -0.5
4. You knew this was coming. You’ve said yourself that Swordsage is not great here, and one level makes it stick out. Furthermore, your two levels of Contemplative may give you more than more levels of Apostle of Peace would, but two levels dangling at the end of the build are not pleasing to my eye. -0.5
UotSI 4.5
1. You qualify for the SI. Great Fortitude can’t exactly be showcased, which I understand. The skills aren’t put into any particular use outside of qualifying, and aren’t invested in after. +0.25
2. You did complete the SI, full marks there. +0.5
3. You take advantage of malleability to ride and heal from the inside, which is a unique spin on the SI. +0.5
4. Your concept is certainly aided by your entry into Oozemaster. That being said, your Vow of Peace does prevent you from taking full advantage of your oozy touch abilities. I recognize that you invested as much as you could in all the options that aligned with your code first, and I give you serious props for finding a purpose for phosphorescent fungus, but you can’t use all the oozy goodness that others can. +0.25

Humperdink d’Kundurak 17.25
Originality 3.5
1. The concept of replicating oozy behavior through body outside body is interesting. Like the evil twin of the above dish, a vile character but it doesn’t get too bogged down. You’re clearly having fun with it. Your story certainly held my attention, and I’m a fan of using a single scene to highlight a character, but I wish there was more of it to inform what your character is about or does. +0.25
2. Wu jen is less conventional than entering with wizard, but it’s kind of like “non-wizard substitute.” +0.25
3. Making your dwarf pull double duty by adding in the dragonmark of warding is a nice touch, and I appreciate that you remembered the naming aspect for house Kundurak. Using the immunity to cast corrupt spells is a trick I have not seen before. +0.5
4. Dedicating yourself to an elder evil is not new, and for whatever reason Ragnorra is oddly common as the evil of choice. -0.5
Power 5
1. You put your vile feats for Thrall of Demogorgon to use to qualify for your other deformity feats, and dwarf was put to use to get dragonmark feats. I’ll take it. +0.5
2. As you’ve mentioned you don’t need to be in the shape of an ooze to work, and you have the spells per day to survive encounters. +0.5
3. You don’t bring up anything that you don’t bring yourself. +0.5
4. With 8th level wu jen spells, you’ll have your bases covered. +0.5
Elegance 4
1. You qualify for Thrall of Demogorgon no problem. Runesmith is an interesting situation in that the class calls for the feat. The feat itself mentions that base classes have it as a bonus feat, so I can follow that to mean that Thrall of Demogorgon should do the same. I appreciate you listing all your prerequisites for me. +0.5
2. You qualify for your feats. Thank you for tagging which feats are from elder evil devotion.+0.5
3. Let’s talk about this. Devoting yourself to an elder evil is fine. Doing it while also throwing in with Demogorgon means you are serving two masters, and I do not like that. If you had spent some time in your backstory explaining why this character did this I might be willing to let it go. Your explanation about using immunity to gray ooze to become immune to corrupt spells may be an interesting concept, but I’m not buying it. You also chose to take Empower Supernatural ability with oozy glob. Unfortunately for you, though oozy touch minor and major are Su, oozy glob is bafflingly Sp, so is not a legal option.-0.5
4. Your third level of Runesmith means you are safe. +0.5
UotSI 4.75
1. You qualify but I don’t see you doing much else with your prerequisites. +0.25
2. Completing at the tail end of the build still means completing. +0.5
3. Using body outside body as a means of amplifying your oozy glob is a commendable choice. Imitating oozes gives you something to use slithery face for. +0.5
4. Imitating oozes and corruption gives your dish a cohesion that makes sense to me. +0.5

Sir Bleu the Gouda, Holy Knight of the Curdling Path 12.75
Originality 3.25
1. My my, you were having a great deal of fun with this one. I suppose if you’re going to use cheese, you might as well go all the way. A paladin in this round is different. A paladin to the concept of cheese is fascinating. The MS paint art image is a lovely cherry on top. +0.5
2. Far Horizons for your swim and Heighten spell for your spells are certainly interesting ways of entering the class. +0.5
3. Strongheart Halfling, Cloistered Cleric, and Heighten Spell are all old tricks. Mortalbane for bonus damage on SLAs like these has seen some use, but Ranged Smite evil is an original take.-0.25
4. You’re embracing the cheese wholeheartedly. This comes at a price. Heighten Spell for early entry is some old cheese indeed.-0.5
Power 4.5
1. Disappointingly, you don’t really make use of Mounted Combat with more ranks in ride, but that early entry into the SI means you can get some mean touches pretty early. 0
2. You don’t have anything to burn through spells or abilities faster than normal, so you’ll do fine. +0.5
3. You don’t need anything that you don’t bring yourself. +0.5
4. Cleric 6ths will cover your bases for all rounding. +0.5
Elegance 1
1. You do fulfill the prerequisites for Prestige Paladin. +0.5
2. As described on PHB page 58-59, feat selection happens before class features. As a consequence, you do not have divine grace when you choose Serenity. 0
3. Using Heighten spell to qualify early for casting is highly questionable. Without the slots to put your spells in, even with DMM, I foresee a large number of DMs ruling against this. -0.5
4. Excessive dipping is avoided. +0.5
As mentioned in the OP of the thread, flaws are very much frowned upon here. You clearly know that. One flaw is displeasing. Two flaws is a major no-no as far as I’m concerned. An additional penalty of -1 per flaw is levied.
UotSI 4
1. Your early entry relies on use of Heighten spell and DMM, and I don’t read that trick as working. Without it you cannot enter the SI. -0.5
2. You do finish the SI. +0.5
3. Using Oozy Globs as a vehicle for smiting is a unique spin that showcases the class’s main draw. +0.5
4. Paladin and Oozemaster don’t automatically go together, but your backstory helps me understand. I’m willing to accept a paladin for ooziness proselytizing cheese. You keep the abilities of the class front and center. +0.5

Augustus d’Cannith 17.5
Originality 4.75
1. What are the odds we’d find another person investing in being in a Dragonmarked house? Don’t worry, I won’t hold it against you. Kudos for remembering the naming convention. A changeling mad scientist is a cool concept, and I’m entertained. I wish the backstory were longer, though. +0.25
2. I’ve completely forgotten the domain granted power ACF existed. Using it to turn one bonus feat into another is a commendable choice. +0.5
3. I’m a sucker for Changeling, and I was hoping someone would make use of shaped splash. +0.5
4. Your optimization is largely contained within sane boundaries, and when you get out there is at least into the road less traveled. +0.5
Power 5
1. Leaving wizard at 5 is the earliest you can in a sane world, and you do make obvious us of Brew Potion. +0.5
2. Spellvials mean you can stretch out your spells, and with 8ths you’ll have plenty. +0.5
3. You don’t bring up anything you aren’t crafting yourself. +0.5
4. Can’t argue with Wizard 8ths. That’s everything covered. +0.5
Elegance 3
1. As part of racial emulation, you can only emulate one race at a time, which means that DMs who use continuous qualification could hold it against you. That’s not my concern. My concern is more specific. Favored in House’s mechanical requirements are technically met by racial emulation, but within the world of Eberron there would be people who would know that you aren’t truly human, and the houses concern themselves with things like this. It’s mechanically sound, but it’s not pleasing, and this is the elegance entry after all. +0.25
2. Sanctum spell requires another metamagic feat. You do not have another metamagic feat. -0.5
3. You double-dipped in your 1st level of wizard. Elven wizard’s 1st racial sub level explicitly replaces the ability to specialize. Domain wizard is a pseudo- ACF so doesn’t have the explicit text that other ACFs do, but it does have the text “unlike a specialist wizard, a domain wizard[…]” which is enough for me to declare it an alternative to specializing. I can’t prove it as strongly as I could in other cases so I won’t levy the full penalty. Not a penalty, but here’s as good a place as any to put it. You mention that counting as an ooze means you can take the form of the reason stealer, but I don’t follow. Changeling’s minor shapechange won’t be able to make use of it, and if you’re using polymorph it doesn’t matter what your original type is. Do you mean that you can just use alter self now? If so, please specify.-0.25
4. You avoid any dipping, a neat 5/10/5. +0.5
UotSI 4.75
1. You actually do provide a reason to keep up with your investment in Craft (Alchemy), and you qualify for the SI. +0.5
2. SI completed, points given. +0.5
3. Making use of splash focus for more than one thing beyond the SI is cool, but Alchemist Savant ends up feeling more like a side dish, it’s not really interacting with the SI’s abilities. +0.25
4. Alchemist Savant blends with the mad scientist vibe, and mixes magics like your character mixes races and spells through reason stealer. Looks good to me. +0.5

Touchy McPhee 18.25
Originality 4.5
1. No backstory makes it harder for me to see your concept. I can see that you’re gish focused, and that’s worth something, but I’d like more. 0
2. Wu jen by itself is better than wizard, but binder’s enough to make in an interesting blend. I love me some binder. +0.5
3. Paimon’s Dance of Death was always something I’d written off as a kind of variant Spring attack, but to capitalize on it and his whirlwind attack and make them the centerpiece of the build is worth recognizing. Arcane boost to pump a ton of Con damage into a Whirlwind attack is very cool+0.5
4. Anima Mage is usually discussed for some very potent shenanigans, but you’re not doing anything crazy with it. +0.5
Power 5
1. With the gishing you’re doing you’ll make definite use of Combat Casting. +0.5
2. You should have enough spells to last you, and binder provides some always-on helpfulness. +0.5
3. You don’t mention anything outside of your own stuff that you use. +0.5
4. Wu jen 7ths and 3rd level vestiges cover your bases. +0.5
Elegance 4
1. You qualify for your PrCs. Using Paimon to fulfill the martial weapon proficiency for Abjurant Champion is inspired. +0.5
2. You qualify for all your feats. +0.5
3. The only shaky ruling is Dance of Death, but you acknowledge as such and present an acceptable alternative of whirlwind attack, which does indeed work. At first I was horrified to see unfinished Abjurant Champion, but I realized that finishing it would actually reduce your effective CL due to your BA and Practiced Spellcaster. +0.5
4. One level of binder, two of anima mage. That’s some dips. -0.5
UotSI 4.75
1. Qualify for the SI, but nothing particularly special done with or further investment in the prereqs. +0.25
2. Finished the SI, take your points. +0.5
3. Whirlwind attack to spread the slime, with knowledge devotion and arcane boost to pump up the damage showcases the SI in a unique way. +0.5
4. Everything else in the dish has a clear focus in delivering those oozy touches in ever more devastating ways. That’s giving true respect to the SI. +0.5

If as a judge I can give HM, my vote goes for Cynthia Yoht.

[Zaq]

Build
Judge 1: Karl Aegis
Judge 2: The Viscount
Total after 2 judges
Ranking after 2 judges


Cynthia Yoht
7
16.75
23.75
4th


Humperdink d'Kundarak
11
17.25
28.25
1st


Sir Bleu the Gouda
5
12.75
17.75
5th


Augustus d'Cannith
8
17.5
25.5
3rd


Touchy McPhee
8.5
18.25
26.75
2nd



Public HM votes thus far: Cynthia Yoht

Thank you for judging, The Viscount! Did I miss where you posted your criteria? It's not mandatory to do so at all, of course, but it seems like you were following a very clear rubric (which is awesome), and I'd be interested in seeing what the exact rules in question were.

[Thurbane]

I'm throwing my HM to Cynthia Yoht as well.

[The Viscount]

I’m on mobile so I can’t repost the criteria, but it’s on the second page a few posts down from the reveal. I put it in in an edit, so it may have snuck by you.

EDIT: Back on computer, here it is again.
Criteria are as follows, a modified version of the criteria from OMG Ponies. All builds will start with a base score of 12, representing 3 points in each category. Those category scores will change based on my answers to a series of questions, presented below. An answer of "Yes" will earn a +0.5 boost to that category, an answer of "No" will earn a -0.5 penalty to that category, while an ambivalent "Yes and no" will not change the score of that category at all. If there's a yes or no with a big but, it may merit 0.25 bonus or penalty. Thus, it is possible for a build to score anywhere between 1 and 5 points in each category. The questions are below:

Originality
1 Does the build present a compelling backstory or concept?
2 Does the build enter the Secret Ingredient through interesting or distinctive classes, or use interesting or distinctive means to fulfill prerequisites?
3 Does the build make use of any interesting race, class, feats, or mechanical tricks that the judge hasn't seen in common use before?
4 Does the build avoid "known cheese" and overused optimization suggestions?


Power
1 Does the build utilize established power breakpoints and feat taxes for all classes and prestige classes taken?
2 Does the build function at the same power level throughout an entire adventuring day, rather than relying on "nova" powers?
3 Does the build thrive without requiring specific magic items, templates, or other "add-ons" to qualify for anything?
4 Does the build contribute significantly in terms of offense, defense, and utility?


Elegance
1 Does the build qualify for all classes taken outside the Secret Ingredient?
2 Does the build qualify for all feats taken?
3 Does the build avoid any rules errors, questionable rules interpretations, cross-setting material, or material specifically disallowed from this competition?
4 Does the build avoid excessive dipping (defined as taking 2 or fewer levels in 2 or more base/prestige classes)?


Use of the Secret Ingredient
1 Does the build qualify for the Secret Ingredient and make special use of entry requirements?
2 Does the build complete the Secret Ingredient or present a compelling reason why not doing so is actually a better use of the Secret Ingredient?
3 Does the build pair mechanical abilities of the Secret Ingredient with the rest of the build in unique ways (e.g. do something not every other entry can do)?
4 Does the build complement the concept of its chassis through use of the Secret Ingredient (i.e. does the entry feel like an Oozemaster)?

[jdizzlean]

i appreciate the humor, and pardon the pun, flavor of Sir Bleu, who gets my HM

[Thurbane]

While looking into some things on another thread, I've stumbled across the craptacular Haztaratain PrC (SoS p.122).

A Monk(ish) PrC that also requires some casting or psionics to enter, but naturally, doesn't progress either.

Almost manages to make Cloud Anchorite look appealing...

Just mentioning it for a possible future ingredient.

[Heliomance]

A brace of disputes for you fine people!


Thanks for judging Karl Aegis. I'm mostly willing to take my lumps, but I do want to dispute one point.


Reason Stealer's Devour Mind comes way too late to be useful. It's a 1d6+3 slam attack at level 15.The damage of the slam is irrelevant. He's not using it in combat. He's subduing enemies with his Oozy Globs or Wizardry or whatever, then turning into a Reason Stealer and delivering the coup de grace to eat their brains later at his leisure. Since he only gets the abilities of a devoured mind for 24 hours, this also allows him to save the abilities for when he needs them.


Disputes for Karl Aegis:


Oozy Touch uses a full attack action. Paimon doesn't give you more full attack actions. Just more attacks. You can't use full attack actions on everyone in reach with Whirlwind attack. You can't use full attack actions while using Dance of Death. That seems to be the crux of your build.


Okay, let's clarify this. There are two concepts in play with this quote: Dance of Death and Whirlwind Attack. Both are granted by Paimon. Neither grant more full attack actions; neither were ever stated to. Let's take a look at each individually to see how they work:

Dance of Death:


When you use this ability, you can move up to your speed and make a single attack against any creature you move past, provoking attacks of opportunity normally. When you use your dance of death, you forfeit any bonus or extra attacks granted by other feats or abilities (such as the Cleave feat or the haste spell), and you cannot attack any single creature more than once. Once you have used this ability, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds.

So you can move. And attack the creatures you move past. No stipulation is restricts what kind of attack you can make. Only that you get one (and only one) attack against each creature.



attack: Any of numerous actions intended to harm, disable, or neutralize an opponent. The outcome of an attack is determined by an attack role.

Some attacks are standard actions. Some attacks are full-round actions. Some attacks are swift or immediate actions. There is nothing, by RAW, that limits the 'single attack' to being an attack of any particular kind of action. So, by the rules as written, there is no reason that each attack made during a Dance of Death can't be a Minor/Major Oozy Touch.
Should it be allowed by rules as intended? I don't know. Neither do you. (I assume. I wasn't in the room when the rule was written, so I don't know what was intended. I only assume that you weren't either.) My guess is that it isn't intended. I wouldn't allow it at my table. But that's me, and I'm not the DM at every table. Which is why I stated in my write up that it probably won't work at your table, but it might. Talk to your DM.

Whirlwind Attack:
The Whirlwind Attack feat, on the other hand, does work by RAW and, I believe, RAI. (Again, I wasn't in the room when the feat was written.)

Benefit
When you use the full attack action, you can give up your regular attacks and instead make one melee attack at your full base attack bonus against each opponent within reach.
When you use the Whirlwind Attack feat, you also forfeit any bonus or extra attacks granted by other feats, spells, or abilities.

(As per here (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#whirlwindAttack).)
Minor/Major Oozy Touch is a full attack action to use, so using it qualifies for use of the Whirlwind Attack feat. So, you "give up your regular attacks" (the one attack you would make with Oozy Touch) and instead "make one melee attack at your full base attack bonus against each opponent within reach".





You don't really expand on what you're doing with those spells outside Body Outside Body, but the other Wu Jen build explained what they did better.

There are, actually, no fewer than five spells specifically mentioned in my build:
Obscuring Mist, Shield, Giant Size, Body Outside Body, Scales of the Lizard (listed in the build table itself as Extended). Another spell, Polymorph, is implied with the use of the Minor Shapeshift feat (something's got to power that thing.) The Arcane Boost ability is also powered by those spell slots.

As for expanding on them further, what's to explain? They're spells; Touchy's a gish. He'll use his spells to pump his AC or add miss chance or protect against elements or other "save his own skin" methods. He won't be using them to blast. That all seems to (literally) go without saying.



I wish you had enough hit points to make use of your repeated constitution damage attack, but I would advise against it.
I don't agree. With the spells mention above, used as a gish would, and a few gishy magic items to protect him, Touchy should be fine in most battles. Completely unscathed? No. But that's what healing potions are for.

[The Viscount]

While looking into some things on another thread, I've stumbled across the craptacular Haztaratain PrC (SoS p.122).

A Monk(ish) PrC that also requires some casting or psionics to enter, but naturally, doesn't progress either.

Almost manages to make Cloud Anchorite look appealing...

Just mentioning it for a possible future ingredient.

I just looked at Haztaratain. It's frustrating to enter, does very little, and doesn't really make sense. It confounds my mind and offends my eye.
In short, a worthy ingredient.

[Zaq]

While looking into some things on another thread, I've stumbled across the craptacular Haztaratain PrC (SoS p.122).

A Monk(ish) PrC that also requires some casting or psionics to enter, but naturally, doesn't progress either.

Almost manages to make Cloud Anchorite look appealing...

Just mentioning it for a possible future ingredient.


I just looked at Haztaratain. It's frustrating to enter, does very little, and doesn't really make sense. It confounds my mind and offends my eye.
In short, a worthy ingredient.

Wow, that's a bad one. Needs nontrivial magic that then goes nowhere. Hard to enter without Monk. Uninspiring skill list and class chassis. Needs a poor feat to get in.

Ki strike and the Monk abilities aren't awful (ki strike is pretty bad), but they're especially insulting as your only level 1 features.

Energize is impressively bad. Notice that the first sentence mentions meditating AND sleeping, but the second sentence only triggers the healing when meditating. Even ignoring that, why such a staggeringly tiny limit? That's pretty awful. Endure Elements is cheaply replicated with a magic item (including, but not limited to, a wand/dorje, given that you need magic to get in).

Earth Walk is pretty stupid considering that you are required to have the actual power or else something with a very similar effect before you're allowed in.

Lightning Fist is marginally better than the Fiery Fist feat, but the Fiery Fist feat is bad. Energy resistance is passive and defensive and therefore hard to show off.

Peak Leap is, um, okay, but a little bit unimpressive for its position on the level table.

Breatharian is pure fluff 99% of the time, and it's passive anyway.

Mountain Form was done faster by the Barbarian. Not to mention being passive and defensive.

Earth Glide is genuinely useful, but still limited and rather difficult to spotlight. Still, it's by far the class's best trick so far.

Control Weather is also genuinely powerful, though it's 1/day and isn't always the right tool for the job. Still, it's a big gun.

Yeah. Not a good class by any stretch. Too many passive abilities, not to mention parts that are just plain weird. To be honest, upon reading it, my first response was "what's this Forgotten Realms class doing in Eberron?"

[Venger]

It made me look at it and say "this is worse than cloud anchorite."

Then I had to go take a shower.

[Zaq]

Venger! Good to see you, my friend. How’ve you been?

[WhamBamSam]

Oof. I misread the casting/manifesting requirement the first time. It's worse than I thought.

Earth Glide and Control Weather are something, but levels 1-8 are significantly worse than the levels of Monk it's supposed to be replacing (which at the very least does not include the first, best Monk level).

[Karl Aegis]

Augustus:
It's a weak ability at level 15. A Tibbit Psychic Warrior can metamorphosis into a Phasm and use it's alternate form ability to turn into epic level goons at this point. If you had gotten your ability sooner you would have gotten better points for it. As it stands, spinning the roulette wheel and hoping you get a monster weak enough to subdue, but strong enough to contribute to your build is not a guaranteed ability everyone using your build will have. You can just polymorph into those creatures anyways. It's not a big deal.

Touchy:
Full Attack action is what limits Dance of Death. You still have to obey the rules of the full attack action when you use a full attack action. What limits you is the "The only movement you can take during a full attack is a 5-foot step." line of Full Attack.

Whirlwind Attack specifies "the full attack action", the one defined in the Player's Handbook. Singular. There is only one instance of full attack action that is compatible with the feat. You tell me oozy touch is "a full attack action". There is a difference. They are not compatible.

You got your points for having spells.

"I can use magic items to cover my weaknesses" is something everyone but Cynthia can do, too. It doesn't highlight what the secret ingredient can do.

[Venger]

Venger! Good to see you, my friend. How’ve you been?

Thank you. I've been great. Took a break from the forums since I've been on a deadline (writing rpgs) but I'm back.

[The Viscount]

While we're discussing possible ingredients, I've got a real yen for Ghost-Faced Killer, though I couldn't tell you why.

[KrimsonNekros]

DotU Arachnomancer is always my vote for an ingredient!

[WhamBamSam]

While we're discussing possible ingredients, I've got a real yen for Ghost-Faced Killer, though I couldn't tell you why.I thought for sure Ghost-Faced Killer had been done already. Looks like fun, actually.


DotU Arachnomancer is always my vote for an ingredient!I'd love to see DotU Arachnomancer and have a build basically stubbed out, but I'm guessing we won't get another caster ingredient right after Oozemaster.

[Venger]

I'd love to take a crack at ghost-faced killer. either that or spinemeld warrior.

[Zaq]

Ghost-Faced Killer is an extremely frustrating class that really doesn't get anything unique (except for one ability that is nigh impossible to use because of HD restrictions) and that has far, far too many limits on what it actually does get.

That said, at least most of its abilities are active rather than passive, so we can at least make an attempt to show off what we're doing with them.

I won't have free time to cook or judge until the quarter (or, if the timing isn't absolutely spot-on perfect, probably the whole semester) is over, so take that for what it's worth. I do think that GFK would probably be fun to watch, at least.

[The Viscount]

I once thought that it had the unique claim to fame of being a prestige class with a name that's a pun based on a member of Wu-Tang Clan, but that's not exactly worth much by itself.

EDIT: I have been informed that it actually takes its name from the film that inspired Ghostface Killah, and I am in fact a burger-eating fool.
Which also means that though this does make much more sense, the PrC doesn't even have that going for it.

[Thurbane]

I though we'd already done GFK, but then I realised I was thinking of Ghostwalker (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?198921)...

I think I wrote up a build stub for GFK at some point.

[Heliomance]

I thought I'd already inflicted Spinemeld Warrior on you - maybe not even I could bring myself to be so cruel.

Anyway, I think we're ready for the reveal, if no-one has any further comments?

[Zaq]

No disputes from me! I’ll have a few things to say, but that’s mostly just me trying to explain myself better, not an attempt to change any scores.

[KrimsonNekros]

I thought I'd already inflicted Spinemeld Warrior on you - maybe not even I could bring myself to be so cruel.

Anyway, I think we're ready for the reveal, if no-one has any further comments?

Never been inflicted on us, but I think it's been included as an ingredient in a build before.

[WhamBamSam]

I thought I'd already inflicted Spinemeld Warrior on you - maybe not even I could bring myself to be so cruel.

Anyway, I think we're ready for the reveal, if no-one has any further comments?You've threatened us with it before, but haven't gone through with it yet. I have a few build stubs ready to go in the old emergency bunker.

I'm ready for the reveal. Looking forward to the next round.

[Venger]

Chef
Build
Judge 1: Karl Aegis
Judge 2: The Viscount
Total after 2 judges
Ranking after 2 judges



Humperdink d'Kundarak
11
17.25
28.25
1st



Touchy McPhee
8.5
18.25
26.75
2nd



Augustus d'Cannith
8
17.5
25.5
3rd



Cynthia Yoht
7
16.75
23.75
4th



Sir Bleu the Gouda
5
12.75
17.75
5th



Table for when reveal is posted.

[Thurbane]

Nice work Venger :smallsmile:

[Heliomance]

Thank you ever so much for the table, Venger!



Chef
Build
Judge 1: Karl Aegis
Judge 2: The Viscount
Total after 2 judges
Ranking after 2 judges


Zaq
Humperdink d'Kundarak
11
17.25
28.25
1st


Macabaret
Touchy McPhee
8.5
18.25
26.75
2nd


WhamBamSam
Augustus d'Cannith
8
17.5
25.5
3rd


Zaq
Cynthia Yoht
7
16.75
23.75
4th


WhamBamSam
Sir Bleu the Gouda
5
12.75
17.75
5th



Okay, congratulations to... all three of you! Everybody gets a medal! Huzzah!

[Heliomance]

New thread! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?579553-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-XCVII&p=23666791)

[Zaq]

Gold and HM! A very satisfying result. Definitely not gonna complain about that. I will admit that I expected my two builds’ positions to be reversed, but hey, I still got what I wanted!

This was a very Iron Chef-y ingredient. It really required some creative thinking to make it not be abjectly horrible—there’s really no way to play it straight. Once I gave up on trying to play it straight, the builds came together much more naturally in my mind.

We definitely had some fine dishes across the board here. Good job, everyone!

[Wolfem]

Updated the ICO Spreadsheet (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oyjVU5JmeCnC8YTMqDArDqE5PszHl0Ysadz630kuTGk/edit?ts=59a4835f#gid=0&range=A1001:A1005) with the Chefs to their dishes and added the links to the judges scoring.