Gamerwarper's Optimization Challenge #4: Amazing and Terrible E6 werebeasts

[daremetoidareyo]

Hello, welcome to the the

Game-Warper's Optimization Challenge!




Round 4: Amazing and Terrible E6 werebeasts
The entirety of Dragon #313 is allowed
Gestalt Racial hit dice and Level adjustment (See below)



In this round, you will build a an E6 character with lycanthropy (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/lycanthrope.htm), entomathropy (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20040621a), quasi lycanthropy (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mb/20040721a), or lycanthropic heritage (shifter).

You may use any material found in Dragon Magazine #313.

For this round, in order to open up some of the more wild forms that you can be, we are allowing the gestalt of Racial hit dice and LA with class levels. This racial gestalt works like this:

For this contest, you may ignore the LA from your lycanthrope/emtoma/quasilycanthrope templates. Entirely. You need to be a lycanthrope to enter, so why not get that for free.

Next, on the racial side of the gestalt: The total number of racial hit dice and LA may not exceed 6 (excluding whatever LA you get for free to become a lycanthrope).

Apply Racial hitdice first and LA last. For example: if you are a first level half giant lycanthrope, your first 5 class levels are gestalted with animal HD of up to 5 HD, and the final level on your racial gestalt side is for the +1 LA from the half giant race. Just assume that you grow into your lycanthropy and that you gain your animal HD in sequence with your class levels. You don't have to use all of the 6 alotted gestalt levels, nor are you beholden to filling the racial gestalt solely with animal HD. If your base humanoid or giant form has racial hitdice, they may also be used in the racial gestalt so long as when paired with your animal HD, you do not surpass the 6 HD/LA limit.

This will allow for a wider diversity of racial entries. Maybe even some small giants or weirder humanoids.


This character build will be from levels 1-6 followed by 10 epic feats.

This competition is based on the Iron Chef Competition (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?571065-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-XCV) E6 appetizer edition (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?572441-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-XIII)) rules.

Allowable Sources: Same as the Iron Chef Competition (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?571065-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-XCV).

Rules: We will follow all of the entry rules and requirements of the Iron Chef Optimization Challenge for this contest except Judging and that you are limited to a single entry. A quick recap, no leadership, only first party sources, no generic classes.

PAY ATTENTION THIS IS WAY DIFFERENT THAN NORMAL, WE ARE NOW USING RANKED CHOICE JUDGMENTS:

Judging: By Entering an entrant into this contest, you agree to become a judge. That's right. This is pay to play. Judging works like this:

1. Once all of the submissions are made to the chair: ME (daremetoidareyo) at the end of the challenge period, they will be posted to the forum by the chair, (me).

2. Entrants will read all of the entries and score the other builds by the following metrics:

If there are three entries: The judge will address the following 4 categories: Originality, Power, Elegance, and Use of the ingredient. Each category will need at least two sentences explaining the judge's thoughts and ideas about the build. The submitter only judges the other contestant's build. All Contestants will share the gold/silver/bronze medals.

If there are 4-6 entries: The Builds will be assessed in the following 4 categories: Originality, Power, Elegance, Use of the ingredient. Each category will need at least one sentence that evaluates how the build performs in that categories.

The submitter only judges the other contestant's builds, not their own. The Judge will then rank each of the entire builds based on the insights received through the assessment of the build categories from first to last (first place, second place, third place, etc.) Don't rank each induvidual category, only use them as the axes by which you judge the quality of the build. We are ranking the entire build holistically as it were, not by individual category. If a submitter fails to provide a judgement to every other entrant, all of the scores received for their build rendered by other entrants are treated as zeros. If you want to win, you have to judge.

To determine the medalists, Each build will then receive a number of points depending on what ranks they received from judges. The point gain rubric for this formula is this:



1st place = Number of Contesants -1
2nd place - Number of contestants -2




Each of the builds will then have a tally of the total points from between the judge's rankings. The highest point total wins.

If there are 7 or more entries: Builds will be assessed by the following 4 categories: Originality, Power, Elegance, Use of the ingredient. The Judge will then rank each of the entire builds based on the insights received through the assessment of the build categories from first to last (first place, second place, third place, etc.) Don't rank each induvidual category, only use them as the axis by which you judge the quality of the build. We are ranking the entire build holistically as it were. In your judgment, you are expected to achieve at least this minimum standard:

There must be at least one sentence addressing the Elegance of the Build.

There must be one sentence that begins with "What i liked most about this entry was....."

And there must be one sentence that must begin with "An area of this build that needed more attention was...."

You can write more if you wish. But you don't have to.

The submitter only judges the other contestant's builds, not their own. If a submitter fails to provide a judgement to every other entrant, all of the scores received for their build rendered by other entrants are treated as zeros. If you want to win, you have to judge. We then move to the ranked choice system explained in the "If there are 3-6 entries" section above.

OVERALL Simply use the established definitions of the rating categories (originality, power , elegance, UoSI) from the Iron Chef Optimization Challenge. Again, don't rank each category for every build, simply use them to justify your decision for what rank you give the entire entry.

3. These judgments are PMed to the chair, You can send google doc links or similar formats so long as i don't have to sign up for anything, and I will cut and paste the judgments into the thread.

4. We tally up and determine the winner There is no dispute process, so these scores may wildly fluctuate and some contestants will potentially have to manage feelings of injustice on their own. If someone actively works to game this judging system we will edit it in the future to preclude optimization that hurts the spirit of the contest.



So there it is. Show me your Terrible and Amazing Werebeasts
DEADLINE For Entry: March 7th Midnight, Eastern Standard Time in the USA.

[daremetoidareyo]

Previous Rounds
Round 1: Flawed Commoner (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?568952-Game-Warper-s-Optimization-Challenge-1-E6-Flawed-Commoner)
Round 2: Dragonwrought kobolds are true dragons (http://Previous Rounds Round 1: Flawed CommonerAnnouncements I will post edits and announcements here. For example, if you didn't read the judging section of the above post, you wouldn't know that we are using a ranked choice system to determine winners. Don't worry too much about providing extensive snapshots like in Iron Chef. Tell us what your true dragon kobold does differently or better than other true dragon kobolds. That's where the real gold lies. Here are the previous comps#1: E6 Flawed commoner)
Round 3: Beflawed E6 beatsticks (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?576522-Game-Warper-s-Optimization-Challenge-3-Beflawed-E6-Beatsticks-Dragon-310-allowed!#post23580249)


Announcements

I'm seeing some professed unfamiliarity with gestalt rules. That's A -OK. Keep in mind that this is not a true gestalt in that you may only put racial hitdice and LA on a single side of the gestalt. No class levels may be taken on the racial side of the gestalt. Class and prestige class levels only go on the class levels side of the gestalt.

So a dvati were hyena would look like this:



Level
Racial gestalt levels
Class gestalt levels
feats
skills
abilities


1
hyena animal HD
druid
1 feat
class level skill access + animal skill set
dvati abilities, hyena animal HD abilities, lycanthrope abilities, class abilities


2
hyena animal HD
druid

class level skill access + animal skill set
dvati abilities, hyena animal HD abilities, class abilities


3
Dvati LA
druid
another feat
class level skill access
dvati abilities, class abilities


4

druid

class level skill access
dvati abilities, class abilities


5

druid

class level skill access
dvati abilities, class abilities


6

prestige class
yet another feat
class level skill access
dvati abilities, class abilities


Free
lycanthrope LA
-
-
-
-



If you have a race with it's own racial hit dice, you may choose how to mix and match it with your animal HD from lycanthropy. So a lizardfolk were hyena would look like this. I have added the bab and saves to this table to demonstrate how they would work.



Level
Racial gestalt levels
Class gestalt levels
BAB
Saves
feats
skills
abilities


1
hyena animal HD
druid
better of druid or HD
best value between class or HD
1 feat
class level skill access + animal skill set
lizardfolk abilities, hyena animal HD abilities, lycanthrope abilities, class abilities


2
lizardfolk HD
druid
better of druid or HD
best value between class or HD

class level skill access + lizardfolk skill set
lizard folk abilities, class abilities


3
hyena animal HD
druid
better of druid or HD
best value between class or HD
another feat
class level skill access + animal skill set
lizard folk abilities, hyena animal HD abilities, class abilities


4
Lizard folk LA
druid
Druid
as per class

class level skill access
lizard folk abilities, class abilities


5

druid
druid
as per class

class level skill access
lizardfolk abilities, class abilities


6

prestige class
prestige class
as per class
yet another feat
class level skill access
lizardfolk abilities, class abilities


Free
lycanthrope LA
-


-
-
-




You may find a list of vermin for your entomathrope shenanigans here: Vermin (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?478813-Vermin-Handbook-A-list-of-all-vermin-in-3-5&highlight=vermin+desk+reference+handbook)

Some creatures get bonus feats because of their animal heritage, you must keep these bonus feats, you may not switch them out. only feats gained from HD on the animal stat block may have alternatives chosen.

Remember that dinosaurs are animals too and that there are a ton of splat books that also have animals.

Remember the size prohibition on the lycanthrope template.

Here is a (probably non-comprehensive) list of creatures with the giant type (https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/55365/what-other-giants-are-there-in-3-5e)

[jdizzlean]

so because i'm dense, or maybe because my brain is fried from my 2nd IC entry, we can gestalt the base creature up to 6hd with racial/LA levels, and THEN take 6 levels and 10 feats like normal yes?

never mind, i found the rules for gestalting, something i've not done before

[Bronk]

Sounds awesome all the way around! Can't wait to start!

[RaiKirah]

Hrmmm... lycanthropy and gestalt - two rulesets I've never read. Will get back to you on whether or not I'm in for this one

[daremetoidareyo]

I just updated the second post with examples of how the gestalt will work.

[WhamBamSam]

I'll try to come up with something.

[daremetoidareyo]

Sweet. That's two possible entrants.


Question: wait, this question needs a caveat.

Caveat: I will absolutely abide the group consensus here.

Question: if I promised to remain neutral and fair in terms of chairperson responsibility, are you comfortable with me entering these contests along with the other entrants? Feedback requested.

Benefits include: 1 extra judge and entry and increased interest in maintaining this competition by me.
Drawbacks include: an air of impropriety about fairness, especially in the wackier rounds, literally no neutral parties to address issues.

[daremetoidareyo]

I just found the dragon #313 chapter on savage progressions for werebeasts (page 24-32). Here are my three thoughts on how to adjudicate them.

1) put them on the racial side of the Gestalt and be finished with it.

2) put them on the class side of the gestalt, thereby freeing up weirder humanoid or giant species to use for your racial gestalt side, but you cannot multi-class out of the monster levels as per the rules in savage species p.27


A monster character using these rules may not multiclass until it completes the full progression in its monster class. This rule keeps characters from gaining the benefits of a monster's type and then quickly switching to a standard class.
A monster class imposes an experience point penalty for multiclassing, just as other classes do (depending on preferred classes for the creature or race). A monster class is a character class for purposes of determining whether a character takes an experience point penalty.

This choice only allows the wererat and the werewolf to choose any class levels. However, a close reading would allow for the use of prestige classes (and maybe paragon classes, i haven't read up on whether or not they behave as a normal class) to escape from finishing the monster class level progression.

3.) The entrant chooses which of the above they use, but they must explicitly say what they are doing, commensurately, judges may not treat these sorts of entries differently than if the entrant didn't use the monster progression in the dragon magazine article.

I would also like some feedback on this.

[RaiKirah]

Question: if I promised to remain neutral and fair in terms of chairperson responsibility, are you comfortable with me entering these contests along with the other entrants? Feedback requested.

Frankly I'm surprised it took you this long to ask :p

From what I can tell, you started this competition because you enjoy messing with weird rules, and I for one have always enjoyed seeing what rabbithole you run down in your builds.

+1 for would approve of your participation!

[Bronk]

Question: if I promised to remain neutral and fair in terms of chairperson responsibility, are you comfortable with me entering these contests along with the other entrants? Feedback requested.

Sure thing! I've been confused every time you haven't entered, especially considering how you set up judging.


I just found the dragon #313 chapter on savage progressions for werebeasts (page 24-32).

I actually thought we might be doing an all #313 contest this time... I was eyeing those ghost elves.


Here are my three thoughts on how to adjudicate them.

1) put them on the racial side of the Gestalt and be finished with it.

2) put them on the class side of the gestalt, thereby freeing up weirder humanoid or giant species to use for your racial gestalt side, but you cannot multi-class out of the monster levels as per the rules in savage species p.27

This choice only allows the wererat and the werewolf to choose any class levels. However, a close reading would allow for the use of prestige classes (and maybe paragon classes, i haven't read up on whether or not they behave as a normal class) to escape from finishing the monster class level progression.

3.) The entrant chooses which of the above they use, but they must explicitly say what they are doing, commensurately, judges may not treat these sorts of entries differently than if the entrant didn't use the monster progression in the dragon magazine article.

I would also like some feedback on this.

I can't immediately see any advantage to the first option, considering the free Lycanthrope LA in this contest, but who knows? How about option 3, in case anyone can figure out something neat?

[daremetoidareyo]

Barring any dissenting views, I'll begin thinking about a build.

That's one vote for option 3. The most permissive option. Except it can possibly make judging more gruelsome.

I want to be clear here: all of #313 is on the table, so thar be gold in them thar hills.

[jdizzlean]

build away.

as for racial/were progression, i'm in favor of you take as many ranks in whichever were-form you want and class/racial/template out when you feel like it. especially since we're getting the lycanthropy for free. leave it up to the cooks as to how many, if any, ranks in the werethingy they want to take

[daremetoidareyo]

I updated the second post with a link to most of the creatures with the giant type.

We are allowing the savage species styles monster progressions. If you opt to use this variation, please stipulate that you are doing so, and which side of the gestalt you are putting your lycanthrope levels on.

[jdizzlean]

submitted

and also thinking of "oh my the cheese" that probably everyone is doing right now lol

that ended up actually being more fun that i had thought it would be, and hopefully my schtick isn't Vizzini'd.

[Vizzerdrix]

So do we send you the build or spoiler them here or what?

[jdizzlean]

PM it to daremetoidareyo

[PoeticallyPsyco]

This sounds awesome, but I don't think I know nearly enough about epic feats to participate.

[jdizzlean]

This sounds awesome, but I don't think I know nearly enough about epic feats to participate.


they're just called that, we're not actually using epic feats, you do your "normal" 6 lvl build (this round gestalted w/ your were-thingy) and the "epic" feats are just the 10 normal feats you can take after 6th.

in e6, each time you would get 5k xp beyond 6th lvl, you gain a feat, these are the so called epic feats.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Oh sweet.

Now I just need to try to come up with something original/clever.

[daremetoidareyo]

Thanks for the explanation jdizzlean. My life balance is skewing towards work again

[Bronk]

How do you go about embedding images in our posts? Do we just copy them in, or do we use links somehow?

[daremetoidareyo]

How do you go about embedding images in our posts? Do we just copy them in, or do we use links somehow?

There is a button for it on the advanced editor

image url for .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .gif

[Bronk]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CgGotKYVIAA0U-5.jpg

Nice! Thanks!

[RaiKirah]

I'm not really having any inspiration, so I'll just enjoy what everyone else comes up with!

[PoeticallyPsyco]

I find myself with several questions I need answered before I can keep building, and was hoping you kind folks could set me straight.

First, the gestalt. Am I understanding the BAB right? Essentially, you look at both progressions, and if either of them increased at that level your BAB increases? This would potentially let you maintain full BAB by choosing what level you take classes with medium or worse BAB, so I'm suspicious this isn't how it works.

Second, candidates for werebeasts. Are we allowed to use any animal (within the 6HD limit), or are we limited to the five or so official ones? Also, are we allowed to progress the animal HD past the default if the creature has less than 6HD? And finally, assuming we can take other animals, can we take animals with more than 6HD and not finish their progression?

EDIT: One last question: are multiple entries allowed?

[daremetoidareyo]

I find myself with several questions I need answered before I can keep building, and was hoping you kind folks could set me straight.

First, the gestalt. Am I understanding the BAB right? Essentially, you look at both progressions, and if either of them increased at that level your BAB increases? This would potentially let you maintain full BAB by choosing what level you take classes with medium or worse BAB, so I'm suspicious this isn't how it works.

Second, candidates for werebeasts. Are we allowed to use any animal (within the 6HD limit), or are we limited to the five or so official ones? Also, are we allowed to progress the animal HD past the default if the creature has less than 6HD? And finally, assuming we can take other animals, can we take animals with more than 6HD and not finish their progression?

EDIT: One last question: are multiple entries allowed?

Optimize your BAB. Your impression is correct.

You are not limited to the official beasts. Look at the lycanthrope template. The official beasts are just examples.

One entry.

[daremetoidareyo]

We are up to 3 entries. I will extend the deadline until saturday the 9th at midnight to see if we can't get a 4th entry.

[The Kool]

First, the gestalt. Am I understanding the BAB right? Essentially, you look at both progressions, and if either of them increased at that level your BAB increases? This would potentially let you maintain full BAB by choosing what level you take classes with medium or worse BAB, so I'm suspicious this isn't how it works.

You be right in that that's how most people read it, and due to semantics it does in fact work that way, as do saves. However, my groups and I have favored combining the fractional saves and BAB from Unearthed Arcana with gestalt whenever we use it, so if you take your gestalt experience outside of this competition you might find that a worthwhile option. (In essence, a poor BAB goes up 0.5 each level and an average BAB goes up 0.75. Round fractions down and your single-classed characters are exactly the same, your multiclassed characters benefit, and your gestalt characters can't loophole two poor BAB classes into a full BAB). But here they let you run it as written.

[Bronk]

We are up to 3 entries. I will extend the deadline until saturday the 9th at midnight to see if we can't get a 4th entry.

Did we end up with any more entries?

[PoeticallyPsyco]

I think it's fair to say that at this point everyone who wanted to be in is in. Let's see the entries! :smallbiggrin:

[daremetoidareyo]

Gonna have to wait til Monday, life got crazy. Every minute is scheduled between now and then

[PoeticallyPsyco]

I hate to be that guy, but is there any chance for a reveal tonight? The suspense is killing me!:smalltongue:

[jdizzlean]

tap tap tap

[Bronk]

Well, I had fun making a character for this! Still, it's been 3 weeks past the due date, and I don't want all that work to go to waste. I figure if it hits the one month mark, I'll just post my character for posterity.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Has anyone checked in with daremetoidareyo to see if they're okay?

For the contest, I'd be fine with just posting our builds and judging each other without the anonymity.

[jdizzlean]

his last post on the boards was the 16th... doesn't look good

[The Kool]

Hoo boy... I'm gonna regret this, but, message me your builds if you want. Honor system and all that, I know jack squat about this competition, but I can at least relay them to the thread in an anonymous manner.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Thanks! Mine's in.

[The Kool]

I have no clue who all sent things in, so I'll give you a week. Next Monday I'll post things.

[Bronk]

I have no clue who all sent things in, so I'll give you a week. Next Monday I'll post things.

Thanks... I just sent mine in, and just like last time, I accidentally sent the wrong part three at first. Sorry about that!

[The Kool]

Alright I only got 3. Incoming. If there's any others, you are on your own for posting them and have sacrificed anonymity by lateness.

[The Kool]

Urr'oc
TN Dark Half-Ogre Aarakocra Snow Spider Entomanothrope Psychic Rogue 5/War Mind 1


http://www.breakingnews365.net/thumb/15/a/6/7/a675d69d2861bfea47c4fe7af2413e89.jpg

2d8+3d6+1d10+6 Hp’s

Large Monstrous Humanoid (Extraplanar, Vermin, Shapechanger, Monstrous Humanoid, Giant)
Speeds: 60/climb 60/fly 60 average
NA +5 in all forms
Add racial BAB’s together
Special Attacks: as aarakocra in natural form, as vermin in vermin/hybrid form, class abilities in all forms
Curse of Ento (Su): any humanoid/giant of small to huge hit by a bite attack FORT DC 15 or contract entomanothropy.
Poison: spider’s poison active in hybrid form
Special Qualities: lose vermin traits, Alternate Form (Su) can assume form of a single type of vermin, add physical ability modifiers to base creature. Hybrid form: 2 humanoid arms and legs, wings, feathers but spider’s head.
DR 5/silver in all forms, Darkvision 60 in all forms
Ento Command (Su): as command undead, total 12 hd in spiders, lasts 1 hour
Ento Immunities (Ex): all mind affecting in all forms
+2 WIS -2 INT in all forms. Vermin/Hybrid +1 STR, +8 DEX, +2 CON

medium snow spider
Medium Vermin, 2d8+2, Init +4, Speed 40/Climb 40, AC 15 (+1 Natural, +4 Dex)
BAB/Grapple 1/1, Bite +5 melee 1d6 plus poison
Leap: as spring attack, if jumping on prey make charge at +4 instead of +2
Poison: CON DC 12, 1d4 DEX/Paralysis
Darkvision 60ft, Tremorsense 60ft, Use DEX for climb/Jump, can always take 10 on Climb
vermin traits: immune to mind affecting spells/abilities
F4/R4/W0
S 11, D 18, C 13, I -, W 10, C 2
Spring Attack, Weapon Finesse
Hide +4 (+8 in snow/ice), +20 Jump, +8 Spot/Climb


Aarakocra
Medium Monstrous Humanoid
-2 STR, +4 DEX
Speed 20/90 fly average, +1 NA
Natural attacks: while flying- 2 talons 1d4 or a weapon. Ground-weapons and bite as secondary -5 and 1d3+half STR. Proficient w/ javelin
+2 any 1 craft skill/know nature/listen/spot
Claustrophobic: -4 attack/skills in an enclosed area


Half-Ogre Increase size to Large, gain +10 to all speeds, NA +2, Darkvision 60ft, Giant Blood (counts as Giant in addition to base type/subtypes). STR +4, INT -2, CHA-2

Dark Creature LA +1 – extraplanar subtype, +10 to all movement modes. Darkvision 60ft, HiPS (ex), Resist cold 10, Superior lowlight. Hide +8, Move +6

I think this is right for stats:
Half-Ogre Aarakocra:
STR+2, DEX +4, INT -4, WIS +2, CHA -2
Dark Snow Spider:
STR+1, DEX+8, CON +2, INT -2, WIS +2
Hybrid:
STR+1, DEX+8, CON +2, INT-4, WIS +2, CHA-2
32 point buy:
STR 7, DEX 14, CON 11, INT 18, WIS 11, CHA 13
Level up into WIS

PP/day
Since stats are different in different forms, and those affect things like saves/skills, I’m assuming that Bonus Power Points/day based off INT are different in different forms as well. In a form with INT 14, PP/day are: 1-1, 2-2, 3-3, 4-4, 5-5, 6-6, in a form with INT 16 they increase to 2-3, 3-4, 4-6, 5-7, 6-9
PP from P. Rogue: 6, Hidden Talent: 2, War Mind 2, so 16-19 total at 6th

Powers Known:
Rogue:
1- Entangling Ectoplasm
1- Control Light
1- Precognition - Defensive
2- Cloud Mind
War Mind (Psy War)
1- Call Item

Call Item uses other than fun alchemical items: Myconids (MM2 157) can make mundane potions that mimic cleric/druid spells:
bull’s strength, cure light wounds, cure moderate wounds, cure serious wounds, delay poison, endurance, endure elements, greater magic fang, invisibility to animals, lesser restoration, magic fang, negative energy protection, neutralize poison, protection from elements, remove blindness/deafness, remove disease, remove paralysis, resist elements

Call Item can’t call specific things, but just calling a “myconid potion” and rolling a percentile die would get you something off the above list. Likewise you could call “poison” or “alchemist’s Fire” or other things that can be dropped from above or used to further incapacitate a potential victim.




Skill points based off of INT in Humanoid form


Level
Racial gestalt levels
Class gestalt levels
BAB
Saves
feats
skills
abilities


1
Snow Spider HD
Psychic Rogue
+1
F +4, R +4, W +0
Hidden Talent – Destiny Dissonance, (B)Weapon Finesse, (B) Spring Attack
Autohypnosis 4, Balance 4, Climb 1, Concentration 4, Hide 4, Jump 1, Knowledge Psionics 4, Listen 1, Move Silent 4, Spot 4, Tumble 1
Leap, Poison, Darkvision 60ft, Tremorsense 60ft, Alternate Forms, DR 5/silver, NA+5, Ento Command, Ento Immunities, SA +1d6, Powers, Trapfinding, Hide +4/8 (ice/snowy)/+20 Jump/+8 Spot/Climb


2
Aarakocra HD
Psychic Rogue 2
+2
F +4, R+5, W+0
(B) Flyby Attack, (B) Hover, (B) Improved Flight, (B) Wingover
Autohypnosis 5, Balance 5, Concentration 5, Hide 5, Knowledge 5, Listen 2, Move 5, Spot 5
Evasion, Natural Attacks, Claustrophobic, +1 NA +2 Craft Alchemy/Knowledge Nature/Listen/Spot


3
Snow Spider 2 HD
Psychic Rogue 3
+3
F +5, R +5, W +1
Ability Focus - Posion
Autohypnosis 6, Concentration 6, Hide 6, Knowledge 6, Listen 4, Move 6, Spot 6
-


4
Aarakocra 2 HD
Psychic Rogue 4
+4
F +5, R +6, W +1

Autohypnosis 7, Concentration 7, Hide 7, Knowledge 7, Listen 5, Move 7, Spot 7, Tumble 2
SA +1d6


5
Dark LA +1
Psychic Rogue 5
+4
F +5, R +6, W +1

Autohypnosis 8, Concentration 8, Hide 8, Knowledge 8, cc-Know History 2, move 7, Spot 7
Hide in Plain Sight, +10 speed, Resist Cold 10, Superior Low Light, Hide +8, Move +6, (extraplanar), Danger Sense


6
Half-Ogre LA +1
War Mind
+5
F +7, R +8, W +0
Psi-Crystal Affinity, (B) Alertness
Autohypnosis 9, Concentration 9, Knowledge 9, Psicraft 1
Size increase (Large), +10 to all Speeds, Giant Blooded, NA +2, Chain of Personal Superiority +2, Powers


Free
Entomanothrope LA
-


-
-
-


Feats:
1- Spit Venom: ranged touch attack, 25-30ft, REF DC as poison, or blindness for 2d6 hours
2- Psychic Meditation: access to 7 abilities, most often use 3rd eye for 6 temp PP, or Solar to boost saves
3- Improved Paralysis: +4 to DC for paralysis
4- Quick Change: switch form as a move action
5- Spirit of the Beast: can use spider’s Bite/Poison attack in Humanoid form, as Large (d8, higher dc)
6- Trickery Devotion: 1/day for 6 mins, create duplicate of yourself, acts as major image/unseen servant
7- Mindsight: Detect/Pinpoint non-mindless w/in 1 mile range
8- Darkstalker: forces creatures w/ alternate senses to make a spot check to see you
9- Iron Will: that’s +2 on that
10- Improved Initiative: that’s +4 folks




Psicrystal –(Resolved +2 will saves)
Dimunitive Construct
6HD, 1/2 Master’s HP, Saves as Master
STR 1, DEX 15, CON - , INT 8(lvls added in), WIS 10, CHA 10
Speed 30/climb 20, AC 16, BAB/Grapple +0/-17, +2 INT, +2 NA
Construct Traits, Hardness 8, Skills as Master (at least 4 in Spot, Listen, Move, Search)
Granted Abilities: (B)Alertness, Improved Evasion, Personality, Self-Propulsion, Share Powers, Sighted, Telepathic Link, Deliver Touch Powers, Telepathic Speech

Sources:

Complete Adventurer: Improved Flight 110
Complete Champion – Trickery Devotion 63
Dragon #313: Half-Ogre 95, Quick Change 31, Spirit of the Beast 31, Spit Venom 91
Frostburn: Snow Spider 155
Expanded Psionics Handbook: Hidden Talent 67, Psicrystal Affinity 49, War Mind 155
Libris Mortis: Improved Paralysis 27
Lords of Madness: Darkstalker 179, Mindsight 126
Monster Manual: Wingover 304
Monster Manual 2: Hover 18
Monster Manual 3: Ability Focus 303
Player’s Handbook: Feats 90
Races of Faerun: Aarakocra 132
Tome of Magic: Dark Creature Template 158


http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040827b psychic meditation
http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040827e call item
http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20040621a Entomanothrope
http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040723b Psychic Rogue

Putting it all together:
Natural Weapons are usable w/ Weapon Finesse, meaning our Bite attack is at a +6 to hit right from level 1. Destiny Dissonance provides an automatic -2 to all saves just by being in contact w/ our victim, effectively +2 DC for Poison (14 total). Ability Focus bumps that another +2 (16 total). Spirit of the Beast allows you to use they hybrid’s natural attacks in humanoid form at the damage a large size creature (spider) would do (1d6 DEX/paralysis +2 DC), so now the total is dc (18). Spit Venom has the same DC as the poison attack as a ranged option usable w/ Flyby Attack, but applies Blindness for 2d6 hours instead, meaning among other things that the target is flat-footed, as well as auto fails the Spot check imposed by Darkstalker effectively making you invisible. Improved Paralysis then makes the secondary save a DC on a bite 22 or face a no-duration Paralyze effect.

Psi-Crystal and Trickery Devotion both provide more ways to flank/SA your enemies. Psi-Crystal Affinity also grants Telepathy at a 1 mile range w/ your Psicrystal, which then qualifies you for Mindsight at that same 1 mile range. Iron Will and the personality of the Psicrystal grant a total of +4 to the nonexistent will save. Plus the Psi can aid your actions, thus providing another +2 to all your skill checks.

Entangling Ectoplasm among other things keeps your enemies in place or prevents them from running away. It also provides a penalty to DEX of -4, which paired w/ the Spit Venom save which is REF based, now increases the likelihood of it hitting more often as well, making that a DC 22 REF save. Control Light helps create areas of darkness to hide in (27 10ft cubes), and pairs w/ Hide in Plain Sight which has a +26 Hide bonus attached to it, +30 if Control Light is used to completely darken an area. Precognition is a flat +1 to AC and all saves, and a further +1 for each 3pp spent for 1min/level. Cloud Mind helps you also to get into position, or to bypass a stronger enemy.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/conditionSummary.htm#sickened
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/conditionSummary.htm#blinded
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#weaponFinesse

[The Kool]

The Wendigo, aka Paul
CE Humanoid (shapechanger)
Gheden Were-Wolverine Longtooth Swiftwing Shifter
Warblade 1/ Totemist 1/ Warblade +1/ Totemist +1/ Warshaper 1/ Warblade +1
(Wolverine 3HD/ Gheden +1 LA/ Wolverine +1HD)

In the frozen north, during the winter the food runs low and there is naught to do but huddle around the fading campfire, telling stories about what could be lurking beyond its light. Stories of frost worms hidden under the ice, of frost giants that play dice with humanoid skulls, of remorhazes that melt your weapons and burn you with their blood if you dare to fight back. But of all these stories, the ones that inspire the greatest dread, the ones that send fingers of ice down the spines of the listeners like the wind itself is alive and hungry… are those of the wendigos.
The core of these stories is always the same: when the fire dies and the food runs out, people turn to desperate measures. People turn to cannibalism, killing and consuming their own kind to prolong their lives. And so they are cursed, their minds and bodies warped by the act. What form the curse takes varies from story to story, from tribe to tribe. Some describe wendigos as giants with hearts of ice, one with the wind that calls the names of those who will soon surely die, and claim they can only be killed a warrior who willingly lets that same ice into their own hearts. Some say that as a wendigo transforms into a horned, animalistic abomination, they try to run, fleeing so fast their feet burn to charred stumps as they ascend into the wind, driven to force their insanity and ultimately their curse onto any unlucky enough to stumble into their range. Some say they hibernate for years, some say they hunt down all their former loved ones, some say something else entirely. Ultimately, the truth is far worse than any of these. Because wendigos look and act just like they used to, indistinguishable from their neighbors, until the hunger takes them and they feed upon sentient flesh. But the next day, they think no more upon it than they would a regular meal, and continue living as normal members of the community, aware but uncaring that they are slowly but surely tearing it apart (both literally and metaphorically).

This (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8j-R71s5044) wendigo story is the inspiration for this character.


* Only in hybrid or animal form
** Only in animal form


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


1st
Warblade 1
Wolverine 1HD
+1
+2
+2
+0
Concentration 4, Knowledge (local) 4, Profession (hunter) 2, Survival 2, Tumble 4
Snow Tiger Berserker**, Endurance (B), Diehard (B), Toughness (B), Track (B), Iron Will (B)
Battle Clarity (Reflex), Weapon Aptitude, 3 Maneuvers Readied, Rage**, Track, Shifting 1/day (bite 1d6, +2 STR), Call of Undeath, Darkvision, Dead Nerves, Detect Mindless, Detection, Immunities (confusion, energy drain, fear), Necrotic Life, Slow Aging, Vulnerability to Holy Water, Vulnerability to Turning, +2 to saves against disease/ fear/ paralysis/ poison/ spells from the Necromancy school, +4 racial bonus on Intimidate, +2 natural armor, 2 claws 1d4 (primary)*, bite 1d6 (secondary)*, Curse of Lycanthropy (DC 15)*, Alternate Form (hybrid, animal), Damage Reduction 10/silver*, Lycanthropic Empathy (+4), Low Light Vision, Scent, Iron Will


2nd
Totemist 1
Wolverine 2HD
+2
+4
+4
+0
Concetration 5, Knowledge (local) 4, Profession (hunter) 4, Survival 4, Tumble 5

Meldshaping, Wild Empathy, 2 Soulmelds, 1 Essentia


3rd
Totemist 2
Wolverine 3HD
+3
+5
+5
+1
Concetration 6, Knowledge (local) 5, Profession (hunter) 5, Survival 5, Tumble 6
Longtooth Elite
Totem Chakra Bind (+1 capacity), 3 Soulmelds, 2 Essentia, 1 Chakra Bind, +1 initiator level


4th
Warblade 2
Gheden +1 LA
+4
+6
+5
+1
Concetration 7, Knowledge (local) 6, Profession (hunter) 5, Survival 6, Tumble 7

Uncanny Dodge, Shift (bite 1d6+1, +2 STR)


5th
Warshaper
Wolverine 4HD
+5
+8
+6
+1
Concetration 8, Knowledge (local) 6, Profession (hunter) 5, Survival 6, Tumble 8

Morphic Immunities, Morphic Weapons, initiator level +1, Large Size*


6th
Warblade 3

+6
+8
+7
+2
Concetration 9, Knowledge (local) 7, Profession (hunter) 5, Survival 7, Tumble 9
Shifter Savagery**
Battle Ardor (critical confirmation), Shift 2/day



Epic Feats:
1. Combat Expertise
2. Improved Trip
3. Knock-Down
4. Ironheart Aura
5. Stormguard Warrior
6. Shifter Multiattack
7. Midnight Dodge
8. Karmic Strike
9. Extra Shifter Trait (swiftwing)
10. Evasive Reflexes




Char. Level
New Maneuvers Known


1
Moment of Perfect Mind (Diamond Mind), Steel Wind (Iron Heart), Douse the Flames (White Raven), Punishing Stance (Iron Heart, stance)

4[/th]
Battle Leader’s Charge (White Raven)
[/tr]

[td]6
White Raven Tactics






Char. Level
Soulmelds (shaped/bound to location) [typical essentia]
Shapes
Essentia (Capacity)
Binds


2
Urskan Greaves (shaped to feet) [1], Heart of Fire (shaped to waist) [0]
2
1(1)
0


3
Dread Carapace (shaped to arms or heart) [0], Heart of Fire (shaped to waist, bound to totem) [2], Urskan Greaves (shaped to feet) [0]
3
2(1)
1


6/epic
[B]Dread Carapace (shaped to arms or heart) [0], Heart of Fire (shaped to waist, bound to totem) [3], Urskan Greaves (shaped to feet) [0]
3
3(2)
1






Level
Pre-Racial
1
2
3
4
5
6/Epic


Strength
16
20/24*



20/32*



Dexterity
13
13/17*



13/15*



Constitution
12
12/20*



12/24*



Intelligence
16
12


13




Wisdom
8
10







Charisma
11
5









Level 1:
Wolverine rage qualifies you for Snow Tiger Berserker, which is lovely, since all natural weapons count as light weapons; however you lose the feat when not in wolverine form. Lycanthropy and Ghehed combine to represent the wendigo curse. You have so many special abilities and bonus feats already. Profession (hunter) is your day-job, while pretending to be a normal member of the tribe in between eating normal members of the tribe. For maneuvers, you have Diamond Mind to improve your Will saves, Steely Wind which is actually better than Pounce in humanoid form at this level, Douse the Flames which is admittedly situational, and Punishing Stance, which is fantastic extra damage; all of these are also doing double duty in qualifying you for things down the line. Shifter lets you channel a little bit of your wendigo curse without spending an action, or give yourself a boost while already transformed, once per day.

Levels 2-3:
Ah, how I love the Totemist class, here representing the magical powers of the wendigo. The ability to walk over snow and ice eliminates the main obstacle to your charging and therefore the need for Sudden Leap. Sure trees still block you, but they’d block Sudden Leap, too. Dread Carapace is essentially Power Attack for natural weapons, but the real standout here is Heart of Fire, representing some of that cursed fire still clinging to your limbs. This packs a serious punch, and in the Frostfell you’re more likely to run into something of the Cold subtype than something resistant to fire. Longtooth Elite makes your bite do Con damage, useful for taking on tough single targets. As for Lycanthropy, the gestalt wolverine HD overrules the totemist BAB progression, keeping your BAB at max.

Level 4:
This level of Warblade gives some small but important benefits. BAB continues to increase. War Leader’s Charge gives +10 damage to all charges, and while in wolverine form that applies to all three attacks. +1 to Int qualifies us for Combat Expertise down the road. Our bite increases slightly in damage while shifting, because we’ve reached 4HD.

Level 5:
Now we pull something tricky. We advance the RHD of wolverine, which brings the wolverine up to large size and grants +1 BAB. At the same time, we take Warshaper (qualified for by virtue of the shapeshifter subtype). Together these represent fully unlocking the power of the wendigo, allowing us to turn into a giant monster with every natural attack (bite, claws, gore, talon, stinger, slam, tentacle) given just a little time to prepare. If forced to change without warning, typically you’ll want to use your standard action to change to wolverine form and your move action to grow the iconic wendigo antlers (gore attack). The Morphic Immunities improve on your Ghehed immunities, but are only active while shifting or in alternate form.

Level 6:
One last level of Warshaper lets us pick up the peerless White Raven Tactics. If your DM rules it’s too strong when you can use it on yourself, instead grab Iron Heart Surge. This build also assumes that the line “In most cases, you add the full prestige class level to your martial adept level to determine your initiator level” (ToB pg 39) is accepted, bringing your initiator level up to 5. Shifter Savagery gives us an additional shift per day and means that whenever we’re shifting and raging all (8) of our natural weapons increase by two size categories. Finally, at 6th level your essentia capacity increases, giving you an additional 1d4 fire damage on all attacks, courtesy of heart of fire.


Epic Feats:

Combat Expertise, Improved Trip, and Knock-Down is one of my favorite feat chains. Now any attack that does 10 or more damage (which should be every attack, especially with heart of fire) also allows a free trip attempt, which if successful grants another free attack, potentially doubling your damage output per turn as well as locking down your hapless prey. Being large makes this even more effective.

Ironheart Aura isn’t very useful, but Stormguard Warrior is fantastic, and has a hilarious synergy with Evasive Reflexes. Evasive Reflexes lets you take a 5ft step instead of spending your AoO, which makes it my favorite feat in this build, because by 5ft stepping after fleeing prey you force them to continue provoking AoOs to keep fleeing, turning you into the horror movie monster that only moves at a walking pace but is nonetheless always right behind them. Since you have large size, not even withdrawing will save them as long as you started out adjacent. Alternatively, you can do the opposite, sliding away from an opponent trying to approach you through your reach. Either way racks up enormous Stormguard Warrior bonuses to attack and damage.

Shifter Multiattack is excellent, a +3 to hit on potentially 7 attacks. Extra Shifter Trait (swiftwing) makes your wendigo form even more monstrous, gives you some mobility, and ties into the idea of the connection between the wendigo and the wind. Together they also give you an extra use of shifting per day.

Midnight Dodge alone is useful because it increases your essentia, but what makes it great is that it qualifies you for Karmic Strike. Now simply attacking you racks up your Stormguard Warrior bonuses.

Oh how I waffled back and forth for this build. Crusader or Warblade? Shifter or Dvati? Feral template? Badger or wolverine? Ghehed or ghul? Ultimately I decided that Stormguard Warrior was better than the effective invulnerability that Steely Resolve combined with DR combined with Martial Spirit would give, that Shifter was more on-theme, that at 6HD Feral’s costs outweighed its benefits, that large size outweighed fewer HD, and that ghul’s higher LA couldn’t be squeezed in without losing Warshaper. I also really wanted to use gorebrute shifter, but their natural attack can’t be used in conjunction with any other natural attack, which is really dumb and also disappointing. If your DM rules the advancing RHD after LA trick illegal or abusive, you can still pull off this build by dropping Ghehed and switching your animal to Dire Wolverine. You still need to take 1 extra RHD, but you can do so in one chunk. This also means you have to push Warshaper back to level 6 for the BAB bonus to line up, which means you need to spend a feat on Martial Study (WRT or Iron Heart Surge) if you want one of them.


Complete Warrior – Warshaper, Karmic Strike
Dragon Magazine 313 – Ghehed
Eberron Campaign Setting – Shifters, Extra Shifter Trait, Shifter Multiattack
Magic of Incarnum – Totemist, soulmelds, Midnight Dodge
Races of Eberron – Shifter Savagery, Longtooth Elite
SRD – Wolverine, advancing monsters, lycanthropes, Alertness, Toughness, Track, Combat Expertise, Improved Trip, Diehard, Iron Will
Sword and Fist: A Guidebook to Monks and Fighters – Knock-Down
Tome of Battle: Warblade, Evasive Reflexes, Ironheart Aura, Stormguard Warrior, maneuvers & stances
Unapproachable East – Snow Tiger Berserker

[The Kool]

Aquila and Aranea
True Neutral Humanoid (shapechanger) Tiger Quasilycanthrope Dire Eagle Lycanthrope / Sword Spider Entomatomorph Dvati Twins // Warblade 5 / Rogue 1

https://camo.derpicdn.net/453daed295de4d0ef6442cb8c99ecdcf386c4b13?url=https %3A%2F%2Fvignette.wikia.nocookie.net%2Fstar-and-the-forces-of-evil%2Fimages%2Fe%2Fec%2FS2E27_Bald_eagle_flying_w ith_spider_in_her_talons.png%2Frevision%2Flatest%3 Fcb%3D20170204063519


Aquila and Aranea were a pair of overly curious dvati twin sisters who trained as adventurers from a young age. Full to bursting with stories of their powerful ancestors, one of whom was said to be a weretiger, the two set out to make their mark on the world! However, instead of hooking up with a normal adventuring group, they set out in search of weretigers!

When they eventually found one, he was not amused! Annoyed, he roughed them up and left them bloodied and tied to a tree for their efforts. They survived, but although their wounds would normally have caused them to be cursed with lycanthropy, they were instead protected by their ancestry and became tiger quasilycanthropes.

Clued in that lycanthropes were quite dangerous at the best of times, the twins buckled down, took their advancement seriously, and began going on proper quests and missions. However, later in their careers they helped take down a pack of monsters, getting wounded by werecritters in the process - Aranea by a sword spider entomatomorph and Aqila by a were dire eagle - and they were both afflicted by the curse of lycanthropy.

Now the twins are a powerful team unto themselves, striking fear in the hearts of their enemies, as the spider eagle team! Both of the twins are adept as regular, medium sized warblades in their original forms, but they’re far more effective in their alternate forms, and they spend most of their time in their hybrid forms while under the effects of their ‘disguise self’ ability so that regular folk don’t freak out about a giant eagle and spider headed monsters in their midst - instead they see a pair of oddly feline giants.


The twins start as a warblade level 1, and they become quasilycanthropes by level 2, gaining DR10/silver (making up for being afflicted types later). Despite this, they retain the qualifications to become afflicted lycanthropes, and they advance to sixth level (Or did they? Jump to the end to find out!) before one becomes an afflicted lycanthrope (dire eagle) and the other becomes an afflicted entomanothrope (sword spider). (Since becoming an entomanothrope reduces intelligence by 2, waiting to be afflicted eliminates confusion about how many skill points they get per level now that they have different scores.) Per the contest, all the LA from lycanthropy, quasilycanthropy, and entomanothropy is free. Per the rules for Dvati twins, they share base hit points, spells, and mind-affecting effects, but not anything else, and neither kind of lycanthropy are spells - they’re curses, but curses that act like diseases, so each body can catch a different strain (I also made sure to match up the number of RHD each base animal/vermin had to reduce confusion).


Dvati Twins: Twins, DV60, telepathy, share classes but not effects other than mind-effecting, Echo Attack, Pair Link, Spell Conductor

Quasilycanthrope: Disguise Self (with animal aspects), DR10/Silver

Were Dire Eagle:
Bonuses for all forms: +2 Wis, Feats (Iron Will, Alertness, Flyby Attack), Low Light Vision, scent, +5 animal HD, Alternate Form, Lycanthropic Empathy, DR5/silver, +2NA in any form, and add animal BAB to base BAB
Bonuses in Hybrid Form Only: Two claw attacks and one bite attack
Bonuses in Hybrid and Animal Form: +10 Str, +8 Dex, +6 Con, claws, +8 racial bonus to spot checks
Speed in Animal Form: speed 10 / 60 fly (average)

Sword Spider Entomatomorph:
Bonuses for all forms: +2 nat armor, -2 int, DV60, Alternate Form, Entomanothropic Command, Entomanothropic Immunities (immune to mind-affecting), add vermin BAB to base BAB
Bonuses in Hybrid and Vermin Form: Str +8, Con +2, +2 wis, DR5/silver, retains special attacks in hybrid form (Impalement + poison bite) and damage is the same in the vermin and hybrid form… (no accounting for smaller size option), and finally, smaller size option (small sword spider form)
Speed in Spider Form: speed 20 / 20 climb

Adding animal/vermin BAB to base BAB:
Using normal rules, it seems obvious that the instruction in the lycanthropy rules and separately in the entomanothropy rules to add the monster’s BAB to the base creature’s BAB is just a reminder of how the rules work normally. However, since we’re using gestalt rules, I’m taking them at their word and adding the BAB in at the end. Since Dvati level up as one being, that’s +3 from each type of lycanthropy (separate sources) for a total of +6 BAB added, going above the normal +6 BAB cap of E6.

Quasilycanthropy occurs when you almost catch lycanthropy - the lycanthropy strain that matches one from your distant heritage - but don’t. That still leaves you able to contract a different strain of lycanthropy.

Dvati twins are one soul with two bodies. However, most effects on individual bodies stay separate. In this case, each body has been afflicted with a different form of lycanthropy: Lycanthropy and Entomanothropy.

Lycanthropy often comes with bonus feats, and dvati twins share all their feats.

Entomanothropes lose two points of intelligence. These Dvati twins were afflicted at 6th level, after they had learned all their skills in E6, so there is no confusion about how many skill points they might get in the future with mismatch Int scores.

Entomanothropes’ physical ability adjustments are set based on the form of their base vermin, then the stat adjustments are applied to the base humanoid’s stats to reach the final scores for the hybrid form and vermin form… including that of their small vermin form.

The Necklace of Natural Attacks can apply weapon enhancements to natural attacks, in this case adding +1 and Valorous (+1) to ‘legs’.

Lack of the Control Shape skill: The dvati twins were afflicted with lycanthropy and entomanothropy at level 6, too late to take any ranks in Control Shape. However, they’re at their best in their animal and vermin forms, and if they should need to take on a different form, they can take their time. There are no consequences for retrying form changes to hybrid form to animal/vermin form and back, Dvati twins’ true forms are considered unnerving, and besides, they can use disguise self to soften their appearances in hybrid form. They could look like large sized giants, or shorten themselves a bit and look like very large barbarians.

Charging
-Charging is a full round action, allowing you to move up to twice your movement (but at least 10 feet) and make one attack during the action.
-Charging grants +2 to hit but also -2 to AC.
-The Leap Attack and Battle Jump feats allow a charge via jumping or falling on a foe.
-The Battle Leader’s Charge maneuver allows a charge with +10 damage.
-Valorous is a +1 weapon property that doubles the damage of a charge attack using D&D 3.5 math.
-Battle Jump feat doubles the damage of a jumping charge attack using D&D 3.5 math.
-The Leap Attack feat multiplies power attack damage during charge by 100% using regular math.
-A Dive Attack is a special kind of flying charge that only creatures that can fly and make claw or talon attacks can take advantage of, allows both claws or talons to attack, and doubles the damage dealt.

Sword Spider’s Impalement Attack:

-A regular, large sword spider has an impalement attack as a special attack, and entomanothropes retain their special attacks in hybrid form. How this might happen with no mention of retaining sword arms is speculative. Perhaps they don’t retain claws unless their base vermin is a scorpion of some sort, but it didn’t say anything about legs.

-Additionally, Impalement is an extraordinary ability based on the spider jumping with its sword legs meshed together, and how many hit is based on the size of the target. A smaller spider would therefore hit smaller targets with more legs.

-Finally, Impalement is an extraordinary ability, and although abilities that are actions are counted as standard actions unless specified otherwise, this one specifies that you first jump, then make one attack roll. That would be a move action followed by a regular attack, not one standard action, although used normally (a move and an attack) it would end up that way by default. However, since it is not itself a standard action attack, it can be made after a jump made via both Leap Attack and Battle Jump as part of a charge, and as part of a charge, it can be used while jumping and charging with the full round Battle Leader’s Charge maneuver.

Jumping: Jump checks are not doubled for jumping without a running start when jumping downwards.

Cover, Concealment, Hiding, and Invisibility:
-Being invisible grants a +2 attack bonus on opponents who can’t see them, plus they can ignore their Dex to AC.
-Concealment or cover grants the ability to hide.
-Improved cover grants +10 to hide
-A hidden creature acts as being invisible to those who can’t detect them.
-Being invisible with respect to a creature allows you to ignore their dex bonuses to armor class.
-After hiding, you can move up to half your speed and stay hidden with no penalty (note that full speed on a charge is twice your normal speed).


The necklace of natural attacks +1, valorous, is 8600 gold
least crystal of energy assault, fire: 600 gold
small sized masterwork spider chain shirt 350 gold
2 large sized humanoid chain shirts: 2X 200 gold
2 large sized greatswords: 2X 100 gold
2 medium sized battleaxes: 2X 10 gold
2 medium sized leather armors: 2X 10 gold
2 medium sized light wooden shields: 2X 3 gold
1 medium sized lance: 10 gold
2 potions of jump: 100 gold
1 potion of true strike: 50 gold
Handy Haversack: 2000 gold
Pearl of Speech (MIC) 600
total: 12796 gold (44 gold left over)




Abilities (+1 Str at L4): Str 16, Dex 12, Con 18, Int 12, Wis 8, Cha 8




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


1st
Dvati Twins
Warblade 1
+1
+2
+0/+0
+0
20
Hide 2
Intimidate 4
Jump 4
Move Sil. 2
Tumble 4
Vulnerable Flaw
General Feat:
Flaw Feat:
Battle Clarity,
Weapon aptitude,
Maneuvers,
Stances


2nd
1HD Animal/ Vermin
Warblade 2
+2
+4
+2/+0
+0
5
Hide 2
Intimidate 5
Jump 5
Move Sil. 2
Ride 1
Tumble 5
-
Uncanny Dodge,
Lycanthropy (various)


3rd
2HD Animal/ Vermin
Warblade 3
+3
+5
+3/+1
+1
5
Hide 4
Intimidate 5
Jump 6
Move Sil. 3
Ride 1
Tumble 5
General Feat:
Martial Study (Cloak of Deception)
Battle Ardor


4th
3HD Animal/ Vermin
Warblade 4
+4
+6
+3/+2
+2
5
Hide 6
Intimidate 5
Jump 7
Move Sil. 4
Ride 1
Tumble 5
-
-


5th
4HD Animal/ Vermin
Warblade 5
+5
+7
+4/+2
+2
5
Hide 8
Intimidate 5
Jump 8
Move Sil. 5
Ride 1
Tumble 5
-
Warblade Bonus Feat:
Improved Initiative


6th
5HD Animal/ Vermin
Rogue 1
+6
+8
+6/+4
+2
9
Hide 9
Intimidate 5
Jump 9
Move Sil. 5
Ride 1
Spot 7
Tumble 5
General Feat: Craven
Sneak Attack +1d6,
Trapfinding


Final:
+12










Feats:



Racial
Iron Will (+2 will save), Alertness (+2 listen, +2 Spot), Flyby Attack (feats are shared by both twins)


Flaw
Vulnerable (-1 AC), gained Power Attack


L1
Improved Bull Rush (SRD, prereq for shock trooper feat)


L3
Martial Study (Shadow Hand 2: Cloak of Deception) Swift action for one round of invisibility, add hide as permanent class skill


L5 (B)
improved initiative (+4 initiative)


L6
Martial Stance: Child of Shadow, gain concealment


E1
Martial Study: Burning Blade, swift boost, gain 1d6 fire damage +1 per initiator level


E2
Martial Study: Counter Charge, Setting Sun maneuver


E3
Martial Stance: Giant Killing Style, Setting Sun stance, gain +2 attack and +4 damage vs. larger foes


E4
Shock Trooper (CW) Heedless charge option: use AC instead of BAB (of a value up to BAB) to power up power attack


E5
Leap attack (CA) jump to make a charge, power attack bonus is raised by 100%, need to move at least 10’ horizontally.


E6
Darkstalker: creatures need to use spot or listen to detect you even if they have other sensory modes


E7
Mindsight (range equals range of telepathy, so a range of infinity on the same plane)


E8
Battle Jump: execute a charge attack by jumping or merely falling at least 5 feet down onto the target. Can make Jump 15 check to lessen damage at 10’ less than actual fall. Jump can be from no more than 30 feet above target.


E9
Skill Focus (Hide): +3 to hide checks


E10
Skill Focus (Move Silently): +3 to move silently checks






Maneuvers/stances

First Level
1: Tiger 1 boost: Sudden Leap: Jump as a swift action
2: Tiger 1 strike: Wolf Fang Strike, attack with two weapons
3: Stone 1: Stone Bones, strike, gain DR5/adamantine
4: White 1 strike: Leading the Attack: Allies gain +4 bonus on attacks against foe you strike
Second Level
5: White 2: Battle Leader’s Charge, full round strike, charge. If charge hits, it deals +10 damage
Third Level
6: Tiger 3 strike: Soaring Raptor Strike: Attack larger foe from above with +4 bonus, deal +6d6 damage (jump check part of maneuver, check must beat foe’s AC)

Stance 1: Iron 1 stance: Punishing Stance: Attacks deal +1d6 damage but have -2 to AC
Stance 2: White 1 stance: Leading the Charge: allies deal +1 damage per initiator level on charge attacks.






Aquila (Dvati, medium humanoid, shapechanger, were dire eagle, tiger quasilycanthrope)
HP: (5d12+8d6)/2 (average approximately 22) + 24 Con = 46
Speed 30
AC 16 (10 + 2 natural + 2 armor + 1 Dex + 1 sheild)
Initiative +5
BAB +12
Abilities: Str 16, Dex 12, Con 18, Int 12, Wis 10, Cha 8
Fort +12, Ref +7, Will +4
Attacks: Battleaxe +15/+10/+5 (1d8+3) X3
Special: Echo Attack, Pair Link, Spell Conductor, DR10/Silver, Disguise Self, Alternate Form, Lycanthropic Empathy (eagle), Low Light Vision, Scent
Relevant Skills: Hide +13, Jump +12, Move Silently +9, Spot +9

Aranea (Dvati, medium humanoid, shapechanger, sword spider entomanothrope, tiger quasilycanthrope)
HP: (5d12+8d6)/2 (average approximately 22) + 24 Con = 46
Speed 30
AC 16 (10 + 2 natural + 2 Armor + 1 Dex + 1 shield)
Initiative +5
BAB +12
Abilities: Str 16, Dex 12, Con 18, Int 10, Wis 8, Cha 8
Fort +12, Ref +5, Will +3
Attacks: Battleaxe +15/+10/+5 (1d8+3) X3
Special: Echo Attack, Pair Link, Spell Conductor, DR10/Silver, Disguise Self, Alternate Form, Entomanothropic Command, Darkvision 60’, Entomanothropic Immunities
Relevant Skills: Hide +13, Jump +12, Move Silently +9, Spot +8



Aquila (Dvati, large humanoid, shapechanger, were dire eagle, tiger quasilycanthrope)
HP: (5d12+8d6)/2 (average approximately 22) + 42 Con = 64
Speed 30
AC 26 (10 + 7 natural + 4 Armor + 5 Dex)
Initiative +9
BAB +12
Abilities: Str 26, Dex 20, Con 24, Int 12, Wis 10, Cha 8
Fort +15, Ref +11, Will +4
Attacks: Greatsword +20/+15/+10 (3d6+12) 19-20 X2, Claw +11 (1d8+4), Bite +11 (1d8+4)
or Two Claws +20 (1d8+8), and one Bite +15 (1d8+4)
Special: Echo Attack, Pair Link, Spell Conductor, DR10/Silver, Disguise Self, Alternate Form, Lycanthropic Empathy (eagle), Low Light Vision, Scent, +8 racial bonus to spot, -4 size bonus to hide
Relevant Skills: Hide +13, Jump +17, Move Silently +13, Spot +17

Aranea (Dvati, large humanoid, shapechanger, sword spider entomanothrope, tiger quasilycanthrope)
HP: (5d12+8d6)/2 (average approximately 22) + 30 Con = 52
Speed 30
AC 25 (10 + 10 natural + 4 Armor + 1 Dex)
Initiative +5
BAB +12
Abilities: Str 24, Dex 12, Con 20, Int 10, Wis 8, Cha 8
Fort +13, Ref +5, Will +3
Attacks: Greatsword +19/+14/+9 (3d6+10) 19-20 X2, Bite +14 (1d8+3) with poison Fort DC 18 (Str 1d6/1d6)
Special: Echo Attack, Pair Link, Spell Conductor, DR10/Silver, Disguise Self, Alternate Form, Entomanothropic Command, Darkvision 60’, Entomanothropic Immunities, Impalement (8 legs +20 (1d6+8)), Poison, +4 racial bonus to hide, -4 size bonus to hide, +6 racial bonus to jump, +12 racial bonus to spot
Relevant Skills: Hide +13, Jump +22, Move Silently +9, Spot +20




Aquila (Dvati, large humanoid, shapechanger, were dire eagle, tiger quasilycanthrope)
HP: (5d12+8d6)/2 (average approximately 22) + 42 Con = 64
Speed 10 / 60 fly (average)
AC 25 (10 + 7 natural + 5 Dex)
Initiative +9
BAB +12
Abilities: Str 26, Dex 20, Con 24, Int 12, Wis 10, Cha 8
Fort +15, Ref +11, Will +4
Attacks: Two Talons +20 (1d8+8), and one Bite +15 (1d8+4)
Special: Echo Attack, Pair Link, Spell Conductor, DR10/Silver, Disguise Self, Alternate Form, Lycanthropic Empathy (eagle), Low Light Vision, Scent, +8 racial bonus to spot
Relevant Skills: Hide +13 (+23 when initially hiding in improved cover), Jump -1, Move Silently +13, Spot +17

Aranea (Dvati, large humanoid, shapechanger, sword spider entomanothrope, tiger quasilycanthrope)
HP: (5d12+8d6)/2 (average approximately 22) + 30 Con = 52
AC 21 (10 + 10 natural + 1 Dex)
Initiative +5
BAB +12
Abilities: Str 24, Dex 12, Con 20, Int 10, Wis 8, Cha 8
Fort +13, Ref +5, Will +3
Attacks: 8 legs +20 (1d6+8), Bite +14 (1d6+4) with poison Fort DC 18 (Str 1d6/1d6)
Special: Echo Attack, Pair Link, Spell Conductor, DR10/Silver, Disguise Self, Alternate Form, Entomanothropic Command, Darkvision 60’, Entomanothropic Immunities, Impalement, Poison, +4 racial bonus to hide, +6 racial bonus to jump, +12 racial bonus to spot
Relevant Skills: Hide +21 (+31 when initially hiding in improved cover), Jump +16, Move Silently +9, Spot +20

Impalement:
Large vs Small: 3 leg blades
Large vs Medium: 4 leg blades
Large vs Large: 5 leg blades
Large vs Huge: 6 leg blades
Large vs Gargantuan or larger: 8 leg blades


Aranea (Dvati, small humanoid, shapechanger, sword spider entomanothrope, tiger quasilycanthrope)
HP: (5d12+8d6)/2 (average approximately 22) + 30 Con = 52
AC 25 (10 + 10 natural + 1 Dex + 4 armor)
Initiative +5
BAB +12
Abilities: Str 24, Dex 12, Con 20, Int 10, Wis 8, Cha 8
Fort +13, Ref +5, Will +3
Attacks: 8 legs +20 (1d3+8), Bite +14 (1d3+4) with poison Fort DC 18 (Str 1d6/1d6)
Special: DR10/Silver, Disguise Self, Alternate Form, Entomanothropic Command, Darkvision 60’, Entomanothropic Immunities, Impalement, Poison, +4 racial bonus to hide, +4 size bonus to hide, +6 racial bonus to jump, +12 racial bonus to spot

Impalement (extrapolated for a smaller size):
Small vs Diminutive: 3 leg blades
Small vs Tiny: 4 leg blades
Small vs Small: 5 leg blades
Small vs Medium: 6 leg blades
Small vs Large or larger: 8 leg blades



http://falseknees.com/imgs/298.png

Only… Surprise! The twins’ number one go to tactic is actually Aranea’s (the sword spider) aerial charging leap attack from the back of a diving Aquila (the dire eagle).

The two take on their alternate forms - Aquila’s large dire eagle form, and Aranea’s small sword spider form - and take flight, with Aranea riding atop her twin. They then locate their enemy using their unlimited range mindsight and high spot checks and use their ‘Child of Shadow’ stances and areas of improved cover to conceal themselves and hide to get close… later, Aranea switches to ‘Giant Killing Style’ stance and Aquila switches to ‘Leading the Charge’ stance. Aquila closes in from above, and then, using careful timing and held actions, when they get to within 20 feet (but with at least 10 feet of horizontal distance Aranea uses a swift action to activate the ‘Burning Blade’ maneuver for extra fire damage, then uses the full round ‘Battle Leader’s Charge’ in combination with the Leap Attack and Battle Jump feats to make a leaping charge ahead and down onto their foe using her powerful sword spider ‘Impalement’ attack! Aquila, having held her action, helps with the jump as a standard action for a Dvati double power ‘aid another’ to damage, and with her last move action, she can swoop in to scoop up her twin - either for another run, to land and fight on foot, or to escape.

This attack is powerful because it is a charge with a number of damage bonuses, a number of damage multipliers, and is being made with multiple legs at once. If necessary, Aranea can use ‘Cloak of Deception’ instead of ‘Burning Blade’ to actually become invisible instead of being treated as invisible due to attacking out of hiding.

Aranea’s attack is at +2 invisibility +2 charge + 2 stance + 1 higher ground +20 base comes out to +27 to attack (which, if they’re worried about hitting their foe after spotting them, can be raised an additional +20 with a potion of ‘true strike’)

Aranea’s AC is at 25, -2 charge, -12 Shock Trooper = 11

Leg attack as a small spider is 1d3 +8 Strength + 4 stance + 10 maneuver + 6 craven +1 enhancement (necklace) +4 dvati aid another, +12 power attack, +9 leap attack power attack modifier, +5 leading the charge (Aquila switches to this stance) +1 for sword spider bonus for jumping 20’ +1 fire (weapon crystal) + 1d6+5 fire (burning blade) +1d6 sneak attack= 1d3+ 60 + 6+1d6 fire +1d6 sneak attack

Charging:
valorous X2 + battle jump X2 = X3 (D&D math)
Times the number of legs that hit in the attack.

That would be minimum 61+6+1d6 fire damage +1d6 sneak attack damage to start, and after charging we get 183+18 fire damage per leg. The Impalement special attack is a single melee attack that, if it is successful, hits with multiple legs separately. The minimum normal damage works out to:

Small vs Diminutive: 3 leg blades 549 + 54+1d6 fire +1d6 sneak attack
Small vs Tiny: 4 leg blades 732 + 72+1d6 fire +1d6 sneak attack
Small vs Small: 5 leg blades 915 + 90+1d6 fire +1d6 sneak attack
Small vs Medium: 6 leg blades 1098 + 108+1d6 fire +1d6 sneak attack
Small vs Large or larger: 8 leg blades 1464 + 144+1d6 fire +1d6 sneak attack

With a minimum damage of 1464 +145 fire, Aranea’s twin sister Aquila is mostly there as a fast delivery method followed by either a reset on a miss (by scooping her twin up and repeating the trick) or as a swift escape if the target survived (whatever could survive that amount of damage would be deeply scary and they would flee in abject terror, leaving only a quick burst of fear pee behind).

Other options include, with less detail:

Aranea executing a similar battle jump leaping charging impalement attack from any other surface (floor, wall, ceiling), in either small spider form, large spider form, or hybrid form (special attacks are retained are retained in hybrid form… I guess just as the scorpion entomanothrope retains claws, sword spiders must also retain all 8 of their spider legs in addition to their two humanoid legs).

Aquila following up her twin’s jumping charge by making a dive attack of her own either in the next round, or in the same round if she didn’t use the ‘aid another’ action to help her sister’s impalement attack in some way. This would end up with only a X2 damage modifier, although unlike regular charges, dive attacks allow all claws/talons to be used, so she would get two attacks with doubled damage.

Aranea could execute an equivalent charge (but without an exit strategy) by jumping out of hiding from the improved cover of a nice big tree, or a nearly as good version just by using Battle Jump to dropping down from a ceiling.

The twins could fight (and charge) in hybrid form (or, if absolutely necessary, base humanoid form), power attacking with greatswords, charging about if possible, and generally using their damaging maneuvers like Burning Blade or Soaring Raptor Strike. They do get three attacks with a two-handed weapon, which would double the gains from Power Attack. Interestingly, they work from the same pool of readied maneuvers, and either one of them that happens to have a spare swift action can do their Warblade in-battle refresh for the pair of them.

They could also ride each other, if one was in their base Dvati form or smaller (so not just as a small spider) and the other was in their large animal or vermin form. This would be useful for using different travel modes, since the sword spider has a climb speed, and the dire eagle has a fly speed. It could also be a battle tactic, and if necessary they would charge and attack as a team, either jumping and charging (riding the spider) or diving as a charge (riding the eagle) and attacking with their lance (for triple damage).

Finally, Aquila in large hybrid form could wear Aranea in small sword spider form as a hat, and the hat could jump on her surprised opponents to stab them in the face.




Maneuvers, Stances, Warblade: Tome of Battle

Quasilycanthropes: http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mb/20040721a

Entomanothropes: http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20040621a

Necklace of Natural Attacks: http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20040621a

Dvati: Dragon Compendium

Hiding and Invisibility Rules: Rules Compendium

Battle Jump feat: Unapproachable East

Shock Trooper feat: Complete Warrior

Craven feat: Champions of Ruin

Darkstalker and Mindsight feats: Lords of Madness

Leap Attack: Complete Adventurer

Sword Spider: Monsters of Faerun

Dire Eagle: Races of Stone

Everything Else: SRD


This was fun! I’ve never really thought about making a charging build before, and it was neat to find and use the Leap Attack, Shock Trooper, and Battle Jump feats, and work in a bunch of maneuvers and stances. It was also fun to follow a chain of rules that explained why I could use the sword spider’s special attack during a charge, and why it counted as separate attacks for an extensive damage multiplier. Shifting the size categories of the targets down when assuming a smaller size made sense, and is probably on shakier ground, but the attack still works either way.

I was originally trying for a pair of fliers… I was planning to use Dvati twins since the end of the last contest, but my original idea of using the lycanthrope class level version to make twin flying weretigers didn’t work out the way I hoped. Then I was going to go for twin giant wasps, but I just wasn’t feeling it. I’m glad I finally got inspired by the eagle and spider duo from Star vs. the Forces of Evil! It got more fun after that, even after I realized that the combo would be more powerful if they were both sword spiders. I still liked the extra mobility though!

So yeah, this is a charger build, that depends on the sword spider’s Impalement attack A: not inherently being a standard action because it’s described as a mix of a jump (and therefore a move action) and an attack roll, B: allowing the use of Impalement even if it was a standard action (because it was being wrapped in a Battle Jump and Battle Leader’s Charge burrito), and C: Impalement having up to 8 attacks even if it only uses one attack roll for all of them.

Also, to a lesser extent, D: using the hide rules to make a hide check in an advantageous location, then flying more slowly to maintain that same instance of hiding, and E: staying hidden even during a charge because the normal overland charge has been replaced by a quiet jump and because the jump is timed so that the jumper is still moving at half the allowed speed. I say to a lesser extent, because the dire eagle is still using ‘Child of Shadows’ to gain concealment and the sword spider can always swap out Burning Blade for Cloak of Deception to gain full invisibility.

I liked being able to add Quasilycanthrope in there for free too, so I could have afflicted ‘thropes but still have DR10/silver. I realized that lycanthropes still have all the qualifications to catch lycanthropy, but I figured it made sense that as a disease-like curse you could only catch it once at a time. However, being a quasi is fighting off the curse, so you’d still get to have both at once, especially if it happened first.

Plus, as a disease-like curse and not a spell, the Dvati don’t share either lycanthropy or entomanothropy, so can have two different kinds, one on each body.

Adding the BAB of the base animal and vermin after the sixth level was reached wasn’t necessary to the build, but it was fun to find a disconnected statement in both the lycanthropy and entomanothropy rules that basically just said ‘and then you add the animal’s BAB to the base humanoid’s BAB’. Clearly the game designers weren’t considering lycanthropy when creating the gestalt rules or vice versa, but that’s their problem (in a RAW discussion at least) and I’ll take the +3 BAB, thanks, for that little bit it’ll add to Power Attack.

Oh, one other thing… our starting rules stipulated that we could order our LA and RHD on the left in any order we wanted. To reduce confusion about how many skill points they got while having different intelligence scores, I had my twins being afflicted by their ‘current’ lycanthropies after reaching level 6. But how could they possibly keep up with their chosen lycanthropic foes with only singleton warblade levels, even if they had sweet DR? Now I’m letting you in on a secret stealth build! They kept it on the down low, but they were secretly afflicted by lowly wererats early on! In fact, they were afflicted with multiple strains of lycanthropy over the years, and each time they had to live with it until they could afford or trade for the cure in services (originally only available at the first change, but updated to any full moon in Dragon 313 p24), whereupon they would be afflicted again. In fact, after being wererats, they were a werewolf and a were-giant ant, then a werecamel and a were-giant bee, and later still a wereape and a were-praying mantis before finally settling in on their preferred were-dire eagle and were-sword spider forms. As for the problem with their skill points, well, that’s taken care of by the gestalt rules. The more you know!

I hope you’ve enjoyed the build!

[The Kool]

Well, those are certainly interesting. I didn't look them over fully, but perhaps I'll do that later when I get the time (read: when I get bored). The were-twins, the wendigo, and the... Urr'oc, whatever that thing is. Let's see who takes the crown, shall we?

[Bronk]

Well, those are certainly interesting. I didn't look them over fully, but perhaps I'll do that later when I get the time (read: when I get bored). The were-twins, the wendigo, and the... Urr'oc, whatever that thing is. Let's see who takes the crown, shall we?

Thanks for the help, The Kool! They'll be fun to check out!

[The Kool]

I've got one of three judgements submitted.

[jdizzlean]

you know, with three entries, there's a chance for a 3 way tie lol

[Bronk]

you know, with three entries, there's a chance for a 3 way tie lol

That would be pretty cool!

I got my judgement in... will there be a third judgement?

[The Kool]

Hopefully. Still sitting at 2...

[PoeticallyPsyco]

My bad, did half my judgement and then kind of forgot about it. I'll get back on that.

[The Kool]

Your judgments.


Originality:

You’ve got quite a few flavors going on here, with Snow Spider, Aarakocra, Half-Ogre, psionics, and spitting venom. However, you are completely lacking in background, fluff, or anything that would tie it all together. The closest you come is the picture, but see Elegance. Or is the name a reference to something? A quick Google search has failed to turn up anything.

3.5


Power:

Flight, stealth, powers, venom, and oodles of feats to make all of them more effective (plus calling alchemical/myconid items). I don’t actually know if psionic powers with a range of touch work like spells with a range of touch (i.e. can be stored until actually used), but I’m prepared to take your word for it, and it lets you get off a solid debuff essentially for free. While I have some reservations about the build – I don’t think you can fly in hybrid/animal form, some of your feats aren’t doing much for you (Iron Will and Quick Change come to mind) and others come in pretty late in the build (Spirit of the Beast, Darkstalker) – overall I feel comfortable saying this build is both powerful and versatile.

4


Elegance:

Psychic Rogue into War Mind is a natural progression, and using the Dragon Magazine version of Half-Ogre was clever. The racial part of the table, on the other hand, is a bit less elegant. I’m pretty sure you get all the racial abilities from all your races/templates at 1st level (barring of course the ones that explicitly unlock with HD/level). You get +0 not +1 Str from Snow Spider (if it’s an odd number, subtract 11 instead of 10). I’m also pretty sure you can only fly in humanoid form. The text says “if the hybrid form has wings” and the section on the hybrid form only mentions the wings of the base vermin. And using the poison stats for a large spider with a large humanoid form and Spirit of the Beast is moderately sketchy. All of these are pretty minor, but the final complaint is more significant: template stacking without any backstory justification is definitely worth a penalty.

3


Use of the Secret Ingredient:

All in all a solid therianthrope, with abilities supporting and enhancing the theme of sneaky spider. You do have a lot of abilities devoted to flight, and while you can eventually use it with your spider abilities, the delay on that is worth a minor penalty.

4.5
Originality:

It’s ubercharging, but with a twist. Don’t see a lot of Dvati. I liked the backstory; this makes up the penalty from ubercharging with a bit left over.

3.5


Power:

You’ve got some errors going on in your damage calculation. Your BAB should only be +5, and natural weapons count as one-handed for Power Attack, so with Leap Attack that comes out to +10 per hit from PA, not +21. Battle Leader’s Charge only adds 10 damage per attack, not per damage roll. However, even going with these conservative rulings, assuming you don’t get the 20ft bonus, and assuming you don’t have highly specific magic item… it still comes out to 334 damage on a hit against a medium creature (. For utility, you’ve also got stealth and mindsight. Yeah, this build is powerful. However, the whole ubercharging thing doesn’t come online at all until E5, which is crazy late; I have to assign a penalty for that.

Side Note: You could probably get off another charge attack by using your swift action for Sudden Leap in conjunction with Battle Jump rather than for Burning Blade.

4.5


Elegance:

Ooh boy. Now we start hitting problems. For starters, I’m convinced having Dvati that are two different lycanthropes is illegal, at least the way you’ve represented it. Dvati share HP and class levels, so the idea that they wouldn’t share racial HD is somewhat absurd. To have one twin be a sword spider and the other a dire eagle would require 10HD. However, Dvati rules are a grey area, and the build functions well enough even with only one twin infected. I have no idea how you’re getting a small sword spider. You’ve taken a flaw, which creates an uneven playing field with the other contestants, and is especially galling when you go on to spend two feats on Skill Focus. Craven can’t legally be taken at 6th level because you get feats before class features (so you don’t actually have the Sneak Attack to qualify for it yet). Finally, you’ve got some problems with your tables and your math. I also thought you had to take a regional feat at 1st level, but I’m not seeing that in Unapproachable East so no penalty there. That’s only one big penalty, but a lot of really small ones that add up.

1


Use of the Secret Ingredient:

Glad I get to at least end on a high note. You only really use one ability from your insect, and not until very late in your career, but you’re using it quite cleverly. Quasilycanthropy and those other cured [plural of afflicted lycanthropy] help make up for that lateness.

4.5

Thoughts on the submissions of my two fellow competitors:

Love the spider theme!

The entomanothrope template can only go on humanoids or giants, not monstrous humanoid, which is its own thing… but I see that the Half-Ogre ability Giant Blood allows it to be considered a giant for ‘all special abilities and effects’. It doesn’t say they have to be his or her own abilities, so I guess the ability of the were-spider that cursed him counts. Neat!

I don’t know much about psionics, so more of a walkthrough would have been useful to me. From the ‘putting it all together’ entry, it seems like you’re using the psionic powers for battlefield control and to aid hiding. The choice of psychic rogue seems like it’s for the sneak attack, although we don’t get specifics. Warmind isn’t mentioned later, so I’m guessing that’s for a con boost to the poison DC...

Specific tactics aren’t spelled out, but I’m guessing Urr’oc would be a poisoner that swoops in, paralyses it’s enemy, then attacks with natural weapons and sneak attacks against the now helpless foe. The craven feat would have helped with that, but if the target is paralysed for long enough that shouldn’t matter too much. It looks like Frostburn refers details of poisons to the DMG, which lists paralysis from poisons lasting at 2d6 minutes, which, although not indefinite, is still plenty of time with which to attack your helpless enemy.

Neat that that Spirit of the Beast feat lets you use natural weapons in humanoid form! I’m not sure I noticed that… I wonder if I would have taken it? Although… Urr’oc doesn’t have a humanoid form, just a monstrous humanoid and/or giant form. The writer of the feat probably forgot giants could be lycanthropes, but still… the build added this for the extra poison DC boost from the ability specifying it counted as large. Everything still works fine in hybrid form though.

I think you could have taken the form of a small snow spider and gotten the same poison boosting benefits for your aarakocra form because of the Spirit of the Beast feat while freeing up another level of LA for something else.

I like the idea of a psychic with a perfect verminous defence against mental intrusion.
Too bad it’s not an actual wendigo somehow, despite the LA-, but I like that you made your own! No, after reading more of it I like it better! Heck, for one, it still has both feet!

I don’t see incarnum used much, and it’s neat to see it here. Also, whoa, Snow Tiger Berserker is another method of pouncing I’d never heard of!

I like that you’ve advanced the wolverine’s size! It might increase RHD and CR, but not LA, so that’s neat! Except… you turn into the creature that bit you, and I’m not sure this extends to leveling it as well. It seems like that’s determined by the curse, and you wouldn’t be the same anymore.

Warshaper is interesting for new and weird extra natural attacks…

I like the karmic strike / stormguard warrior feat combo, as well as the evasive reflexes / stormguard warrior combo. Both very Michael Myers / Jason.

I appreciate the walkthrough and the note section.

I’d better look up Gheden, it’s in Dragon 313, p63. Hmm, it’s a necromantic template that makes someone zombie-like and undead. Aside from being immune from stunning, this is mostly for flavor. Cool.
Okay, so we have a psionic roguish dark aarakocra half-ogre snow spider focusing on paralysing its prey and having it’s way with them vs a quasi-wendigo focusing on lots of straight up attacks. Here's how they stack up for me!

Originality:
1: Wendigo Paul
2: Urr’oc

Wendigo Paul's background and theme, as well as an interesting mix of classes and feat interactions, edged out Urr'oc's less defined hit and run tactics.

Power:
1: Urr’oc
2: Wendigo Paul

The power of the snow spider’s venom, combined with sneak attack, pushes Urr’oc ahead here. Otherwise, Wendigo Paul would have edged ahead with his additional natural attacks. I might be partial to hit and run tactics right now, since I used them in my own entry.

Elegance:
1: Wendigo Paul
2: Urr’oc

Both entries had sections that didn’t work for me, so since that evens out (and I took some liberties with my entry), I think Wendigo Paul’s interesting feat combos and tactics sections push it ahead.

Use of Ingredient:

1: Urr’oc
2: Wendigo Paul

Breaking it down, the two were about equal in their uses of base elements. Urr’oc used entomanothropy from the web article and the Spirit of the Beast feat from Dragon 313, while Wendigo Paul used lycanthropy from core and the Gheden from Dragon 313, and both used those elements and additional monster/shifter feats to increase their effectiveness in battle in different ways. However, Urr’oc focused on being a were-critter, while Wendigo Paul focused on using lycanthropy and undeath to emulate a different curse, so Urr’oc edges ahead here.
Thanks guys! I had a lot of fun reading through these. Also, thanks The Kool, for stepping in here. Daremetoidareyo, I hope things are going okay for you.

The Dvati Menace:
2nd Place: 1 Point

Originality: I mean, kudos for trying to get 3 of 4 options into one build. I do think it’s funny you don’t use anything from dragon 313 however.

Power:
The rogue dip and craven make no sense to me on a charging build.
Let’s assume you could do all this, a Dire eagle has a BAB of 3, a sword spider has no listed BAB, meaning 0, and you gain 5 (not 6) from class levels, which is only 8, not 12, however that still breaks e6. Rogue doesn’t get a +1 BAB at level 1.
You don’t prioritize INT to take advantage of the warblade’s class abilities.
I love (hate) when people suddenly take massive ranks late into their builds, for you 7 ranks in spot at 6th level. Plus, since Spot isn’t a class skill for warblades you can only have a max of 4 ranks in it at the first level of rogue.
Infinite Mindsight is hilarious, as a DM I’d probably force you to make sanity checks regularly…
A sword spider however is a large creature, not a small one, so you can’t be a small snow spider riding on a large dire eagle…

Elegance:
a quasi’s latent abilities aren’t brought to life by ANY lycanthrope, but one matching the same strain as the quasi, so you can’t mix tiger and eagle as you have. Plus, when you fail your save later to get lycanthropy, you don’t get it still, it’s just that the quasi things can finally be used.
A sword spider has 5hd, as does a dire eagle. However, despite the fact that a Dvati is 2 bodies, I don’t believe you can inflict each one w/ a different curse. In the entry for Twins, it states:


the twins gain levels and progress in the same manner as a single creature of another race

since a single creature can’t be both a quasi, and a normal lycan of differing races AND a ento at the same time, neither can you. I mean, you could, but for this round where your racial and animal/vermin HD are gestalted, meaning you would have to have 2 hd options of all three somehow to make it work. You instead have 11 HD reflected on one side (dvati are 1 since you don’t become quasi til 2nd level, then 5 hd each of the eagle and spider), this makes your build illegal as per the rules listed in the first post:



Next, on the racial side of the gestalt: The total number of racial hit dice and LA may not exceed 6 (excluding whatever LA you get for free to become a lycanthrope).

You take a flaw.
You list an equipment table, which can be nice, but you have a mistake on your necklace cost:


Market Price: 600 gp, plus the cost of the enhancement bonuses, multiplied by the number of natural weapons affected. A +1 necklace of natural weapons that affects one natural weapon costs 2,600 gp; if the same necklace affects five natural weapons, it costs 15,600 gp..
add another 5200 to that for applying to 8 legs, further still, Valorous is a CL 12th effect, meaning it’s not available in e6. Plus, you would have to multiply the cost of Valorous into the overall cost since it’s still an enhancement bonus, pretty much making this have a 50k gold price tag…

UoSI: I mean. Wow.

The Wendigo that wasn’t
1st Place: 2 Points

Originality
The slow plodding imminence of death is something fun to picture. Go ahead, run, see if I care.

Power
Half Undead gives you a lot of oomph.
A Warshaper dip is almost the cheesiest power grab there is.
Wolverine’s Rage is both a cursing and a blessing. It’s a curse in that you can’t stop yourself. Sometimes it is better to withdraw than to attack, but you don’t have that option.
Swiftwing takes your hands away from combat, but warsphaper means you don’t care.

Elegance
Swiftwing comes from Races of Eberron, you don’t have it listed in your sources.
I was sure that the berserker lodges would have a racial requirement, but they don’t.

UoSI
Using shifter to augment wolverine rage is a nice use, even if you only get 2 uses a day.

[The Kool]

As one of our judges insisted on tying their two competitors (I checked), we have a tie for first place. Go, bask in your shared glory! And shared irritation of Bronk for making you tie.



Contestant
Build
Total score
Final ranking


jdizzlean
Urr'oc
2+1.5=3.5
1st


PoeticallyPsycho
Wendigo Paul
2+1.5=3.5
1st


Bronk
Aquila & Aranea
1+1=2
3rd

[PoeticallyPsyco]

So, we've got three different judges using three different methods of scoring... did I screw up, or did the others? (It was probably me)

EDIT: Also, funnily enough, I didn't even realize there was an official Wendigo template until after I'd already submitted! Despite the fact that I've seen it before; I apparently forgot about it. Incidentally, while the description doesn't list an LA, the stat block gives it LA +4, IIRC (and the base creature is a human sorcerer, so no LA from that).

Also thanks to The Kool for keeping the competition alive.

[The Kool]

So, we've got three different judges using three different methods of scoring... did I screw up, or did the others? (It was probably me)

As far as I can tell, the idea is that you use whatever ranking method you like, but you pick a First Place whom you give 2 points, and a Second Place whom you give 1.

[jdizzlean]

scoring in this is wierd, what you do is what i did in Urroc's judging. we had 3 entrants, so whoever you're giving 1st place to gets 2 points, and whoever you give 2nd to gets 1.

scoring was actually:

Ur'roc: 1st place, 1st place (1st overall)
Wendigo: 2nd place, 1st place (2nd overall)
Dvati: 2nd place, 2nd place (3rd overall)


the tie was broken at the very end of the judging tab on the dvati judgement.

sadly, no 3 way tie

i'll explain some of the things i did later on when my brain is working

================= It's later ==================
PoeticallyPsycho
so i meant to do some fluff, but never got around to it "in time". granted i probably could've fit it in after Dare's disappearance, but that felt dishonest. I was thinking along the lines of the bird man one day ate a spider that bit him, and this is what happened.

Iron will was more of a "well, i'm out of ideas" feat, and quick change was a pre-req for the awesome spider head in humanoid form attack pattern.

template stacking w/o backstory may be an issue, but we were getstalting, Dare gave us 6HD/LA to play w/, I'm actually surprised there wasn't more template play. I envisioned this as a single beastie, not 2 parts mashed together. in the sample tables, you took the RHD and the templates/LA in a specific way, so me gaining everything at 1st level and then simply listing things out seemed a mismatch. Further, lack of fluff shouldn't be an elegance penalty, but in the case of well written or entertaining fluff a slight bonus. but that is personal preference.

Bronk

i went the psionic route to avoid having to do things like surrogate casting in weird forms. psionics are "innate" and could therefor be used in any form w/o any special hijinkery having to take place. Psychic rogue did provide some SA, but also a better selection of powers for a sneaky character, plus, far better skill selection/points. War mind was more for the ability to add a power from another list, and because a rank in it was better than another rank in psychic rogue, even at the loss of a d6 in sa. It also gave more PP than another rank in Psychic Rogue. (i think). I actually didn't consider the buff to CON from it.

Specifically, most of the time Urr'oc would spit poison at someone. Nothing was mentioned that if they make the save their immune to it later on, so you can spit poison every round from hiding until they fail the save, at which point blindness ensues. blindness causes darkstalker to make you invisible due to auto-failing a spot check, which means you can then SA and poison to your hearts content until death or paralyzation ensues. Basically a poison sniper.

as for humanoid/monstrous humanoid and spirit of the beast. this is one of those RAI/RAW arguements.


==================

And my HM definately goes to TheKool for saving this round!

[Bronk]

Bronk

i went the psionic route to avoid having to do things like surrogate casting in weird forms. psionics are "innate" and could therefor be used in any form w/o any special hijinkery having to take place. Psychic rogue did provide some SA, but also a better selection of powers for a sneaky character, plus, far better skill selection/points. War mind was more for the ability to add a power from another list, and because a rank in it was better than another rank in psychic rogue, even at the loss of a d6 in sa. It also gave more PP than another rank in Psychic Rogue. (i think). I actually didn't consider the buff to CON from it.

Psionics does make a lot of sense for casting purposes, although I do think the constitution buff would have been the best reason to go War Mind.



Specifically, most of the time Urr'oc would spit poison at someone. Nothing was mentioned that if they make the save their immune to it later on, so you can spit poison every round from hiding until they fail the save, at which point blindness ensues. blindness causes darkstalker to make you invisible due to auto-failing a spot check, which means you can then SA and poison to your hearts content until death or paralyzation ensues. Basically a poison sniper.

Ahh, I didn't get that because although you did have some mentions of hiding, the build focused more on flying, and there weren't any mentions of the sniping rules.



as for humanoid/monstrous humanoid and spirit of the beast. this is one of those RAI/RAW arguements.

True. Sorry it doesn't work by RAW though.


i'll explain some of the things i did later on when my brain is working

This was a good idea... here are some thoughts about my build:


jdizzlean:

Heh, yeah, once I settled on a theme there just wasn't anything useful to me in Dragon 313... although you may have noticed that my build had a secret bit at the end where the twins went through a succession of various lycanthrope and entomanothrope forms throughout their career before finally settling on the dire hawk and sword spider combo. That used the new rules concerning healing lycanthropy from 313.

The rogue dip and craven were there for static bonus damage while charging from hiding, which can be multiplied along with base damage.

Good catch about not gaining that sixth point of BAB from the sixth level, I had moved those around so much I must have missed that change. I think it was a last minute switch to get higher skill points. However, the additional BAB beyond that was from a standalone line in both the were rules that you add the BAB of the were form to your preexisting BAB total. They clearly weren't expecting that to come up in a gestalt, but that's their fault, and that's TO. As for the spider BAB, the original stat block was from 3.0, and required basic updates to 3.5.

I didn't need any warblade skills, so my Int score wasn't an issue. I was also trying to avoid any Int interactions, because my twins ended up with different scores.

Skill-wise, they changed their tactics once they found their final forms, and upped their spot checks while they still could. Also, max skill ranks don't work that way... Spot is a class skill for a rogue, and can spend up to character level +3 points in it per PHB page 61, in the last paragraph of the section titled 'Skill Ranks At Higher Levels'. Long story short, it's legal and makes sense with their back story.

Glad you like the infinite mindsight! I thought it was pretty funny too. Maybe they'll eventually retire to a nice lead lined house somewhere in a bag of holding.

You missed it in my build, but although sword spiders are large, entomanothropes can all take on a small sized version of their vermin form.

You missed it in my build, but the twins were attacked by a natural were-tiger at the start of their careers. Quasi-lycanthropes don't have any restrictions about being later infected by different lycanthropes.

As I mentioned in my build, lycanthropy and entomanothropy are curses that act like diseases. Two bodies, two diseases. Also, your quote mentions progression by levels, not RHD. Not 11 per side, but still 6 per twin. Dvati twins are weird, gestalt is weird, werecritters are weird, quasi-lycanthropes are ill thought out, and I'm taking advantage of all of it.

We're allowed one flaw, so I'm not sure why this is a problem.

For the Necklace, the price jumps are for each type of natural attack. I may have 8 legs, but the necklace is still just augmenting 'leg'. Same would go for claws and so on.

Anyway, thanks for overall thinking it was okay.


PoeticallyPsycho:

I'm glad you liked the concept, but I'm not sure why you're automatically discounting a build that happens to also be an ubercharger, or why that's bad in the first place...

It looks like I do have some errors in there! The base BAB - before adding in the fun extra TO bonuses from my two weres - was 5, not 6, as you said, although it does still jump up to 11. That slightly updates my damage totals, but not by that much, especially because I lost double that to an error in my leap attack calculation. I think, all in all, I caught most of the errors.

The power attack was configured with the weapons being light, it's just higher because my BAB is higher than you were expecting.

Battle Leader's charge is indeed per attack, but in my build I note that sword spiders use their special attack to make up to 8 separate attacks with the same roll in one standard action. It's basically a cool version of pounce.

We've only got 6 levels to work with in E6, so yeah, the ubercharging part comes in later than their other options. That's the life of a sword spider / dire hawk were! Don't forget though... my twins went through plenty of other configurations on their way to their final form. Perhaps I missed a few, and one of them was a regular hawk or eagle with it's own dive attack... Anyway, this just made me realize that the snow spider were's primary tactic only comes online after level 6, when they take 'Spit Venom' as an epic feat.

Good call on the sudden leap and battle jump combo, but it was already getting too complicated, and fire is cool.

Thanks for giving me the benefit of the doubt on the multiple forms thing... it does work out.

As I mentioned in the build, all entomanothropes get a small version of their vermin form as an extra alternate form.

One flaw is explicitly allowed, only two flaws garner a hit. No apologies on that one! And I took those two skill focus feats as part of my core stealth abilities.

Good call on the Craven feat placement. Pretend I took it later, it really doesn't matter. Same with most of the others!

I do have some problems with my tables and math, but it turns out the only actual mistakes just lower my damage output, and fixing them raises the damage. Nifty!

Glad I squeaked by with the OA region feat!

Thanks for the nice words about my concept!

**************************


All in all, this was an interesting set of judgements. I was expecting some pushback on the quasilycanthrope issue, and also taking two kinds of weres (especially since a different take on Dvati weres was mentioned in the OP), but I was also expecting some pushback on my sword spider's adjusted targeting when small versus large, just not being small in the first place. I do have a greater respect for sword spiders in general now! Snow spiders too.

All in all, I did have fun! I think if I do this again, I'd try not to put as much time and effort in.

I'll chime in on this again... thanks, The Kool, for helping us get this ended.

[jdizzlean]

ahh, i missed where the healing lycanthropy was in there, oh well.

I also moved things around a lot for this round, so much so that i wasn't sure it all still made sense at the end, but i was to brain fried to double check it for the upteenth time :D

what i meant on INT for warblade was any of the class abilities, they all tick off of INT, and you did nothing with it to optimize that part of your build

I did see that in ento for size, but i assumed when i read it that the alternate form size you could take was that of your base vermin.

you're only allowed a flaw in a Flawed round, and you're allowed 2 flaws in a BeFlawed round. this round was neither of those, so a flaw is still a penalty.

we'll agree to disagree on the necklace. to me, the only way it would work at that low a cost would be to apply to ONE leg, not all 8 at once.

multiplied by the number of natural weapons affected. if you're affecting 1 natural weapon, meaning 1 leg, than your math works, if you're affecting 8 natural weapons, meaning 8 legs, my math works.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

jdizzlean:

Gestalt or no, template stacking isn't very elegant. I don't penalize for lacking fluff, but I'll typically waive the penalty for template stacking if it makes enough sense with the fluff. The table thing wasn't worth a penalty; just wanted to mention it.

EDIT: also, I just realized that Improved Paralysis has being undead as a prerequisite. No penalty, I missed that fair and square, but I thought you'd like to know.


Bronk:

I like ubercharging, I think it's a fun and powerful build style. What it's not is very original; ubercharging optimization has been going on as long as the edition has existed. Using Sword Spider was an interesting twist, but I put that mostly under UotSI. Your Originality starts at 3, -0.5 for an unoriginal core mechanic, +1 for a combination of the twist, Dvati, and well-written fluff. I might have given more points for the dire eagle, but as I said I'm convinced you can't actually have both that and the sword spider with just 5HD. For the Power section, I'm not sure I agree about adding the BAB from vermin/animal HD even in gestalt or that Battle Leader's Charge applies to every damage roll rather than every attack roll, but the point is moot; even with more conservative interpretations you deal enough damage and have enough utility for a full 5 points, -0.5 for not coming online until what is essentially your 11th level of 16. For Elegance, you're absolutely right about alternate form being small (why that isn't in the alternate form section of the web enhancement is beyond me), and the BAB is at least arguable; together that's probably worth +0.5 to your Elegance score.

[The Kool]

scoring was actually:

Ur'roc: 1st place, 1st place (1st overall)
Wendigo: 2nd place, 1st place (2nd overall)
Dvati: 2nd place, 2nd place (3rd overall)
My bad for not reading it in detail, then! I humbly apologize.


And my HM definately goes to TheKool for saving this round!

I'll take it. My workload was light and merely required me to be paying attention. Total probably 2 hours of effort and 10% of my PM capacity spent on this. If that's all it takes to save the round, I don't mind at all. If no one steps up to host the next one, I might push it as well. I'll give those more invested a chance first, though.

[Bronk]

ahh, i missed where the healing lycanthropy was in there, oh well.

It's such a big random change from the normal 'you're cursed forever' mechanic in core that I had to shoehorn it in somehow.



I also moved things around a lot for this round, so much so that i wasn't sure it all still made sense at the end, but i was to brain fried to double check it for the upteenth time :D

Yeah, I tried to compartmentalize everything, but it ended up being rather a lot for an E6 write up.



what i meant on INT for warblade was any of the class abilities, they all tick off of INT, and you did nothing with it to optimize that part of your build

I get ya, it's just that the twins deliberately ignored that aspect of warblade. They were just in it for the maneuvers and stances.



I did see that in ento for size, but i assumed when i read it that the alternate form size you could take was that of your base vermin.

She was the form of the base vermin, just small sized, the better for twin riding.



you're only allowed a flaw in a Flawed round, and you're allowed 2 flaws in a BeFlawed round. this round was neither of those, so a flaw is still a penalty.

Weird. I did think you were normally allowed a flaw, with BeFlawed just being a fun name we used last time.



we'll agree to disagree on the necklace. to me, the only way it would work at that low a cost would be to apply to ONE leg, not all 8 at once. if you're affecting 1 natural weapon, meaning 1 leg, than your math works, if you're affecting 8 natural weapons, meaning 8 legs, my math works.

I'm going by the precedent set by the Improved Natural Attack feat, which affects all attacks of the same type, without needing to specify claw one and claw two. Different natural attacks would be claws, bite, wings, etc.



I like ubercharging, I think it's a fun and powerful build style. What it's not is very original; ubercharging optimization has been going on as long as the edition has existed. Using Sword Spider was an interesting twist, but I put that mostly under UotSI. Your Originality starts at 3, -0.5 for an unoriginal core mechanic, +1 for a combination of the twist, Dvati, and well-written fluff. I might have given more points for the dire eagle, but as I said I'm convinced you can't actually have both that and the sword spider with just 5HD. For the Power section, I'm not sure I agree about adding the BAB from vermin/animal HD even in gestalt or that Battle Leader's Charge applies to every damage roll rather than every attack roll, but the point is moot; even with more conservative interpretations you deal enough damage and have enough utility for a full 5 points, -0.5 for not coming online until what is essentially your 11th level of 16. For Elegance, you're absolutely right about alternate form being small (why that isn't in the alternate form section of the web enhancement is beyond me), and the BAB is at least arguable; together that's probably worth +0.5 to your Elegance score.

Yeah, the elegance really took a hit, but I did set forth the various rules rationals for all my decisions, and they're solid.

As for ubercharging... well, I had never seen the spider to the face option before. I'm glad that didn't take too much of a hit.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

the tie was broken at the very end of the judging tab on the dvati judgement.

Wait, I read that as referring specifically to the Use of the Secret Ingredient category, like the previous paragraphs explained the scores for their categories.

[The Kool]

Wait, I read that as referring specifically to the Use of the Secret Ingredient category, like the previous paragraphs explained the scores for their categories.

On second glance, yeah, that is how I interpreted it too... Judge? Mind clarifying?

[Bronk]

On second glance, yeah, that is how I interpreted it too... Judge? Mind clarifying?

Yes, I judged each of the four categories separately, and since each contestant won two of the four, my judgement came out as a two way tie.

[The Kool]

Yes, I judged each of the four categories separately, and since each contestant won two of the four, my judgement came out as a two way tie.

Alright then the table initially given stands. A tie for first place.

I suppose I'll go ahead and strike up the next round, since there's no dispute process. As I begin to cook it up and write my own version of the intro (the rules being essentially the same but with some editing and reformatting), are there any requests for theme? My understanding of GameWarper's Optimization is that it goes a bit farther out than the tight confines of ICO, testing unusual mechanics and allowing people to break tradition in certain ways that ICO doesn't allow for. Am I missing something?

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Huh, it looks like actually for 3 contestants we all win.

All Contestants will share the gold/silver/bronze medals.

As for next round, this may be my sleep deprivation talking but I'm having a hard time coming up with a concept that's not just a build I've done recently. I'll abstain from recommendations for now.

[The Kool]

Huh, it looks like actually for 3 contestants we all win.


As for next round, this may be my sleep deprivation talking but I'm having a hard time coming up with a concept that's not just a build I've done recently. I'll abstain from recommendations for now.

That's an edit fail from round 1 when that section read "for two entries", in which case they would obviously achieve the same score and both share the win.

[jdizzlean]

Yes, I judged each of the four categories separately, and since each contestant won two of the four, my judgement came out as a two way tie.

i see where i misread that.... so a tie for first then :) yay!

as for the next rounds.. I dunno, pick something weird, or throw dragon or dungeon in there. I've always wanted to peek at the rokugan material which is banned in every single other comp, so that could be an option as well. you could continue w/ the e6 format, or make it a 10 lvl build for example.

I'm up for just about anything, but the fun in this comp is that it literally can be anything...

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Hmm, I do actually have a neat trick I'd like to show off for mounted combat.

Edit: Though honestly I could probably work that into a lot of different builds.

[Bronk]

Alright then the table initially given stands. A tie for first place.

That would be two golds and a silver, thanks!



I suppose I'll go ahead and strike up the next round, since there's no dispute process. As I begin to cook it up and write my own version of the intro (the rules being essentially the same but with some editing and reformatting), are there any requests for theme? My understanding of GameWarper's Optimization is that it goes a bit farther out than the tight confines of ICO, testing unusual mechanics and allowing people to break tradition in certain ways that ICO doesn't allow for. Am I missing something?

I may be at work, but I'm definitely coming up blank for ideas. I'll second the 'throw in something cool from dragon or dungeon' though, to keep the competition from becoming too dry.

[The Kool]

Okay, I figured out the theme not long after I said it. Enjoy!

Round 5: E8 Madness (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?586378-Game-Warper-s-Optimization-5-E8-Madness!)


That would be two golds and a silver, thanks!

Nah, if there's two people above you, you rank 3rd. Even if those two share the same rank. This is even the case with medals awarded, such as in the Olympics. See: Sochi winter games, 2014, Women's Downhill finals. Slovenia’s Tina Maze and Switzerland’s Dominique Gisin tied with a time of 1:41.57. They both got gold, and Switzerland’s Lara Gut got bronze with 1:41.67.

[Bronk]

Okay, I figured out the theme not long after I said it. Enjoy!

Round 5: E8 Madness (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?586378-Game-Warper-s-Optimization-5-E8-Madness!)

Cool! I'll have to think about that...


Nah, if there's two people above you, you rank 3rd. Even if those two share the same rank. This is even the case with medals awarded, such as in the Olympics. See: Sochi winter games, 2014, Women's Downhill finals. Slovenia’s Tina Maze and Switzerland’s Dominique Gisin tied with a time of 1:41.57. They both got gold, and Switzerland’s Lara Gut got bronze with 1:41.67.

Le sigh, when did the Olympics go so wrong... :)