Villainous Competition XXXII: Oh HELL NO!

[jdizzlean]

Welcome to Round 32 of the Villainous Competition!

Previous Competitions

Round One: Leader of Armies (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?395046)
Round Two: Nature's Revenger (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?400517)
Round Three: Double Agent (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?406015)
Round Four: Grave Keeper (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?413480)
Round Five: Crime Lord (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?420704)
Round Six: Ultimate Predator (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?430650)
Round Seven: Wicked Witch (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?444478)
Round Eight: Master of the Tundra (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?461482)
Round Nine: The Power of Villainous Thinking (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?474230)
Round Ten: Henchman Are Villains Too (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?478068)
Round Eleven: The Higher They Rise The Harder They Fall (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?483052)
Round Twelve: Power Comes at a Price (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?488846)
Round Thirteen: The Gadgeteer - You Are Not Batman (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?491932)
Round Fourteen: The Thing That Should Not Be (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?496091)
Round Fifteen: The Horsemen Are Drawing Nearer (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?500829)
Round Sixteen: Burn Baby Burn (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?503974)
Round Seventeen: It's Alive! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?507768)
Round Eighteen: This is Heresy (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?511933)
Round Nineteen: He Slimed Me! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?516535)
Round Twenty: Elder Evil (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?521560)
Round Twenty-One: Yarr! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?527415-Villainous-Competition-XXI-Yarr!)
Round Twenty-Two: I Am The Night! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?531199-Villainous-Competition-XXII-I-Am-The-Night!)
Round Twenty-Three: Two Heads Are Better Than One! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?535437-Villainous-Competition-XXIII-Two-Heads-Are-Better-Than-One)
Round Twenty-Four: Wrong For The Right Reasons! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?541650-Villainous-Competition-XXIV-Wrong-For-The-Right-Reasons)
Round Twenty-Five: Keeper of the Gate (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?550139-Villainous-Competition-XXV-No-Solicitors!)
Round Twenty-Six: Get In MY BELLY (Swallow Whole) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?556705-Villainous-Competition-XXVI-Swallow-Whole!)
Round Twenty-Seven: Multiple Personality Disorder (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?559748-Villainous-Competition-XXVII-Multiple-Personality-Disorder)
Round Twenty-Eight: Tiny Only! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?565176-Villainous-Competition-XXVIII-Bad-Things-Come-in-Small-Packages)
Round Twenty-Nine: Halloween Special (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?573496-Villainous-Competition-XXIX-A-Halloween-Special)
Round Thirty: One Feat to Rule Them ALL (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?577930-Villainous-Competition-XXX-One-Feat-to-Rule-Them-ALL)
Round Thirty-One: In Cold Blood (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?582492-Villainous-Competition-XXXI-In-Cold-Blood)




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

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

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

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

Deadlines:
Contestants will have until 23:59 MST Saturday May 18th to create their builds and PM them to the Supreme Chancellor. Builds will then be posted simultaneously, to avoid copying. Judges will have until 23:59 MST Saturday June 1st to judge the builds and submit their scores. If no judges have scored by that point, only the scores of the first judge to submit will be counted. Deadlines are subject to extension as/if required.

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

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

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

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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


Code immediately below (spoiler).

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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


You can use the table below for Spells.

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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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



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

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


Dr. NO!
I want to...NO!, Ok, how about.. NO!!



Limitations



Specialist in Denying actions of PC’s, the more the better
BFC, Dispels, etc
Can NOT use Time Stop
Can NOT be a greater doppleganger, ethereal doppleganger, mind flayer, or elemental weird
Must be Evil


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

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

PM: Jdizzlean
Subject: Villainous Competition 32, Name of your Entry
For Revisions and disputes, do the same thing. It makes it easier for me finding the entries in my mail box.
More questions? PM me with Villainous Competition 32 Questions in the header.

Tips for submitting your entry, provided by Weaselguy:


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



As always: let's keep it nice.

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

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

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

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

[jdizzlean]

Clarifications

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

d20 Rokugan is not allowed material.

The Dragon Magazine update for Oriental Adventures is in use.

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

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

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

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/56/30/38/56303897dba3fee98a59145ba37e918e.jpg


Everyone, have fun!

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Ooh, do I ever have an evil idea.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

If we're using a monster class, do we count each class level as +1 CR or can we just add the CR of the monster instead?

[GrayDeath]

If we're using a monster class, do we count each class level as +1 CR or can we just add the CR of the monster instead?

Both.

Meaning if you use a Monster ala Entry, where it ahs Class Levels, you use the specified CR.

If you apply Class Levels to an existing monsters, each Level adds +1 CR.

If you mean the Mosnter CLasses from Savage Species, normally using the Mosnter lets us keep the CR lower, as the SS Classes work with ECL not CR:



Also: THats an interesting Concept. Troll Villains. Lets see ......

[Thurbane]

I don;t have any ideas jumping to mind, but I like the round theme and I'll hopefully be able to work something up...

[Segev]

Is this specifically about countering actions, or is anything that locks down or otherwise denies actions at all acceptable?

[Lionheart]

Is this specifically about countering actions, or is anything that locks down or otherwise denies actions at all acceptable?

I guess from the guidelines that locking down is a valid tactic, since they reference BFC, so presumably there won't be any issues with that.

I have got some ideas stewing, hopefully I'll be able to get in something decent!

[jdizzlean]

Is this specifically about countering actions, or is anything that locks down or otherwise denies actions at all acceptable?

yes.

or all of that.

or all of that and some more things.

or, ALL of that and ALL the things for great power!!!!

/evil evil laugh

[Buufreak]

Just nitpicking. This should be round 33, a lot of formatting states 32.

Edit: I see now. The previous was misnamed. My b.

[jdizzlean]

i dunno what you're talking about

[Buufreak]

Not sure if edited or I'm seriously that blind.

Going with A, considering the OP of round 31.

[jdizzlean]

I may've edited it, ninja style....

[MisterKaws]

I wanna do it, thougb I think everyone's gonna take [REDACTED] so I'm getting cold feet. Also my ashtma is killing me.

By the way, since someone touched upon it, are we allowed to use nonassociated class levels?


If you add a class level that doesn’t directly play to a creature’s strength (such as adding a sorcerer level to a frost giant), the class level is considered nonassociated, and things get a little more complicated. Adding a nonassociated class level to a monster increases its CR by 1/2 per level until one of its nonassociated class levels equals its original Hit Dice. At that point, each additional level of the same class or a similar one is considered associated and increases the monster’s CR by 1.

[ben-zayb]

I wanna do it, thougb I think everyone's gonna take [REDACTED] so I'm getting cold feet. Also my ashtma is killing me.

By the way, since someone touched upon it, are we allowed to use nonassociated class levels?
The specified ruling for these contests as stated in the opening posts is:

All class levels are to be added on as associated class levels.

[MisterKaws]

The specified ruling for these contests as stated in the opening posts is:

Oh, ty, didn't see that.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

I think I need to get a bit more specific with my question. I'm doing a monstrous character, and for spoilery reasons it would be most convenient to do so via "monster class levels" of the kind found in Savage Species, Libris Mortis, and the savage progressions from the online enhancements (maybe a few other places, too). However, the viability of this drops significantly if every one of these levels adds +1 to the total CR. Can I just add the CR of the original monster instead?

[Thurbane]

I think I need to get a bit more specific with my question. I'm doing a monstrous character, and for spoilery reasons it would be most convenient to do so via "monster class levels" of the kind found in Savage Species, Libris Mortis, and the savage progressions from the online enhancements (maybe a few other places, too). However, the viability of this drops significantly if every one of these levels adds +1 to the total CR. Can I just add the CR of the original monster instead?

If the monster advances by HD, you can add HD instead of class levels. For instance, an Undead only increases by +1 CR for 4 Undead HD.

You can also put on class levels after the RHD if you like.

To give an example (unlikely to come up in this comp, I hope) - take a Mummy: 8 RHD, CR 5. You could add on another 8 RHD of Undead, to bring the CR up to 7. You could then tack on 13 class levels to bring it to 20...

If the creature increases in size from Medium to Large or larger, you add another +1 CR.

For instance, if I advance a Mummy to 24HD, it becomes large. CR 5, +4 (16 Undead HD), +1 (size) = CR 10. You could add on another 10 class levels to bring it up to 20.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

If the monster advances by HD, you can add HD instead of class levels. For instance, an Undead only increases by +1 CR for 4 Undead HD.

Interesting (and potentially useful), but not quite what I'm after. I'm looking for the CR of the default monster, and hoping it stays the same even if added to the build via a monster class. To continue with the example of Mummy:

You could make a Mummy by starting with the Mummy monster as found in MMI as the base: CR 5, pure and simple. Or, you could start with a different monster/build/thing (let's use the Libris Mortis example of Minotaur, CR 4) and give it the 13 levels in the Mummy class from the same book. For the purposes of this competition, would its CR be 4 original + 5 Mummy = 9 CR total, or would it be 4 original + 13 class levels = 17 CR total even though the class levels are just recreating the Mummy's stats?

[jdizzlean]

some judges consider the date of a publication in terms of it's relevance as well. I usually don't, but take that under advisement.

now, that said, if you're applying a template to something, it has it's own CR adjustment and you're done w/ that. If you're using a savage species progression, it will have it's own cr adjustment of 1 cr/level. If you were to find the template and it only cost you 5 cr for that, but the progression was 10, you'd have to decide which of those is better for your build and scale accordingly.

so it all comes down to what source you're using in the first place as to how it interacts with your entry.

[Zaq]

As usual, I’m not likely to be able to enter, but I really like the theme of this one!

[The Kool]

To give an example (unlikely to come up in this comp, I hope) - take a Mummy: 8 RHD, CR 5. You could add on another 8 RHD of Undead, to bring the CR up to 7. You could then tack on 13 class levels to bring it to 20...

Question: If, in this example, one were to only give it 7 RHD... would the rounding down rule apply, and the CR increase be +1?

[Buufreak]

In a converse vein, it is rather cheesy to take only the first level of a savage progression and still call yourself monstrous. At that point you are essentially any phb race with a coat of paint.

[The Kool]

In a converse vein, it is rather cheesy to take only the first level of a savage progression and still call yourself monstrous. At that point you are essentially any phb race with a coat of paint.

Unless the rule has been explicitly stricken, the savage progressions state that once you begin one, you must complete it before you move on to something else.

[Segev]

Interesting (and potentially useful), but not quite what I'm after. I'm looking for the CR of the default monster, and hoping it stays the same even if added to the build via a monster class. To continue with the example of Mummy:

You could make a Mummy by starting with the Mummy monster as found in MMI as the base: CR 5, pure and simple. Or, you could start with a different monster/build/thing (let's use the Libris Mortis example of Minotaur, CR 4) and give it the 13 levels in the Mummy class from the same book. For the purposes of this competition, would its CR be 4 original + 5 Mummy = 9 CR total, or would it be 4 original + 13 class levels = 17 CR total even though the class levels are just recreating the Mummy's stats?

I'm not sure this is actually rules-legal. "Mummy" isn't a template (though "mummified creature" is). The monstrous class is for starting play as a Mummy at a level below what it's HD+LA would normally call for, not for combining it with other things.

So, for instance, with the Minotaur you want to advance into Mummy, you would be better off looking deeper into Libris Mortis at the "Mummified Creature" template and applying that. The CR adjustment of the template would apply to the CR of the Minotaur, and then you could add class levels after that.

Now, I know "Mummy" and "Minotaur" are placeholders, but if you're trying to advance one monster using another monster's savage progression, you probably can't, by the RAW. Your best bet is to look for a template version of the thing you're trying to add. There likely is one, somewhere, if it makes sense to transform the one creature into the other the way the savage progression being added on would imply.

[Falontani]

I'm not sure this is actually rules-legal. "Mummy" isn't a template (though "mummified creature" is). The monstrous class is for starting play as a Mummy at a level below what it's HD+LA would normally call for, not for combining it with other things.

So, for instance, with the Minotaur you want to advance into Mummy, you would be better off looking deeper into Libris Mortis at the "Mummified Creature" template and applying that. The CR adjustment of the template would apply to the CR of the Minotaur, and then you could add class levels after that.

Now, I know "Mummy" and "Minotaur" are placeholders, but if you're trying to advance one monster using another monster's savage progression, you probably can't, by the RAW. Your best bet is to look for a template version of the thing you're trying to add. There likely is one, somewhere, if it makes sense to transform the one creature into the other the way the savage progression being added on would imply.


Normally, the only way to take a level of a monster class, such as those described in this chapter, is to be that monster. A minotaur cannot freely multiclass as a mummy, nor can a dwarf take levels as a vampire spawn whenever he desires.
However, since these undead classes by definition represent a creature transformed from one form into another, an existing character can “become” one of these monsters, thus (intentionally or not) multiclassing into that monster class.
When a living character becomes one of these forms of undead—for instance, a dwarf fighter slain by a vampire’s energy drain attack who rises as a vampire spawn 1d4 days later—he loses one class level, much as if he had died and been raised. If the character has only one class level, he loses that class level and all features thereof. He then gains one level of the appropriate undead class. Effectively, the undead class level replaces another class level.
If the character has no class levels, he simply gains one level of the appropriate undead class and may multiclass freely between that undead class and normal class levels.
Examples: A 5th-level dwarf fighter is slain by a vampire’senergy drain attack. A few days after burial, he rises as a dwarf 4th-level fi ghter/1st-level vampire spawn. A gnoll with no class levels slain by the same vampire rises as a gnoll 1st-level vampire spawn.
The undead monster classes described below have special rules regarding multiclassing. Normally, a monster can’t multiclass between its monster class and its other class levels until it completes the full progression in its monster class. These classes work a little differently. When a character begins taking levels in one of the undead monster classes presented here, he must progress all the way through the class’s levels before multiclassing in any other class, including another monster class. A character can interrupt the progression of a normal monster class to take levels in an undead monster class, but must then advance all the way through the undead monster class and then finish the
progression of his normal monster class before taking levels in any other classes. A character cannot have levels in more than one undead monster class.
Example: A character begins play using the minotaur monster class from Savage Species. The character advances to 3rd level as a minotaur and then multiclasses into the ghoul/ghast undead monster class. The character must then advance all the way through the ghoul/ghast monster class before taking any other levels, eventually becoming an 11th-level character with three levels in minoutar and eight in ghoul/ghast. Then the character must return to the minotaur class until completing its progression, becoming a 6th-level minotaur/8th-level ghast. From then on, the character can take class levels normally.
Characters who take levels in an undead monster class retain all their normal class abilities, with one exception: A cleric who becomes undead loses any ability to turn undead, but gains the ability to rebuke undead.

Unfortunately unless there is a minotaur savage progression somewhere other than savage species then I can't continue the above example. But I believe the bolded parts may be relevant, and the undead savage progression would adjust the cr by 1/level by RAW.

[Segev]

Unfortunately unless there is a minotaur savage progression somewhere other than savage species then I can't continue the above example. But I believe the bolded parts may be relevant, and the undead savage progression would adjust the cr by 1/level by RAW.

I stand corrected. That's an interesting way to turn those undead progressions into templates, since this means you can now slap them onto any monster you like.

It may not make sense, but you can. I'm amused by the notion of a mummy-stone golem.

[Falontani]

I stand corrected. That's an interesting way to turn those undead progressions into templates, since this means you can now slap them onto any monster you like.

It may not make sense, but you can. I'm amused by the notion of a mummy-stone golem.

It unfortunately specifies in each Undead Savage Progression which races can take classes in it.

[jdizzlean]

Question: If, in this example, one were to only give it 7 RHD... would the rounding down rule apply, and the CR increase be +1?

yes, until you hit the 4HD threshold, it would only be +1, be wary of the cheese hammer hitting you depending on what you're doing that for or when in your build that happens.

[The Kool]

yes, until you hit the 4HD threshold, it would only be +1, be wary of the cheese hammer hitting you depending on what you're doing that for or when in your build that happens.

That is entirely fair. For obvious example, squeezing in those extra HD for more epic feats.

[NontheistCleric]

In a converse vein, it is rather cheesy to take only the first level of a savage progression and still call yourself monstrous. At that point you are essentially any phb race with a coat of paint.


Unless the rule has been explicitly stricken, the savage progressions state that once you begin one, you must complete it before you move on to something else.

The savage progressions in the Savage Progressions (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/arch/sp) series of articles on the WotC website do not need to be completed, but they are the exception. Those found in books like Savage Species and Libris Mortis do.

[Segev]

That is entirely fair. For obvious example, squeezing in those extra HD for more epic feats.

Oh, geeze, having more than 20 HD does qualify you for epic feats, doesn't it.

*eyes this CR 11 creature he was considering as a possible basis for his submission*

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Okay, thanks everyone. Disappointing but workable, and better to find out now than when I'm slapped with a 1 in Elegance, after all.

[The Kool]

Oh, geeze, having more than 20 HD does qualify you for epic feats, doesn't it.

*eyes this CR 11 creature he was considering as a possible basis for his submission*

Ah-hahahaha mine is so much better at this than that. I have no specific ideas yet, just the vague concept of abusing epic feats. I may turn it into something or may just share the thought later.

[GrayDeath]

So, just to make sure of something: The VOerall Concept should include a big fat "Nope", but its not necessary to be, say a counterspeller or otherwise "Action annuler", correct? Just someone who "Nopes" stuff?

Cause I just had a funny Idea....^^

[jdizzlean]

Yes.

of course, if you can nope and dispel, or nope and dispel and lockdown, or nope and dispel and lockdown and bfc... you get the idea.

[Buufreak]

I've followed these off and on. Hell, I've judged a few. What is the precedence of epic spell usage? I don't recall any specific builds that used them before.

[The Kool]

I've followed these off and on. Hell, I've judged a few. What is the precedence of epic spell usage? I don't recall any specific builds that used them before.

Specifically excluded from this round, at least.


Some monstrous characters can technically qualify for Epic feats as soon as their ECL is over 20. While regular Epic feats will be allowed, Epic Spellcasting and all other Epic feats that affect spells, psionic powers, or item creation are not permitted. Including these would give an unfair advantage over standard characters.

[Segev]

Because it's relevant and an edge case, as well as possibly the best epic feat in the game, is Spell Stowaway one of those that "affects spells" and is thus banned from this competition?

[Thurbane]

Because it's relevant and an edge case, as well as possibly the best epic feat in the game, is Spell Stowaway one of those that "affects spells" and is thus banned from this competition?

Spell Stowaway [Epic]

Prerequisites
Spellcraft 24 ranks, caster level 12th.

Benefit
Choose a spell-like ability you have, or a spell you can cast. You are attuned to the magic you choose. If another spellcaster within 300 feet of you uses this magic, you also immediately gain the magic’s effect as if it had been used on you by the same caster. You must have direct line of effect to the spellcaster in order to gain the benefit of the attuned magic (though you do not have to know the spellcaster is present, and you can be flat-footed). The magic’s duration, effect, and other specifics are determined by its original caster’s level.

Special
You can gain this feat multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time you take this feat, it applies to a different spell or spell-like ability.

While regular Epic feats will be allowed, Epic Spellcasting and all other Epic feats that affect spells, psionic powers, or item creation are not permitted. Including these would give an unfair advantage over standard characters.

I would say Spell Stowaway definitely falls into the category of Epic feats that affect spells.

[Buufreak]

Specifically excluded from this round, at least.

Well there I go, being blind as all else again. Feel free to hold that against me when scores come up for disputes.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Build completed and submitted, now I find myself once again in limbo, with nothing to do but wait. I suppose I could try to come up with a second idea for an entry...

[Segev]

We can do multiple entries? ...probably won't due to time constraints (I won't have time to work on it until next weekend), but it might help me pick one to start with. I'm stuck on race, because it's not critical to the theme of the build, but drastically changes the way the theme is directed.

[jdizzlean]

you're allowed up to 2 entries


While everyone's building, I went back and put all the completed tables into the first posts of the rounds i've chaired. should make it easier to find things if you need to :)

[Thurbane]

So I've had a stroke of inspiration, and decided 100% on my chassis. Now to flesh it out and optimise it.

Ten days to go...I got this!

[Lionheart]

Phew, got my entry in! Now to play the waiting game.

Very interested to see if anybody else went in the same direction as I have...

[Segev]

I'm still waffling on race, and am a little concerned that mine may seem like a one-trick pony. But, we'll see!

[MisterKaws]

Oh, geeze, having more than 20 HD does qualify you for epic feats, doesn't it.

*eyes this CR 11 creature he was considering as a possible basis for his submission*

Oh, that reminds me.

Does killing people faster than they can act qualify as denying their actions?

[Kyutaru]

This competition reminds me of every single Druid, mage, and spider in Baldur's Gate.

You must gather your party before adventuring forth...

~Entangled~
~Webbed~
~Greased~
~Slowed~
~Held~
~Surrounded by half a million bears~

Just let my fighter hit you already.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Does killing people faster than they can act qualify as denying their actions?

Well you know what they say: death is the best debuff in the game.

[jdizzlean]

deadline is saturday, have 3 builds in.

[Segev]

It's amazing how these contests get away from me. I have the build stub, but the time to really dig in and perfect it has eluded me. Especially since it's mostly centered around one big trick. :smallmad:

[MisterKaws]

deadline is saturday, have 3 builds in.

I don't want to do it because it's too obvious. Yet, at the same time, I'm 100% sure no one is going to do because people think others will do it.

[jdizzlean]

I don't want to do it because it's too obvious. Yet, at the same time, I'm 100% sure no one is going to do because people think others will do it.

http://www.monologuedb.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/vizzini.jpg

[WhamBamSam]

I have my tables done except for skill points. I should make it in under the deadline.

[Thurbane]

Deadline approaching: more than half done, but still a bit of work to go. I'm going to need to cram - also, I have an annual beer festival on Friday, so most of my work will need to be today and tomorrow.

[Thurbane]

Deadline approaching: more than half done, but still a bit of work to go. I'm going to need to cram - also, I have an annual beer festival on Friday, so most of my work will need to be today and tomorrow.

Made a lot of progress, then didn't save the document properly. :smallannoyed:

Have to play it by ear at this stage...

[Lionheart]

Made a lot of progress, then didn't save the document properly. :smallannoyed:

Have to play it by ear at this stage...

Sorry to hear that, that's among the very worst feelings in the world. Good luck getting finished in time! I've always enjoyed your entries.

[GrayDeath]

Not gonna get my builds in till the deadline, sorry.

The simple one was too simple/Gimmicky, and I simply didnt have the time to make the vastly complicated other Build work (or to find out it didnt work mayhap^^).

Open to Judging though. ;)

[GreatWyrmGold]

Interesting theme. Not something I'd know what to do with (especially since I'm more comfortable with making good villainous fluff than crunch), but interesting. Posting to watch and judge the results, and to see if the next competition's theme is one that inspires me.

[jdizzlean]

Thurbane:

if i delay the reveal another day will that give you time to finish?

[Thurbane]

Thurbane:

if i delay the reveal another day will that give you time to finish?

Thanks for the offer, but no, it's fine.

I've got some real life stuff going on meaning my time I can dedicate to this forum and D&D is a bit limited right now.

I may may taking a leave of absence from these forums for a bit.

Also, I wasn't 100% happy with the core of my build anyway...

[jdizzlean]

builds incoming, no snarky comments this go around :(


1. Futility
DM: Could everyone give me a spot and listen check, please?

(after a series of poor rolls)

Hank: Hey that’s not bad. 25! No, make that 26, I’m wearing the glasses.

DM: Okay, Hank you see amidst the trees something moving. Something humanoid in shape. Care to enlighten your comrades still wallowing in ignorance?

Hank: Hey guys there’s something in the woods. Probably another of those ghouls we cleaned up back in town.

DM: It moves into the view of the rest of you. It pauses, head tilted to the air as if sniffing. It looks like –

Sebastian: A ghoul! I roll Knowledge (religion) for… uh… non-natural 20. If it’s undead, what do I know about it?

DM (after a beat): Well, it does indeed look like a ghoul, old and covered in plants. Ghouls are undead, so vulnerable to holy water, turning and such, not vulnerable to nonlethal damage, and they’ve got paralysis. It’s also got –

Deirdre: And the bigger ones are called ghasts. Come on, we’re like way too high level for this. The ones in the town were only tricky because they had hostages.

Sebastian: That’s totally metagaming. (pauses) But she’s totally right. I spur my noble steed into a charge and run it through with my lances. And… yeah, that should be more than enough to ohko the blighter.

George (smiling and singing a little to himself): *Oh, my, goth, he’s… undead undead undead undeader than dead*.

DM: Yep, your lances go right through him, as do your griffon’s natural weapons.

Sebastian: Sweet, one more kill for the halfling knight and the world’s most righteous griffon. Back to the group I go –

DM: *Ahem*. That’s not quite what I said.

George: Did you just say “ahem”?

DM: And I’m going to need a Fort save from you and your griffon. Wait… I think technically you should have rolled before attacking. Ah well, doesn’t matter.

Deirdre: Uh-oh. That does not sound good. (looks at rolled dice) Pfff, but that looks even worse!

Sebastian (glumly): Well at least Sir Fluffyclaws got a decent roll.

(everyone rolls initiative)

DM: Sebastian, you’re first, but you’re also super paralyzed. Your griffon can still act, though, right?

Sebastion: Sir Fluffyclaws.

DM: I refuse to call him that.

Sebastion: Yeah, I ride out of the line of fire and over to our ever helpful cleric…

George: Actually, I was going to try turning undead.

Sebastian: …

Deirdre: My turn. Let’s end this fast. I open my mouth to let out the darkness, fly 60ft into the air, and fire off a Quickened Eldritch Blast. Does that hit its touch AC?

DM: I… think that counts as an effect that targets a specific number of creatures… but either way, yes it hits, no it doesn’t seem to do any damage, and it’s immune to the sickened condition because it’s undead.

Deirdre: Right. With my standard action, let’s try some lighting. Also hits. How much damage?

DM: None. It looks like its body is dissolving and reforming at the point of impact. Maybe one of the flowers on it drop to the ground fried.

Hank: What the hell is this thing?!

DM: You’re about to get a few more clues. It’s her turn. Its head rotates, apparently settling on the grouped up three of you. And then it starts to speak. Its mouth moves spastically, jerkily, but not in time with the words, as if the movement were just a reflex, tied to the act of speech but no longer a part of it, and its voice is like the wind rustling grass:


???: Ah… heroes. …How considerate… to come so directly to me….

DM: With a sound like the roots tearing and popping as a tree falls, wings extend from the monstrosity’s back, and it shoots directly towards you, six claws outstretched; four of them are made of blue energy. Just before it hits you and… and Sir Fluffyclaws, well, well first you all get opportunity attacks. (3 rolls) Three hits, no damage, and just before it hits you it seems to break apart, the flowers that cover it and apparently also fill it taking flight, each with a chunk of the original flesh tangled in the roots, leaving nothing but glowing blue clawed arms, a gaping mouth, and a monstrous cloud still roughly in the shape of a person. First off, one saving throw from each of you for the paralysis. Now 7 attacks… 3 hits, not much damage, but four more saves…

George: Stars and stones!

DM: … and Sebastian and Sir Fluffyclaws share space with each other and now it, so you each take 2d6 damage. Sebastian also takes 1d6 Constitution damage as the flowers latch onto him briefly, draining his blood with their roots.

Hank: Okay, now that I’ve made it through that relatively mobile… you said it had glowing blue arms? Would that be…

DM: Incarnum, right, you recognize that automatically. It’s the same stuff you’ve got access to, after all.

Hank: That’s gotta be Girallon Arms. And plants. So… Knowledge (nature)?

DM: A part of this creature is definitely a swarm of plants, and with that roll, you know it’s not any type of plant you’ve seen or heard of on this plane. Before dissolving, the creature underneath looked like some kind of anthropomorphic animal.

Deirdre: Knowledge (the planes)! Can I roll when it’s not my turn?

DM: Sure. And all those ranks you’ve sunk into it finally pay off, revealing the plant half of the creature to be a Dread Blossom Swarm, typically native to the Wilderness of the Beastlands. It’s a swarm, it drinks blood, it emits a paralyzing poison into the air, and they regenerate… but not from fire or ice.

Hank: I don’t have either of those, so I guess I’ll try my usual grapple/trip wombo combo. Wait… it’s a swarm, it’ll just dissolve again. Okay, I’ve got this. I reach up to Sebastian, steal his alchemist’s fire –

Sebastian: Hey.

Hank: And ignite it all over him and the swarm!

Sebastian: Hey!

DM: That provokes a reaction. She screams in pain and goes completely up in flames (chorus of cheers)… that don’t actually seem to do it any further damage (chorus of boos). This impression is supported by the fact that that underneath the fire, you can see ice spreading. In fact, it looks like it has become a being of fire and ice, as the rustling scream transforms from one of pain to one of rage. Oh, and Sebastian and the griffon also take 4 fire damage.

Deirdre: Knowledge… (planes)?

DM: Good enough to hazard that the monster has gained the fire and cold subtypes… making it immune to both damage types. Come on guys, I believe in you.

Deirdre: That would be so much more encouraging if you said it without that evil smile. Have we not been chipping in appropriately for pizza or something? … Wait, that’s it! Guys, just stay alive until my next turn, I’ve got this! And get away from it unless you want to die!

George: Honestly, this hasn’t changed my plans at all. I cast freedom of movement on Sir Fluffyclaws and sprint away as fast as I can.

Sebastian: What am I, chopped liver?

DM: Actually, that was a good call. Since you made the saves against the claws you can move again. I do, however, need one last Fortitude save from the two of you. (looks at rolls) Hey Sir Fluffyclaws actually failed this one. Don’t worry, he’s only nauseated and can still run. That does provoke an opportunity attack, but he’s immune to paralysis now, which brings us to…

Deirdre: I swoop in a bit closer, whip out that scroll the village gave us for saving them from the ghouls… and cast forcecage on it! Just like closing a pizza box!

DM: Nailed it! *cough* As the creature flings itself impotently against the walls of its prison, it screams again, a sound of absolute fury.


???: No! Nooo!!! You can’t do this to us!

DM: It composes itself, rather literally as it happens.


???: No matter. Time has taught us patience, and this toy cannot last forever. We have your scent now, heroes. So run, run while you can. We are the horror that hungers. We are the doom implacable. We are Futility!

George and Hank (in unison): Let’s get the hell out of here!

DM: Probably a good idea. As you flee, you hear one last cry from inside the cage, an inhuman sound you’re sure you’ll be hearing in your dreams for a long time:


Futility: And we will find you!

The best offense is a good defense. Rather than actively eliminate player actions, though she can do that too, Futility renders any action taken against her wasted. Any damage that isn’t fire or cold she takes as nonlethal, which as an undead she is immune to. Should she actually take damage of any kind, being an anthropomorphic wolverine she flies into a rage that lasts until she or her opponent is dead… and makes her immune to fire and cold damage. As an undead, she is immune to mind affecting, fear, and physical ability drain; as a swarm she is immune to any effect that targets a limited number of creatures, including single target effects like Eldritch Blast and disintegrate, and just as icing on the cake can’t be grappled, tripped, or even flanked – these are just the most noteworthy immunities; there are more. A fast and perfect maneuverability flight speed makes outmaneuvering or even just escaping her very hard. She has at-will detect magic to find invisible players or traps. And she can teleport through any attempt at battlefield control. The cherry on top of this invulnerable combination is that Futility is fully capable of active shut-down: she can force up to 8 saves against paralysis per turn (one of which is AOE; none of which grant immunity on a successful save), possibly forces saves against nausea, can trip without any fear of reprisal, and has at-will dispel magic, entangle, and dimensional anchor abilities.


Futility
CE Medium Humanoid (augmented aberration, augmented monstrous humanoid, augmented plant, augmented undead, extraplanar, human, (tiny) swarm)
Symbiotic Winged Anthropomorphic Wolverine Gravetouched Ghoul/Dread Blossom Swarm 2HD/ Totemist 6/ Witchborn Binder 4/ Totemist +2


CR
Class
Base Attack Bonus
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Skills
Feats
Features
Soulmelds Shaped
Essentia [Capacity]
Chakra Binds


4
Winged Anthropomorphic Wolverine
+2
+3
+3
+0
Knowledge (religion) 1, Listen 5, Move Silently 2, Search 1, Sense Motive 1, Spot 5, Survival 1, Use Rope 1
Human Heritage, Track, Vulnerable (flaw)
30ft land speed, 10ft burrow, 10ft climb, 50ft fly (perfect), +2 natural armor, 2 claws (1d4, primary), bite (1d6, secondary), Rage, 60ft Darkvision, Scent, Literacy?
0
0 [1]
0


5
Totemist 1
+2
+5
+5
+0
Knowledge (religion) 1.5, Listen 6, Move Silently 2, Search 2, Sense Motive 1, Spot 6, Survival 2, Use Rope 1
Frozen Berserker
Meldshaping, Wild Empathy, Illiteracy?
2
1 [1]
0


6
Totemist 2
+3
+6
+6
+0
Knowledge (religion) 3, Listen 6, Move Silently 2, Search 3, Sense Motive 1.5, Spot 6, Survival 2, Use Rope 1

Totem Chakra Bind (+1 capacity)
3
2 [1]
1


7
Totemist 3
+4
+6
+6
+1
Knowledge (religion) 4, Listen 6, Move Silently 2, Search 4, Sense Motive 2, Spot 6, Survival 2, Use Rope 1.5

Totem’s Protection
3
2 [1]
1


11
Gravetouched Ghoul Template
+4
+6
+6
+1
Knowledge (religion) 4, Listen 6, Move Silently 2, Search 4, Sense Motive 2, Spot 6, Survival 2, Use Rope 1.5
Multiattack (B)
Undead Traits, +2 natural armor, Ghoul Fever, Paralysis, Turn Resistance +2, Diet Dependent (flesh)
0
2 [1]
1


11
Symbiotic Creature Template (Dread Blossom Swarm)
+4
+6
+6
+1
Knowledge (religion) 4, Listen 6, Move Silently 2, Search 4, Sense Motive 2, Spot 6, Survival 2, Use Rope 1.5
Alertness (B), Ability Focus (pollen) (B), Lightning Reflexes (B)
Swarm Attack (1d6), Blood Drain, Distract?, Poison Pollen, Half Damage from Slashing and Piercing, Plant Traits, Regeneration 5 (fire/cold), Swarm Traits, Detach
0
2 [1]
1


12
Totemist 4
+5
+7
+7
+1
Knowledge (religion) 4, Listen 7, Move Silently 2, Search 4, Sense Motive 2, Spot 6, Survival 2, Use Rope 2
Undead Meldshaping
Swarm Attack (2d6)
4
3 [2]
1


13
Totemist 5
+5
+7
+7
+1
Knowledge (religion) 4, Listen 8, Move Silently 2, Search 4, Sense Motive 2, Spot 6, Survival 2, Use Rope 2

Chakra Binds (crown, feet, hands)
4
3 [2]
1


14
Totemist 6
+6
+8
+8
+2
Knowledge (religion) 4, Listen 9, Move Silently 2, Search 4, Sense Motive 2, Spot 6, Survival 2, Use Rope 2

Totem Chakra Bind (+1 meldshaper level)
4
4 [2]
2


15
Witchborn Binder 1
+6
+8
+8
+4
Knowledge (religion) 4, Listen 10, Move Silently 2, Search 5, Sense Motive 2, Spot 6, Survival 2, Use Rope 2
Blazing Berserker
Detect Magic, Meldshield, Royal Purse 1/level?, Literacy!
5
5 [2]
2


16
Witchborn Binder 2
+7
+8
+8
+5
Knowledge (religion) 4, Listen 11, Move Silently 2, Search 6, Sense Motive 2, Spot 6, Survival 2, Use Rope 2

Dispelling Orb, +1 Essentia
5
6 [2]
2


17
Witchborn Binder 3
+8
+9
+9
+5
Knowledge (religion) 4, Listen 12, Move Silently 2, Search 7, Sense Motive 2, Spot 6, Survival 2, Use Rope 2

Swarm Attack (3d6)
5
6 [2]
2


18
Witchborn Binder 4
+9
+9
+9
+6
Knowledge (religion) 4, Listen 13, Move Silently 2, Search 8, Sense Motive 2, Spot 6, Survival 2, Use Rope 2
Snow Tiger Berserker
Mage Shackles
5
6 [3]
2


19
Totemist 7
+10
+9
+9
+6
Knowledge (religion) 4, Listen 14, Move Silently 2, Search 8.5, Sense Motive 2, Spot 6, Survival 2, Use Rope 2


5
7 [3]
2


20
Totemist 8
+11
+10
+10
+6
Knowledge (religion) 4, Listen 15, Move Silently 2, Search 9, Sense Motive 2, Spot 6, Survival 2, Use Rope 2

Rebind Totem Soulmeld 1/day
6
8 [3]
3




After getting clarification from the Chairman, it looks like I figure out the stat adjustments for the total Symbiotic Creature and then apply those modifiers to an elite array. The physical racial stat bonuses remain those of a Winged Anthropomorphic Wolverine Gravetouched Ghoul (+6 STR, +12 DEX, – CON) and the mental racial bonuses are those of a Dread Blossom Swarm with 3 INT (-8 INT, +0 WIS, -8 CHA). For consistency’s sake, I’ll keep the same elite array before and after symbiosis. Note that treating each creature as separate - with different elite arrays that combine on symbiosis - could be used to get significantly better Strength, Dexterity, and Charisma, but worse Intelligence.

Elite Array (before racial):
Str 13, Dex 10, Con 8, Int 14, Wis 15, Cha 12

Ability Scores by CR:


CR
4
6
11A
11B
14
18


STR
17
18
20





DEX
18

22





CON
16

–
–
–
–


INT
14

12
6
7



WIS
19

23
15

16


CHA
14

16
4






Deirdre: Thank you again for your time, madam. But you really should get out of here. Our spell probably wore off hours ago, and it said it would be following us.
DM (in a quavering, soft voice):


Old Lady: Oh you’re such a sweetheart, but I could never leave this place. I’m far to old to make such a journey, and while I believe you fought this monster, it hasn’t come this far south since before even my time. I’m sure that I’ll be fine.

Sebastian: You couldn’t convince her? I really don’t want her blood on our hands.

Deirdre: Of course I could convince her. But she’s right. She couldn’t make the march, Sir Fluffyclaws and I couldn’t possibly carry any more people, and we’re already at serious risk of running out of healing magic on the way. I’m not using my magic to force an old lady into a death march when she’d rather die in the place she’s lived her whole life.

DM: Sir Fluffyclaws snorts his agreement.

Hank: Well I guess that settles that. (turns to Deirdre) Looks like you’re starting to get the hang of this mortal morality thing. Did we at least learn something from all these people?

Deirdre: We’ve got about fifteen different backstories, ranging from the daughter of a wolverine therianthrope to a cruel joke by the gods to an outcast from a tribe of half-animals half-humans to the north. It’s been called a wendigo, a therianthrope, a mohrg, a yak person, and a ghoul. And it’s had about three and a half different genders ascribed to it.

George (coming in from outside): Lovely. The villagers should be ready to leave in about ten minutes. You really put the fear of the gods into them. So we’ve got no consistency at all?

Deirdre: Not quite. There are a couple of consistent patterns. At some point, close to a hundred years ago, this “Futility” – though it wasn’t calling itself that then – earned a place in one of the berserker lodges. It became more and more wild, though, retreating into the woods. And then the disappearances started. And then, about fifty years ago, a stranger from the south went into the woods to stop the menace… and returned alive. About that time the descriptions of Futility changed from an animal person to the … thing we fought.

DM: Okay let’s call it there for tonight. Excellent roleplaying everyone; bonus experience all around.

At CR 5, the monster who will become known as Futility is just an anthropomorphic wolverine with wings, and a quirk in her ancestry that gives her a few more skill points but makes her vulnerable to effects like hold person. With wings, Frozen Berserker, and wolverine Rage, she’d still make an interesting opponent, but with just a single level in Totemist and none of her later synergies she lacks the power to be truly memorable.

Having abandoned society, she makes her home in the woods, preying on travelers and wildlife alike. However, she has also discovered a Dread Blossom Swarm living nearby. Like her real-life cousin the badger with coyotes, she’s adopted a synergistic hunting strategy. Weak, fast foes she drives towards the Dread Blossom Swarm. Strong, slower foes she baits and then lures into its territory. Either way, the Dread Blossom Swarm paralyzes them and drinks their blood until full, at which point our little villainess in training drags away and consumes the corpse.

Eventually, a wandering warrior hears tell of our nameless villain’s depravations. A Desert Wind Swordsage, he drives off the swarm and easily bests the vulnerable to fire Frozen Berserker. Tracking down this mysterious Swordsage is one way for the party to figure out what the heck they’re dealing with. (Incidentally, you may have noticed that Futility is remarkably eloquent for a monster with 6 Int; her most eloquent lines are actually paraphrasing or misquoting this Swordsage in his final battle with her host. Bonus XP to any party that manages to figure that out!)

Side Note: Do racial HD grant literacy? I’m thinking not, in which case Futility isn’t literate until CR 15 (appropriately enough right after she increases her intelligence).

EDIT: Ugh, now that I’m all the way done with the build, I realize that anthropomorphic animals do not get the bonus feats of their base animal. That means you need to take a flaw for Track. I chose Vulnerable, because the penalty to AC is thematically in line with raging, but Unreactive’s penalty to initiative is probably more fair to the players.

Futility: We’ve found you, little hero!

DM: The swarm lunges for you, claws outstretched and jaws gaping.

Sebastian: I sit bolt upright in my bed, wide awake and clutching for my weapons.

Deirdre (sitting looking out the porthole at the storm that rumbles and shakes the ship): “The dream again?” I ask softly.

Hank: I sit up and groggily ask “what’s happening, are we under attack again?” Oh, the dream again. Dude, it’s been years. Futility’s never gonna find us.

Sebastian: You don’t get it. We’ve fought her three times now, if you can call running away while an invincible horror machine chases you, in a desperate bid to lure her away from other people, if you can even call that “fighting”. And every time she goes straight for me. Says she “misses the taste of my blood”. You haven’t been caught by her yet, either; you can’t move, can’t even scream, but you can feel her roots digging into you, drinking, digging towards your heart. ... And OOC, I would really like a chance to finally kick her ass. Much as I like this character arc.

DM: Don’t worry, it’s only a matter of time. You’ll be seeing Futility again. (looks down at his map behind the screen, with two dotted lines on it. One is the party, on board the Barbara Anne; the other has just reached the port they left a month prior)

(elsewhere)

Dockworker (crawling frantically away from a burning inn): Oh gods, oh gods, what do you want from me?

Futility (her body of ice and fire silhouetted by a backdrop of burning buildings): We are not so good at talking to our food. So hard to know which ones are useful; so hard to make them stop screaming long enough to talk. We had to kill so many just to find this part of town. Still, perhaps you will be one of the lucky ones. Tell us where the ones we seek hide, tell us where our prey has fled?

Dockworker: The, the lady and her companions? With the gr-griffon? I l-loaded their ship, it was going to, to some lost island! I don’t know where it is! (Futility starts to advance) Wait! Wait! But, but, I heard them say that after that quest, they’d go back to, to Kingsport!

Futility: Maybe you are a lucky one. What is “Kingsport”? How do we find it?

Dockworker (starting to look hopeful): Easy! Just, just follow the coast! Keep it on your left, keep walking, and you can’t miss it! … So… you’ll let me live?

Futility: You are a lucky one! (Futility descends on the screaming dockworker)

Futility (done feeding, blood dripping from the blossoms all over her body, strips of flesh hanging from her claws and jaws): Such a lucky one. So lucky we are to have found one so useful. (pauses) Twenty. The twentieth food. The twentieth food is always the lucky one. Strange. So strange.

(Lying on the cobble streets, the dockworker gasps for breath. Glutted with blood and flesh, Futility has grown lazy, rarely bothering to finish off prey that has not annoyed her. This one will survive.)

(Well, at least until tomorrow night, when the ghoul fever takes him)

After knocking the predatory wolverine Totemist into the negatives, the mysterious Swordsage observed the Dread Blossom Swarm descending upon its erstwhile hunting partner. You see, plants cannot feel loyalty, love, or even respect for an equal. The humanoid wolverine was familiar to the swarm, evoking memories of satisfaction and good hunting, but without intelligence this just made the meal more appealing. And as the Swordsage left, satisfied that justice had been done, the swarm finished off its partner and made her comfortingly familiar corpse its new nest.

And this is where things get interesting. For though her name has been lost to history, the winged wolverine had lived a life of pure evil, hedonism, and cannibalism. So despite having been hollowed out and thoroughly infested by the swarm, it wasn’t long before the nameless villain’s corpse rose as a Gravetouched Ghoul. And as the pair began hunting together again, the swarm returning to its roost within the ghoul after each meal, their partnership grew ever closer, until they became essentially a single being.

Ah, the Symbiotic Creature. Such a tantalizing (and let’s face it, inherently cool) template, held back by it’s lack of clarity on how it works with LA, which makes it incredibly iffy for player use. However, the rules for CR are crystal clear, making it perfect for this competition. In other words, I’m going for the philly cheeseburger approach as far as accepted levels of cheese.

But on to the nitty gritty. A combination of swarm traits, undead traits, regeneration that’s only vulnerable to fire and cold, automatic Rage that lasts until the damager is dead, and the twin feats Frozen Berserker and Blazing Berserker (taken after the incident with the Swordsage gave Futility both a history with and connection to fire) make Futility invulnerable. It’s unclear whether you get Distract (the swarm ability that forces a save v. nausea for yet more lost actions); it probably falls under the category of “requires whole body of guest” and therefore can’t be used without Detaching, but if as DM you rule otherwise that’s just gravy. The swarm subtype does reduce your reach to 0, and the line about not being able to make opportunity attacks probably applies even though you’ve now got attacks besides the Swarm Attack. Speaking of, you probably get both this and Blood Drain. I think your save DCs increase with HD (your Ghoul saves definitely do), and I’m pretty sure your Swarm Attack damage does. And the specific wording of Symbiotic Creature suggests you now get to add ½ Str to damage with the Swarm Attack, though that is questionable.

Levels 12-15 are basically filling in the gaps. Undead Meldshaping and Blazing Berserker are both musts; the order is up to you. Girallon Arms bound to the totem chakra gives you 4 extra claw attacks to deliver paralysis with. Blink Shirt shaped to the heart gives you a 10ft teleport even without any essentia investment; great for bypassing walls, cages, and other attempts to contain you, and continuing the theme of “all tactics are futile”. Worg Pelt bound to the hands lets you make a trip attack when you hit with your bite. For full attacks don’t forget unarmed strikes! Sure they do nonlethal damage… but they can be used to trip. They provoke an attack of opportunity, but you’re either immune to that damage or it’s going make you actually invulnerable. Likewise the claw attacks can be used to trip; doesn’t do damage, but does still threaten paralysis.

Futility doesn’t have great skills, but being invulnerable to consequences means there’s no reason to not take 20. She suffers the effects of failure 19 times but will probably succeed on the 20th; this is what she’s doing in the story to track the heroes. Last but not least, don’t forget that it only takes one person managing to damage Futility and then escaping to render her invulnerable until that person dies, whether it’s from her tracking them down, unrelated causes, or old age.



DM: Well, this has been a pretty successful sailing trip. With one major exception, of course.

Tim (new character of Hank’s player): I still maintain that his death by kraken does not count as ironic.

DM: Duly noted. However, you’re all level 20, and we’re rapidly approaching the climax of this campaign, so let’s get this show on the road. When you are a few days away from Kingsport, you start to notice something odd. A pillar of smoke on the horizon.

George: I’ve got a bad feeling about this.

DM: As you continue towards Kingsport and the pillar, you start to be able to smell the smoke. Another few hours, and flecks of ash begin settling onto the deck. Once you get within a day’s sail of Kingsport, it becomes evident that what looked like a single enormous pillar of smoke is actually several smaller columns.

Sebastian: Well that’s not so bad, right? Multiple small fires across the city rather than one enormous one?

Deirdre: (shakes head slowly) No. We’re still way too far away. To have multiple smoke columns of that size…

George: … you would need multiple city sized fires. What the hell’s bells happened while we were away?

Sebastian: I have a terrible feeling that I know exactly what happened.

DM: Does anyone have anything else they want to do to prepare? No? Any objections to cutting ahead to landfall?

(The next day)

DM: You disembark your ship amidst the smoldering ruins of your home city, Kingsport. Little remains of the houses and businesses and parks but burnt logs and embers, still giving off some of the smoke that formed one of the four great pillars in the sky. The streets are littered with discarded arms and armor, and quite literally caked in layers of dried blood. And sitting there, atop a pile of corpses in the middle of the wreckage, Futility waits for you. No longer made of fire and ice, her ‘head’ is facing the sky, and her posture is almost… serene.

Futility: Heroes. You’re finally here. When we stopped being angry, we were worried you had died without us. We even checked the nearby cities, in case you had gotten here before us. But we couldn’t find you in any of them, and the food hadn’t seen you either. So we came back to wait.

Sebastian: All this death. All this destruction. (hefts custom made lance)
Futility, this ends here. It has to.

Futility: It was all you, heroes. You who made us so angry, for longer than we’d ever been. You who lured us from where we hid in the trees and the snow. Thanks to you, we’ve seen so much, done so much. You opened our eyes, showed us that the world was, was… weak.

DM: Futility leaps down from her impromptu throne, facing you with claws outstretched. As she continues her speech, she sounds almost sad.

Futility: Now that the floppy one is dead, we are no longer angry. We have enjoyed this hunt so much. But all things end, they do, they do. You choose here? Very well. (pauses) We will miss you heroes, when you are dead.

DM: And with that, she charges. George, you are her target, probably because Turn Undead is one of the only things that actually affects her.

George: Not today. Tim, hit us both! We can always raise me later!

DM: She doesn’t attack with claws or fangs, seeming to be waiting for something. She does ravage you with her roots, but your pre-cast freedom of movement has protected you from paralysis and you shake her off before she can start draining your blood. Deirdre, you’re up.

Deirdre: Something’s not right. I delay. Just make sure it’s far enough away from me, Tim. I’m squishy.

Tim: This changes nothing. Sorry George. Sorry Sebastian; I know you were looking forward to trying out the lance. I cast Quickened summon monster I just behind George and Futility, and then I cast detonate on it!

DM: As if waiting for exactly this, Futility’s blossoms stir into a frenzy. All of a sudden, you feel a magical wave wash through you. Your magical items go dead, as do all your buffs. Your empathic link to Sir Fluffyclaws drops. And casting any spells becomes impossible. You are now all inside an antimagic field, centered on Futility.

Futility: Foolish heroes! We grow! We learn! (laughs like a child on Christmas, then adds as an afterthought) And you die.

Tim: Oh come on!

Deirdre (at the same time): You bastard! I should have known you had something like this up your sleeve when we found those scrolls of disjunction!

DM (chuckling): Well, hindsight is 20/20, as they say. Yep, I’ve been planning this one for quite some time. I’m glad you’re impressed.

Deirdre: I’ll get you for this, see if I don’t. When I’m GM, your ass will be mine. I use my move action to pull out one of the scrolls, and my standard action to cast from it.

Sebastian: Wait, delay a bit longer and Sir Fluffyclaws can grab you and fly us out of the field. And I can Aid Another.

DM: Can you?

Sebastian: Not with UMD, but Complete Adventurer says I can with Spellcraft if I take a penalty.

DM: Huh. I think I remember that, actually. Go for it.

Deirdre: Okay, beat the check, so here goes: 17% chance of success! (rolls) … I hate everything.

George: My turn! And now that I’ve beaten the distraction save, like the mighty phoenix I will rise from this indignity and begin contributing to the team! I run out of the antimagic field and grab a scroll.

DM: Attack of opportunity. Hits, so gimme a save.

George: No prob. Unless her save’s increased greatly since last time, that should do it.

DM: Actually it has, and aren’t you using some Con boosting items? Or should I say, weren’t you using some Con boosting items?

George: The mighty phoenix is dead to me.

DM: And with that it’s Futility’s turn again. Her Int is high enough now I think it’s fair for her to use some more complicated tactics, so… uh, she’s going to coup de grace you, George. Don’t worry, you should be able to make the save –

George: Not with that roll I won’t. Okay, okay… as I go down under the tide of bloodthirsty blossoms, I stick one hand out, and extend it in a thumbs up before it too is subsumed by the hungry swarm.

DM: Jeez, sorry about that.

George: Don’t sweat it. It’s the final showdown. And Tim was probably going to get me killed again anyway.

Tim: That’s super true. (everyone takes a moment of silence) All my 9th level slots are fire spells, so I guess I will also hop aboard the assist Deirdre train.

Dierdre: On the bright side, that one’s a success!

DM: As the null zone dissolves, Futility’s incarnum powers return. She looks up from the corpse of your comrade and charges with a simple howl of

Futility: Food!

DM: She makes a full attack against… (rolls d3) Tim. Save against paralysis, 7 times.

Tim: Uh… things don’t look good for me guys. Is what I would say. If I could move my lips.

Sebastian: I can’t charge! She’s too close!

Deirdre: And there’s no bloody way I can deal enough damage in one hit to put her down. And I traded out Brimstone Blast, because it was bad. Okay, if you delay your turn, I’ve got a scroll of freedom of movement, and then you can get out of there.

Tim: Deal.

(Sebastian retreats far enough to charge, carrying Deirdre with him; she successfully casts from the scroll)

Tim: Okay, I know I said I would run and live. But it’s confession time. That was just to get you guys far enough away. I can’t run far enough to escape Futility, and there’s no way I can survive another round of that. My Constitution is sitting pretty at 4, and my HP isn’t much better. I guess I could teleport, but… one way or another, I’ll be seeing you guys again soon.

Sebastian: Wait, what are you –

Tim: Pour one out for me later, will you? I cast detonate on myself, and deliberately fail the save.

DM: What?!

Tim: Pretty epic, right? Even if she survives, it won’t proc the invincibility because I’m dead.

DM: Uh, okay. Wow that’s a lot of damage. Futility is blown completely apart by the explosion. But the smoldering blossoms only remain still for a second. Slowly, they pull themselves back into the shape of Futility, clutching her head with her six arms. She seems to be barely holding herself together.

Futility: Ouch! Ouch, ouch, ouch! You hurt! You hurt us! How could you! (she pauses, looking around) But you are out of fire, out, yes you are! (She spins back to facing the PCs) We win, heroes! We win, favorite food! We win!

Sebastian: No Futility. This time we will prevail. This time we will put an end to your atrocities. This time we will win! And together Sir Fluffyclaws and I charge the abomination.

DM: She rises to meet you, howling with triumph and bloodlust. And as your lance punches through her, the wood bursts into flame, burning out the heart of the swarm of blossoms and flesh. Futility looks down at the lance made of fire, then back up at you. She opens her mouth, as if to say something, but before she can the fire spreads throughout her body and she crumbles to ashes. You are finally victorious.

Note: this fluff was written before the final iteration of Futility, before I realized that there was no physical way to cram enough Runescarred Berserker into the build for antimagic field.

Levels 18-20 are similar enough I’ll talk about them both here. 18 or 20 could be used as the sweet spot. At 18 your essentia capacity increases, you get pounce, and all your abilities are now online; at 20 you’ve got a few more essentia and an extra chakra bind to play with, as well as a third iterative for tripping or just beating on your opponents. Witchborn Binder gives you an at-will detect magic effect, an at-will dispel magic effect, and an at-will entangling effect that also forces an additional check (simply being entangled forces a caster level check; Mage Shackles force a second one) to cast any spells and acts as dimension anchor. Arguably, you can hold onto them to provide the “opposing force” required to render the recipient immobile and thus vulnerable to your Blood Drain. On top of all this, you can inflict 8 saves against paralysis (6 claws, 1 bite, one poison aura), at least 4 trips (bite and 3 unarmed; start using claws if they’re still not down), Swarm Attack damage that ignores cover and concealment and just hits automatically, Blood Drain if you’ve managed to immobilize one of your opponents, and arguably Distract for nausea if they start your turn in your square. Don’t forget the option of coup de grace.

Now, a lot of these have relatively poor odds of success. But that’s the inherent beauty of this build: you can’t be counterattacked. You have as many opportunities to, say, dispel a pesky freedom of movement as you need. Even if they only fail their saves against paralysis on a nat 1, that's still a 33% chance of failure per turn. There are so few things that actually affect you: the cleric can burn through their uses of Turn Undead to keep you away for a minute at a time; likewise a Dread Witch can probably punch through your immunity to fear to keep you away for as long as they have spell slots. But for permanently dealing with you, you’re immune to damage, starvation, and suffocation, and you can’t be easily trapped (though if you are in 3d6 months you become immobile from not eating flesh; eventually someone will find you and the DBS can Detach to feed on them and then return to the host). One of the only things I’ve managed to come up with for eliminating Futility are massive fire/cold damage right off the bat (but what party is going to burn a 9th level spell slot on an unknown opponent that’s been immune to everything so far, on the off chance that this one will work?); for this reason when not raging you should always shape Urskan Greaves and Phoenix Belt and keep the full 3 essentia in them for 15 cold and fire resistance; the remaining 2 essentia should go into Meldshield for the bonus to saves. Or they could use attrition tactics; damaging Futility and then letting her kill you to render her vulnerable again and just whittling away at her health (and how’s that for denying PC actions; death is the best debuff in the game, and maybe another 10 minutes from the cleric to resurrect them). I don’t know of any AOE mental debuffs, but damaging/draining Futility’s intelligence/charisma would be devastating. Those holy poisons/diseases from BoED might do the trick, but they might also count as an effect that targets a single creature/limited number of creatures.

Normally, a character that’s this defensive doesn’t work very well as a PC, but it works great as a villain, because the PCs can’t just retreat without leaving anyone nearby to Futility’s tender mercies. If nothing else, Futility will be memorable for the sheer amount of effort it takes to put her down.

Finally, let’s talk tactics and loadouts. At 20th level you can shape 6 soulmelds and bind 3 (5 and 2 respectively at 18th). Obviously you want Girallon Arms shaped on your arms and bound to your totem chakra. Worg Pelt is a good one to have shaped on and bound to your hands. Blink Shirt is a must-shape under any circumstances; unless you’re relatively permanently enraged so are Urskan Greaves and Phoenix Belt to feet and waist respectively. Your third bind could be anything, really, but I'd recommend either Urskan Greaves to your feet for extra damage when charging (don’t forget you have Pounce!) or the Threefold Mask of the Chimera to your crown; the extra move action at the end of your turn would let you switch from an unparalyzed opponent to a paralyzed one, and losing your move action next turn doesn’t prevent you from pounce-charging as a standard action (if you’re a super strict DM who won’t allow Futility to make even free action/no action attacks from the guest creature without extra actions, then this soulmeld is your out).

At the end of it all, I find myself pretty pleased with Futility! You could replace Anthropomorphic Wolverine with Were-Badger to get a human bonus feat (though you have to turn around and immediately spend it on Track), but honestly relying on the alternate form felt way less elegant (and the difference in size between badger and DBS makes it legally iffy). Although it would be cool if only the alternate form was infested, letting Futility blend into society while in human form. If you don’t take the Winged Creature template, you don’t even need Human Heritage. This has the additional effect of meaning your type remains aberration after symbiosis, qualifying you for (Improved) Rapidstrike.

The fourth level of Witchborn Binder is cool, but mechanically you could do better with the Feral Creature template (fast healing to make attrition non-viable) or Barbarian (at-will rage to screw over clever tactics of all kinds). Neither of these is as on theme for the Dr. No competition, though.

If you really want to be evil, Human Heritage keeps your type Humanoid (human), making Futility a viable host for Symbiotic Creature… no matter how many times she’s already taken it. Bat swarms for echolocation, hellwasp swarms for better stats and some poison… the possibilities aren’t endless, but there are a lot of them. Especially if you take the same swarms multiple times.

On the subject of Human Heritage, I think that RAW it means the only knowledge skill that works to get information about Futility is Knowledge (local); probably the least purchased skill in the game. As a DM I’d definitely allow other knowledge skills to pick up pieces of the puzzle, but I still find it hilarious.

If you’ve got an extra feat, be it from flaws, going Were-Badger Human, dropping Snow Tiger Berserker, or dropping Winged Creature (one more class level gets you another feat) Dragontouched opens the lovely draconic soulmelds. Dragon Mantle in particular when bound to the totem chakra lets you replace Urskan Greaves, Phoenix Belt, and the Winged Creature template. Obviously you’re losing stuff in each category, but if you can finagle another few levels of Totemist to get double totem bind (drop Winged Creature and 2 levels of Witchborn Binder) it’s at least an interesting trade. Even if you’re unwilling to go that far, just shaping it gives you the energy resistances, and they stack with any other energy resistance. Flaws also open up Ability Focus (paralysis) into Improved Paralysis (note that RAW the poison paralysis probably counts as a natural attack even though it’s not a natural weapon); this probably requires moving Gravetouched Ghoul forward a few levels.

Taking Gravetouched Ghoul after Symbiotic Creature nets you better Wisdom and Charisma (and by extension Paralysis DCs), but works less well with the story, unless you want to say that forming the symbiosis killed the host (which is not too farfetched, but the story is complicated enough as is). Your intelligence also drops from “bad” to “abysmal”.

More reasonably, applying the venerable stat adjustments to the DBS results in significantly better stats.

Frostburn – Frozen Berserker
Libris Mortis – Gravetouched Ghoul
Magic of Incarnum – Totemist, Witchborn Binder, Undead Meldshaping, all soulmelds
MMIII – Dread Blossom Swarm, Ability Focus, Multiattack
Races of Destiny – Human Heritage
Sandstorm – Blazing Berserker
Savage Species – Symbiotic Creature, Winged Creature, Anthropomorphic Animal (wolverine)
SRD – Wolverine, Alertness, Lightning Reflexes, Track
Unapproachable East – Snow Tiger Berserker

[jdizzlean]

2. Selene, Bride of Ruin

https://image.jimcdn.com/app/cms/image/transf/none/path/s6c476c2e8b4692e4/image/i337d13b255ed670d/version/1506972628/image.jpg

Elite Array: 12 Cha, 14 Dex, 13 Int, 15 Wis, 10 Str, 8 Con
Lesser Aasimar racial bonus: 14 Cha, 14 Dex, 13 Int, 17 Wis, 10 Str, 8 Con
4 HD: 14 Cha, 14 Dex, 14 Int, 17 Wis, 10 Str, 8 Con
8 HD: 14 Cha, 14 Dex, 14 Int, 18 Wis, 10 Str, 8 Con
Silveraith Template: 16 Cha, 14 Dex, 16 Int, 20 Wis, /Str, /Con
12 HD: 16 Cha, 14 Dex, 16 Int, 21 Wis, /Str, /Con
16 HD: 16 Cha, 14 Dex, 16 Int, 22 Wis, /Str, /Con

Build Summary: Lesser Aasimar Silveraith Cleric of Savras 8/Paragnostic Apostle 3/Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil 7




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


1
Lesser Aasimar Cleric of Savras 1
+0 (+0)
+2(+2)
+0(+0)
+2(+2)


[RACIAL BONUS] +2 Spot, +2 Listen

[DOMAIN BONUS]
+2 Spellcraft, +2 Concentration

[RANKS]
Knowledge Arcana 4 (+4), Spellcraft 4 (+4), Knowledge Religion 4 (+4)




Spell Focus: Abjuration
Rebuke Undead, Knowledge Domain, Spell Domain, Darkvision,


2
Cleric 2
+1 (+1)
+3 (+1)
+0(+0)
+3 (+1)


Knowledge Arcana 5 (+1), Knowledge Religion 5 (+1), Spellcraft 5 (+1)








3
Cleric 3
+2 (+1)
+3 (+0)
+1 (+1)
+3 (+0)
Knowledge Arcana 6 (+1), Knowledge Religon 5 (+0), Spellcraft 6 (+1), Knowledge Nature 1 (+1)
Greater Spell Focus:Abjuration



4
Cleric 4
+3 (+1)
+4 (+1)
+1 (+0)
+4 (+1)


Knowledge Arcana 7 (+1), Knowledge Religion 5 (+0), Spellcraft 7 (+1), Knowledge Nature 3 (+2)





+1 Int


5
Cleric 5
+3 (+0)
+4 (+0)
+1 (+0)
+4 (+0)


Knowledge Arcana 8 (+1), Knowledge Religion 5 (+0), Spellcraft 8 (+1), Knowledge Nature 4 (+1), Concentration 1(+1)








6
Cleric 6
+4 (+1)
+5 (+1)
+2 (+1)
+5 (+1)


Knowledge Arcana 9 (+1), Knowledge Religion 5 (+0), Spellcraft 9 (+1), Knowledge Nature 4 (+0),
Concentration 3 (+2)




Improved Initiative



7
Cleric 7
+5 (+1)
+5 (+0)
+2 (+0)
+5 (+0)


Knowledge Arcana 10 (+1), Knowledge Religion 5 (+0), Spellcraft 10 (+1), Knowledge Nature 4 (+0),
Concentration 5 (+2)








8
Cleric 8
+6/+1 (+1)
+6 (+1)
+2 (+0)
+6 (+1)


Knowledge Arcana 11 (+1), Knowledge Religion 5 (+0), Spellcraft 11 (+1), Knowledge Nature 4 (+0),
Concentration 7 (+2)





+1 Wis


9
Paragnostic Apostle 1
+6/+1 (+0)
+6 (+0)
+2 (+0)
+8 (+2)


Knowledge Arcana 12 (+1), Knowledge Religion 5 (+0), Spellcraft 12 (+1), Knowledge Nature 4 (+0),
Concentration 11 (+4)




Skill Focus: Spellcraft
Holy Texts, Knowledge is Power, Lore


10
Paragnostic Apostle 2
+7/+2 (+1)
+6 (+0)
+2 (+0)
+9 (+1)


Knowledge Arcana 13 (+1), Knowledge Religion 5 (+0), Spellcraft 13 (+1), Knowledge Nature 4 (+0),
Concentration 13 (+2),
Knowledge The Planes 2 (+2)





Knowledge is Power


11
Paragnostic Apostle 3
+7/+2 (+0)
+7 (+1)
+3 (+1)
+9 (+0)


Knowledge Arcana 14 (+1), Knowledge Religion 7 (+2), Spellcraft 14 (+1), Knowledge Nature 4 (+0),
Concentration 14 (+1), Knowledge The Planes 3 (+1)





Knowledge is Power


13
Silveraith Template
+7/+2 (+0)
+7 (+0)
+3 (+0)
+9 (+0)


[RACIAL BONUSES] +8 Hide, +8 Listen, +8 Search, +8 Spot,





HD Change, Fly Speed, +3 Deflection Bonus, Magic Absorption, Create Spawn, Immunities, Incorporeal Traits, Turn Resistance, Undead Traits, Ability bonus


14
Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil 1
+7/+2 (+0)
+7 (+0)
+3 (+0)
+11
(+2)


Knowledge Arcana 15 (+1), Knowledge Religion 7(+0), Spellcraft 15 (+1), Knowledge Nature 4 (+0),
Concentration 15 (+1), Knowledge The Planes 5 (+2),




Divine Defiance
+1 Wis, Warding 1/day, Red Veil, Unimpeachable Abjuration


15
Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil 2
+8/+3 (+1)
+7 (+0)
+3 (+0)
+12 (+1)


Knowledge Arcana 16 (+1), Knowledge Religion 7 (+0), Spellcraft 16 (+1), Knowledge Nature 4 (+0),
Concentration 16 (+1), Knowledge The Planes 5 (+0), Knowledge Local 2 (+2)





Unanswerable Strike +2, Orange Veil


16
Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil 3
+8/+3 (+0)
+8 (+1)
+4 (+1)
+12 (+0)


Knowledge Arcana 17 (+1), Knowledge Religion 7 (+0), Spellcraft 17 (+1), Knowledge Nature 5 (+0),
Concentration 17 (+1), Knowledge The Planes 5 (+0), Knowledge Local 4 (+2),







Warding 2/day, Yellow Veil







17
Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil 4
+9/+4 (+1)
+8 (+0)
+4 (+0)
+13 (+1)


Knowledge Arcana 18 (+1), Knowledge Religion 7 (+0), Spellcraft 18 (+1), Knowledge Nature 4 (+0),
Concentration 18 (+1), Knowledge The Planes 5 (+0), Knowledge Local 5 (+1), Knowledge Dungeoneering 1 (+1)




Spell Focus: Necromancy
Reactive Warding, Green Veil


18
Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil 5
+9/+4 (+0)
+8 (+0)
+4 (+0)
+13 (+0)


Knowledge Arcana 19 (+1), Knowledge Religion 7 (+0), Spellcraft 19 (+1), Knowledge Nature 4 (+0),
Concentration 19 (+1), Knowledge The Planes 5 (+0), Knowledge Local 5 (+0), Knowledge Dungeoneering 3 (+2)





+1 Wis, Warding 3/day, Blue Veil


19
Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil 6
+10/+5 (+1)
+9 (+1)
+5 (+1)
+14 (+1)


Knowledge Arcana 20 (+1), Knowledge Religion 7 (+0), Spellcraft 20 (+1), Knowledge Nature 5 (+1),
Concentration 20 (+1), Knowledge The Planes 5 (+0), Knowledge Local 5 (+0), Knowledge Dungeoneering 4 (+1),





Unanswerable Strike +4, Double Warding, Indigo Veil


20
Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil 7
+10/+5 (+0)
+9 (+0)
+5 (+0)
+14 (+0)


Knowledge Arcana 20 (+0), Knowledge Religion 7 (+0), Spellcraft 20 (+0), Knowledge Nature 5 (+0),
Concentration 20 (+0), Knowledge The Planes 5 (+0), Knowledge Local 5 (+0), Knowledge Dungeoneering 5 (+1), Knowledge History 3 (+3)




Extra Turning
Kaleidoscopic Doom, Violet Veil, Warding 4/day




Angra Mainyu they call him now, the Ruin of Empires. Then, he was Crown Prince of the Island Nation of Cadoir, but to me he was Damaris, the heart of my heart.

We met at the Paragnostic Assembly, I, a humble priestess of the god of knowledge, he the most learned elf had ever met. He was amused by my faith, but serious in his desire for us to seek out the lost secrets of the world together.

Little did I know that our union went against the wishes of his people. He was already betrothed to the princess of Elthrai when we eloped. Their engagement was purely political, and the combined might of the sea and moon elves would create an empire the world had never seen. Her moon-elf kin took exception to my love’s vacillating, and, the night before my wedding day, they took me from my bed and killed me.
When Damaris found me, I tried to call to him, but he couldn’t hear. It broke my heart to see the pain on his normally taciturn features. He howled, and the earth shook. He cradled my mortal remains in his arms and rose through the air; a dark thunderbolt reversed. The moon elves left their beds as the night sky was split with lightning, and the bellowing wind drowned out all their fearful cries.

Within minutes, Elthrai was reduced to ruins, and few, if any, of the treacherous moon elves survived my love’s black rage. Fearful at the power and anger of their once favoured son, Cadoir closed its gates to our return and forswore their bonds to their prince. His fury still not sated, Damaris forced the island chain beneath the waves, and watched coldly as his people drowned.

The bitter remnants of the nations he obliterated now wail and gnash their teeth, declaring my husband a monster, the Ruin of Empires.

I care not for their jibes, Damaris has done all he could to bring me back, and though I’m still little more than a shade, I have no doubt that through his centuries of research, some hope remains that we can fulfil his last goal, deification. If he could become a god, we surmise, all can be as it was before.

I must protect him at all costs, I’ll let nothing stand in his way.


CR15
Selene, Bride of Ruin
NE Medium Undead (Incorporeal)
HP: 122 (11d12+2d4+39)
Initiative: +6
Speed: 30ft, Fly 30ft (good)
AC: 20 (+2 Dex, +8 Deflection)
Attack: Incorporeal Touch +10
Full Attack: Incorporeal Touch +10/+5
Damage: 3d8+10 (DC19 Will halves)
Space/Reach: 5ft.
Special attacks: Magic Absorption (DC19), Rebuke Undead (7/day),
Special Qualities: Create Spawn, Immunities (Cold, Electricity, Polymorph, Mind Affecting), Undead Traits, Incorporeal Traits, Turn Resistance +4, Knowledge Domain Power, Spell Domain Power, Holy Texts, Knowledge is Power (Penetrating Insight), Knowledge is Power (See Through the Veil), Knowledge is Power (Divine Understanding Evil Domain), Lore, Darkvision (60ft), Warding 1/day (DC23), Red Veil, Unimpeachable Abjuration, Orange Veil, Unanswerable Strike +2
Saves: Fort +7, Ref +5, Will +17
Abilities: Str: N/A, Dex 14, Con N/A, Int 16, Wis 21, Cha 16
Skills: Knowledge Arcana +19, Knowledge Religion +11, Spellcraft +21, Knowledge Nature +7, Concentration +21, Knowledge The Planes +8, Knowledge Local +5, Hide +10, Spot +15, Listen +15, Search +11
Feats: Spell Focus: Abjuration, Greater Spell Focus: Abjuration, Improved Initiative, Skill Focus: Spellcraft, Divine Defiance


Selene, Bride of Ruin
NE Medium Undead (Incorporeal)
HP: 152 (11d12+7d4+54)
Initiative: +6
Speed: 30ft, Fly 30ft (good)
AC: 20 (+2 Dex, +8 Deflection)
Attack: Incorporeal Touch +12
Full Attack: Incorporeal Touch +12/+7
Damage: 3d8+10 (DC22 Will halves)
Space/Reach: 5ft.
Special attacks: Magic Absorption (DC22), Rebuke Undead (11/day),
Special Qualities: Create Spawn, Immunities (Cold, Electricity, Polymorph, Mind Affecting), Undead Traits, Incorporeal Traits, Turn Resistance +4, Knowledge Domain Power, Spell Domain Power, Holy Texts, Knowledge is Power (Penetrating Insight), Knowledge is Power (See Through the Veil), Knowledge is Power (Divine Understanding Evil Domain), Lore, Darkvision (60ft), Warding 4/day (DC24), Red Veil, Unimpeachable Abjuration, Orange Veil, Unanswerable Strike +4, Yellow Veil, Green Veil, Blue Veil, Indigo Veil, Violet Veil, Reactive Warding, Double Warding, Kaleidoscopic Doom,
Saves: Fort +9, Ref +9, Will +20
Abilities: Str: N/A, Dex 14, Con N/A, Int 16, Wis 22, Cha 16
Skills: Knowledge Arcana +24, Knowledge Religion +11, Spellcraft +26, Knowledge Nature +8, Concentration +26, Knowledge The Planes +8, Knowledge Local +8, Hide +10, Spot +16, Listen +16, Search +11, Knowledge Dungeoneering +8, Knowledge History +6
Feats: Spell Focus: Abjuration, Greater Spell Focus: Abjuration, Improved Initiative, Skill Focus: Spellcraft, Divine Defiance, Spell Focus: Necromancy, Extra Turning


I think this entry is a little different, as Selene isn’t designed to be the BBEG of a campaign, but rather as a support to the true BBEG (Angra Mainyu, the Ruin of Empires, an exceptionally potent wizard). Obviously this can easily be adapted to your own campaign, either by adding her to a different BBEG or even focusing the story on her.

I thought the role as a support fit better with the theme of the round, and so Selene is very capable of shutting down adventurers of every stripe. First off, her incorporeal and undead types give her a hefty dose of immunities, making it extremely difficult for her to be taken out by mundane means.

For magical foes, she relies heavily on both her Silveraith’s Magic Absorption ability, and the Divine Defiance feat, allowing her to expend a rebuke undead attempt to counter a spell without needing to prepare the counter beforehand. Between this and her own aptitude for abjuration, she should easily be able to outmatch any caster in a 1v1.

In her long undeath, Selene and Angra Mainyu have been working towards divinity, and have used their knowledge of undeath and necromancy to raise the former citizens of Elthrai and Cadoir, so players will likely have to fight through several layers of these before reaching the ‘boss’. Those undead she is directly able to command (via spells, rebuke and Create Spawn) will accompany her (she focuses primarily on Mohrgs and Ghasts for paralysis and grappling, further shutting down the enemy, in addition to the Silveraith spawn she creates.)

The spell list isn’t what she has prepared (that will vary based on her divinations and scrying on the PCs’ capabilities), but rather some noteable spells that she’ll find useful. All the symbols/glyphs are likely to be placed as traps around her room, Anyspell gives her a bit of arcane flexibility. All the others are there for how they fit the theme or to add to her divination ability, allowing her to better identify and negate her enemies’ strengths.

Paragnostic Apostle gives her a few nice little boosts to some spells, and works with the theme of knowledge-seeking begun with her worship of Savras, while I7V fits the contest theme perfectly, giving many and varied ways to shut enemies down (both offensively and defensively), and again, I believe fits into the theme of knowledge-seeking (I sort of look at abjuration as the magical study of magic itself, and I7V works as an extension of that).

Also just to note, I’ve only included snapshots at CR15 and 20, because before her transformation into a Silveraith, Selene is not a villain, and I would peg her alignment at TN, leaning NG.


Player’s Guide to Faerun (Savras, Spell Domain, Lesser Aasimar)
City of the Spider Queen (Silveraith template)
Fiendish Codex II (Divine Defiance feat)
Complete Champion (Paragnostic Apostle)
Complete Arcane (Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil)

[jdizzlean]

3. Bairarth the Forsworn

https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/56c5bcba-76ff-4c28-98fd-f8a40b361efb/d1zvyjm-ef309dfc-83b6-4ed1-89dc-b921b10c6306.jpg/v1/fill/w_900,h_1273,q_75,strp/zombie_dragon_by_andrewdobell_d1zvyjm-fullview.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI 1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNh NWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMT g4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7 ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9MTI3MyIsInBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcLzU2YzViY2 JhLTc2ZmYtNGMyOC05OGZkLWY4YTQwYjM2MWVmYlwvZDF6dnlq bS1lZjMwOWRmYy04M2I2LTRlZDEtODlkYy1iOTIxYjEwYzYzMD YuanBnIiwid2lkdGgiOiI8PTkwMCJ9XV0sImF1ZCI6WyJ1cm46 c2VydmljZTppbWFnZS5vcGVyYXRpb25zIl19.Xiwqvv-fgP2BUnY7Es6MZhRICDLiN-vK-LpRAz6Irwo

Elite Array: Str 13, Dex 14, Con 10, Int 12, Wis 8, Cha 15
With Racial: Str: 29 (+16), Dex 14, Con 20 (+10), Int 22, (+10) Wis 18 (+10), Cha 25 (+10)
24HD: Str: 29, Dex 14, Con N/A, Int 20, Wis 18, Cha 26 (+1)
With Dracolich: Str: 29, Dex 14, Con N/A, Int 20, Wis 18, Cha 28 (+2)




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


15
Adult Silver Dragon (22HD)
+22
+13
+13
+13


267 (6+Int mod6x22HD+3)

Listen 23, Search 23, Spot 23, Concentration 23, Diplomacy 23, Intimidate 23, Knowledge (arcana) 15, Sense Motive 23, Bluff 23, Disguise 23,
Knowledge (Religion) 11, Knowledge (the planes) 11






Snatch, Improved Snatch, Flyby Attack, Multisnatch, Iron Will, Multiattack,






Alternate Form, Immunity Acid+Cold, Cloudwalking, Vulnerability to Fire, Feather Fall, Fog Cloud, DR5/Magic, Breath Weapon, Frightful Presence, Spell Resistance, Blindsense, Keen Senses, CL 7 (Sorceror)







16
Hidecarved Dragon 1
+23
+15
+15
+15


+10

Listen 24, Search 24, Spot 24, Concentration 24, Diplomacy 24, Intimidate 23, Knowledge (arcana) 15, Sense Motive 24, Bluff 23, Disguise 23, Knowledge (Religion) 11, Knowledge (the planes) 11, Move Silently 4





Improved Spell Resistance


17
Hidecarved Dragon 2
+24
+16
+16
+16


+10

Listen 25, Search 25, Spot 25, Concentration 25, Diplomacy 25, Intimidate 23, Knowledge (arcana) 15, Sense Motive 25, Bluff 23, Disguise 23, Knowledge (Religion) 11, Knowledge (the planes) 11, Move Silently 8




Tail Constrict
Suppress Weakness, Poison Resistance,


20
Dracolich Template
+24
+16
+16
+16


Listen 25, Search 25, Spot 25, Concentration 25, Diplomacy 25, Intimidate 23, Knowledge (arcana) 15, Sense Motive 25, Bluff 23, Disguise 23, Knowledge (Religion) 11, Knowledge (the planes) 11, Move Silently 8







+2 Cha, +2 Natural Armour, Control Undead, Paralyzing Gaze, Paralyzing Touch, DR5/Bludgeoning, Immunities, Invulnerability, Undead Traits,









CR20
Bairarth the Forsworn
LE Huge Undead (Adult Silver Dragon/Hidecarved Dragon 2/Dracolich)
HP: 358 (22D12+2D10+216)
Initiative: +2
Speed: 40ft, 150ft fly (poor)
AC: 35, Touch: 35, Flat-footed: 33 (-2 size, +23 natural, +2 Dex)
Attack: Bite +31 (24 BAB, +9Str, -2 Size)
Grapple: +41 (24BAB+8Size+9Str)
Full Attack: Bite +31, 2 Claws +29, 2 Wings +29, Tail Slap +29
Damage: Bite: 2d8+1d6(cold)+9 (plus snatch+paralyzing touch), 2 Claws: 2d6+1d6(cold)+9 (plus snatch+paralyzing touch), 2 Wings 1d8+1d6+9 (plus paralyzing touch), Tail Slap 2d6+1d6(cold)+9 (plus tail constrict, paralyzing touch)
Space/Reach: 15ft/10ft (15ft with bite)
Special attacks: Breath Weapon (DC31Ref 50ft cone 12d8 cold damage) OR (50ft cone DC31Fort Paralysis for 1d6+6 rounds), Frightful Presence 180ft, HD<24 DC31 Will, SLAs: 3/day Fog Cloud, 2/day Feather Fall, Level 7 Sorceror/Cleric Casting, Control Undead, Paralyzing Gaze (40ft DC31 Will or paralysis for 2d6 rounds), Paralyzing Touch (DC31 Fort Save or paralysis for 2d6 rounds)
Special Qualities: Alternate Form, Immunity to Acid, Cold, Electricity, Sleep, Paralysis and Polymorph, Undead Traits, Spell Resistance: 27, Poison Resistance, DR5/magic, DR5/bludgeoning, Blindsense, Keen Senses, Cloudwalking, Vulnerable to Fire, Suppress Weakness
Saves: Fort +16, Ref +18, Will +20
Abilities: Str: 29, Dex 14, Con N/A, Int 22, Wis 18, Cha 28
Skills: Listen +29, Search +31, Spot +29, Concentration +34, Diplomacy +34, Intimidate +32, Knowledge (arcana) +21, Knowledge (Religon) +17, Knowledge (the Planes) +17, Sense Motive +29, Bluff +32, Disguise +32, Move Silently +10
Feats: Snatch, Improved Snatch, Flyby Attack, Multisnatch, Iron Will, Multiattack, Suppress Weakness (B), Tail Constrict


L0 (6/day 7 known DC19)
Detect Magic, Read Magic, Light, Ghost Sound, Prestidigitation, Mage Hand, Open/Close
Level 1 (9/day 5 known DC20)
Grease, Silent Image, Charm Person, Alarm, Shield
L2 (8/day 3 known DC21)
Glitterdust, Mirror Image, Web
L3 (6/day 2 known DC22)
Suggestion, Slow


Bairarth was still young when he was captured by the necromancers, foolishly he’d wandered too far, and fallen into their trap.
They held him captive for years, carrying out twisted experiments on his flesh and bones. He grew distrustful, stoic, but most of all afraid. The experiments culminated in the battered young dragon being forcibly slain and turned into a Dracolich. Though he hated the transformation, and the abhorrent creature he’d become, he was grateful for the power it gave him as he broke free of the necromancers, turned their undead servants on them, and butchered them all.
Now wounded, broken, and forgotten by his former friends, Bairarth the Forsworn knows only one thing: fear. Having been afraid, he now must inspire fear in all those around him, lest the lack of it leads again to him being victimised. It is not enough for him to destroy his enemies, they must know their end is coming at his hand, and rue the day they ever heard his name.

Bairarth’s tactics are fairly straightforward, both in battle and over a larger campaign. In combat, he’ll use every option at his disposal to incapacitate his enemies, opening with his BFC spells, then following up with both his Paralyzing gaze and Paralyzing breath weapon. If any enemies still threaten him after this, his Frightful Presence and savage paralyzing attacks should be more than enough to end the combat.
It’s important to him to paralyze his enemies before he kills them, or at least hold them in a grapple for a few rounds before killing them, he needs them to feel their own mortality before he tears it from them. His massive grapple mod and Multisnatch/Tail Constrict allow him to reliably grapple three medium creatures at a time, assuming that the act of grabbing them doesn’t paralyse them.
He’s grown exceptionally resilient through his tribulations, and now boasts a huge number of immunities and resistances that will make it difficult for either magic or steel to harm him.

In a larger campaign sense, Bairarth can be introduced while still a young and naïve Silver Dragon, perhaps as a quest giver or ally. Perhaps there could also be an adventure for the players to free him from the necromancers, but by the time they reach him, it’s too late.
Bairarth’s tortured mind compels him to demonstrate his killing power and savagery in as huge a way as possible, to ensure that all fear him and don’t dare turn their weapons on him. This should inevitably lead to conflict with the players. Bairarth also works in subtler ways when he feels threatened, using his social skills, alternate form and spells to infiltrate and sabotage.


Draconomicon: Hidecarved Dragon, Multisnatch, Tail Constrict, Dracolich

[jdizzlean]

4. Dracarys Umbrage


Dracarys Umbrage
Female Lesser Deepwyrm Drow Half-Glazebru 2/Cloistered Cleric 2/Drow Paragon 1/Paragnostic Apostle 5/Mystic Wanderer 4/Divine Disciple 4/Contemplative 2
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/binturia/images/2/28/Vierfrynn_and_Draegloth.JPG/revision/latest?cb=20150116223407


Ability ScoresElite Array: Str 9, Dex 10, Con 14, Int 12 Wis 15, Cha 13
Adjustments for Lesser Deepwyrm Drow: Str 9, Dex 12, Con 12, Int 12, Wis 15, Cha 13
Adjustments for Half-Glazebru 1*: Str 9, Dex 12, Con 12, Int 12, Wis 15, Cha 15
Adjustments for Half-Glazebru 2*: Str 11, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 15, Cha 15
Increase Wis at all opportunities.

*Half-Glazebru stat adjustments differ from those of the standard Half-Fiend so it’s hard to make a precise ruling about what should be increased at which level of the template class. Since Half-Glazebru has no Dex bonus, and increased bonuses in Str, Con, and Cha, it seems like the bonuses at 2nd level should be unchanged, but the bonus at first level should go to one of those three. You might decide that it should go to Str or Con instead, in which case you might consider adjusting the Elite Array allocation.


Build Table

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


1
Cloistered Divine Magician Cleric 1/Half-Glazebru 1
+0
+2
+0
+2
Concentration 4, Spellcraft 4, Knowledge (Arcana) 4, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Knowledge (Nature) 4, Diplomacy 4, Perform (Oratory) 2cc
Magic in the Blood, Incarnum SpellshapingB
Divine Magician ACF, Lore, Knowledge Domain, Incarnum Domain


Half-Glazebru 2
+0
+2
+0
+2
Concentration 4, Spellcraft 4, Knowledge (Arcana) 4, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Knowledge (Nature) 4, Diplomacy 4, Perform (Oratory) 2cc
-
Spell Resistance (Lesser), Poison Immunity, Resistances (Acid 5, Cold 5, Electricity 5, Fire 5)


3
Drow Paragon 1
+0
+2
+2
+2
Concentration 4, Spellcraft 5, Knowledge (Arcana) 5, Knowledge (Religion) 5, Knowledge (Nature) 5, Diplomacy 4, Perform (Oratory) 2, Craft (Alchemy) 1
-
Improved Spell-Like Abilities, Mirror Image 4/day


4
Cloistered Cleric 2
+1
+3
+2
+3
Concentration 6, Spellcraft 6, Knowledge (Arcana) 5, Knowledge (Religion) 5, Knowledge (Nature) 5, [b]Diplomacy 6, Perform (Oratory) 2, Craft (Alchemy) 2, Profession (Herbalist) 1
Servant of a Dragon Ascendant, Iron WillH
Inquisition Domain*, Dispel Magic 4/day


5
Paragnostic Apostle 1
+1
+3
+2
+5
Concentration 6, Spellcraft 6, Knowledge (Arcana) 7, Knowledge (Religion) 5, Knowledge (Nature) 5, Diplomacy 6, Perform (Oratory) 2, Craft (Alchemy) 3, Profession (Herbalist) 3
-
Holy Texts, Lore, Knowledge Is Power (Divine Understanding: Magic)


6
Paragnostic Apostle 2
+2
+3
+2
+6
Concentration 7, Spellcraft 6, Knowledge (Arcana) 8, Knowledge (Religion) 6, Knowledge (Nature) 5, Diplomacy 6, Perform (Oratory) 3cc, Craft (Alchemy) 3, Profession (Herbalist) 3
-
Knowledge is Power (Manifest Ethos: Evil), Unholy Blight 4/day


7
Paragnostic Apostle 3
+2
+4
+3
+6
Concentration 7, Spellcraft 6, Knowledge (Arcana) 9, Knowledge (Religion) 6, Knowledge (Nature) 5, Diplomacy 8cc, Perform (Oratory) 3, Craft (Alchemy) 3, Profession (Herbalist) 3
Soultouched Spellcasting
Knowledge is Power (Penetrating Insight)


8
Mystic Wanderer 1
+2
+4
+5
+8
Concentration 7, Spellcraft 7, Knowledge (Arcana) 10, Knowledge (Religion) 7, Knowledge (Nature) 5, Diplomacy 8, Perform (Oratory) 3, Craft (Alchemy) 3, Profession (Herbalist) 3
-
Glory of the Divine, Sleep, Chaos Hammer 4/day


9
Mystic Wanderer 2
+3
+4
+6
+9
Concentration 8, Spellcraft 7, Knowledge (Arcana) 11, Knowledge (Religion) 8, Knowledge (Nature) 5, Diplomacy 8, Perform (Oratory) 3, Craft (Alchemy) 3, Profession (Herbalist) 3
-
Familiar, Lore of Nature


10
Divine Disciple 1
+3
+6
+6
+11
Concentration 8, Spellcraft 7, Knowledge (Arcana) 12, Knowledge (Religion) 10, Knowledge (Nature) 5, Diplomacy 8, Perform (Oratory) 3, Craft (Alchemy) 3, Profession (Herbalist) 3
Elven Spell Lore (Slashing Dispel)
Magic Domain*, Divine Emissary


11
Divine Disciple 2
+4
+7
+6
+12
Concentration 8, Spellcraft 7, Knowledge (Arcana) 12, Knowledge (Religion) 13, Knowledge (Nature) 5, Diplomacy 8, Perform (Oratory) 3, Craft (Alchemy) 3, Profession (Herbalist) 3
-
Sacred Defense +1


13
Contemplative 1
+4
+7
+6
+14
Concentration 9, Spellcraft 9, Knowledge (Arcana) 12, Knowledge (Religion) 13, Knowledge (Nature) 5, Diplomacy 8, Perform (Oratory) 3, Craft (Alchemy) 3, Profession (Herbalist) 3
-
Purification Domain, Divine Health, Unhallow 4/day


14
Divine Disciple 3
+5
7
+7
+14
Concentration 11, Spellcraft 10, Knowledge (Arcana) 12, Knowledge (Religion) 13, Knowledge (Nature) 5, Diplomacy 8, Perform (Oratory) 3, Craft (Alchemy) 3, Profession (Herbalist) 3
Violate Spell
Imbue with Spell Ability


15
Paragnostic Apostle 4
+6
+7
+7
+15
Concentration 13, Spellcraft 13, Knowledge (Arcana) 12, Knowledge (Religion) 13, Knowledge (Nature) 5, Diplomacy 8, Perform (Oratory) 3, Craft (Alchemy) 3, Profession (Herbalist) 3
-
Knowledge is Power (Energy Supremacy: Cold), Unholy Aura 4/day


16
Paragnostic Apostle 5
+6
+7
+7
+15
Concentration 16, Spellcraft 15, Knowledge (Arcana) 12, Knowledge (Religion) 13, Knowledge (Nature) 5, Diplomacy 8, Perform (Oratory) 3, Craft (Alchemy) 3, Profession (Herbalist) 3
-
Knowledge is Power (Divine Understanding: Liberation)


17
Mystic Wanderer 3
+6
+8
+7
+15
Concentration 17, Spellcraft 17, Knowledge (Arcana) 12, Knowledge (Religion) 13, Knowledge (Nature) 5, Diplomacy 8, Perform (Oratory) 3, Craft (Alchemy) 3, Profession (Herbalist) 3
Divine Defiance, Attune GemB
Gem Magic, Resist Charm


18
Mystic Wanderer 4
+7
+8
+8
+16
Concentration 19, Spellcraft 18, Knowledge (Arcana) 12, Knowledge (Religion) 13, Knowledge (Nature) 5, Diplomacy 8, Perform (Oratory) 3, Craft (Alchemy) 3, Profession (Herbalist) 3
Brew PotionB
-


19
Divine Disciple 4
+8
+9
+8
+17
Concentration 20, Spellcraft 20, Knowledge (Arcana) 12, Knowledge (Religion) 13, Knowledge (Nature) 5, Diplomacy 8, Perform (Oratory) 3, Craft (Alchemy) 3, Profession (Herbalist) 3
-
Sacred Defense +2


20
Contemplative 2
+9
+9
+8
+18
Concentration 21, Spellcraft 21, Knowledge (Arcana) 12, Knowledge (Religion) 13, Knowledge (Nature) 5, Knowledge (The Planes) 1 Diplomacy 8, Perform 3, Craft (Alchemy) 3, Profession (Herbalist) 3
Quicken Spell-Like Ability (Unhallow)
Slippery Mind

*The Knowledge Domain is replaced via Substitute Domain. Technically, when the next domain is acquired later, that domain is Inquisition, and Substitute Domain is used to switch Knowledge to Magic instead.

Spellcasting

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


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


[tr]
3rd
4
2+1
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


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


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


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


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


8th
6
4+1
3+1
2+1
1+1
-
-
-
-
-


9th
6
4+1
3+1
3+1
2+1
-
-
-
-
-


10th
6
4+1
4+1
3+1
2+1
1+1
-
-
-
-


11th
6
4+1
4+1
3+1
3+1
2+1
-
-
-
-


13th
6
5+1
4+1
4+1
3+1
2+1
1+1
-
-
-


14th
6
5+1
4+1
4+1
3+1
3+1
2+1
-
-
-


15th
6
5+1
5+1
4+1
4+1
3+1
2+1
1+1
-
-


16th
6
5+1
5+1
4+1
4+1
3+1
3+1
2+1
-
-


17th
6
5+1
5+1
5+1
4+1
4+1
3+1
2+1
1+1
-


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


19th
6
5+1
5+1
5+1
5+1
4+1
4+1
3+1
2+1
1+1


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

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

Divine Magician Spells:
1st: Chill Touch
2nd: Dispelling Touch
3rd: Anticipate Teleportation
4th: Slashing Dispel
5th: Lesser Ironguard
6th: Greater Anticipate Teleportation
7th: Greater Dispelling Screen
8th: Mind Blank
9th: Reaving Dispel

CR 5Dracarys Umbrage is a jumbled mess of fantasy genetics. The daughter of a Half-Dragon mother and Draegoloth father, her paternal grandfather was a Glazebru, and her maternal grandmother a Deep Dragon 12th level Dragon Ascendant. Born to serve her grandmother’s will, she serves as inquisitor to the quasi-deity, rooting out and nullifying the threats posed by her enemies. Dragon quasi-deities need prayer badly as they attempt to burst onto the other gods’ scene, and presumably as a consequence of this (and not, say, poor editing), the Servant of a Dragon Ascendant feat lacks the 1/day limitation of many similar feats. This means that pretty much every time she rolls a d20, she gets a +1, including level checks, like the ones used for dispelling. Between Dispelling Touch from Divine Magician and the Dispel Magic SLA inherited in her Glazebru blood, she can start dispelling things early on, even with the template ticking up her CR slightly and the Inquisition Domain adds another +4 to the check. The Dispel Magic SLA also allows her early entry into Paragnostic Apostle. She can’t yet take some Knowledge is Power abilities, but a boost to Magic Domain spells means another +1 for Dispel Magic, which isn’t bad.

CR 10Between Elven Spell Lore, Soultouched Spellcasting with two essentia, and Penetrating Insight dispel checks are cranked up by another +5, and Dracarys can now throw around Slashing Dispels to deal some damage on top (which can of a specified energy type if desired thanks to Elven Spell Lore). Mystic Wanderer also gives her a familiar, which can deliver touch spells, including Dispelling Touch. Divine Magician also nabs Anticipate Teleportation and Lesser Ironguard, so she can say “no” to incoming teleporters and metal weapons (especially ones that have been rendered nonmagical by a dispel).
CR 15Having Unhallow as a SLA means that all Dracarys needs to produce an area that will hit every creature passing through that doesn’t share her alignment or (very specific) faith with a dispel. It can also help to remove Hallowed ground, making it even harder for foes to heal after being hit with a Violate Spell (perhaps a Violate Slashing Dispel). She also now has an Imbue with Spell Ability SLA to imbue her familiar, a Planar Ally, or some other ally with low level spells, such as Dispelling Touch or some damaging Violate Spell up to 2nd level (remember that metamagic just changes spell slot level, not the spell level itself) which means that her subordinates can go around saying “no” for her to some degree. The Purification Domain also boosts the CL, and hence check, for any dispel not already at its level cap.

CR 20Quicken Spell-Like Ability lacks the verbiage of Quicken Spell limiting the casting time of the spell in question, so an Unhallow SLA can be quickened for a swift action Dimensional Anchor or Dispel Magic for every enemy within 40 ft, wipe away a Hallow that someone spent 24 whole hours putting up, or simply to blanket friendly territory with Unhallowed ground at a clip of 4/day. Divine Defiance offers another nice bit of action economy, allowing Dracarys to shut down magic by using a dispel to counterspell as an immediate action. And of course, she’s now got 9th level spells, including some of the most potent dispelling options, Chain Dispel, Reaving Dispel from Divine Magican, and Disjunction from the Magic Domain.


Book of Vile Darkness: Violate Spell
Complete Champion: Paragnostic Apostle
Complete Divine: Contemplative, Inquisiton Domain, Purification Domain
Complete Mage: Divine Magician
Dragon Magic: Deepwyrm Drow
Dragons of Faerun: Servant of a Dragon Ascendant
Fiendish Codex II: Divine Defiance
Half-Fiendish Variety (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060630a): Half-Glazebru
Magic of Faerun: Attune Gem, Mystic Wanderer
Magic of Incarnum: Incarnum Spellshaping, Soultouched Spellcasting
Player’s Guide to Faerun: Lesser Drow
Player’s Handbook II: Chain Dispel, Dispelling Touch, Elven Spell Lore, Slashing Dispel
Savage Progressions (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/sp/20031010a): Half-Fiend Template Class
Spell Compendium: Anticipate Teleportation, Lesser Ironguard, Greater Anticipate Teleportation, Reaving Dispel
Everything else should be in the SRD

[jdizzlean]

and that's all folks.

[Thurbane]

Congrats all, nice entries.

My build was based on a Corruptor of Faith Yugoloth and it's Bestow Curse ability, trying to get a lot of AoO to force saves.

[Segev]

All far more complete than my thoughts were. All I really had was abuse of Time Hop to send foes forward, isolating one at a time, and then to escape by sending self forward far enough the enemies are gone.

The trouble was building something around that; I had a couple concepts fluff-wise, but actual build stubs were eluding me; they'd keep losing focus on the primary trick, since it's all about the one power.

Nice job, everyone who entered!

[Falontani]

Mine was a Lost Broodling Swarm cleric using the pestilence domain, a large amount of cold spells, and Stitching to spread Vile Rigidity and quickly drop creature's dexterity to 0. My stub was actually almost done, but I thought I had until tomorrow. Although I will definitely enjoy my free time tonight!
My vote for HM is that Futility creature.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

My second entry was going to be a Were-Legendary Wolf Warlock, taking advantage of the RHD to boost the number of iterative attacks with Eldritch Glaive up to 7. Throw on Noxious Blast and Quicken Spell-Like Ability (3/day for emergencies or making a statement) and you've got your Dr. No. Where it fell apart was that I wanted to also use tripping to make it more interesting, and Great Throw to make tripping more interesting, using unarmed strikes (and Morphic Reach) to drop opponents into glaive range, but Eldritch Glaive isn't actually a full attack, so you can only get the one extra unarmed strike from Snap Kick rather than several more from TWF and such. It was supposed to be an interesting use of the most conservative rulings for Warshaper and Knockdown, but without those extra attacks it felt pretty flat and brute forced.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Time to get judgemental!
...Wait, wrong adjective.


Initial Thoughts
Should I make a Song of Ice and Fire reference or a Harry Potter reference?
No backstory, beyond the family tree. I can't decide if this is better or worse than a lazy backstory. On one hand, you didn't even try; on the other hand, I don't think the others did, either.
Dracarys has a focus on dispelling spells, with some other miscellaneous "nope"-themed buffs/debuffs. I get the feeling that she could do most anything else by preparing different spells, which gives her day-to-day versatility at the expense of thematic consistency.

Originality: I don't know how to rate this; there's nothing there for me to grasp onto to compare it to or contrast it with other villains. I mean, aside from the fact that this is an evil drow priestess with a fetish for dispelling magic. So...below-average? 2
Elegance: Dips galore and a convoluted family tree (if one that makes decent thematic sense). 1
Competence & Power: Looks pretty good. Bland, but good. 4
Memorable Villainy: I kept forgetting details about her while writing this. 1

Conclusion:
Someone saw the dessicated corpse of the villain from a rejected Underdark campaign and decided to cheap out by casting animate dead instead of raise dead. The bones are there, but there's no flesh to it or live in its veins.



Initial Thoughts
I might as well get this out of the way...I don't like cheese. I'm as interested in optimization theory as the next guy, as evidenced by a thread I started yesterday asking for interesting 5e cheese (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?588353-Mechanical-Cheese-for-Villainy&p=23919331), but I want it well away from my actual games. I might be willing to adapt some thematic cheese into a usable villain, e.g. a sorcerer who bargained for infernal power and abyssal coffee beans, gaining unlimited arcane power at the expense of sanity.
Is Futility that kind of cheese? Well...no. It's pretty much your standard IKEA tarrasque combined with undead typing to make it ignore most damage. (Despite the fact that creatures without Constitution scores can't have regeneration.) There's no thematic depths beyond "I don't take damage, neener neener". Moreover, it's a trick that people have pulled off before without screwing the rules. It doesn't help that some of the effects (like Swarm traits on Futility's main body) don't make sense beyond the purest rules-as-written arguments.
I'd have given you a bit more credit if you'd written some interesting fluff, but it's basically generic horror movie nonsense with an only mildly creative origin story. If you hadn't included that origin and just left it at the old woman saying "We don't know where this came from," I'd have docked you even more points...but the backstory you have basically feels like a munchkin trying to justify his arbitrary power-choices through a convoluted family tree and backstory.

Oh, and Futility doesn't really negate the PCs' actions, just the effects of some of them. And not even all of the effects, if the PCs can do anything other than pure damage.

Originality: Like I said, this cheese ain't original. I was initially going to give this build a 1, or maybe a 0 for "regenerating anthropomorphic wolverine" (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Franchise/Wolverine). But then I realized that you're the only one in the contest who tried to imbue their post with a tone, so have a 2.
Elegance: Aside from the massive template stacking, the rules specifically ban creatures without Constitution scores from having regeneration. 0 Honorable mention given to needing a bonus feat via flaw.
Competence & Power: On one hand, being immune to damage is a neat trick. On the other hand, it's your only trick, and you didn't technically give Futility a way to "deny actions of PCs". 2
Competence & Power: I effed up and missed a bunch of Futility's abilities, including (most egregiously) the ones from the Witchborn Binder prestige class. For all that I dislike Futility's lore and the attitude behind it, the creator went above and beyond the core cheesy concept and gave his wolverine-ghoul-garden some extra abilities. They just make the "Futility appears, you die" problem that much worse, but it's definitely powerful. 5
Memorable Villainy: I feel like this should be a 1, given how it's little more than a convoluted "rocks fall you die," but a winged regenerating wolverine-man full of evil roses is a very...unusual falling rock. 1.5

Conclusion:
Futility is one idea ("immune to damage") wrapped in a thin layer of incarnum and fluff. If the core idea was one I liked, this would probably get at least a decent rating. But I hate it, so it won't.
Advice for the future: Read the opening chapters of Journey to the West. Their plot purpose is mainly to establish Sun Wukong and explain why he's so badass, but they're also fun and build the characters of Wukong and all the characters around him. Or if you want to go for a horror movie vibe for your next IKEA tarrasque, watch some horror movies.



Initial Thoughts
With a name like that, surely Bairarth has some kind of backstory about those she betrayed!
...Nope! She's just a standard turned-against-her-creators with some cycle of violence for spice.

Originality: Unwilling dracolich, with one (draconic prestige) class and only core spells. 0.5, though partly because I don't want to give Futility higher than a 1.
Elegance: On the other hand, the same things that make the build dull make it very simple. 5
Competence & Power: On one hand, you're a gorram dracolich. On the other hand, you're just a big flying beatstick with paralyzing breath and a few low-level battlefield control spells. She'd make a good dragon (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheDragon) (pun intended) to a better villain, but kinda sucks as a Big Bad on her own. Still, that's one heck of a beatstick. 2.5
Memorable Villainy: It's a dracolich without any spells above level 3. Dragons are supposed to be impressive enough to be memorable encounters on their own...but they really aren't. 1

Conclusion: Boring. Good monster, bad villain.



Initial Thoughts
Maybe it's just that I'm rating this one right after Futility, or the fact that no other entry tried making a character for their boss, but I find how the backstory tries to establish personality and motivation instead of providing a weak justification for the mechanical choices refreshing. It's a deeply tropey character, basically being necromantic (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Necromantic) star-crossed love (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StarCrossedLovers) with a dab of personal flair added, but dammit, you tried, and that's stupidly rare. This is the Villainous Competition, not the Monster-of-the-Week Competition.
I had to do more digging than I'd have liked to figure out what Knowledge Is Power options Selene took, and some of the choices seemed ill-fitting for the character, especially before dying. Divine Understanding (Evil) is the big one; not even a mention of studying profane tomes?
The Sevenfold Veil class was a good choice for this contest; the wards alone are good at this ("Nope, I've got my orange/green veil up, your dragonfire and magical arrows are useless!") without being game-breaking. But then you get reactive warding ("Surprise! Your charge does nothing except disintegrate your sword!") and Unimpeachable Abjuration ("I knew you'd try to dispel my wardings, but the DC's too high"). It's held back by wonky AD&D prismatic rules, but you can't have everything. (Magic absorption is just gravy. Shame it probably doesn't affect spells cast to destroy a ward...)
I like how many of Selene's abilities center around undead. She's good at snaring them with rebuke/control undead, has a couple of negative energy abilities that heal them, etc. Also, the wards can defend everybody, which is nice.


Originality: You made a support villain, points for that. Also, you bothered to make your monster a villain. If I wasn't sure I'd be accused of bias, I'd give you a six. 5
Elegance: Not the best in show, but far from the worst. And an extra half-point for being the only villain in the competition to have ways to actively counter enemy actions. 3.5
Competence & Power: Selene knows what she does and does it brilliantly. Her personal power is "only" that of a 19th-level cleric, but with friends like hers, who needs to smite enemies? 5
Memorable Villainy: Sadly, the tropiness of her backstory holds her back from a perfect 5, but the colorful veils and whatnot put her head and shoulders above your typical dracolich or invulnerable ghast. Also, if the other villains in this contest are the sorts of things the players normally face, a villain with a personality would be memorable on its own. 4

Conclusion:
I didn't think "a backstory with basic effort put into it" would be such a rare thing in this contest. But there's other good stuff in there, too, I'm just a sucker for putting in the basic effort required to write an actual story around these baddies.


Two bland monsters without the character needed to make them villains, one bland monster who substitutes almost theoretical-optimization levels of cheese for actual character, and...one clichéd character with a solid mechanical theme and actual character! Selene is the clear winner in my book.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Mine was a Lost Broodling Swarm cleric using the pestilence domain, a large amount of cold spells, and Stitching to spread Vile Rigidity and quickly drop creature's dexterity to 0. My stub was actually almost done, but I thought I had until tomorrow. Although I will definitely enjoy my free time tonight!

My second entry was going to be a Were-Legendary Wolf Warlock, taking advantage of the RHD to boost the number of iterative attacks with Eldritch Glaive up to 7. Throw on Noxious Blast and Quicken Spell-Like Ability (3/day for emergencies or making a statement) and you've got your Dr. No. Where it fell apart was that I wanted to also use tripping to make it more interesting, and Great Throw to make tripping more interesting, using unarmed strikes (and Morphic Reach) to drop opponents into glaive range, but Eldritch Glaive isn't actually a full attack, so you can only get the one extra unarmed strike from Snap Kick rather than several more from TWF and such. It was supposed to be an interesting use of the most conservative rulings for Warshaper and Knockdown, but without those extra attacks it felt pretty flat and brute forced.
Both of these sound like interesting builds from a mechanical standpoint.



All far more complete than my thoughts were. All I really had was abuse of Time Hop to send foes forward, isolating one at a time, and then to escape by sending self forward far enough the enemies are gone.

The trouble was building something around that; I had a couple concepts fluff-wise, but actual build stubs were eluding me; they'd keep losing focus on the primary trick, since it's all about the one power.
Interesting mechanical concept, and the promise of actual fluff? I'm sorry you couldn't finish.

[MisterKaws]

You see? No Time Mantle Wilder/Sorcerer/Cerebremancer to negate all else via sheer action abuse, nor any Sorcerer/Noctumancer to just counterspell everything.

I even had a monster race perfect for either of these ideas T_T

Though I have to say. I'm surprised someone actually dared to use IoTSV. It's so cliché for this theme I wouldn't touch it with a ten mile pole

[jdizzlean]

that's gotta be a record for fastest judgement ever!

[jdizzlean]

Entry
Competitor
Description
GreatWrymGold
Score

Total
Placing


Futility (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=23920484&postcount=63)

-
CE Symbiotic Winged Anthropomorphic Wolverine Gravetouched Ghoul/Dread Blossom Swarm 2HD/ Totemist 6/ Witchborn Binder 4/ Totemist +2
5.5
5.5



Selene, Bride of Ruin (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=23920487&postcount=64)

-
?? Lesser Aasimar Silveraith Cleric of Savras 8/Paragnostic Apostle 3/Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil 7
17
17



Bairarth the Forsworn (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=23920488&postcount=65)

-
LE Dracolich Hidecarved Silver Dragon
9
9



Dracarys Umbrage (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=23920491&postcount=66)

-
?? Female Lesser Deepwyrm Drow Half-Glazebru 2/Cloistered Cleric 2/Drow Paragon 1/Paragnostic Apostle 5/Mystic Wanderer 4/Divine Disciple 4/Contemplative 2
8
8

[GrayDeath]

Gonna go judge over the week.

My 2 Ideas were:

First was a Half Black half Red Dragon Troll Factotum Ur Priest, built on being immune to/regernerating any damage and with persistomancing Favour of the Martyr and Death Ward also being immune to just about anything else, using some BFC to troll people even more, then go into melee and rend them to shreds.

Sadly I thought everyone would go troll and/or Damage negation and saw the simple gimmick as too ... bland. Ah well.


My Second Idea was focussed on abusing a mrcury Dragon multiple half Dragons insane Flight Speed, maneuverability and Hiding to make the ultimate (resilient and near unhittable) harrasser. Sadly I didnt quite get the class question to work out within the CR alotment, and it was almost as much a template hog as my Giant in the "Only up to Actual levels" round.^^

[Segev]

Interesting mechanical concept, and the promise of actual fluff? I'm sorry you couldn't finish.

I'm way better at the fluff than the crunch, once I have the "mechanical trick" worked out. The two ideas were some sort of sneak thief (probably Lurk-based at low level) who would use a suppressed Time Hope to send items he wanted to steal forward in time, making them vanish from plain sight, and then wait for the hubbub to be directed outwards to grab them when they reappeared and run off, time-hopping himself along with stealth. As he leveled, he'd start using Time Hop on guards and such, and eventually get himself in situations where he was outnumbered and couldn't vanish them all, so he'd isolate and kill them one at a time. From his victims' perspective, it would look like their buddies were fine one round and dead the next, and the next round their next buddy was dead, one by one.

This would lead him to be hired as an assassin at least once, prompting him into the assassin class. Same MO, in general: isolate his target and kill it. By this point, he may also have Control Body and Schism, and have his Schism freeze his victim so he can keep Death Attacking every couple of rounds with a coup de grace.

But once he got to 4th level assassin spells, he'd also take on challenges he couldn't guarantee he would be able to do that to, so if his Time Hope was running out of duration, he'd spend a round using modify memory to make the isolated target think his allies had turned on him and done the damage, and that, in desperation, he had just started fighting back, keyed to go off the moment they reappeared. Ideally, he'd have time to study his quarry in advance and prepare weapons that match his target's friends' armaments for realism. Or possibly just use Call Weaponry.

Oh, and if not using modify memory, use Time Hop on the victim, then Time Hop the rest of the party again when the victim's Time Hop is about to run out. Gets expensive, but there's something effective about "Fred vanished. Where'd he go? Fred? Fred? Oh no! He just appeared, and he's dead!"


The other was a Cranium Rat Swarm that would be a Psion 11 rather than a Sorcerer 11, and pile on Bard levels. Abusing the ability to divide to keep enthralling performances going, it would also use the time hop trick to isolate targets for swarming, and even mind-switch from a schism to pull a doppelganger effect. Oh, and the Bardic Performance would be singing - a thousand rat voices actually squeaking in harmonic tune, sounding more like an orchestra of fifes and piccolos than rats screeching.

Between Time Hop, Fascination, and essentially possession, the swarm doesn't permit anybody to do anything. I thought about abusing access to epic feats, but none stood out to me as aiding the schtick or being particularly useful.


As you can see, I have the build concepts, but actually filling them out with a full array of spells, powers, skills, feats, et al just kept eluding me. Heck, I'm not even sure of the race of the first one - I was vascilating around elves and drow, and kept considering Unbodied (who would use their "assume likeness" ability to be a mimic or animated object that was standing still and impersonating scenery props while using time hop and control body to have the isolated victim attack himself).

[remetagross]

I was tempted to emulate Dr No, the James Bond villain, just for the joke with the name of the thread...maybe an Artificer full of magic items used to confine the PCs, etc. But I was so sure someone was going for the Dr No too, and it didn't seem really appealing once the joke in the name was gotten past.

[GreatWyrmGold]

that's gotta be a record for fastest judgement ever!
No reason to wait around, you know?



Sadly I thought everyone would go troll and/or Damage negation and saw the simple gimmick as too ... bland.
I'm inclined to agree. One damage-negater was quite enough.



I was tempted to emulate Dr No, the James Bond villain, just for the joke with the name of the thread...maybe an Artificer full of magic items used to confine the PCs, etc. But I was so sure someone was going for the Dr No too, and it didn't seem really appealing once the joke in the name was gotten past.
It's amazing how often people say "I assumed everyone would do X".
Remember: Your ideas are often more unique than you realize. Especially if you only count the people who act on them.

[Thurbane]

I'm throwing my HM to Futility.

[Kyutaru]

Elegance: Aside from the massive template stacking, the rules specifically ban creatures without Constitution scores from having regeneration. 0 If I'm wrong about that, I'm willing to boost that to a 1.5, because the build is still a mess of templates (albeit with only one base and one prestige class).
Now what made you think that? Revenants in 3.5 have Regeneration 10. Regeneration is definitely an allowed Null Constitution ability. Additionally, Vampires have Fast Healing which operates similarly but is a better version of it.

[Segev]

Now what made you think that? Revenants in 3.5 have Regeneration 10. Regeneration is definitely an allowed Null Constitution ability. Additionally, Vampires have Fast Healing which operates similarly but is a better version of it.

Revenants are probably a mistake, then. Note the last line in this linked subsection (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#regeneration): "A creature must have a Constitution score to have the regeneration ability."

Vampires have Fast Healing precisely because they can't have regeneration.

Regeneration actually is better than Fast Healing for most purposes: it keeps you from taking lethal damage from anything other than that which penetrates your regeneration. Creatures without Constitution scores are immune to nonlethal damage, which is why they're not allowed to have regeneration and have to have fast healing instead.

[Thurbane]

In the version of Revenant printed in the City of the Spider Queen, it has Fast Healing Rather than Regeneration.

In the 3.5 update of Monsters of Faerun, the Regeneration is similarly replaced with Fast Healing.

I suspect this may have been a 3.0 to 3.5 change in general - not sure 3.0 included the restriction of Creatures with no Con score having Regeneration.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Apparently, I should have checked the rest of the thread before breaking out my Monster Manual. (The relevant text in that book is on page 314.) Thanks, Segev!


I'm throwing my HM to Futility.
Alright, what's an HM?

[Thurbane]

Alright, what's an HM?

Honorable Mention - just a chance for the public to vote on which build they enjoyed most in the round. It can be done publicly, or by PM to the chair.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Honorable Mention - just a chance for the public to vote on which build they enjoyed most in the round. It can be done publicly, or by PM to the chair.
I assume this is obvious from my scoring, but if I had to pick an HM, I'd pick Selene. Her creator actually tried to do the thing I find most consistently interesting in a villain, and none of the others pulled off anything I found interesting.

[GrayDeath]

Usually the honorable Mention is NOT the one you actually score the best.

Its more along the lines of I found the Idea nice/funny/interesting" than "I rate the build highly". After all, otherwise there would be hardly a need for it. ^^

If you didn´t find anything even remotely "good" in the other entries (as I am also judging I didn´t read your judgings yet, obviously), just dont give out a HM at all.

[jdizzlean]

dispute #1, I'm spoilering it since gray is still judging



First off, I’m genuinely impressed you finished your judgments so fast. However, as I’m sure you expected, I do feel compelled to dispute several of the actual scores.


Originality:

You don’t like cheese; fair enough. However:

Cheese is acceptable, but should be kept to a sane level unless you're showcasing a new TO build you've discovered. As the Iron Chef competition states, a little cheddar can be nice, but avoid the mature Gruyere unless you're making a cheese fondue.

In other words, I’m going for the philly cheeseburger approach as far as accepted levels of cheese.
I thought I’d come up with a new TO, though obviously I was wrong about it actually working.

Likewise, while I wasn’t trying to reference Wolverine (the T-1000 was more the vibe I was going for), in Iron Chef at least reference builds are explicitly okay for Originality, though I’ll admit that rule doesn’t seem to exist for Villainous Competition. Don’t know how big a role that played in your rating, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

While it’s true that a monster immune to most things is hardly unique, I think the ingredients I used for that and for active shut-down are original enough to be worth some points. I mean, when was the last time you saw Anthropomorphic Wolverines, Gravetouched Ghoul, or Witchborn Binder (a class so universally reviled it was used for Iron Chef way back when) in a build? Also, I thought that how the mechanics imply each member of the swarm carries a piece of the host, which is kept ‘alive’ by negative energy – like a horrifying halfway point between Voltron and the T-1000 – was a pretty cool and original aesthetic, at least.

Finally, on a meta level one of the most common complaints I’ve seen looking through old Villainous Competitions is that while a bruiser makes for a good single encounter, only a smart villain will have the tools necessary to escape and become a recurring antagonist. Futility is designed to subvert that, being a dumb muscle enemy that is nonetheless almost guaranteed to survive to haunt the players, hopefully making for an interesting contrast with other villains in the campaign.


Elegance:

I’m not sure I agree that Futility is a “mess of templates” (though I’ll give you Winged Creature; with the benefit of hindsight, that template was a mistake). However, that point is very much moot, because you’re absolutely right about creatures without Con not being able to have Regeneration. A frustrating and embarrassing oversight on my part. No dispute.


Power:

This is one of the big disputes. You claimed Futility’s only trick was immunity to damage, but I have to respectfully disagree. Even on just the defensive side, she’s immune to any effect that targets a limited number of creatures, which rules out a huge amount of magic and other abilities. You mentioned that a lot of the swarm trait abilities only make sense with the strictest RAW, but this isn’t one of those: even if you disagree with the ‘host body separates into multiple parts’ mechanic I assumed, Futility is still composed of 1,001 creatures, the vast majority of which are self-replenishing, making anything but AOE, well, futile.

More significantly, Futility is capable of a lot of active shut-down. An AOE cloud of paralyzing poison that forces a save every turn, paralyzing claws (of which she has 6) and bite, at-will dispel magic (into which she can pump essentia once damaged and made invulnerable), at-will Mage Shackles that can’t be broken, entangle, force an extra caster check, and inflict dimensional anchor after just a touch attack (if this works like touch spells it can be stored for use in a full-attack routine, but it’s still good even if it takes a standard action every time), and tripping (which is admittedly unlikely to work given the prevalence of magical flight at these levels, but she can still do it without fear of reprisal). Immunity to damage is Futility’s best trick, but far from her only one.


Memorable Villainy:

The second and last big dispute. You didn’t like the fluff, which is fair, but makes me feel foolish, as I was relying on the fluff I wrote to show both Futility’s personality and ways a DM can use her as more than a punishment for uppity players.

Personality-wise, Futility starts off appearing calm and intimidating, because she’s in her comfort zone, but as she’s forced by her psychology/biology/whatever the rules for her Rage fall under to follow the players, she leaves that comfort zone and her personality changes to child-like and incredibly naïve (though very much evil, not understanding or caring about things like reciprocity or the sanctity of life). This should (hopefully) be creepy to the players, but it’s also her biggest weakness; she simply doesn’t know enough about how the world works and thus can’t make the best use of her own abilities.

For this reason, I think the best use of Futility is as a puzzle boss, forcing the players to think outside the box to defeat her. Take the example from the story I provided: Futility is instantly neutralized by a forcecage once the players figure it out, because while she is capable of Blink Shirt she doesn’t know that she needs to. Other good puzzle solutions could be burying her with a cave-in or avalanche, forcing her away with Turn Undead/Dread Witch/strong winds, or clever maneuvering while they escape/proceed around solid objects or (if she’s not invulnerable yet) something like lava. Futility also makes a good looming threat, potentially forcing the players to evacuate towns before she arrives, or on a more personal level for a chase sequence (perhaps luring Futility away from civilians). Figuring out how to finally destroy her (or perhaps imprison her with clever use of antimagic fields, walls of force, and/or simply tons of rock/concrete) will of course be the final puzzle.

[Kyutaru]

Futility is truly my favorite creature ever. I would definitely tweak it a bit to be less cheese and more of a plausible thing that can actually exist but ultimately I would see it as some sort of undead creature made of of thousands of bone particles that is ludicrously hard to slay, like a cloud of sentient dust. Of course, such creatures HAVE EXISTED in 2nd edition before and the goal with those was merely to trap them in a magic jar or banish them to another plane or imprison them in hell or some similar permanent removal method. Damage is the worst way to kill anything. It's merely the simplest. I enjoy Demilich bosses for the same reason I enjoy this one though they are singular objects built on being notoriously magical while this is a multitude of creatures built on being notoriously recuperative.

:smallbiggrin:

[ben-zayb]

HM goes to Futility. That session blurb is also funny and felt close to home

[GrayDeath]

Little Update: Almost done judging, gotta go now, will post my judging tomorrow before afternoon GMT.

[Gallowglass]

My Honorable Mention also goes to Futility. Both a fun build and a great story written for it. One of the best I've read in these threads.

If I had the system mastery in 3.5 and the access and time to do a thorough job I wish I could compete and/or judge these competitions. Oh well, maybe someone will actually start a pathfinder version some day.

[MisterKaws]

As a fellow lactose lover, my vote for hm goes to futility as well. In all high-op games, the bosses who are actually that overpowered and immune to all the players' cheese are the ones who put them on edge. Just the fact that it's possible to be restrained by certain methods is enough to make it balanced for a party, as long as they have access to those methods.

Had I not read GWG's judging already, I'd volunteer to judge, but I'd be biased now. IMHO seems odd to shoot down multiple scores because of a bit of cheddar.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Times like this make me wish this forum didn't automatically remove quotes when you quoted someone.



You don’t like cheese; fair enough. However: -rules-
I thought I’d come up with a new TO, though obviously I was wrong about it actually working.
Even if it did work, I'd question whether or not it qualified as new. Regeneration plus nonlethal damage immunity is a trick I've been aware of for years, and I barely pay attention to the theoretical optimization side of the community. (Except when they create something either ridiculous, like the Pun-Pun or the Tippyverse, or with thought put into the non-mechanical side of things, like Villains of Mechanical Cheese or the Tippyverse.) Regeneration from the dreadblossom swarm and nonlethal damage immunity as a gravetouched ghoul doesn't seem unique enough to count as a new trick so much as a new spin on an old trick.


Likewise, while I wasn’t trying to reference Wolverine (the T-1000 was more the vibe I was going for), in Iron Chef at least reference builds are explicitly okay for Originality, though I’ll admit that rule doesn’t seem to exist for Villainous Competition. Don’t know how big a role that played in your rating, but I thought it was worth mentioning.
Not very big.


While it’s true that a monster immune to most things is hardly unique, I think the ingredients I used for that and for active shut-down are original enough to be worth some points. I mean, when was the last time you saw Anthropomorphic Wolverines, Gravetouched Ghoul, or Witchborn Binder (a class so universally reviled it was used for Iron Chef way back when) in a build?
I generally don't care much about ingredients, so much as what they add to the build. Gravetouched ghoul was added for nonlethal immunity, the wolverine was there for rage I guess, and Witchborn Binder gives you a few new ways to screw over magic-users. (More on that in a bit.)


Also, I thought that how the mechanics imply each member of the swarm carries a piece of the host, which is kept ‘alive’ by negative energy – like a horrifying halfway point between Voltron and the T-1000 – was a pretty cool and original aesthetic, at least.
Eh...I can kinda see that, but the image is ruined by the fact that they're freaking flowers. It's less like a horror movie monster and more like a parody of a horror movie monster, with elements that could be perfectly viable horror movie monsters on their own coming together in a whole less horrifying than the sum of its parts.


Finally, on a meta level one of the most common complaints I’ve seen looking through old Villainous Competitions is that while a bruiser makes for a good single encounter, only a smart villain will have the tools necessary to escape and become a recurring antagonist. Futility is designed to subvert that, being a dumb muscle enemy that is nonetheless almost guaranteed to survive to haunt the players, hopefully making for an interesting contrast with other villains in the campaign.
I suppose that's fair...but it just exaggerates other problems with the build, especially the "this would suck big time to use in play" part.



I’m not sure I agree that Futility is a “mess of templates” (though I’ll give you Winged Creature; with the benefit of hindsight, that template was a mistake).
Anthropomorphic, Winged, Symbiotic, Gravetouched Ghoul. That's two or three more templates than I like to add to my villains. Granted, I tend towards making my villains distinctive based on things other than mechanics, so maybe my perspective is skewed.



This is one of the big disputes. You claimed Futility’s only trick was immunity to damage, but I have to respectfully disagree. Even on just the defensive side, she’s immune to any effect that targets a limited number of creatures, which rules out a huge amount of magic and other abilities. You mentioned that a lot of the swarm trait abilities only make sense with the strictest RAW, but this isn’t one of those: even if you disagree with the ‘host body separates into multiple parts’ mechanic I assumed, Futility is still composed of 1,001 creatures, the vast majority of which are self-replenishing, making anything but AOE, well, futile.
I'd argue that, without the not-even-alluded-to-anywhere, just-an-assumption-you-made-based-on-a-quirk-of-the-symbiotic-template assumption that the host can be ripped apart and reassembled by the guest, it doesn't make sense. There's still a central creature possessing a bunch of abilities that the swarm could not, meaning that (say) disintegrating the wolverine body should stop the other 1,000 creatures from binding chakras or having class levels.


More significantly, Futility is capable of a lot of active shut-down...
I'll freely admit, I missed that during my initial skimming. I saw a mess of a build based around justifying an undead with flowers growing in it and didn't think to look for anything else; my apologies. I've edited my initial judgement post to account for this.



The second and last big dispute. You didn’t like the fluff, which is fair, but makes me feel foolish, as I was relying on the fluff I wrote to show both Futility’s personality and ways a DM can use her as more than a punishment for uppity players.
That's a good way to use fluff. However...I don't think the execution was very good. Part of that is the shaky foundations; I'm not sure why Futility would act the way it does. Why does it start out as coldly intimidating like some cheap shonen Big Bad when it originated as the sort of feral hunter such a Big Bad would employ a few rungs down, before being turned into a flesh-hungry ghoul by way of a murderous patch of flowers? (Not your fault, but that monster concept sounds stupider each time I type it.)
I like what you were trying to do, but not enough to compensate for the lacking end product.


For this reason, I think the best use of Futility is as a puzzle boss, forcing the players to think outside the box to defeat her.
I don't think this sort of puzzle boss works well in a tabletop RPG. The boss that you need one (or one of a few) specific spells to defeat works better in video RPGs, where you can save and reload and where you know the designer knows what sorts of spells you have access to at that point in the game. It's also a lot easier to organically hide hints to a boss's weakness when you can give a line of dialogue to every NPC in the world and expect an inquisitive player to actually talk to at least the most easily-accessible of them.
It doesn't help that Futility would probably be treated as a normal monster until it's too late, especially if the DM doesn't describe it as anything more than "Something humanoid in shape" and "it does indeed look like a ghoul, old and covered in plants" until its first turn. Tabletop RPGs don't have the rich history of puzzle bosses that video RPGs do (yet another arrow in my "Tabletop RPGs aren't using their strengths" quiver), so it won't occur to your players to try treating it as a puzzle boss until it's too late. And, as noted, you can't just save and reload; trial-and-error gameplay in D&D usually involves multiple character deaths.
I'd also like to point out that most of the methods you propose for working around Futility require it to ignore one or more of its abilities—which you seem to be aware of, since you all but explicitly say "Okay, Futility could escape with Blink Shirt, but it won't because that would just invalidate the player's solution".
The exceptions...well, the Tarrasque would work just as well for basically all of them. Everyone knows what the Tarrasque can do, and if not they just need to ask a local sage and hear that it's a regenerating kaiju who slumbers most of the time. Futility...even if you give your players a local sage who knows all about Futility's strengths and weaknesses, how are you going to express them to the players? Its core abilities are based on stacks of rules minutiae taped together by a half-functional template, and its active abilities come from a couple of obscure classes.
If I was going to create a D&D puzzle boss, I wouldn't start by taping together templates and whatnot to make a nominally-level-appropriate encounter that was immune to 99% of what they could do. I'd start by taking a normal monster which wasn't anywhere near level-appropriate (or writing a new one from whole cloth), then craft a weakness—not a weakness like "it forgot how to escape forcecage" or "it dies when thrown into lava," but something specific the players could do to defeat it, combining their strengths. I'd also think of ways to clearly telegraph the relevant tactics, and to make it obvious that this wasn't Just Another Monster before the players rolled initiative (or ideally while they still had the option not to roll initiative).

Also, I don't think the players would necessarily accept "I'll seal it away for a few hours" as a real win. In my experience, players hate having notable villains running around, ready to wreak havoc in the future. Your other solutions generally require having just the perfect environment to pull them off, which requires either an elaborate plan that basically any creature several CRs higher than the average party level could fit in or some very contrived coincidences.



TL;DR: I screwed up some, but I stand by most of what I said. This especially applies for how Futility would play terribly at the table.

While typing this up, I remembered that there was a swarmshifter template somewhere which let undead turn into swarms of stuff. Or maybe the swarmshifter template and the swarm-related undead-only template were separate? Either way, it should give you a ghoul that can turn into a swarm of evil flowers without all the mechanical cheese. If I remembered what book it was from, I'd recommend it to anyone wanting to run Futility.



Had I not read GWG's judging already, I'd volunteer to judge, but I'd be biased now. IMHO seems odd to shoot down multiple scores because of a bit of cheddar.
I'm confused by this. I mentioned cheese in multiple scores, but the only one where its presence affected anything was Competence & Power. Now, the fact that there wasn't much more to Futility than cheese affected other scores, but they'd be affected in the same way if the cheese wasn't there at all.


Notice: Due to discussion and re-evaluation, Futility's score has been improved to an 8.5. Since Dracarys Umbrage is now the entry with the lowest score, and given my prior experience judging these contests, I now wait for their creator to file a dispute.

[GrayDeath]

As it killed an earlier Comp: There is no arguing the judgings of Judges except by the Participants via their Disputes.

If you want to discuss them, please do so via PN. If you think a Judge made a real error, please tell him so via PN. THanks.

Believe me, it never leads to good results if you do it in the open (I inadvertedly made it worse once too, even aiming to help as I was).

Also, home, but too tired.
My Judgings will be up tomorrow as said above.

[GrayDeath]

And here we go:





1.: Futility


Originality: OK, this is the most schizophrenic point. On the one hand, the good old „Immune to Damage, yay, and half a dozen other stuff as well“ shtick was EXACTLY what I expected for this comp (and my own Concept would have gone for as well with the simpler one of my Ideas) the combination is....insane. I mean the number of Augmentations, Types, Templates and totally weird classes I have never before seen in this (or even a similar) combination. Clearly more a TO Experiment than an actual Villain.
So 1 Point for being VERY expected, another 2.25 for how unexpected it DID that expected thing.

3.25


Elegance: Your weak point. Not only is Regeneration impossible without a con score (sadly that ruined one of my concepts as well^^), this build is also a collection of wildly different stuff only loosely held together by the concept (true, that fits the fluff, but that doesnt help the elegance any).
While it does not go against a clear „No No“ of the Comps specific rules, and hence doesnt get a 0, I cant possibly go higher than a 1.25 for Elegance.


Power: Well, that was a harder one. On the one hand, its a bruiser that doesnt deal a lot of damage quickly. On the other hand, it has a lot of CC and active Nope options FOR a bruiser, and judging Builds is, after all, done after „do they do what they are supposed to do“ not „How doe they compare to a well built wizard“. Still, took me longer than the other 3 put together to come up with a fair score.

Take 3.75

Memorability: Heck, if the Players actually get down to business enough to find out the sheer weirdness, this will be quite memoarable. Sadly the overall style is either a rage Bruiser Puzzle or something to be avoided, which is bad for memorability. Also, again, its more alike to a TO Experiment than a Villain, which does provide problems in usability.

Still, middling to slightly below seems fair me thinks.

2.75


Total: 11 pts








2.: Selene, Bride of Ruin:

Originality: Well, its clicheed to the extreme, and the build, while sound and like the backstory quite well written, is nothing new either. Still, some parts (Silveraith, the choice of Paragnostic as more than a cheese trick) are not often seen.

2.25.


Elegance: Very good. No dips, only one template that is central to the build, clear and concise progression, and as far as I can spot nothing illegal. Could only be better with one Class less, still take a very good

4.5



Power: Difficult to judge, as one does not often see villains clearly aimed at support.
Iot7V allows her to shut down almost anything thrown at her, her Silveraith abilities adding to it, but shes not able to Nope“ everything, and on herself more fragile (and additionally has 2 bad saves, even if both are of the type many of her immunities play into) than one might expect. Still, a good support caster overall.

4.00



Memorability: Like with all Villains that are not obviously „Crass, Cool and unusual“ a lot depends on the players getting to know enough of her (nicely done) backstory. If going by your writeup, that should be not too hard, and together with good abilities helps mitigate the „shes only the left hand“ problem.

3.25


Total: 14.00








Bairath the Forsworn:


Originality: Its an undead Dragon. Together with Troll the setup I expected most (though I did expect one or 2 half Dragon parts, kudos for not taking them ^^). Still, same old, same old.

1.75



Elegance: Your best point. Dragon, 2 levels, Template, done. All legal, all perfectly elegant.

5.00


Power: Hmmmm, not easy. He is not quite as unkillable as a „Nope“ Damage build would require, has too bad casting for a „nope other stuff“, and only his paralysis makes him nope more. Aside from that, Silver Dragons with fewer HP are worse Bruisers as well. Overall middling.

3.00


Memorability: If the Players get to know him before the transformation, this might be a great story to remember. If not, hes just another Dracolich, and not even a particularly powerful one. I give it about 50/50 chance between a 1.5 and a 4, so

2,75


Total: 12.50








Dracarys Umbrage:


Originality:Well, thats almost exactly the convoluted mess one expects if a build builds for powers sake. Still, half Deep Wurm half Glabreezu is not seomthing you see often, even if most of the rest of the classes are.

2.00


Elegance: Uhoh.... Well, this took an age. I was sure that you had wrongly calculated something, but in the end it seems I was wrong. The rest of the build, while also legal, is everything I personally loathe elegance wise: Wildly mixing various classes without clear theme or concise plan except „Moar Powarr!“ Still, legal (and headache inducing at times^^)

2.00



Power: Full Caster, if a little later than optimal, good to excellent immunities, nice other bonuses, take very good

4.5



Memorability: Sadly, this is going to suck. Either the Players are not Drow/in the know and rate her as just another crazy Drow Person, or they are, and will likely only remember her as „That weird Family trees latest Daughter“. Also the lack of good Backstory makes her worse here, with such unusual heritage and classes you could have got another 2 points easily if you ahd included more!

2.00


Total: 10.50pts

[GreatWyrmGold]

Emo-Daenerys apart, the other two don't seem half as bad as you make them sound.
I'd be interested in seeing you explain why.


Also, you literally admitted dropping down an entry's originality score just to not have to raise another's(Becausee Futility is indeed better than Bhairath at that).
I don't see anything wrong with trying to make sure the entries I think are least original have the lowest originality score. That just seems like basic judgement protocol to me.


And I think "Immortal angry dead plant spore swarm" is a bit more original than you make it sound.
I'd probably agree, if the writer did something original with it. I don't think that just adding adjectives counts as originality unless it has a unique impact on the end product, and I still have trouble seeing Futility as being anything more original than a generic horror movie monster iterated to the point of parody.



[Futility, Elegance]
...Not only is Regeneration impossible without a con score...
While it does not go against a clear „No No“ of the Comps specific rules, and hence doesnt get a 0...
I might have missed something, but I assumed breaking the game's rules was a no-no. If you disagree with that assessment, I won't argue.


[Bairaith the Forsworn]
Memorability: If the Players get to know him before the transformation, this might be a great story to remember. If not, hes just another Dracolich, and not even a particularly powerful one. I give it about 50/50 chance between a 1.5 and a 4, so 2.75
Not how I would have judged a villain who could be utterly unmemorable but could be built up to something gut-wrenching with enough outside plot/characterization support...but it's certainly valid, and an interesting take on it. I might have to add that to my judgement toolbox.


[Dracarys Umbrage, Memorability]
...or they are, and will likely only remember her as „That weird Family trees latest Daughter“.
I love the idea of a clan of munchkin drow who try to breed as many templates into the family as they can. It just needs a little bit of a story hook for me to go "Alright, this is worth outlining an adventure path for".

[GreatWyrmGold]

The whole thing with judging is: you can't penalize people multiple times for a single mistake, and I think you did so, by mixing Originality and Memorable Vilainy. In Iron Chef, I believe it's even a common restriction to have a maximum penalty of -1 for any single flaw on a build.
Thanks for not quoting the part where I explain that I'm not dinging people multiple times for the same thing, you jerk. I'm dinging people for lacking multiple things. Yes, the flaws often build on each other to create a whole worse than the sum of those flaws, but they are multiple problems.


Now, I got another pickle now that you talked about score. Reviewing the judging rules for VC(to check if it was the same as IC), I noticed there is, in fact, a minimum rating of 1, and it's reserved to builds that are completely disfunctional or that violates the rules of the competition. In fact, just missing Regeneration shouldn't actually even be enough to bump it to 1 as long as the rest of the build is safe(which kind of isn't, so I won't argue).

I didn't wish to post any more in it, after Gray came forward and asked me to stop, and this time, this is truly the last I mention GWG's judging. However, you should at the very least fix those zeroes.
First off, I can't help but notice that MisterKaws is trying very hard to get me to raise Futility's score (which I'm reminded of here because Futility is the only one who got anything scored as zero). Look, I get it, you don't like getting a low score. I'd say something nice like "Somebody had to be in last place and it happens to be you," but at this point my patience is running low, so I'll just say this: Who cares?

Second, a score of 1 is listed as "very poor," and I see nothing suggesting that it's reserved for breaking the rules. There's nothing saying that breaking the rules would
Third, if I gave Futility a 1 in Elegance, I'd have to adjust every score I gave every entrant, because those were rated with the assumption that 1 was for aspects which were merely excessively mediocre. If the contest-runners agree, I'll just let the (internally-consistent) scores I gave stand. And I can't promise that the current order would remain where it is if I re-evaluated everything.

[Falontani]

Holy crap. I think jdizzlean didn't say something because of how quickly these posts came out. Anyways, Misterkaw while I may agree with some of your arguments, those arguments should be sent in to the chair, the judge privately, or kept on the back burner until the end of the competition. Arguing with the judges openly is usually a taboo, and I believe people have been banned from competing in the past for doing so.

Greatwyrm. Thank you for judging, I probably wouldn't have argued with the kaw, specifically so that if his claims were legitimate they could be voiced correctly.

Anyways... I'll be quiet now.

[Thurbane]

Just my 2 cents: bystanders weighing on judging was strongly discouraged while I was chair, because of the arguments it often stirred up. If someone disagrees very strongly with judging, either PM the chair to get their opinion; or step up and judge yourself...

[jdizzlean]

Just my 2 cents: bystanders weighing on judging was strongly discouraged while I was chair, because of the arguments it often stirred up. If someone disagrees very strongly with judging, either PM the chair to get their opinion; or step up and judge yourself...


this is still accepted practice. its in the op of every round. unless you are a judge, you don't get to RIP things apart until the round is finalized. we have a dispute process that needs to be followed.

the bickering stops now please

[GrayDeath]

Yeah, I wrote exactly that above, sadly none of the 2 seem to have read that part of my post.

And please GWG DONT start discussing my judging.
Judges judge. They answer disputes. If they are unclear about a certain thing they may ask the chair via PN if he has a ruling.

Thats it. This is NOT an open Discussion, doing so killed 1.5 competitiojns, so please STOP!

Ideally delete above discussions, to avoid problems.

[jdizzlean]

Entry
Competitor
Description
GreatWrymGold
Score
GrayDeath
Total
Placing


Futility (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=23920484&postcount=63)

-
CE Symbiotic Winged Anthropomorphic Wolverine Gravetouched Ghoul/Dread Blossom Swarm 2HD/ Totemist 6/ Witchborn Binder 4/ Totemist +2
8.5
11
19.5



Selene, Bride of Ruin (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=23920487&postcount=64)

-
?? Lesser Aasimar Silveraith Cleric of Savras 8/Paragnostic Apostle 3/Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil 7
17
14
31



Bairarth the Forsworn (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=23920488&postcount=65)

-
LE Dracolich Hidecarved Silver Dragon
9
12.50
21.5



Dracarys Umbrage (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=23920491&postcount=66)

-
?? Female Lesser Deepwyrm Drow Half-Glazebru 2/Cloistered Cleric 2/Drow Paragon 1/Paragnostic Apostle 5/Mystic Wanderer 4/Divine Disciple 4/Contemplative 2
8
10.50
18.5





For some, this is a holiday weekend, but if no further disputes by wednesday morning, i'll finalize and post the next round.

[MisterKaws]

Yeah, I wrote exactly that above, sadly none of the 2 seem to have read that part of my post.

And please GWG DONT start discussing my judging.
Judges judge. They answer disputes. If they are unclear about a certain thing they may ask the chair via PN if he has a ruling.

Thats it. This is NOT an open Discussion, doing so killed 1.5 competitiojns, so please STOP!

Ideally delete above discussions, to avoid problems.

Did so. I apologize for the commotion.

I don't think there will be any more judges. Should we close the round after Gray's disputes are solved? I'm itching to actually try something. Been three or four rounds of VC where I get ideas but can't work on them because of either time constraints or worries about originality.

[jdizzlean]

i have only recieved the 1 dispute thus far, so i was gonna give it another day or 2 to make sure no others are forthcoming before finalizing. that is unless all the contestants were to post "no further disputes" in the thread to end it before then





*** Adding a poll ***
for the next round, on a 3 point scale of "normal" "somewhat crazy" "jdizzlean level of crazy" what would the contestants and judges like to see for theme? I'll go w/ popular vote up to the final reveal of this round. I have 3 fully fleshed out ideas, each one fits one of those standards...

[MisterKaws]

i have only recieved the 1 dispute thus far, so i was gonna give it another day or 2 to make sure no others are forthcoming before finalizing. that is unless all the contestants were to post "no further disputes" in the thread to end it before then





*** Adding a poll ***
for the next round, on a 3 point scale of "normal" "somewhat crazy" "jdizzlean level of crazy" what would the contestants and judges like to see for theme? I'll go w/ popular vote up to the final reveal of this round. I have 3 fully fleshed out ideas, each one fits one of those standards...

I'm the guy who adds tentacles to every single character. You can go nuts as far as I'm concerned.

[GrayDeath]

Me likes crazy, as long as its not bat**** insane, so lets go with somewhat crazy+.

Normal is not necessary, there are enough normal Competitions anyway. ^^

[MisterKaws]

Me likes crazy, as long as its not bat**** insane, so lets go with somewhat crazy+.

Normal is not necessary, there are enough normal Competitions anyway. ^^

What if it's literal bats? Though I don't think there's much book support for that.

Well, could always do a blood round instead. That'd include bats, vampires, the thousands of blood-related undead/oozes, and those few kinda-useless blood mage classes.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Tee hee. CraZy!!

[Seto]

*table*

Say, unless I'm missing something, Dracarys' total should add up to 18.5, not 20.5?

[Lionheart]

I'll vote for 'somewhat crazy' as well, I doubt I'll be able to keep up in an extremely crazy round!

[Falontani]

Count me in for jdizzlean off the walls bat**** crazy

[The Kool]

My vote for HM goes to remetagross, for the build he should have made.

[ben-zayb]

If "somewhat crazy" is conceptually out there, but not hard+ mode on mechanical restrictions, that gets my vote

Edit: Unless you mean voting is open for potential contestants and judges instead of actual contestants and judges this round, then looks like my vote does not count

[jdizzlean]

Haha

somewhat crazy actually has more restrictions than uber crazy, bit is less "involved".

AND anyone can vote of course :)

[GreatWyrmGold]

Greatwyrm. Thank you for judging, I probably wouldn't have argued with the kaw, specifically so that if his claims were legitimate they could be voiced correctly.
Eh. If he's going to criticize my judging in public, I'm going to criticize his criticisms in public.



*** Adding a poll ***
for the next round, on a 3 point scale of "normal" "somewhat crazy" "jdizzlean level of crazy" what would the contestants and judges like to see for theme? I'll go w/ popular vote up to the final reveal of this round. I have 3 fully fleshed out ideas, each one fits one of those standards...
To quote Isaac Asimov, insufficient data for meaningful answer.
Though I'd like to know what the options we didn't go with were.

[remetagross]

My vote for HM goes to remetagross, for the build he should have made.

LOL can I sig this? :smallbiggrin: that'll teach me not to follow my good ideas through!

[Elvensilver]

Just as a frequent reader of VC: normal crazy level.

[3SecondCultist]

As someone who lurked this thread and wanted to post a character concept but didn’t have time (which would have been fun), I am good for a normal level of craziness. :smallbiggrin:

[jdizzlean]

we're at 2 normal, 3 somewhat, and 3 crazy.


obviously if i gave you more info on what those represent, that could give it away. can't have that, so you just get to vote on the possibilities. Whatever isn't chosen for this upcoming round will still be used, just later down the road. so no reveals that way either :p

[MisterKaws]

we're at 2 normal, 3 somewhat, and 3 crazy.


obviously if i gave you more info on what those represent, that could give it away. can't have that, so you just get to vote on the possibilities. Whatever isn't chosen for this upcoming round will still be used, just later down the road. so no reveals that way either :p

Surely the tie-breaking method must be rounding up to the crazier option, yes?

Opens up pseudonatural hellhound puppy eyes

[jdizzlean]

Surely the tie-breaking method must be rounding up to the crazier option, yes?

Opens up pseudonatural hellhound puppy eyes




Maybe.... (( YES!!! ))

[NontheistCleric]

I vote for somewhat.

[MisterKaws]

I vote for somewhat.

Muffled sobs

By the way, any news about the disputes?

[Segev]

Eh, go as crazy as seems fun.

[jdizzlean]

Muffled sobs

By the way, any news about the disputes?


I still have only received the one that has been addressed, folks have until late tomorrow night if they're going to lodge one to get it in, otherwise i'll finalize and start a new round. i say late tomorrow because i have a training class all the way across town and won't have 'net access til i get home

[The Kool]

LOL can I sig this? :smallbiggrin: that'll teach me not to follow my good ideas through!

Go for it.

[jdizzlean]

Entry
Competitor
Description
GreatWrymGold
Score
GrayDeath
Total
Placing


Futility (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=23920484&postcount=63)



P (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/member.php?175480-PoeticallyPsyco)oeticallyPsyco


CE Symbiotic Winged Anthropomorphic Wolverine Gravetouched Ghoul/Dread Blossom Swarm 2HD/ Totemist 6/ Witchborn Binder 4/ Totemist +2
8.5
11
19.5
BRONZE

& HM!



Selene, Bride of Ruin (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=23920487&postcount=64)

Lionheart
?? Lesser Aasimar Silveraith Cleric of Savras 8/Paragnostic Apostle 3/Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil 7
17
14
31
GOLD


Bairarth the Forsworn (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=23920488&postcount=65)

Lionheart
LE Dracolich Hidecarved Silver Dragon
9
12.50
21.5
SILVER



Dracarys Umbrage (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=23920491&postcount=66)

WhamBamSam
?? Female Lesser Deepwyrm Drow Half-Glazebru 2/Cloistered Cleric 2/Drow Paragon 1/Paragnostic Apostle 5/Mystic Wanderer 4/Divine Disciple 4/Contemplative 2
8
10.50
18.5




Congrats to the winners, and to Psyco for a resounding vote for HM!

next round will be up in a few mins, watch for the sig to change :)

[ben-zayb]

Congrats to all, especially to Lionheart who got the, ahem, lion's share of trophies this round

[Lionheart]

Congrats to all, especially to Lionheart who got the, ahem, lion's share of trophies this round

I was expecting far more entries to be fair, and really didn't expect my rushed second entry to do so well...

Anyway, thanks everyone for judging etc. See you in the next round!

[GrayDeath]

Impressive, given that you submitted both a "could ahve been great emotionally" simple build and a well backgrounded "not so simple one.
I dont think we ever had two so different builds by the same contestant.

Congratulations. ^^