Junkyard Wars XXVII: US + M... - A

[Macabaret]

Welcome to Junkyard Stadium! It is in this hallowed pile of miscellaneous parts that we will hold a competition of Practical Optimization with three components. The catch? Competitors may not use the third item in their builds!

Goal: Create a build that showcases the selected ingredients while steering clear of the Forbidden Ingredient.

This competition has two Necessary Components and one Forbidden Component. This round's components are...


Necessary: Unholy Scion template (Heroes of Horror p.155-157)
Necessary: One Mark of... feat (Fiendish Codex II p.84-85)
Forbidden: Affiliation to anything (god, entity, church, organization, ideal, etc) that isn't your Father





Creation: 32 point-buy is the presumed creation method. You may assume that you will have enough exp to reach ECL 20, and that the occasional bit of crafting, use of spells with exp components, or the like won't prevent you from doing so. However, LA buyoff is an alternate rule which is not in play.
Workshop: Competitors will be free to use any official 3.5 rulebook in constructing their builds. Dragon Magazine is disallowed, and Unearthed Arcana is allowed; but see below. Web-exclusive 3.0 or 3.5 materials by WotC are expressly allowed, but take care to verify that an updated version did not appear in print elsewhere as this may cause an Elegance deduction at the judges' discretion. If you use web material, please link it. Dragon Magazine Compendium is allowed, as are Oriental Adventures (and its 3.5 updates in Dragon Magazine) and the Dragonlance Campaign Setting. Alternate rule systems from UA such as gestalt and fractional saves are not allowed, as they create a different playing field.
Leadership is banned: We're creating one thing, not all of the things. If your entry includes a prestige class or ACF that grants Leadership or a Leadership-like ability as a bonus feat, the feat should be ignored and is not eligible to be traded away for another feat or ACF through any means.
Speculation: Please don't post or speculate on possible builds until after the reveal in order to avoid spoiling the surprise if a particular competitor is producing a build along those lines.
Disputes: Any scoring disputes should be sent to the Chair via PM. Valid disputes include RAW misreadings, arithmetic errors, things missed that are present in the entry, and inconsistently applied criteria. Invalid disputes include disagreements on matters of opinion, a judge not catching something not explicitly presented in the entry, and the like. Invalid disputes will be responded to via PM by the Chair, but valid disputes will be posted in-thread for the judge to review. When disputing, please indicate the judge the dispute is intended for and provide a quote of the disputed comment or comments. Note: the Chair may edit or paraphrase any disputes in presenting them to the judges.
Presentation: You will need to present a write-up of your build at at least one of the following points: 5th level, 10th level, 15th, 20th, and a "sweet spot" that you feel is the high point of the build, as well as presenting a fully-fleshed out 20-level build in the table below. Please give a rundown of the build's abilities and playability throughout its life. 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. Also for this reason, PLEASE do not include any material that may or may not offend any potential viewers/judges/competitors OR break forum rules. Any builds which violate forum rules WILL be withheld from posting.




Due to concerns about standardizing entry format, please use the following table for their entry.
NAME OF ENTRY


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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



Code immediately below (spoiler).

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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


For other systems (Psionics, ToB, Incarnum, etc.) keep track of PP/maneuvers/essentia separately, preferably in a nice neat list.





Scoring: Each judge is required to provide the criteria by which they are judging the builds. By "criteria," we mean a simple explanation of what the judge is looking for in each of the below categories and what kind of scoring we can expect. If a judge deems a build to be illegal, they may provide a 0 in Elegance but may not refuse to judge any build presented by the Chairman.
The Categories: Judging will be based on the following criteria, with each build rated from 1 (very poor) to 5 (exemplary) in each area: Originality, Power, Elegance, Use of Components.


Originality: Is the build unique? Does it deviate from the obvious? Does it forge its own path, or does it fall back on common, established optimization tricks? Some judges score entries for the quality of their concept & backstory as well, though not all do. Providing at least some backstory is heavily encouraged, as it helps the judges figure out who the entry is. Note that the purpose of this category is not to penalize entries that independently came up with the same idea as another entry, but rather to reward entries that explore underutilized and non-obvious areas of optimization, so, judges, try not to base your judging in this category too heavily on what other builds are doing. Multiple entries using the same element may certainly be evidence that the element is unoriginal, but you shouldn't impose anything like a "-1 for each other build using the same class" penalty.
Power: Power level is up to you. Cheese is acceptable, but should be kept to a sane level unless you're showcasing a new TO build you've discovered. In the words of one of my predecessors, a little cheddar can be nice, but avoid the mature Gruyere unless you're making a cheese fondue.
Elegance: This category was formerly titled "Build Stability." Here, we're essentially measuring how skillfully you put your build together and how you balanced flavor with power. We're cooking here - if your dish doesn't taste good, it doesn't matter how well-presented it is. Use of flaws is an automatic loss of one point per flaw in this category. Other things that will cause lost points here are excessive multiclassing (meaning any multiclassing that results in an xp penalty), and classes that don't fit the concept - using Cloistered Cleric in a front-line melee fighter, for example, may lose you points. Rule adherence and legality of sources is scored under this category; additionally, reliance on a questionable, controversial, or ambiguous ruling can and should result in a deduction. Neither the number of sources nor their relative obscurity should be penalized--contestants should feel free to use any books they like. Dipping should not be penalized unless it results in a multiclass xp penalty; if the system won't penalize it, neither should judges.
Use of Components: Was the Forbidden Component avoided? Were the Necessary Components showcased, or simply used because they were necessary?



Disputes: Any scoring disputes will be posted by the Chairman in-thread after reviewing them privately. Valid disputes include
RAW misreadings,
arithmetic errors,
things missed that are present in the entry,
and inconsistently applied criteria.
Invalid disputes include
disagreements on matters of opinion,
a judge not catching something not explicitly presented in the entry,
and the like.
Invalid disputes will be responded to via PM by the Chair, but valid disputes should be responded to by each individual judge. Judges are obligated to respond to disputes to ensure that everyone gets a fair shake. A judge's scores will only be recognized if they have recognized all disputes. In the absence of any other judges, the entries will be judged by the chairman.



Completion Time:

Contestants will have until 20:59 CDT Tuesday October 8, 2019 to create their builds and PM them to the chairman.
Builds will then be posted simultaneously to avoid copying.
Judges will have until 20:59 CDT Tuesday October 22, 2019 to judge the builds and submit their scores. Judging deadline is subject to extension as required.
As the precedent has been set from Episode 2, should all prospective judges have posted their rulings in a neat, timely fashion and all disputes have been settled satisfactorily (to either judges, contestants, or the Chairperson), the judging period may end prematurely to give way to a new episode. No reason to keep working on a finished building and avoid moving onto the next one.


Looking for as many contestants and judges as feel like playing! We will award 1st through 3rd places, as well as a shout-out for honorable mention. The honorable mention prize is given to the most daring or unexpected build that doesn't gain a medal. Contestants are invited to vote for honorable mention via PM. Everyone else can vote in-thread. Ready? Set? Get to the junkyard and start building!



Junkyard Wars in the Playground I: Shadowdancer + Sneak Attack - Rogue (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?337864)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground II: Healing Spells + Ruby Knight Vindicator - Cleric (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?342896)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground III: Dragons + Theurges - Kobolds (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?347412)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground IV: BoED + Undead Type - Completes (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?355278)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground V: Dread Witch + Reaping Mauler - Fighter (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?360271)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground VI: Wonderworker + Profession Skill - Factotum (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?369604)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground VII: Metamagic Feats + LA - Metamagic Reducers! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?374504)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground VIII: Pounce+Small Size-Barbarian (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?388151)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground IX: Earth Dreamer + Ordained Champion - Cleric (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?395791)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground X: Meldshaping + Natural Attacks - Totemist (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?403880)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground XI: Magical Darkness + Improved Familiar - Wizard (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?409650)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground XII: Dragonmark Heirs + Touchstones - Martial Weapons (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?430214)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground XIII: Mulhorandi Divine Minion + Monk - Any Other Wildshaping (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?465901)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground XIV: Racial Paragon Classes + Spellcasting - Base Classes (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?479427)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground XV: Ruathar + Stoneblessed - Human (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?497904)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground XVI: Trapsmith + Combat Trapsmith - Rogue (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?540521)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground XVII: Elemental Warrior + Jaunter - Fighter (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?552569)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground XVIII: Argent Savant + Holy Scourge - Wizard (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?555404)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground XIX: Incarnum Blade + Exotic Weapon Master - Spiked Chain (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?562523-Junkyard-Wars-XIX-IB-EWM-SC)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground XX: Xorvintaal Exarch + The Pact-Bound Adept - Sorcerer (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?568541-Junkyard-Wars-XX-XE-PBA(a)-S)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground XXI: Rebuke Undead + Teamwork Benefits - [Divine] feats (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?572680-Junkyard-Wars-XXI-Halloween-Round!)
Junkyard Wars XXII: Battle Trickster + Magical Trickster - Uncanny Trickster (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?577512-Junkyard-Wars-XXII-Show-Me-Your-Skillz)
Junkyard Wars XXIII: Spellwarp Sniper + Silver Pyromancer - Energy Substitution (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?581736-Junkyard-Wars-XXIII-Ready-Aim-Fire)
Junkyard Wars XXIV: Vow of Peace + Saint - Divine casting (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?585567-Junkyard-Wars-XXIV-VoPe-S-DC)
Junkyard Wars XXV: Silverwood Arcanist + Share Soulmeld - Soulcaster (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?590622-Junkyard-Wars-XXV-SA-SS-S)
Junkyard Wars XXVI: RSL + ACF - PrCs (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?593374-Junkyard-Wars-XXVI-RSL-ACF-PrCs)

[Macabaret]

A Few Notes on Formatting


Your PM to the chair to enter your build is limited to a maximum character limit. If you need to split your entry into multiple PMs, that's fine. But please do not split your build mid-sentence; find a nice break point midway through and split it there. Also, when sending multiple PMs for the same entry, title your PMs appropriately. Indications such as "final" or "middle bit" are bad ideas. Be abundantly clear, for example: "Junkyard Wars XIIIII: [Character name], 3/3"


There are tables offered in the OP. All the coding is already done for you. Please do feel free to use them. They make life easier. If you have a table from previous iterations of these competitions (from years ago), do note that they may be non-functional. The coding for the site has changed over time and your version may be obsolete or incomplete. Utilize the tools offered here. If you find them to be broken in any way, please do report it to the Chair.


Color tags are not needed in your tables. The tables are built to have rows of table data that alternate colors automatically. Adding color tags for every row of your tables is just adding unneccessary characters to your post.
If you would like to change the color of your text (either within the table or in your write-ups or backstory), feel free to do so. If you do, make sure you've got everything formatted correctly.


Writing sentences in the same color of the background is usually a bad idea. It can be cute as a comical aside, where only those who are let in on your joke are those who can find the text. If, however, you include pertinent parts of your build or explination in such 'hidden' asides, there is every possiblity that a judge may not find it. If that happens, don't dispute judgements for not finding information that you've hidden. (Even if it is about the Darkstalker feat.)


No one likes to read a wall of text. Paragraphs and line breaks are certainly good ideas, but even with them, if your entry is taking up a sizable portion of a thread, using spoiler tags to shrink things down to less of an eyestrain is much appreciated.


Remember that the Chair is not your editor. I will not be sifting through your entry to fix your code. Before you submit your entry, click the preview button and make sure everything works the way you want it to. If a table is broken, fix it. If your bolded sentence doesn't stop 'bolding' where you meant it to (or, in fact, at all), fix it. Only send your entry once you've got everything as intended.

[Macabaret]

FAQ


"Mark" feats require Brand of the Nine Hells which in turn requires being a devil. How's that going to work?
Devil is an undefined term in this game. For the purposes of this round of this contest, being an Unholy Scion of an archdevil is sufficient for the purpose of fulfilling the 'devil' requirement of Brand of the Nine Hells.


Familial Charm: How's it work?
Familial Charm is an oddity in that it is actually three different abilities squidged into one. Let's take them seperately.


An unholy scion's mother is under a constant charm person or charm animal effect (as appropriate), generated by the scion
This is as written on the tin. All limitations of the appropriate spell exist, except that it has a duration of Permenant and is a (SU) (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/glossary&term=Glossary_dnd_supernaturalability&alpha=) effect instead of a spell.

The scion can switch between its own senses and its mother's at will as a free action.
Again, as on the tin. This is an at-will supernatural ability with no range, usable as a free action, and with one (and only one) possible target.

The scion can use any of its spell-like abilities with its mother, rather than itself, as the source, much as wizards can deliver touch attacks through their familiars.
Okay, let's see if we can work this one out. It works much as wizards delivering touch attacks through their familiars. So... scion and mother must be touching at the time the scion uses a touch-range SLA. The mother holds the charge as per the "Holding the Charge" section of p.126 of the Rules Compendium. She can hold it indefinately, though she must remain within 1 mile of the scion (as a familiar to its wizard). As normal, if the scion uses another SLA while a previous charge is being held, the held charge fizzles.
The act of the mother holding the charge is a (SU) ability, and thus can't be dispelled and doesn't function in an anti-magic field. The act of the mother discharging the effect, however, is a Spell-like ability (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/glossary&term=Glossary_dnd_spelllikeability&alpha=S) and subject to the benefits and limitations thereof.


Can Familiar Charm essentially grant a powerful Cohort?
No. Leadership (and most Leadership-like abilities) are banned here. I don't want to read any backstories about 20th level paladins that have been tricked by an archdevil and made to fall, giving the scion a high level blackguard bodyguard, beginning at low levels. So listen and listen good: The scion's mother is (and always will be) an un-templated member of the scion's race as it appears in its standard statblock. No statblock? Tack on one level of warrior (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/npcClasses/warrior.htm) with all skill points going to Craft and all feats taken being Toughness. Do not include a stats for the mother in your entry.
Judges are highly encouraged to penelize any manuevering through RAW-loopholes in the above RAI with extreme prejudice!


The OP states "Alternate rule systems from UA such as gestalt and fractional saves are not allowed, as they create a different playing field.", but Taint isn't only listed in UA as it appears in Heroes of Horror as well. Are we allowed to use Taint?
I recognize that we are making [Evil] characters here, but they are also lawful. Taint appears in UA and it is an alternate rule system. Ergo, Taint is not allowed.

[weckar]

Could you elaborate on what you mean by the Forbidden widget? Does that just ban Incarnate and Ardent, or is it a fluff thing, or what?

Does it limit anything with an alignment requirement due to implied devotion to that ideal?

[Falontani]

How do you want US age thing to work? I normally use pathfinder's young template without the mental stat changes, but I doubt that would fly here

Level adjustment? Usually it's kept to keep a level playing field, but if we're all US do we need to keep its LA?

[Macabaret]

Could you elaborate on what you mean by the Forbidden widget? Does that just ban Incarnate and Ardent, or is it a fluff thing, or what?

Does it limit anything with an alignment requirement due to implied devotion to that ideal?

It bans anything that requires a devotion to a ... something.
So, no base classes (or choices thereof) that would require devout worship (e.g. Favored Soul of Wee Jas, Ardent, Cleric of Nature, etc.).
Also, no PrCs that specify a need to follow a specific entity (Radiant Servant of Pelor, for example) or inclusion in an organization (like Paragnostic Apostle).
Similarly, feats ( feats, for example) and ACFs (i.e. Shooting Star Ranger or Lightbringer Rogue) with such requirements are not allowed.
Affiliation to churches (see Chapter 1 of Complete Champion for examples) and their benefits are banned as well.
I hope this helps clarify things. If you have any questions about something specific, feel free to ask by PMing the Chair.

As for things that require an alignment, they are in play and allowed, unless it requires [i]devotion to that alignment. [Exalted] feats would thus be allowed (if you can meet their requirements), but the Incarnate class is not allowed.

[Macabaret]

How do you want US age thing to work? I normally use pathfinder's young template without the mental stat changes, but I doubt that would fly here


Make your character as normal for 3.5 rules (and the rules of this contest). Unholy Scion is an inherited template, so will have to be applied from the very beginning. But it doesn't require you to play a child. Start at an age you normally would for character creation.



Level adjustment? Usually it's kept to keep a level playing field, but if we're all US do we need to keep its LA?

Yes, keep the LA.

[Thurbane]

I love the Unholy Scion template, but LA +5? Ouch.

I'm also struggling a little with the thematics of "Mark of" and forbidding affiliation to anything that isn't your "father". So in effect, you must be the spawn of a devil, and you cannot worship or pledge allegiance to anything other than that devil?

[pabelfly]

I'm also struggling a little with the thematics of "Mark of" and forbidding affiliation to anything that isn't your "father". So in effect, you must be the spawn of a devil, and you cannot worship or pledge allegiance to anything other than that devil?

Seems about right from what I understand. Pretty interesting wrinkle in the character design rules, I'm really digging it.

[Thurbane]

Got the bare bones of a build in mind; I have a feeling at least one part of it will see quite a bit of use in the comp.

[weckar]

I did. Then I remembered: Oh yeah--No DragonMag.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Okay, I have the seed of an idea. Let's see if my storytelling chops are up to the task of making this work.

EDIT: and my optimization-fu. This is rapidly looking a lot harder than I initially thought.

[pabelfly]

I did. Then I remembered: Oh yeah--No DragonMag.

A competition that let you use Dragon Magazine content, or even explicitly required it as part of its build would be really fun.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

A competition that let you use Dragon Magazine content, or even explicitly required it as part of its build would be really fun.

One or two of the Game Warper's challenges have allowed a single issue of Dragon Magazine. Made for a very flavorful component of my Wendigo build.

[jdizzlean]

Okay, I have the seed of an idea. Let's see if my storytelling chops are up to the task of making this work.

This is rapidly looking a lot harder than I initially thought.


Got the bare bones of a build in mind; I have a feeling at least one part of it will see quite a bit of use in the comp.

i'm right there w/ both of you. unlike normal, i simply put down the "pencil" after the initial notes so i can stew on it awhile.

[Quentinas]

I have two idea ... but now i have to see how put all together (and one seems obvious so i don't know)

[Sian]

Got half a (mechanic) idea as of how to get at it, if only i could find a way of doing {REDACTED} at will, which proves surprisingly difficult for all that it ought to be fairly simple IRL

[weckar]

Familial Charm appears to be the only truly unique ability here so I'd like to know: Does it have any range limit? Does it work cross-planar?

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Question: Are we saying being an Unholy Scion counts as being a devil for Brand of the 9 Hells, or do we also need to be devils (or find a way around that requirement, natch)?

[Thurbane]

Question: Are we saying being an Unholy Scion counts as being a devil for Brand of the 9 Hells, or do we also need to be devils (or find a way around that requirement, natch)?


FAQ


"Mark" feats require Brand of the Nine Hells which in turn requires being a devil. How's that going to work?
Devil is an undefined term in this game. For the purposes of this round of this contest, being an Unholy Scion of an archdevil is sufficient for the purpose of fulfilling the 'devil' requirement of Brand of the Nine Hells.


..........

[PoeticallyPsyco]

FAQ


"Mark" feats require Brand of the Nine Hells which in turn requires being a devil. How's that going to work?
Devil is an undefined term in this game. For the purposes of this round of this contest, being an Unholy Scion of an archdevil is sufficient for the purpose of fulfilling the 'devil' requirement of Brand of the Nine Hells.



Whoops, completely missed that. My bad.

[Macabaret]

Familial Charm appears to be the only truly unique ability here so I'd like to know: Does it have any range limit? Does it work cross-planar?

Yes and no. And no and yes. And yes and no.

I've added a more detailed answer in the FAQ above.

[weckar]

The scion's mother is (and always will be) a standard, un-templated member of the scion's race with zero class levels.
Darn! My intent! You caught it! :smalltongue:

It does extend beyond touch spells, though, doesn't it?

At the master’s option, he may have any spell (but not any spell-like ability) he casts on himself also affect his familiar. The familiar must be within 5 feet at the time of casting to receive the benefit. (...) A master and his familiar can share spells even if the spells normally do not affect creatures of the familiar’s type

At the same time, the mother is not a familiar (or legitimate choice as familiar) for other purposes, yes?

[Thurbane]

Haste to get nit-picky, but if the mother is of a standard humanoid race, she cannot have 0 class levels by RAW.

Would Commoner 1 be acceptable in this case?

[Sian]

Nailed down most of the fluff and meat of the build ... but utterly stomped on which base class that would work the best

[Macabaret]

Haste to get nit-picky, but if the mother is of a standard humanoid race, she cannot have 0 class levels by RAW.

Would Commoner 1 be acceptable in this case?

You meddling kids!!


The FAQ has be edited.

[Macabaret]

Darn! My intent! You caught it! :smalltongue:

It does extend beyond touch spells, though, doesn't it?
Quote from SRD: At the master’s option, he may have any spell (but not any spell-like ability) he casts on himself also affect his familiar. The familiar must be within 5 feet at the time of casting to receive the benefit. (...) A master and his familiar can share spells even if the spells normally do not affect creatures of the familiar’s type

At the same time, the mother is not a familiar (or legitimate choice as familiar) for other purposes, yes?

No. The mother has a similar ability to the "Deliver Touch Spells" ability of familiars (except that she can "Deliver Touch SLAs"). She gains no other abilities that a familiar has, not even the "Share Spells" ability that you've quoted.

[Macabaret]

The FAQ has now also been updated.

[jdizzlean]

gah! stop changing things lol

[weckar]

Aren't UA taint and HoH taint completely different systems? Oh well, no matter.

I figure if I make an entry I'll just disregard RAW altogether and take that hit.

[Sian]

Well, the ‘ban’ on taint killed off my secondary idea... for what its worth through, taint started in oriental adventures, not UA

[PoeticallyPsyco]

The OP states "Alternate rule systems from UA such as gestalt and fractional saves are not allowed, as they create a different playing field.", but Taint isn't only listed in UA as it appears in Heroes of Horror as well. Are we allowed to use Taint?
I recognize that we are making [Evil] characters here, but they are also lawful. Taint appears in UA and it is an alternate rule system. Ergo, Taint is not allowed.

I saw that Taint wasn't being specifically called out like it is in Iron Chef, and considered taking advantage of that, but ultimately went off in a completely different direction with my insanity. Now I'm glad I did.

[Sian]

Not entirely certain if i ultimately have the time since i’m vacationing, but i’ll try my best :)

[Gauntlet]

Curious to see how people have dealt with this one. Feels like that +5 LA is brutal, and not easy to make something that doesn't have me thinking 'but wouldn't this be better if it wasn't an Unholy Scion at all?'. Especially since trying to do something interesting with Familial Charm looks like a surefire way to get penalised, going by the FAQ.

[jdizzlean]

i am not going to finish, i also have a strong case of the vizzini's, and will be surprised if no one goes the route i was going. we'll see.

[weckar]

I've come to the point where I think I'd take less of a penalty if I excluded/abandoned one of the ingredients entirely than if I took the RAW liberties I'd need to.

In other words giving up.

[Thurbane]

i am not going to finish, i also have a strong case of the vizzini's, and will be surprised if no one goes the route i was going. we'll see.

Yeah, I doubt I'll get an entry in.

Partly because of time and motivation, but mostly because I really love part of the concept I'm working on, but I feel it would me much better suited to a VC competition than this one.

[Quentinas]

Even i had a feeling of vizzini especially with one mark so i don't know if i will finish

[pabelfly]

Working on polishing and refining my entry now. I'll definitely have my entry in for this contest.

[Falontani]

I have a good idea, but not the time, however if there are not enough entries by reveal (or shortly before hand) pm me and I'll get it together in an afternoon or two.

[Sian]

Very nearly done ... only need a GoodEvil fluff piece and It's only a proof reading or two away

[PoeticallyPsyco]

My fluff's almost done, and I've got the progression plotted out, now I just need to crunch tomorrow to get it all together and looking spiffy.

[weckar]

"8 Hours to go! Time to get busy!"

[Sian]

My fluff's almost done, and I've got the progression plotted out, now I just need to crunch tomorrow to get it all together and looking spiffy.

Heh, I'm the complete opposite, I figure out my Crunch and progression and then I try to tailor the fluff.

... And Submitted

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Ugh, what are the odds I actually get this done on time? Not looking good...

EDIT: Almost done...

EDIT II: And submitted!

[Macabaret]

Being that we're dealing with Brands of Hell, naturally we ran into some troubles at the deadline. (And by "we", of course, I mean "me".) Flu season sucks. Personally, I'm taking it as a sign that some Devil out there doesn't want us to reveal the truth. (And on that note, who wants to judge?)

Pencils down now. And please don't post until after all entries are in. Thank you.

[Macabaret]

Feat: Mark of Avernus
"Benefit: You are a master strategist. Once per encounter, you can make a single ranged attack, melee attack, or use one of your spell-like abilities as an immediate action…" (Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells, p84)

Use one of your spell-like abilities as an immediate action? There’s a class that gives out a whole bunch of those…

Avernia
https://i.imgur.com/fDqihAB.png
Truenamer 14/Human Paragon 1
Race: Vasharan. Size: M. Gender: Female. Alignment: LE. Patron Deity: Archdemon Bel.

Avernia cripples and weakens her enemies in combat with many different spell-like abilities, while her allies make use of the opportunities created to finish them off. Her signature ability allows her an immediate action once an encounter, interfering with powerful opponents in ways they aren’t prepared to deal with, or disadvantaging opposing forces even before they’ve started to fight.

Out of combat, Avernia enjoys manipulating the people around her towards her own nefarious ends, ritually sacrificing people to Archdemon Bel, her father, and basket-weaving.


Point Buy: 8/10/15/14/8/18
Stats at Level 1: 8/12/15/20/10/22
Stats at Level 15 (ECL 20): 8/12/16/20/10/24
Stat boosts: CHA – Level 4, 8. CON – Level 12

Charisma governs the save DCs of all Avernia’s spell-like abilities. Intelligence boosts our skills, and the rest of our point buy goes towards Constitution and Dexterity.


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


LA
Unholy Scion template
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A


LA
Unholy Scion template
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A


LA
Unholy Scion template
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A


LA
Unholy Scion template
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A


LA
Unholy Scion template
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A


1st
Truenamer 1
0
0
0
2
Concentration (4), Craft: Basketweaving (4), Diplomacy (2) (CC), Knowledge: Arcana (4), Knowledge (Architecture) (1), Knowledge (Dungeoneering) (1), Knowledge (Geography) (1), Knowledge (History) (4), Knowledge (Local) (1), Knowledge (Nature) (1), Knowledge (Nobility) (2), Knowledge (Religion) (4), Knowledge (Psionics) (1), Knowledge (The Planes) (4), Truespeak (4)
Brand of the Nine Hells (Bel), (B) Evil’s Blessing
Known Personal Truename


2nd
Human Paragon 1
0
0
0
4
Bluff (5), Diplomacy (5), Spellcraft (1), Truespeak (5)

Adaptive Learning (Spellcraft)


3rd
Truenamer 2
1
0
0
5
Bluff (6) (CC), Concentration (5), Craft: Basketweaving (6), Diplomacy (6) (CC), Knowledge (Religion) (6), Truespeak (6)

Mark of Avernus
Knowledge Focus (Religion)


4th
Truenamer 3
2
1
1
5
Bluff (7) (CC), Concentration (7), Craft: Basketweaving (7), Diplomacy (7) (CC), Knowledge (Arcana) (5), Knowledge (Religion) (7), Truespeak (7)





5th
Truenamer 4
3
1
1
6
Bluff (8) (CC), Concentration (8), Craft: Basketweaving (8), Diplomacy (8), Knowledge (History) (5), Knowledge (Religion) (8), Spellcraft (2), Truespeak (8)




6th
Truenamer 5
3
1
1
6
Bluff (9) (CC), Concentration (9), Craft: Basketweaving (9), Diplomacy (9) (CC), Knowledge (Religion) (9), Spellcraft (4), Truespeak (9)
Extend Utterance



7th
Truenamer 6
4
2
2
7
Bluff (10) (CC), Concentration (10), Craft: Basketweaving (10), Diplomacy (10) (CC), Knowledge (Religion) (10), Spellcraft (6), Truespeak (10)
(B) Truename Research



8th
Truenamer 7
5
2
2
7
Bluff (11) (CC), Concentration (11), Craft: Basketweaving (11), Diplomacy (11) (CC), Knowledge (Religion) (11), Spellcraft (8), Truespeak (11)

Knowledge Focus (Religion)


9th
Truenamer 8
6
2
2
8
Bluff (12) (CC), Concentration (12), Craft: Basketweaving (12), Diplomacy (12) (CC), Knowledge (Religion) (12), Spellcraft (10), Truespeak (12)
Quicken Utterance, (B) Recitation of the Sanguine State
See the Named 1/day


10th
Truenamer 9
6
3
3
8
Bluff (13) (CC), Concentration (13), Craft: Basketweaving (13), Diplomacy (13) (CC), Knowledge (Religion) (13), Spellcraft (12), Truespeak (13)




11th
Truenamer 10
7
3
3
9
Bluff (14) (CC), Concentration (14), Craft: Basketweaving (14), Diplomacy (14) (CC), Knowledge (Religion) (14), Spellcraft (14), Truespeak (14)

Knowledge Focus (Religion)


12th
Truenamer 11
8
3
3
9
Bluff (15) (CC), Concentration (15), Craft: Basketweaving (15), Diplomacy (15) (CC), Knowledge (Nobility) (3), Knowledge (Religion) (15), Spellcraft (15), Truespeak (15)
Mortalbane



13th
Truenamer 12
9
4
4
10
Bluff (16) (CC), Concentration (16), Craft: Basketweaving (16), Diplomacy (16) (CC), Knowledge (Nobility) (4), Knowledge (Religion) (16), Spellcraft (16), Truespeak (16)




14th
Truenamer 13
9
4
4
10
Bluff (17) (CC), Concentration (17), Craft: Basketweaving (17), Diplomacy (17) (CC), Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) (5), Knowledge (Religion) (17), Spellcraft (17), Truespeak (17)

Sending


15th
Truenamer 14
10
4
4
11
Bluff (18) (CC), Concentration (18), Craft: Basketweaving (18), Diplomacy (18) (CC), Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) (6), Knowledge (Religion) (18), Spellcraft (18), Truespeak (18)
Boost Spell-Like Ability
Knowledge Focus (Religion)


Level 1 – Charm Person (3/day)
Level 3 – Desecrate (1/day)
Level 5 – Enervation (1/day), Protection from Good (3/day)
Level 7 – Major Image (3/day), Poison (3/day)
Level 9 – Dominate Person (1/day), Baleful Polymorph (1/day)
Level 11 – Animate Dead (1/day), True Seeing (3/day)
Level 13 – Unholy Aura (3/day), Unhallow (1/day), Speak Rock to Mud
Level 15 – Harm (1/day)
Level 1 – Universal Aptitude
Level 3 – Inertia Surge
Level 4 – Temporal Twist
Level 5 – Hidden Truth
Level 6 – Lesser Word of Nurturing
Level 7 – Seek the Sky
Level 8 – Speed of the Zephyr, Greater
Level 9 – Temporal Spiral
Level 10 – Vision Sharpened
Level 11 – Spell Rebirth
Level 12 – Breath of Cleansing
Level 13 – Confounding Resistance
Level 14 – Morale Boost
Level 15 – Eldritch Attraction

Level 5 – Fortify Armor
Level 8 – Analyze Item
Level 12 – Rebuild Item
Level 9 – Fog From the Void
Level 13 – Speak Rock to Mud


Spell-Like Abilities: Charm (3/day), Universal Aptitude
Feats: Brand of the Nine Hells, Evil’s Blessing
Class Features: Known Personal Truename
Unholy Scion Avernia is starting to develop the abilities she will rely on in the future. She starts with various stat bonuses, defensive abilities, and a list of expanding spell-like abilities to help her work off her level adjustment.

The feat “Brand of the Nine Hells (Alleigance to Bel)”, represents the bond between Avernia and her father, Archdemon Bel. The brand Avernia receives shows her unwavering bond to her father, the longsword received in return shows Archdemon Bel’s respect to his daughter. While Avernia always carries her gift, she rarely uses it in combat, preferring her spell-like abilities or a bow. It also means she’s ready to take the feat “Mark of Avernus” at level 3, after she gains several spell-like abilities to use.

Evil’s Blessing, a vile feat earned through Avernia’s Varsharan heritage, lets Avernia spend a standard action to temporarily boost her saves. Useful out of combat, Avernia might also cast it in combat, especially when her action economy improves and her utterances can be used as a swift action.

Avernia’s Truespeak check is difficult to meet (at least for now). Her utterance “Universal Aptitude” boosts a skill check of herself or an ally. Her other ability is “Charm Person”, quite powerful with Avernia’s high Charisma.

Avernia learns a wide variety of skills. Truespeak helps with, well, Truespeaking. Concentration and Spellcraft are combat skills. Diplomacy and Bluff are useful skills to manipulate people out of combat. She also studies Religion, as a way of understanding her father and The Blood War. Oh, and she likes to weave baskets in her spare time. Sometimes she needs to relax after spending her time manipulating those around her and working so hard to try and meet her Truespeak checks.

Lastly, Avernia also knows her own personal Truename, and gets a small bonus when trying to use Utterances on herself.

Since you can constantly use Evil’s Blessing – it just costs a standard action – you might persuade your DM that you are constantly reusing the ability all day and start combat with half a D10’s worth of rounds with Evil’s Blessing in effect. No presumption is made that this is the case for Avernia’s character writeup, but if the feat interests you, there’s no reason not to discuss this with your DM.
The Ring of Truespeak is a custom competence item (Dungeon Master’s Guide, p285). The pricing formula is a reference, the DM decides how it might actually be priced, or even if they’re allowed in a game. This build presumes that a custom Truespeak competence item is allowed, and this custom competence item is priced according to the guide (matching other, similar items), and that the player is receiving the average WBL in order to purchase said item.
Intelligence – 5
Ranks – 4
Amulet of Silver Tongue, Lesser (2500 gold) – 5
Ring of Truespeak +5 (2500 gold) – 5
Total Truespeak Skill – 19


Spell-Like Abilities: Desecrate (1/day), Enervation (1/day), Protection from Good (3/day), Inertia Surge, Hidden Truth, Temporal Twist, Fortify Armor
Feats: Mark of Avernus
Class Features: Adaptive Learning (Spellcraft), Knowledge Focus (Religion)
Avernia is starting to gain more spell-like abilities, and is beginning to use utterances in combat.

Avernia’s dip in Human Paragon adds Spellcraft to her class skills (Vasharan are explicitly Human (Book of Vile Darkness, p12). It boosts her Bluff, Diplomacy, Spellcraft and Truespeak. It also allows her to boost these skills as high as her Truename class skills, even while paying cross-class penalties. Fortunately, Avernia is getting ten skill points per level, and can afford to spend a few cross-class skill points to support many crucial character skills.

“Mark of Avernus”, the feat central to Avernia’s character, gives her immediate action spell-like ability casting. While she only gets one immediate action per encounter, she can use any of her spell-like abilities (and she certainly gains a lot of them), and can use them at critical points in an opponent’s turn. (See notes at the end of this ECL breakdown).

By level 5, Avernia has several Immediate Action options. “Enervation” deals negative levels to opponents without a save. It takes one highest-level spell slot (one of the reasons why Spellcraft is a class ability), reduces attack rolls, saves, and makes Truespeak checks easier. “Protection from Good” can make a planned attack by a Good creature more difficult after an enemy has started their attack. Inertia Surge can stop a monster mid-movement, be it charging or fleeing. And Temporal Twist can daze an opponent in the middle of an attack.

Avernia’s Knowledge skills are quite high, even with minimal investment. “Hidden Knowledge”, “Universal Surge”, and her high Intelligence, lets her knowledge checks start with at least a +20 to any knowledge roll. It also allows her to really get into ritual sacrifice. (Book of Vile Darkness, p27). At level 5, she can easily hit 30 on her Knowledge (Religion) check without equipment or positive circumstance modifiers. Among other options, Avernia can easily gain the help of an evil outsider, or choose a party-wide buff to help out the team like DEX, CON or AC.

This build presumes that failing to cast an Utterance as an immediate action counts as using the ability “Mark of Avernus” gives us for that encounter.
Avernia can use a spell-like ability as an immediate action once an encounter, but how this works is not detailed. Can we interrupt an opponent’s actions with our own? Or can we only interject after an opponent has performed an action type, like a swift or standard action? Consider the ideas here suggestions on how you might make use of this mechanic, dependent on DM interpretation.
Intelligence (4,000 gold) – 6
Ranks – 8
Amulet of Silver Tongue, Greater (10,000 gold) – 10
Ring of Truespeak +15 (22,500 gold) – 15
Total Truespeak Skill – 39


Spell-Like Abilities: Major Image (3/day), Poison (3/day), Dominate Person (1/day), Baleful Polymorph (1/day), Lesser Word of Nurturing, Seek the Sky, Greater Speed of the Zephyr, Temporal Spiral, Vision Sharpened, Analyze Item, Fog From the Void
Feats: Extend Utterance, Quicken Utterance, Recitation of the Sanguine State
Class Features: Knowledge Focus (Religion), See the Named (1/day)
Avernia gets two huge power boosts to her build from feats. Extend Utterance lets us double the duration of our utterances. Quicken Utterance comes online at level 9, greatly boosting our action economy. Presuming Avernia wants to Quicken an Utterance she hasn’t used that day against a level 15 opponent at level 10, she needs to hit a Truespeak check of 67, and we’re at 61. Starting the day with an 70% chance to Quicken an Utterance is decent odds and only improves with more levels. Fog From the Void has a different DC, and can be made solid and Quickened by meeting a Truespeak check of 60, presuming it hasn’t been cast yet.

Avernia also gains the ability to remove poisons with a simple Truespeak check with Recitation of the Sanguine State. It’s a minor boost but it might occasionally find some use.

New Immediate Action options come online. Dominate Person and Baleful Polymorph can both change the odds of a battle before a single turn has been taken. Greater Speed of the Zephyr might slow an opponent mid-round to prevent them reaching an ally, and Temporal Spiral can daze an opponent in the middle of their turn.

Intelligence (36,000 gold) – 8
Ranks – 13
Amulet of Silver Tongue, Greater (10,000 gold) – 10
Ring of Truespeak +30 (90,000 gold) – 30
Total Truespeak Skill – 61


Spell-Like Abilities: Animate Dead (1/day), True Seeing (3/day), Unholy Aura (3/day), Unhallow (1/day), Harm (1/day), Spell Rebirth, Breath of Cleansing, Confounding Resistance, Morale Boost, Eldritch Attraction, Rebuild Item, Speak Rock to Mud
Feats: Mortalbane, Boost Spell-Like Ability
Class Features: Sending, Knowledge Focus (Religion) x2
Bluff (18), Concentration (18), Craft: Basketweaving (18), Diplomacy (22), Knowledge (Arcana) (5), Knowledge (Architecture) (1), Knowledge (Dungeoneering) (1), Knowledge (Geography) (1), Knowledge (History) (5), Knowledge (Local) (1), Knowledge (Nature) (1), Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) (6), Knowledge (Religion) (30), Knowledge (Psionics) (1), Knowledge (The Planes) (4), Spellcraft (20), Truespeak (18)

Skills include skill synergy bonuses and Knowledge Focus bonuses.
Avernia has maxed out a bunch of intelligence and charisma-based skills, and uses “Universal Aptitude” and “Hidden Truth” to boost her skills outside of combat.

Avernia loves to manipulate those around her with Bluff and Diplomacy. She also makes use of her high Knowledge skills, which uses both utterances to greatly boost her Knowledge checks. Her religious knowledge allows her to perform potent ritual sacrifices to her father, Archdemon Bel. It’s one of the father-daughter activities the two enjoy together. She also finds spare time to weave some really amazing baskets.

For combat skills, Avernia has full ranks in Concentration and Spellcraft, the latter of which is essential for helping Avernia use her Immediate Action to best effect.

In combat, Avernia is now a master of battlefield control. Against a level 20 opponent, she can reliably Quicken her utterances at least three times per day, use a second spell-like ability as a regular action, and has a lot of great options for her immediate action in combat, dependent on the situation.

Avernia gains Mortalbane and Boost Spell-like Ability. Mortalbane adds a small amount of damage to Avernia’s spell-like abilities, its main purpose is to double the bonus from Evil’s Blessing when fighting good-aligned foes. Boost Spell-like ability adds +2 to her spell-like DCs on her spell-like abilities three times a day.

Avernia’s Unholy Scion abilities further improve. Harm allows Avernia to do a lot of instant damage an opponent, once per day. While Avernia prefers to take her time with her enemies, sometimes a quick death is necessary. True Seeing helps deal with effects like blur, displacement, invisibility and illusions, helping Avernia target enemies otherwise difficult to hit. Animate Dead and Unhallow are quite flavourful and may well have occasional use too.

Avernia adds some interesting utterances with effects hard or impossible to find elsewhere. “Rebuild Item” lets Avernia completely rebuild a broken item, the magic of the item intact. It allows Avernia to reuse Skull Talismans, which can hold up to level 9 spells, and are normally broken after use. Not so under when Avernia is wielding them and can repair them as a quickened action.

Spell of Rebirth lets Avernia restore a dispelled spell, or dispel a spell with the highest caster level affecting a target. Both are great options to add to our arsenal. The reverse version of Spell of Rebirth “dispels the spell with the highest caster level affecting the target”, which includes area-of-effect spells (since they also affect the target). With her ability to use a spell-like ability as an immediate action, and not requiring a caster level check or save, Avernia can use it to negate all sorts of spells. You’ll definitely find some use for it.

Eldritch Attraction is our capstone spell-like ability, and allows us to move opponents around the battlefield against their will, save throw permitted. Normally a niche utterance, it becomes infinitely more useful when you can use as an immediate action. Avernia might drag a caster inside their own area-of-effect spell, laughing while she does so, thrust an enemy in the path of a charging foe, or just prevent a charging enemy reaching her or one of her allies.

Intelligence (36,000 gold) – 8
Ranks – 18
Amulet of Silver Tongue, Greater (10,000 gold) – 10
Ring of Truespeak +44 (193,600 gold) – 44
Total Truespeak Skill – 80

Avernia is easily inserted into a campaign as part of an evil group. Between her skills, her affiliation with Archdemon Bel, her Lawful Evil alignment, her skills in ritual sacrifice, and her spell-like abilities, Avernia is well-suited to be an advisor of an evil overlord or tyrant.

Depending on the story, she might be the power behind a major evil character, manipulating everyone using her high Bluff and Diplomacy. Alternatively, her background might make her part of a plot to usher the arrival of Archdemon Bel himself.

Her ability to cast multiple spell-like abilities per turn enhances her supporting evil character role. Her signature Immediate Action can help her flee a losing battle, or hamper a player at the table whose abilities overpower other characters.

Avernia as an DMPC means that you don’t start combat weakened by repeated utterance uses, you have full selection of your spell-like abilities, and hopefully the unusual abilities here will make an interesting encounter for your players.
If Flaws are available, bonus feats would be Mortalbane and Boost Spell-like Ability. If Traits are available, suggestions would be Polite and Specialized.

Levels 2 and 3 of Human Paragon don’t technically advance spell-like ability lists. If your GM would rework the class so that it does, the build becomes Truenamer 12/Human Paragon 3. Human Paragon should be spread out between Truenamer levels, and used to boost skills outside of the Truenamer repertoire. An unrestricted bonus feat and a +2 to a stat are quite good trades for some minor Truenamer class features.

Item Familiar gives quite hefty bonuses to, among other things, Truespeak and total experience. Item Familiar will severely cripple you if your item is stolen, though. Take with extreme caution.

Being a member of the Paragnostic Assembly can help earn +5 or +10 on Truespeak checks, and a free class skill. Paragnostic Assembly requires a decent amount of gold invested, a lot of skill points into various Knowledge skills, and dedication to working for the Guild, any three of which might not suit your character or campaign. You also won’t get the +10 bonus without serious changes to Avernia’s skill points, and perhaps persuading your DM that Knowledge Focus is equivalent to Skill Focus (Knowledge).
Book of Vile Darkness - Vasharan race, Mortalbane and Boost Spell-Like Ability, Sacrifice Rewards system.
Dungeon Master’s Guide – Custom competence item formula (Ring of Truespeak)
Elder Evils – Evil’s Blessing Vile feat
Fiendish Codex II – Brand of Nine Hells and Mark of Avernus feats
Heroes of Horror – Unholy Scion template
Tome of Magic – Truenamer Class, Utterance-based feats, Utterance list, Amulet of Silver Tongue, character art for Avernia (p221).
Unearthed Arcana – Human Paragon

[Macabaret]

https://misanthropester.files.wordpress.com/2018/10/halcyon.jpg (https://misanthropester.com/2018/10/19/children-of-the-realm-child-characters-for-dungeons-dragons/)
Bolgara the Young
"The 'righteous' rulers of this place fill you all with false promises, ignoring the creeping starvation that threatens the young and poor of this city. Meanwhile they're hiding their monies and using them on decorating their newest temples, and consuming heaps of food, instead of making certain that there is enough food to go around to the poor. We are tired of being ignored, we are tired of the so called 'righteous' rulers not following the laws, who's with me?"


Bolgara went home surprisingly calm and unconcerned, even through the city was shimmering with a growing tensions between the have and have-nots in terms of affording food doing the recent lean years, little did anyone know that it was she had arranged to stunt the growth of the fields outside the city, meaning that there was a lack of food, which she could use to rouse the poor starving up against the rich. She were slowly tricking the poor into believing that the fields weren't actually producing significantly below effort, through her mother that was miss-accounting for the city Granaries, making it appear that any lack of food was because of systematic over-use from the rich, while at the same time planting opposing seeds of doubt among the rich that the decreased access to 'proper' luxurious food were due to a growth of the poor hording and misusing food.

Little by little she was growing the tensions, putting herself up as a rabble-rouser claiming to be a prophet of an archaic Eye-for-an-Eye God of Justice, using every opportunity to point out how the nobility trampled over the rights of the poor, causing the concerned nobility to become more oppressive in their control of the city. This in turn made it easier to tempt the poor into considering the nobility not worthy of their riches or security and that Justice demanded that they should be 'relieved' of those, which again caused the noble financed 'peacekeepers' more willing to take a harsh attitude towards the wailing, rioting poor.

After all, a cycle of hatred between the factions of the city would only cause everyone to be more willing to do onto Others, and descend into petty evilness towards everyone that wasn't them or theirs.




Ability
Base
Template
Total


Strenth
10

10


Dexterity
10
+2
12


Constitution
14

14


Intelligence
14
+6
20


Wisdom
16
+2
18


Charisma
14
+4
18



All Stat increases goes into Wisdom



Lawful Evil Unholy Scion Human Factotum 3 / Marshal 2 / Fiend Of Corruption 2 / Ur-Priest 3 / Contemplative 5



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



0th
Unholy Scion
-
-
-
-
-
-
Familial Charm, Unholy Strike, DR5 Magic/Good, Darkvision, Fast Healing 4, Immunity to Poison and Mind-affecting, Instant Knowledge, SR = HD+10


1st
Factotum 1
+0
+0
+2
+9
Bluff 4, Concentration 4, Diplomacy 4, Disguise 4, K(Arcana) 4, K(Planes) 4, K(Religion) 4, Search 4, Sense Motive 4, Slight of Hand 4, Spellcraft 4
Able Learner, Iron Will
Inspiration, Cunning Insight, Cunning Knowledge, Trapfinding, Charm Person 3/day


2nd
Marshal 1
+0
+2
+2
+2
Bluff 5 (+1), Concentration 5 (+1), Diplomacy 5 (+1), Disguise 5 (+1), K(Arcana) 5 (+1), K(Planes) 5 (+1), K(Religion) 5 (+1), Search 4, Slight of Hand 4, Sense Motive 5 (+1), Spellcraft 5 (+1)
Skill focus (Diplomacy)B
Minor Aura (Motivate Charisma)


3rd
Marshal 2
+1
+3
+2
+3
Bluff 6 (+1), Concentration 6 (+1), Diplomacy 6 (+1), Disguise 6 (+1), K(Arcana) 5, K(Planes) 5, K(Religion) 6 (+1), Search 6 (+2), Sense Motive 6 (+1), Slight of Hand 4, Spellcraft 6 (+1)
Spell Focus (Evil)
Major Aura (Resilient troops), Desecrate 1/day


4th
Factotum 2
+2
+3
+3
+3
Bluff 7 (+1), Concentration 7 (+1), Diplomacy 7 (+1), Disguise 7 (+1), K(Arcana) 5, K(Planes) 5, K(Religion) 7 (+1), Search 7 (+1), Sense Motive 7 (+1), Slight of Hand (+1), Spellcraft 7 (+1)

Arcane Dilettante


5th
Factotum 3
+3
+4
+3
+4
Bluff 8 (+1), Concentration 8 (+1), Diplomacy 8 (+1), Disguise 8 (+1), K(Arcana) 5, K(Planes) 5, K(Religion) 8 (+1), Search 8 (+1), Sense Motive 8 (+1), Slight of Hand 8 (+1), Spellcraft 8 (+1), Use Magic Device 2

Brains over Brawn, Cunning Defense, Enervation 1/day, Protection from Good 3/day


6th
Ur-Priest 1
+3
+4
+3
+6
Bluff 9 (+1), Concentration 8, Diplomacy 9 (+1), Disguise 9 (+1), K(Arcana) 5, K(Planes) 5, K(Religion) 9 (+1), Search 8, Sense Motive 9 (+1), Slight of Hand 8, Spellcraft 8, Use Magic Device 2, Conceal Spellcasting
Brand of The Nine Hells (Asmodeus) Command 3/day



7th
Ur-Priest 2
+4
+4
+3
+7
Bluff 10 (+1), Concentration 8, Diplomacy 10 (+1), Disguise 10 (+1), K(Arcana) 5, K(Planes) 5, K(Religion) 10 (+1), Search 8, Sense Motive 10 (+1), Slight of Hand 8, Spellcraft 8, Use Magic Device 2, False Theurgy

Rebuke Undead, Major Image 3/day, Poison 3/day


8th
Fiend of Corruption 1
+4
+6
+5
+9
Bluff 11 (+1), Concentration 8, Diplomacy 11 (+1), Disguise 10, K(Arcana) 5, K(Planes) 5, K(Religion) 11 (+1), Search 9 (+1), Sense Motive 11 (+1), Slight of Hand 8, Spellcraft 8, Use Magic Device 4 (+2)

Alternate Form, Fiend's favour


9th
Fiend of Corruption 2
+5
+7
+6
+10
Bluff 12 (+1), Concentration 8, Diplomacy 12 (+1), Disguise 10, K(Arcana) 5, K(Planes) 5, K(Religion) 12 (+1), Search 10 (+1), Sense Motive 12 (+1), Slight of Hand 8, Spellcraft 8, Use Magic Device 6 (+2)
Mark of Nessus
Suggestion, Mind shielding, Dominate Person 1/day, Baleful Polymorph 1/day


10th
Ur-Priest 3
+6
+8
+7
+10
Bluff 13 (+1), Concentration 8, Diplomacy 13 (+1), Disguise 10, K(Arcana) 5, K(Planes) 5, K(Religion) 13 (+1), Search 11 (+1), Sense Motive 13 (+1), Slight of Hand 8, Spellcraft 8, Use Magic Device 8 (+2)




11th
Contemplative 1
+6
+8
+7
+12
Bluff 14 (+1), Concentration 8, Diplomacy 14 (+1), Disguise 10, K(Arcana) 5, K(Planes) 5, K(Religion) 13, Search 12 (+1), Sense Motive 14 (+1), Slight of Hand 8, Spellcraft 8, Use Magic Device 11 (+3)

Bonus domain (Diabolic), Divine Health, Animate Undead 1/day, True Seeing 3/day


12th
Contemplative 2
+7
+8
+7
+13
Bluff 15 (+1), Concentration 8, Diplomacy 15 (+1), Disguise 10, K(Arcana) 5, K(Planes) 5, K(Religion) 13, Search 13 (+1), Sense Motive 15 (+1), Slight of Hand 8, Spellcraft 8, Use Magic Device 14 (+3)
Corrupt Spell
Slippery Mind


13th
Contemplative 3
+7
+9
+8
+13
Bluff 16 (+1), Concentration 8, Diplomacy 16 (+1), Disguise 10, , K(Arcana) 5, K(Planes) 5, K(Religion) 13, Search 15 (+2), Sense Motive 16 (+1), Slight of Hand 8, Spellcraft 8, Use Magic Device 16 (+2)

Divine Wholeness, Unholy Aura 3/day, Unhallow 1/day


14th
Contemplative 4
+8
+9
+8
+14
Bluff 17 (+1), Concentration 8, Diplomacy 17 (+1), Disguise 10, K(Arcana) 5, K(Planes) 5, K(Religion) 13, Search 17 (+2), Sense Motive 17 (+1), Slight of Hand 9 (+1), Spellcraft 8, Use Magic Device 17 (+1)




15th
Contemplative 5
+8
+9
+8
+14
Bluff 18 (+1), Concentration 8, Diplomacy 18 (+1), Disguise 10, , K(Arcana) 5, K(Planes) 5, K(Religion) 13, Search 18 (+1), Sense Motive 18 (+1), Slight of Hand 11 (+2), Spellcraft 8, Use Magic Device 18 (+1)
Malign Spell Focus
Divine body, Harm 1/day



Spells per Day


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


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


7th
5
3
0
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


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


11th
6
3
2
1
0
-
-
-
-
-


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


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


14th
6
4
3
3
3
2
1
0
-
-


15th
6
4
4
3
3
3
2
1
0
-




Book of Vile Darkness - Malign Spell Focus
Complete Divine - Contemplative, Ur-Priest, Corrupt Spell
Dungeonscape - Factotum
Fiend Folio - Fiend of Corruption
Fiendish Codex II - Brand of the Nine Hells, Mark of Nessus
Miniature handbook - Marshal
Heroes of Horror - Unholy Scion
Races of Destiny - Able Learner

[Macabaret]

Stat

Base

Racial

Unholy Scion

Ability Score Improvements

Final

Shifting Final

Alternate Form



Strength

15



4

16

(+2 rage)

20



Dexterity

8

+2

+2


12


16



Constitution

18



8, 12

20

+4 (+2 rage)

28



Intelligence

10

-2

+6


14


14



Wisdom

11


+2


13


13



Charisma

11

-2

+4


13


13










Level

Class

Base Attack Bonus

Fort Save

Ref Save

Will Save

Skills

Feats

Class Features


1st

Unholy Scion

+0

+0

+0

+0



Instant Knowledge, Immunity to Poison, Lowlight Vision, Beast Hide Shifting



2nd

Unholy Scion

+0

+0

+0

+0



Immunity to Mind Affecting, SLAs



3rd

Unholy Scion

+0

+0

+0

+0



Fast Healing 4, Darkvision 60 ft



4th

Unholy Scion

+0

+0

+0

+0



DR 5/Good or Magic, Unholy Strike, 2 claws



5th

Unholy Scion

+0

+0

+0

+0



Familial Charm, Cha to deflection, Outsider



6th
1 HD

Crusader

+1

+2

+0

+0

Concentration +4, Intimidate +4, Knowledge (the planes) +2, Sense Motive +2, Knowledge (nature) +2, Survival +2

Brand of the Nine Hells: Glasya

Furious Counterstrike, Steely Resolve 5



7th
2 HD

Crusader

+2

+3

+0

+0

Concentration +5, Intimidate +5, Knowledge (the planes) +2.5, Sense Motive +2.5, Knowledge (nature) +2.5, Survival +2.5


Indomitable Soul



8th
3 HD

Crusader

+3

+3

+1

+1

Concentration +6, Intimidate +6, Knowledge (the planes) +3, Sense Motive +3, Knowledge (nature) +3, Survival +3

Mark of Malbolge

Zealous Surge



9th
4 HD

Ranger

+4

+5

+3

+1

Concentration +7, Intimidate +6, Knowledge (the planes) +3, Sense Motive +3.5, Knowledge (nature) +5, Survival +7

Track(B)

Favored Enemy: Chaotic Outsider, Celestial Slayer



10th
5 HD

Crusader

+5

+6

+3

+1

Concentration +8, Intimidate +7, Knowledge (the planes) +3.5, Sense Motive +4, Knowledge (nature) +5, Survival +8


Steely Resolve 10



11th
6 HD

Crusader

+6

+6

+3

+1

Concentration +9, Intimidate +9, Knowledge (the planes) +4, Sense Motive +4, Knowledge (nature) +5, Survival +9

Healing Factor




12th
7 HD

Weretouched Master

+6

+8

+5

+1

Concentration +9, Intimidate +10, Knowledge (the planes) +4.5, Sense Motive +4.5, Knowledge (nature) +5, Survival +10


Wolverine Weretouched 1, Wild Empathy



13th
8 HD

Weretouched Master

+7

+9

+6

+1

Concentration +9, Intimidate +11, Knowledge (the planes) +5, Sense Motive +5, Knowledge (nature) +5, Survival +11

Shifter Ferocity(b)




14th
9 HD

Weretouched Master

+8

+9

+6

+2

Concentration +9, Intimidate +12, Knowledge (the planes) +5.5, Sense Motive +5.5, Knowledge (nature) +5, Survival +12

Toughness

Wolverine Weretouched 2 (Wolverine Ferocity)



15th
10 HD

Weretouched Master

+9

+10

+7

+2

Concentration +9, Intimidate +13, Knowledge (the planes) +6, Sense Motive +6, Knowledge (nature) +5, Survival +13


Frightful Shifting



16th
11 HD

Weretouched Master

+9

+10

+7

+2

Concentration +9, Intimidate +14, Knowledge (the planes) +6, Sense Motive +7, Knowledge (nature) +5, Survival +14



Alternate Form



17th
12 HD

Crusader

+10

+11

+8

+3

Concentration +10, Intimidate +15, Knowledge (the planes) +6.5, Sense Motive +7.5, Knowledge (nature) +5, Survival +15

Pain Mastery

Smite 1/day



18th
13 HD

Crusader

+11

+11

+8

+3

Concentration +11, Intimidate +16, Knowledge (the planes) +7, Sense Motive +8, Knowledge (nature) +5, Survival +16





19th
14 HD

Crusader

+12

+12

+8

+3

Concentration +12, Intimidate +17, Knowledge (the planes) +7.5, Sense Motive +8.5, Knowledge (nature) +5, Survival +17


Steely Resolve 15



20th
15 HD

Crusader

+13

+12

+9

+4

Concentration +13, Intimidate +18, Knowledge (the planes) +8, Sense Motive +9, Knowledge (nature) +5, Survival +18

Shape Soulmeld: Therapeutic Mantle









Maneuvers Known:
1: Crusader’s Strike, Charging Minotaur, Douse the Flames, Stone Bones, Vanguard Strike
2: Foehammer, Mountain Hammer
3: Bonecrusher
4: Divine Surge
5: Elder Mountain Hammer
6: Rallying Strike, Order Forged From Chaos

Stances (gained at specified level)
1: Martial Spirit
2: Leading the Charge
14: Aura of Tyranny

X are Maneuvers learned and replaced
X are Maneuvers learned by replacing another maneuver




Size/Type: Medium Outsider
Hit Dice: 9d10 plus 6d8+73 (167 hp)
Initiative: +1
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares)
Armor Class: 12 (+1 Dexterity, +1 Deflection), touch 12, flat-footed 11
Base Attack/Grapple: +13/+16
Attack: Heavy Pick +16 (1d6+3 20*4)
Full Attack: Heavy Pick +16/+11/+6 (1d6+3 plus 2d6 evil 20*4) and Claw +11 (1d4+1 plus 2d6 evil)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Unholy Strike, Furious Counterstrike, Smite 1/day, SLAs
Special Qualities: Fast Healing 4, Darkvision, Low Light Vision, Shifting, Indomitable Soul, Zealous Surge, Favored Enemy: Chaotic Outsider, Immunity to Poison and Mind Affecting effects, Instant Knowledge, DR 10/Good or Magic, Resistance to Acid, Cold, Electricity, and Fire 5, 25 Spell Resistance, Familial Charm, Scent, Alternate Form
Saves: Fort +17, Ref +10, Will +6
Abilities: Str 16, Dex 12, Con 20, Int 14, Wis 13, Cha 13
Skills: Concentration +15, Intimidate +21, Knowledge (the planes) +10, Sense Motive +10, Knowledge (nature) +7, Survival +19
Feats: Brand of the Nine Hells: Glasya, Mark of Malbolge, Track(B), Healing Factor, Shifter Ferocity(B), Toughness, Pain Mastery, Shape Soulmeld: Therapeutic Mantle

Unholy Strike (Su): An unholy scion's natural weapons and any melee weapon it wields are treated as evil-aligned for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction. In addition, all such attacks deal an extra 2d6 points of damage against good-aligned opponents.

Steely Resolve(Ex): Your supreme dedication and intense focus allows you to temporarily set aside the pain and hindering effects of injuries.
You have a delayed damage pool that allows you to forestall the effects of many injuries. This pool begins at 0 with each encounter. When you are attacked, any hit point damage the blow deals is added t0 your delayed damage pool. At the end of your next turn, you take damage equal to the total stored in your delayed damage pool, which then resets to 0. Any healing you receive can either increase your current hit point total as normal or reduce the total damage in your delayed damage pooL When you receive healing, you choose whether it affects your damage pool, your hirpoints, or both (you can split the amount of healing as you wish). Most crusaders opt to keep as much damage in their delayed damage pool as possible to maximize the benefit of their furious counterstrike ability (see below).
Special effects tied to an attack, such as energy drain, stun and so forth, still affect you as normal, and their effects are nor delayed by this ability. For example, if you are bitten by a venomous spider, you must still attempt a Fortitude save against the poison immediately, even though the bite damage shifts into your delayed damage pool. By the same token, any other special attack that imposes a condition. such as a medusa's petrifying gaze, takes immediate effect on you.


Furious Counterstrike (Ex): You can channel the pain of your injuries into a boiling rage that lets you lash out at your enemies with renewed vigor and power. Each attack that strikes you only pushes you onward to greater glory.
During your turn, you gain a bonus on attack rolls and damage rolls equal to the current value of your delayed damage pool (see steely resolve, above) divided by 5, and rounding down (minimum +1). You can only gain a maximum bonus on attack rolls and damage rolls of +6 from furious counterstrike. This abitity's benefits last until the end of your turn.

Indomitable Soul (Ex): You may add your charisma modifier to your will saves. This doesn’t stack with a paladin’s Divine Grace.

Zealous Surge (Ex): Once per day you may reroll a saving throw before knowing whether you passed or failed.

Smite (Ex): Once per day you may declare a strike a smite attack. The smite attack gains your charisma (+1) bonus to hit and deals an additional amount of damage equal to your crusader level (+9).

Familia! Charm (Su): An unholy scion's mother is under a constant charm person or charm animal effect (as appropriate), generated by the scion. The mother might be aware that her actions are inappropriate, even that her child is evil, but she cannot shake her emotional devotion to it. The scion can switch between its own senses and its mother's at will as a free action. The scion can use any of its spell-like abilities with its mother, rather than itself, as the source, much as wizards can deliver touch attacks through their familiars.
Familial charm does not allow a save, and applies even before the scion's actual birth (since the unborn scion is already intelligent and knowledgeable enough to have its own agenda).

Therapeutic Mantle: You shape incarnum into a sheath of energy that sinks into your skin and helps to focus healing magic that targets you.
Whenever you are the target of a spell or effect that heals hit point damage, the spell heals additional damage equal to its spell level. For example, if you are targeted by a cure serious wounds spell cast by a 7th-level cleric, you would be healed of 3d8+10 points of damage (7 points for the cleric’s caster level and 3 points for the spell’s level).

Pain Mastery (Ex): Every 50 points of damage you take (if you survive the attack) automatically increases your Strength by +2. This bonus lasts until the end of the encounter, after which you are exhausted.

Brand of Glasya (Ex): Once per day, you can activate this ability as a swift action. You gain [s]or increase your fast healing 3 for 1 minute. Pulpy, tumorous flesh erupts from your wounds to seal your injuries.
Mark of Malbolge (Ex): 8/minute Spend a swift action to gain one of the following by expending power in your cancerous growths:
• +10-foot enhancement bonus to your base speed for 1 round.
• Heal 2d6 points of damage +15
• Increase your natural reach with your melee attacks by 5 feet for 1 round.
• Spray a stream of noxious filth at an adjacent target, forcing that creature to succeed on a Fortitude save (DC 22) or become sickened for 1 round.

Spell Like Abilities: CL 15, DCs are 11+spell level
3/day: Charm Person, Protection from Good, Major Image, Poison, True Seeing, Unholy Aura
1/day: Desecrate, Enervation, Dominate Person, Baleful Polymorph, Animate Dead, Harm, Unhallow


Shifting, Raged, Alternate Form
Size/Type: Medium Outsider [Shapechanger, Evil, Native]
Hit Dice: 9d10 plus 6d8+183 (274 hp)
Initiative: +3
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares)
Armor Class: 14 (+3 Dexterity, +1 Deflection, +2 natural, -2 Rage), touch 12, flat-footed 11
Base Attack/Grapple: +13/+19
Attack: Heavy Pick +19 (1d6+6 20*4)
Full Attack: Heavy Pick +19/+14/+9 (1d6+6 plus 2d6 evil 20*4) and Claw +14 (1d4+3 plus 2d6 evil) and Fangs +14 (1d6+6)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Unholy Strike, Furious Counterstrike, Smite 1/day, SLAs
Special Qualities: Fast Healing 4, Darkvision, Low Light Vision, Shifting, Indomitable Soul, Zealous Surge, Favored Enemy: Chaotic Outsider, Immunity to Poison and Mind Affecting effects, Instant Knowledge, DR 10/Good or Magic, Resistance to Acid, Cold, Electricity, and Fire 5, 25 Spell Resistance, Familial Charm, Scent, Alternate Form, Wolverine Rage, Frightful Shifting, Shifting 2/day
Saves: Fort +24, Ref +12, Will +6
Abilities: Str 22, Dex 16, Con 34, Int 14, Wis 13, Cha 13
Skills: Concentration +25, Intimidate +21, Knowledge (the planes) +10, Sense Motive +10, Knowledge (nature) +7, Survival +19
Feats: Brand of the Nine Hells: Glasya, Mark of Malbolge, Track(B), Healing Factor, Shifter Ferocity(B), Toughness, Pain Mastery, Shape Soulmeld: Therapeutic Mantle

Frightful Shifting (Ex): When Karmos attacks or charges while shifting or employing his Alternate Form, opponents within 30 feet who witness his attack may become shaken for 5d6 rounds. This ability affects only opponents with fewer Hit Dice or levels than the weretouched master's character level. An opponent can resist the effects with a successful Will save (DC 16).
An opponent who succeeds on the saving throw is immune to that weretouched master's frightful shifting for 24 hours. Frightful shifting is a mind-affecting fear effect.


Wolverine Rage (Ex): If Karmos takes damage, he flies into a berserk rage on his next turn, biting madly until either he or his opponent is dead, or until his shifting ends. He gains +2 to Strength, +2 to Constitution, and —2 to Armor Class while raging. He cannot end his rage voluntarily, but unlike a barbarian, he is not winded after his rage ends.

Mark of Malbolge (Ex): 15/minute Spend a swift action to gain one of the following by expending power in your cancerous growths:
• +10-foot enhancement bonus to your base speed for 1 round.
• Heal 2d6 points of damage +15
• Increase your natural reach with your melee attacks by 5 feet for 1 round.
• Spray a stream of noxious filth at an adjacent target, forcing that creature to succeed on a Fortitude save (DC 22) or become sickened for 1 round.

Shifting (Su): A shifter can tap into her lycanthropic heritage to gain short bursts of physical power. Once per day, a shifter can enter a state that is superficially similar to a barbarian's rage. Each shifter has one of six shifter traits—characteristics that manifest themselves when a character is shifting. Each shifter trait provides a +2 bonus to one of the character's physical ability scores (Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution) and grants some other advantage as well. Shifter traits are described in the following section. Shifting is a free action and lasts for a number of rounds equal to 3 + the shifter's Con modifier. (If a shifter trait or other effect increases the character's Con modifier, use the newly improved modifier.) A shifter can take feats to improve this ability. These shifter feats are described in Chapter 3: Heroic Characteristics.
Every shifter feat a character takes increases the duration of shifting by 1 round. For every two shifter feats a character takes, the number of times per day she can tap into the ability increases by one. So, a character with two shifter feats can shift two times per day (instead of the usual one), and each use of the ability lasts for a number of rounds equal to 5 (instead of 3) + the shifter's Con modifier.
Shifting, though related to and developed from lycanthropy, is neither an affliction nor a curse. It is not passed on by bite or claw attacks, and a shifter can't be cured—shifting is a natural ability for the race.

Beasthide (Su): While shifting, a beasthide shifter gains a +2 bonus to Constitution and natural armor that provides a +2 bonus to AC.

Weretouched Wolverine (Su): While shifting, the weretouched master gains a +2 bonus to Constitution and manifests fangs that can be used as a natural weapon, dealing 1d6 points of damage, plus an additional + 1 for every four character levels he has, on a bite attack. If he already has the longtooth shifter trait or the Improved Natural Attack feat, his bite damage increases by one die size.






Karmos is a melee combatant that will use his maneuvers to the best of his abilities. Every round he will use Mark of Malbolge. On any round that he can’t harm another creature he may harm himself. So each round we can heal anywhere from 4-31 hit points simply by virtue of our fast healing and the Mark of Malbolge. While in the Alternate Form or shifting we have enough constitution to continuously use this tactic. In addition when employing the Martial Spirit Stance every time we hit a creature (including ourself) we may heal an ally for 2 points, or heal ourselves for 2 points*. As a masochist I believe we take advantage of our fast healing from Unholy Scion as well as our Mark of Malbolge. In addition we wield a one handed weapon specifically so that we may employ our claw attack during full attacks if we so desire to (usually if we need a bit of extra healing). We tanked our will saves due to not practicing them much; since we’re immune to mind affecting spells and effects. We ditched Stone Bones almost immediately since we have our own non stacking DR. While magic items are not needed for Karmos, we are not stuck to any particular weapon, and can employ any simple or martial melee weapon with the same efficiency, we could easily employ two handed weapons as well, albeit we’d have to forfeit our extra claw attack if we wished to do so, which is a potential unholy strike and a potential increase to our healing. As for normal magic items to desire, we would like 3 of the ability score enhancing items the most (charisma, constitution, and strength in no particular order). Karmos could be a leader of the hordes of devils, however we are best placed as a front unit to lead the charge and provide a form of tank. While in this role we would more than likely have Aura of Tyranny active as well as wield a shield and the heaviest armor we can get into with our alternate form. We would have a decent armor class from our armor + cha mod (which would most likely be enhanced), we would provide most of our own healing, and when backed by several hundred Legion Devils (like is often depicted in The Blood Wars) we could get some amazing healing going. As for our spell like abilities: Desecrate would be used before creating undead with our Animate Dead, which would be used for Leading the Charge, Rallying Strike, and Aura of Tyranny. Protection from Good and True Seeing would be good self buffs to ignore some effects that would be detrimental (such as displacement and invisibility), and we build on our True Seeing slightly with Scent, Tracking, and a decent survival mod. Finally we have Harm more often used as healing for an animated creature, and we have Unholy Aura which will be a powerful buff to use when at the forefront of a legion of legion devils.

*The Therapeutic Mantle is worded… strangely. It specifies that any healing spell or effect that targets Karmos has increased potency, and then states that the increased potency is specifically based on the spell level of the effect. This works fine for spells, however our martial spirit and crusader strike both are effects which target and heal, but are not spells and thus may not actually be increased. If you DM rules that all incoming healing is affected as well, remember that we heal at the end of our shifting due to Healing Factor, we heal each round from our Mark of Malbolge, we heal each round from our fast healing, see how these would be affected. My suggestion is to merely increase the healing by the maneuver level (for maneuvers and stances) and a flat two (because this is how much it increases by with essentia) for other effects.


Karmos had two mothers, one birth mother, and his true mother, Glasya. He lives to serve Glasya in whatever way she asks. Karmos was born with Glasya’s brand and the knowledge of what must be done. His mother was comely for a shifter, and was used to get in the good graces of a powerful shifter warrior. They eventually wed, and the shifter warrior against his better judgement trained Karmos once he was deemed “old” enough. Always Karmos had in mind to join Glasya. This took more time than Karmos deemed appropriate and he began to get antsy. By the age of 20 Karmos had begun to put his claws to work upon his own hide. Almost ritualistically copying his brand over and over again. Always careful to leave his actual brand alone. Always impatient and trying to hurry to do Glasya’s bidding whenever Karmos finds himself unable to comply immediately he begins the work of copying his brand, as if in repentance. And due to the rate that Karmos heals, he does so viciously. Often times ripping out the cancerous tumors that now riddle his skin, which are seen as blemishes compared to the many copies of his brand.

Finally he was united with Glasya who took a certain glee in Karmos’s masochism, and utter devotion. She would send him to do things that her other devils would be afraid to commit to, and he would do so with a lack of self regard. Often getting brutally injured in the process, yet always returning to Glasya, several dozen new brands upon himself, ready for more. She found in Karmos the masochist to her sadist. And she abuses him to the fullest.




Masochists are rarely at full hit points because they continually inflict wounds upon themselves. A masochist gets pleasure from feeling pain and sometimes can’t tell the two sensations apart. Masochists wear jewelry and devices that dig into their flesh with hooks and clamps, they flagellate themselves with whips and barbed wires, and they cut at their own bodies with knives and razors. When encountered, a masochist has typically lost 1d3×10% of his total hit points to self-inflicted wounds.
A masochist gains a +4 circumstance bonus on saving throws against pain effects (such as a symbol of pain). Furthermore, if he takes damage equal to his character level in a round, he gains a +1 circumstance bonus on attack and damage rolls, skill checks, and saving throws for the next round. Masochists often grin with a sickening glee when struck in combat, and they make noises of ecstasy even as they suffer terrible wounds.

Self-Mutilation: Like masochists, self-mutilators are fascinated by harming themselves. But the pain isn’t important to a self-mutilator; it’s the alteration and destruction of his own flesh that fascinates him. Such characters turn the destruction of their own bodies into a twisted sort of art, so they are often covered in patterned scars. Sometimes this ritual scarification is part of a religious ritual, but it’s just as often self-inflicted for no other reason than a character’s own sick and twisted desires.
Not all self-mutilators are motivated by masochism or art. Some insert useful mundane or magic items into their flesh. Tiny objects such as keys can be hidden not only in body cavities, but also under the skin, thrust into self-inflicted wounds. In some cases, a subdermal pouch forms when such a wound heals around an object. Tattooing can further disguise the scars of such insertions.
A self-mutilator always has 1d3–1×10% fewer hit points than his or her normal maximum when encountered. Like a masochist, a self-mutilator gains a +4 circumstance bonus on any saving throw against pain effects.
Finally, a self-mutilator can choose to reduce his or her hit point total by 10 points permanently to cover his or her body in scabs and scars. This process toughens the flesh, granting the character a +1 natural armor bonus.
I have not included any of these benefits in the stat block, however Karmos would more than likely qualify for them.



Unholy Scion: Heroes of Horror
Shifter and shifter feats: Eberron Campaign Setting and Races of Eberron
Crusader, maneuvers, and stances: Tome of Battle
Brand of the Nine Hells and Mark of Malbolge: Fiendish Codex 2
Weretouched Master Master: Eberron Campaign Setting
Pain Mastery: Savage Species
Shape Soulmeld: Magic of Incarnum
Celestial Slayer: Exemplars of Evil

[Macabaret]

War Child
http://bit.ly/2VC4hwc
"I am the child of war. And all war is fought with deception."

“I was born of war. I don’t refer to my Father, master strategist and tactician that he is. No, my war was far more personal, far more… pure, if you will. One mortal soul, pitted against the corruptive power of the Nine Hells. Needless to say, the latter’s conquest of the former was rather absolute, and so I was born for the first time. I don’t remember much of that life, to be honest, though I get the distinct impression I did things rather differently back then.”


The Nine Hells had a new Black Knight. Clad in darkness, armed with fear, he strode through Creation with destruction as his wake. Though a natural leader in his own right, he found purpose in his devotion to his Father, Bel the Strategist. Wherever Bel commanded, the Black Knight led the charge. Without hesitation, he headed legions of devils against hordes of demons. Without hesitation, he led quests to retrieve artifacts of power from other planes. Without hesitation, he executed anyone or anything his Father declared a threat.


“I do remember what laid me low. It was Love, of course. One of the only forces in Creation that cares not for creed, ethos, or even power. Call it cruel, call it brutal, call it unfair; it’s undeniable that Creation would be less worth living in without it.”


It was on a quest to the Material Plane that the Black Knight first met him. The White Knight was defending a city that the Black had besieged, but by chance or twist of Fate was rendered unconscious rather than mortally wounded when the walls fell. More, he was the only surviving captive of sufficient rank to possess the knowledge Bel desired. Normally, the Black Knight would rely on fear to extract useful information from such a prisoner, but stymied by his counterpart’s divine courage, he instead agreed to an exchange of questions and the paladin’s freedom as balance for the information he sought. Confident that his counterpart lacked the knowledge to even ask harmful questions, the Black Knight had been sure that he had the best of the deal, but the White Knight’s questions centered not about tactics or strategy, but philosophy and meaning, and he was intrigued despite himself. Unlike his Father and his ilk, the Black Knight was not bound by his nature to honor deals or oaths, though he generally found the structure of Law superior to the anarchy of Chaos. He knew that he could, and probably should, renege on his deal and execute the captive White Knight. Nonetheless, for reasons he didn’t fully understand, he kept his word and freed him instead.


“My memories of how it all unfolded are, of course, vague at best – but it’s not too tricky to guess at the shape of things. I spared him, so later he spared me, and over the years Fate kept throwing us together, mostly on opposite sides, but occasionally forced to work together. Over time, I doubtless developed respect for him, which grew into admiration, which in turn grew into something more. I’d like to think I was unaware of these feelings, because that would make the incident that brought it all crashing down on our heads, the incident that to this day remains burned into my memory as though by a brand… if not forgivable, at least a little more understandable.”


The White Knight stood, beaten and bloody, his armor a useless raiment of scraps, but defiant still. The last defense between the fiendish army and the power they sought. The Black Knight strode forward to meet him; a picture of health and strength, his armor barely even scratched by the fighting so far.

“Come to tender your surrender?” the White Knight asked, wheezing. “I’ll give you the usual terms.”

The Black Knight laughed, genuinely amused. “No offense, but you look like Death warmed over. Come now, we both know how this goes; your army is routed, your allies fled, and you yourself are on your last legs. Might as well give up now, and save the embarrassment of losing to me again.”

“You know I can’t do that.”

“Very well,” the Black Knight replied, unwilling to admit how much he admired his counterpart’s unwavering devotion. A flick of his great sword disarmed his rival, another to the side of his head disoriented him, and in a matter of seconds the White Knight was on the ground with the Black’s boot upon his chest. “This round goes to me. I’ll have your usual cell prepared; I don’t know what the chefs have planned for tonight, but I can check if you like once I’ve retrieved that gauntlet –”

What are you doing? his Father’s voice had boomed inside his head.

“Just wrapping things up here, sir. The forces of Good have been bested; the prize is ours. As for the paladin… he has answers, and I have questions. He’s too honorable to go back on the terms of a surrender, once given and accepted, so there is little risk in holding him –”

No. Our campaign in the Material realm is complete; we have no further need for tactical intelligence. Execute him.

The Black Knight blinked. And without hesitation, he cleaved the White Knight’s head from his shoulders.

The question I’m sure all of my fellow crafters have run into: what does Unholy Scion do that Half-Fiend doesn’t do for one less LA? Slightly better ability scores; always nice. Familial Bond and the fact that the baby is fully intelligent inside its mother; I came up with what I think is a fairly clever use for the former, but making use of the second would leave me rather pigeonholed for available builds. So we turn to the fluff. And we find that despite their status as Outsiders, Unholy Scions explicitly have a mortal soul buried under all that corruption. Now that has potential, oh yes indeed. And so War Child is built around a story, a story that simply wouldn’t be the same with anything other than Unholy Scion.

“I struck down my Love for no better reason than blind obedience. For this Sin alone I felt true repentance, and though I cannot recall the trial, I know that for this Sin alone I was granted a second chance. Who says Good is incapable of cruelty?”


The Black Knight was in agony. A pain beyond his powers to ignore, a pain he could not quench with might divine or arcane, a pain that time refused to dull, instead growing more sharp and vicious with every passing hour. Having lived a life of Evil, he had no context for this agony, no experience to help him cope with the Death of his Love. And so when the White Knight’s allies and friends found him, bent on vengeance, he did not even fight back, instead embracing the only surcease he could imagine. Death came.


The dark and twisted soul of the Black Knight was bound for the Nine Hells when it was intercepted.

“Even in Death, shall I find no peace? What do you want, Angels?” He sneered. “Come to jeer?”

A valid question. Why are we here, brothers? Surely this soul is beyond redemption, and to destroy it before it is reforged into a fresh devil would violate the Order of things. The first of the three Angels looked upon the entirety of the Black Knight, and was not impressed.

The blinding light that was the second Angel turned to the first, chiding it. Suffused with the essence of Evil as it is, his soul is yet mortal, and a mortal soul is never beyond redemption.

The third Angel, the strongest of the three lights, ignored its brethren, moving forward to shine before the Black Knight. You are asking the wrong question, lost soul. For what transpires here, our desires depend on yours. What is it that you want?

In the face of that scouring light, his defiance collapsed, leaving only the misery again. He sighed, a bitter sound, and his voice turned wistful. “What do I want? I wish I could have done things differently. I wish I could make things right. But those paths are barred to me, so I will settle for mere oblivion. That is as close to making amends with him as I can come.”

The first Angel spoke. That is extremely weak repentance, and only for one of his sins. The rest are innumerable, and demand RETRIBUTION.

The second responded. But it is repentance, and deserving of a chance to grow. We should show MERCY.

Both turned to the third. The Black Knight stirred. “Wait, what are you –”

I have heard and weighed your arguments. As for my own, this soul has been denied choice by the machinations of the Nine Hells. It is meet that we should restore that right. Hear now my ruling! As punishment for his Sin we will brand his soul with its memory. In honor of his repentance we will bestow upon him a second chance. In the name of FAIRNESS we will grant him rebirth. This is our will. This is JUSTICE.

And the individual that used to be the Black Knight screamed as his soul once more became a battleground.


“And so once more I was born of war. And once more the darkness within me triumphed. But this time… oh, this time its victory was not so complete. Evil I remain, but I will have my redemption, I will have the choice I was denied, even if I have to trick the whole of my Father’s court, even if I have to pry it from his cold, dead chest, even if I have to deceive and outmaneuver the entirety of the Nine Hells!

“And you, Mother Dearest, are going to help me do it.”


War Child
LE→LN→LG Medium Outsider (Evil, hellbred, native)
Unholy Scion Hellbred (spirit) Mountebank 6/ Marshal 1/ Warlock 1/ Master of Masks 2/ Legacy Champion 5 (Master of Masks +2/ Mountebank +2)


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


6th
Mountebank 1
+0
+0
+2
+0
Bluff 4, Diplomacy 4, Disguise 4, Gather Information 4, Forgery 4, Intimidate 4, Knowledge (history) 2, Perform (acting) 2, Profession (bureaucrat) 2, Sense Motive 4
Brand of the Nine Hells (Bel), Devil’s Favor (B)
Beguiling Stare, Bonus Language (Abyssal), Hellbred (aspect of spirit) traits, Mark of Damnation, Trapfinding, Unholy Scion traits, charm person 3/day


7th
Marshal 1
+0
+2
+2
+2
Bluff 5, Diplomacy 5, Disguise 5, Gather Information 4, Forgery 4, Intimidate 4, Knowledge (history) 3, Perform (acting) 4, Profession (bureaucrat) 2, Sense Motive 4, Assume Quirk (ST)
Skill Focus (diplomacy) (B)
Minor Aura (Motivate Charisma), Skill Focus (diplomacy)


8th
Warlock 1
+0
+2
+2
+4
Bluff 6, Diplomacy 6, Disguise 5, Gather Information 4, Forgery 5, Intimidate 4, Knowledge (history) 3, Perform (acting) 5, Profession (bureaucrat) 3, Sense Motive 5, Assume Quirk (ST)
Mark of Avernus (greatsword)
Eldritch Blast 1d6, Least Invocation (Beguiling Influence), desecrate 1/day


9th
Mountebank 2
+1
+2
+3
+4
Bluff 7, Diplomacy 7, Disguise 5, Gather Information 5, Forgery 6, Intimidate 5, Knowledge (history) 4, Perform (acting) 5, Profession (bureaucrat) 4, Sense Motive 6, Assume Quirk (ST)

Deceptive Attack +1d6


10th
Mountebank 3
+2
+3
+3
+5
Bluff 8, Diplomacy 8, Disguise 7, Gather Information 5, Forgery 7, Intimidate 5, Knowledge (history) 4, Perform (acting) 6, Profession (bureaucrat) 4, Sense Motive 7, Assume Quirk (ST), Social Recovery (ST)
Least Legacy (B)
Infernal Patron, Mass Beguile, enervation 1/day, protection from good 3.day


11th
Mountebank 4
+3
+3
+4
+5
Bluff 9, Diplomacy 9, Disguise 8, Gather Information 5, Forgery 7, Intimidate 5, Knowledge (history) 4, Perform (acting) 7, Profession (bureaucrat) 4, Sense Motive 8, Assume Quirk (ST), Social Recovery (ST)
Combat Expertise
Infernal Guise


12th
Mountebank 5
+3
+3
+4
+5
Bluff 10, Diplomacy 10, Disguise 8, Gather Information 7, Forgery 8, Intimidate 5, Knowledge (history) 4, Perform (acting) 8, Profession (bureaucrat) 5, Sense Motive 9, Assume Quirk (ST), Social Recovery (ST)

Disguise the Souls Aspect, major image 3/day, poison 3/day


13th
Mountebank 6
+4
+4
+5
+6
Bluff 11, Diplomacy 11, Disguise 9, Gather Information 9, Forgery 8, Intimidate 6, Knowledge (history) 4, Perform (acting) 8, Profession (bureaucrat) 6, Sense Motive 11, Assume Quirk (ST), Social Recovery (ST)

Deceptive Attack +2d6


14th
Master of Masks 1
+4
+4
+7
+8
Bluff 12, Diplomacy 11, Disguise 11, Gather Information 9, Forgery 11, Intimidate 6, Knowledge (history) 4, Perform (acting) 8, Profession (bureaucrat) 6, Sense Motive 11, Assume Quirk (ST), Social Recovery (ST)
Improved Feint
Persona Masks (Assassin, Lord), baleful polymorph 1/day, dominate person 1/day, 120ft darkvision


15th
Master of Masks 2
+5
+4
+8
+9
Bluff 13, Diplomacy 11, Disguise 12, Gather Information 9, Forgery 12, Intimidate 6, Knowledge (history) 5, Perform (acting) 8, Profession (bureaucrat) 6, Sense Motive 11, Assume Quirk (ST), Second Impression (ST), Social Recovery (ST)

Least Invocation (Hideous Blow), Persona Masks (Angel)


16th
Legacy Champion 1
+5
+4
+8
+11
Bluff 14, Diplomacy 13, Disguise 13, Gather Information 10, Forgery 13, Intimidate 6, Knowledge (history) 5, Perform (acting) 8, Profession (bureaucrat) 6, Sense Motive 13, Assume Quirk (ST), Second Impression (ST), Social Recovery (ST)
Lesser Legacy (B)
Bond of Lore, Reduced Ritual Cost (lesser), animate dead 1/day, true seeing 3/day


17th
Legacy Champion (Master of Masks) 2
+6
+4
+8
+12
Bluff 15, Diplomacy 14, Disguise 14, Gather Information 11, Forgery 14, Intimidate 6, Knowledge (history) 5, Perform (acting) 8, Profession (bureaucrat) 6, Sense Motive 14, Assume Quirk (ST), Group Fake-Out (ST), Second Impression (ST), Social Recovery (ST)
Shape Soulmeld (Silvertongue Mask)
Mask Specialist, Persona Masks (High Priest), Replace Legacy Ability (Skill Enhancement +5 (bluff) → Skill Enhancement +5 (disguise)), see in darkness


18th
Legacy Champion (Master of Masks) 3
+7
+5
+9
+12
Bluff 16, Diplomacy 15, Disguise 15, Gather Information 12, Forgery 15, Intimidate 6, Knowledge (history) 6, Perform (acting) 8, Profession (bureaucrat) 7, Sense Motive 15, Assume Quirk (ST), Group Fake-Out (ST), Second Impression (ST), Social Recovery (ST)

Eldritch Blast 2d6, Extra Legacy Ability Use (whispering wind), unhallow 1/day, unholy aura 3/day


19th
Legacy Champion (Mountebank) 4
+8
+5
+9
+13
Bluff 17, Diplomacy 16, Disguise 16, Gather Information 13, Forgery 16, Intimidate 6, Knowledge (history) 6, Perform (acting) 8, Profession (bureaucrat) 7, Sense Motive 16, Assume Quirk (ST), Group Fake-Out (ST), Second Impression (ST), Social Recovery (ST)
Channel Legacy (Whispering Wind) (B)
Bonus Legacy Feat


20th
Legacy Champion (Mountebank) 5
+8
+5
+9
+13
Bluff 18, Diplomacy 17, Disguise 17, Gather Information 15, Forgery 17, Intimidate 6, Knowledge (history) 6, Perform (acting) 8, Profession (bureaucrat) 8, Sense Motive 17, Assume Quirk (ST), Group Fake-Out (ST), Second Impression (ST), Social Recovery (ST)
Bonus Essentia
Replace Legacy Ability (Ability Enhancement +2 (CHA) → Skill Enhancement +5 (sense motive), harm 1/day, 100ft telepathy



Ability Scores


ECL
STR
DEX
CON
INT
WIS
CHA


0
15
8
12
12
8
18


6
15
10
10
18
8
24


9
15
10
10
18
8
25


12
15
10
10
18
8
27


13
15
10
10
18
8
28


17
16
10
10
18
8
28


20
16
10
10
18
8
30



Birthright (Weapon of Legacy)
Cold Iron Greatsword/Masquerade Mask
Omen: constantly drips black fluid (ink)


ECL
Attack Penalty
Skill Check Penalty
Hit Point Loss
Skill Point Loss
Benefits (Menu)


10th




Skill Enhancement +5 (bluff) (A)


11th


2
4



12th
-1



Ability Enhancement +2 (CHA) (B)


13th

-1





14th



2
whispering wind 3/day (B)


15th


2

Creature Compass (Outsider (Evil)) (A)


16th







17th



2
Skill Enhancement +10 (bluff) (E), Skill Enhancement +5 (disguise) (A)


18th
-2



Masquerade Mask Morph (D?)


19th


2




20th



2
Ability Enhancement +4 (CHA) (E), Skill Enhancement +5 (sense motive) (A)


The first decade was hard for the newly reborn War Child. Nearly powerless, lacking in experience, and having earned the suspicion of Bel thanks to the method of his rebirth, he came very close to an early end on too many occasions to name. He survived thanks to three factors.

First, Bel was paranoid. He suspected everyone, at all times. And because he suspected everyone, killing anyone he was suspicious of was not an option. Even if he had the power for that, he wanted to rule over a realm, not an empty graveyard.

Second, returning as a Hellbred wiped War Child’s memories, and the unholy taint that was his curse kept him genuinely Evil. Combined with a certain willful ignorance as far as putting the pieces together – born of a keen survival instinct – this allowed him to pass all the tests and analyses Bel put him through to prove his devotion.

Thirdly, power is always available for a price in the Nine Hells. His fellow devils assumed his new preference for borrowed power was born of desperation, a mad scramble to regain the power he had previously earned through study and training. They were only half right. War Child traded long-term debt for easy power because he didn’t have time to grow through hard work. He was too busy learning the system of Hell… and learning to game that system.


The first five levels are going to be rough for any Unholy Scion. Less HP, less class features, lower BAB…. War Child compensates by going the social route instead. The already high Charisma from Unholy Scion is doubled by the Motivate Charisma minor aura, and Warlock gives us an additional +6 to most of them, making our social skills on par with anything of the same ECL but a dedicated diplomancer by just level 3. Mountebank, in addition to being flavorful as Hell, lets us put that to use in combat with Deceitful Strike. Warlock is equally flavorful, and gives us a ranged option. Marshal is the odd-man out as far as flavor, representing his role as a leader as well as his role as a social specialist.

War Child may not be able to boost his army directly like a true support character, but thanks to his skill at logistics they’ll always be properly armed and in the right place at the right time, which is far more important. He can also use his high diplomacy and bluff to improve morale, and both provide a synergy bonus to rally checks (though you may only get one +2 bonus, not one for each; the wording is weird).

Back to individual combat. Beguiling Stare is a nice ability for keeping out of the fray while still helping allies against the opponent. Using bluff to feint also lets you use Deceptive Attack, but doesn’t help out allies. Mass Beguile is even better, but limited uses mean this is best used on the first round only for typical fights. Follow that up with an attack or Eldritch Blast as an immediate action, courtesy of Mark of Avernus. On later rounds, make the best of your single attack by reading an action to attack to get the +4 to attack and damage from Mark of Avernus. As the trigger, you might be able to get as simple as “I ready an action to attack on the next initiative count” (this is essentially very similar to feinting, attacking when the opponent isn’t expecting it), but you might have to make the trigger an ally’s actions (and if you’re part of an army, you’ll have a lot to choose from).

“Hello, hello. Can you hear me Mother? Testing, testing, one two three.”

Ah, there it was. Now he could hear his voice through his Mother’s ears; apparently it just took a few moments for the whispering wind to deliver the message. Now he just had to decide what to say. After a moment’s hesitation, he decided to stick with the simplest of the messages he had planned.

“First, I’m sorry. I can’t remember much of my first life, but if I treated you anything like my other love you deserve an apology.”

“I’ll try to make it up to you, I swear, but for now I need you to keep this conversation and my existence secret.”

He switched back to his own perspective, wincing, as she started to explain that there was nothing to forgive. Magically compelled forgiveness was no forgiveness at all, and hearing it only made him feel worse.

The novelty of his increased capacity for guilt was rapidly losing its luster.

Getting his hands on a magical atonement had been a tricky bit of improvisation, but it held far less risk of blowing his cover than changing his personality gradually through observable deeds. His patrol had stumbled across a group of adventurers on a particularly ill conceived foray into Avernus. They killed almost all of them, but since he was fighting the cleric, he just knocked her out and told the others she was dead. Dumped the bodies into the flesh-eating tapir caves for disposal, then went back a few days later after setting up a solid alibi for himself. Once he managed to coax her out of her hiding place, it was a simple matter to trade an atonement for a clear route to the nearest portal.

He’d already arranged for the holes in the patrol patterns necessary to make that happen. Some forged orders and one favor called in (well, someone else’s favor, but he was disguised as them so the favor granter was none the wiser) was enough. He’d pulled similar stunts several times already, and so far no one had even noticed. Still, even though forgery went against the strict Lawful nature of devils (while he played with a more flexible definition), it was only a matter of time before someone caught on to one of his schemes and called in an outside expert. Just in case this turned out to be that scheme, he’d left false paper trails leading back to three of his rivals who had weak alibis for the period. And then another, much subtler paper trail connecting those false leads to a fourth rival. He’d also set up a fifth rival to have a suspiciously strong alibi, as if they had been trying to cover something up, just to be on the safe side.

He was distracting himself. He needed his mother to make contact with the forces of Good, to feed them information. Getting her to them undetected should be simple enough; he could direct her to disguise herself and even use his shape altering ability through her to make her almost unrecognizable. Coming up with useful information that wouldn’t cast suspicion on to him – when it inevitably became obvious that those crusaders were getting insider intel – should be equally easy, using his connection to the bureaucracy of Avernus, his web of contacts, and his many fake identities that could take the fall in his place (‘fleeing’ suspiciously rather than being executed, obviously) should things go truly wrong. Convincing anyone that he was being honest about trying to help them… now that was a task he wasn’t looking forward to. Even for a man of his skills, there is only so much one could do when limited to seventy five words a day.


Now things are starting to get interesting. I’ve always wanted to create a character that used a Weapon of Legacy, but the penalties are so harsh… unless you’re going for a skill-based character. A few lost HP, attack bonus, skill points, and even a slight penalty to skill checks isn’t that bad a price to pay for the tricks a custom Legacy Item lets us pull. Right off the bat, we’ve got +5 to bluff checks, followed by a +2 to Cha, followed by the ability to use whispering wind as an SLA 3/day… which we can use through Familial Charm to pass information undetectably to the Material Plane. You can also use it on the battlefield to pass messages quickly. We also get the ability to detect [Evil] outsiders as a standard action, and automatically bypass their damage resistances. The weapon itself is of course the cold iron greatsword we get from Brand of the Nine Hells (Bel), named Birthright because a) it comes from his Father and b) the legacy it’s forging is of his quest for the right to choose his own destiny, which he sees as his true birthright as a mortal(ish). The blade constantly drips a mysterious black fluid, which most assume is some type of blood. In a way, they’re right: it’s ink, the lifeblood of any bureaucracy.

Master of Masks also gives us some cool stuff, but the most important is the Assassin’s Mask, which automatically and without fail fools any attempt to discern War Child’s alignment (makes him appear LE), keeping his shift away from evil secret (Mountebank’s Disguise the Soul’s Aspect is less likely to succeed, but a good fallback option). The other masks provide plausible deniability should he be detected as anything else. “No, it’s this Angel mask that made me seem LG/this Lord mask that made me seem LN; I’m still very evil” combined with his absurd bonuses to bluff should be more than enough to deflect any suspicion. Conveniently, the Assassin’s Mask also works best with our single-strike combat style, which also comes fully online in this level bracket, as Improved Feint lets us feint as a move action and then ready an action to attack for Sneak Attack, Deceptive Attack, +4 to attack and damage from Mark of Avernus, and now Eldritch Blast damage as well from Hideous Blow. Not especially impressive damage, but certainly enough to contribute meaningfully. Don’t forget that Hideous Blow can also be used as an immediate action once per encounter, courtesy of Mark of Avernus.

Finally, let’s talk skills. Diplomacy is well known to be broken; assuming no house rules, this is all you need to win the game. Obviously there are going to be house rules, but I can’t really anticipate what they’ll be, so the advice I can provide here is limited. If we assume a diplomacy nerf, bluff becomes king, and that’s where War Child is investing most heavily. Convince devils your on their side; trick anyone into believing what you want them to as a method of influencing their actions; outmaneuver foes in combat; bluff can do all that and more. We’ve also got quite a few ranks in disguise, with a few skill tricks to improve our odds. In addition to the obvious use of impersonating people/devils, these, along with bluff, can be used to set up false identities as a cover for your actions. Forgeries are spotted with a contested forgery check, but almost all devils lack any ranks in forgery (and thus don’t have it as a class skill), including Bel; Harvester Devils have a decent bonus, and Mammon has a huge one (but what are you doing in his circle anyway?), and there’s a side bar mentioning that secret police devils should have at least 5 ranks. Aside from that, though, you’ve got free reign to deceive almost every devil in Avernus. Lastly, you’ve got several ranks in Profession (bureaucrat) for navigating a literal bureaucracy from hell.

But wait, I hear you ask. How can War Child change away from LE and retain his feats and class features? The second one’s the simplest; Mountebank has no clause for losing your powers if you’re no longer evil. Continuing to take levels in the class would be sketchy, but we bypass that neatly by progressing it with Legacy Champion instead. Likewise Warlock (except progressed with Master of Masks). As for Brand of the Nine Hells, that’s a little more questionable, but War Child has the [Evil] subtype, which means he counts as evil “for all effects”. ‘Effect’ is an undefined term in 3.5 (the closest we get is the infamous FAQ definition of “condition” that is inclusive enough it lets Warblades use Iron Heart Surge to shut off the sun), but I don’t think a feat that represents a literal magical brand is stretching the RAI too far.

I once suggested that ink was the lifeblood of Avernus, through the bureaucracy that governs almost every aspect of its denizens. Taking that analogy one step forward, I am the bloodborne infection within the veins, constantly spreading, growing stronger, and rooting myself ever deeper. And I just reached critical mass. This disease is entering its terminal stage.

Bel’s paranoia, dutifully stoked by yours truly, has finally grown beyond control. Random summary executions of his vassals has pushed them into action (some of the ‘executions’ were actually me. So were some of the devils being ‘executed’. The only thing better for causing fear than random executions is more random executions). The conspiracy dedicated to his overthrow will strike tonight, and they are numerous enough that victory is inevitable (I should know; I’m the one who got most of them organized). A carefully sown web of secret truths, exaggerations, and the occasional outright lie has ensured that the conspiracy will fracture immediately thereafter, its most prominent members turning on each other in an attempt to claim sole power over Avernus. Envoys (read “me in disguise, being my usual manipulative self”) to the movers and shakers of the other Hells should be enough to get several of them involved as well, further complicating the matter. And of course, the Demons will strike the second they smell weakness in the realm that has so long held them at bay.

The plan is to keep the civil war going until there’s nothing left worth fighting over. Even should someone manage to claim Archdevil status, there’s no way they’ll accomplish it without engendering festering hatred in all of their rivals. Another conspiracy, hired assassins, or simply pointing the Demons at crucial locations should be more than enough to ensure any of Bel’s successors share his fate. And with each battle, each coup, each treachery, the hatred and distrust will take root even deeper.

Under my careful hand, Avernus isn’t simply going to fall. It’s going to eat itself alive. It may take a few decades before the work is truly done, but I’ve got nothing but time. And after it’s over? When there’s naught left of one of the Nine Hells’ strongest bastions but rubble, bones, and roving bands of demons and devils scrabbling for scraps among the ashes? Well, I’ve got a specific grave to track down, and a long overdue apology to make.


The only rules sketching thing in this bracket is a custom legacy ability. The book encourages creating your own abilities, so I gave Birthright the ability to transform into a mask. I figured that that’s comparable to both the Steed ability (turn into a horse, lose all other abilities in horse shape, list A) and the Aptitude weapon quality (+1 equivalent, counts as other weapons for feats and such, list D). The former changes shape and grants new capabilities at the expense of the old ones; for the latter, transferring the item to a different item slot seems vaguely similar in terms of broadening applicability. Both take one level slot, so I erred on the side of caution and made it a D list ability. This allows Birthright to benefit from Mask Specialist, granting an extra +2 to all the skill bonuses it grants (at ECL 20 that’s bluff +12, disguise +7, and sense motive +7).

Speaking of Mask Specialist, it also benefits Silvertongue Mask, acquired via Shape Soulmeld and charged with Bonus Essentia (because it’s not bound to the chakra, it can be used alongside other magic masks).

Infernal Defense lets you use displacement; a nice defensive power a couple of times per day.

Legacy Champion, in addition to advancing other classes’ class features, gives us a couple of legacy item related perks. Channel Legacy lets you burn all 4 daily uses of whispering wind for a +2 bonus on attacks, saves, and skill/ability checks that lasts a round. Not great, but a nice option to have in your back pocket, especially since it’s a free feat. More significantly, it lets us swap two of our legacy abilities once we get a superior version of them, giving us +5 to both disguise and sense motive essentially for free. It also gives us an extra use of whispering wind, which makes passing information using that SLA a bit easier.


Complete Arcane – Warlock. Beguiling Influence, Hideous Blow.
Complete Scoundrel – Master of Masks. Skill tricks.
Dragon Compendium – Mountebank.
Fiend Folio II – Hellbred. Brand of the Nine Hells, Mark of Avernus.
Heroes of Horror – Unholy Scion.
Magic of Incarnum – Bonus Essentia, Shape Soulemeld. Silvertongue Mask.
Miniatures Handbook – Marshal.
SRD – Combat Expertise, Improved Feint.
Weapons of Legacy – Legacy Champion. Channel Legacy, Least Legacy, Lesser Legacy. Custom legacy item creation rules.

[Macabaret]

That's all I have in my inbox, folks.

Four entries for this round, which is, incidentally, one more than we had for the round using the Saint template. You may, of course, feel free to draw your own conclusions about what that says concerning the moral health of the Playground. :smalleek:

[jdizzlean]

my thought waS to go savage bard 5, ur priest 10, which seemed like the obvious route. i'm surprised to see a build w/ heavy investment in truenamer! a quick glance shows 4 completely different builds, have to look into them more significantly later. i can't judge this round, i have a trainee at work, and all my days off for the next several weeks are spoken for :(

[weckar]

My weird as hell RAW-bending thought was to design a character still in the womb, and find as many abilities as possible that did not care about that.

[Thurbane]

Congrats everyone.

I am, quite frankly, stunned there was no Fiend of Possession builds! :smalleek: I kind of wish I had put my entry in now.

Once I'm done with my Villainous Competition entry, I'll see if I can find time to judge.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Interesting that Warlock was avoided like the plague, probably because it was too obvious. Only one build used it, and that only for a single level.

And Weretouched Master! Now that's an ingredient you don't often see.

[Gauntlet]

I tried to get something together but didn't have anything I was happy with in the end.

Considered the Levistus allegiance stuff on a Factotum / Iaijutsu Master, using ice effects to render opponents flat footed for iaijutsu and Mark of Stygia.

Also messed about with repeatedly gaining and losing HD to refresh / gain access to new SLAs via the template, but couldn't find any data on whether losing and then regaining a level causes HD to refresh or not. Possibly part of the same build above - quick drawing and then sheathing a Gnome Quickblade with the appropriate enchantment to free action lose + regain abilities on demand. Sadly you can't use Inspire Greatness for the same effect, because you're immune to mind-affecting (and turning yourself undead in order to be able to bypass that restriction with a feat is quite awkward).



Couple other bits I bounced around:

- Artificer, since you have access to a permanently charmed ally, you can sacrifice them for Dark Craft XP / gold and immediately resurrect them and they're likely to be 'willing'. Making a profit is tough though - I could just about get to a point where sacrificing and then resurrecting mom was profitable in terms of craft XP and gold with a lot of investment, but you can only use one Dark Craft xp and gold bundle on any one item, so you're not actually able to make anything particularly impactful with it.

- Messed with a psionic character, because Psychic Reformation lets you give mom a feat of your choice and then use Feat Leech or Fusion to gain access to that feat yourself, but Fusion requires you to share a type and Feat Leech doesn't have many upsides over just doing it on a psicrystal. Getting mom enough XP to pay for Reformation is also awkward.

[Quentinas]

I was thinking to do :
A Knight lockdown build with two different setups : First using mark of maladomini to put the enemy to do a check that is not easy, second using mark of nessus and the taunt from the knight to put the enemy in the condition that they can'attack me, and they can't attack anyone else.
I had an idea for a barbarian or a scout ranger (the first who would have changed alignment) who used mark of minauros to gain a big boost to the charge while doing damage
And i have an idea about a character who could dominate to combine that with mark of nessus especially if it was a wizard so i could use necromancy spell with unholy scion.
But i did not have time so no build for me :(
There is someone who is judging ? If it is not i can try to judge this round

[Sian]

I were considering a character built around Mark of Phlegethos, trying the argument that harming yourself is a free action, using the reasoning that Blood Magus and Tainted Scholar can do it as part of their spellcasting

[Macabaret]

Once I'm done with my Villainous Competition entry, I'll see if I can find time to judge.



There is someone who is judging ? If it is not i can try to judge this round

Your offers to judge are both appreciated. As are any other offers of same that may appear in the future. (What I'm saying here is that you can never have too many judges, so if anyone else is also interested, feel free to join in!)

[Thurbane]

Your offers to judge are both appreciated. As are any other offers of same that may appear in the future. (What I'm saying here is that you can never have too many judges, so if anyone else is also interested, feel free to join in!)

Since I'm resigned to the fact I won't be getting a VC entry in, I'll make some time to judge. There are some subsystems involved that I'm not overly familiar with, so I'll need to do some research. Rough ETA at this stage would be "by the weekend".

[pabelfly]

Since I'm resigned to the fact I won't be getting a VC entry in, I'll make some time to judge. There are some subsystems involved that I'm not overly familiar with, so I'll need to do some research. Rough ETA at this stage would be "by the weekend".

Thank you for your time as a judge. I, and I'm sure everyone else who's entered appreciates it too.

[Thurbane]

Just an update: haven't had as much spare time as I had hoped: new ETA is in the next 24-48 hours.

[Thurbane]

Sorry if judging isn’t as detailed or thorough as I had first hoped, but my down time was more limited than I had expected.

I just want to say that I did enjoy all of the entries, and any negative comments are meant in the context of judging only.

All categories start at a base of 3.0, modified upwards or downwards from there. I’m happy to listen to disputes (within reason).


Avernia [16.5]
Originality: Vashran - nice touch. Truenamer was also not expected. [4.0]
Power: This is a difficult one for me. Utterances are not something I’ve ever been overly familiar with. Your write-up does a good job of breaking everything down for me, so that is definitely appreciated. If I’m reading everything correctly, you have some pretty useful and powerful tricks to pull off. [4.0]
Elegance: Base class 14 + paragon dip 1. Very elegant. There is some reliance on gear, but that is to be expected of any Truenamer. [4.0]
Use of Components: I feel like this entry made good use of the required feat and template: I never would have thought of Truenamer for SLAs, but it seems to work well. [4.5]


Bolgara the Young [13.0]
Originality: Human, Factotum, Marshal, Ur-Priest and Contemplative aren’t overly unusual, but didn’t expect to see all in one build. FoC was a nice addition, and thematic. [3.5]
Power: 8th level cleric spells are not to be sneezed at. I’m not really seeing the full benefits of what Factotum (+ Able Learner for skills?), Marshal and FoC are bringing here: a CR breakdown or tactics guide would have helped me here. Still, 8th level spells are 8th level spells. [4.0]
Elegance: I can’t help but feel Ur-Priest is at odds with Contemplative – a little more backstory or flavour text would have helped me be more OK with this. Also, with the dips going on, the build feels a little convoluted. [2.5]
Use of Components: Aside from FoC, I feel like this build is mostly succeeding in spite of the ingredients, rather than utilising them. Not enough to draw a penalty though. [3.0]


Karmos The Lawful [14.5]
Originality: Was not expecting a Shifter; same for Weretouched Master. I also dig that this is primarily a melee build. [4.0]
Power: With melee being the main schtick, this build might not have the RAW power of casters or SLA focused builds, but I think it is a more-than-competent combatant. [3.5]
Elegance: Base class 9, dip 1, PrC 5 – all relatively elegant IMHO. As far as I can see, everything is legal and reqs met. [4.0]
Use of Components: I can’t help but feel this build functions pretty independently of the ingredients, but I’m not going to impose a penalty. [3.0]


War Child [14.0]
Originality: Hellbred, Mountebank, Master of Masks? Love it. [4.5]
Power: This is a decent skill monkey with a lot of side tricks going on, but I feel it lacks the raw power of some of the other entries. Not bonuses, no penalties. [3.0]
Elegance: There’s dips there, but not enough to draw a penalty. My real issue here is the alignment change. I mean, I love it as a concept (I have a real soft spot for Hellbred seeking redemption), but in this particular comp? Colour me dubious. Also, how it interacts with the various classes with alignment restrictions? I mean, I know you address this, but I’m still not entirely convinced. Lets call it a wash. [3.0]
Use of Components: Mechanically, some of the other entries may use the components more efficiently, but this entry is dripping with backstory and flavour. [3.5]

[Macabaret]

Thank you, Thurbane. Your time and efforts in this are much appreciated! I haven't (yet) received any disputes (which I can only assume means you've offered up perfect judgements). But we'll see what the future may hold....

[Thurbane]

Thank you, Thurbane. Your time and efforts in this are much appreciated! I haven't (yet) received any disputes (which I can only assume means you've offered up perfect judgements). But we'll see what the future may hold....

No problem. :smallsmile:

Any signs of disputes?

[Macabaret]

No problem. :smallsmile:

Any signs of disputes?

Just one sign so far: I've gotten one PM from a contestant informing me that s/he had no complaints or disputes of the judging.

I wanted to give an update about this thread and the next contest. I'm intentionally delaying the reveal here in order to delay the start of the next round. With IC on it's 100th round and E6 starting a new round, I figure it's a good idea to space things out a bit. So, unless there is an abundance of descent to the contrary, I'll look to open the next round somewhen around the submission deadline for IC's Swiftblade round. Until then, I'll keep this round open for anyone else who may want to add their own judgements.

[Sian]

I understand where you come from, and are, from a position of having chaired, inclined to agree with your reasoning, even if it'll leave me with nothing interesting to do since I've tossed the towel on Swiftblade :p

[weckar]

Meh, we'll see what happens. Reading these entries was absolutely fascinating.

Still, knowing I'm a terrible backseat driver, I think this comp needs some evaluation of its goals and methods to ensure its long-term viability.
Is the goal to present two options, and remove the most sensible way to unify them; or is it to present a thematic set of parts and forbidden parts?

As for the methods, I'll go ahead and muzzle myself.

[Macabaret]

Is the goal to present two options, and remove the most sensible way to unify them; or is it to present a thematic set of parts and forbidden parts?


I like to see questions like this that seek to evaluate what we're doing and how. I think they most often tend to lead to good discussions.

However, I see the two options presented here as being two sides of the same coin. On one side, the fluff; on the other, the crunch. So, I suppose, in my view of things, the answer is "yes". Or, perhaps, "sometimes one, sometimes the other". But I'm fully willing to acknowledge that I may be reading too much into the question. Or, perhaps, that I'm not reading enough into it?

I'd be interested to hear other people's viewpoints, though.

[Macabaret]

Sorry, folks, for the extended delay. Life got...well...busy.
How about a table?



Place
Entry
Entrant
Score


1st (Gold)
Avernia
pabelfly
16.5


2nd (Silver)
Karmos the Lawful
Falontani
14.5


3rd (Bronze)
War Child
PoeticallyPsyco
14


4th (HM)
Bolgara the Young
Sian
13



Congratulations to our medalists and our honorable mention (which, in this case, includes everyone). And another "thank you" to Thurbane for judging!

Another round will be up soon.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Mechanically, some of the other entries may use the components more efficiently, but this entry is dripping with backstory and flavour. [3.5]

"Dripping with backstory and flavor" was pretty much exactly what I was going for. Glad it worked.

[pabelfly]

Sorry, folks, for the extended delay. Life got...well...busy.
How about a table?



Place
Entry
Entrant
Score


1st (Gold)
Avernia
pabelfly
16.5


2nd (Silver)
Karmos the Lawful
Falontani
14.5


3rd (Bronze)
War Child
PoeticallyPsyco
14


4th (HM)
Bolgara the Young
Sian
13



Congratulations to our medalists and our honorable mention (which, in this case, includes everyone). And another "thank you" to Thurbane for judging!

Another round will be up soon.

Thanks for your judging efforts, Thurbane. It's much appreciated.

And thank you Macabaret, for your efforts in administrating Junkyard Wars.

Can't wait to see what's next.

[Falontani]

Thanks for your judging efforts, Thurbane. It's much appreciated.

And thank you Macabaret, for your efforts in administrating Junkyard Wars.

Can't wait to see what's next.

Aye, can't wait to see what they'll think up next.

[Macabaret]

Can't wait to see what's next.

Aye, can't wait to see what they'll think up next.

Well then, by all means, allow me to draw your waiting to an end. The next round is here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?603826-Junkyard-Wars-XXVIII-1MF-CPA-amp-A-T&p=24287367#post24287367)!
Good luck, all. And do try to enjoy it, if you can. ;)