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

[Zaq]

Welcome back to the Iron Chef Optimization Challenge E6 Appetizer Edition! It's time to dip out of traditional magic and into pacts with darker things.

The form of this challenge is to take a particular D&D 3.5 game element (our "secret ingredient," or SI) and turn it into a functional E6 (https://esix.pbworks.com/f/E6v041.pdf) build, which must feature the SI as heavily as possible. (The only hard rule about this is that you must take at least one level—where applicable—in the SI, though judges are encouraged to look favorably on builds that take as many levels as possible in said SI or that otherwise use it as heavily as possible.) Your final build submission should consist of your 6 regular levels and your first 10 epic bonus feats, though providing a snapshot at earlier points through the progression is heartily encouraged. Entries are to be PM'd to the Chair (that would be me!), and they will be posted anonymously; our volunteer judges will then grade each build on a TEN-point scale in one category (Originality) and on a 1-5 point scale in three categories: Power, Elegance, and Use of the Secret Ingredient. The builds with the highest three scores will be awarded medals, with the Honorable Mention award going to the non-medaling build that the Chair likes best and/or that receives the most votes for HM in this thread. (HM may not always be awarded, particularly if the number of builds is very small.) And then we all have cake!*

*Note: You must provide your own cake.

This is basically like the regular Iron Chef, and let's be brutally honest with ourselves here: this isn't a gargantuan community, and we basically all know what we're talking about at this point. Make the builds, send 'em in, post some scores, and have fun. If you've got questions, lemme know. Still, let's lay out a few rules!

Cooking Time: Builds must be submitted via PM to the Chair by 4:59 PM GMT - 9 on Monday, August 31, 2020 (1:59 AM GMT on Tuesday, September 01). The reveal shall be on the first evening the Chair has free following the cooking deadline, which is hoped to be that evening or the immediately subsequent one—I'll do my best, anyway. Judging is then encouraged to go as quickly as possible; if multiple judges volunteer, we'll set about a two-week window, but if we only get one judge, we'll try to wrap up as soon as possible after that judge presents scores. (I will admit that the deadline time may not be an exact science, but don't hide from me and we'll probably be cool.)
Kitchen: Let's break this one down a bit.



ALLOWED: Almost all D&D 3.5 material published by WotC: Core, Completes, monster books, Races Of books, alternate power source books (Expanded Psionics Handbook, Magic of Incarnum, Tome of Battle, Tome of Magic, etc.), Spell Compendium, Book of Exalted Deeds, Book of Vile Darkness, Eberron material, Forgotten Realms material, and other WotC-published 3.5 material. (This list is NOT exhaustive and there are many other legal books that I did not mention by name!)
ALLOWED: Material from the 3.5 archives of the Wizards of the Coast website (including, but not limited to, the Mind's Eye articles). If you use it, link it.
ALLOWED: Official errata from WotC. If you're relying on this in a material fashion, it's a good idea to link it and to discuss it.
NOT ALLOWED: Unofficial errata, including "class fixes" (regardless of the source, including from the original author if not published in a WotC book) or fan-created content.
ALLOWED: Unupdated WotC-published 3.0 material (e.g., Sword and Fist, Masters of the Wild, etc.) except for 3.0 psionics. No 3.0 psionics allowed. If you are using 3.0 material, use the general-purpose skill updates (Wilderness Lore becomes Survival, Innuendo becomes Bluff, etc.) and the general-purpose rules updates (spells with a casting time of "1 action" become "1 standard action," etc.) when appropriate.
NOT ALLOWED: 3.0 material for which a direct 3.5 update exists. Use the updated material instead.
ALLOWED: Dragon Compendium and its errata (http://paizo.com/download/dragon/compendium/DragonCompendiumVolumeIErrata.pdf).
NOT ALLOWED: Content from Dragon Magazine and/or Dungeon Magazine unless said content appears in an otherwise allowed source.
ALLOWED: Oriental Adventures, including the 3.5 update to Oriental Adventures from Dragon Magazine #318. This is a specific exception to the "no Dragon" rule!
NOT ALLOWED: Pathfinder content, regardless of whether it is "D&D 3.5 OGL" or not. If it didn't come from WotC, we don't want it.
ALLOWED: From Unearthed Arcana: racial paragon classes, alternate class features/variant classes, spelltouched feats, and variant races. (Traits and flaws are technically legal, but traits warrant a -0.5 point penalty in Elegance, and flaws warrant a -1 penalty in Elegance.)
NOT ALLOWED: Other Unearthed Arcana content, including (but not limited to) bloodlines, LA buyoff, fractional BAB/saves, alternate casting systems, alternate skill systems, item familiars, prestigious character classes, generic classes, gestalt, etc. When you're wondering if UA content is allowed, err on the side of caution and don't mess around with it.
NOT ALLOWED: Leadership, regardless of source. Game elements functionally equivalent to Leadership (including, but not limited to, Dragon Cohort, Undead Leadership, and Thrallherd) are similarly banned. (Familiars, Improved Familiar, animal companions, Wild Cohort, psicrystals, elemental envoys, and similar game elements are allowed, and they are not considered to be "Leadership." If the difference isn't obvious, feel free to contact the Chair with specific questions.)
NOT ALLOWED: Third-party content, homebrew, or other non-WotC content.
NOT ALLOWED: Epic feats from the Epic Level Handbook. Just because you're "epic" in E6 after 6th level doesn't mean that you're that kind of epic.
NOT ALLOWED: Any race or template with a level adjustment other than +0. (Or any other source of LA other than a race or template, if any such things exist.)
NOT ALLOWED: For our judges: penalizing solely based on legal sources used, regardless of whether those sources are plentiful, sparse, common, obscure, or something in between. If the material is legal, then it doesn't matter how many or how few books it came out of.
ALLOWED: Also for our judges: penalizing for using a source (other than material in Core; don't be vindictive about genuinely obvious stuff) that isn't listed in the build writeup. The chef may choose to present the sources in-line with the text, in a consolidated source list, or somewhere else, but if the source is listed (and is otherwise legal), it counts. If the source is not listed, you may choose to penalize for that.

If you have questions about anything in this section (or hell, in this ruleset), feel free to ask the Chair.

Character Creation: 32 point buy is assumed. For the purposes of this contest, Level Adjustment greater than +0 is banned. (This may be revised at a later point, but I don't feel that the E6 LA rules are conducive to fun in the context of this contest.) No more than two entries per chef per contest, please; if you submit two builds and somehow are so overcome with inspiration for a third that you can't help yourself, PM me and tell me which two you care about the most.
Highlighted because of past issues: It is not enough for your build to end with a level adjustment of +0. You must be +0 from start to finish. No using ANY build elements with a level adjustment above +0, even if they then get mitigated or reduced somehow.
Speculation: Please do not post any form of speculation before the reveal. Just don't do it, guys. It's not cool. This means NOT posting any of the following or anything substantially similar: what you think is going to be common, significant elements of your planned build or of other potential builds, or anything else that could directly influence someone else's build choices for good or for ill. (It's acceptable to ask for rules clarifications as appropriate, but try to avoid tipping your hand too much.) Speculation is bad because it can discourage people from posting builds and can also "taint the judging pool" when it comes to Originality, so please just try to be aware of how other people might react to your speculation.
E6: Here's how E6 works for the purposes of this contest. Build your character normally for the first six levels. After you reach level 6, you stop gaining levels and start gaining bonus feats every time you would gain 5,000 XP. Since we aren't actually tracking XP, you'll basically list your first ten epic bonus feats in the order that you take them, and we think of them as being kind of like levels. We will not use the LA-equals-reduced-point-buy rules, instead preferring to just ban races with LA, at least for now. We will not use the "capstone feats"; all feats that you take must be normal legal 3.5 feats, not homebrew E6 ones. You may not use the Epic feats from the Epic Level Handbook, though if for some reason there are non-Epic feats from the ELH that you qualify for, you may take those. (I don't think there are any, but I'm sure someone will prove me wrong.) It is up to the discretion of each judge whether this is a "hard E6" (magic above 3rd level spells is simply beyond mortal reach, items that have a listed CL above 6th are just plain not available, etc.) or a "soft E6" (if you can somehow get the magic on your character, it's yours, regardless of level), though I honestly don't expect it to come up. Don't go crazy with making assumptions about items and we probably won't have to find out.
Presentation: Please use the table found below in the spoiler. List your epic bonus feats (in clear order) after the table. If you find a clever way of formatting that that isn't annoying and that doesn't break anything, have fun; if it's portable, I may steal it for the next round. When sending your build or any disputes to the Chair, clearly include your build's name in the subject of the PM, and please present your build exactly as you want the Chair to copy and paste it into the thread.
If you're using a picture, cite the source and follow any relevant citation rules. Because we have had issues with this in the past, when listing your skills, please make it very clear how many ranks you have at each level. There are multiple ways to do this and we do not wish to cramp anyone's individual style by dictating exactly how this must look, but make sure that somewhere in your entry there's an explanation of how many actual skill ranks you have. It's still fine to list total skill bonuses, if that's your style, but don't only list bonuses; make sure that there is a clear listing somewhere of your ranks alone.

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


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


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


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


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


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


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


Code for the table:

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


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


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


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


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


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


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

Contest houserules: Nearly the same as the main contest's rules here: all creatures are proficient with natural weapons they have or may acquire, bonus feats that are explicitly granted without meeting prereqs are usable even without those prereqs, and feats that affect which skills are class skills for you and/or how you spend your skill points (Able Learner, Martial Study, Truename Training, Apprentice, etc.) apply immediately at the level at which you take them (even though you normally spend skill points before taking a feat). When taking Open Minded as an epic feat, any skill that has ever been a class skill for you (including through your class, your race, your feats, or similar game elements, though please don't muck around with retroactively making something stop being a class skill for some stupid reason) is a class skill when determining how the 5 granted skill points may be spent. All usual rules about HD-related skill caps apply. When taking Open Minded as a non-epic feat, treat it as normal; the class skills of the class you took at the level you gained Open Minded (plus race, feats, etc.) are your class skills for those skill points, similar to if Open Minded's skill points came straight from your class.
Judging guidelines: The minimum score in a category is 1, and the maximum is 5 (except in high-Originality rounds, wherein the maximum in Originality is 10). Judges are expected to be fair, consistent, and open-minded, and they are expected to make a good-faith effort to engage with any reasonable disputes that arise, especially when RAW is in question. That said, contestants are asked to not dispute more than necessary; let's do everything in good faith and really only dispute when a judge is being inconsistent, being unfair, or is otherwise grossly misinterpreting a build.
Judges may not penalize Originality solely because a build is a tribute or homage to an existing creative work (in or out of D&D canon; note that this is not the same thing as penalizing Originality for using well-known optimization tactics), nor may judges penalize based solely on sources used (whether those sources are plentiful, sparse, common, obscure, or something in between, you should judge the build elements and how they work together rather than what book or what books they came out of, as long as those books are legal for this contest and are cited in the entry).
As with the main contest, we will follow the "One Mistake, One Penalty" guideline, and it is very important that the judges adhere to it. I'm going to directly copy and paste this from the main thread, and hopefully the original author won't mind too much:
Judges are only allowed to penalise once for a given mistake. If someone messes up their skills and doesn't qualify for a PrC, ding them as hard as you like. Once. In one category. You don't then get to declare that because they didn't qualify for that PrC, they don't get those levels, and thus don't qualify for anything else. If Ranger is a common ingredient, ding them for Originality. Once. Don't also take off points for Two-Weapon-Fighting being a common ingredient.

Non-exhaustive list of examples:

Skills
Allowed:

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


Not allowed:

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



Prereqs
Allowed:

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


Not Allowed:

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



Other general things that are no longer allowed:

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


Note that these are protections, not licenses. Deliberately taking a feat that you know you don't qualify for hoping to just suck up the judging penalty for a feat that you couldn't normally take is not okay, and may lead to your build being disqualified.
Dispute guidelines (NEW, PLEASE PAY ATTENTION): Disputing is long, annoying, and emotional. It's also sometimes necessary, but it's often not actually something that makes everyone have more fun. Let's go into a little more detail here.
Do NOT dispute to make an argument that goes fundamentally beyond what's in your write-up. It is the responsibility of the chef to make sure that the write-up is complete and contains their best arguments for what the build does and why it's awesome. If you didn't explain your tactics well or didn't spell out something that a judge misses, just do better next time. Don't drag it out after the fact.
Do NOT dispute just to be clever or witty or cheeky. Please. We're all adults here and so I assume you know what that means. Don't treat the build as a setup and your oh-so-clever dispute as the punchline. It's not as funny as it is in your head. Trust me. I've been down that road.
Do NOT dispute just to say "oh yeah, my bad, I missed that" or some equivalent. If you're not directly challenging the judge, save the commentary until after the reveal. I 100% get that the urge to respond to commentary is very strong, but type it out and sit on it for a while if you've gotta.
Do NOT dispute just to try to wheedle more points out of the judge. Note that this is different from saying that the judge is being truly unfair or is being truly wrong by black-and-white RAW. A dispute is NOT the place to try to scrape together a few last quarter-points. If you didn't put it in your write-up, that's on you. This also means that a dispute is really not the place to have long back-and-forth tit-for-tat arguments. That's a surefire way to get people grumpy. It's a contest on a D&D board, guys, not the results of a federal election.
Do NOT dispute to tear down another build. That's just plain not cool. If you entered the contest, it's not on you to judge the other builds.
DO dispute if the judge is being blatantly biased by giving you a substantially different ruling on a build element compared to another chef who used the same build element in nearly the same way. (Note that position in a build may affect if you're using that element in "nearly the same way" or not.) Please reserve this for the truly blatant examples. I mean it. Remember, it's the contestant's responsibility to make their best argument in the original write-up.
DO dispute if the judge is actively going against the contest rules. Note that there are relatively few ways in which a judge can go against contest rules (we intentionally give very wide discretion to our judges), but examples include truly breaking One Mistake One Penalty, penalizing just because of number of sources of (legal) material, and so on.
DO dispute if the judge is clearly ignoring unambiguous RAW. Note that this is for unambiguous RAW; if the RAW is shady and you're making an argument that isn't completely clear and that it wouldn't be strange for a GM to frown on, the judge has every right to frown on it as well. (You generally know when you're indulging in shady RAW. Be mature about this.) But if the judge is saying you didn't hit a prereq that you clearly did hit (and included in your write-up!), saying you can't do something that the plain text of the ability says you can do, or anything like that, by all means, call 'em out.
Do NOT dispute if the judge doesn't agree with your interpretation of ambiguous RAW. Yes, this is a retread of the previous bullet point; this is that important. If you're relying on ambiguous RAW, it's on you to lay out clearly why it should work the way you want it to work. Again, be mature and act in good faith: you really know when you're pushing things like this. If they don't like it, they don't like it. Move on.


Disputing is a privilege, not a right. In the Chair's sole discretion, disputes that do not meet these guidelines and/or that do not seem to be offered in good faith may be suppressed. The Chair reserves the right to choose to post all, some, or none of a dispute if appropriate.


Other bits and bobs: If there's something major and relevant I haven't mentioned, assume that the way I handle it will probably be the same as the main contest unless stated otherwise or unless doing so would be an obviously absurd result. If you've got questions, I'll give you answers.




This round's secret ingredient:
The WARLOCK, from Complete Arcane!
Allez Optimizer!


REMINDER: THIS IS A HIGH-ORIGINALITY ROUND.


The Builds:


Build
Race
Alignment
Final Stub
Miniman Score
Author
Position

Iris the Eye Captain (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24692421&postcount=24)
Unicorn Clan Azurin
Unknown
Warlock 6
19.5
daremetoidareyo
First
Filau Euit (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24692419&postcount=23)
Lesser Drow
Chaotic evil
Warlock 5/Demonbinder 1
17.5
Quentinas
Second
Para Gnostic (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24692426&postcount=27)
Lesser Aasimar
Lawful Evil
Warlock 3/Paragnostic apostle 3
17
Quentinas
Third
Malloch (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24692422&postcount=25 )
Human
Any chaotic
Ninja 3/Warlock 2/hellbreaker 1
15.25
james
Fourth
Tarragon Mapleflash (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24692428&postcount=28)
Human
Chaotic Good
Warlock 2/CCleric 3/Eldritch disciple 1
14.25
jdizzlean
Fifth
O'ren Ishi (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24692424&postcount=26)
Sparrow Hengeyokai
Any Chaotic
Warlock 6
14
jdizzlean
Sixth



Round 4: Knight (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?542333-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(IV))
Round 5: Ninja (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?548763-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-V))
Round 6: Racial Paragon Classes (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?551174-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-VI))
Round 7: Hexblade (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?553767-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-VII))
Round 8: Shugenja (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?555626-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-VIII))
Round 9: Swashbuckler (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?559135-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-IX)")
Round 10: Crusader (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?562183-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-X))
Round 11: Soulknife (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?565669-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-XI))
Round 12: Factotum (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?569723-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-XII))
Round 13: Prestige Classes (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?572441-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-XIII))
Round 14: Mountebank (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?576318-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-XIV))
Round 15: Sorcerer (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?582751-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-XV))
Round 16: Dragon Shaman (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?585121-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-XVI))
Round 17: Lurk (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?588149-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-XVII))
Round 18: Paladin (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?591516-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-XVIII))
Round 19: Scout (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?595369-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-XIX))
Round 20: Incarnate (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?599279-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-XX))
Round 21: Shadowcaster (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?602325-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-XXI))
Round 22: Dragonmarks (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?606051-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-XXII))
Round 23: Fighter (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?611114-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-XXIII))
Round 24: Pets (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?615226-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-XXIV))


Round 1: Divine Mind (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?197000-Iron-Chef-Appetizer-Edition!-(e6))
Round 2: Monk (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?201548-Iron-Chef-Appetizer-Edition!-(e6)-II)
Round 3: Marshal (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?235221-Iron-Chef-Appetizer-Edition-(E6)-III)

[Zaq]

Here's a few gentle recommendations that are intended to improve scores and make things easier for the judges. As always, THE RECOMMENDATIONS IN THIS POST ARE NOT RULES. Judges and contestants are free to honor them or ignore them; my intent here is only to help, and NONE of what I'm saying here is required. (That said, did you see the new dispute guidelines? Those ARE rules, so please go read them. And I'm even going to be better about enforcing them this time.)

Recommendations:
Double-check ALL of your prereqs. Every. Single. One. Feats, PrCs, whatever. You might even go so far as to spell out when you meet each one, but again, that's not a requirement. But one of the single biggest causes of point loss is failure to meet prereqs.
Tell the judges what's cool about your build! You spent hours or days on this (y'know, probably) and know it inside and out, but the judges are getting a whole bunch of these dishes all at once and don't know the build history of each one. You're significantly more likely to score well if you spell out exactly what makes you awesome than if you try to just let it stand on its own.
Make it easy to read! Skill tables are awful, though they're an incredibly necessary evil. Full Monster Manual-style statblocks are occasionally useful but are also insanely dense if not formatted well. Judges are very likely to miss something if you aren't careful with how you present your info. Remember that judging takes a lot of time, energy, and focus, so don't rely on the judge being willing/able to decode something in order to see what makes you interesting!
Be memorable. Remember that we're all using the same ingredient here. What makes you different?

So the first thing to remember is that this is a high-originality round. As is always the case in a high-Originality round, you'll still get more points from the other three categories combined, but you really can't afford to ignore Originality. Since warlocks are easy to build, this seemed like a good chance to let you show off some of your stranger plans you've been dreaming of! Of course, you've only got so many invocations, so maybe it'll come down not only to which ones you have but also what you do with them. Spell that out and make it clear!

This should be a fun time. Remember that Complete Arcane has lots of rules about exactly how invocations work and exactly how they'll interact with other game elements; ask for help if you need to, but there's no shortage of good rules text already available!

[MinimanMidget]

I don't know what I'm going to do, but I'm definitely going to do something.

[Zaq]

How goes it, team?

[daremetoidareyo]

I haz stub.

[MinimanMidget]

How goes it, team?

I'm currently failing to come up with anything that I would consider sufficiently original, so I'm thinking that when I said "I'm definitely going to do something", the something might have to be judging.

[Falontani]

I have a bunch of free time this week, I can look into doing something if you need another entry, but I hadn't started to look yet.

[Zaq]

I have a bunch of free time this week, I can look into doing something if you need another entry, but I hadn't started to look yet.

We definitely need more!

[Quentinas]

Even if i'm outside home i have two ideas for this, one will surely be done , the other maybe not depends if i found something enough original

[PrismCat21]

I'll be dealing with another hurricane, so nothing at all from me. :)

[DeTess]

I've finally ome up with an idea that I like the fluff of, let's see fi i can finish it over the weekend.

[jdizzlean]

I have one done, working on number 2

[Quentinas]

Okay my number 2 is blocked so i submit only a build for this contest

[daremetoidareyo]

Take THAT judges!

Mwa ha ha

[Zaq]

Only a few hours left. Anyone still working? I’d like at least one or two more.

[Quentinas]

If you give me half a day i can try to let work my second build

[ATHATH]

Never mind, the build stub I submitted/suggested doesn't work, as you can't get the +3 Base Fort save you need to qualify in time.

[ATHATH]

Wait, hold on, I might have found a way- I'll try to submit a build later tonight.

EDIT:
"I tried so hard
And got so far
But in the end
It doesn't even matter"

[Falontani]

I thought the deadline for this one was after vc, so I've been working on vc; sorry

[jdizzlean]

I forgot to submit when I got home this morning, I'll send to you when I get off work on 12 hours.

sorry

submitted, and i echo this sentiment :)


Take THAT judges!

Mwa ha ha

[daremetoidareyo]

Any word on the new end date?

[Zaq]

I'll post the dishes after work, so in approximately 8 hours! If you've got a last-minute entry, now's the time.

Thanks for being patient with me, everyone!

[Zaq]

Definitely no question about what kind of pacts this one's making.




CE Lesser drow warlock Demonbinder Filau Euit

Note in the background I will talk about the necropolitan template but will not be used as the experience and the loss of one level is something I don’t know how would be ruled in this contest.
Once upon a time, long long ago, in a far away cavern of the Underdark there was a drow name Filau Euit the Dark master of the Abyss in the language of the drow. He received some powers from Lolth, with his soul as a property of the Queen of the Spiders. His power were that of a warlock, a being able to do various thing at will without a limit like a wizard or a sorcerer, and he worked knowing that his soul at the death would be of Lolth. As the afterdeath wasn’t a problem for him, as was already determined he made a pact with some demons, so that he would be stronger while using them. He became a demonbinder, a being who could bind the demon to his soul. But this act had a price the more he used these demonbinds, the more these demons would have of his soul. So now that warlock had his soul sold two times, and he craved for power even more . For this after some years of adventure where he became stronger , and more evil, he made a pact with Demogorgon, so that at the death of this warlock he would have his soul . In exchange the warlock could summon a demon each day , and he used that demon for his evil act. Then that warlock had a idea. If there were so many being that wanted his soul what would happen if he became something without a soul , like a necropolitan. I don’t know what happened to that warlock but he could be everywhere without a soul with his demonbinds, or he could be tortured in the Abyss , where he sold his soul at least two times. What do you think, where will be that warlock?



Stat
[Point buy
After racial

Strength 9 19

Dexterity 14 616

Constitution 14 612

Intelligence 14 6 14

Wisdom 8 08

Charisma 17 13 17

4th level point to charisma



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


1st
Warlock
+0
+0
+0
+2
Use magic device 4, Knowledge the planes 4, Bluff 4, Concentration 4
Daylight adaptation
Eldritch blast 1d6, invocation (least)


2nd
Warlock
+1
+0
+0
+3
Use magic device 5, Knowledge the planes 5, Bluff 5, Concentration 5

Detect magic


3rd
Warlock
+2
+1
+1
+3
Use magic device 6, Knowledge the planes 6, Bluff 5, Concentration 6, Sense motive 1
Weapon finesse
Damage reduction 1/cold iron, eldritch blast 2d6


4th
Warlock
+3
+1
+1
+4
Use magic device 6, Knowledge the planes 7, Bluff 5, Concentration 7, Sense motive 3

Deceive item


5th
Warlock
+3
+1
+1
+4
Use magic device 6, Knowledge the planes 8, Bluff 5, Concentration 7, Sense motive 4, Speak language 1 (abyssal)

Eldritch blast 3d6


6th
Demonbinder
+3
+3
+1
+6
Use magic device 6, Knowledge the planes 8, Bluff 5, Concentration 8, Sense motive 5, Speak language 1 (abyssal), Spellcraft 2
Wandstrike
Damnation points, demonbind

Cross class skill for this level

1° Steady concentration
2° Force of personality
3° Maximize spell like ability
4° Craft Wand
5° Evil brand
6° Thrall to demon
7° Abyss bound soul (demogorgon)
8° Demonic skin
9° Keeper of forbidden lore
10° Cloak of the obyrith


1° invocation Dark one’s own luck
2° invocation Baleful utternace
3° invocation Hideous blow
Damnation points = 4 (charisma )+1 (class level) so I can bind up to a vrock


We start as a warlock and the invocation we take is a defensive one as our saves are not good, in our main save we have a bad stat as this character is nearly mad so his wisdom is not high, but our charisma is good so we can use this to boost one of our saves (at low levels probably fortitude or reflexes but depends on the enemies) . We have a feat that blocks our blindness with the sun so if we will have to fight above is not a problem. Our main weapon is eldritch blast , and for now we stay away using this blast to hit the enemies. As skill we are not bad if we have a social situation, and concentration can be used to cast our eldritch blast
At the second level we gain detect magic at will that is useful but for now we don’t have spellcraft so is not so much useful but we gained even a new invocation baleful utterance If we use detect magic to find which items are not magic we can use baleful utterance to destroy it so giving problem to our enemy in many case. At level 3 we gain another d6 of eldritch blast and weapon finesse so now if we need we can fight in melee using the racial proficiency with rapier. Baleful utterance can be useful against some golems that could be a problem with our eldritch blast
The last two level of warlock for this build and a level where we gain a very useful ability for a warlock , deceive item. From the level 4 we will not put any other ranks in use magic device , as for the wands (that are the ones that we need more see later) we already reach the 20 needed to use them , as we have 6 ranks+4 charisma(thanks to the point of level 4) and we can take 10 so is 20 , so now we can use wands. But a wand is better than our eldritch blast? Maybe depend on the wand as now we have gained another d6 of eldritch blast and we can combine it with hideous blow and our rapier to do 4d6 on total for now or 3d6 at touch
Now this is the level that combine each thing of previous element as we enter in a prestige class. But what is interesting in this prestige class ,that we miss the lesser invocation of the warlock? Well basically now we have various option for each combat, many more than any invocation could give us as our damnation point are a good resource and are based on our charisma. These demonbind give each one temporary hit points, and the best for us are
Succubus. It doesn’t use many damnation points so the last two we have can be used to buff our skills, even if is only a round is still good especially on bluff.
Babau Is one of the few demonbind that we can use without losing anything on our eldritch blast , and we even gain sneak attack so if needed we could do a little ambush with the spells in our wand and eldritch blast. The bonus damage on eldritch blast is another dice basically, 5 is higher than the average of a d6 at least
Vrock This one is good if we have access to a charisma boosting item as is similar to babau but higher
Yochol and Bebilith are good for the hitpoints but their bonus is not easy depends on the situation
The use of the wand is combined with hideous blow ,in the form of Wandstrike, that permits us to attack with a wand dealing damage and if we want to activate it, and as eldricht blast is not a bonus damage (as it is a separate mechanics than the one listed) we can do even more damage. So as we are melee the temporary hitpoints of the demonbinder are useful
We boost even our detect magic with some ranks in spellcraft but is nothing so high and baleful utterance is still useful as a combo, other than being the invocation necessary to enter in the demonbinder
With these feats we cover the weak spot (for now ) of this character as our combo need a good concentration check to work (16) and we doesn’t need a dice to ruin our tactics so the first feat is steady concentration so we will not have any problem with the check. Force of personality is a different matter , is good as a mechanical effect and I think that to bind to demons, be ready to sell his soul to other demons one should be charismatic so this will help us
These feat are good with our tactics, craft wand to create our weapons using our allies spell , or our spell like abilities that are similar to a spell so Detect magic and Shatter as wands. Maximize spell like abilities is useful to do more damage with our eldritch blast especially if we are quite sure to hit and maybe we even give bonus from our demonbinds
Our soul is already damned between Lolth and the demonbinds we use so why not take some vile feats that strengthen our bond with demons? Evil brand is useful so we can do our social abilities in a better way with evil , while thrall to demon is not so good as we don’t need so much a +1 to something, except saves maybe Is more a tax feat than anything else as the next feat permit us to sell again our soul (as we already did not) and it give a good bonus , in our case the possibility to summon a tanar’ri to our side for one hour. Remember when we took craft wand? Now we can use the ability of this tanar’ri to boost our wands as spell , in this case we can summon a dretch to put his spell like abilities in wand. We can even use this feat to summon a rutterkin to take time while we do the demonbind, so in each round there will be at least one to attack .
After we took abyss bound soul we are near the Abyss so for that I took some abyss heritor feats that can be useful the first is demonic skin as more AC is good , so a bonus can be taken. The second is keeper of forbidden lore, the main bonus is the spellcraft bonus as we can use it with our detect magic to recognise more easily the spells and even the knowledge (the planes) is good because we have invested some more in that skill. The third is a boost to our DR or better another type that is stronger as that feat give us DR 3 not 1 like the warlock
Hit points without demonbinding 6+4d6+1d4+6= around 29 so maximum 54 with demonbinding a vrock
Bluff maximum +4(charisma)+5(ranks) +5 (demonbinding succubus)=14
Diplomacy +4 (charisma)+0 (ranks)+5(demonbinding succubus)+4 (synergy)+2 (evil brand with evils)=15
Saves
fortitude 8 (3 base +1 constitution+4 dark one own luck)
reflex 4 (1 base+3 dexterity)
will (with force of personality and race effect) 12( 6 base+ 4 charisma +2 race)


From player handbook
Weapon finesse, Craft wand
From Player guide to faerun
Lesser drow, daylight adaptation
From drow of the underdark
Demonbinder
From Complete Arcane
Warlock, wandstrike , maximize spell like ability
From races of stone
Steady concentration
From Complete Adventurer
Force of personality
From Fiendish codex 1
Evil brand, thrall to demon, abyss bound soul, demonic skin , keeper of forbidden lore ,cloak of the obyrith

[Zaq]

Well, there's definitely a lot of crawling. Though in my case it's mostly my skin.


Iris the Eye CaptainUnicorn Clan Azurin Warlock 6
STR 10, dex 15, con 16, int 14, wiz 10, cha 12.
Add +1 to dex at level 4





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


1st
Warlock
+0
+0
+0
+2
concentration 4, ride 4, umd 4, craft (tiny leather working) 1, craft (tiny armorsmithing) 1, k. local 1
Spellfire Wielder (Magic of Faerun p.23), Hidden Talent (XPH p.67) (syncronicity (comp psi p.103)
Eldritch blast 1d6, invocation (least), Devil's Sight Invocation


2nd
Warlock
+1
+0
+0
+3
concentration 5, ride 5, umd 5, craft leather 2

Detect magic, Darkness Invocation


3rd
Warlock
+2
+1
+1
+3
concentration 6, ride 6, umd 6, craft (tiny weaponsmithing) 1
Shape Soulmeld (MoI p.40) Rage Claws
Damage reduction 1/cold iron, eldritch blast 2d6,


4th
Warlock
+3
+1
+1
+4
concentration 7, ride 7, umd 7, craft leather 3

Deceive item, 3


5th
Warlock
+3
+2
+2
+4
concentration 8, ride 8, umd 8, craft leather 4

Eldritch blast 3d6, All Seeing Eyes Invocation (complete mage)


6th
Warlock
+4
+2
+2
+5
concentration 9, ride 9, umd 9, craft leather 5
Shape Soulmeld (Moi p.40): Threefold mask of Chimera)
New invocation (least or lesser), Crawling Eye Invocation (complete mage)




Epic Feats
1. Shape soulmeld (MoI p.40): soulspark familiar
2. Open Least Chakra (MoI p.39): crown
3. Psycarnum Infusion (MoI p.40)
4. Overchannel (XPH p.49)
5. Linked power (comp Psi p.62)
6. Mortalbane (Bovd p.49)
7. Azure talent (MoI p.34)
8. Thick Skinned (savage species p.40)
9. Bonus essentia (MoI p.35)
10. Martial study (ToB): Action before thought (ToB p.69)

Pupils, Behold: What you see is what you get.

Captain eye is a keen theoretical build predicated entirely on the crawling eye invocation.

Spellfire wielder allows the warlock to eldritch blast themself to store spell levels, if they have a standard action to absorb it. This is possible once the captain has linked synchronicities psionic powers from overchanneling, which gives manifester level 2, just enough to pay the cost of the metalwork feat. More apparent though is the ability of the crawling eye to manifest synchronicity in order to absorb eldritch blasts.

The leather working craft is to be used to make exotic saddles for crawling eyes to ride soulsparks as mounts.

Wh-eye was that last sentence plural?

Because of the following:

At 6th level, captain eye gains the crawling eye invocation. Because "For all other purposes, its statistics are equal to yours." That means your crawling eye is a meldshaper capable of manifesting rage claws, the threefold mask of the chimera, and at the first epic feat, a soulspark. The eye doesn't die at 0 hp, it can go as low as -9hp due to rage claws. And although captain eye can't eldritch blast through the eye, there is no prohibition for the eye to manifest crawling eyes itself, and if one doesn't agree there, the invocation itself allows captain eye to use crawling eye on his crawling eye. If only there were an ability to give your crawling eye more eyeballs…

Threefold mask of the chimera grants additional eyes. Especially when bound to the crown chakra. So your crawling eye can shape a threefold mask, cast crawling eye, tearing out a masks' eye, at a cost of 2 hp, which it survives due to rage claws. This can repeat ad infin-eye-tum.

It's a sight for sore eyes.

Then, due to the movement restrictions, using the ride skill granted by the captain from his upbringing as a human subtype azurin of the unicorn clan, the crawling eye need not use move actions to move, the soulspark can do it. If you paint a black dot on the soulspark, it looks like an eye too.

The eye can manifest overchanneled linked synchronicities and absorb (your all day free eldritch blasts) or shoot spellfire or use healing spellfire.

You can load up a crawling eye with blasts and retract it into your face to get absorbed spellfire levels. And your crawling eyes have crawling eyes of their own. Each with 2 hp going all the way down to -9, the ability to heal using spellfire, and a spellfire blast that can deal up to 14d6 damage. Each has DR1/cold eye-ron eventually growing to DR3/cold iron. Martial study: action before thought allows the eyes to make a concentration check in place of a reflex save which will help potentially, against eye-rea effects.

The first 6 levels are stock warlock shenanigans, darkness + devils sight to target baddies with eldritch blasts minus their dex unless they can see in magical darkness. Plus the occasional utility of synchronicity and the always helpful spellfire wielder feat.




One of your eyes leaves your head and sprouts spidery legs. You can see through the eye no matter where it goes, so you can use it to scout or spy. The eye can’t crawl of its own volition, but you can direct it to move or climb up to 20 feet as a move action. Its Climb modifier is equal to your warlock level +8. You can direct a crawling eye in your space to climb back into your eye socket as a move action.
When you use this invocation, your current and full normal hit point totals are reduced by 2 for as long as the eye is detached. The eye is considered a Fine creature with AC 20 and 2 hit points. Its Hide and Move Silently modifiers are equal to your warlock level.
For all other purposes, its statistics are equal to yours. You can’t cast most invocations or spells through the eye, but any spells or invocations that affect your sense of sight—such as devil’s sight, all-seeing eyes, or detect magic— function through the eye as though it was still attached.
If your crawling eye is destroyed, you are dazzled for 1d4 hours, during which time the eye regrows. (If you normally have only one eye, you are blinded instead). At the end of this period, you regain the 2 lost hit points, and the dazzled condition ends.
Only one of your eyes can be used for crawling eye at any time; if your crawling eye is destroyed, you can’t use this invocation again until your eye regrows.


A spellfire wielder can ready an action to absorb spells targeted at her as if she were a rod of absorption. She gets one level of spellfire energy for every spell level absorbed and can store a number of spellfire energy levels equal to her Constitution score.

As a standard action, she may expend these spellfire energy levels as a ranged touch attack (maximum range 400 feet), dealing 1d6 points of spellfire damage per level expended (Reflex half DC 20). Spellfire damage is half fire damage and half raw magical power, just like the damage of a flame strike spell is half fire and half divine energy. Creatures with immunity, resistance, or protection against fire apply these effects to half the damage.

A spellfire wielder can also heal a target by touch, restoring 2 hit points per spellfire energy level expended for this purpose.

Unlike most supernatural abilities, spellfire is affected by spells and magic items that affect spell-like abilities, such as a rod of absorption or a rod of negation (if pointed at the manifestation rather than the wielder). It can be thwarted or counterspelled by dispel magic, and theoretically a spellfire wielder could counterspell another's spellfire. However, spellfire is a supernatural ability and does not provoke an attack of opportunity when used, nor is it subject to spell resistance.

[Zaq]

FACT: Warlocks are mammals.
FACT: Warlocks fight ALL the time.
FACT: The purpose of the warlock is to flip out and kill people.


Malloch
Human Ninja 3/Warlock 2/Hellbreaker 1

Malloch is a heartless assassin sometimes employed by lesser devils to murder their rivals. He wields an envenomed blade of shadow and can conjure a stygian darkness that no other creature can see through.



Ability
Final Score
Base Score
Point Buy Cost[


Strength
8
8
0


Dexterity
18
17
13


Constitution
10
10
2


Intelligence
14
14
6


Wisdom
16
16
10


Charisma
9
9
1


At level 4, Wisdom is raised by 1.



Level
Class
Base Attack Bonus
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Skill Ranks Added
Skill Ranks Total
Feats
Class Features


1st
Ninja
+0
+0
+2
+0
Bluff 4, Craft (poisonmaking) 4, Escape Artist 4, Hide 4, Move Silently 4, Search 4, Sense Motive 4, Spellcraft (cc) 2
Bluff 4, Craft (poisonmaking) 4, Escape Artist 4, Hide 4, Move Silently 4, Search 4, Sense Motive 4, Spellcraft 2
Combat Expertise, Improved Feint
AC bonus, ki power, sudden strike +1d6, trapfinding


2nd
Warlock
+0
+0
+2
+2
Knowledge (arcana) 4, Spellcraft 1
Bluff 4, Craft (poisonmaking) 4, Escape Artist 4, Hide 4, Knowledge (arcana) 4, Move Silently 4, Search 4, Sense Motive 4, Spellcraft 3
-
Eldritch Blast 1d6, invocation (least)


3rd
Warlock
+1
+0
+2
+3
Knowledge (the planes) 4, Spellcraft 1
Bluff 4, Craft (poisonmaking) 4, Escape Artist 4, Hide 4, Knowledge (arcana) 4, Knowledge (the planes) 4, Move Silently 4, Search 4, Sense Motive 4, Spellcraft 4
Undo Resistance
Detect magic


4th
Ninja
+2
+0
+3
+3
Bluff 2, Craft (poisonmaking) 2, Escape Artist 1, Hide 1, Move Silently 1, Sense Motive 2
Bluff 6, Craft (poisonmaking) 6, Escape Artist 5, Hide 5, Knowledge (arcana) 4, Knowledge (the planes) 4, Move Silently 5, Search 4, Sense Motive 6, Spellcraft 4
-
Ghost step (invisible)


5th
Ninja
+3
+1
+3
+4
Bluff 2, Craft (poisonmaking) 2, Escape Artist 1, Hide 1, Move Silently 1, Sense Motive 2
Bluff 8, Craft (poisonmaking) 8, Escape Artist 6, Hide 6, Knowledge (arcana) 4, Knowledge (the planes) 4, Move Silently 6, Search 4, Sense Motive 8, Spellcraft 4
-
Sudden strike +2d6, poison use


6th
Hellbreaker
+3
+1
+5
+6
Escape Artist 3, Hide 3, Move Silently 3
Bluff 8, Craft (poisonmaking) 8, Escape Artist 9, Hide 9, Knowledge (arcana) 4, Knowledge (the planes) 4, Move Silently 9, Search 4, Sense Motive 8, Spellcraft 4
Darkstalker
Mantle of darkness, telepathic static

Epic feats:

Devil's Favor
Devil's Sight
At Home in the Deep
Instinctive Darkness
Weapon Finesse
Poison Spell
Poison Expert (Injury)
Poison Master (Injury)
Practiced Spellcaster
Obtain Familiar
Invocations:

Darkness
Eldritch Glaive
Alignment: Chaotic evil

Notable stats:

Eldritch Glaive: reach, +7 melee touch (3 BAB, +4 Dex from Weapon Finesse), 3d6 damage (1d6 Eldritch Blast, 2d6 Sudden Strike)
17 AC (+4 Dex, +3 Wis from Ninja)
+1 Fort
+9 Reflex (+5 base, +4 Dex)
+11 Will (+6 base, +3 Wis, +2 from Ki Power if any ki points remain)
+13 Hide and Move Silently (9 ranks, +4 Dex)
+10 Bluff (8 ranks, -1 Cha, +3 Snake familiar)
5 ki points

As a swift action (Instinctive Darkness), Malloch can cast a darkness that he can see through (Devil's Sight, At Home in the Deep) but that other creatures cannot, even creatures that can see through magical darkness (Mantle of Darkness), creatures with blindsight (Darkstalker), and nearby creatures with telepathy or divinations (Telepathic Static). This allows him to always remain hidden and benefit from Sudden Strike. If his darkness somehow fails him, he uses Ghost Step to turn invisible. As a last resort, he will feint to gain the benefits of Sudden Strike.

Malloch often adds poison to his Eldritch Glaive attacks (Poison Spell). His snake familiar (Obtain Familiar) offers ready materials to craft tiny viper poison, which deals initial and secondary 1d6+1 Con damage (Poison Master), with a Fort save of 11 (Poison Expert).

Against invisible creatures, he can gain blindsight temporarily twice a day (Devil's Sight).
Complete Adventurer: Ninja
Complete Arcane: Warlock, Obtain Familiar, Practiced Spellcaster
Complete Scoundrel: Poison Expert, Poison Master
Draconomicon: Eldritch Glaive
Drow of the Underdark: At Home in the Deep, Instinctive Darkness, Poison Spell
Fiendish Codex II: Devil's Favor, Devil's Sight, Hellbreaker
Lords of Madness: Darkstalker

[Zaq]

Phenomenal cosmic power! Itty-bitty birdie.


O’ren Ishi, The Huntress

Chaotic Anything Sparrow Hengeyokai Warlock 6 (OA and Dragon 318) Humanoid (Shapechanger)
-2 WIS, +2 DEX (hybrid)
Human Form: Medium, speed 30
Hybrid Form: Medium, Speed 20/fly 20, lowlight, speak w/ birds
Animal Form: Fine size (+8 to AC and to hit), lowlight, speak w/ other birds, Speed 1/Fly 50, AC 24 (+8 size, +6 Dex) STR 3, DEX 23, CON 10

Point Buy:
Str 10 Dex 10 Con 10 Int 16 Wis 15 Cha 15
Racial Humanoid / Hybrid
Str 10 Dex 10/12 Con 10 Int 16 Wis 13 Cha 15
+1 Cha at lvl 4

Least: Entropic Warding, 20% miss chance for ranged
See the Unseen: see invis and Darkvision

Least Blast Shape: Eldritch Spear: EB range is 250ft

Eldritch Essence Lesser Invocation: Baneful Blast (CM 123) choose a favored enemy from the ranger list, add +2d6 to EB damage, chain this w/ Favored Enemy Arcanist




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


1st
Warlock
+0
+0
+0
+2
Conc 4, UMD 4, cc-Hide 2, cc-Move Silent 2, cc-Spot 2
Surrogate Spellcasting
EB 1d6, Least Invocation (Eldritch Spear)


2nd
Warlock 2
+1
+0
+0
+3
Conc 5, UMD 5, cc-hide/move/spot 2.5
-
Detect Magic, Least Invocation (Entropic Warding)


3rd
Warlock 3
+2
+1
+1
+3
Conc 6, UMD 6, cc-hide/move/spot 3
Flyby Attack
DR 1/cold iron, EB 2d6


4th
Warlock 4
+3
+1
+1
+4
Conc 7, UMD 7, cc-hide/move/spot 3.5
-
Least Invocation (See the Unseen)


5th
Warlock 5
+3
+1
+1
+4
Conc 8, UMD 8, Know Arc 1 cc-hide/spot 4
-
EB 3d6


6th
Warlock 6
+4
+2
+2
+5
Conc 9, UMD 9, Know Arc 3, cc-move 4
Born Flyer
Lesser Invocation (Baneful Blast), Arcane Hunter ACF

Epic Feats:
Mortalbane x10, totals 50 uses/day of +2d6 damage to every EB


Baneful Blast gives you bonus damage to a selected Favored Enemy from the ranger list, thus giving you the ranger class ability minus the other useless bonuses. Selecting then the Arcane Hunter ACF to instead gain arcanists (anyone capable of casting arcane spells, or invocations) then allows you to add +2d6 damage to eldritch blast to any arcanist.
Eldritch/Baneful Blast
At 6th level and beyond in sparrow form, your to hit is +4 (BAB) +8 (size), +6 (DEX) = +18 vs a touch AC of usually 10. (It’s +14 at level 1.) Doing 3d6 base damage, +2d6 bane, +2d6 mortalbane. Even ignoring Precise shot, you still have a +14 to hit on your ranged touch, meaning auto success barring a roll of a 1 the entire build.


A lesser chasuble of fell power (comp arc 148) is attainable in e6, which would add another 1d6 to your EB’s, for a total of 8d6 vs the right target. Gloves of Eldritch Admixture (MiC) may or may not be available in e6, but it’s also only up to 3x day, which is not awesome.

Optional Feats that require some arguing were you to take them:
Plunging Shot is an option for extra damage, as you’ll always be a speck in the air, and therefor always attacking from at least the requisite 30’ away, but the feat references a projectile weapon, and so would require your DM getting on board w/ EB being classified that way, which isn’t RAW, so isn’t included here.

Extra Invocation would grant another least invocation. The only thing worth it on this build might be summon swarm, which you could then argue would benefit from mortalbane, however it’s a close range invocation, which negates your greatest strength of being so far away, plus its duration is concentration, meaning it eats up all your standard actions, so meh.

Nemesis (BoED) is another good option for the warlock, which you can chain into Arcane hunter, however the text says “+1d6 to weapon attacks”. EB is a weaponlike SLA, but not a weapon attack itself, so this too would require some more DM hand waving, but would then bump you up to 9d6 on your EB vs evil arcanists. If allowed, dumping one Mortalbane just makes sense.

It’s hard to be original in a warlock round for e6, although I’m sure some others may do just that. Taking a Ranger ACF is about as original as I could think considering we all have the same invocations to pick from. Hengeyokai gives you flight, which otherwise would almost have to be your 1 lesser invocation.

Book of Vile Darkness: Mortalbane
Complete Arcane: Warlock, Invocations
Complete Mage: Baneful Blast, Arcane Hunter
Monster Manual: Flyby Attack
Oriental Adventures/Dragon #318: Sparrow Hengeyokai
Races of the Wild: Born Flyer
Savage Species: Surrogate Spellcasting

[Zaq]

Koopa + wings = Parakoopa. Goomba + wings = Paragoomba. Can this one fly? Good! I won't have to scold it for false advertising…


LE Lesser Aasimar Para Gnostic
Races from races of destiny with lesser planetouched from player guide to faerun
He was an aasimar, it should be been good, but the offer of power can easily change even the heart of one who would be good and this was the case of Para Gnostic, the new name of the Aasimar corrupted by the devils, with the offer of more power, other than the one of a warlock. How he could gain more power? Easily gaining more knowledge, the devils let him learn about the Paragnostic Assembly and how he could easily become a Paragnostic Apostle and so he did that, gaining the knowledge as a Paragnostic Apostle while powering himself with their abilities and library. His search of power could continue as long as he had knowledge, and the help of the devils ,even if his soul will go in the Nine hells of Baator at his end


Stat
[Point buy
After racial

Strength 8 08

Dexterity 14 614

Constitution 12 412

Intelligence 16 10 16

Wisdom 12 4 14

Charisma 15 8 17

4th level point to charisma



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


1st
Warlock
+0
+0
+0
+2
Knowledge arcana 4 Knowledge the planes 4, Knowledge religion 4, Spellcraft 4, Concentration 4
Point blank shot (srd)
Eldritch blast 1d6, invocation (least)


2nd
Warlock
+1
+0
+0
+3
Knowledge arcana 5 Knowledge the planes 5, Knowledge religion 5, Spellcraft 5, Concentration 5

Detect magic


3rd
Warlock
+2
+1
+1
+3
Knowledge arcana 6 Knowledge the planes 5, Knowledge religion 5, Spellcraft 6, Concentration 6, Trick Collector of stories (complete scoundrel)
Precise shot (srd)
Damage reduction 1/cold iron, eldritch blast 2d6


4th
Paragnostic Apostle
+2
+1
+1
+5
Knowledge arcana 7 Knowledge the planes 6 Knowledge religion 5, Spellcraft 7, Concentration 6,Knowledge nature 2, Knowledge dungeoneering 2

Holy texts, knowledge is power, lore


5th
Paragnostic Apostle (complete chanpion)
+3
+1
+1
+6
Knowledge arcana 8 Knowledge the planes 7 Knowledge religion 5, Spellcraft 8, Concentration 7,Knowledge nature 4, Knowledge dungeoneering 4

Knowledge is power


6th
Paragnostic Apostle
+3
+2
+2
+6
Knowledge arcana 9 Knowledge the planes 9, Knowledge religion 5, Spellcraft 9 Concentration 7,Knowledge nature 5, Knowledge dungeoneering 5
Knowledge devotion (complete champion)
Knowledge is power
Our eldritch blast is 3d6 and we gain 4 invocation as the paragnostic apostle advance the warlock , as descripted in the Complete arcane
1° Weapon focus (ranged spell) (complete arcane)
2° ranged spell specialization (complete arcane)
3° Ability focus (eldritch blast) (monster manual)
4° Extra invocation (complete arcane)
5° Spell penetration (player handbook)
6° Greater spell penetration (player handbook)
7° Evil brand (exemplar of evil)
8° Hellsworn (Hell’s fury) (exemplars of evil)
9° Mortalbane (book of vile darkness)
10° Empower spell like ability (monster manual)

1° invocation Sickening blast (complete arcane)
2° invocation Otherwordly whisper (complete mage)
3° invocation Dark one own’s luck (complete arcane)
4° Inovcation Fell flight(complete arcane)
5° Extra invocation Frightful blast (complete arcane)
Level 4 Knowledge is power= Backhanded attack
Level 5 Knowledge is power= Accurate retort
Level 6 Knowledge is power= Penetrating insight


We start as a warlock and the invocation we take is a debuffing one as we can’t do so much damage, we are lawful evil and our objective is to gain the knowledge of the paragnostic assemble for our patron or for our evil matter. But to do so we must become stronger and we will collaborate with other adventurers debuffing the enemy if needed , with point blank shot being enough useful for now
Some time passed we became able to see the magic (and we use spellcraft as a bonus) , to reduce some of the damage thanks to our new DR , a stronger eldritch blast and the invocation which will be so much useful , otherwordly whisper that boost our main knowledge so we can enter in the paragnostic assembly (even from the first level but now we start doing a prestige class). Precise shot will permit us to doesn’t do friendly fire not the best way to collaborate in an association no?
As first thing we could enter in the paragnostic apostle thanks to our race, because the lesser aasimar have daylight ,so is a level 3 spell like abilities. The paragnostic apostle ask for 3° level spell or the equivalent in spell like abilities so we can enter even if with the warlock we couldn’t because we don’t have for now lesser invocation. But being in the paragnostic assembly as a paragnostic apostle was worth as we gained various abilities that boost our eldritch blast other than have achieved a good rank in the paragnostic assembly so we can use their libraries to research in various skill is not bad. We gained new knowledge skill , and we put 5 rank to boost our points with the paragnostic assembly . The knowledge is power skills are useful as each one boost our eldritch blast one as a DC , one as roll, and one to penetrate the spell resistance that would be a problem with our warlock. We didn’t lost any invocation or eldritch blast as the paragnostic apostle boost our class level at each level. We even gained lore so we could be something similar to a bard. Maybe the best thing of this level is our ability to fly, combined with knowledge devotion (and collector of stories) is a good offensive, and for our defense we took dark one own’s luck that will boost our fortitude saving throw that is not so much high
We already took something that boost our ray , as feats and as an ability now we boost it again with these two feats that are not bad on the strike and on the damage we will need to be near but the same for point blank shot so is not a problem.
We had already a debuffing essence so now we boost it with ability focus as the text in the complete arcane seems to suggest that ability focus on eldritch blast help with the essence so is good. Backhanded attack is another boost here so we have a +3 to our sickening blast. But why we should only do with sickening? We can use frightful to give another debuff is free with the attack at the end so why not? This is why we take the extra invocation feat.
As we become stronger the enemy of the spellcaster is more present, and we are in E6 so we don’t have a big boost to our caster level, so after we took the penetrating insight we take the two feats that can help us spell penetration and greater spell penetration for a total of +11 to pass the spell resistance.
Each one of these feat as one objective boost the damage of our eldritch blast as the hellsworn feat is a free action and is a third of our eldritch blast as damage so is not bad. We use weapon focus we already took , and our ranks in knowledge so is a good combination for us. Evil brand is taken as a prerequisite, is a bit of a problem but only evils creature recognize us luckily. Mortalbane is quite easy and is a good boost for when we can do that. The last is empower spell like ability that we can do easily on our eldritch blast because is a 1° level equivalent but not when we use our essence. In one case we do damage in the other we debuff but we can mix mortalbane and hellsworn hell’s fury even with the essence
Hit points 6+2d6+3d4+12=around 32 but we fly
Knowledge checks (without collector of stories and without any search) Arcana and the planes = 9 ranks +6 (otherwordly whisper)+ 3 intelligence=18
Knowledge religion 5 ranks +6 otherwordly whisper +3 intelligence= 14
Other knowledge =8 (5 rank +3 intelligence)
Paragnostic assembly points and rank= 3 (half level)+ 5 (5 skills with at least 9 rank) +1 (has levels in a class with at least three skill for example warlock) + 1 (is devout to knowledge thanks to knowledge devotion)+1 (has at least one level in a paragnostic prestige class) So we are a sage of wordly matter with 11 points
Saves
Will 6+2 (wisdom)=8
Reflex 2+2 dexterity =4
Fortitude 2+1 constitution+4 dark one own luck=7
To hit (when we are in 30 foot) 3 +2 (dexterity)+1 (weapon focus)+ 1 (point blank shot)+1 (accurate retort remember the natural armor bonus of a creature without natural is 0 so one could rule is a bonus)+1 (the minimum for knowledge devotion)=9 at touch
Damage maximum
3d6(eldritch blast)+1 (point blank shot)+2 (ranged spell specialization)+1d6( hellsworn)+half 3d6 (empower spell like ability)+ 2d6 (mortalbane)+1 (minimum knowledge devotion)=around 30
DC for our essence
10+2 (essence level)+4 (charisma)+2 (ability focus)+1 (backhanded attack) =19
Spell penetration =3 (warlock level) +3 (paragnostic apostle)+1 (penetrating insight)+4 (spell penetration and greater spell penetration)=+11

[Zaq]

I like tarragon and I like maple, but putting them together? Yeah, pretty sure only a fey would do that.



Tarragon Mapleflash
CG Human Warlock 2/CCleric 3/ Eldritch Disciple 1
Point Buy:
S 10 D 10 C 12 I 10 W 18 C 14
+1 to CON at 4th

HP: 5d6+1d8+6

Spell Domain SpC 280: Mystra. GP +2 on conc/spellcraft
1-Mage Armor
2-Silence

-Div Magician: only gain 1 domain (req know arc 1), add 1 wiz spell of abj,div,nec each time you gain new cleric spells to your list

Recommended Sor/Wiz Spells from Divine Magician, by level:
1. Negative Energy Ray (T&B) 3d6 ray, True Strike (gained at epic 8th), Critical Strike (epic 10th)
2. Bonefiddle (SpC) 3d6 sonic and -20 move silent/round, up to 6 rounds.


-Spon Dom: can’t convert spells to cure spells. Lose any prepared spell to cast any domain spell of same or lower level


Tarragon Mapleflash always knew there was something different about herself. Even from a young age she just “saw things” differently. Her mother nurtured this outlook, and it was no wonder at all when she would spend countless hours alone in the woods, where for some reason she just felt much more at ease.

In her wanderings, she came upon a temple of sorts that paid homage to Mystra, the mother of all magic. And here as well, met the Keeper, a young Petal named Teal. Teal recognized in Tarragon that something special as well, and took her under her petals as it were, mentoring her in both her nature, and her ‘other’ nature.

In time, Tarragon Mapleflash became a champion for Mystra, and her underlying heritage came out. It was not a bar to her destiny, but another step to glory.






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


1st
Cloistered Cleric
+0
+2
+0
+2
Conc 4, Know Arc/Nat/Rel/Planes 4, Know Dung/Geo/Hist/Local 1, Spellcraft 4
Extra Turning, (B) Med Armor Proficiency, (B) Knowledge Devotion
Turn Undead, Lore, Spells, Divine Magician ACF, Spontaneous Domain (Spell) Acf


2nd
Cloistered Cleric 2
+1
+3
+0
+3
Conc 5, Know Arc/Nat/Rel/Planes 5, Collector of Stories
-
-


3rd
Cloistered Cleric 3
+1
+3
+1
+3
Conc 6, Heal 1, Know Arc/Nat/Rel/Planes 6, Spellcraft 6
Zen Archery
-


4th
Warlock
+1
+3
+1
+5
Conc 7, Know Rel 7, Spellcraft 6
-
Eldritch Blast 1d6, Least Invocation (Otherworldly Whispers)


5th
Warlock 2
+2
+3
+1
+6
Conc 8, Know Rel 8, Spellcraft 7
-
Detect Magic/will, Least Invocation (Eldritch Glaive)


6th
Eldritch Disciple
+2
+5
+1
+8
Conc 9, Know Rel 9, Spellcraft 8
Battle Caster
Gift of Patron (Healing Blast), Turn Undead, +1 Warlock Invocation advancement (EB/EG 2d6)


Epic Feats:
1- Practiced Spellcaster (Warlock CL=6): EB/EG is now 3d6
2- Practiced Spellcaster (Cleric CL=6)
3- Fey Heritage: +3 WILL vs enchantments
4- Fey Power: +1 CL and save DC’s for enchantment spells and warlock invocations
5- Fey Presence: SLA’s charm monster/deep slumber/disguise self 1/day
6- Fey Skin: DR 4/cold iron
7- Shape Soulmeld (Lucky Dice): +1 to attack/dmg, skill checks, or saves. Possibly all 3
8- Extra Spell: paired w/ divine magician to get another 1st lvl wiz/sorc spell
9- Extra Slot: bonus 1st lvl slot
10- Extra Spell: another 1st wiz spell

Cleric Spells, including high WIS bonus:
1: 0-3, 1-2+1
2: 0-4, 1-3+1
3: 0-4, 1-3+1, 2-2+1
epic 9th: 0-4, 1-4+1, 2-2+1

Add the following spells to the cloistered cleric's class spell list: 0—message; 1st—erase, identify, unseen servant; 2nd—fox's cunning;

Sample Spell List:
0th’s: Create Water, Cure Minor, Read Magic, Resistance
1st: Divine Favor, Ice Slick, Protection from Evil, Wieldskill
2nd: Divine Insight, Guidance of the Avatar, Resist Energy, Shatter



On Level 1:
Per the PHB, pages 58 and 59, you level in the following manner: choose class, adjust BAB, base saves, ability scores, hit points, skill points, feats, spells, class features. So all knowledge skills are class skills from the knowledge domain until we get to the very end of this list to trade it away for devotion. This lets us get at least 1 rank in all the knowledge skills to later apply knowledge devotion to for EB/EG.
Warlocks get crappy BAB, everyone knows this. Eldritch Glaive takes this weakness and turns it into a strength by making your melee attacks into touch attacks with reach. Even taking a single level of warlock in e6 would cut out the possibility of iterative attacks, so high BAB doesn’t matter in this competition. The Fey Heritage line eventually mimics the DR of the warlock, but increases it to DR 4/cold iron over the 1 you’d get from going straight warlock. Practiced Spellcaster bumps your EB/EG damage up to full, and Divine Magician and Extra Spell combine to get you some extra options on your spell list which further help out your EG.

Fey Presence gives you 3 more SLA’s usable once a day, of those Charm Monster is a 3rd level spell, and Deep Slumber, also a 3rd, targets up to 10hd of creatures, which should be anything you’re facing in e6. Charm Monster is a Bard 3rd, but a sorc/wiz 4th. Bards don’t get 3rds till 7th level, so this is already breaking out of e6 in spirit.
Knowledge devotion (see below) is going to be pretty consistently bumping up your to hit and damage against everything you fight, and since both EB and EG are touch attacks, you won’t have any issues hitting.
Healing Blast gives you 9 3d6 ranged or touch heals a day. Nothing says you can’t target yourself either, so fire away at whoever needs it.

Battle Caster gets you into medium armor, so mithral full plate to your hearts content.

The Richard Baker FAQ:


Q: would practiced spellcaster allow Blast damage progression?
A: I think it should, but I doubt the language of the feat and eldritch blast description specifically allows it. ( if eldritch blast were written in such a way that it dealt damage based on the warlock’s caster level, it would be fine. But the damage is based on the warlock’s class level. While those twto things are almost always going to be the same, you have to take a pretty liberal interpretation to let Practiced Spellcaster work on eldritch blast.


Turn attempts: 3+cha (5) + extra turning (9)

Knowledge Devotion: Lore (+3), Otherworldly (+6), Collector (+5) Divine Insight (5+CL insight bonus, so 11 at epic 2nd) --OR- Guidance of the Avatar (+20 competence bonus) or both if you really need it, and/OR Wieldskill for another (+10). This isn’t even counting skill ranks. So you could expend a pile of resources, but grant yourself +35 or more, to your knowledge devotion roll to get you +5 to hit, and +5 damage for the entire encounter, and Knowledge Devotion can be applied to your EB/EG.

Lucky Dice bumps this up another +1 to hit, and +1 to damage for +6/+6 total.


Complete Arcane: Battle Caster 75, Warlock 5, Extra Spell 79, Extra Slot 79
Complete Champion: Knowledge Devotion 60
Complete Divine: Practiced Spellcaster 82
Complete Mage: Divine Magician 33, Eldritch Disciple 53, Fey Heritage 43, Fey Power 43, Fey Presence 43, Fey Skin 43, Otherworldly Whispers 124
Complete Scoundrel: Collector of Stories 85
Complete Warrior: Zen Archery 106
Dragon Magic: Eldritch Glaive 82
Magic of Incarnum: Shape Soulmeld 40, Lucky Dice 77
PHB: Cleric, spells
PHB II: Spontaneous Domain Casting 37
Spell Compendium: Bonefiddle 37, Critical Strike 56
SRD: Cloistered Cleric https://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm
Tome and Blood: Negative Energy Ray 93

https://web.archive.org/web/20110825015745/http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19520666/Warlock_Faq_by_Rich_Baker

[Zaq]

Six warlocks for your judging pleasure! Reminder: Originality is on a ten-point scale this round.

Thanks for putting up with my delays!

[MinimanMidget]

Judging has commenced! Fair warning, this round might take me a while. I only have two eyes.

[jdizzlean]

quick read over, looks like 6 completely different builds, very nice!

[Quentinas]

The build on which i were stuck was a fey related warlock and i was trying to get into this class , not because were strong or anything (for a warlock isn't too strong) but because was original , the Courtier (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fey/20030905a) from the Fey feature. My main problem was that leadership, and because without that would have been similar ( i could use each fey heritage feat but other than that i didn't know), for the race i was thinking at a duskling so that i could use essentia from the start , so that could have been good later. But i didn't found a way to gain leadership so i was stuck

[jdizzlean]

The build on which i were stuck was a fey related warlock and i was trying to get into this class , not because were strong or anything (for a warlock isn't too strong) but because was original , the Courtier (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fey/20030905a) from the Fey feature. My main problem was that leadership, and because without that would have been similar ( i could use each fey heritage feat but other than that i didn't know), for the race i was thinking at a duskling so that i could use essentia from the start , so that could have been good later. But i didn't found a way to gain leadership so i was stuck

interesting how it requires you to have leadership, and then gives it to you as a bonus feat option lol.

unfortunately, just as in the other competitions, leadership is banned here too

[Quentinas]

interesting how it requires you to have leadership, and then gives it to you as a bonus feat option lol.

unfortunately, just as in the other competitions, leadership is banned here too

If i remember well leadership can be used as prerequisite but only for that basically a feat that give nothing , only as a prerequisite (that would have been what i would have done) And thanks that it give leadership as bonus feat if i want i could easily take another feat as i should already had leadership if i entered in that prestige class

[daremetoidareyo]

I tried playing with those darkness prereq SLA feats from drow of the underdark but couldn't find a way to make hide checks do something fun or interesting.

[ATHATH]

I tried playing with those darkness prereq SLA feats from drow of the underdark but couldn't find a way to make hide checks do something fun or interesting.
Oh, right, those are a thing! Yeah, something using them would have made for a cool build... although I think someone's already made an E6 build for that before.

EDIT: I can't find it now, but IIRC, the build took some Warlock levels to get Darkness at-will and dipped Duskblade for Arcane Attunement to get 3+INT more uses of Dancing Lights (as an SLA) per day. I don't remember what, if anything, it took to get more uses of Faerie Fire as an SLA...

[Zaq]

Oh, right, those are a thing! Yeah, something using them would have made for a cool build... although I think someone's already made an E6 build for that before.

EDIT: I can't find it now, but IIRC, the build took some Warlock levels to get Darkness at-will and dipped Duskblade for Arcane Attunement to get 3+INT more uses of Dancing Lights (as an SLA) per day. I don't remember what, if anything, it took to get more uses of Faerie Fire as an SLA...

Does Magic in the Blood work for that?

[DeTess]

Oh, right, those are a thing! Yeah, something using them would have made for a cool build... although I think someone's already made an E6 build for that before.

EDIT: I can't find it now, but IIRC, the build took some Warlock levels to get Darkness at-will and dipped Duskblade for Arcane Attunement to get 3+INT more uses of Dancing Lights (as an SLA) per day. I don't remember what, if anything, it took to get more uses of Faerie Fire as an SLA...

https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=22810459&postcount=67 from the ninja round used a level of warlock to gain some extra ninja tricks.

[MinimanMidget]

Oh, right, those are a thing! Yeah, something using them would have made for a cool build... although I think someone's already made an E6 build for that before.

My Mark of Shadow build (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24373754&postcount=25) used those, but didn't use Warlock, because it would have made the Mark of Shadow itself completely redundant.

Also (to forestall anyone asking), judging is moving slowly, but fairly continually, which is usually a good sign for me.

[daremetoidareyo]

You probably have tons of ideas for non base class based competitions, but consider heaping this onto the list:

One spell: you can have other spells, but this one spell (competitors choice), this is what your character is all about. Metamagics, slas, what have you. Make this one spell shine.

[Quentinas]

That could be an idea, or another could be a round based on monster classes (or a monster class), and before that i would like to see a Savant round, but that class can be quite difficult to optimize

[Zaq]

I always love new ideas, both standard and non-standard. Feel free to keep suggesting them!

I will say that at least one of the things mentioned in the last few posts has already been on the list for a while.

[MinimanMidget]

Sorry for the delay, everyone. Have some judgments.

Global judging note: Let's talk about spell resistance. Spell resistance is a problem for Warlocks. It's a problem that goes away once you get vitriolic blast, but that's not an option within E6. And yes, most monsters don't have any. But that still leaves a lot of monsters that do, and they tend to run in packs. If you get into a fight with devils, or drow, (and so on), and you either don't have a decent fallback option, or haven't adjusted the maths in your favour, you're looking at around a 50% chance to be completely useless every turn. And speaking from experience, there's something very humiliating about failing to beat SR, especially low SR.

To be clear (and despite my ranting), this isn't a huge deal. But I am going to mention in in the Power section, so I'm writing it once here so that I can refer to it.



Demonbinder is a warlock prestige class, but it's not an obvious choice in a contest like this at all. (+1)

Lesser drow is a bit unusual too, although once you'd decided to go demonbinder it was pretty much your only choice. (+0.5)

The demonic feats are very much on (evil) brand for a warlock, especially a demonbinder, but still not a usual choice. I didn't certainly didn't see wandstrike coming either. Most of the rest is pretty standard, although I like that you took Daylight Adaptation instead of just going "they published sunglasses for 50gp so I'll just wear those". (+1)

Overall: 7.5


Demonbinding is surprisingly versatile, and quite potent, but you lose a lot of its advantages because you only have 1 level. 1 use/day means that the quick recharge of damnation points is worthless to you, and using a bind for something means not having it for something else later.

In combat, wandstrike + hideous blow is definitely a cool trick (it doesn't work, but that's a problem for Elegance). Solid damage on a touch attack, with the possibility of an extra rider depending on the wand. Summoning is always great too (and means you have one option not affected by SR), even if you can only do it once per day. Baleful Utterance can be very useful in the right situation. And in classic Warlock tradition, you can always fall back on firing eldritch blasts. Overall, you're definitely more versatile than a baseline Warlock 6...some of the time. Giving up a lesser invocation pays off for you, but your added versatility came at the cost of some of the longevity that Warlocks are known for. (+0.5)

Defensively, you've got good AC, strong Will, solid Fort, and low Ref, but Dark One's Own Luck means you could swap Fort and Ref if needed. Your hp pool is low for someone who plans to be in melee - you mention binding a vrock, but if you do that, those temp hp are all you're getting for your demonbinding that whole day. Your DR isn't as anaemic as a regular Warlock, and that's worth something. Demonbinding gives you some other potential defensive options, but nothing major, and only 1/day. Also, you're harder to resurrect than normal, which counts against you here. (+0.25)

Outside of combat, you've got okay social skills, and you can boost them, but not reliably. Your Sense Motive isn't likely to win those opposed checks, and you're pretty much an expert on the planes, but not much else. Spamming Detect Magic is handy at times, and you've got a bit of Spellcraft to back it up. UMD and Craft Wand is worth something, too, but on the whole I think you're going to struggle to really contribute in non-combat adventuring outside of social situations. (-0.25)

Overall: 3.5


It's a very minor point, but to take Daylight Adaptation, you need to be a Cormanthor drow, and your background sort of contradicts that. More importantly, lesser drow is definitely inelegant. (-0.25)

Wandstrike and Hideous Blow both require a standard action, so you can't combine them. To be clear, even if you had the actions to use both of them in a turn, you still couldn't combine them, you could just use both in one turn. (-0.5)

Reliance on wands, even with the ability to craft them, is problematic. (-0.25)

Overall: 2


5 levels in Warlock, and the 6th in a Warlock prestige class. (+0.75)

You lost a level of Warlock to become a Demonbinder, but Demonbinder itself is designed to boost the Warlock's strengths. Your feats, too, are mostly ones that boost the Warlock's strengths, or they're ones you took to try and make Hideous Blow worthwhile. (+0.75)

Overall: 4.5

Total: 17.5




Azurin is standard if you're doing anything with incarnum, but Unicorn Clan not so much. (+0.5)

Incarnum shows up a lot in IC E6, but you normally see the same soulmelds over and over again. This...isn't that. Well, soulspark familiar does show up, but not as a mount. Spellfire you don't see so often. Psycarnum tricks are an optimization staple, obviously. Anyway, time to stop avoiding the point. You have an army of crawling eyes flying around on soulsparks shooting spellfire. It's not so much original as unique. (+3.5)

Overall: 9


Ugh, spellfire. With the ability to charge it yourself for free, starting combats with a 16d6 blast is pretty OP in an E6 environment. And the healing effect is a thing too, I guess. And then there's your army of eyeballs flying around on soulsparks doing the same thing. Arbitrary amounts of damage at up to...wait, 400ft range? It's a little one-note, but in these kinds of quantities damage is generally all you need (in combat, anyway). Reflex half and fire damage are minor drawbacks, but it ignores SR, so between that and eldritch blast there's almost nothing you can't hurt. (+1.5)

Defensively, you've got standard warlock AC, no save bonuses to speak of, standard warlock HP (plus you can function at up to -9), and a bit more DR than most warlocks. Concealment from darkness is a thing, and action before thought is nice, even if its 1/encounter. Your eyeballs are essentially the same, except with much better AC. That said, while offense isn't always the best defense, it's a pretty great one, and your ability to kill things quickly will go a long way towards covering your weaknesses. (I almost think Improved Initiative would have been better defensively for you than action before thought.) (-0.5)

Outside of combat, you've got...well, you've got UMD, you've got a bit of Craft, you can spam Detect Magic, and you have an army of flying eyeballs. Given that you came up with this nonsense, I'm sure you can find some non-obvious uses for your army of flying eyeballs, but mostly if you can't kill it with spellfire, you don't really have a way to interact with a situation. (-0.5)

Overall: 3.5


Wow, there's a lot to unpack here. This is why you should never say you're going to judge until you've seen the builds.

Unicorn Clan is...sketchy, but I wouldn't necessarily penalise for it by itself. That said, it's from OA, and you've also got the extremely FR-specific Spellfire Wielder feat. And on that topic, Magic of Faerun is 3.0 content, and Spellfire Wielder explicitly requires DM permission. Also, ugh, spellfire. (-0.5)

Psycarnum Infusion/Azure Talent is famously dodgy. (-0.25)

Obviously, you can't ride a Soulspa-
...wait, what? So, they say over and over again that soulsparks are creatures made of energy, but they didn't think to make them incorporeal? C'mon, guys. Well, I guess you can ride a soulspark. And it's a ridiculously clever way to get around the movement restrictions. Add in your ability to craft tiny leather saddles and honestly this is worth a bonus to Elegance. (+0.25)

As a pointless side note, as far as I know, it's never specified what skill is required to make saddles, but I'd happily accept whatever word(s) you chose to put between the brackets after the word Craft. What I don't understand is why you have 1 rank in each of Craft(weapon) and Craft(armour).

"For all other purposes, its statistics are equal to yours." I went and looked at the Monster Manual, and, yanno, I just can't find a decent argument that makes this not work. So, okay, I guess crawling eyes can do what you can do. Another chef might have put an eye on their shoulder firing spellfire (or more likely dissolving spittle) and called it a day, but that just wasn't enough for you. And, yes, Crawling Eye is an invocation that affects vision, so it's hard to argue that you can't use it through the eyes.

So far, you've been beating me into accepting all this. But I didn't give up, and I found what I needed to defeat you. Magic of Incarnum, page 49: "Once shaped, a soulmeld takes on a solid physical form in the shape specified for that particular meld. A shaped soulmeld acts as a normal object that might be worn, such as boots, armor, or a robe except for the following: they cannot be removed from the individual wearing them, they cannot be damaged except as specifically noted and they don’t have a weight (though they can restrict movement, thus giving an armor check penalty if applicable)." So although most of this technically works, you can't rip an eye out of a Threefold Mask of the Chimera. So there. Note that if the penalty here seems large, it's because this is the key point of your build. (-1)

Overall: 1.5


All 6 levels in Warlock. (+1)

You're making heavy use of spellfire, psionics, and incarnum. Very few of your feats have anything to do with being a Warlock. And yet, it's hard to hold that against you, because what you've really done was pick one specific element of the Warlock and ruthlessly optimise, exploit, and abuse it. Regardless of ingredients, this dish is fundamentally a Warlock dish, and couldn't be anything else. With all that said, though, the only level that really matters here is Warlock 6. (+0.5)

Overall: 4.5

Total: 19.5




Human, bleh. (-1)

I sort of expected to see a darkness build, but hellbreaker is a surprise. I also would have expected rogue rather than ninja, although it's neat that for your purposes sudden strike is the same as sneak attack. (+2)

Poison Spell + Eldritch Glaive is cool too, and some of the feats you've taken aren't what anyone would've expected. (+1)

Overall: 7


The rules for hidden melee attackers are a bit murky, but anyway. Eldritch Glaive is a full-round action, which means you can't hide and use it in the same turn. And the Blend Into Shadows feat was right there to give you swift action hiding, much more important than Instinctive Darkness (because you'll generally only need one darkness per combat, but you could need to hide as often as every round). Even ignoring that, the full-round action thing makes you a very immobile melee fighter, which is...not great. Your damage is okay, but not anything special, although Con-damaging poison will help when it works. Speaking of which, I love the flavour of an assassin hired by devils to kill other devils, but most devils are immune to poison and have SR, so your speciality is kinda what you're worst at. That bit's not worth a penalty (beyond the general problem of your main schtick not working on absolutely everything), but I thought it was pretty funny. (-0.5)

Defensively, you've got solid AC, terrible Fort, strong Ref and Will, and your hp pool is kinda pathetic. Hiding (and concealment) will help, but there's a big problem with hiding in magical darkness - you're hidden, but anyone can hit you with an area effect just by aiming for the centre. Your good Ref will help, but this is one place where going ninja instead of rogue hurts - you don't have evasion, and even if you're only taking half damage you'll still go down pretty quickly. (-0.25)

Outside of combat, your good stealth will serve you well, and (with the help of your familiar) you've got some Spot and Listen to go with it. You've got solid Bluff and Sense Motive scores, some Search (and trapfinding to go with it), and some magical knowledge. You can spam Detect Magic, and your Spellcraft will make that more useful, too. Also...whatever Escape Artist does. Overall, you've got the skills to be useful in a variety of non-combat situations. (+1)

Overall: 3.25


I'm pretty certain you meant to say that your level 4 ability point goes to Dex, not Wis. You also forgot your bonus skill points for being human at level 1, although you remembered them at all higher levels. You also didn't list your languages, which wouldn't normally matter, but one of them has to be Infernal in order to qualify for Hellbreaker. And as long as I'm showing off how carefully I read the entries, you didn't list the source for Undo Resistance. Similarly, Eldritch Glaive is from Dragon Magic, not Draconomicon. Also, Mantle of Darkness doesn't prevent creatures that can see through magical darkness from seeing through yours, it just lets you hide anyway. It doesn't affect your tactics, it's just a slight inaccuracy in what you wrote. None of these nitpicks would be worthy of a penalty by themselves, but taken all together I'm going to give a minor one. (-0.25)

I love using Warlock to cover the "pact with devil" pre-req of Devil's Favor. I feel compelled to point out the oddity of Devil's Favor (favoured by a devil) + Hellbreaker (anti-devil class). That said, your background, while...concise, does cover this quite neatly. I'm choosing to believe that both of those neat little touches were intentional. (+0.25)

You can't use Poison Spell on Eldritch Glaive, since as an invocation it's an SLA, not a spell. I really wish you could, but you can't. It sucks, but there it is. (-0.5)

Overall: 2.5


2 levels in Warlock, less than half. (-0.5)

I struggle a bit to rate this one, because while it's mostly not a Warlock, the Darkness schtick is really a Warlock schtick. Drow (or Mark of Shadow) builds can do it too, but the usage limits make it really impractical. The Eldritch Glaive stuff I'm also a little torn on, but in the opposite way, because while Eldritch Glaive is a Warlock thing, the result is not that different to any other poison-using Ninja (except that it gets to target touch AC, obviously). On the whole, I'm going to go with no bonus or penalty here.

Overall: 2.5

Total: 15.25




The first time I saw a sparrow hengeyokai doing something decidedly un-sparrowlike, I was very impressed. This...is not that time. (-0.5)

Baneful Blast (arcanists) is a clever idea, even if it doesn't work (see Elegance), and I've never seen Born Flyer before, but the rest of your choices are pretty pedestrian. Well, most of the rest of your choices are just mortalbane. (-1)

Overall: 3.5


This is a mostly basic eldritch blaster, but I do like eldritch spear, especially since you took some Spot ranks to go with it. You have enough mortalbane to assume that it applies whenever you're fighting applicable foes, as well as another 2d6 against arcanists. And your attack bonus is extremely impressive - most warlocks rely on "everyone has low touch AC right", but that's just not always true. That said, if you'd wanted to make eldritch blast as reliable as possible (and you should, since it's pretty much all you have), you should have swapped a couple of those instances of mortalbane for some spell pen feats. Especially since most of the things mortalbane doesn't work on have SR, so there's a decent range of enemies where, instead of a 100% chance to do 5d6 damage, you have about a 50% chance to do 3d6 damage. (+0.25)

Defensively, you have really great AC, terrible Fort, solid Ref, average Will, and hardly any hp. Entropic Warding + flight is nice, especially since you plan to stay as far away from enemies as possible. Flyby Attack makes you that bit more mobile, too. Stealth is also a very viable option for you in combat. (+0.5)

Outside of combat, stealth is still a very viable option for you. You've got a bit of Spot, but no Listen. You've got UMD, and that's worth something, and you can spam Detect Magic, and that's worth something too. Still, I think you're going to find yourself useless a lot of the (non-combat) time. (-0.5)

Overall: 3.25


There is an argument to be made that Surrogate Spellcasting doesn't work on invocations. It certainly should, but Complete Arcane is...well, let's just say that my opinion of its rules text (specifically regarding invocations) is not as high as Zaq's. But then I suppose when you're used to the Truenamer, your baseline for well written rules probably suffers a bit. Anyway, all of this is to say that I'm noting that the argument could be made, but not making it myself or assigning a penalty here.

If you'd taken Born Flyer before Flyby Attack, I would've given you a bonus for qualifying for Flyby Attack with no possible reservations. (And I wonder if you meant to, since I'm not sure why else you'd have taken Born Flyer.)

ACF Chain: Yeah, no. I'm sure you saw this one coming. Arcane Hunter can only be taken at Ranger 1, Baneful Blast mentioning Favored Enemy doesn't mean it is Favored Enemy, even if you could do it Favored Enemy technically doesn't even apply to eldritch blast, etc. There's just no way this works. (-0.75)

Overall: 2.5


All 6 levels in Warlock. (+1)

This is a quintessentially Warlock build. It uses Eldritch Blast, and that's honestly about all it does. The only non-Warlock thing about it is the cross-class skill ranks. (+0.75)

Overall: 4.75

Total: 14




Lesser Aasimar is pretty popular for optimization. (-0.5)

Paragnostic Apostle is both an unusual way to boost eldritch blast and an unusual thing to see at all in an E6 contest. (+2)

So, you're an eldritch blaster, and that's boring. Knowledge Devotion is a fairly standard way of boosting it, as are some of your other feats. That said, I've never seen Hellsworn before, and that's surprising to me. It's also not usual to take multiple eldritch essences (and apparently in this round, it's not usual to take any at all, for some reason). (+0.5)

Overall: 7


At last! Someone relying solely on eldritch blast who actually has better than a 50/50 chance against level-appropriate SR! (+0.25)

You've got a lot of small boosts to your eldritch blast numbers, and between them, they definitely add up better than a baseline Warlock. You are missing the minimum 1 rank in Knowledge (local) that would make your Knowledge Devotion universally applicable. Sickening blast and frightful blast are a little redundant with each other, but on the occasion when you can apply both it'll really ruin someone's day. (+0.5)

Defensively, you've got standard warlock AC, decent Fort and Will, low Ref (although Dark One's Own Luck lets you shift that around), and very little hp. Flight is good, but you're definitely a bit on the squishy side. And that's a bigger deal for you than most people, because Hellsworn means you're difficult to resurrect. (-0.5)

Outside of combat, you're a knowledge bank, you can spam Detect Magic (and you've got the Spellcraft to make it a bit more useful), and that's really it. (-0.5)

Overall: 2.75


You've got an extra skill point at level 5, but you're also missing one at level 6, so I'll let it slide. You've also given yourself 6 more hp than you actually have.

Lesser Aasimar is inelegant (or outright cheesy, depending who you ask), and so is using its racial Daylight ability for early entry into Paragnostic Apostle. (-0.5)

Overall: 3


Only half of your levels are in Warlock, but the other half are in a prestige class that you're using to progress Warlock. (+0.5)

On that subject, pretty much the only thing a pure Warlock has that you don't is Deceive Item. Your feats, and the extra features you got from Paragnostic Apostle, are all designed to boost Eldritch Blast. (+0.75)

Overall: 4.25

Total: 17




Human, boring. (-1)

An Eldritch Disciple build is less boring, and boosting Knowledge Devotion isn't the most obvious use of the Cleric half. (+2)

The fey feats are very much on brand for a warlock, but still not a usual choice. (+0.5)

Overall: 6.5


Knowledge Devotion is a good way to boost eldritch blast, and you've certainly optimized the hell out of it, but I can't help but feel that you could have gotten a lot more for those spell slots than +5 to attack and damage. Obviously there's nothing stopping you from just preparing different spells, but your writeup is pretty clear about your plans (and it got you points in UotSI). I'm also not sure what you're getting out of eldritch glaive, since you have a higher attack bonus and range with your basic eldritch blast, and the same damage either way. I guess there are potential AoOs you can both deliver and avoid - it's not huge, but it's not nothing. Healing Blast is quite nice, and the SLAs from Fey Presence are quite strong, even at 1/day. (+0.5)

Defensively, medium armor makes up for your lack of Dex bonus (no 10500gp mithral fullplate in an E6 competition where we don't assume WBL or magic items), you've got okay Fort, terrible Ref, and great Will. You don't have much hp, but you have more DR than a regular warlock. On the whole, if I were you I'd definitely stick to firing eldritch blasts from a distance rather than wading into melee. (-0.25)

Outside of combat, you can attempt a lot of knowledge checks, with varying degrees of success depending which skill applies. You can spam Detect Magic, and you've got Spellcraft to make it a bit more useful. You're a 3rd-level Cleric, so with time to prepare you could do a lot with spells, too, which makes it tricky to rate. (-0.25)

Overall: 3


Your trick with leveling order at level 1 is clever, and it would normally work, but the contest rules specify that: "feats that affect which skills are class skills for you and/or how you spend your skill points (Able Learner, Martial Study, Truename Training, Apprentice, etc.) apply immediately at the level at which you take them (even though you normally spend skill points before taking a feat)." I think this is the first time it's ever applied in reverse, so that's pretty cool. It is on somewhat shaky ground, since it's a feat that gets swapped in for a class feature, but I think most people would agree that you could invoke that rule to get the extra class skill from Knowledge Devotion, or that a Fighter could use the extra class skill from Martial Study if they picked it up with a Fighter bonus feat. (-0.25)

You're missing a skill point at level 4 - I think you meant to put it in Spellcraft. No penalty.

Negative Energy Ray is 3.0 content (obviously), but I'm a big NWN fan. So is Wieldskill, which (along with some of the other spells in your sample list) you didn't list the source for. No penalty.

One of the pre-reqs for Eldritch Disciple is "must worship a chaotic or evil deity", and Mystra is NG. (-0.25)

Practiced Spellcaster doesn't boost Eldritch Blast damage. Rich Baker said that it should, not that it does (not that it would matter either way, since Rich Baker's FAQ on the forums isn't official in any way). (-0.5)

Divine Magician lets you pick one spell from the Sorc/Wiz list "Each time you gain the ability to cast a new level of cleric spells", so you definitely can't use it with the Extra Spell feat. (-0.25)

I have to say, I like how a lot of the build elements here flow together. Eldritch Disciple means Cleric, means high Wis, means Zen Archery. Cloistered Cleric is a strict upgrade to Cleric, and leads naturally to Knowledge Devotion. (+0.25)

Overall: 2


Only 2 levels in Warlock, but one of the others advances Warlock (and not Cleric), so you're essentially half Warlock. (-0.25)

You've got a lot of non-Warlock stuff, but many of your feats and spells are based around boosting your Warlock abilities. No bonus or penalty.

Overall: 2.75

Total: 14.25

[Quentinas]

Thanks for the judging, here is the table for now


Build
Race
Alignment
Final Stub
Miniman Score
Author
Position

Iris the Eye Captain (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24692421&postcount=24)
Unicorn Clan Azurin
Unknown
Warlock 6
19.5
??
First
Filau Euit (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24692419&postcount=23)
Lesser Drow
Chaotic evil
Warlock 5/Demonbinder 1
17.5
??
Second
Para Gnostic (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24692426&postcount=27)
Lesser Aasimar
Lawful Evil
Warlock 3/Paragnostic apostle 3
17
??
Third
Malloch (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24692422&postcount=25 )
Human
Any chaotic
Ninja 3/Warlock 2/hellbreaker 1
15.25
??
Fourth
Tarragon Mapleflash (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24692428&postcount=28)
Human
Chaotic Good
Warlock 2/CCleric 3/Eldritch disciple 1
14.25
??
Fifth
O'ren Ishi (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24692424&postcount=26)
Sparrow Hengeyokai
Any Chaotic
Warlock 6
14
??
Sixth

[daremetoidareyo]

No disputes here. What wonderful judging! Thorough and kind. Tank you.

[Zaq]

Thank you, MinimanMidget! You’re as detail-oriented as I am, but you’re a lot better than I am about being kind to the dishes/chefs.

Hoping to wrap up in a few days! I’d better narrow the short list for the next ingredient. Feel free to discuss!

[MinimanMidget]

No disputes here. What wonderful judging! Thorough and kind. Tank you.


Thank you, MinimanMidget! You’re as detail-oriented as I am, but you’re a lot better than I am about being kind to the dishes/chefs.

I'm blushing, but all this talk of kindness is weirding me out a bit. I need a vociferous dispute or two to get things back to normal :smallbiggrin:

[RaiKirah]

Man, i disappear for a couple months and miss the Warlock round :(

Really fun builds here folks, wish I could have been part of it!

I've spent a fair amount of time thinking on Crawling Eye and Disembodied Hand, largely for the same rule used in Iris the Eye Captain's build where the body part has all your statistics. I can categorically state that I did not come up with anything as entertaining for Crawling Eye. There's a vestige that gives you an eye on your palm, which might be another way to get more eyes onto your Crawling Ones for the inception trick here.

Had I been around to get an entry in, I would probably have used Disembodied Hand to get a fly speed by carrying myself, and paired it with Island of Blades to count as flanking, maybe thrown in some Iaijutsu Focus with Eldritch Glaive, or used a Stump Knife (either on myself, or the Disembodied Hand for TWF silliness) because it's unusual to have a mechanical way to actually have a stump.


Anywhoo, great stuff, and congrats to all the competitors!

[Quentinas]

Well if we want bad ingredients (or at least ingredients that doesn't work so much) we can do : Truenamer , Savant (that class being a jack of all trade is not easy but we have all skills as class skill) or Sohei (this one especially if KI Frenzy doesn't count as rage for the feats) . If we want a normal class not so awful but not so good we could use Ranger maybe? A medium bab class could be the noble or the binder, while a full spell class can be the Healer (we haven't done a healer round right?)

Or again a contest based on a game element or feats, we have done Pets and dragonmark, we could do a weapon related one?

[lylsyly]

For something different how about some of the 5 level prestige classes. Just ignore Prereqs.

[Zaq]

I'd like to move to the next round tonight (or tomorrow at the latest) if no one minds.

I've got a nice weird idea going. You're into a weird one, right? It's probably not the weirdest we've done to date but it definitely isn't normal.

[daremetoidareyo]

Wierd us up

[Quentinas]

I don't mind the judgement are goods, and weird is fine for me

[ATHATH]

Yeah, weird sounds good to me.

[daremetoidareyo]

I'm hoping tonight is an option, some distraction would be nice

[Zaq]

I'm hoping tonight is an option, some distraction would be nice

Sorry, friend. The same news that you need distraction from also knocked me off-kilter and I really didn't have the mental energy to address the thread.

Everyone who's affected or scared by this, hang in there. And remember that if you're a citizen of a certain place, you have a certain responsibility on a certain date, soon. Please make good choices.

Anyway! Let's wrap up this round and move on!




Build
Race
Alignment
Final Stub
Miniman Score
Author
Position

Iris the Eye Captain (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24692421&postcount=24)
Unicorn Clan Azurin
Unknown
Warlock 6
19.5
daremetoidareyo
First
Filau Euit (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24692419&postcount=23)
Lesser Drow
Chaotic evil
Warlock 5/Demonbinder 1
17.5
Quentinas
Second
Para Gnostic (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24692426&postcount=27)
Lesser Aasimar
Lawful Evil
Warlock 3/Paragnostic apostle 3
17
Quentinas
Third
Malloch (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24692422&postcount=25 )
Human
Any chaotic
Ninja 3/Warlock 2/hellbreaker 1
15.25
james
Fourth
Tarragon Mapleflash (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24692428&postcount=28)
Human
Chaotic Good
Warlock 2/CCleric 3/Eldritch disciple 1
14.25
jdizzlean
Fifth
O'ren Ishi (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24692424&postcount=26)
Sparrow Hengeyokai
Any Chaotic
Warlock 6
14
jdizzlean
Sixth


I dunno about you all, but I had a lot of fun reading the entries this time around! Congrats to daremetoidareyo for a hilarious first place, and congrats to Quentinas for a double medal in second and third. Many, many thanks to MinimanMidget for judging!

New round here (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?619170-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-XXVI)&p=24717692)!

[daremetoidareyo]

I nominate malloch for HM