Iron Chef E6 Appetizer Edition, Round XXVIII

[Zaq]

Welcome back to the Iron Chef Optimization Challenge E6 Appetizer Edition! Last time was an exhibition round, so let's get really gritty this time and let's close this horrid year out on a high note! I'm giving you extra cooking time this round because holidays are weird for everyone. Keep the chatter going and don't let this thread disappear in the meantime, okay?

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 1-5 point scale in four categories: Originality, 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, Jan 11, 2021 (1:59 AM GMT on Tuesday, Jan 12). 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.) However, as a specific exception for round 26, see below.
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. However, note that a special exception is in place for round 26...
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 ROGUE (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/rogue.htm), from the Player's Handbook!
Allez Optimizer!



The Builds:



Build


Stub


Chef


Score


Place




Chameleon of Vol (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24887228&postcount=37)


LE human rogue 3 / cloistered cleric 1 / thief of life 1 / chameleon 1

Bean Illus

11.75

4th




Crackshot Ha! Fling! (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24887229&postcount=38)


CG strongheart halfling rogue 4 / binder 1 / avenger 1


daremetoidareyo

15.75

2nd




Petts (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24887231&postcount=39)


?? Kenku wilderness rogue 5 / beastmaster 1

Quentinas

15

3rd




Tuck (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24887232&postcount=40)


CN desert kobold rogue 4 / fighter 1 / trapsmith 1

Quentinas

16.5

1st




Nygil Longbottom, Esq (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24887233&postcount=41)


CN whisper gnome beguiler 5 / mindbender 1

jdizzlean

DQ

DQ





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 25: Warlock (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?617510-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-XXV)&p=24666502)
Round 26: Monsters (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?619170-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-XXVI))
Round 27: Ardent (exhibition round) (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?622593-Iron-Chef-E6-Appetizer-Edition-Round-XXVII)


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?


Wow, the rogue. My favorite class I've never been able to bring myself to actually play. So much potential! If you're relying on sneak attack, it'll probably be in your best interest to make it super clear exactly how you're getting enemies flat-footed or exactly what your flanking strategy is going to be. The majority of contestants will have as much sneak attack as you do, so it's your job to show the judges why you're the BEST sneak attacker! Hint: more d6s might not be as impressive as getting to use those d6s more often.

Naturally, as a PHB class, rogue has a metric buttload of ACFs! Feel free to use them but don't be afraid NOT to use them. Base rogue is pretty fun too.

Make me proud, team! Love you all, and happy holidays!

[MinimanMidget]

Wow, this is going to be a popular round.

[RaiKirah]

Ooooh, I love rogues, but only six levels in which to differentiate is going to be interesting!! Will definitely try to get a build in!

[Zaq]

Bump! This may be the rogue round, but don't let it sneak up on you!

[MinimanMidget]

Yeah, I know most of my build. As usual, I've already used my ideas that would have been best suited for this round, and the idea I've got might've worked better in another round, but I kinda love it all the same.

[daremetoidareyo]

I should be finished by next month

[Zaq]

Yeah, this is an awkward time for building. There's lots of free time but lots of unusual demands upon said free time! Hence the longer-than-usual cooking window.

[Quentinas]

I have at the same time too many idea (at least 4 ) but too less energy to finalize a build with each feat

[RaiKirah]

I'm torn - I have a rogue gimmick I've been holding on to for the Main Competition and I can't decide if I want to use it here, or hold out for a Main Comp round I can fit it into.... It's pretty good in E6, but significantly more comprehensive with 20 levels to play with. Decisions, decisions...

[Zaq]

I'm torn - I have a rogue gimmick I've been holding on to for the Main Competition and I can't decide if I want to use it here, or hold out for a Main Comp round I can fit it into.... It's pretty good in E6, but significantly more comprehensive with 20 levels to play with. Decisions, decisions...

https://i.imgflip.com/1kmlcr.jpg

I'm fairly certain you can make them each distinct...

[RaiKirah]

I'm fairly certain you can make them each distinct...

Alright, you've convinced me :P

[jdizzlean]

i have a delicious idea that has gone into 3 tangents of course...

[Zaq]

To those who celebrate, merry Christmas! To those who don't celebrate, happy Friday!

Still so grateful that I'm part of this community and that you're all here to have fun with this game with me. Love you all.

[daremetoidareyo]

To those who celebrate, merry Christmas! To those who don't celebrate, happy Friday!

Still so grateful that I'm part of this community and that you're all here to have fun with this game with me. Love you all.

It’s sweet that you took the time to share your gratitude. I thought about making a post in the main thread and then the whimsy passed

[bean illus]

Is this list accurate?


List of 3.5 sources, by Jackinthegreen (http://minmaxforum.com/index.php?topic=15375.0)

Including errata (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/er/20040125a), and web enhancements (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/arch/we)

2000/08 Dungeons and Dragons Character Sheets
2000/08 Player's Handbook1 (PH)
2000/09 Dungeon Master's Guide1 (DMG)
2000/09 Dungeons and Dragons Gazeteer (DG)
2000/09 Dungeon Master's Screen
2000/10 Into the Dragon's Lair
2000/10 Monster Manual1 (MM)
2000/11 Forge of Fury (Fo)
2000/11 Living Greyhawk Gazeteer
2000/12 Hero Builder's Guidebook (HBG)
2001/01 Speaker in Dreams (SD)
2001/01 Sword and Fist2 (SF)
2001/02 Monsters of Faerûn3 (Mon)
2001/03 Psionics Handbook
2001/04 Standing Stone (StS)
2001/05 Defenders of the Faith2 (DF)
2001/06 Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting4 (FRCS)
2001/06 Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil (RT)
2001/07 Heart of Nightfang Spire (HN)
2001/07 Tome and Blood2 (TB)
2001/08 Magic of Faerûn4 (Mag)
2001/08 Sunless Citadel (SC)
2001/09 Manual of the Planes1 (MP)
2001/10 Enemies and Allies (EA)
2001/10 Oriental Adventures5 (OA)
2001/11 Deep Horizon (DH)
2001/11 Lords of Darkness4 (LD)
2001/12 Song and Silence2 (SaS)
2002/01 Lord of the Iron Fortress (LF)
2002/02 Forgotten Realms Dungeon Master's Screen
2002/02 Masters of the Wild2 (MW)
2002/03 Bastion of Broken Souls (BB)
2002/04 Deities and Demigods1 (DD)
2002/05 Faiths and Pantheons4 (FP)
2002/05 Stronghold Builder's Guidebook (SB)
2002/06 Book of Challenges (BC)
2002/07 Epic Level Handbook1 (EL)
2002/08 Silver Marches4 (SM)
2002/09 City of the Spider Queen4 (CSQ)
2002/09 Monster Manual II1 (MM2)
2002/10 Book of Vile Darkness (BV)
2003/02 Savage Species (SS)
2003/03 Arms and Equipment Guide (AE)
2003/03 Races of Faerûn4 (Rac)
2003/04 Fiend Folio1 (FF)
2003/05 Unapproachable East4 (Una)
2003/06 Ghostwalk6 (Gh)

1. Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, Monster Manual, Manual of the Planes, Deities and Demigods, Epic Level Handbook, Monster Manual II, and Fiend Folio are updated to Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 via the Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 Accessory Update Booklet.
2. The article "Rules Reference: Feats, Prestige Classes, and Spells" lists titular items from the Dungeons and Dragons, 3rd Edition class guidebooks that were updated to Dungeons and Dragons 3.5. Its most recent revision is Jan. 2005.
3. Monsters of Faerûn is updated to Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 via the Player's Guide to Faerûn Web enhancement "Player's Guide to Faerûn: Monster Update."
4. Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting and Magic of Faerûn receive major updates and Lords of Darkness, Faiths and Pantheons, Silver Marches, City of the Spider Queen, Races of Faerûn, and Unapproachable East receive minor updates to Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 via the Player's Guide to Faerûn (5).
5. Oriental Adventures is updated to Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 via the Dragon #318 article "Oriental Adventures Update: Eastern Flavor" (32-48).
6. Ghostwalk is updated to Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 via the Ghostwalk Web enhancement "Ghostwalk, Part 2: Ghostwalk 3.5 Update."


Dungeons and Dragons 3.5

Wizards of the Coast explains the purpose of Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 in the Revision Spotlight column "Compiled D&D Revision Spotlight."

Dragon #309 and Dungeon #100 present Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 content. Dragon #359 and Dungeon #150 are the last Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 issues and the last published by Paizo after Wizards of the Coast doesn't renew Paizo's magazine licenses (see Wizards of the Coast's announcement and Paizo's announcement).

2003/06 Dungeon Master's Guide (DMG)
2003/07 Monster Manual (MM)
2003/07 Player's Handbook (PH)
2003/08 Dragonlance Campaign Setting1 (DCS)
2003/08 Dungeon Master's Screen
2003/09 Miniatures Handbook (MH)
2003/10 Book of Exalted Deeds (BE)
2003/10 Underdark (Und)
2003/11 Draconomicon (Dr)
2003/12 Complete Warrior (CW)
2004/01 Deluxe Character Sheets
2004/01 Deluxe Dungeon Master's Screen
2004/02 Unearthed Arcana (UA)
2004/03 Player's Guide to Faerûn (PG)
2004/04 Expanded Psionics Handbook (XPH)
2004/04 Map Folio I
2004/05 Complete Divine (CD)
2004/06 Eberron Campaign Setting (ECS)
2004/07 Planar Handbook (PlH)
2004/07 Serpent Kingdoms (SK)
2004/07 Shadows of the Last War (SL)
2004/08 Map Folio II
2004/08 Races of Stone (RS)
2004/09 Frostburn (Fr)
2004/09 Monster Manual III (MM3)
2004/10 Libris Mortis (LM)
2004/10 Dungeon Master's Guide (special edition) (DMG)
2004/10 Player's Handbook (special edition) (PH)
2004/10 Monster Manual (special edition) (MM)
2004/10 Shining South (ShS)
2004/10 Whispers of the Vampire's Blade (WB)
2004/11 Complete Arcane (CAr)
2004/11 Sharn: City of Towers (Sh)
2004/12 Races of Destiny (RD)
2004/12 Map Folio 3-D
2005/01 Complete Adventurer (CAd)
2005/01 Grasp of the Emerald Claw (GC)
2005/02 Lost Empires of Faerûn (LE)
2005/02 Races of the Wild (RW)
2005/03 Sandstorm (Sa)
2005/04 Lords of Madness (LoM)
2005/04 Races of Eberron (RE)
2005/05 Champions of Ruin (CR)
2005/05 Heroes of Battle (HB)
2005/06 City of Splendors: Waterdeep (CSW)
2005/06 Dungeon Master's Guide II (DMG2)
2005/07 Eberron Deluxe Dungeon Master's Screen
2005/07 Five Nations (FN)
2005/07 Weapons of Legacy (WL)
2005/08 Eberron Player Character Sheets
2005/08 Explorer's Handbook (EH)
2005/08 Stormwrack (Sto)
2005/09 Fantastic Locations: Fane of the Drow (FLFD)
2005/09 Magic of Incarnum (MoI)
2005/09 Sons of Gruumsh (SG)
2005/10 Dragon Compendium Volume 12
2005/10 Heroes of Horror (HH)
2005/10 Magic of Eberron (MoE)
2005/11 Champions of Valor (CV)
2005/11 Fantastic Locations: Hellspike Prison (FLHP)
2005/12 Spell Compendium (SpC)
2006/01 Player's Guide to Eberron (PE)
2006/01 Races of the Dragon (RDr)
2006/02 Red Hand of Doom (RH)
2006/03 Power of Faerûn (PF)
2006/03 Tome of Magic (TM)
2006/04 Complete Psionic (CP)
2006/04 Fantastic Locations: Fields of Ruin (FLFR)
2006/04 Voyage of the Golden Dragon (VGD)
2006/05 Player's Handbook II (PH2)
2006/06 Fiendish Codex I (FC1)
2006/06 Mysteries of the Moonsea (Mys)
2006/07 Fantastic Locations: Dragondown Grotto
2006/07 Monster Manual IV (MM4)
2006/07 Secrets of Xen'drik (SX)
2006/08 Dragons of Faerûn (DrF)
2006/08 Tome of Battle (ToB)
2006/09 Dragon Magic (DM)
2006/09 Faiths of Eberron (FE)
2006/09 Twilight Tomb
2006/10 Complete Mage (CM)
2006/10 Expedition to Castle Ravenloft (Rav)
2006/11 Cityscape (Ci)
2006/11 Dragonmarked (Dra)
2006/11 Scourge of the Howling Horde
2006/12 Animated Series Handbook3
2006/12 Fantastic Locations: The Frostfell Rift
2006/12 Fiendish Codex II (FC2)
2006/12 Shattered Gates of Slaughtergarde (ShG)
2007/01 Complete Scoundrel (CS)
2007/02 Barrow of the Forgotten King (BFK)
2007/02 Dungeonscape (Du)
2007/02 Secrets of Sarlona (SoS)
2007/03 Magic Item Compendium (MIC)
2007/03 Cormyr: The Tearing of the Weave (Co)
2007/04 Eyes of the Lich Queen (ELQ)
2007/04 Expedition to the Demonweb Pits (EDP)
2007/04 Fantastic Locations: City in Peril (CiP)
2007/05 Complete Champion (CC)
2007/05 Drow of the Underdark (DrU)
2007/06 Expedition to Undermountain (EU)
2007/06 Forge of War (FW)
2007/06 Sinister Spire (SiS)
2007/07 Monster Manual V (MM5)
2007/07 Shadowdale: The Scouring of the Land (SSL)
2007/08 Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk (ERG)
2007/09 Exemplars of Evil (EE)
2007/09 Fortress of the Yuan-Ti (FY)
2007/09 Grand History of the Realms (GHR)
2007/10 Dragons of Eberron (DE)
2007/10 Rules Compendium (RC)
2007/11 Anauroch: The Empire of Shade (An)
2007/12 Elder Evils (ElE)
2008/02 City of Stormreach
2008/03 An Adventurer's Guide to Eberron
2012/08 Dungeon Master's Guide (premium edition) (DMG)
2012/08 Monster Manual (premium edition) (MM)
2012/08 Player's Handbook (premium edition) (PH)
2013/04 Spell Compendium (premium edition) (SpC)
2013/07 Magic Item Compendium (premium edition) (MIC)


1. Dragonlance Campaign Setting is a d20 product published by Wizards of the Coast.
2. Dragon Compendium Volume 1 is a d20 product published by Paizo yet officially licensed by Wizards of the Coast. Paizo made errata available.
3. Animated Series Handbook's 2007 printed publication year contradicts the release date of BCI's Dungeons and Dragons: The Complete Animated Series which included the Animated Series Handbook. Mill Creek Entertainment's August 2009 Dungeons and Dragons: The Complete Animated Series lacks the Animated Series Handbook.

[Zaq]

Mmmmaybe? It looks legit at first blush, but I admit that my eyes are glazing over trying to read the whole thing at once.

[bean illus]

So, Expedition to Castle Ravenloft is 1st party Iron Chef, but all other Ravenloft is 2nd party because of etc (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravenloft)?

[daremetoidareyo]

So, Expedition to Castle Ravenloft is 1st party Iron Chef, but all other Ravenloft is 2nd party because of etc (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravenloft)?

Correct, I think.

[Zaq]

Happy new year, everyone! 2020 is OVER. I know that Jan 2021 is going to still feel kind of 2020ish, but I'm confident that we'll look back in Dec 2021 and agree that 2021 was better than 2020. (Hoping this doesn't come back to haunt me, but I'm pretty confident. Two vaccines approved already, and [REAL-WORLD POLITICS REDACTED].)

Anyway! I think maybe I wasn't generous enough with the build time. About 72 hours remain (including a weekend), but still, I haven't even properly started on my main-contest Iron Chef entry, and I don't have any builds in my inbox yet. Unless I get a flurry of entries pretty soon, I'm thinking about another week might be in order.

How's everyone doing? Ideas coming together?

[daremetoidareyo]

I just need to choose an epic 10 feat, ya know, the least consequential one and start justifying choices with a backstory blurb and I’m done. I can make the deadline

[MinimanMidget]

My concept wrote itself almost immediately, I just need to sit down and actually build it. Which I have thus far completely failed to do, but I did finally beat Celeste chapter 9. If I'm being honest with myself, odds are pretty good that I'll get it done just before the deadline, regardless of when that deadline actually is.

[Quentinas]

One idea is blocked for one feat, the other is in mind but not written

[jdizzlean]

submitted one, the other probably won't get done in time. we'll see

[Quentinas]

I could use one more week , is possible?

[bean illus]

I could use one more week , is possible?

I'll admit holidays have limited my time, and i could finish a build if given a few more days.

[Zaq]

Extension granted. You've got another week! Make me proud, team!

[Zaq]

How's everyone doing?

[Quentinas]

I'm done even if one idea changed while I was writing, but I'm satisfied with what I wrote

[daremetoidareyo]

I got an entry in. It’s ok

[bean illus]

I'm trying to make something presentable in time. Mostly editing now, and a few feats remaining.

QUESTION What's this mean to Colorado?


Cooking Time: Builds must be submitted via PM to the Chair by 4:59 PM GMT - 9 on Monday, Jan 11, 2021 (1:59 AM GMT on Tuesday, Jan 12).


EDIT: Colorado is GMT -7. Does that work out to 11:59 PM Mountain Time on Monday, Jan 11?

[B]EDIT: OR, ... 6:59 PM Jan 11, Colorado Mountain Time?

[Quentinas]

It's option B but generally one can send until the builds are not revealed

[bean illus]

It's option B but generally one can send until the builds are not revealed

I was interrupted by a real world phone call. I will submit my build sometime this evening (assuming it's not the winner, lol), and hope the judges accept it, if it's 'almost on time'.

[daremetoidareyo]

any word on the reveal?

[bean illus]

Everybody's waiting for me to completely rework my concept.

Not really, I have turned in a build.
I want to completely rework it, lol. It sure could use it.

[Zaq]

Friends, it's been a dang week. Sorry for disappearing. Got some builds coming! Four legal entries and one automatic DQ.

[Zaq]

Blood is a fluid, after all…


Chameleon of Vol
E6 Rogue Thief of Life Chameleon
Human, lawful evil - 10 14 12 14 14 15 (16)




Level
Class
BAB
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Skills
Feats
Class Features



1st
Rogue 1
+0
+0
+2
+0
(44) Bluff 4, Concentration* 2, Disguise 4, Heal* 2, Hide 4, Knowledge (arcana)* 2, Knowledge (religion)* 2, Listen 4, Move Silently 4, Search 4, Spot 4, Sense Motive 4, UMD 4
Able Learner, Jack of all trades
Sneak attack +1d6,
trapfinding


Chameleon (Races of Destiny, p. 111)
Requirements
Race: Human or Doppelganger
Skills: Bluff 8 ranks , Disguise 8 ranks , Sense Motive 4 ranks, Spellcraft 4 ranks
Feats: Able Learner


2nd
Rogue 2
+1
+0
+3
+0
(11) Bluff 5, Disguise 5, Hide 5, Listen 5, Move Silently 5, Search 5, Spellcraft* 2, Spot 5, Sense Motive 5, UMD 5
-
Evasion



3rd
Cloistered Cleric
+1
+2
+3
+2
(9) Concentration 5, Heal 4, Knowledge (arcana) 4, Spellcraft 4
Darkstalker
Rebuke undead, knowledge devotion, law devotion, death devotion, lore



4th
Rogue 3
+2
+3
+3
+3
(11) Bluff 7, Concentration 6, Disguise 7, Hide 6, Knowledge (local) 4, Listen 5, Move Silently 6, Search 5, Spot 5, UMD 5

-
Sneak attack +2d6, Penetrating Strike




5th
Thief of Life
+2
+5
+5
+3
(9) Bluff 8, Concentration 8, Disguise 8, Hide 8, Knowledge (local) 6, Move Silently 8
-
Lifesense (5 ft.)



6th
Chameleon
+2
+5
+5
+3
(7) Concentration 9, Hide 9, Knowledge (local) 8, Move Silently 9, Search 6, Spellcraft 5

Bluff 8, Concentration 9, Disguise 8, Heal 4, Hide 9, Knowledge (arcana) 4, Knowledge (local) 8, Knowledge (religion) 2, Listen 5, Move Silently 9, Search 6, Sense Motive 5, Spellcraft 5, Spot 5, UMD 5

Jack of All Trades allows skill rolls with all untrained skills.

Practiced spellcaster (chamelon)
Aptitude focus 1/day (+2)



Epic Feats

1. Weapon Finesse
2. Craven
3. Improved Initiative
4. Practiced Spellcaster (cleric)
5. Craft Wand
6. Touchstone (Luck Domain)
7. Extra Turning
8. Touchstone (Baator) - Deeper Darkvision
9. Extra Spell Slot (chameleon)
10. Craft Wondrous Item



BAB +4 and 3d6 Sneak attack. What is a rogue, and what is a better rogue? Signature abilities like trapfinding, stealth, skill access, and UMD cannot be overlooked throughout the career of an e6 adventuring party rogue. There are some though, that might argue that spells trump skills, and being invisible is better than a maxed Hide skill.

I wanted to keep the class elements that make a rogue, and maintain consistent theme while making class choices. Though only 3 levels are rogue, the 2 prestige classes are specifically designed for rogue, and difficult to otherwise enter in an e6 game. Thief of life is similarly designed for rogue and cleric, and allows thematically sound entry into the cloistered cleric dip, which follows the Vol portfolio.




Able Learner points the build immediately towards skillmonkey, and away from combat. The character immediately invest big in their long-term plan, which is the near unmatched versatility of a chameleon. Admiring the freedom, pragmatic honesty, and tangible power of his local brotherhood of Vol, he carefully allocates his time to studying the religion and arcana needed to unleash the power over death.

The first two levels are fairly standard. Max perception and stealth, while keeping the signature rogue ability of trapfinding. I went MAD, which is strong on skills, and uses Jack of All Trades and 'Take 10' to allow a reasonable chance of success at many to most skill checks.
The rest of the skill points are spent on UMD and setting up the prestige classes.

Third level brings a career developing move, with an embrace of the dark arts. Forgoing +1 BAB and 1d6 SA, he gains a suite of rare and deadly combat abilities, and greatly improves his stealth.
Knowledge Devotion synergizes with Jack of All Trades, Law Devotion is a swift +3 sacred bonus, but the jewel is Death Devotion. Dealing out negative levels is not a common ability in e6, and the save is eventually Fort DC 17, or maybe even higher.

Truly, the build permanently gives away one domain



Level 4 returns to rogue, for all the goodies, and concludes preparation for Thief of Life. I almost chose the sneak attack fighter for 5th level. BAB, HP, martial weapons, armor, 1d6 SA, ... what's not to love? Thief of Life cost 10 skill points, why bother?
Lifesense is an extraordinary ability which copies the effects of two 1st level spells. Though limited in range, it functions continously, passively, and instantly. Uncanny Dodge is sacrificed, but invisible attackers are identified, though Dex bonus is still lost.
But deathwatch is the effect that intrigues me. I've read opinion that it's useless, and though i admit it could've been worded more clearly, i don't read it as useless.

Dead: Hit points reduced to -10, or Constitution 0, etc.
Fragile: ... "wounded, with 3 or fewer HP". This reads to me as 'from 3 HP to -9 HP', for a total spread of 13 hp.
Fighting of death: (alive with 4 or more hit points)


The last status is not explicit. Is "fighting off death" any number above 3? Is 100 HP fighting off death? It's "4 or more", but 100 HP doesn't seem almost dead to a commoner with a dagger. Is being wounded even being considered here? Because it isn't mentioned. Why even bother with the 3rd classification?
It seems intended to give the DM leeway, and avoid meta. Basically, it's some concept that includes both a range of HP, and close to dead.

It seems possible to argue that, if an enemy can be rendered unconscious with the absolute minimum damage from my blow, then that enemy is pretty close to death.
Unable to find any clarification in 3.5, i am working on this premise: [u]Deathwatch lets you instantly know if a creature has HP totalling between 4 and the minimum damage you are currently prepared to make[u]. For example: A Thief of Life can tell that a daggers minimum damage will not drop an opponents HP below 0, even if he succeeds at a 2d6 sneak attack, and adds +2 strength damage (1+2+2=5 damage), but that the same attack with his +2 weapon will (1+2+2+2=7).

I believe that this reading is an obvious, pragmatic reading of deathwatch, and much more sensible than alternative readings of the spell.

By any measure, in an E6 campaign, where many creatures have a max HP of 20-30 HP there will be a steady use for deathwatch.



I love Chamelon, and it's just as much fun in e6. A perusal of the Chamelon handbooks shows how much spell access they have, even with only "2nd level spells".

I came for the invisibility, and stayed for the reduce person, ... and darkvision, ... and silence, and guidance of the avatar, and improvisation, ... and ... . There are numerous reasons for a rogue to choose Chameleon.
Of course, one needn't be a rogue to take advantage of craft wand. Chameleon's spell access delivers a multitude of spells at rock bottom cost, allowing for spamming of wands or wondrous items for pennies.

Spell/wand/item access is again expanded with Touchstone. Though Baator and the Luck Domain are obvious favorite choices for a rogue, throughout a lifelong career there are many secrets to learn, and powers to gain. Knowledge (local), guidance of the avatar, and the class ability lore can be combined to find any/all Touchstone portals.
By cycling through domains, any 3rd level domain spell is available to craft wand spamming (theoretically, with enough planning, and lawful evil foresight). Not everyone in e6 has Evard's Black Tentacles on a wand.





Build elements not listed are 3.5 core, or srd.

Able Learner (Races of Destiny, p. 150)
Darkstalker (Lords of Madness, p. 179)
Jack of All Trades (Complete Adventurer, p. 110)
Penetrating Strike ACF (Dungeonscape)
Thief of Life (Faiths of Eberron, p. 84)
Chameleon (Races of Destiny, p. 111)
Craven (Champions of Ruin, p. 17)
Touchstone (Sandstorm, p. 53)
Extra Slot (Complete Arcane, p. 79)

[/spoiler]

[Zaq]

It's really their own fault for clumping up like that.





Crackshot Ha! Fling!

https://i.imgur.com/FtiSoP9.jpg


CG Strongheart Halfling Rogue 4/Binder1/Avenger 1



Abilities:
str 10,
dex 19,
con 14,
int 14,
wis 10,
cha 9,
+1 dex at level 4



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


1
halfling rogue (Races of Wild p.159)
0
0
2
0
Balance 4, Disable Device 4, Disguise 2 Hide 4, Knowledge (Planes) 1 (cc), Move Silently 4, Perform (Dance) 4, Sleight of Hand 4, Search 4, Spot 4, Tumble 4,
Point Blank Shot, Grenadier (PHB 2 p. 79)
Ranged sneak attack +2d6, melee sneak attack +0, trapfinding


2
rogue
1
0
3
0
Balance 5, Disable Device 5, Disguise 3, Hide 4, Move Silently 5, Perform (Dance) 5, Sleight of Hand 5, Search 5, Spot 5, Tumble 5,

Evasion


3
halfling rogue
2
1
3
1
Balance 6, Disable Device 6, Hide 6, K. (Planes) 2 (cc), Move Silently 6, Sleight of Hand 6, Search 6, Spot 6, Tumble 6,
Shaped Splash (Races of Eberron p. 111)
Ranged sneak attack +3d6, melee sneak attack +1d6, Thief's luck


4
Binder
2
3
3
3
K. Arcana 1, K. (planes) 5

Soul binding (1 vestige) Typically Leraje


5
Rogue
3
3
4
3
Disable Device 8, Disguise 4, Hide 8, Move Silently 7, Sleight of Hand 8, Spot 8

Uncanny Dodge


6
Avenger (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/prc/20070401a)
3
3
6
3
Shrouded dance skill trick 2, Craft (Alchemy) 1, Disable Device 9, Hide 9, Search 7
Neraph Throw (Planar Handbook p. 40), Shrouded Dance (Complete Scoundrel p. 89) Skill Trick
Sneak attack +1d6, death attack, poison use, spells





Epic Level
Epic Feats (Source)


1
Improved Initiative


2
Cunning Evasion (PHB 2 p. 78)


3
Darkstalker (Lords of Madness p. 179)


4
Sacred Strike (Book of Exalted Deeds p. 45)


5
Coordinated Shot (Heroes of Battle p. 96)


6
Demonic Sneak Attack( FC 1 p. 85)


7
Cloak of the Obyrith( FC 1 p. 85)


8
Primordial Scion (FC 1 p. 87)


9
Demonic Skin (FC 1 p. 85)


10
Open Minded (XPH p.48)



Skills at level 6:
1 skill trick 2 (Shrouded dance)
Balance 6,
Craft (Alchemy) 1
Disable Device 9,
Disguise 4,
Hide 9,
Knowledge (arcana) 1,
Knowledge (Planes) 5,
Move Silently 7,
Perform (Dance) 5,
Search 7,
Sleight of Hand 8,
Spot 8,
Tumble 6

Note: If you are allowed to craft alchemy as a non-spellcaster in your game, apply those tumble ranks to craft (Alchemy).

Our Disposable Gear!


Sparkstone (A&EG)
Costs 3 GP,
Alchemy DC 20,
Direct Damage: 1d6 (Electrical)
Splash Damage: ½ Damage of Direct hit (one target only)
Weight: ¼ pound

You can throw a sparkstone as a splash weapon. When a sparkstone hits a target, it releases a short, violent arc of electricity. A direct hit by a sparkstone deals 1d6 points of electricity damage. If there is another creature within 5 feet of the target, the electricity arcs to that creature, dealing half of the initial damage. The sparkstone only creates one secondary arc, so if more than one creature is within 5 feet of the target, roll randomly to see which creature is affected. If no creatures are within 5 feet of the target, the sparkstone causes no secondary effect.

Costing 3 GP apiece, this is our weapon of choice. It deals 1d6 electrical, but you can add sneak attack damage on top of that, you add +3 to hit with thrown splash weapons and +2 damage from being a halfling and having point blank shot and grenadier as feats. So your main target on a sneak attack takes 1d6+4d6+2 and your splash damage is half of that.

With shaped splash, the splash damage electrical arc of the sparkstone won’t hurt your friends, AND it will allow you to sneak attack that guy you just hit with the splash damage from your first hit, (and if it misses, it still splashes them). This triggers another arc back onto the first guy you hit. In total, that means that target 1 is taking 150% of 5d6+2 damage, and target 2 is taking the same, or if it misses, it takes a second round of splash damage.

All for the price of 3 GP.

At level 6 you can also craft ten of these in a week by taking 10 if you have a masterwork alchemy tool. You spend 10 GP, take 10, adding your 1 craft rank, your int bonus, and your tool bonuses for a total of 15, you then multiply your check result by the craft DC (20), you get 300. That’s enough to make 10 of these potent lil halfling weapons. If you use crafting progress by the day, you can make 1 in a day. (15x20=300cp and 300cp = 3 gp)


EGGSHELL GRENADE, DUST - ORIENTAL ADVENTURES (3.0)
]Cost: 10 gp
Alchemy DC: 20Damage (direct):
Blinded 1d4 rounds
Damage (splash): Blinded 1 round
Range: 5 ft
Weight: - lb
A favorite tool of ninja, used to create distractions, eggshell grenades are emptied eggshells carefully packed with various alchemical substances. A dust grenade that hits its target directly blinds the target for1d4 rounds. A creature within the “splash” radius of the dust cloud (5 feet) must make a Fortitude save (DC10) or be blinded for 1 round. Naturally, eggshell grenades are very fragile and must be stowed carefully to avoid breakage. If a character carrying these items suffers damage from falling, each eggshell grenade must make a Fortitude save (as if the character were making the saving throw) against a DC of 10 + the amount of damage suffered. Eggshell grenades are too light to be used in a sling or other launcher

These are our debuffs. A direct hit means auto blind, no save, although you should probably haggle for a fort save for the primary target that scales with your level somehow instead of getting this tool totally banned. The removal of dex to AC from the blinded condition will allow you to switch to sparkstones to finish the job if the neraph throw fails to one hit KO.

At level 6, you can take 10 to craft one of these in like 3 days.


DART, ACID- RACES OF FAERUN (3.0)
Simple Thrown Ammunition (Dart)
Ammunition (Dart)
Cost: 20 gp
Damage (s): 1d3 + SpecialDamage (m): 1d4 + Special
Critical: x2
Range: 20 ft
Weight: 1 lb
Type: P
When these hollow darts hit a target, they break, splashing the victim with acid. This does an additional 1d6 points of acid damage in addition to the normal 1d4 piercing damage from the dart itself. Once used, the dart is useless.

A bit pricier than the sparkstone, but it does have a nominal splash, so maybe grenadier helps with the +1 to hit and damage. Plus it’s acid damage, so when you encounter the reams of electricity immune/resistant enemies that this build is likely to attract, it’s nice to have a back up.

Blasting Pellets:
Races of stone p. 159
50 GP
DC 25 alchemy
Blasting pellets look like ball bearings or stones and come in bags. One bag of these alchemical items is enough to cover a 5-foot square. During each round when a creature moves through an area covered in blasting pellets (or fights while standing in such an area), it must make a successful DC 15 Reflex saving throw to avoid breaking one. Breaking one pellet sets off a chain reaction among the others, and they all explode loudly, dealing 1d6 points of sonic damage to the creature in the square. Spreading a bag of pellets over a wider area or throwing the bag at a target has no substantial effect.

Drop these bad boys on a square within 5 ft of somewhere to hide. Step into the square to proc a dc 15 reflex save, which triggers cunning evasion, which allows a combination 5 ft step and hide check. That should give you the ability to sneak attack again seeing as how you’re hidden, but the verdict is unclear if being hidden makes your opponent lose dex to you.

Getting Sneak attack to Proc

Neraph Throw: simple. Attack them and they’re flat footed if the see you.

Surprise round: simple. Improved initiative and a dex mod of +5 give you a shot at going first. Also, if you’re hiding when your opponent shows up, sneak attack them even if you don’t win initiative.

Eggshell grenades: Blind them and they become flatfooted.

Hiding: Shroud dance: shroud dance is wierd. You dance in place and make a hide check. Doing so gives you concealment. https://www.enworld.org/threads/does-concealment-allow-a-rogue-to-make-a-sneak-attack.133783/

Rules Compendium (page 92)
Move between Cover: If you’re already hiding thanks to cover or concealment, and you have at least 5 ranks in Hide, you can make a Hide check (with a penalty) to try to move across an area that doesn’t offer cover or concealment without revealing yourself. For every 5 ranks in Hide you possess, you can move up to 5 feet between one hiding place and another. For every 5 feet of open space you must cross between hiding places, you take a –5 penalty on your Hide check. Movement speed penalizes the check as normal.
Sneak up from Hiding: You can sneak up on someone after emerging from a hiding place. For every 5 feet of open space between you and the target, you take a –5 penalty on your Hide check. If your Hide check succeeds, your target doesn’t notice you until you attack or perform some other attention-grabbing action. Such a target is treated as being flat-footed with respect to you.

Cunning evasion: make a combined hidecheck and 5 ft step by stepping onto a square that you've dropped blasting pellets on! Use that opportunity to get sneak attacks.



Sources of damage
Shaped splash doubles our direct hits during a flask throw.

We double that again by binding Leraje with lerajes ricochet ability

Special Requirement: To summon Leraje, you must break an arrow crafted by an elf while calling out Leraje's name and title. In addition, Leraje hates Amon for some unknown reason and will not answer your call if you are already bound to him.

Sign: You look sickly and diseased, and your skin becomes sallow and pockmarked.
Influence: While influenced by Leraje, you become quiet and unassuming. Leraje still feels considerable guilt about the actions that led her to become a vestige, so she requires that you not attack any elf or creature of elven blood, including half-elves and members of the various elf subraces, such as drow.

Granted Abilities: You gain supernatural powers related to Leraje's skills in life, as well as the ability to fire arrows that literally wound your target's pride.
Hide Bonus: You gain a +4 competence bonus on Hide checks.
Low-Light Vision: You gain low-light vision.
Precise Shot: You gain the benefit of the Precise Shot feat.

Ricochet: As a standard action, you can make a single ranged attack against two adjacent targets. Make a single attack roll and apply that result to the Armor Class of both targets. Any hit you score deals damage to the target normally. Extra damage from abilities such as sneak attack or sudden strike apply to only one target, which you must designate prior to making the attack roll.
Weapon Proficiency: While bound to Leraje, you are proficient with the composite longbow, composite shortbow, longbow, and shortbow. If you were already proficient with any of these weapons, you instead gain a +1 competence bonus on attack rolls with them.

So if it’s a surprise round, or you’ve activated neraph throw, you can use a standard action to attack with a ranged weapon, like a spark stone. You make one attack roll and compare it to two adjacent targets, but because of shaped splash, you can choose to affect a second target as a direct hit. So you can hit up to four opponents closely clustered, and shaped splash doesn’t share the language about sneak attack working once, so at least 2 of those 4 people hit take sneak attack damage.

Against two adjacent opponents you can just shape a sneak attack splash from one to the other, add an additional attack with normal splash rules for an average of 37 damage to each.

On subsequent rounds you can try an eggshell grenade to blind two targets and possibly splash some others with dc 10 fort saves vs blindness to keep the spark stone or alchemist fire abuse going.

How the different parts work together


Level 1-2:[/b[ Crackshot throws sparkstones and deal extra 2d6 sneak attack damage. You have a +7 to hit (dex + halfling bonus + point blank shot + grenadier) with it against a touch AC, so Crackshot shouldn’t miss often.


[B]Level 3-4: Crackshot gets the ability to shape splashes onto an additional victim with a +9 to hit with the third level of halfling rogue. The thief’s luck ability will work in concert with the cunning evasion ability by giving Crackshot a reflex save reroll 1 per day. With the binder level, binding Lerage grants precise shot feat and the ricochet ability, which allows a second direct hit from Crackshot’s alchemical throws. Binder also grants k. Planes as a class skill which helps with prereqs.

Level 5-6: Crackshot gets uncanny dodge with the 4th level of rogue. Then, at Character level 6, Crackshot becomes an avenger, the hilarious good aligned assassin. This grants death attack, another d6 of sneak attack, and the ability to cast spells. You must be a spellcaster in order to take ranks in craft (alchemy), and thus, crackshot will be able craft their alchemical items, like sparkstones thanks to the really crappy spell list of the avenger. Neraph throw is a tricky little feat that makes opponents flatfooted 1 per enemy.

Epic Feats 1-3:
Improved initiative helps Crackshot get the jump on opponents during the surprise round. Cunning Evasion sets up the free hide checks for further sneak attack abuse. Darkstalker allows crackshot to sneak up on the enemies with cool perception abilities

Epic Feats 4-6:
Roll d8s when you sneak attack an evil enemy thanks to sacred strike. Coordinated shot allows for the beatsticks to beatstick while crackshot uses ricochetted shaped splashes to abuse the enemies. Demonic sneak attack allows crackshot to reroll sneak attack damage dice, which pairs quite nicely with the d8s against evil creatures. The number of sneak attack dice you reroll = your number of abyssal heritor feats, so there’s a reason to take more abyssal heritor feats.

Epic Feats 7-10 Cloak of the obyrith grants damage reduction 1/lawful which increases per abyssal heritor feat. So it starts at DR 2 and goes up to DR 4. Primordial scion ups damage against lawful enemies by 1d6. By the time you get demonic skin, you get +2 to AC, which is nice. Then, add 5 ranks to your craft alchemy thanks to open minded.

[Zaq]

Oh, you and THAT army, got it.


Petts Kenku Wilderness rogue 5/Beastmaster 1

What means being a rogue? Doing sneak attack, use various skill, having many skill points and so on. Sneak attack mean flanking, and having many skill point means being able to learn various teamwork, so being a rogue can mean being a teamwork character.
This is a rogue based on the power of Friendship Teamwork !


Stat
Point buy cost
After racial

Strength 10 28

Dexterity 15 817

Constitution 14 614

Intelligence 1610 16

Wisdom 10 210

Charisma 12 4 12

4th level point to dexterity



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


1st
Wilderness Rogue 1
+0
+0
+2
+0
LIsten 4, Spot 4, Tumble 4, Escape artist 4, Search 4 Disable device 4 Hide 4 Move silently 4 Bluff 4 Handle animal 4 Survival 4
Skill focus handle animal
Trapfinding, Sneak attack +1d6


2nd
Wilderness Rogue 2
+1
+0
+3
+0
Listen 5, Spot 5, Tumble 5, Escape artist 5, Search 5 Disable device 5 Hide 5 Move silently 5 Bluff 5 Handle animal 5, Survival 5

Evasion


3rd
Wilderness Rogue 3
+2
+1
+3
+1
Listen 6, Spot 6, Tumble 6, Escape artist 6, Search 6 Disable device 6 Hide 6 Move silently 6 Bluff 6 Handle animal 6,Survival 6
Wild cohort
Sneak attack 2d6, Penetrating strike


4th
Wilderness Rogue 4
+3
+1
+4
+1
Listen 7, Spot 7, Tumble 7, Escape artist 7, Search 7 Disable device 7 Hide 7 Move silently 7 Bluff 7 Handle animal 7, Survival 7

Distruptive attack ACF


5th
Wilderness Rogue 5
+3
+1
+4
+1
Listen 8, Spot 8, Tumble 8, Escape artist 8, Search 8 Disable device 7 Hide 8 Move silently 8 Bluff 8 Handle animal 8, Survival 7 Skill trick Point it out

Sneak attack 3d6


6th
Beastmaster 1
+4
+3
+6
+1
Listen 9, Spot 9, Tumble 9 (cross class skill for this level), Escape artist 8, Search 8 Disable device 8 Hide 8 Move silently 8 Bluff 8 Handle animal 9, Survival 7 Skill trick Escape attack
Weapon finesse
Animal companion, wild empathy

Cross class skill for this level

1 ° Natural bond
2° Animal affinity
3° Shape soulmeld (beast tamer circlet)
4° Martial study (cloak of deception)
5° Martial stance (isle of blades)
6° Dragontouched
7° Shape soulmeld (dragon tail)
8° Multiattack
9° Improved multiattack
10° Craven

Warbeast Riding dog
Size/Type: Medium Animal
Hit Dice: 6d8+24 (51 hp)
Initiative: +4
Speed: 50 ft. (10 squares)
Armor Class: 21 (+4 Dex, +7 natural), touch 14, flat-footed 17
Base Attack/Grapple: +4/+8
Attack: Bite + 8 melee (1d8+6)
Full Attack: Bite +8 melee (1d8+6)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Trip (because is trained for war)
Special Qualities: Low light vision , scent , evasion
Saves: Fort +8, Ref +8, Will +3
Abilities: Str 19, Dex 18 , Con 18, Int 2, Wis 14, Cha 6
Skills: Jump +9 (1 rank +4 racial), Listen +8 (3 ranks +1 racial +2 feat), Spot +8(3 ranks +1 racial + 2 feat) Swim +4(0 ranks), Survival +2 (0 ranks) Hide +5 (1 rank)
Feats: Alertness, Track(bonus) , Blind fight, Improved natural attack
We have 4 points to put in the skills (4 more hit dice) so 1 rank in hide (as cross class skill) and the other two in listen and spot
At the 4° hit dice it boosted dexterity
Tricks learned in order, Attack, Heel ,Seek , Work, Teamwork, Track , Defend, Fetch (we can teach each one from the 3 rd epic feat)
Warbeast Owl
Size/Type: Small Animal (the warbeast increased the size)
Hit Dice: 6d8+ 6 (33 hp)
Initiative: +3
Speed: Land 20 foot, fly 40 foot (average)
Armor Class: 20 (+3 Dex, +6 natural +1 size), touch 14, flat-footed 17
Base Attack/Grapple: +4/+0
Attack: Bite + 7 melee (1d4+1)
Full Attack: Bite +7 melee (1d4+1)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks:
Special Qualities: Low light vision , scent, link ,share spells, evasion, devotion
Saves: Fort +5, Ref +7, Will +4(+4 morale against enchantment spells and effect)
Abilities: Str 13 , Dex 16, Con 13, Int 2, Wis 16, Cha 4
Skills: Listen +21 (8 ranks +2 feat+ 8 racial + wisdom) Move silently +18(1 rank+14 racial + dexterity) Spot +13 (8 ranks +2 feat + wisdom)
Feats: Alertness, Weapon finesse(bonus) , Open minded x 2 (see below)
For skill point see the table
Progression of strength , dexterity ,constitution, wisdom and natural armor
Strength 4 base+ 4 size increase+ 3 war beast +2 because we count as a level 6 druid
Dexterity 17 base -2 size increase +2 because we count as a level 6 druid +1 4° th hit dice
Constitution 10 base +3 warbeast
Wisdom 14 base +2 warbeast
Skills table the 1 hit dice row is the default animal , calculated by removing the various bonuses from the skills
Tricks learned Seek Fetch Come Teamwork attack, down


Hit dice
How many skill points
Skils rank

1 hit dice
4 (1x4)
Listen 2 Spot 2

2 hit dice
1 (minimum)
Listen 2 Spot 3

2 hit dice
1 (minimum)
Listen 2 Spot 3

3 hit dice
6 (1+ open minded)
Listen 5 Spot 4 Skill trick Listen to this

4 hit dice
1 (minimum)
Listen 5 Spot 5

5 hit dice
1 (minimum)
Listen 5 Spot 6

6 hit dice
6 (1 + open minded)
Listen 8 Spot 8 Move silently 1

This character is quite strange a t the start first because of the race, a Kenku is not of small of size and doesn’t have an immediate bonus other than the dexterity bonus,but what we are aiming is his ability Great Ally, mainly for the flanking bonus that is boosted to +4 that is quite good for level 1 . As we haven’t an high strenght probably we will fight from ranged or in the rare case when we can flank to do a sneak attack but we have good skills that we can scout , with the possibility to do a bluff check. If we can imitate voice we have even an higher bonus thanks to the racial abilities of a Kenku with a +10 on that bluff check , the feat is only a prerequisite for the future for now and the wilderness rogue help us in being a scout and gaining handle animal as a class skill
In these level there are the first anomalies for a rogue, as at level 3 we doesn’t gain weapon finesse (even if that hurt our attack) but wild cohort that give us a Riding dog as companion. We took this feat at this level as we have a bonus trick to teach him and our ranks in handle animal permit us to teach trick at DC 15 without many problem (we have a +2 bonus to teach a trick to our animal companion) and at this level our wild cohort gain a feat, blind fight, but even this is a prerequisite for the future as we will use that feat to work in a team.Our skills go up letting us gain a skill trick, that is point it out, (quite useful if applied to our animal companion or to other characters with a low spot ) . In these levels we have two ACF , the first the classical penetrating attack as is quite useful when we are based on flanking being able to do sneak attack even if the enemy is immune (or similar) , the second is distruptive attack, where we use our sneak attack to help the allies reducing the AC of the enemy, and in the future our attack will be high , thanks to the improved flanking that is quite good as bonus
This prestige class is the reason why we entered in the wilderness rogue, as with a normal rogue we couldn’t do it in an easy way , but why we entered it? The reason is the animal companion , as we use our companion and in these round is quite difficult being dependent on other party members as we can’t say with who we will being so to use at maximum the cooperating tactics of this rogue we need more companions so animal companions. The animal companion we obtain is not a combat one, as he doesn’t do enough damage compared to the riding dog , but the most particular thing is his feat as he took open minded two time, and one could ask why. First we use animal bond to put our druid level to the maximum (as we don’t need a strong animal companion and even if we use one with a -3 at our level we would have problem if calculated after we took it we aren’t high and we need the hit dice and the abilities) and then with the feats we took we train it to being a warbeast is not so difficult, and is even better if we can do it before doing the animal companion adjustment (with handle animal we could have a owl as companion before), same with the riding dog, for which we took the 2 feats to boost handle animal.
With a boosted animal companion we can train our animal to trick with DC 20 (we have a +19 on our animal cohort and a +21 on our animal companion), and there is one in particular that is quite useful, the teamwork trick! (Dungeon master guide II) The teamwork are ideal for a rogue as many require skill points (that we have in abundance), and they add something interesting to the characters
The teamwork benefit we gain are
Cunning ambush In this only the kenku and the riding dog are member while the owl no, and we use our hide to boost the hide of the dog , while the owl is used as a bait to put the enemies in our ambush other than being a scout for the group
Door procedures In this our rogue is the leader and is quite easy that other member of our party will have one rank in listen so we can sense what is in a room , and we can search trap easier
Invisibility sweep This is why our riding dog took blind fight as thanks to him , and to the owl that have a high bonus to listen , we can throw flour to the enemy to put away the invisibility, something that is quite difficult to win as rogue as the concealment remove the chance to do sneak attack, but not if our pet detect the enemy, and yes the dog is the leader for this teamwork benefit
Infiltration We use this as we will work with our animal probably even in the infiltration and the dog is not so good , at least if we need to move faster he doesn’t gain a penalty so big (but the easier way is with other members probably)
Joint grapple escape Being in a grapple could be a problem, so with this trick we have an higher probabilty to escape especially with the dog and great ally that , if we escape we can even do a sneak attack thanks to the trick escape attack we took at this level
Gaze aversion For this feat the leader is the owl, and is one of the reason for which the owl took two time open minded, as while flying it will go beyond the gaze of the enemy , permitting to the rest of the team to fighting without any problem other than averting the gaze, the fly speed is quite useful for this trick
Our owl have gained even a trick that is quite funny , as Listen to this doesn’t say that who took the trick need to speak normally so we will have our owl that can imitate what he hear from the scouting , to us, and then we can use the voice imitation of the kenku to do a better bluff , with intelligence high we have more languages than others at the end
Even if we have a good tumble, a way to flank easier is good, and we don’t need to take adaptable flanker as one of his prerequisite (vexing flanker) is already imitated by great ally so is easier to use martial stance (isle of blades) to flank each time we are adjacent to one ally , but to take it we need a maneuver so we took cloak of deception, as a way to do a sneak attack even if we are alone or if we need to go to help one of our companions Isle of blades is quite useful , as flank become so easy to do that is even better than assassin stance , especially later
Why I said that being able to do sneak attack while adjacent to an ally is better? Because once we are adjacent we doesn’t need to move , so we can do a full attack , but with which weapons? Here the natural weapons of the kenku come , two claws that do 1d3 , not so much but a way to do more sneak attack, but we need multiattack to reduce the penalty. To gain multiattack we need three natural weapons so is quite a problem. Luckily our charisma is high enough (as we need it for handle animal) to permit us to gain dragontouched , a feat that boost our skills (each one is quite good for us and we have ranks in each one) and 1 hit points (better than nothing), that permit us to use a draconic soulmeld , dragon tail ! This give us a natural weapon that do 1d8 (that is good) no reach but is not a problem, and with this weapon we take first multiattack, and then improved multiattack so each of our secondary attack will not have a penalty. Now I don’t know if we can do a short sword attack followed by two claw attack and a tail attack but at least are three attack so the triple of damage, if we can do each claw attack (maybe passing the short sword from one hand to another) even four! But it doesn’t finish here, as the last feat is craven that boost our sneak attack so much , as a maximed dice of sneak attack to be honest our maximum damage Our full attack will have a +12 on everything (not so many penalties thanks to improved multiattack and the +4 from flaning) and the damage will be 1d6-1 (of rapier)+1d3-1 (claw attack) +1d8 -1 (tail attack) +9d6 (sneak attack as we flank an enemy) +18 (craven) =56 If we can pass the rapier from one claw to another we add a 1d3-1 of claw attack , another 6 damage of craven and other 3d6 of sneak attack arriving at 74 of damage near the double of our hit points (as we are around 38 of hit point) .
From player handbook
Weapon finesse, rogue, blind fight , animal affinity
From monster manual I
Owl , Riding dog
From monster manual II
Warbeast template
From Monster manual III
Kenku
From magic of incarnum
Shape soulmeld, beast tamer circlet
From Complete adventurer
Beastmaster prestige class , Open minded , natural bond
From Web/ (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a)
Wild Cohort
From Tome of battle
Martial study, martial stance, isle of blades, cloak of deception shadow blade
From Champions of ruin
Craven
From Dragon Magic
Dragontouched, shape soulmeld (dragon tail)
From Draconomicon
Improved multiattack
From Player handbook II
Distruptive attack ACF, teamwork (cunning ambush), teamwork trick for animals
From Dungeon Master guide II
Teamwork (door procedures, gaze aversion, invisibility sweep, Infiltration, Joint grapple escape) rules for animals and teamwork
From Unearthed Arcana
Wilderness rogue
From Dungeonscape
Penetrating attack

[Zaq]

If he says "hold this," RUN.



Tuck
CN Desert kobold rogue 4/Fighter 1 /Trapsmith 1
No fluff, but is a kobold that can be probably found doing an ambush with his familiar and some prepared traps for the enemies that he will ambush
Stats
Before racial modifier /After racial modifier and level 4
Strength 12/Strength 8
Dexterity 15/Dexterity 18 (+1 at level 4)
Constitution 14/Constitution 14
Intelligence 16/Intelligence 16
Wisdom 12/Wisdom 10
Charisma 8/Charisma 8


Level
Class
Base Attack Bonus
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Skills
Feats
Class Features
Skill point for level


1st
Kobold Rogue 1
+0
+0
+2
+0
Craft (trapmaking) 4
Tumble 4
Balance 4
Listen 2
Spot 2
Open lock 4
Hide 4
Move silently 4
Search 4
Disable device 4
Escape artist 4
Spellcraft 2


Darkstalker
Sneak attack +1d6, Rapid retreat, shrewd trapfinding +2
44 ((8+int)*4)


2nd
Rogue 2
+1
+0
+3
+0
Craft (trapmaking) 5
Tumble 5
Balance 5
Listen 3
Spot 3
Open lock 5
Hide 5
Move silently 5
Search 5
Disable device 5
Escape artist 5
Spellcraft 2.5

Evasion
11


3rd
Kobold rogue 3
+2
+1
+3
+1
Craft (trapmaking) 6
Tumble 5
Balance 5
Listen 4
Spot 4
Open lock 6
Hide 6
Move silently 6
Search 6
Disable device 6
Escape artist 6
Spellcraft 3
Skill trick learned clever improviser
Weapon finesse
Improved trap sense +2, shrewd trapfinding +4, sneak attack +2d6
11


4th
Rogue 4
+3
+1
+4
+1
Craft (trapmaking) 7
Tumble 7
Balance 5
Listen 5
Spot 4
Open lock 7
Hide 7
Move silently 7
Search 7
Disable device 7
Escape artist 7
Spellcraft 3.5

Uncanny dodge
11


5th
Drow Dirty fighter 1
+4
+3
+4
+1
Craft (trapmaking) 8
Tumble 7
Balance 5
Listen 5
Spot 4
Open lock 7
Hide 7
Move silently 7
Search 8
Disable device 8
Escape artist 7
Spellcraft 3.5

Sneak attack +3d6, hit and run tactics
5


6th
Trapsmith 1
+4
+3
+6
+1
Craft (trapmaking) 9
Tumble 7
Balance 5
Listen 5
Spot 4
Open lock 9
Hide 7
Move silently 7
Search 9
Disable device 9
Escape artist 8
Spellcraft 4
Skill trick Easy escape
Practiced spellcaster
Booby traps (simple), master disarmer, trap sense +1
9

cc=cross classed for that level in which I put ranks
1° Obtain familiar
2° Improved familiar
3° Bounded familiar
4° Multiattack
5° Improved multiattack
6 °Craven
7° Combat reflexes
8° Vexing flanker
9° Adaptable flanker
10° Extraordinary trapsmith

There is so much about these levels, so let’s start from the race. We are a kobold, we are not a dragonwrougth kobold (rapidstrike could have been interesting but we are not dragons) , we are desert kobold as we will go in melee so is better a -2 to wisdom than a -2 to constitution. The stats of the save are at least 10 so is good, and we are quite good in dexterity (as it will be our attack stat) and intelligence (more skill points). We are kobold , that use the web enhancement, to gain slight build (better hide checks) and 3 natural weapons that will become our main attack. We use a kobold rogue a variant that is quite focused on traps , as we have a better bonus compared to other rogues with shrewd trapfinding that arrive at +4 (so basically is like 4 ranks more than our) , trap sense that for now is the same of a rogue with 6 levels, a ways to retreat more quickly (5 foot more help us distancing people with only 30 foot of speed) but for this variant we doesn’t lose anything so is quite a gain (except one hit point on the average). And finally we are kobold rogue that have many skills but in particular we use our abundance of skill point to put some ranks in spellcraft for the future .Our feats are a classic darkstalker that will help us in ambush and in sneaking and weapon finesse to doesn’t use our negative strength to attack and rather using our dexterity that combined with our size is good.
This level is separated from the others , as is a level of fighter that is not so much useful except for two things, the first is the boost of the Base attack , as we will not arrive at 4 as we plan to take a level of trapsmith so we need a boost to our Base attack, and the second thing is the drow fighter ACF , as when we will win initiative or will attack an enemy that we ambush we will do more damage with each of our natural weapons. Luckily the fighter as craft as class skill and our 16 of intelligence give us enough skill points ,nothing so special if compared to a rogue but the minimum for a trapsmith. We use the dirty fighter from Unearthed arcana to don’t lose even a dice of sneak attack that would be quite bad As our preferred class is rogue we will not have any penalties for multiclassing.
The capstone class of this build , we passed from a Kobold that need to craft trap to have a good bonus to his abilities (they are quite useful now) to a kobold that can craft traps quite easily (the main trap we will use are the trip rope trap or the bolt trap if we have a crossbow that is big ,our trapmaking check is quite good) that have a familiars. Each point that we spent in spellcraft during these levels was aimed at practiced spellcaster that permit us to gain a familiar with improved familiar. The familiar will be quite useful even when we fight as is a good ambusher and as some powers that are useful. The familiar I’m talking about is the Jaculi from serpent kingdoms, it has a quite good modifier to hide (thanks to chameleon), a better modifier than us to spot and listen, and the possibilites to start a grapple when he hit an enemy , and while an enemy is grappled dexterity is negated. Even without grappling it can flank with us so is quite good. As neither of us is quite resistant (we have better AC than the familiar) we use the feat bonded familiar to avoid deaths of one of us . Another thing that the trapsmith give us is a little but good selection of spell, with the most useful that are Gaseous form, dispel magic, haste, protection from energy (if we know that we will fight some energy based enemies) and knock that avoid our work with traps and doors. Probably we will have prepared in our two slot only haste and gaseous form the bonus speed is good, but we can use wands if we need more spells they are on our list now. Oh right the abilities other than booby traps help us in searching and disabling traps with our trap sense that is better than a rogue of level 6 (thanks to improved trap sense that become +3)
As I have already said we use the web enhancement for kobolds to have 3 natural weapons and more attacks means more sneak attack, so we take multiattack and improved multiattack to don’t have any penalties to hit , the main damage is sneak attack and dexterity from hit to run tactics, but now we add our levels thanks to craven, we are kobolds is normal that we are quite susceptible to fear effect, who have seen a fearless kobold at the end?
These last feat are the reason why we took the level of dirty figther as without these the adaptable flanker feat could have not been possible as we lacked base attack. But let’s go in order. First is combat reflexes, and while we don’t provoke so many attack of opportunity an enemy that is tripped will generate a sneak attack so when an enemy fall for the trip rope we will go nearer (thanks maybe to haste but is not essential) and we will attack him first with the sneak attack and then we he will stand up. Combat reflexes at the end is more a requisite , as with that we gain vexing flanker (+4 rather than +2 is good! ) and adaptable flanker that is the reason why we started this chain of feat. Now we will not need to move as long as we can treat an enemy with our familiar near to us or at maximum doing a 5 foot to follow an enemy that have moved probably receiving an attack of opportunity from us.
Our last feat is not essential but is thematic with our prestige class, and as we are kobold we even obtain the special of that feat , quite useful when we will craft trap , but for doing ambush our booby traps should be enough
Small humanoid (reptilian)
Hp 4+3d6+1d10 +1d4+12=34.5 (average)
Initiative +6 (+2 from hit to run tactics)
Speed 30 foot, 35 while using withdraw, +30 possible with haste
AC=10+4(chain skirt)+1(size)+4 (dexterity)+1 (natural)=20
Saves Fortitude +5 , Reflex +10 , Will +1
Base attack /grapple 4 /-1 (for this we have a good escape artist and a skill trick)
Attack Claw +9 (1d3-1) (we have +4 bab+ 4 dexterity +1 size and if we flank we have +13)
Full attack 2 Claw +9 (1d3 -1)and bite +9 (1d2 -1 ) -1 (strength)
Attack options Sneak attack 3d6
Special actions Booby traps (simple)
Special qualities Evasion, Darkvision 60 ft, heat endurance, Uncanny dodge ,Master disarmer, shrewd trapfinding +4, improved trap sense +3
Trapsmith spell known
1 st (2/day) Haste, Gaseous form
Skills Survival +2 (+2 racial), Craft (trapmaking) +14 (+2 racial +9 ranks +3 int) Tumble +11 (7 ranks +4 dex) Balance +11 (5 ranks +2 synergy +4 dex) Listen +7 (5 ranks +alertness from the familiar), Spot +6 (4 ranks + alertness from the familiar) Open lock +12 (9 ranks +3 int +1 if against trap) Hide +19 (7 ranks +8 size (slight build and small size)+ 4 dex) Move silently +11 (7 rank +4 dex) Search +14 (9 ranks +2 racial +3 int +5 against trap( shrewd trapfinding and master disarmer) Disable device +12 (9 ranks +3 int +5 against traps (shhrewd trapfinding and master disarmer) Escape artist +12 (8 ranks +4 dex + easy escape trick) Spellcraft + 7 (ranks +3 int)
Full attack damage with sneak attack 1d3- 1 + 1d3 -1 (the two claws)+ 1d2 -1 (the bite) +9d6 (3d6 of sneak attack on each one) + 18 (+6 of sneak attack on each one) + 12 (hit and run tactics on each attack) =62,5
Familiar Jaculi (see page 66 of serpent kingdom , it will be near us so we can flank and avoid death thanks to bonded familiar
From
Player's Handbook
Rogue class, weapon finesse, combat reflexes
Dungeonscape
Trapsmith
Champions of Ruins
Craven
Drow of the Underdark
Drow fighter
Complete scoundrel
Skill tricks , Improved familiar (last published I think)
Lords of Madness
Darkstalker
Unearthed arcana
Dirty fighter, desert kobold
Player handbook II
Vexing flanker adaptable flanker , Bonded familiar
Races of dragon web enhancement (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060420a)
Kobold stat (natural weapon and slight build)
Monster manual
Multiattack
Draconomicon
Improved multiattack
Serpent kingdom
Jaculi ,Improved familiar (for the option)
Races of dragon
Kobold rogue , extraordinary trapsmith
Complete arcane
Obtain familiar, practiced spellcaster

[Zaq]

Please note: this build is automatically disqualified for taking zero levels in the Secret Ingredient, as laid out in the original rules. It is presented as a display piece only. Thanks for understanding. Great moxie, but Bluff doesn't work on the GM. Or the Chair.



Nygil Longbottom, Esquire
CN Whisper Gnome Beguiler 5/Mindbender 1

Whisper Gnome (RoS 94): -2 STR/CHA, +2 DEX/CON, speed 30, lowlight, darkvision
Small (+1 attack, AC, +4 Hide) +1 attacks vs kobolds/goblinoids. +4 dodge to AC vs giants, +4 hide/move silent, +2 listen/spot, SLA’s: 1/day Silence, ghost sound, mage hand, message
Mindbender CArc 54(nongood, bluff/diplo/itim/sense 4, able to cast charm)

5d6+1d4+12

32 point buy:
S 10 D 14 C 12 I 17 W 11 C 12
Racial
S 8 D 16 C 14 I 17 W11 C 10
4th into INT

“Excuse me sir… SIR! You can’t come in here!!”

“Why not? This is the First Rogue’s Academy of Grey Haven isn’t it? I’m here for class, and I’m late after all, so OUT, OF, MY, WAY!@””

“Sir, yes of course this is the Academy, but you see, this is an academy for those who wish to pursue a most honourable career as a Rogue, which *ahem* you are not. So clearly I cannot let you pass!!”

“Check your roster, and you’ll see my name is there, Nygil Longbottom Esq. Now, then ((a slight twiddling of the fingers goes unnoticed)) OUT. OF. MY. WAY!”

“Of course sir, sorry to be a bother sir, right that way sir to class, you shan’t wish to be late on the first day, or Instructor Minister Farsical will be most displeased with you, and you shan’t learn the proper technique required to loosen a master’s rank padlock with the minimal required direct pressure! Off with you, and make haste!”





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


1st
Beguiler
+0
+0
+0
+2
Bluff 3, Conc 4, Diplo 3, Disable 2, Hide 2, Intimidate 3, Listen 1, Move 2, Open 2, Search 2, Sense 3, Sleight 4, Spell 1, Spot 2
Apprentice (Soldier)
Trapfinding, Spells


2nd
Beguiler 2
+1
+0
+0
+3
Bluff 4, Conc 5, Disable 3, Hide 3, Move 3, Open 3, Sleight 5, Conceal Spellcasting
-
Cloaked Casting, Surprise Casting


3rd
Beguiler 3
+1
+1
+1
+3
Conc 6, Diplo 4, Disable 4, Hide 4, Intim 4, Move 4, Open 4, Sense 4, Spot 3
Insightful Reflexes
Advanced Learning (Power Word Pain)


4th
Beguiler 4
+2
+1
+1
+4
Bluff 6, Conc 7, Disable 5, Hide 5, Move 5, Open 5, Search 4, Sleight 6
-
-


5th
Beguiler 5
+2
+1
+1
+4
Bluff 7, Conc 8, Disable 6, Hide 6, Open 6, Search 6, Sleight 7, Spot 5, UMD 1
(B)Silent Spell
-


6th
Mindbender
+2
+3
+1
+6
Bluff 8, Conc 9, Sense 6, Timely Misdirection
Magic Sensitive
100ft Telepathy, +1 Spellcasting

Skill Tricks:
Conceal Spellcasting: sleight vs spot, if successful, no AoO and cant be counterspelled
Timely Misdirection: successful Bluff check target can’t AoO you this round
Skill Synergies:
From Bluff: +2 Diplo, Intim, Sleight
From Sense: +2 Diplo
Spells:
1: 0-5, 1-3
2: 0-6, 1-4
3: 0-6, 1-5
4: 0-6, 1-6, 2-3
5: 0-6, 1-6, 2-4
6: 0-6, 1-6, 2-5, 3-3
Add 1 extra slot for levels 1-3 due to high INT, 3 extra 2nd level slots as well
total: 0-6, 1-7, 2-9, 3-4

Feats:
1: Apprentice (soldier) +2 Intimidate, +2 FORT, Intimidate/Know Local as class skills
3: Insightful Reflexes: INT to REF instead of DEX
5: (B) Silent Spell – no verbal component, cast as 1 lvl higher
6: Magic Sensitive – Reserve, detect magic/will, 15ft range (Arcane Sight qualifies)

1: Shape Soulmeld, Blink Shirt: 10ft teleport/will as standard action
2: Mindsight: pinpoint any creature w/in telepathy range
3: Retributive Spell: melee attacker immediately hit w/ 2nd or lower spell already cast
4: Darkstalker: Forces creatures w/ alternate sight to make spot check to see you
5: Extra Slot (addtl 2nd lvl spell) can take multiple times
6: Open Minded: Gain 5 skill Points
7: Shape Soulmeld: Necrocarnum Touch: +4 Sleight/Bluff in combat
8: Extra Slot
9: Shape Soulmeld: Theft Gloves: +2 Disable/Open/Sleight
10: Extra Slot


Fun things to do w/ Retributive Spell: Vertigo, Color Spray, Hypnotism, Obscuring Mist, Charm Person

Total Skill Bonuses including attribute modifiers:
Bluff +12, Conc +11, Diplo +8, Disable +12, Hide +17, Listen +3, Move +12, Open +11, Search +10, Sense +6, Spellcraft +5, Sleight +18, Spot +7, UMD +1 and can add 5 points spread out, or dumped on one/two skills from Openminded at epic 6th depending on campaign needs.

Minus sneak attack, we’ve essentially replicated the Rogue w/o taking any actual levels in rogue. While some of the skill ranks take a bit to come fully online, you can notice magical traps simply by activating your 6th lvl feat, Magic Sensitivity in a 15 ft radius, essentially at will, forever.

Soulmelds and racial modifiers combine to make for some pretty outstanding bonuses to skills, and Open Minded can further help to fill in where needed. If you find that between disable device, open lock, and Knock that you aren’t doing well enough in that area, you can bump those skill ranks higher, or do something silly like dump it entirely into UMD.

Some standard Rogue like faire is included of course, but also thematic. Darkstalker/Mindsight and Mindbender combine with your hide check to make you essentially invisible which aids your bluff checks and concealed spellcasting.

Silent Spell makes for even stealthier casting while sneaking about, and telepathy makes for easier communication with the group, and less checks to make moving back and forth. As a variant, dumping the 3 Extra Spell Feats and instead taking Martial Study 1x, and Martial Stance 2x would gain you Assassin’s Stance, however to utilize it you’d either have to engage in melee, or more likely apply it to ranged combat combined with your massive bluff/hide check combination to make it viable.

Mindsight/Telepathy/Silent Spell makes for casting Power Word Pain w/o any sort of Component, so you can plink down sentries or start whittling down the enemy before your team ever gets close enough to engage.



Complete Adventurer: Insightful Reflexes, Open Minded
Complete Arcane: Extra Slot, Mindbender
Complete Mage: Magic Sensitive, Retributive Spell
Complete Scoundrel: Conceal Spellcasting, Timely Misdirection
DMGII: Apprentice
Lords of Madness: Darkstalker, Mindsight
Magic of Incarnum: Shape Soulmeld, Blink Shirt, Necrocarnum Touch, Theft Gloves
PHBII: Beguiler
Races of Stone: Whisper Gnome
Races of the Dragon: Power Word Pain

[Zaq]

As always, thanks for being patient with me, team.

You may begin judging!

[MinimanMidget]

I had a rough start to last week, although as it turns out I had plenty of time to get my build submitted. The idea was Ascetic Rogue, but I just couldn't get Stunning Fist and Sneak Attack to actually work together. They're so close to synergizing really well that it hurts, but they just don't quite seem to. I really liked the fluff concept I had, though, so I'm going to sit on that and hope for a round where I can make it work.

Anyway, my lame excuses aside, my abject failure to get a build in leaves me free to judge, so I'll start working on that.

[Zaq]

Happy weekend, everyone! Well, those of us with traditional work schedules, anyway. I hope everyone's doing well.

Anyone judging already?

Also, I will admit that I've used most (not quite all) of the ideas on my list right now. I'm totally open to suggestions for future rounds.

[daremetoidareyo]

E6 ideas:

1: one spell to rule them all, optimize a single spell out the wazoo. You can have other spells too, but you’re judged on what you do with your signature spell.

2: Races: Warforged

3: Races: Shifter

4: Generic classes

[lylsyly]

LOL. Only PHB Classes and may not take more than 1 level in any class????

[Quentinas]

Optimizing a level X (probably i would be fine with 3 or 2 not 1 please) and template(s) to become a level 6?

[daremetoidareyo]

Any judging interest?

[H_H_F_F]

I don't feel that I have the framework to judge E6 properly. If you get no judges within, say, a week, I'd be willing to start reading past competitions' judgements and get to work... But I don't think that'd be ideal.

[MinimanMidget]

Any judging interest?

It's underway, but I've been struggling to find time.

[ATHATH]

Aw, none of the contestants seem to have noticed the thing I had noticed about the Kobold Rogue 1 substitution level- it says that you get a stacking +2 to those skills whenever you take a substitution level, not necessarily a Kobold Rogue substitution level. I had sort of envisioned some sort of Changeling (Racial Emulation feat ftw) build that'd dip around into 6 substitution levels across various classes in order to get a sizeable bonus to those specific, niche skill checks, but I couldn't summon up the effort to actually put it all together.

[Quentinas]

Well if one contain himself at rogue as class (for the use of secret ingredient) is possible to use 5 substitution level with
Kobold rogue 1 (races of dragon)
Golden hand of vergadin 2 (Champions of valor)
Kobold rogue 3 /anything (there are various race with a 3rd level bonus) (many manuals)
Dwarf rogue 5 (races of stone)
Planar rogue 6 (Planar handbook)
We could even use a substitution level for the 4th level but that would be using the lunar rogue from the dragon magazine 340.

But is not that the kobold rogue "cheese" was not used but that the changeling rogue wasn't used , maybe it was too obvious as being one level that give so many skill point and taking 10 on social skills other than boosting some options?

[Zaq]

This contest isn't dead. It's hiding. Like a sneaky, stealthy rogue.

[MinimanMidget]

Judging is about 75% complete, and more importantly, I've been making steady progress on it this week. I really shouldn't make promises, but it should be up by the weekend.

[Quentinas]

This contest isn't dead. It's hiding. Like a sneaky, stealthy rogue.

And we don't have an high enough spot to see it probably... So anyone with mindisght , blindsense, or other special sense to see a very sneaky contest?

[bean illus]

Happy weekend, everyone! Well, those of us with traditional work schedules, anyway. I hope everyone's doing well.

Anyone judging already?

Also, I will admit that I've used most (not quite all) of the ideas on my list right now. I'm totally open to suggestions for future rounds.


E6 ideas:

1: one spell to rule them all, optimize a single spell out the wazoo. You can have other spells too, but you’re judged on what you do with your signature spell.

2: Races: Warforged

3: Races: Shifter

4: Generic classes

What are the qualifications for secret ingredient?

[daremetoidareyo]

What are the qualifications for secret ingredient?

Each of those are a separate special ingredient. For 1 spell to rule them all, the chef chooses a single spell, and then can use any legal build elements to elaborate that spells effects.

For the racial ingredients, the only thing you need to qualify is count as the race suggested. Both Warforged and shifters have developed feat and acf support, so judgment would proceed along lines we typically expect.

But maybe that’s not your question

Usually, the secret ingredient is a base class. Typically non tier 1.

[MinimanMidget]

Sorry about the delay, everybody. I'm not sure if it's better or worse than if I'd just left judging for someone else.

As for ingredient ideas, I'd still love to see Binder, and I do like the idea of race-themed rounds, although I feel like we'd have to ban racial paragon classes.

So, uh...I ended up talking about Open Lock a weird amount. It's not a big deal, and I promise it's barely affected the points. This isn't like my SR rant in the Warlock round, or my crafting rant in every round, or my "waiting for a year and a day between familiar and improved familiar" rant. "So why mention it in this very prominent way?" Well, because I realised I'd talked about it a lot, and I wanted to make it clear that it's really not that big a deal. And yes, I do see the irony here.



Human, mostly familiar feats, Cloistered Cleric dip. (-1)

Chameleon is neither here nor there for Originality, but Thief of Life definitely counts for something. (+0.5)

Overall: 2.5


It's pretty difficult to judge this build, both here and in UotSI, because you haven't been very specific about what you're planning to do. You've spent 2 levels and a lot of feats to get some spellcasting, but you've been very vague about what spells you'll be casting and why. And, by the way, those 2nd-level spells you're so proud of? You have one per day. I think you're planning on using Sneak Attack in melee, but you haven't mentioned how you're going to trigger it. I guess you're just assuming that you'll be flanking with a party member? It doesn't really matter, since even if you trigger Sneak Attack you only have 1 attack at +8 or +9 to hit (depending on your Knowledge roll), 1d4 + 2d6 damage. Yes, negative levels aren't common in E6, but one negative level isn't going to impress (or kill) anyone. Lifesense is nice, but 5ft range makes it considerably less useful, regardless of exactly how deathwatch works.

And seriously, if you want me to be impressed by your capabilities, tell me about them. Forcing me to figure them out myself doesn't do either of us any favours. I know it can be tricky with classes like the Chameleon that can change day-to-day, but as a judge, you can only judge what's in the build. You can't just say "I'm a Chameleon" and rake in the points.

Anyway, you're unimpressive in combat. Your (limited) spellcasting will help, of course, but there's only so much you can do with 1st-level spells (and a single 2nd-level). (-0.75)

Defensively, you have slightly below average hp, which is not ideal if you're going into melee. Your AC should be pretty good, at least. Your saving throws are all decent, but none of them are impressive, including Ref, which makes Evasion less useful. Stealth helps, of course, although not all that much when fighting in melee, and spells can help too. (+0)

Outside of combat, things look a lot better. You've got good stealth and scouting skills, solid social skills, you're decent at finding traps, (although it's a shame you can't disable them), and your stat array goes nicely with Jack of All Trades. Spells help out here too, of course. I do think you're going to get some weird looks for not being able to pick locks. (+0.5)

Overall: 2.75


You have 10 skill ranks at level 5 instead of 9. Craven is FR material, and Thief of Life is Eberron. Neither of those would be worth a penalty in themselves, but combined they're worth a minor one. (-0.25)

The Catalogues of Enlightenment is an 8th-level encounter. It arguably doesn't even exist in E6, and even if it does, your odds of beating the entrance exam are extremely low. Not to mention, you have no real way to get there, and bad odds of even knowing about it. All in all, I don't think you can just assume you have access to the higher order power. (-0.25)

Overall: 4.5


Only 3 levels of Rogue, but Thief of Life is a Rogue prestige class, so it's closer to 4. You mentioned that Chameleon is also a Rogue prestige class, but "easier to enter from a skillful base" is not the same as "Rogue prestige class". (-0)

As I mentioned in Power, I find this category difficult to judge without more specifics about what you're doing with your capabilities. That said, 8 of your 14 feats are going towards your spellcasting capabilities, rather than your Rogue ones. Overall, it seems like Rogue is mostly just here as a skillmonkey base to get you into Chameleon, exemplified by you not really caring about Sneak Attack. (-1)

Overall: 2

Total: 11.75




Strongheart Halfling, bleh. (-0.5)

I sort of expected to see an alchemical weapons entry, but you've got some interesting feats and a Binder dip that isn't all about Naberius. (+0.75)

I'm not sure how to feel about Avenger in the context of Originality. On the one hand, Assassin is in theory the "classic" prestige class for a Rogue, and Avenger is just the alignment-friendly version. On the other hand, in practice people don't actually take either of them particularly often, especially as a 1-level dip. On the whole I think this is worth a bonus, especially as a method to count as a spellcaster for Craft (alchemy). (+0.25)

Overall: 3.5


As an interesting note, you probably made a good call not taking any social skills - you're almost always going to fail your binding check, and Leraje requires that you be "quiet and unassuming". Not to mention, you "look sickly and diseased, and your skin becomes sallow and pockmarked". You also aren't allowed to fight elves of any kind, although if the party is fighting drow you can probably just suck up the penalties. None of this is significant enough to be worth a penalty, I just feel like people forget that binding does actually have downsides.

In combat, you can very reliably deal a lot of damage, especially against enemies who make the mistake of standing close together. Eggshell grenades are nice, but the DC is quite low. Of course, there are many other alchemical items you could craft that would come in handy, and you have access to 1 spell per day, but I can only judge what you've written. Anyway, most of what you've written is damage, and sufficient quantities of damage really preclude the need for anything else. (+0.75)

Defensively, you have average hp, good AC, and some DR. Your Fort is okay, your Ref is great, which makes Evasion and Thief's Luck more useful, and your Will is low. Stealth helps too, especially since you fight from 30ft away and can afford to use your move action on moving. (+0.5)

Outside of combat, you're stealthy and a decent scout, although not quite as good a scout as I would like. You're good at finding traps and disabling them, but not locks for some reason, and you can pick pockets to make ends meet. Overall I think you're still a valuable party member, but you're going to struggle a bit to be useful in some situations. (-0.25)

Overall: 4


I love that picture. Also, technically, you can take ranks in Craft (alchemy) without being a spellcaster, you just can't craft alchemical items. Either way, I appreciate that you didn't try to work around that weird and extremely stupid rule. It does bug me that you didn't specify your spells known, even if you can only cast 1 per day. (+0)

You have 9 skill ranks at level 2, and 11 at level 3 - looks like you forgot to increment Hide. No penalty. (-0)

Strongheart Halfling is FR, and Shaped Splash is Eberron. You also have a lot of abyssal heritor feats for an Exalted character. Neither of those would be worth a penalty in themselves, but combined they're worth a minor one. (-0.25)

Avenger requires Move Silently 8, and you only have 7. You could have covered this easily, I'm assuming you just forgot about it. (-0.5)

Qualifying for Coordinated Shot via binding Leraje is ever so slightly questionable. No penalty, but I wanted to note it. (-0)

So, your crafting dependency. It's mundane crafting, so it doesn't cost xp, and it's extremely cheap to boot. But it's still crafting, and you're extremely dependent on it to function. (-0.25)

Overall: 4


4 levels of Rogue, but as I mentioned in Originality, Assassin (or Avenger) is the "classic" prestige class for a Rogue, so it's closer to 5. (+0.25)

This is a build that focuses on one thing, and one thing only: it Sneak Attacks with alchemical weapons. Even with the Binder dip, this is a Rogue build through and through. (+1)

Overall: 4.25

Total: 15.75




Ooooh, Kenku! I feel like Kenku is a very underappreciated race. (+0.5)

This is kind of a weird build. You're a natural attacker with incarnum, but you didn't go all in on that. You're doing the pets thing, with incarnum, but no Share Soulmeld in sight. Overall, this is an entry that looks like it belongs in the pets round, but here it is. With that said, the elements on display are all pretty familiar. I'm going to go with no bonus or penalty. (+0)

Overall: 3.5


Your full attack lineup is very strong, and your dog's attack is a nice cherry on top. It's worth pointing out that when you aren't flanking, or can't Sneak Attack for some reason, or if you can't full attack, it's a lot less impressive, and you don't really have anything else to do in combat. (+0.5)

Defensively, you have average hp and decent AC. Your Fort is okay, your Ref is great, which makes Evasion more useful, and your Will is very low, so it's fortunate that Dragontouched partially cancels out Craven. Stealth helps, although not while full attacking in melee, and your animal buddies are tanky enough to count as an asset in this area rather than a point of vulnerability. (+0.25)

Outside of combat, you're a lean mean scouting team. Between the three of you, the only way anything is getting past is if it can ignore Spot, Listen, and Scent. You're stealthy both individually and as a group, although much less as a group than you are individually. Also, you don't have Darkstalker, which does make stealth that little bit less useful. You've got a decent Bluff score, and you can find and disable traps, although not locks. What is it with everyone not caring about locks? Anyway, you also have a nice Survival score, which can come in handy even without tracking. Your dog can track, even if its Survival score isn't as good as yours. Overall I think you can be confident of being useful in most situations. (+0.5)

Overall: 4.25


Ugh, warbeast. It's inelegant on the dog (this judgement is already taking me way too long, so I'm going to say inelegant and leave it at that), and illegal on the owl. "Warbeast is a template that can be added to any Medium size or larger animal". (-1)

You have to have at least 8 Int to be a team leader, so the owl and the dog can't do it. Additionally, a team can only learn one teamwork benefit for every 4 HD the lowest team member has. Which is to say, 1, so even if we (dodgily) assume that [Kenku + Dog], [Kenku + Owl], and [Kenku + Dog + Owl] are 3 separate teams that can each learn a trick, you still have too many. (-0.5)

As far as I can tell, your dog should have 17 Dex, not 18. Also, your owl's claws would have gone from 1d4 to 1d6 with the size increase. Not worth a penalty; on the contrary, I'm mostly just grateful you gave me detailed statblocks to work with. (-0)

Overall: 3.5


5 levels in Rogue. (+0.5)

You've got a lot of non-Rogue stuff, but in the end it's mostly just about flanking, which comes back to Rogue. (+0.25)

Overall: 3.75

Total: 15




Desert kobolds are everyone's favourite kobolds, but not so obvious a choice as to merit a penalty. (+0)

Your feats are mostly pretty standard, but Trapsmith is normally only seen for spell list nonsense, and while a familiar isn't anything special, I haven't seen the jaculi before. Crafting traps is an extremely unusual specialty, too. (+0.75)

Overall: 3.75


Your full attack lineup is pretty good, although if you aren't flanking, or can't Sneak Attack for some reason, or if you can't full attack, it gets a lot less good. Even with a familiar, Adaptable Flankier doesn't guarantee flanking like, say, Island of Blades does. That said, the jaculi is still very nice, especially with its grapple/constrict, although I don't love its odds of grappling anything really dangerous. Then you have your traps, which are difficult to judge, because their usefulness will vary greatly depending on the situation. They're definitely going to be nice to have often enough to be worthwhile. (+0.5)

Defensively, you've got average hp and good AC. Your Fort is okay, your Ref is good, (so Evasion is good), and your Will is bad, especially with Craven. The jaculi is tanky enough to count as an asset here, especially with Bonded Familiar. Stealth always helps, although less so when you're full attacking in melee, and your spells are nice here too. (+0.25)

At last, the Chosen One appears! A Rogue who can open locks! Sorry, just needed to get that out of my system. You're also the undisputed king of traps, whether it's crafting them, finding them, or disabling them. Between your familiar and you, you're pretty good at scouting, and you're pretty stealthy, although your familiar's Move Silently score (or lack thereof) is likely to be a problem. Overall, you're good at what you do, but when it's not applicable you don't really have anything to fall back on. (+0)

Overall: 3.75


Open Lock uses Dex, not Int, which is a good thing for you. Not a big deal, just noting it. (-0)

I have to say, I appreciate you not taking the Thug variant on your Fighter dip. It's explicitly allowed, but it's very weird that it and the Sneak Attack variant trade away the same thing. (+0)

You have 12 skill ranks at levels 2 and 3 instead of 11. (-0.5)

Overall: 4.5


4 levels of Rogue, and...well. Sneak Attack Fighter is weird here, because it's ridiculously similar to Rogue. Then, too Trapsmith is primarily a Rogue prestige class. (+0.5)

Disabling traps is obviously a Rogue specialty, but I've never had to judge whether crafting them is. On reflection, I think it is, not least because Artificers have better things to do with their time, but also because I think most people would agree that the basic association is Rogues => traps. This build is all about traps, and to me it's all Rogue. (+1)

Overall: 4.5

Total: 16.5




The whole "I'm a better Rogue even though I'm not a Rogue" thing isn't worth a bonus in Originality, because a)it's explicitly illegal, and b)someone came up with it in the second round ever of the contest. (+0)

Outside of that, it's mostly pretty standard stuff. Whisper Gnome, Mindbender dip, Mindsight, some soulmelds. (-1)

Some of your feats are a bit more interesting; Apprentice (soldier), Magic Sensitive, and Retributive Spell aren't seen often. (+0.25)

Overall: 2.25


As a minor note, taking Open Minded but not making the decision about where to put the points is a bad idea. I can't make that decision for you and then judge it. For similar reasons, I can't judge the variant on the build you offered, which is a shame because it probably would have scored better.

In combat, you're not the best at dealing damage (and Power Word Pain is an odd choice to fill that particular gap), but there's plenty of useful spells on your list. And I do love the image of someone looking confused and saying ow over and over again until they mysteriously drop dead. (+0.5)

Defensively, your hp is very slightly below average, your AC is decent, and your saving throws are all okay but not great. Your spells offer great defensive options, and of course there's pretty much no reason for you to ever not be hidden. (+0.5)

The guy who can cast Knock 9 times a day is one of the only ones with an Open Lock score? What is going on with this round? You can find traps and disable them, and while your Spot/Listen scores aren't among the best in the round, Mindsight and Magic Sensitive will go a long way towards making up for that. Your stealth abilities are great, and at-will teleportation is often handy. You're a great face character, with good scores in all of the talking skills and even some Sense Motive. Beyond that, the Beguiler's spell list is nothing short of incredible for out of combat utility. (+1)

Overall: 5


You have 34 skill ranks at level 1 instead of 38 (from Apprentice). Then at level 5 you have 11 skill ranks instead of 10. Your total is still low, not high, so it's fine. (-0)

I gotta say, apart from being illegal (which is covered in UotSI), there's really nothing I can find to object to here.

Overall: 5


No levels in Rogue. (-1)

You can do many of the things a Rogue can do, but you do them in completely different ways. Looking at your feats, and to some extent even your skills, this is a Beguiler first, and a Rogue...not at all. They're both stealthy skillmonkeys, and that's pretty much where the similarity ends. You could just as easily have submitted a Factotum build, or a Scout, or really any stealthy skillmonkey class. You even picked one of the ones that doesn't have any form of precision damage. (-1)

Overall: 1

Total: 13.25

[daremetoidareyo]

No disputes here. Thank you for the thorough judging.

[MinimanMidget]

One minor thing I forgot: Tuck should have a note on crafting in the Elegance section. Basically, trapsmith trapmaking is way too cheap to be worth a penalty, especially since Tuck isn't reliant on it. For comparison purposes, Craft(alchemy), while still very cheap, is much more expensive, and of course Crackshot is much more dependent on it.

[Quentinas]

Thanks for the judging!

[Zaq]

Build


Stub


Chef


Score


Place




Chameleon of Vol (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24887228&postcount=37)


LE human rogue 3 / cloistered cleric 1 / thief of life 1 / chameleon 1

Bean Illus

11.75

4th




Crackshot Ha! Fling! (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24887229&postcount=38)


CG strongheart halfling rogue 4 / binder 1 / avenger 1


daremetoidareyo

15.75

2nd




Petts (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24887231&postcount=39)


?? Kenku wilderness rogue 5 / beastmaster 1

Quentinas

15

3rd




Tuck (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24887232&postcount=40)


CN desert kobold rogue 4 / fighter 1 / trapsmith 1

Quentinas

16.5

1st




Nygil Longbottom, Esq (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24887233&postcount=41)


CN whisper gnome beguiler 5 / mindbender 1

jdizzlean

DQ

DQ




That's a wrap, everyone! MinimanMidget, thank you very much for stepping up to judge. Congrats to our medalists! I loved seeing the variety this time—everyone went in a pretty noticeably different direction, and I like that a lot.

New round here (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?627038-Iron-Chef-E6-Appetizer-Edition-Round-XXIX)!

[bean illus]

I'll start by saying thanks to all. There's nothing easy about any of this, neither chairing, judging, nor submitting. Even submitting the losing build is hard.

Chameleon of Vol
I honestly thought I was the last one to submit a build, and that everyone was waiting on me. It appears I may have been one of the first. It was sloppy. Perhaps if I had taken another few days, I might have chosen one of the other build lines that I was looking at.

I think i would like to make a response, but i won't call it a dispute. First, because my glaring oversight of the fact that there is no way to plane shift (portals aren't guaranteed) violates the build beyond any debate of how i might win the encounter, or whether The Catalogues of Enlightenment being an 8th level encounter is appropriate for epic E6. Also, because i don't think it would change my ranking in any substantial manner.

Then there's the truth that, to dispute, or even respond, would take me a week, and meanwhile i would really rather rebuild much of it. Thanks again.

So, if i skip that maybe my response is questions? I see you didn't mention the UMD, wand access. These allow chameleon spamming in e6. Perhaps i need the rant on crafting? because of course, if I can craft wands, then I can open locks, etc.

I think I'd rather study the other builds, and the judging, than to infer mine needs disputed. I might be able to elucidate other specific questions, later.

[MinimanMidget]

Perhaps i need the rant on crafting?

That's simple enough (copied from my judgement of a previous round):

Crafting is problematic. The contest rules aren't clear on how xp works, and whether you can afford to lose some. (For example, if everyone gets the same amount of experience, that being precisely enough to get to level 6 and unlock 10 E6 feats, any magic item crafting would prevent you from getting the final E6 feat.) There's also potentially an issue with gold, too. My general rule when judging is to allow mundane items and ignore any magic items, since most builds don't assume they have access and we want a level playing field. There's obviously a big difference between "my character can craft these items" and "my character wants to buy these items", but I still feel weird about assuming you can fund your crafting, but others can't buy magic items.

The short version is that you would have gained in Power and lost out in Elegance if I'd scored you based on doing a bunch of crafting. And looking at your build again, I probably should have, because you were pretty clear about it. I'm sorry about that, especially since, going over it, you probably stood to gain about +1 overall.

Beyond that, I'm very happy to answer any questions you have about how I judged.

I'd also definitely recommend looking at some previous rounds to get a feel for things, and as a point for future rounds, don't be afraid to dispute if you think a judge has missed something or been unfair in some way. It's also worth pointing out that everyone judges differently, and ideally we'd have multiple judges for each round - with one judge the judgement is never as well rounded.