Junkyard Wars XXXI: Giddy-Up!

[Thurbane]

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

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

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


Necessary: Silverwood Outrider (online (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031202a))
Necessary: Cavalry Charger feat (CW p.108)
Forbidden: Fighter





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



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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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



Code immediately below (spoiler).

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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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





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


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



Disputes: Any scoring disputes will be posted by the Chairman in-thread after reviewing them privately. Valid disputes include

RAW misreadings,
arithmetic errors,
things missed that are present in the entry,
and inconsistently applied criteria.

Invalid disputes include

disagreements on matters of opinion,
a judge not catching something not explicitly presented in the entry,
and the like.

Invalid disputes will be responded to via PM by the Chair, but valid disputes should be responded to by each individual judge. Judges are obligated to respond to disputes to ensure that everyone gets a fair shake. A judge's scores will only be recognized if they have recognized all disputes. In the absence of any other judges, the entries will be judged by the chairman.



Completion Time:

Contestants will have until 23:59 GMT Monday July 19, 2021 to create their builds and PM them to the chairman.
Builds will then be posted simultaneously to avoid copying.
Judges will have until 23:59 GMT Monday August 2, 2021 to judge the builds and submit their scores. Judging deadline is subject to extension as required.
As the precedent has been set from Episode 2, should all prospective judges have posted their rulings in a neat, timely fashion and all disputes have been settled satisfactorily (to either judges, contestants, or the Chairperson), the judging period may end prematurely to give way to a new episode. No reason to keep working on a finished building and avoid moving onto the next one.


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

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



Junkyard Wars in the Playground I: Shadowdancer + Sneak Attack - Rogue (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?337864)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground II: Healing Spells + Ruby Knight Vindicator - Cleric (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?342896)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground III: Dragons + Theurges - Kobolds (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?347412)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground IV: BoED + Undead Type - Completes (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?355278)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground V: Dread Witch + Reaping Mauler - Fighter (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?360271)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground VI: Wonderworker + Profession Skill - Factotum (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?369604)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground VII: Metamagic Feats + LA - Metamagic Reducers! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?374504)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground VIII: Pounce+Small Size-Barbarian (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?388151)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground IX: Earth Dreamer + Ordained Champion - Cleric (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?395791)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground X: Meldshaping + Natural Attacks - Totemist (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?403880)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground XI: Magical Darkness + Improved Familiar - Wizard (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?409650)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground XII: Dragonmark Heirs + Touchstones - Martial Weapons (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?430214)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground XIII: Mulhorandi Divine Minion + Monk - Any Other Wildshaping (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?465901)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground XIV: Racial Paragon Classes + Spellcasting - Base Classes (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?479427)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground XV: Ruathar + Stoneblessed - Human (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?497904)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground XVI: Trapsmith + Combat Trapsmith - Rogue (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?540521)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground XVII: Elemental Warrior + Jaunter - Fighter (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?552569)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground XVIII: Argent Savant + Holy Scourge - Wizard (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?555404)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground XIX: Incarnum Blade + Exotic Weapon Master - Spiked Chain (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?562523-Junkyard-Wars-XIX-IB-EWM-SC)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground XX: Xorvintaal Exarch + The Pact-Bound Adept - Sorcerer (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?568541-Junkyard-Wars-XX-XE-PBA(a)-S)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground XXI: Rebuke Undead + Teamwork Benefits - [Divine] feats (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?572680-Junkyard-Wars-XXI-Halloween-Round!)
Junkyard Wars XXII: Battle Trickster + Magical Trickster - Uncanny Trickster (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?577512-Junkyard-Wars-XXII-Show-Me-Your-Skillz)
Junkyard Wars XXIII: Spellwarp Sniper + Silver Pyromancer - Energy Substitution (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?581736-Junkyard-Wars-XXIII-Ready-Aim-Fire)
Junkyard Wars XXIV: Vow of Peace + Saint - Divine casting (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?585567-Junkyard-Wars-XXIV-VoPe-S-DC)
Junkyard Wars XXV: Silverwood Arcanist + Share Soulmeld - Soulcaster (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?590622-Junkyard-Wars-XXV-SA-SS-S)
Junkyard Wars XXVI: RSL + ACF - PrCs (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?593374-Junkyard-Wars-XXVI-RSL-ACF-PrCs)
Junkyard Wars XXVII: Unholy Scion + Mark - Affiliation (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?598151-Junkyard-Wars-XXVII-US-M-A)
Junkyard Wars XXVII: 1MF + CPA&A - T (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?603826-Junkyard-Wars-XXVIII-1MF-CPA-amp-A-T)
Junkyard Wars XXIX: Social Distancing Edition! (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?610153-Junkyard-Wars-XXIX-Social-Distancing-Edition!)
Junkyard Wars XXX: Something a Little Spicy (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?631758-Junkyard-Wars-XXX-Something-a-Little-Spicy)

[Thurbane]

Q. Can you gain a new Wild Cohort using the same feat if one dies?
Y. Yes - for this comp, treat this the as the same way a Druid gains a new Animal Companion if one dies, but using the available wild cohort options, of course.

Q. Can you swap out WC as you level up the same way a Druid does with his AC?
A. Given the answer to the previous question, for this comp - yes. Otherwise we'd have characters deliberately getting their WC offed so they could "upgrade".

Q. Do we use that table for bonus HD/tricks/etc regardless of what cohort we take? Here's an example for clarity : a 7th level character takes a wild cohort from the 4th level druid table, will it have 3 (because he's 7th level) or 1 bonus HD (because his "equivalent druid level" is 4)?
A. Assume the second, lower-powered option.

Q. Overrun is a standard action. Fell trample says you can can make mounted overrun attempts against multiple opponents. How does this work?
A. For this comp, lets assume when using fell trample, you use a full round attack action, and can move up to your mount's base speed and make as many overrun attempts as your speed and placement of enemies allows, but no more than attempt one per opponent. Think similar to spring attack.

Q. What happens when a creature without a hoof attack uses trample/fell trample?
A. That is up to judges to rule as they see fit.

Q. How much detail do competitors need to give for their mount? Does it need it's own stat block?
A. The level of details is up to the competitor, and then up to the judges as to how they score it.

Q. The class states that a Paladin's special mount, or a Ranger's or Druid's animal companion can substitute for a Wild Cohort. How about other classes that have special mounts, or animal companions?
A. For this comp, treat the text as RAW. Only A Wild Cohort, Paladin's special Mount, Ranger's animal companion or Druid's animal Companion meets the reqs.

Q. Silverwood Outrider explicitly gives its benefits to the Wild Cohort with its class features by RAW. In the event that the character qualifies by virtue of a Paladin's Special Mount or a Druid/Ranger's Animal Companion, should we apply those class features to the Mount/Companion or not? What about if the character has both a Special Mount or Animal Companion and the Wild Cohort feat?
A. For this comp, if you qualify using a Special Mount or Animal Companion, you can apply any benefit that is listed for a Wild Cohort to your SM or AC instead. If you have more than one of these (WC, SM or AC), you must select one of these to receive the listed benefit at that level, but it doesn't have to be the same one each time. For instance, you might apply Fast Handling to your AC, and Cohort Trick to your WC. The only exception to this is Fast Handling and Bonded Mount: they must be applied to the same creature, if possible. If you have lost or swapped out the creature that you applied Fast Handling to by the time you get Bonded Mount, you may then apply it to a different creature, so long as two (or more) different creatures aren't benefiting from one of these class features simultaneously.

Q. Fast Handling modifies the action time for handling your Wild Cohort (or AC or SM), but does not require you to be mounted. Bonded Mount supercedes that, but then requires the Outrider be actively using the creature as a mount to get the free action push/handle. Although these features must apply to the same creature, can the Outrider still benefit from the free action handling/move action push when not mounting the relevant WC/AC/SM?
A. For this comp, it seems counterintuitive for Bonded Mount to remove a benefit from Fast Handling, so I will rule that you can still benefit from the Free action handling/Move action push whether you are mounted or not, but still following all other restrictions associated with that type of action.

[ciopo]

Oh boy.

Questions about how wild cohort works for those parts that it doesn't mirror animal companion, specifically:

1) *can* we change wild cohort as we level up?

2) *can* we gain a new wild cohort if it dies?

3) do we use that table for bonus HD/tricks/etc regardless of what cohort we take? here an example for clarity : a 7th level character takes a wild cohort from the 4th level druid table, will it have 3 (because he's 7th level) or 1 bonus HD (because his "equivalent druid level" is 4)?

[Thurbane]

Oh boy.

Questions about how wild cohort works for those parts that it doesn't mirror animal companion, specifically:

1) *can* we change wild cohort as we level up?

2) *can* we gain a new wild cohort if it dies?

3) do we use that table for bonus HD/tricks/etc regardless of what cohort we take? here an example for clarity : a 7th level character takes a wild cohort from the 4th level druid table, will it have 3 (because he's 7th level) or 1 bonus HD (because his "equivalent druid level" is 4)?

1. I was initially leaning towards no, but given the answer for 2), assume it works the same as an Animal Companion - so yes.

2. For this comp, assume it follows the same rules as an Animal Companion does if it dies.

2. Assume the second, lower-powered, option.

[Dmgktrl]

Hi, All! I’ve recently found the grand historical records of the OC’s here on the site, and have been reading up on most. Seeing they are still active, and this is a current opportunity, I was motivated to register and participate in some fashion.

That being said, I am technologically challenged (being old), and limited (mobile only). Is there an easy format I can grab that works with mobile for me to complete? Any help would be appreciated. Also willing to collaborate with someone who can help with the formatting, as long as it’s okay for me to submit (being new)?

EDIT: I see the handy-dandy tables, and will see if I can alter well enough in google docs. Yay!

[H_H_F_F]

Hi, All! I’ve recently found the grand historical records of the OC’s here on the site, and have been reading up on most. Seeing they are still active, and this is a current opportunity, I was motivated to register and participate in some fashion.

That being said, I am technologically challenged (being old), and limited (mobile only). Is there an easy format I can grab that works with mobile for me to complete? Any help would be appreciated. Also willing to collaborate with someone who can help with the formatting, as long as it’s okay for me to submit (being new)?

EDIT: I see the handy-dandy tables, and will see if I can alter well enough in google docs. Yay!

Hello friend! Welcome to the forums. If you like this concept, check out the iron chef (as well as its E6 appetizer edition) and the villanous competition as well. I think you'll like them.

Formatting on mobile might be rough. You're welcome to PM me if you can't manage. Worst case scenario, send me all the info and I'll do it for you (I don't plan to participate myself)

[Troacctid]

I usually make the table in Google Docs, copy all the cells, and paste them into the WYSIWYG view of the post...editor...thing. (The WYSIWYG button is in the upper left of the thingy. You'll need to switch to the desktop version of the website to see it; use the "Full Site" link at the bottom of the page.) Then I double-check the formatting and manually change the header so the colors match properly.

[Dmgktrl]

Hello friend! Welcome to the forums. If you like this concept, check out the iron chef (as well as its E6 appetizer edition) and the villanous competition as well. I think you'll like them.

Formatting on mobile might be rough. You're welcome to PM me if you can't manage. Worst case scenario, send me all the info and I'll do it for you (I don't plan to participate myself)

Thank you! I may take you up on that to help tweak. I think I can do most of it. I’ve got the build, and the main table mostly complete. Working on the other aspects of the entry now. I should have it in by the weekend; may have a second idea.

[Thurbane]

I've updated the 2nd post with some FAQs.

[Glimbur]

I think I will throw my hat in the ring for this one. It has been a long time since I did any 3.5 but it could be fun. Just have to find some more feats somewhere...

[PoeticallyPsyco]

I have a build in mind, but it's not very interesting. If I come up with some good fluff or other way of spicing it up, I'll throw it into the ring.

[ciopo]

I could use further clarification about how wild cohort works in regard to alternative animals, because the wording is odd.

My understanding of what is written is that we count as a druid 3 level lower than our ECL for the qualification only, and that's been already addressed when I asked it before.

But what progression do we use then, ECL-3? or with "the malus the druid would have if he picked that animal companion?"

I'm operating under that second (third) reading, since it's the lower power one.

a middle level example so it's clear what I'm thinking about

a 10th level character chooses a huge viper as his animal cohort, because the list of animals he can choose form are "those available to a druid that's 7th level"

Will the huge viper have :

A) 1 extra HD/NA, because we're using the cohort table at ECL-6 (the malus a druid would have had)
B) 3 extra HD and 1STR/DEX, because we're using the cohort table at ECL-3 ( the malus applied to us for the pickability of cohorts )
C) 0 extra HD, because we're using the cohort table at ECL-9 (our malus plus the druid malus)

For comparison, a 10th level druid would have a huge viper with 2 extra HD and 1STR/DEX

I'm assuming A, reasoning being it keeps the animal cohort weaker than an equivalent level druid, while not being "double penalizing" like C does, but the wording of it kinda leans toward B

I'd like clarity, sorry for making complexity out of nothing!

[Thurbane]

I could use further clarification about how wild cohort works in regard to alternative animals, because the wording is odd.

My understanding of what is written is that we count as a druid 3 level lower than our ECL for the qualification only, and that's been already addressed when I asked it before.

But what progression do we use then, ECL-3? or with "the malus the druid would have if he picked that animal companion?"

I'm operating under that second (third) reading, since it's the lower power one.

a middle level example so it's clear what I'm thinking about

a 10th level character chooses a huge viper as his animal cohort, because the list of animals he can choose form are "those available to a druid that's 7th level"

Will the huge viper have :

A) 1 extra HD/NA, because we're using the cohort table at ECL-6 (the malus a druid would have had)
B) 3 extra HD and 1STR/DEX, because we're using the cohort table at ECL-3 ( the malus applied to us for the pickability of cohorts )
C) 0 extra HD, because we're using the cohort table at ECL-9 (our malus plus the druid malus)

For comparison, a 10th level druid would have a huge viper with 2 extra HD and 1STR/DEX

I'm assuming A, reasoning being it keeps the animal cohort weaker than an equivalent level druid, while not being "double penalizing" like C does, but the wording of it kinda leans toward B

I'd like clarity, sorry for making complexity out of nothing!

Yeah, I'll be honest with you, that part of Wild Cohort always hurt my brain.

For this comp, assume option A.

[ciopo]

thanks :)

Thurbane your storage space is full

[Thrice Dead Cat]

Silverwood Outrider explicitly gives its benefits to the Wild Cohort with its class features by RAW. In the event that the character qualifies by virtue of a Paladin's Special Mount or a Druid/Ranger's Animal Companion, should we apply those class features to the Mount/Companion or not? What about if the character has both a Special Mount or Animal Companion and the Wild Cohort feat?

[Thurbane]

Silverwood Outrider explicitly gives its benefits to the Wild Cohort with its class features by RAW. In the event that the character qualifies by virtue of a Paladin's Special Mount or a Druid/Ranger's Animal Companion, should we apply those class features to the Mount/Companion or not? What about if the character has both a Special Mount or Animal Companion and the Wild Cohort feat?

Wowee, didn't realise this PrC had so much to clarify.

Thanks for picking that up, I'll address it in the FAQ.

[Thurbane]

Sorry, inbox was full - should now be some space.

[GreatWyrmGold]

I usually make the table in Google Docs, copy all the cells, and paste them into the WYSIWYG view of the post...editor...thing. (The WYSIWYG button is in the upper left of the thingy. You'll need to switch to the desktop version of the website to see it; use the "Full Site" link at the bottom of the page.) Then I double-check the formatting and manually change the header so the colors match properly.<br>
I never realized this site had a WYSIWYG editor! That's gonna make tables so much less annoying.

I've got an idea for a build, but I'm not sure whether it's going to work out yet. Especially since the requirements eat up six feats and block our best source for acquiring more. If I can't find some of these feats as bonus feats somewhere, that only leaves one feat spare (for non-humans)...
This is a lot sneakier than requiring a feat that requires cleric levels and forbidding cleric, I gotta give it to you.

[mattie_p]

Hi, All! I’ve recently found the grand historical records of the OC’s here on the site, and have been reading up on most. Seeing they are still active, and this is a current opportunity, I was motivated to register and participate in some fashion.

That being said, I am technologically challenged (being old), and limited (mobile only). Is there an easy format I can grab that works with mobile for me to complete? Any help would be appreciated. Also willing to collaborate with someone who can help with the formatting, as long as it’s okay for me to submit (being new)?

EDIT: I see the handy-dandy tables, and will see if I can alter well enough in google docs. Yay!

I might as well throw this here, as I've recently posted in all the other competitions as well. I have created and released a google sheets "doc" (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BG0-5sq4dL9Ooh7-QfXuyHzO4rXSz-CRcj29t6BeUVE/edit?usp=sharing), which includes pre-formatted tables for this site for levels (both 1-20 and E6 style), stats, spells, etc, as most chairs post in their OP. I usually do my construction on a computer, but I believe it should be nearly a WYSIWYG for the tables. Just fill out the wide columns, copy and paste all the highlighted cells into the message block here.

[Thrice Dead Cat]

Thanks for the answers, Thurbane. This may just be me picking nits, but I had one more question:

Q. Fast Handling modifies the action time for handling your Wild Cohort (or AC or SM), but does not require you to be mounted. Bonded Mount supercedes that, but then requires the Outrider be actively using the creature as a mount to get the free action push/handle. Although these features must apply to the same creature, can the Outrider still benefit from the free action handling/move action push when not mounting the relevant WC/AC/SM?

[Thurbane]

No problem, answer added in the second post.

Also, as an update, I forgot that my wife and I will be out of town for a few days starting this Friday, and since I will most likely only have internet access on my phone, I'm pushing the deadlines back 1 week.

This also means my ability to reply to this thread or PMs over the weekend will be virtually non-existent.

[Eurus]

This feels like a rough round to try and finally get into this contest thing, hah. Feat requirements are steep, and it's hard to come up with any way to actually use Silverwood Outrider effectively rather than just taking it as a tax of five mostly dead levels. The class features are just so very... lackluster. :smallamused:

[Glimbur]

It's rough for everyone at least. I expect to see some clever builds that get the feats easier, and surely the ability to handle your mount as a move or free action will be handy. Somehow. I have a dumb idea, not sure if I will incorporate it in my build or not.

[pabelfly]

Pretty keen for this contest, working on my build now.

[Dmgktrl]

Sadly between COVID and then family visits I wasn’t able to alter my builds after the FAQ was updated that made my original idea invalid. My second idea was less exciting. Can’t wait to see what the rest of y’all came up with! I’ll post stubs in spoilers when deemed appropriate as to not disrupt judging.

[Thurbane]

Sadly between COVID and then family visits I wasn’t able to alter my builds after the FAQ was updated that made my original idea invalid. My second idea was less exciting. Can’t wait to see what the rest of y’all came up with! I’ll post stubs in spoilers when deemed appropriate as to not disrupt judging.

Apologies for that - I know changes to the FAQ caused issues for at least one other competitor as well.

When I selected the class (and feat), I honestly didn't foresee how many potential rules dysfunctions they had.

[Thurbane]

Couple of days left for entries; glad to see a bit more interest in this one than the last. :smallsmile:

If anyone is struggling to reach the deadline, let me know, happy to extend a little if required.

https://i.pinimg.com/474x/5b/d1/cf/5bd1cf3e1c07480447475585a3e4bd36.jpg

[Thrice Dead Cat]

I think I got everything in on mine. It was honestly a lot of fun, and I'm kicking myself for not participating in one of these competitions sooner!

[Thurbane]

I'm working, and was going to reveal once I had time later today. :smallannoyed:

Posting stubs before the reveal is pretty poor form IMHO, and I have always informally allowed submission right up until the actual reveal, even if it's delayed. :smallfrown:

I'd really appreciate if you could delete that post and re-post once I've revealed. Of course I can't compel you to, but it would be appreciated.

Also, as of this edit, I'm showing 1:47 am Monday, 19 July 2021 Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)

[GreatWyrmGold]

I'm working, and was going to reveal once I had time later today. :smallannoyed:

Posting stubs before the reveal is pretty poor form IMHO, and I have always informally allowed submission right up until the actual reveal, even if it's delayed. :smallfrown:

I'd really appreciate if you could delete that post and re-post once I've revealed. Of course I can't compel you to, but it would be appreciated.

Also, as of this edit, I'm showing 1:47 am Monday, 19 July 2021 Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)
Somehow I got the midnight starting Monday confused with the midnight ending it.

[Glimbur]

Couple of days left for entries; glad to see a bit more interest in this one than the last. :smallsmile:


Not gonna lie, I had been reading the various competitions for a couple months now but seeing only one person enter this one last time made me want to try this. I can't do worse than like fifth right?

[Thurbane]

Time for the reveal, please don't post until I give the all clear.

[Thurbane]

My thoughts on the combination :

The purpose of silverwood outrider is making it viable using the wild cohort while still retaining use of our own action / full action.

From that point of view, only the first level is relevant and useful, the rest is a pile of junk. The capstone is mildly interesting because not even druids can push as a free action, but it's not a feature that's really applicable because the urgency of "I need a free action" is there only during combat situation, and the tricks we'd teach the animal companion are those relevant for combat anyway, so the capstone gives a big fat nothing.

Using a class with animal companion/special mount is "missing the point" of Silverwood outrider, the point being "making wild cohort viable for those classes without animal companion/special mount"

Cavalry charger : the first manouver is situational, the second manouver is mildly interesting when you consider that it's extra damage, not bonus damage, so it's in actuality 16 damage when you take into consideration the spirited charger prerequisite and using a valorous lance, so kinda close to Craven in value

Fell trample is what really appeals to me, at least with the concession "you can mounted overrun a target more than once in a round with it!" I made this build around that assumption, before Thurbane FAQ'ed it "only once per round per enemy", but by then this stub was over 30k characters already, so I'm not scrapping it, merely Adapt Overcome!

Anyway, Silverwood outrider points me to use subsystem that don't traditionally do animal companion/mount things, so psionics or tome of battle or incarnum.

I went psionics, because in the forefront of my mind when stubbing around was "I wish I could choose the cohort feats", and I self-solved that with going psionics for psychic reformation!

in the pursuit of "I want to have a big cohort to 'missile' around with fell trample ", animal growth seemed something obvious, but the obvious entries didn't mesh well with silverwood outrider : Ranger and druid already have animal companion and already handle as a free action, and arcane casters will have very little reasont o pick silverwood outrider over silverwood arcanist.

The only other ways I could think of getting access to animal growth were 3 : spell to power erudite, archivist, chamaleon.

In the end I went for an ardent/chamaleon combination because it didn't feel right to take the full BAB outrider on a poor BAB d4/d6 base, plus I liked the extreme versatility that combination brings.

This makes this build more a showcase of Cavalry charger, rather than Silverwood outrider.

NG Silverbrow Human, Ardent 9 / Chameleon 10 / Silverwood Outrider 1
Str 12, Dex 14 (10 +4 item), Con 20 (15 +1 levelup +4 Item), Int 18 (14 +4 Item), Wis 32 (16 +4 levelup +6 boon +6 Item), Cha 10
HP 6+4d6+15d8+100 (187)




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


1st
Ardent 1
+0
+0
+0
+2
Bluff +4, Disguise +4, Handle Animal +4, Spellcraft +4
Able Learner, Wild Cohort
Energy Mantle, Physical Power Mantle, Featherfall SLA 1/day


2nd
Ardent 2
+1
+0
+0
+3
Bluff 4+1, Disguise 4+1, Handle Animal 4+1, Sense Motive +1, Spellcraft 4

Mental Power Mantle


3rd
Ardent 3
+2
+1
+1
+3
Bluff 5+1, Disguise 5+1, Handle Animal 5+1,Ride +1, Sense Motive 1, Spellcraft 4
Mounted Combat



4th
Ardent 4
+3
+1
+1
+4
Bluff 6+1, Disguise 6+1, Handle Animal 6+1,Ride 1, Sense Motive 1+1, Spellcraft 4

Ability Score increase(+1CON)


5th
Ardent 5
+3
+1
+1
+4
Bluff 7+1, Disguise 7+1, Handle Animal 7,Ride 1, Sense Motive 2+2, Spellcraft 4

Guardian Mantle, Featherfall 2/day


6th
Ardent 5 / Chameleon 1
+3
+1
+1
+4
Bluff 8, Disguise 8, Handle Animal 7, Psicraft +4, Ride 1+2, Sense Motive 4, Spellcraft 4
Practiced Manifester(Ardent)
Aptitude focus 1/day (+2)


7th
Ardent 5 / Chameleon 2
+4
+1
+1
+4
Bluff 8, Disguise 8, Handle Animal 7+1, Knowledge(Nature) +3, Psicraft 4, Ride 3+2, Sense Motive 4, Spellcraft 4

Bonus feat


8th
Ardent 5 / Chameleon 3
+5
+2
+2
+5
Bluff 8, Disguise 8, Handle Animal 8+3, Knowledge(Nature) 3, Psicraft 4, Ride 5+3, Sense Motive 4, Spellcraft 4

Ability Score Increase(WIS+1), Mimic class feature 1/day


9th
Ardent 5 / Chameleon 3 / Silverwood outrider 1
+6/+1
+2
+4
+5
Bluff 8, Concentration +1, Disguise 8, Handle Animal 11+1, Knowledge(Nature) 3, Psicraft 4, Ride 8+4, Sense Motive 4, Spellcraft 4
Spirited Charge
Fast handling, skilled rider


10th
Ardent 6 / Chameleon 3 / Silverwood outrider 1
+7/+2
+3
+5
+6
Bluff 8, Concentration 1+2 Disguise 8, Handle Animal 12+1, Knowledge(Nature) 3, Psicraft 4, Ride 12+1, Sense Motive 4, Spellcraft 4

Featherfall 3/day


11th
Ardent 6 / Chameleon 4 / Silverwood outrider 1
+8/+3
+3
+5
+6
Bluff 8, Concentration 3+2 Disguise 8, Handle Animal 13+1, Knowledge(Nature) 3, Psicraft 4, Ride 13+1, Sense Motive 4, Spellcraft 4+2

Ability boon +2


12th
Ardent 6 / Chameleon 5 / Silverwood outrider 1
+8/+3
+3
+5
+6
Bluff 8, Concentration 5+2 Disguise 8, Handle Animal 14+1, Knowledge(Nature) 3, Psicraft 4, Ride 14+1, Sense Motive 4, Spellcraft 6+2
Cavalry Charger
Ability Score increase(WIS+1), Aptitude focus 2/day (+4)


13th
Ardent 6 / Chameleon 6 / Silverwood outrider 1
+9/+4
+4
+6
+7
Bluff 8, Concentration 7+2 Disguise 8, Handle Animal 15+1, Knowledge(Nature) 3, Psicraft 4, Ride 15+1, Sense Motive 4, Spellcraft 8+2

Mimic class feature 2/day


14th
Ardent 6 / Chameleon 7 / Silverwood outrider 1
+10/+5
+4
+6
+7
Bluff 8, Concentration 9+2 Disguise 8, Handle Animal 16+1, Knowledge(Nature) 3, Psicraft 4, Ride 16+1, Sense Motive 4, Spellcraft 10+2

Ability boon +4, double aptitude


15th
Ardent 6 / Chameleon 8 / Silverwood outrider 1
+11/+6/+1
+4
+6
+7
Bluff 8, Concentration 11+2 Disguise 8, Handle Animal 17+1, Knowledge(Nature) 3, Psicraft 4, Ride 17+1, Sense Motive 4, Spellcraft 12+2
Trample
Rapid refocus, Featherfall 4/day


16th
Ardent 6 / Chameleon 9 / Silverwood outrider 1
+11/+6/+1
+5
+7
+8
Bluff 8, Concentration 13+2 Disguise 8, Handle Animal 18+1, Knowledge(Nature) 3, Psicraft 4, Ride 18+1, Sense Motive 4, Spellcraft 14+2

Ability Score increase(WIS+1), Mimic class feature 3/day


17th
Ardent 6 / Chameleon 10 / Silverwood outrider 1
+12/+7/+2
+5
+7
+8
Bluff 8, Concentration 15+3 Disguise 8, Handle Animal 19+1, Knowledge(Nature) 3, Psicraft 4, Ride 19+1, Sense Motive 4, Spellcraft 16+1

Ability boon +6, aptitude focus 3/day (+4)


18th
Ardent 7 / Chameleon 10 / Silverwood outrider 1
+13/+8/+3
+5
+7
+8
Bluff 8, Concentration 18+2 Disguise 8, Handle Animal 20+1, Knowledge(Nature) 3, Psicraft 4, Ride 20+1, Sense Motive 4, Spellcraft 17
Psionic Meditation



19th
Ardent 8 / Chameleon 10 / Silverwood outrider 1
+14/+9/+4
+5
+7
+9
Bluff 8, Concentration 20+2 Disguise 8, Handle Animal 21+1, Knowledge(Nature) 3, Psicraft 4, Ride 21+1, Sense Motive 4, Spellcraft 17




20th
Ardent 9 / Chameleon 10 / Silverwood outrider 1
+14/+9/+4
+6
+8
+9
Bluff 8, Concentration 22+1 Disguise 8, Handle Animal 22+1, Knowledge(Nature) 3, Psicraft 4, Ride 22+1, Sense Motive 4, Spellcraft 17+1

Ability Score Increase(WIS+1), Featherfall 5/day



Foreword : We are a chameleon, and the cheesy silverbrow human was picked specifically because with a SLA, we have a caster level, so we qualify for item creation feats.
As such, I'm going to fill this table with the assumption that we will have made ourselves a +2 Wis Item, later upgraded to +4/+6, same for a + Int item because we don't have a reason to not have it. I'm putting about 10% of WBL toward "Improving casting stat", and we can craft the relevant item ourselves from 8th level onward, so the breakdown for that is +2WIS item at level 8, +4WIS at level 12, and +2 INT at level 14, +4 INT at level 16, +6 WIS at level 18. The chameleon ability boon is more or less always wisdom, so I'm including that. Do remember that for the purpose of Power point reserve, our wisdom is considered 2 higher thanks to the mental power mantle. Only changes when they are relevant are listed on the table.

For spell slots, the notation will be "X/Y" before level 14, then "X+Y", meaning that on a given day, before level 14 we'll have either X divine spell slot OR Y Arcane spell slots depending which Aptitude we picked for the day, after level 14 we will have X divine spell slots AND Y arcane spell slots, since the most powerful combination is obviously theurging the two casting aptitudes. Spell known are "all", since the aptitudes behaves like the prepared spellcasters. We also have 4 cantrips/orizons, but that number never changes so they don't need a column. They're unlocked from 6th level onward.

The "New power learned" column is both from leveling up In Ardent and from using the chamaleon bonus feat on Expanded knowledge, We can use the chameleon bonus feat on Expanded knowledge, which adds to the power known, therefore the "all" in the table. we're missing learning a new power at 19th level from advancing Ardent, but there are no other 6th level powers in our mantles and we already know all lower level powers at that point.

ML and CL stands for Manifester Level and Caster Level


Level
ML, CL
Wisdom, Intelligence
Power Point Reserve
New powers learned
1st level slots
2nd level slots
3rd level slots
4th level slots
5th level slots
6th level slots


1st
1, -
16, 14
3
Energy Ray, Vigor
-
-
-
-
-
-


2nd
2, -
16(18), 14
10
mind Trust
-
-
-
-
-
-


3rd
3, -

17
Energy Push
-
-
-
-
-
-


4th
4, -

25
Animal Affinity
-
-
-
-
-
-


5th
5, -

35
Energy Bolt
-
-
-
-
-
-


6th
6, 2

37
-
3/3
1/1
-
-
-
-


7th
7, 4

39
All 2nd level and lower
4/4
2/2
-
-
-
-


8th
8, 6
19(21), 14
45
-
4/4
3/3
1/0
-
-
-


9th
9, 6

47
-
4/4
3/3
1/0
-
-
-


10th
10, 6

60
Protection from psionics, All 3rd and 4th level powers
4/4
3/3
1/0
-
-
-


11th
10, 8
21(23), 14
65

6/5
4/4
2/1
-
-
-


12th
10, 10
24(26), 14
75

6/5
5/4
4/2
1/0
-
-


13th
10, 12

75

6/5
6/5
5/3
2/1
-
-


14th
10, 14
26(28), 16
80

6+5
6+5
6+5
4+2
1+0
-


15th
10, 16

80

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


16th
10, 18
27(29), 18
80

6+5
6+5
6+5
6+5
3+2
1+0


17th
10, 20
29(31), 18
85

7+5
6+5
6+5
6+5
5+3
2+1


18th
11, 20
31(33), 18
106
Mind Over Energy, all 5th level powers
7+5
7+5
6+5
6+5
5+3
3+1


19th
12, 20

124

7+5
7+5
6+5
6+5
5+3
3+1


20th
13, 20
32(34), 18
150
Energy Wave, all 6th level powers
7+5
7+5
7+5
6+5
5+3
3+1



Once my mind was settled on going for "Fell trample+Animal growth", and "psionics + chamaleon", Ardent felt like the best choice, to stay SAD on wisdom, and also because it rubbed me the wrong way to go for Psychic warrior when Fighter is banned.

With that said, after we got the Fast handling feature, more levels of outriders don't compare at all with pretty much anything else we could do with those level, so once I settled for an ardent base, unlocking higher powers was just, no brainer.

At first this was vaguely built in a more martial fashion, divine + martial aptitude, to make actual use of spirited charge, plus the tremendous charge feat since the STR of the mount is noticeably higher than ours.

But, the siren song of optimizing lured me back to making heavier use of the casting, because we all know where that stand in the scope of power, yeah?

With that in mind, I uggggh about having to pick Silverbrow human, but otherwise we wouldn't qualify for item creation feats :( we'd qualify for psionic creation feats, but those just aren't the same.

You may notice the feat order is peculiar, the reason for that is using the "floating" chamaleon feat for qualification purposes. At the end of the day our mount is going to be either gargantuan or colossal, we won't ever be in actual range to hit anything! So spirited charge goes unused. when we are doing the 9th level up, the floating feat will be Ride-by attack to qualify for spirited charge. at 12th level, it will be Trample, that will let us qualify for Cavalry Charger, because we have the Prerequisites, even if we can't use spirited charge. at 15th level we take Trample to free up our floating feat to be something else even on "combat days".

Do note that we will have access to Psychic reformation, so the actual ordering is immaterial, but I wanted to play around with Cavalry charger "early as possible", which will be the 13th level when we unlock our first huge-size mount

You all know the terrible wording of Ardent, which let us pick high level power based only on the manifester level. This works great with chamaleon, since we can pick Expanded knowledge with the floating feat. That adds one power to our powers known, and those aren't removed when we change the floating feat to something else.
Doing practiced manifester shenanigans isn't stricly needed, since we would unlock psychic reformation anyway, but that would come so much late in the levels, which is bleh.

Anyway, at 20th level, with a manifester level of 13, we learn one 7th level power from one of our mantles, and given enough days, we get to add all 6th and lower powers to our power knowns. We do that by choosing expanded knowledge as the chamaleon floating feat. that feat adds a power known, the power isn't forgotten if the feat is changed to something else.
the 10th level is ardent because it's that point of time that let's us have psychic reformation, both for our own purposes and for "fixing" our wild cohort with actual good feats and not those that are the default for that creature statblock.

Once "all powers" are learned, the floating feat will probably be crafting related, assuming adeguate downtime.

We can also use the floating feat to shape soulmelds. they don't unshape unless we chose to, or are dispelled, so we get the benefit of what soulmelds we fancy, with the usual limitations of no more than CONSCORE-10 and only one soulmeld per chakra

On combat days, the most likely feat we will settle on is the Quicken power metamagic, that way we can standard action Fell Trample, swift action power, then move action recover our psionic focus. Free Action handle our wild cohort to command them to do their own trample special attack, SQUISH THEM ENEMIES!

Alternative build : Ardent 13/ Chamaleon 6 / Silverwood Outrider 1, for access to one 9th level power plus every powers 8th or lower and still unlocking 4th level divine spells, but I absolutely don't want to be anywhere near the temptation of the dominant ideal ACF, I'm strongly milk flavoured already as is!

I'm operating with the assumption that the extended animal companion list is open to us, and not take the wild cohort feat literally when it says "phb animal companion list". That said, I will list here also the "PHB only" cohort, in case your DM rules it so. We won't deviate from PHB choices until level 13 anyway.

level 1-6 : we'll have a heavy horse (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/horse.htm). At this time we won't have psychic reformation so the feats are the default for it species. Note that between 3 and 5th level it'll have +1 HD/NA, and at 6th level it'll upgrade to 6HD, so it gains one feat of our choice, Does qualify for alot, I'll go safe with Improved toughness and call it a day :)

level 7-9 : we can start using a Bison (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/bison.htm), we like the Bison over the horse because it has higher STR and CON. it will have 8HD (ECL for the purpose of wild cohort is -3, so we're as a 6th level character for that table of bonuses) but we don't have psychic reformation yet, so it's one feat we can pick will be Improved toughness again, LIVE BISON LIVE!

level 10-12 : Psychic reformation AND Rhinoceros (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/rhinoceros.htm) ! We will also have the Cavalry charger feat at this point AND handling our cohort is a free action thanks to outrider. on top of all that the unlock of 4th level slot gives us sweet animal growth, the only reason 13 is the sweet spot is that the animal companions from splatbooks are insane.
Our Rhino has 11HD, thanks to psychic reformation has these feats :Quick Reconnoiter, Powerful charge, improved natural attack(gore), mage slayer.
we animal growth him, so he's huge size with 35 STR, let's do some quick napkin math?
our caster level is 10 at 12th level, so Nature's favor is +3 luck, greater magic fang is +2, his gore attack is baseline 3d6 at huge size.

Our standard action is "Fell trample", toward the farthest enemy. we free action order him to "charge" that far away enemy.

so, it's a 15ft wide, 60 ft long "line", each enemy must make an opposed strength check or be knocked prone, against our Rhino strength, with the relevant size modifiers. Then, just to kick them while they're down ( ha!) they also get a free hoof attack on their face. "huge" hoof should be a 1d8, so that's some free 1d8+17 damage, or +11 if the hoof is ruled to only get 1/2 str.

and at the end of the line, the poor sod that get horned takes 9d6 + 44 damage, on top of the hoof to the face, of course.

Level 13-17 : nonPHB animal companion : Dire tortoise. the poor fools.
straight away when we unlock this baby at level 13 it's a 15HD monstruosity that has the trample(ex) special ability. It's natively huge so we AG it to gargantuan, let's see what we can do , yeah ? (15 HD because our level equivalent is -10 for the purpose of wild cohort, per Thurbane QA)
Baseline 15HD, 26 STR, 25 CON. Feats : Quick Reconnoiter, Ability Focus(Trample), improved natural attack(Bite), mage slayer, blind-fight, pierce magical concealment
+ Animal growth STR 34 , nature favor +4, greater magic fang +2
Free action order "trample!", our standard action "Fell trample" = everything on a 20ft large x 40ft long line gets probably prone, plus 6d8+24 trample damage reflex half DC 31, plus a free "hoof" damage of 2d6 + 18 damage
that's at level 13, at level 17 she's up trample is 6d8+29 and the hoof is 2d6 + 23 between the HD increase and higher caster level (+2 str, one from the 16th HD and oen form wild cohort table)

level 18-20 : MM2 Dire elephant
We only ever advance it by 1 HD, since it's a ECL-15 boy, but what a big boy!
21HD, gargantuan size, 40STR and 30 CON, feats : Quick Reconnoiter, Ability Focus(Trample), improved natural attack(Slam), mage slayer, blind-fight, pierce magical concealment, pierce magical protection, Improved overrun
So, let's animal growth to colossal and 48STR, +5 luck from nature's favor, +5 from greater magic fang, put an easy haste for good measure
Again, trample+fell trample c-c-c-combo!, 30ft large x30ft tall x 120 ft long... tube, 8d6+38 trample DC 41, 4d6+29 hoof. the Zōhameha!

PHBonly cohort for later levels : we "upgrade" the Rhinoceros to a Elephant (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/elephant.htm) at level 16, and the Elephant to a Triceratops (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/dinosaur.htm#triceratops) at level 18. both get +1HD from being a cohort. That's enough to push the elephant to 12HD so it will have the same feats that the tortoise has, minus the Improved natural attack, meanwhile Triceratops has one less feat than the dire elephant, so no improved overrun.

Sadly, they're only huge, so they aren't as big a difference as the nonPHB choices, but at least they get trample! it's just a smaller trample sobs
Elephant trample is 3d8+27 DC 32, hoof 2d6 + 20
Triceratops trample is 3d12+31 DC 34, hoof 2d6 + 24

As mentioned in the intro and evidenced in the tactics section below, the idea was of doing the "mounted overrun" free hoof attack multiple times per target per round, that's where the viability is

We are a blaster with a horse. Until we get the outrider level we are limited to use move actions for ordering our horse around, it's 2 intelligence means he can know 6 tricks at most, combat riding training locks these tricks to attack, come, defend, down, guard, and heel. being a cohort we can teach one extra trick, but it isn't really needed if we have the space to manouver / keep the range advantage to blast away from far away :). There isn't really much to say about our tactics at these levels. Blast with the blasting powers, stay alive with Vigor. That's that. Energy bolt was picked over Energy burst because the burst has serious friendly fire problems :(
Spellcasting! Fairly delayed in comparison, only 3 first level spell and one second level, but that's comparatively better spellcasting than a ranger of the same level has! And the limitation of Divine focus is "chosen form the spell list of any divine spellcasting class", that means we can play around with picking spells from divine PrC that puts some old staples at a lower slot than usual :) I'm going to put elipses around the class whose spell list we're picking each spell from (only the first time they appear)

Average combat day spells loadout (it's divine OR arcane until level 14):
Divine aptitude focus spells prepared:
1st level: Barkskin x2 (Nentyar Hunter), Linked Perception x1 (Ranger)
2nd level: Blur x1 (Nentyar Hunter)
Arcane aptitude focus spells prepared:
1st level: haste x3 (Trapsmith)
2nd level: Blur x1 (Wizard)

The preference is Divine because we might not get our hands on the scroll for scribing that specific lower level spell.

What do you want me to say about tactics? it's not like we got a lot of choices for combat scenario, a blaster we were and a blaster we still are, pewpew!

Two barskin because one is for our mount, of course, Blur too, probably.
we have the opportunity of upgrading our mount from a horse to a bison, it's a marginal improvement on it's strength and constitution. I'm partial to make the change because the 1d8+9 Gore attack is significantly better than the 1d6+1 hoof attack of the horse.
We've unlocked the floating feat, but what we do with it is highly dependant on the amount of downtime we have. We can start adding 2nd or lower powers known, or as much as 6 soulmelds, or craft some wondrous items.

In general terms, the first 6 days of "freedom", we pick shape soulmeld for our floating feat, and pick the 6 utility soulmelds that most appeals to us, keeping in mind that a shaped soulmeld needs not be unshaped unless you plan to change what meld you're putting in that specific chakra slot. We're a bit sour we don't qualify for share soulmelds, but oh well.

After we've got the soulmelds taken care of,we grab the "critical" low level powers with expanded knowledge. Critical in the sense that they do a somewhat unique thing not easily replicated with a spell slot. After that comes the situationally useful ones,

The only crafting I'm "adamant" gets done is a +2 Wisdom item at level 8th, because it's difficult to have a gauge about how much downtime there will be, and unlocking "all the powers" is a slog at one per day, so not that much crafting this early on.

soulmelds unlock order :
Strongheart vest (waist) : ability damage reduction is kinda unique, and if we're feeling evil it opens up "inifnite PP" shenanigans with body fuel.
Apparition Ribbon (throat) : not much competition for the throat slot, the others are mostly skill bonuses to skills we don't care about, this at least is a situational but useful effect.
Mage spectacles (brows) : bonus to spellcraft for easier copying of spells to the arcane spellbook, when we have the time for that
Pauldron of health (shoulders) : immunity to disease and the "nausea" line of effect isn't bad
Enigma helm (Crown) : being protected form divination is not so good when they can just divine on our mount/friends, but it's still a nice thing to have for "no cost"
Riding bracers (Arms) : Ride and handle animal are our bread and butter skills.
Honorable mention to spellward shirt (heart) : if your table houserules that nat1 is a fail even on caster levle checks, getting SR 5 still means at least 5% fail rate of spells that allows spell resistance

"Critical" new power known:
damp power : it's effect is fairly unique
Dispel psionics : given the transparency, it's good to have in the back pocket
Energy missile : it's a bummer that this isin't in the energy mantle, but them's the breaks
Clairvoyant Sense: Scry but better, basically
Body purification: easier than preparing restoration
Energy adaption, specified: easier than preparing resist energy
Inertial Armor, Force Screen, Precognition(defensive): in preparation for a monk belt, also free up WBL
Concealing Amorpha : no more preparing blur for ourselves, just the cohort :)

combat days floating feat: we're probably going to have a crafting feat or expanded knowledge (something) as the floating feat, delaying our "acquisition" of new powers isn't worth having a tiny bit more combat power, it's not like our blasting isn't still as good as it can be. At most we can put the floating feat to psychic meditation for 7 more PP I suppose.

Average combat day spells loadout:
if Divine
1st level: Barkskin x2, Linked Perception x1, Resist energy x1 (Ranger)
2nd level: Blur x1, Nature's favor x1 (Ranger)
if Arcane
1st level: haste x2 , Dispel Magic x2 (Trapsmith)
2nd level: Blur x1 , Lesser globe of invulnerability x1 (Trapsmith)


let's start handing out some more buffs to our beatstick shall we? since we have buffing ourselves covered with psionic powers, given that almost all of them are personal.
We can now mimic one class feature, the two we are most likely to make use of are Evasion or turn undead, we might consider having the floating feat be one of the devotion feats form complete divine, especially if we combo it with preparing primal instinct, since we do have the dragonblood subtype that let us make knowledge checks untrained. but maaaan is knowledge devotion overused.

Average combat day spells loadout:
If Divine
1st level: Barkskin x2, Linked Perception x1, Resist energy x1
2nd level: Blur x1, Nature's favor x1, Elation x1 (cleric)
3rd level: Fly x1 (Travel domain) or Freedom of movement x1 (Runescarred berserker)
If Arcane
1st level: haste x2 , Dispel Magic x2
2nd level: Blur x1 , Lesser globe of invulnerability x1, Stoneskin x1 (Trapsmith)

Fly is an obvious pick if your GM rules that you can pick domain spells by accessing the divine crusader spell list, otherwise the backup plan is good old FoM.

for the CL we have nature's favor is a +2 and magic fang greater is a +1, so we could have 6 hours of magic fang, but we're getting to the levels where fly/FoM are kinda necessary.

Our tactical plan didn't really change yet, since our energy mantle blasting hasn't stopped scaling yet
this is more of a set-up level, fast handling free up our move action to do other things, so starting from next level where our cohort can actualyl contribute in a somewhat meaningful way, we can have the flaoting feat be psionic meditation. that way we can have the psionic focus to use the guardian mantle power every turn and still blast away with our standard action, or use the physical power for some cushioning extra ability.

we qualify for spirited charge by having the floating feat be ride-by attack when we level up.

Tactically, for now, we just blast blast blast like we've been doing for the past 8 levels.
This level is PACKED, it's almost a second sweet spot., but I nominate 13th level as the sweet spot!
Anyway, this level of ardent gives us psychic reformation by way of floating expanded knowledge, that's like the first thing we do with our floating feat, since it will let us pick actually useful feats for our wild cohort!

and the cohort is FasterStrongerBetter in the form of a Rhinoceros, with a special attack to boot, oh my! he's a 9HD meanie at this level, with the feats listed above.
We can't supersize him yet, but he still does a mean 6d6+29 on a charge.

having said that, we can go on with unlockign two whole new level of powers with floating expanded knowledge.

Most obvious is the fourfecta of the psionic version of Freedom of movement, Dimension Door, Divination Fly.
Dispel Psionic, of course.
Then some upgraded blasting int he form of energy ball and energy cone ( why they aren't in the energy mantle, I just don't know)

In light of having FoM/Fly for ourself from powers, we might still prepare it for our Rhino, but otherwise we might consider preparing Death ward (Runescarred berserker) with our 3rd level slot.

We could honestly have completely different feats ourselves before that point, and adjust to qualify for cavalry charger by way of psychic reformating ourselves, but I would totally rule that I'd lose all those extra powers gained by abusing the chamaleon floating feat if I were to psychic reformation myself, so I'm not going to psychic reformation myself!

Actual tactics : you guessed it.. blast! pewpewpew with a side of charging rhino!
We're back to advancing chamaleon.
This is a bit of a weird level, because we haven't unlocked 4th level spells yet, and if we were to put ability boon on intelligence, we'd almost have the same amount of arcane spells as we would have divine spells. by comparison if we put ability boon on intelligence what we lose out is one first level slot and 5 power points.

Why would we do that? well, if we can't get fly with the travel domain as a divine spell, the if we use arcane aptitude we *can* give him fly, plus by now we might have found those yummy scroll of "1st level haste" and those other chameleon shenanigans, especially with the stronger suit of divination we now have. (and we're finally starting to advance spellcraft again, specifically for copying spells, we're at a 15 modifier with a masterwork item at this level)

Average combat day spells loadout:
If Divine
1st level: Barkskin x2, Linked Perception x1, Resist energy x1, Lesser restoration x2 (Paladin)
2nd level: Blur x1, Nature's favor x1, Elation x2
3rd level: Fly x1 Or Death ward x1 (Runescarred berserker) , Freedom of movement x1
If Arcane
1st level: haste x2 , Dispel Magic x2, Protection from energy x1 (Trapsmith)
2nd level: Blur x1 , Lesser globe of invulnerability x1, Stoneskin x1 , Heroism x1 (Bard)
3rd level: Fly x1 (Wizard), greater dispel x1 (Trapsmith)

Tactics : Rhino charge and we blast, what do you mean we've been doing that for the past forever ? not my fault cavalry charger is at the end of a 5 feat chain and fighter is banned!, we're even "early entrying" it at next level by doing chamaleon floating feat shenanigans!
Cavalry charger is here! We can overrun multiple times with that standard action it costs!

So, why am I excited about this, why am I "selling" cavalry charger to you? Well.. nothing says we can't overrun a target more than once per turn. The limitation is built in in the "standard action" cost of making an overrun attempt, but Cavalry charger is "limiter off" on that ... so, to put it simply, if our hugefied Rhino crosses over that medium enemy ,well, he spends "3 squares" of movement to run over him, so we do the hoof attack 3 times!, provided the Rhino hits, of course. That 1d8+17 hoof attack that seemed so paltry in the cohort section? suddenly it's 3d8+51 ! And it's only going to get better as we unlock bigger mounts! yay!

Also, 4th level spells! Animal growth here we come!

Average combat day spells loadout:
If Divine
1st level: Barkskin x2, Linked Perception x1, Resist energy x1, Lesser restoration x2
2nd level: Blur x1, Nature's favor x2, Elation x2
3rd level: Fly x1 Or Death ward x1, Freedom of movement x2, Greater magic fang x1 (Druid)
4th level: Animal Growth x1 (Ranger)
If Arcane
1st level: haste x2 , Dispel Magic x2, Protection from energy x1
2nd level: Blur x1 , Lesser globe of invulnerability x1, Stoneskin x1 , Heroism x1
3rd level: Fly x1, 2x greater dispel x2

Tactics : we have our floating feat locked onto trample if we want to use cavalry charger, so the question is : is it worthy over blasting with our psionic blasting powers as we've done so far? I feel that 3d8+51 is significant enough that we can keep our power points in the back pocket for utility uses, thus our combat tactic is shifted to free action ordering Rhino to charge "that guy", and our standard action is making sure he stamps on "all the things".

Besides, if we really need to put some extra blasting, we can always schism!
It's here, the sweet spot!
Why is this the sweet spot? we've unlocked cavalry charger last level you'll say!
Well, if we have splatbook support for the cohort, at this level we unlock the insane dire tortoise, that's pretty much all there is to it. Enemies will be CR appriopriate, so while we'd have more things at later level, enemies will also be stronger. This is a point in time where at most we'll have 7th level spells to contend with. We could conceivabely call the sweet spot at 14th level where we'll have Divine AND Arcane spells, but I'm just too excited about trampling about with a dire tortoise to not call it as soon as we got her!

Average combat day spells loadout:
If Divine
1st level: Barkskin x2, Linked Perception x1, Resist energy x1, Lesser restoration x2
2nd level: Blur x1, Nature's favor x2, Elation x3
3rd level: Fly x2 Or Death ward x2, Freedom of movement x2, Greater magic fang x1
4th level: Animal Growth x2
If Arcane
1st level: haste x2 , Dispel Magic x2, Protection from energy x1
2nd level: Blur x2 , Lesser globe of invulnerability x1, Stoneskin x1 , Heroism x1
3rd level: Fly x2, greater dispel x2
4th level: Break enchantment x1 (Bard)

So, are we ready to Fell trample AND Trample? :) the napkin math trample (ex) is 6d8+24, whoever Tortoise tramples can Aoo her but to do that they forfeit the DC41 reflex for half damage... and then we have the fell trample :D 2d6+18 * 4 squares of size, 8d6 +72! Stomp! On every enemy in sizeable area!
Aaaaaah, sweet double aptitude, plus 5th level divine slot!

Average combat day spells loadout:
Divine
1st level: Barkskin x2, Linked Perception x1, Resist energy x1, Lesser restoration x2
2nd level: Blur x1, Nature's favor x2, Elation x3
3rd level:Death ward x3, Freedom of movement x2, Greater magic fang x1
4th level: Animal Growth x4
5th level: Heal x1 (Runescarred berserker)
Arcane
1st level: haste x2 , Dispel Magic x2, Protection from energy x1
2nd level: Blur x2 , Lesser globe of invulnerability x1, Stoneskin x1 , Heroism x1
3rd level: Fly x3, greater dispel x2
4th level: Break enchantment x1, Spell Theft x1 (Bard)

Our beloved tortoise doens't advance in HD at this level, so the actual tactis is more or less the same, except for the explosion of spell slot that the double aptitude brings us, the increased CL also means that nature's favor is at +4 and greater magic fang is at +3, but those are small potatoes in relative value.

The Tortoise Ac is terribly low, so we better make sure she can survive traipsing about, considering she provokes Aoo something like, 3 times from each enemy she steps on. WE better be ready to halve that damage with Share pain, or empathic transfer it, or guardian mantle power prevent it, we probably need her to survive just the one round of stomping about after all, at least she has some nice beefy HP values.
Finally the floating feat is free to be something else than trample when we want to make use of Cavalry charger :)

This is a bit of a special level if we're under PHBonly wild cohort : The Rhinoceros upgrades form 11 to 13HD at this level, he get's an extra feat, meaning we can drop the Quick Reconnoiter for blind-fight, thus letting him take pierce magical concealment with his shiny new feat. but that's only the case if we don't have the juicy tortoise to traipse about with :3

Average combat day spells loadout:
Divine
1st level: Barkskin x2, Linked Perception x1, Resist energy x1, Lesser restoration x2
2nd level: Blur x1, Nature's favor x2, Elation x3
3rd level:Death ward x3, Freedom of movement x2, Greater magic fang x1
4th level: Animal Growth x4, Stoneskin x1 (Adept)
5th level: Heal x2
Arcane
1st level: haste x2 , Dispel Magic x2, Protection from energy x1
2nd level: Blur x2 , Lesser globe of invulnerability x1, Stoneskin x1 , Heroism x1
3rd level: Fly x3, greater dispel x2
4th level: Break enchantment x1, Spell Theft x2
5th level: Greater heroism x1 (Bard)

what's the tactic? oyu guessed it: STOMP!!
6th level spells, divine ones at least!, and this is the level we get an actual trampling cohort (elephant) if the noncore ones aren't open to us.
This is probably also when I'd get at least a +2 CON item, so I'll list 2 more soulmelds now

soulmelds unlocked:
Totem Avatar(feet): nothing else really appeals to me for this slot, and 8-10 HP more at no cost are still 8-10 hp more :)
Spellward shirt or Dragon mantle(heart): as said, if your GM houserules oyu can nat1 on caster level checks, even 5 SR is still 5% spell resistance, otherwise, +2 fort save is good enough to me.

Average combat day spells loadout:
Divine
1st level: Barkskin x2, Linked Perception x1, Resist energy x1, Lesser restoration x2
2nd level: Blur x1, Nature's favor x2, Elation x3
3rd level:Death ward x3, Freedom of movement x2, Greater magic fang x1
4th level: Animal Growth x4, Stoneskin x2
5th level: Heal x2, Antimagic field x1 (Runescarred berserker)
6th level: Word of recall x1 (Cleric)
Arcane
1st level: haste x2 , Dispel Magic x2, Protection from energy x1
2nd level: Blur x2 , Lesser globe of invulnerability x1, Stoneskin x1 , Heroism x1
3rd level: Fly x3, greater dispel x2
4th level: Break enchantment x2, Spell Theft x3
5th level: Greater heroism x2

Worth mentioning that on off day we can use the druidic Spellstaff spell to store a spell, so we are at "+1" capacity for 5th level spell slots if we have time off between combat days.
And so we're done with chamaleon :) one more ability boon tier for some extra spell slot and power points, plus a lonely 6th level arcane spell

Average combat day spells loadout:
Divine
1st level: Barkskin x2, Linked Perception x1, Resist energy x2, Lesser restoration x2
2nd level: Blur x1, Nature's favor x2, Elation x3
3rd level:Death ward x3, Freedom of movement x2, Greater magic fang x1
4th level: Animal Growth x4, Stoneskin x2
5th level: Heal x2, Antimagic field x1, Spell resistance x1 (Cleric), true seeing x1 (Cleric)
6th level: Word of recall x1 , Energy Immunity x1 (Cleric)
Arcane
1st level: haste x2 , Dispel Magic x2, Protection from energy x1
2nd level: Blur x2 , Lesser globe of invulnerability x1, Stoneskin x1 , Heroism x1
3rd level: Fly x3, greater dispel x2
4th level: Break enchantment x2, Spell Theft x3
5th level: Greater heroism x3
6th level: Contingency x1 (Wizard)

trampletrain!
Dire Elephant is CHONK, 21 yummy HD for a bunch of feats. Plus now that we're back to Ardent we're upping our expanded knowledge to include all 5th level powers. The increase in wisdom also nets us an extra 2nd and 6th spell slots, yum!
We can like, permanency some powers with Incarnate, shift haivng the true seeing covered by psionic, take care of your teleportaiton needs without using spell slots for that. Just pen down all 5th level power will ya? :)

Average combat day spells loadout:
Divine
1st level: Barkskin x2, Linked Perception x1, Resist energy x2, Lesser restoration x2
2nd level: Blur x1, Nature's favor x3, Elation x3
3rd level: Death ward x3, Freedom of movement x2, Greater magic fang x1
4th level: Animal Growth x4, Stoneskin x2
5th level: Heal x2, Antimagic field x1, Spell resistance x1, true seeing x1
6th level: Word of recall x1 , Energy Immunity x1, Superior Resistance (Cleric)
Arcane same as 17th level

COLOSSAL TRAMPLING sounds the horns, did someone say 24d6 + 174 or thereabouts?

nothing "new" is particularly gained at 19th level, except maybe upgrading the CON item form +2 to +4, netting us the last two soulmelds, but only soul and hand chakra are free for that, and nothing offered there interestes me.
Our last pip up in power, one more third level divine spell slot (one more FoM for semplicity) from the increased wisdom, and we're ranking up to all 6th level powers!
Personal mind blank is just the least of it, what about Greater Precognition? no?, Well, allow me to introduce you to the fairly unique Dispelling Buffer?
TLDR: Q: why fell trample when you can blast A: fell trampling doesn't cost daily resources!
Q: How are you using those soulmelds!? A: I'm taking the shape soulmeld feat with the chamaleon "floating" feat, the rules about incarnum stipulates that a soulmeld stay shaped until we will it to unshape, so even if we change the feat, the soulmeld stays shaped.

Q: How are you getting "all" the powers!? A: I'm taking the expanded knowledge feat with the chamaleon "floating" feat, it's benefit is "add to your powers known one additional power" etc, losing the feat does not make us forget the added power

Q: How are you crafting stuff!? chamaleon caster level can't be used to qualify for feats! A: that is correct, I specifically used the silverbrow human because it has a SLA, since we have a SLA we have a caster level equal to our HD for when we cast the SLA, hence that featherfall qualifies us for crafting feats.

Q: you can't overrun the same enemy more than once! A: that is, essentially correct, but to elaborate, Cavalry charger fell trample is disfunctional, since doing a mounted overrun is a standard action, that "permission" we get from Cavalry charger to use mounted overrun against more than one foe.. does nothing at all, because we're still limited to the one standard action. I find it acceptable to rule/houserule that cavalry charger let us do "as many overrun as we can" within the scope of that move action. it's a 5 feat investment! You think we would care about doing "as many overrun as we can, limit once per target" for 5 feats? why putting that arbitrary limitation? is our cohort splattering that medium creature with all of his glorious colossal weight?
Revision:I've made (and submitted!) this entry like, the day before the chair ruled that fell trample is a full action and you can hoof an enemy only once per turn, but I'm at the limit of 50k characters so editing around that is a delicate manner!

Q: how are you doing hoof attacks with creatures that don't have hoof attack A: I'm taking the conservative reading that a hoof as this damage profile : large 1d6, huge 1d8, gargantuan 2d6, colossal 3d6., instead of using the more liberal reading that we'd use the mount primary attack. if it gets ruled that "no hoof, no free attack". I have to ask, if we take away reasons to use cavalry charger, why are we doing a showcase of it in the first place?

Q: wild cohort is specifically limited to PHB animal companions! A: that's fair, not fun, but fair, hence the reason I listed the alternative animals I would use with that ruling, too. My argument in favor of using the expanded list is that I reference the PHBII as the most recent source of animal companion list, and it's publication date is more recent than the wild cohort article
All the psionic stuff : Complete psionics and Expanded psionic handbook
Chameleon PrC : Races of Destiny
Silverbrow human : Dragon Magic
Nentyar hunter and Runescarred berserker : Unapproachable East
Trapsmith : Dungeonscape
Shape soulmeld and soulmelds : Magic of Incarnum
Linked perception spell and List of expanded animal companions : PHB II
Dire tortoise : sandstorm
Dire elephant : monster manual II
Wild cohort (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a)
Elation spell : book of exalted deeds
Spell theft spell : Complete Scoundrel
other noncore spells : spell compendium

[Thurbane]

Firstly, an apologize to Thurbane for ending up with more than 50k words. Sorry you can't fit this in a single post :(


Anyway, I want to put some emphasis (again) that the build flowed from a "Fell trample" first. I probably said this already at least 3 times, But the thought process was fairly simple.

"Ok, what do I want to do if I am makgin a fell trample build?"
"Animal growth!!"
"But the natural choice, druid, has no reason to take Silverwood outrider, I suppose I could make a druid 17/outrider 1 / beastmaster 2, and double dip on animal companion+wild cohort, but UGHHH and I'm sure I'd get tons of flak for the druid 17, and ranger has the same 'problem' "
"Arcane source of animal growth has the same problem, no one would pick silverwood outrider over silverwood arcanist when starting from an arcane caster"
BOOM CHAMALEON

I want to defend all the chamaleon shenanigans, or rather, defend the build : the shenanigans are not needed at all, the build functions perfectly well without any of them, at most only needing a bit of feat reordering. There's even further shenanigans by using the floating feat on Open minded for "max rank on all class skills". Only psychic reformation is "kinda needed" for the purpose of making the cohort take a bit better feats.

I only listed all the shenanigans because, well, those are the tools we have access to, I'd be remiss in my duty if I didn't exploit them

With peace and no hard feeling for the probably terrible elegance I will end up with ^^

[Thurbane]

Hello!
My though process was : "Okay, let's use that lance multiplier of spirited charger, maybe with those white raven manouvers?" "Uh, this mounted fury feat sounds nice, and I was already thinking of doing barbarian since it feels like it's the "intended user" of wild cohort feat, now what can I do to pump it up?" "BEARS!!! I GET TO MAKE BEARS BE BEAREST!" "It sounds cool to make a caveman riding dinosaurs, maybe?"

the rest was tinkering :)

Why only one level of Silverwood outrider you may ask? Well, the capstone it has is relatively unique, "push as a free action", but the problem with that is the only time when it's relevant is in combat, and in combat we'd be using taught tricks anyway.

Fast handling, on the other hand, fits our purpose, because it lets us command the mount to do his special gimmick ( Powerful charge special ability ) and still have our full action for charging.

I thought of going (Bear totem) Barbarian 5/ Silverwood Outrider 5 /bear warrior 10 for a little while, but even if we took those levels we woulnd't be making use of the features! Taking those levels just to chase after UotSI points feels wrong to me.
One level we take and it does give us one feature that's "build enabler" otherwise we can't both charge, more? useless!.

That said I hope to see someone making a build that abuses the free push, maybe with some cohort that has a "free action" action available to them but that can't be taught as a trick? can't think of any, but it would be cool to see!

Anyway, I like bears, in case that wasn't clear :D it pains me to not go bear totem barbarian, but a grapple build didn't feel right as a combo to cavalry charger to me.
The other idea I had was warblade / silverwood outrider / cavalier, with that deadly charge! but it felt *wrong* not using a paladin entry for a Cavalier build
CG Neanderthal, Barbarian 4 / Bear warrior 10 / Silverwood outrider 1 / Warblade 5
Str 24 (17 +2 racial +5 level), Dex 10 (12 -2 racial), Con 18 (16 +2 racial), Int 8 (10 -2 racial), Wis 11 , Cha 8
HP 12 +18d12 +1d8 +80 (213) (333 while raging)

Weapon : +1 Valorous Lance with either mouthpick or opposable weapon quality

charge damage while raging : baseline +39 (20BAB+17STR-1Size+1weapon+2 charge) to hit for (2d6+30)*4, plus war leader charge manouver (35*4), plus Leading the charge 12
Rhinoceros powerful charge in the same turn :
+30 to hit charge for 2d6+28, plus powerful charge 4d6+57, plus 12 Leading the charge
LevelClassBase Attack BonusFort SaveRef SaveWill SaveSkillsFeatsClass Features1st(Ape totem) Barbarian 1+1+2+0+0Handle Animal +4, Ride +4, Survival +4Wild CohortClimate Tolerant, Climb Speed (15 ft.), Illiteracy x2, Primitive Weapon Mastery, Rage 1/day2ndBarbarian 2+2+3+0+0Handle Animal 4+1, Ride 4+1, Survival 4+1Intimidate Bonus3rdBarbarian 3+3+3+1+1Handle Animal 5+1, Ride 5+1, Survival 5+1Mounted Combat, Power Attack (B)4thBarbarian 4+4+4+1+1Handle Animal 6, Knowledge(Nature) 1.5 (+3), Ride 6, Survival 6Rage 2/day5thBarbarian 4 / Warblade 1+5+6+1+1Handle Animal 6, Knowledge(Nature) 3 (3+3), Ride 6, Survival 6Battle Clarity (Reflex saves), Weapon Aptitude6thBarbarian 4 / Silverwood Outrider 1 / Warblade 1+6/+1+6+3+1Handle Animal 6+3, Knowledge(Nature) 3, Ride 6, Survival 6Ride-by AttackFast Handling, Skilled Rider7thBarbarian 4 / Silverwood Outrider 1 / Warblade 2+7/+2+7+3+1Handle Animal 9, Knowledge(Nature) 3, Ride 6+3, Survival 6Uncanny Dodge8thBarbarian 4 / Bear Warrior 1 / Silverwood Outrider 1 / Warblade 2+8/+3+9+3+1Handle Animal 9+2, Knowledge(Nature) 3, Ride 9+1, Survival 6Bear Form (Black)9thBarbarian 4 / Bear Warrior 2 / Silverwood Outrider 1 / Warblade 2+9/+4+10+3+1Handle Animal 11+1, Knowledge(Nature) 3, Ride 10+2, Survival 6Spirited Charge10thBarbarian 4 / Bear Warrior 3 / Silverwood Outrider 1 / Warblade 2+10/+5+10+4+2Handle Animal 12+1, Knowledge(Nature) 3, Ride 12+1, Survival 6+1Scent11thBarbarian 4 / Bear Warrior 4 / Silverwood Outrider 1 / Warblade 2+11/+6/+1+11+4+2Handle Animal 13+1, Knowledge(Nature) 3, Ride 13+1, Survival 7+112thBarbarian 4 / Bear Warrior 5 / Silverwood Outrider 1 / Warblade 2+12/+7/+2+11+4+2Handle Animal 14+1, Knowledge(Nature) 3, Ride 14+1, Survival 8+1Mounted FuryBear Form (Brown)13thBarbarian 4 / Bear Warrior 6 / Silverwood Outrider 1 / Warblade 2+13/+8/+3+12+5+3Handle Animal 15+1, Knowledge(Nature) 3, Ride 15+1, Survival 9+114thBarbarian 4 / Bear Warrior 7 / Silverwood Outrider 1 / Warblade 2+14/+9/+4+12+5+3Handle Animal 16+1, Knowledge(Nature) 3, Ride 16+1, Survival 10+1Rage 3/day15thBarbarian 4 / Bear Warrior 7 / Silverwood Outrider 1 / Warblade 3+15/+10/+5+12+6+4Handle Animal 17+1(2), Knowledge(Nature) 3, Ride 17+1, Survival 11TrampleBattle ardor (critical confirmation)16thBarbarian 4 / Bear Warrior 7 / Silverwood Outrider 1 / Warblade 4+16/+11/+6/+1+13+6+4Handle Animal 18+1(2), Knowledge(Nature) 3, Ride 18+1, Survival 1117thBarbarian 4 / Bear Warrior 7 / Silverwood Outrider 1 / Warblade 5+17/+12/+7/+2+13+6+4Handle Animal 19+1(2), Knowledge(Nature) 3, Ride 19+1, Survival 11Improved Initiative(Bonus)18thBarbarian 4 / Bear Warrior 8 / Silverwood Outrider 1 / Warblade 5+18/+13/+8/+3+14+6+4Handle Animal 20+1, Knowledge(Nature) 3, Ride 20+1, Survival 11+1Cavalry Charger19thBarbarian 4 / Bear Warrior 9 / Silverwood Outrider 1 / Warblade 5+19/+14/+9/+4+14+7+5Handle Animal 21+1, Knowledge(Nature) 3, Ride 21+1, Survival 12+120thBarbarian 4 / Bear Warrior 10 / Silverwood Outrider 1 / Warblade 5+20/+15/+10/+5+15+7+5Handle Animal 22+1, Knowledge(Nature) 3, Ride 22+1, Survival 13+1Bear Form (dire)
LevelInitiator LevelManouvers/stances learnedRage things5th3Leading the charge, Battle Leader’s Charge, Rabid Wolf Strike, Sudden Leap+4STR, +4CON, -2AC, +2Will, 9 rounds 2/day7th4Douse The flames-8th5-+8STR, +2DEX, +4CON, -2AC, +2Will, NAB (Natural Armor Bonus) 2, two 1d4 claws + 1d6 bite, 9 rounds 2/day12th7-+16STR, +2DEX, +8CON, -2AC, +2Will, NAB 5, Large size, two 1d8 claws + 2d6 bite, Improved grab, 11 rounds 2/day14th8-3/day15th9Pouncing Charge-16th10Douse The Flames --> White Raven Tactics-17th11War Leader’s Charge-20th12-+20STR, +2DEX, +8CON, -2AC, +2Will, NAB 7, Large size, two 2d4 claws + 2d8 bite, Improved grab, 11 rounds 3/day
ECL 1-2ECL 3-5ECL 6Wild Cohort Bonuses (absolute):-1HD, 1 NA, 1 Trick, Evasion3HD, 3 NA, 1STR/DEX, 2 Tricks, Evasion, HD feat (Improved toughness)Name(Creature):Radish(Heavy Horse) (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/horse.htm)Size/Type:Large AnimalHit Dice:3d8+6 (19)4d8+12 (30)6d8+24 (51)Initiative:+1+2Speed:50 ft.Armor Class (Cumulative):13 (-1 size, +1 Dex, +3 natural), touch 10, flat-footed 12+1 natural+1 Dex +2 naturalBase Attack/Grapple:+2/+9+3/+10+4/+11Attack:Hoof -1 melee (1d6+1*)Hoof +0 melee (1d6+1*)Hoof +1 melee (1d6+1*)Full Attack:2 hooves -1 melee (1d6+1*)2 hooves +0 melee (1d6+1*)2 hooves +1 melee (1d6+1*)Space/Reach:10 ft./5 ft.Special Attacks:-Special Qualities:Low-light vision, scentSaves:Fort +5, Ref +4, Will +2Fort +7, Ref +5, Will +2Fort +8, Ref +7, Will +3Abilities (Cumulative):Str 16, Dex 13, Con 15, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 6+1 Con+1 Str, +1 DexSkills (extra ranks):Listen +4, Spot +4Listen +4, Spot +5(1)Listen +5(1), Spot +6(2)Default feats:Endurance, RunECL 7-8ECL 9Wild Cohort Bonuses (Absolute, ECL-3):1HD, 1 NA, 1 Trick, Evasion, HD feat (Improved Natural Attack(Gore))3HD, 3 NA, 1STR/DEX, 2 Tricks, Evasion, HD feat (Improved Natural Attack(Gore))Name(Creature):Beefalo(Bison) (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/bison.htm)Size/Type:Large AnimalHit Dice:6d8+18 (45)8d8+24 (60)Initiative:+0Speed:40 ft.Armor Class (cumulative):14 (-1 size, +5 natural), touch 9, flat-footed 14+2 naturalBase Attack/Grapple:+4/+14+6/+17Attack:Gore +10 melee (2d6+9)Gore +13 melee (2d6+10)Full Attack:Gore +10 melee (2d6+9)Gore +13 melee (2d6+10)Space/Reach:10 ft./5 ft.Special Attacks:StampedeSpecial Qualities:Low-light vision, scentSaves:Fort +8, Ref +5, Will +2Fort +9, Ref +6, Will +2Abilities (cumulative):Str 22, Dex 10, Con 16, Int 2, Wis 11, Cha 4+2 Str, +1 DexSkills (extra ranks):Listen +7, Spot +6(1)Listen +8(1), Spot +7(2)Default feats:Alertness, EnduranceECL 10-11ECL 12-14ECL 15-17ECL 18-20Wild Cohort Bonuses (absolute, ECL-6):1HD, 1 NA, 1 Trick, Evasion, HD feat (Steadfast determination)3HD, 3 NA, 1STR/DEX, 2 Tricks, Evasion, HD feat (Steadfast determination)5HD, 5 NA, 2STR/DEX, 3 Tricks, Evasion, HD feats (Steadfast determination, Mage Slayer)7HD, 7 NA, 3STR/DEX, 4 Tricks, Evasion, Devotion, HD feats (Steadfast determination, Mage Slayer, Improved toughness)Name(Creature):Spike(Rhinoceros) (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/rhinoceros.htm)Size/Type:Large AnimalHit Dice:9d8+45 (85)11d8+55 (104)13d8+78 (136)15d8+105 (168)Initiative:+0+1Speed:30 ft.Armor Class (cumulative):17 (-1 size, +8 natural), touch 9, flat-footed 17+2 natural+1 Dex, +2 natural+2 naturalBase Attack/Grapple:+6/+18+8/+20+9/+22+11/+24Attack:Gore +13 melee (2d6+12)Gore +15 melee (2d6+12)Gore +17 melee (2d6+13)Gore +19 melee (2d6+13)Full Attack:Gore +13 melee (2d6+12)Gore +15 melee (2d6+12)Gore +17 melee (2d6+13)Gore +19 melee (2d6+13)Space/Reach:10 ft./5 ft.Special Attacks:Powerful chargeSpecial Qualities:Low-light visionSaves:Fort +11, Ref +6, Will +8Fort +12, Ref +7, Will +8Fort +14, Ref +8, Will +10Fort +15, Ref +9, Will +11Abilities (cumulative):Str 26, Dex 10, Con 21, Int 2, Wis 13, Cha 2+1 Str, +1 Dex+1 Str, +1 Dex, +1 Con+1 Str, +1 DexSkills (extra ranks):Listen +14, Spot +4(1)Listen +14, Spot +4(1), Spellcraft -3(1 CC)Listen +14, Spot +4(1), Spellcraft -2(2 CC)Listen +14, Spot +6(3), Spellcraft -2(2 CC)Default feats:Alertness, Endurance, Improved Natural Attack (gore)ECL 19-20Wild Cohort Bonuses (absolute, ECL-15):1HD, 1 NA, 1 Trick, EvasionName(Creature):Tooth(Triceratops) (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/dinosaur.htm#triceratops)Size/Type:Huge AnimalHit Dice:17d8+131 (207)Initiative:-1Speed:30 ft.Armor Class (cumulative):19 (-2 size, -1 Dex, +12 natural), touch 7, flat-footed 19Base Attack/Grapple:+12/+30Attack:Gore +20 melee (2d8+15)Full Attack:Gore +20 melee (2d8+15)Space/Reach:15 ft./10 ft.Special Attacks:Powerful charge, trample 2d12+15Special Qualities:Low-light vision, scentSaves:Fort +19, Ref +9, Will +6Abilities (cumulative):Str 30, Dex 9, Con 25, Int 1, Wis 12, Cha 7Skills (extra ranks):Listen +13, Spot +13(1)Default feats:Alertness, Great Fortitude, Toughness (4)
ECL 1-2ECL 3-5ECL 6Wild Cohort Bonuses (absolute):-1HD, 1 NA, 1 Trick, Evasion3HD, 3 NA, 1STR/DEX, 2 Tricks, Evasion, HD feat (Reckless Rage)Name(Creature):Tanuki(Badger) (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/badger.htm)Size/Type:Small AnimalHit Dice:1d8+2 (6)2d8+4 (13)4d8+12 (31)Initiative:+3+4Speed:30 ft., burrow 10 ft.Armor Class (Cumulative):15 (+1 size, +3 Dex, +1 natural), touch 14, flat-footed 12+1 natural+1 Dex,+2 naturalBase Attack/Grapple:+0/-5+1/-4+3/-2Attack:Claw +4 melee (1d2-1)Claw +5 melee (1d2-1)Claw +8 melee (1d2-1)Full Attack:2 claws +4 melee (1d2-1) and bite -1 melee (1d3-1)2 claws +5 melee (1d2-1) and bite +0 melee (1d3-1)2 claws +8 melee (1d2-1) and bite +3 melee (1d3-1)Space/Reach:5 ft./5 ft.Special Attacks:RageSpecial Qualities:Low-light vision, scentSaves:Fort +4, Ref +5, Will +1Fort +5, Ref +6, Will +1Fort +7, Ref +8, Will +2Abilities (Cumulative):Str 8, Dex 17, Con 15, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 6+1 Str, +1 Dex, +1 ConSkills (extra ranks):Balance +5, Escape Artist +9, Listen +3, Spot +3Balance +5, Escape Artist +9, Listen +3, Spot +4(1)Balance +6, Escape Artist +10, Listen +4(1), Spot +5(2)Default feats:Agile, Track(B), Weapon Finesse(B)ECL 7-8ECL 9Wild Cohort Bonuses (Absolute, ECL-3):1HD, 1 NA, 1 Trick, Evasion3HD, 3 NA, 1STR/DEX, 2 Tricks, Evasion, HD feat (Improved Natural Attack(Claw))Name(Creature):Panda(Black Bear) (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/bearBlack.htm)Size/Type:Medium AnimalHit Dice:4d8+12 (30)6d8+18 (45)Initiative:+1+2Speed:40 ft.Armor Class (cumulative):14 (+1 Dex, +3 natural), touch 11, flat-footed 13+1 Dex, +2 naturalBase Attack/Grapple:+3/+7+4/+9Attack:Claw +7 melee (1d4+4)Claw +9 melee (1d6+5)Full Attack:2 claws +7 melee (1d4+4) and bite +2 melee (1d6+2)2 claws +9 melee (1d6+5) and bite +4 melee (1d6+2)Space/Reach:5 ft./5 ft.Special Attacks:-Special Qualities:Low-light vision, scentSaves:Fort +7, Ref +5, Will +2Fort +8, Ref +6, Will +3Abilities (cumulative):Str 19, Dex 13, Con 16, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 6+1 Str, +1 DexSkills (extra ranks):Climb +4, Listen +4, Spot +5(1), Swim +8Climb +5, Listen +5(1), Spot +6(2), Swim +9Default feats:Endurance, RunECL 10-11ECL 12-14ECL 15-17ECL 18-20Wild Cohort Bonuses (Absolute, ECL-6):1HD, 1 NA, 1 Trick, Evasion3HD, 3 NA, 1STR/DEX, 2 Tricks, Evasion, HD feat (Improved Natural Attack(Claw))5HD, 5 NA, 2STR/DEX, 3 Tricks, Evasion, HD feat (Improved Natural Attack(Claw))7HD, 7 NA, 3STR/DEX, 4 Tricks, Evasion, Devotion HD feats (Improved Natural Attack(Claw), Mage slayer)Name(Creature):Grizzly(Brown Bear) (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/bearBrown.htm)Size/Type:Large AnimalHit Dice:7d8+28 (59)9d8+45 (85)11d8+55 (104)13d8+65 (123)Initiative:+1+2+3Speed:40 ft.Armor Class (cumulative):16 (-1 size, +1 Dex, +6 natural), touch 10, flat-footed 15+1 Dex, +2 natural+2 natural+1 Dex, +2 naturalBase Attack/Grapple:+5/+17+6/+19+8/+21+9/+22Attack:Claw +12 melee (1d8+8)Claw +14 melee (2dd6+9)Claw +16 melee (2dd6+9)Claw +18 melee (2dd6+10)Full Attack:2 claws +12 melee (1d8+8) and bite +7 melee (2d6+4)2 claws +14 melee (2d6+9) and bite +9 melee (2d6+4)2 claws +16 melee (2d6+9) and bite +11 melee (2d6+4)2 claws +18 melee (2d6+10) and bite +13 melee (2d6+5)Space/Reach:10 ft./5 ft.Special Attacks:Improved grabSpecial Qualities:Low-light vision, scentSaves:Fort +9, Ref +6, Will +3Fort +11, Ref +7, Will +4Fort +12, Ref +8, Will +4Fort +13, Ref +9, Will +5Abilities (cumulative):Str 27, Dex 13, Con 19, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 6+1 Str, +1 Dex, +1 Con+1 Str, +1 Dex+2 Str, +1 DexSkills (extra ranks):Listen +4, Spot +8(1), Swim +12Listen +4, Spot +10(3), Swim +13Listen +4, Spot +10(3), Spellcraft -3 (1 CC) Swim +13Listen +4, Spot +10(3), Spellcraft -2 (2 CC) Swim +14Default feats:Endurance, Run, TrackECL 19-20Wild Cohort Bonuses (Absolute, ECL-15):1HD, 1 NA, 1 Trick, EvasionName(Creature):Ice Bear(Dire polar Bear)Size/Type:Huge AnimalHit Dice:19d8+120 (205)Initiative:+0Speed:50 ft., Swim 20ft.Armor Class (cumulative):20 (–2 size, +12 natural), touch 8, flat-footed 20Base Attack/Grapple:+14/+36Attack:Claw +26 melee (2d6+14)Full Attack:2 claws +26 melee (2d6+14) and bite +21 melee (3d8+7)Space/Reach:15 ft./10 ft.Special Attacks:Improved grabSpecial Qualities:Low-light vision, scentSaves:Fort +17, Ref +11, Will +12Abilities (cumulative):Str 39, Dex 11, Con 23, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 10Skills (extra ranks): Hide –6*, Listen +11, Spot +12(1), Swim +17Default feats:Alertness, Endurance, Improved Natural Armor, Run, Toughness (2), Track(B), Weapon Focus (claw)
ECL 1-2ECL 3-5ECL 6Wild Cohort Bonuses (absolute):-1HD, 1 NA, 1 Trick, Evasion, HD feat (Ability Focus(Poison Spray))3HD, 3 NA, 1STR/DEX, 2 Tricks, EvasionName(Creature):Spite(Swindlespitter)Size/Type:Small AnimalHit Dice:2d8+2 (11)3d8+3 (16)5d8+10 (32)Initiative:+5+6Speed:30 ft.Armor Class (Cumulative):18 (+1 size, +5 Dex, +2 natural), touch 16, flat-footed 13+1 natural+1 Dex,+2 naturalBase Attack/Grapple:+1/-4+2/-3+3/-2Attack:Beak +7 melee (1d4-1)Beak +8 melee (1d4-1)Beak +10 melee (1d4)Full Attack:Beak +7 melee (1d4-1)Beak +8 melee (1d4-1)Beak +10 melee (1d4)Space/Reach:5 ft./5 ft.Special Attacks:Poison spraySpecial Qualities:Darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, scent, uncanny dodgeSaves:Fort +4, Ref +8, Will +3Fort +4, Ref +8, Will +4Fort +6, Ref +10, Will +4Abilities (Cumulative):Str 9, Dex 21, Con 13, Int 2, Wis 16, Cha 14+1 Str, +1 Dex, +1 ConSkills (extra ranks):Hide +9*, Listen +5, Move Silently +5*, Sleight of Hand +10, Spot +5Hide +9*, Listen +5, Move Silently +5*, Sleight of Hand +10, Spot +6(1)Hide +10*, Listen +5, Move Silently +6*, Sleight of Hand +11, Spot +8(3)Default feats:Mobility(B), Run, Weapon Finesse(B)ECL 7-8ECL 9Wild Cohort Bonuses (absolute, ECL-3):1HD, 1 NA, 1 Trick, Evasion3HD, 3 NA, 1STR/DEX, 2 Tricks, Evasion, HD feat (Ability Focus(Poison))Name(Creature):Leaper(Fleshraker)Siz e/Type:medium AnimalHit Dice:5d8+10 (32)7d8+14 (45)Initiative:+4+5Speed:50 ft.Armor Class (Cumulative):21 (+4 Dex, +7 natural), touch 14, flat-footed 17+1 Dex,+2 naturalBase Attack/Grapple:+3/+6+5/+9Attack:Claw +6 melee (1d6+3 and poison)Claw +9 melee (1d6+4 and poison)Full Attack:2 claws +6 melee (1d6+3 plus poison) and bite +1 melee (1d6+1) and tail +1 melee (1d6+1 plus poison)2 claws +9 melee (1d6+4 plus poison) and bite +4 melee (1d6+2) and tail +4 melee (1d6+2 plus poison)Space/Reach:5 ft./5 ft.Special Attacks:Leaping pounce, poison, rake 1d6+2Special Qualities:low-light vision, scentSaves:Fort +6, Ref +8, Will +3Fort +7, Ref +10, Will +4Abilities (Cumulative):Str 17, Dex 19, Con 15, Int 2, Wis 14, Cha 14+1 Str, +1 DexSkills (extra ranks):Hide +12*, Jump +25(1)Hide +13*, Jump +28(3)Default feats:Improved Natural Attack (claw), TrackECL 10-11ECL 12Wild Cohort Bonuses (absolute, ECL-6):1HD, 1 NA, 1 Trick, Evasion3HD, 3 NA, 1STR/DEX, 2 Tricks, Evasion, HD feat (Ability Focus(Trample))Name(Creature):Twonk(Cave Ankilosaurus)Size/Type:Large AnimalHit Dice:8d8+48 (84)10d8+60 (105)Initiative:-2Speed:30 ft.Armor Class (Cumulative):25 (-1 Size, -2 Dex, +18 natural), touch 7, flat-footed 25+2 naturalBase Attack/Grapple:+6/+15+7/+17Attack:Tail +11 melee (2d4+7)Tail +13 melee (2d4+9)Full Attack:Tail +11 melee (2d4+7)Tail +13 melee (2d4+9)Space/Reach:10 ft./10 ft.Special Attacks:Trample 3d6+7Special Qualities:darkvision 60ft.Saves:Fort +14, Ref +4, Will +4Fort +15, Ref +5, Will +5Abilities (Cumulative):Str 21, Dex 6, Con 22, Int 1, Wis 12, Cha 6+1 Str, +1 DexSkills (extra ranks):Listen +8, Spot +9(1)Listen +8, Spot +11(3)Default feats:Alertness, Great Fortitude, Weapon Focus(tail)ECL 13-14ECL 15Wild Cohort Bonuses (absolute, ECL-9):1HD, 1 NA, 1 Trick, Evasion, HD feat (Powerful charge)3HD, 3 NA, 1STR/DEX, 2 Tricks, EvasionName(Creature):Little horn(Cave triceratops)Size/Type:Large AnimalHit Dice:9d8+45 (85)11d8+55 (104)Initiative:-1Speed:30 ft.Armor Class (Cumulative):19 (-1 Size, -1 Dex, +11 natural), touch 8, flat-footed 19+2 naturalBase Attack/Grapple:+6/+14+8/+17Attack:Gore +11 melee (2d6+6)Gore +14 melee (2d6+7)Full Attack:Gore +11 melee (2d6+6)Gore +14 melee (2d6+7)Space/Reach:10 ft./10 ft.Special Attacks:Powerful charge, Trample 3d6+6Special Qualities:darkvision 60ft., ScentSaves:Fort +13, Ref +5, Will +4Fort +14, Ref +6, Will +5Abilities (Cumulative):Str 19, Dex 8, Con 21, Int 1, Wis 12, Cha 6+1 Str, +1 DexSkills (extra ranks):Listen +9, Spot +9(1)Listen +9, Spot +11(3)Default feats:Alertness, Great Fortitude, Weapon Focus(Gore)ECL 16-17ECL 18Wild Cohort Bonuses (absolute, ECL-12):1HD, 1 NA, 1 Trick, Evasion3HD, 3 NA, 1STR/DEX, 2 Tricks, Evasion, , HD feat (Ability Focus (Trample))Name(Creature):Bigtwonk(Ankylosaurus)Siz e/Type:Huge AnimalHit Dice:10d8+86 (131)12d8+102(156)Initiative:-2-1Speed:20 ft.Armor Class (Cumulative):23 (-2 Size, -2 Dex, +17 natural), touch 6, flat-footed 23+1 Dex, +2 naturalBase Attack/Grapple:+7/+24+8/+26Attack:Tail Slap +14 melee (2d6+13)Tail Slap +16 melee (2d6+15)Full Attack:Tail Slap +14 melee (2d6+13)Tail Slap +16 melee (2d6+15)Space/Reach:15 ft./10 ft.Special Attacks:Trample 2d12+13Special Qualities:darkvision 60ft., Low-light Vision, ScentSaves:Fort +17, Ref +5, Will +2Fort +18, Ref +6, Will +3Abilities (Cumulative):Str 29, Dex 7, Con 26, Int 1, Wis 9, Cha 8+1 Str, +1 Dex, +1 IntSkills (extra ranks):Listen +7, Spot +8(1)Listen +7, Spot +10(3)Default feats:Alertness, Great Fortitude, Toughness (x2)See Triceratops in the mounts section
The build idea is very simple: do mounted shenanigans with spirited charge+ valorous lance, but without being pigeonholed to Paladin/ranger/druid. remember that cavalry charger leaping charge is extra damage, not bonus damage, so it's multiplied by spirited charge/valorous, pushing it close to the value of Craven.

that said, it tickled my fancy making a barbarian when I saw the Mounted fury feat. And Bear warrior came as a conseguence of that since the transformation is clearly an effect of the rage.

At first, this was a Barbarian 4 / Warblade 5 / Silverwood outrider 1 / Bear warrior 10, using the warblade bonus feat on stone power to qualify for Bear warrior, and the usual barbarian broth of pounce ACF. But it was tasting bland to me.

I flirted for a little with going Bear totem barbarian with that 4/5/1/10 split above, to be full in theme "bears!!", and it amused me to no end thinking about how I'd be grappling with my own mount, which is a bear, whom I transform in MORE OF A BEAR!

But at the end of the day, this is meant to be a mounted charger build, not a grappling build, so I settled for ape totem, which let us enter Bear warrior 3 level earlier, which has the bonus effect of letting us take some warblade levels at late levels, thus unlocking stronger manouvers than we would otherwise have, namely War Leader's charge and pouncing charge both, instead of "capping" out with White Raven Tactics and Soaring Raptor strike, plus having those nice bear forms that much earlier :)

Originally I was putting mounted fury at level 6, but at those early levels, the mounts are sucky, it's only at level 13 that we unlock the "final" mount.

From a narrative point of view, I wanted to make a caveman ( thus, neanderthal) riding dinosaurs, but there is a dearth of mountable dinosaurs at early levels :( and wild cohort has the same problem tha animal companion has : advancing the HDs of a lower level wild cohort is stronger/better than using a more advanced cohort.

As such, I listed more or less "all the choices", depending if you want to stick to the theme of mounts, bears or dinosaurs. the "official" choice for the competition is the triceratops, since it's both RAW compliant with the PHB only limitation and narratively compliant with the "caveman rides dinosaur", but that said, the "power" choice would be to keep using the rhinoceros. Especially if we double dip on powerful charge, by also takign the feat with the same name instead of Improved toughness



With a splintering crash, the pillar fell across the ravine. Makeshift bridge now in place, Cora could finally enter the ruins proper.

Terra incognita. A land unexplored. The City Lost to Time, supposedly home to creatures and people from ages past. Cora was doubtful, though she’d seen too many strange things in her adventures to discount the idea entirely, but the City was certainly home to ancient artifacts and magic, and she couldn’t risk the Guild getting their hands on those first.

She approached the titanic gates. Three stylized faces were carved deep into the stone, worn by time but still clearly intelligible: a primitive human on the left, some manner of three-horned lizard on the right, and a bear between and above them. In front of the gates stood three matching statues, but facing all different directions, and what appeared to be some gears, machinery, and levers.

Cora Loft holstered her twin hand crossbows and set to work on the puzzle, doubtless the first of many.



Cora panted as she patched herself up. Apparently, the legends about ancient beasts were spot on. At least now she could add “clawed by raptors” and “chased by tyrannosaurus” to her resume. And she had gotten the key.

Finished, she stood and walked through the arch into the next area… which appeared to be a long, narrow canyon. The entrance and exit were both about halfway up, too far to climb or drop safely, but the walls were dotted with platforms, ledges, and poles she could jump, climb, slide, and swing on to make it to the other end.

She’d only made a few jumps, however, before she heard a sharp whistle above her. There, on the left edge of the canyon, was the man she’d seen earlier. And apparently, this time he wasn’t content to mutely observe; he was heaving a boulder over the edge towards her! Cora flung herself backwards, and the boulder plowed through the space where she’d just been, smashing that half of the platform and taking out a few poles and handholds besides.

She leveled her twin crossbows at the man, but he was already out of sight. Why had he whistled? To warn her, give her a fair chance? Or… Cora whipped her head around to the right, and sure enough another boulder was hurtling towards what was left of her platform! She took a wild leap forwards as the platform was pulverized beneath her, managing to get a lucky hand on a horizontal pole and swing up to balance on it. The whistle hadn’t been directed at her at all; he’d been signaling his beast – a massive, three-horned, frilled lizard (a “triceratops”, the back of her mind supplied), already lumbering out of her line of sight as she sent a crossbow bolt whizzing towards it.

Cora heard the telltale grinding of another boulder being rolled over the edge behind her, but even as she spun to loose another bolt at the man, she could see out of the corner of her eye his damned beast ramming another boulder into the canyon ahead of her on her right. Dammit, she thought, followed by How is a dumb beast even following such a complex plan? before dismissing the question for more immediate concerns. Had there been just one of them, she could keep them suppressed with ranged fire, preventing them from safely approaching the edge, but with one on each side…. Cora holstered her guns as a thrill went through her. The only way through was forward, and the boulders were already tearing up the path ahead.

Cora Loft took a running leap to the next platform even as it began to slide into the abyss, beginning the race of her life.



Cora slumped upon the neck of her horse. One more trial completed, one more challenge overcome.

But there was more ahead. The gatehouse she was in was stocked well with medical supplies and ammo. A less experienced adventurer would have rejoiced at the bounty, but Cora had been doing this for a long time, and she knew such generosity could mean only one thing. So, after patching herself up and loading herself for bear, she was not at all surprised when she spurred her horse through the gates and entered a wide-open arena.

“I had a feeling it would be you,” she called out to the silent dinosaur rider, mounted at the far end of the dome. He didn’t answer, of course; he had never acknowledged her beyond trying to halt her progress.

But then, to her surprise, he did, raising his lance in a wordless salute.

Suddenly, he and his mount both spasmed. Fur sprouted over their bodies, muscles grew, claws extended further, and fangs grew. Where before she had faced a humanoid warrior and his mount, now stood two monstrous bears, the one atop the other still somehow grasping his lance. Magic?!

Bellowing, they charged, and Cora Loft spurred her horse to meet them.

“All right, then. One last dance!”
Level 1-5:
There isn't much finesse to talk about these levels, we're a barbarian with a warblade dip, go rag,e smash things, call it a day?
I'm partial to the badger cohort for these levels, because I find it hilarious having one sitting on our shoulder and thinking "WE are the bear mount!" for these levels :D
Keep in mind that handling is a move action for us, so when we charge or move+attack, the cohort reverts to his instinctual behavior. At least We got sudden leap, but without ranks it's not really useable at these levels for the purpose of moving+attacking and still commanding the cohort, The cohort is more of a "use your move action for damaging options if hostiles are already within reach" at these levels, unless we go for the horse I suppose, but horse is stinky!

level 6-10:
Even if we don't ride our cohort yet, the level of outrider does the vital thing of letting us handle it for free, this just so happens to be the level we can full attack, too, so it's a good bump up in power, otherwise we would still be having the problems we've had at level 1-5. 7-10 Bison is an option, since it's at least not as squishy as the horse, but I'm partial to the black bear, so I nominate it the official cohort for the competition.
Unless fleshraker if allowed, of course, we all know how insane it is!
We also get a taste of spirited charge and bear form during these levels :3

at tenth level we unlock the actual usable mounts we'd be using for most of our career, the rhinoceros, so yay!

level 11-15:
and Here comes mounted fury AND brown bear form, pouncing charge, even! I nominate level 12 as the sweet spot, simply because it has a confluence of things: a massive improvement to the rage, from +8 to +16 str!, we get to share it with the cohort if we're riding it, AND the cohort get a bump up in "tier", what's not to love about level 12!?

level 16-20:Triceratops has the huge size and sizeable HP pool going for it, but the loss of handpicked feats is felt, so it's not an easy choice to make. We're also rounding out our manouvers with good old WRT and the snazzy War leader's charge, which is explictly extra damage and not bonus damage, meaning it does get multiplied by spirited charge/valorous

On nonPHB cohorts : main argument for accepting the expanded list is that most of the expanded list has a date of publication that's more recent than the wild cohort web article, it doesn't really affects us, since the "official" cohort progression for this meal is badger->black bear->rhinoceros->triceratops, all PHB choices, but from a theme point of view, it would be nice being able to use all those dinosaurs, or if we're going with the bear theme, the chonky dire polar bear

On sharing bear form transformation with your mount : there could be some grumbling that you can't, as a brown/dire bear, ride a brown/dire bear, because that doesn't satisfy the guidelines in the DMG page 204 about what is an appropriate mount. To which I'd argument these facts: 1)the mount is clearly appropriate before we go in a rage, so it can't be contested that we're starting on a legal mount and doing a legal action ( rage, which transforms us and the mount )
2) DMG 204 paragraph about unusual mounts are guidelines, not rules 3) the bottom bear will clearly have more than enough STR to comfortably carry us !

On Leading the charge: I think it's still debated whether we are our own ally or not for hte purpose of whtie raven manouvers and discussing that is outside the scope of an entry, I bring it up so that you know this might be contested.

more on sharing the bear form transformation, specifically "you can't use the powerful charge of the rhinoceros when it's polymorphed into a bear!" To which I... mostly agree. I say mostly because I see where this is coming from, but I can contest this, because it's the wording of polymorph, as derived from alter self, that says that a polymorph creature loses the special attacks of the base form.
Which is a totally fair observation, but here is the but: Bear form(su) is similar to polymorph, but ISN'T polymorph! It specifically says so, then goes on listing the effects it does have, and in what way it works like polymorph (gain physical qualities etc). Notably for this argument, it does not say you lose your own special qualities/attack! So the absurb argument is that the currently-not-a-rhino cohort still has it's own gore attack, and the powerful charge special quality.
Absurd, I know, I sure ain't going to try to get "he still has his horn!" with a GM, but trample(ex) and powerful charge(ex) I'm more willing to discuss about.
I say all this because I can well imagine "bear form" aesthetically being like a werebear hybrid form rather than an actual bear form. I feel that the validity of arguing that "powerful charge is valid" shifts in tone in a different direction: suppose I ordered my cohort to use the trick "Charge!", which is to use his special quality powerful charge. Does it matter if he's in bear form? I can see the argument coming that "he's confused", but I can well argue that by muscle memory, he'll obey my order, tuck his head down, and charge, minus the horn!
Ape totem ACF : trades away barbarian fast movement, uncanny dodge, trap sense for climb speed, intimidate bonus, power attack as bonus feat
mounted fury: shares all effect of rage with your mount
bear form: like polymorph but different, substitutes rage with bigger untyped bonuses
Cavalry charger : for our purpose, ride check for +4 damage (multiplied by spirited charge and valorous)
Leading the charge: damage bonus on charges for allies
Battle Leader's charge: 10 extra damage on a charge
Rabid wolf strike: single attack at +4 for 2d6 extra damage but -4 AC
Sudden Leap: swift action jump check for moving
Pouncing charge: can full attack on charge
White Raven tactics: swift action ally acts again
War Leader's charge: 35 extra damage on a charge

Wild cohort (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a)
Mounted Fury (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031125a)
Silverwood Outrider (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031202a)
Neanderthal Race, Dire polar bear: Frostburn
Ape totem barbarian ACF (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm) : Unearthed Arcana
Warblade and manouvers : Tome of Battle
Bear warrior, Cavalry charger : Complete warrior
Primary reference for list of nonPHB animal companion: PHB II page 41
Swindlespitter, Fleshraker : monster manual 3
Cave ankylosaurus, Cave triceratops : miniature handbook
Ankylosaurus: monster manual 2 plus update booklet (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dnd/20030718a)

[Thurbane]

It started with smoke in the distance. The duskling tribe sent some scouts to investigate, and found that they were too late. Raiders had killed the halfling family, taken all the valuables, and burned the wagon. But as they turned to go they heard a babe start to cry. Someone must have hidden him, which worked until he grew hungry. The scouts took him to raise as their own.

He was given a typical duskling name, and brought up with all the love and kindness these extraplanar fey could bring. He showed a quick aptitude for Incarnum as well as for animals. Once he matured, he set out into the world to find others like him, and maybe change the place for the better. Fewer raiders, for one.

Level 5: Manarro fell in with a band of adventurers clearing ancient crypts, striking down dark sorcerers, and generally cleaning the place up. His ‘horse’manship carried both himself and his dog Sparky through many combats, and his growing skill shaping soul melds served him in good stead.

Level 7: Manarro returned home to visit, and came to the attention of the Silverwood Outriders. Their tactics and skills for fighting while mounted compliment his style well, and he leaves his adventuring party to learn all that he can from them.

Level 15: By now the great Touranisha has mastered all the Silverwood Outriders can teach him, and he rides with a legendary band of heroes striking down villainy wherever it may roam.

Race: Strongheart Halfling (FRCS) Starting Stats: 16 Str (-2 for Halfling to 14), 14 Dex (+2 for Halfling to 16), 16 Con, 10 Int, 12 Wis, 8 Cha. All level ups to Str.
Totemist 7 / Silverwood Outrider 5 / Totemist 8-15
Neutral Good


Start with a Riding Dog, until you can afford Horseshoes of Flame for a pony. Nice item, does make your mount large size because it’s a Nightmare. But you want the flight.
Tricks: at level 1 (2 int means 6 tricks) teach it Guard, Track, Attack (and a second trick for attack weird stuff), Down, and Combat Riding.
3rd level pick up Fetch.
Poor thing is going to know 14 tricks by the time you are done, and there are only 12 listed in the SRD. So go nuts ok? Pick up the useful ones first, as listed, and then whatever.
At high levels you might pop a military saddle on the party cleric (or fighter) and take a T-rex. You can handle it as a free action, and you can use Mounted Combat to help your mount avoid 1 touch attack/round. Or other attack, but their AC should be not too far off from your Ride check.






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


1
Totemist (Halfling Sub level 1)
0
+2
+2
+0
Max out Ride, Know(Nature), and Spot. 3 ranks Handle Animal, 1 rank Listen.
Wild Cohort, Shape Soulmeld(Thunderstep Boots)
Wild Empathy, illiteracy, low light vision


2
Totemist
+1
+3
+3
+0
Dismount Attack skill trick, +1 rank in Ride and Spot

Totem Chakra Bind (+1 Capacity)


3
Totemist
+2
+3
+3
+1
+1 rank in Ride Spot, +2 ranks in Know(Nature)
Mounted Combat
Totem’s Protection


4
Totemist
+3
+4
+4
+1
From now on +1 rank in Ride Spot Know(Nature) and Listen




5
Totemist
+3
+4
+4
+1


Chakra Binds (Crowns, Hands, Feet)


6
Totemist
+4
+5
+5
+2

Ride By attack
Totem Chakra Bind +1 Meldshaper Level


7
Totemist
+5
+5
+5
+2





8
Silverwood Outrider
+6
+5
+7
+2





9
Silverwood Outrider
+7
+5
+8
+2

Spirite d Charge



10
Silverwood Outrider
+8
+6
+8
+2
13 ranks: Ride, Know(Nature), Spot, 3 ranks Handle Animal, 8 ranks Listen, Dismount Attack Skill Trick




11
Silverwood Outrider
+9
+6
+9
+3





12
Silverwood Outrider
+10
+6
+9
+3

Trample



13
Totemist (Halfling Sub Level 8)
+11
+7
+10
+3


Fast Movement +10’


14
Totemist
+11
+7
+10
+4


Chakra Binds (Arms Brow Shoulders)


15
Totemist
+12
+8
+11
+4

Cavalry Charger



16
Totemist
+13
+8
+11
+4


Totem Chakra Double Bind


17
Totemist
+14
+9
+12
+5


Rebind Totem Soulmeld 1/day


18
Totemist
+14
+9
+12
+5

Power Attack



19
Totemist
+15
+10
+13
+5


Chakra Binds (Throat, Waist)


20
Totemist
+16
+10
+13
+6
+23 Ride, +23 Knowledge (Nature), Spot, +3 Handle Animal, +18 Listen.

Totem Chakra Bind +2 Capacity








Level
Soul Melds
Essentia
Chakra Binds


1
2
1
0


2
3
2
1


3
3
2
1


4
4
3
1


5
4
3
1


6
5
4
2


7
5
5
2


8
5
5
2


9
5
5
2


10
5
5
2


11
5
5
2


12
5
5
2


13
5
5
2


14
5
6
2


15
6
7
2


16
6
8
3


17
6
9
3


18
7
10
4


19
7
11
4


20
7
12
4







At level 5 Manarro has hit his stride. The Thunderstep Boots give his mounted charges extra bite, his AC is acceptable (small size, +1 chain shirt, +2 from Wormtail Belt, +3 from dex add up to 21ish which is not too shabby), his to-hit works ok (Kruthik Claws bound for 2 x 1d4 claw + (essentia)d6 acid damage), and he can even spot and listen! Typical soulmelds are the Wormtail Belt (Natural Armor +2 +Essentia), Kruthik Claws (bound to Totem), Lammasu Mantle (+2 deflection AC v evil), and Blink Shirt (Dimension Door 10’ as standard action, range increase with essentia). At 3 essentia he usually keeps 2 in his Claws for +2d6 acid damage and 1 in his Thunderstep boots for +2d6 lighting damage on a charge. If he isn’t charging, move the essentia to wormtail belt for another AC.

Dismount Attack skill trick is only 1/combat, but if quarters get tight you can still get a charge in by hopping off your mount. Might be handy, pretty cheap to pick up so might as well.

But he has the full list of Totemist soulmelds for special occasions. He can get a +6 to Animal Handling checks with a Beast Tamer circlet bound to his totem and filled, he can get Detect Magic at will, or Feather Fall always on, bonus HP equal to his level, endure elements for either hot or cold… it’s quite the list. If your party is doing some Fear stacking shenanigans, you can use a normal weapon and instead Totem bind the Dread Carapace. Then every charge is also will save or be shaken for one round on all enemies within 60’.



I know we just did level 5, but level 6 gets a second bind and that’s where it all comes together. That’s where Manarro gets a second bind, which means he can bind the Sphinx Claws to his hands and get Pounce. Add in Girallion arms bound to Totem (4 attacks at 1d3 damage each) and the Thunderstep boots adding another 2d6 damage to every attack and suddenly you have some burst damage going on. Ride by Attack lets Manarro charge every round, and it becomes apparent why this is a sweet spot. Another soul meld and another point of essentia are nice too.


Manarro finally has some of the Secret Ingredient under his belt, and it… uh… lets him act better off of his mount. See, now he can handle it as a free action for a trick it knows, so his mediocre +2 to handle animal can reliably hit a DC 10 because he can try it as a free action all he wants. The BAB is also nice.

Let’s talk Soulmelds. It actually looks just like level 6, only with 1 more essentia. Still charging and thunder stepping. Capacity went up but without more essentia to fill things that’s not super useful. Get yourself a Valorous Amulet of Natural Attacks for claws, might as well.


Secret Ingredient done, and another tier of binds unlocked. However, until we get a third bind choice we are kind of stuck with the bind for pounce and the bind for natural attacks. You’ve got more soul melds now, and more essentia. Pick up some Incarnum Focus boots so you can get another point into those Thunderstep boots. Little math here… attack at 12 (BAB) +1 (size) +2 (charge) + 1 (essentia in Girallion arms) + 3 (str): total +19 for one and +14 for three more doing for 1d3 + 1 (essentia) +3 (str) x 3 for mounted charge with valorous weapon + 3d6 (thunderstep boots) (1d3 + 4) x 3 + 3d6. Averages 60 assuming they all hit and no electric resistance. Hmm.


Finally, more binds! You could get a bite attack on top of your four claws, or take Evasion (nice with your base ref save), or all day flight (needs your cloak slot or an Incarnum focus item there, unless you give up your belt slot for lame flight instead). Might shape the soulmeld that gives you pseudo power attack for natural weapons, stack it with actual power attack if your opponent is easy enough to hit. Bind the Girallion arms to your arm chakra too, and you get rend! Rend is nice. So for choppiness, Girallion bound to totem and arms, sphinx bound to hands, and bind the Heart of Fire to add some fire damage to your attacks. If your enemy doesn’t have resistance to any elements this is a decent cocktail.

But the strength of the Totemist is that you can adjust day by day for your class features. Pick up some elemental resistance, or get a decent size bonus to some skills, or what have you. Oh, also, you have Power Attack finally and some BAB over a regular Totemist thanks to your Secret Ingredient. So that’s nice. Maybe carry an adamantine weapon just in case you need it.





Sources: Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (Strongheart Halfling), Magic of Incarnum (Totemist, soulmelds, etc), Web Supplement (Wild Cohort, Silverwood Outrider), PHB (Most feats and skills), Complete Warrior (Cavalry Charger), Savage Species (Horseshoes of Flame), Complete Scoundrel (Dismount Attack skill trick)

[Thurbane]

Maria of the Harmonious Order, Outrider of the Silver Marches, & Dragoon of the Great Sand Sea
Human (Chondathan, Cormyr) Harmonious Knight (Paladin substitution level) 1/Paladin +4
/Silverwood Outrider 5/Ashworm Dragoon 10. (5d10+5d8+10d10)

Maria is a devout Paladin of the Harmonious Order, a sect of bards, paladins, and adventurers of Milil who aid the weak and sing sometimes exaggerated tales of theirs and others' battles against the forces of evil. Although she much prefers tending to her animals, Maria still managed to learn some of the basics of song from her compatriots. As with most Paladins who live long enough, Maria eventually makes a connection with a magical mount. Unlike most Paladins, she has a special connection to Betsy right out the gate


STR 8+10PB=16
DEX 8+2PB=10
CON 8+6PB=14
INT 8+2PB=10
WIS 8+6PB=14
CHA 8+6PB=14
Each boost goes into Strength.



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


1st
Harmonious Knight (Paladin) (CoV WebEnh) 1
+1
+2
+0
+0
Handle Animal 4, cc-Knowledge (Nature) 0.5, Perform (Sing) 3, Ride 4
Saddleback (PgtF page 43), Wild Cohort
Aura of Good, Inspire Courage, Smite Evil 1/day


2nd
Paladin 2
+2
+3
+0
+0
Handle Animal 5, cc-Knowledge (Nature) 1, Perform (Sing) 3, Ride 5
-
Divine Grace, Lay on Hands


3rd
Paladin 3
+3
+3
+1
+1
Handle Animal 6, cc-Knowledge (Nature) 1.5, Perform (Sing) 3, Ride 6
Mounted Combat
Aura of Courage, Divine Health


4th
Paladin 4
+4
+4
+1
+1
Handle Animal 7, cc-Knowledge (Nature) 2, Perform (Sing) 3, Ride 7
-
Turn Undead, Spellcasting


5th
Paladin 5
+5
+4
+1
+1
Handle Animal 8, cc-Knowledge (Nature) 3, Perform (Sing) 3, Ride 7
-
Smie Evil 2/day, Special Mount


6th
Silverwood Outrider 1
+6/+1
+4
+3
+1
Balance 1, Handle Animal 9, Knowledge (Nature) 3 Perform (Sing) 3, Ride 9, Tumble 1
Ride-By Attack
Fast Handling (Wild Cohort), Skilled Rider


7th
Silverwood Outrider 2
+7/+2
+4
+4
+1
Balance 4, Handle Animal 10, Knowledge (Nature) 3 Perform (Sing) 3, Ride 10, Tumble 1
-
Cohort Trick (Wild Cohort)


8th
Silverwood Outrider 3
+8/+3
+5
+4
+2
Balance 5, Handle Animal 11, Jump 1, Knowledge (Nature) 3, Perform (Sing) 3, Ride 11, Tumble 2
-
Brute Mount (Wild Cohort)


9th
Silverwood Outrider 4
+9/+4
+5
+5
+2
Balance 5, Handle Animal 12, Jump 1, Knowledge (Nature) 3, Perform (Sing) 3, Ride 12, Tumble 5
Trample
Cohort Trick (Wild Cohort)


10th
Silverwood Outrider 5
+10/+5
+5
+5
+2
Balance 5, Handle Animal 13, Jump 4, Knowledge (Nature) 3, Perform (Sing) 3, Ride 13, Tumble 5
-
Bonded Mount (Wild Cohort)


11th
Ashworm Dragoon 1 (Sand pg 66)
+11/+6/+1
+7
+5
+2
Balance 5, Handle Animal 14, Jump 5, Knowledge (Nature) 3, Perform (Sing) 3, Ride 14, Tumble 5
-
Ashworm Mount, Saddle Bonus, Consecration of the Sifting Sand*


12th
Ashworm Dragoon 2
+12/+7/+2
+8
+5
+2
Balance 5, Handle Animal 15, Jump 5, Knowledge (Nature) 3, Perform (Sing) 3, Ride 15, Spot 1, Tumble 5
Spirited Charge, Calvary Charge
Bonus Fighter Feat: Calvary Charge


13th
Ashworm Dragoon 3
+13/+8/+3
+8
+6
+3
Balance 5, Handle Animal 16, Jump 5, Knowledge (Nature) 3, Perform (Sing) 3, Ride 16, Spot 2, Tumble 5
-
Heightened Sting


14th
Ashworm Dragoon 4
+14/+9/+4
+9
+6
+3
Balance 5, Handle Animal 17, Jump 5, Knowledge (Nature) 3, Perform (Sing) 3, Ride 17, Spot 3, Tumble 5
-
Relentless Shield


15th
Ashworm Dragoon 5
+15/+10/+5
+9
+6
+3
Balance 5, Handle Animal 18, Jump 5, Knowledge (Nature) 3, Perform (Sing) 3, Ride 18, Spot 4, Tumble 5
Power Attack
Stamp into the Sand


16th
Ashworm Dragoon 6
+16/+11/+6/+1
+10
+7
+4
Balance 5, Handle Animal 19, Jump 5, Knowledge (Nature) 3, Perform (Sing) 3, Ride 19, Spot 5, Tumble 5
-
Sand Rider


17th
Ashworm Dragoon 7
+17/+12/+7/+2
+10
+7
+4
Balance 5, Handle Animal 20, Jump 5, Knowledge (Nature) 3, Perform (Sing) 3, Ride 20, Spot 6, Tumble 5
-
Full Mounted Attack


18th
Ashworm Dragoon 8
+18/+13/+8/+3
+11
+7
+4
Balance 5, Handle Animal 21, Jump 5, Knowledge (Nature) 3, Perform (Sing) 3, Ride 21, Spot 7, Tumble 5
Improved Bullrush
Spirited Worm


19th
Ashworm Dragoon 9
+19/+14/+9/+4
+11
+8
+5
Balance 5, Handle Animal 22, Jump 5, Knowledge (Nature) 3, Perform (Sing) 3, Ride 22, Spot 8, Tumble 5
Shock Trooper
Bonus Fighter Feat: Shock Trooper


20th
Ashworm Dragoon 10
+20/+15/+10/+5
+12
+8
+5
Balance 5, Handle Animal 23, Jump 5, Knowledge (Nature) 3, Perform (Sing) 3, Ride 23, Spot 9, Tumble 5
-
Earth Rider



Spells/Day


Level
1st


4th-20th
0


It's nothing to write home about, but her Wisdom modifier is enough to net one spell prepared, which is going to be Rhino Rush for another means of increasing our damage on a charge. Still, it's enough that she doesn't need to use UMD for spell completion on things like wands of CLW.



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


1st-2nd
Heavy Horse
+2
+3
+3
+1
Spot 6
Draconic Aura (Vigor), Martial Study (Burning Blade)
3 HD (Animal, 19 HP), Knows up to 6 Tricks (Combat Riding)


3rd-4th
Heavy Horse
+3
+4
+4
+1
Spot 7
-
1 Bonus HD (4HD Total, 26 HP), +1 Natural Armor Adj., 1 Bonus Trick (Track), Evasion


5th-6th
Leopard
+2
+3
+3
+1
Spot 6
Multiattack, Martial Study (Burning Blade)
3 HD (Animal, 19 HP), Knows up to 6 Tricks (Hunting, plus stay and stalk)


[tr]
7th
Tiger
+4
+5
+5
+2
Spot 9
Multiattack, Martial Study (Burning Blade), Improved Natural Attack (Claw)
Cohort Trick (Track), 6 HD (Animal, 45 HP), Knows up to 6 Tricks (Combat riding)


8th
Tiger
+4
+5
+5
+2
Spot 9
-
Brute Mount


9th
Tiger
+5
+5
+5
+2
Spot 10
-
1 Bonus HD (7 Animal HD total, 52 HP), +1 Natural Armor, Evasion 1 Bonus Trick (Ambush), Cohort Trick (Seek)


10th-11th
Tiger
+5
+5
+5
+2
Spot 10
-
-


12th-14th
Tiger
+7
+7
+7
+3
Spot 12
Shape Soulmeld (Girallon Arms)
3 Bonus HD (10 Animal HD total, 67 HP), +3 Natural Armor, +1 STR/DEX, Bonus Trick (Stalk)


15th
Tiger
+9
+8
+8
+4
Spot 14
Open Lesser Chakra (Arms)
5 Bonus HD (12 Animal HD total, 82 HP), +5 Natural Armor, +2 STR/DEX, Bonus Trick (Flush Out)


16th-17th
Dire Tiger
+12
+10
+10
+5
Jump 19
Multiattack, Improved Natural Attack (Claw), Martial Study (Burning Blade), Shape Soulmeld (Girallon Arms), Open Lesser Chakra (Arms), Martial Study (Cloak of Deception)
Cohort Trick (Track, Seek), 6 HD (Animal, 45 HP), Knows up to 6 Tricks (Combat riding)


18th-20th
Dire Tiger
+12
+10
+10
+5
Jump 20
-
1 Bonus HD (17 Total), +1 Natural Armor Adj., 1 Bonus Trick (Stalk), Evasion





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


5th-10th
Heavy Warhorse
+4
+5
+5
+3
Spot 9
Draconic Aura (Vigor), Martial Study (Burning Blade), Martial Study (Fiery Riposte)
+2 Bonus HD (6 Animal HD, 45 HP), +4 NA, +1 STR, 6 Int, Lowlight Vision, Scent, Empathic Link, Improved Evasion, Share Spells, Share Saving Throws


11th-12th
Ashworm
+7
+5
+5
+3
Climb 6, cc-Spellcraft 2
Power Attack, Improved Bullrush
+4 Bonus HD (7 Magical Beast HD Total, 59 HP), +8 NA, +2 STR, 6 Int, Empathic Link, Improved Evasion, Share Spells, Share Saving Throws, Evasive Diver, Tremoresense 60 ft., Burrow 30 ft., Climb 5 ft.


13th-14th
Ashworm
+9
+6
+6
+3
Climb 8, cc-Spellcraft 2
Shock Trooper
Heightened Sting, +6 Bonus HD (9 Magical Beast HD Total, 76 HP), +10 NA, +3 STR


15th-16th
Ashworm
+11
+7
+7
+3
Climb 10, cc-Spellcraft 2
-
Stamp into Sand, +8 Bonus HD (11 Magical Beast HD Total, 93 HP), +12 NA, +4 STR


17th-18th
Ashworm
+13
+8
+4
+4
Climb 12, cc-Spellcraft 2
Mage Slayer
+10 Bonus HD (13 Magical Beast HD Total, 110 HP), +14 NA, +5 STR


19th-20th
Ashworm
+15
+9
+9
+5
Climb 14, cc-Spellcraft 2
Martial Study (Mighty Throw)
+12 Bonus HD (15 Magical Beast HD Total, 127 HP), +16 NA, +6 STR



A Paladin may bond with their Ashworm Mount and perform a ritual that removes the worm's poison glands to give the Ashworm the benefits of a Paladin's Special Mount. It is assumed that the Ashworm gains the benefits of a 5th level Paladin's Special Mount (the number of effective Paladin levels Maria has), plus whatever is listed in the Ashworm Advancement Table for that given Ashworm Dragoon level.


At low levels, Maria is little more than a woman with a (horse. Wild Cohort allows her to do her schtick right out the gate. Saddleback is a regional feat that allows her to "Take 10" on ride checks even when under duress, plus gives both her the ability to substitute Ride checks for Reflex saves for both her and her mount. As an added bonus, she and her mount still get to roll the Reflex saves first, so they only have to use the Ride Check the event of a failed save. The "Take 10" feature also insures that, even with Fullplate on (-6 ACP), Maria can always make the DC 10 check to fight while her mount attacks.

Skills are mostly there to qualify for our prestige classes, plus a little bit of Preform from our substitution level to activate our Inspire Courage ability. It doesn't ever improve, but giving Maria and her (not quite animal) companions an extra +1 to-hit/damage helps starting out.

Levels 1-4, the Wild Cohort doesn't have too much to offer. I assume that even though Maria's heavy horse, Betsy is trained for combat riding, it remains a heavy horse rather than becoming a heavy warhorse. It only has two feats to pick from, but does gain Evasion and a few other bonuses at 3rd level. For feats, Draconic Aura (Vigor) helps keep both horse and rider alive (plus, saves on Maria's very limited amount of Lay on Hands). Although Betsy has a rather poor attack bonus due to her hoof attacks being treated as secondary attacks, Burning Blade gives her a once per encounter chance to get an extra 1d6+2 damage in on a full attack.

Level 5 is where Maria starts to follow a routine of charging in on her mount with her lance, potentially smiting along the way, and then using Mounted Combat and Saddleback to upgrade her mount's AC via Mounted Combat. Her heavy warhorse has 18 AC at this point, but only 14 Touch AC. So even just taking 10 would bump that up to at least 18 by this point (more with things like a masterwork saddle). And, of course, in the event that the attack roll is higher still, she can always roll the skill normally. She also has one spell prepared due to having a +1 Wis modifier. It's not much, but it is enough to get her Rhino Rush for another "double damage on a charge" bonus.

While she could have swapped out Betsy a level earlier, 5th level is also when she "upgrades" Betsy to a more competent combatant. (Personally, I like to imagine that Betsy magically becomes the Special Mount and thus a "new" Wild Cohort is found to replace her, but that's just me.) Betsy 2.0 has all the perks of being a Special Mount, which means she gets an extra feat (Martial Study for Fiery Riposte this time) from her bonus HD. This gives her a respectable attack routine of +7/+7/+2 Hoof/Hoof/Bite for 1d6+4 on the Hoofs and 1d4+2 on the Bite. Once per encounter, she can use Burning Blade to add an addtional 1d6+3 fire damage on each of those strikes for a total of up to 2d6+8+1d4+2+(3d6+9 fire) damage.

Using the Druid table for Alternative Animal Companions, Maria gains a Leopard to join her on her journeys. Our furry friend needs to be handled as a move action at this point (and needs to be trained, naturally). Maria's 8 Ranks in Handle Animal and +2 CHA at this point mean she has no problem taking 10 to train her new feline friend in staying put, stalking, and hunting.

Ms. Kitty's feats also go towards grabbing Burning Blade and Multiattack. Multiattack makes the secondary claw and rake attacks more likely to land, and Burning Blade gives her added alpha strike potential on a charge. Her regular full attack at 5th level is "only" +6/+4/+4 for a bite/claw/claw of 1d6+3/1d3+1/1d3+1. A charge bumps that up to +8/+4/+4/+4/+4, adding two additional rake attacks each at 1d3+1. Kitty has fewer HD, so her Burning Blade Claws only deal an extra 1d6+1. Even so, that's potentially another 5d6+5 fire damage to cut through the poor person pounced by this precious pussycat. She also has improved grab, which could help Maria out in the event that her grapple attempt is successful.



Now that Maria qualifies for Silverwood Outrider, she takes all five levels of it as soon as possible. As her Special Mount already has 6 Int, the Fast Handling, Cohort Tricks, and Bonded Mount all go towards improving her Wild Cohort. For simplicity's sake (and the fact that her Special Mount is only around for 10 hours a day), Brute Mount also goes to improving the Wild Cohort.

Betsy 2.0 is starting to show her age by 10th level. She's still only got 6 HD and 45 HP. At this level, one wayward fireball could deal almost half her HP in one go. Luckily, Improved Evasion, the Draconic Aura, and Maria's Saddleback feat go a long way improving her durability. At sixth level, Betsy has more than twice what the Leopard has at 6th level, but gets worse and worse by comparison every level there after.

At 7th level, Maria swaps out her leopard for a Tiger, aka Ms. Kitty 2.0. Ms. Kitty 2.0 uses the same tricks as her predecessor, and is more lethal. Kitty 2.0 starts with 6 HD and will get the first set of benefits by 10th level, plus all the Outrider perks. That means her attack routine starts out at +9/+9/+7 for claw/claw/bite of 1d8+6/1d8+6/1d8+3 (or +11/+11/+9/+9/+9 on a charge with two additional rake attacks each at 1d8+3) and bumps up to +11/+11/+9 & 1d8+7/1d8+7/1d8+3 (or +13/+13/+11/+11/+11 on a charge with two additional rake attacks each at 1d8+3) at level 10. Her initiator level is also going to be higher, so each of her Burning Blade attacks adds 1d6+3.

By this point, Maria also has access to the Trample feat. She could direct her Special Mount to overrun a target on the off chance she goes before Ms. Kitty in the iniatitve order and attempt to knock her target prone or she could simply charge as a ride-by attack and give Ms. Kitty a flanking partner.

Ideally, Kitty 2.0 would be a Magebred Ghost Tiger, which would give her +4 STR, +2 Dex, +2 CON, +2 Natural, and Run as a bonus feat over the regular Tiger. That said, this involves mixing campaign setting materials and thus is less likely to pass DM approval. Sure, some animals are slightly better than others, but typically we aren't comparing apples to apples (or tigers to tigers) - and the Magebred version is strictly speaking better in every regard to regular.


Having ventured into the the Great Sand Sea, Maria finally sends Betsy to the Heavens. After riding an Ashworm, she decides to take on for a mount herself and performs the Consecration of the Sifting Sand on it. This removes the creature's poison from its stinger, but adds all the usual benefits of being a Special Mount to the Ashworm. As they're magical beasts to begin with, they've got the added benefit of better BAB than your regular Special Mount. Unfortunately, they only have the one sting attack.

Overall, Ashworm Dragoon gives us more of what we want. Although Maria already has both Spirited Charge and Trample by the time she starts taking levels in Ashworm Dragoon, it still gives her a couple of bonus feats. Stamp into the Sand would have given use the Trample feat (plus calls out explicitly that the worm may make a sting attack in place of a hoof attack on any overrun attemps), but since Maria already has that feat, it instead forces anyone knocked down via Trample to spend a full-round action to stand back up. Do not pass go, do no tumble your way up, go straight to full-round action to stand.

Ashley at this point has a base 25 STR and BAB of 11, so her sting attacks are going to be at +18. The damage is only 1d6+10, sadly. Maria can also use Heightened Sting to to give Ashley an extra attack at Maria's BAB, but that only checks out to a +4 (or, at even levels, +5) on that attack. It's also limited to class level times per day, but it's not nothing.

Relentless Shield gives Ashley some extra survivability (and is part of the reason why Ashley has Shock Trooper), as it removes the once per round limitation on Mounted Combat's AC replacement mechanic. Ashley can charge and power attack for all 11 points of BAB, tanking her AC only to then have Maria replace it with her Ride Check results. Ashley isn't really able to use the regular Power Attack damage doubling tricks and is stuck using her Sting attack, but freeish damage is freeish damage. By this point, Maria's typical Ride check result is going to be 33 (18 ranks +5 Ashworm Dragoon Saddle Bonus +10 from Saddleback. Of course, money could and should be spent on things like a masterwork saddle and magic items like Riding Boots (MIC) to push those numbers even higher.

Fell Trample still calls out only hoof attacks, but taken with Stamp into the Sand, we have a stronger case than otherwise to allow Ashley a sting against each enemy hit during the numerous overrun attempts. Considering Fell Trample is also a modification of the Trample feat, that also means each foe who falls prone is stuck there until they spend a full-round action to stand.

Miss Kitty's attack routine remains largely the same. She gets a couple of extra feats, and at 15th level, she can now rend with her Girallon Arms if she lands with both claw attacks. Her Strength is also up to 27, so that Rend is at 2d8+16.

Largely because of Stamp into the Sand, 15th level is Maria's sweetspot. All of her standard "tricks" are online at this point, and while flying enemies exist, anyone on the ground should will soon be intimately familiar with said ground.


Maria finishes off her levels in Ashworm Dragoon. After ages of having multiple attacks per, she can finally use more than one while Ashley moves around the battlefield (but not when she charges). She also gains the ability to ride with Ashley while she burrows - first just under sand, and eventually under earth at 20th. It's only for so many minutes at a time, but it's enough to hide from attackers or run away when severally outnumbered. Spirited Worm gives us some extra d6s when using Spirited Charge. It's extra damage and works with the general idea of a mounted combatant, but it's worlds better at 13th level compared to 18th level. In a campaign where retraining is an option, it gives Maria an extra feat - likely to pick up a maneuver of her own. As is, with the bonus feat she gains at 19th level, she still has enough room to fit in Shock Trooper herself.

Ms. Kitty gets one last "upgrade," getting swapped out for a Dire Tiger at 16th level. The Dire Tiger only ever gets 1 Bonus HD, but is otherwise more of the same. It starts out at 16HD, so that's enough to fit in one more feat.



Harmonious Knight Paladin subsitution levels - Champions of Valor Web Enhancement (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060327a)
Saddleback Feat - Player's Guide to Fearun
Hutning, Combat Riding Tricks - PHB/SRD
Wild Cohort Feat - Wild Life Article (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031202a)
Alternative Wild Cohorts - Druid Table per SRD
Stalk Trick - Another Wild Life Article (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031125a)
Silverwood Outrider - Yet Another Wild Life Article (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031202a)
Paladin, Power Attack, Improved Bullrush, Mounted Combat, Ride-By Attack, Trample, Spirited Charge - SRD/PHB
Rhino Rush, Deafing Clang spells - Spell Compendium
Calvary Charge, Shock Trooper - Complete Warrior
Ashworm Dragoon, Ashworm, Dire Tortoise - Sandstorm
Martial Study, maneuvers - Tome of Battle
Improved Natural Attack - SRD/Monster Manual
Mage Slayer - Complete Arcane
Shape Soulmeld, Open X Chakra, Girallon Arms - Magic of Icarnum

[Thurbane]

...and there we go. 4 entries this time around.

Now we await judging. :smallsmile:

[GreatWyrmGold]

Well, everything’s been posted, so I can actually get this posted.

I was putting the finishing touches on my build about a week before the deadline, when through an act of clumsiness I managed to lose all my tables, which I hadn’t bothered to back up anywhere. So, um...lesson for the future, do that.
Rather than reverse engineer my build from what I’d written and put all the data back in order, I decided to just post this early separately.


NG Shoal Halfling Druid (halfling substitution) 5/Silverwood Outrider 5/Rogue (UA bonus feat variant) 4/Halfling Outrider 3/Windrunner 2/Beastmaster 1
I am so very sorry.

Terminology note: As units of camel-riding troops are called camelry and elephant-riding troops are called elephantry, I assume units of whale-riders would be called whalry. And as individual soldiers in cavalry units can be called cavaliers, I assume that “camelier,” “elephantier,” and “whalier” are all valid words. So when I say “whalier,” know that I mean “whale-rider, but from a culture where they have a word for that”.


Evil lurks in all corners of the world, from the highest mountain peaks to the deepest oceanic trenches. In civilized realms, paladins are chosen to keep the darkness at bay...but paladins, while potent, are limited in scope. A knight in shining armor astride a white stallion is a potent vanguard against evil, but they require shining armor and white stallions, and not everywhere can support such things. Other places require different champions.


Osamin hails from a tribe of shoal halflings living around a tropical archipelago. Ships from distant lands came through her tribe’s waters all the time, stopping at individual islands to stock up on fresh water or meat, or simply for seamen to stretch their legs and take a break. Warships, whalers, trading vessels, and more. The sailors would trade with Osamin’s tribe, while trying to keep rowdy kids from sneaking onto their ships and wreaking havoc.

In her youth, Osamin was one of the rowdiest children, constantly slipping onto ships and scouring them for sweets or shiny trinkets. After one night when she stole an admiral’s wedding ring (and then dropped it into a crevice in the reef), she was sent out to the Whales’ Atoll. There, whaliers from many tribes would hopefully teach her discipline and harmony as well as whale-riding.

They were largely successful. Osamin learned to restrain her impulses, to recognize how her actions would impact the world around her, and to always act with the common good in mind—though she never completely lost her mischievous streak, playing harmless pranks when she had the chance. She also learned the skills required for a whalier—proper whale care, lance drills, and so on.

Osamin turned out to be one of the best recruits the whaliers had that generation. She expected to spend the rest of her life hunting and patrolling the waters her tribe lived in for pirates and raiders, until she grew old and taught the next generation of whaliers. But another calling awaited her.

One day, when Osamin and her mount were out scouting, they were attacked by a band of sahuagin raiders and their shark pack. Osamin tried to escape, but there were too many of them. She was surrounded, her porpoise mortally wounded, and had accepted her fate—taking down as many enemies as she could before she was slain—when a savior came.

A mighty whale, blue and gold like the sea and sun, emerged from the depths, biting one of the sahuagin’s sharks in half. Within moments, half of the sharks were dead, the other half fleeing with their masters. The whale then turned to Osamin, who assumed her life was over as the whale’s jaws closed around her, leaving her in darkness.

Some time later, Osamin saw light. She was in a sheltered lagoon, with the whale who saved her guarding the entrance. She caught and ate a few fish nibbling curiously at her clothing and skin, and rested. After perhaps an hour, the whale noticed that Osamin had recovered...and spoke to her.

The whale claimed to have been sent by someone named Arawei to guide and aid Osamin against the forces of darkness, which were creeping into the waters around her homeland. It was a noble calling, the whale said, and required purity and integrity that few could muster. Osamin had a wild spirit, but one which she learned to control rather than letting it be beaten entirely out of her.

Osamin asked for time to consider, and time was given. She nursed her wounds, and traveled with the whale back to her homeland, hoping to get there before the sahuagin sent another raiding party. Luckily, the sahuagin either didn’t intend to try again or were still regrouping; everyone was safe when she returned.

The whale’s offer lingered in the back of Osamin’s mind for days. She considered it whenever she had a free moment. Finally, one of her fellow whaliers asked about the colorful talking whale she brought home, and Osamin asked him for advice. The fellow brought together the whaliers, and they agreed that Osamin should be allowed to take the whale’s offer if she wanted to. The dangers the whale spoke of were ones the whaliers could not detect, and possibly couldn’t fight alone.


And so Osamin began her adventuring life. She started alone, but who knows what companions fate might bring her way...



[table lost]

The...unusual number of classes in this build inflates its base save bonuses, so a table displaying Osamin’s base attack and saves under the fractional variant has been provided. At 20th level, this variant gains two points of attack bonus (and an iterative attack), at the cost of seven total points of saving throw bonuses. If the judges feel this is a meaningful downgrade, they may feel free to rate according to them.

[table lost]



[table lost]


Druid spells per day:

[table lost]
Windrider spells per day:

[table lost]





At this point, Osamin is basically just your typical porpoise-riding halfling lancer with a bird companion. (Which I guess isn’t all that typical in most D&D games.) She is a talented whalier, but has yet to find her true calling. That will change soon enough...

At a level where single-classed druids try to figure out how to properly abuse wild shape before they can pick up Natural Spell, Osamin is charging into combat on her porpoise. While charging, she can spur her mount halfway across a football finball pitch and land a single double-damage strike with her lance, with her eagle following shortly behind. Ideally, the eagle would go first, flying around so the initial charge attack is a flank attack.

Thanks to Ride-By Attack, Osamin can charge, attack, and keep moving, setting her mount up for a charge every turn. Provided the proper tricks can be invented (the standard tricks probably aren’t specific enough), the eagle can either take a five-foot step to flank wherever the next charge attack will come from and then take the Total Defense action, or possibly Withdraw around a larger opponent to do much the same.
Of course, in an ideal world, Osamin would have other melee allies who could do some or all of this instead of the fragile eagle. But it’s nice not to need that kind of support.

Of course, while Osamin isn’t only or primarily a druid, she certainly has some druid casting to support her melee. At this level, she has two second-level spell slots to use on buffs, which apply to both herself and her mount. (Sadly, there doesn’t seem to be any way to share spells with a wild cohort.)
A couple of buff spells seem worth pointing out. First, Luminous Armor provides pseudo-armor for hours at a time, easily long enough to last through an adventuring day, with extra protection against melee attacks, none of the downsides of armor, and free daylight. It costs a point or two of Strength damage, but that’s nothing that a lesser restoration (or a night’s rest) can’t fix. Actual armor can provide some of these benefits in a pinch, but most armor (especially heavy or leathery armor) is a bad idea on the ocean for obvious reasons, and whale barding is probably hard to come by.
Instant of Power is a handy first-level spell. As an immediate action, give yourself or a nearby ally +4 on a saving throw, attack, or damage roll. Depending on how you interpret the rules, this might let Osamin enhance—say—both of their attack rolls during a charge, or both saving throws against an AoE attack. It’s a handy little attack.
Bite of the Wererat, another 2nd-level buff spell, is popular in druid builds; however, since at this level Osamin has no method of making a full attack on a charge, it’s usually not much use. It can be handy if she gets pinned down, though, giving both her and her mount an extra attack (as well as some bonus natural armor and stat boosts). Of course, if this comes up often enough to prepare a spell specifically for this situation, you probably shouldn’t be playing a charger build.

Kelpstrand is another spell to consider using. It allows a ranged, fire-and-forget grappling option, perfect for tying down mobile opponents or disrupting spellcasters. Plus, it’s thematic.
Fins to feet is also available, if Osamin really needs to ride across land. It only lasts three hours per casting, so her route needs bodies of water every few miles, but a lake or large river should do the trick.


Osamin has grown comfortable with her new calling, though she is not yet experienced. Her mount has begun to teach her sacred riding techniques, allowing the two of them to fight together more effectively than ever.

At this point, Osamin has her first Silverwood Silverkelp Outrider levels, a much bigger bird*, and a holy whale to watch over her. She’s gone from a typical porpoise-riding halfling lancer to a holy warrior with some primal tricks up her sleeve. But at heart, she

First off, we have Lion’s Charge. With only two third-level slots per day, and with only a single iterative attack, it isn’t a huge game-changer yet, but it is helpful, and will grow more so over the levels.
The wild cohort is finally big and tough enough to take a couple of hits without dying, not to mention big and strong enough to dish out some hits of its own. No longer is it relegated to a mere flanker; it can actually join battle directly.
And, of course, the whale being ridden is a Huge orca, a fearsome combatant in its own right (at least compared to the porpoise).

But overall, tactics are pretty similar. Buff, ride-by charge, repeat.

*Bats are classically considered birds! ...also there should be more bird animal companions.


Few warriors of any kind reach this level of prowess, and fewer do so in such obscurity. Osamin has by now accumulated at least a decade of experience fighting the evils of the depths, and has the skills and strength needed to prove it.

Having taken all Silverwood Outrider levels, Osamin’s build is surely at the apex of its power, right? Well...the capstone lets you deal damage to your mount to increase its speed slightly as a free action instead of a move action.

The past five levels haven’t seen Osamin gain much of note; thanks to class selection (and the lack of new birds/whales), the animal companions haven’t even been exchanged. (The dragonhawk makes a good replacement bird, even if it’s a bit on the Yi qi side, but it’s only available in Eberron or under DMs who ignore fluff requirements.)
The biggest change comes from feats. At long last, Osamin took Spirited Charge, boosting her lance-charge damage significantly. Trample is also there, in case an overrun maneuver is something you wanted to do. (If cachalot whales were listed as a valid aquatic animal companion, I could suggest replacing the hoof attack with a tail slap, but for some reason it isn’t so…)
Oh, and then there’s Horse Archery. Handy for if Osamin needs to fight something that isn’t in the water (and can’t chase it on her bird for some reason), but mostly it’s there as a PrC feat tax.


Such epic (in social terms, not mechanical) warriors can hardly go unnoticed, even when they fight so far from the centers of conventional civilization. Osamin has likely traveled the seas, guided by the powers of light to wherever the darkness is strongest, wherever she is needed. Many coastal communities owe their continued existence to her crusade, and honor her appropriately.

What changed in the last few levels of Osamin’s build? More than you might expect.
First off, her whale is stronger than ever, due to Halfling Outrider increasing her effective druid level and Windrunner only forbidding you from taking someone else’s animal companion as a special mount. (Also, giant octopi are available as an animal companion choice. They’re not whales, but they’re technically big enough to ride, and cephalopods are pretty cool.)

These classes also provide a few neat features. Defensive Riding boosts your mount’s speed (as well as enhancing both rider and mount’s AC and saves), Unbroken Charge removes basically all restrictions on who can be charged short of solid obstacles, Mount Feat lets her train a bonus feat into her mount, Windrider gives a couple low-level spell slots, and both classes provide some situational perks.

And then there’s the Cavalry Charger feat. Unhorse is extremely situational (unless Osamin regularly fights sahuagin sharkry), Fell Trample sounds cool but probably isn’t much use unless enemies are bunched up properly (and the DM lets Osamin’s mount make some kind of non-hoof attack), and Leaping Charge is a small but reliable damage bonus (shame you can’t increase the DC past 20). Was it worth it?




The biggest issue was that I had this image of a whale-riding halfling with a bird circling overhead, but there’s a surprising deficit of bird companions at higher levels and an unsurprising deficit of whale companions at almost every level. (Though the cachalot and baleen whales both not being on the list was surprising.)

Speaking of whales, the lack of support for insufficiently horsey mounts—both in straightforward matters like magic items (good luck putting magic horseshoes on your whale) and in the sense that many mounted combat options aren’t things you necessarily need to do as a whale-rider.
But whale-riding is still pretty cool.

The thing every charging build needs is Pounce. I considered throwing on a barbarian dip for constant pounce, but decided against it on account of wanting some people to give me more than one point for Elegance.
Osamin has Lion’s Charge, but can only cast it a few times per day. It’s better than nothing, but without support from allies or equipment, it means those iterative attacks Osamin eventually gets won’t come into play as often.


Book of Exalted Deeds:[/i] Exalted Companion, luminous armor
[b]Complete Adventurer: Beastmaster, Natural Bond
Complete Warrior: Cavalry Charger, Halfling Outrider
The Forge of War: Instant of power
Masters of the Wild: Windrunner
Races of the Wild: Halfling Druid substitution levels
Spell Compendium: Kelpstrand, lion’s charge
Unearthed Arcana: Rogue variant
Web: Silverwood Outrider (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031202a), Wild Cohort (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a)


The easiest way to alter the build would be, of course, to replace shoal halfling with ordinary halfling and the assorted aquatic animal companions with terrestrial ones. This will make it more useful in non-aquatic campaigns, and give access to a bunch of more useful mounts, at the cost of not being a whalier, a price I was unwilling to pay. None of the build choices are actually water-specific, aside (of course) from the halfling subrace.

You can also make a non-Good version of this build, basically just a standard druidic whalier rather than the quasi-paladin of the sea. Remove Exalted Companion, take Natural Companion early, and take Natural Spell at 9th level. (Or replace Exalted Companion some other feat, I’m not your DM.)

You could probably make Osamin into a more archer-ey build, but since more than a third of the feats in this build are charging-related by contest mandate, that wasn’t really an option here.
If you did, you could dump Strength like a normal druid and replace the charger feats with feats from the Point Blank Shot line. You shouldn’t need as many feats to accomplish this, so you can probably drop at least two of the rogue levels, replacing them with a fourth level of Halfling Outrider (for Stand On Mount) and one of Druid or Windrunner. Stand On Mount makes Halfling Outrider a higher priority, while not being built for a Silverwood Outrider contest makes that a lower priority. Heck, you might make this archer build out of nothing but Druid, Halfling Outrider, and a Beastmaster dip, possibly rendering Natural Bond useless depending on your interpretation of how the feat works...but that severe a modification would make Osamin not fit this contest even slightly. Might as well take a fighter level at that point!



Freed from the burdens of having to act like my entry deserves a medal...it’s pretty limited. I tried to stick to what the Silverwood Outrider did pretty strictly, building a mounted charger, but without enough feats or other resources spent on what makes charging builds effective. It doesn’t help that I decided to try for a gimmicky animal-companion-plus-wild-cohort thing, just because having two animal buddies is kinda neat.
But the same traits that make me bad at building these characters means I’m bad at judging them, so who knows.

Also, I made some art to go along with my entry, (https://www.deviantart.com/greatwyrmgold/art/Osamin-Kelpwhistle-884875524) because why not.

[Glimbur]

Interesting split! Two entries with only 1 level, two entries with all 5. And very varied approach to the rest too. I'm excited to see what a judge or maybe two think. I am hoping to do better than 5th ;)

[Morphic tide]

I was going to start chipping away at something, but wanted to make serious use of something that'd stand out. Unfortunately, I could not locate anything better on the Animal Companion lists than a standard Heavy Horse that had a Hoof attack to use with Trample and Cavalry Charger, and thought making a build specifically around using a Fleshraker as a supercharger mount would be quite excessive on the cheese. Also inelegence of using Psychic Warrior to hard bypass the intended feat hunger, for all it does a great deal to reduce certain difficulties.

So alas the world shall not witness my designs for a Goblin riding atop a murder-raptor who's skill at deflecting blows from their horrifying toxic faceripper is unmatched, that they can heal at least competently to boot, shall never come to fruition.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

My seed of an idea was to make the PC the mount, with the Wild Cohort being a monkey/ape that rode them and had the Cavalry Charger feat. However, the rules got wonky surprisingly fast, and even without that it would still be basically just a martial rehash of my Silverwood Arcanist comp. build. Plus I couldn't dredge up any inspiration for the fluff, which was the final nail in the coffin.

[Dmgktrl]

Nice entries! So happy to see someone successfully worked in Ashworm Dragoon!

My ill-fated, invalidated build was Wu-Jen 5/Zhentarim Skymage 5/Silverwood Outrider 5/Abjurant Champion 5. By level 20, he had Invisible Spell Giant Size Body Outside Body shared with his nightmare mount (Colossal sized) to create a one man stampede of Invisible Colossal Nightmares charging with Gargantuan sized copies burning spell slots for damage bonuses. As an extra, he mimicked all the abilities of Silverwood Arcanist by the end without taking any levels in that class. For fun. :smallbiggrin:

[Thrice Dead Cat]

Nice entries! So happy to see someone successfully worked in Ashworm Dragoon!

It was years ago, but I had a player use that class on his Paladin to hilarious effect. I want to say we worked out an alternative to the poison so that he could still be a Paladin but get more out of it than "just" stacking his Special Mount bonuses onto the worm. I don't remember what it was, but considering Ashworms are basically mini-Purple Worms, I think we gave it a Bite Attack. At one point, he also quad-wielded lances.


My ill-fated, invalidated build was Wu-Jen 5/Zhentarim Skymage 5/Silverwood Outrider 5/Abjurant Champion 5. By level 20, he had Invisible Spell Giant Size Body Outside Body shared with his nightmare mount (Colossal sized) to create a one man stampede of Invisible Colossal Nightmares charging with Gargantuan sized copies burning spell slots for damage bonuses. As an extra, he mimicked all the abilities of Silverwood Arcanist by the end without taking any levels in that class. For fun. :smallbiggrin:

I had an idea of going Arcane Caster 2/Silverwood Arcanist 5/Silverwood Outrider 5, qualifying via things like Sanctum Spell, and then finishing off with something else that would boost casting and mount progression, but it felt inelegant and really didn't do much of anything with both of the Silverwood PrCs.

Another idea was to use the Beastmaster PrC and load up on Animal Companions, so some cheesy supermount work, and have Brute Mount apply to each Animal Companion. The Chairman's ruling on the class features only applying to either a Special Mount or Wild Cohort felt like that'd be pushing it too far. Yeah, they'd each be an Animal Companion, but it didn't taste right to be.

[GreatWyrmGold]

At one point, he also quad-wielded lances.
Did he have four arms, or something more interesting?

[Thrice Dead Cat]

Did he have four arms, or something more interesting?

He started as a regular human. I think he used the Girallon Arms spell or similar ability to get the extra arms. There may have also been houserules in effect, considering most of the "full attack so long as your mount moves no more than its movement in one round" type abilities prevent charge attacks, and I'm almost positive he started the final battle charging with all four lances.

Glimbur might remember more than I do, as I'm all but certain that was a game we DM'd together in college.

[Glimbur]

To be honest I don't recall just how much murdering that character did or how. Dice fell, things died. But I do recall how Team Good paid off Team Evil to throw the big, campaign ending fight at the end of the semester. Good times.

Oh yeah, on topic, any idea how we can find a judge?

[Thurbane]

There was a lot more judging offers last round; I'm hoping someone steps up.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Well, I didn't actually submit my build, so I guess I'm available. I'll do my best...

[GreatWyrmGold]

I rushed towards the end, because I need to leave for D&D, but here we go!


First Impressions: Nice analysis of the Outrider and Cavalry Charger.
Chameleon is cool; psychic Chameleon is even cooler (since psionics and other alternative magic systems can’t be replicated within Chameleon).
Doesn’t the Outrider say you can use an animal companion instead of Wild Cohort if you wanted? (Or you could’ve done an ardent/druid and had two animal buddies, kinda like I was going to, except with more psychic powers and fewer whales.)
I had no compunctions about picking up (a couple) fighter bonus feats through a technically-not-fighter class. Guess you honored the spirit of the rules better than me.

Originality: Psychic chameleon is pretty unique! Silverbrow human, on the other hand, is one of those obvious must-pick races (albeit taken for a different reason than normal). Dire tortoise and elephant are obvious animal companion picks; also, switching from (relatively) ordinary herd animals to those monstrosities makes the character feel much less cohesive, but that’s more of an Elegance thing. 3.5/5?

Power: Lots of detail about both combat tactics and downtime, though maybe a little too dependent on downtime. It sounds pretty effective, even if your giant tortoise can’t separately stomp every enemy with all of its feet. And it has spellcasting and manifesting; even if they’re not up to full caster or even dedicated theurge levels, that’s hardly nothing. 5/5

Elegance: The abuse of floating feats is...a thing. Using the floating feat to selectively qualify for other feats is neat, and almost certainly legal; the only part that doesn’t feel RAI is the part where you effectively lock down a floating bonus feat for several levels. Shape Soulmeld I’ll grant you, that technically works; there are no rules suggesting incarnum users should reshape soulmelds every day.
Arguing that you keep known powers when you lose the Expanded Knowledge, just because it doesn’t explicitly say you forget those powers if you lose the feat, even though you’re not supposed to be able to lose feats? Well, I wouldn’t let that fly at my table, and I doubt many DMs would. There doesn’t seem to be anything in the feat’s prose that’s different from any other feat with a passive non-numerical bonus.
Three-quarters of the build qualifies for multiclassing penalties, and for eight levels it qualifies for double multiclassing penalties. That’s not a huge ding, since nobody uses multiclassing penalties, but it’s not not a ding. That said, your only actual dip is the special ingredient.
And, of course, the shenanigans. The build doesn’t rely on any, but they’re still there.
Overall...let’s go with 2/5, mostly because of the feat shuffling.

Use of Components: You only used one level of Outrider, which gives you a notable penalty, even though half the entries did. You partly make up for it with the focus on Cavalry Charger, and of course the way you centered your build around “How do I make these materials useful?” 4/5

Final Thoughts: This feels like the TRPG equivalent of a tool-assisted speedrun; all the mechanics are in place, and (aside from some questionable floating feat shenanigans) it works very well. But at the same time, it only works as a theoretical exercise; an actual person playing it in an actual game probably couldn’t pull all of this off. And there’s no soul to the character, no sense that it exists as anything more than a vehicle for mechanics; like a TAS, it sacrifices the spirit of the game to maximize one specific end.
To some extent, that’s normal for this kind of contest. You’re trying to build the most powerful character, not one that would be fun to roleplay. But at the same time, lots of people have done better! Literally everyone else submitted a build that feels more like a character at an actual D&D table than Norse Whisperer—even the nameless “bearstack,” who feels like a joke character someone in my D&D group would throw together because he realized it was technically legal.
There are a lot of disconnected pieces of characterization around your build. Chameleon is a very specific class, psionics have a specific flavor, the name “Norse Whisperer” is obviously a pun on “horse whisperer” but “Norse” has some thematic implications, etc. But there’s nothing tying them together into a cohesive whole; it’s just a bunch of disparate ideas.
None of this is actually lowering your score, of course; that’s why I’m dumping it under Final Thoughts and not the category it’s penalizing. But it’s still something I wanted to say.


First Impressions: Well this seems like a very silly build. I like it! (Bear-stacking lulz aside, it’s interesting how druidy shapeshifting found its way into these definitely-non-druid builds.)
It’s a shame you can’t make bearbarian work, both for thematic reasons and because I’d love to see how a mounted grapple build would work. On a related note, Bear Warrior is a cool class, but my gosh is it barren. (Bearen? Sorry, I’ll see myself out.) You occasionally get a new bear form, one daily rage at 7th level, and that’s it. It could probably star in its own Junkyard Wars contest...

Radish: “A full attack? That won’t work on me! I’m Radish!” (https://youtu.be/aBm_2IUn4MU?t=344)
Beefalo: “You can’t replace me like this! I’m Radish!”
Spike: Did you have to label him “horny” (https://youtu.be/Tmm8ig9P_Ak)?
Tooth: Three-horns never play with furry-necks.

Tanuki: I realize I’m leaving out a couple steps between that and this, but is there any way for a druid/ranger/etc to make their animal companion more supernaturally fey-ey?
Panda: ...is not a panda! (https://youtu.be/DgK4cVdmYIk?t=20)
Grizzly: Okay, I realize this line is just naming each bear after a kind of bear (or canid, in Tanuki’s case), but naming it after its own kind of bear feels...uncreative.
Ice Bear: Better.

Spite: Wasn’t he a scelidosaur or stegosaur or something? ...oh, wait, you said Spite, my bad.
Leaper: The inevitable fleshraker. (So far, we’re 2/2 on bringing that piece of work up.)
Twonk: Ugh, I still haven’t figured out what the difference between a twink and a twunk is, and now you drop this on me?
Littlehorn: One of Daddy Topps’s nephews, I assume? (yes, that’s his canonical name)
Bigtwonk: Ugh, I still haven’t figured out the difference between a bigtwink and a bigtwunk…
The Return of Tooth: Is it just me, or does “tooth” not sound much like a threehorn name? It sounds more like a sharptooth name, albeit a rather on-the-nose one.

It’s very straightforward; I approve!

Originality: Supremely derivative, 0/5 (https://webarebears.fandom.com/wiki/The_Bears/Bear_Stack)
Jokes aside, a bearzerker should have been the last thing anyone expected from this contest, behind even whale-riding not-paladins. The build outside of that is pretty unsurprising—some martial maneuvers, the expected mounted combat feats, etc—but barbarian and bear warrior make up 70% of the build.
Neanderthal is always a nice race to see. The benefits they offer aren’t that special, but that just makes it more obvious that anyone picking it is doing so for flavor, and neanderthal has a distinct flavor. Of course, since my first entry to this kind of contest (Alsanel/Lenadel Sere) was a neanderthal, I might be biased. Anyways, dinosaur-riding caveman is a great flavor for this particular contest (if more predictable than bearzerker).
One point I’ll mark you down for: These two fun high concepts clash. Can you really call yourself a dinosaur-riding caveman if both caveman and dinosaur turn into bears? 4.5/5

Power: I have a hard time judging power in this kind of contest (which is part of why I try not to judge contests where power is such a focus). It seems pretty effective though? Low on shenanigans, but effective anyways. 4.5/5?

Elegance: Half the build gets triple multiclassing penalties (and another quarter gets double penalties), so it’s unusable at the one table that uses that rule. I consider multiclassing penalties a precise, if not always accurate*, metric for multiclassing inelegance. Four total classes, including a one-level dip, certainly isn’t helping your elegance!
On the other hand, it’s not like you grabbed a level or two of barbarian and warblade for the features you wanted and then skedaddled. And there aren’t a lot of questionable rulings involved in your character getting their basic abilities, aside from arguing whether or not you can bear-form your mount (for one thing, the interaction between Mounted Fury and Bear Form is somewhat open to interpretation) and whether bear-forming your mount is actually a good idea. Of course, those strike me as rather complementary issues; if either or both comes up, just don’t transform your mount. It’s boring, but it works.
Anyways. Let’s say 3/5

*When the two terms are not used synonymously, precision means getting consistent results and accuracy means getting close to the right result.

Use of Components: You only used one level of Outrider, which gives you a notable penalty, even though half the entries did. Most of the build focuses on turning into a bear, but you have a feat that’s intended to make your mount also turn into a bear, so I’ll count that. 3.5/5

Final Thoughts: If I had to pick one word to describe the bearstack, it’s “straightforward”. The ‘stack is a fun idea, and it seems surprisingly effective for how ridiculous it is. It’s effective in a very simple way, being good at charging and dealing damage, but that’s all you need when you’re a bear trying to ride another bear.


First Impressions: I always like when entries try to tie some kind of storyline to their character’s advancement. It’s a very boilerplate sort of adventurer backstory, but it’s there.
...and that’s about it. It’s a very simple entry, for better and for worse.

Originality: If I was going to suggest classes who would work well as mounted warriors, “totemist” would be...somewhere around the upper-middle of the list. They don’t have anything that particularly disposes them towards mounted combat, but nothing would stop them from saddling up, and they’re a pretty popular class in general. Strongheart halfling is a very default sort of choice. (Shame that you don’t seem to have used any mounted-halfling support, though you did take the halfling substitution levels.)
Beyond that...nothing really stands out. Manarro isn’t a psychic chameleon, or a bearzerker, or a dinosaur-riding caveman, or an ashworm dragoon. Manarro is just a mounted totemist. 3/5

Power: Hard to judge. It seems like a functional Totemist build and a functional mounted build, but I’m not sure how well the two components work together. Dismount Attack gives a bit of flexibility for when mounted charges aren’t viable, and that’s a good thing for a mounted charger build to have. 3/5

Elegance: Class-level-wise, you get a perfect score. Sure, you have multiclassing penalties for two-thirds of your career, but that’s because the required ingredient is a 5-level prestige class. Hitting the sweet spot so early (6th level, compared to 12-15 for the other builds) is also a bonus. And there’s no shenanigans or weird tricks or anything. You know what, you just get a perfect score period. 5/5

Use of Components: You used all levels of Outrider, which gives you a notable boost, even though half the entries did. And you certainly made a mounted charger. Nothing to penalize you for, but at the same time, nothing to praise either. 4.5/5

Final Thoughts: Manarro is...an entry. I feel like I don’t have a good idea of what he can do, or why the build was built like this. It’s very elegant, but I don’t have anything else to say about it. There isn’t much there; no detailed tactics, no fun tricks, no flair. It works, but it’s dull. I want to add some kind of qualifier, find something nice to say about it, but...there’s just not much to talk about.


First Impressions: I love the name, as a name for a paladin. “Maria” is a name associated with purity and spirituality thanks to a certain virgin, and the title indicates that she takes her piety in a martial direction. It’s great; five little words and you establish your character’s identity. But it leaves out the bit where she’s a desert-dwelling mini-sandworm-rider, which feels important.
looks up Harmonious Knight substitution level Wait, you’re a singing mini-sandworm-riding silvercactus paladin?
I’m glad someone else decided to use Wild Cohort to have two animal buddies instead of just one.

Originality: I’m surprised that nobody else picked up a second mounted-combat prestige class. If anyone had, Ashworm Dragoon would probably be a ding to originality. Not a big one, though—sandworms are a lot different than horses! 4.5/5

Power: Maria seems pretty potent, I suppose. 3.5/5

Elegance: Classes are good; it’s not just one base class and the required ingredient, but it’s close.
I’d have probably picked up at least a level or two of Ashworm Dragoon sooner, so the “sandworm-rider” thing didn’t come so late in the build. Earlier levels are functional, they’re just not the same, you know? 4/5

Use of Components: You used all levels of Outrider, which gives you a notable boost, even though half the entries did. And you added another ten levels of a mount-focused class. 4/5

Final Thoughts: A pretty strong note to end on! Not perfect—both character and tactics feel a bit lacking—but good and very distinctive.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Thanks for judging!

BTW, prestige classes don't count for multiclassing penalties. Doesn't really matter for the scores, because you're using the rule to measure how much multiclassing is happening rather than as an actual consideration for a game, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

[Thurbane]

Thanks for judging GWG, much appreciated. :smallsmile:

I'll post disputes as/if I get any.

[loky1109]

elephant ... also, switching from (relatively) ordinary herd animals
I can't keep silent. Elephants are one of the herdest animals. Only humans and maybe whales are herder.

[Thurbane]

I can't keep silent. Elephants are one of the herdest animals. Only humans and maybe whales are herder.

I don't want to speak on behalf of a judge, but yes, elephants are definitely herd animals.

Ordinary, however, is subjective: in a D&D world, an elephant seems pretty innocuous compared to, say, a giant tortoise. However, if you asked ancient troops from our past who were used to horses, and maybe camels, I bet the first thing they thought when they saw enemies mounted on elephants wasn't "Oh, that's a perfectly ordinary looking mount". I imagine they would have been terrified!

[GreatWyrmGold]

What Thurbane said. Also, the elephant in question was a dire elephant (I meant "dire [tortoise and elephant], not "[dire tortoise] and elephant"), which is also extraordinary (if not outright supernatural).

[Thrice Dead Cat]

Thanks for judging!

BTW, prestige classes don't count for multiclassing penalties. Doesn't really matter for the scores, because you're using the rule to measure how much multiclassing is happening rather than as an actual consideration for a game, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

I was going to make pretty much the same comment regarding multiclass penalties. Multiclass penalties are such an odd rule, and the fact that Prestige Class (and Racial Paragon Class) levels are exempt makes them that much odder.


In a vacuum, they were probably added to minimize perceived abuse by the ADND multiclassing options, but 3.X's system is different enough that that same exact issue never came into play. Well, that, and the 1,001 Prestige Classes churned out over the course of the edition effectively replaced things like Fighter/Wizards or Fighter/Thieves with Eldritch Knights, Dread Commandos, and everything else.

At any rate, I appreciate you judging the entries, GWG! It's interesting to see the variations in entry classes. Heck, between the four characters, there's almost an entire adventurer party with the Ardent/Chameleon taking the place of primary caster, the bear beatsticks, Totemist as vague Ranger-esque skill monkey, and the Paladin, as, well, a Paladin.

[ciopo]

The four mountperson of apocalypse!

With animal growth targeting all the animals.

That would be sweet to see

[PoeticallyPsyco]

The four mountperson of apocalypse!

With animal growth targeting all the animals.

That would be sweet to see

Someone actually did that for the Silverwood Arcanist comp!

Lemme pull it up real quick...



Dan, the four-horse man of the Rockalypse


https://i.imgur.com/MiU1ye0.jpg


Preamble: This entire build supposes that there is a DM that works with you to make it happen. Ask about fractional BAB, you’ll want it. If not, don't worry, you just need to survive 8 levels with four 3-4 HD friends and a large number of first level spells.

Race: This whole build is about exploiting share soulmeld as best as possible, and the means of doing so will go through the prestige class of chameleon, Found in races of Destiny on page 111. This prestige class has the ability to get third level spells in 3 levels, which is necessary to get into Silverwood arcanist. The prereqs for chameleon require the able learner feat, which we will discuss how to maximally exploit later. Able learner requires you to be a human, changeling, or doppleganger, so we choose human. Also, Bluff and Disguise need to be at 8 ranks by level 5, so we need a way to add them to class skills as we bounce around in Base Classes to collect animal companions. To get disguise, we are going to choose a human subrace...Silverbrow human, found in Dragon Magic on Page 6. Instead of an extra skill point, you get disguise as a perma-class skill, a +2 bonus to it, and featherfall as a spell like ability 1/day per 5 HD. You also keep that sweet sweet bonus feat. To get bluff as a permanent class skill, we are going to be a silverbrow human from one of the great 7 clans: the scorpion clan. Found in Oriental Adventures on page 10. Now you have permanent bluff and disguise skills, and you can just cross class the rest of the sense motive requirement

Abilities:
Str 10
Dex 14
Con 14
Int 16
Wis 14
Cha 10

Level 1: Brahmin: The Brahmin is an alternative shaman found in the web THE MAHASARPA CAMPAIGN enhancement of Oriental Adventures on page 7. (found here (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20011019a): ) The Shaman is a 3.0 Class from Oriental adventures that grants domains, divine Wis based spell casting, an animal companion, and unarmed strike as a bonus feat. The animal companion class feature is 3.0 and is based off the spell animal friendship, just as the druid was in 3.0 edition. The shaman is updated in dragon #318 but that update completely neglects the animal companion update part for the shaman. Why? The easiest and most likely ruling is that the shaman gets the animal companion feature of druids in 3.5. So the rest of this build presupposes that this is the path forward. The alternative is to ask if urban druid's urban companion can be affected by feats and prestige classes that help animal companions.

So to the shaman...

As far as domain choices, and the only reason that Dash is a Brahamin instead of a shaman is the access to the meditation domain (found on page 8) The Meditation domain has the granted power: Each day, you can prepare one spell as though it had the Empower Spell feat applied to it. However, this spell is at its normal level, not at two levels higher (as with the regular metamagic feat). You need not know the Empower Spell feat to use this ability.

The other domain isn’t that important, but that free empower is really nice. The spell compendium on page 4 says this: "Also, consider using the cleric domains presented in this book as shaman domains."

So we are supposing that these domains found in the spell compendium are options that are available to select. If spell compendium is not available, take the Fury domain in Oriental adventures. This domain power gives you a 1/day +4 to hit and grants access to the "weapon bless" spell, which is fun if you know who you want to kill.

WEAPON BLESS - Transmutation Components: V, S, F Casting Time: 10 minutes Range: Touch. Target: Weapon touched. Duration: Permanent until discharged. Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless, object). Spell Resistance: Yes (harmless, object)
You prepare one weapon for combat against a particular foe. While casting the spell, you write the identity of the foe on the weapon, along with spirit invocations to give the weapon
power. Although you do not need to know the exact name of the intended victim, you must still identify the creature specifically. You cannot, for example, bless a weapon for use against “a kappa,” but you can bless it for use against “the kappa who lives in Ch’i Sheng’s pond.”
The first time the blessed weapon is used against the target creature, its wielder gains a +5 enhancement bonus on the first attack roll and a +5 bonus on damage if the first attack is successful. After the first attack, or if the weapon is used against another foe before it is used against the target creature, the writings on the blade disappear and the spell effect ends.
Focus: A writing brush and ink.

Other OA domains to consider are the nature domain (rebuke animals and plants) or the war domain (weapon focus lance)

The other 1st level Shaman spells to consider are SNA 1, Attraction, Bless water, and Obscuring mist.

If Spell compendium domains are allowed, there are a few good options! The planning domain, which grants you the extend spell feat is my favorite choice and the one that this build will use. Other great options are the rune domain (grants scribe scroll), and if you get fractional BAB approved, absolutely consider getting the retribution domain. Maximum damage on a charging lance is fantastic.

I don’t suggest using SNA all that much because you have an animal companion and a cohort in addition to yourself. But if you want to slow the entire game down to nothing, the summoner domain gives you a +2 to caster level.

Feats: Able learner and wild cohort (human bonus), extend spell (planning domain), Improved unarmed strike.

Companions!
We are taking heavy horses for both the animal companion and the cohort. These horses will be obtained in the forgotten realms, and will be of the Kromlor stock. These 2,200 pound horses are found in Champions of Valor page 155. Kromlor (CR 1): As heavy horse (MM 273) except +2 Str, +2 Con.

Seeing as how they are not warhorses, Just heavy horses, we have the option of getting the warbeast template (Monster Manual 2 page 219) onto them via the handle animal skill. When we get ranks in it. And that’s the plan for these companions for now. They’re all gonna be kromlor warbeasts. The nice thing about horses is that they have hooves, which are explicitly named in the better mounted feats.

The stats for a kromlor before warbeasting are:
Spd 50, endurance, run, scent, 3HD, 2 hoof attacks (1d6), Str 18, Dex 13, Con 17, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 6

After warbeasting
Spd 60, endurance run, scent, combative mount, 4HD, 2 hoof attacks (1d6), Str 21, Dex 13, Con 20, Int 2, Wis 14, Cha 6. Because you have 4HD, add a +1 to that strength score to bring it to 22.


Level 2: Wilderness companion combat wizard
Wilderness companion is a found in Unearthed arcana on page 58 Trade that familiar for another kromlor! Effective druid level = ½ wizard level. Combat Wizard is on page 59. Trade scribe scroll for mounted combat. Silverwood arcanist Prereqs: complete.

Being a specialist is an option and in my opinion for a few hours there, diviner was the best way to go here, as 1/day you can add your int bonus to a roll. Ban necromancy and be done with it, this is probably what you need to do if there is no fractional BAB available to you.

For this build however, we are an illusionist, so that we can trade away bonus spells per day for 2 illusion spells per newly gained spell level and the spell mastery feat applied to them via Unearthed arcana’s variant specialists. Ban necromancy and enchantment.

Feats: Mounted combat

Spells: master’s touch, benign transposition, weapon shift, blockade, mage armor, caltrops, fist of stone, enlarge person, disguise self, spellflower,

Level 3: Skilled city dweller totemist

Feats: share soulmeld

Soulmelds: sharing a soulmelds with all three of your kromlors is going to be fun. At first level, the totemist doesn't have any chakra binds, so we are left with choosing soulmelds with the best benefit for two out of three angry horses to share. Luckily, because we're silverbrow, we have the dragonblood subtype, so the soulmelds in dragon magic are available as option. Claws of the wyrm give your horses two 1d8 damage claw attacks on top of their hoof attacks. Found here (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20060912a&page=4)

Dragon mantle and the Phoenix soulmelds offer some energy resistances. But wormtail belt is probably you other best soulmelds to be sharing for the plusses to AC.

If you learned reduce person, you can share it with one of your horses and the riding bracers will allow them to ride another horse (but you'll need to invest in an exotic saddle, preferably master work.)

Level 4: skilled city dweller deadly hunter urban sense druid.

You ain't getting wildshape, you're here for the sweet horse. Trade that away. We are also trading ride away. Gotta get those crossclass ranks up.

Spells: spider hand from BOVD when shared, allows your horses to be able to provide another 2 to 4 medium monstrous spiders to the fight by cutting off their claws of the wyrm. Aspect of the Wolf is nice when paired with the dread carapace soulmeld. Ride of the valenar can help with your horses riding horses trick. Aquatic escape and winged watcher, when shared will help you get those horses into some nooks and crannies.

Skunk scent is a nice sickened debuff that you get 3 extra attack rolls with when shared.

Lions charge helps with all of those natural attacks.

Level 5: totemist

Share soulmeld just got better. Now you can share soulmelds on totem slots. Girallon arms for 4 claws, or maybe blink shirt to teleport around, or landshark boots for hands, or shedu crown for trample. Urban greaves for overrunning fun.

Level 6: Chameleon

Here it is, the king of casting classes. You get 2 caster levels per level and you start with 2nd level spells. This is the chassis that is going to get us up to 3rd level spells for Silverwood arcanist, and stuff is gonna get really cheesey in about 3-5 levels.

You now have access to every single base class arcane/divine spell list, including paladin and bard. Because of that, after bumping our arcane caster level in chameleon through the silverwood arcanist prestige class, we will be using geomancer’s spell versatility to do something really weird with the chameleon spell table. Can you use an arcane spell slot to cast a divine spell? Can you use your arcane spellcaster level as your divine spellcaster level?

Remember when we chose to be an illusionist instead of something better way back on level 2. Well, buddy, go read that master illusionist text again, and realize that you just got access to a new spell level and can add 2 illusion spells to your spellbook, and you get to treat them as being spell masteried. Quick Question...if you lose access to the spell level and then get it back, say by being a chameleon who goes all roguey for a day or two, do you get more mastered spells?

"Illusion Mastery (Ex)
An illusionist using this variant automatically adds two illusion spells to his spellbook every time he gains a level that grants access to a new spell level. Furthermore, any time the illusionist learns a new illusion spell, he treats that spell as if be had mastered it with the Spell Mastery feat.
An illusionist using this variant does not gain additional spells per day for being a specialist wizard."

The question becomes What is the definition of the word “NEW” in the context of spell levels.
Just imagine what will happen when you get uncanny forethought (exemplars of evil page 26) and geomancer (complete divine page 41) working together. Do spell levels in divine classes count? Asking for a friend who has an aptitude focus to choose tomorrow. It probably won’t work then. But it absolutely will when you’re a geomancer 3. Looks like bewildering substitution or know the shadows is getting on your arcane list! Even better...did you see that other ability? Leave open a spell slot, and cast any spell you know, and man, wouldn’t it be nice to use that on literally divine class you choose with chameleon? You better get yourself a filterable query table for all the spells in the game when adventuring with this combo…

Anyway, you now have access to some of the most important spells in your arsenal of hate! Heroics! Free fighter feats for you and 3 horse friends. Do those bonus fighter feats stack? Only one way to find out. Do your horses want power attack? Do they want improved over run?

You also get wings of cover! Only the greatest nope spell in the world, and you can share it with your companions.

It just gets crazier from here guys, honestly.

For this level we take the companion spellbond so that you don't have to have a crazy formation to share spells. Ask your DM if it also affects your share soulmeld ability.

Chamelion 2: When you’re told to retire this character concept.

A new feat everyday! What happens if you obtain a familiar, do you lose it after you lose the feat. (What about open minded, with its free 5 skill ranks). Let’s assume that you’re not allowed to abuse those.

We have the floating bonus feet. the first thing you want to do is craft wand of heroics. heroics grants a fighter bonus feat. Choose ride by attack as the fighter bonus feat. Cast that, as necessary, on the day where you begin crafting a Battle Bridel and/or riding boots, both of which are found in the magic item compendium on pages 151 and 121 respectively. Now for about five to six thousand gold you have ride by attack. Make an extra and sell it to the Silverwood arcanists. Heck, I’m sure it would go a long way toward silverwood arcanist recruitment if there were a crafter getting paid to produce these things. Use that money to buy materials for crafting stuff.

Just make wands of all of the spells for every class and keep spending skill points on UMD.

You can take natural bond and level up one of your companions (stupid erratta) to some extra HD. Irresistable gaze is a good option for basilisk mask, which we will talk about next level, when you have access to the spell rockburst from the druid list.

Level 8: Chamelion 3-The end of everything good and the age of cheese.

So, let’s start this level with just crafting ourselves a griffonlance of goring. Found HERE (https://www.realmshelps.net/faerun/lore/mintiper/10.shtml) We now have spirited attack. Witch is mad sweet because we have access to two spells that make lances now. Laerals silver lance (City of Splendor Water deep page 156), and ice lance (spell compendium page 119). Put these things on wands. Cuz if your horse is charging, and you have rideby attack, you can do triple damage spell-based lance attacks. Look at how stupidly convenient the wording is on laeral’s silver lance.


"This spell brings into being a shimmering, silver lancelike column of force, equivalent to a Large lance. The lance flies toward a single creature you pantomime throwing it at when you cast the spell. Its attack bonus is equal to your caster level + your Intelligence bonus or your Charisma bonus (for wizards or sorcerers, respectively) with an additional +3 enhancement bonus and a +2 bonus for charging. It deals 4d6+3 points of force damage, with a threat range of 20 and a critical multiplier of x3. In addition, the creature struck must succeed on a Fortitude save or be knocked prone by the impact. Focus: A miniature platinum lance engraved with arcane runes that costs 250 gp to construct."

That 12d6+9 points of damage bro, coming out of a 3rd level spell slot, and you get one free empower per day. (18d6+9)

Icelance (Spell Compendium, p. 119) Conjuration (Creation) Level: Druid 3, Sorcerer 3, Wizard 3, Components: V, S, AF, DF, Casting Time: 1 standard action Range: Medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level) Effect: One lance of ice Duration: Instantaneous Saving Throw: Fortitude partial Spell Resistance: Yes You clutch the quartz in your hand, focusing the energy of the spell into a sharp spear. With a thought, you send it whistling through the air at your foe. You must succeed on a normal ranged attack to strike a target with an icelance. You gain a +4 bonus on your attack roll. If you hit, the icelance deals 6d6 points of damage to the target. Half of this damage is piercing damage; the rest is cold damage. In addition, the target must make a Fortitude save or be stunned for 1d4 rounds. Regardless of the result of the attack, the icelance shatters upon its first use. Focus: A 50-gp clear quartz gemstone. Alternatively, if you are in a cold region, you can substitute 10 pounds of ice or snow for the quartz.

That’s even crazier. Your fireballs are supposed to 8d6.

But that’s just a pleasant side effect of what we really were after: if we bind the basilisk mask to our totem chakra and share it, and the Save DC against a 1 full round flesh to stone effect is based on your warmount kromlor’s stats; well…. that is 3 saves that need to be made. At full essencia, that looks like your opponent needs to pass all three DC 18 (10+3(essencia)+5 con mod) fort saves.

But Dash, why aren’t you using the basilisk mask to force a 4th fort save. The answer is so simple, Dan’s action is a readied casting of Rockburst! Found page 48 of Shining South. Opponents are dumb, crush them.

What happens if you basilisk mask your friends and then cast clearstone on them?

Clearstone (Lost Empires of Faerun page 31) Transmutation [Earth] Level: Sorcerer 3, Wizard 3, Components: V, S, M, Casting Time: 1 standard action Range: Touch Target: Stone or stone object touched, up to 1 cu. ft./level Duration: 1 minute/level (D) Saving Throw: None Spell Resistance: No You cause a rock or section of stone to become transparent. This spell affects naturally occurring stone, ore, gemstones in the rough, and even worked stone such as a statue or tunnel wall, but not worked metals, cut gems, or fabricated stone materials such as brick or concrete. Visibility through the affected stone is perfectly clear and limited only by the available light or by objects and creatures embedded in the stone (such as a creature using meld into stone). Clearstone grants line of sight, but not line of effect, through the affected stone. This spell does not change a stone's hardness or other qualities in any way. Clearstone can be made permanent using permanency (minimum caster level 11th, 1,500 XP). Arcane Material Component: A small, flat piece of glass.

If you have the cleric list on your adventuring day, you can use the 2nd level spell stoneshape (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/stoneShape.htm) to turn your opponents arms into cat faces. They turn back to flesh next round, and instead of arms they just have two little meowing cat heads attached to their torso. Actually, they'll be gross scars that look like cat faces.

What we are really trying to get to is this spell. Which is just a few levels away. So Let's go take 5 levels of silverwood arcanist.

Stone Metamorphosis (Underdark) Transmutation [Earth] Level: Cleric 4, Druid 4, Sorcerer 6, Wizard 6, Components: V, S, M, DF, Casting Time: 1 standard action Range: Touch Target: Stone object touched, up to 10 cu. ft. + 1 cu. ft./level Duration: Instantaneous Saving Throw: None Spell Resistance: No You can change an existing piece of rock to another type of rock. For instance, you can make crumblestone into granite, substantially strengthening it. (See Chapter 7 for more information on types of stone). Precious and semiprecious gems cannot be manufactured with this spell, and its effect does not change the monetary value of the affected stone object. Arcane Material Component: A grain of talc and a chip of obsidian.

Let’s check out chapter seven page 104: magimorphic rocks, there are two that we’re gonna use:

Photogenerative Rock: These rocks grow quickly when exposed to light. In each round of exposure, a photogenerative rock doubles in size until it’s sixteen times as large as it was when
unlit (4 rounds). Eliminating the light halts its growth, and each hour of darkness reverses the effect of 1 round of light. Some Underdark undead use photogenerative rock in their demesnes to stall light-bearing adventurers until the undead can ready their defenses. Photogenerative rock can also be used to seal a doorway and divert light-bearers into more trap-ridden or better-defended areas.

Photostatic Rock: Events that happen in the presence of this rock imprint upon it for a short time. One cubic foot of photostatic rock picks up impressions in a 10-foot radius and automatically relays them to anyone who touches it later. The effect is similar to that of a stone tell spell, except that the photostati property reveals only what happened within its radius in the past hour. Every additional cubic foot of photostatic rock provides 1 more hour of memory and expands the radius of sensitivity by 10 feet. A photostatic rock records only what it witnesses (treat its perspective like a burst), so it cannot record what goes on beyond a closed door.

Let’s reread flesh to stone one more time: “The subject, along with all its carried gear, turns into a mindless, inert statue. If the statue resulting from this spell is broken or damaged, the subject (if ever returned to its original state) has similar damage or deformities. The creature is not dead, but it does not seem to be alive either when viewed with spells such as deathwatch.”

I bolded Deformities. Let’s make our mounts bigger and stronger, what do ya say? Let’s basilisk mask them on a bright sunny day, and ready action stone metamorphosis them into photostatic rock. They get 1 round of light exposure and double in size. Looks like our horses are huge now. Do they get more HD? They definitely get more strength and constitution score. Which makes them better at flesh to stoning people with a basilisk mask. Repeat until you have colossal horses if you want. Then do it one more time, and then use successive castings of stone shape to turn it into 32 ugly large size horses, all of which are a single animal companion. If you take natural bond with your floating feat, you can trade a horse for a bison, use this trick, and well...that stampede damage is gonna get up there. But let’s just assume that you you’ll use this trick to get all of your animal companions up a size, which grants a +4 to constitution, which raises basilisk mask Save DCs. http://www.d20srd.org/srd/improvingMonsters.htm

This build was originally designed to go through the lion of Talisid Class and gain advancement on all 3 companions simultaneously, this also would have granted wildshape and advance chameleon casting. But...If you can wrangle a few extra HD for your companions by basilisk masking them into photogenerative rock and thus growing them up a size level or two, Let’s do that. It's cooler to have horses the size of tarrasques anyway.

At this level, after taking the trample feat and having used the shifting bonus feat of chameleon to craft items that grant you ride-by attack, and spirited charge, you can cast heroics to gain the benefit of the Cavalry charger feat. This means that when you charge with your horses, you can make hoof attacks against every creature that you overrun. So let’s talk about how to do that over-running.


Urskan greaves Chakra Bind (Totem) When you attempt to overrun an opponent, the target
cannot choose to avoid you. You also gain a +2 bonus on your Strength check to knock down your opponent, with an additional +1 for every point of essentia you invest in your urskan greaves.

Heavy Cavalry Teamwork Benefit (Heroes of Battle page 117)
Task Leader Prerequisite: Handle Animal 4 ranks, Ride 8 ranks, Mounted Combat, Trample.
Team Member Prerequisite: Ride 1 rank. The members' mounts need not be members of the team.
Benefit: To close their formation, the team members and their mounts first line up in adjacent squares, then move closer together so that each takes up a square half as wide as usual. For example, a Medium character mounted on a horse or other Large creature normally takes up a 10-foot square, and a team of four such characters would occupy a rectangle 40 feet wide and 10 feet deep. By contrast, if the same team had trained together and acquired this teamwork benefit, they could compress their line into a unit only 20 feet wide and 10 feet deep, making it harder for anyone they overrun to dodge between the horses' hooves.
All team members must act on the same initiative count, so some members must delay to match the initiative count of the slowest member in the team.
As long as the characters remain in a cohesive set of squares and move at least their speed every round, they gain the following benefits:
*They don't take the -4 penalty on attack rolls and to AC for squeezing (described on page 29 of the Dungeon Master's Guide).
*Opponents can't avoid overruns from team members; they must attempt to block.
*The team members' mounts count as one size category larger for purposes of resolving overruns. For example, a horse counts as a Huge creature (+8 bonus to overrun) rather than a Large creature (+4).
For the purposes of area spells and determining position on the battlefield, each Medium character on a Large mount is considered to be occupying a space 5 feet wide and 10 feet long.

Alright, let’s share this teamwork benefit with all of our companions. They count as huge and the baddies can’t avoid. They just get bigger once your photogenerative rock trick comes into play

If you have multiple heroics going, you can get power attack and improved overrun on them for another +4 to the overrun rule. If you have a wand of Heroics and multiple castings stack, get awesome blow! Then you can keep knocking your opponent under the trampling feet of the other mounts in the crowded charge. Just keep kicking them under other horses!

Or, a single shared enlarge person or animal will get that +4 instead, and they will count as gargantuan.

B) Shared Urskan greaves can get you another +4.

Or... Let’s bind the shedu crown to your totem instead, cuz then you don’t need cavalry charger to trample everything in a line, and we’ll bind the sphinx claws for all available essencia for a bonus to str. Checks.

C) Wield a lance and get triple damage with one attack. A casting of heroics on yourself for combat reflexes or use of the bonus floating feat to get it will allow you to Attack of opportunity at charging lance damage. Especially if you get the awesome blow trick up and running

Anyway, After Silverwood arcanist, Just finish up the build with geomancer and see how that works out, blending all the different arcane and divine spells together. Remember, Chameleon gets two caster levels per chameleon spellcasting level advanced. Silverwood arcanist only advances the arcane side, but as you rack up geomancer levels, your caster level will skyrocket. Remember that illusionist level, when you get up to a high enough divine level, you get more illusion spells mastered and you have the ability to swap in any spell you cast instead of them at the cost of 2 caster levels. So if you need an illusion spell on the fly, you got it, but if not, whatever casting that you're using on a given day can be swapped in rather than prepared!

With the battle blessing feat, you'll be able to swift action your standard action spells, uncannilly forethoughting them as necessary.



level
Class
BAB
Fort
Ref
Will
Feats
Skills
Class Features


1
shaman (OA p.23)
0
0
0
2
able learner, wild cohort (b), IUS (b)
28: Bluff 4, Concentration 4, Disguise 4, Handle Animal 2, knowledge (arcana) 4, knowledge (nature) 2, ride 2, sense motive 2, spellcraft 4


animal companion


2
wilderness companion combat Illusionist with illusion mastery
0
0
0
4
mounted combat (b)
5: Bluff 5, Concentration 5, Decipher Script 1, Disguise 5, Handle Animal 2, Knowledge (arcana) 5, knowledge (Nature) 2, Ride 2, Sense motive 2, Spellcraft 4
fighter bonus feat, animal companion at 1/2 druid level


3
totemist
0
2
2
4
share soulmeld
7: Bluff 6, Concentration 5, Decipher Script 1, Disguise 6, Handle Animal 3, Knowledge (arcana) 5, knowledge (Nature) 3, Ride 3, Sense motive 3, Spellcraft 4, Use Magic Device 1
wild empathy, 2 soulmelds, 1 essentia


4
deadly hunter (UA p.58) druid
0
4
2
6
track
7: Bluff 7, Concentration 6, Decipher Script 1, Disguise 7, Handle Animal 5, Knowledge (arcana) 5, knowledge (Nature) 3, Ride 3, Sense motive 3, Spellcraft 4, Use Magic Device 3
favored enemy, Wis to AC as monk, fast movement as monk, urban sense, voice of the city


5
totemist
1
5
3
6

7: Bluff 8, Concentration 6, Decipher Script 1, Disguise 8, Handle Animal 5, Knowledge (arcana) 5, knowledge (Nature) 5, Ride 4, Sense motive 4, Spellcraft 4, Use Magic Device 4
totem chakra (+1 capacity)


6
chameleon
(Races of Destiny p. 111) 1
1
5
3
6
companion spellbond
7: Bluff 8, Concentration 6, Decipher Script 3, Disguise 8, Handle Animal 6, Knowledge (arcana) 6, knowledge (Nature) 6, Ride 4, Sense motive 4, Spellcraft 4, Use Magic Device 6
1/day aptitude focus


7
chameleon 2
2
5
3
6
floating feat
7: Bluff 8, Concentration 6, Decipher Script 3, Disguise 8, Handle Animal 8, Knowledge (arcana) 6, knowledge (Nature) 6, Ride 5, Sense motive 4, Spellcraft 4, Survival 2, Use Magic Device 8
floating bonus feat


8
chameleon 3
3
6
4
7

7: Bluff 8, Concentration 8, Decipher Script 4, Disguise 8, Handle Animal 8, Knowledge (arcana) 6, knowledge (Nature) 6, Ride 5, Sense motive 4, Spellcraft 4, Survival 4, Use Magic Device 10
mimic class feature 1/day


9
silverwood arcanist
3
6
4
9
Trample
5: Bluff 8, Concentration 8, Decipher Script 4, Disguise 8, Handle Animal 8, Knowledge (arcana) 6, knowledge (Nature) 6, Ride 9, Sense motive 4, Spellcraft 4, Survival 5, Use Magic Device 10
Fast handling, skilled rider


10
silverwood arcanist
4
6
4
10

5: Bluff 8, Concentration 10, Decipher Script 4, Disguise 8, Handle Animal 8, Knowledge (arcana) 6, knowledge (Nature) 6, Ride 11, Sense motive 4, Spellcraft 4, Survival 6, Use Magic Device 10
cohort trick


11
silverwood arcanist
4
7
5
10
mounted casting
5: Bluff 8, Concentration 11, Decipher Script 4, Disguise 8, Handle Animal 9, Knowledge (arcana) 6, knowledge (Nature) 6, Ride 13, Sense motive 4, Spellcraft 4, Survival 7, Use Magic Device 10
mounted casting


12
silverwood arcanist
5
7
5
11
Uncanny Forethought
(Exemplars of Evil p. 26)


5: Bluff 8, Concentration 13, Decipher Script 4, Disguise 8, Handle Animal 10, Knowledge (arcana) 6, knowledge (Nature) 6, Ride 15, Sense motive 4, Spellcraft 4, Survival 7, Use Magic Device 10
cohort trick


13
silverwood arcanist
5
7
5
11

5: Bluff 8, Concentration 16, Decipher Script 4, Disguise 8, Handle Animal 10, Knowledge (arcana) 6, knowledge (Nature) 6, Ride 16, Sense motive 4, Spellcraft 4, Survival 7, Use Magic Device 11
share spells


14
geomancer
(Complete Divine p. 41)1
5
9
5
13

7: Bluff 8, Concentration 17, Decipher Script 4, Disguise 8, Handle Animal 12, Knowledge (arcana) 6, knowledge (Nature) 6, Ride 17, Sense motive 4, Spellcraft 4, Survival 8, Use Magic Device 13
drift 1, spell versatility 0


15
geomancer 2
6
10
5
14
Battle Blessing ( Complete Champion, p. 55)
7: Bluff 8, Concentration 18, Decipher Script 4, Disguise 8, Handle Animal 14, Knowledge (arcana) 6, knowledge (Nature) 6, Ride 18, Sense motive 4, Spellcraft 4, Survival 10, Use Magic Device 14
Drift 1, ley lines +1, spell versatility 1


16
geomancer 3
7
10
5
14

7: Bluff 8, Concentration 19, Decipher Script 4, Disguise 8, Handle Animal 16, Knowledge (arcana) 6, knowledge (Nature) 6, Ride 19, Sense motive 4, Spellcraft 4, Survival 11, Use Magic Device 16
Drift 2, spell versatility 2


17
geomancer 4
8
11
6
15

7: Bluff 8, Concentration 20, Decipher Script 4, Disguise 8, Handle Animal 18, Knowledge (arcana) 6, knowledge (Nature) 6, Ride 20, Sense motive 4, Spellcraft 4, Survival 13, Use Magic Device 17
Drift 2, spell versatility 3


18
geomancer 5
8
11
6
15
skill focus appraise, i don't care anymore, I typed too much
7: Bluff 8, Concentration 21, Decipher Script 4, Disguise 8, Handle Animal 19, Knowledge (arcana) 6, knowledge (Nature) 6, Ride 21, Sense motive 4, Spellcraft 4, Survival 15, Use Magic Device 19
Drift 3, spell versatility 4


19
geomancer 5
9
12
7
16

7: Bluff 8, Concentration 22, Decipher Script 6, Disguise 8, Handle Animal 20, Knowledge (arcana) 6, knowledge (Nature) 6, Ride 22, Sense motive 4, Spellcraft 4, Survival 16, Use Magic Device 20
Drift 3, ley lines +2, spell versatility 5


20
geomancer 7
10
12
7
16

7: Bluff 8, Concentration 22, Decipher Script 8, Disguise 8, Handle Animal 20, Knowledge (arcana) 6, knowledge (Nature) 6, Ride 22, Sense motive 4, Spellcraft 4, Survival 16, Use Magic Device 23
Drift 4, spell versatility 6



So, as you can see every part of silverwood arcanist is used here. Mounted casting, maximizing that ride crossclass bonus by using skilled city dweller to switch ride to tumble, a free animal trick that you don't even need to train to get, share spells allowing for a fourth Fort save against flesh to stone via basilisk mask/rockburst, advancing chameleon casting.

With the battle blessing feat, you can treat all of your spells as paladin spells for reduced casting time and once you get to the fourth Geomancer level, you can charge and hit with multiple laerals silver lances. This trick is called the Sir lance zealot

On the table, i put skill focus appraise as my 18th level feat, but a better option is to take shape soulmeld incarnate weapon. Use a fuse arm spell on your draconic clawed, girallion armed horses, who you've also casted girrallion arms on (that's 10 extra arms!) Cast fuse arms on them and have the horses wield their incarnate weapons. Cast weapon shift on those weapons and you got a buttload of horses wielding their own lances. This trick is called the equinate weapon.

The weakest part of the build is the 3 animal companions with 4 HD. There is no direct correlation between size and HD so photogenerative shenanigans only boost str and con. At colossal size, we're still pnly looking at 4HD +40hp.

This is where you might have to use the shugenja spell when 2 become one. Cast enlarge person on two horses, get the other two horses to ride them, then share when two become one to merge them together into 2 colossal horses with ~120 hp apiece. Do it again for one colossal mount with ~240 HP. This trick is called the mountryoshka doll.

Tree shape is fun to share with basilisk mask on. This trick shall be entitled: the petrified Forest.

As for level up ability scores, put your 4th, 8th, and 12th level powerups towards intelligence and the 16th and 20th towards wisdom.



Also, Holy Wall of Text, Batman!

[Glimbur]

The numbers don't add up on Norse Whisperer and Manarro. Should be 14.5 for Norse and 15.5 for Mannaro.

[GreatWyrmGold]

The numbers don't add up on Norse Whisperer and Manarro. Should be 14.5 for Norse and 15.5 for Mannaro.
That's what happens when you try to throw together the finishing touches on a judgement post five minutes before you need to leave for a D&D game I guess.

[Thurbane]

Speaking of which, dispute time:


Hello GreatWyrmGold, thank you for judging!

You're absolutely right that this is a "technical entry"

The only actual dispute I have is about multiclass penalties. Prestige classes don't count toward multiclassing penalties, so I have none at all =)

That's it. The other thing I want to ask is if the total or the details are correct? for both me and Mannara, on the spoiler you totaled the points to 12.5, but if we sum the individual categories we're at 14.5?

all the musings about "entering with druid/ranger/class with aniaml companion is missing the point" are related to the main draw of this class (in my opinion) : handling as a free action. Animal companions already have that, so qualifying for silverwood outrider with the animal companion/special mount leaves me with the big headscratcher of "well, why would I do that? I already do all the class can offer!"



Hello GreatWyrmGold, thank you for judging!

I want to point out that I don't have any multiclass penalties. Barbarian is the neanderthal favored class, and prestige classes are ignored when considering multiclass penalties. I'm not sure if the elegance is 3/5 because of those or not?

I know I've only taken one level of the PrC, but I have a dislike of filling out an ingredient only for the sake of fullfilling the competition requirements. The first level does give something usuable (free action handle), the other levels are as bearren as Bear warrior as far as I'm concerned. If I take a build element and then not make use of it, I would question why did I take it at all. Sure, the capstone is unique in the "push as a free action", but it's immaterial when we don't have any reason to push and/or pushing as a move action work just as well. If it wouldn't come up / have an impact in gameplay, then it might as well not exists :)

[GreatWyrmGold]

I might have to just submit a new set of judgements once I've heard all disputes. My first set were kind of a mess by the end.

I think I've fixed the math errors for now, though who knows if those totals will still be accurate once I've fixed everything else.
I should probably cut out the multiclassing penalty considerations for the re-judgement. I think I have a decent excuse for not realizing prestige classes didn't affect multiclassing penalties, since I didn't think they were ever mentioned outside that one section in the PHB, but I have no excuse for forgetting that favored classes are a thing.

Norse Whisperer: Good point about the animal companion thing.
Bearstack: Fair enough, but dropping the back 80% of the necessary ingredient is by definition using less of the Necessary Component. I'm not sure removing levels with stuff you don't know how to use showcases the remaining levels' abilities more than including those levels.


Do our other competitors have disputes? (And if not, could they tell the chair so that I know they don't have disputes and I can go back and start fixing stuff?)

[Thurbane]

No more disputes received at this time.

I'll give it a day or so, and if no more, we'll wrap up and post next comp.

I'll do up a table for entries later on, when I get time, unless someone else would like to volunteer?

[mattie_p]

I'm still judging VC, nearly finished, but someone could grab a pre-made table from the Google doc in my signature and make one quick. Also, feel free to link this document in your OP for the next round

[ciopo]

Name
Alignment / Race
Class Levels
Chef
Judge 1
Total
Place


The Norse Whisperer (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25130040&postcount=33)
NG Silverbrow human
Ardent 9 / Chamaleon 10 / Silverwood Outrider 1

14.5




Bearstack (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25130050&postcount=35)
CG Neanderthal
Barbarian 4 / Bear Warrior 10 / Silverwood Outrider 1 / Warblade 5

15.5




Manarro Touranisha (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25130051&postcount=36)
NG Strongheart Halfling
Silverwood Outrider 5 / Totemist 15

15.5




Maria of the Harmonious Order (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25130054&postcount=37)
LG? Human
Ashworm Dragoon 10 / Paladin 5 / Silverwood Outrider 5

16

[Thurbane]

@GWG: I've had confirmation from the other competitors that there are no further disputes.

@Ciopo: thank you kindly for the table.

@mattie_p: thanks, might try to include that in next comp.

[H_H_F_F]

No more disputes received at this time.

I'll give it a day or so, and if no more, we'll wrap up and post next comp.

I'll do up a table for entries later on, when I get time, unless someone else would like to volunteer?

I'm about half way through judging, if you'd like to wait a day or two.

[Thurbane]

I'm about half way through judging, if you'd like to wait a day or two.

Absolutely; sorry, didn't realise we had a second judge working on it.

More judging is always welcome! :smallsmile:

[H_H_F_F]

Absolutely; sorry, didn't realise we had a second judge working on it.

More judging is always welcome! :smallsmile:

That's totally on me; I was a bit hesitant to declare that I'm judging after my last experience attempting to judge, when I ended up holding up the reveal for no reason.

[GreatWyrmGold]

@GWG: I've had confirmation from the other competitors that there are no further disputes.
Cool. I'll start work on my more refined judgements—hopefully I'll finish them before HHFF posts his judgement. So it turns out editing previous judgments is a lot faster than doing the first pass.

Note that some of the scores are slightly different despite the provided logic being the same; this is because I weigh those elements differently than I did a few days ago. Maybe that’s because I’ve had more time to think about it, maybe one of the disputes changed my opinion on something unrelated, maybe it’s just humanity’s mercurial nature and the fact that a few days have passed. What it isn’t is an intentional attempt at screwing someone out of points because I don’ t like their face or whatever.


Originality: Psychic chameleon is pretty unique! Silverbrow human, on the other hand, is one of those obvious must-pick races (albeit taken for a different reason than normal). Dire tortoise and elephant are obvious animal companion picks; also, switching from (relatively) ordinary herd animals to those monstrosities makes the character feel much less cohesive, but that’s more of an Elegance thing. 3.5/5

Power: Lots of detail about both combat tactics and downtime, though maybe a little too dependent on downtime. It sounds pretty effective, even if your giant tortoise can’t separately stomp every enemy with all of its feet. And it has spellcasting and manifesting; even if they’re not up to full caster or even dedicated theurge levels, that’s hardly nothing. This seems like the most powerful entry, though maybe that’s just because it’s the most detailed. 5/5

Elegance: The abuse of floating feats is...a thing. Using the floating feat to selectively qualify for other feats is neat, and almost certainly legal; the only part that doesn’t feel RAI is the part where you effectively lock down a floating bonus feat for several levels. Shape Soulmeld I’ll grant you, that technically works; there are no rules suggesting incarnum users should reshape soulmelds every day.
Arguing that you keep known powers when you lose the Expanded Knowledge, just because it doesn’t explicitly say you forget those powers if you lose the feat, even though you’re not supposed to be able to lose feats? Well, I wouldn’t let that fly at my table, and I doubt many DMs would. There doesn’t seem to be anything in the feat’s prose that’s different from any other feat with a passive non-numerical bonus.
Your multiclassing is honestly not that bad—a bit uneven at times, but the only dip is Silverwood Outrider.
And, of course, the shenanigans. The build doesn’t rely on any, but they’re still there.
Overall...let’s go with 2.5/5, mostly because of the feat shuffling.

Use of Components: You only used one level of Outrider, which gives you a notable penalty, even though half the entries did. You partly make up for it with the focus on Cavalry Charger, and of course the way you centered your build around “How do I make these materials useful?” 4/5


Originality: bearzerker should have been the last thing anyone expected from this contest, behind even whale-riding not-paladins. The build outside of that is pretty unsurprising—some martial maneuvers, the expected mounted combat feats, etc—but barbarian and bear warrior make up 70% of the build.
Neanderthal is always a nice race to see. The benefits they offer aren’t that special, but that just makes it more obvious that anyone picking it is doing so for flavor, and neanderthal has a distinct flavor. Of course, since my first entry to this kind of contest (Alsanel/Lenadel Sere) was a neanderthal, I might be biased. Anyways, dinosaur-riding caveman is a great flavor for this particular contest (if more predictable than bearzerker).
One point I’ll mark you down for: These two fun high concepts clash. Can you really call yourself a dinosaur-riding caveman if both caveman and dinosaur turn into bears? 4.5/5

Power: I have a hard time judging power in this kind of contest (which is part of why I try not to judge contests where power is such a focus). It seems pretty effective though? Low on shenanigans, but effective anyways. 4.5/5

Elegance: Four total classes, including a one-level dip, certainly isn’t helping your elegance.
That said, it’s not like you grabbed a level or two of barbarian and warblade for the features you wanted and then skedaddled. And there aren’t a lot of questionable rulings involved in your character getting their basic abilities, aside from arguing whether or not you can bear-form your mount (for one thing, the interaction between Mounted Fury and Bear Form is somewhat open to interpretation) and whether bear-forming your mount is actually a good idea. Of course, those strike me as rather complementary issues; if either or both comes up, just don’t transform your mount. It’s boring, but it works.
Anyways. Let’s say 4/5

Use of Components: You only used one level of Outrider, which gives you a notable penalty, even though half the entries did. (Even if you don’t have) Most of the build focuses on turning into a bear, but you have a feat that’s intended to make your mount also turn into a bear, so I’ll count that in your favor. 3.5/5


Originality: If I was going to suggest classes who would work well as mounted warriors, “totemist” would be...somewhere around the upper-middle of the list. They don’t have anything that particularly disposes them towards mounted combat, but nothing would stop them from saddling up, and they’re a pretty common class in general. Strongheart halfling is a very default sort of choice. (Shame that you don’t seem to have used any mounted-halfling support, though you did take the halfling substitution levels.)
Beyond that...nothing really stands out. Manarro isn’t a psychic chameleon, or a bearzerker, or a dinosaur-riding caveman, or an ashworm dragoon. Manarro is just a mounted totemist. He has a name and a backstory, but the backstory is very boilerplate adventurer “I don’t have a home and I want to hurt the people who did that”.
And in retrospect, this entry looks even worse; I remembered the gist of who the other characters were before starting this re-judging segment, but I forgot everything about Manarro except the vague sense of absence. Norse Whisperer was little more than an outline, but I’m not sure Manarro even has that? “Totemist cavalier” is just so much less distinctive than “psychic chameleon”. Meldshaping is neat enough to justify a 2/5, but that’s all I can find in his favor.

Power: Hard to judge. It seems like a functional Totemist build and a functional mounted build, but I’m not sure how well the two components work together. Dismount Attack gives a bit of flexibility for when mounted charges aren’t viable, and that’s a good thing for a mounted charger build to have. 3/5

Elegance: No shenanigans, early sweet spot, and only two classes. 5/5, because you didn’t go quite far enough to justify breaking the scoring system.

Use of Components: You used all levels of Outrider, which gives you a notable boost, even though half the entries did. And you certainly made a mounted charger. Nothing to penalize you for, but at the same time, nothing exceptional to praise either. 4.5/5


Originality: I’m surprised that nobody else picked up a second mounted-combat prestige class, or even paladin. If anyone had, paladin/Ashworm Dragoon would probably be a ding to originality. Not a big one, though—sandworms are a lot different than horses! And being a singing mini-sandworm-riding silvercactus paladin probably should have factored into my original judgement. 5/5

Power: Maria seems pretty potent, I suppose. Burrowing gives her more utility than most of the competition, and depending on the terrain it can offer additional tactical edges. 4/5

Elegance: Classes are good; it’s not just one base class and the required ingredient, but it’s close.
I’d have probably picked up at least a level or two of Ashworm Dragoon sooner, so the “sandworm-rider” thing didn’t come so late in the build. Earlier levels are functional, they’re just not the same, you know? 4.5/5

Use of Components: You used all levels of Outrider, which gives you a notable boost, even though half the entries did. And you added another ten levels of a mount-focused class. 4.5/5

Hopefully there aren't any further disputes.

[Thurbane]

Feedback from Maria of the Harmonious Order:


I count 4+5+4.5+4.5=18 for the breakdown on Maria of the Harmonious Order versus the listed (17).

[H_H_F_F]

Sorry for the slight delay, everybody. There were a couple of rabbit holes I had to go down while judging, and one entry I realized I was completely off on and had to re-judge. Full judgement should be up within 24 hours!

[Thurbane]

Sorry for the slight delay, everybody. There were a couple of rabbit holes I had to go down while judging, and one entry I realized I was completely off on and had to re-judge. Full judgement should be up within 24 hours!

All good, and don't feel like you need to rush: I'm happy to hold the comp open until your judgement is in, and any more disputes are addressed.

[mattie_p]

So with this competition round nearly finished, I've completed an upgrade to my table-formatting google sheet that I've released.

The New Version (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BG0-5sq4dL9Ooh7-QfXuyHzO4rXSz-CRcj29t6BeUVE/edit?usp=sharing) has a separate tab for skills - supports to 10 as written but you can easily add or subtract skills as necessary to make it look good.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Feedback from Maria of the Harmonious Order:
Why is it so hard to add four single-digit numbers?!? I took calc in high school, why am I flunking arithmetic repeatedly in this thread?

[H_H_F_F]

The day has come.

Disclaimer: I will completely ignore any tactic or option relating to uses of Fell Trample made illegal under the chair's decision, as I understand that the entry was nearly finished when the decision was published.

Originality:

First thing first: I often start my judgement by mentioning the fluff or the "feel" of the character. With you, I went "Huh. Norse whisperer. Clever. I wonder where that's going". And, well, nowhere, because there's no character. As I said before in the Iron Chef, I believe fluff to be a part of the competition and a part of a complete submission. Since this is not a writing competition, I don't put too much weight on it, and I don't penalize bad fluff, fluff that's too long or fluff that's too short. I do penalize a complete lack of fluff.

Your classes don't have exceptional thematic cohesion, but you're doing all right – chameleon has 0 thematic weight, which means I'm content as seeing you as an NG ardent, and your mantles mesh well with each other and with chameleon – physical power and mental power is a good combination for that purpose. My main issue on this front is actually the fact that nothing really meshes with "defender of the forest" here, nor with "deeply bonded rider". You are a chameleon, a jack of all trades, who is also an ardent devoted to good and to the philosophy of power and perfection. This would have worked far better if you had the natural world mantle. I get that you picked your mantles for purely mechanical reasons, but seeing even a little investment in theme would have been nice. Your mounts are similarly mostly "powerful mount available through the feat", no real consideration for either theme or creative use of non-obvious picks.

Mechanically, ardent wasn't something I saw coming here, and it actually fits – though you don't make the effort to make it really fit with your power choices. Chameleon shows up a lot, but it's not an obvious choice for a mounted build either, so it’s not penalized. Humans are, of course, always expected, and the silverbrow variety not less so. I don't see you pulling off any interesting or new tricks, with the exception of one I'll discuss later.

Overall, this was an unexpected approach, hampered in this category by some obvious picks, by giving up on fluff (a part of a complete entry), and by not doing anything too interesting

Score: 3.15 points.


Power:


This works great with chamaleon, since we can pick Expanded knowledge with the floating feat. That adds one power to our powers known, and those aren't removed when we change the floating feat to something else.

We need to discuss this first.

I completely disagree with this reading. This, in my opinion, isn't RAI vs RAW. This is just an illegitimate reading, an improper understanding of the language. You lose the feat, you lose it's benefit. I get that you want to say that the benefit is "adding" the extra power, not "having" the extra power. I don't agree that this is a legitimate interpretation of the rules, at all. You don't get to "gain" a +1 to all weapons by taking weapon focus repeatedly. You don't get to "gain" indefinite HP by taking toughness indefinitely. Lose the feat, lose the benefit. If you no longer have expanded knowledge: expansion as a feat, expansion is removed from your powers known. Simple as that. Same goes for your soulmelds, which just happen to be slightly less offensive so I relegated them here, to be an afterthought.

This has left me with a very hard decision to make. Obviously, you don't get credit for your trick in this category, since it's illegal. But what do I do with the other categories? Do I trash your elegance for making an illegal build? Do I give you UoSI credit for helpful powers and soulmelds, but also hurt you there because of how redundant the cavalry thing becomes if you have access to all powers?

Since you only rely on this trick to do]/i] things, and not to become (qualify for) things, I've decided to mostly pretend this didn't happen. You haven't really built the character around this illegality (lucky you!) so I see this as you claiming your build can do something which it can't, but that's it. That means one moderate elegance hit, but I won't treat your build as illegal or as inherently problematic.

This approach has its downsides, and it could be upsetting for you to be "stuck" with the options you have (since you probably would have built the character differently if you were not to rely on this) but just remember your final score is doing much better because if this decision.

Otherwise, you're not doing too terrible here at all. You've got a couple of nice powers, you've got 6 level spells by the end (though see more in elegance) and you can buff your cohort to become pretty frustrating. A lot of your tactics section doesn't work anymore, but you still have good options for most situations, and high flexibility. You spend a few levels with your floating feat locked on trample, which certainly takes away from that, but other than that… it's all right.

I'm not super happy with your point buy allocation. I'm unclear on why you need 10 Cha, and even moreso on why you need 12 Str. Am I missing a prereq, or a tactic? Is this a remnant of a previous, more combat-oriented version of the build? By leaving these at 8, you could have gotten 18 Wis, or fix your int problem. Weird choice, and it leaves you less powerful than you could be.

Overall, this is a well-rounded entry, and you can't be too weak with 6th level spells and psionic powers to boot. It's never mind-blowing, but it's consistently powerful, besides a couple of low points at the end and in the middle.

P.S: Unless you believe I actually missed something substantial, I wouldn't bother disputing the powers/soulmelds thing to re-state your reading and explain that nothing says you lose the soulmelds/powers/whatever. I understand your reading. I believe you are completely wrong. You're still within your right to dispute, of course – but as I said, I wouldn't bother.

Score: 4.4 points.


Elegance:

There are things I like here. You list your sources, including the spell lists you utilize for your chameleon casting (though dumpster diving for spells cast at lower levels is in itself slightly cheesy). You didn't make any math mistakes as far as I can tell, and your tables are accessible and easy to follow. You give good explanations of your thought process, which is nice. You don't incur any multiclassing penalties, you complete a prestige class, and you have only one base class. I've said it before – simplicity does not equal elegance, but it helps. I would say, however, that your level layout is messy and jumpy. I can see why, but it could be made simpler without too much effort. You also suffer from too many options competing for your actions for a lot of your career. Redundancy is an issue.

I'm also a fan of your approach to crafting – chameleon offers some serious crafting possibilities, but is limited by a low CL. Circumventing that issue with an SLA was a good move.

Something I'm torn about is giving up ride-by-attack. On the one hand, it's cheesy and inelegant by design. It is something I usually really dislike. On the other hand, it's clever. You don't use ride by attack or spirited charge, you've noticed they failed to include RBA in the prereqs, and you've utilized your own build resources to skip the feat. Overall, I'd say it's a tiny boost in your favor.

Something I both like and dislike here is your very expansive entry. I like having information about what the character can and can't do, I like having clarifications and recommendations, I like having tactics. However, given that you're not doing anything too hard to follow, the amount of info is a bit much. It gets repetitive, and it becomes overwhelming at points. This is not a penalty, but do see this as a heads up – sometimes too much information can be confusing. Given the way our minds work (or at least mine) a more concise entry could actually provide more clarity and better understanding.

I'm giving you a slap on the wrist for item reliance. It could have been much worse, but you have good independent crafting and you qualify for classes and feats without items, so it's really not that bad. Still, being unable to cast your higher-level arcane spells without an item is inadvisable.

A one level dip that has almost nothing to do with the rest of the build is similarly a slap on the wrist from me. I don't care about dips, really, but one level dips still require some justification. Would have been worse if you didn't have feat support to make you a "rider".

Overall this entry, while suffering from some issues is nevertheless a decently elegant entry at its heart, utilizing a few clever synergies to get by. Well done.

Score: 3.65 points.


Use of the Components:

Oh boy.

See, I don't like Silverwood Outrider either. It sucks, I'd never consider taking levels in one, and I couldn't think of anything interesting to do with it. Cavalry Charger is one of my favorite feats in the entirety of 3.5. I've built an entire character around it before. Fell trample is one of very few ways for a very low magic character to have an impact on large-scale combat, and it also happens to be the best representation 3.5 offers for the iconic medieval cavalry charge. I would have definitely built a character for this competition – but I wasn't creative enough to find actual uses for the class, so I gave up.

I empathize with you deeply – but just giving up on the class is not a good choice here. If Silverwood outrider wasn't a component, and wild cohort was instead, the only thing this build would do differently is trash the useless level and take Ardent 10 instead.

That, however, is only the beginning of your issues here. Your power doesn't come from being a cavalry charger. You get it at level 12 (early enough, by the way), at which point you always have better things to do, and you spend 3 levels with your floating feat dead in the water. You claim it's good to not waste resources – but with a +6 boon to your Wis by the end, 6 levels of spells and 7 levels of powers, attrition isn't nearly enough of an issue to justify using fell trample. If you try to play this character optimally, you'll trample someone once in a blue moon. The rest of the time, you just have a few dead feats holding you back.

You spend a lot of effort finding good mounts to ride into combat for every level, and explain how well they can utilize trample. I like that you put in the effort, and you're getting a small boost here for that, but at the end of the day Wild Cohort is a prerequisite, not something you found or figured out. You don't get real credit in this category for having a good feat everyone knows is good when the feat is a prereq for the SI.

Your only real redeeming quality here is having buff spells for your mount, many of which can be cast ahead of battle. Many others, though, can only be cast in combat (and are thus competing with far superior options). Others still are in a middle ground - every once in a while you'll be able to cast, say, animal growth before combat begins, but trying it will often lead to you wasting the spell. If more if the spells had longer durations, they would carry more weight here. As presented, many are in competition with other buff options or with actual combat.

Overall, while finding a couple of decent ways to lean into the SI, this entry has too many things going on at the same time. It fails to make a convincing argument for cavalry charger as its go-to tactic, while also having no support at all for 2/3 suggested option (To-Hit and bullrush modifiers are way too low). It only takes 20% of Silverwood Outrider, and fails to make that choice very convincing or to make it uniquely synergize with anything else. I appreciate that some of these declarations would be untrue under your original interpretation of Fell Trample. As things stand, though, this is just not up to snuff.

Score: 1.85 points.


Total Score: 13.05 points. I'll be honest, I'm not the biggest fan of this build. It seems like it started with good intentions to be focused around a mount, but slowly started to deteriorate as you found (or thought you found) more and more ways to use chameleon, until the actual components and the spirit of the competition became an afterthought. The way the judging metric is built, you still got a decent score – but I'd like to see you try to focus more on the actual material at hand in the future.
Originality:

Cute fluff; I don't know what about "Bears riding bears" made you think "Eureka! A Tomb Raider enemy!" but it's still nice. Neanderthals mantling the trope of "powerful ancient civilization" is strange and unintuitive, but very creative. IMO, It doesn't mesh great with the simultaneous fluff of Neanderthals as "dino-riding cavemen", but oh well.
I sort of wish we would have seen at least some representation to the Silverwood Outrider in your fluff, but that's not really necessary – especially on a joke build.

Thematically, it's sort of messy – it has two ideas about its identity going on at once – but both ideas are very fun and lighthearted, so it works. I can't argue with the cohesion of Barbarian-Warblade-Bear Warrior. I would have deducted points for it being too boring and commonplace, mechanically, but I really didn't see shapeshifting on top of a mount coming. Warblade-Barbarian is still not very interesting, but Neanderthal is cute, and the end result is very hard to argue with. You also get credit for not succumbing to the instinct to scream "LION-SPIRIT-TOTEM-WOLF-TOTEM-BARBARIAN" at your monitor as soon as you decided on not going bear totem. Ape totem is pretty good, when not compared with free pounce, and doesn't show up often.

On a more serious note: despite being a joke build, "what if I find a way to share a transformation with my mount without being a spellcaster" is legitimately creative. I'll talk more about the specifics in the coming categories, but this is well done.

Overall, this entry uses commonplace (well, on these forums at least) tropes and the classes associated with them, but is legitimately funny, unexpected in this context, and comes up with a unique trick. Very well done.

Score: 4.5 points.


Power:

Fine category for you, and not too complicated to judge. You're a very combat focused entry, and while not achieving the heights of Ubercharger damage, you can still pull off very good damage with good action economy. You don't do much outside of damage, with the small exception of douse the flames and the far more notable exception of white raven tactics coming in late in the build. It'll often be used for damage, but it can also be used for literally, well, anything, depending on the party. I sort of hoped to see you pull some interesting utility with your warblade levels, but killing things is fine to, I guess. You don't have anything native to the build to cover for the downsides of "angry hits stuff guy", but you surely can do damage. The issue is, damage often isn't enough at the late levels, when you have no native flight options and your will save is too low. I'd say on this field and with these components, I'd say that'll put you at slightly above average, with a tiny independent boost for the utility options of WRT.

Score: 3.35 points.


Elegance:
Resources properly cited, information is clear and there's plenty of it, no math errors I could catch, and your layout is fine – though as often happens with initiating classes, the levels are slightly messy. I like that you finished a prc though. A one level dip, as mentioned in the previous judgement, is somewhat problematic – especially when not really supported otherwise. It does make slightly more sense here though, both mechanically and thematically, but I'm not going to go into individual 0.05 increments here, so it's the same 0.1 penalty.

I'm judging this based on the "all mounts" section, by the way. The alternatives presented, if I understand correctly, are not the "official" cohort, and both can't qualify you for Silverwood outrider in time.

I'm not a huge fan of your item reliance, and a mouthpick lance (which can be quite rare to nonexistent, depending on the campaign) is a serious force multiplier for you. Pouncing charge will make you competent even without it, but you still need it to be in full effect, and you have no way of crafting it, or even the appropriate knowledge skills to know it exists. It's a penalty here.

it's absurd, of course, but is it possible? Well, I'm not buying the point about "started in a legal mount, did a legal action." It's like saying you can stand in mid air, because you started your turn on legal ground (cliff's edge) and did a legal action (walk). The argument isn't "it's no longer a legal mount, so the transformation wouldn't work", it's "you fall off the mount because you are no longer capable of riding it." Same for a muckdweller wu jen riding a badger and then casting giant size. Everything is legal, but the now colossal wu jen isn't "riding" a freaking badger.

I think it's clear no DM would allow this to work. Having a bear ride anything will be a hard sell, having it ride an illegal mount would be a no go. However, actual gameplay aside, what do the rules say? The point you make about DMG p.204 being guidelines and not rules carries much more weight (no pun intended). However, I'm not sure you're right on this case. P.204 very specifically says:
At its most basic level, a mount should have the following characteristics To me, this doesn't read as a guidline or a recommendations, but as a limitations or restrictions to the preceding sentence. "Within these limits, you decide what is and isn't a suitable mount."

However, I will concede that "should have" is much weaker than "has to have" or "must have". I can see where you're coming from. The issue is that the text still clearly states the DM has the decision. Even under the most generous interpretation this isn't a case of "RAW doesn’t speak to this, ask your DM". This is "RAW said asked your DM, and recommended your DM makes this illegal." And as we've agreed, no DM would allow this. Relying on a generous DM to that level isn't good, and with no DM assumed there are no unusual suitable mounts.

So, to stop my rambling on this issue: if we're being generous, then this isn't [i]strictly illegal, but it's as close as you could possibly get. It's not RAW abuse, it's just "Rules didn't say I can't very clearly", which means it's a big serious penalty here, as you probably expected. However, besides this penalty, I'm content with allowing it to exist and function for purposes of judgement.

On the other hand, mounted fury / bear form works. "As long as you are riding a war-trained mount, your mount gains the same benefits and penalties that you do while you rage". This is pretty clear in my view. Since bearform is explicitly benefits of rage, and not rage-alternative consuming rage uses, I see no real argument against what you've done here on this front, and it's brilliant. If only there was a way to deal with the previous issue… nevertheless, it's a boost here.

Overall, this is a relatively clean build with one very mechanically elegant aspect, which also happens to be (not-really-but-yeah-really) illegal. Weird.

Score: 2.9 points.

Use of the Components:

I'm not going to reiterate everything I said for the previous entry around only taking one level of Silverwood outrider, but it applies here as well. Cavalry Charger, however, is much more complicated.

You didn't find any crazy unique tactic to pull off with the feat, but you can lean into all of its maneuvers. As a dedicated charger, the tiny boost of extra damage from leaping charge can be helpful, though not very much, you don't mention it, and it is harmed by reducing your mount's size. With full BaB, large size, and very high Str, unhorse will be reliably useful, in the rare occasion it shows up. Fell trample, the staple maneuver of the feat, is leaned into the hardest – the only downside of your approach is losing some size benefits once you get a huge mount, but those are more than compensated for by the Str increase. Because of the way bear form is written, your mount will enjoy an increased Str score just like a medium creature would, even though they get smaller. This is a very potent buff for your mount, and it has no opportunity cost for you – it's a free action, and one you would've done anyway.

My main issue on this front is the feat showing up only at level 18. I get why – this is a pretty feat-starved build. The only feat you took which you didn't need for requirements is mounted fury, which of course is essential. However, to me that just means you should've changed course – maybe give up warblade for something else. If you would find a way to get one or two of these feats as bonus feats, you would've enjoyed cavalry charger for 30-60% of your career. As presented, you only use it for 15%. I understand why and how that happened, but it hurt you here.

Overall, while pretty much ignoring one of the components, this build makes excellent use of cavalry charger, leaning into it appropriately. Shame you took it so late.

Score: 2.75 points.


Total score: 13.5 points. I love this build. I wish I could give it a higher score, but there are real legal issues with your approach to bear-bear riding. If there weren't, it would have been a full point higher without changing anything else Very well done!.
Originality:

You would've been slightly luckier here if I would have judged this entry last year, when I was less familiar with incarnu, and would go "huh, right, that subsystem. Interesting." However, I've gotten pretty used to totemists showing up when people don't really know what to make of the ingredients, so they just go for totemist because it's good and meshes well with pretty much anything that isn't a caster.

Strongheart halflings, like humans, always show up.

I don't really know what else to say here. I'm not seeing any unique use of soulmelds or skills, or any feats that are even slightly surprising. You're not featuring any unique or interesting tactics. I guess you can take a boost for the thunderstep boots. You didn't actively find the most obvious possible route, but you also didn't do anything really interesting here.

Overall… just not a very original or creative entry, in my opinion. Don't get me wrong: I still appreciate you for participating, and I know how much work and effort goes into submitting an entry. I know a judgement like this can be disheartening. This is not a critique of you as an entrant, just a critique of the entry.

Score: 1.75 points.


Power:

You're a totemist, and they're alright. You could have done far more damage if you swapped out some feats and soulmelds, but you're still doing okay and you have the totemist's flexibility to make up for your issues. Your wild cohort feat is somewhat wasted, power-wise – a pony isn't really going to be too powerful later on, even with WC improvements. You get a small boost to somewhat balance that out for being small and having a medium mount for much of your career though – it's easier to fit in tight spaces. If you do get a T-rex at 16, that's better, though you seem to imply you're not going to ride it yourself? I'm going to assume I misread that, and give you a boost here.

Overall, you're decently powerful though you don't really shine anywhere. I wish you would've put some more thought into using soulmelds that would mesh better with your combat style, but it's mostly acceptable.

Score: 2.85 points.


Elegance:

On the technical aspects of the submission, I found your skill table to be confusing and disorienting. I got what you meant in the end, but using + for addition as well as for totals and forgetting to write 23 for spot at level 20 didn't help. Why am I doing math when I want to figure out your skill allocation at level 15? The way I see it, that's your job, not mine. I also wish you would've used the standard tables, though no penalty for that. You are getting a slap on the wrist for not linking the appropriate web article for wild cohort. This usually carries a far heavier penalty with me, but since this specific one is very hard to miss when judging this competition, I'm not nearly as harsh. Silverwood outrider is in the OP, so that's fine.

You're also getting a small penalty for barely giving me any information about your mount. I assumed "standard good feats", but I'd really like to get at least some idea about your mount next time. That's especially true in a competition named "giddy up", by the way, though no added penalty here.

That's it for the technicalities.

Now, I've said it before, even in this very competition, and I'll say it again: simplicity does not equal elegance, though it does help. I like that you don't have dips, don't have multiclass penalties, finish a prc, etcetera. These things are helpful. But is this, to me, peak elegance? No. I give points in elegance for clever synergies, dual qualification, qualifying for stuff through bonus feats or racial traits. These sorts of things are what I refer to as "mechanically pretty". Your entry is not mechanically ugly – it can't be – but it's not too pretty either.

You get a slap on the wrist for your native Con being too low to shape 7 soulmelds by the end.

We'll talk about interclass synergy in the next section, as your only non-totemist class is a component.

Overall, this is a good showing for "elegance in simplicity", but that is something I find myself valuing less and less as time goes on. It has a few minor issues that pile up, but it still cannot be called inelegant by any means.

Score: 3.7 points.


Use of the Components:

You have 5 levels of Silverwood outrider, which is something. You have cavalry charger, though you take it at level 15, which is slightly late. You don't have any fighter levels. So, you have the components – but this category isn't named "Having of the components".

There's no synergy between the 5 levels of Silverwood outrider and anything else in your build. You acknowledge their existence and move on. Cavalry charger is even worse – you don't even acknowledge its existence in your tactics. That’s a damn shame, because as a natural weapon charger with low damage, you are a prime candidate to benefit from leaping charge – but you chose a medium mount, and I know you don't use it because I have an exact breakdown of your damage at the level you get the feat and it's not mentioned. If applicable, it could nearly double your damage! 4*3*(4 if all hit)= 48. To you, that's a massive increase in damage, but as is it's only usable against small opponents, and it doesn't seem like you even remembered you have that option. In a competition where that feat is a component.

Your size issue also makes you a terrible user of the other options. Your pony isn't going to go around overrunning monsters at level 15, and you again don't even mention fell trample. Unhorse is even worse – on the rare occasion it comes up, good luck bullrushing someone as a halfling with average Str.

I'm going to assume, despite you being shady on that front, that you are at least switching out to a T-rex at 16, and that you choose to utilize leaping charge when applicable. I'm not going to give you nearly as much credit for it as I would have if you were to mention having the feat even once, but I'm going to give you a boost here for that.

Overall, you literally couldn't care less about the componnents. You're a totemist charger that uses spirited charge instead of leap attack (so, slightly worse), and you have 5 dead levels and 2 dead feats. I'm not going to give you a 1 here because you at lest took 5 levels, you ride your mount, and you didn't take CC as your last feat, but these are your saving graces. Bad category for you. I'm sorry.

Score: 1.65 points


Total score: 9.95 points. I may be wrong, but I have a hunch that this is an entry by someone not very experienced in incarnum, who recently realized how cool it really is and really wanted to make a totemist. I agree! Incarnum is sweet, and totemists are cool – but this was not the right competition to just build one and ignore everything else. I'm sorry for giving you a pretty bad score. Better luck next time!
Originality:

Humans! Never seen one of those in a competition before! Cool find!

On a more serious note, human paladin was very much the expected entry here, though I did think we might see holy warrior to get mounted feats faster. I would have given you more credit for harmonious knight if that choice went somewhere, but it's just kind of… there. Not that there's a problem with that, but it doesn't make me go "oh, interesting." You replaced detect evil with inspire courage. All right.

Fluff-wise, though you don't have a story section per-se, there's enough there for me not to feel like I'm missing everything. Good lean characterization, I have a pretty clear picture of the character through the introductory piece and the snapshots. Thematically, I'm not too happy with you being a bit of a geographical mess, but ashworm dragoon comes late enough in your career for it to make sense to me, so no penalty. Speaking of, that PRC wasn't exactly expected, but it didn't catch me totally off guard either. It shows up here and there when mounts are discussed. I also like how it gives you a good justification

Saddleback deserves mention in this category, as a cool regional feat that I personally don't remember seeing used before. If it's super common and I have, well, egg on my face I suppose. You also use wild cohorts that, while not crazy-weird-unexpected, also follow a theme and aren't chosen for purely mechanical reasons. I also like the fluff around Betsy, it's good and It works.

Overall, this entry uses a few very expected ingredients, but has good background fluff and a cool chassis. Not too original, unfortunately, but far from terrible.

Score: 2.65 points.


Power:

A pretty good category for you. Ashworm Dragoon, though not common, wasn't unexpected because it's a very good mounted class. Though you're not an optimized charger by any means, you make for a good charger throughout your career, and you have a kitty to assist you. Your mount becomes nigh untouchable in melee combat at level 14, and you gain supreme movement options at level 16 and 20. They do come a bit late, but they're still very good, and they're what makes the Dragoon different than any other "charge with a good mount" class. Having burrowing speed is huge.

Power attack comes a bit late, but you still manage to do decent damage with your animals before it comes – and shock trooper is an immediate game changer, of course. Relentless shield + shock trooper is similarly an excellent move – Ashley's AC is almost completely irrelevant, so there's no reason for her not to put everything into shock trooper every times she charges. Her having full BaB is very helpful there.

Speaking of your ride checks, by the way: ACP doesn't apply to ride. You made a comment about full plate, so I'm letting you know. If that's how your table does it, that's a house rule.

Back to business: You're definitely a late bloomer, but you manage to keep up with a good use of animal feats early on. You're not as strong defensively as more Cha focused pallys, but you're a fine combatant throughout your career. Later, you and your buddies are a very serious damage threat, capable of inducing a few good debuffs, and having tactical options way better than those commonly associated with charger.

Overall, this is a well-rounded entry that shines mainly from around level 14 onwards, but shines very bright. The main thing holding you back is your lower-mid levels, which are less impressive. Well done!

Score: 3.75 points.


Elegance:

Everything is fine and dandy, no math mistakes, everything is listed in your sources. More than everything, in fact. Why is dire tortoise in your sources? Am I missing something?

Your level layout is very appealing, 5-5-10, no messing around with alternating levels. One base class, finishing one PRC, finishing another PRC. As I've said before, while it does help, simplicity does not equal elegance. Lucky for you, however, you've got cool synergies up the wazoo, and very good ones at that. You also have dual qualification with mounted combat.

Your accidently have the first instance of the tiger information copy pasted in the class features section of your dire tiger. Also, while I completely accept that animal companions and such can shape soulmelds and take martial study, spellcraft levels, etc (I've done so with an NPC's special mount myself) doing so, especially on an animal with normal Int, can cause issues with many DMs. Your wild cohort has almost exclusively such feats. While nothing here justifies a penalty unto itself, these issues together amount to a slap on the wrist from me here.

Still, this is a clean and well presented entry, with a simple yet elegant layout. Well done. Very well done.

Score: 4.65


Use of the Components:

You take Silverwood outrider as early as possible, and get cavalry charger at 12, which is early enough. You take the full 5 levels of the class, and though you didn't find anything particularly inspired to do with this trash heap, I will say that freely handling/pushing an animal acting besides you when you're riding another seems more useful. I think the action cost of commanding your animal is far more likely to show up in actual gameplay when you're not riding it, and when you have two companions.

With your use for ride checks, I really wish you would have found some way to utilize skilled rider. That is such a weird, weird feature, and it was the only feature personally interesting to me when looking at the class. However, I get how with your class layout it wasn't going to happen. I'm also not a fan of you dedicating brute mount to kitty – it helps with her to-hit and her damage, but Ashley makes actual Strength checks, and undoubtedly needs it more. I also wish you would have taken improved overrun on Ahsley. Mage slayer on her is very useful, but with the utility granted by her trample, and with already having power attack, it seems like a waste to not have that. Should have put mage slayer on kitty, or something.

That's enough for complaints. With improved bull rush and fine Str you can be said to get occasional utility from unhorse, you can never fail leaping charge with saddleback, and god damn is fell trample a masterful option here. Getting a free sting attack is good, sure, but stamp into sand just made this from a decent damage option against multiple enemies into a horrifying debuff you can apply on a ton of enemies simultaneously. "Stay here and stay down, or waste a turn" is supremely effective against most enemies as is, making it one of the best class features of a good class. Being able to apply it on multiple enemies in one turn is the kind of action economy usually exclusive to casters. It's also an excellent reason to have mage slayer around, of course – but again, it should have been on kitty in my opinion.

Overall, you take everything you need to take, take it early, and get decent to better-than-expected use of it – while also getting the best use of the best ability in this competition, in my humble opinion. Excellent.

Score: 4.5 points.


Total score: 15.55 points. The bearstack will remain my favourite entry of the competition, but this one is the most masterful. You managed to make a very pretty and synergic entry, which also makes excellent use of the components while staying powerful. Well done.

Well done, all entrants! Participating in these competitions, as fun as it is, is hard work. Thank you all for participating.

[Thurbane]

Thanks for the judging H_H_F_F.

I've heard from all but one competitor that there are no disputes with your judging.



Name
Alignment / Race
Class Levels
Chef
Judge 1
Judge 2
Total
Place


The Norse Whisperer (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25130040&postcount=33)
NG Silverbrow human
Ardent 9 / Chamaleon 10 / Silverwood Outrider 1

14.5
13.05
27.55



Bearstack (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25130050&postcount=35)
CG Neanderthal
Barbarian 4 / Bear Warrior 10 / Silverwood Outrider 1 / Warblade 5

15.5
13.5
29



Manarro Touranisha (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25130051&postcount=36)
NG Strongheart Halfling
Silverwood Outrider 5 / Totemist 15

15.5
9.95
25.45



Maria of the Harmonious Order (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25130054&postcount=37)
LG? Human
Ashworm Dragoon 10 / Paladin 5 / Silverwood Outrider 5

18
15.55
33.55

[Thurbane]

Without any further ado:



Name
Alignment / Race
Class Levels
Chef
Judge 1
Judge 2
Total
Place


Maria of the Harmonious Order (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25130054&postcount=37)
LG? Human
Ashworm Dragoon 10 / Paladin 5 / Silverwood Outrider 5
Thrice Dead Cat
18
15.55
33.55
1st


Bearstack (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25130050&postcount=35)
CG Neanderthal
Barbarian 4 / Bear Warrior 10 / Silverwood Outrider 1 / Warblade 5
ciopo
15.5
13.5
29
2nd


The Norse Whisperer (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25130040&postcount=33)
NG Silverbrow human
Ardent 9 / Chamaleon 10 / Silverwood Outrider 1
ciopo
14.5
13.05
27.55
3rd


Manarro Touranisha (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25130051&postcount=36)
NG Strongheart Halfling
Silverwood Outrider 5 / Totemist 15
Glimbur
15.5
9.95
24.45




Congrats to all entrants, on what was a more challenging than anticipated round. I had no idea how much clarification and interpretation the PrC and feat would require! :smallbiggrin:

Next round will be posted soon(ish)

[Glimbur]

I learned a lot doing this, especially from the judge who gave a lower score. Not good for my ego to read but helpful. Overall the contest was fun and I expect I will do it again. Might actually mention the secret ingredients at all next time, that will really help my score. Thanks to both judges, our chair, and the other competitors!

[Thurbane]

New comp is up Junkyard Wars XXXII: Theurge Without Theurge (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?634803)

Sorry for the relative obscurity of the second ingredient, there wasn't a whole lot that ticked the box of what I was looking for.

[Thrice Dead Cat]

I feel like I had a lot of dumb questions to ask regarding this PrC, so feel free to blame some of those clarifications on me.:smallredface: That said, this was a lot of fun, and H_H_F_F's review made me realize how much stuff I missed or could have spelled out a little better (like the dire tortoise I ended up not using, as I had instead opted to keep with the Miss Kitty theme, adding more story bits either at the beginning or at the various level break points, his assessment on Brute Mount and Improved Overrun on Ashley, or me somehow missing the rules on ACP not applying to Ride checks.:smallredface: GWG also made me realize that I could have actually shuffled my levels around a little better and maybe netted an extra feat in the process.). At one point, I was also digging through various soulmelds to see which, if any, an Ashworm could shape and eventually bind to try to get Ashley either a bite attack (for a mouthpick weapon, eventually) or at least some claw attacks even if the main strategies don't demand it . The lack of arms and shoulders nixed pretty much all of those ideas. Go figure.

I also ended up recalculating point buy a couple of times to see how little Int would be practical and still qualify for everything on time. Champions of Valor had another Paladin substitution level that gave Knowledge (Nature) as a class skill, but since it wasn't a 1st level substitution, it didn't really change the math on 8 versus 10 Int. And, in double checking that, I ended up forgetting to pick up Dismount Attack like Manarro Touranisha had.

Still, I can't really complain about the results, and I don't want to sound like a sore winner. I also appreciate all the time that the Chairman, Judges, and other contestants all put into this! I can only hope that I'm as inspired by the next batch of ingredients as I was with these!:smallbiggrin:

[Thurbane]

I feel like I had a lot of dumb questions to ask regarding this PrC, so feel free to blame some of those clarifications on me.:smallredface:

Not all all - the PrC (and to a lesser extent, the feat) were very poorly written and/or unclear in places.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

I collaborated a bit on the Bearstack, and I have a potential solution to the "mount is too small" problem.

My argument is that the benefit being passed to the mount is not the bear form, but the ability to take on one of the bear forms. Now, according to the ability, you (and thus your mount) do have to transform into a bear, but you don't have to transform into your most powerful bear. So if you turn into your second-most powerful bear, and your mount turns into your most powerful bear, it will still be one size larger than you.

This does mean you lose a significant chunk of power... but the benefit to your mount outweighs that, I think. You also want to delay Mounted Fury until Bear Warrior 5, when you unlock the brown bear form.

[ciopo]

I gave credits, I don't know why Thurbane didn't include you on the table.

Thank you, GWG and H_H_F_F for judging!

Norse whisperer name is actually linked to the build : it's a bit of an Odin expy

Not really for a dispute or discussion, but I agree and disagree on floating feat expanded knowledge / shape soulmeld shenanigans.

I agree because I adhere to the axiom "lose the source lose the benefit". I would never pull that kind of trick in an actual table.

I disagree because I like playing about with the nuances of stuff worded differently, and some "stuff" clearly becomes an entity of their own, separated/indipendent from their source. floating shape soulmeld is clearly an example of this, because the feat benefit is *making a quasi item*. Two other feats that clearly would belong to this category would be ancestral relic from book of exalted deeds and landlord from the stronghold builder handbook. Expanded knowledge is less clear on that, but to me it's worded differently enough, but especially in light on how erudites would for sure be able to use the floating feat to know "all the powers" by simply scribing a knowstone to then reabsorb it, introducing that extra step feels unnecessarily clunky.
Open minded is another example of something that doesn't have a phisicality to it, but it's something I would make "not lose the ranks when you lose the feat". It's saying "here are some skill ranks, spend them as you see fit", it's very equiparable to a feat that would give us gp or something else volatile like that.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

I gave credits, I don't know why Thurbane didn't include you on the table.

Oh yeah, not suggesting you didn't; I just wanted to give a little context for my potential fix.

[Thurbane]

I gave credits, I don't know why Thurbane didn't include you on the table.

It's not within the scope of the comps, sorry. While I don't want to forbid collaborations, I am going to list competitors as I always have - as the person who submits the entry.

I just don't want another layer of complexity at this time.

The real world kinda sucks for me, right now, and the enjoyment I get from running these comps is starting to dwindle again... can we please just try not to reinvent the wheel?

[H_H_F_F]

Congratulations ro Thrice Dead Cat and the rest of our participants! And thank you, Thurbane, for running the show. Hope IRL gets better soon.

Glimbur, I hope I didn't hurt your ego too bad. I know my critical approach can be jarring, but I hope to see you participating in more competitions in the future!

Ciopo, I get where you're coming from, but I disagree with your rules reading here. I don't think shape soulmeld is equivalent to landlord or ancetral relic. Soulmelds are created by a magical ability to shape incarnum, and can be unshaped. Lose the feat, the soulmeld unshapes.

Now, granted, I deeply dislike feats like landlord, special dispensation, etc. I find them stupid from a game design and from a stoeytelling prespective. So I'm probably not as open to your point as I should be, but to me - that's something for the DM to deal with. Either disallow retraining these feats, or be forced to strangle and distort your plot into taking them away like you did to grant them in the first place.

Anyway, I just don't see the arguement for stuff like open minded. You got 5 skill points, so you keep them? Why not you got 3 hp (or 1 hp per hd, or 30 hp) so you keep them? You lose skill points, feats, powers, etc when you lose a level. You can also lose them when losing relevant feats. However, I feel like at this point we're starting to talk in circles, so I'll move from the rule discussion to a competition advice discussion:

In my opinion, there is one thing that's true both for making questionable rules decisions and for using extreme cheese in these competitions: it's only ever worth it (and even then, not always) if it's in support of the competitions SI or theme. This is a trend in my own judgement, but in many others' as well. You can get away with a lot when chasing a good UoSI: your elegance might be destroyed, but your power, UoSI, and sometimes originality will flourish. If it's just random cheese chasing power, it'll hurt UoSI if anything ("you don't actually care about the SI, your power comes from elsewhere, etc), usually won't impact originality as heavily ("You didn't have any original approach to the competition, you just made something completely unrelated to it") and the power-elegance tradeoff just isn't worth it. Judges are also humans, and will often unconciously be more kind towards an entry that doesn't feel like it's just hijackiing the competition to present an unrelated trick.

Anyway, these are just my thoughts/recommendations, you don't have to agree with me of course. Well done in this competition, regardless. As I said, you made my favourite entry.