Iron Chef Optimization Challenge E6 Appetizer: Round XXXIII

[Zaq]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/647393639886094337/853704182153871380/rsz_transparent_version.png

Welcome back to the Iron Chef Optimization Challenge E6 Appetizer Edition! This is a pretty solid ingredient, I think, but you're still going to have to make some choices and I can't wait to see where you take this.

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

*Note: You must provide your own cake.

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

Cooking Time: Builds must be submitted via PM to the Chair by 4:59 PM GMT - 9 on Monday, Aug 02, 2021 (1:59 AM GMT on Tuesday, Aug 03). The reveal shall be on the first evening the Chair has free following the cooking deadline, which is hoped to be that evening or the immediately subsequent one—I'll do my best, anyway. Judging is then encouraged to go as quickly as possible; if multiple judges volunteer, we'll set about a two-week window, but if we only get one judge, we'll try to wrap up as soon as possible after that judge presents scores. (I will admit that the deadline time may not be an exact science, but don't hide from me and we'll probably be cool.)
Kitchen: Let's break this one down a bit.



ALLOWED: Almost all D&D 3.5 material published by WotC: Core, Completes, monster books, Races Of books, alternate power source books (Expanded Psionics Handbook, Magic of Incarnum, Tome of Battle, Tome of Magic, etc.), Spell Compendium, Book of Exalted Deeds, Book of Vile Darkness, Eberron material, Forgotten Realms material, and other WotC-published 3.5 material. (This list is NOT exhaustive and there are many other legal books that I did not mention by name!)
ALLOWED: Material from the 3.5 archives of the Wizards of the Coast website (including, but not limited to, the Mind's Eye articles). If you use it, link it.
ALLOWED: Official errata from WotC. If you're relying on this in a material fashion, it's a good idea to link it and to discuss it.
NOT ALLOWED: Unofficial errata, including "class fixes" (regardless of the source, including from the original author if not published in a WotC book) or fan-created content.
ALLOWED: Unupdated WotC-published 3.0 material (e.g., Sword and Fist, Masters of the Wild, etc.) except for 3.0 psionics. No 3.0 psionics allowed. If you are using 3.0 material, use the general-purpose skill updates (Wilderness Lore becomes Survival, Innuendo becomes Bluff, etc.) and the general-purpose rules updates (spells with a casting time of "1 action" become "1 standard action," etc.) when appropriate.
NOT ALLOWED: 3.0 material for which a direct 3.5 update exists. Use the updated material instead.
ALLOWED: Dragon Compendium and its errata (http://paizo.com/download/dragon/compendium/DragonCompendiumVolumeIErrata.pdf).
NOT ALLOWED: Content from Dragon Magazine and/or Dungeon Magazine unless said content appears in an otherwise allowed source.
ALLOWED: Oriental Adventures, including the 3.5 update to Oriental Adventures from Dragon Magazine #318. This is a specific exception to the "no Dragon" rule!
NOT ALLOWED: Pathfinder content, regardless of whether it is "D&D 3.5 OGL" or not. If it didn't come from WotC, we don't want it.
ALLOWED: From Unearthed Arcana: racial paragon classes, alternate class features/variant classes, spelltouched feats, and variant races. (Traits and flaws are technically legal, but traits warrant a -0.5 point penalty in Elegance, and flaws warrant a -1 penalty in Elegance.)
NOT ALLOWED: Other Unearthed Arcana content, including (but not limited to) bloodlines, LA buyoff, fractional BAB/saves, alternate casting systems, alternate skill systems, item familiars, prestigious character classes, generic classes, gestalt, etc. When you're wondering if UA content is allowed, err on the side of caution and don't mess around with it.
NOT ALLOWED: Leadership, regardless of source. Game elements functionally equivalent to Leadership (including, but not limited to, Dragon Cohort, Undead Leadership, and Thrallherd) are similarly banned. (Familiars, Improved Familiar, animal companions, Wild Cohort, psicrystals, elemental envoys, and similar game elements are allowed, and they are not considered to be "Leadership." If the difference isn't obvious, feel free to contact the Chair with specific questions.)
NOT ALLOWED: Third-party content, homebrew, or other non-WotC content.
NOT ALLOWED: Epic feats from the Epic Level Handbook. Just because you're "epic" in E6 after 6th level doesn't mean that you're that kind of epic.
NOT ALLOWED: Any race or template with a level adjustment other than +0. (Or any other source of LA other than a race or template, if any such things exist.) However, as a specific exception for round 26, see below.
NOT ALLOWED: For our judges: penalizing solely based on legal sources used, regardless of whether those sources are plentiful, sparse, common, obscure, or something in between. If the material is legal, then it doesn't matter how many or how few books it came out of.
ALLOWED: Also for our judges: penalizing for using a source (other than material in Core; don't be vindictive about genuinely obvious stuff) that isn't listed in the build writeup. The chef may choose to present the sources in-line with the text, in a consolidated source list, or somewhere else, but if the source is listed (and is otherwise legal), it counts. If the source is not listed, you may choose to penalize for that.

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

Character Creation: 32 point buy is assumed. For the purposes of this contest, Level Adjustment greater than +0 is banned. (This may be revised at a later point, but I don't feel that the E6 LA rules are conducive to fun in the context of this contest.) No more than two entries per chef per contest, please; if you submit two builds and somehow are so overcome with inspiration for a third that you can't help yourself, PM me and tell me which two you care about the most.
Highlighted because of past issues: It is not enough for your build to end with a level adjustment of +0. You must be +0 from start to finish. No using ANY build elements with a level adjustment above +0, even if they then get mitigated or reduced somehow. However, note that a special exception is in place for round 26...
Speculation: Please do not post any form of speculation before the reveal. Just don't do it, guys. It's not cool. This means NOT posting any of the following or anything substantially similar: what you think is going to be common, significant elements of your planned build or of other potential builds, or anything else that could directly influence someone else's build choices for good or for ill. (It's acceptable to ask for rules clarifications as appropriate, but try to avoid tipping your hand too much.) Speculation is bad because it can discourage people from posting builds and can also "taint the judging pool" when it comes to Originality, so please just try to be aware of how other people might react to your speculation.
E6: Here's how E6 works for the purposes of this contest. Build your character normally for the first six levels. After you reach level 6, you stop gaining levels and start gaining bonus feats every time you would gain 5,000 XP. Since we aren't actually tracking XP, you'll basically list your first ten epic bonus feats in the order that you take them, and we think of them as being kind of like levels. We will not use the LA-equals-reduced-point-buy rules, instead preferring to just ban races with LA, at least for now. We will not use the "capstone feats"; all feats that you take must be normal legal 3.5 feats, not homebrew E6 ones. You may not use the Epic feats from the Epic Level Handbook, though if for some reason there are non-Epic feats from the ELH that you qualify for, you may take those. (I don't think there are any, but I'm sure someone will prove me wrong.) It is up to the discretion of each judge whether this is a "hard E6" (magic above 3rd level spells is simply beyond mortal reach, items that have a listed CL above 6th are just plain not available, etc.) or a "soft E6" (if you can somehow get the magic on your character, it's yours, regardless of level), though I honestly don't expect it to come up. Don't go crazy with making assumptions about items and we probably won't have to find out.
Presentation: Please use the table found below in the spoiler. List your epic bonus feats (in clear order) after the table. If you find a clever way of formatting that that isn't annoying and that doesn't break anything, have fun; if it's portable, I may steal it for the next round. When sending your build or any disputes to the Chair, clearly include your build's name in the subject of the PM, and please present your build exactly as you want the Chair to copy and paste it into the thread.
If you're using a picture, cite the source and follow any relevant citation rules. Because we have had issues with this in the past, when listing your skills, please make it very clear how many ranks you have at each level. There are multiple ways to do this and we do not wish to cramp anyone's individual style by dictating exactly how this must look, but make sure that somewhere in your entry there's an explanation of how many actual skill ranks you have. It's still fine to list total skill bonuses, if that's your style, but don't only list bonuses; make sure that there is a clear listing somewhere of your ranks alone.

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


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


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


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


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


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


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


Code for the table:

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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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

Non-exhaustive list of examples:

Skills
Allowed:

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


Not allowed:

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



Prereqs
Allowed:

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


Not Allowed:

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



Other general things that are no longer allowed:

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


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


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


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




This round's secret ingredient:
The PSYCHIC WARRIOR (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/classes/psychicWarrior.htm), from the Expanded Psionics Handbook!

Allez Optimizer!




The Builds:



Name

Stub

J1 ciopo

J2 MinimanMidget

Total

Rank

Chef



Talar Waymin

LN lesser zenythri psychic warrior 4 / war mind 2

16.65

12.0

28.65

6th

Quentinas



Starblossom

?? Wild elf ranger 2 / psychic warrior 4

15.2

12.0

27.2

7th

Birchy



The Lepidopterist

TN Tarmak (Vaymin) psychic warrior 6

17.8

16.0

33.8

1st, gold

Daremetoidareyou



Kate

CG illumian psychic warrior 5 / barbarian 1

16.9

15.25

32.15

2nd, silver

AsuraKyoko



Kal Arvoreen

LG glimmerskin halfling monk 1 / psychic warrior 4 / scout 1

15.5

14.0

29.5

5th

Mattie_p



Hypnotoad

TN anthropomorphic amphibious toad psychic warrior 6

15.0

14.75

29.75

4th

Daremetoidareyou



Hophit

LG dragonborn buomman monk 2 / psychic warrior 4

16.9

13.5

30.4

3rd, bronze

Quentinas





Round 4: Knight (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?542333-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(IV))
Round 5: Ninja (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?548763-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-V))
Round 6: Racial Paragon Classes (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?551174-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-VI))
Round 7: Hexblade (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?553767-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-VII))
Round 8: Shugenja (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?555626-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-VIII))
Round 9: Swashbuckler (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?559135-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-IX)")
Round 10: Crusader (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?562183-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-X))
Round 11: Soulknife (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?565669-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-XI))
Round 12: Factotum (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?569723-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-XII))
Round 13: Prestige Classes (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?572441-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-XIII))
Round 14: Mountebank (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?576318-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-XIV))
Round 15: Sorcerer (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?582751-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-XV))
Round 16: Dragon Shaman (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?585121-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-XVI))
Round 17: Lurk (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?588149-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-XVII))
Round 18: Paladin (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?591516-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-XVIII))
Round 19: Scout (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?595369-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-XIX))
Round 20: Incarnate (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?599279-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-XX))
Round 21: Shadowcaster (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?602325-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-XXI))
Round 22: Dragonmarks (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?606051-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-XXII))
Round 23: Fighter (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?611114-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-XXIII))
Round 24: Pets (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?615226-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-XXIV))
Round 25: Warlock (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?617510-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-XXV)&p=24666502)
Round 26: Monsters (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?619170-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Edition-(Round-XXVI))
Round 27: Ardent (exhibition round) (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?622593-Iron-Chef-E6-Appetizer-Edition-Round-XXVII)
Round 28: Rogue (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?623937-Iron-Chef-E6-Appetizer-Edition-Round-XXVIII)
Round 29: Signature Spells (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?627038-Iron-Chef-E6-Appetizer-Edition-Round-XXIX)
Round 30: Any Prior Ingredient (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?628860-Iron-Chef-E6-Appetizer-Edition-Round-XXX)
Round 31: Ranger (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?631229-Iron-Chef-E6-Appetizer-Edition-Round-XXXI)
Round 32: Tanking (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?632897-Iron-Chef-E6-Appetizer-Edition-Round-XXXII)


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

[Zaq]

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

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

The psywar is a beloved class and I honestly expect to see a pretty decent variety even without making this a high-Originality round. It's pretty wide-open, but it's still limited enough that you should be able to differentiate yourselves on a mechanical level by the choices you make. Watch those power points (you aren't unlimited!) and watch your action economy, but I'm sure we'll see some interesting stuff as you make your will reality!

[Zaq]

Oh, just cleaned out my inbox, too, so if you just tried to send me something, go ahead and retry!

[ciopo]

Ooooh psychic warrior

this is hard in the sense that it's too easy, in the "d'uh", but what's a "d'uh" for me likely isn't a "d'uh" for everybody else, so I'm looking forward to see some new stuff.

if I'm not submitting builds, I'll try my hand in judging this time around, but I'ìll probably submit builds

question for the chair: is it a faux pax to post what my judging criteria would be, if I end up submitting entries instead?

[Zaq]

Nah, that's no big deal, as long as you're not intentionally trying to mislead anyone.

[ciopo]

Tell you what, I commit to judging!

My criterias:

Originality
starts at 3,
+/- 0.5 for race choice
+/- 0.5 for spells/powers/manouvers/features choices
+/- 0.5 for feats choices
+/- 0.5 for class(es) choices
all of those are on scale of two factors : originality in regard to common optimization, and originality relative on the contest entries. A "common sense" common choice will be a neutral 0, not a penalty.
Bonus originality may be given for novelty in regard to build theme (mechanically)
I generally don't care much about story, but there may be some bonus here if there is any. Never a penalty for no story however, not from me ^^


Power starts at 3,
+/- 0.5 for survivability
+/- 0.5 for lethality
+/- 0.5 for utility and assorted sundries
+/- X for how it compares to how I would build a character filling the same role and tier with a similar class distribution
variable bonus if your tactical writeup includes spells/powers/manouvers at the given level, since you're making it easier for me to make a comparison
I will assume the entry will only have "generic big 6 items" unless you write otherwise. I do not penalize for mentioning items, most likely I will actually give some small bonus since you will compare better to my own mock writeup. (budget : ECL8 WBL for E6)
CAVEAT : if a somewhat obscure item is the lynchpin of the build, there will be a penalty for "reliance"

Elegance starts at 5,
-0.10 for multiclass penalty, this is cumulative per level and per penalty amount (note : epic feats are "a level" in this regard, since it costs xp to get them)
variable penalty for missing prerequisites, generally from 0.25 to 1
variable penalty for "shady raw shenanigans", generally from 0.5 to 2
possible bonus if you address "hidden" fluff prerequisites
no penalty for dips

uotSI (E6) starts at 3,
0.25 penalty for each level of uotSI not taken
variable penalty/bonus for the adherence to the concept/niche of the uotSI, detailed metric will be posted after the builds are out. The range of this value can be of up to +/- 3 split in multiple areas.
CAVEAT : no uotSI levels or failure to qualify for it is fiat minimum score


I am sure I forgot something, so these aren't set in stones and I reserve the right to give bonus points or penalties if something else comes up and yadda yadda yadda, I will try my best to be fair and even handed

[Quentinas]

Tell you what, I commit to judging!

My criterias:

Originality starts at 3,
+/- 0.5 for race choice
+/- 0.5 for spells/powers/manouvers/features choices
+/- 0.5 for feats choices
+/- 0.5 for class(es) choices
all of those are on scale of two factors : originality in regard to common optimization, and originality relative on the contest entries. A "common sense" common choice will be a neutral 0, not a penalty.
Bonus originality may be given for novelty in regard to build theme (mechanically)
I generally don't care much about story, but there may be some bonus here if there is any. Never a penalty for no story however, not from me ^^


Power starts at 3,
+/- 0.5 for survivability
+/- 0.5 for lethality
+/- 0.5 for utility and assorted sundries
+/- X for how it compares to how I would build a character filling the same role and tier with a similar class distribution
variable bonus if your tactical writeup includes spells/powers/manouvers at the given level, since you're making it easier for me to make a comparison

Elegance starts at 5,
-0.10 for multiclass penalty, this is cumulative per level and per penalty amount (note : epic feats are "a level" in this regard, since it costs xp to get them)
variable penalty for missing prerequisites, generally from 0.25 to 1
variable penalty for "shady raw shenanigans", generally from 0.5 to 2
possible bonus if you address "hidden" fluff prerequisites
no penalty for dips

uotSI (E6) starts at 0,
0.25 points per level taken in the uotSI
variable bonus for the adherence to the concept/niche of the uotSI


I am sure I forgot something, so these aren't set in stones and I reserve the right to give bonus points or penalties if something else comes up and yadda yadda yadda, I will try my best to be fair and even handed

I know you are the judge , but i would suggest boosting that 0.25 points as it's not that we can have so many levels (the maximum one could gain is 1.5) , and the variable bonus to the adherence to a class similar to a figher is something...hard to define , but obviously this is what I think (in a competition where the uotSI would be 10 levels the 0.25 would be perfect probably) . For example if one in the monk round make a better monk without using a monk (it can't be done I know this is only an example) he would gain at maximum more than a full monk without so much adherence

[ciopo]

Hello Quentinas, thanks for the feedback.

The 0.25 is calibrated for E6 already, if this was a normal IC with a 10 level PrC as the uotSI, I'd assign 0.15 per level of outSI.

This is precisely for the purpose of not discouraging too much making "that same concept but using different classes" adherence to "the concept" is the meat of the points here.

I am not elaborating on what I think the concept is in regard to this round here because I don't want to unduly influence the builds.

I can be convinced otherwise but I feel 1.5 points for staying in class levels is about okay for E6.

Maybe it'd be easier to say that it starts at 5, 0.25 penalty for each class level not taken, then variable bonus/penalties for sticking/not sticking to "the concept"?

[Quentinas]

Hello Quentinas, thanks for the feedback.

The 0.25 is calibrated for E6 already, if this was a normal IC with a 10 level PrC as the uotSI, I'd assign 0.15 per level of outSI.

This is precisely for the purpose of not discouraging too much making "that same concept but using different classes" adherence to "the concept" is the meat of the points here.

I am not elaborating on what I think the concept is in regard to this round here because I don't want to unduly influence the builds.

I can be convinced otherwise but I feel 1.5 points for staying in class levels is about okay for E6.

Maybe it'd be easier to say that it starts at 5, 0.25 penalty for each class level not taken, then variable bonus/penalties for sticking/not sticking to "the concept"?

Maybe I'm wrong but generally I think these contest where we have a class to be "optimize this class" and not "doing something optimized similar to this class" , so an idea could be start at 3 penalty for missing class levels bonus for sticking to the concept and malus for not sticking? It's only an idea , and I don't know how many round you have judged , I didn't judge so much so it could be only an impression created by inexperience on judging

[ciopo]

first time :) we shall see how it goes

[mattie_p]

first time :) we shall see how it goes

I haven't even started drafting my entry but I'm already preparing disputes!

[Zaq]

I've had a question about the psionic racial classes that start on pg. 144 of CPsi and whether they're legal!

I'll be honest, team: I don't think I've ever noticed these before. It seems like basically it's just more or less a way of spreading out LA so you still have a legal (i.e., has Hit Dice) character at ECL 1, but it's still ultimately pulling levels out of your progression to pay for your super scary powerful race. (Sarcasm. LA races aren't super scary or powerful.)

Now, the base E6 rules propose using a reduced point-buy to allow for LA because they presume that losing class level progression when you've only got 6 levels total is not viable. (As everyone knows, we do not allow those rules.) That said, we've allowed Savage Species-style monster classes before, and you'll almost never end up with 6 HD at ECL 6 if you take a monster class, so we've toyed with the possibility of an "epic" character having fewer than 6 class levels / HD. If, you know, that's what you're into.

Based on the precedent we set in the Savage Species round, I think it's reasonable to allow these psionic racial classes as well. Of course, we might want to lay out an assumption or two.

As stated on pg. 144, if you're in a racial class, you're in a racial class the whole way. The only multiclassing you can do is within the confines of the standard class levels allowed by the racial class progression.
No trying to change your race to weasel out of any of it. (Like, no dragonborn duergar or anything, please, I beg you. And no Racial Emulation changelings in these racial classes, either.)
If you choose to use a racial class, add an extra column to your table to differentiate your ECL (which the book calls your "racial level") from your HD (i.e., the number of class levels you have, or class levels + RHD if you take thri-kreen). You are Epic (per the usual rules of E6 as we play it) after racial level 6, so if you take one of these classes, you will have fewer than 6 HD when you start your Epic feat progression.

Some notes for judges:

Judges are NOT to penalize Originality solely for using or not using a racial class.
Taking levels of the SI through a racial class is still taking levels in the SI and should be treated as such, though of course, since there are fewer available class levels to take, if the racial class prevents using the SI to the fullest, that can be acknowledged. Don't be vindictive, but you may be aware of this.
Regarding Elegance, the simple presence of a racial class is NOT to be considered inelegant. However, if the racial class prevents something from going as smoothly as it would otherwise, then that may be considered inelegant. Please be specific in your judgments if this becomes relevant.

If anyone has any strong arguments against this, I'm open to discussion! But I think that this is consistent with what we've done in the past and with my original ban on LA (this is still a significant cost, whereas I felt like we'd end up with 50% pixies by volume if we just used the reduced point-buy rules).

[ciopo]

mmmmm, they're fine by me.

what about manifester level? I am of the opinion it caps at HD, even with practiced manifester.

[Quentinas]

mmmmm, they're fine by me.

what about manifester level? I am of the opinion it caps at HD, even with practiced manifester.

Well the feat says that it can't increase above the HD so it should not be a problem with these racial classes , the only problem would be with the thri-keen as it give us racial hit dice so maybe here practiced manifester could increase the manifester level (not of much only of 2)

[ciopo]

RHD are HD, yeah.

I've updated my judging criteria.

changed UotSI and power a bit.

[daremetoidareyo]

Just so y’all know, I never read the judges judging criteria.

[MinimanMidget]

Just so y’all know, I never read the judges judging criteria.

I've never posted mine, personally - I'm not convinced it really makes a difference to the contest.

[Zaq]

Everyone got an idea or two?

[ciopo]

Sure I do but I'm on the other side of the divide this time :P

[mattie_p]

Oh sure. I have about 20 disputes lined up already.

Edit: Oh. Did you mean ideas about what to make? I distracted myself a little from judging the VC by spitballing a few things around. I have something I can work on.

[Quentinas]

Yes one sure, maybe two but the second is working in progress for the ideas , for the first I have to do the writing

[AsuraKyoko]

What is the stance on custom item crafting? Assuming that I take the appropriate feats and craft the item myself, is that fine? My idea wants something specific that would be a custom item; it's not really critical to the build, but it is flavorful and fitting.

I could also include alternatives for the feat slot, if that would fly.

EDIT: I should clarify that the build can do what it wants completely without the item, but it makes more sense conceptually for it to have it.

EDIT 2: I should really double-check to make sure that the item I want exists already, because it does. My question still stands regarding item creation in general, though. Additionally, how is the experience cost paid for? Does it just come out of the level, so that the build should be submitted at level 5?

[daremetoidareyo]

What is the stance on custom item crafting? Assuming that I take the appropriate feats and craft the item myself, is that fine? My idea wants something specific that would be a custom item; it's not really critical to the build, but it is flavorful and fitting.

I could also include alternatives for the feat slot, if that would fly.

EDIT: I should clarify that the build can do what it wants completely without the item, but it makes more sense conceptually for it to have it.

EDIT 2: I should really double-check to make sure that the item I want exists already, because it does. My question still stands regarding item creation in general, though. Additionally, how is the experience cost paid for? Does it just come out of the level, so that the build should be submitted at level 5?

My experience is that item creation is generally ok, but judges penalize on reliance of a specific item to make a build function. I’ve never seen someone submit fewer than all 6 levels and 10 epic feats, but my advice (MY ADVICE) is that you put your weakest feats late in the epic feat progression as a “cushion” against the assertion that your crafting xp costs prohibit you from doing everything you say it can. The 9th and 10th epic feats tend to be phone ins anyway.

[AsuraKyoko]

My experience is that item creation is generally ok, but judges penalize on reliance of a specific item to make a build function. I’ve never seen someone submit fewer than all 6 levels and 10 epic feats, but my advice (MY ADVICE) is that you put your weakest feats late in the epic feat progression as a “cushion” against the assertion that your crafting xp costs prohibit you from doing everything you say it can. The 9th and 10th epic feats tend to be phone ins anyway.

Ah, thank you for the advice, that makes sense. Now to get to brewing!

[Voldine]

Gonna look through my books when I get home. This should be interesting though.

[Zaq]

I've had another bit of weirdness brought to my attention.

According to XPH pg. 17, a character with levels in multiple psionic classes gets bonus PP from high ability scores for each of those classes, which then all get poured into the same common pool of PP. However, some PrCs that grant their own manifesting (like fist of Zuoken/psionic fist and war mind) have the strange rule that "Bonus power points from having a high ability score can be gained only for the character’s highest psionic class." This seems to be a mistake and/or a holdover from before the rule on XPH 17 got finalized.

Official ruling: Follow the rules on XPH 17-18 for bonus power points. They can be added for each applicable manifesting class. The PrC-specific text about bonus power points from a high ability score is erroneous and should be disregarded for our purposes.

[Voldine]

Question for the chair: Are we allowed to use races whose LA has been judged as 'should be +0' according to the numerous LA reassignment threads, or must we adhere to the LA values given in the sourcebooks according to RAW?

[Zaq]

Question for the chair: Are we allowed to use races whose LA has been judged as 'should be +0' according to the numerous LA reassignment threads, or must we adhere to the LA values given in the sourcebooks according to RAW?

Nope, only races that are actually +0 by RAW.

[daremetoidareyo]

Im done mad early! I wish all of you the best of luck.

[mattie_p]

Woah. I haven't even started yet. But then again I did judge VC which took forever

[MinimanMidget]

I've had a few ideas, but none of them have really panned out. I might end up judging this round.

[Zaq]

How's it going, team?

[mattie_p]

Invested a lot of time judging VC but I have a solid idea. I have about 30 hours to draw it up. Can do.

[Birchy]

Got My Build Done! :smallsmile:

But i have do the write-up... :smallsigh:

I wish all the other chef's luck!

[mattie_p]

Probably too late for most competitors here, being as deadline is tomorrow-ish and all. But I've got an upgrade to the google sheets that I've distributed to help make constructing the entries a lot quicker.

The New Version (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BG0-5sq4dL9Ooh7-QfXuyHzO4rXSz-CRcj29t6BeUVE/edit?usp=sharing) includes a separate sheet for skills. As designed, it supports up to 10 separate skill entries. Simply rename skills, add ranks, then copy and paste the data in the cells from the skill sheet into your level table sheet. If you use fewer than 10 skills you will need to modify the formula to remove extraneous commas. If you need to add more than 10... hopefully you can figure out the method to the formula.

Edit: Zaq, if you wish to add to the OP in future competitions you have permission.

Edit2: Also, I got mine in.

[AsuraKyoko]

Working on finalizing my writeup, and double checking everything for completeness and correctness. Hopefully I'll have it submitted by the end of the day today.

EDIT: Alright, submitted!

[Birchy]

Submission Complete! Can't wait see all the cool builds! There's quite a lot cool stuff you could do with a psychic warrior, mostly thanks psionic feats, so I'm hoping for variety of different builds.

[daremetoidareyo]

My entry is in! And it’s a trip

[Zaq]

In my land, we sometimes call them "fightbrains."


Talar Waymin LN Lesser Zenythri psychic warrior 4/War mind 2
House Waymin one of the six Hidden House , the most diplomatic among them ,as the crossbreeding is essential to create the Ultimate Scion that will beat the enemy and will let them go back at their world Talaron . While most of the members think that the crossbreeding should be only among the Six Hidden House there are some members, that knowing that the Ultimate Scion will need discipline and to have a body balanced between power of mind and the power of body, who have chosen to try crossbreeding with outsiders , especially lawful outsiders , hoping that the discipline would pass on the newborn and that the power of the outsider would influence the strenght . Talar is one among the lesser outsiders born in this way after many generations , him being a lesser Zenythri without any psionic energy at the start but a fast learner of the psychic warrior way , gifted in his knowledge of the Talariic texts not as intelligent as other but searching the perfection of his body through the knowledge he acquired.
Point buy
Strength 16 (10 points)
Dexterity 12 (4 points)
Constitution 14 (6 points)
Intelligence 12 (4 points)
Wisdom 15 (8 points)
Charisma 8 (0 points)
So after the racial adjustment and the 4th level point that goes to Wisdom Talar has Strength 18 , Dexterity 14, Constitution 14 , Intelligence 12, Wisdom 18 , Charisma 6. Not the most charismatic or diplomatic but with a good amount on the strenght, constitution and wisdom
The bonus power points for wisdom are included


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


1st
Psychic warrior 1
+0
+2
+0
+0
Knowledge (psionics) 4, Concentration 4, Knowledge (history) 2 (cc)
Favored, Psionic body
Bonus feat
1
Vigor


2nd
Psychic warrior 2
+1
+3
+0
+0
Knowledge (psionic) 5 , Concentration 5 , Autohypnosis 1, Knowledge (history) 2 ,
Psionic weapon
Bonus feat
4
Force Screen


3rd
Psychic warrior 3
+2
+3
+1
+1
Knowledge (psionic) 7 , Concentration 6, Autohypnosis 2, Knowledge (History) 2
Primary contact (knowledge psionic)

7
Expansion


4th
Psychic warrior 4
+3
+4
+1
+1
Knowledge (psionic) 8 , Concentration 7, Autohypnosis 3, Knowledge (History) 2


13
Hustle


5th
War mind 1
+4
+6
+3
+1
Knowledge (psionic) 8 , Concentration 8 , Autohypnosis 5, Knowledge (history) 2

Chain of personal superiority +2
17
Catfall


6th
War mind 2
+5
+7
+4
+1
Knowledge (psionic) 8, Concentration 8, Autohypnosis 8, Knowledge (history) 2
Steady concentration
Chain of defensive posture +2
22
Precognition, Offensive

Epic feats 1°Psionic Meditation
2°Greater Psionic weapon
3° Deep impact
4° Power attack
5° Expanded knowledge (dimension hop)
6° Psicrystal affinity
7° Psicrystal containment
8° Open minded
9° Practiced manifester (psychic warrior)
10° Practiced manifester (war mind)
Talar is a lesser zenythri, he is a member of house Waymin, and he is psychic warrior, so how these three facts combine? First his race is quite perfect to be a psychic warrior as the stat array is perfect, in our case mainly boosting strenght and wisdom the constitution and dexterity, and true strike as a spell like ability is quite useful for a class who will not have 6 of attack bonus, then being a member of House Waymin and being a psychic warrior is related from the lore of House Waymin as they train the body and the mind. Even our first power is related to that as the Hidden talent of House Waymin give Vigor and we chose vigor as our first power. At this level we are more based on hitting things with strength more than using powers as we only have one power points, and the skills are not so high mainly concentration and knowledge psionic, as knowledge histroy is a prerequisite. To be even more related we have chosen Favored as our first feat , and let's say that the skill we chose is knowledge psionic ,as House Waymin with the Talariic texts should have knowledge psionic as skill if it was an organization . The bonus feat we have chosen is psionic body , a way to gain hit points and compensate on the 14 of constitution , for now worst than toughness but it will be better as we will have many psionic feats.
Now we are level 2, the skills doesn't change too much , but we gain a new skill, a wisdom based skill which is quite good as wisdom will be one of our main stat and Autohypnosis has various use that are helpful especially on the saves and on the dying condition. We doesn't choose the mantled warrior ACF , but this explanation will be for the future , sure it could be helpful but not too much ,as I prefer having one more feat. The feat I'm talking will be the main source of damage for now , and it is Psionic weapon , which nearly double the damage of the greatsword , sure it's quite difficult gaining the psionic focus ,but we will work on that. For the power now that we have 4 power points we can use them more in battle and as I said we will be using a greatsword so we are without a shield. The power is here to cover that weakness as it is Force Screen an useful power that give us a good boost to AC without many problems. The only weakness is that should be manifested before battle as many of our powers.
At third level we gain a feat that is quite useful in this build , primary contact, as we want that bonus skill point over the limit on knowledge psionic . Knowledge (psionic) it's not the best skill for us but as we even have a bonus from favored we are quite good at it , while the other skills are useful in their way, concentration obviously for gaining psionic focus , and autohypnosis is still low but will be useful , at these level mainly against fear effects (it's better than our will save). We are starting to have a decent amount of power points , if we only think about 1st level powers, but we learned even a 2nd level power, Hustle, which can be quite useful to move more , or move in a tactical way. It will be useful later , and among the 2nd level power it's among the best for us. Epxnasion it lowers our AC but not so much as we want to fight in fullplate armor so our 14 of dexterity is too much for a normal fullplate armor so the penalty on dexterity from expansion it's not a big problem, and we would do more damage that is quite appreciated (the penalty on attacks is avoided from the increase in strenght). The increase of wisdom at this level help us
And for these level primary contact was useful, as we could enter the War mind one level before the normal. Why the War mind, generally it's seen worst than a psychic warrior, it has lower level power known, the main thing about this prestige class it's at the fifth level and even lose manifesting progression , and manifester level . But nothing of this influence too much this build (except lower level power known but it's not a problem) as while it doesn't influence our manifester level it give us another font of bonus power points for wisdom (thanks to the ruling of the chair ), it give us more 1st level power that are augmentable and mainly it give us full base attack bonus. There are some feats we will take in future that ask for BAB 5, and normally a psychic warrior would have no possibilities to gain them in a normal E6 environment , but thanks to primary contact we can , and it basically made us a better warrior. Another useful fact about the War mind is having the psicraft skill among the class skills , but it will be for later that , as we invest the skill point of the War mind mainly on autohypnosis that now it's quite worth as it is near fortitude saves against poisons and quite better than will saves against fear. The War mind even boost our saves, with fortitude and reflex, the first high even before, while reflexes was low before. The power we chose are for combat ,and we choose precognition offensive as we will be focusing on single strike in the future so the possibilities to hit are quite good, while catfall is more used as we doesn't have many ways to move, and we aren't the best on climbing and such , so it could be helpful sometimes. The class abilities of the War mind are useful as the first increase strenght and constitution that is quite good, while the second increase AC and they are free action usable 3 times at day each one so the majority of the daily encounters, that is quite good for us.
Now we are starting to use our focus many times, as the feat of the level 6 was steady concentration and we have enough constitution to gain focus each time if we take 10 on the check, then we use our move action instead of the full round action thanks to psionic meditation , that is another help . So each round if we are engaged we gain the focus as move action and we strike using a feat that use the focus, with hustle as possibility to move or regain the focus again. What are the feats that would use the focus? Quite easy as we have greater psionic weapon and deep impact, these feats could not have being taken without 2 levels of war mind, but they are quite the exemplar feats of a psychic warrior, someone who use the mind to fight and they are greater psionic weapon and deep impact. Why not only one? Easy because sometimes we will fight enemies with a big natural armor or an heavy armor , and sometimes we will fight enemies easy to hit. In the first case it's better to use deep impact, combined maybe with power attack , while in the second it's better to use greater psionic weapon and power attack. If it's an enemy with a good touch armor we only use greater psionic weapon without power attack , as on average greater psionic weapon it's better than power attack. These feats are our main weapon when we fight , and thanks to them we can do high damage. Sadly they apply only for one hit , but we aren't specialized in two weapon fighting , and we don't have enough BAB to make iterative attacks so it's good for us. As we wiill use our move action to regain the focus many time we need a way to move as a swift action , one is Hustle, while the other come from Expanded knowledge ,and it is Dimension Hop. Why didn't I used the Mantled Warrior ACF , if I wanted dimension hop? Easy because the boost on movement speed it's not useful if we spend our move action doing something else, so instead of choosing a mantle and losing a psionic feat I prefered to use expanded knowledge as it would boost psionic body. Now for psionic body we gained 14 hit points, which is quite good quite better than improved toughness or an increase in constitution
Our tactic is based on the psionic focus, and sometimes we have to avoid using the move action to go somewhere else, maybe even had using the swift action for dimension hop or a magic item instead of hustle , so in that turn we would not gain a psionic focus. So for this we take this chain of feats , the first to boost our wisdom save (as we take the resolved personalities for our psicrystal) the second to have the possibility to have a second focus in our psicrystal. We can even choose to use each feat for a nova attack instead of maintaning a second focus for the future, and it can be helpful.
Now it's the time that I wrote before where the skill list of the War mind to count, as we use open minded to gain 5 skill points, these are invested mainly in psicraft (4) and one in autohypnosis . Psicraft is more a prerequisite for the future feats, while Autohypnosis is used more as the feature of the skills are more used, now we have +15 , so we use that for resisting fears, tolerance to poison and ignore poison, one of the "Epic" use of the skill , as our fortitude saves is lower of 6 so even a bonus of 5 on the DC is better with our autohypnosis. The 4 ranks in psicraft are used to be qualified for practiced manifester as we have two manifester class so boosting at maximum our manifester level boost our power point quite high as we gain 12 power points(half our manifester level *wisdom modifier) better than the same number of the psionic talent feat, and this number of power points is quite good as we can augment our spells in a better way now , like third level power for some of cost , but obviously we can conserve them and use many low level power for many times. With these feats psionic body arrived at giving us 20 hit points giving us hit points like we had another 2 levels of psychic warrior at maximum
Male lesser zenytrhi Psychich warrior 4/War mind 2
LN Medium Humanoid (extraplanar)
Initiative +2
Hit points 8+3d8+2d10+12 (constitution)+20 (psionic body)=64,5 , if we use the chain of personal superiority we would have 70 hit points (increase in constitution)
Saves +9 fortitude , + 6 reflexes, + 7 will (with resoluted psicrystal)
Maximum AC= 10+1 (dexterity)+8 (heavy plate)+ 5(force screen augmented) +2 (chain of defensive posture)=26 , if we use expansion 25 (as we have 14 of dexterity and not 12) +2 for the psicrystal feats (see last spoiler)
Base attack/Grapple 5/9 (10 if we use the chain of personal superiority, 15 if we use expansion)
Attack (if a psionic focus is used they can be against touch AC for Deep impact) : Greatsword +9 (+10 if we use the chain of personal superiority , +12 if we use precognition offensive) Damage 2d6+6 +4d6 if we use greater psionic weapon with a psionic focus + power attack up to 10 +1 with chain of personal superiority.
Damage with expansion 3d6+7 +4d6 if we use greater psionic weapon + power attack up to 10 +2 with chain of personal superiority (as we would arrive at 22 of strength so +9 of strenght in total)
Power points 34 (7 from psychic warrior , 5 from war mind , 12 bonuses from psychic warrrior, 12 bonuses from war mind)
Manifester level 6/6 (psychic warrior and war mind)
Power knows
Psychic warrior
1° Force screen , Vigor , Expansion , Dimension hop (from expanded knowledge)
2° Hustle
War mind
1°Precognition offensive, Catfall
Skills Concentration +10 (8 ranks +2 constitution and can take 10) , Knowledge (psionic) +13 (8 ranks +2 favored +1 intelligence +2 synergy from autohypnosis) , Autohypnosis + 15 (9 ranks +4 wisdom +2 synergy from concentration) , Knowledge (history) +3 (2 ranks +1 intelligence)
Player guide to Faerun :Lesser planetouched
Monster manual 2 +update (http://archive.wizards.com/dnd/files/MM2_Errata02062006.zip):Zenytrhi race
Complete psionic : House Waymin
Complete Psionic :Practiced manifester
Expanded Psionic Handbook:Psionic body
Expanded Psionic Handbook: Psionic weapon
Expanded Psionic Handbook: Greater Psionic Weapon
Expanded Psionic Handbook: Deep impact
Expanded Psionic Handbook: Psicrystal affinity
Expanded Psionic Handbook: Psicrystal containment
Expanded Psionic Handbook: Psionic Meditation
Expanded Psionic Handbook: Psychic warrior
Expanded Psionic Handbook: War Mind
Cityscape:Favored
Cityscape Primary contact
Complete Adventurer: Open minded
Races of Stone: Steady concentration
Player handbook :Power attack
Complete Psionic :Dimension hop
Expanded Psionic Handbook:Other powers
Drow of the underdark :Constant guardian(see next spoiler)
SRD (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/skills.htm) Epic use of Autohypnosis
I didn't talked about the psicrystal until now as it is a strange fact for a psychic warrior, as there would be a problem with him . Normally a psicrystal would have hit dice same as the manifester but this work only for wilder and psion from the text, while from the table as the master , so for a psychic warrior I don't know how many hit dice the psicrystal would have . It would still have the abilities that he would gain , as it would have a good amount of hitpoints thanks to our high hitpoints and it's AC would be 18 (16 without self propulsion) .But it would have at least 1 hit dice, and this would be sure as creature without hit dice or a fraction of them would not exist , so I think that it would have one feat so we can choose it. As our psicrystal isn't so good in battle and it must be near us , the best feat for this is constant guardian , with him taking a penalties to his attack rolls (which he will never do) to boost our defense , which can be helpful sometimes (and dodge bonus are somewhat rare for us as we don't have any ways to gain them)

[Zaq]

I'm pretty sure that ranger was a subset of warrior in some early edition long ago, so this checks out.


Starblossom, The Psychic Ranger (Wild Elf Ranger 1/Psychic Warrior 1/Rgr 2/Pyw 4)

https://i.ibb.co/twG4q4k/Fantasy-Art-Derek-Herring-Eagles-Talon.jpg

Abilities Initial Race(Wild Elf) Level 4
Str 16 (+3) 16 (+3) 16 (+3)
Dex 11 13 (+1) 13 (+2)
Con 14 (+2) 13 13
Int 10 11 11
Wis 15 (+2) 15 (+2) 16 (+3)
Cha 11 9 9


Longbow
Longsword
Chain Shirt > Eleven Chain


Level Class Base Attack Bonus Fort Save Reflex Save Will Save Skills Feats Class Features
1st Elf Ranger 1 +1 +2 +2 +0 Spot 4 Jump 4 Hld A 4 Tbl 4 Svl 4 Srch 4 Swim 4 Ctn 4 Point Blank Shot, Track Favored Enemy (Orcs/Undead/SOL), Wild Emphy
2nd Psychic Warroir 1 +1 +4 +2 +0 Tbl 5 Ctn 5 Precise Shot
3rd RGR 2 +2 +5 +3 +0 Spot 5 Jump Srch 5 Svl 5 Swim 5 Hld A 5 Tbl 6 Ctn 6 Rapid Shot, Psionic Shot
4th PYW 2 +3 +6 +3 +0 Tbl 7 Concentration 7 Pisonic Medation
5th PYW 3 +4 +6 +4 +1 Tbl 8 Ctn 8
6th PYW 4 +5 +7 +4 +1 Tbl 8 Ctn 9 Greater Pisonic Shot Epic Feats
Epic 1: Zen Archery
Epic 2: Fell Shot
Epic 3: Psicrystal Affitinty
Epic 4: Psicrystal Containment
Epic 5: Wild Cohort
Epic 6: Nautral Bond
Epic 7: Azure Talent
Epic 8: Bouns Essentia
Epic 9: Travel Devotion
Epic 10: Narrow Mind Level New 1st Level Powers New 2nd Level Powers PP/ D [/th] [/th]
2nd Metaphyical Weapon --- 1
4th Precognition Defensive --- 4
5th Adrenalin Boost --- 7
6th --- Hustle 11
Epic 7 --- --- 13
Epic 8 --- --- 15
For her 5th epic feat Starblossom gains a wolf Wild Cohort. For her 6th epic feat she use Nautral Bond to upgrade to a male leopard called Dapple. We shall only discuss Dapple the snapshots, for brevitey's sake.


Statblocks
Wolf
Leopard


Size/Type
Medium, Animal
Medium, Animal


Hit Dice
3d8+6 (19 hp)
4d8+6 (25hp)


Initiative
+2
+4


Speed
50 ft. (10 squares)
40 ft (8 squares), climb 20 ft.


Armour Class
15 (+2 Dex, +2 natural), touch 13, flat-footed 13
16 (+4 Dex, +1 natural), touch 15, flat-footed 12


Base Attack/Grapple
+1/+2
+2/+5


Attack
Bite +3 melee (1d6+1)
Bite +6 melee (1d6+3)


Full Attack
Bite +3 melee (1d6+1)
Bite +6 melee (1d6+3) and 2 claws +1 melee (1d3+1)


Space/Reach
5 ft./5 ft.
5 ft./5 ft.


Special Attacks
Trip
Improved grab, pounce, rake 1d3+1


Special Qualities
Low-light vision, scent
Low-light vision, scent


Saves
Fort +5, Ref +5, Will +1
Fort +5, Ref +7, Will +2


Abilties
Str 13 Dex 15 Con 15 Int 2 Wis 12 Cha 6
Str 16, Dex 19, Con 15, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 6


Skills
Hide +2 Listen +3 Move Silently +3 Spot +3 Survival +1
Balance 12, Climb 11, Hide 8, Jump 11, Listen 6, Move Silently 8, Spot 6


Feats
Track Weapon Focus (Bite)
Alertness, Weapon Finesse


Tricks
Tricks: Come, Attack, Down, Heel, Seek, Track
Tricks: Come, Attack, Down, Heel, Seek, Track




Starblossom was newly dewr. There had been a big ceremony with all the tribe's youths getting wolf pelts to signify their status. She had gone after a deer. Mostly because the thought of mushroom for the 15th time this week sickened her. Actually hitting the deer had proven far harder than she'd expected though. She closed her eyes to think... ...and still saw the deer. No... Where the deer would be. *Twang* Her shot hit her mark.

Starblossom starts out as pretty normal archery focused ranger. With a level of psychic warrior. This gets her precise shot 1 level earlier than a normal ranger would. It also gets her metaphysical weapon, which helps her with low Dex (Well once a day at least). Lastly we get psionic shot, which helps us deal more damage once per encounter.


Psionics: (1PP)
Metaphysical weapon (+1 to hit and damage bonus, 1/min level, 1PP) (Perstisted if 4pp or more are used)
Psionic shot (Expand psionic focus to deal 2D6 damage)
Full Attack:
2D8+6 (Longbow+Rapidshot)
Skills:
Concentration (Used for psionic focus checks)
Tumble, Jump (Used to Negate Foe AoO While Moving)
Survival (To use track effectively)
Handle Animal (for teaching our wild cohort tricks)
Swim, Search, Spot (Flavour/Utility)


Starblossom regarded the giant preying mantis. She told the beast "Leave. Or be shot". Then the mantis SPOKE "<Don't k-k-kill me> <Please?>" "Wait. You can talk?- Where are my manners? My names Starblossom. Yours?" "<ARGGHH... Wait... Your a Pison?... Oh? Cik-Thaskt mine...>" "Right.. Chick... Thaskte? Come with we to the camp. As long as you respect the rules of the forest, you can stay here."



Cik-Thaskt has taught Starblossom pisonics, giving her three more level of psychic warrior. These lessons also have given her some more pisonic powers and the ability to use psionic mediation. However her favourite new trick is the power hustle, which lets her use her psionic shots EVERY SNIGLE TURN when combined with psionic mediation.
The other two new powers are Adrenaline Boost, as a cheap way to improve our damage, and Precogiton, Defensive because a defence boost that good and cheap is just gravy.


Psionics (11PP)]
Adrenaline Boost (+1 bonus to Str and Dex Mods, Swift Action) (1PP)
Precogiton, Defenisve(+1 AC and saving throw bonus) (1/min level) (1PP) (Quickened if 6pp or more are used)
Hustle (Extra Move Action, Swift Action) (3PP)
Greater Psionic Shot (Expand psionic focus to deal 4D6 damage)
Augmention (Spend power points to improve power, effects depend on power. See the powers entry for effects)

Full Attack (Requires Psionic Focus)
2D8+4D6+6 (Longbow+Rapidshot+Greater Psionic Shot)




Zen Archery (Can use Wis mod instead of Dex mod for archery)
Fell Shot (Expand psionic focus to ignore DR)
Psicrystal Affitinty + Psicrystal Containment (+3 To con checks, can use Psicrystal to store a psionic focus, allowing you to have up to two)
Wild Cohort+Nautral Bond (Animal Companion. He has his own spoiler)
Azure Talent+Bonus Essentia (+4PP)
Travel Domain (Grants extra movement actions 1/Day)
Narrow Mind (+4 To Psionic Focus)

Starblossom gains a whole new bag of tricks with her epic feats. Fell shot helps her deal with creatures with DR, while travel domain makes us more mobile, a least once per day. The Psicrystal feats give her another pisonic focus, granting her more flexibility with her full attack routine, and also letting her use it twice per encounter before having to recharge her psionic focus. Wild Cohort and Nautral Bond give her an animal companion. The other feats simply bump up numbers.



HD: 4
Feats: Alertness, Weapon Finesse
Features: Evasion(WC) Pounce, Improved Grab, Rake.
Tricks: Come, Attack, Down, Heel, Seek, Track
Abilities: Str 16, Dex 19, Con 15, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 6
Skills: Balance 12, Climb 11, Hide 8, Jump 11, Listen 6, Move Silently 8, Spot 6
Charge Attack: 1D6+3 (Bite), 1D3+1 (Claw), 2D3+2 (Rake)

Starblossom's Leopard, Dapple's role is to help the party scout using the seek and track tricks. He also give Starblossom some scouting capabtily with his skills. In combat he acts like 3rd level grappler/charger hybrid, being activate his combat tricks with both tactics.


I May have forgot my sources. Well, here they are!
ROTW (Elf Ranger)
CSC (Tumble instead of Ride for Ranger and Psychic Warrior)
Wild Cohort (https://www.realmshelps.net/charbuild/feat/Wild_Cohort)
CA (Natural Bond)
MoI (Incarnum Feats)
CC (Travel Devotion)

[Zaq]

When all you have is a big net, everything looks like a bug.



The Lepidopterist
Neutral Tarmak (Vaymin) Psychic Warrior 6


https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/869438935527481344/869765045301686323/lepid.jpg

PROLOGUE:
From the wild continent up north comes the Tarmak, a mysterious neanderthal like human culture bedecked in blue warpaint with a language so difficult to master it has no written form.. From the shattered world of some other plane comes the human houses of Talare, psionically wild-talented and be-tattooed with crappy clip-art tattoos. ¿Por qué no los ambos?

So, imagine being from this refugee psionic human tribe who have fled a plane whose cataclysm is from a force known to them only as the “enemy.” The refugees from that lost place, called Talaron, chose to hide their psionic ability when they came to this world. And if they were hiding amongst the Tarmak of the northern continent, or simply syncretized with them, we may never know. But from this lore we can find something.

Imagine being from this proud barbarian race of foragers and plunderers, with old stories about the short people who arrived and changed their culture and married into their tribes and taught the secrets of what they knew, and shared their culture of gift giving as power consolidation. And then...one day, a tattoo pops up on you. And it doesn’t look like anyone else in your extended family. Maybe the psionic tattoo skips a generation or two, or some other aspect of the genetic and psionic lottery made it happen. And as you train, you realize that there’s something bound to your soul. And when you reach into your chest to grab it - like the old legend of Sandbarrow and his Angle-hafted giant Bowie knife of the soul, whose mighty weapon was an ancestral birthright of his destroyed homeplane that was plucked from the astral past of his ancestral homeland. But, unlike Sandbarrow, - your hand grips a thin handle.

You think to yourself how maybe you are built for a rapier or something, so you steady yourself and unsheath your soulbound weapon of legend.

It’s a…

It’s a...butterfly net?

RACE:


Some of this stuff is hard to find, so I've taken the liberty to paste the relevant pieces for the judges.

Talarian Human (Complete Psionic p.143)
Wild Talent (Vaymin): Instead of a free bonus feat, Talaire of House Vaymin have the Wild Talent (Vaymin) feat. Benefit: You gain the psionic subtype. As a psionic character, you gain a reserve of 1 power point and qualify for psionic feats, metapsionic feats, and psionic item creation feats. In addition, you gain the psi-like ability to use vigor (EPH 140) once per day (manifester level 1st + half the number of psionic class levels gained).

Tarmak (Dragonlance Campaign Setting page 232)
https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/869438935527481344/869439552186621972/Screen_Shot_2021-07-27_at_12.38.43_AM.png
Tarmak Warpaint: The Tarmak make a blue body paint from a mixture of fruits, tree sap, and pulped leaves, all derived from plants native to their island homes. Painted on the body, this war paint grants a creature a +5 natural armor bonus and fast healing 5. When the paint has healed a total of 20 points of damage, it loseS its effectiveness, no longer granting either the fast healing or the natural armor bonus. The secrets of creating this war paint are known only to the Tarmak, who guard it jealously as a sacred formula. For purposes of creating the paint, consider it to have a market price of 500gp and require a DC 25 Craft (alchemy) check. Tarmac receive a +8 racial bonus on Craft (alchemy) checks to make Tarmak war paint.

ABILITY SCORES:


Ability Score

Racial Mods
Base Distribution
PointCost
Level 4
Final


Strength

+2
16
10

18


Dexterity


10
2

10


Constitution

+2
15
8
+1
18


Intelligence

-2
10
2

8


Wisdom


16
10

16


Charisma

-2
8
0

6





BUILD



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


1
Soulbound Weapon Psychic Warrior (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070214a) (WEB)
0
2
0
0
Concentration 4, K. Psionics 1, Profession (Entomologist) 1, Craft (alchemy) 2
1st: Azure Talent (MoI p.34)
Human bonus: Wild talent (vaymin) (comp psi p.144)
Psywar: Weapon Focus (butterfly net)
Psywar bonus: Overchannel (XPH p.49)
Bonus Feat, Soulbound Weapon, Call Weaponry (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/callWeaponry.htm) (XPH p.82)
0


2
Soulbound Weapon Psychic Warrior (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070214a)
1
3
0
0
Concentration 5, Ride 1

Soulbound Weapon, Expansion (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/expansion.htm) (XPH p.105)
1


3
Psychic Warrior 3
2
3
1
1
Concentration 6, craft (alchemy) 3
Powerful Charge (MMV p.205)
Compression (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/compression.htm) (XPH p.84)
3


4
Psychic Warrior 4
3
4
1
1
Concentration 7, Craft (alchemy) 5

Reach (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040827e) (WEB)
5


5
Psychic Warrior 5
3
4
1
1
Concentration 8, autohypnosis 1
Talented (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/psionicFeats.htm#talented) (XPH p.51)
Bonus Feat, Constrictor's Touch (SoS p.130)
7


6
Psychic Warrior 6
4
5
2
2
Concentration 9, Craft Alchemy 6
Greater Powerful Charge (ECS p.54)
Hustle (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/hustle.htm) (XPH p.111)
11




EPIC FEATS




Epic Feat#
Epic Feat


1
Shape Soulmeld (MoI p.40) Mauling Gauntlets (MoI p.78)


2
Bonus Essentia (MoI p.35)


3
Midnight Augmentation (MoI p.38)


4
Psionic Meditation (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/psionicFeats.htm#psionicMeditation) (XPH p.50)


5
Psycarnum Infusion (MoI p.40)


6
Expanded Knowledge (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/psionicFeats.htm#expandedKnowledge) (XPH p.46): Psychic Whip (SoS p.131)


7
Combat Manifesting (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/psionicFeats.htm#combatManifestation) (XPH p.44)


8
Shielded manifesting (Races of Stone p.144)


9
Martial Study (ToB p.31) crusaders strike (ToB p.58)


10
Martial Stance (ToB p.31) martial spirit (ToB p.60)



FIRESIDE CHAT WITH YOUR LOCAL MONSTER CATCHER

Welcome to monster catcher boot camp!

The first thing you need to know about monster catching is that you need a net. So let’s get familiar with the net. Open your Arms and Equipment Guide to page 24.


Net, Butterfly: This is a slender rod with a metal hoop on one end, covered by a sack made from insect netting. It’s used to capture ordinary flying insects, vermin, and small birds without harming them. It requires no proficiency to use a butterfly net, which grants a +2 circumstance bonus on attack rolls to capture creatures that are Tiny or smaller. Treat this as a net (see Weapons in Chapter 7 of the Player’s Handbook) in all respects, except that it is not thrown.

For completeness sake, here is the net information that wasn’t included in your guide.


NET (http://”http://www.d20srd.org/srd/equipment/weapons.htm#net&quot;)
A net is used to entangle enemies. When you throw a net, you make a ranged touch attack against your target. A net’s maximum range is 10 feet. If you hit, the target is entangled. An entangled creature takes a -2 penalty on attack rolls and a -4 penalty on Dexterity, can move at only half speed, and cannot charge or run. If you control the trailing rope by succeeding on an opposed Strength check while holding it, the entangled creature can move only within the limits that the rope allows. If the entangled creature attempts to cast a spell, it must make a DC 15 Concentration check or be unable to cast the spell. An entangled creature can escape with a DC 20 Escape Artist check (a full-round action). The net has 5 hit points and can be burst with a DC 25 Strength check (also a full-round action). A net is useful only against creatures within one size category of you. A net must be folded to be thrown effectively. The first time you throw your net in a fight, you make a normal ranged touch attack roll. After the net is unfolded, you take a -4 penalty on attack rolls with it. It takes 2 rounds for a proficient user to fold a net and twice that long for a nonproficient one to do so.

So let’s go over the salient points about this prime monster catching tool. You can swing it as a melee touch attack on a creature within one size category of yourself with no need for proficiency. If you use it on a creature that is tiny or smaller, you receive a +2 circumstance bonus to the attack roll. (So, RAW, only small creatures can use it to target tiny creatures). If you hit, the creature is entangled. To escape, the caught creature must use a full round action to make a DC 20 escape artist check or a DC 25 strength check to burst it. Or, they may attack the net. Which is our weapon, which means we need to make opposed attack rolls, if the caught person fails, they deal no damage. These opposed attack rolls have size bonuses. The net starts at 5 HP, but each enhancement bonus increases this by 10 and adds 2 hardness.



Hardness and Hitpoints: (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/magicWeapons.htm)
Hardness and Hit Points (DMG p.222 errata’ed to read)
Each +1 of enhancement bonus adds 2 to the hardness of armor, a weapon, or a shield and +10 to the item’s hit points.

So if you have a soulbound soulbound weapon, you can get up to hardness 6 HP 35. Bane soulbound weapons also hit this height against the creature type to which it is keyed.



Lesser Soulbound Weapon (MoI p.111) +1 enhancement
Effect: A soulbound weapon serves as a receptacle for the wearer’s essentia much like a soulmeld. Every point of essentia invested in the weapon increases its enhancement bonus on attack rolls and damage rolls by 1, up to a maximum of +5. Soulbound weapons have an essentia capacity. Lesser soulbound weapons have a maximum essentia capacity of 2,. The maximum value of essentia that can be invested in the weapon is equal to this capacity or the character’s normal essentia capacity (see Table 2–1: Essentia Capacity), whichever is less.

When netting opponents, you are limited two netting a creature within one size category of you. This is where the expansion power comes in. You should be able to net any creature from small to gargantuan.

Then, if you are huge from expansion, and you attack off of a charge, greater powerful charge allows you to target a colossal creature with your butterfly net. And when you’re attacking these biggies on a greater powerful charge, you deal an extra 4d6 damage.



Greater Powerful Charge (ECS p.54)
As Powerful Charge, but treat yourself as one size category larger than you are.

Powerful Charge (MMV p.205) When the creature charges, if its melee attack hits, it deals an extra 1d8 points of damage (if it is of Medium size). For Large creatures, the extra damage is 2d6 points; for Huge, 3d6; for Gargantuan, 4d6; and for Colossal, 6d6. This feat only works when the creature makes a charge. It does not work when the creature is mounted. If the creature has the ability to make multiple attacks after a charge, it can only apply this extra damage to one of those attacks.

With compression, you can target tiny or smaller creatures. Or, you can target those in your net who are very strong by summoning a power storing soulbound weapon and loading that up with compression.

Once you’ve netted a creature, you can use a psionic whip to get them. Manifesting constrictors touch will make them have to fight their armor and clothes if you suspect they have weak fortitude saves. You can drag them to unfavorable terrain by winning an opposed strength check. Then, your buddies can hit them until they surrender and you can pin them into your collection.


PLAY

At level 1, this guy can summon a butterfly net for 1 pp. take a job catching rats at the local tavern basements of the world until next level. Between azure talent and wild talent and the wisdom score, there’s 4 pp per day to play with.

But your wild talent is special, it’s house Vaymin of the Talare hidden house. You also get a psi-like ability with a manifester level at ½ character level. House Vaymin grants vigor as a psi-like ability once per day. Vigor grants 5 temp hp, and can be augmented by adding 1 pp to add five to that temp HP pool. Psi-like abilities auto-augment up to your manifester level, so by level 6, vigor will be granting 15 HP a day. You’ll need it, you’re bringing a butterfly net to a dragon fight.


Pedantry bonus interlude
I contend that you have weapon focus with the butterfly net granted by the soulbound weapon ACF because you treat the butterfly net as a net, and a net is a weapon. The fact that you buy a butterfly net in the adventuring gear section would tend to contradict that you’re actually choosing a weapon. After all, a butterfly net isn’t on a printed weapon table. My contention is that the butterfly net retains the weapon table spot of the exotic weapon net that we are instructed to treat it as.

Here’s why I believe sticking to raw is important here to help protect this build concept. Although it may stink to drop pp into compression just to use the +2 bonus on the butterfly net, asking to house rule it opens you up to all sorts of caprice, like the typical DM fiat of, “No! You can’t net a dragon and hold it in place with a butterfly net two sizes lower than it!” Meanwhile, you have to suspend your disbelief that some nerd in Ebenezer Scrooge’s nightcap can wiggle fingers to make a fireball.

Some people’s idea of fun is hockey fighting: specializing in pulling the opponents’ shirt over their heads.

Anyway, now that that rant is over, let’s talk weapon focus. If you get weapon focus at first level with a chosen weapon and you choose butterfly net, you get weapon focus butterfly net. It must act as a bonus feat because you need BAB +1 for weapon focus, which psychic warrior does not give you. So unless the designers of the acf wanted you to not get that weapon focus feat to actually work at first level, they were waiving prerequisites. Therefor you don’t need to be proficient in butterfly net. It expressly tells you that you don’t need proficiency to use the butterfly net in the butterfly net description as well.

But, maybe the game designers did intend on having the weapon focus activate at a later level. And i know I could look up the rules text about selecting or using a feat when you don’t have the prerequisites to demonstrate that you can totally choose butterfly net and just never get that +1 bonus without also taking exotic weapon proficiency net. But this isn’t a feat wasting competition, so we’re just gonna assume the weapon focus applies and take the hit to our overall power if you disagree over a total of one +1s on attacks.

See that? we’re so committed to RAW that we are willing to give up the use of a feat to make our dream of a butterfly net wielding tank charging into combat with net held high, resplendent with anime sword gleam. They swing down on the e6 tarrasque and scoop em up. But the ornery lil’ varmint keeps sloshing about, tooth and claw. The hero is muttering dialectical nonsense, “varmin’ lil knapsack Ooooh! Gonna get yaNo No No, you snickers smacking Jeff leg loosen blibber blaab Stop it!”

A more articulate man might have a charisma higher than six.

You get expansion at second level and you have an easier time from there. Remember that you can use call weaponry for lethal weapons as well. It just eats you alive that you can summon a trebuchet that you don’t know how to use, or summon a caber to throw at the people stuck in your net. But none of them are your SOULBOUND WEAPON.

Level 4 is the next benchmark of the build.

You nab the reach power. A swift action 3pp to extend your reach by 10 that lasts rounds per level. Minutes per level at level 6 if you have ample PP. Your expansion and compression can be extended to minutes per level since level 3.

The soulbound weapon gains its first +1 enhancement bonus whenever you summon it. That adds two hardness and 10 hp. So whatever you net needs to now beat you in an opposed sunder check and then deal 17 points of damage to the net to break out, and they have a -2 to that roll because they are entangled.

At level 5, you can use talented to overchannel for free, which will be relevant later to activate the enhanced expansion and compression powers. Or, more likely, you can spend 6PP for a +1 butterfly net with a +1 ability. Smoking (Lords of Darkness) is a great option if you got someone with a weak fortitude in the net and you can drag them through the smoke.
Air/Earth/Fire/Water elemental power (DMG2) allows you to summon a large elemental that lasts for 11 rounds. Fire and frost deal extra damage if that’s your thing. Ghosttouch lets you scoop up the incorporeal critters, who have no strength score and are stuck in there indefinitely.
Illusion bane (MIC) is a power illusion dispelling option. Interception (Forge of war) grants an extra attack for opponents charging at you. Scoop em up!

Magebane and the bane abilities add +2 enhancement bonuses against the types to which they are keyed, and so it is better to summon a bane weapon to free up essencia.

And then there is morphing. It can change into any weapon of the same size and type - so any thrown weapon. Dagger, club, axe etc. I don’t understand why you would use 6 pp on this instead of 1 though. Unless of course thrown ammunition is an option for your butterfly net to morph into. Other interesting options include harpoons, the lasso, and the hurl club, maybe the caber.

Spiderkissed gives a reflex save on a hit or be entangled, and spell storing is cool if you have casty friends.

The binding enchantment blocks dimensional travel. The flying enchantment from Magic of Faerun lets you animate the net. The rusting enhancement from Shining south is really interesting. But most interesting of them all is the shrinking enhancement from arms and equipment guide. If you shrink a net that you just used to scoop up an ogre, does the ogre shrink? Does the ogre take damage as the net constricts them through 4 size categories worth of compression?

Greater powerful charge comes online at level 6, allowing you to deal an extra 4d6 when you charge, and making you count as one size category larger, which is really nice because now you can use expansion to get to huge size. Gotta net them all!

The subsequent epic feats just empower a number of combinations for new power. Psycarnum infusion can be used to get extra power points out of azure talent by expending your focus. It can also be used to fill up your mauling gauntlets or midnight augmentation.

Psionic meditation gets you the ability to get your focus back as a move action, which leads to combat manifesting, which leads to shielded manifesting. And the whole shebang is topped off with Crusader healing strikes and stances that allow you to just keep nabbing up critters, because the strikes trigger off of hits, which your touch attack weapon does pretty well.

If we had infinite feats, adding combat reflexes to an item that advances an ability score, maybe shaping therapeutic mantle to add to the crusader strike healing.





Abbreviation
Source
Page numbers


MoI
Magic of Incarnum
34, 35, 38, 40, 78, 111


XPH
Expanded Psionics Handbook
44, 46, 49, 50, 51, 82, 84, 105, 111,


Comp psi
Complete Psionics
144


MMV
Monster Manual 5
205


SoS
Secrets of Sarlona
130, 131


ECS
Eberron Campaign Setting
52


DLCS
Dragonlance Campaign setting
232


RoS
Races of Stone
144


TOB
Tome of Battle
31, 58, 60


AEG
Arms and Equipment Guide
24


DMG
Dungeon Master's Guide
222, erratta

[Zaq]

I really need to go listen to the soundtrack to Jet Grind Radio again.



Juniper Boromar strutted boldly through the streets of Sharn, enjoying the night air as her goon pushed the other pedestrians aside to clear the way for her. Everyone knew that the Boromar clan ran the Lower City, and they even had a seat on the Sharn Council.

She brought her bodyguard with her at all times, of course, because she was not a fool; the Boromar Clan had enemies who wouldn’t hesitate to stab her given the slightest opportunity. Even if she didn’t have to worry about rival gangs or businessmen, one of her many desperate debtors might think that they could clear their debt to her in a more.. permanent fashion.

“Terry, wait! Come back!” A shout interrupted Juniper’s thoughts as a small puppy ran out of an alleyway and over to her, it’s tail wagging. A young urchin tried to follow, but her bodyguards grabbed the boy by the arm.

“Oh, what a cute puppy,” Juniper said, looking down at the pooch. “I hate dogs,” she finished with a nasty smirk, and with a swift kick sent the poor pooch flying over the edge of the skybridge, as the young urchin boy screamed in dismay.

“Let this be a lesson for you, kid,” Juniper said, “Anyone who crosses the Boromar Clan will regret it.” She laughed a nasty laugh as she walked away from the sobbing child, as the other people on the bridge rushed to get out of the way, quickly leaving the woman and her bodyguard as the only people on the walkway.

Juniper had just begun to cheerfully hum a tune to herself when she heard the sound of... rolling? A quick glance around revealed nothing on the bridge, but before her bodyguard could drink his potion of See Invisibility, she glanced upwards, and the last thing she ever saw was a young human woman in a white hood wearing bizarre wheeled boots dropping from the sky and swinging a greatsword at her head.

The thug moved to draw his weapon but the newcomer’s weapon rebounded off the ground and smashed through his head before his sword cleared the scabbard. She turned and skated away from the pair of small bloody craters that were all that was left of Juniper Boromar and her lackey, doing what could generously be called singing.

When she reached the alleyway where the boy was crying over the death of his beloved puppy, she skidded to a stop and reached into her bag. The kid looked up with a sniffle that turned to a shout of joy as she pulled Terry from her bag and handed him to the urchin with a smile.

“Who are you?” asked the stunned child as he clutched the puppy in a close hug.

The woman adjusted her hood as she turned away from the kid. “I’m Kate,” she graveled in as deep a tone she could manage, before she skated off into the night, once more on the prowl for criminals to bring to swift justice.




Kate

https://i.imgur.com/0zWmB5n.jpg
(Image Source: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/62578571)

There once was a girl named Kate
Who often stayed out quite late
Her parents both feared
She did something weird
But really she just went out to skate

CG Illumian Psychic Warrior 5/Barbarian 1

Ability Scores:
Str 16
Dex 12
Con 15
Int 12
Wis 14
Cha 8

+1 Constitution at level 4

Racial Feature choices:

Sigils: Aesh, Krau - these give a +2 to all Strength-related skills and checks, and a +2 to Caster Level for spells and spell-like abilities, which applies to Manifester Level (see Justifications)
Words: Aeshkrau - Might apply to the bonus Power Points for having a high ability score, depending on DM ruling. This is not build-critical, but is a nice bonus if it does.




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


1st
Psychic Warrior 1
+0
+2
+0
+0
Concentration 4, Jump 4, Tumble 4
Up the Walls (SRD), Psycrystal Affinity (Nimble; +2 Initiative) (SRD)
Bonus Feat (Psycrystal Affinity)
Vigor


2nd
Psychic Warrior 2
+1
+3
+0
+0
Concentration 5, Jump 5, Tumble 5
-
Mantled Warrior (Pain and Suffering)
Skate


3rd
Psychic Warrior 3
+2
+3
+1
+1
Concentration 6, Jump 6, Tumble 6
Travel Devotion (Complete Champion, p. 62)
-
Catfall


4th
Psychic Warrior 4
+3
+4
+1
+1
Concentration 7, Jump 7, Tumble 7
-
-
Share Pain


5th
Barbarian 1
+4
+6
+1
+1
Concentration 8, Jump 7, Tumble 8, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 1.5
Roofwalker
Bonus Feat (Roofwalker), Ferocity
-


6th
Psychic Warrior 5
+4
+6
+1
+1
Concentration 9, Jump 7, Tumble 9, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 2
Roof-jumper, Gnome Tunnel Acrobatics
Bonus feat (Gnome Tunnel Acrobatics)
Wall Walker





Epic Level
Epic Feat (Source)
Notes


1st
Craft Universal Item (SRD)
To craft Kate’s Rollerblades Boots of Skating. If custom items are allowed, also including on Wall Walker would be thematic and useful. She can also make them for her party members to give them increased mobility, too.


2nd
Speed of Thought (SRD)
More movement speed is very useful, for the round-to-round damage.


3rd
Heroic Destiny (Races of Destiny, p. 152)
Gives +1d6 bonus to a roll, but, more importantly, is a prerequisite for...


4th
Fearless Destiny (Races of Destiny, p. 152)
1/day, negate death from damage. This lets Kate safely use her killshot without preparation or a second time in an encounter.


5th
Healing Devotion (Complete Champion, p. 59)
This will automatically trigger when Kate drops below 0 hp, and regenerate 20 hp over the course of a minute.


6th
Animal Devotion (Complete Champion, p. 54)
Can give us +10 movespeed, +4 Strength, or a Fly speed, all of which are potentially valuable for Kate.


7th
Leap of the Heavens (PHB II, p. 90)
+5 on Jump, or not needing a running start is pretty useful for Kate if she can’t get her killshot off.


8th
Travel Devotion
Getting another use of Travel Devotion is pretty nice.


9th
Animal Devotion
Like Travel Devotion, another use of this really helps her with her using her Killshot more times in a day.


10th
Extra Rage
2 More rage uses is nice to have, so we can get the bonus more often.





Mantled Warrior - Exchange second Psychic Warrior bonus feat for an Ardent mantle. (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070214a)
Substitute Powers - allows for customization of mantles by adding and removing powers. In this case, adding Share Pain to the Pain and Suffering mantle. This is easy to justify, given that Shared Pain, Forced is on that mantle, and it has room for one more power. See the Justifications section below. (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070629a)
Skilled City Dweller - Exchanges Ride for Tumble as a class skill; taken on both Psychic Warrior and Barbarian. (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a)
Ferocity - Rage variant, from the same article as Skilled City Dweller, useful since it can be activated as an immediate action, and gives a Dex bonus.
Roof-Dweller - Barbarian variant from the same article as Skilled City Dweller & Ferocity, exchanges Fast Movement for the Roofwalker feat, and allows you to take Roof-Jumper without meeting the prerequisites once you hit level 6. See the Justifications section below.





Levels 1-3 - Kate is a pretty basic 2-handed weapon combatant, with some extra mobility and durability, due to Up the Walls, Travel Devotion, and Vigor. She is most likely wearing heavy armor at this point, since she doesn't need to be especially fast yet.

Levels 4-5 - Durability rises massively, due to access to Share Pain, and mobility begins to increase, in particular on uneven terrain.

Level 6 - Now we’re riding! At this level, Kate gets 3 very important abilities: Roof-jumper, Gnome Tunnel Acrobatics, and Wall Walking. This is the level where Kate transforms from a somewhat mobile fighting type into a high speed comet, with a trick I like to refer to as The Killshot.

There are two main components to the Killshot: Roof-Jumper and Gnome Tunnel Acrobatics. Roof-Jumper does 2 things, namely Allow Kate to steer herself as she falls, and gives her a free attack on an opponent that she lands on, which deals 1d6 additional damage per 10 feet she falls. Uncapped.

Gnome Tunnel Acrobatics says that, when you fall in a space adjacent to a creature, you may use your Standard action to make a charge attack against that creature, and deal bonus damage equal to the falling damage you took.

The key here is surviving 20d6 falling damage every time. Vigor+Share Pain with my Psicrystal is one of the major components to this, since it cuts damage in half and adds 30 HP. This means that Kate needs to have at least 30 HP, which is guaranteed at level 6 (minimum max HP of 31). Naturally, the more HP Kate has, the better, since it makes it more likely for her psycrystal to survive, and gives her a nice buffer for surviving the aftermath of her killshot. Taking the average damage of 20d6 (70), it is almost entirely absorbed by the Temporary HP from Vigor, which leads to a comfortable level of survivability.

Because Kate can survive the maximum falling damage, she can now fall from any height, and thus do obscenely high amounts of damage. As a benchmark, the Empire State Building is 1,250 feet tall, which adds up to 124d6 bonus damage (average 434), which is enough to kill just about anything.

Although fluff and setting isn’t normally that important to a character’s build, aside from meeting prerequisites, for Kate it actually provides significant advantages. Specifically, the city of Sharn is made up of buildings that are miles high, with lots of walkways between them; this environment is perfect for Kate to operate in. Additionally, Sharn is a big enough city with enough things in it to contain entire campaigns, so sticking in a single specific city is not limiting for the right kind of campaign.

Even when not in Sharn, she can get some good damage out of her killshot, provided there is a vertical wall she can run up. Because Up the Walls allows her to “ take other move actions in conjunction with moving along a wall ... you could tumble along the wall to avoid attacks of opportunity.”, she can, upon reaching the top of the wall, make a jump check to gain a significant amount of height. Since she is treating this as horizontal movement (effectively like jumping over a “gap” in the wall, she’s not suffering from the x4 multiplier to the DC for vertical leaps (at least until she runs out of movement for the turn, when Up the Walls stops functioning), and therefore can get some solid height to fall from.

Epic levels - Justifications for each feat is provided in the feat table. In general, they are there to add to the core concept, since everything critical is online by level 6.



There are no particular items that are critical to the build. The only major items that are particularly important are Kate’s custom-crafted Boots of Skating and Wall Walking (her rollerblades), and her weapon.

The specific weapon she uses doesn’t really matter, since the vast majority of her damage comes from Roof-Jumper, but going with a two handed weapon like a greatsword gives her higher damage when not using the Killshot, whereas a one-handed weapon lets her use a shield. Ideally, she would be able to get her hands on a Valorous weapon, but it’s not really necessary or even particularly important, just rather nice.

For other items, she would try to get things that make it easier to hit her targets. Potions of Invisibility and True Strike are very helpful for this, if she can get them. Additionally, she would probably craft items that grant Vigor to increase the number of times she can Killshot in a day, or add Catfall to her Rollerblades, so that she always lands on her feet without having to spend the immediate action to manifest the power.

Finally, she would probably invest in a spyglass or something else that would help her pick out targets at long range.



Substitute Powers for Mantled Warrior - While the feature is listed under Arden ACFs, it does not actually change the ardent class itself in any way, it instead modifies the Mantles themselves. It is thus reasonable to apply it to any class that accesses the powers from a psionic mantle, in this case the Mantled Warrior ACF.

Some supporting text is located in the Elemental Mantles section of that same article, which are alternate mantles that are listed under the Ardent. The section contains the text "If you use these, you will need to remove the Elements mantle from the game". This states that any modifications to mantles themselves are class independant, since modifying them for ardent changes how other classes use them too (specifically, removing the Elements mantle entirely and replacing it with 4 new mantles).

Roof-Dweller Barbarian - This ACF exchanges the Fast Movement ability for 2 things: a bonus feat for which you do not need to meet the prerequisites, and the ability to take another feat when you reach 6th level, without having to meet the pre-reqs. Given that this is a single ability that replaces a lvl 1 feature (that does not improve over time), and that the ACF itself does not say that it is 6th level of Barbarian that is required, nor does it actually grant anything in particular at 6th level, merely that after that point you may take the feat without meeting the prerequisites, it is reasonable to say that this applies with only a single level of Barbarian.

If this is not allowed by the DM, then Barbarian can be replaced with Fighter, and the prerequisite feats can be taken. This will slow down the progression to Gnome Tunnel Acrobatics until Epic, but the core of the build is still functional.

Illumians and Magic/Psionic transparency - This one is somewhat dubious, since it is not explicitly covered under Magic/Psionic transparency, however I have what I think is a reasonable interpretation here. There are 2 parts to this that are relevant to the discussion: the Krau sigil, and the Aeshkrau word. The Karu sigil gives +2 Caster Level to both Spells and Spell-like abilities (to a maximum CL equal to you character level). Normally, this would not apply, however, there is a reasonably common interpretation that a boost to CL for Spell-like abilities also boosts Manifester Level for Psi-like abilities. If this is the case, then that also boosts ML for psionic powers, due to this rule:


The manifestation of powers by a psionic character is considered a psi-like ability, as is the manifestation of powers by creatures without a psionic class (creatures with the psionic subtype, also simply called psionic creatures).
Source: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/psionicPowersOverview.htm#psiLikeAbilities

Additionally, if this is in effect due to transparency rules, then it is reasonable for the GM to allow the Aeshkrau word to change the attribute used for bonus powerpoints to strength, just as it does for bonus spell slots. This is, however, not really a part of the transparency rules, and thus is not assumed to be true; if it is allowed, it's a nice bonus.

If, in the end, transparency is not in use, or if the GM rules that the +2 bonus from the Krau sigil does not apply to manifester level, then Illumian can be replaced with Human, the Bonus feat can be spent on Travel Devotion, and Craft Universal Item can be moved to level 3.

Things not taken - I deliberately did not elect to take some of the Melee/charge build staples, such as Power Attack and Battle Jump, for a number of reasons. First of all, Battle Jump has a regional requirement for Forgotten Realms, and Kate is a resident of Eberron. Living in Sharn provides a lot more benefit for her damage output than Battle Jump provides, and it fits her character concept a lot more. Additionally, Power attack doesn’t really add that much damage, and it penalizes accuracy, which, due to the massive opportunity cost of missing her attack, is incredibly undesirable.

[Zaq]

A little something for everyone as far as power sources go.


Kal Arvoreen the Proud Hearted
LG Male Glimmerskin Halfling Monk 1 / Psychic Warrior 4 / Scout 1

Sorry, no story this time. Wasn't feeling it. Writer's block. But not character-building block. It'll have to stand on its own merits.


Stats: 32 Point Buy
STR: 8. (10 (2 points) -2 (Racial))
DEX: 16. (14 (6 points) +2 (Racial))
CON: 14. (14 (6 points))
INT: 10. (10 (2 points))
WIS: 18. (17 (13 points) +1 @ Level 4)
CHA: 11. (11 (3 points))

LevelClassBase Attack BonusFort SaveReflex SaveWill SaveSkillsFeatsClass Features
1stHalfling Monk 1+0+2+2+2Autohypnosis 2 (cc), Balance 4, Concentration 4, Psicraft 2 (cc), Spot 4, Tumble 4Hidden Talent (Inertial Armor), Improved Unarmed Strike (Monk Bonus), Stunning Fist (Monk Bonus)AC Bonus, Bonus Feat (Stunning Fist), Skirmish +1d6, Unarmed Strike
2ndPsychic Warrior 1+0+4+2+2Autohypnosis 3 (+1), Balance 4, Concentration 5 (+1), Psicraft 2 (cc), Spot 4, Tumble 4Psychic Meditation (PsyWar Bonus)Bonus Feat (Psychic Meditiation)
3rdPsychic Warrior 2+1+5+2+2Autohypnosis 4 (+1), Balance 4, Concentration 6 (+1), Psicraft 2 (cc), Spot 4, Tumble 4Intiotive AttackMantled Warrior
4thPsychic Warrior 3+2+5+3+3Autohypnosis 5 (+1), Balance 4, Concentration 7 (+1), Psicraft 2 (cc), Spot 4, Tumble 4----
5thPsychic Warrior 4+3+6+3+3Autohypnosis 6 (+1), Balance 4, Concentration 8 (+1), Psicraft 2 (cc), Spot 4, Tumble 4----
6thScout 1+3+6+5+3Autohypnosis 6, Balance 5 (+1), Concentration 8, Psicraft 4 (+4 cc), Spot 6 (+2), Tumble 5 (+1)Shape Soulmeld (Dragon Tail)Skirmish +1d6, Trapfinding
Epic Feats:
E1. Practiced Manifester
E2. Travel Devotion
E3. Animal Devotion
E4. Bind Vestige
E5. Practiced Binder
E6. Deep Psychic Meditation
E7. Extra Stunning
E8. Ability Focus (Stunning Fist)
E9. Earth Sense
E10. Earth Power

LevelClassPP ReserveChanges in PP ReserveManifester LevelPowers Known
1stHalfling Monk 12+2 (Hidden Talent Feat)0+Inertial Armor (Hidden Talent)
2ndPsychic Warrior 132 (HT) +0 (PsyWar 1) +1 (Wisdom 17 @ ML1)1+Vigor
3rdPsychic Warrior 262 (HT) +1 (PW2) +3 (WIS 17 @ ML2)2+Dimension Hop
4thPsychic Warrior 3112 (HT) +3 (PW3) +6 (WIS 18 @ ML3)3+Bite of the Wolf
5thPsychic Warrior 4152 (HT) +5 (PW4) +8 (WIS 18 @ ML4)4+Psionic Lion's Charge
6thScout 115No Change4--
Epic 1+N/A252 (HT) +11 (PW6) +12 (WIS 18 @ ML6) (+ Practiced Manifester Feat)6--

Psychic Warriors gain limited power points and powers known, capping at level 2 within an E6 world. This build is centered on a single power, Psionic Lion's Charge (which grants Pounce), and maximizing its potential. I would not normally expect this power to see a lot of play in E6. Two-weapon fighting is generally seen as suboptimal (at least without ways to boost damage), but instead we're going to pursue gaining lots of natural attacks which can be used with pounce, and increase the damage per natural attack with skirmish. We're going to sacrifice 2 levels of Psychic Warrior, losing +1 BAB, 2x 2nd level powers, and 1 PsyWar bonus feat. In return we're getting +2d6 skirmish; +1 Fort, +3 Reflex, +1 Will Saves; +22 Skill Ranks; WIS mod to AC when unarmored; and IUS / Stunning Fist. If playing with partial BAB, we lose nothing on that front at all.

Many monk powers rely on being unarmored and with high WIS, so we are taking inertial armor (to be armor-less) with hidden talent to boost AC and going WIS and DEX-focused. The halfling monk substitute level provides a +1d6 skirmish bonus instead of flurry of blows (but only with monk weapons or UAS), which is just fine by me. Psychic warrior normally provides two bonus feats, first is going to be Psychic Meditation. At lower levels, we're probably going to spend the most time with the Crown Center activated for +3 Natural Armor or the Base Center for +2 to all physical abilities. We're going to give up the second bonus feat for the Mantled Warrior ACF, selecting Freedom to get a 10-foot movement bonus, grapple resistance, and Mantle Psionic Power Access (we choose Dimension Hop as one of them). We also take Intuitive Attack at the first level available for Kal for a nice boost to hit. Skills are invested in Balance and Tumble for on-the-ground utility in combat, Concentration for gaining Psionic Focus, Spot is always useful, Autohypnosis for being awesome (resisting dying, extra chance against fear with a failed save, resisting poison, or memorizing things). Psicraft is always cross class but we need it for practiced manifester later.

Two levels of Psychic Warrior provide Vigor (for temp healing - always important) and Dimension Hop (10 feet teleport is just far enough to activate skirmish in each round in which it is used for a boost there.) Halfling provides a size bonus to hit, which cancels out the strength penalty from race, and a boost to AC, and allows skirmish when we move (which is often). Intuitive Attack will work for Kal, ultimately providing a +4 to hit. Quarterstaff is the only monk weapon (other than UAS) that overlaps with being a simple weapon. At level 3 we have +5 to hit (+1 size +3 WIS +1 BAB), 1d4+1d6-1 damage on either staff or UAS (if they're proficient). DC 14 on stunning fist 1/day is kinda low for now but stunning is pretty useful status debuff. AC is generally 17 (+1 size +3 DEX +3 WIS) and up to 24 with inertial armor and the Psychic Meditation crown ability. Once Kal gets a manifester level via Psychic Warrior, it allows him to use inertial armor with an actual ML instead of just 1 hour per manifestation (see the Hidden Talent feat).

Two more levels of Psychic Warrior get us Bite of the Wolf, to get a natural attack that we will need for multiple attacks on a pounce, as well as Psionic Lion's Charge, the centerpiece of this construction. Stat boost goes to Wisdom which increases bonuses to hit, AC, and PP reserve. At level 6 we add a level of scout for an additional 1d6 skirmish. The Kal selected, Shape Soulmeld (Dragon Tail) deserves some conversation. It's another natural weapon which will be useful for pounce. But I want to highlight something from Magic of Incarnum p53. "A soulmeld's description lacks many of the details common to spell descriptions, including casting time, range, effect, area, targets, and duration. For the most part, such entries would be redundant; where needed, they are described in the main text of the soulmeld itself." I mention this because Dragon Tail only states that it can be used as a standard action. It doesn't need to mention it can be used as part of a full attack because it would be redundant. In fact, the verbiage for soulmelds that grant natural weapons varies greatly from meld to meld, not because they all have different effects, but because it would be redundant.

The Dragontail soulmeld requires being dragonblooded, which is another reason we chose Glimmerskin Halfling as our race. At this level we have a +8 to hit with our primary weapon and 2d6 of skirmish to boost damage (Full BAB +18 Strength is a +10, by comparison). We also have a psionically powered bite for 1d6+skirmish and a dragon tail at the same on a pounce, albeit at -5 to hit. Normal AC is 18, going up to 25 with power+meditation. Stunning Fist is 2/day at DC 17.

Three feats here. Practiced Manifester for a couple of reasons. Augments and Powers depend on Manifester Level not class Level. So this feat makes our effective PsyWar level 6, meaning that Bite of the Wolf now does 2d6 of damage +skirmish. PP reserve also depends on ML, so we get increases to the pool from both our wisdom score and from our effective PsyWar level. Travel devotion provides another means of activating skirmish for bonus damage. When it is active, we choose to full attack off that instead of using PP for Lion's Charge. Animal devotion provides some power and utility. Ape gets +4 STR (+2 damage per attack - and we have several), Hawk gets short term flight. If necessary, Cheetah gives another +10 land speed. Thematically, both animal and travel work with his mantle (freedom is about movement) and the focus of this character (Psionic Lion's Charge - PLS).

Kal has been doing pretty well so far but is going to invest into another natural weapon. He takes Bind Vestige and Practiced Binder in order to Bind and use the Ram attack of Amon. This is another 1d4 + skirmish, and also adds a built-in +1d8 of damage when charging, which we try to do often. We also take Deep Psychic Meditation, which grants another few uses of the ability per day and the ability to activate more than one center. Around this time we start using it to "recharge," granting 6 temporary PP per day, or enough for 2 PLS. We can also have that AC bonus active as well. So, Primary Weapon, + Bite, + Tail, + Ram, all generally with skirmish. Tail and Bite are 24/7, bite is at the start of combat.

Final epic feats get us some more uses of stunning fist and a higher save DC. We get to 5/day now, Will Save DC 19. Earth power gets a lower PP cost per manifestation, giving Kal some staying power throughout the adventuring day. For level 1 powers, Kal can't lower costs but it is a free augmentation of the power.


Book of Exalted Deeds- Intuitive Attack (44)
Complete Adventurer- Scout (10-12)
Complete Chamption- Animal Devotion (54-55), Travel Devotion (62-63)
Complete Psionic- Practiced Manifester (57), Dimension Hop (83)
Complete Warrior- Extra Stunning (98)
Dragon Magic- Glimmerskin Halfling (9), Dragon Tail Soulmeld (84)
Expanded Psionics Handbook- Psychic Warrior (24-26, also SRD), Autohypnosis (36-37), Concentration (37), Psicraft (38), Hidden Talent (67), Bite of the Wolf (80), Psionic Lion's Charge (125), Vigor (140)
Magic of Incarnum- Shape Soulmeld (40-41), Meldshaping Rules (49-54)
Monster Manual/SRD- Ability Focus (303)
PHB/SRD- Monk, Improved Unarmed Strike, Stunning Fist
Races of Stone- Earth Sense (138), Earth Power (138)
Races of the Wild- Halfling Monk Substitute Level (158)
The Mind's Eye: Chance Favors the Prepared Mind (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040827b)- Psychic Meditation, Deep Psychic Meditation
The Mind's Eye: Expanded Classes (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070214a)- Mantled Warrior Alternate Class Feature
Tome of Magic- Amon (21-22), Bind Vestige (72-73), Practiced Binder (74)

[Zaq]

Step 1: start as a Drowzeetoad…



HYPNOTOAD
https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/869438935527481344/871079113975275560/image0.gif



Neutral Anthropomorphic Amphibious Toad Psychic Warrior 6




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


1
psychic warrior 1
0
2
0
0
8: autohypnosis 4, concentration 4
Illithid heritage, illithid compulsion
bonus feat, 1st level power: stomp
0


2
psychic warrior 2
1
3
0
0
2: Authohypnosis 5, Concentration 5,
overchannel
bonus feat, 1st level power: Call armor
1


3
psychic warrior 3
2
3
1
1
2: Authohypnosis 6, Concentration 6,
illithid legacy
1st level power: psionic charm, read thoughts, Vigor
3


4
psychic warrior 4
3
4
1
1
2: Authohypnosis 7, Concentration 7,

2nd level power: body adjustment
5


5
psychic warrior 5
3
4
1
1
2: Authohypnosis 8, Concentration 8,
illithid legacy greater
bonus feat, 2nd level power: Empathic transfer
3rd level power: dispel psionics,
4th level power: psionic Dominate
7


6
psychic warrior 6
4
5
2
2
2: Authohypnosis 9, Concentration 9
expanded knowledge: empathic feedback
2nd level power: distracting shout
3rd Level power: empathic feedback
11





Level
Epic Feat
Source


1
Expanded Knowledge: Larval Flayers
XPH 46, ComPsi 91


2
Midnight
Augmentation
MoI 38


3
Expanded knowledge: Fate Link (seer)
XPH 107


4
Expanded Knowledge: Psionic Blast
XPH 125


5
Fey Heritage
Comp Mage 43


6
Fey Presence
Comp Mage 43


7
Shape Soulmeld Vitality Belt
MoI 40, 92


8
Bonus Essentia
MoI 35


9
psychic meditation
WEB (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040827b)


10
deep psychic meditation
WEB (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040827b)







Str
4


Dex
10


Con
16


Int
11


Wis
23


Cha
6



At level 4, add +1 to wisdom
https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/869438935527481344/871534627683176448/Screen_Shot_2021-08-01_at_7.18.30_PM.png

THE BUILD
I noticed immediately that higher level powers on an E6 Psywar is a good way to go. One way to do that is to grab those illithid heritage feats to get psionic dominate (a 4th level power) and then expanded knowledge can net more 3rd level bits for you. Then the big strain on the build was power points. So I ran some analyses, and it turns out that anthrobat or toad with 24 wisdom has more power points than even a kalashtar with 18 wisdom. Plus the Bonus to the save DC made it favorable. we could have done anthro-bat, but I couldn't find that personal angle that made it interesting. The reason the illithid feats work so well with a psychic warrior is...you guessed it: they are psionic bonus feats and psychic warrior gets 3 of them in e6 while seeing a significant power bump.

So anthro-toad. Anthro toad gets a 5' speed. Dragonborn seemed like a boring flavor. So if we add the aquatic subtype to the toad and then make an anthropomorphic animal out of it, you trade -2 dex for a 20ft land speed. Which is strictly worse than either of the other choices, but it really lent itself to a mind flayer bio-augmentation story.

And the rest sort of spells itself out. Each power either advances minionmancy, or HP shenanigans, or potent debuffing. You're Hypnotoad, not Battle Toad. Call armor is there to up your AC as high as you can get it.

Psionic meditation is there to get temporary PP when you need to shuffle around HP. The complete mage Fey Feats offer some nice treats, increased immunity to enchantment effects, charm monster, and deep slumber. The midnight augmentation feat is there to get any of your 3rd or 4th level powers augmentable.

Overchannel and illithid compulsion give you a manifester level increase of +2, allowing you to get psionic dominate up and running at level 5 - Just in time for a bonus feat.

larval flayers and fatelink work together to drain intelligence from your brainy enemies, lowering their save DCs and possibly their ability to cast higher level spells. Or you can use those larval flayers to take out animals with their low Int.

With a high con for more HP, I believe this is easily a high power, fun, elegant, and original build to play with.

UNCITED SOURCES:
Race:
Anthropomorphic Template: Savage Species 215,
Amphibious Template: Stormwrack 136
Toad: MMI 282

Feats:
Complete Psionic: Illithid Heritage (p.62), Illithid Compulsion (p.61), Illithid Legacy (p.62), Illthid Legacy, Greater (p.62)

[Zaq]

Mind and body in harmony. Or melody, knowing buommans.


Hophit LG Dragonborn Buomman Monk 2 /Psychic warrior 4
A warrior that hop and hit , doing dimensional tricks , figthing with a dire flail, and without backstory for tireness

The race and template combined give +2 constitution -2 dexterity +2 wisdom -2 charisma

Stat Name
Base stat
Cost for point buy
After race template and 4th level

Strength
15
8
16

Dexterity
14
6
12


Constitution
14
6
16

Intelligence
10
2
10

Wisdom
16
10
18

Charisma
8
0
6




Class level
Class
Base Attack Bonus
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Skills
Feats
Class/Race Features


1st
Psychic warrior 1
+0
+2
+0
+0
Concentration 4 , Autohypnosis 4
Power attack, Improved Sunder
Bonus feat


2nd
Psychic warrior 2
+0
+3
+0
+0
Concentration 5, Autohypnosis 5

Mantled warrior ACF( Freedom)


3rd
Psychic warrior 3
+2
+3
+1
+1
Concentration 6 , Autohypnosis 6
Exotic weapon proficiency (dire flail)



4th
Psychic warrior 4
+3
+4
+1
+1
Concentration 7, Autohypnosis 7




5th
Monk 1
+3
+6
+3
+3
Concentration 8, Autohypnosis 7 Sense motive 3
Improved Unarmed strike, Combat expertise
Passive Way Monk, unarmed strike, bonus feat, flurry of blows


6th
Monk 2
+4
+7
+4
+4
Concentration 9, Autohypnosis 7 Sense motive 6
Sun school, Improved trip
Bonus feat, Invisible fist ACF




Level
Power points/day*
Power learned

1st level
2
Expansion

2nd level
5
Dimension hop

3rd level
9
Force screen

4th level
13
Dimension swap
[TR]
*bonus power point for wisdom are included but temporary power points from psychic meditation not
1° Knock-down
2° Weapon focus (dire flail)
3° Dire flail smash
4° Linked power
5° Metapower (dimension hop, linked power)
6° Psionic meditation
7° Steady concentration
8° Improved flight
9° Psychic meditation
10° Deep psychic meditation
Hophit is similar to a fighter, his main tactics is to attack in melee at these levels with the best weapon he can use, while his feats are not too usable, sundering could be a bad option, while power attack at level 1 it's not useful while at the second we can try (it's still limited to his base attack at the end). The race of Hophit is quite helpful in this, as the modifier are good for a psychic warrior, and as the dragonborn remove each trait of the race he can talk as a difference from the other buomman (at least theorically) , and he gained wings from the dragonborn template , even if he can only glide for now. The skills are not so high as he has only 10 of intelligence but are not so required mainly concentration , while autohypnosis sometimes is useful The buomman wisdom modifier quite help for his power points as normally he wouldn't have so much power points. At the second level he gains the Mantled Warrior ACF which is necessary for him, first for the speed, as it will increase each speed, and second for the dimension hop power which is quite useful and will be the key element of this build.but even expansion of the first level will be quite important
With the third level Hophit finds his weapon, a dire flail, mainly used as a two handed weapon instead of a double weapon and it will be explained later why this. As powers he learn force screen that is useful to gain something more AC,as he ,as said before , fiight with a two handed weapon. Then he gain his last leve of psychic warrior, and the last bunch of permanent power points. The number is not too high but for his tactic will be okay , this in the future. The power he learn at level four is another dimension power, dimension swap, used more to save allies than attacking for now, while the increase for the 4th level is in his strength reaching 16, not too much but it will be enough as he has expansion that is quite useful as that power increase even the damage of the dire flail.
First thing , even if these are monk level there is no intention on focusing on unarmored AC, bonus speed, or unarmed damage, they are only necessary for the fighting styles and flurry of blows , and the increase in saves. First why he takes monk levels? It's quite easy for the sheer amount of feats that the monk gives, three feats in two levels, and each one of these feats is quite useful for him. At level 5 he choose to be a Passive way monk so he gains a bonus to bluff which is not useful , but the feats are more important as he gain improved unarmed strike , a prerequisite for some feats that he will quite use (but now he is considered armed even when he doesn't have his dire flail), and combat expertise ignoring the amount of intelligence he has, that is quite important. Then he gains flurry of blows which is why the monks levels are necessary. Another bonus are the save as these levels in monk increase the saves of 3 which is quite a boon. Then there is the level 6 another monk level , the least important thing he gain is the Invisible fist ACF , used more as a way to save himself than to attack as he doesn't have any sneak attack and the immediate action have a little conflict with the swift action of the next turn (still is a way to defend ourselves) then there is improved trip the main feats for which we take the passive way monk, and finally the feat for which monk level were necessary , Sun school. He doesn't use many of the tactics of that feat, but Flash of Sunset is enough to justify . Normally a full BAB character at this level would be able to attack two times in a round and Hophit is able to do that. Only...not using the full round action but the swift action and the standard action. Dimension hop it's the main way to use this tactical maneuver but even dimension swap can be used, moving our ally away from the enemy , and doing an attack at the same time, if the ally was another monk with sun school this could be a way to use a standard action to make two attacks instead of one, but it's more a matter of teamwork than anything else But he could even do another attack thanks to improved trip and his first epic feats, Knock-down. This feats says that if he does more than 10 of damage with an attack he can immediately trip the opponent. Doing 10 damage with a 1d8+4 it's not easy, even considering a +1 of damage thanks to a magical weapon but with power attack it is feasible and it's even easier with expansion as he would pass from doing 1d8+4 to doing 2d6+6 so while we are expanded (or while using a power attack with a penalty of 2) the trip attempt of knock-down is nearly assured (with a magical weapon is certain) . If we trip we make another attack so more damage , but for what he could use this good amount of attacks?
He uses these attacks to use a specific feat only for dire flails , dire flail smash and for this he take improved sunder (which can be used on each of these attack if we want to destroy the equipment) and weapon focus (dire flail) as our 2nd epic feat. Dire flail smash says that if in the same round the enemy is hitted by each end of the dire flail he could be dazed for 1 round , which is quite heavy as condition. Normally one would presume that he should use the dire flail as double weapon to make this, but if Hophit is able to make more than a standard attack (like with Flash of Sunset from Sun school) he could change the end of the dire flail he is hitting each time so activating the feat . While it's not sure that the enemy would be dazed as the DC of the feat it's only 17(with expansion) it's still a rider effect that when work it's quite useful as dazed it's an heavy condtion
Our skills are not so high , sense motive and autohypnosis more utility than anything else , and there is concentration that it's necessary. Why it's necessary? Because Hophit doesn't have so many power points so he needs to save them as much as possible. This can be done quite easy thanks to linked power and metapower .The first let us manifest a power with a linked power that activate on the start of our next turn with an increase of cost same as the cost of the second power, while metapower reduce the cost of a metapsionic feat for one of our powers of two. This means that we can manifest most of our powers in a free way if linked. The power for which linked power will have a reduced cost is dimension hop ,so pratically we will be able to do 2 dimension hop at the cost of 1 , same for expansion and force screen as each one of that power (which are quite useful) cost only 1 power point. Even the cost of dimension swap would be reduced but not negated but it's fine, like the augmented expansion that would last 40 minutes instead of 4 round . But using a metapsionic feat has a cost, which is the psionic focus , normally it is needed a full round action to regain it , but with psionic meditation not, only a move action , and thanks to dimension hop and dimension swap Hophit would still be able to move. To be sure Hophit can gain the psionic focus Steady concentration it's used as it has enough concentration and constitution that taking 10 it's all he need to make a DC 20 on concentration
These last feats cover some weakness of Hophit , first is Improved flight . This feat boost the flying maneuvrability of our dragonborn wings from average to good , this means we can hover . How this correlate to the rest of the build? Being able to hover means that we doesn't have to move to rest in air and so it opens the third dimension to our dimension hop tactic. With the last dimension hop of the turn we will teleport 5 ft above the enemy (so still able to hit him) and then after the attack we will make a 5 ft step to arrive at 10 ft above the enemy in some cases the enemy will not be able to hit us . The other two feats are to cover a weakness of Hophit which is his low amount of power points. Instead of taking psionic talent that would give only 5 power points if taken two times is better using psychic meditation . This feat has various abilities normally only one but with deep psychic meditation three of these abilities can be gained. The main abilities Hophit would be interested are Third eye (4 temporary bonus power points that goes away as first) Crown (a bonus to natural armor) and Base (an untyped(?) bonus to strength dexterity and constitution) Obviously these would change based on the party and on the equipment he would have for example if there is an amulet of natural armor but not many buffer he could choose Heart or Solar (Plexus) instead of Crown. With deep psychic meditation he can choose if activate each one 1 time each day or using one of them 2 time in a day , and this depend mainly on the party and the enemies he should fight probably a good idea could be using the third eye two times in a day to be comparable to a psychic warrior 6 , and using dimension hop 8 times more in a day , if instead there are lesser encounter but more difficult using crown and base could be better than third eye.
Hit points 8+5d8+12= 42,5
AC= 10+10 (mechanus gear) +4 (force screen) -1 (Expansion) +3 (psychic meditation crown)=26 (As we move with dimension hop and dimension swap mechanus gear it's not a problem for us
Trip attempt with expansion 4(strenght) +4 (size) +4 (improved trip)=+12
To hit with expansion 4(base attack)+1 (weapon focus)+ 4(strenght) -1 (size) =+8
Damage with expansion 2d6+6 (1d8 of dire flail increase to 2d6, while our strenght become 18 so +6 damage if two handed )
Saves with expansion Fortitude +9 (7 base +2 constitution) , Reflex +4 (4 base +0 dexterity (expansion reduce our dexterity to 10) , Will + 8 (4 base +4 wisdom)
From Planar Handbook : Buomman
From Races of Dragon: Dragonborn
From Expanded psionic handbook: Psychic warrior, Expansion , Force Screen , Dimension swap, Psionic meditation
From Complete Psionic: Dimension hop, linked power, metapower
From Player Handbook : Power attack, improved sunder, exotic weapon proficiency, dire flail, weapon focus, improved unarmed damage, improved trip, combat expertise , Monk
From Unearthed Arcana: Passive Way monk
From Exemplars of Evils: Invisible fist ACF
From Complete Warrior: Sun school
From Sword and fist A guidebook to monks and fighters : Knock-down
From Champions of ruins: Dire flail smash
From Complete adventurer:Improved flight
From Mind eye article (archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040827b) : Psychic Meditation , Deep Psychic meditation
From Races of Stone: Steady concentration

[Zaq]

And that's everyone! Seven psychic warriors for you. Judges, do your thing!

[AsuraKyoko]

Some pretty diverse entries this round, that's pretty cool! I'm curious to see what the judges think.

[daremetoidareyo]

I expected at least one magic mantle psychic warrior, a few more weird soulbound weapons, and a dedicated psychic initiator.

[MinimanMidget]

I really wanted to do something with Strength of My Enemy, because it's just really cool, but the limits on it are just too tight.

Luckily, that leaves me free to judge this round, and for once I should be able to get started right away.

[daremetoidareyo]

I really wanted to do something with Strength of My Enemy, because it's just really cool, but the limits on it are just too tight.

Luckily, that leaves me free to judge this round, and for once I should be able to get started right away.

What do you need to optimize it?

Lots of hits with a single natural or manufactured weapon it seems. Linked power on a swift action first level power.

“Each successful hit”

[MinimanMidget]

What do you need to optimize it?

Lots of hits with a single natural or manufactured weapon it seems. Linked power on a swift action first level power.

“Each successful hit”

Yeah, the closest I came was a Xeph Monk 1/PsyWar 5 attacking 4 times per round with a quarterstaff, but that's -1/-1/-1/-1 (not counting stats) which...yeah.

I was also toying with Manticore Belt, but at no point does it label itself as a weapon, unfortunately.

[daremetoidareyo]

Yeah, the closest I came was a Xeph Monk 1/PsyWar 5 attacking 4 times per round with a quarterstaff, but that's -1/-1/-1/-1 (not counting stats) which...yeah.

I was also toying with Manticore Belt, but at no point does it label itself as a weapon, unfortunately.

I too was thinking quarterstaff!

oooh, here's a terrible idea, precocious apprentice (jaws of the moray) druid with the magical training feat.

[MinimanMidget]

I too was thinking quarterstaff!

oooh, here's a terrible idea, precocious apprentice (jaws of the moray) druid with the magical training feat.

I can't think of a way to do it (within E6), but it'd be neat to combine that with Dire Weasel.

[daremetoidareyo]

I can't think of a way to do it (within E6), but it'd be neat to combine that with Dire Weasel.

With flaws you could do longtooth shifter and the longtooth elite feat, some close quarterfighting feat, drain their strength and CON.

[Zaq]

I'm honestly shocked that no one went for a pure grappler with expansion + grip of iron. Add in a Shape Soulmeld or two and that's about the biggest grapple bonus you're gonna find in E6 (where freedom of movement and related effects, while extant, are quite uncommon). Gonna assume that everyone thought that was too obvious and just Vizzini'd away from it.

Also a little surprised that no one invoked the infamous Getting Wired article with the weird reusable tattoos. (Sure, you have to have ML 7 to get most of the really good ones and that's not trivial to do, but you've seen some of the wacky stuff this crowd comes up with...)

Overall I have to say I'm quite pleased with the spread on display here! Surprisingly little thematic overlap.

[ciopo]

Ohhhhh, builds, let's dig in!

these are the benchmark numbers for 5/5 power, as resulted for my own straight psychic warrior 6 ( lesser zenythri)
defensive values : 78 HP, 34 AC, saves 13 11 12, 20% miss chance, plus vigor
offensive values : +14/+14 claws of the beast for 2d6+12 | average 19 damage with 75/85/95% hit chance against average AC of enemies of CR 8/6/4, secondary ranged option energy ray at +11 bonus against touch AC
miscellanea utility : mindlink, touch of health, dimension hop, 28PP pool, skills are autohypnosis and concentration

The stub is a very straightforward : 4 feat to get a way of regenerating PP out of combat (strongheart vest +body fuel + psycarnum infusion + psionic meditation, for the purpose of only having tactical consideration of PP expenditure, rather than strategic), 1hidden talent + 9 expanded knowledge to get a lot of self buffs and a bit of utility, plus overchannel to hit ML7 which is a watershed moment for a lot of 1st level power, either because they augment for +3 or +6. Oh, and psionic body because with 15 psionic feats, it's just boom!
This is built only from a power point of view, hence the cheese.

baseline "what gear you get" if you didn't specify otherwise is as follow (27k gp budget) :
4k +2 WIS item
4k +2 STR item
4k +2 DEX item
4k +2 CON item
4k cloak of resistance +2 CL 5
2k ring of protection +1 CL 5
2k amulet of natural armor +1 CL5
3k miscellanea (masterwork tools, bag of holding, food and sundries, consumables)

on outSI : a psychic warrior is a psionic gish in a can, "signature" way of doing it is with either claws of the beasts or the soulbound weapon ACF, what matters to me is in how martial you feel and how psionically gish you feel (meaning psionics used primarily to self buff) other subsystems "source of powers" will result in some penalties


First Impression: team Zenythri! I feel like I'm at fault for bringing it up, I've like used it in the last 5ish competitions here or there? I'm sorry I really like divine gishes and this would be my go to race if only my tuesday DM would allow it, so I daydream of it in the competitions I guess

Originality: 3.85
Race choice : It's not human, it's not exactly a common choice, but for a psionic gish it has a very suitable statline, so it's not surprising and I've used it myself in like, 3 competitions in the last 2 months, so "nothing new" from my point of view (+0.20)
Power choices : nothing stands out as unusual to me, other than catfall (+0.10)
feat choices : going for greater psionic weapon and deep impact was unexpected, since we woulnd't qualify for them on a psywar 6 (+0.3)
class choices : war mind was expected, but not doing an early entry for 2 levels of it (+0.25)

Power: 3.95
differences to baseline items : no +2DEX, greatsword +1, armor +1
Survivabilty : 70 HP (+0.15), 30 AC (+0.15), saves 12 7 10 (+0.05), vigor (+0.05)
Lethality : "normal" is +11 GSW 2d6+8+4d6 = 29 average damage at 60/70/80% (+0.10) | "touch" is +6 GSW 2d6+8+10 = 25 avg at 80/80/80% (+0.15)
Utility and sundries : nothing that stands out (-), but 40 PP pool (+0.15)
Comparison : if I were to make a psywar 4/warmind 2 that go for deep impact/greater psionic weapon, I would probably not take both of them, since they compete for the psionic focus. You can nova with the double psionic focus, 40PP pool is "good" for sustaining the top numbers for a good long while, but not for the whole day, I feel. Even if you don't go for infinite out of combat PP generation, even just psychic meditation would be a nice fat 12 extra PP to play about, or opening with a hidden talent(something) instead of a late expanded knowledge(something), I'm leaving this as at a small plus (+0.15) because I can make this more powerful while keeping the main gimmick ( deep impact / greater psionic weapon ) , but the baseline I'd be starting for is strong.

Elegance: 4.6
No multiclass penalties
prerequisites : minor penalty for not respecting the house vaymin requirement of taking wild talent as your first level bonus feat in exchange for the 1/day vigor PLA (-0.15), I know you're not human, but if you fluff a certain way, I have a bit of expectation that the build match the fluff. Part of this is that knowledge psionic wouldn't be the focus of house vaymin, so that's also a "fluff fail" on the primary contact
I accept that psicrystals gain feats, but it is the kind of thing where frowns can be had, so minor malus (-0.25)


UotSI: 4.25
-0.5 for missing levels
+1.75 for adherence to the gishy feel (+1 martial, +1 psionic selfbuffing, -0.25 psicrystal)

total: 16.65


First Impression : ranger! 'dis unexpected, let's see how it goes!

Originality: 4.5
Race choice : wasn't expecting an elf, but it's kind of an "obvious" pick for ranger related activities (+0.4)
Power choices : Adrenaline boost and metaphysical weapons are somewhat unusual choices, especially in light of going zen archery, so here we are (+0.30)
Feat choices : going for fell shot/greater psionic shot are pluses here, especially in light of not normally qualifying for them on a psywar6 (+0.3)
Class choices : two levels of ranger is a surprise, so (+0.5)

Power: 3
difference to baseline items : STR boost item -> elven chain shirt, or thereabouts. You named it you get it. I'll assume the longbow is composite even if you haven't spelled that out.
Survivability : 46 HP (-), 19 AC (-0.10), saves 12 8 7 (-0.05) but with option to nonsustainable burst it with insight bonus (+0.15)
lethality : the rapid shot routine is +8/+8 for 1d8+4+4d6, average 22damage but 45/55/65% hit chance is low (-0.05), fell shot redeems it going for touch AC but a good chunk of your damage is from the GPS (+0.05).
Utility and sundries : scouting skills and strong wild cohort (+0.5)
Comparison : the big problem here is that rapid shot is a full round action. if you use your move action to recover the psionic focus, you can't rapid shot. This is partly mitigated by hustle of course, but the 17 PP pool is on the low side, I would probably have gone for manyshot, but that makes the "actually hitting stuff" problem even bigger. Overall I see a good margin how this build could be made more powerful while staying true to the archery feel (-0.5)

Elegance: 3.7
the mess on the race doesn't help you, you apply +2 dex, -1 con, +1int, -2 cha, bwuh? the +2dex, -2cha elf is the snow elf from frostburn. wild elf is +2dex -2int. I will assume you are using a snow elf, since that's the one friendliest to not incur cascading elegance penalties (-0.25)
multiclass penalties : 2 "level" (-0.2) and 10 epic feats (-0.5), I've decided to lower this relative to the epic feats because they cost a static 2k xp each, rather than increasing amount like levels do.
You don't qualify for natural bond (-0.25), I'll let it apply to wild cohort, but that would be a GM concession (-0.1)

UotSI: 4
-0.5 for missing levels
+1.5 for adherence to the gishy feel (+1 martial, +1 psionic gishyness, -0.25 psicrystal, -0.25 "these choices do not scream psychic warrior to me" feel (MoI/cohort/devotion) )

total: 15.2


First Impression : bwuh, a butterfly net as the soulbound weapon? cool!

Originality: 4.8

Race choice : Varmak are humans by another name, neutral (-)
Power choices : going for Sarlona powers is out there, as is compression with how it's intent to be used (+0.4)
Feat choices : greater powerful charge so you can net even colossal creatures? neat (+0.4)
Concept : a build built around netting even colossal creatures, then compressing down, I approve (+1)

Power: 3.75
I got no clue what gear to give you, so you're stuck with the default, except the DEX item which becomes ??, probably armor
Survivability: 54 HP (+0.10), ?? AC (-0.10 no selfbuffs, so I'm putting it at around 20), saves 11 4 8 (-0.10)
Lethality: you charge at +13 for, uhm, 2d6/ 3d6 / 4d6 depending on expansion, so average 7/10/14 at 70/80/90% (+0.1), rider CC goes into utility, rider "interchangeable enhancement " stays here (+0.25)
utility: crowd control, and healing (+0.5)
Comparison: this is hard to define for me, the idea is appealing, and within the scope of this first pass of evaluation I'm not yet making builds. the only glaring thing I feel like calling out is that your only extra movement capacity is hustle, 30ish PP pool is enough to get by for a while, but *wiggles fingers*. I'm leaving it neutral for now (-)

Elegance: 4.5
I got almost nothing to say, except giving a penalty for using the Varmak at +2 str +2 con -2 int -2 cha. I know that Races of Ansalon isn't 1st party, but if you go using a dragonlance race, I'm going to refer to the "actually printed for player use guidelines". Especially in light of how in DCS it is not spelled out that you have one bonus feat and 4 bonus skill points, meaning either the statline or the skill points are "illegal" (-0.5)

UotSI: 4.75
+1.75 for adherence to the gishy feel (+1 martial, +1 psionic choices, -0.25 "ToB/MoI taint" )

total: 17.8


First impression: rollerskating GSW superheroine? why does that sounds familiar?

Originality: 4.8
race choice : Illuminians are cool are sadly not used much (+0.5)
power choices : nonstandard except for the known combo of share pain (+0.3)
feat choices : unexpected relative to psychic warrior (+0.3)
class choices : barbarian dip but not for the pounce, I dig (0.2)
Concept : falling on people to give them your falling damage but survive your own fall? my hat to you (+0.5)

Power: 3.85
Items : no DEX item but +1 GSW and fullplate, probably +1
Survivability: with the known combo of psicrystal+share pain+vigor, I can't go less than (+0.5). AC and saves are in line with about hte same malus as the ranger and the lepidopterist, but sheer "meat" overshadows it. Plus the destiny and healing devotion. Even if you chew the vigor by falling on people, it's still a doubling
Lethality: impressive alpha strike (+0.5)
Utility/comparison : cool combo, but it doesn't play well with being in a group, or what to do when the enemy is a group, or flying, or you miss with the alpha strike, but you're at +11 for that against flatflooted, so I'm venturing it has a good chance of landing (ha), I'm leaving this at a minor malus overall (-0.15), with the chief negative being "you can't really do your gimmick if you're adventuring with a party". You got a bit of sustained damage with the "I tumble away to skate up to fall again", but the distance traveled you have access to for that doesn't equate to particularly impressive numbers

Elegance: 4.25
no multiclass penalties
no prerequisites problem
malus for reliance on "friendly GM", I'd allow all the contested things, but still (-0.75)

UotSI: 4
-0.25 missing level
you make use of the class and the powers to realize the concept (+1), it's martial (+1) but like, none of the feat choices says "psychic warrior" to me (-0.75)

total: 16.9


First Impression : a binder scout? I'm curious to see where this goes

Originality: 4.4
Race choice : i see you, halfling (+0.4)
Power choices : standard for a psywar (-)
feat choices : binding and focusing on stunning attack is unexpected (+0.5)
class choices : I was expecting monk, but not nontashalatora monk, and scout is a surprise (+0.5)

Power:3.5
Survivability: 48 HP (+0.05), 27 AC (+0.10), saves 11 11 10 (+0.05), vigor (+0.05)
Lethality: so, quartestaff plus bite plus ram plus tail slap, with skirmish. the damage potential is high courtesy of skirmish (+0.25), but all the natural attacks are secondary, and +3 does not impress at ECL 8 (-0.25)
Utility: stunning fist (+0.25)
Comparison: I see ways to improve, but not while staying true to the intent ( many natural attacks ), the secondary nature of them is the bummer here, not much that can be done to significantly improve the hit chance except precognition:offensive, but that's PP intense. In that sense going for both dimension hop and psionic lion charge is redundant. Your PP pool is 22, but there is psychic meditation for some extra mileage and most your uses would cost 1. Overall neutral (-)

Elegance: 3.35
You miscalculated your PP pool, practiced manifester grants you the power points from higher ML, correct, but the bonus power points from class levels are unchanged. you have 2 HT+5 Psywar +15 (ML6 @ 20 wisdom), you don't get 11 PP from PW6 (-0.25)
multiclass penalties : oof, -0.4 from combined levels, -1 from the epic feats since they are at double penalty. this penalty is a function of "lagging behind" in XP compared to the party

UotSI: 4.25
-0.5 missing levels
+1.75 for adherence to the gishy feel (+1 martial, +1 psionic choices, -0.25 "Devotions, ToM/MoI taint")

total: 15.5


First impression: what is the hypnotoad doing here!?

Originality: 5
... I can only fiat a 5 here, it is too much out of left field for anything less.

Power: 3
You do not qualify for greater illithid legacy, it has a prerequisite of ML 7, and psychic warrior bonus feat specifically says you have to meet the prerequisites. Illithid feats do not have the psionic tag and aren't legal choices on top of that.
this puts me in a difficult spot here, on power, because getting that, for one 4th level power known, so that you can expanded knowledge 3rd level power is the build defining thing.
I am going to fiat leave it at 3, and not do a breakdown but otherwise assume it works as advertise, the penalties are in elegance.

Elegance: 3
Illithid heritage and derivated feats do not have the psionic tag, and as such can't be taken as psychic warrior bonus feats
by how central the greater legacy, I'm putting it at a -2 penalty, but otherwise assume it works.
the build is otherwise tight and elegant by my metric, if not for those problems of "rampant illegality"

UotSI: 2
-1 : the gimmick would be enabled by psychic warrior if it worked (+1), but the result isn't a psychic warrior at all in feel ("not a martial" -1, "not using the powers in a gishy way" -1)

total : 13


First impression: Dragonborn buonman huh? well it's a nice statline for a psychic warrior, fair pick

Originality: 4.2
race choice : bonus for buonman but neutral for dragonborn (+0.20)
power choices : nothing surprising (-)
feat choices : pursuing dire flail smash was unexpected, on a monkish build even (+0.5)
class choices : I was expecting monk, but not nontashalatora monk, and 2 levels of it? (+0.5)

Power:3.7
gear changes : no DEX item -> mechanus gear + enchanting one side of the dire flail to +1
Survivability: 54 HP (+0.1), 28 AC (+0.1) saves 13 6 11 (+0.05)
Lethality: +10 to hit for 2d6+7 -> average 11 at 55/65/75%, not spectacular (+0.05)
Utility: multi layered CC effects, flight (+0.4)
Comparison: your dimension hop is permanently modified by linked power, you don't expend the psionic focus at all when you manifest it, there is a bit of missed opportunity here since with two more feats who knows what you could have done? maybe even double down on metapower making augmenting stuff "free". I don't know why you wanted both dimension hop and dimension swap, I suppose they are thematic, but from a "build power" point of view the swap is kind of dead in the water. I would probably go for inertial armor as higher value than mechanus, especially if you can augment it "for free" with linked power. Overall I feel I have the margin to make this build more powerful while staying true to "monk DIRE SMASH!", so neutral result (-)

Elegance:4.5
no multiclass penalties
no prerequisite problems
a little bit of grumbling about how you're triggering dire flail smash, I accept the reasoning, but with the caveat "GM permission" (-0.5)

UotSI:4.5
-0.5 missing levels
+2 psychic warrior is gimmick enabling (+1), martial feel (+1), the psionic is a bit on the side but still "gishy (-)

total: 16.9


Afterword: if I failed to notice missing prerequisites, please call me out on it

[MinimanMidget]

Damn, that's a fast turnaround. Nice to have multiple judges on board.

[ciopo]

my vacation started this week, and I'll be probably be going *somewhere*, so this is a combination of "extra free time" and "want to get the judging done before I disappear"

[Zaq]

Thank you for judging, ciopo! However, there's a dispute here.


https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/869438935527481344/872830581740822618/image0.png

I'll add that this is pg. 61 of Complete Psionic.

[ciopo]

I had this dreadful feeling I was missing something obvious *sighs* , Sorry, Hypnotoad

First impression: what is the hypnotoad doing here!?

Originality: 5
... I can only fiat a 5 here, it is too much out of left field for anything less.

Power: 3.75
You do not qualify for greater illithid legacy, it has a prerequisite of ML 7, I see the trick used to qualify for it, but by my metric this is something I would do as a theoretical exercise/argument, but not in an actual table. on Power here I evaluate with the assumption it works.
You are presenting yourself as a minionmancer/ psionic blaster/debuffer, and as such It will be compared more along the lines of a caster, rather than a martial (different categories)
Survivability : 54 HP (+0.15), 21 AC (-), saves 11 4 11 plus illithid and fey heritage (+0.25) ( disclaimer : I know I gave +0.10 for 54HP to another entry, but here I am going by caster values since that's what this entry essentially appears to be, to me)
Lethality : DC 18+ (+0.15), 4th level power (+0.25), nasty minions (+0.10)
miscellanea/comparison : 32PP pool plus psychic meditation is relatively "slighty below average" in the scope of "caster/minionmancer"
I feel this would conceptually work better as an ardent 6, greater illithid legacy would be delayed to epic levels, it's still 24 more PP level for level. or evne psychic warrior 5/ardent 1, and then take one or two practiced manifester, with ML 5 and 5 the PP pool would be upped to 43, and psychic meditation would give 10 PP instead of 6. it would gbe a loss of distracting shout but a gain of two juicy 1st level power from a different list. overall a (-0.15)

Elegance: 4.25
I accept Illithid compulsion raising the ML for the purpose of qualifying for greater legacy, but not overchannel. with a bit of a frown, of course (-0.25)
this is salvageable by feat reshuffling, so thumbs up, but frown (-0.5)
the build is otherwise tight and elegant by my metric

UotSI: 2
-1 : psychic warrior helps making the gimmick happens before epic feats, but it's otherwise not unique (+0.75), the resulting isn't a psychic warrior at all in feel ("not a martial" -1, "not using the powers in a gishy way" -1), I am leaving this as fiat 2, even if I reevaluated it lower on account of reproducibility. ( I never lower a category in the course of a re-evaluation)

total : 15

[Quentinas]

Thanks for the judging!

[daremetoidareyo]

No disputes here.

And thank you ciopo!

[mattie_p]

I haven't even started drafting my entry but I'm already preparing disputes!


Oh sure. I have about 20 disputes lined up already.

Just requoting myself from earlier. Many of my previously drafted disputes no longer apply because I didn't use the ideas behind them or the judge didn't penalize my shenanigans. I'll dig through and see if any apply.

:smallbiggrin:

[Zaq]

Quick-hit dispute over here!





gear changes : no DEX item -> mechanus gear + enchanting one side of the dire flail to +1
Survivability: 54 HP (+0.1), 28 AC (+0.1) saves 13 6 11 (+0.05)
Lethality: +10 to hit for 2d6+7 -> average 11 at 55/65/75%, not spectacular (+0.05)
Utility: multi layered CC effects, flight (+0.4)
Comparison: your dimension hop is permanently modified by linked power, you don't expend the psionic focus at all when you manifest it, there is a bit of missed opportunity here since with two more feats who knows what you could have done? maybe even double down on metapower making augmenting stuff "free". I don't know why you wanted both dimension hop and dimension swap, I suppose they are thematic, but from a "build power" point of view the swap is kind of dead in the water. I would probably go for inertial armor as higher value than mechanus, especially if you can augment it "for free" with linked power. Overall I feel I have the margin to make this build more powerful while staying true to "monk DIRE SMASH!", so neutral result (-)


Thanks for the judging ciopo but there is a problem about metapower . Even if it says that it's permanently modified by linked power later it says that "When you manifest the modified power with that metapsionic feat, you must still obey any restrictions of that feat (for example, expending your psionic focus)" Which means that for my tactics the psionic focus is needed so these two feats.

[ciopo]

gear changes : no DEX item -> mechanus gear + enchanting one side of the dire flail to +1
Survivability: 54 HP (+0.1), 28 AC (+0.1) saves 13 6 11 (+0.05)
Lethality: +10 to hit for 2d6+7 -> average 11 at 55/65/75%, not spectacular (+0.05)
Utility: multi layered CC effects, flight (+0.4)
Comparison: your dimension hop is permanently modified by linked power, you don't expend the psionic focus at all when you manifest it, there is a bit of missed opportunity here since with two more feats who knows what you could have done? maybe even double down on metapower making augmenting stuff "free". I don't know why you wanted both dimension hop and dimension swap, I suppose they are thematic, but from a "build power" point of view the swap is kind of dead in the water. I would probably go for inertial armor as higher value than mechanus, especially if you can augment it "for free" with linked power. Overall I feel I have the margin to make this build more powerful while staying true to "monk DIRE SMASH!", so neutral result (-)
Thanks for the judging ciopo but there is a problem about metapower . Even if it says that it's permanently modified by linked power later it says that "When you manifest the modified power with that metapsionic feat, you must still obey any restrictions of that feat (for example, expending your psionic focus)" Which means that for my tactics the psionic focus is needed so these two feats.

*facepalm*

(deliberating)

point taken, but no changes. That commentary part on the whole remains a neutral no bonus / no malus. Mostly on account that, as per my own preference, psionic meditation is a combat tool, but I'm of the school of thought that using psionic focus once per encounter is about fine, caveat what kind of use it's there for. Your stated use is to better manage the small PP pool, and on that point of view, "doubling" it by saving 1PP for linking to a second hop remains "less powerful" than "abusing" 2/3metapower to buff up with augmented minute/level or 10minute/level stuff "for free", out of combat. Especially with the cheese interpretation that the ML limit is on power point spent, not power point cost, which breaks out of the e6 cap. I'm not expecting or suggesting to do these shenanigans, mind you, but here as I am thinking of metapower, that's where my munchikry sends me


I am learning a third pass is necessary at a distance of days, I apologize to everyone for the sloppyness :( It is in good faith

[AvatarVecna]

Zinc Saucier XXXVII: Blast From The Past is ready for chefs! :smallsmile:

[Zaq]

Now seems like a great time to speculate about (and/or make suggestions about) the next ingredient.

I won’t say there’s no more base class ingredients ever, but I will say that we’re definitely nearing the end of the list of the ones I personally expect to be fun, so we’re going to have to lean somewhat into the conceptual stuff (like we did with “pets” or “dragonmarks” or “tanking.”)

Suggestions are welcome!

[Quentinas]

Sure we are finishing the base classes or at least the base classes that suck or are not so good . But still there are some I would like to do (like battledancer) But as far as concept maybe something like "Signature Supernatural/Spell like ability"? (one of the two) imitating the round of the signature spell or doing the concept of Kleptomanist? Most of the party in which I played had a kleptomanist character so maybe is something that could be worked on (don't ask me how)
Probably in the next round I will judge as I should have the next week occupied so not so much time to work (but it depend if is something for which I have already planned something)

[ciopo]

What about racial rounds? Those little used "different" races, that have their own fluff.

or even... templates? you pick a +1 template, and see what we make of it

[AsuraKyoko]

I like the idea of racial rounds. There are some really cool races out there that can really change how you build a character.

Alternatively, you could do rounds based on specific feats/types of feats. There are some pretty cool ones out there that could be quite interesting to see builds around.

[daremetoidareyo]

Turning/rebuking (undead)?

[MinimanMidget]

We could do a dare round, where everyone submits their wildest builds. Judging would be tricky though.

[Zaq]

Is anyone still judging?

[MinimanMidget]

Is anyone still judging?

Yep, 3 categories down, 1 to go.

[MinimanMidget]

Sorry for the delay, folks. And the double post. I'm not entirely happy with these judgements, but I get the impression Zaq would like to move on, and I don't want to hold things up any further.

Global judging note: I consider being a psionic character to be one of the benefits of Psychic Warrior. This means that things like using your psionic focus or getting a psycrystal count toward UotSI. I'm also looking for builds that do things that can't easily be replicated by, say, a psion/fighter multiclass. As such, using powers that only Psychic Warriors get count for UotSI more than using powers in general. As an addendum to that, there are a lot of ways for a manifester to get a power of their choice, and a lot of the originally Psychic Warrior exclusive powers ended up on mantles, or the Lurk list, or even the Psychic Rogue list. Then again, all of those come with a cost ("playing a Lurk" being far and away the highest cost), so basically, if it's not on the Psion list, or one of their discipline lists, I'm counting it as a Psychic Warrior exclusive.



So, Lesser Zenythri. It's not exactly a usual race, but as one of the only LA +0 races with a Wis bonus, it's very much expected here. (-0.5)

Continuing that pattern, there just aren't any surprises in your build. War Mind isn't a normal choice for Psychic Warrior, since it doesn't progress manifesting, but it is a pretty natural fit. Primary Contact is very much a standard early entry tactic, and the rest of your feats are just a basic Psionic Weapon build. (-0.75)

That said, you did a nice job tying everything together with your backstory, and I appreciate that. Even though your backstory is actually very creepy, when you really think about it. Also, Talar? Really? Even ignoring the oddity of naming someone after your world, they're the Hidden Houses. On a less in-universe note, it's disappointingly obvious. Also, it's House Vaymin, not Waymin. (+0.25)

Overall: 2


Greater Psionic Weapon gives you solid baseline damage. Given that you're relying on a single attack each round, I would've preferred a higher to-hit bonus, but Deep Impact will help with that when you need it. Even so, I suspect Power Attack isn't often going to be a good choice for you. It's a fairly reliable strategy, although as a pure melee lack of mobility may be a problem for you at times. (+0.5)

Your hp and AC are impressive (although augmenting Force Screen seems like a waste of power points). All of your saving throws are decent. (+0.75)

Outside of combat, you basically have nothing. I guess Knowledge (psionics) will come up once in a while, but most of the time, if you're not in a fight, you're not going to be contributing. (-1)

Your buffs are all standard actions to manifest and last minutes per level - that's going to be a problem for you, since you can't have them running all day, you'll sometimes have to either do without them or waste turns at the start of combat. It does look like you're probably not going to run out of PP most days, which is nice. (-0.25)

Overall: 3


Lesser Planetouched are inelegant, especially with a race like Zenythri. (-0.5)

The thing about Primary Contact is that while it explicitly gives you a bonus rank even if it puts you above the maximum, it doesn't say anything about permanently increasing the maximum. So to work for early entry, you need to take it at the right level. While you have 7 ranks of Knowledge (psionic) at level 3, you can't actually take the 8th rank at level 4, and thereby qualify for War Mind. It's also worth mentioning that, while it seems like an obvious choice, and I would accept most DMs to agree, there's technically nothing stating that Knowledge (psionics) is an associated skill for House Vaymin. (-1)

Practiced Manifester explicitly does not affect your power points. I mean, technically, it explicitly doesn't affect your "powers per day", but the only way that makes sense is if it means power points. (-0.25)

It's nice that you addressed the problematic text of psycrystals, I appreciate that.

Overall: 3.25


4 out of 6 levels in the SI, but the remaining two are in War Mind. While it doesn't technically progress Psychic Warrior, more power points and powers known are most of what you'd get out of the last 2 levels anyway. (+0.25)

You're using everything Psychic Warrior gives you, and Psionic Weapon is both on-brand for Psychic Warrior and a good tactic to help make up for its low BAB. That said, the only Psychic Warrior exclusive power you're using is Expansion, and your powers aren't the focus of the build, Psionic Weapon is. Any build can use Psionic Weapon with some feat investment. So while it's a Psychic Warrior build through and through, it's not one that actually requires Psychic Warrior specifically. (+0.5)

Overall: 3.75

Total: 12



Wild Elf? It may be a Core race, but I don't think I've ever actually seen anyone pick it before. (+0.5)

Outside of that, this is a pretty straightforward Psionic Shot build. Ranger is a little less obvious than Fighter, slowing down your feat progression slightly in exchange for a whole bunch of skills, but only a little. (-1)

I looked, I really did, but I have absolutely no idea what dewr means.

Overall: 2.5


Greater Psionic Shot gives you solid baseline damage. Your to-hit bonus is worryingly low, though. Since you have to decide whether you're using Psionic Shot before you attack, Rapid Shot makes it less likely to land, not more. Fell Shot will help with that, of course. Your Wild Cohort will help out in fights too, although its numbers aren't anything impressive. (+0.5)

Your hp is okay, but your AC isn't great, even with Defensive Precognition. Your Fort is decent, but your Ref and Will are both a little low. As a side note, you can't manifest Defensive Precognition as a swift action, since you would have to have a ML of 7. (-0.5)

Outside of combat, you have a few useful skills, but very low bonuses with them. Your Wild Cohort has the classic scouting skills, but their modifiers still aren't impressive. (-0.5)

You're also going to run out of PP very quickly with your planned tactics. Five Hustles, or one augmented Metaphysical Weapon and three Hustles, just isn't going to get you through the day. (-0.25)

Overall: 2.25


What the dewr is going on with your stats? Wild is right. According to your table, Wild Elf gives +2 Dex, -1 Con, +1 Int, -2 Cha. In actuality, they give +2 Dex, -2 Int. (-0.5)

A Wild Cohort is not an animal companion, and neither qualifies you for nor benefits from Natural Bond. I certainly wish it did, but it doesn't. (-0.5)

The Elf Ranger substitution level doesn't give you three favoured enemies, it increases the bonuses if you pick one of the specified three. You might be trying to say that which one you would take would depend on the campaign or something, but if that's what you mean, you need to make it clearer. You haven't listed an alignment or religion, which isn't a big deal, but does make taking Travel Devotion just a little bit iffy. You're missing sources for Zen Archery and Adrenaline Boost, and given that Wild Cohort is available for free online, it's more than a little gauche to cite a source for it that violates copyright. None of these would warrant a penalty by themselves, but combined they're worth a minor one. (-0.25)

Your mention of Elven Chain is weird, and I'm electing to ignore it rather then penalise you for it, since it's not like your build depends on it in any way. You also mentioned that Fell Shot helps you deal with DR, but that's not what Fell Shot does - it helps you deal with high AC.

Overall: 3.75


4 out of 6 levels in the SI. (+0)

You're using everything Psychic Warrior gives you, and Psionic Shot is both on-brand for Psychic Warrior and a good tactic to help make up for its low BAB. That said, the only Psychic Warrior exclusive power you're using is Adrenaline Boost, and your powers aren't the focus of the build, Psionic Shot is. Any build can use Psionic Shot with some feat investment. So while it's a Psychic Warrior build through and through, it's not one that actually requires Psychic Warrior specifically. (+0.5)

Overall: 3.5

Total: 12



Tarmak? That's a new one to me. I did wonder if it was purely a play for Originality points, (which I would disapprove of), but I assume you wanted to be human so you could be Talaire, and picked Tarmak to finangle in some stat boosts. And anyway, it makes sense that the refugees from the Talaire plane would've landed on the...Tarmak :smallamused: (+1)

I was always expecting to see some soulbound weapons, but the butterfly net took me by surprise. Not only that, your write-up covered a lot of interesting weapon enhancement options, far beyond the usual suggestions. None of your other ingredients are particularly surprising, but they're being used quite differently to usual. (+0.75)

Overall: 4.75


It's really quite difficult to gauge your offensive capabilities. First up, you charge an enemy, doing 4d6 damage on a touch attack. Then you...use Psychic Whip, or Constrictor's Touch, or just keep them entangled while something else happens, depending on your weapon enhancement. Wait...Large elemental? Really? Hmmm, requires flaming/frost/etc. Anyway, you're certainly more useful than I would have expected a guy with a butterfly net and a lot of questions to be. (+0.25)

You've got a good amount of hp, and your AC has the potential to be good, although I would prefer it if you specified what armour you were using. Your Fort is good, your Will is mediocre, and your Ref is terrible. Crusader's Strike and Martial Spirit will help a little. (+0)

Outside of combat, you are completely useless. (-1)

Butterfly net, psychic whip, and Shielded Manifesting - aren't you going to run out of hands? You're also likely to have some problems with PP over the course of the day. And the short durations and long manifesting time on Call Weapon and Expansion/Compression are going to cause you problems too. (-0.5)

Overall: 1.75


So, you derived the Tarmark's racial stat modiers based on the assumption that the example had the normal set of 10s and 11s, which is definitely a valid possibility. However, its ability scores are identical to the nonelite array, and "The nonelite array is most appropriate for monsters who add class levels in a NPC class", such as the 1st-level warrior used for the example. So I'm a little suspicious of it. That said, Races of Ansalon (not official, but a potential source of clarification) gives them +2 Str, -2 Int, -2 Cha, which suggests you're probably right. I'm going to let it pass without a penalty, but I'm squinting at it.

Tarmak is from Dragonlance, and you have a feat and a couple of powers are from Eberron. (-0.25)

You have an extra skill rank at level 4. (-0.25)

I think it's quite a leap to go from "However, a psionic creature does not have to pay a psi-like ability’s power point cost." to "Psi-like abilities auto-augment up to your manifester level" If you have a source that states that, I'd love to see it. (-0.25)

Your butterfly net is treated as a net in all aspects except that it is not thrown. That being the case, I can certainly accept that it is a weapon. I suspect you get Weapon Focus (net), not Weapon Focus (butterfly net), but it should apply to the butterfly net anyway. Your build doesn't rely on Tarmak war paint, so I'm not going to penalise you for it (or the fact that you can't reliably hit the crafting DC for it anyway).

Overall: 4.25 4.5


All 6 levels in the SI. (+1)

You're all about soulbound weapon, and that's an ability that's quite difficult to get outside of Psychic Warrior. There would normally be an argument to be made that anyone can buy a magic weapon, but you've made it quite clear that you're making full use of soulbound weapon's ability to choose enhancements on the fly. Many of your powers are exclusive to Psychic Warrior, too. The ability to use Craft (alchemy) is (arguably, see Elegance) a benefit of Psychic Warrior too. Anyway, all of this is to say that not only are you using everything Psychic Warrior gives you, this build must be and can only be a Psychic Warrior. (+1)

Overall: 5

Total: 15.75 16



Illumian is an unusual (if well-known) race to begin with, probably because its benefits aren't as straightforward as most races. For a psionic character, even moreso. (+0.75)

You have a lot of unusual feats on display here. Not only that, you were the only build to take a number of levels of Psychic Warrior that wasn't either 4 or 6. And above all, you're skydiving without a parachute and hitting people with a greatsword at terminal velocity. (+1)

I also enjoyed your intro, and it's weirdly refreshing to see a character with a normal name. It's a minor thing, too, but campaign/environment specific characters aren't very common, especially in build contests. (+0.25)

Overall: 5


Well, I certainly can't argue with your damage output. That said, I wouldn't want to bet my 100d6 damage attack, that I took 20d6 damage for, on a +9 to-hit. +11 with Ferocity, but still. Then again, you have a backup 20d6 attack, which is also potentially usable on a second target. And if all else fails, you can run up the wall and try it again on your next turn. For much less damage, but still a pretty good amount. Even if you're not in your favoured environment, you can do a fair bit with just a Jump check. (+1)

You have a solid amount of hp, and your AC should be okay, especially when using Ferocity. You mentioned wearing heavy armour early on in your career, but never said anything about when you would change that or what to. Your Fort is solid, but your other saves are terrible. You've taken a lot of additional measures to keep yourself alive, but they're somewhat counterblanaced by the fact that you're mostly protecting yourself from your own tactics. All that said, the whole idea here is to instantly kill things, so if everything goes according to plan your enemies won't get the chance to attack you. Of course, I would've liked to see some stealth skills to reinforce that. Not to mention some Spot, since that's very important to your primary tactic. (-0.5)

On the subject of skills, you don't have any that are really useful outside of combat. (-1)

Share Pain has a nice long duration, but you can only afford two fully augmented Vigors per day, and that's likely to be a problem for you. (-0.25)

Overall: 2.25


I went back and forth about your qualification for Roof-Jumper. I can't help but think that a lot of D&D breaks down if you don't assume that "level" in a class feature always refers to class level, not character level. Luckily for me, I don't have to prove that it doesn't work, I can just say that it's definitely questionable. Similarly, while Share Pain in the Pain and Suffering mantle is a no-brainer, Substitute Powers is always DM-dependent. Not to mention that it is listed as an Ardent ACF, and Mantled Warrior was released first. On the subject of illumians and Psionics-Magic Transparency - it's definitely a bit iffy, but the game is just better the more broadly Psionics-Magic Transparency applies. All of that said, these are not major issues, and I like that you addressed them in your build, so I'm only going to ping you once for the lot. (-0.5)

You aren't allowed to take more than 2 Devotion feats. I also have questions about your character's simultaneous devotion to Pain and Suffering, Travel, Healing, and Animal. Having written this sentence, I now have questions about any character's devotion to "Animal" (the Muppet drummer, maybe?). (-0.5)

Share Pain arguably doesn't work on falling damage, since it uses the word "attacks". (-0.25)

Interestingly, you might not be able to take Extra Rage - it works on "rage or frenzy" abilities, and Ferocity doesn't use either of those terms. It's a nitpick, and I'm not going to penalise for it, but it bears mentioning. On the subject of nitpicks not worth penalties, you didn't list sources for Roof-Walker or Roof-Jumper (except indirectly via the web article) or Gnome Tunnel Acrobatics. I'm also not going to penalise you for your boots, since as far as I can tell they're mostly a thematic choice and you don't actually need them for the build to work.

Overall: 3.75


5 out of 6 levels in the SI. (+0.5)

You're using everything Psychic Warrior has to offer, including an exclusive power. That said, I could argue that you're only using Psychic Warrior to set up and survive your killshot, since the killshot itself doesn't actually use Psychic Warrior at all. For example, if you had a flight speed, and could hit a DC 100 Tumble check to ignore falling damage, Psychic Warrior would become irrelevant to this build. To be clear, I'm not saying "oh, any build could do this" or anything like that. Just that this is a trick you could pull off without Psychic Warrior if that's what you were going for. (+0.75)

Overall: 4.25

Total: 15.25



Glimmerskin halflings don't see a ton of use, and they're not an obvious choice with Psychic Warrior. (+0.25)

I always assumed we'd see some natural attackers, but I wasn't expecting skirmish. Your feats are tricky - taken individually, none of them are particularly unusual, but the overall mix is definitely interesting. On the whole, it's a fairly ordinary dish, but it still has a distinct flavour. (+0.25)

Overall: 3.5


Pouncing with a bunch of natural weapons is tried and true, and for good reason. With skirmish as well, that's a lot of damage. Your low to-hit bonus matters a lot less when you're making a bunch of attacks, although it still boggles my mind that you didn't at least take Multiattack. Then on top of that, Stunning Fist is a nice little extra, and you can get a fly speed if you need it. (+0.75)

You've got a decent hp pool, and good AC. All of your saves are decent. (+0.5)

Outside of combat, you've got a solid Spot score. In theory, Bind Vestige and Practiced Binder could give you a lot of utility, but you were pretty clear about binding Amon every day. (-0.5)

Overall: 3.75


Natural weapons aren't special monk weapons (except for unarmed strike). So most of your attacks only get 1d6 skirmish damage instead of 2d6. (-0.5)

Practiced Manifester explicitly does not affect your power points. I mean, technically, it explicitly doesn't affect your "powers per day", but the only way that makes sense is if it means power points. (-0.25)

I'm glad you addressed the weird wording in Dragon Tail (and a few other natural weapon soulmelds) - most people just ignore it. I'm not sure I agree with your take on it, but I'm certainly not going to punish you for addressing it. Hidden Talent is a campaign-specific variant feat, which makes it a slightly iffy choice. It's lucky for you that Amon doesn't come with major disadvantages, because you're never going to make a good pact.

Overall: 4.25


4 out of 6 levels in the SI. (+0)

This is an interesting one. Your focus is on pouncing with natural weapons and skirmish. You're using Psychic Warrior exclusive powers for the pounce and one of the natural weapons, but most of the natural weapons and all of the skirmish comes from other sources. Not to mention, you could very easily replace Psychic Warrior in this build with another source of pounce and probably come out ahead. (-0.5)

Overall: 2.5

Total: 14



Anthropomorphic animals are an obvious choice here - there just aren't many LA +0 choices that give a Wis bonus. That said, the toad is an objectively worse choice, and your amphibious trick is quite clever. I've often wondered why we don't see anthropomorphic animals outside of the provided examples. Although having never done it myself because it's too much work and I'm very lazy, I guess I already know the answer. (-0.25)

See, I figured someone would use the illithid feats...for the tentacles, not the powers. And even if I'd thought you could get Greater Illithid Legacy, it would never have occurred to me to use it to bootstrap Expanded Knowledge up a level. Fey Presence is cool too - it's come up in these contests before, but not often, that heritage feats are a very accessible way for almost any build to get some useful 1/day tricks. Although I would have liked to see some fluff tying it all together. (+0.5)

Overall: 3.25


In combat, you're essentially a pure spellcaster manifester. You've got a decent variety of powers, including some potentially encounter-winning ones. You're definitely weaker against enemies immune to mind-affecting effects, of course. (+0.75)

You've got a decent amount of hp, and your AC should be okay. I have to question using Call Armor to get the heaviest armor you can wear, though - I can't see any reason why you wouldn't just buy some, especially given the low duration, full round manifesting time, and expensive augmenting (its only advantage over bought armour). Your Ref is terrible, but your Fort and Will are good enough. (+0.25)

In terms of utility, you can read minds and control them. It's almost like you're some kind of...psychic. Disguise Self is nice too, although you really don't have the skills to back it up. That's also just about all you can do. (-0.5)

Overall: 3.5


As clever as your amphibious trick is, it doesn't work. The Amphibious template can only be applied to humanoids and monstrous humanoids, meaning that you can be an Amphibious Anthropomorphic Toad, but not an Anthropomorphic Amphibious Toad. Which would be fine, but you needed to be Amphibious first in order to get the movespeed you wanted. (-0.25)

Your manifester level qualification for Greater Illithid Heritage is dodgy. I'm not going to say that it definitely does or does not work, but it's dodgy. (-0.5)

Complete Mage is very clear that you can't take more than one [Heritage] feat unless it requires one you have. Unfortunately, Complete Psionic is not clear about whether Illithid Heritage feats are [Heritage] feats. Taking both Fey Heritage and Illithid Heritage is very questionable, if not definitely illegal. (-0.25)

Overall: 4


All 6 levels in the SI. (+1)

You've certainly pushed Psychic Warrior as far as you could. You've mixed some of its exclusive powers in with the ones you got from illithid heritage and associated shenanigans. I can't help but look at the build and wonder "why not Psion?", though. They only get one less bonus feat in exchange for much better manifesting, and while being able to use Expanded Knowledge for 3rd-level powers is not nearly game-changing for them as it is for Psychic Warrior, it's still pretty nice. I guess it just seems like you've turned Psychic Warrior into a slightly lesser Psion, which is impressive, but not great for this category. (+0)

Overall: 4

Total: 14.75



I was actually kind of excited for Buomman, because in the Psychic Warrior contest, I figured we'd see some cool ways of getting past the speech limitation. If nothing else, a psycrystal pretty much takes care of it out of the box. Using Dragonborn works too, of course, but it does you no favours as far as Originality is concerned. (-0.75)

Sun School? Dire Flail Smash? I've seen these things before, of course, but they're not heavily used feats to begin with. Then seeing them combined, with no Two-Weapon Fighting or even Flurry of Blows in sight - honestly, this almost feels more like a Junkyard Wars build than one you'd expect to see here. (+0.75)

Overall: 3


Two attacks each round doing decent damage, free trip attempts with a followup attack on success, and dire flail smash to round it out is really quite nice. Your to-hit numbers aren't quite where I'd like them to be, but overall I think you'll do fine. (+0.75)

Your hp is decent, and your AC is good, although there are some problems with it - Force Screen suffers from a minute per level duration and a standard action casting time, and mechanus gear is too heavy for you to to be able to fly while wearing it. Your saving throws are all okay, too. (+0.5)

Outside of combat, you've got a good Sense Motive score, and not much else. (-0.75)

Expansion suffers the same problems as Force Screen, except with an even shorter duration. (-0.25)

Overall: 3.25


Practiced Manifester explicitly does not affect your power points. I mean, technically, it explicitly doesn't affect your "powers per day", but the only way that makes sense is if it means power points. (-0.25)

I find Dragonborn inelegant, personally, but not to the point of penalising it.

Overall: 4.75


4 out of 6 levels in the SI. (+0)

You're making good use of Expansion, and your teleportation powers are core to your build. Beyond that, though, your focus is on Dire Flail Smash, which Psychic Warrior helped you get, as well as Sun School and tripping, both of which you got from Monk. There are definitely more efficient ways than Psychic Warrior to get tactical teleportation, too. (-0.5)

Overall: 2.5

Total: 13.5

[Zaq]

Thank you, MinimanMidget! We’ve got one RAW dispute here:


Psi likes auto augment reference:

https://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/monsters/overview.htm#psionicPowers

All creatures with psi-like abilities are assigned a manifester level, which indicates how difficult it is to dispel their psi-like effects and determines all level-dependent variables (such as range or duration) the abilities might have. When a creature uses a psi-like ability, the power is manifested as if the creature had spent a number of power points equal to its manifester level, which may augment the power to improve its damage or save DC. However, the creature does not actually spend power points for its psi-like abilities, even if it has a power point reserve due to racial abilities, class levels, or some other psionic ability.

I’m out of town for the next couple of days so I’ll probably try to get to the next round around Monday or so, unless I’m too tired. Feel free to keep discussing future ingredients, vote for HM, and so on! And if anyone wants to make a table, that’d be lovely.

[MinimanMidget]

Psi likes auto augment reference:

https://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/m...#psionicPowers

All creatures with psi-like abilities are assigned a manifester level, which indicates how difficult it is to dispel their psi-like effects and determines all level-dependent variables (such as range or duration) the abilities might have. When a creature uses a psi-like ability, the power is manifested as if the creature had spent a number of power points equal to its manifester level, which may augment the power to improve its damage or save DC. However, the creature does not actually spend power points for its psi-like abilities, even if it has a power point reserve due to racial abilities, class levels, or some other psionic ability.

Oops, sorry - I went over that section of the XPH a few times and somehow didn't see that. Edited my judgement accordingly.

[Zaq]

We've got a little bit more back-and-forth here, and then I hope we can get this wrapped up! I would have posted this dispute a day or two ago, when it was submitted, but I was out of town this weekend and I didn't spend much time paying attention to the computer.


Hi, MinimanMidget, I do appreciate your judgement here. In keeping with the chair's request, this dispute will refrain from commenting on the areas where I concur with your assessment (which are many!), and I will avoid trying to sway you on subjective matters. Leaving only this:


Natural weapons aren't special monk weapons (except for unarmed strike). So most of your attacks only get 1d6 skirmish damage instead of 2d6. (-0.5)

I was aware of this and made pains to mention that twice, in the level by level breakdown in the Levels 1-3 range.


The halfling monk substitute level provides a +1d6 skirmish bonus instead of flurry of blows (but only with monk weapons or UAS), which is just fine by me.

...

Intuitive Attack will work for Kal, ultimately providing a +4 to hit. Quarterstaff is the only monk weapon (other than UAS) that overlaps with being a simple weapon. At level 3 we have +5 to hit (+1 size +3 WIS +1 BAB), 1d4+1d6-1 damage on either staff or UAS (if they're proficient).

I did not mention it again afterwards in the tactics, but neither did I specify that I had +2d6 skirmish bonus damage with natural weapons either. I simply stated that I had "whatever + skirmish" with each of those. If that was confusing, I apologize. I thought it was clear.

That's all, thank you!

And here's one for Hophit.





Two attacks each round doing decent damage, free trip attempts with a followup attack on success, and dire flail smash to round it out is really quite nice. Your to-hit numbers aren't quite where I'd like them to be, but overall I think you'll do fine. (+0.75)

Your hp is decent, and your AC is good, although there are some problems with it - Force Screen suffers from a minute per level duration and a standard action casting time, and mechanus gear is too heavy for you to to be able to fly while wearing it. Your saving throws are all okay, too. (+0.5)

Outside of combat, you've got a good Sense Motive score, and not much else. (-0.75)

Expansion suffers the same problems as Force Screen, except with an even shorter duration. (-0.25)

Overall: 3.25


Thanks for the judging MinimanMidget! But there are two problems. First the manifesting time of force screen and expansion isn't relevant in this build as Hophit can use Linked power so it will buff himself during combat in two rounds without so many problem while attacking with dimension hop. Same thing with the duration as using linked power he can remanifest them while attacking so I don't see the problem with their casting time or their duration , and it's not like that he can't manifest expansion expending more power points (he has enough manifester level to expend 2 more power points to set the duration at 10 minutes for level). Then there is another detail , while it's true that without any power or magic items the mechanus gear would be at the limit of my carrying strength for not being at medium load (75 libbres against 76 ) while under expansion or with any item that increase strength (they would be common at the level where he could fly) he would not have any problem of carrying the mechanus gear especially in combat where using expansion would be part of the strategy anyways

[MinimanMidget]

I did not mention it again afterwards in the tactics, but neither did I specify that I had +2d6 skirmish bonus damage with natural weapons either. I simply stated that I had "whatever + skirmish" with each of those. If that was confusing, I apologize. I thought it was clear.

It certainly didn't seem to me that you were making any distinction between "+skirmish" and "+half as much skirmish". I'd reduce the penalty to 0.25, but you'd lose that much in Power anyway ("One Mistake, One Penalty" means I judged Power as if you had +2d6 on all your attacks) so it balances out. No change.


Thanks for the judging MinimanMidget! But there are two problems. First the manifesting time of force screen and expansion isn't relevant in this build as Hophit can use Linked power so it will buff himself during combat in two rounds without so many problem while attacking with dimension hop. Same thing with the duration as using linked power he can remanifest them while attacking so I don't see the problem with their casting time or their duration , and it's not like that he can't manifest expansion expending more power points (he has enough manifester level to expend 2 more power points to set the duration at 10 minutes for level). Then there is another detail , while it's true that without any power or magic items the mechanus gear would be at the limit of my carrying strength for not being at medium load (75 libbres against 76 ) while under expansion or with any item that increase strength (they would be common at the level where he could fly) he would not have any problem of carrying the mechanus gear especially in combat where using expansion would be part of the strategy anyways

Even with Linked Power, you're still losing a standard action on your first turn, not to mention expending the focus you would want to use for Linked Power on Dimension Hop. While you could potentially use your move action to focus and then use Dimension Hop, that leaves your movement on the first turn limited to the small amount you get out of Dimension Hop, which is probably going to prevent you from getting into melee anyway. One way or another, you're often not going to be able to attack at full power in the first round of combat. Ten minutes per level isn't that different to rounds per level - the important distinction is that you can't just assume it's always on when a fight starts. Speaking of which, while Expansion would deal with your equip load problems, that only works if you have it on at all times, at which point you would have gotten the penalty for PP shortage. And yes, mechanus gear doesn't put you over your equip load by itself, but mechanus gear plus a dire flail does, and there's no way you're going to get away with only carrying those two things. No change.

[Zaq]

Alright team, that's a wrap!



Name

Stub

J1 ciopo

J2 MinimanMidget

Total

Rank

Chef



Talar Waymin

LN lesser zenythri psychic warrior 4 / war mind 2

16.65

12.0

28.65

6th

Quentinas



Starblossom

?? Wild elf ranger 2 / psychic warrior 4

15.2

12.0

27.2

7th

Birchy



The Lepidopterist

TN Tarmak (Vaymin) psychic warrior 6

17.8

16.0

33.8

1st, gold

Daremetoidareyou



Kate

CG illumian psychic warrior 5 / barbarian 1

16.9

15.25

32.15

2nd, silver

AsuraKyoko



Kal Arvoreen

LG glimmerskin halfling monk 1 / psychic warrior 4 / scout 1

15.5

14.0

29.5

5th

Mattie_p



Hypnotoad

TN anthropomorphic amphibious toad psychic warrior 6

15.0

14.75

29.75

4th

Daremetoidareyou



Hophit

LG dragonborn buomman monk 2 / psychic warrior 4

16.9

13.5

30.4

3rd, bronze

Quentinas




I had a good time with this one! Lots of neat approaches. Congrats to our medalists daremetoidareyou, AsuraKyoko, and Quentinas! Many heartfelt thanks to ciopo and MinimanMidget for judging... it's a ton of work, but it's extra fun when there's more than one judge looking at things.

I'll have the new contest up soon!

[Zaq]

New round here! (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?635332-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Round-XXXIV)

[AsuraKyoko]

Thank you to both of our wonderful judges!

I lost points pretty much where I expected to, and the notable strengths were all noticed, so I'm happy. Regarding a lack of non-combat utility, I also would have liked to see some non-combat skills, but I was limited by some non-trivial skill prerequisites.

Regarding Kate not playing well with a party, I don't necessarily agree; she would have trouble coordinating with a typical party, but having a party that can support her playstyle would be a massive boon to her. For example, if the party had someone who could gather information well, and track people in an urban environment, and someone to help coordinate, that would be a lot of synergy. She certainly would have difficulty fitting into an average campaign, though; most don't involve the party being spread out through a single city for the majority of the time.

[daremetoidareyo]

Thank you to both of our wonderful judges!

I lost points pretty much where I expected to, and the notable strengths were all noticed, so I'm happy. Regarding a lack of non-combat utility, I also would have liked to see some non-combat skills, but I was limited by some non-trivial skill prerequisites.

Regarding Kate not playing well with a party, I don't necessarily agree; she would have trouble coordinating with a typical party, but having a party that can support her playstyle would be a massive boon to her. For example, if the party had someone who could gather information well, and track people in an urban environment, and someone to help coordinate, that would be a lot of synergy. She certainly would have difficulty fitting into an average campaign, though; most don't involve the party being spread out through a single city for the majority of the time.

Yours was my favorite build that wasnt one of mine.

Leveraging the up the walls feat is quintessential psychic warrior stuff, we just needed someone to show us how to do it.

[MinimanMidget]

Regarding Kate not playing well with a party, I don't necessarily agree; she would have trouble coordinating with a typical party, but having a party that can support her playstyle would be a massive boon to her. For example, if the party had someone who could gather information well, and track people in an urban environment, and someone to help coordinate, that would be a lot of synergy. She certainly would have difficulty fitting into an average campaign, though; most don't involve the party being spread out through a single city for the majority of the time.

Kate was my favourite build, and the favourite of a friend of mine who reads these contests but doesn't participate. Personally, I think she'd work better with a party than by herself - have them on the ground, and her providing overwatch. When they get attacked, Kate just jumps in. It's exactly how parties with one flying character work. She'd need a psycrystal for communication, but that's just one feat.

[AsuraKyoko]

I'm glad that people liked Kate so much! I had a lot of fun making her; it was a journey of discovery and finding all the little ways I could squeeze out more. Barbarian was the gift that kept on giving, one level of it gave me 3 prerequisite feats, and effectively gave me 11 more skill points. Cityscape in general provided a lot of useful options, which makes a lot of sense, since Kate operates in a city, but I was honestly surprised at how well everything meshed together.