Iron Chef Optimization Challenge E6 Appetizer: Round XXXIV

[Zaq]

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

Welcome back to the Iron Chef Optimization Challenge E6 Appetizer Edition! Time to get a little more conceptual, so get ready.

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, Sep 13, 2021 (1:59 AM GMT on Tuesday, Sep 14). 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:
FLIGHT!

Your character must be able to fly in some capacity. Natively, through spells/similar, through a reliable flying mount, etc.; it's all good, as long as you're taking to the skies. Your UoSI will be based on how well you use your flight and how cool it is overall!

Allez Optimizer!




The Builds:


Name
Alignment / Race
Class Levels
Chef
loky1109
H_H_F_F
Judge 3
Judge 4
Total
Place


Bash Jordon (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25197292&postcount=18)
LN Raptoran
Fighter 2 / Sohei 2 / Monk 2
daremetoidareyo

10
9.9


19.9
5th


Graazt Du'kal (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25197294&postcount=19)
CE Silverbrow Human
Scout 4 / Ranger 2
RaiKirah

12.75
13.75


26.5
3rd


Hildegard (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25197295&postcount=20)
CG Dragonborn
Cleric 1 / Warlock 5
RaiKirah

12.5
10.4


22.9
4th


Mooncasai Munkedu (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25197296&postcount=21)
NG Anthropomorphic Monkey
Ranger 5 / Nature's Warrior 1
ciopo

18
13.1


31.1
2nd


Pippin (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25197297&postcount=22)
CG Raptoran
Ranger 3 / Cleric 1 / Ardent 1 / Horizon Walker 1
MinimanMidget

18.5
13.95


32.45
1st




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 33: Psychic Warrior (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?634208-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-E6-Appetizer-Round-XXXIII)


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?

As is usually the case when we're not optimizing a specific class, you've got some flexibility here! Maybe you want to focus on getting really easy flight, or maybe you want to focus on getting really cool flight even if it's not always there, or maybe you're just doing something really wacky. In any case, just getting the flight is only the first step: what do you do with it once you're airborne? Why does it matter that you can fly? That's where you'll have the chance to really stand out and shine, so go nuts!

[Kuulvheysoon]

This... is a really wide open topic, and is going to be hugely subjective.

I'm tentatively open to judging?

[jdizzlean]

I have ideas....

[mattie_p]

Team E6, based on demand, I re-did skills for the IC entry spreadsheet.

VERSION 2.0 (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BG0-5sq4dL9Ooh7-QfXuyHzO4rXSz-CRcj29t6BeUVE/edit?usp=sharing) is here.

Skill table is completely revamped. You simply enter the skill names at the top of the columns. At each level, select the cross class status and the number of skill points applied at that level. It will give you a single column that you can copy and paste back into the leveling table. It will automatically ignore skills without ranks. It will "remember" ranks assigned previously and keep printing them. But you only need to enter a "Y" or "y" at each level for cc status, and then the number of points assigned at that level. Does the rest for you.

Good luck, Appetizer Edition Cooks.

[jdizzlean]

it's a good thing the deadline is so far off, in my quest to do a single build, i have of course gone down another 50 rabbit holes...

[MinimanMidget]

it's a good thing the deadline is so far off, in my quest to do a single build, i have of course gone down another 50 rabbit holes...

Yeah, I know what I'm building, but I've come up with about 10 different ways to do it.

[Zaq]

I know better than to compete with the 20th level comp, so I decided to make the deadline (about) a week after the other IC contest is due.

[jdizzlean]

Yeah, I know what I'm building, but I've come up with about 10 different ways to do it.

I will probably do a second one now, and hope I can finish in time

[Zaq]

We've got about a week to go! How's it coming along?

[daremetoidareyo]

4 stubs in and I dislike most of them

[Kuulvheysoon]

I think that I will judge, but I might not post my criteria beforehand. I'll be sure to include it in my judging, though.

This is a ridiculously subjective ingredient (as I mentioned before), so I have no idea who I'll score that, lol.

[jdizzlean]

I have one done minus fluff. can I request a week to ten days extension to finish the second?

[Zaq]

Yeah, I think that can be arranged. I'll update the main post.

[Zaq]

Got another weekend before the deadline! At least for those who work a traditional work week. How's the progress, team?

[MinimanMidget]

There's been some stuff going on, and this fell by the wayside for me - I'll get something submitted, though.

[Quentinas]

I have an idea but not so much energy in this period i have to write but i can still submit if needed

[Zaq]

Wait, no one said there was gonna be math…



Bash Jordon



LN Raptoran Fighter 2/ sohei 2/ monk 2
https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/869438935527481344/884823101186129971/image0.jpg


"I cast sugliin!"




Take some giant advanced caribou antlers,
affix them to a stick,
dip the whole thing in molten magical gold,
Do 4d8+str Damage with a melee attack
Decisive strike for 8d8+2x Str
Ki frenzy + pole fighter to double your attacks by treating sugliin as a monk weapon
Pushback if you can or want to
Short haft allows you to strike adjacently

Or
Dive charge for 8d8+2x Str

Or
Battle jump + sudden leap for 8d8+2xStr
Add decisive strike for 12d8 +3x Str (multiplying rules)


Or
greater flyby attack for 4d8 against 2 persons,
3 persons during a ki frenzy

Or
Blink shirt+ sun school for 4d8+Str



At level 1 you’re doing 4d8+3. Those basement rats gonna die.

At level 3, you’re doing 8d8+6, those orcs gonna die.







Abilities

Initial
Level 4


Str
17
18


Dex
14



Con
14



Int
9



Wis
14



Cha
8







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


1st
Raptoran Fighter
1
2
0
0
Jump 4
exotic weapon proficiency (heavy (MoF 179) sugliin (FB 76)), monkey grip
(CW 103)
Encumbered flight, bonus feat


2nd
sohei (OA 27)
1
4
0
2
Craft: weapon smithing 1, Jump 4
Weapon focus (Heavy sugliin)
ki frenzy, weapon focus


3rd
Decisive strike (PHB2 51) Overwhelming attack (UA 52) Monk
1
6
2
4
craft 1, Jump 6, tumble 1
Power Attack, Improved unarmed strike, polefighter (Dragon Comp 105)
Decisive strike, unarmed attack, wis to AC


4th
Overwhelming attack monk
2
7
3
5
craft 1, Jump 7, tumble 3
Improved Bullrush
bonus feat, evasion


5th
Fighter 2
3
8
3
5
Jump 8
Short Haft (PHB2 82)
bonus feat


6th
Sohei 2
4
9
3
6
craft 2, Jump 8, tumble 3
extra rage (CW 98)









Epic Feats


Feat 1
flyby attack (MMV 204)


Feat 2
Great Flyby attack (Savage species 35)


Feat 3
Pushback (Miniatures handbook 27)


Feat 4
Cobalt Charge (MoI 35)


Feat 5
Sun School (CW 112)


Feat 6
shape soulmeld (blink shirt) (MoI 40, 68)


Feat 7
Martial Study (Sudden Leap) (ToB 31, 89)


Feat 8
Battle jump (Unapproachable East 42)


Feat 9
Evasive reflexes (ToB 30)


Feat 10
Vault (Dragon Compendium 109)



Dive attack
A raptoran with flight can make a dive attack. A dive attack works like a charge, but the raptoran must move a minimum of 30 feet and descend at least 10 feet. A raptoran can make a dive attack only when wielding a piercing weapon; if the attack hits, it deals double damage.

Decisive strike
As a full-round action, make one attack with an unarmed strike or a special monk weapon, using your highest base attack bonus but taking a -2 penalty on this attack roll. If the attack hits, it deals double damage (as does any other attack you make before the start of your next turn). If you use this strike to deliver a stunning attack, increase the save DC to resist the stun by 2. This is an extraordinary ability.

Ki Frenzy
Starting at 1st level, a sohei gains the ability to focus her ki power into a frenzy of berserk energy. In this frenzied state, she temporarily gains +2 to Strength and +2 to Dexterity. Her speed increases by 10 feet, and she can choose to make a flurry of blows with a full attack action in melee, making one extra attack per round while suffering a —2 penalty on every attack.

Greater flyby attack
Using this feat is a full-round action. When flying, you can move up to your fly speed in a straight line and attack a number of opponents equal to your Dexterity bonus. All targets must be within your reach along the line of your movement. Make one attack roll, add the appropriate modifiers, and compare the result to the AC of each opponent you are attacking. If any hits are successful, make one damage roll and add the appropriate modifiers. Each successful hit does the full damage to that creature; do not divide the result of the damage roll among the targets. Targets of your attack do not get attacks of opportunity against you, but other opponents that would be entitled to attacks of opportunity may take them.

Battlejump
You can execute a charge by simply dropping from a height of at least 5 feet above your opponent. For example, a ledge 10 feet above the floor of a cavern would suffice for jumping on a Medium-sized creature, while a ledge 15 feet high is required for a jumping on a Large creature. You can't jump from more than 30 feet above your opponent, nor can you effectively battle jump while under the influence of a fly or levitate spell or effect, as you have to hurl yourself down on your foe. If you hit, you can choose either to deal double damage with a melee weapon or natural attack or to attempt a trip attack.

SUGLIIN - FROSTBURN (3.5)
Exotic Two-Handed Melee Weapon
[Reach]
Cost: 35 gp
Damage (s): 2d6
Damage (m): 2d8
Damage (l): 3d8
Damage (h): 4d8
Critical: x2
Weight: 20 lb
Type: P and S
The infamous sugliin was created by primitive tribes more to strike terror into the hearts of their enemies rather than to be an effective weapon. This massive polearm consists of several sets of sharpened caribou and/or megaloceros antlers affixed to a long wooden shaft. You attack with the sugliin as if it were a massive axe or scythe, slashing and chopping at the targets with great arcs. This weapon is so unwieldy and heavy that making a single attack with it is a full-round action. Sugliins are favored weapons for low-level characters who want to deal huge amounts of damage and lack the skill to make additional attacks; higher-level characters only rarely use sugliins due to their awkwardness. The Sugliin Mastery feat allows a character to make attacks with this massive weapon normally. A sugliin has reach. You can strike opponents 10 feet away with it, but you can’t use it against an adjacent foe.

[Zaq]

He can handstand / when he needs to
And stretch his arms out / just for you



Graazt Du’kal, Stalker in the Night, The Winged Death

Stub: Chaotic Evil Silverbrow Human Scout 4/Ranger 2

Eodward had been traveling through the Black Forest towards Skyspire Mountains and the Shrine of the Venya therein for nearly a week and was beginning to believe that the forest was haunted in truth and not simply folktale. Over the past few days the young arcanist has felt an oppressive weight of eyes upon him, growing steadily more intense to the point of no longer being able to dismiss it as simple fancy. The moon had set a half hour prior, and the feeling of being watch was so strong the Eodward’s skin was crawling. Spooked, Eodward invoked the power of the Third Layer of the Seven Mounting Heavens of Celestia and the Venya’s Light eased the waiting darkness. Heart pounding, Eodward’s breath caught as the Light gleamed off a set of eyes alighted in the canopy to the side of the road. Eodward’s breath caught and his face paled as he beheld the twisted form of what could only be the creature known as the Stalker in the Night perched amongst the boughs. A once-human frame was warped into a grotesque mockery, taut skin over bones showing the twisting of an impossibly elongated spine, and leathery membranes connected gaunt flanks to oddly jointed arms. The creature shrieked and leapt forward, membranous wings catching on the air and propelling the Stalker forward as the night came ablaze in fire rippling around the outstretched spear gripped in its hand. Harsh flame and soothing Light clashed as Eodward called the Light of Venya into his hands and cast it at the Stalker, hoping the holy energies would stop the abomination, only to watch as the Light washed harmlessly over it, doing nothing to ward off the creature’s charge. Eodward’s knees gave out and he collapsed to the roadbed feeling his lifeblood soaking the ground beneath him as he watched the Winged Death disappear into the forest’s depths.

As the last of Venya’s Light faded the night closed back in, waiting hungrily for the last small flames to sputter out and leave Eodward’s corpse to be swallowed by the darkness from which the Winged Death had come.




Ability
Score


Strength
15


Dexterity
14


Constitution
16


Intelligence
13


Wisdom
8


Charisma
11







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


1st
Scout 1
+0
+0
+2
+0
Balance 4, Disable Device 4, Hide 4, Listen 4, Move Silently 4, Search 4, Spot 4, Survival 4, Tumble 4
Abberation Blood (Flexible Limbs) (LoM 178) (Flaw), Darkstalker (LoM 179) Inhuman Reach (LoM 180), Starspawn (LoM 181) (Human)
Skirmish (+1d6), Trapfinding


2nd
Scout 2
+1
+0
+3
+0
Balance 5, Disable Device 5, Hide 5, Listen 5, Move Silently 5, Search 5, Spot 5, Survival 5, Tumble 5

Battle Fortitude +1, Uncanny Dodge


3rd
Scout 3
+2
+1
+3
+1
Disable Device 6, Hide 6, Jump 1, Listen 6, Move Silently 6, Search 6, Spot 6, Survival 6, Tumble 6, Balance 5
Flyby Attack (MM5 204)
Fast Movement +10ft, Skirmish (+1d6, +1 AC), Trackless Step


4th
Scout 4
+3
+1
+4
+1
Disable Device 7, Hide 7, Jump 2, Listen 7, Move Silently 7, Search 7, Spot 7, Survival 7, Tumble 7, Balance 5
Combat Expertise (PHB 92) (Bonus)
Bonus Feat (Combat Expertise)


5th
Ranger 1
+4
+3
+6
+1
Hide 8, Jump 3, Listen 8, Move Silently 8, Search 8, Spot 8, Survival 8, Balance 5, Disable Device 7, Tumble 7
Track (PHB 101) (Bonus)
Arcane Hunter ACF (CM 32): Favored Enemy (Arcanists), Track, Celestial Slayer ACF (EoE 20): SR 11 vs Good, +4 Competence Confirm Crit vs. Good


6th
Ranger 2
+5
+4
+7
+1
Hide 9, Jump 5 (2), Listen 9, Move Silently 9, Search 9, Spot 9, Survival 8, Balance 5, Disable Device 7, Tumble 7
Swift Hunter (CS 81), Two Weapon Fighting (PHB 102) (Bonus)
Combat Style, Celestial Slayer: SR 12 vs Good, Favored Enemy (Humanoids, Human)


Epic Feats:

1: Great Flyby Attack (SS 35)

2: Born Flyer (RotW 148)

3: Air Heritage (PH 37)

4: Improved Skirmish (CS 78)

5: Dragonfire Strike (DrM 18)

6: Extended Reach (SS 34)

7: Willing Deformity (HoH 125)

8: Deformity (Tall) (HoH 121)

9: Travel Devotion (CC 62)

10: Travel Devotion (CC 62)



Flight is a somewhat odd mechanic to optimize around; there aren’t that many feats supporting it if you’re not a Large Dragon, and most thematic Prestige Classes are out of reach in E6. At its core, what flight gives you is mobility, so I wanted to showcase and support that in this build. Graazt isn’t the fastest character out there, but his flight allows him to affect an enormous amount of area, and his damage potential depends on that motion. In terms of party role, Graazt is primarily a melee damage dealer, with a secondary role as scout and trapfinder. Let’s get into it.


Level 1: It felt appropriate for this round to get our flying mechanic as soon as possible, thus the use of a Flaw to pick up the two Aberrant feats Aberration Blood (Flexible Limbs) and Inhuman Reach to qualify for Starspawn at level 1. This gives Graazt a fly speed of 15ft for 1+CON consecutive rounds (4), which isn’t amazing, but gets us going, and is the reason we’re making an evil character. Naturally this means we want to pick up CON boosters whenever possible. The choice of Scout gives us extra damage when mobile (Skirmish +1d6), as well as positioning us in our out of combat role. A second Flaw is taken to get Darkstalker, as being a sneak in any capacity without it is generally frowned upon. If your campaign/DM doesn’t have a tendency to include other senses in the opposition, this could be left out. Skill selection is pretty standard for a Scout and doesn’t really invite discussion at this point.

Level 2: Nothing much to see here; just taking a second level in Scout. Uncanny Dodge is a nice pick up, protecting from being insta-gibbed at the beginning of an engagement by any Sneak Attackers. Battle Fortitude’s boosts to Fortitude saves and Initiative are appreciated as well.

Level 3: This level is a good one for Graazt. And additional 10ft of movement means our fly speed is now 20ft, and with the pickup of Flyby Attack and a reach of 10ft (15ft with a Longspear) we can actually make pretty good use of it at this point. Trackless Step is nice for our scouting needs and will synergize with Ranger in a couple levels. On the skill front we’ve maxed out Balance at 5 ranks and started putting points into Jump for the eventual Tumble synergy.

Level 4: The final level of Scout nets us Combat Expertise as the best of a bunch of lackluster options, and it provides a prereq for much later. Nothing much else going on here.

Level 5: Ranger synergizes with Scout fantastically (there’s a reason why Swift Hunter builds are a thing). Arcane Hunter ACF let’s us designate all Arcane Casters as our Favored Enemy. Graazt is also picking up the Celestial Slayer ACF from Exemplars of Evil, which trades away Wild Empathy, Animal Companion, and Woodland Stride for Spell Resistance vs. [Good] spells, as well as +4 competence to confirm crits vs creatures with the Good subtype. While these are fairly niche, we’re only really giving up Wild Empathy, so the trade is excellent. This level also gives the Track feat, which goes nicely with our scout role though with a Wis of 10 Graazt is never going to be a great tracker. On the skills front we’ve had to pare down slightly, leaving Disable Device (with +10 we can get most things taking 10 or 20), and sadly Tumble behind since it’s no longer a class skill.

Level 6: Finally, Graazt becomes a Swift Hunter, which lets us stack Ranger and Scout for Skirmish and for Favored Enemy, leaving us with +2d6, +1 AC, and a second Favored Enemy, which being an evil Ranger we choose to pick up Favored Enemy Humanoids (Human) to double down. Additionally, Swift Hunter makes Skirmish apply to all Favored Enemies, so for a more mechanically optimized build you could choose FEs to overcome precision damage immunities (undead, constructs, etc.). The Ranger Combat Style feat is not terribly useful, but TWF is never a bad idea for when we’re pinned down unable to use our mobility.


E1-3:Great Flyby Attack is what we’ve been waiting for our entire build. Now rather than making a single attack a round while triggering Skirmish damage, we can hit up to Dex mod (3) people along a straight line of our flight. After picking up Born Flyer to qualify for Air Heritage, we have a Fly speed of 40ft and a reach of 15ft with a longspear, letting us hit anyone within a 30’x55’ line from where we start. DEX boosting items are now a high priority.
E4-5: These two feats serve to boost Graazt’s damage potential significantly; Improved Skirmish increases Skirmish Damage by +2d6 if you move 20ft, and Dragonfire Strike ads +1d6 damage and makes Skirmish Damage into Fire damage, for a total of +5d6 Skirmish damage to each target.
E6-8:Increasing our threat range for Greater Flyby Attack is the name of the game. Since increasing fly speed is relatively hard without magic (and relatively easy with), we’re focusing on increasing range. Extended reach is qualified for with our Flaw Aberration Blood (Flexible Limbs), and Willing Deformity into Deformity (Tall) nets us another 10ft of reach, bringing our threat range to a 50’x65’ line from where we start.
E9-10:Additional Mobility is the name of the game, so being able to move again as a swift action for two encounters a day with Travel Devotion really opens up positioning options.

[Zaq]

This is so meta it's just magical.


Hildegard, <<Hero of the Hideous Blow>>

Chaotic Good Wood Elf --> Dragonborn (Wings) Cleric 1/Warlock 5

Hildegard sniffled and dashed tears from her eyes before striking the target in front of her and letting her Skill <<Hideous Blow>> course through the wooden practice sword into the stuffed figure, straw flying everywhere. She’d been so proud when her hard training paid off and she’d gotten enough XP to level up and the System had given her the option to take the Skill. None of the other students at the System Arts Academy for Young Heroes with the <<Warlock>> Class could channel their <<Eldritch Blast>> through a weapon and she’d immediately gone to share her new Skill, only to be soundly mocked by the other students. After all, they said, why would a <<Warlock>> want to hit someone with a stick when they can use an <<Eldritch Spear>> from so far away, or turn their <<Eldritch Blast>> into a <<Frightful Blast>> and provide ranged debuffing to a Hero Party, or any of a dozen better Skill options for a competent <<Warlock>>. She might as well leave the Academy before they expelled her; no Party would want to have Hildegard with such a terrible skill. It was at this point that Hildegard burst into tears and fled, laughter and calls of Hideous Hildegard chasing her across the grounds and to the <<Knight>>’s training grounds where she was now beating the stuffing out of target dummies.

Hildegard huffed, scrubbed her eyes and set herself squarely before the target, face firming up in determination. She’d show them; she’d become the greatest <<Hero>> the Academy had ever seen, smiting evil with <<Hideous Blow>> from the back of a beautiful Stallion, no a Dragon! She’d become an <<Eldritch Dragon Knight>> and all those mean kids would eat their words and have to admit that she, Hildegard, <<Hero of the Hideous Blow>>, was not a loser, but the best of them all! Hildegard’s furious planning was interrupted by a System Ping, pulling her attention away from the now thoroughly demolished target to see a new System Message.

**New Skill Unlocked: <<Mounted Combat>>. You have unused Skill Slots. Would you like to learn <<Mounted Combat>>?**

Hildegard gleefully accepted the new skill and let out a victory shout. The System believed in her, and it was time to start becoming the <<Hero>> she always knew she would be.




Ability
Score
Racial
Lvl 4 Increase
Dragonborn (lvl 6)
Final


Strength
14
+2


16


Dexterity
10
+2

-2
10


Constitution
14
-2

+2
14


Intelligence
14
-2


12


Wisdom
12



12


Charisma
15

+1

16






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


1st
Cleric
+0
+2
+0
+2
Concentration 4, Ride 4, Use Magic Device 2(4cc)
Aereni Focus (Ride), Martial Weapon Proficiency (Lance) B, Weapon Focus (Lance) B
Turn Undead (3+Cha/day), Domains (War, Wrath), Spontaneous Domain Casting ACF


2nd
Warlock
+0
+2
+0
+4
Concentration 5(1), Ride 5(1), Use Magic Device 3(1)

Eldritch Blast (1d6), Invocations (Least) Beguiling Influence


3rd
Warlock
+1
+2
+0
+5
Concentration 6(1), Ride 6(1), Use Magic Device 4(1)
Mounted Combat
Detect Magic (at will), Hideous Blow


4th
Warlock
+2
+3
+1
+5
Concentration 7(1), Ride 7(1), Use Magic Device 5(1)

Damage Reduction 1/Cold Iron, Eldritch Blast (2d6)


5th
Warlock
+3
+3
+1
+6
Concentration 8(1), Ride 8(1), Use Magic Device 6(1)

Deceive Item, See the Unseen, Beguiling Influence --> Baleful Utterance


6th
Warlock
+3
+3
+1
+6
Concentration 9(1), Ride 9(1), Use Magic Device 7(1)
Dragon Steed, Aereni Focus --> Flyby Attack (Dragonborn)
Eldritch Blast (3d6)


Epic Feats:

1: Ride-By Attack

2: Spirited Charge

3: Extend Spell

4: Persistent Spell

5: Divine Metamagic (Persistent Spell)

6: Combat Casting

7: Mortalbane

8: Mortalbane

9: Mortalbane

10: Mortalbane


If you’ve spent some time plumbing the 3.5e optimization depths of the internet there’s a good chance you’ve come across the phrase “Hideous Blow blows hideously.” This is in reference to the fact that the only melee Blast Shape for the Warlock’s Eldritch Blast on release is so bad as to be insulting, being arguably worse than just using regular Eldritch Blast point blank. Later introduction of Eldritch Glaive and Eldritch Claws made melee Warlocks possible and raised the standard by which Hideous Blow is found so lacking. There are three criterion for evaluating melee Blast Shapes, the latter two of which are only in consideration because Hideous Blow fails them; Damage Potential, Ease of Attack, Provoking Attacks of Opportunity. I had spent some time trying to find some way to make Hideous Blow not fail in comparison when this round’s topic of Flight led me to what I believe may actually be the answer. In this case it’s more like “Hideous Blow? More like Hideously AWESOME Blow!” so let’s get into it.


Level 1: The first level is pretty much entirely setup for our eventual combo. We’re taking a level of Cleric of an Ideal, picking the War and Wrath domains, picking up Martial Weapon Proficiency and Weapon Focus for the Lance as well as access to the level 1 Paladin Spell Rhino’s Rush, which is a swift action to double the damage on a charge. The Spontaneous Domain ACF means we can cast it up to 3/day. If your DM has an issue with poaching Lance from the War domain, you can take a Flaw and grab proficiency that way, choosing your second domain from the portfolio of whatever Deity with Wrath you choose (Tempus is an option). For our level 1 feat we’re picking up Aereni Focus to get Ride as a Class Skill, which also set our race to some flavor of Elf. With only a +1 Int modifier (which we’re using to learn Draconic) Skill points are extremely limited, and we will be allocating them to Concentration (to cast defensively), Ride (to qualify for three feats, including our method of Flight), and Use Magic Device because it’s always useful and will be a Class Skill for the next levels.

Level 2: Moving into Warlock, we start down the path towards awesomeness. Despite being able to use a Lance, we’re sticking to regular Eldritch Blasts for the time being, doing a really not very impressive 1d6 vs touch AC. We’ll also pick up Beguiling Influence, which with our Charisma gives a +8 to Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate and letting us be a secondary Face for the time being.

Level 3: With the acquisition of Mounted Combat we start down the path of Hideous Blow optimization, which is also picked up at this level. Mounted combat rules are very poorly written, but what is fairly unassailable is that charging on a mount still leaves a Standard for the attack, which means you can use Hideous Blow on the charge through your Lance for double damage. This method of delivery for Hideous Blow addresses the two of the Criteria; Damage Potential is higher than Eldritch Glaive for E6 (we’re going to ignore Eldritch Claws since it’s Dragon Magazine content), it is in fact double at base, and since Lances are reach weapons we have the same vulnerability to Provoking Attacks of Opportunity as Eldritch Glaive. Sadly, I was not able to find a way to make Hideous Blow into a touch attack in E6 (though there are a number of ways to do so with a full ECL20 build), but this is offset somewhat with Weapon Focus and the ability to Enchant the Lance. The rest of the build is largely keyed into improving the Damage Potential. At this point in the build on the charge we are attacking at +7 (BAB +1, Charge +2, WF +1, Str +3) and doing and average of 28 damage (2x(1d8 Lance + 2xStr + 1d6 EB)), or 42 with Rhino’s Rush. Despite this we’re still probably a ranged character, though riding a horse.

Level 4: Nothing much happening at this level, save for EB improving to 2d6 and improving Cha to 16, for a very important total of 6 Turn Undead attempts per day. Our charge attack is now doing an average of 35 damage, or 52.5 damage with Rhino’s Rush.

Level 5: Another fairly uneventful level though with some solid pickups. Invocations gives us See the Unseen so we aren’t countered by invisibility which is really coming online at these levels, and swapping out Beguiling Influence for Baleful Utterance. Without the social Skills to support Beguiling Presence we’re not really useful as a secondary Face, and Baleful Utterance has a million entertaining uses. Deceive Item allows us to take 10 on UMD for an unbuffed total of 19 right now, one short of automatically triggering wands.

Level 6: We finally pick up our flying method here: Dragon Mount gives us a Dragonel as a mount, which is a flying dragon horse with a fly speed of 90’. It comes quite late for a Secret Ingredient, but I needed a method to be both mounted and flying, and this was more or less it. We also become Dragonborn with the Wings aspect at this level for two reasons: this gives us a native fly speed lets us use the Rite of Rebirth to replace Aereni Focus with Flyby Attack, otherwise known as “how I learned to stop worrying and love Hideous Blow.” I bring your attention to two phrases:

When flying, the creature can take a move action (including a dive) and another standard action at any point during the move.

A creature that flies can make dive attacks. A dive attack works just like a charge
Putting these together we can unequivocally use our Move Action to have the Dragonel Dive to count as Charging and then use a Standard Action at any point along that Dive to use Hideous Blow, allowing us to stack Lance and Charging damage multipliers. With the 90’ fly speed we can fairly easily reposition to make Flyby Attacks round after round. Eldritch Blast also increases to 3d6 at this level, increasing our charge attack’s damage to 42 on average, or 63 with Rhino’s Rush. UMD is now always at 20 as well.


Epic Feats:

E1-2: These two feats net another charge multiplier while mounted and using a Lance, increasing our average damage to 63 (3x(1d8 Lance + 2xStr +3d6 EB)) or 84 with Rhino’s Rush


E3-5: The classic DMM: Persist shenanigans here are used to get Rhino’s Rush persisted so that it applies to every attack. If Nightsticks and Holy Reliquaries are available we have two more lvl 1 slots left to make use of.


E6: Combat Casting makes it easier to charge creatures with reach. If needed could be moved earlier in the build, or even ignored if you can get Concentration boosting items (or just don’t feel like taking it).


E7-10: Four instances of Mortalbane gives us 20 attacks per day we can apply an additional 2d6 damage to vs living non-outsiders. These attacks do an average of 112 damage.


Draconomicon (Drc) – Dragon Steed (p105), Dragonel (p150)
Player’s Guide to Faerun (PGtF) – Persistent Spell (p42)
Complete Divine (CDiv) – Divine Metamagic (p80)
Book of Vile Darkness (BoVD) – Mortalbane (p49)
Complete Arcane (CArc) – Warlock (p5)
Player’s Guide to Eberron (PE) – Aereni Focus (p20)
Races of the Dragon (RoD) – Dragonborn (p5), Mechanics Rite of Rebirth (p10)
Monster Manual (MM) – Flyby Attack (p303)
Spell Compendium (SpC) – Rhino’s Rush (p176)


All items not specifically called out are either described in a higher level item (such is the case for class features), in the PHB, or not part of the build as presented.

[Zaq]

"When you get down to it, man, aren't we all just animals?"

"Not cool, bro, that's warforged erasure."


RUN AWAY, THE FLYING MONKEY IS COMING!

But... that's no monkey? Squints... it's a... hawk?

THAT'S WORSE! RUN!

This was to be a wicked witch of the west expy, but then the monkey got away from me it just had to become a sensible build instead...

NG anthropomorphic monkeySS, pg. 214, Ranger 5 / Nature's Warrior 1
Str 9 (13 -4 racial), Dex 16 (14 +2 racial), Con 18 (17 +1 level), Int 14, Wis 12 (8 +4 racial), Cha 8 (10 -2 racial)
HP 8 + 4d8 + 1d10+ 24 (55)


Dire Hawk wild shape outline
str 12, dex 22, con 15remember that alternate form HP are not recalculated from changing constitution
110 ft. perfect maneuverability flight

Dive attack: claw/claw/bite at +14/+14/+9 for:
claw 1d4 +1 + 3d6, x2
bite 1d6 +3d6
plus whatever knowledge devotion we scrounch up, average +2, topping at +5 on nature



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


1st
Wild ShapeUA, pg. 58 Ranger 1
+1
+2
+2
+0
hide +4, knowledge(arcana) +1, knowledge (dungeoneering) +1, Knowledge(Local) +1(2), knowledge(nature) +4, knowledge(religion) +1(2), listen +4, move silently +4, spellcraft +2(4) spot +4, survival +4
ApprenticeDMGII, pg. 176 Spellcaster(Ranger, arcana), TrackRanger, Weapon FinesseRacial
Spiritual ConnectionCC, pg. 50, Favored enviroment(Plains)UA, pg. 65, Fast movement


2nd
Ranger 2
+2
+3
+3
+0
hide 4+1,knowledge(nature) 4+1, listen 4+1, move silently 4+1, spot 4+1, survival 4+1, Collector of StoriesCS, pg. 85. skill trick




3rd
Shooting StarCoV, pg. 50 Ranger 3
+3
+3
+3
+1
knowledge(nature) 5+1, knowledge(the planes) +2, listen 5+1, spellcraft 2+2, spot 5+1, survival 5+1
Knowledge Devotion(the planes)CC, pg. 60
Weavespeak


4th
Shooting Star Ranger 4
+4
+4
+4
+1
hide 5+1,knowledge(nature) 6+1, move silently 5+1, spellcraft 4+3, spot 6+1, survival 6+1

Bonus spells, Improved Spellcasting


5th
Ranger 5
+5
+4
+4
+1
hide 6+2, knowledge(nature) 7+1, listen 6+1, move silently 6+2, spot 7+1, survival 7+1

Favored Enviroments(Plains +4, Hills), Wild shape 1/day


6th
Nature's WarriorCW, pg. 63 1
+6/+1
+6
+4
+1
hide 8, know(arcana) 1+4, know(dungeon) 1, Know(Local) 1, know(nature) 8, know(religion) 1, know(planes) 2, listen 7, move silently 8, spellcraft 7, spot 8, survival 8, Collector of stories
Diving ChargeRotW, pg. 150
Wings of the Hurricane, Wild shape 2/day




Feat
Effect
Reasoning


Shape Soulmeld(Sphinx claws)MoI, pg. 40, 88
+1 on some strength checks
You already know why we want this


Open least chakra(hands)MoI, pg. 39
Sphinx claws now grants pounce on natural attacks
yuuup. won't you love tripling that 3d6(x2 from dive!) from diving charge?


Sword of the Arcane OrderCoV, pg. 34
Can prepare wizard spells in our ranger slots
Goodbye extremely limited ranger list, welcome wide open world!


Extra wild shapeCD, pg. 81
+2 wild shapes use per day
depending how strict the reading on nature's warrior wilding is taken, this either increases our uses from 2 to 4, or from 1 to 3, either way this is sweet. if it's "from 2 to 4" then delay this to after Improved flyby attack


Improved flightCA, pg. 110
manouverability improves one step
from good to perfect!


Flyby AttackMM, pg. 303
continue moving after attacking while flying
I want improved flyby attack, and this is a prerequisite


Expeditious DodgeRotW, pg. 150
+2 dodge AC after moving 40+ feets in a round
counts as dodge for prerequisites


Mobility
+4 AC against AoO
improved flyby attack prerequisites


Improved flyby attackSS, pg. 36
flyby attack doesn't provoke AoO
"nyah nyah can't touch me!"


DarkstalkerLoM, pg. 179
special senses don't detect us
we have fairly decent hide/move silently modifiers, so might as well support them




Spellcasting
Our Caster level is 4
We have two 1st level slot
Apprentice "favourite" spell is Entangle
Before Sword of the Arcane Order, prepared spells will be 1x Linked PerceptionPHBII, pg. and 1x Magic Fang
After Sword of the Arcane Order, the world of 1st level wizard spells is our oyster, if we can afford the borrowed spellbook, that is. Baseline consideration is getting mage armor and shield.



So, flight. As soon as I saw flight as the theme, my mind went straight to nature's warrior wings of the hurricane feature. +30 flight speed and a step up in manouverability? that's very sweet!

Like, half a second later I was already thinking of druid, because there is a very sweet 2nd level druid-only spell called cloud wings, it's hour/level +30 ft. to existing flight speed.
But I knew, I knew I couldn't do a druid entry, because the BAB 4 prerequisite of nature's warrior :( I flirted with doing a cheesy "wildshape ranger 1 / druid 4 entry let's pretend those stacks for wildshape" but alas, I coulnd't bring myself to do it, so here we are with wild shape ranger 5 :)

I lament not going druid, with this and that stacking we were breaking the 200ft. flight barrier, but it is highly debatable to stack ranger/druid for wild shape, and besides our main gimmick (diving charge) caps out at "91 or faster", so we weren't even getting something out of it other than satisfying the NEED FOR SPEED coughs

Anyway, this was originally with the fangshield ACF and natural bond, to push for a dire eagle animal companion, but I was disliking how I was cheesing my way to a "druid 7" animal companion (most recent table of animal companion is PHBII that puts dire eagle at EDL-6, and not EDL-3 as presented in RoS), so I decided "to hell with it" and went for the other very nice ranger substitution levels in champions of valor : the shooting star order! In E6 trading the animal companion for an extra spell slot, especially when it's lore-friendly to being allowed using wizard spells in those slots? yes please!

the DMGII apprentice(spellcaster) is my favourite feat of lately and here it brings us the opportunity to select one of our spells as "favourite spell" and let us convert to it spontaneously 1/day, this is very nice. I'm torn between selecting good old entangle, since it's an encounter ender, or maybe Linked PerceptionPHBII, pg. for the stupid high level fo spot/checks we and our allies can reach with it.

The other first level ACF I went for are a matter of personal preference. 3/day speak with animal/plant is flavorful and good for RP / hooks, and I jsut plan prefer the chunk of skill bonuses that favored enviroment gives compared to the situational damage bonus of favored enemy.

I don't think there needs to be much said about knowledge devotion + collector of stories, it's an old trick. Just for reference this used to be cobalt chargeMoI, pg. 35, and expeditious dodge used to be midnight dodgeMoI, pg. 39, for the same overall +2 insight bonus to attack and damage rolls, but when I switched from fangshieldCoV, pg. 41 to shooting star, I upped my intelligence to better make sure I could hit the spellcraft check for copying the spells, and since I was there making proper use of the knowledges I was getting made me go for this old lady. This is also when I took apprentice, used ot be improved initiative.

I like diving charge very much! too bad it doesn't scale even more for higher speed! Do remember that a dive attack doubles damage from some attacks (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/rg/20040706a). the claw attacks are double for sure, the bite is piercing but there is some wiggle room for debate here because it's not a "weapon". I understand there might be some debate on whether diving charge bonus damage is doubled or not in a dive attack. I'm assuming it is

The epic feats are all with a note so not much to say here. There might be some doubt about whether sword of the arcane order let us cast wizard spells, or only prepare them. I'm, obviously, of the opinion that if we can prepare them, then we can cast them, d'uh! Our Spellcraft modifier is 7 rank +2 int +2 competence(apprentice) +2 sinergy (arcana) plus maybe +2 circumstance (masterwork tool), so the DC 16 for "preparing a 1st level spell from a borrowed spellbook" is hit on a 1 or a 3 depending on whether we have masterwork tool or not.

Darkstalker and hide/move silently. Assuming we don't use those little ranger spells such as camouflage for their little +10 to hide, we're looking at 11-15 modifier depending on the enviroment, which I feel are solid numbers for E6, besides the circumstance bonus of "no one ever looks up" of course :D.

We have a very chonky +8 racial bonus to spot in dire hawk form.


Story
Our little monkey was saved from "cultists doing strange experiments on animals" by rangers of the shooting star. Which promptly adopted the cheeky "monkey but not monkey".
Them being now his idols, he of course grew up to become one, himself!
But unlike most of them that usually went on to become beastmastersCA, pg. 26 with Dire eagleRoS, pg. 187 mounts, he got fascinated with the concept of beign able to fly on his own. a Flying anthropomorphic monkey? how novel!
He toiled hard to realize his dream, until finally the secrets of wild shape was taught to him...


Tactics
Level 1-3: At these levels, archery is the way, plus a bit of skillmonkeying (ha)
Level 4: Suddenly, spellcasting! sure it's just two first level slot, but that's two slots more than a fighter have!
Level 5: we got One wildshape! use it with caution! most of the time we're probably better of sticking to archery for now.
Level 6: with diving charge, now we're talking! even if we only do the lonely claw attack, it's still an average of 32 or so damage, with a respectable 14-18 attack bonus
Epic 2: And so pounce, from claw to claw/claw/bite, much rejoicing!
Epic 3-4: The introduction of 1st level wizard spells is big. of course given time we might get a bunch of utility spells "for the day after", but the sample spells prepared are : 1x mage armor, 1x shield
Epic 5-10: this completes the combo and seals the deal, we basically got 220 feet of charge movement that don't provoke AoO, Only Dragons are faster than us, and none of them comes anywhere close to the maneuverability we have

CoV = Champions of Valor
CA = Complete Adventurer
CC = Complete Champion
CD = Complete Divine
CS = Complete Scoundrel
CW = Complete Warrior
DMGII = Dungeon's Master Guide II
LoM= Lords of Madness
MoI = Magic of Incarnum
MM = Monster Manual
PHBII = Player's Handbook II
RotW = races of the wild
SS = Savage Species
UA = Unearthed Arcana

[Zaq]

Here it is, Pippin hot from the oven!


Pippin, Dulitha's Thunderbolt
CG Raptoran Ranger 3/Cleric (Dulitha) 1/Ardent 1/Horizon Walker 1



Ability
Score
Modifiers
Final Score


Strength
16
-
16 (+3)


Dexterity
12
-
12 (+1)


Constitution
15
+1 (Level 4)
16 (+3)


Intelligence
8
-
8 (-1)


Wisdom
14
-
14 (+2)


Charisma
12
-
12 (+1)



Level Class Base Attack Bonus Fort Save Reflex Save Will Save Skills Feats Class Features
1st Ranger (Skilled City Dweller) +1 +2 +2 +0 Jump (+4) 4; Knowledge (geography) (+4) 4; Listen (+4) 4; Spot (+4) 4; Tumble (+4) 4; Exotic Weapon Proficiency (foot spike),Track (B) Favoured enemy (animal), wild empathy
2nd Ranger +2 +3 +3 +0 Jump (+1) 5; Knowledge (geography) (+1) 5; Listen (+1) 5; Spot (+1) 5; Tumble (+1) 5; Two-Weapon Fighting (B) Combat style (two-weapon fighting)
3rd Cleric +2 +5 +3 +2 Heal (+1) 1; Jump 5; Knowledge (geography)5; Listen 5; Spot 5; Tumble 5; Diving Charge, Travel Devotion (B) Turn undead, Sky domain, Travel domain
4th Ardent +2 +5 +3 +4 Heal 1; Jump 5; Knowledge (geography) (+1) 6; Listen 5; Spot 5; Tumble 5; Air Mantle, Freedom Mantle
5th Ranger +3 +5 +3 +5 Heal 1; Jump 5; Knowledge (geography) (+2) 8; Listen (+1) 6; Spot (+1) 6; Tumble (+1) 6; Endurance (B)
6th Horizon Walker (Skilled City Dweller) +4 +7 +3 +5 Heal 1; Jump 5; Knowledge (geography) 8; Listen 6; Spot 6; Tumble (+3) 9; Air Heritage Terrain mastery (desert)

E6 Feats:

Speed of Thought
Improved Flight
Aerial Reflexes
Shape Soulmeld (thunderstep boots)
Bonus Essentia
Open Least Chakra (feet)
Flyby Attack
Wing Expert
Reckless Charge
Skill Focus (Tumble)


Pippin is a young, idealistic ranger in service of Dulitha. One of the principle duties of the clergy of Dulitha is gathering food, so he specialises in hunting animals. Foot spikes are a very cool exotic weapon that lets you use two-weapon fighting while leaving your hands free (as long as you're flying). As piercing weapons, they deal double damage on a dive attack, and they explicitly let you attack with each of them when making a dive attack.

Diving Charge is what it's all about. It gives a damage bonus on dive attacks that scales with your flight speed. Pippin deepens his devotion to Dulitha, which increases his flying speed and gives him Travel Devotion. Usable 3 times per day (with Turn Undead) for a minute at a time, it allows him to fly back up into the sky after making a dive attack, ready to make another next round. He has access to 3 spells per day - his Sky domain spell, Raptor's Sight, which is a nice hour/level bonus to Spot checks, as well as two 1st-level spells of his choice. His go-to choice is the always useful Protection from Evil, but I want to make special mention of Ease of Breath, which helps prevent high altitude sickness - potentially very important when flying high in the sky.

Pippin deepens his devotion not just to Dulitha, but to the ideals of Dulitha - or at least the closest psionic equivalents. The Freedom mantle grants a bonus to speed that doesn't specify land speed and should therefore also apply to flight speed, while the Air mantle reduces falling damage - useless for a Raptoran, but it's the best match for the Sky domain. That also gives Pippin 3 power points, the Deflection Field power, and the Dimension Hop power. Nothing game-changing, but nice to have.

Well, Pippin is all about the horizon, even if he's not planning on walking. Immunity to fatigue allows him to fly for 6 rounds at a time with no negative effects, and to ignore the Raptoran daily limit on flight completely. Air Heritage is a massive bonus to flight speed, and surprisingly appropriate - the Raptoran gift of flight comes from an ancient pact with the Wind Lords, powerful beings of elemental Air.

One last increase to flying speed, pushing Pippin to 95 feet and thereby giving the highest damage bonus Diving Charge has to offer.

Maneuverability is more important than a lot of people realise, so going from average to good is pretty nice.

Speaking of which, a bonus to Reflex saves that scales with maneuverability - at +3, it's better than Lightning Reflexes for Pippin.

Thunderstep Boots give a fairly hefty damage bonus on charge attacks, and when bound to the Feet chakra, it adds a save or stun effect.

These feats offer some extra tactical options. Flyby Attack isn't especially useful for Pippin, since his routine consists of making a dive attack and then using Travel Devotion to move away, but it still might come in handy. Wing Expert is much more interesting. The first option, Wing Buffet, adds +2 to attacks made the round after a charge unless the enemy makes a DC 20 Reflex save, and since Pippin charges every round, he should get the bonus every round after the first. Wing Defense is generally pretty useless, but Wing Fan lets Pippin spend a full-round action to use Gust of Wind, and he's immune to the fatigue it causes. Gust of Wind isn't something that's useful every round, but it's definitely worth having in your toolbox.

Reckless Charge lets Pippin trade an extra -2 to AC for an extra +2 to hit.

Skill Focus? Really? Well, yeah. People who specialise in AoOs often do things like trip with them, which would be absolutely devastating to Pippin. Skill Focus pushes his Tumble check high enough to automatically succeed in avoiding AoOs. Hopefully in doing so the decreased AC from charging will rarely come into play.


Hit Dice: 5d8+1d6 (47.5 hp)
Initiative: +1
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares), fly 95 ft. (good)
Armor Class: 17 (+4 chain shirt +2 heavy shield +1 Dex), touch 11, flat-footed 16
Base Attack/Grapple: +4/+7
Attack: Foot spike +7 melee (1d4+3)
Full Attack: Foot spike +9 melee (2d4 foot spike +6 Str +3d6 Diving Charge +3d4 thunderstep boots) and foot spike +9 melee (2d4+2+3d6+3d4) = average damage 54
Saves: Fort +10, Ref +7, Will +7
Skills: Heal +3, Jump +18, Knowledge (geography) +7, Listen +8, Spot +10, Tumble +15




Raptoran, foot spikes, Diving Charge, Sky domain, Raptor's Sight, Improved Flight, Aerial Reflexes: Races of the Wild
Skilled City Dweller: Cityscape Web Enhancement (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a)
Travel Devotion: Complete Champion
Ease of Breath: Frostburn
Ardent, Freedom Mantle, Deflection Field, Dimension Hop: Complete Psionic
Air Mantle: Mind's Eye (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070629a)
Air Heritage: Planar Handbook
Shape Soulmeld, thunderstep boots, Bonus Essentia, Open Least Chakra: Magic of Incarnum
Wing Expert: Races of the Dragon
Reckless Charge: Miniatures Handbook
Everything else: SRD content

[Zaq]

There we go, a tight formation of five high-flying builds for you! On your mark, get set, JUDGE!

Name Alignment / Race Class Levels Chef Judge 1 Judge 2 Judge 3 Total Place
Bash Jordon (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25197292&postcount=18) LN Raptoran Fighter 2 / Sohei 2 / Monk 2
Graazt Du'kal (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25197294&postcount=19) CE Silverbrow Human Scout 4 / Ranger 2
Hildegard (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25197295&postcount=20) CG Dragonborn Cleric 1 / Warlock 5
Mooncasai Munkedu (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25197296&postcount=21) NG Anthropomorphic Monkey Ranger 5 / Nature's Warrior 1
Pippin (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25197297&postcount=22) CG Raptoran Ranger 3 / Cleric 1 / Ardent 1 / Horizon Walker 1

[Kuulvheysoon]

Not going to lie, I'm really surprised that there was only 3 builds that leveraged innate flight through race.

What I'm not surprised at is the prevalence of diving charges. That was completely expected, with good reason; it's viable to get at a relatively low feat cost, and it's good for clicking that delete button if you can get it off.

[H_H_F_F]

I'm not making any promises, but I'll try judging this round.

By the way, if I'm already posting: If I ever made anyone posting in these forums and competition feel bad, or hurt you in my demeanor or my comments, I'd like to offer my sincere apologies. I'm sorry if I did, I nwver intended to do so. I appreciate and cherish all of you.

[Kuulvheysoon]

Just doublechecking on this, Zaq - minimum score in a category is a 1, right? Not exactly sure of the judging guidelines for this specific competition.

(Yes, I'm judging. Already started, in fact).

[Quentinas]

At the end i didn't submitted my idea was a hengeyokai crane (or sparrow) scout 1 /totemist 2/ Aerial avenger 3 , based on the dive but the rules for the dives are somewhat strange if fly by attack is considered

[RaiKirah]

I'm really glad I got myself back to the boards in time for this competition; I really enjoyed the open-ended nature of this SI while building, and I'm loving the builds others submitted!




minimum score in a category is a 1, right?

***Starts sweating profusely***

[Kuulvheysoon]

***Starts sweating profusely***

As long as you didn't submit REDACTED, you've got nothing to worry about.

[Zaq]

Yes, minimum score in each category is 1.

[Zaq]

I had a half-finished exhibition build that I couldn't get to coalesce. I was trying to use great rift skyguard with Hurling Charge, Shi'quos School, and Tormtor School, but Hurling Charge annoyingly really doesn't play nice with Tormtor School, so I kind of lost interest in the build. (Then there's also the fact that GRS assumes that you have a hippogriff but doesn't, like, actually give you one? So I was using a soulmeld to get flight and it just got kind of weird.)

I was really hoping to see someone relying on updraft, which is a super weird spell that I still kind of love. It's just so hard to actually use it for anything significant, and it's also annoying that it's not on any domain lists...

[daremetoidareyo]

***Starts sweating profusely***

Tell me about it

[RaiKirah]

As long as you didn't submit REDACTED, you've got nothing to worry about.

Oh good, for a moment there I was nervous! ***Starts sweating even harder***

[MinimanMidget]

I was messing around with swiftwing shifter, but in the end it was mostly just for the sake of getting flight in an unusual way, and I don't really like doing that sort of thing.

[loky1109]

Well. I'll try to judge.
Please bear with me. It's my first judging time and English isn't my mother tongue.

Judging criteria.

Originality. Starting from 3. Highly subjective category. Are your classes, feats, combos, and tricks obvious and expected? Did I see something similar before? Or were you able to surprise me?

Power. Starting from 0. Pun-pun is 10. Before you built your build it was able to do nothing. With every level, every feat, ability and spell it was starting to do more. I'll be evaluating not only raw power, but utility, survivability, flexibility, and other parameters.

Elegance. Starting from 5. Till you place the first brick in your build there were zero mistakes. Guaranteed. Each mistake which I can find will take away some part of this five.

Use of the Secret Ingredient (latter UotSI). Starting from 0, for obvious reasons. How well you use SI? Do it something for your build or you took it just because you need? What would happen if it'll be removed?

[H_H_F_F]

Good luck with your judgement, Loky! Thanks for your help.

[Kuulvheysoon]

Oh, that's a good idea.

Alright, here’s what I’ll be using to judge this competition:

I'll be starting each category off with 3 points, and deducting or adding from there, to try and establish some sort of baseline.
Originality: If you can get me to tilt my head and give the screen a 'huh', you can count on a high score here. Low scores will come from plucking low-hanging fruit and well known optimization tricks.
Power: Are you competent? Everyone appears to have gone for the same type of build, so comparing to hit/damage and modifiers will make all of the difference. I assume that the build has zero magical items when I calculate this category, though I’ll assume you have mundane versions of your required/preferred weapon/armor.
Elegance: This is what it sounds like. If your class overview takes up half the screen, expect hits. If your build is clean and well thought out, you're golden. Expect hits taken for Flaws (and Traits), illegal picks and questionable rules abuses. Holding up at all levels of play is also counted here; if you’re only viable after 5 Epic feats, you’ll be hit here.
Use of the Secret Ingredient: Do you use flight effectively? Do you get it in a reasonable amount of time? Is flight an essential part of this build, or could it be replicated without it?

[loky1109]

Work is done.


Okey. Sugliin (+0.75). This is really unexpected. As well as sohei (+0.5). Raptoran on the other hand is an obvious way to get fly (-0.5). Use of Dive charge is anticipated tactics for flyer (-0.25). And Greater Flyby Attack, too (-0.25).
I didn't expect a monk (+0.25). Sun School + blink shirt is well known (-0.25), but unexpected, too (+0.25). Vault is interesting (+0.25). Pushback and Evasive reflexes are interesting, too, but you didn't use it at all (+0).

You can do a significant amount of damage (you can't but this is for Elegance) (+1). And you can do it again and again (+0.25). But your att bonus is below average, only +7-+8 (without PA) if you don’t charge. Three more if you do. If you use FoB - +6. Not impressive (+0.25).
Your mobility thanks to flying is good (+0.25), but your flying is restricted by 4 rounds, 2 if you won't become fatigued. Yes, you can fly, then glide, then again fly and again glide, but this doesn't work well while in combat. This means you most likely can use your main fight options (I talk about Dive Charge and Greater Flyby Attack) only once (one of them!) in a single fight (+0.25). Anyway, even it isn't much, you do it self (+0.25).
Blink shirt gives you some tactical mobility and advantage (+0.25).
Your AC is about 14-15 (maybe 17, if you use armor). This isn't very good for melee fighter (+0.25).
45 HP is average (+0.25).
Your skills... aren't impressive. You can jump and not jump (+0).
Your saves are good enough (+0.5).


Oh my...
You can't combine sugliin with Decisive strike (-0.5).
You can't combine sugliin with Sun school (-0.5).
You can't combine sugliin with sohei's flurry of blows (-0.5).
You can't combine sugliin with Greater flyby attack (-0.5).

You can't combine sugliin with Heavy (-0.5).

Only weapons made entirely or largely of metal are affected; other weapons (such as spears) are not.

You can't combine Battle jump with Decisive strike (-0.5).
You can't combine Battle jump with Sudden leap (-0.5).

Sudden Leap has a prerequisite - One Tiger Claw maneuver (-0.5).
Sun School has a prerequisite - Flurry of blows ability. No, Sohei has no flurry of blows ability, he has Ki Frenzy (-0.25).
Polefighter has a prerequisite - Flurry of blows class feature. Plus, Sohei has no restrictions to use his flurry only with monk's weapons (-0.5).
Battle jump is a regional feat. You can take it only at 1st level, even if you meet requirement (-0.5).


Do 4d8+str Damage with a melee attack

Blink shirt+ sun school for 4d8+Str
+1.5*Str

At level 1 you’re doing 4d8+3. Those basement rats gonna die.
4d8+4
and several more times. Sugliin is a two-handed weapon.
(-0.25)

I don't understand for what reason you take Pushback (-0).

5th level skills in the table have some problems (-0.25).

Your text formatting is bad. It was hard for me to read your entry (-0.25).

You didn’t specify the source for Raptoran and Raptoran Fighter (-0.25).

You didn't use updated version of Sohei from Dr#318 (-0.25).


Dive charge for 8d8+2x Str
Dive attack and Diving charge are different things (-0).



You fly (+1). But only starting from 5th level (+0.25). And very limited time (+0.25). Two of your main fighting options work only with fly (+0.5). But out of these options you can't fight while flying. You have average maneuverability and should move at least Half your flying speed. And you can't do this and attack with sugliin or use decisive strike or FoB in the same round (+0). And you can't fly after only 5 round-frenzy (+0). Plus, you have different more powerful attack options, and if remove fly from your build, it wouldn't be a big deal, it'll even may become better without fly (-0.25).


Swift Hunter is expected combo everywhere (-0.25).
Improved Skirmish and Dragonfire Strike are almost always going with SH, but I won't penalize you for them (-0).
Silverbrow Human is expected, too, but not so much in this round (-0).
Starspawn is wow! I didn't even know about it (+1).
About Celestial Slayer ACF, too. This isn't a significant part of your build, however (+0.25).
Arcane Hunter ACF on the other hand is so overused... (-0.5)
Great Flyby Attack is expected (-0.25), as well as your reach combo (-0.25), but how you combined them... This impressed me (+0.25).
Darkstalker is well known (-0.25), but I didn't expect it here (+0.25).


You are good! 3 (Why 3? But this is for elegance.) attacks (+0.5) over a large area (+0.5) with a good amount of damage (+0.5). And you can do it all day with short rests (+0.25). But only +6 attack bonus… Yes, up to +12 against human wizards, but… And I didn’t talk about Expertise. Too low (+0).
Your mobility thanks to flying is good (+0.25), but your flying is restricted by 4 rounds. You do it yourself, however (+0.25).
And you are good at scouting, too. Darkstalker with 9+ in stealth skills. Yes, you can be a surprise for the enemy (+0.5). It doesn't synergize with your offensive side, but still useful, if you want to escape from the battle.
Your other skills. There aren't any surprises, but you are good at what you do (+0.25).
Suboptimal choice your second Favored Enemy doesn't give you any points (+0).
Double Travel Devotion gives you Mobility both for offense and retreat (+0.5).
Your AC is about 13+light armor+possibly Expertise. This isn't very good for melee fighter (+0.25), but... with your tactics you aren't so melee (+0.25).
About 48 hp. Average (+0.25).
Your saves are not bad except for Will - +0 is a weak spot (+0.25).


Well, well, well. Flaws (-1). Two Flaws (-1). And you even didn't select them (-0.25). Seriously, what flaws did you take? And you didn't indicate in the table that Darkstalker is for flaw, too. I won't penalize it, because you mentioned this in Write-up, but it was close. Plus, it looks like, you yourself didn't know which feat you take through second flaw: Inhuman Reach or Darkstalker. It was close, too.
You didn't specify the source for Silverbrow Human and Scout (-0.25). And Ranger, but he is from PHB, I know (-0).

Your reach.

we have a Fly speed of 40ft and a reach of 15ft with a longspear

As described on page 112 of the Player’s Handbook, a reach weapon doubles your normal reach; for example, if you have this feat and you wield a longspear, you can attack targets 15 or 20 feet away.
Very strange mistake (-0.25).


Extended reach is qualified for with our Flaw Aberration Blood (Flexible Limbs)
First, Aberration Blood isn't flaw (-0).
Second, are you qualified or are not... This is a gray zone. Yes, there are suitable examples in Inhuman Reach (not in Aberration Blood), but you wrote:

and leathery membranes connected gaunt flanks to oddly jointed arms
in your Background. Oddly jointed. While in Extended reach:

Your body or a part of your body with which you can deliver a melee attack is boneless and flexible, allowing you...
so, you didn't qualify for Extended reach. But because it is disputable I won't give you a big penalty (-0.25).


After picking up Born Flyer to qualify for Air Heritage
And again.

If you do not have a natural fly speed, this feat allows you to take feats that have a natural fly speed as a prerequisite.
Air Heritage has no any prerequisites, mention of "a fly speed as a racial ability" is a part of benefit. Yes, by RAI they should work together, but by RAW - no (-0.25).


Great Flyby Attack is what we’ve been waiting for our entire build. Now rather than making a single attack a round while triggering Skirmish damage, we can hit up to Dex mod (3) people along a straight line of our flight.
Why 3? As I can see your Dexterity is 14 (-0.5).

What ability did you up on 4 level (-0.25)?


The final level of Scout nets us Combat Expertise as the best of a bunch of lackluster options, and it provides a prereq for much later.
I don't see anything with Combat Expertise in prerequisite (-0). Am I blind for something?


You fly (+1). And you do it on the very first level (+1)! But very limited time (+0.25). But you can fly, rest 1 round, and fly again. All day long (+0.25). Your fighting tactics are built around fly (+1). If fly would be removed... Well you have big reach, good speed, skirmish, even TWF with Travel Devotion, which would allow you one or two times cause similar amount of damage, but this all aren't same thing (+0.5).




The System? Seriously? I won't penalize it of course, but I don't like The Gamer fanfics very very much!
Warlock. Isn't an obvious choice (+0.5). Especially Warlock-5, rather than Warlock-6 with Fell Flight (+0.5). Especially Warlock with Hideous Blow (+0.5). And I didn't expect somebody on horseback (+0.5).
Other hand, DMM (Persistent) (-0.5). Mortalbane warlock (-0.25). Martial Weapon Proficiency via War domain (-0.25). Rhino’s Rush for Mounted charge (-0.25). Spontaneous Domain (-0.25). I saw all of this. But Wrath Domain is new for me (+0.25).


Good, good damage (+1). And most of it works full day (+0.25). Not so good attack bonus, only +9 (+0.5). Plus, Dragonel's attacks, not so great, but something (+0.25).
Your mobility is good (+0.25), but largely via your stead.
You use your spells only to do good charge, so no points (+0). Yes, after DMM you have two more slots, but you didn't say what you do with it.
Your Invocations other than Hideous Blow are useful (+0.5).
Even if I take away your Lance you still can shoot Eldritch Blast for 5d6 damage. This's something (+0.25).
Your skills. Concentration, Ride, UMD. Concentration is a necessity (+0). Ride gives your Dragonel up to +13 AC (+3 average) against one attack in a round. Good (+0.25). Warlock's 10+ UMD is amazing. All wands are yours now (+0.5)! You had Beguiling Influence part of your way, but trade it (+0).
Your AC and hp. AC is 10+light armor-2 from charge and… Is this all? HP is about 37, plus DR 1… For somebody who hits enemies with a stick this is bad (+0). Good thing is that you have another 45 hp with AC 16 (or more) under the saddle (+0.25).
Your saves. Not good. Especially your Reflex (+0.25).


We have a big, big problem here. And some problems that are not so big, but let go step by step.
Wrath Domain. First, you didn't specify the source, but this will be later.
I found it in the Book of Exalted Deeds. That’s what I thought at first. But I was wrong. Wrath from BoED isn't your Wrath. It has Doom as a first level spell, not Rhino’s Rush. Wrath with Rhino’s Rush is from Dragon #323. This violation doesn't kill your build entirely, but this is a serious mistake (-2.5).

Cleric of an Ideal with the War domain? No, no, no. I don't think this is elegant. Yes, you suggest using Flaw instead, but Flaws are inelegant, too (-0.5).

You can't replace Aereni Focus with Flyby Attack via Rite of Rebirth.

Type, Subtype, and Race: You retain your original type and subtypes, gaining the dragonblood subtype. You still count as a member of your original race for the purpose of any effect or prerequisite that depends on race.

Special: Ordinarily, only a 1st-level character can select certain feats requiring the dragonblood subtype (see Chapter 6). However, upon becoming a dragonborn, you can elect to replace one (and only one) of your existing feats with one of these feats.
Both options are missed (-0.25).

And anyway, you can't use Flyby Attack and Dive attack in the same round.



When flying, the creature can take a move action (including a dive) and another standard action at any point during the move.

A creature that flies can make dive attacks. A dive attack works just like a charge
Putting these together we can unequivocally use our Move Action to have the Dragonel Dive to count as Charging
As I see here Dive and Dive attack are different things. Dive attack isn't move action, it is full-round. Dive in Flyby Attack is most likely just about direction. But I understand, this is debatable (-0.25).

Aereni Focus for Wood Elf. Yes, you can do it by RAW, but... I even didn't find Wood Elf in Eberron books. Maybe I did my search wrong? (-0.25)

Baleful Utterance. Even if we leave behind brackets the fact that speaking Dark Speech should kill anybody without feat. Ok, it isn't a full word, it is "only" syllable. But you are Good! And use Dark Speech? Bahamut wouldn't approve (-0.25).

Why do you mention Player’s Guide to Faerun as a source for Persistent Spell? Complete Arcane is the latest book with this feat (-0).

You didn't specify source for Wood Elf, Spontaneous Domain Casting ACF, and Wrath Domain (-0.25).

And you have multiclass XP penalty (-0.25).


You fly (+1). But only starting from 6th level (Why didn't you pass the Rite of Rebirth earlier?) (+0.25). But you do it in two ways (+0.25). And with one you can do it all day (+0.75). Your fighting tactics are built around fly (+1). If I take your fly out, well, you'll still be able to do Spirited Charge with the Lance, but damage will be smaller in one third (+0.25).



Monkey? Tell me more (+0.75)! But anthropomorphic animals are slightly overused (-0.5).
Wild Shape Ranger to Nature's Warrior. For me it isn't expected. Ok, Wild Shape I expected (-0.25), but not ranger (+0.5). Nature's Warrior and his Wings of the Hurricane is a good find (+0.25).
Apprentice Spellcaster - boring. Apprentice Spellcaster (Ranger)... Erm... What? (+0.75)
Spiritual Connection. I didn't see use of it until now (+0.25).
Favored environment I didn't see in use until now, too (+0.25).
Shooting Star and Sword of the Arcane Order are cool, cool substitution levels and feat. Very underappreciated. Glad to see them (+0.5).
Knowledge Devotion and Collector of Stories - expected (-0.25).
Diving Charge is an obvious choice, too (-0.5).

Sphinx claws + Open hands chakra. I saw it so many times... I'm feeling old (-0.5).
Expeditious Dodge on the other hand I saw rarely (+0.25).

Improved flyby attack is of course obvious, but this obviousness has reason (-0.25). And only you take it, maybe the price is so hard to pay (+0.25)?

Darkstalker is well known (-0.25), but I didn't expect it here (+0.25).


Okey. 32 damage (+0.5). 72 damage starting from Epic-2 (+0.25). And you can perform it near all day long (+0.25). Attack bonuses are very good (+0.75).
Your mobility is perfect (+0.5)! Hours or all day, and you do it yourself (+0.25).
You have two spell slots with CL4, not so many, but they are (+0.25). And from Epic-3 you have access to the wizard's spell list, good, flexible (+0.25). And Speak with Animal/Plant SLA, may be useful (+0.25).
Your skills. Good amount of knowledges, good stealth and perception (and +8 Dire Hawk's spot), spellcraft, and survival with Track. Plus two Favored Enviroments. And Darkstalker (+0.5).

AC 21 without any buffs. 25 for hours. 29 for rounds. 27 when charging. Wow (+0.5)! And you have 55 hp, not "wow", but good (+0.25).

Your saves. Only +2 Will, other good, but this is weak (+0.25).


Two skill points from Apprentice Spellcaster. You should have to spend them on Associated Skills - Knowledge (any one), Use Magic Device. You spent one on Knowledge (arcana) and another on... one of your regular skills, not on associated (-0.5).

Your skills in the table. You mention only those that were upping in each level. This is weird and doesn't make my work easier (-0.25).

About Flyby Attack and Dive attack. As I wrote above for Hildegard, I don't think they work together.
But the wording is bad and I don't give you a big penalty (-0.25).

I didn't see source for Dire Hawk, it is important part of your entry and it is not from MM1 (-0.25).

You definitely fly (+1). All day or big part of it (+0.75). With perfect maneuverability (+0.75) and speed of 110 ft (+0.5). But only starting from 5th level (+0.25).
Your fighting tactics are built around fly (+1). If I take your fly out, hm, you can shoot from a bow or become a wolf. Anyway it will be a real blow for you (+0.75).




Ardent is an obscure class for me (+0.5). Horizon Walker is very unexpected (+0.75) and how desert mastery works with Raptoran's fly... Amazing catch (+0.5). Skill Focus? Really? And with good reason (+0.5)! Travel Devotion is a frequent flyer in optimization challenges (-0.5).
Raptoran is expected (-0.5). Diving Charge is expected (-0.5). Foot spikes are suddenly not (+0.25).
Wing Expert is an interesting finding (+0.5). Meldshaping can't surprise me (-0.25), but Speed of Thought can (+0.25). Aerial Reflexes surprises me, too (+0.25).


Good damage (and I'd double Diving Charge damage, too) (+0.75), and good attack bonuses (+0.75). You are slightly limited by the finite number of Travel Devotion uses, but three fights in a day still is not so few (+0.25).
Your mobility is perfect (+0.5)! Fly, then glide, and again fly all day (+0.5), without steed (+0.25).
Spells and powers. Isn't so much, but helpful (+0.25).
Wing Fan together with Desert mastery is an option. With it you can not only "charge'em again" (+0.25).
Skills. Not so much, but there’s enough to talk about (+0.25).
Your AC. 17 isn't low, but you are almost always charging which means AC 13. Yes, you try to be outside melee and avoid AoO, plus can temporarily up your AC to 21, but it is still not good in general (+0.25).
HP. Okay, 47 is average (+0.25).

Saves. You are very careful with them and cover weak spots (+0.5).


Speed of Thought without any ranks in Concentration? Isn't good. Yes, you can take it and use it, but I was nasty surprised when I noticed this (-0.25).

You didn't mention the source for Duthila and made a mistake in the name (-0.5). It was big luck to find her.

And you have multiclass XP penalty (-0.25).


You fly (+1). But only starting from 5th level (+0.25). But from 6th level you do it all day (+0.75). With good maneuverability (+0.5) and speed of 95 ft (+0.5). Your fighting tactics are built around fly (+1). If I take your fly out... Uh! You'll become helpless as a child! Okay, okay, you'll still be able to fight with... some weapon and do some damage, but it'll be dramatically worse (+1). Fly is all for you!


It was very interest new experience!
My thanks to all participants for giving me this opportunity.

I'm ready for disputes.

[MinimanMidget]

My thanks to all participants for giving me this opportunity.

Thanks for giving us your judgements!

[H_H_F_F]

Update: currently working on judgements. Boy, you guys did some stuff. Should be a couple of days, it's the Tishrei holiday season and I have a lot of family gatherings to attend.

Good job already finishing your judgement, Loky! I'm looking forward to reading it once I publish mine.

[Zaq]

Little bit of RAW dispute from Mooncasai Munkedu:


Hello Loki1109, thank you for judging!

to quote the contested point : "Two skill points from Apprentice Spellcaster. You should have to spend them on Associated Skills - Knowledge (any one), Use Magic Device. You spent one on Knowledge (arcana) and another on... one of your regular skills, not on associated (-0.5)."

Both extra skill points are put on knowledge arcana, nothing on the feat says that I have to put the extra ranks on two different skills. Sure, that seems to be implied, but the wording of that paragraph is "a character immediately gains two new class skills and two bonus skill points to spend on these class skills." , not "a character immediately gains two new class skills and one bonus skill point on each of them" or something like that

little extra : if you feel they must be split, nominally spellcraft is on the mentor side of associated skills

[loky1109]

Hello Mooncasai,

Both extra skill points are put on knowledge arcana, nothing on the feat says that I have to put the extra ranks on two different skills
Of course you can put both extra skill points on one new skill. But, you didn't. I'm looking at your table and what do I see?


knowledge(arcana) +1
And sum of skill points on the first level is 34, which more than you class-granted skill points by 2.

Score has not changed.

Zaq, have we limit for dispute's rounds? I'm ready to continue talking as much as needs.

[daremetoidareyo]

Hey Zaq,

When are we gonna get LA+1 options?

[MinimanMidget]

Hey Zaq,

When are we gonna get LA+1 options?

Sounds like a potential SI to me.

[H_H_F_F]

LA races actually sounds like a great round.

I believe I'll be submitting full judgement within 48 hours, by the way.

[Zaq]

LA +1, huh? Hmm. That could be fun. If everyone is LA'd, then no one is. That might be fun for a future ingredient.

[loky1109]

LA +1, huh? Hmm. That could be fun. If everyone is LA'd, then no one is. That might be fun for a future ingredient.

Maybe LA at least +3 ? If do, do much! :smallcool:

[daremetoidareyo]

Maybe LA at least +3 ? If do, do much! :smallcool:

La 1, 2, and 3, could all be separate contests

[loky1109]

4, 5, 6... Stop! :smallconfused:

[H_H_F_F]

Sorry for the delay, guys. Been busy.

I'm basically finished, just need to finish writing out two categories on one entry and making sure there are no errors. I'll do that as soon as I can.

[H_H_F_F]

Whoof! My God, guys, sorry for the delays. Busy times.

This round had a lot of entries which scored very low in elegance. I believe this is the lowest average elegance score I ever gave, by a long shot. Don't get me wrong – I will always prefer rounds with people going for something unique and weird out of the box, even if they end up failing spectacularly. I really did like this round. However, I do think y'all need to start paying more attention to rules issues and to polish.

Well done, everyone, and thank you for participating!

Originality:

You didn't have any fluff, which is something I penalize in this category. You don't have to have good fluff, long fluff, etcetera – but I need to see at least a hint of an actual character, or a story. I realize that to many people, this is solely a tinkering competition, but I feel that fluff is still a part of a complete submission – even if it is a small one.

Your flight method is a most expected one – I don't blame you, but you didn't exactly blow my mind with it. You also go for a couple of the usual suspects as far as feats go.

However, sohei and monk are pretty unexpected, and your general approach is cool and unique. It feels well thought out and reasoned. The logic of flight+reach is as old as D&D, and you put a cool spin on it using the sugliin. More on your central tactics later.

Overall, this entry benefits from a neat and relatively creative central gimmick – but is hampered by a few obvious choices and a lack of fluff. Well done, though.

Score: 3.6 points.


Power:

You do pretty decent damage, and you have great versatility of options depending on number of targets and need for movement. Some of your feats seem chosen almost at random, which means a few of your epic feats have a hard time making a real impact, as far as I can tell.

This connects to my main issue: as a dedicated damage dealer, you have a hard time justifying many of your choices. Monkey grip, for example, is still only 0.5 points of damage better than power attack, and far less versatile. Punching up one more size category would be a gamechanger for you, but you stop just before the increase giving you two more dice. I like what you're doing, but it honestly seems less effective than a plain old thf power attacker. Your schtick is cool, but it's unclear to me what advantages it gives you in the end over a more traditional build. I'm giving you credit for your versatility of combat options here, but that could be achieved without less effort, I think.

You mention flurrying enough times for me to believe that you're walking around unarmored. This makes raptoran fighter kind of a waste and lowers your AC to 14 – not terrible per se, but not great. This is just one case of you being harmed by your madness – similar cases are being limited to two creatures in a greater flyby and only being able to fly for two rounds without trouble.

Overall, while not bad, this is no more than decent in the power department.

Score: 3.4 points.


Elegance:

Let's start out with the good stuff:

I like you using monk and sohei to get more punch out of your sugliin. I like the way you qualified for pole fighter through Ki Frenzy, allowing you to expand your options with decisive strike. That was clever. You have a clear focus, and your build is mostly about your main schtick. I like that.

You clearly and conveniently list your sources (with the exception of raptoran fighter, which I found in RoTW), and despite having a messy table, you don't suffer from multiclass penalties.

As for the bad stuff… Let's start with presentation. I dislike you not having any clear snapshots or build explanations. Your math in the beginning, presenting the fundamental tactical options of your build, is helpful – but far from enough. I don't get many of your feat choices (pushback? Evasive reflexes? Why?), and the order they come in is confusing. Why do you have pushback, and did you really need it more than battle jump? Where do you see yourself using the sun school-blink shirt combo, do you really think it's worth three of your feats, and why did I have to figure out what you were doing on my own?
This all seems like you were short on time for the build. I can appreciate that, but I'd really like a more robust tactical breakdown next time. This is far too skeletal.

This issue, however, is dwarfed by the issue of failing to qualify for feats. Extra rage I would let slide in my games, and I'm not penalizing you as harshly for it – but you don't qualify. Nothing in Ki Frenzy says it counts as rage for prerequisites, or that it can benefit from effects affecting rage. This feels like you were assuming your DM / Judges would just go with the flow on this, which isn’t how I do things. If you have a source for Ki Frenzy counting as rage, feel free to dispute – though we may still not see eye to eye on this.

Another FTQ is your martial study. You can't take sudden leap as a martial study, as you do not know another tiger claw maneuver, which is a prerequisite for sudden leap. There's no easy way for you to fix this – you need to either lose a feat or change the build.

Finally, if I'm not mistaken, regional feats (such as battle jump) have to be taken at first level. Additionally, unapproachable east says that a character cannot take a regional feat without belonging to a preferred class of said region. Who knew? The Taer region's classes are barbarian, druid and ranger. You could not qualify for battle jump with anything even close to this build, as far as I can tell.

Finishing with this, let's move to the Sugliin. I have one minor issue and two real issues:

Sugliins are weird. Without Sugliin mastery, they take a full round action to attack – and you can't get mastery with your BaB. However, they have no language forbidding them from being used without a full round action in other scenarios – it seems you should be able to do an AoO, for example. This leads us to think a martial strike should work as a standard action, as well as other weird options changing the action type of an attack. I feel squimish about this reasoning, but I cannot say it's contradicted by the rules – it's only a slap on the wrist from me, which wouldn’t have been a bother here if it weren't for your plethora of other issues.

Now, you take exotic weapon proficiency in heavy sugliins. I'm not the biggest fan of the tendency to automatically take overlapping exotic proficiencies whenever one takes the feat, but I get it. This still introduces some confusion: "Heavy" is a weapon quality associated with certain materials. You need to have a gold sugliin, a platinum sugliin, etc. This could get confusing, but lucky for both of us, you explicitly said you dipped your sugliin in alchemical gold. So, you're using a gold sugliin. Great. This brings me to my two major issues:

Number one is the common sense issue, which is also stipulated in the rules. A sugliin isn't a metal weapon, and you can't make it from gold. With all due respect to your fluff of dipping it in gold, it's not a solution. Making weapons originally not metal into heavy weapons is explicitly illegal, and the Sugliin is probably the weapon with the least wiggle room materials-wise in the entirety of third edition.

Number two is an issue with your damage description. You claim to do 4d8 damage at level 1, 8d8 at level 3. While your math is correct, it ignores one critical factor: you do not have a gold sugliin at these levels, as it costs 7,000 gold. You can't afford this until around level 5, and even then it's an ungodly percentage of your WBL. You can't even use a regular sugliin in your intended ways until then, because you're not proficient with it, and therefore it isn't considered a monk weapon for you, and you can't short haft it. This is a huge issue, and given that this build isn't really TO, I'm unwilling to handwave it aside as a relatively small issue. I'm sorry, but this is also a huge penalty.

Another rules issue is you claiming to be able to flurry while doing a greater flyby. A greater flyby attack is a full round action, but not a full attack action, so you can't flurry. I also don't see how you can battle jump and decisive strike simultaneously. Decisive strike is an independent full round action, and you can't combine it with a charge, whether or not said charge is vertical. Am I missing something?

Overall, despite a solid base, this is a terrible category for you. This build has enough illegal choices which are absolutely core to the build (battle jump and gold sugliin, especially) to make me seriously consider calling this entire build illegal, which would justify a 0. After some consideration, I've decided to err on the side of caution in my first judgement here, and not go that far – but it's still a 1, obviously. Sorry, bud.

Score: 1 point.


UoSI:

This is somewhere you may have been able to shine more if you had more tactical information – it's possible I'm missing some non-obvious options you had in mind but didn't spell out. However, I have to admit I'm not super impressed.

I like battlejump on a flier, though it's shines less bright when paired with the raptoran's dive attack. It could have gotten more use if you took it at first level (which you had to, and still can't without changing the build, but no double punishment), when you couldn't yet fly – it'd still be situationally great, and could possibly benefit from gliding.

Utilizing Greater flyby attack with a weapon that would usually be far more restricted is also cool, and I dig it.

Besides those… Is this build really about flying? Feels much more like it's about the polefighter-sugliin interaction, with the combination of flurry and decisive strike, allowing an E6 build which tops at 4 BaB to utilize this weapon in effective and interesting ways. Flight seems almost like an afterthought, at certain points.

You're also a raptoran, which (while expected) means you only take flight at level 5. You glide until then, so that's a plus.

Overall, while it's not as bad as a "happens to fly" build, I do see this as a sugliin build which utilizes flight as a sidekick, and I'm having a hard time giving you serious credit here.

Score: 1.9 points.


Total Score: 9.9 points. This build had a lot of rules issues, and not enough to make up for them in the other categories. I think it probably stemmed from trying to squeeze more juice out of great flyby, which I very much appreciate. Better luck next time!
Originality:

I'm a huge fan of starspawn as your flight method. I hadn't thought of it, and it's cool and flavorful as hell. I also didn't really anticipate a swift hunter coming, though they're quite common – so a wash on that front. It makes sense and shows good thinking. Great reach for great flyby is a good thought that shall be further addressed later. Silverbrow human… yawn.
I like your tropical-vampire feel you're giving off. Your fluff wasn't mind blowing, but it got the feel across, and my mind can fill in the blanks. Very well done.

Score: 4 points.


Power:

Not too bad. You've got good maneuverability at epic levels, and your early career enjoys the flyby-skirmish combo greatly to stay out of reach and do decent damage. You're a good sneak, with ranks in listen and spot – nothing to complain about on that front. You don’t have darkvision I think, which is a bummer for a sneak, but listen ranks surely help.

You can only attack 2 people with your great flyby, which makes it less impressive – you've made great efforts to make your line wider, and a lot of that goes to waste. You're mad as hell, which could have been mitigated, but we'll cover the details in elegance.

Overall, you've got a good combination of combatant and skill monkey going on, while managing better safety than most scouts. 5d6 bonus damage is decent for E6. This is still not a power house, but it's pretty good stuff.

Score: 3.75 points.


Elegance:

2 flaws is a -2 to elegance right off the bat, as stated in the rules. It's a huge penalty I'm really unsure you needed to take. Sure, darkstalker is good, and necessary at medium levels and above – but this is E6. You should get a lot of value from sneaking throughout your early career with only occasional trouble, and you have access to a lot of feats. Couldn't it have waited? Couldn't you manage without two instances of travel devotion?

To add insult to injury, I don't know what your flaws are. Shaky is easy for you, but everything else sucks hard, and I need to know what sacrifice you were actually making.

You don't qualify for favored enemy (arcanists), which requires a point of Knowledge (arcana). I empathize with you on this one, it has caught me off guard before (though the judge didn't notice at the time.) That's a penalty, my condolences.

You also engage in some iffy qualifying with extended reach and air heritage. Air heritage requires racial fly speed, not "natural" fly speed. This balances out with how clever and attentive the actual attempt was – born flier is a great find, and would probably be passable by most DMs. This would've granted you a bonus here if it was legal, but as is, it's a wash. Flexible limbs for extended reach… I don't know. We'll give you a slap on the wrist, because both sides of the equation are ambiguous enough for me to feel uncomfortable about a fully-fledged penalty.

My biggest personal gripe with this build, even if not the most impactful score-wise, is how inattentively wasteful it is. The redundant flaw is one example, but there are many others. Where is your attribute increase at 4? I can deduce it's probably Str, but I don't know for sure. You say you needed combat expertise to qualify for something, but for the life of me I couldn't see what. Seems like you just wasted 3-5 point-buy points on intelligence (you could've managed 8, 10 would've been easy) and a bonus feat for… nothing. A really bad feat for your build. You know what you could've gotten? Weapon-freaking-finesse. Drop your Str to 14 (or 12, if Int is 10) and your Int to 8 (or 10, if Str is 12), and you could've had 17 Dex, 18 at level 4. Double the targets for great flyby! Double, on an entry with the reach to actually utilize that feat! More AC, better initiative… You're mad as hell, and you didn't need to be at all. You have reach even without a long spear, and you can still utilize one, especially if you only drop your Str to 14 – you would lose literally nothing over your current build, and a mere +1 to attack and damage if you'd have remembered to increase Str at 4. Dump survival, dump the jump synergy, and you only need to give up 4 skill points across the board to have 8 int. You could grab exotic weapon proficiency (spiked chain) later in the build, for that reach-finesse goodness. Thoughtless. You dump 2 feats in the end into "generally good feat" because you didn't know what else to do with them. So much dead weight in this build. You also carry with you a combat style you'd never use, instead of asking yourself what your alternatives are for 1 second. Movement is one of your most precious resources in this build, and wildshape ranger would net you 10 ft (5 for flying) at virtually 0 cost, online at level 5 – earlier if you were to mix some levels. All you'd give up is a weak tactical option that doesn't work with the weapon in your hands, so it'd waste an entire turn to even go online.

None of this is to say the build isn't smart. It is. It's also deliberate and has great unity of purpose. You fully list your sources and have a great and informative tactics section. It's good enough to balance out the penalty for mage hunter DQ, the unspecified flaws and my entire rant combined. Even with this entire mess, this would've been a 2.9 (limbs issue).

However, you're carrying two flaws, and rules are rules. I'm sorry.

Score: 1 point.


UoSI:

Time to relax. Take a breath. Angry H has scrambled away, mumbling something about wasted potential. We're done with the flagellation, and we're at the good part.

This build is phenomenal, as far as utilizing flight is concerned. It has flight online from the very first level. It utilizes flyby attack like only a scout can, and it manages to transform great flyby from an uncommon situational move to a reliable and potent way of dealing with more than one enemy. It's entirely focused on flight – what it has to offer, and how it can be optimized. It covers for your weaknesses, and is enhanced by your strength. You're a flier, through and through. My only issue is the nature of starspawn, which keeps you close to the ground, but overall, this is awesome.

Score: 5 points.


Total score: 13.75 points. I like this build more than the final score represents. It could have been really good with some more polish. A cool and sleek premise, botched by an inattentive and careless execution. I can't pretend I'm not frustrated with you, but it's not the frustration that comes with a bad entry – but that which comes with the squandered potential of an entry on the verge of greatness. I'm looking forward to what you build next time!
Originality:

Your fluff is weird. I dig it, though I'm feeling like it's probably a pop-culture reference I'm missing.

Warlock was something I've assumed we might see – flying with fell flight at skyscraper level, throwing down eldritch spears. This… this I did not see coming. Same for the cavalry. Good work! Dragonborns (wings) were also expected, wood elves not so much. Cleric dips always show up, and is a small penalty.

I have to give you credit for your creative main schtick here, but… oh boy. Just you wait.

Score: 3.9 points.


Power:

Persistent rhino's rush is pretty sick, and a huge power boost from a 1 level investment. Your overall damage is alright, and starts shining more brightly once you get said all-day rhino's rush, and spirited charge. Your damage isn’t nearly as good as you think, though – I'm giving you credit for the damage you actually have. For more on that, go to elegance.

You’ve also got a decent ranged option with eldritch blast, and UMD can get you out of a lot of trouble. Warlocks and clerics are simply more powerful than the classes we've seen here so far, and mounted lance is a strong option when available. You're mostly enjoying these factors, and they help you manage the fact that this build doesn't manage to pull any power from its intended synergies.

Mortalbane seems like such a waste of feats. 1 time? Great, you've got 5 times a day to try and do ~7 extra damage when it matters. Not as good as it is on multi-target SLAs, but alright nonetheless. 2 times? Less impactful, and rarely worth it… it's a stretch, but it's reasonable. 4 times? You still do the same damage as 1 instance, except you can pull it off 20 times a day. Change the placements of the multiplications and divisions in this equation and you'll easily see what a bad trade you've just made. When looked at as a block, your 4 feats can each be described as granting you a 1.75 damage boost on an attack, up to 20 times a day. This is significantly worse than weapon specialization, and you took it 4 times. You may think that's not a fair description, averging them out like that – but that's exactly the point! You're the one who chose to spread the same damage over 4 feats instead of 1. Think of how bad what I just described is, and realize that your third and fourth instances are actually even worse than that feat. This is decreasing marginal revenue 101, my friend. You should have stuck to 1 instance, two at most.

Overall, this build doesn't manage to pull any real power from where its focus lies. Luckily, cleric DMM, a tier 3 class, UMD ranks and a couple of good feats don't let you become useless – but you're still left far less impressive than you could've been.

Score: 3.85 points.


Elegance:

Cleric of an ideal as a "get whatever I want" tool is something I heavily dislike. However, I could see a chaotic neutral ideal of war and wrath working, so not terrible. I'm a bit biased in your favor, because I love the wrath domain and have used it (very effectively, IMO) in this terribly received entry (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24833315&postcount=53). I'm not a fan of persistent DMM cheese.

You source everything, though you source an older source for persistent spell – it's also in complete arcane, which came out a few months later and is also in your list. Your build breakdown is well written and informative. You do suffer from multiclassing penalties, unfortunately, from as early in your career as possible.

I don't understand how you think you replace Aereni focus. The rite of rebirth can be used to shuffle feats in two ways: Either you replace any one feat you have with a 1st level only feat requiring the dragonblood subtype (which you could have done, I guess) or you lose feats because you no longer have their requirements due to the rite, and then replace them with any other feat you do qualify for. Flyby attack isn't a dragonblood first level feat, and you still qualify for Aereni Focus. Did you maybe think you were no longer an elf? The race crossed out in your stub seems to imply that. If so, you were unfortunately wrong. As a side note, if you're ever looking for ride as a class skill again, you should take a look at the lupins from dragon compendium.

Now, to the meat of the build:
what is fairly unassailable is that charging on a mount still leaves a Standard for the attack.
Allow me to assail that. No, mounted combat rules do not allow you to make a standard action charge attack when your mount charges. Mounted combat rules are weird and broken, and so you could make a standard attack once your mount has finished charging at someone, but that would just be a normal attack. When your mount charges, you can make a single attack at the end of the charge, which benefits from the charge and is a charge attack, but not a standard action. Ride by attack even specifies you make an attack "as if" you were using a standard action. Is my view rock solid? No, but I'd say neither is yours. While I recognize that there's a place for confusion here, I wholly disagree with your interpretation here.

I am confused by your reading of dive charge and fly by attack. You claim it is unequivocal. Is this supposed to be an honest to God interpretation of the rules, or is this meant to be a… For the lack of a better word, Dare-esque "gotcha!" moment, using the language of the designers against them? To your credit, I'm going to assume it's the second option, because this is not a reasonable reading. Dive is a word which has meaning, outside of the definition of "dive attack", which is always referred to as a dive attack. You can flyby even when going straight down, you don't get to flyby while charging someone else. This is the logical conclusion of your claim, and it doesn't work. I'm also unclear on your attempt to "charge up" hideous blow, as I don't read anything in its description allowing such a thing. This was my misunderstanding, scoring adjusted.

Finally, and most importantly: Your entire build unfortunately falls apart because there is no rule allowing your extra damage dice to multiply on a hideous blow. If this was the case, it wouldn't be nearly as trash as it is – you could go for crit-fishing, or indeed a spirited charge, opening up damage options not available to a blaster. Unfortunately, it's still a rider effect granting additional damage dice, and those don't multiply, pretty much ever. Same goes for your mortal hunter dice, of course. This was a good idea, but it does not work, which hampered your entire build.

Overall, there were some cool ideas in here – but several issues, including illegalities and rules misunderstandings at the very heart of the build are enough to trash your score here. This is another one when I was on the verge of raising my hands, saying "illegal build" and being done with it. What is it with this round and elegance?

Score: 1.15 1.25 points.


UoSI:

You're not getting any special penalty here. In fact, you're getting what I like to call "valiant attempt credit" – I can't award you points in power for power you don't have, but I can give you a small boost here for trying to do something interesting with the ingredient, giving it attention.

Unfortunately, this is not enough for a good score.

You're a dedicated charger / warlock. You were going for one trick which didn't work, and what we're left with is a charger that can fly when necessary. It's necessary a lot, and you're far from useless – but in this category, the relevant factor is that you have a flying mount and wings from level 6, you don't get any unique use out of them, and you have one flying feat which you'll never use (though see valiant attempt bonus.) This is nearly as bad as it can get.

Score: 1.5 points.


Total score: 10.4 10.5 points. You ended up with a pretty low score, which is unfortunate. Though illegalities were only punished in elegance, I was not able to give you the credit you would have in power (and to a lesser degree, UoSI) with a working build. I like what you were trying to do here – your score doesn't represent this build being terrible in every aspect, as much as it does reflect a build with illegalities and misconceptions at its very core.
Originality:

Your story is short and to the point. I personally prefer more in depth fluff, but as you know by this point, I only penalize a complete lack of fluff. I like the Wizard of Oz inspiration, though I think it'd work better thematically (in E6, there are better ways later) with a with an aspect of nature druid. Wildshape kind of loses the flavor.

Speaking of druid, wild shape was a very expected path for flight, of course, and wildshape ranger to do it isn't novel. I expected druid more, but I still saw it coming. Your race pick is unusual, but it's hard to give you credit for it here when it feels like at this point, it's there for no reason. Weapon finesse as a bonus is great for you, but is It worth your point buy being all messed up? No thematic reason to be a monkey once you gave up on Oz expy, no mechanical reason to be one once you didn't need to be a monstrous humanoid… Though I understand that it is an artefact of earlier versions of the build, the final product feels less like an original and creative choice and more like "LOL random" sabotaging yourself.

Nature's warrior is part of the wildshape ranger trio of prcs, and wasn't surprising to me in this context – though wings of the hurricane is a good pick, and it will be credited in the UoSI department. Your tactics ate those of a pounce charger, and don't scream "original" to me. Shooting star + Sword of the arcane order is a tried-and-true combination. Dragon Magazine's Mystic ranger kind of hurt you here by helping to make these two an online staple of E6 optimization.

Overall, I'm sorry to say that this build rings hollow to me in this category. The only real unexpected ingredient is the racial pick, which isn't utilized in any interesting ways and isn't built upon.

Score: 1.5 points.


Power:

WIldshape is great, even when limited to 6 HD animals of medium or small size. Extra wildshape was an excellent feat choice in that regard – without it you'd be hard pressed to ever spend a daily use for utility purposes. Having that option is a straight boost here, plain and simple.

Pounce charging with 3 attacks, knowledge devotion and bonus damage is 100% a valid combat tactic, though your damage isn't as significant as you claim it is. More on that in elegance, by the way.

A second attack outside of wild shape can help you feel less useless, and a first level wizard spell here and there is certainly a good option – even if it's somewhat more limited than what an actual 1st level wizard could do. Lack of natural spell also makes your casting less significant – there are plenty of excellent 1st level wizard spells which could be very useful to you If you could cast them in and before combat. You don't currently qualify, but you could by moving a point from Str to Wis, which would hurt nothing.

Darkstalker, move silently, hide and spot make you a good basic scout, even if you can't search for traps or listen for unseen opponents. You're not a real knowledge-monkey, but it's serviceable.

Overall, you're plying a good charger with more flexibility than a lot of the field. Well done.

Score: 4.25 points.


Elegance:

You've got most of the basics covered with a clear and straight-forward build. A useful tactical breakdown, a clean table, no multiclass penalties, and everything sourced – besides dire hawk, in MMII, which does cause a penalty given how central it is to your build. You're getting a tiny boost here specifically for shooting star sword of the arcane order – despite being well known, it works together well thematically and mechanically.

As I mentioned in power, I have an issue with your damage math. You assume you can double the damage from your diving charge with a charge attack, but again – extra dice don't get multiplied. This is the second build in this competition to feature this issue, and I'm starting to get paranoid that I'm the one in the wrong – but I don't think so.

I'm not sure what's going on with improved flyby attack, as I'm not sure how partial actions are translated to 3.5. The most obvious conclusion to me is that this is simply a flyby attack usable without provoking AOO. This would be great if you were a flyby focused character, but you are a charger. I'm reading you as saying that you can use this to charge without provoking, due to the "including a dive" language. As has been addressed already with the previous entry, I disagree. A dive attack isn't a move action.A dive attack isn't a move action, and "a dive" here doesn't refer IMO to a dive charge.

Overall, this mostly balances out. A straightforward and generally elegant submission with no particular strengths in this category, and a few weaknesses.

Score: 3.35 points.


UoSI:

Maxing out speed on diving charge is nice, and getting perfect maneuverability is great on anyone and is definitely appreciated this round. Expeditious dodge is nearly always better than the default version, and this is far truer on a movement based build. Flight from 5. Not having flight in your base form is a penalty here, but having four uses per day (you're technically capable of flying 24/7) mitigates that a lot.

I'm giving you a boost here for attempting to deal with the AOO issue through improved flyby – though, again, I'm not reading it as allowing you to actually avoid AOOs while charging.

Overall, good stuff.

Score: 4 points.


Total score: 13.1 points. This is a good and straightforward build, pretty sleek and definitely effective. It sprang from a cool and strange idea, which probably blindsided you to the fact that you ended up making an entry that just wasn't very unique. Still, well done.
Originality: There's barely enough fluff here for me not to penalize this. I always say I don't penalize short fluff, and I won't – but a one-sentence description and a throwaway line at level 6 is just barely enough. Try to give me a bit more to work with next time, will you?

As said before, raptorans were on the horizon as soon as this SI was declared. Rangers were also expected (though mostly in wild shape capacity), and did show up a lot – but like with Graazt, that's a wash. Clerics show up often, especially as knowledge/travel devotion dips (a short note on that in power,) so that's a small penalty. Ardents show up pretty often as well, but I didn't clock them coming here – especially when not taken at 6th (or even 3rd) level with practiced manifester.

Horizon walker is surprising and brilliant. Maybe it's a well-known trick, I don't know – but it's the first time I've seen it, and it's great. Well done. I also really enjoy the way everything flows together thematically. It all makes a lot of sense, character wise, even when it's not that mechanically optimal. Wing expert is a small boost too – it's cool and thematic, and isn't seen too often.

Mechanically, dive attacks are where its at and were pretty expected, and charge-travel-charge-travel is a classic pouncer tactic, but foot spikes help mitigate that punishment by being thematic and not as expected.

Overall, a pretty expected entry at heart, but still creative and unique. Your thematic choices pulled some weight here. Well done.

Score: 3.2 points.


Power:

You're a decent diver, like a lot of the field. Attacking with both of your spikes is an excellent damage source for someone who'd otherwise have issues doing significant damage. Dive to travel devotion with insane speed is a mean trick, and powering it with turn undead makes it usable throughout the day. Your actual damage is pretty underwhelming though – especially when considering your difficulty in punching through DR and your far less impressive options when not charging.

No reason not to be a cloistered cleric, K. devotion would have helped even without many skill points to invest, and you wouldn't have wasted a skill point on heal – you could've bought another point in geography, and points in relevant knowledge skills for devotion. Sloppy, could have been more powerful.

Ardents usually make for potent dips, but you get surprisingly little out of it besides a speed increase. You got credit in originality for your thematic cohesion, but it's not doing you many favors here. Animals are similarly part of your thematic attractiveness, but are a really bad favored enemy.

You're putting three feats into the thunderstep tactic. This is a decent option for someone charging as often as you are, but not as potent is at may appear to be. The language of thunderstep boots makes me believe that the extra damage should only apply once, and it is of course not doubled. The stun effect is excellent, but a DC 15 fortitude save should be nearly trivial for the absolute majority of enemies you'd run into this late into the build. In general, I'd say many of your epic feats seem to be pretty unimpactful. "Better than lightning reflexes", for example, is hardly a compliment, even when that's your weakest save.

You're still an effective combatant, but you're MAD, you're damage isn't mind blowing, I feel like you slightly taper off later in the build, and unlike most rangers, you're hardly a skill monkey. Cleric casting helps you coast here. I can't rate this too low, given how effective your main tactic will usually be, but you're not as powerful as you appear to be at first glance, IMO.

Score: 3.5 points


Elegance:

The build is largely focused on repeated charges using travel devotion, which is a good thing to be focused on, but feels like it meanders at parts. Still, most of your effort is focused on this one thing, and though with one notable exception nothing struck me as particularly clever, it's still a methodical and purposeful build. Well done on that front.

Your table is kind of messy, and you suffer from multiclass penalties, which is a penalty from me. I know many tables huouserule this issue away, but it's still a rule. Your tactical breakdown was useful and easy, though I'm not a fan of spoilering each individual epic feat. This is just a presentation preference and doesn't impact your score here.

Duthila wasn't sourced and was misspelled – I was lucky I just assumed she was probably in races of the wild, once google failed me in finding her. Once I found her, I was surprised to discover she was true neutral – which makes her an illegal choice for you. Easy to fix by being NG, so it isn't build destroying by any stretch, but still – not a small penalty. When joined with the penalty for failing to source the deity and that for not correctly spelling her name, this entire mess cost you a full point, which could have been easily avoided. Ouch.

Overall, this is a fairly clever build, held back by an "ugly" table and by the Duthila fiasco.

Score: 2.75 points.


UoSI:

You're tactically reliant on flying for staying out of trouble and for putting bonus damage on attacks that would otherwise be unimpressive. Your weapon of choice would be unusable without being airborne, and it allows you to get a two-weapon-pounce effect your chassis wouldn't otherwise be able to support. Excellent.

You fly more consistently than most raptorans due to your brilliant choice of dipping horizon walker – a trick usually used for raging multiple times. It showed thought and care, and you get credit for it. Gliding until level 5 is a shame, but that's how it goes.

You invest enough resources to have a very fast flying speed with good maneuverability, none-magical, accessible all day long. Good.

Ease of breath was a cute thought. You're not reaching altitude-sickness heights with your raptoran flying by any means, but I still like that you paid attention to a detail like that.

Overall, this is an excellent use of the secret ingredient.

Score: 4.5 points.


Total score: 13.95 points. This was a neat execution of a good concept. I greatly enjoyed the thematic cohesion of the build – if I was the one designing the judging metric, I would have a distinct category for that. As is, all I can do is give a small boost in originality. Well done!

[lylsyly]

That's one of the drawbacks about having a round built around something unique like; Flight! There are only so many ways to achieve it and only so many ways to use it!

My 2 credits, err coppers I mean, been playing a lot of Traveller lately ;-0

[MinimanMidget]

Whoof! My God, guys, sorry for the delays. Busy times.

Nothing to apologise for - still much faster than I usually manage. Thanks for your judgements! No disputes from me.

[loky1109]

Name Alignment / Race Class Levels Chef loky1109 H_H_F_F Judge 3 Judge 4 Total Place
Bash Jordon (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25197292&postcount=18) LN Raptoran Fighter 2 / Sohei 2 / Monk 2 10 9.9 19.9 5th
Graazt Du'kal (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25197294&postcount=19) CE Silverbrow Human Scout 4 / Ranger 2 12.75 13.75 26.5 3rd
Hildegard (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25197295&postcount=20) CG Dragonborn Cleric 1 / Warlock 5 14.5 10.5 25 4th
Mooncasai Munkedu (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25197296&postcount=21) NG Anthropomorphic Monkey Ranger 5 / Nature's Warrior 1 18 13.1 31.1 2nd
Pippin (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25197297&postcount=22) CG Raptoran Ranger 3 / Cleric 1 / Ardent 1 / Horizon Walker 1 18.5 13.95 32.45 1st

[H_H_F_F]

Thanks for the table, Loky! I am awaiting disputes, if any come.

Kuulvheysoon, are you still in to judge?

[Kuulvheysoon]

Thanks for the table, Loky! I am awaiting disputes, if any come.

Kuulvheysoon, are you still in to judge?

I've still got Pippin left to judge- the free time that I thought that I had mysteriously evaporated. that and exhaustive research concerning charging, diving and the interactions therein.

That being said, if Zaq wants to move on, go ahead. Probably won't have time to finish until this weekend.

[loky1109]

Thanks for the table, Loky! I am awaiting disputes, if any come.
You are welcome!

I am awaiting, too.

[H_H_F_F]

With a judge having completed 80% of his (right?) work, and anticipating having free time this weekend, I would be against moving forward before judgement is submitted.

As chair, Zaq is free to do as he sees fit in this case, but that is my opinion on the matter.

[Zaq]

Sorry for disappearing, team! I'm willing to wait for one more build if we've got a judge almost done.

Couple of disputes! I'm being pulled in a few directions at once right now so I don't have the time to be as picky as usual about only the hard-RAW parts of the disputes, but I trust that everyone here is going to be chill about that and won't take it as an opportunity for nefarious stuff.

From Mooncasai Munkedu:


Hello H_H_F_F, thank you for judging! The only gray area I feel about commenting on is the diving charge not being multiplied.

I agree with you, for the purpose of critical hits, extra/bonus dice aren't multiplied because the critical hit rules specifically calls out that extra/bonus dice are not multiplied.

While this can be used as a guideline to assume that this is valid for all sources of multiplying damage, no such exception is called out on the dive attack (or spirited charge, to use a different example), they only say to multiply your damage. It may or may not be implied that it's excluding bonus damage dice, but it is not written as such in cold hard ink (unless I missed a clarification somewhere such as the rules compendium which could totally be the case!).

That's why I assumed diving charge was multiplied on a dive attack, when I read (past tense, damn you irregular verb) them next to each other, nothing indicates that the diving charge bonus dice shouldn't be multiplied (as in, not rolled again, but take the result amd multiply it), ome has to remember the critical hit rule exception to think that maybe it isn't. Which at the time I didn't remember/think about.

From Graazt Du'kal:


To begin with, thank you for the judgements! I’m glad you (aside from the Elegance Issues) seemed to enjoy this build. A couple points with respect to elegance because I can’t help myself, even though the Flaws overshadow possible gains.



2 flaws is a -2 to elegance right off the bat, as stated in the rules. It's a huge penalty I'm really unsure you needed to take. Sure, Darkstalker is good, and necessary at medium levels and above – but this is E6. You should get a lot of value from sneaking throughout your early career with only occasional trouble, and you have access to a lot of feats. Couldn't it have waited? Couldn't you manage without two instances of travel devotion?

To add insult to injury, I don't know what your flaws are. Shaky is easy for you, but everything else sucks hard, and I need to know what sacrifice you were actually making.

On the flaws: Darskstalker becomes relevant the second enemies have Scent, which is from level 1, and if I don’t take it with a Flaw there’s no space until Epic Feats which felt too late. Additionally, this opened up a second slot for Travel Devotion, which with a relatively low flight speed is rather essential for combat positioning. Considering a recommended number of daily encounters is four (and in my experience at least two is normal), getting more Travel Devotion seemed worthwhile. I could have avoided Flaws without Travel Devotion(s) I suppose, though this would have pushed back Starspawn and Swift Hunter.
I didn’t specify which Flaws I was taking because in my experience with IRL games I’ve always had the Flaws chosen for me by the DM. Otherwise everyone would always take Shaky and Vulnerable on a melee character, and Non-Combatant and Vulnerable on a Ranged one. In the future I will specify.



You also engage in some iffy qualifying with extended reach…

I’m not sure how this one is ambiguous?

Benefit: You gain a physical feature…. Chosen from the following list: … Flexible Limbs….

Prerequisite: feeler, nonrigid body or a nonrigid attack form such as a tentacle, or pseudopod, Small or larger size
While this is pseudo-fluff (the crunch being a +2 on Grapple Checks), I suppose that the Flexible Limbs physical feature could just be your joints are more flexible, but well, joints already flex, so. The second quoted line could be limiting in that I haven’t established a fully non-rigid body with explicit crunch, and I don’t have Improved Unarmed Strike (though you can still punch things, so arms are still an attack form).



My biggest personal gripe with this build….
This is a fair cop, and an artifact of running out of time and poor editing. An earlier version of the build had Combat Expertise into Improved Trip into Knockdown as E9&10, which required STR15, and I didn’t copy over my updated ability spread. Whoops.

From Hildegard:



Mortalbane seems like such a waste of feats….granting you a 1.75 damage boost on an attack, up to 20 times a day. This is significantly worse than weapon specialization, and you took it 4 times….
I’m going to be perfectly honest and say I don’t understand your math here at all. Mortalbane gives on average 7 damage on five attacks. That’s ~1 encounter. Each additional instance of Mortalbane gives on average 7 damage on five additional attacks. That’s better than Weapon Specialization for each of those 20 attacks (in fact it is AT WORST as good as Weapon Specialization for those attacks, doing 2-12 damage). If this was an exhibition match I would agree that more instances of Mortalbane is a waste, but in normal play I’d rather never run out during an adventuring day. I also can’t get Weapon Specialization, so that feels a bit like a false equivalency.



I don't understand how you think you replace Aereni focus.
I straight up forgot that the Right of Rebirth lets you still count as a member of your original race. If that weren’t the case that would trigger the clause that lets you replace no-longer qualified for feats with whatever you want as long as you qualify. Before I tried to be cheeky with Dragonborn feat replacement I had only 3 Mortalbane (I think you would have liked that) and took Flyby Attack as E1.



Now, to the meat of the build: .... long discussion, some of which I agree with
Alright, first the bits I agree with: the EB and Mortalbane extra damage wouldn’t multiply. I got carried away and just plain forgot that rule. That’s on me. Maximize Spell-Like Ability (CAr p81) would allow it to work 3x a day, but I didn’t include that.

Now onto the bits I think I maybe miscommunicated. Flyby attack specifically calls out making a Standard Action at any point during the move, not a Standard Attack.

When flying, the creature can take a move action (including a dive) and another standard action at any point during the move.
This is what I’m basing the attack routine around. We Flyby Attack and use Hideous Blow in place of an attack. The second bit hinges on the use of the word ‘dive’ in that description. As you mentioned, in the Special Abilities (Fly) description it does say ‘dive attack,’ not simply ‘dive,’ and that could be the end of it. In fact, this is probably at the point of DM adjudication. However, at no other location is the word ‘dive’ used to describe flight mechanics. The Movement Modes section specifically calls out ‘Down Angle,’ and ‘Down Speed,’ not ‘Dive Angle,’ or ‘Dive Speed.’ When Flyby Attack takes the time to specifically call out the ability to dive as a move action it implies to me that it is saying you can make a dive attack, since all other movements are covered by ‘move action’ and there is no definition of ‘dive’ in the flying rules. This would allow us to count as charging for the Hideous Blow Standard Action on the Flyby Attack, as a Dive is equivalent to a Charge.

I’m not sure where I said you could ‘charge up’ Hideous Blow, but on the off-chance I just suck at ctrl+f and reading comprehension (possible), it would have been a turn of phrase to indicate using it as a Standard Action during a Flyby Attack.

[H_H_F_F]

No wirries, Zaq, it happens.

I'll be looking into your disputes tomorrow, guys. Hope to give you a response soon.

[loky1109]

Update judging.

for Hildegard.

We have a big, big problem here. And some problems that are not so big, but let go step by step.
Wrath Domain. First, you didn't specify the source, but this will be later.
I found it in the Book of Exalted Deeds. That’s what I thought at first. But I was wrong. Wrath from BoED isn't your Wrath. It has Doom as a first level spell, not Rhino’s Rush. Wrath with Rhino’s Rush is from Dragon #323. This violation doesn't kill your build entirely, but this is a serious mistake (-2.5).
I accidentally found Wrath Domain with Rhino’s Rush in book. This is Spell Compendium.
So I remove -2.5 penalty.

But I can't understand, why didn't you send any disputes??? This was my obvious mistake.

[Zaq]

Update judging.

for Hildegard.

I accidentally found Wrath Domain with Rhino’s Rush in book. This is Spell Compendium.
So I remove -2.5 penalty.

But I can't understand, why didn't you send any disputes??? This was my obvious mistake.

I've been informed by Hildegard's chef that they simply forgot! But speaking just for myself, I think it's really classy of you to bring that up and correct it. Thanks for doing so!

[loky1109]

I've been informed by Hildegard's chef that they simply forgot! But speaking just for myself, I think it's really classy of you to bring that up and correct it. Thanks for doing so!

You didn't need thank me for fixing my own errors. I should do this.

[H_H_F_F]

Addressing disputes:

Unfortunately, there is such a general rule, friend. From the SRD: (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/combat/combatStatistics.htm#multiplyingDamage) "Sometimes you multiply damage by some factor, such as on a critical hit… exception: extra damage dice… are never multiplied.

No change in score
Parts of this dispute don't really hold up to Zaq's standards, but those are very harsh and since he let me respond to this one, I will. Just be noted that this won't fly with him when he's not as busy – look at the dispute guidelines in the OP.

I now better understand why you didn't specify flaws, but this doesn't change the fact that in this competition, you're allowed and expected to pick them AFAIK. Unless I get a chair decision explicitly saying I should not penalize for this, the penalty remains. Please do so in the future.

As for darkstalker – I agree it's helpful from level 1. Of course it is. But it's not nearly as mandatory as it is later. Scent isn't as dangerous as other senses in that regard, and at low levels enemies with just normal sight are far more common than later. Is it good to have at level 1? Yes. Is it worth a flaw? Absolutely not. You'll note I didn't say both your flaws were dead weight – Sometimes you gotta take a flaw, and I agree that starspawn was such a case. But flaws carry a heavy price, and just tacking another one on is a shame, as I have to drop you a full point, by the rules. This is of course mathematically more impactful with judges like myself who tend to give out more conservative bonuses and penalties, but it's always bad news, even with judges who tend to give out a wider range of scores. I just recommend you'll be more careful with them in the future. Penalty stays.

As for extended reach – do you really not see how it's ambiguous? I get the argument for it, of course, which is why it wasn't a full penalty. But can we really fully equate "flexible" with "non-rigid", especially when the examples clearly show to what extent non-rigidity is expected? Flexible could mean all your joints go both ways, or that you have extra joints, or that your bones are as soft as a baby's. In addition, you don't have a non-rigid body, just limbs. Are your limbs "an attack form"? Doesn't "such as a tentacle or a pseudopod" imply an attack form means a natural weapon? These are two weird feats, and it's unclear enough for me to slap you on the wrist. Penalty stays.

No change in score, unfortunately. I would have loved to give you a better one.
Clarifying my point on mortalbane, which I obviously didn't explain well enough:

Weapon specialization is considered a bad feat, as 2 points of damage aren't usually considered being worth a feat. This is not as strong a case in E6, but I still hold it to be true. If 2 points of damage aren't worth a feat, than 8 points of damage aren't worth 4 feats – it still averages out to 2 damage per feat, so it's still a bad trade, just one that has been made repeatedly. If I could stack weapon specialization, I still shouldn't take it for this reason. 1 feat isn't worth 2 points of damage, no matter how many times you've made the bad trade. This statement would still hold true if instead I took 3 feats with no benefits as prereqs to a feat giving me 8 damage. Mathematically, when looked at as a block of 4 feats, it's the same – except in this case, in actual play, I'm suffering even worse for many levels. The end result is the exact same though, and it's still bad, because 1 feat still shouldn’t be paid for a 2 damage increase. A single feat giving 8 damage is a great feat, but the prereqs of 3 useless feats made it actually be bad, as it only gives 2 damage per feat spent.

My point was that when looking at your feats as a block, we can see that you paid 4 feats for seven damage – with limitations. Remember me saying how paying 4 feats for 8 damage would still average out to 2 damage per feat, no matter how the damage is actually distributed among the feat chain? On average, when looked at as a block, each instance of the feat (again, only when looked at as a block) could be described as giving you an average of 1.75 damage, with significant target limitations, not capable of being multiplied, 20 times a day – because you paid 4 feats for 7 damage 20 times a day. Like with the superfeat, which averaged out to giving 2 damage per feat spent despite giving 8. Imagine that a 4th instance of mortalbane made the feat usable all day long, instead of increasing the cap by 5. This would be better, of course, but still average out to you paying 4 feats to get a seven damage increase against limited targets. This is obviously a terrible trade, and the trade you actually made is slightly worse.

Now, in our previous example of taking 3 useless feat for 1 feat that would be great on its own, we could see that the build was suffering up until it got the final feat. When not looked at as a block, it's obvious the early feats are terrible, as they give nothing. Mortalbane, for you, is the exact opposite – hence me complaining about decreasing marginal revenue. Our analysis showed that even if a 4th instance gave us unlimited usage, mortalbane would still be a bad DPR feat when applied only to single targets. However, when looked at as a single instance, this changes drastically. When looked at the overall damage boost throughout the day, it's still terrible, because it'll always be terrible at that when applied to a single target. However, as a feat to give you the extra edge when you need it, not the damage through the day, it's decent. Think of smites – the damage smites give on average throughout the day is nothing, and they would make a terrible investment for an average DPR increase. But we don't care about the average DPR when we smite, we care about applying extra damage when we get the hunch it could turn the battle. This would be the only way mortalbane would be good for you, because as an average damage increase it sucks and isn't worth 4 feats you could do all sorts of amazing things with, especially given the resources at your disposal. Because of this, each instance you took of the feat was worse than the previous one, because it didn't help you do what the feat was good at (smite-like) better, only do what the feat was terrible at (daily damage) better. And if they're bad on average, and each feat is worse than the precious one, than oh boy is that last feat bad, right? I hope you better understand my point now – single target mortalbane sucks when used as a daily damage increase, and is pretty decent when used as a smite, and is therefore terrible to take more than once or twice at most. Whoof.

As for flyby attack – yeah, okay, gotcha. You're trying to do more or less what I though you were going for, and I still don't agree that it's possible and the right interpretation of dive in this context. Mooncasai tried that too, and I disagree with this reading, though I get where it's coming from. You didn't try to charge up the blow, I'm clearer on this point now – but it was just a confusing detail to me, and not something I individually penalized, unfortunately, just a detail of the larger issue. Best I can give you here in good conscious is +0.1 to elegance.

Score updated to 10.5 points.

Sorry, guys.

[Zaq]

Any judging updates?

Anyway I've got a short list for the next ingredient. Are you feeling more like a concept, a high-magic class, or a moderate-magic class? All of them are thematically appropriate.

[H_H_F_F]

Concept. 10 characters

[Quentinas]

Moderate magic for me

[loky1109]

Concept. ....

[MinimanMidget]

I'll toss in a vote for moderate magic - magic rounds aren't where I thrive, but it'd be nice to have a straightforward round.

[ciopo]

My hat to magic, too either high or moderate

[daremetoidareyo]

Magic moderate.

[H_H_F_F]

Any update on the judging front, Kuulvheysoon?

[Zaq]

If there's no additional judgment ready, I'd like to move on in about 24 hours (roughly) if that works for everyone.

[Quentinas]

For me is fine

[Zaq]

Name
Alignment / Race
Class Levels
Chef
loky1109
H_H_F_F
Judge 3
Judge 4
Total
Place


Bash Jordon (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25197292&postcount=18)
LN Raptoran
Fighter 2 / Sohei 2 / Monk 2
daremetoidareyo

10
9.9


19.9
5th


Graazt Du'kal (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25197294&postcount=19)
CE Silverbrow Human
Scout 4 / Ranger 2
RaiKirah

12.75
13.75


26.5
3rd


Hildegard (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25197295&postcount=20)
CG Dragonborn
Cleric 1 / Warlock 5
RaiKirah

12.5
10.4


22.9
4th


Mooncasai Munkedu (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25197296&postcount=21)
NG Anthropomorphic Monkey
Ranger 5 / Nature's Warrior 1
ciopo

18
13.1


31.1
2nd


Pippin (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25197297&postcount=22)
CG Raptoran
Ranger 3 / Cleric 1 / Ardent 1 / Horizon Walker 1
MinimanMidget

18.5
13.95


32.45
1st



Alright guys gals and nonbinary pals, that's a wrap! Thanks to our judges for spending time on this and validating the time our chefs pour into this (and special thanks to loky1109 for putting together the table for me)! Congrats to our medalists MinimanMidget, ciopo, and RaiKirah, but all of these entries were great!

We'll have the new round up in a few minutes!

[H_H_F_F]

Congratulations, everyone! As I said, despite the low elegance scores I dished out, I see this as a great round. You guys were all very creative and unique. I'm sorry we didn't manage to get Kuulvheysoon's judgement, but RL gets in the way sometimes.

Congrats on another gold medal, Minimanmidget. You seem to be really hoarding them.

Raikirah, if someone asked me to rank the categories in rank of importance to me, I'd probably the order was say UoSI, originality, and elegance/power as a tie. Therefore, you'd not be surprised to hear that despite ending up in Bronze, Graazt is gold in my heart. I'd totally use a more polished version of this build. I'm sorry we couldn't see eye to eye on some stuff with both your builds.

Congrats on Bronze, Ciopo. This was a well executed build, but I was surprised by how relatively bland it was - nothing near terrible, but I'm used to more exciting stuff from you.

Dare - I'm sorry for penalizing you on lack of fluff, as I know you are first and foremost a tinkerer. I hope you can empathize with the way I do things, even of you disagree. As for the rest - I'd be interested in reading your commentary on the build, and any criticism on my judgement that wasn't worth a dispute. I always greatly enjoy your builds, even if my judgements as of late haven't really highlighted that.

Thank you Loky, my brother in arms in the judging department, and thanks as always to Zaq for being the awesome chair that you are! Looking forward to next round!

[RaiKirah]

Congrats to everyone, and thank you to loky1109 and H_H_F_F for judging!




Raikirah, if someone asked me to rank the categories in rank of importance to me, I'd probably the order was say UoSI, originality, and elegance/power as a tie. Therefore, you'd not be surprised to hear that despite ending up in Bronze, Graazt is gold in my heart. I'd totally use a more polished version of this build. I'm sorry we couldn't see eye to eye on some stuff with both your builds.

H_H_F_F - I want to apologize for my tone in my disputes; i was less then generous in my comments and that's not who I want to be, so I am sorry for that. I believe I also owe an apology to Zaq here, since I didn't review the dispute rules and violated some with my less than exceptional disputes.


Now that everything is out in the open, I'm curious if anyone else has an opinion on the wording in Flyby Attack, and whether you can count as Diving, and thus Charging, using the feat. I can admit (after stewing on it for a while) that it's a pretty permissive reading, and was wondering where other folks fall on that rule.

[MinimanMidget]

Now that everything is out in the open, I'm curious if anyone else has an opinion on the wording in Flyby Attack, and whether you can count as Diving, and thus Charging, using the feat. I can admit (after stewing on it for a while) that it's a pretty permissive reading, and was wondering where other folks fall on that rule.

I can certainly see the argument, and I can't find any uses of the word "dive" in the flying rules that aren't referring to dive attacks. That said, if I'd been judging, I'd still have penalised, since I'd still consider it at least a little dodgy. I have actually been wondering about Hildegard for a different reason. You see, I know riding a charging mount counts as charging, but does riding a flying mount count as flying? I can't find anything either way.

[RaiKirah]

does riding a flying mount count as flying? I can't find anything either way.

I couldn't either, which is why I went for Dragonborn (Wings) to be flying in my own right and qualify for flyby attack. I'll admit it was a bit dubious :)

[H_H_F_F]

Congrats to everyone, and thank you to loky1109 and H_H_F_F for judging!

H_H_F_F - I want to apologize for my tone in my disputes; i was less then generous in my comments and that's not who I want to be, so I am sorry for that.

You're welcome! Thank you for apologizing. I do empathize with you here, and wasn't offended by the tone in your disputes, which was still overall civil and respectful.

Though I stand behind my judgement, I didn't communicate the mortalbane point very clearly at all, and the frustration from something like that can lead to a feeling of your build being misunderstood or biased against. That can get you riled up, and that's completely understandable.