Optimization Showcase in the Playground: 3Spooky5Me

[WhamBamSam]

INTRODUCTION
Every October in the lead-up to the actual holiday, I go rattling my chains in the Showcase Discord to solicit spooky optimization tricks and treats from my fellows in order to throw a little ( https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?601739-Optimization-Showcase-in-the-Playground-Tales-From-the-Crypt) party (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?621487-Optimization-Showcase-in-the-Playground-Creature-Double-Feature). I’m a little late getting this up this year, but every night, to me, is Halloween, so here’s what Viscount and I have scared up!


3Spooky5Me
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FCH9euAVEAcqznf?format=jpg&name=900x900


We’ll start with my contribution.


Eyes and Stomach
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQe9t0tuIorzE35E3i1JpIcBfIktluUL lVV3A&usqp=CAU
“Looks delicious.”

We’ve toyed around with making a showcase with Spirit Shaman’s Guide Magic ability, which lets your Spirit Guide maintain concentration on a spell while you can continue to take other actions, but never came up with anything that Piggy was happy with. Eyes of the King had some problems for what we were going for, as its duration caps at minutes per level, and getting it on a domain means only a single casting per day, but a villain who isn’t bound by the 4-encounter adventuring day can take that in stride, and as it happens, my campaign setting has a faction of Doresain worshippers to slot the build into.

STUB
Azurin Spirit Shaman 15/Contemplative 1/Divine Disciple 4

ABILITY SCORES
Elite Array: 8 Str, 12 Dex, 13 Con, 10 Int, 14 Wis, 15 Cha
32 Point-Buy: 8 Str, 12 Dex, 14 Con, 10 Int, 16 Wis, 16 Cha
Prioritize Cha, and having enough Wis to cast all levels of Spirit Shaman spells.

Level Class Feats Class Features
1st Spirit Shaman 1 Enlarge Spell, Mastery of Ice and Fire Spirit Guide, Wild Empathy
2nd Spirit Shaman 2 - Chastise Spirits
3rd Spirit Shaman 3 Snowcasting Detect Spirits
4th Spirit Shaman 4 - Blessing of the Spirits
5th Spirit Shaman 5 - Follow the Guide
6th Spirit Shaman 6 Knowledge Devotion (Religion) Ghost Warrior
7th Spirit Shaman 7 - Warding of the Spirits
8th Spirit Shaman 8 - -
9th Spirit Shaman 9 Extend Spell Spirit Form 1/day
10th Spirit Shaman 10 - Guide Magic
11th Contemplative 1 - Hunger Domain, Divine Health
12th Divine Disciple 1 Midnight Metamagic Evil Domain, Divine Emissary
13th Divine Disciple 2 - Sacred Defense +1
14th Divine Disciple 3 - Imbue With Spell Ability
15th Spirit Shaman 11 Planar Touchstone (Catalogues of Enlightenment: Dragon Below), Augment SummoningB Recall Spirit
16th Spirit Shaman 12 - -
17th Spirit Shaman 13 - Exorcism
18th Spirit Shaman 14 Reach Spell -
19th Spirit Shaman 15 - Spirit Form 2/day
20th Divine Disciple 4 - Sacred Defense +2

LEVEL 5
Mastery of Ice and Fire adds Enlarge for free to any [Fire] or [Cold] spell, and Snowcasting allows you to add the [Cold] descriptor to a spell by using some snow as a material component. So any spell you cast with a range of Close, Medium, or Long has that range doubled, and that includes many of the Druid list’s staples, including such low-level favorites as Entangle, Blinding Spittle, and Kelpstrand.

LEVEL 10
Continuing on with Spirit Shaman, Knowledge Devotion can help make some ranged touch attacks more reliably, but more importantly gets Religion as a class skill to qualify for PrCs later on. Extend is always a solid choice for the Druid list, and doubling the duration of long-term buffs like the Heart of X line helps make up for Spirit Shaman’s low number of spells known/day. Spirit Form is cool as well, granting a minute of incorporeality each day.

LEVEL 15
This is around the level where my players fought this build, and in my opinion where it really shines. Contemplative grants the Hunger Domain, which has a number of cool spells on it, but of particular interest is Eyes of the King. Guide Magic maintains concentration on the spell so you don’t have to, meaning that you can see through the eyes of the bats while continuing to cast yourself, and so take full advantage of the range boost from Mastery of Ice and Fire or inherent crazy range of spells like Control Winds by holing up (possibly incorporeally/underground/underwater/etc) somewhere near the edge of range and directing your spells by what the bats can see. The Hunger Domain also grants Ghoul Gauntlet and Field of Ghouls, which allow you to pump out Ghouls to fill your Animate Dead cap. They’re weak, but intelligent and wise enough for Divine Disciple’s Imbue With Spell Ability. Some might argue that only spells cast as a Cleric can be imbued, but I think it’s reasonable to imbue spells from the Cleric list or from domains. If you can use Imbue, that’s a few more low-level spells coming out of mooks that, like the bats, give you a way to cast while keeping out of harm’s way in addition to the slight improvement in action economy. Catalogues of Enlightenment for the Dragon Below Domain not only gives a tax-free Augment Summoning for SNA spells, but also offers access to the Planar Ally line with its Higher Order Ability. Libris Mortis says that Doresain can add the Gravetouched Ghoul template to creatures that wouldn’t ordinarily be eligible, and in particular that his Greater Planar Ally is a Gravetouched Ghoul Ice Devil. This is, frankly, hysterical, as Ice Devils have Regeneration and becoming undead adds immunity to nonlethal, so the thing is straight-up immune to any damage that’s not from a good-aligned weapon or from a [Good] spell. As a devil, it can also teleport itself and chunks of non-living material around at-will, making it hard to pin down with non-lethal means, and it can buff all your allies with its at-will Unholy Aura and Fly in addition to its own combat abilities. 1/week Raise Dead can also come in handy, especially when you have minions who can teleport non-living material back from the front lines. Midnight Metamagic is a bit ho-hum, but a free Extend 1/day isn’t bad.

LEVEL 20
Finishing out with more casting progression. Shapechange is cool and good to the point that there’s not much I need to say about it. In terms of class features, it’s basically just another use of Spirit Form, but even going up from 1 use/day allows it to be used much more freely. Feat-wise, Reach Spell gives another use for Midnight Metamagic’s free metamagic effect. Bite of the King is much more fun than it is actually good, but being able to do it from 30 feet at least makes it somewhat usable should enemies get up in your grill.

SOURCES
Complete Champion: Knowledge Devotion
Complete Divine: Spirit Shaman, Contemplative
Eberron Campaign Setting: Dragon Below Domain
Frostburn: Snowcasting
Libris Mortis: Doresain, Gravetouched Ghoul
Magic of Incarnum: Midnight Metamagic
Planar Handbook: Planar Touchstone, Catalogues of Enlightenment
Player’s Guide to Eberron: Mastery of Ice and Fire
Player’s Guide to Faerun: Divine Disciple
Spell Compendium: Hunger Domain, Spells
Everything else should be SRD.

[WhamBamSam]

And next, Viscount's build.



Galatea

NG > NE Female Personality Warforged Incarnate 4/Reforged 3/Warlock 8/Necrocarnate 5

Stats
Str 8
Dex 14
Con 14 (16)
Int 14
Wis 12 (10)
Cha 16 (14, increases here)

Build


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


1st
Incarnate 1
+0
+2
+0
+2
Knowledge (Arcana) 4, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Sense Motive 4, Spellcraft 4
Apprentice (Philosopher)
Aura, Detect Opposition


2nd
Incarnate 2
+1
+3
+0
+3
Knowledge (Arcana) 5, Knowledge (Religion) 5, Profession (Entertainer) 1, Spellcraft 5

Chakra Bind (Crown)


3rd
Incarnate 3
+1
+3
+1
+3
Profession (Entertainer) 4, Spellcraft 6
Expanded Soulmeld Capacity
Expanded Soulmeld Capacity +1, Incarnum Radiance 1/day


4th
Incarnate 4
+2
+4
+1
+4
Profession (Entertainer) 8

Chakra Binds (Feet, Hands)


5th
Reforged 1
+2
+4
+1
+6
Bluff 3, Gather Information 2, Sense Motive 5

Extroverted, Natural Healing


6th
Reforged 2
+3
+4
+1
+7
Bluff 6, Gather Information 5
Bonus Essentia
Reforged Insight, Magical Healing


7th
Reforged 3
+4
+5
+2
+7
Bluff 9, Gather Information 8

Embrace Emotion, Final Reforging, (B)Unarmored Body


8th
Warlock 1
+4
+5
+2
+9
Spellcraft 10

Eldritch Blast 1d6, Least Invocation (Beguiling Influence)


9th
Warlock 2
+5
+5
+2
+10
Use Magic Device 4
Force of Personality
Detect Magic, Entropic Warding


10th
Warlock 3
+6/+1
+6
+3
+10
Use Magic Device 8

Damage Reduction 1/Cold Iron, Eldritch Blast 2d6


11th
Warlock 4
+7/+2
+6
+3
+11
Bluff 13

Deceive Item, Serpent’s Tongue


12th
Warlock 5
+7/+2
+6
+3
+11
Bluff 15, Disguise 2
Necrocarnum Acolyte
Eldritch Blast 3d6


13th
Warlock 6
+8/+3
+7
+4
+12
Bluff 16, Disguise 5

Lesser Invocation (Mask of Flesh)


14th
Warlock 7
+9/+4
+7
+4
+12
Bluff 17, Disguise 8

Damage Reduction 2/Cold Iron, Eldritch Blast 4d6


15th
Warlock 8
+10/+5
+7
+4
+13
Bluff 18, Disguise 11
Extra Invocation (Frightful Blast)
Fiendish Resilience, Walk Unseen


16th
Necrocarnate 1
+10/+5
+7
+4
+15
Bluff 19, Intimidate 3

Harvest Soul (1 Minute), Improved Meldshaper Level


17th
Necrocarnate 2
+11/+6/+1
+7
+4
+16
Bluff 20, Intimidate 6

Necrocarnum Soulshield


18th
Necrocarnate 3
+11/+6/+1
+8
+4
+16
Bluff 21, Intimidate 9
Harvester of Souls
Chakra Binds (Arms, Brow, Shoulders)


19th
Necrocarnate 4
+12/+7/+2
+8
+4
+17
Bluff 22, Intimidate 12

Extra Chakra Bind, Extra Soulmeld


20th
Necrocarnate 5
+12/+7/+2
+8
+4
+17
Bluff 23, Intimidate 15

Essentia Trap



Backstory
I love him. I could never leave him. We are bound together forever. I think I’ve loved him almost as long as I could even comprehend my existence. Victor told me he made me, in his workshop. He toiled for months, sacrificing so much of his time and energy. I don’t think I could ever repay him for all he did for making me. He taught me so much, about how the world works and my place in it. In our deeper conversations, I learned about the soul, the subject of so many writings. It seemed so fragile, but so important. I asked Victor if I had a soul. He said he didn’t know. When I asked how I could get one, he looked uncomfortable and changed the subject, and left to his study. I wanted to cry, but I couldn’t.

Of all the subjects, one of the hardest ones in the early years was emotion. I read so much about it, but I couldn’t be sure I knew what they felt like. I asked Victor to explain it, but he said it wasn’t something like mathematics that he could explain. You could only know if you felt it. After the first few years I had learned enough that Victor let me make improvements to my inner workings. I tinkered to make myself stronger, learning to redirect my energies. I worked the hardest at emotions. When I finally mastered them, I knew for sure that I loved him, and that I always would. It was a beautiful feeling. He loved me too. I could tell, even if he didn’t say it. He encouraged me to further my studies when he started making more journeys into town. I missed him, and I tried to console myself with the knowledge this meant he trusted me to take care of the house when he was away. Sometimes it worked. Sometimes he was gone for a few days, but he always came back to me.

When he had been gone a week, I knew I had to go looking for him. I couldn’t bear the thought of something happening to him, and I had to find out if he had gotten into trouble. After hours of skulking through the village I finally found him. I barely managed to duck behind a haycart when he stepped out of the apothecary door. The apothecary stepped out to bid him goodbye, and they kissed. I felt a new emotion that day. It felt like dying. It felt like something broke inside me. I ran home as fast as I could, and I looked over every inch of my inner workings, but I couldn’t find anything malfunctioning. Nothing explained the pain inside.

I didn’t hear Victor get home. Suddenly he was there at the door, asking what I was doing. I closed up my panels in shame. I couldn’t keep the feelings from my voice when I asked who she was, and what she meant to him. He was shocked into silence at first, then he got angry, scolding me for leaving the house without asking, and telling me it was no business of mine. I asked if he loved her. He didn’t answer. I asked if it was because she had a soul and I didn’t. He still didn’t answer. He said we should both rest, and talk in the morning.

I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I had to know. I left the house again, and I crept into the apothecary’s. She was sound asleep, and I used something I learned from the books Victor didn’t want me reading. I stole her face. He wouldn’t think her so pretty now. I got back to the house by morning, soon after he woke up. I pretended to be her, but it was my feelings behind it when I said I couldn’t stay away, that I wanted to see him again. He was so happy to see her. I’d never seen him that happy to see me. He held me close and whispered sweet nothings in my ear. I wish it could have lasted forever. I asked, as her, what about his companion. What if she came in? What would she think? He said not to think about her, that she wasn’t like me. That she didn’t matter.

I felt a new emotion that day, stronger than anything I had ever felt. It flowed over me, and I couldn’t keep it in. I grabbed his mouth to stop his words, and I squeezed his chest to keep him from drawing in the breath to say anything else. I held him tighter than I had ever held him. The fear and anger and betrayal poured out of me like molten lead, and it burned him with its power.

I knew I had killed him, but I couldn’t let him go. I could feel his soul seeping out of his body, but I snatched it up and held it tight within me, so tight it could never get out. It doesn’t matter if I have a soul of my own, because I have his now. But it wasn’t the same as having him here. So I brought him back. It’s just like before, but now I make the rules. I think I like it that way.

I love him. He can never leave me. We are bound together forever.

Level 5
Beginning with Incarnate provides utility which is admittedly stretched a little thin. Airstep sandals are a solid choice that lets you save on fell flight. Lucky dice are a solid all-rounder. Vitality belt extends your survivability. Play around with what you like, it’s very friendly for mix and match. Both expanded soulmeld capacities stack, so you can supercharge something like dissolving spittle to be more competitive. Mentor helps for skill qualifications, and dovetails nicely with the backstory.

Level 10
Reforged is primarily for flavor and story here, though the unarmored body it gives does help for negating the ASF for warlock. The alignment shift to NE happens before warlock so meet its entry requirements. Incarnate helpfully just shifts all your stuff over to the other alignment when you change, no fuss. The boost to social skills meshes well with the boosts you can get from incarnate and will get from warlock. Some of your melds do grant morale bonuses, so that’s a nice plus. Beguiling influence is untyped so stacks nicely with melds. Entropic Warding’s a great defensive buff. In 1 more level we’ll stop investing in UMD since we can hit 20 when taking 10. Force of personality is taken here to represent her growing independence. Becoming evil means access to the necrocarnum melds, and they’re well worth it.

Level 15
Finishing up Warlock here. Serpent’s tongue is good anti-stealth, walk unseen is good pro-stealth. Frightful Blast and Mask of Flesh are primarily taken to add some spooky scary elements to the build. Damage of Eldritch Blast is getting reliably up there, especially when you augment it with sighting gloves.

Level 20
Crazy I know, but there’s no Hellfire Warlock in this build. Of course you could add it if you wanted to, I just felt it had been done. Instead, we’re going into Necrocarnate, which keeps up well compared to more incarnate levels. You have access to the same number of binds and melds, as well as the same chakras to bind to. It provides means of gaining more essentia as well. Access to a new class of binds gives things like moderate fortification, deflecting attacks, suggestion, see invisibility, and flight (using astral vambraces, which frees up your feet to get evasion from impulse boots. Also a good arm bind is the bluesteel bracers to help buff you and your faithful zombie created with the necrocarnum circlet. Harvester of Souls is also for story reasons, though it’s a nice blend for a necrocarnate to squeeze every last drop of soul from your enemies.

Sources
Warforged: Eberron Campaign Setting
Reforged, Unarmored Body: Races of Eberron
Incarnate, Necrocarnate, Necrocarnum Acolyte, Bonus Essentia, Expanded Soulmeld Capacity: Magic of Incarnum
Warlock, Extra Invocation, Invocations: Complete Arcane
Serpent’s Tongue, Mask of Flesh: Complete Mage
Harvester of Souls: Elder Evils
Apprentice: DMGII
Force of Personality: Complete Adventurer

[WhamBamSam]

Click here for a list of all prior showcases! (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24372982&postcount=2)

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Sad fact: if you lose your Con score, you lose Regeneration (my Futility build fell afoul of that rule). So a Gravetouched Ghoul Ice Devil just loses its Regen, it doesn't become immune to damage.

[WhamBamSam]

Sad fact: if you lose your Con score, you lose Regeneration (my Futility build fell afoul of that rule). So a Gravetouched Ghoul Ice Devil just loses its Regen, it doesn't become immune to damage.Huh. What's the source on that ruling?

Assuming it is wrong, I'm a little embarrassed that I used the wrong one in my own game, but the party had an Artificer, so getting good-aligned weapons wasn't so tough for them. The Ghoul is still pretty sturdy though, since with at-will Unholy Aura and the stat and natural armor boosts from Gravetouched Ghoul it's sitting at an AC of 40.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Huh. What's the source on that ruling?

Assuming it is wrong, I'm a little embarrassed that I used the wrong one in my own game, but the party had an Artificer, so getting good-aligned weapons wasn't so tough for them. The Ghoul is still pretty sturdy though, since with at-will Unholy Aura and the stat and natural armor boosts from Gravetouched Ghoul it's sitting at an AC of 40.

It's at the bottom of the section on Regeneration.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#regeneration


A creature must have a Constitution score to have the regeneration ability.

Surprisingly easy to miss; somehow I didn't see it even when looking up the reference and had to double check that I was in the right spot.

[Zaq]

I tried coming up with my own contribution, but I got sidetracked by working on my costume instead, so I didn't have a chance to polish this into something really shiny. Still, the core concept is clear.

Basically, did you know that there's no rule against contracting lycanthropy multiple times? You're still a humanoid (or a giant, if you started as a giant) after becoming a lycanthrope and being a lycanthrope confers no immunity to disease, so you can stack different forms of lycanthropy on top of each other.

Now, since you're only in one form at a time (assuming that you have to keep using your humanoid form as the "base form" and you can't call a hybrid form of an early lycanthrope the base form of a subsequent lycanthrope), this is generally only a curiosity, since the bonuses won't stack. But what if there were a way to get some benefit out of forms you aren't necessarily in?

Well, as you might have guessed, I come to you with just such an option. Black blood hunter, in PGtF, gets the ability to use special attacks of your animal form while in hybrid form. And the way it's worded, it should be the special attacks of ANY animal form you happen to have, regardless of which hybrid form you're in! You need 3 levels of black blood hunter for this.

The combo I came up with is stacking sea snake (Stormwrack; it's the same as a viper from MM1, but with a +2 racial bonus on the poison save DC), dire weasel, and tiger. Dire weasel provides the Attach special attack, letting you automatically latch on and continually do bite damage (and automatically deal CON damage as well) until someone pries you off. Sea snake makes that bite poisonous, doing more CON damage. And tiger provides big beefy numbers to get the most out of all of this, along with pounce.

The rough idea is like this:



ECL (HD)
"Class"
Stuff


1 (1)
Ranger 1
Start as a longtooth shifter so you qualify for Longtooth Elite, which deals automatic CON damage when you deal bite damage. Doesn't matter which bite you're using. Attach deals bite damage, so this is even more CON damage once you get rolling. Ranger is chosen just because it gets full BAB and gets most of the skills you need to get into black blood hunter; you're going to be brute-forcing a lot of cross-class ranks, but this makes it easier.


2
LA
Every time we get infected with a new form of lycanthropy, we get the HD of the animal and we get 2 more LA. Some of our numbers (like WIS and nat armor) go up and stack regardless of form, though, which is cute.


3
LA



4 (2)
Tiger 1
So the thing I like least about this build is the fact that BBH requires Vile Natural Attack and Vile Natural Attack requires BAB +5. That means, because of the way lycanthropic HD work, that you basically can't get into BBH until you've taken both tiger and dire weasel, which is a little bit disappointing thematically since I was hoping to have a progression of increasingly big and scary animal forms instead of just lunging straight for tiger. Still, it is what it is. My costume was cool and I don't regret working on it instead of this.


5 (3)
Tiger 2
Take Power Attack since it's a prereq for BBH.


6 (4)
Tiger 3



7 (5)
Tiger 4



8 (6)
Tiger 5
Close-Quarters Fighting is a fun feat in Complete Warrior that will let you get an AoO when someone tries to grapple you (and then gives you a big bonus to your check to resist the grapple based on the damage you do). Since grappling is one of the few canonical ways to remove an attached dire weasel, this is of greater use to you than it is to the average character who might not expect to be grappled as often.


9 (7)
Tiger 6



10
LA



11
LA



12 (8)
Dire weasel 1



13 (9)
Dire weasel 2
We FINALLY qualify for Vile Natural Attack and thus we can finally get into BBH, but of course since lycanthropy gives animal HD in one giant lump, we gotta "finish" dire weasel first.


14 (10)
Dire weasel 3



15 (11)
Black blood hunter 1
Honestly you aren't super duper invested in the level 1 or 2 features of BBH, though I guess they can be cute enough.



16 (12)
Black blood hunter 2
You get a feat here! I didn't bother picking it! Go wild!


17 (13)
Black blood hunter 3
And now you can be a hybrid tiger with the Attach attack of a dire weasel! Note that nothing says you can't still be using your big nasty claws while you've latched on with your jaws.


18
LA



19
LA



20 (14)
Small sea snake 1
Since we're using the special attack and nothing else, there's no reason not to pick a Small sea snake as your final lycanthropic form, since they've got fewer HD and you don't really care about their numbers. The save DC to your poison attack (which will automatically apply whenever someone takes bite damage from you being attached) should be based on CON and HD (and the nice racial bonus), so it's actually decent.



In the end, you get a pouncing hybrid tigerweaselsnake that latches on with its fearsome tiger bite and automatically does 1d4 + 1 CON damage per round while forcing a save against an additional 1d6 CON damage. While you're doing that, you can be slashing away with big tiger claws and swatting away attempts to grapple you in order to dislodge you.

This character might be a more fun NPC than PC (since a PC couldn't get the cool thematic progression of snake to weasel to tiger like I imagined, at least not if they want BBH before level 20), but I think it's a neat concept regardless. Happy belated Halloween!