Optimization Villainous Competition XLIII: The Big Dumb Brute [Archive]

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H_H_F_F

2022-01-04, 04:44 PM

Welcome to Round 43 of the Villainous Competition!

Previous Competitions

Round One: Leader of Armies (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?395046)
Round Two: Nature's Revenger (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?400517)
Round Three: Double Agent (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?406015)
Round Four: Grave Keeper (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?413480)
Round Five: Crime Lord (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?420704)
Round Six: Ultimate Predator (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?430650)
Round Seven: Wicked Witch (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?444478)
Round Eight: Master of the Tundra (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?461482)
Round Nine: The Power of Villainous Thinking (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?474230)
Round Ten: Henchman Are Villains Too (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?478068)
Round Eleven: The Higher They Rise The Harder They Fall (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?483052)
Round Twelve: Power Comes at a Price (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?488846)
Round Thirteen: The Gadgeteer - You Are Not Batman (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?491932)
Round Fourteen: The Thing That Should Not Be (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?496091)
Round Fifteen: The Horsemen Are Drawing Nearer (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?500829)
Round Sixteen: Burn Baby Burn (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?503974)
Round Seventeen: It's Alive! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?507768)
Round Eighteen: This is Heresy (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?511933)
Round Nineteen: He Slimed Me! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?516535)
Round Twenty: Elder Evil (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?521560)
Round Twenty-One: Yarr! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?527415-Villainous-Competition-XXI-Yarr!)
Round Twenty-Two: I Am The Night! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?531199-Villainous-Competition-XXII-I-Am-The-Night!)
Round Twenty-Three: Two Heads Are Better Than One! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?535437-Villainous-Competition-XXIII-Two-Heads-Are-Better-Than-One)
Round Twenty-Four: Wrong For The Right Reasons! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?541650-Villainous-Competition-XXIV-Wrong-For-The-Right-Reasons)
Round Twenty-Five: Keeper of the Gate (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?550139-Villainous-Competition-XXV-No-Solicitors!)
Round Twenty-Six: Get In MY BELLY (Swallow Whole) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?556705-Villainous-Competition-XXVI-Swallow-Whole!)
Round Twenty-Seven: Multiple Personality Disorder (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?559748-Villainous-Competition-XXVII-Multiple-Personality-Disorder)
Round Twenty-Eight: Tiny Only! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?565176-Villainous-Competition-XXVIII-Bad-Things-Come-in-Small-Packages)
Round Twenty-Nine: Halloween Special (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?573496-Villainous-Competition-XXIX-A-Halloween-Special)
Round Thirty: One Feat to Rule Them ALL (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?577930-Villainous-Competition-XXX-One-Feat-to-Rule-Them-ALL)
Round Thirty-One: In Cold Blood (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?582492-Villainous-Competition-XXXI-In-Cold-Blood)
Round Thirty-Two: oh HELL NO! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?586377-Villainous-Competition-XXXII-Oh-HELL-NO!)
Round Thirty-Three: The Do Over (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?589107-Villainous-Competition-XXXIII-The-Do-Over)
Round Thirty-Four: Sword and Board (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?600139-Villainous-Competition-XXXIV-Sword-and-Board)
Round Thirty-Five: I Shall Call Him Mini Me! (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?605444-Villainous-Competition-XXXV-I-Shall-Call-Him-Mini-Me!)
Round Thirty-Six: The Broken Man (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?612196-Villainous-Competition-XXXVI-The-Broken-Man)
Round Thirty-Seven: Yin and Yang (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?617485-Villainous-Competition-XXXVII-Yin-and-Yang)
Round Thirty Eight: Spooks and Spectres (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?621069-Villainous-Competition-XXXVIII-Spooks-and-Spectres)
Round Thirty Nine: Sorta Psuedo (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?625680-Villainous-Competition-XXXIX-Sorta-Psuedo)
Round Forty: Negative Nancy (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?629291-Villainous-Competition-XL-Negative-Nancy)
Round Forty One: Gojira! (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?632587-Villainous-Competition-XL-1-Gojira!)
Round Forty Two: Caine?! (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?635461-Villainous-Competition-XLII-Caine-!)

We're a little different than most of the optimization threads. We run on CR instead of ECL.

Contestants:
You will need to present a write-up of your build with at least one of the following points: 5 CR, 10 CR 15 CR, 20 CR, and a "sweet spot" that you feel is the high point of the build, as well as presenting a fully-fleshed out 20 CR build in the table below. Feel free to present as many of these as you like, and please give a rundown of the build's abilities and playability at all of the levels you didn't show. The rules are as follows:

Secret Laboratory:
Competitors will be free to use any official 1st party (WotC) 3.5 rulebook in constructing their builds. Dragon Compendium is allowed, but Dragon magazine is disallowed. Unearthed Arcana is allowed. Unupdated 3.0 materials, as well as web exclusives by WotC are expressly allowed, but take care to verify that an updated version did not appear in print elsewhere, as this may cause an Elegance deduction at the judges' discretion. Alternate rule systems from UA such as gestalt or Generic Classes are not allowed, as they create a different playing field. Item Familiars and Taint are also banned from the competition. Leadership and all similar abilities are banned for sanity reasons.
Builds that are fully monstrous are allowed at no penalty. All class levels are to be added on as associated class levels.

Elite array (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8) is the assumed ability score generation method.
Some monstrous characters can technically qualify for Epic feats as soon as their HD is over 20. While regular Epic feats will be allowed, Epic Spellcasting and all other Epic feats that affect spells, psionic powers, or item creation are not permitted. Including these would give an unfair advantage over standard characters. For Incarnum characters, Epic Open Chakra feats are allowed; other Epic Incarnum feats are not. The Essentia Capacity increases for Epic capacity as described on p. 212. For all characters, please note that Racial Hit Dice do not count towards Epic Progression; use the regular progression even if the BAB ends up higher than 20.

Deadlines:
Contestants will have until January 21st 28th, 11:00 AM GMT to create their builds and PM them to the Interim Chancellor. Builds will then be posted simultaneously, to avoid copying. Judges should strive to finish their judgement until February 7th 14th. Deadlines are subject to extension as/if required.

Judging:
Judging will be based on the following criteria, with each build rated on a scale from 1 (very poor) to 5 (exemplary) in each area: Originality, Build Elegance, Competence and Power, Memorable Villainy.
Keep these questions in mind when judging each category:
Originality - Is it unexpected?
Build Elegance - Is it mechanically pretty?
Competence and Power - Can it do what the concept asks of it? Is this a powerfully-built character?
Memorable Villainy - Is this a villain with style? Will it be the BBEG players long to finally kill and then talk about for weeks?
Unearthed Arcana can be penalized for elegance if the specific feature seems unnecessary or makes the playing field unfair (In this case, you can give a 1 if it makes the field unfair.)
Power level is up to you. Cheese is acceptable, but should be kept to a sane level unless you're showcasing a new TO build you've discovered. As the Iron Chef competition states, a little cheddar can be nice, but avoid the mature Gruyere unless you're making a cheese fondue.
You may not judge if you entered the contest, unless you withdraw your submission.

Presentation:
Builds will be posted anonymously, in order to avoid the potential of bias towards a particular competitor. For this reason, please don't put your name in the build, as I'm likely to miss it when reviewing the entries!

Note:
There is now a hard limit on two (2) entries per competitor.

Using the table below, the easiest way to use it is to go to the top left of the private message, and click the little a/A icon. It allows you to see what you're writing.
Due to concerns about standardizing entry format, I'd like everyone to try to use the following table for their entry.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Code immediately below (spoiler).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

You can use the table below for Spells.

Spells per Day/Spells Known
Spells per Day/Spells Known

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Code Immediately Below,
Spells per Day/Spells Known
Spells per Day/Spells Known

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Speculation:
Please don’t post or speculate on possible builds until the reveal, in order to avoid spoiling the surprise if a particular competitor is producing a build along those lines.
Once builds are revealed, please do not comment on errors or rules issues on entries unless you are a judge. If you have such a comment, wait until the final reveal to post it.

Get ready to share those Evil thoughts. This edition’s villain is:

The Big Dumb Brute

Limitations

Cannot have access to spellcasting, psionics, spell-like abilities or psi-like abilities.
Cannot have access to maneuvers, meldshaping, or wild shape.
Should be a melee opponent first and foremost.
Must be Evil
Note: Despite the name, there are no limitations regarding size or mental ability scores.

Let the carnage begin!

Submission:
To standardize Entries, please use this format when sending it in:

PM: H_H_F_F
Subject: Villainous Competition 43, Name of your Entry
For Revisions and disputes, do the same thing. It makes it easier for me finding the entries in my mailbox.
More questions? PM me with Villainous Competition 43 Questions in the header.

We will award 1st through 3rd places, and a possible Honorable Mention.

provided by Weaselguy:

- Use capitalization and punctuation, correctly.
- Make good use of Spoilers, for cleanliness.
- Don't forget your sources. If it's something that can be found in the contents section, then book title seems to be fine. Obscure stuff, may want to include page number too.
- DeviantArt has about 9 billion pictures that you can reference, I can almost guarantee you can find one there to fit your character.
- Make good use of tables. In addition to the Build table and the Spells table, I like doing one for my Ability Scores, just to keep it neat.
- Do a build stub at the top of your Build Table, something like Wizard 2/Fighter 3/Abjurant Champion 5/Eldritch Knight 10

H_H_F_F

2022-01-04, 04:45 PM

Clarifications

Unearthed Arcana variant rules are limited: The variant character options (such as Wildshape Ranger and Thug Fighter) should not be penalized. Flaws and traits may be penalized by judges, whereas item familiars, gestalt, alternate skill systems, alternate magic systems, alternate crafting rules, generic base classes, LA buyoff, fractional saves/BAB, and bloodlines are banned. Anything not mentioned here is up to individual judges.

d20 Rokugan is not allowed material.

The Dragon Magazine update for Oriental Adventures is in use.

Leadership is banned. Any material that grants you leadership without you specifically taking it should be ignored and may not be traded away for another feat or ACF. Undead Leadership and Dragon Cohort are likewise banned. Wild Cohort and Obtain Familiar are allowed. If you are not sure if a specific feat violates the 'no leadership' rule, err on the side of caution, or ask me.

However, Leadership may be taken to qualify for another feat or class (such as the Great Captain feat or Legendary Leader prestige class), though a character still doesn't get its usual benefit in those cases. This is to allow characters to access unproblematic material that'd otherwise be made unavailable because of the Leadership ban.

On the subject of messaging the chair (me), a few guidelines:
- You can ask for clarifications on the rules of the round or the competition, but I am not here to give critiques on your build or guess how the judges might score it.
- When submitting entries, please keep the entry to no more than 2 message, if at all possible. That way, it'll fit within one post.
- Also when submitting entries, don't expect me to search through your entry and edit in or out material. Entries should be sent to me complete - if there is a later revision, re-submit the full build. Do not include any text which you don't want posted in your submission.
- Please make sure the name of your entry is clearly present in the message.

AvatarVecna

2022-01-04, 04:54 PM

Doctor Despair

2022-01-04, 05:30 PM

Given how much this contest allows for monster stuff as opposed to just PC stuff, shouldn't "wild shape" be more like "any kind of alternate shape effect", or something? Like, with the current restrictions, I wouldn't be surprised if somebody dug up a technically-legal monster that had continuous Shapechange as an Su or even Ex ability to get around restrictions while still getting all the best forms. Making it any kind of shape-changing nonsense illegal lets the contest focus on a particular creature's capabilities.

I suppose it depends on if they want to cut out things like lycanthropy, right? You'd need to cut out a lot of premium martial-friendly content to cut out the edge case of turbo-shapechange creatures. Maybe it'd be better to leave it up to judge discretion to ding characters not in the spirit of the challenge?

H_H_F_F

2022-01-05, 03:51 AM

Pretty much what Doctor Despair said. I considered it, but decided that in the absolute majority of cases, alternate forms were just part of the physicality of the monster. As an example that wouldn't be speculation because it has SLAs anyway, Barghests are shapeshifters, but a Barghest bruiser is nothing like a wild shape based combatant.

Besides, I felt that I was harsh enough with banning all SLAs, and I do want to leave some room for creativity.

Thurbane

2022-01-05, 03:56 PM

Very interesting, I'll do my best to get an entry in for this one.

At a glance, though, isn't this quite similar to Round Thirty-Four: Sword and Board?

Old School Sword and Board

Limitations

Must be a non-caster (no psionics, no spellcasting, no sla's/pla's)
Tome of Battle is banned
in the interest of doing more with less, this round will use the non-elite array, read above
this round, originality will be a 10 point scale
Must be Evil

Doctor Despair

2022-01-05, 04:00 PM

Very interesting, I'll do my best to get an entry in for this one.

At a glance, though, isn't this quite similar to Round Thirty-Four: Sword and Board?

To be fair, this one also bans wildshape, maneuvers, and ranged primary strategies.

H_H_F_F

2022-01-05, 04:09 PM

Damn, missed that one. I thought I looked at all previous comps to avoid repetition, but clearly not well enough.

I feel that the current restrictions are different enough and that enough options have gone unexplored to allow this to be a round, but I'd be willing to come up with new limitations, if that's what the people want.

I am a benevolent usurper, after all.

Thurbane

2022-01-05, 04:51 PM

loky1109

2022-01-05, 05:37 PM

Okay. I have idea, almost ready whole build (in the head at least). It was here for long time... Three months? Four? And of course constructed not under this restrictions, but it luckily match them and should work well for this round.

White Blade

2022-01-06, 03:47 AM

What’s the rule on camping setting specific material?

H_H_F_F

2022-01-06, 04:00 AM

What’s the rule on camping setting specific material?

Not sure I understood the question.

You can use setting specific material, as long as it comes from the allowed sources. Using material from 2 or more different settings is not illegal for the competition, but it's up to the judges if they find it inelegant or not.

If you have any further questions that you feel would be too revealing, feel free to PM me.

loky1109

2022-01-06, 07:24 PM

White Blade

2022-01-07, 02:13 AM

On “First and foremost a melee combatant” does that mean mainly deals damage in melee or trades blows with the party barbarian in melee?

H_H_F_F

2022-01-07, 03:49 AM

On “First and foremost a melee combatant” does that mean mainly deals damage in melee or trades blows with the party barbarian in melee?

Sorry to give such a vague answer, but this is a "soft" limitation - meaning it's up to the judges. If your entry feels like a melee combatant and does primarily melee stuff, you're gonna do better than otherwise. If your villain doesn't feel like a melee and mostly works from afar, you're going to do poorly.

White Blade

2022-01-10, 04:05 AM

Weirdly difficult to do this one without dipping too much back into old wells, but I tried my best dang it. Sent in (sorry for the double send, HHFF, I sent without the required title line.)

jdizzlean

2022-01-11, 07:25 AM

H_H_F_F

2022-01-11, 07:52 AM

i have been fairly non-existent for certain. feel free to run with it, should life open up again, i may ask for the reins back, but that'll be up to you :)

Good to hear from you, Jdizzlean! Glad to know you're ok.

Let me know as soon as you feel up to running the show again, the way I see it I'm only here as an interim chair.

H_H_F_F

2022-01-19, 02:06 PM

Doctor Despair

2022-01-19, 02:31 PM

Well folks, looks like this is going to be a very small round. I thought this theme would get more engagement, but I was apparently mistaken. I have five more ideas in the can - hopefully these could garner up more interest.

Is anyone but those who had entered still planning to submit an entry?

Other than that, do we have any potential judges in the crowd?

I had planned to, as I had a build already in concept before this competition, but life has a way of making it difficult to write up entries sometimes. Midterm grading is among those ways. :/

loky1109

2022-01-19, 02:40 PM

H_H_F_F

2022-01-19, 02:52 PM

I had planned to, as I had a build already in concept before this competition, but life has a way of making it difficult to write up entries sometimes. Midterm grading is among those ways. :/

RL comes first, obviously. Is it the sort of thing that could be addressed with an extension, or are you too busy in the forseeable future?

How many entries are in now?

Only 3 at the moment.

NotInventedHere

2022-01-19, 03:53 PM

Well folks, looks like this is going to be a very small round. I thought this theme would get more engagement, but I was apparently mistaken. I have five more ideas in the can - hopefully these could garner up more interest.

Is anyone but those who had entered still planning to submit an entry?

Other than that, do we have any potential judges in the crowd?

I'm slowly trying to assemble an entry. Not sure if an extension would help unfortunately, the problem is less RL time and more just 'brain, why must you be like this'.

Thurbane

2022-01-19, 03:59 PM

Wow, that deadline crept up quickly! I was hoping to get something in, but time got away from me...

H_H_F_F

2022-01-19, 04:00 PM

I'm slowly trying to assemble an entry. Not sure if an extension would help unfortunately, the problem is less RL time and more just 'brain, why must you be like this'.

Wow, that deadline crept up quickly! I was hoping to get something in, but time got away from me...

Both of you are welcome to let me know if inspiration strikes and you need more time.

InvisibleBison

2022-01-19, 04:07 PM

I don't have any ideas for this round, but I would be happy to judge.

Thurbane

2022-01-19, 04:54 PM

Both of you are welcome to let me know if inspiration strikes and you need more time.

If you can offer an extension, I should be able to get something in.

Failing that, I'll offer to judge.

AvatarVecna

2022-01-19, 05:55 PM

I'm kinda interested in making something, just haven't felt too inspired. I think I've got a neat idea tho...

H_H_F_F

2022-01-19, 05:58 PM

I've pushed back the reveal by another week, with the understanding that folks might need a further 2-day extension to get some work done on the weekend - so don't pull an all-nighter to submit by that Friday. Please try your best to make it by then if you can, though.

New deadline: the 28th. Make sure you note the time is GMT.

Thank you to everyone who's indicated a willingness to judge!

Venger

2022-01-21, 02:26 AM

Oh, great. Thanks for the extension. I had an idea for this and now I'll have time to write it up.

H_H_F_F

2022-01-26, 12:13 AM

How are we doing, folks?

Doctor Despair

2022-01-26, 07:23 AM

How are we doing, folks?

I submitted mine, but you already know that :p

loky1109

2022-01-26, 09:22 AM

I did all that I can.

H_H_F_F

2022-01-27, 06:44 AM

Less than 24 hours to the reveal. If anyone is still working and needs the extra extension proposed before, please let me know.

Venger

2022-01-27, 09:24 PM

Just dotting Is and crossing Ts. I ought to get in under he deadline. This was a fun one.
EDIT: And sent mine in! Can't wait to see what everyone else came up with.

H_H_F_F

2022-01-28, 09:09 AM

It's time for the reveal!
Please, don't post until I've given the all-clear.

H_H_F_F

2022-01-28, 09:09 AM

Hear me roar.

Auralina/Subject Eight
Lawful Evil -> Neutral Evil (after Lycanthrope) Spellwarped Human Monk 2/Afflicted Lycanthrope (Horrid Tiger) 16/Dark/Warshaper 4/Fighter 6
The horrid strain of lycanthropy was easily the most dangerous we had ever designed, so we were excited to see Subject Eight take to it and the treatments connecting her to the plane of shadow fairly well. Our excitement only grew as she manifested more and more adaptive usage of her shapecahgning abilities. I have every confidence that this new set of treatments is the best step forward for our programs. -Funding letter of Jaron d’Vadalis, to whoever funds his facility.

Auralina was born near House Vadalis’ magebreeding facilities on the border of the Eldeen Reaches. She, along with a few others, displayed warped characteristics from a very young age - Vadalis denied all responsibility for the mutations and many families were shocked and horrified. Like others, Auralina was put into a monastery dedicated to Aureon to be trained in her strength and have her freakish appearance worked on.

Unfortunately, her mutation continued to strengthen and the monastery life was too claustrophobic for her. So she left behind the monastery and sought out others who shared her condition. Never a great leader, Auralina was able to find a group of like-minded spell warped who had found refuge and ideological sympathy from the Ashbound. She enthusiastically joined up and dedicated herself to the destruction of arcane magic of all sorts but especially House Vadalis’ obscene magical transfigurations. She and her companions carry out a series of terrorist attacks against arcane institutes of all kinds, killing wizards and artificers as often as they can, but especially Vadalis facilities. Players might be attacked by the Spellwarped themselves, or they might be hired to capture them by Aundair/Vadalis/The Church of the Silver Flame.

The lean, unarmed woman with pale skin advances towards you at a startling pace. You can see the telltale signs of the spellwarped on her arms and legs which look like they’ve been stuffed with iron, even as they move with perfect alacrity. -CR 2 Description

By default, I would assume most of the other spellwarped ash bound are humans between levels 1-3 with the Spellwarped template, but feel free to use whatever fits your fancy - Shifters, for example, or perhaps a more benign form of lycanthrope than Auralina later becomes. Auralina’s just a basic hitter at this point, albeit with evasion and spell absorption. She’s quite able to charge into battle and resist some spells but she isn’t overly fanatical. In the event that she gets cornered, she surrenders.

Whether due to player intervention or some other reason, Auralina and her band of eco-terrorists are eventually captured. They are handed over to the proper authorities before being transferred to House Jorasco for “treatment for their derangements and mutations” - That’s what is told to the public. Whether through its ties to the throne of Aundair or House Jorasco, Vadalis acquires control of its erstwhile opponents. House Vadalis, in part or in whole, has an interest in the spellwarped phenomena and wants to replicate it and expand on its use in magical warfare.

Auralina proves by far the most susceptible subject and eventually they begin to treat and experiment on her. This how she acquires the lycanthropy template and the dark template, through the Horrific Experimentations of Vadalis, and ultimately her levels in Warshaper as well. Somewhere in this leveling up process (it’s up to you!), Auralina breaks out of her cell and into the facility in wolf form. The facility has been locked down with adamantine doors, but it will only hold shut for so long. The players, who have either heard of the facility through their own investigations or are tipped off by a sympathetic source, arrive in time to find the place wrecked and Auralina prowling the floor in her wolf form.

The place is wrecked and those in it perished without warning, bodies torn apart and scarred with acid cuts and no signs of struggle. There are copious destroyed papers in many rooms - Notes on her transformation process, but eaten away by acid. Finally, the cage in which she was held has a hanging, permanent daylight spell - To ensure that she wasn’t able to use her Hide In Plain Sight ability (and to hint to the players they might want to do the same thing). Take this opportunity to channel your best mad scientist lairs, to scatter in other freakish monsters (perhaps from previous villain competitions), to include hints about the long term plans of any villains you might have.

As you walk down the halls, a massive cat with chitinous armor plating leaps out at you, its claws dripping with acid. - CR 9 Description

This thing is pitch black, armored and four legged whatever it is, and all four legs. It moves with a feline grace and has the long, sharp teeth of a sabertooth tiger and sharp claws that drip acid on the floor. Unfortunately for you, that’s all you see as it darts back into the shadows from whence it leapt. -CR 10

You finally catch sight of the thing. Big and four-legged, its mouth is wide and fanged as a shark’s, its body covered in black plates of chitinous substance, its claws as long and sharp as swords and dripping with acid. It looks at you with what seems to be intelligence, and then it makes another lunge through the dark. - CR 11+

At this stage, Auralina is a horror monster - She stays in animal form for combat and hide when she’s out of it. She has spell resistance out of reach of most, if not all, of the player characters and every spell that fails makes her stronger, faster, or more resistant to damage. At CR 10, she has functional invisibility - Her hide modifier is +34, down to +14 in active combat, and she uses it relentlessly thanks to hide in plain sight. If the players brought Daylight, then she sometimes has to shift out of it to return to hiding. Even in such cases, she may still be concealed. Pounce lets her get off all her attacks and her spell resistance still foils most spells, she still has evasion and now she has excellent saves in every stat. Over the course of these levels she gains fast healing 5, which means she can dart away for a few minutes and come back totally restored in health (remember her Hide Modifier to move 1/2 her speed is only -5), and reach, which lets her pop off more of her attacks of opportunity.

CR 10:
HD: (11 Native/14 Hybrid/Animal)+1d8+(2/5)/16d8+(32/80) (117/173 HP)
Initiative: +5/+7
Speed: 30 ft (N/); 40 ft. (Animal) + Spell Absorbed benefit
AC: 21 (+5 Dex, +2 Wis, +4 Natural Armor - Native); 27 (+7 Dex, +2 Wis, +13 Natural Armor - H/A)
Base Attack/Grapple: +13/[+20 N/+42(H/A)]
Attack: +16 Unarmed 1d6+3 (N); +24 Claw 2d4+11 (H); +24 Claw 2d4+4d6 (Acid)+11 (A)
Full Attack: Flurry of Blows +14 2 Unarmed 1d6+3; +24 2 Claws 2d4+11 and Bite +22 2d6+5; +24 2 Claws 2d4+4d6+11 and Bite +22 2d6+5
Space/Reach: 5ft/5ft (Native); 10 ft/5ft (H/A)
Special Attacks: Flurry of Blows, Pounce (A), Improved Grab (A), Rake 2d4+5 (A)
Special Qualities: Spell Absorption, Immunity to Acid, Resistance to Cold 10, Spell Resistance 29, dark vision, superior low light vision, AC Bonus (Wis), Hide in Plain Sight, Evasion, Scent, Damage Reduction 5/Silver
Saves: Fort +15/+18(H/A); Reflex +18/20(H/A); Will +16
Feats: Human Heritage, Combat Reflexes, Combat Expertise (B), Improved Unarmed Strike (B); Multiattack (b); Stealthy; Run; Alertness; Improved Natural Attack (Claw, Bite) (b); Weapon Focus (Claw); Iron Will (b); Dodge, Mobility; Spring Attack
Alignment: Neutral Evil

Auralina is intense as a horror monster of sorts. However, Eberron generally has low level NPCs, so she makes an excellent late game monster for the PCs once she breaks out of the facility without saying, “Oh yeah, there’s a level sixteen ranger roaming around.” I’m putting the break out here, but honestly, it’s up to you to decide when she breaks out. She continues to get better at fighting and hiding, raising her hide and move silently to stay in range of PCs’ spot and listen checks. At twenty, she can leap attack in and power attack all of her opponents, trip them, and then hit them again. She can then dodge out, if she feels like it, and come back at them from the shadows.

Auralina in this stage is actively hunting and killing powerful wizards, striking them from the shadow and then vanishing into the dark again. If the players attend a ball in Queen Aurala’s honor, they may be surprised and horrified to see her leap out and slaughter the Phiarlan illusionist who was to entertain for the night in full view of everyone before she vanishes. She remains dangerous to the very end.

If you want things to get real bad, however, my advice is that you make her bites contagious and you make the players survive in a 28-Days Later scenario, only with much, much more dangerous monsters, until they’re able to carve through and survive. Hordes of Horrid Tigers spilling out into the world would be cataclysmic, unless some epic level heroes intervene.

That’s fine! Auralina’s story leans into the setting specific material a bit and also the faintly cyberpunk tone of the Dragonmarked houses, but it’s not hard to re-write to fit into any campaign setting. Vadalis could be replaced with a mage’s guild, a powerful line of sorcerers, or an evil god’s temple - Depending on how serious you want it to be. The facility in which she is tested could be a dungeon or a dark god’s temple, anywhere that might be trying to improve on its ability to make and release mystical monsters. Horrid as a template isn’t too distinctive and players won’t think much of it, but I wanted to incorporate the setting since it is a setting specific template.

Lawful Evil -> Neutral Evil (after Lycanthrope) Spellwarped Human Monk 2/Afflicted Lycanthrope (Horrid Tiger) 16/Dark/Warshaper 4/Fighter 6
Base Spread: STR 13, DEX 15, CON 10, INT 12, WIS 14, CHA 8
Spellwarped: STR 17, DEX 17, CON 14, INT 16, WIS 14, CHA 8
Lycanthrope: STR 17, DEX 17, CON 14, INT 16, WIS 16, CHA 8
4th: STR 17, Dex 18, CON 14, INT 16, WIS 16, Cha 8
8th: STR 17, DEX 19, CON 14, INT 16, WIS 16, CHA 8
12: STR 17, DEX 20, CON 14, INT 16, WIS 16, CHA 8,
16: STR 17, DEX 21, CON 14, INT 16, WIS 16, CHA 8
Hybrid/Animal Horrid Tiger Forms: STR 33, DEX 25, CON 20, INT 16, WIS 16, CHA 8
Morphic Body: STR 21/37(H/A), CON 18/24(H/A)
20th: Dex 22/26
24th: Dex 23/27

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

1
Spellwarped (MMIII 162) Passive Way Monk 1
+0
+2
+2
+2
Hide 4, Move Silently 4, Tumble 4, Escape Artist 4, Spot 4, Listen 4, Jump 4, Knowledge (Arcana) 4
Human Heritage, Combat Reflexes, Combat Expertise (B), Improved Unarmed Strike (B)
Flurry of Blows, AC Bonus (=WIS/+2), SR 12, NA +2, Spell Absorption, Dark Vision

2
Passive Way Monk 2
+1
+3
+3
+3
Hide 5, Move Silently 5, Tumble 5, Escape Artist 5, Spot 5, Listen 5, Jump 5
Improved Trip (B)
Evasion

9
Afflicted Lycanthropy (HorridECS289 Dire Tiger)
+13
+13
+13
+13
Hide 21, Move Silently 21, Escape Artist 21, Listen 21
Multiattack (b); Stealthy; Run; Alertness; Improved Natural Attack (Claw, Bite) (b); Weapon Focus (Claw); Iron Will (b); Dodge, Mobility; Spring Attack
Improved Natural Healing (18/Night), SR 29, Immunity to Acid, Acid Attack (Claws) +4d6(A), NA +13 (H/A), NA +4 (N), Scent, +4 Racial to Hide/Move Silently,

10
Dark Template (Cormyr, Tearing of the Weave 152)
+13
+13
+13
+13
-
-
+8 racial to Hide, +6 racial to Move Silently, Hide in plain sight, Superior Low-Light Vision, Resistance to Cold 10

11
Warshaper 1
+13
+15
+13
+13
Escape Artist 22, Control Shape 5
-
Morphic Immunities, Morphic Weapons, SR 30

12
Warshaper 2
+14
+16
+14
+14
Control Shape 12
-
Morphic Body, SR 31

13
Warshaper 3
+15
+16
+14
+14
Escape Artist 23, Control Shape 17
Fast Healing
Morphic Reach, SR 32

14
Warshaper 4
+16
+17
+14
+14
Escape Artist 24
-
Morphic Healing, SR 33

15
Fighter 1
+17
+19
+15
+15
Hide 22, Move Silently 22, Jump 9
Whirlwind Attack(B)
-/TD]

[TD]16
Fighter 2
+18
+20
+17
+17
Hide 23, Move Silently 23, Jump 13
Power Attack(B)
-

17
Fighter 3
+19
+20
+18
+18
Hide 25, Move Silently 25, Jump 17
Improved Whirlwind Attack
-

18
Fighter 4
+20
+21
+18
+18
Hide 25, Move Silently 25, Jump 20
Leap Attack (CAdv 110)
-

19
Fighter 5
+20
+21
+18
+18
Hide 26, Move Silently 26, Jump 24
-
-

20
Fighter 6
+21
+22
+19
+19
Hide 28, Move Silently 28, Jump 28
Knock-Down
-

Alright let’s cover things here:

Spellwarped makes Auralina an aberration, Human Heritage makes Auralina human again, making her eligible for lycanthropy.

Spellwarped also gives her Spell Absorption which, per the raw, lets her increase her speed by 5 x Spell Level whenever a spell fails to overcome her spell resistance. It also lets her pick up temporary hit points of 5xSL and it lets her gain resistance 10 to all elements. There’s no limit to this, nothing stops her from doing it on purpose with (say) Druid spells and then marching out as an ash bound demigod with NI speed, enough hit points to tank the tarrasque, and Resistance 10 to every element. Now, I’m not a complicated man and I enjoy a bit of cheese, but - uh - no. Instead, I would proceed on the assumption that she gains the speed boost equal to the highest level spell she’s absorbed in that form (native, hybrid, or animal), the most recent resistance, and temporary hit points only up to a maximum of the highest level spell she has absorbed. You could instead choose to give each of these a one minute limit, as is the case with the other three uses of spell absorption. This is would definitely be houseruling, though. Regardless, I never actually depended on the effects of spell absorption because it is so wonky. I just liked the aesthetics.

“Putting a template in your animal is a bit cheesy” Yeah? A bit? But I can’t put it outside the template per raw, so instead I picked up Dark and paid the CR adjustment for it, even though I don’t think Auralina has any obligation to pay it (she has resistance to cold if anyone has ever cast a spell on her, dark vision, superior low-light vision, bonuses to hide/move silently already). Obviously, if I were dedicated to maximum cheese it’d be easy to have, like, a Voidmind Half-Golem Magebred Mineral Warrior Chameleon Legendary Tiger. (Mineral Warrior caps the intelligence loss!) I didn’t do that though, it seemed lame. If you want to add another CR, I don’t think the build breaks, it should still be fine.

Feats and ability scores: So I assumed that ability scores went up during the lycanthrope levels and feats generally didn't, but that Improved Natural Attack had been displaced on the Dire Tiger with Dodge and Mobility. You could make either call the other way, so that Auralina gains like five more bonus feats or her ability scores don't improve. If you decide her ability scores don't improve, she's still fine, don't worry about it.

Other than that, the build is pretty straightforward. Four templates, three classes. Only Warshaper left before being forced to, mostly because the last level was so horrifically worthless. In one sense, someone must have expected monks and fighters in this contest. But I ask you, did anybody else use both of them? Or, honestly, even one of them? This is a straight PHB fighter, come on, when was the last time a contestant used one of those?

H_H_F_F

2022-01-28, 09:14 AM

The Lorax is out of a job.

https://ih1.redbubble.net/image.1665656505.3037/raf,750x1000,075,t,FFFFFF:97ab1c12de.jpg
Tree? Throw at us? What???!!!
Image found here: https://www.redbubble.com/i/kids-t-shirt/Rocket-propelled-T-Rex-Flies-In-Front-Of-The-Moon-by-DELMEO/57733037.MZ153

When Logy was a wortling-fruit it had been catched by a tornado and thrown somewhere... It was severe land: shallow soil, almost all potential prey were too big... The first wortlings crop gave Logy nothing but waste. And second. After this Logy decided to hunt itself. It wasn't easy. Too slow and too hungry to chase most prey, Logy started to devastate nests. Time passed and it became faster and learned to use its worthless ability to command wortlings to search hidden prey. And wortlings themselves... If they can't catch prey, at least Logy can shoot them into prey too rapidly to run after.
Once fed enough Logy looked at eggs in the nest of its last prey. Its worthless fruits had him stressed much. It want to have good assistant and maybe prey's fruit can become so.

HE Orcwort 33

Size/Type:
Colossal Plant

Hit Dice:
33d8+330 (478 hp)

Initiative:
-2

Speed:
30 ft. (6 squares)

Armor Class:
12 (–8 size, –2 Dex, +12 natural), touch 0, flat-footed 13

BAB/Grapple:
+24/+62

Attack:
Slam +34 melee (4d6+18), Fling Enemy +30 ranged

Full Attack:
6 slams +34 melee (4d6+18)

Space/Reach
30 ft./25 ft.

Special Attacks:
Entangling roots, improved grab, paralysis, swallow whole

Special Qualities:
DR 5/–, plant traits, telepathy 15 miles, woodsense

Saves:
Fort +29 (18+11 Con), Ref +8 (10-2 Dex), Will +14 (10+4 Wis)

Abilities:
Str 46 (15+28 racial+2 prodigy+1 GS), Dex 6 (10-4 racial), Con 32 (14+18 racial), Int 13 (13), Wis 18 (12+6 racial), Cha 6 (8-2 racial)

Skills:
Handle Animal +15 (17.5-2 Cha), Hide +17 (35-2 Dex-16 size), Move Silently +33 (35-2 Dex)

Feats:
Quick (trait), Mindsight, Dash (2), Wild Cohort, Multigrab, Crush, Fling Enemy, Brutal Throw, Point Blank Shot, Far Shot, Gape of the Serpent, Great Strength

Challenge Rating:
20

Advanced T-Rex (Wild Cohort)

Size/Type:
Huge Animal

Hit Dice:
27d8+195 (316 hp)

Initiative:
+3

Speed:
40 ft. (8 squares)

Armor Class:
25 (–2 size, +3 Dex, +14 natural) touch 11, flat-footed 22

BAB/Grapple:
+20/+39

Attack:
Bite +29 melee (3d6+16)

Full Attack:
Bite +29 melee (3d6+16)

Space/Reach
15 ft./10 ft.

Special Attacks:
Improved grab, swallow whole

Special Qualities:
Low-light vision, scent, evasion, devotion

Saves:
Fort +20, Ref +18, Will +10

Abilities:
Str 32, Dex 16, Con 21, Int 2, Wis 15, Cha 10

Skills:
Hide +5, Listen +12, Spot +12

Feats:
Power Attack, Improved Natural Attack (bite), Run, Toughness, Improved Toughness, Involuntary Rage, Pain Mastery, Mighty Roar, Greater Mighty Roar, Epic Toughness

First, it can bite. Second, it can no bite.
Third, Logy can throw it at the enemy. With Far Shot it can fly up to 1200 ft. Yes, it'll take 20d6 damage, but the enemy will take it, too. Plus, Fruity can get insta rage and up to +4 Str. It even can ready its bite if enemy is airborne and initiative was thrown.
If any wortlings are available, Logy throws them first, but else it has no doubt to throw its pet.
It is not surprising that Fruity grew up with feats better than three regular toughnesses.

And finally, it is 6 tons of meat.

If you more like tridents, replace t-rex with triceratops.

Yes, I know. This is slightly inelegant. I got 1 HD for free. Sorry, I need it too much. One feat and one step Fruity advancement.

You see big grappler and say Freedom of Movement? I'll say Crush for you (Reflex DC 44, 4d8+27 damage/round). This isn't grapple and RAW FoM doesn't help against it.

I know it, too. But I can easily replace it. Hidden Talent + Speed of Thought (Expanded Psionics Handbook). I didn't take it because it looks slightly offtopic. But it is fully legal and doesn't against round restrictions (Hidden Talent doesn't give me psionic only 2 pp).

Telepathy (Su): An orcwort can communicate telepathically with any of its wortlings within fifteen miles.
Holy... 15 **** miles! 79200 feet. 15840 squares. Not spell weaver's 1000 miles, but this is solid second place.
Yes, somebody with Darkstalker can fool Logy, but... First, he should start to hide before enter in Logy's telepathy range and hide all time been here. Second, ok, he hides and what will he do? Sneak attack tree? Third, I can believe in single Darkstalker, but whole adventurer party which consists of Darkstalkers? No way!

Orcwort - MM2
Tyrannosaurus, Improved Natural Attack - MM
Power Attack, Run, Toughness - PHB
Quick (trait) - Unearthed Arcana
Mindsight - Lords of Madness
Dash, Improved Toughness - Complete Warrior
Wild Cohort - Web (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a)
Crush, Fling Enemy, Involuntary Rage, Pain Mastery, Mighty Roar, Greater Mighty Roar - Savage Species
Multigrab, Gape of the Serpent - Serpent Kingdoms
Brutal Throw - Complete Adventurer
Great Strength, Epic Toughness - Epic Level Handbook

H_H_F_F

2022-01-28, 09:17 AM

Don't poke the whale.

Get ready to share those Evil thoughts. This edition’s villain is:

The Big Dumb Brute

... and he took that personally.

While there is no hard requirement regarding size or mental abilities, I nonetheless felt it was most in the spirit of the build to treat both as hard requirements for some reason. With that said, I present:

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/962/27000731937_bcf9deae06_b.jpg

Afflicted Lycanthrope
(Cachalot Whale)
Mineral Warrior
Half-Fiend
(Half-Goristro)

Half-Ogre
LA+9
CR+9

Stat
Array
After Racial/ Template Modifiers
4th
8th
12th
16th
20th

Str
15
63
64
65
66
67
68

Dex
14
12
12
12
12
12
12

Con
13
43
43
43
43
43
43

Int
8
4
4
4
4
4
4

Wis
10
10
10
6
6
6
6

Cha
12
10
10
10
10
10
10

CR
Class
Base Attack Bonus
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Skill Ranks
Feats
Class Features

10
Ranger (Skilled City Dweller)
+10
+26
+11
+4
Gather Information 5, Jump 1, Listen 9, Search 5, Survival 5
Human Heritage, Track, Willing Deformity (Elder Evil), Alertness, Diehard, Endurance, Improved Natural Attack (bite), Toughness, Iron Will, Deformity (Madness) (Elder Evil), Deformity (Parasite) (Elder Evil)
1st favored enemy (humanoid (elf)), wild empathy

11
Monk
+10
+28
+13
+6
Control Shape 1, Gather Information 5, Jump 1, Listen 9, Search 5, Survival 5
Stunning Fist, Improved Unarmed Strike
Flurry of blows, unarmed strike

12
Fighter
+11
+30
+13
+6
Control Shape 2, Gather Information 5, Jump 1, Listen 9, Search 5, Survival 5
Skill Focus: Gather Information, Power Attack, Harvester of Souls (Elder Evil)
-

13
Justicar
+12
+30
+13
+8
Control Shape 3, Gather Information 5, Jump 1, Listen 9, Search 5, Survival 5
-
Bring 'em back alive, nonlethal strike +1d6

14
Justicar
+13
+30
+13
+9
Control Shape 4, Gather Information 5, Jump 1, Listen 9, Search 5, Survival 5
Improved Grapple
Crippling strike

15
Justicar
+14
+31
+14
+9
Control Shape 5, Gather Information 5, Jump 1, Listen 9, Search 5, Survival 5
Crush, Exotic Weapon Proficiency (manacles)
Street savvy +2

16
Justicar
+15
+31
+14
+10
Control Shape 6, Gather Information 5, Jump 1, Listen 9, Search 5, Survival 5
-
Nonlethal strike +2d6

17
Justicar
+16
+31
+14
+10
Control Shape 7, Gather Information 5, Jump 1, Listen 9, Search 5, Survival 5
Deformity (Eyes) (Elder Evil)
Hog-tie

18
Rogue (Martial)
+16
+31
+16
+10
Control Shape 12, Gather Information 5, Jump 1, Listen 9, Search 5, Survival 5
Choke Hold, Weapon Focus (Club)
Trapfinding

19
Rogue (Martial)
+17
+31
+17
+10
Control Shape 17, Gather Information 5, Jump 1, Listen 9, Search 5, Survival 5
Point Blank Shot
Feign Death

20
Hulking Hurler
+18
+31
+19
+10
Control Shape 18, Gather Information 5, Jump 1, Listen 9, Search 5, Survival 5
Throw Anything, Snatch Arrows
Catch weapon, really throw anything

The spawn of a Goristro and a Half-Ogre, neither of whom were particularly interested in parenting, Orson was immediately abandoned to the wilds of the Underdark. Unfortunately for the wilds, even as a child, Orson was preternaturally hardy, and easily subsisted off of the things he was able to smash. One day, however, he smashed the wrong beast -- one that was of value to a nearby community of Drow. Out of equal parts vengeance and malice, they forced the Mineral Warrior template on him and tossed him back out into the dark.

Alone, hungry, frightened, and barely more than an animal himself now, he wandered into the depths -- and met a kindly old priest living near an Underdark lake. The priest fed him, clothed him, cared for him, and educated him -- to the extent that he could be educated in his current state. What Orson didn't know, and couldn't understand, was that his educated was of a very specific bent. The priest-- Enshaddon -- taught him the glory of the Leviathan and the new age it would herald. Orson knew no better than to embrace this dark heresy wholeheartedly, and soon became a willing disciple of Leviathan himself. As Orson grew, so too did his hunger for vengeance on those that had wronged him -- and his service to Leviathan was a mechanism to that end. Enshaddon taught him that humanoids were the enemy of Leviathan, and needed to perish -- and that included the Drow from before.

As he reached adulthood, Enshaddon did something that Orson thought was very strange. On the night of the full moon, he brought a large stranger over -- even bigger than Orson -- and asked Orson to let the man bite him, and to willingly let the feeling that followed overtake him. Orson didn't understand why he needed to be bitten, but Enshaddon explained that it was Leviathan's will -- that in order to be a true follower, he needed to accept the gifts Leviathan had placed in his path. Orson did as he was told -- and woke up the next day with no memories of what happened. Once each day from then on, Enshaddon would instruct him to sit still while he struck him -- for the sake of Leviathan. Orson's patience grew more and more thin with each passing night, until finally, one day, he remembered the events of the previous night. He had turned into a whale! Enshaddon taught him how to change his shape voluntarily, and with that, his strength reached new heights.

Enshaddon led him to the surface and set him loose. Orson had room in his mind only for two things: the immutable law of vengeance on the humanoids, and his unshakable faith in the power of Leviathan. There was no room left over for mercy, fear, or doubt, although he could entertain the notion of saving room for hunger.

...

After years of terrorizing the land, leaving fire, death, and destruction in his wake, slaughtering countless innocents and razing city after city... Orson realized he had no idea how to actually bring about the return of Leviathan. Everything had felt very productive at the time, but he had finally noticed the inescapable feeling of futility as Leviathan seemed no closer to returning than before. Several adventurers had even promised him that their plans would bring about the beast's return, but Orson had to step on them after all had led to naught. This was a very vexing problem for Orson. Decisions had never been his strong suit.

After a monumental effort of thought, Orson determined that his best course of action would be to wait until someone told him what to do next to help Leviathan. Maybe Enshaddon would come find him! In a relatively remote spot in the forest, he settled down into his rocky exterior and fell into a deep, almost comatose-like slumber. Passing travelers often mistook him for part of the landscape. Once every three days or so, he stirs, guzzles water from a nearby lake, and devours any nearby wildlife before settling back into the crags and mounds of the landscape. Sometimes a passing caravan is unfortunate enough to be in the deep woods; sometimes the wildlife is sparse around Orson, and he has to use nearby settlements as a makeshift larder. These sudden disappearances initially spawned parties of intrepid adventurers dead-set on clearing out the danger, but eventually only led to myths and urban legends circulating about the wild guesses as to the evil that lurks deep in the woods.

Orson is a relatively simple villain to pilot, and a viscerally satisfying one.

His first priority is to use his massive strength score to leap to medium or smaller opponents and take advantage of his Crush feat. This forces a DC 51 (10 base + 29 str + 12 size) reflex save. On a failed save, those opponents take 4d6 + 43 bludgeoning damage, and are all pinned. Notably, this bypasses Freedom of Movement, as there was never an opposed grapple roll for them to resist, and renders them unable to speak and unable to cast most spells.

If they are unable to escape the pin (requiring them to beat Orson's 59 grapple modifier (18 bab + 12 size + 29 str)), they would each take an additional 4d6 + 43 bludgeoning damage, and be forced to make a DC 18 fortitude saving throw or else be rendered unconscious for 1d3 rounds by Orson's Choke Hold.

If the pin is maintained, Orson will be free to use his iterative attacks to Hog-Tie each enemy with manacles, chains, or a length of rope (again using his massive 59 grapple modifier), rendering them bound and helpless. Antimagic shackles are ideal for this, but dimensional shackles are a decent substitute in a pinch. Manacles are ideal, as Orson isn't smart enough to be good with rope. Having rendered them unconscious and/or helpless, Orson can choose to release his pin, lift this helpless creature and, using his Really Throw Anything class feature, hurl the creature up to 100 feet -- either straight into the air to incur fall damage, into a pool of water to drown them, or at an enemy as an improvised weapon.

If puny opponents manage to escape his pin somehow, Orson can try to Crush them again on the following round.

Against large or larger opponents, Orson is forced to initiate a grapple in the traditional way -- although Orson will always give preference to targeting puny humanoids in the backline. Even without Crush, Orson is still a formidable grappler, and anyone without magical assistance will struggle to square up to him.

In the event that Orson decides grappling is ineffective against a particular foe, he can fall back to smashing them with gargantuan unarmed strikes. He will choose to use nonlethal damage if it is effective.

Upon defeating his foes, or thinning their numbers enough such that they represent no threat, Orson will coup de grace any humanoids out of vindictiveness and eat their corpses. Others he might bury or leave for the animals depending on his mood.

If the enemy manages to get the upper hand and Orson finds himself near defeat, he will Feign Death as an immediate action as a last resort; fighting didn't get rid of the enemy, so maybe they'll leave if he goes to sleep. It is a DC 41 heal check (15 base + 1/2 level + 16 con) to determine that he is actually alive. If the party continues to attack him, he may try to escape using his burrow speed as well.

Size/Type
Gargantuan Humanoid (Shapechanger, Earth, Human)

Hit Dice
14d8, 2d6, and 7d10 + 371 (average 478)

Initiative
+1

Speed
30 land, 15 burrow

Armor Class
26 (+17 natural, +2 armor, +1 dex, -4size), touch 7, flat-footed 25

Base Attack / Grapple
18 / 59

Attack
+43 unarmed strike (3d6 +29 bludgeoning) or +43 slam (4d6 +29 bludgeoning) or +43 claw (2d6 +29 piercing and slating) or +38 bite (4d6 +14 piercing, slashing, and bludgeoning)

Full Attack
+43/+38/+33 unarmed strike (3d6 +29 bludgeoning), then +38 slam (4d6 +14 bludgeoning), then 2x +38 claws (2d6 +14 piercing and slating), then +38 bite (4d6 +14 piercing, slashing, and bludgeoning)

Space / Reach
20 ft. / 20 ft.

Special Attacks
Curse of Lycanthropy, Earth Strike 1/day, Smite Good 1/day, Crush (DC 51 ref), Choke Hold (DC 18 fort), Stunning Fist 3/day (DC 18 fort), Nonlethal Strike +2d6, Crippling Strike, Hog-Tie, Flurry of Blows, Throw Anything (enemy)

Special Qualities
Darkvision 60, low-light vision, scent, DR5/cold iron, DR5/silver, DR8/adamantine, SR33, immunity to mind-affecting, immunity to poison, acid/cold/electric/fire resistance 10, alternate form, lycanthropic empathy, favored enemy (humans), wild empathy, unarmed strike, bring 'em back alive, street savvy +2, trapfinding, feign death

Saves
Fort +31 (+4 against nonlethal damage from hot, cold, or suffocation), Ref +19, Will +10

Abilities
Str 68, Dex 12, Con 43, Int 4, Wis 6, Cha 10

Skills
Control Shape +16, Gather Information +8, Intimidate +3, Jump +30, Listen +13, Spot +2, Survival +3

Feats
Human Heritage, Track, Willing Deformity (Elder Evil), Alertness, Diehard, Endurance, Improved Natural Attack (bite), Toughness, Iron Will, Deformity (Madness) (Elder Evil), Deformity (Parasite) (Elder Evil), Stunning Fist, Improved Unarmed Strike, Skill Focus: Gather Information, Power Attack, Harvester of Souls (Elder Evil), Improved Grapple, Crush, Exotic Weapon Proficiency (manacles), Deformity (Eyes) (Elder Evil), Choke Hold, Weapon Focus (Club), Point Blank Shot, Throw Anything, Snatch Arrows

Environment
Any

Organization
Solitary

Challenge Rating
20

Treasure
Leather armor, backpack, shackles x10 (either antimagic or dimensional)

Alignment
Lawful Evil

Advancement
By character class

Level Adjustment
+9

CR10: The character is playable, although not nearly as memorable. It can smash with the best of them with its massive strength modifier, and use Scent/Track to relentlessly pursue its foes. Its burrow speed makes it particularly difficult to escape from. Its HP, AC, DR, SR, and various resistances/immunities keep it tanky enough to put up with a CR10 party, and its damage is high enough that anything short of negating all physical damage needs to respect it.

CR15: The build comes into its own here with the addition of the Crush feat; this allows it to steamroll many opponents who allow it to come within range with its grapple routine. Immediate-action spells and abilities, high-mobility, or long-distance engagement are needed here, as few characters will be making the save. Those with FoM still have to use two actions to escape the pin, then the grapple, helping level the action-economy playing field. The level that we gain Crush would probably normally be the "sweet spot" of the build, and could have come as early as CR12, but in the interest of filling out a full CR20 build, I had to shuffle things around to squeeze in Justicar.

CR17: With the culmination of our time in Justicar, we can now hog-tie the casters in the party, further wasting their action economy (or possibly ending the combat all-together in the absence of appropriate countermeasures). This is the "sweet spot" of the build. Choke Hold, a level later, is a nice addition, but the DC is low enough that it's not particularly back-breaking for a party; likewise, throwing enemies is cute and flavorful (as I like to imagine Orson throwing them in the air and catching them in his mouth like a piece of popcorn or some other snack), but without water nearby to drown them in or a nearby cliff to toss them off, it's probably not much more efficient than just full-attacking them.

Cityscape
Martial Rogue variant

Complete Warrior
Hulking Hurler
Justicar
Throw Anything

Elder Evils
Harvester of Souls

Heroes of Horror
Deformity (Eyes)
Deformity (Madness)
Deformity (Parasite)
Willing Deformity

Monster Manual
Cachalot Whale
Improved Natural Attack
Lycanthrope

Oriental Adventures
Choke Hold

Player's Handbook
Alertness
Diehard
Endurance
Exotic Weapon Proficiency
Fighter
Improved Grapple
Improved Unarmed Strike
Iron Will
Monk
Point Blank Shot
Power Attack
Ranger
Rogue
Skill Focus
Snatch Arrows
Stunning Fist
Toughness
Track
Weapon Focus

Races of Destiny
Half-Ogre
Human Heritage

Savage Species
Crush

Underdark
Mineral Warrior

Unearthed Arcana
Feign Death ACF

(Half)-Fiendish Variety, Part 1: Monster Manual Web Enhancement
Half-Fiend variant

H_H_F_F

2022-01-28, 09:22 AM

Just walk away, Chris. You deserve better.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/647393639886094337/936167442760212480/resized-image-Promo.jpeg

The Antediluvian: That Thrice-Damned Crab

John: Find the new place all right?

Gwen: Yeah. Got my wizard rolled up and kitted out and all. Hope we can just start straightaway tonight, you know?

John: Yeah. How’d you manage to get Chris to switch to dnd for game night? I thought that Vampire chronicle would outlive us all.

Gwen: Said I’d always wanted to try dnd and I couldn’t think of anyone better to show me the ropes.

Billy: Haven’t you been playing since college?

Gwen: And?

Giles: That’s what I’d have done if I was smart. You think this campaign’ll be any better?

Billy: Honestly, as long as we’ve seen the back of that stupid antediluvian he wouldn’t let us kill, I could give a monkey’s.

Giles: What is it this time, wizard school, right?

Gwen: I thought we were supposed to have our guy ready tonight.

Giles: It’s fine, I’ve got something in my binder of doom that’ll work.

Chris: Hey, guys. Sorry I was late. Thanks for coming, everyone, and welcome to my new campaign: The Deep Magic. Will you plumb its depths successfully, or be subsumed . . . by darkness?!

Giles: Sounds good, as long as no lions try to convert me.

Chris: Huh?

Giles: Never mind.

Gwen: Why are you talking like that, Chris? You’re doing your like, NPR voice. Are you recording this?

Chris: Oh, yeah, I hope it’s cool if I record this, I turned the table mic thing on; it’ll help me keep my notes and lore and stuff straight plus who knows maybe I can put it on my Patreon later haha.

John: You know, you don’t have to monetize all your hobbies. You can just like, do stuff for fun.

Billy: Not this again, babe.

John: Sorry, just, you don’t always have to be on or whatever. Anyway, where are we starting?

Chris: Right, yeah, we’re starting. All right: “You’re aboard Eberron’s mighty horseless carriage: the lightning rail itself on the way to your various unglamorous day trades as apothecaries, scriveners, chimney sweeps, or boot blacks.”

Giles: I just got my guy’s sheet out, how’d you know I was a boot black?

Gwen: You’re always a boot black.

John: Lol, scalped.

Giles: Haha, got me.

Chris: ANYway; “while you’re on the train together you four are the only passengers except for this one guy.”

Billy: Oh boy, one guy. “What’s up?”

Chris: “I have heard tell of you four within my seeing stones—“

John: Stalker, lol.

Gwen: Lol.

Chris: “—and see within you great potential for magic!”

Giles: I hope so, we’re wizards.

Chris: “Within his hand, the man has four scrolls loosely clutched.”

John: You know what they say about guys with big hands.

Gwen: Big scrolls.

Giles: Does Eberron still use scrolls? Doesn’t it use like, magical typewriter ribbons or something?

Chris: Yeah, no, they still use scrolls for spells and stuff but yeah for everyday things they just use typewriters and broadsheets. These aren’t like magical scrolls though, they’re just normal scrolls. “What I have for you four—“

Giles: But you just said—

Chris: “—you four is acceptance to the finest wizarding academy in the land: Morgrave University!”

John: And now the best part, filling out wizard student loan applications! I knew I put all those ranks in profession (bookkeeper) for something.

Chris: “Your fees are covered, of course, but we’ll have to do something about those clothes.” He gestures at your braces and shirtsleeves.

John: Dude, we talked about this—

Chris: No, like, uh, “What I mean of course is that there is a dress code at such places. It adheres to the old ways. You’ll see.”

Gwen: You did say he had four scrolls, right?

Chris: He looks at you, Gwen. “Fortunately the ways aren’t quite that old, young miss. You’ll be just as welcome there as anyone. All the four of you must do is touch my orb.” He pulls out a beautiful silver and white burnished sphere as if from the air itself and holds it in his hand. It’s about the size of a grapefruit.

John: Come on . . .

Chris: What?

Billy: Nothing. I touch his orb. We all touch his orb.

Chris: You’ve gotten full marks in your courses for the term. The rumors about the lurker in the corridors have only grown in the last few weeks.

Billy: My guy collates any rumors in the school paper and puts them down on his stupid sheafs of parchment. Man, I miss my typewriter.

Giles: You never got to use your typewriter.

Billy: Yeah but before we started, my guy would’ve used it all the time. I feel like he’d miss it. Call that gather info, I guess.

Gwen: I’ve got an idea. Why don’t I try that footprint spell Konek taught us and like, cast it backwards? So instead of showing us where someone’s going, it’ll show us where they’ve been.

John: Is she allowed to do that?

Chris: Put a dollar in the Disney jar. It’s an off-label use, but it’s actually kind of making the spell less useful. Yeah, roll an on-target spellcraft with a modifier of -5 I guess.

Gwen: Got it.

Chris: Combining this with the maps Billy’s been able to make, you can cross-reference the information imparted to you by your spell. and overlay it into the halls of the buildings. The path looks like this:

Gwen: Well that’s no good. There’s too many paths here, I can’t track them through this busy area here, it’s like going into a stream to lose a scent.

Giles: Wait, if we had a print just from the lurker, could we sieve it out of the noise?

Chris: Hm, yeah, that should work.

Giles: I caught him outside the window the other day, I think. Is there a print there?

Chris: Hide 14, ugh. Yeah, there’s a print there, but I don’t know how much good it’ll do you.

Giles: Craft (leather working) 25.

Chris: Damnit. It’s a size 44 men’s woven goat leather sandal. The lurker has a tendency to pronate.

Giles: And that’s why I always play a boot black. Refine search criteria accordingly, put size 44 in quotes—

Chris: Metagaming.

Giles: That’s not what metagaming is. Fine, I put size 44 in quotes but like, in a magical way.

Chris: You search only for the tread of the one whose steps you’ve directly glimpsed and the path leads back to the larder.

Gwen: That’s where I’d hang out too if I was doing a “Phantom of the Opera” thing.

John: I wonder if he lives in a big jar.

Chris: Huh?

John: Never mind. So we go to the larder.

Chris: Oh, so you’re all in the larder, I guess. So behind some hams and enormous wheels of smoked cheese, a shadow is cast by the light of your torches. A man-like figure chews at a fistful of dried apricots.

John: Is he looking for an honest man?

Chris: In a way, he kind of is! The noise from you guys coming in has alerted him.

Gwen: We’re catching him, he’s not being alerted to us.

Chris: Fine, either way, he hears you and comes into the light. He draws himself up to his full height and you see he’s an elderly human with closely trimmed, curly white hair, a crown of laurel leaves, and a long white beard down to his chest. He wears one of those long toga things.

Giles: A toga?

Chris: No, a toga but long, you know, with that thing over your arm so you can’t carry anything.

Giles: A chiton.

Chris: Yeah, one of those. He speaks a word of magic little louder than a hiss and snuffs the light from your torches.

Billy: What’s the spellcraft dc on that?

Chris: It’s no kind of magic you know. No kind any of you know.

Billy: But we got full marks.

Chris: He opens his eyes and the room is awash in a dull black glow. “Long have I watched you three. You excel with this dim mockery of magic in the world above. Since you’ve been able to find me, I believe you’re ready to learn real magic. But you’ll have to leave the trappings of this place with you.”

John: Here we go—

Gwen: Relax, guys. If he’s boxing my wizard out because she’s a woman, clearly he’s a moron. I use my changeling power and present masc. “I only disguised myself as a woman for obscure wizard reasons. I’m really a man, gross pantry wizard, so surely I can come too.”

Chris: He blinks and his eyes contain the universe, alight with tiny stars that echo the dragon above. “Very well. Come with me, then, young ones.” He rolls a wheel of cheese aside and behind it is a spiral stair.

Billy: Okay, where’d we see the sewer man last? I’d check my notes, but Professor Poopy Pants here made us leave all our writing stuff back at Morgrave.

Chris: As best you can remember, it was in the southeastern quadrant of the tunnels, where you saw that violet fungus.

Gwen: I don’t suppose that footprint spell will help us.

Chris: Not without a map to track it against, no.

John: Wait, we could do the chant of the broken wheel.

Gwen: Oh, and the sewer man can be the stray spoke scatter’d to the wind?

John: Worth a shot.

Giles: I’ll bind our wizard staves together and make a mighty tetrastaff.

Billy: Tetrastave?

Giles: I’ll make a thing. We want to find where he is now, not where he’s been, so we’ll go clockwise around it.

Chris: All right. You guys do the ancient chants and run clockwise around the thing and a chariot’s wheel of flame springs forth around the top of your staves. It spins faster and faster in time with you until it starts to become unsteady and wobble. A spoke from it snaps and breaks off. Off it flies. You follow it down into the deep gloom of the lower tunnels. The fungus is in full bloom above you and as you make the last turn it snaps on at once, like an alarm.

Giles: That’s crap. Violet fungus doesn’t work like that.

Chris: Though the light around you is dim, your eyes have adjusted during your studies here, and there is a silhouette that stands out against the cavern wall of something near enough to a man.

Gwen: Is this one a woman? A sewer woman?

Chris: No, this one’s also a man. As you get closer, the animal stink from the bear skin he’s wearing around his shoulders is nearly enough to deter you.

John: I go up to him and hold out my hand. “We’ve passed your test, sewer man. Please, would you teach us your weird sewer magic?”

Chris: He clutches his ears as though he’s heard a peal of thunder and whimpers. He points to the alarm fungus and clenches his fist. The glow from it quiets and stills. He points to you and opens his hand. The light blooms from the wall once more.

Billy: Man, now we can’t even talk in-character? How’re we supposed to role play?

Chris: We’ll figure something out. Do you accept his offer to instruct you?

John: I mean, we’ve come this far. Sure. Let’s learn sewer magic.

Chris: The questing beast isn’t far now. You smell the low animal stink of it as the cavern walls draw closer around you along with the herbal perfume of the magical ingredients it’s been taking from the Paleolithic wizard’s outpost.

Billy: We think it’s been taking, anyway. Not like Fred Flintstone has an inventory system for all his expired gorilla milk or whatever.

Chris: Come on, guys, quit calling him that.

Giles: Normally, I’d be with you, man, but it’s not like we know to call him anything else since we’re literally not allowed to talk to him.

Chris: Mm, I guess . . . anyway, the passage blossoms into a wide open clearing. Even to your cave-honed senses, the darkness is impassable. There are no more tunnels from this point. Somewhere within, the beast lu—

Billy: Great. I mindsight him.

Chris: I wasn’t—

Billy: Does he have a mind?

Chris: Well, yeah, but—

Billy: Do I have line of effect?

Chris: You do—

Billy: I mindsight him then.

Chris: Ok, let me skip ahead some, uh, yeah here it is. You make contact with a mind, magical beast, int 23. He has at least one language but is totally unwilling to communicate with you.

Billy: Do I sense that it’s because like the guy one layer up, linguistic communication, even through telepathy, sullies the brand of magic he does?

Chris: You sense that, yes.

John: I brace myself against the cave wall with my wizard staff and offer my hand to the questing beast.

Chris: Billy, your telepathy senses the questing beast is willing to shepherd you four into the ancient traditions of its people, but you must leave the trappings of this inferior branch of magic behind you.

Billy: He says—

John: I heard what he says. Man, I’ve had this wizard staff forever. I put this rune of the dancing guy on top of it when we learned that crop blighting spell in Greek wizard school. And Gwen, you bound yours in sinew when we found that crocodile thing that kept eating all the little cavemen in caveman wizard school.

Gwen: Well we can leave them here in like a Leomund’s secret chest or something and get them later.

Giles: We can use that Leto’s cloak ritual from way back when. It will blind the gods themselves. Our staves will definitely be here when we get back, in case it’s longer than 60 days.

Gwen: If we’re with that thing for longer than 60 days, I’m going to kill you.

Billy: Whatever it’s going to teach us, it’d better be worth it. I’ll start gathering the shoots for the cloak ritual.

Chris: The blood of the sea flows within you all now, the division between water and land now revealed to you as arbitrary as the other divides you once clung to. Truth and lies. Knowledge and ignorance.

Billy: What do we have left at this point? Are we like, even wizards anymore at this point?

Giles: I don’t think there’s a name for what we are. I wonder what’s coming after this guy. I bet he’s like a bacteria.

Gwen: I bet he’s an Ediacaran megaflora.

John: Gesundheit.

Gwen: No, you know what that is, remember? That funny big leaf monolith vaporwave sculpture looking thing just sitting at the bottom of the ocean vibing.

John: Oh yeah. I wonder what he’d teach us to do.

Chris: Don’t worry, this is the last guy. You’re able to navigate through the water, the chill nothing more to you than wind splitting around the sides of a mountain. The blackness of the depths hold no mystery to you as finally you close in on the source of all magic. Something older than all the tutors that came before you.

Billy: A tardigrade.

Chris: No, stop guessing. An enormous claw reaches out from the grotto before you, dwarfing the wreckage of the ancient ships you swam through to get here. Billy, through your telepathic link, you sense a presence: undead, int 5—

Billy: Lol, int 5.

Chris: The thing before you laughs, telepathically, and says “My, all the funny things you surface dwellers have done with magic in the last thousand years. And it’s almost as though you think it will save you. Will you come to me quickly? Let it all be over at once and let me eat you and kill you and poke your small bodies onto my armor to be a warning to the ones who may come after you?”

Billy: He says all that with int 5?

Chris: Shut up, there’s no rule about it.

John: Whatever. If he’s not coming out, I want to at least know what we’re dealing with. I reach within my gut and draw on the spirit of the blind cave grub so I can feel the shape of him through the water he displaces.

Chris: That works. From the ebbs and flows of the current you are both in, his body is a big oval lump with two claws and a bunch of legs. The water displaced by him is the same as a big sailing ship, so he’s gargantuan. The time it would’ve taken for him to grow this size is unthinkable. He would be practically—

John: God, don’t say it.

Chris: —antediluvian. “Come to me willingly, small things, and when you rise as soldiers in my command—“

Gwen: Soldier crabs, lol.

Billy: Lol.

Chris: “—you will have magical power beyond imagining.”

Billy: You know what? I’m done. We’re at the center of the earth or the north pole or wherever naked in the dark scratching murals onto grottos and eating bugs. Whatever it is he’s gonna let us do, it can’t be worth taking another step down.

Gwen: You’re right. Who are we even getting all this stuff for? At least in caveman hell, we had the cave people to impress when we’d burn our leftover slots casting pyrotechnics or whatever. Who do we impress working for a crab?

John: Wait a minute, he said soldiers. Do I detect any other presences?

Chris: Yeah, fanning out behind him are a bunch of little pissant minions, undead, int 13, swimming toward you. You couldn’t mindsee them earlier because they were behind him. Giles, what do you want to do?

Giles: So I can auto-hit my religion dc to ID the little guys as vampires. And if they’re vampires, and they’re working for the big guy then he’s probably a vampire too.

Chris: Normally I’d say you’re metagaming with knowledge from our last campaign but yeah, that’s a reasonable conclusion for your guy to draw. What do you want to do about it?

Giles: It sounds like the antediluvian would like to hear me play the pipe of Apollo and be comforted by the warmth and light of the horrible sun.

Chris: Cool. Everybody, roll initiative

CE fiendish dungeonbred titanic monstrous vampire monstrous crab

elite array:

str 14 (increases here)
dex 15
con 10
int 8
wis 13
cha 12

monstrous crab racial mods:
str +12 (26)
dex +4 (19)
con +10 (20)
int n/a (ø)
wis +0 (13)
cha -8 (4)

size reduction prior to dungeonbred (large to medium)
str -8 (20)
dex +2 (21)
con -4 (16)
natural armor -2 (+6)
ac +1 (+0)
attack +1 (+0)

dungeonbred mods:
str +4 (24)
con +4 (20)

titanic mods:
str +26 (50)
dex -4 (17)
con +14 (34)
natural armor changed to +20 (+20)
claw damage changed to 3d6

fiendish:
set int to 3 (3)

monstrous vampire mods:
str +6 (56)
dex +4 (21)
con ø (ø)
int +2 (5)
wis +2 (15)
cha +4 (8)
natural armor +6 (+26)

final stats
str 62
dex 21
con ø
int 5
wis 15
cha 8

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

1st
Undead (augmented magical beast)
+0
+2
+0
+0
spellcraft 1 (0.5)
bonus (dungeonbred: improved natural attack (claws), endurance,) bonus (titanic: great fortitude), bonus (monstrous vampire: alertness, combat reflexes, dodge, improved initiative, lightning reflexes), power attack

2nd
Undead (augmented magical beast)
+1
+3
+0
+0
spellcraft 1 (1)

3rd
Undead (augmented magical beast)
+2
+3
+1
+1
spellcraft 1 (1.5)
clever opportunist

4th
Undead (augmented magical beast)
+3
+4
+1
+1
spellcraft 1 (0.5)

5th
Undead (augmented magical beast)
+3
+4
+1
+1
listen 1 (1)

6th
Undead (augmented magical beast)
+4
+5
+2
+2
listen 1 (1.5)
area attack

7th
Undead (augmented magical beast)
+5
+5
+2
+2
listen 1 (2)

8th
Undead (augmented magical beast)
+6/+1
+6
+2
+2
listen 1 (2.5)

9th
Undead (augmented magical beast)
+6/+1
+6
+3
+3
listen 1 (3)
improved bull rush

10th
Undead (augmented magical beast)
+7/+2
+7
+3
+3
listen 1 (3.5)

11th
Undead (augmented magical beast)
+8/+3
+7
+3
+3
listen 1 (4)

12th
Undead (augmented magical beast)
+9/+4
+8
+4
+4
listen 1 (4.5)
shock trooper

13th
Undead (augmented magical beast)
+9/+4
+8
+4
+4
listen 1 (5)

14th
Undead (augmented magical beast)
+10/+5
+9
+4
+4
listen 1 (5)

15th
Undead (augmented magical beast)
+11/+6/+1
+9
+5
+5
listen 1 (5.5)
mage slayer

16th
Undead (augmented magical beast)
+12/+7/+2
+10
+5
+5
listen 1 (6)

17th
Undead (augmented magical beast)
+12/+7/+2
+10
+5
+5
listen 1 (6.5)

18th
Undead (augmented magical beast)
+13/+8/+3
+11
+6
+6
listen 1 (7)
awesome blow

19th
Undead (augmented magical beast)
+14/+9/+4
+11
+6
+6
listen 1 (7.5)

20th
Undead (augmented magical beast)
+15/+10/+5
+12
+6
+6
listen 1 (8)

21st
Undead (augmented magical beast)
+15/+10/+5
+12
+7
+7
Skills
improved combat reflexes

22nd
Undead (augmented magical beast)
+16/+11/+6/+1
+13
+7
+7
Skills

23rd
Undead (augmented magical beast)
+17/+12/+7/+2
+13
+7
+7
Skills

24th
Undead (augmented magical beast)
+18/+13/+8/+3
+14
+8
+8
Skills
dire charge

25th
Undead (augmented magical beast)
+18/+13/+8/+3
+14
+8
+8
Skills

monstrous crab:
constrict
improved grab
powerful claws: always apply 1.5x str mod to claw damage, +4 racial bonus on grapple

fiendish:
smite good 1/day (+20)

titanic:
triple constrict damage
trample: huge or smaller enemies

monstrous vampire:
slam
blood drain
children of the night
dominate will save dc 21
create spawn
energy drain

fiendish:
darkvision 60
dr 10/magic
cold resist 10
fire resist 10
spell resistance 25

dungeonbred:
easy maintenance: (consume food/water as 1 size smaller), will eat available prey
hardy: +2 racial bonus vs disease and poison

monstrous vampire:
alternate form: bat, dire bat, wolf, or dire wolf
damage reduction 10/silver and magic
fast healing 5
gaseous form
cold resist 10
electric resist 10
spider climb
+4 turn resistance
+8 racial bonus on bluff, hide, listen, ms, search, sm, spot

Gargantuan Undead (augmented magical beast)
Hit Dice: 25d12+0
Initiative: +9
Speed: 40 ft (8 squares), swim 30 ft (6 squares)
Armor Class: 37 (-4 size, +5 dex, +26 natural), touch 11, flat-footed 32
Base Attack/Grapple: +44/+60 (including +4 racial)
Attack: Claw +40 melee (4d6+39 plus energy drain)
Full Attack: 2 claws +40 melee (4d6+39 plus energy drain) or slam (2d8+26 plus energy drain)
Space/Reach: 20ft/20ft
Special Attacks: Constrict (3d8+78), improved grab, powerful claws, smite good (+20), trample 3d8+39, blood drain, children of the night, domination, create spawn, energy drain
Special Qualities: amphibious, darkvision 60ft, undead traits, cold resist 10, fire resist 10, electric resist 10, SR 25, easy maintenance, hardy, alternate form, damage reduction 10/silver and magic, fast healing 5, spider climb, +4 turn resistance, +8 racial bonus on bluff, hide, listen, ms, search, sm, spot
Saves: Fort +14 Ref + 8 Will +8
Abilities: str 62 dex 21 con ø int 5 wis 15 cha 8
Skills:
Feats: improved natural attack, endurance, great fortitude, alertness, combat reflexes, dodge, improved initiative, lightning reflexes, power attack, improved bull rush, awesome blow, improved combat reflexes, dire charge, clever opportunist, area attack, mage slayer, shock trooper
Environment: Any
Organization: Solitary or pack (2-5)
Challenge Rating: 20
Treasure: None
Alignment: Chaotic Evil

You are a gargantuan monster with prodigious strength. In addition to this, you have an enormous amount of additional offensive potential through the monstrous vampire template, giving you energy drain among a great deal of other goodies.

Your base form, the infamous monstrous crab (just a quick reminder, the one from the web enhancement, not stormwrack) imparts the aquatic subtype. This allows you to eliminate vampires’ inability to cross running water. It also means you cannot be hurt or killed by being submerged and can effectively hunt enemies underwater. Aside from this, crabs, possessing open circulatory systems, do not have hearts. This means even if an enemy can get through your enormously thick shell, they cannot stake you. Crabs also do not have heads, so cannot be decapitated.

The sun is easily avoided by occupying yourself deep in the ocean during the day in caves or what have you. Should you wish to surface at night to amuse yourself by terrorizing ships and the like, you certainly can if you like.

While monstrous crabs are normally mindless, the fiendish template grants you an intelligence score, which entitles you to feats and skills, greatly increasing your combat prowess. Power attack, the quintessential brute feat, opens many doors for you. Improved natural attack beefs up damage, combat reflexes allows you to make aoos while flat-footed and lets you do it up to your dex mod times.

You have 25 hd through the titanic creature template, which lets you take two epic feats, namely improved combat reflexes, which lets you make any number of aoos as long as enemies keep provoking them, and dire charge, which lets you make a full attack against a foe in the first round of combat if you charge them. Given the amount of damage you do (plus energy drain) this should kill many adversaries outright.

Now that you have improved combat reflexes, it interacts in a highly amusing way with clever opportunist. During one of your nightly trawls, it is possible for you to poke at a sailor above the decks of a ship (who will be smaller than your gargantuan size) and do-si-do with him, putting your enormous shell aboard the ship and hurling him into the ocean to perish or be dealt with later. Depending on the size of the vessel, your bulk may sink or capsize it outright, making it easier to pick off stragglers in your native element. Even if the ship is strong enough to support you, you can navigate it more easily on deck and go about clobbering crew and crushing masts and rudders and whatnot with your claws. When there isn’t anyone in the right position, you can creep along the side as you like with vampire’s spider climb ability.

This can be combined with awesome blow to backhand enemies away from you and use them to chip away at obstacles. It also interacts with the often ignored other maneuvers from shock trooper: directed bull rush, which lets you nudge enemies one square left/right for every square you push them back (and do cool stuff like throw them overboard once you’re on a ship,) and domino rush, which lets you trip enemies when you bull rush them into a foe’s occupied square.

These things all working together alongside bottomless aoos give you a staggering amount of bfc, especially for a character without any magic.

Speaking of magic, you’ve also got mage slayer so no one in your enormous threatened range can cast spells defensively. This combined with infinite aoos means you will prey quite handily on enemy casters if they try reasoning that a monster your size shouldn’t have many aoos due to your low dexterity.

Your lack of traditional magic doesn’t mean you’re left wanting when it comes to cool powers to maim and kill. On the contrary, you can constrict enemies once you’ve got them grappled and crush them with your claws. Titanic triples the claw’s base damage and your powerful claws ability lets you add 1.5 str mod and nabs you an additional +4 racial bonus on grapple in addition to your huge str and size mod.

You’ve also got trample to bowl over large numbers of small enemies and smush them. If they want to get out of the way, it can help you set them up to be domino rushed or whatnot later on. When trampling isn’t in the cards, you can use area attack to swat large numbers of enemies at once.

You deal 2 negative levels with each claw, and on top of that can drain blood from pinned enemies and knife off points of con if they’re staying up too long, both of which replenish your hp on top of your fast healing.

Particularly annoying enemies can be dominated to work for you and enemies killed through energy drain rise as vampire spawn and enemies of 5hd or more who are killed by blood drain rise as full vampires of their own. You can bring these minions to bear to serve as scouts, lurk in the water to help pick off stragglers, or do whatever else you want with them, same as the creepy crawlies you can summon with your children of the night ability.

You’ve got boatloads of energy resistances and damage reduction plus healthy spell resistance. You can also skulk around with the best of them thanks to your alternate form ability which lets you do hilarious things like immediately go from a gargantuan crab to a diminutive bat to do things like fly. It lets you make quick escapes and get in places where enemies won’t expect you.

Make a hasty exit with gaseous form and hole up somewhere til you can heal and then make your way to your tombstone (what monstrous vampires use instead of a coffin), safely hidden at the bottom of the ocean or in a sea cave where no one will interfere with it.

A quick note about the interaction between your templates: you begin as a vermin via monstrous crab (which is where your chassis, average base attack and good fortitude save come from.) Dungeonbred shrinks you down to medium which makes you eligible for the titanic template. Fiendish can be applied to vermin and grants an intelligence score, giving you skills and feats and changing your type to magical beast (but it doesn’t mess with your saves or ba.) Finally, monstrous vampire changes your type to undead, changes your hd to d12s, and grants you the fancy augmented subtype and leaves you with the chart presented.

The Lost Coast: Monsters of the Tides (https://web.archive.org/web/20210526140911/http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fw/20040221a[/spoiler) monstrous crab
srd: fiendish template, vampire, improved natural attack, endurance, great fortitude, alertness, combat reflexes, dodge, improved initiative, lightning reflexes, power attack, improved bull rush, awesome blow, improved combat reflexes
draconomicon: dire charge
drow of the underdark: clever opportunist
savage species: area attack
complete arcane: mage slayer
complete warrior: shock trooper
dungeonscape: dungeonbred template
ghostwalk: monstrous vampire
monster manual 2: titanic creature template

H_H_F_F

2022-01-28, 09:27 AM

Somone call Simon Pegg. They can run now.

- My lord Bloated goat prince of undeath, master of vampires and lord of specters, Orcus, for your glory, I, Cordan Thokabayaj, your humble thrall, present my new creature for your approval. - a man stretched out on the floor pointes with his arm at a big zombie which is standing behind him.
- Hm. - the massive, bloated demon with horned head, leathery wings and a barb-tipped tail - Orcus himself, is studying some scroll levitated in front of his face. - So you wrote that you took the body of an almost perfect living creature and animate it as a regular zombie? What a waste of a unique resource… What can you say in your defense?
- My lord! - man on the floor shook with fear, but confidently utter his answer, - Real waste was his life! He was a regular commoner! With all his opportunities!
- Agree. Go on. - Orcus nods his fanged face.
- Yes, my lord! Of course I could create something more powerful from this body, but I decided to create a zombie because it had opened more possibilities to evolve my creation. If he became wight, vampire, or any other high ranked undead he’d be very limited in his development path. As you know, my lord, all these creatures can’t easily achieve high ranks in most professions, whether magic or martial arts, but zombies, that's another matter. Their corrupted nature while giving them some weakness, instead put them down, and they can grow up far more quickly while maintaining the significant part of their antemortem features. After awakening of course.
- And I see, you dared to suggest your development path for this zombie, didn’t you?
- Yes, my lord, I did. I am not good at martial arts, but I had some consultation with your more knowledgeable thralls and had compiled a variant which will allow to offset the zombie's weaknesses and to develop his advantages.
- It looks good on the vellum, but how do you suggest it? Streetfighting style and Ferocity instead of Rage - yes, you can find such instructors, but Fangshields. They accept only Good beings, you know?
- Yes, my lord, I know this. I suggest to cheat them. Nondetection and Disguise Undead spells with some bluff training will enable my creation to mislead their masters. Maybe we can do some spectacle with him helping Fangshields’ members against some threat. Somebody looking like your enemy Graz’zt’s servants. Maybe even break some of his plans on the Materiale plane, by aiming Fangshields directly on his followers.
- Looks ambitious. - demon prince with minor motion of talon unwrapped scroll a bit more. - You mention here Myrkul’s Crown of Horns. Myrkul isn’t my enemy and I can accept that your creation will worship him in some way, but the Crown of Horns was broken.
- Yes, my lord, it was. But now it has been reforged. It will be needed some time later and at that time I’ll do all needed investigations and find where my creation can touch it. It needs nothing more.
- I see. You have my permission. But beware! You will be responsible for this project with your soul! And give him the name!
- I daren't change your word, my lord, he’ll be known as Waste.

Abilities Initial Half-Ogre Paragon Zombie Maximize Awaken Undead 4th, 8th, 12th 16th, 20th Total
STR 15 6 15 2 2 40
DEX 14 -2 15 -2 25
CON 13 2 15 set to - -
INT 12 -2 15 set to - set to 10 3 13
WIS 10 15 set to 10 10
CHA 8 -2 15 set to 1 1

CR HD Class Base Attack Bonus Fort Save Reflex Save Will Save Skills Feats Class Features
15 1 Paragon Half-Ogre Commoner-1 0 0 0 0 36: {+4} Climb: 4; {+4} Craft (leatherworking): 4; {+4} Handle Animal: 4; {+4} Jump: 4; {+4} Listen: 4; {+4} Profession (cook): 4; {+4} Spot: 4; {+4} Swim: 4; {+4} Use Rope: 4; Animal Affinity, Self-Sufficient (Paragon)
1/2 2 Zombie 1 0 0 2 - Toughness (B)
1/2 2 Maximize Awakened 1 0 0 2 -
1 3 Barbarian-1 2 2 0 2 4: {+3 CC} Bluff: 1.5; {+1 CC} Knowledge (religion): 0.5; Power Attack Fast movement, illiteracy, ferocity 1/day
2 4 Barbarian-2 3 3 0 2 4: {+3 CC} Bluff: 3; {+1 CC} Knowledge (religion): 1; Uncanny dodge
3 5 Fangshields Barbarian-3 4 3 1 3 4: {+2 CC} Bluff: 4; {+1} Jump: 1; {+1 CC} Knowledge (planes): 0.5; Knowledge (religion): 1; Fast charge (+10 ft.)
4 6 Barbarian-4 5 4 1 3 4: {+1 CC} Bluff: 4.5; {+1} Jump: 2; {+2 CC} Knowledge (planes): 1.5; Knowledge (religion): 1; Improved Bull Rush Ferocity 2/day
5 7 Fangshields Barbarian-5 6 4 1 3 4: {+1 CC} Bluff: 5; {+1} Jump: 3; {+2 CC} Knowledge (planes): 2.5; Knowledge (religion): 1; Awesome charge
6 8 Barbarian-6 7 5 2 4 5: {+1 CC} Bluff: 5.5; {+1} Intimidate: 1; {+1} Jump: 4; {+2 CC} Knowledge (planes): 3.5; Knowledge (religion): 1; Fast charge (+20 ft.)
7 9 Streetfighter Barbarian-7 8 5 2 4 5: {+1 CC} Bluff: 6; {+1} Intimidate: 2; {+1} Jump: 5; {+2 CC} Knowledge (planes): 4.5; Knowledge (religion): 1; Shock Trooper Increases critical threat range
8 10 Barbarian-8 9 6 2 4 5: {+1 CC} Bluff: 6.5; {+1} Intimidate: 3; {+1} Jump: 6; {+2 CC} Knowledge (planes): 5.5; Knowledge (religion): 1; Ferocity 3/day
9 11 Barbarian-9 10 6 3 5 5: {+1 CC} Bluff: 7; {+1} Intimidate: 4; {+1} Jump: 7; {+2 CC} Knowledge (planes): 6.5; Knowledge (religion): 1; Fast charge (+30 ft.)
10 12 Streetfighter Barbarian-10 11 7 3 5 5: {+1 CC} Bluff: 7.5; {+2} Intimidate: 6; {+1} Jump: 8; {+1 CC} Knowledge (planes): 7; Knowledge (religion): 1; Combat Expertise Single turn during a charge
11 13 Barbarian-11 12 7 3 5 5: {+1 CC} Bluff: 8; {+2} Intimidate: 8; {+1} Jump: 9; {+1 CC} Knowledge (planes): 7.5; Knowledge (religion): 1; Greater Ferocity
12 14 Barbarian-12 13 8 4 6 5: {+1 CC} Bluff: 8.5; {+2} Intimidate: 10; {+1} Jump: 10; {+1 CC} Knowledge (planes): 8; Knowledge (religion): 1; Ferocity 4/day, fast charge (+40 ft.)
13 15 Streetfighter Barbarian-13 14 8 4 6 5: {+1 CC} Bluff: 9; {+1} Intimidate: 11; {+1} Jump: 11; Knowledge (planes): 8; Knowledge (religion): 1; {+2} Extreme Leap; Improved Trip Charge through allies
14 16 Horned Harbinger-1 14 10 4 8 3: {+1 CC} Bluff: 9.5; {+2} Intimidate: 13; Jump: 11; Knowledge (planes): 8; Knowledge (religion): 1; Extreme Leap; Death Devotion (Domain) Bone horns, rebuke undead, death domain
15 17 Barbarian-14 15 11 4 8 5: {+1 CC} Bluff: 10; {+1} Intimidate: 14; {+1} Jump: 12; Knowledge (planes): 8; Knowledge (religion): 1; {+2} Never Outnumbered, Extreme Leap; Shifting Stance
16 18 Barbarian-15 16 11 5 9 5: {+1 CC} Bluff: 10.5; {+1} Intimidate: 15; {+3} Jump: 15; Knowledge (planes): 8; Knowledge (religion): 1; Never Outnumbered, Extreme Leap; Knock-Down Fast charge (+50 ft.)
17 19 Streetfighter Barbarian-16 17 12 5 9 5: {+1 CC} Bluff: 11; {+1} Intimidate: 16; {+3} Jump: 18; Knowledge (planes): 8; Knowledge (religion): 1; Never Outnumbered, Extreme Leap; Four times speed charge
18 20 Barbarian-17 18 12 5 9 5: {+1 CC} Bluff: 11.5; {+1} Intimidate: 17; {+3} Jump: 21; Knowledge (planes): 8; Knowledge (religion): 1; Never Outnumbered, Extreme Leap; Relentless Ferocity
19 21 Barbarian-18 19 13 6 10 5: {+1 CC} Bluff: 12; {+1} Intimidate: 18; {+3} Jump: 24; Knowledge (planes): 8; Knowledge (religion): 1; Never Outnumbered, Extreme Leap; Leap Attack Fast charge (+60 ft.)
20 22 Streetfighter Barbarian-19 20 13 6 10 5: {+1 CC} Bluff: 12.5; {+3} Intimidate: 21; {+1} Jump: 25; Knowledge (planes): 8; Knowledge (religion): 1; Never Outnumbered, Extreme Leap; Cleaving charge

Okay. We took a half-ogre and added to him Paragon creature template. After this we let him be a happy Commoner. We have a terrible 15 CR creature. Yes, it can hit somebody once. Maybe even survive one strike, but he definitely can't confront a 15th-level party. And he can't confront high level necromancer looking for valuable corpses, either.
Zombie template denies paragon's Ex, Su and Sp abilities, but keeps some of stats, speed, AC, attacks, damage, saves, and skill bonuses. And drops CR to 1/2.
After that Cordan casts on this zombie Maximized Awaken Undead spell and while the typical Intelligence of Paragon Half-Ogre is more than 10 all works well. Also, spell awakes in zombie Ex abilities: Fire and cold resistance 10, Spell resistance, and Fast healing 20.

The further development of Waste is very straightforward. 19 levels of Barbarian and single level of Horned Harbinger. Barbarian is needed for the "cleaving charge" feature of Streetfighter ACF and Horned Harbinger for charge double damage with Bone Horns.
Before 20 CR all what Waste wants is more speed while charging! And I can't fail to pay attention to Fangshields Barbarian ACF. Up to +60 ft charge speed! And as I can see this +60 should be multiplied by the Paragon template. So we have 270 ft charge speed. Yes, zombies don't double speed on charge. What a waste! But it is only until Barbarian 16 when Streetfighter ACF gives us " the barbarian can move up to four times his speed when making a charge attack, rather than double." Yes, it is unclear how many times have zombie. Two? Three? Four? Two at least, but maybe more.
90 degrees turn and charge through squares allies or noncombatants are useful, too.
As undead Waste doesn't have Constitution and regular Rage isn't so good for him, and I trade it for Ferocity. It lasts longer and increases Dexterity instead of Constitution. In addition, starting 14th level Waste "can stand from prone as a swift action". It is very good for the zombie's action economy.
Let's look at the main combo. Cleaving charge and Knock-Down. Yes, many a lance was broken over the question about working Cleave and Knock-Down together, but it well-reasoned can work and I have an Awesome charge from Fangshields Barbarian ACF - another method "to drop foe". Besides, for the charger it is a very cool-looking feature anyway!

At 20 CR Waste has +52(55*) during the charge, 19-20/x2 crit, and 2d8+140(146*) damage, plus free trip (+18(21*)), Awesome Blow, and one negative level every attack.
Waste's AC is about 48(53*), 408 HP, Fast healing 20, Saves F/R/W - 23/23(28*)/20, SR 45.

*- in the Ferocity.

https://comicvine.gamespot.com/a/uploads/original/11125/111253442/5108971-rhino2.jpg
It's a shame I can't manage Anthropomorphic Rhinoceros, but it just didn't put in 20 CR.

Races of Destiny - Half-Ogre (p. 96)
SRD (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/monsters/paragonCreature.htm) - Paragon Creature
DMG - Commoner (p. 108)
Monster Manual - Zombie template (p. 265)
Spell Compendium - Awaken Undead (p. 21)
PHB - Barbarian (p. 24), Animal Affinity (p. 89), Maximize Spell (p. 97), Self-Sufficient (p. 100), Toughness (p. 101), Power Attack (p. 98), Improved Bull Rush (p. 95), Combat Expertise (p. 92), Improved Trip (p. 96), Nondetection (p. 257)
Cityscape WE (https://web.archive.org/web/20201112031718/http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a) - Ferocity, Streetfighter
Complete Warrior - Shock Trooper (p. 112)
Complete Scoundrel - Extreme Leap (p. 86), Never Outnumbered (p. 87)
Faiths And Pantheons - Horned Harbinger (p. 197)
Complete Champion - Death Devotion (p. 57)
Sword and Fist - Knock-Down (p. 7)
Complete Adventurer - Leap Attack (p. 110)
Tome and Blood - Disguise Undead (p. 87)

H_H_F_F

2022-01-28, 09:29 AM

And... that's that! Five brutes for your campaign, courtesy of our wonderful chefs!

Judges, on to you!

Thurbane

2022-01-28, 03:20 PM

Nice job everyone.

I'll try to get a start on judging after the weekend.

loky1109

2022-01-29, 03:16 AM

Okay, what do we have here?

One tree (with T-Rex), one crab, one zombie, two werethings. And two Half-Ogres.

To be honest, some tables are not easy to read, but it's up to judges. Thurbane thanks for your volunteering, by the way! You have five entries to judge and this isn't big amount, but some of them are very different to comparison, so it can be hard.
I see some flaws in all entries. In mine in the first place. I should have to re-read and did better editing. It'll price me some points, I know. Shame on me. (

And I can't give HM - I like my own work as the best. Sorry.
However... I should re-read some entries, maybe I didn't buy something while subway-reading.

P.S.: I had third idea. Feral Beast of Bane/Xvim Human 61. I didn't think about it much, but there is some potential.

P.P.S.: Table will arrive latter today.

P.P.P.S.: Please, step right up and look at Zinc Saucier competition round XL. Link in my Signature.

loky1109

2022-01-29, 05:28 AM

Table incoming!

Name Alignment / Race Class Levels
Auralina (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25348221&postcount=37) LE -> NE Lycanthrope Dark Spellwarped Human Monk 2/Afflicted Lycanthrope (Horrid Tiger) 16/Warshaper 4/Fighter 6
Logy (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25348223&postcount=38) CE Orcwort Plant 33
Orson (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25348227&postcount=39) LE Lycanthrope Mineral Warrior Half-Goristro Half-Ogre Ranger 1/Afflicted Lycanthrope (Cachalot Whale) 12/Monk 1/Fighter 1/Justicar 5/Rogue 2/Hulking Hurler 1
The Antediluvian (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25348233&postcount=40) CE Fiendish Dungeonbred Titanic Monstrous Vampire Monstrous Crab Undead 25
Waste (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25348236&postcount=41) C(?)E Awakened Zombie Paragon Half-Ogre Barbarian 19/Horned Harbinger 1

H_H_F_F

2022-01-29, 08:46 AM

Thank you, Thurbane. And thanks for the table, loky.

Have we any other prospective judges?

InvisibleBison

2022-01-29, 10:34 AM

Have we any other prospective judges?

I'll be judging as well. I've got two entries done, and I should be able to finish by Sunday.

H_H_F_F

2022-01-29, 12:00 PM

Thank you, InvisibleBison!

Doctor Despair

2022-01-29, 12:47 PM

Thanks, Bison; thanks, Thurbane! :)

InvisibleBison

2022-01-30, 11:33 AM

For each of the four criteria, an entry starts with one point, and I ask four questions, the answers to each of which result in gaining up to one additional point. The questions I'm using are:

Does the entry present a compelling or interesting concept/backstory?
Does the entry find an interesting approach to the limitations and theme?
Does the entry make use of interesting or unique mechanical abilities?
Does the entry avoid commonly known/overused optimization suggestions, within reason?

Does the entry qualify for all classes taken?
Does the entry qualify for all feats taken?
Does the entry avoid any rules errors, questionable rules interpretations, cross-setting material, material specifically disallowed from this competition, or generally inelegant build choices?
Does the entry follow the contest rules for presentation, and is it well-presented and easy to read/understand?

Does the entry use the feat taxes for all feats and prestige classes taken?
Does the entry function at the same power level throughout the day, rather than relying on "nova" powers?
Does the entry thrive without requiring specific magic items, templates, or other "add-ons" to qualify for anything?
Does the entry present a reasonable challenge for a moderately optimized party?

Does the entry meet all the contest's limitations and requirements?
Do the contest limitations and themes complement the entry rather than restricting it?
Does this entry represent an interesting and quintessential take on the theme? (In other words, does the entry FEEL like it has properly captured the theme, or is the theme just incidental?)
Is the entry a villain with style, the memorable kind of villain that players will talk about for weeks?

For each question, I may assign more than one point worth of penalties; however, there's a floor of zero points per question.

In addition to the more detailed judging, I'll also provide "Overall Thoughts", which serves as a brief summary of why the entry got the score it got. (Though located at the top of each judgement, the Overall Thoughts is the last part I write.)

Overall Thoughts: Auralina is a well-built recurring enemy with an interestingly sympathetic concept, though I'm not quite sure how she'd manage as a BBEG.

Does the entry present a compelling or interesting concept/backstory? +1

Revenge is a classic villain motivation, and Auralina's got plenty of justification for it
Does the entry find an interesting approach to the limitations and theme? +1

Auralina checks all the boxes while also bringing a bunch of additional abilities to the table.
Does the entry make use of interesting or unique mechanical abilities? +0.8

Lycanthropy is a fairly obvious way of getting a lot of melee power for a relatively low CR bump, but you definitely get points for taking a bunch of levels of ACF-free fighter. -0.2
Does the entry avoid commonly known/overused optimization suggestions, within reason? +1

Auralina flirts with being an ubercharger, but between not taking Shock Trooper and using mainly natural weapons I don't think there's enough of a relationship to justify a penalty.

Does the entry qualify for all classes taken? +1

Yes.
Does the entry qualify for all feats taken? +0.8

I don't think a human with a template qualifies for human heritage -0.1

You don't have enough Constitution to take Fast Healing -0.1
Does the entry avoid any rules errors, questionable rules interpretations, cross-setting material, material specifically disallowed from this competition, or generally inelegant build choices? +0.4

Incorrect lycanthrope CR calculation: A 2nd level monk with a 16 HD base animal should be CR 7, not CR 9. -0.25

I'm not sure what's going on with the feats when Auralina becomes a lycanthrope, but she's definitely got too many. -0.25

Feat progression in the last quarter of the build is incorrect: You should be taking regular feats at CR 16 (24 HD) and CR 19 (27 HD) and fighter bonus feats at CRs 18 and 20. -0.1
Does the entry follow the contest rules for presentation, and is it well-presented and easy to read/understand? +1

No problems here.

Does the entry use the feat taxes for all feats and prestige classes taken? +1

Warshaper doesn't have any feat taxes, so you're good here.

I don't really see any feats that have feat taxes, either. All the feats you take you use.
Does the entry function at the same power level throughout the day, rather than relying on "nova" powers? +1

Yes.
Does the entry thrive without requiring specific magic items, templates, or other "add-ons" to qualify for anything? +1

While the build does require an acquired template, you've incorporated how Auralina gets that template into her story, so no penalty is needed.
Does the entry present a reasonable challenge for a moderately optimized party? +1

Auralina is a tricky opponent, but more in the “hard to kill” sense than the “hard to survive” sense.

Does the entry meet all the contest's limitations and requirements? +1

Yes.
Do the contest limitations and themes complement the entry rather than restricting it? +1

Yes, it makes perfect sense for someone who's goal in life is to kill all mages to shun the use of magic.
Does this entry represent an interesting and quintessential take on the theme? (In other words, does the entry FEEL like it has properly captured the theme, or is the theme just incidental?) +1

“Woman who turns into a tiger and rips your face off” is entirely on brand for this theme.
Is the entry a villain with style, the memorable kind of villain that players will talk about for weeks? +0.2

Unfortunately, Auralina seems to fall into the quintessential VC trap of being an interesting encounter but not an interesting BBEG. She doesn't really have an organization or any sort of goals the PCs can interfere with. And while you do try to have her be a recurring villain by suggesting the PCs capture her while she's just a monk before fighting her again as a were-tiger, I don't see why the PCs would recognize that the were-tiger they're fighting is the same person as that monk they captured a bunch of levels ago unless they're told as much. -0.8

Overall Thoughts: Mechanically, Logy has a brilliant concept. Unfortunately, it's based on a 3.0 feat that was updated in 3.5 to work in a way that prevents what Logy is trying to do. Narratively, I'm not convinced Logy is a villain.

Does the entry present a compelling or interesting concept/backstory? +0.25

Not really. Logy's backstory is all-but-nonexistent, and his concept is not really any different from a stock orcwort. The mechanical twist of having a wild cohort that he flings at people helps a little, but only a little. -0.75
Does the entry find an interesting approach to the limitations and theme? +1

Optimizing a CR 20 melee monster qualifies as interesting.
Does the entry make use of interesting or unique mechanical abilities? +1

Throwing your wild cohort at enemies? Magnificent. True, the 3.5 update means it doesn't work, but I've assessed a penalty in elegance for that and I don't want to double-dip.
Does the entry avoid commonly known/overused optimization suggestions, within reason? +1

Wild cohort is a popular tip, but not so much for melee brutes. Also, you use it in a sufficiently innovative fashion that I feel comfortable not penalizing you.

Does the entry qualify for all classes taken? +1

Yes, technically.
Does the entry qualify for all feats taken? +0.8

You can't take Dash more than once. -0.1

You don't qualify for the 3.5 version of Fling Enemy. -0.1
Does the entry avoid any rules errors, questionable rules interpretations, cross-setting material, material specifically disallowed from this competition, or generally inelegant build choices? +0.45

You take the Quick trait, but don't incorporate it into Logy's character. -0.1

Your tactics are designed around the 3.0 version of Fling Enemy; the 3.5 version has a much shorter range, doesn't do any damage to the enemy being flung, and can't target another creature. Also, the feat can only be used on an enemy, and there's no way that either Fruity or Logy's wortlings qualify as such. -0.25

Taking 1 hit die of advancement to get an extra feat (which you don't actually need to make the build work) without increasing CR definitely gets an elegance penalty. -0.1

I'm also going to assign an impudence penalty for calling out the illegal elements of your own build, as if that somehow made them OK. -0.1
Does the entry follow the contest rules for presentation, and is it well-presented and easy to read/understand? +1

The format you used, while not typical, is perfectly reasonable for a CR 20-only entry, and quite easy to read.

Does the entry use the feat taxes for all feats and prestige classes taken? +0.9

Your tactics seem to be built around either long-range throwing or grappling/trampling, so you're not really using Point-Blank Shot. -0.1
Does the entry function at the same power level throughout the day, rather than relying on "nova" powers? +0.9

The nova-ness of Logy's flinging tactics seems to vary based on how many wortlings he has available. You do say that he sends them out to search for hidden prey, though, so I feel it's quite possible they won't be present when a fight breaks out. A minor penalty seems appropriate. -0.1
Does the entry thrive without requiring specific magic items, templates, or other "add-ons" to qualify for anything? +1

Yes.
Does the entry present a reasonable challenge for a moderately optimized party? +0.4

I'm not an expert at high-level D&D, but Logy just doesn't seem like a CR 20 threat to me. His offense is almost there, but his defenses are just not up to par. -0.6

Does the entry meet all the contest's limitations and requirements? +0

You mention taking Hidden Talent and Speed of Thought as an alternative to taking Dash twice. I feel taking psionic feats does violate the contest limitations, and since it's presented as an alternative to an illegal choice I'm going to penalize it as if it was part of the build. -1

As far as I can tell, Logy isn't evil. His entry doesn't say that he is, orcworts are normally neutral, and nothing in his story description seems evil, either. -1
Do the contest limitations and themes complement the entry rather than restricting it? +1

I don't see how Logy could be improved by adding in magic.
Does this entry represent an interesting and quintessential take on the theme? (In other words, does the entry FEEL like it has properly captured the theme, or is the theme just incidental?) +1

Logy is a tree that will beat you to death and eat you. Theme, nailed.
Is the entry a villain with style, the memorable kind of villain that players will talk about for weeks? +0.5

Logy is an interesting encounter, but he's not a villain in any meaningful sense of the word. He just wants to eat. -0.5

Overall Thoughts: Orson is big and strong, but he's also kind of boring. He wanders around smashing things for a while, then he sits in one place and smashes things that come near him. Hardly a captivating antagonist.

Does the entry present a compelling or interesting concept/backstory? +0.5

Yes and no. The basic idea of a big, dumb brute who devotes himself to a cause he's too stupid to figure out is interesting. However, a lot of the backstory is clearly just intended to provide some sort of justification for Orson's various templates rather than to tell a coherent story. -0.5
Does the entry find an interesting approach to the limitations and theme? +1

Playing the somewhat facetious name of the round completely straight gets you full points here.
Does the entry make use of interesting or unique mechanical abilities? +0.75

Lycanthropy is a fairly obvious way of getting a lot of melee power for a relatively low CR bump. -0.25
Does the entry avoid commonly known/overused optimization suggestions, within reason? +0.75

Orson is built of a fairly standard Strength-optimizing template-stacking technique. -0.25

Does the entry qualify for all classes taken? +0.75

You don't qualify for Justicar because of your skill point issues. -0.25
Does the entry qualify for all feats taken? +0.9

You don't qualify for Snatch Arrows. -0.1
Does the entry avoid any rules errors, questionable rules interpretations, cross-setting material, material specifically disallowed from this competition, or generally inelegant build choices? +0.7

You have too many skill points at CR 10. -0.1

You take the Skilled City Dweller ACF without having ever lived in a city. -0.1

You don't have any narrative justification for becoming a justicar. -0.1
Does the entry follow the contest rules for presentation, and is it well-presented and easy to read/understand? +1

Yes.

Does the entry use the feat taxes for all feats and prestige classes taken? +0.6

You don't make use of either of Justicar's feat taxes. -0.2

You don't make use of Hulking Hurler's feat tax of Weapon Focus. -0.1

You don't make use of Stunning Fist, which is a feat tax for Choke Hold. -0.1
Does the entry function at the same power level throughout the day, rather than relying on "nova" powers? +1

Yes, Orson works fine all day long.
Does the entry thrive without requiring specific magic items, templates, or other "add-ons" to qualify for anything? +0.9

Your strategy guide recommends Orson using various magical shackles. -0.1
Does the entry present a reasonable challenge for a moderately optimized party? +1

Yes, I think he does. He's tough and he hits hard, but not overwhelmingly so.

Does the entry meet all the contest's limitations and requirements? +0

No. As a half-fiend, Orson has a bunch of spell-like abilities.
Do the contest limitations and themes complement the entry rather than restricting it? +1

Yes, Orson makes perfect sense as someone without any “complex” abilities.
Does this entry represent an interesting and quintessential take on the theme? (In other words, does the entry FEEL like it has properly captured the theme, or is the theme just incidental?) +1

Orson is a massive rock monster that crushes everyone he encounters. Entirely on theme.
Is the entry a villain with style, the memorable kind of villain that players will talk about for weeks? +0.2

While he's an interesting encounter, I'm struggling to see how Orson makes a memorable antagonist. During his more active days, he's just a wandering fight, and at CR 20 he's literally sitting around doing nothing. -0.8

Overall Thoughts: What a terrible entry. No story, no interesting combos, just a heap of cheese.

Does the entry present a compelling or interesting concept/backstory? +0

The entry doesn't present any concept or backstory. -1
Does the entry find an interesting approach to the limitations and theme? +0

Template-stacking cheese is not interesting. -1
Does the entry make use of interesting or unique mechanical abilities? +1

I have to say, I was not expecting a vampire this round.
Does the entry avoid commonly known/overused optimization suggestions, within reason? +0.5

Template-stacking cheese is hardly original. -0.25

Shock trooper is one of the most commonly known pieces of melee optimization. -0.25

Does the entry qualify for all classes taken? +1

Yes, technically.
Does the entry qualify for all feats taken? +1

Yes.
Does the entry avoid any rules errors, questionable rules interpretations, cross-setting material, material specifically disallowed from this competition, or generally inelegant build choices? +0

Template-stacking cheese is massively inelegant. -1

You didn't spend your skill points for your last five HD. -0.25

I'm not convinced that fiendish creature grants mindless creatures an intelligence score. -0.25
Does the entry follow the contest rules for presentation, and is it well-presented and easy to read/understand? +0.9

The “Playtips” section not very well organized. -0.1

Does the entry use the feat taxes for all feats and prestige classes taken? +1

Yes.
Does the entry function at the same power level throughout the day, rather than relying on "nova" powers? +1

Yes.
Does the entry thrive without requiring specific magic items, templates, or other "add-ons" to qualify for anything? +1

Yes.
Does the entry present a reasonable challenge for a moderately optimized party? +0.5

I'm skeptical. Your offense is all right, but defensively pretty much all you've got going for you is that you're a vampire. You've got very few hit points, your AC is not that high, and your saves are abysmal. -0.5

Does the entry meet all the contest's limitations and requirements? +1

Yes, no problems here.
Do the contest limitations and themes complement the entry rather than restricting it? +0

There isn't any synergy between the contest's theme and the Antediluvian's because the Antediluvian doesn't have a theme.
Does this entry represent an interesting and quintessential take on the theme? (In other words, does the entry FEEL like it has properly captured the theme, or is the theme just incidental?) +0

No, not at all. The Antediluvian feels like a bunch of random templates slapped together to create a CR 20 creature with no SLAs.
Is the entry a villain with style, the memorable kind of villain that players will talk about for weeks? +0

No, definitely not. The Antediluvian doesn't really qualify as a villain at all. It has no goals, it isn't doing any thing, there's nothing pushing the PCs to come into conflict with it.

Overall Thoughts: While technically proficient, Waste is not in any meaningful sense a villain. He's just a powerful minion of the mage who created him.

Does the entry present a compelling or interesting concept/backstory? +0.5

Yes and no. There's an interesting concept here, but it's not Waste's concept – it's Cordan's. Waste is just one of Cordan's experiments. -0.5
Does the entry find an interesting approach to the limitations and theme? +0

No, not really. You're engaging with the limitations in an entirely predictable fashion.
Does the entry make use of interesting or unique mechanical abilities? +1

Using zombie to sneak a paragon creature in is quite clever. Cheesy, sure, but this isn't the elegance section.
Does the entry avoid commonly known/overused optimization suggestions, within reason? +0.5

Ubercharging and tripping are well-known optimization techniques, and you get no points for combining them. -0.5

Does the entry qualify for all classes taken? +1

Yes.
Does the entry qualify for all feats taken? +0.9

You don't qualify for Death Devotion at CR 14, because the level-up procedure says to select a feat before you gain class features. -0.1
Does the entry avoid any rules errors, questionable rules interpretations, cross-setting material, material specifically disallowed from this competition, or generally inelegant build choices? +0.15

Your main combo doesn't work. -0.25

In general, Waste seems to be designed exclusively to function at CR 20, instead of being a viable villain throughout its build. -0.1

I'm not an expert in the Forgotten Realms, but I'm pretty sure people there aren't allowed to have multiple patron deities. -0.1

Your calculation of Waste's speed is incorrect. The enhancement bonus provided by Fangshields barbarian is not part of Waste's base speed, and thus isn't tripled by paragon. -0.1

Awaken undead won't restore Waste's damage reduction, because DR/epic is a supernatural ability. -0.05

Using zombie to sneak a paragon creature in is quite cheesy. Clever, sure, but this isn't the originality section. -0.25
Does the entry follow the contest rules for presentation, and is it well-presented and easy to read/understand? +1

Yes.

Does the entry use the feat taxes for all feats and prestige classes taken? +0.9

You aren't using Improved Bull Rush, which is a feat tax for Shock Trooper. -0.1
Does the entry function at the same power level throughout the day, rather than relying on "nova" powers? +0.8

Death Devotion only works for 1 minute a day. -0.1

Ferocity is only available some of the time. -0.1
Does the entry thrive without requiring specific magic items, templates, or other "add-ons" to qualify for anything? +0.75

Waste isn't able to trick the Fangshields into training him on his own. -0.25
Does the entry present a reasonable challenge for a moderately optimized party? +1

I think so, yes.

Does the entry meet all the contest's limitations and requirements? +1

Yes.
Do the contest limitations and themes complement the entry rather than restricting it? +0.75

I think that Waste would be better off if he was spellstitched. -0.25
Does this entry represent an interesting and quintessential take on the theme? (In other words, does the entry FEEL like it has properly captured the theme, or is the theme just incidental?) +0.5

Waste is a powerful zombie warrior sworn to the service of Orcus. There's some overlap between his theme and the contest's, but they're not the same thing. -0.5
Is the entry a villain with style, the memorable kind of villain that players will talk about for weeks? +0

No. Waste isn't really a villain in his own right; rather, he's a minion of Cordan, who is the actual villain. Given how much of his build is fairly stock optimization, I'm not even sure Waste qualifies as a memorable encounter.

H_H_F_F

2022-01-30, 12:51 PM

Thank you for judging, InvisibleBison!

A couple of disputes for you:

InvisibleBison, thanks a lot for so quick judging!
I have some disputes here.

Unfortunately, it's based on a 3.0 feat that was updated in 3.5 to work in a way that prevents what Logy is trying to do.

You don't qualify for the 3.5 version of Fling Enemy.
Yeah, I know what feat you talking about and I can't suggest that this is 3.5 update. This two feats are completely different feats with same names (it isn't single precedent, look, for example, on the Quick Change - SS version and RoE version aren't two version of the same) different precs, different purpose - one for monsters, another for PCs, differences in mechanics (not only range).

Also, the feat can only be used on an enemy, and there's no way that either Fruity or Logy's wortlings qualify as such.
Enemy or not enemy is very subjective concept.

Your tactics seem to be built around either long-range throwing or grappling/trampling, so you're not really using Point-Blank Shot. -0.1
Unfortunately, every long distant shooter should have it, because it is prec for Far Shot.

You mention taking Hidden Talent and Speed of Thought as an alternative to taking Dash twice. I feel taking psionic feats does violate the contest limitations, and since it's presented as an alternative to an illegal choice I'm going to penalize it as if it was part of the build. -1
I understand your feeling, but technically it isn't against limitation.
"Psionics" is some broad, but in context clearly see it is about manifestation, not feats.

The nova-ness of Logy's flinging tactics seems to vary based on how many wortlings he has available. You do say that he sends them out to search for hidden prey, though, so I feel it's quite possible they won't be present when a fight breaks out. A minor penalty seems appropriate. -0.1
Logy pinpoint enemies from 15 miles. Of course his wortlings will be with him when fight will happens. And almost EVERY fight will happens on Logy's terms. During night time PCs camp simply will be bombed with wortlings. Or even with T-Rex.

Originality:
My backstory is the first section entitled "the new campaign."

Shock trooper is a tax for melee-focused monsters. The prompt specified the entries should be melee focused, so of course it was taken. Being penalized for it is like being penalized for taking darkstalker on a rogue.

Build Elegance:
Fiendish does provide intelligence to mindless creatures:

Abilities
Same as the base creature, but Intelligence is at least 3.

That is what the above passage means. There is no stipulation within it that it cannot be applied to mindless creatures. This is the difference between saying "intelligence is at least 3" and "+3 to intelligence."

For future reference, what precisely is your issue with my playtips? Is there another section of our submission template where you would prefer to find some of the information present here?

Competence and Power:
Defensively, I'm a vampire which through the choice of base monster has obviated all of vampire's traditional weaknesses and cannot be staked, drowned, or decapitated. In addition, I have no coffin to destroy and live in deep water to avoid the sun.

Memorable Villainy:
Please read my backstory.

Edit: and another one.

InvisibleBison, thanks for judging!

Originality
I have some questions here. Do you often see almost straight barbarian in optimization contests? How about zombie charger?

You don't qualify for Death Devotion at CR 14, because the level-up procedure says to select a feat before you gain class features. -0.1
Stop. What? O_o
I trade Death Domain for Death Devotion feat. Look at Complete Champion, page 53 - "Clerics and Domain Feats" paragraph. All as there said.

Your main combo doesn't work. -0.25
Please, explain where was I wrong.

In general, Waste seems to be designed exclusively to function at CR 20, instead of being a viable villain throughout its build. -0.1
Yes, sweet spot is 20 CR, but Waste can do very good damage on all levels.
CR 1 for example.
Slam +35 Attack Bonus, 1d8+32* damage. Without charge, PA and ferocity. Speed is 90.
And CR 10
Slam +44 Attack Bonus, 1d8+32* damage. Without charge, PA and ferocity. Speed is 90.
With charge and PA AB is +44, damage 1d8+52. Speed is 180.

*-now slam is a single nat weapon and so has 1.5 Str multiplier.

Is this not enought?
Middle levels isn't indeed so good, but isn't waste.

I'm not an expert in the Forgotten Realms, but I'm pretty sure people there aren't allowed to have multiple patron deities. -0.1
And Waste doesn't have. Orcus isn't deity, he is demon prince.

Your calculation of Waste's speed is incorrect. The enhancement bonus provided by Fangshields barbarian is not part of Waste's base speed, and thus isn't tripled by paragon. -0.1
Can't agree.

A paragon creature’s speed triples, for all movement types.

At 3rd level, a Fangshields barbarian gains a 10-foot enhancement bonus to his speed when he charges.
I don't see any mentions about "base" speed in Paragon, and Fangshields barbarian's speed boost definitely is speed enhancement, not some additional movement. Them should work together.

Awaken undead won't restore Waste's damage reduction, because DR/epic is a supernatural ability. -0.05
Yes, it won't. Where did I wrote opposite?

After that Cordan casts on this zombie Maximized Awaken Undead spell and while the typical Intelligence of Paragon Half-Ogre is more than 10 all works well. Also, spell awakes in zombie Ex abilities: Fire and cold resistance 10, Spell resistance, and Fast healing 20.
Nothing about DR.

I think that Waste would be better off if he was spellstitched. -0.25
Spellstitched has +1 CR. It means drop 1 level Barbarian or Horned Harbinger. Barbarian 19 gives me Cleaving charge, Horned Harbinger gives me double damage. I don't think any of it is good trade for only 2 1st level spells 4 times/day summary.

No. Waste isn't really a villain in his own right; rather, he's a minion of Cordan, who is the actual villain. Given how much of his build is fairly stock optimization, I'm not even sure Waste qualifies as a memorable encounter.
Again... Don't worry Cordan, next time we'll can!

And yet one more for you, InvisibleBison.

Thank you for judging, InvisibleBison! A few quick disputes/comments:

Wrt stacking strength templates: the goal was actually to achieve gargantuan size in a way that was possible with player-resources (so no LA - templates/races) and didn't use spells/slas/su. I can see why it would come across as optimizing for strength, but it was definitely a byproduct of the size-optimization for the "big" part of the name. I don't know if that influences how you'd look at it though, but I wanted to mention it.

The build qualifies with cross-class levels in the Justicar skills from the animal HD. With 6 int, the character has -2 modifer to int, so at level 1, they'd get 4 skill points x 4 (16). They put them in 4 gather information (skilled city dweller), 4 search, and 4 survival (12), as well as 1 jump (13) and 3 listen (16). Then, they apply Mineral Warrior, but that doesn't retroactively deduct skill ranks. We then get 12 RHD, each granting 1 skill point. They put 2 into gather information, search, and survival cross-class each, getting the requirement for Justicar, and leaving us with 6 to spare. They all went into Listen.

Hulking Hurler grants Snatch Arrows even if the character does not meet the prerequisites.

Fair point to how off-brand the ACF is; I forgot to include it in the backstory. No dispute to that. Wrt Justicar, I'd intended for the character to have been going along with the LotR troll trope of binding the characters up before eating them, but I suppose it must not have come across well.

Orson does recommend magical shackles, but doesn't rely on them. Even mundane shackles would be workable for his purposes; it just arguably wouldn't allow him to disable folks with FoM from using escape artist. If needing a specific weapon is in poor taste, then I suppose he deserves a ding here, but the category there is asking if he thrives without requiring specific magic items, and he definitely can thrive with just mundane shackles.

Orson doesn't have SLAs as a half-fiend. Half-Fiends only have SLAs if their int or wis is at 8 or above. Orson's int and wis are both below 8. That's why the Mineral Warrior template was included in his backstory (for the -2 to int and wis).

Wrt his memorable-ness: I thought the ambient suspense of the mysterious disappearances of people, trade caravans, towns, and adventuring parties would create tension for the party; maybe he could be a campaign-long boogey man that the party is incapable of finding earlier in the campaign, but is sprung on them partway through, or that they get closure on towards the end of their campaign when it's vaguely CR-appropriate. It is true though that if they never follow up on the mysterious disappearances, you could say he's just sitting around doing nothing. It was difficult for me to think of something devious someone with 4 int could do apart from wanton destruction, so I thought I'd try to create some suspense. Again, as with his "tying up creatures to eat them" LotR subtheme before, maybe it didn't come across as well as I'd liked.

InvisibleBison

2022-01-30, 05:01 PM

Replies to disputes:

Yeah, I know what feat you talking about and I can't suggest that this is 3.5 update. This two feats are completely different feats with same names (it isn't single precedent, look, for example, on the Quick Change - SS version and RoE version aren't two version of the same) different precs, different purpose - one for monsters, another for PCs, differences in mechanics (not only range).

The two feats have the same name and do the same thing. I don't see any reason not to think that the 3.5 version is meant to replace the 3.0 version.

Enemy or not enemy is very subjective concept.

You're joking, right? There's no possible way your wild cohort counts as your enemy.

Unfortunately, every long distant shooter should have it, because it is prec for Far Shot.

Yes, that's what being a feat tax means - it's a feat you take not to use but to qualify for something else. I want to reward builds that find ways to nevertheless make use of feat taxes, but because of how my judging rubric works I have to do that by penalizing builds that don't.

I understand your feeling, but technically it isn't against limitation.
"Psionics" is some broad, but in context clearly see it is about manifestation, not feats.

You may think that the ban on psionics doesn't include psionic feats, but I think it does. And since I'm the judge, my opinion is the one that matters. Unless H_H_F_F says otherwise, of course.

Logy pinpoint enemies from 15 miles. Of course his wortlings will be with him when fight will happens. And almost EVERY fight will happens on Logy's terms. During night time PCs camp simply will be bombed with wortlings. Or even with T-Rex.
At 20th level, I see no reason to assume that the PCs can't engage Logy from more than 15 miles away, or to cross that distance faster than the wortlings can return to Logy.

My backstory is the first section entitled "the new campaign."

That section provides no information about who the Antediluvian is, where it came from, what it wants, what it would do, why the PCs should oppose it, or any other information needed to use it as a BBEG. As far as I can tell, it's not even about a D&D campaign.

Shock trooper is a tax for melee-focused monsters. The prompt specified the entries should be melee focused, so of course it was taken. Being penalized for it is like being penalized for taking darkstalker on a rogue.

"Everyone else is doing it, too" is not an effective argument against an originality penalty. Moreover, it's not correct - three of the five builds found something more original to do instead of taking Shock Trooper. And I'd totally give a rogue an originality penalty for taking darkstalker.

Fiendish does provide intelligence to mindless creatures:

Abilities
Same as the base creature, but Intelligence is at least 3.
That is what the above passage means. There is no stipulation within it that it cannot be applied to mindless creatures. This is the difference between saying "intelligence is at least 3" and "+3 to intelligence."

When you apply the fiendish creature template to a creature, if the creature's intelligence is less than 3 it is increased to 3. Mindless creatures have an Int score of -, which is not a number and thus can't be compared to 3. The rules are silent on what to do in this situation, which means that it falls to the DM, or in this case the judge, to resolve. I don't see why infusing a mindless creature with fiendish energy would necessarily make it not just intelligent but sapient - there are plenty of mindless fiends, after all.

For future reference, what precisely is your issue with my playtips? Is there another section of our submission template where you would prefer to find some of the information present here?

It just feels a bit wall-of-text-ish. If I was looking for advice about something specific, I'd have to skim through the entire thing until I happened to find it. If key words were bolded, or each paragraph was devoted to a specific topic and the paragraphs were in alphabetical order, I think it would be easier to navigate. That being said, I think I may have gone overboard by actually penalizing you for it, especially since it's not really that different from Orson's strategy section, which I didn't penalize. +0.1

Defensively, I'm a vampire which through the choice of base monster has obviated all of vampire's traditional weaknesses and cannot be staked, drowned, or decapitated. In addition, I have no coffin to destroy and live in deep water to avoid the sun.

Yes, this is all true. That's what I meant when I said that defensively all you've got going for you is that you're a vampire. I'm not sure what your point is.

Memorable Villainy:
Please read my backstory.

Memorable villainy is not about coming up with a fake campaign journal in which the entry serves as the final boss. It's about how memorable the entry would be if I took it and, using only the material in the entry, used it as a villain in my game. The Antediluvian gives me absolutely nothing to work with. It's literally just a giant crab vampire sitting on the bottom of the ocean, doing nothing, bothering no one. It's no more a villain than the ground it's standing on.

I have some questions here. Do you often see almost straight barbarian in optimization contests? How about zombie charger?

Originality isn't really about how often something shows up in optimization contests specifically. It's about how often something shows up in optimization discussions or build recommendations in general. A barbarian based ubercharger is a fairly well-known approach to melee damage optimization. The zombie bit is new, which is why you got points for it.

Stop. What? O_o
I trade Death Domain for Death Devotion feat. Look at Complete Champion, page 53 - "Clerics and Domain Feats" paragraph. All as there said.

You're right. I misunderstood the build table. +0.1

Please, explain where was I wrong.

"Drop" in Charging Cleave means "kill", not "cause to fall over".

Yes, sweet spot is 20 CR, but Waste can do very good damage on all levels.
Is this not enought?

Yes, it is enough. +0.1

And Waste doesn't have. Orcus isn't deity, he is demon prince.

Everything I know about the Realms indicates that religion there is much more monolatrous than default D&D. Even if Orcus is technically not a deity, he does all the things a deity does, and I can't see how a character devoted to Orcus could also have Myrkul as a patron.

Can't agree.
I don't see any mentions about "base" speed in Paragon, and Fangshields barbarian's speed boost definitely is speed enhancement, not some additional movement. Them should work together.

"Speed" and "enhancement bonus to speed" are not the same thing. Paragon triples the former; fangshields barbarian grants the latter. I acknowledge that mine is not the only valid interpretation, but since I'm the judge, it's the one that applies.

Yes, it won't. Where did I wrote opposite?

I once again misread the entry. +0.05

Spellstitched has +1 CR. It means drop 1 level Barbarian or Horned Harbinger. Barbarian 19 gives me Cleaving charge, Horned Harbinger gives me double damage. I don't think any of it is good trade for only 2 1st level spells 4 times/day summary.

If Cleaving Charge worked the way you think it does, that would be correct. As it is, since you're unlikely to deal enough damage to 1-shot a 20th level character, Barbarian 19 isn't doing you a lot of good. Moreover, this question is less looking at how well the entry would do in the contest and more looking at how well the character fulfills its concept and the degree to which discarding the contest's limitations and requirements allows it to be changed to better fulfill its concept. If magic were on the table, I think a version of Waste with a higher Wisdom score would be able to get enough out of spellstitched to be better than the version presented here.

Wrt stacking strength templates: the goal was actually to achieve gargantuan size in a way that was possible with player-resources (so no LA - templates/races) and didn't use spells/slas/su. I can see why it would come across as optimizing for strength, but it was definitely a byproduct of the size-optimization for the "big" part of the name. I don't know if that influences how you'd look at it though, but I wanted to mention it.

This is interesting, but it doesn't really change anything - you still did use a bog-standard optimization combo, even if you didn't use it for what it's typically used for.

The build qualifies with cross-class levels in the Justicar skills from the animal HD. With 6 int, the character has -2 modifer to int, so at level 1, they'd get 4 skill points x 4 (16). They put them in 4 gather information (skilled city dweller), 4 search, and 4 survival (12), as well as 1 jump (13) and 3 listen (16). Then, they apply Mineral Warrior, but that doesn't retroactively deduct skill ranks. We then get 12 RHD, each granting 1 skill point. They put 2 into gather information, search, and survival cross-class each, getting the requirement for Justicar, and leaving us with 6 to spare. They all went into Listen.

You could have done a better job of explaining that in the build, but it all checks out. +0.35

Hulking Hurler grants Snatch Arrows even if the character does not meet the prerequisites.

Indeed it does. +0.1

Wrt Justicar, I'd intended for the character to have been going along with the LotR troll trope of binding the characters up before eating them, but I suppose it must not have come across well.

I'm pretty sure that's only mentioned in the Hobbit, actually.

Orson does recommend magical shackles, but doesn't rely on them. Even mundane shackles would be workable for his purposes; it just arguably wouldn't allow him to disable folks with FoM from using escape artist. If needing a specific weapon is in poor taste, then I suppose he deserves a ding here, but the category there is asking if he thrives without requiring specific magic items, and he definitely can thrive with just mundane shackles.

Fair point on not needing the magical shackles. I would only ding someone for needing a specific weapon if it's one they wouldn't reasonably be able to obtain, which after some reflection I don't think applies to Orson and manacles. +0.1

Orson doesn't have SLAs as a half-fiend. Half-Fiends only have SLAs if their int or wis is at 8 or above. Orson's int and wis are both below 8. That's why the Mineral Warrior template was included in his backstory (for the -2 to int and wis).

You're right, I completely overlooked that. +1

Wrt his memorable-ness: I thought the ambient suspense of the mysterious disappearances of people, trade caravans, towns, and adventuring parties would create tension for the party; maybe he could be a campaign-long boogey man that the party is incapable of finding earlier in the campaign, but is sprung on them partway through, or that they get closure on towards the end of their campaign when it's vaguely CR-appropriate. It is true though that if they never follow up on the mysterious disappearances, you could say he's just sitting around doing nothing. It was difficult for me to think of something devious someone with 4 int could do apart from wanton destruction, so I thought I'd try to create some suspense. Again, as with his "tying up creatures to eat them" LotR subtheme before, maybe it didn't come across as well as I'd liked.

I see what you're going for, and Orson does pull it off. However, I just don't think it's on brand for this competition. The entries are supposed to serve as the BBEG of a campaign, and you can't really have a BBEG who isn't doing anything.

After disputes, scores are:

Auralina: 18.2
Logy: 16.2
Orson: 17.6
The Antediluvian: 13
Waste: 15

H_H_F_F

2022-01-30, 05:39 PM

Thank you for the quick response, InvisibleBison.

You may think that the ban on psionics doesn't include psionic feats, but I think it does. And since I'm the judge, my opinion is the one that matters. Unless H_H_F_F says otherwise, of course.

I'll admit, I didn't consider psionic feats when writing the limitations, and I did just have manifesting powers in mind.

However, the section says "psionics" not "powers". While I don't think that definitionally must mean "no psionic feats", that is a legitemate interpretation, and far from being something I'd feel the need to overrule you on.

Doctor Despair

2022-01-30, 06:37 PM

Thanks for the timely feedback and timely response, Bison!

Now we await Thurbane's verdict. :smallsmile:

H_H_F_F

2022-01-31, 06:07 AM

While we're waiting for Thurbane's judgement, would you like to vote on next round's theme?

Love Hurts
Sound of the Police
Ultimate Power!

Venger

2022-01-31, 06:09 AM

Love hurts sounds fun.

loky1109

2022-01-31, 06:11 AM

Sound of the Police looks good for me.

InvisibleBison

2022-01-31, 08:52 AM

I'll vote for Love Hurts.

AvatarVecna

2022-01-31, 10:23 AM

Sound Of The Police

zlefin

2022-01-31, 11:27 AM

A nice selection of entries. I'd tried making one myself; but it just didn't have anything interesting to do after the base. ie once I have the base creature and template, all the stuff that makes them notable is done, and adding class levels didn't notably improve their power or coolness at all.

Doctor Despair

2022-01-31, 02:22 PM

A nice selection of entries.

Nice enough for you to judge? :smallwink:

Thurbane

2022-02-01, 08:27 PM

OK, here goes: all categories start at 3.0, and I mark up or down in increments of 0.5 (sorry if commentary is a bit brief, work has been eating up my time):

Auralina - 14.5

Originality: Lycanthrope was expected, but the combo of other templates was not. Monk, fighter and warshaper were somewhat expected also. Overall, I'm giving 3.5
Build Elegance:Everything seem to flow fairly well, but I was almost certain you cannot select a templated animal as the base for lycanthropy. I can't find a citation, though. The most recent version of the Dark template is ToM, from memory. The number of templates feels a little messy, so I'm giving 3.0 here
Competence and Power: Auralina has respectable damage output, and also a lot of resistance and resilience. I feel this deserves a 4.0
Memorable Villainy: Given the restrictions of the round, I feel Auralina is a decent villain, and fairly memorable. 4.0

Logy - 16.5

Originality: I have to say, was not expecting anything like this. I won't give a perfect score, but I feel happy with 4.5
Build Elegance: Straight racial HD, doesn't get much more elegant than that. As far as I can tell, all feats, on both Logy and his cohort, are legal. One thing I am going to have to ping is the lack of the standard build table. I get that it's not strictly required from a spectator POV, but if you'd broken it down by CR, DMs could use Logy without having to reverse engineer the stat block as much. This significantly knocked down what would have been a flawless score for the category. 4.0
Competence and Power: Certainly seems good at what it does. Solid damage, good resilience, lots of immunities, and the cohort is the icing on the cake. 4.5
Memorable Villainy: At first glance, it's a tree. Not sure how memorable it's going to be, but it will certainly be a helluva encounter. Still, it has a lot of quirks, so I'm happy to give 3.5

Orson - 18.0

Originality: Lycanthrope was somewhat expected, but the rest? Not so much. Cahcalot Whale, Half-Gorristo and Justiciar certainly weren't expected from me. 4.5
Build Elegance: According to the web article, the sample Half-Goristro gets Levitate and Fear as SLAs, so unfortunately that breaches the rules of this round.] Other than that, everything seems to be legal, and flows OK. The layering of templates feels a little messy, but not unmanageable. Still, have to ding for the SLAs - so rather than rule the entry illegal, I'll give a 4.0
Competence and Power: Now this is the strong suit of this entry. This guy is a powerhouse, no doubt, and also very resilient. 5.0
Memorable Villainy: I can see this guy beging a memorable villain, especially with the Justiciar stuff. 4.5

The Antediluvian - 15.0

Originality: Big brute creature such as monstrous crabs are not entirely unexpected, but the template layering was. 4.0
Build Elegance: Straight racial HD is pretty elegant. You don't, however, have a CR column in your build table? Does it start out as CR 20, or does that go up as it increases in RHD? Also, Monstrous Crab was updated in Stormwrack, from the online version. I'll call it a wash, and award 3.0
Competence and Power: Very solid damage potential, special attacks, and quite resilient. Due to lack of Con, HOP may be a little on the low side for a CR 20 encounter though. Still, a very powerful monster. 4.5
Memorable Villainy: Similarly to Logy, will make a very entertaining encounter, but I'm not sure about it's memorability as a villain, as such. 3.5

Waste - 15.5

Originality: An awakened Half-Ogre Zombie, sitting on top of Paragon creature, was unexpected. Barbarian less so. 4.0
Build Elegance: Everything seems to be legal, although using Paragon for the ability boosts etc. then getting rid of the CR increase with Zombie is a little cheeky (but still legal). Maximized Awaken is also a bit cheeky (and would never fly at my table), but it is technically RAW. Single classed, with some ACFs/sub levels and 1 PrC dip[ is relatively elegant. Due to the cheese factor of Paragon and maximized Awaken, I'll give 3.5
Competence and Power: Very powerful melee combatant, and fairly resilient, aside from the issue of no Con score affecting HP. 4.0
Memorable Villainy: I can dig this entry as a recurring villain, despite being a bruiser. 4.0

...any disputes, or mistakes to point out/comments to make, please PM the chair as usual.

Venger

2022-02-01, 08:32 PM

Thanks for judging. No disputes.

loky1109

2022-02-01, 09:01 PM

Updated table.
Name Alignment / Race Class Levels Chef InvisibleBison Thurbane Total Place
Auralina (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25348221&postcount=37) LE -> NE Lycanthrope Dark Spellwarped Human Monk 2/Afflicted Lycanthrope (Horrid Tiger) 16/Warshaper 4/Fighter 6 18.2 14.5 32.7 1st
Orson (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25348227&postcount=39) LE Lycanthrope Mineral Warrior Half-Fiend (Half-Goristro) Half-Ogre Ranger 1, Afflicted Lycanthrope (Cachalot Whale) 12 / Monk 1 / Fighter 1 / Justicar 5 / Rogue 2 / Hulking Hurler 1 17.6 15 32.6 2nd
Logy (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25348223&postcount=38) HE Orcwort Plant 33 16.2 15.5 31.7 3rd
Waste (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25348236&postcount=41) C(?)E Awakened Zombie Paragon Half-Ogre Barbarian 19/Horned Harbinger 1 15 15.5 30.5 4th
The Antediluvian (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25348233&postcount=40) CE Fiendish Dungeonbred Titanic Monstrous Vampire Monstrous Crab Undead 25 13 15 28 5th

Thurbane, thanks for judging!

H_H_F_F

2022-02-02, 12:26 AM

Thanks for judging, Thurbane! One two dispute(s) for you at this time.

Hello, Thurbane! Several notes here.

One thing I am going to have to ping is the lack of the standard build table. I get that it's not strictly required from a spectator POV, but if you'd broken it down by CR, DMs could use Logy without having to reverse engineer the stat block as much. This significantly knocked down what would have been a flawless score for the category.
I couldn't do this, unfortunately. Base monster was 20 CR itself and any attempts to go down with CR aren't in RAW field.

Memorable Villainy: At first glance, it's a tree. Not sure how memorable it's going to be, but it will certainly be a helluva encounter. Still, it has a lot of quirks, so I'm happy to give 3.5
Then you say "encounter", as I see, you think about direct fight with Logy, but you forgot one detail.
Logy isn't just tree, but tree that sees everybody in 15 miles. This opens variety of options to interaction. Logy knows about you when you have no idea about him. He can select moment to attack, can ambushing you, can hide away so hard to find or just avoid meeting you long time. He can even be witness of something, so you shouldn't try to kill him, but negotiate somehow.
Yes, in terms of straight melee fight he doesn't impress more than 3.5, but melee fighting though is main round theme isn't most unique Logy's part (albeit I tried to add some spices here, and when the time comes he'll do all well). Most unique is 15-miles Mindsight. And this is very strong and surprising ability. PCs should understand how Logy does that he does and how them work-around this.

Edit: one more for you, Thurbane

Thanks for judging, Thurbane! A quick dispute here though: Half-Fiends, if you look, only have SLAs if the creature's intelligence or wisdom is at 8 or above. Orson's stats, as befits the competition, are firmly below 8, so he has no SLAs from the template. I thought I might as well enshrine the "dumb" part of the competition's restrictions as mechanical restrictions as well, haha.

Is anyone else quietly judging? If so, please let me know.

Assuming not, I'd like to start moving towards next round. I'll leave some more time for disputes, HMs, and anyone wishing to break the tie on next round's ingredient.

Venger

2022-02-02, 12:33 AM

Sounds great. Looking forward to the next round.

Thurbane

2022-02-02, 02:52 PM

In response to the disputes:

Logy: fair enough that you are CR20 from the beginning, I'll accept that. Still, a build table is a standard part of this comp, and I would still like to have seen one. I'll reduce the penalty from -2.0 to -1.0. Elegance is now 4.0.

I acknowledge your comments about memorable villainy, but since you are CR 20 from the get go, it's not really a character that the PCs will have ongoing run-ins with as they level up. I understand that the limits of the round have contributed to this, but I feel some of the other entries have more potential to be memorable. Scoring stands.

Orson: your dispute is 100% correct. I had completely forgotten/overlooked that rule. I'll remove that penalty altogether, which bring the elegance score up to 4.0

...I'll go back and amend my scoring post.

H_H_F_F

2022-02-02, 03:22 PM

Thanks for the response, Thurbane.

Guys, you have 36 hours for further disputes and honorable mentions, unless someone informs me by then that they're working on judging.

Big reveal coming at you Friday, 08:30 AM, GMT. Gods willing, E6 judgement coming not too long after that

loky1109

2022-02-03, 02:43 AM

Table after disputes.

Name Alignment / Race Class Levels Chef InvisibleBison Thurbane Total Place
Orson (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25348227&postcount=39) LE Lycanthrope Mineral Warrior Half-Fiend (Half-Goristro) Half-Ogre Ranger 1/Afflicted Lycanthrope (Cachalot Whale) 12/Monk 1/Fighter 1/Justicar 5/Rogue 2/Hulking Hurler 1 17.6 18 35.6 1st
Auralina (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25348221&postcount=37) LE -> NE Lycanthrope Dark Spellwarped Human Monk 2/Afflicted Lycanthrope (Horrid Tiger) 16/Warshaper 4/Fighter 6 18.2 14.5 32.7 2nd
Logy (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25348223&postcount=38) HE Orcwort Plant 33 16.2 16.5 32.7 2nd
Waste (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25348236&postcount=41) C(?)E Awakened Zombie Paragon Half-Ogre Barbarian 19/Horned Harbinger 1 15 15.5 30.5 3rd
The Antediluvian (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25348233&postcount=40) CE Fiendish Dungeonbred Titanic Monstrous Vampire Monstrous Crab Undead 25 13 15 28 4th

H_H_F_F, how do we work with tie?

H_H_F_F

2022-02-03, 03:29 AM

Thanks for the table, loky.

Unless someone's aware of a different precedent from this competition, we're going to handle ties like the Iron Chef does; meaning, we still award the next medals in line, even though that means more than 3 people get medals.

H_H_F_F

2022-02-04, 08:43 AM

And... Here we go!

Name
Alignment / Race
Class Levels
Chef
Invisible
Bison
Thurbane
Total
Place

Orson (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25348227&postcount=39)
LE Lycanthrope Mineral Warrior Half-Fiend (Half-Goristro) Half-Ogre
Ranger 1, Afflicted Lycanthrope (Cachalot Whale) 12 / Monk 1 / Fighter 1 / Justicar 5 / Rogue 2 / Hulking Hurler 1
Doctor Despair
17.6
18
35.6
1st
Gold

Auralina (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25348221&postcount=37)
LE -> NE Lycanthrope Dark Spellwarped Human
Monk 2/Afflicted Lycanthrope (Horrid Tiger) 16/Warshaper 4/Fighter 6
White Blade
18.2
14.5
32.7
2nd
Silver

Logy (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25348223&postcount=38)
HE Orcwort
Plant 33
loky1109
16.2
16.5
32.7
2nd
Silver

Waste (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25348236&postcount=41)
C(?)E Awakened Zombie Paragon Half-Ogre
Barbarian 19/Horned Harbinger 1
loky1109
15
15.5
30.5
4th
Bronze

The Antediluvian (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25348233&postcount=40)
CE Fiendish Dungeonbred Titanic Monstrous Vampire Monstrous Crab
Undead 25
Venger
13
15
28
5th

Congratulations to our contestants, and especially to Doctor Despair with the win! Thank you to both our judges for your swift and thoughtful work.

New round will be up in a couple of hours.

loky1109

2022-02-04, 09:38 AM

Congratulations to all and thank to our chairman and judges!

I didn't like lycanthropes, them looks too unoriginal for me, but I can understand, why them was 1st and 2nd.

I expected more pluses in originality about almost 20 barbarian. Well. Didn't happen.

Orcwort idea came to then I leafed MM2. I saw his telepathy range, I saw how bad this monster is, and this became a challenge.

Look. 20 CR monster with speed 10 ft.
It should be defeated by every 5 level party. Five - because of 20 wortlings, that can be nearby. Without wortlings first level is enough. It is so bad design... I literally can't pass by it, it needed some help.

I remembered, I had another idea first, but didn't use it.
Stalwarp Battle Sorcerer with low Cha. But only this.

H_H_F_F

2022-02-04, 10:43 AM

I remembered, I had another idea first, but didn't use it.
Stalwart Battle Sorcerer with low Cha. But only this.

I was actually toying with a similar idea in my head! I wasn't cooking this round, of course, but I was pondering a Karsite (ToM) battle sorc with draconic feats. Karsites straight up can't cast spells, ever, which I thought would be a strong case for applying for the "no spellcasting" limitation. From that point onward, you'd just have to find more ways other than the admittedly weak) draconic lineage feats to utilize the spell slots which wouldn't require casting as a prereq. I was wondering if someone would go for something like that.

loky1109

2022-02-04, 10:47 AM

Didn't know about this race. Interesting.

H_H_F_F

2022-02-04, 01:48 PM

New round (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?642229-Villainous-Competition-XLIV-It-s-The-Sound-of-The-Police!) is up!

Doctor Despair

2022-02-04, 05:01 PM