Monster Mash III: Keep your monsters close... [Archive]

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Beni-Kujaku

2022-05-24, 12:28 PM

Monster Mash #3

This competition is for monstrous adventurers, in part to experiment with the possibilities they offer and in part to make use of the revised level adjustments which Inevitability and Debatra have spent five years assigning.
Adventurers designed for this contest must be of a monstrous race. For the purpose of this contest, “monstrous race” excludes all races designed for PC use, unless their level adjustment has been increased by one or more templates.
“Monstrous race” is a somewhat vague category, by necessity. No simple set of rules can exclude every single PC race without also excluding some genuine monsters. Entries which flout this rule with borderline-monstrous races risk a penalty to their Monstrosity score.

For the purpose of this competition, all races use the modified level adjustments listed in the LA Assignment Archive (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?624825). Races with a -0 level adjustment are treated as if they had a +0 level adjustment. Monsters not rated at the time an entry is submitted may not be used.
Some races' level adjustments include asterisks. These monsters have traits which render them unsuitable for PC use, such as a wight’s spawn creation, a dryad’s tree dependency, or a genie’s wishes; check the linked posts in the archive. For the purpose of this contest, those races do not possess those traits. In cases where it's unclear which traits are removed, please contact the chair for clarification.

Round Theme: Keep your monsters close, and your enemies closer

The most obvious benefit of being a monster is the accessibility of larger character sizes than Medium or Small. That, with the added benefit that many monsters have a high strength bonus and several natural weapons, may make for very good grappler builds.

The monster race (or template) must have the Improved Grab or Constrict racial ability.
A similar ability may be used if it explicitly mentions that the opponent is considered grappled.

To note: unless explicitly written, Improved Grab only functions on opponents at least one size category smaller than the user.

Contestants
You will need to present a full build for your entry, from its first level to level 20. Also required is a rundown of how your build works at lower levels, to demonstrate that it is a functional character that could be played in a real game.
Traditionally participants in similar competitions give "snapshots" of tactics and abilities at levels 5, 10, 15, and 20. Depending on the monstrous race chosen, your character may be unavailable at lower levels; in that case, instead give snapshots at various levels where it is playable. These snapshots should be roughly evenly distributed among what levels it is available at.

32 point-buy is the presumed creation method.
If you do use a different point-buy, please make your case for its necessity in your entry. Keep in mind that for using exceptionally large or small point-buys may warrant deductions in elegance and/or power.
If the monster you're cooking with has no intelligence, or an Intelligence score of 1 or 2, consider the intelligence as 3 (-8 racial modifier). It still retains any immunity to mind-affecting abilities it may have.

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.
Official Errata and 3.5 updates to 3.0 content are considered valid regardless of whether their sources would otherwise be legal. This includes the 3.5 update of Oriental Adventures given in Dragon Magazine, and the 3.5 updates of Dragonlance Campaign Setting content given in later third party Dragonlance books.
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.

Specific bans:

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. Any variant of Leadership, such as 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.

Because this contest involves creating a build up to level 20, no race with a base ECL higher than 20 is allowed.
The Dragonlance Campaign Setting is allowed, but the subsequent books for Dragonlance are considered 3rd party, and are therefore not eligible, despite the "WotC approved" status of those books. The same holds for Oriental Adventures (1st party) and the subsequent Rokugan books (3rd party).
The Illithid Savant and Beholder Mage prestige classes are specifically banned due to their extreme potential for abuse.

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, Power, Elegance, and Monstrosity.
Scores of zero may be applied in cases of exceptional misconduct (plagiarism earns a 0 in Originality, failure to meet prerequisites earns a 0 in Elegance, non-monstrous races earn a 0 in Monstrosity, etc); otherwise, all entries should receive at least one full point in each category.
Originality: Is it unexpected or novel?
Power: Can it do what the concept asks of it? Is this a powerfully-built character?
Elegance: Is it mechanically straighforward or “pretty”?
Monstrosity: Is the monstrous character’s race used?

Elegance and Monstrosity demand further elaboration.
Elegance measures how skillfully you put your build together, and whether you sacrificed flavor for power. Use of flaws is considered in poor taste, and judges are asked to take a dim view of this option, taking it into account while grading. Other things that will cause penalties here are excessive multi-classing, and classes that don't fit the concept.
A legal source's relative obscurity should not be considered as penalizing Elegance, excepting the aforementioned issues with Unearthed Arcana. Using conflicting setting material may result in a penalty to Elegance at the judges' discretion, but a book's relative obscurity may not. In that same vein, drawing solely from the Core 3 (and the d20 SRD) should not be punished for lacking Originality.
Monstrosity measures how necessary the entry’s monster race was to the submission. We want to build monstrous adventurers here, not standard Iron Chef builds with a few racial hit dice at the start. Builds which could not function without the monstrous features of their race earn high Monstrosity scores, while builds which could work on any PC race with no changes will take Monstrosity penalties. Builds using non-monstrous races will also take penalties to Monstrosity. For rounds with specific restrictions on the monster race, this category will also include making good use of the mandatory component.

Presentation
Due to concerns about standardizing entry format, I'd like everyone to try to use the following table for their entry.

NAME OF ENTRY

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Code immediately below (spoiler).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Spells per Day/Spells Known

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Alternatively, you may use this spreadsheet created by (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BG0-5sq4dL9Ooh7-QfXuyHzO4rXSz-CRcj29t6BeUVE/edit?usp=sharing) mattie_p (https://forums.giantitp.com/member.php?66256-mattie_p).
For other systems (Psionics, ToB, Incarnum, etc.) keep track of PP/maneuvers/essentia separately, preferably in a nice neat list or table.

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.

Deadlines

Contestants will have until 23:59 GMT Friday 24th of June to create their builds and PM them to the chair. Builds will then be posted simultaneously, to avoid copying. Judges will have until 23:59 GMT Friday 10th of July to judge the builds and submit their scores. If no judges have scored by that point, only the scores of the first judge to submit will be counted. Deadlines are subject to extension as/if required.

Submission
To standardize Entries, please use this format when sending it in:
PM: Beni-Kujaku
Subject: Monster Mash #, 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? Either ask in the thread or PM me with Monster Mash Questions in the header. Please use PMs for any questions relating to a specific build to avoid violating rules against speculation.

Houserules/Clarifications
D&D 3.5 is far from a perfect system, and inflated level adjustments are far from the only example of this. Many rules are ambiguous, absent, or just badly-written. I make no claim to fixing the system, but feel some “house rules” are in order:

Bonus feats that are granted even if you do not meet the prerequisites do not require you to meet the prerequisites in order to use.
All creatures are proficient with any natural weapons they may have or acquire.
Monsters with racial hit dice may gain an additional hit die instead of taking a character level. This functions as advancing a monster this way would under other circumstances. You cannot advance any monster beyond the maximum number of racial hit dice noted in its Advancement entry. You can advance that way before, after, or in-between taking actual class levels.
The DC of a monster's supernatural ability is 10+1/2 number of Hit Dice+mod. This includes class levels.
Able Learner's benefit applies to the level you take it.
Weapons from soulmelds are considered to be magic weapons.
Unarmed Swordsage grants Improved Unarmed Strike at level 1.
Spelltouched feats are legal and can be taken just like any other feat when you meet the prerequisites and have the feat slot available.
Possessing innate spellcasting from your race is treated as a spellcasting class for the purposes of prestige classes which provide new spells per day, an increase in caster level, and spells known (if applicable) as if you had gained a level in a spellcasting class to which you belonged before adding the prestige class level.

And now, time to get mashing!

Beni-Kujaku

2022-05-24, 12:28 PM

Q&A for this round:

-Do Engulf and Swallow Whole fulfill the comp requirements?
Yes, they do, as do Adhesive, Attach, and other similar abilities.

(LA -0 are asterisked)

1: Stirge*, Weasel*
2: Darkmantle, Octopus, Giant worker Ant*, Kuo-Toa, Vasuthant*, Floatsam Ooze*
3: Gray Ooze*, Juv. Tojanida, Crocodile, Constrictor Snake*, Squid*, Dire Weasel, Bloodthorn*, Raiment
4: Assassin Vine, Rast, Flamebrother Salamander, Giant queen Ant*, Giant Praying Mantis, Gelatinous Cube, Fleshraker, Terlen*, Skin Kite
5: Ankheg, Choker, Owlbear, Lion, Arctic Cat
6: Bearded Devil, Gibbering Mouther, Ochre Jelly*, Otyugh*, Xill, Brown Bear*, Polar Bear*, Tiger, Snowflake Ooze*, Canoloth, Deathweed*
7: Annis Hag, Mimic*, Remorhaz*, Adult Tojanida*, Wyvern, Giant Crocodile, Boneleaf*, Conflagration Ooze*, Ahuizotl*, Terror Bird
8: Hellcat, Dire Lion*, Shambling Mound*, Giant Octopus*, Susurrus*, Temporal Filcher*
9: Lillend, Average Salamander*, Tendriculos*, Yuan-ti Abomination*, Lifeleech Otyugh*, Cave Troll, Darkweaver, Skirr
10: Gray Render*, Mind Flayer, Black Pudding*, Blood Rot*, Bearhound*, Maelephant
11: Behir, Chuul, Hezrou, Giant Constrictor Snake*, Bonedrinker*, Farastu, Kelp Angler*
12: Couatl, Retriever, Dire Bear*, Giant Squid*, lesser Battlebriar*, Chelicera*, Chwidenwha*, Ethereal Ooze*, Fhorge*, Ocularon, Skybleeder, Steel Predator, Wicker Man*
13: Megatherium*
14: Glabrezu, Leonal, Mohrg*, Dragon Eel*, Rage Drake*, Nyctaloth*, Octopus Tree, Forsaken Shell*
15: Noble Salamander*, Elder Tojanida*, Arcane Ooze*, Ironclad Mauler*
16: Dire Tiger*, Purple Worm*, Abyssal Ghoul*, Disenchanter*, Hullathoin*, Spectral Lurker*
17: Cadaver Collector*, Greater Flame Snake*, Ulgurstasta*, Boneyard
18: Marilith, Tyrannosaur*, Dire Shark*, Hangman Golem*
19: Myrmyxicus
20: Pit Fiend, Kraken*, Elder Black Pudding*, Odopi*, Maulgoth*, Hulking Corpse*

Varies: Lycanthropes, Monstrous Scorpion, Siege Crab*, Voidmind Creature, Living Spell, Astral Construct* (at least 4th), Half-Illithid

loky1109

2022-05-24, 12:50 PM

Maybe I have idea. Let's look.

Beni-Kujaku

2022-05-24, 01:58 PM

Maybe I have idea. Let's look.

It it may help, I have compiled the monsters fulfilling the requirements of the comp in the Q&A section.

loky1109

2022-05-24, 02:33 PM

It it may help, I have compiled the monsters fulfilling the requirements of the comp in the Q&A section.

Thanks! It will.

ciopo

2022-05-24, 04:14 PM

gotta finish IC and JW first, but then it's time to get gruppy paws on!

Thurbane

2022-05-25, 06:41 PM

Interesting.

Free time is very limited, but if inspiration hits, will see if I can make time.

ciopo

2022-06-01, 07:31 AM

I think I'm going to bow out :( I got two stubs, and I was very excited about them, but in execution they are lacking and clunky :( my vacation starts tomorrow and I'll try to salvage the salvageable but I'm really hating the clunkyness right now, and I don't want to rush it too much, I'll see

Can the next round be a about a more abstract concept, more along the lines of the first MM? In hindsight I find grabby to have the same kind of problems that fear had, as a round theme: fun to plan/play with, but not much design space for innovation.

Thurbane

2022-06-14, 04:17 AM

Got a really stupid build idea I'd like to try and complete, so I'll see if I can get it formatted in the next 10 days.

Beni-Kujaku

2022-06-14, 05:03 AM

Got a really stupid build idea I'd like to try and complete, so I'll see if I can get it formatted in the next 10 days.

Perfect! Looking forward to it! How are others doing?

loky1109

2022-06-14, 05:14 AM

I have almost full ready tables, but need make all fluff part. I hope I'll have enough time and power to do it good.

ciopo

2022-06-14, 05:24 AM

I got a surprise brewing, it's going to be horrible!

Tohron

2022-06-14, 04:56 PM

Are you sure the concept requirements couldn't be expanded to include things like Engulf or Swallow Whole? They seem to be in line with the thread title.

Beni-Kujaku

2022-06-15, 03:15 AM

Are you sure the concept requirements couldn't be expanded to include things like Engulf or Swallow Whole? They seem to be in line with the thread title.

Oh, absolutely. I mentioned "similar abilities may be used", and included the Gelatinous Cube (among others) as a suitable creature in the Q&A. If you have an idea with another monster that I forgot, do go on.

Tohron

2022-06-15, 08:28 PM

Beni-Kujaku

2022-06-16, 01:06 AM

Something I'm unsure about: how exactly does the point buy work in relation to a monster's listed attribute scores? Are we just adding to their listed scores using the point buy (i.e. 6 points for +6, 10 for +8, 16 for +10), or is some other method in play? Are we assuming that listed monsters with 4+ HD spent their attribute bonus(es) on their highest attribute?

You apply racial modifiers after the point-buy. For example‚ say you want to build a Raiment (Str 16‚ Dex 14‚ Con _ ‚ Int _ ‚ Wis 13‚ Cha 7). With our rules‚ its intelligence becomes 3‚ and its racial modifiers are hence (Str+6‚ Dex+4‚ Con _ ‚ Int-8‚ Wis+2‚ Cha-4).
Say you want to improve its strength and dexterity‚ and have as high an intelligence as possible‚ to be able to gain skills and qualify for a prestige class later on. You know there's no point in investing in Con since you are undead‚ and Wis is only useful for Will saves. So‚ using regular point-buy‚ you assign Str 14‚ Dex 16‚ Con 8‚ Int 18‚ Wis 8‚ Cha 8 (32 points). After that‚ you apply the racial modifiers. Your Raiment's ability scores are Str 14+6=20‚ Dex 16+4=20‚ Con _ ‚ Int 18-8=10‚ Wis 8+2=10‚ Cha 8-4=4.

Monsters do not gain ability increases for their RHD. Your Raiment (3RHD) increases one ability score as normal when gaining its first class level (when it has 4HD)‚ then every 4 levels afterwards‚ but a Cadaver Collector (17 RHD) would only get an ability increases at ECL 20.

loky1109

2022-06-16, 01:56 AM

Clarification.

2-3 is -8
4-5 is -6
6-7 is -4
8-9 is -2
10-11 is +0
12-13 is +2
14-15 is +4

and so on.

Tohron

2022-06-16, 09:51 AM

Beni-Kujaku

2022-06-16, 10:38 AM

ciopo

2022-06-16, 11:37 AM

Thanks for answering my questions so far. Just a bit more: the "Houserules/Clarifications" block mentions Able Learner, but the feat has the prerequisite "Human or Doppleganger" which would seem to make it irrelevant in this case. Does its inclusion there indicate that it's been houseruled to be generally available?

That houserule, extrapolated, is "You get the benefit of feats that changes class skills or otherwise manipulate skill points at the level you take them"
it's a houserule because the level up process has increasing skill ranks before selecting feats. Able learner is used as the ur-example because without this houserule, at first level normally you would still need to spend 4 skill points to have 2 ranks in a cross class skill, with the houserule at first level you spend 2 points to have 2 ranks in a cross class skill. Max skill rank isn't manipulated by able learner and so max rank for cross class remains 2.

Another easy example : education from eberron campaign setting makes all knowledge as class skills. Without the houserules you still buy them as cross class at first level. With the houserule you buy them as class skill because the feat says they are class skill for you, despite the fact you don't technically have the feat at the time you're buy your skill ranks

The other feats that does this kind of manipulation iirc are apprentice from dungeon master guide II and martial study from tome of battle. Those are the ones I remember of the top of my head.

Other most common case are some cleric domain, and that's actually trickier to say if they apply at the level you gain the domain, but I'd venture the use-case is similar enough that I'd include them.

Of course, to be pedantic, only able learner is actually called out, so while extending this to other feat/features that changes how you spend skill points is reasonable, it's still an assumption on our part

Beni-Kujaku

2022-06-23, 05:43 PM

Hey everyone. The deadline is coming up in 24h. Is anybody still cooking? Do you want an extension (notably‚ Thurbane‚ did you find time for a build?)?

Thurbane

2022-06-23, 07:41 PM

Hey everyone. The deadline is coming up in 24h. Is anybody still cooking? Do you want an extension (notably‚ Thurbane‚ did you find time for a build?)?

I got to a point where I realised the build was barely going to do what I wanted it to, so I won't be submitting. I might post the stub after the reveal.

Depending on number of entries, and depending on my other commitments, I can try to judge.

loky1109

2022-06-24, 12:26 AM

I was striked by one idea just right now, but there is no way I'll make it.

Beni-Kujaku

2022-06-24, 06:31 PM

I was striked by one idea just right now, but there is no way I'll make it.

You'll post your stub after the reveal, more entries are always interesting, even unfinished ones.

That said, here's the reveal, don't post until I'm finished with it:

Beni-Kujaku

2022-06-24, 06:31 PM

Another dimension in the belly AND psionic powers able to create fancy hats? Kirby has nothing on this one.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EuaEQKEXAAAFGq_?format=jpg&name=small
link (https://www.deviantart.com/garrusartemis/art/Garrus-%E2%80%8BYuan-ti-Abomination-174106997)

Eight out of thirty eggs cooled down within three hours after laying. Thirteen died during incubation. From seven eggs hatched species with lethal malformation. Only one of the young yuan-ti abominations was born more or less normal. Maybe even better than normal. He had one extra pair of functional hands and slightly better psionic gift than ordinary abomination.
It was one of the yuan-ti breeding experiments. Elders considered the results and concluded that the experiment was unsuccessful. It’s a dead end, they decided.
Necahualeztli couldn't agree with this conclusion. He and his clutchmates were put in danger - it's ok. All but him were dead for nothing - it's ok, either. He is a failure and dead end - that is completely unacceptable!
It’s not surprising that at the first opportunity Necahualeztli took his life into his hands and left his House to live and research on his own. Unfortunately, it wasn’t that easy. Free life turned out to be too challenging and Necahualeztli was forced to spend the lion’s share of his power on ensuring his survival. There was not enough for scientific activity. He did try to allocate every ounce of available resources and every minute of his free time on his development at every opportunity. He learned how to use his psionic talents to fight for his life or required resources and test subjects. Later he had to steal gold and valuables even from daragon's hoards to provide himself with necessary equipment.
After years Necahualeztli eventually reached his goal, became master of flesh and started to improve his own body.

NE Psionic Yuan-Ti Abomination Soul Eater 2/War Mind 5/Hoardstealer 3
Abilities Initial Race/Template 8, 12, 16 Total
STR 14 8 22
DEX 15 2 3 20
CON 14 6 20
INT 14 10 24
WIS 14 10 24
CHA 8 8 16
ECLAbberant Limbs +1 LA Class Base Attack Bonus Fort Save Reflex Save Will Save Skills Feats Class Features
2nd Yuan-Ti Abomination, Psionic-1 1 0 2 2 36: {+4 CC} Appraise: 2; {+2} Craft (alchemy): 2; {+4 CC} Disable Device: 2; {+4 CC} Escape Artist: 2; {+4 CC} Heal: 2; {+4} Hide: 4; {+1} Knowledge (history): 1; {+1} Knowledge (arcana): 1; {+4} Move Silently: 4; {+4 CC} Open Lock: 2; {+4} Spot: 4; AlertnessB, Blind-FightB, Multiweapon FightingB, Hidden Talent (Minor Creation, Psionic)1st Alternate form, constrict 1d6+6, darkvision 60 ft., improved grab, poison, power resistance 18, psi-like abilities, scent
3rd Yuan-Ti Abomination, Psionic-2 2 0 3 3 9: {+1 CC} Appraise: 2.5; {+1} Craft (alchemy): 3; {+1 CC} Disable Device: 2.5; {+1 CC} Escape Artist: 2.5; {+1 CC} Heal: 2.5; {+1} Hide: 5; Knowledge (history): 1; Knowledge (arcana): 1; {+1} Move Silently: 5; {+1 CC} Open Lock: 2.5; {+1} Spot: 5;
4th Yuan-Ti Abomination, Psionic-3 3 1 3 3 9: {+1 CC} Appraise: 3; {+1} Craft (alchemy): 4; {+1 CC} Disable Device: 3; {+1 CC} Escape Artist: 3; {+1 CC} Heal: 3; {+1} Hide: 6; Knowledge (history): 1; Knowledge (arcana): 1; {+1} Move Silently: 6; {+1 CC} Open Lock: 3; {+1} Spot: 6; Body Pouch3rd
5th Yuan-Ti Abomination, Psionic-4 4 1 4 4 9: {+1 CC} Appraise: 3.5; {+1} Craft (alchemy): 5; {+1 CC} Disable Device: 3.5; {+1 CC} Escape Artist: 3.5; {+1 CC} Heal: 3.5; {+1} Hide: 7; Knowledge (history): 1; Knowledge (arcana): 1; {+1} Move Silently: 7; {+1 CC} Open Lock: 3.5; {+1} Spot: 7;
6th Yuan-Ti Abomination, Psionic-5 5 1 4 4 9: {+1 CC} Appraise: 4; {+1} Craft (alchemy): 6; {+1 CC} Disable Device: 4; {+1 CC} Escape Artist: 4; {+1 CC} Heal: 4; {+1} Hide: 8; Knowledge (history): 1; Knowledge (arcana): 1; {+1} Move Silently: 8; {+1 CC} Open Lock: 4; {+1} Spot: 8;
7th Yuan-Ti Abomination, Psionic-6 6 2 5 5 9: {+1 CC} Appraise: 4.5; {+1} Craft (alchemy): 7; Disable Device: 4; Escape Artist: 4; {+1 CC} Heal: 4.5; Hide: 8; {+1} Knowledge (history): 2; {+3} Knowledge (psionics): 3; {+1} Knowledge (arcana): 2; Move Silently: 8; Open Lock: 4; {+1} Spot: 9; Weapon Focus (Bite)6th
8th Yuan-Ti Abomination, Psionic-7 7 2 5 5 9: {+1 CC} Appraise: 5; {+1} Craft (alchemy): 8; Disable Device: 4; Escape Artist: 4; {+1 CC} Heal: 5; Hide: 8; Knowledge (history): 2; {+5} Knowledge (psionics): 8; Knowledge (arcana): 2; Move Silently: 8; Open Lock: 4; {+1} Spot: 10;
9th Yuan-Ti Abomination, Psionic-8 8 2 6 6 9: {+1 CC} Appraise: 5.5; {+3} Concentration: 3; {+1} Craft (alchemy): 9; Disable Device: 4; Escape Artist: 4; {+1 CC} Heal: 5.5; {+2} Hide: 10; Knowledge (history): 2; Knowledge (psionics): 8; Knowledge (arcana): 2; Move Silently: 8; Open Lock: 4; {+1} Spot: 11;
10th Yuan-Ti Abomination, Psionic-9 9 3 6 6 9: {+1 CC} Appraise: 6; {+5} Concentration: 8; {+1} Craft (alchemy): 10; Disable Device: 4; Escape Artist: 4; {+1 CC} Heal: 6; Hide: 10; Knowledge (history): 2; Knowledge (psionics): 8; Knowledge (arcana): 2; Move Silently: 8; Open Lock: 4; {+1} Spot: 12; Multigrab9th
11th Soul Eater-1 10 5 8 8 11: Appraise: 6; Concentration: 8; Craft (alchemy): 10; Disable Device: 4; Escape Artist: 4; Heal: 6; {+2} Hide: 12; Knowledge (history): 2; Knowledge (psionics): 8; Knowledge (arcana): 2; Move Silently: 8; Open Lock: 4; {+8} Search: 8; {+1} Spot: 13; Energy drain 1
12th War Mind-1 11 7 10 8 9: {+1 CC} Appraise: 6.5; {+2} Autohypnosis: 2; Concentration: 8; Craft (alchemy): 10; Disable Device: 4; Escape Artist: 4; {+2 CC} Heal: 7; Hide: 12; Knowledge (history): 2; Knowledge (psionics): 8; Knowledge (arcana): 2; Move Silently: 8; Open Lock: 4; {+4} Psicraft: 4; Search: 8; Spot: 13; Chain of personal superiority +2
13th War Mind-2 12 8 11 8 9: {+1 CC} Appraise: 7; {+2} Autohypnosis: 4; {+5} Concentration: 13; Craft (alchemy): 10; Disable Device: 4; Escape Artist: 4; {+1 CC} Heal: 7.5; Hide: 12; Knowledge (history): 2; Knowledge (psionics): 8; Knowledge (arcana): 2; Move Silently: 8; Open Lock: 4; Psicraft: 4; Search: 8; Spot: 13; Greater Multigrab12th Chain of defensive posture +2
14th War Mind-3 13 8 11 9 9: {+1 CC} Appraise: 7.5; {+2} Autohypnosis: 6; {+3} Concentration: 16; Craft (alchemy): 10; Disable Device: 4; Escape Artist: 4; {+1 CC} Heal: 8; Hide: 12; {+2} Intimidate: 2; Knowledge (history): 2; Knowledge (psionics): 8; Knowledge (arcana): 2; Move Silently: 8; Open Lock: 4; Psicraft: 4; Search: 8; Spot: 13; Enduring body (DR 1/-)
15th War Mind-4 14 9 12 9 9: {+1 CC} Appraise: 8; {+2} Autohypnosis: 8; {+1} Concentration: 17; Craft (alchemy): 10; Disable Device: 4; Escape Artist: 4; {+1 CC} Heal: 8.5; Hide: 12; {+4} Intimidate: 6; Knowledge (history): 2; Knowledge (psionics): 8; Knowledge (arcana): 2; Move Silently: 8; Open Lock: 4; Psicraft: 4; Search: 8; Spot: 13;
16th War Mind-5 15 9 12 9 9: Appraise: 8; {+2} Autohypnosis: 10; {+1} Concentration: 18; Craft (alchemy): 10; Disable Device: 4; Escape Artist: 4; {+1 CC} Heal: 9; Hide: 12; {+5} Intimidate: 11; Knowledge (history): 2; Knowledge (psionics): 8; Knowledge (arcana): 2; Move Silently: 8; Open Lock: 4; Psicraft: 4; Search: 8; Spot: 13; Practiced Manifester15th Sweeping strike
17th Hoardstealer-1 15 9 14 9 13: Appraise: 8; Autohypnosis: 10; {+2} Bluff: 2; {+1} Concentration: 19; Craft (alchemy): 10; Disable Device: 4; Escape Artist: 4; {+1 CC} Heal: 9.5; Hide: 12; Intimidate: 11; Knowledge (history): 2; Knowledge (psionics): 8; Knowledge (arcana): 2; Move Silently: 8; Open Lock: 4; Psicraft: 4; Search: 8; Spot: 13; {+9} Use Magic Device: 9; Darkvision +30 ft., trapfinding
18th Hoardstealer-2 16 9 15 9 13: Appraise: 8; Autohypnosis: 10; {+2} Bluff: 4; {+1} Concentration: 20; Craft (alchemy): 10; Disable Device: 4; Escape Artist: 4; {+1 CC} Heal: 10; Hide: 12; Intimidate: 11; Knowledge (history): 2; Knowledge (psionics): 8; Knowledge (arcana): 2; Move Silently: 8; Open Lock: 4; Psicraft: 4; Search: 8; Spot: 13; {+9} Use Magic Device: 18; Hide from dragons 1/day
19th Hoardstealer-3 17 10 15 10 13: Appraise: 8; Autohypnosis: 10; {+9} Bluff: 13; {+1} Concentration: 21; Craft (alchemy): 10; Disable Device: 4; Escape Artist: 4; Heal: 10; Hide: 12; Intimidate: 11; Knowledge (history): 2; Knowledge (psionics): 8; Knowledge (arcana): 2; Move Silently: 8; Open Lock: 4; Psicraft: 4; Search: 8; Spot: 13; {+3} Use Magic Device: 21; Graft Yuan-Ti Flesh18th Trap sense +2, deep pockets
20th Soul Eater-2 18 11 16 11 11: Appraise: 8; Autohypnosis: 10; Bluff: 13; {+1} Concentration: 22; Craft (alchemy): 10; Disable Device: 4; Escape Artist: 4; Heal: 10; Hide: 12; {+8} Intimidate: 19; Knowledge (history): 2; Knowledge (psionics): 8; Knowledge (arcana): 2; Move Silently: 8; Open Lock: 4; Psicraft: 4; Search: 8; {+2} Spot: 15; Use Magic Device: 21; Soul strength
Level Class PP ML 1st 2nd
12th War Mind-1 4+3 1 Minor Creation, Psionic, Expansion
13th War Mind-2 7+7 2 Minor Creation, Psionic, Expansion, Grip of Iron
14th War Mind-3 11+10 3 Minor Creation, Psionic, Expansion, Grip of Iron
15th War Mind-4 16+14 9 Minor Creation, Psionic, Expansion, Grip of Iron Hustle
16th War Mind-5 22+17 10 Minor Creation, Psionic, Expansion, Grip of Iron Hustle
Level Class 1st 2nd
17th Hoardstealer-1 0+2
18th Hoardstealer-2 1+2
19th Hoardstealer-3 1+2 0+2

Necahualeztli just Psionic Yuan-Ti Abomination (with four arms) at this point. Good stats, useful psi-likes, improved grab, some feats useful now, some preqs. Main tactics are use Baleful polymorph and cram enemy into Body Pouch. The only method to escape from it is to cut with a weapon. It's not about polymorphed enemies. Also Necahualeztli has a bow and some melee weapons with him. He isn't great master archer or swordsmen, but can do something.
Necahualeztli became Soul Eater and War Mind. He found these methods to get stronger in some stolen tomes. Now it has Greater Multigrab, Expansion and Grip of Iron powers, and Energy drain. He can put in his Body Pouch up to a large creature and easily, without hurry drain it to death. With Sweeping strike Necahualeztli can attempt to grab two enemies with a single attack. It looks like he can successfully grabbing only one enemy, but if he misses or the enemy resists his attempt he can try again with enemy's friend. Or familiar.
With Hustle Necahualeztli can in the single round open the pouch, grab the enemy with bite and put him into pouch with iterative grapple checks.
Necahualeztli is Hoardstealer now and takes the second level of the Soul Eater. SE gives almost every active +4 ench to Str (in addition to Chain of personal superiority), and Hoardstealer gives his deep pockets. Deep pockets plus Body Pouch is the ultimate combo. Put the enemy into and he will suffocate within ten minutes. He can try to cut away, but... it's equivalent to a bag of holding. What happens with a bag of holding if you cut it? "All contents are lost forever." How about enemies that need not breathe. Well, a bag of holding can be ruined not only by piercing it with sharp objects, but with overload, either. Just put into something until the maximum - 300 lbs. It's very likely Necahualeztli even will not need to add anything if the enemy himself is heavier.
And of course Graft Yuan-Ti Flesh. This feat is more flavor than mechanically useful, but useful, too. Necahualeztli has Aberrant Limbs (arms) trait. This means he has four arms, but he doesn't rely on manufactured weapons very much and the very first grafts he makes are two Serpent Arms (SK, p. 154). With it he has not one, but three bite attacks. He can or can not use on all of them his Energy drain, but definitely can use Improved Grab, Weapon Focus and Sweeping Strike. And he still has two regular hands for archery and fine manipulations. Second welcomed graft is Scaly Skin (ibid.) - +3 NatAC is always welcome. Third... it's not. There are three more grafts, but they all are not suitable for the abomination yuan-ti. In real games there is a huge field for creativity together with DM, but RAW it's all. Poorly.

Yeah, I already said some of this, but I'll say it again for clarity.
There are several options.
First. Baleful polymorph + Body Pouch. It's useful for quick kill, or Necahualeztli can contain here fuel for his Energy drain and Soul strength abilities. Somebody who lost his mind or actually a small animal.
Second. Use Expansion and, if needed, Grip of Iron and put the enemy into Body Pouch without Baleful polymorph.
Third. Use Hoardstealer's Deep pockets on Body Pouch. It's not clear what happens if you use deep pockets on an already filled container, maybe content is put into a pseudo-bag of holding, maybe not, but anyway Necahualeztli can use it before.
Fourth. Necahualeztli can grapple enemies in the regular way, without Deep pockets or Body Pouch. Just grabs them via Greater Multigrab and causes bite and constrict damage, poison and negative levels every round while not being in the grapple himself.
Fifth. Just for the record.

At the Dungeon Master’s option, creatures with more than two arms can get a bonus to grappling checks when they wrestle an opponent with their arms. (The bonus would not apply, for example, to a marilith’s constrict attack.) This bonus is +4 per extra
pair of arms—so a marilith would get +8 (in addition to its size modifier), while a xill or a mutant sahuagin would gain a +4 bonus.
It's up to DM and 3.0, but looks like very reasonable option.
Here we are. One of the most OP 1st level powers. But I don't want to break the game with it.
First. Necahualeztli is some kind of scholar, surgeon. He needs painkillers or anesthesia. Let's look at what we have.
Luhix (BoVD, p. 42). Vicious deadly dangerous drug, but with "immune to pain" secondary effect and it's a plant.
Sannish (BoVD, p. 43). Medium drug, with "numbed to pain for 1d4 hours" and "immune to pain-induced penalties" secondary effects. Bad thing is it's partially animal origin, but wolves' milk isn't an ingredient hard to find.
Second. Lizardfolk's sleep poison (SK, p. 149). Necahualeztli can spread it into his Body Pouch because it has no effect on Scaled Ones and is contact poison.
Third. Same thing with Osssra Smokes. Well, some of them - Battasss, Duthlah'hass, Ektharisss and Jalasss consist only of vegetable matter. I see no obstacles for Necahualeztli to create any of them and use it for himself or as poison against Scaleless enemies. Battasss gives autosuccess on all Concentration checks / Wis and sleep poison. Ektharisss is free levitate / weak Str poison. Duthlah'hass is actually a sleeping pill / Feeblemind and Dex poison. Jalasss gives immunity to all enchantments / Int poison.
Fourth. Of course Necahualeztli can place into his Deep pocket any Inhaled poison, but which of them he can create with Minor Creation and which can't isn't clear. So it is worth remembering, but I don't rely on it.
Fifth. While composition of poisons is often a mystery, drugs are another matter. For example Mordayn Vapor (Lords of Darkness, p. 183) is definitely vegetable origin. It is inhaled and can be used inside Deep pockets.
Sixth. If Necahualeztli takes some damage from careless poison handling or as drug drawback he always can use his Body purification PLA.
High Spot plus Darkvision 90 ft and Scent can make any Darcstalkers nervous.
High Craft (alchemy) for obvious reasons - to make drugs and poisons.
Hide has only 12 ranks and Abominations are large, but with +5 Dex mod and Chameleon PLA it isn't useless.
UMD is the best skill in the game. At least +24 check is a great investment.
Autohypnosis isn't a very big deal, but can be useful in some cases.
Knowledges, Appraise, Disable Device, Open Lock, Psicraft are mostly preqs, but even without big numbers it can be useful.
Bluff and Intimidate should be enough for social interactions.
Well, these 1st and 2nd level spells aren't the best in the game. Invisibility and Cat’s grace look most helpful. As like Expeditious retreat for first level.
All Yuan-Ti grafts required CL 15th. It's very good for yuan-ti them all have Alternate Form (Sp) with caster level 19th.
Some of them are very good, some not so good, but I have no tricky combos with them. Necahualeztli just use his PLA when he needs.
Chameleon and Detect hostile intent are candidate to be always on. If DM implies you don't sense when your buff is running out of steam, you can have somebody hostile in your pouch to know when it happens for Detect hostile intent.
Expansion to Gargantua size gives me -4 Dex and Greater Multigrab has Dex 15 preq.

Type Name Book Page
Race Yuan-ti abominations, psionic MM1, XPH, LA-assignment thread VII 264, 218, link (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24134534&postcount=680)
Unique Ability Aberrant Limbs DMG2, LA Assignment Thread XI 158, link (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25168665&postcount=480)
Prestige Class Soul Eater BoVD 66
Prestige Class War Mind XPH 155
Prestige Class Hoardstealer Draconomicon 130
Feat Alertness PHB 89
Feat Blind-Fight PHB 89
Feat Hidden Talent XPH 67
Feat Body Pouch Serpent Kingdoms 144
Feat Weapon Focus PHB 102
Feat Multigrab Serpent Kingdoms 146
Feat Greater Multigrab Serpent Kingdoms 146
Feat Practiced Manifester CPs 57
Feat Graft Yuan-Ti Flesh Serpent Kingdoms 146
Powers All XPH 73-140

Beni-Kujaku

2022-06-24, 06:33 PM

Dr Gero : Excellent ! My potted plant has reached its ultimate, final, pinnacle form ! Unstoppable ! Tentacular ! And completely taciturn !!

You know those anedoctes about the king's horse being made the next king, or the cat getting the inheritance, and other stuff like that?

Well, Imagine some (insert authoritive figure here, possibly sea related) deciding his beloved pet (that is, our MC) is the most worthy of the honor of being his personal bodyguard!

Of course, the bodyguard mustn't always go for extreme lethality, what if the lord wants to interrogate the intruder! Therefore, grapple.

Extra memetic factor : The beloved pet is a (potted?) plant

And the plant goes to school!

LN Gargantuan Octopus treeFiend Folio, Plant hit dice 15 / WarbladeTome of Battle 1 / KensaiComplete Warrior 4
AbilitiesInitialRace / Template16th20thSize changeTotalSTR162011846DEX8Set to 22CON1410428INT16-214WIS14418CHA8412

HP 8 + 1d12 + 4d10 + 14d8 + 180 (279)
AC : 30(10 -4 DEX -4 size +28 natural), Touch 2, FF 30
Speed: 25ft land and 65ft swim
Saves : +21 , +7 ,+15
Acid immunity, regeneration 10 (fire or cold)
DC 21 frightful presence
SLA: At will—diminish plants, entangle, obscuring mist, plant growth, warp wood; 3/day—call lightning,turn wood, wall of thorns. Caster level 14th
plant immunities: poison, sleep, paralysis, stunning, polymorph, mind affecting, critical hits
BAB/Grapple:+16/47

(8x) +1 Binding, Greater dispelling, tentaclesproperties from the Magic item compendium :

16/day effect equivalent to dimensional anchor for 10 minutes (swift action)
24/day greater dispels at CL 18 (free action)

Temporary self boost:
+8 STR for 2 rounds as a move action, concentration check CD 15+5 per previous use in the day, with our +18 baseline we can 95% no-fail this 2/day

Either way, unboosted full attack is of 20ft reach at +32(x8) for 3d6+19 damage, hit creature are free action grappled at +47 (huge or smaller creatures), as many dispel check at CL 18 as needed to shed the freedom of movement, and dimensional anchor if you're worried of slippery teleports. Successive grapple checks are automatic 4d8+9 damage bite damage
leftover secondary attack bite +25 for 4d8+9 damage

If we want to splurge for ioun stones, numbers could be a bit higher, but whatever
"Mandatory" equipment : pearl of speech (600gp), as many recast of contingent sheltered vitality as needed (2800gp each)
LevelClassBase Attack BonusFort SaveReflex SaveWill SaveSkillsFeatsClass Features1stRacial Hit die 1+0+2+2+018: {+4 CC} Concentration: 2; {+4 CC} Diplomacy: 2; {+4 CC} Ride: 2; {+2 CC} Know(Arcana): 1; {+4} Know(Planes): 4Apprentice Philosopher(Planes)Dungeon Master Guide II 2ndRHD 2+1+3+3+04: {+1 CC} Concentration: 2.5; {+1 CC} Diplomacy: 2.5; {+1 CC} Ride: 2.5; Know(Arcana): 1; {+1} Know(Planes): 5 3rdRHD 3+2+3+3+14: {+1 CC} Concentration: 3; {+1 CC} Diplomacy: 3; {+1 CC} Ride: 3; Know(Arcana): 1; {+1} Know(Planes): 6DashComplete Warrior 4thRHD 4+3+4+4+14: {+1 CC} Concentration: 3.5; {+1 CC} Diplomacy: 3.5; {+1 CC} Ride: 3.5; Know(Arcana): 1; {+1} Know(Planes): 7 5thRHD 5+3+4+4+14: {+1 CC} Concentration: 4; {+1 CC} Diplomacy: 4; {+1 CC} Ride: 4; Know(Arcana): 1; {+1} Know(Planes): 8; 6thRHD 6+4+5+5+24: Concentration: 4; Diplomacy: 4; {+1 CC} Ride: 4.5; {+1} Know(Arcana): 2; {+1} Know(Nature): 1; {+1} Know(Religion): 1; Know(Planes): 8Planar touchstonePlanar Handbook 7thRHD 7+5+5+5+24: Concentration: 4; Diplomacy: 4; {+1 CC} Ride: 5; {+1} Know(Arcana): 3; {+1} Know(Nature): 2; {+1} Know(Religion): 2; Know(Planes): 8 8thRHD 8+6/+1+6+6+24: Concentration: 4; Diplomacy: 4; Ride: 5; {+1} Know(Arcana): 4; {+1} Know(Nature): 3; {+2} Know(Religion): 4; Know(Planes): 8 9thRHD 9+6/+1+6+6+34: Concentration: 4; Diplomacy: 4; Ride: 5; {+2} Know(Arcana): 6; {+1} Know(Nature): 4; {+1} Know(Religion): 5; Know(Planes): 8MultigrabSavage Species10thRHD 10+7/+2+7+7+34: Concentration: 4; Diplomacy: 4; Ride: 5; {+1} Know(Arcana): 7; {+2} Know(Nature): 6; {+1} Know(Religion): 6; Know(Planes): 811thRHD 11+8/+3+7+7+34: Concentration: 4; Diplomacy: 4; Ride: 5; {+1} Know(Arcana): 8; {+1} Know(Nature): 7; {+2} Know(Religion): 8; Know(Planes): 812thRHD 12+9/+4+8+8+44: Concentration: 4; Diplomacy: 4; Ride: 5; {+1} Know(Arcana): 9; {+1} Know(Nature): 8; {+1} Know(Religion): 9; {+1} Know(Planes): 9Weapon focus13thRHD 13+9/+4+8+8+44: Concentration: 4; Diplomacy: 4; Ride: 5; {+1} Know(Arcana): 10; {+1} Know(Nature): 9; {+1} Know(Religion): 10; {+1} Know(Planes): 1014thRHD 14+10/+5+9+9+44: Concentration: 4; Diplomacy: 4; Ride: 5; {+1} Know(Arcana): 11; {+1} Know(Nature): 10; {+1} Know(Religion): 11; {+1} Know(Planes): 1115thWarblade 1+11/+6/+1+11+9+46: {+1} Concentration: 5; {+1} Diplomacy: 5; Ride: 5; {+1} Know(Arcana): 12; {+1} Know(Nature): 11; {+1} Know(Religion): 12; {+1} Know(Planes): 12Combat expertiseBattle clarity, Weapon aptitude16thKensai 1+12/+7/+2+11+9+66: Concentration: 5; {+1} Diplomacy: 6; Ride: 5; {+1} Know(Arcana): 13; {+2} Know(Nature): 13; {+1} Know(Religion): 13; {+1} Know(Planes): 13Signature weapon17thKensai 2+13/+8/+3+11+9+76: Concentration: 5; {+6} Diplomacy: 12; Ride: 5; Know(Arcana): 13; Know(Nature): 13; Know(Religion): 13; Know(Planes): 13Power surge18thKensai 3+14/+9/+4+12+10+76: Concentration: 5; {+6} Diplomacy: 18; Ride: 5; Know(Arcana): 13; Know(Nature): 13; Know(Religion): 13; Know(Planes): 13Personal touchstone(Catalogue of enlightment)Planar Handbook19thKensai 4+15/+10/+5+12+10+86: Concentration:{+2} 7; {+4} Diplomacy: 22; Ride: 5; Know(Arcana): 13; Know(Nature): 13; Know(Religion): 13; Know(Planes): 13; {+2} Collector of storiesComplete Scoundrel Ki projection20thRHD 15+16/+11/+6/+1+12+10+94: Concentration: 7; {+2 CC} Diplomacy: 23; Ride: 5; Know(Arcana): 13; Know(Nature): 13; Know(Religion): 13; Know(Planes): 13; {+2} Collector of storiesComplete Scoundrel Gargantuan size
Apprentice: +2 will save, knowledge(planes) is always a class skill for our first 5 levels, +2 skill point to be spent on knowledge(planes), +2 competence to concentration
Dash: +5ft to all speeds while in light/no armor and unencumbered
Planar touchstone: Gain the base power of a touchstone and allow challenging the location for the higher order power. After attuning the location can be changed by visiting
Catalogue of enlightment: Our starting touchstone location, base ability is gaining the power of a chosen domain, higher order is casting spells from that domain 1/day, max 3 uses per recharge
Multigrab: doing a grapple with only a body part is at -10 instead of -20
Warblade: A base class with 3 manouvers and 1 stance, recovery mechanism is 1 swift action followed by either a melee attack or a do nothing standard action. we picked
Wall of blade. immediate action use an attack roll in place of the AC against ranged or melee attack. Yes, even touch AC, yes even spell touch attack if it's either ranged or melee
Absolute steel. Stance, +10ft movement and +2 dodge bonus to AC when moving 10 or more ft
Douse the flames. standard action melee attack, target can't take attacks of opportunity for 1 round
White raven tactics. Swift action, change ally initiative count to yours-1, they can act again if they already acted
Kensai: A prestige class about serving a lord of ideal, whose signature ability is spending xp to enchant their favored weapon, even natural weapons
Signature weapon: can give pluses or equivalents to the weapon focus, up to class level. cost for us is 72xp at ECL 16 to make it +1, ending for a total cost of 1152xp to have the properties outlined above
Power surge: move action concentration check for untyped STR bonus
Ki projection: +2 to bluff, diplomacy, gather information, intimidate.
Personal touchstone: you get twice the uses of higher order touchstone abilities for your favourited site

I've had a very simple thought process: "grapple is cool, but what about freedom of movement?"

Having in mind that to make an effective grappler I should try to counter the counters, "I should dispel it" was a fairly natural answer.

But, how does it work with being on the monstruosity? Well, the next step was "isn't there a dispelling weapon property? if I put that on a creature with a lot of natural attacks, then I get a lot of dispel attempts, eventually one would dispel even if the caster level is only 5 / 15"

thus, this started out as Octopus tree, advanced to 15HD to upgrade to gargantuan size (much important for grappling!) / Kensai 3 (greater dispel) / cleric 1 / warblade 1 (: lol jumping tree for better movement, and also weapon aptitude the war domain weapon focus) (inquisition domain gives +4 to dispel checks)

I was actually fairly happy with the tree, given the sheer physicality of gargantuan size, and the lack of aquatic subtype making land adventures easier. CL19 for greater dispel was "good enough".

But, then, while rereading kensai, I noticed the line that says our signature weapon has a CL equal to 10 plus our kensai level... meaning we can actually pump the dispel check higher!

So it became a matter of finding a creature with many attacks and ECL lower than 10. I was somewhat unhappy with the hoops I had to jump through to use the octopus with his terrible INT, but such is life.

Some hops later, I was with a giant octopus (RHD8) / Kensai 10 /monk 1 / cleric 1 . with THREE feat dedicated to skill points to qualify for kensai :( , but I had:
(8x) +1 Binding, Greater dispelling, Impedance, Shattermantle, Speed tentacles :

16/day dimensional anchor at CL 20 (swift action)
24/day greater dispels at CL 24 (free action)
each strike forces the target to make a spellcraft or int or cha check whenever they try to cast a spell for 1d6 rounds
each strike reduces target spell resistance by 2 for 1 round (stacks)
each tentacle strikes twice in a full attack
to show for it! 16 attacks with reach 30 ft was nice, but the numbers, the little numbers made me sad, only+29 on the grapple :(

So I went back to the potted plant, accepted that +15CL on the dispel would have to be enough and here we are.

deciding the precise splitting between kensai, warblade and cleric was troublesome, let me say. In the end absolute steel stance prevailed upon sudden leap manouver, and I dislike dipping cleric without being sure if we could cast the spells, so planar touchstone it is, instead.

I like apprentice philosopher more than the Eberron feat education (all know skill always know skill), and you can go for that if you don't like the shenanigans with re-attuning the touchstone to change the domain.
I would probably still try to do that, to have celerity domain +10 movement speed) in the early hit dice, and swap it to inquisition only after inquisition becomes relevant

.... You're a plant bruiser... philosopher? Man this sure took a strange turn now that I'm backfilling the story to fit the build choices!
Let's see... You know about those jokes about pet stone brought at the academy? well, we're the pet plant brought at the academy! But our former ( owner? friend?) didn't expect that we would learn better than he did :) I guess we got a .. lucky stone? that turns out was attuned to the premiere extraplanar repository of knowledge, who would have guessed!
{Insert 10000 words of prose here, plant smash jokes, plant hugs jokes, plant obeys jokes, stiff wood jokes, H tentacle jokes, still-better-than-a-figther jokes}{Seriously if I brought this concept at the table we would milk it for months}

1-14 tactics : on the vague assumption that your GM might make you play at lower RHD, I wanted to have an early speed increase feat, therefore dash. If he allows traits , obviously take quick! ( this entry is NOT with traits, but it's a very obvious choice to make adventuring happen at a speed of plate, unless the power bonus for being quick is more than the elegance penalty of taking a trait, in that case be my quest pretend we have quick :D, in a "real game" I would have quick I suppose, but I would also be allowed to retrain, so "real games" arguments are a bit weak)
When first obtained, the planar touchstone shall be catalogue of enlightment, and the chosen domain shall be knowledge. This gives us a bit of out of combat functionality, and paves the way for later getting access to the higher order ability. (per the contests houserules, I am getting the benefit of all knowledge in class in the level I am taking it, but it's easy enough shifting two points to concentration and diplomacy and one point to planes if you'd rather not)

Combatwise.... smack or grapple whatever comes into range? You're a huge plant with 8 attacks and chonky STR, what more do you want? If the enemies happen to be pesky fliers or such nonsense, they still have to come within reach to try attack you, and hopefully you out-reach most fliers at these levels. Worst comes to worst, you got the SLA to fall back on! Obscuring mist if they try to pepper you with ranged attacks for example, or entangle before inexorably getting closer to squeeze the life out of them! I couldn't find if "turn wood" got converted to "repel wood" in the 3.0 to 3.5 update, so I'm leaving it untouched and un-used. Either way you got a fair amount of battlefield control out of your SLA

I recommend buying/obtaining a pearl of speech as soon as possible, allowing you to actually talk with your party members!

You should also find any possible WBL "solution" to your massive weakness: VERY LOW DEX! Your body shape doesn't much lend itself to use normal items, so you might well be forced to pay the premium for slotless effects. I suggest starting out with 2800gp to get a contingent sheltered vitality. Complete arcane codifies how to make contingent version of any spells, sheltered vitality is from the spell compendium. it's straight up immunity to ability damage and drain. Appropriate trigger can be something as simple as "I am about to take dexterity damage or drain" but maybe manual it up? Not like we got much else we could realistically wear.
Cloak of resistance whenver, too, how do you put a cloak on a plant?? let's call it blanket of resistance instead, that might not even be big enough, canvas of resistance?

Do remember to do "a worthy service" before 16th level, I'm sure your GM will accomodate such a thing in the campaign :) Your ideal shall be something something knowledge something, never be said I ignore RP hooks!

Level 15th
Le warblade, originally I was going for jumping manouvers, kind of amusing imagining a plant suddenling leaping around, but at the end of the day I find an always on 10 more ft of movement to be broadly more applicable.
Wall of blade works the best as a prerequisite because we can use it to try mitigate touch attacks.
White raven tactics is just plain old optimization, you're likely to be very low in the initiative order anyway, so it's a straight double action in that first round, for grappling all the things of course! That's if your GM accept that you count as your own ally.
If you do, it's even a bit synergetic with kensai power surge you obtain later : one round you move action power surge, standard action go stand in the middle of the annoying flies, swift action WRT. and right after that you're hopefully in melee range with power surged turned on :)
If not, I don't really need to expounge on how good letting your allies act again is, do I?

16-19 tactics : you got some kensaying in , much cheaper than a amulet of natural attacks that would affect 8 weapons!, In order the inbuing you shall be doing is : the mandatory +1 enhancement, then dispel, then binding, the greater dispel. Thus this is simply "you're under freedom of movement and so I can't grapple you? NOT ON MY WATCH!"
"Oh, you're going to teleport away from the grapple, either tactically or strategically? NOT ON MY BRANCH!"
Your oath of service can be something something about preserving knowledge at the catalogue of enlightment, whatever fits the tone of the campaign you're in.

at level 17, when we get our first taste of dispelling, is also when when we (and our friends?) go take a planar sabbatical or something to that effect. The intent is visiting any one other planar touchstone, then go back to the catalogue of enlightment and fullfill the higher order recharge task, thus regaining it's base power... except we like the inquisition domain a lot more now! If we're doing the "first encounter" now, it's an opposed knowledge check against an expert that has a total of+18 against our total of +15, but at these level it's fairly trivial to throw gold at the problem to cheat at this (also extra amusing and more source of jokes about cheating the school exams or whatnot)
If you're unsure about what other touchstone to go for, I recommend Oxyrhynchus, as it's somewhat synergic with grapple : the base power allows you to chose a weapon you are proficient with ( so, your tentacles), said weapon does an extra attack at -5 against "targets unable to defend from your attack", which grappled creature arguably are if you grapple them with a body part, so after you catche3d them once every other tentacle you smack them with you can do so twice the times!
But that's just a placeholder while you go back to school to get the juicy +4 on dispel checks :)

Do not forget to use your higher order ability when it makes sense! you got 18 wisdom so you can 1/day use one of those domain spells of 8th or lower level! Assuming inquisition, Shield of law and true seeing are the ones you're most likely to want to use in a pinch whenever they happent o be relevant. It will be as either SLA or SU anyway, so you don't even have to worry about the material component!

20th: going up one size at the cost of one more RHD is well worth it! Smack some more, grapple some more, live the life

What's with the DEX, 8-8 is 0! Answer: Monsters as races (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/monstersAsRaces.htm) stypulates that a point buy of 8 becomes a 2 when intersected with a monster that has native DEX of 3

You forgot to mention swallow whole! Answer: we're realistically never/ almost never going to use it, I'm sad about ignoring one of the monster abilities, but constrict is plain better. Its not listed in the special qualities, but our tree grapple deals automatic bite damage, that's 4d8+ 1/2 STR compared to 2d6+2d4 of the swallow whole, and unlike swallow whole the simplier grapple limits the possible action. It depends a bit on how literally the GM takes about what actions are possible while swallowed. Of course if the only two action possible are "grapple check to get free or use a light weapon to cut your way out" it's substantially "better", but almost every GM I've played with always read those options of hte swallow whole as "these are new options you can do with your action" which are promptly ignored in favor of spellcasting / do a full attack from within, movie-style.

How are you using the catalogue of enlightment higher order abilities? you aren't a cleric! : the details about planar touchstones says that all planar touchstones abilities are either supernatural or spelllike. So not only we can use them, we don't even need to pay xp or material component costs!

Even if you add all the knowledge to "your list of cleric class skill", they still aren't class skill for you : that's a fair point, but the wording of domains operate rightly on the assumption that it's cleric that gets them, I feel they should be adjudicated differently when you get them from an alternative source

Those knowledges stops being class skills when you lose the domain power : Yes, and? skill ranks and points are not retroactively changed when intelligence changes, why would this be different? They were a class skill when I spent the rank on them, and thus I have that many ranks in them, the only minor snafu is that it could be argued that I have more than max ranks in a cross class skill, but it was a legal choice when the rank was taken, so at most this prevents us to put more rank in them, but we're not goign epic so that's whatever

You can't change catalogue of enlightment granted domain power! : why not? Planar touchstone clearly has provisions about changing the location we're attuned to. If we lose the attunement to the catalogue and later we reattune to it, the base power of the touchstone is "chose a domain, you gain that domain granted power" and that's exactly what I'm doing!

what's with the name: I couldn't find any better way to make a pun between squid and squire and tree, sorry :(

controversial: strong motivation of taking the quick trait, that would be +10 land speed for -20 HP. but I find 15ft of land speed is good enough, it's not "that" much worse than adventuring with someone on heavy armor and/or medium encumbrance, and realistically being a grapple with a long reach, we don't really need to move all that much.

Beni-Kujaku

2022-06-24, 06:35 PM

This is an illithid ooze. No wonder it turns to both gods and philosophy, finding the meaning of their existence must be a hard task and require too much dedication for just one higher power.

The idea spark was "It would be funny to do grappling stuff at range, either with bloodstorm blade or with blood wind, so let's workshop that!"

And what a romp it was! but in the end, I had to ask myself, "why am I grappling, am I doing something unique with it?"

This was one hell of a build journey! and now I'm stuck with jelly in the hands!

Story... backfilling... something something about being the "ultimate destructio" at the bidding of the dark six, they want a mortal agent out here decimating the population! that's us! Some poor spawn of a mad mad experiment combining illithid genes with oozes! Whatever happens in play will happen in play

NE Half-Illithid Flotsam Ooze, LA 2 / Racial Hit Die 2 / Cleric of the dark six 3 / Ardent 3 / Psychic Theurge 10
AbilitiesPoint BuyRaceTemplateLevel upEnhancementInherentTotalSTR1244424DEX84416CON141 24434INT14-844418WIS18-10444424CHA8-1044410
HP 8 +4d8 +3d6 +10d4 +216 (277)
Speeds : land 30ft, swim 50ft; +expeditious retreat
Unbuffed AC ahah 10+3 DEX +4 Natural, so 17
Unbuffed saves Fort 19 Reflex 8 Will 20 , +4 morale +6 resistance, so 29, 18, 30

Smackarooni: 18BAB (divine power) + 7 STR + 5 permanent greater magic fang (7500gp (xp cost) + 450gp + 600gp )x5 = +30/25/25/25/25 with slam/tentaclesx4. Each hit is automatic no-escape grapple!

Half-illithid template: HD changed to aberration, +4/+4/+4 INT/WIS/CHA, 100ft telepathy, +1 natural armor, 4 tentacles with improved grab and extract, 1/day mind blast, 3/day detect thoughts, 3/day suggestion, 3/day levitate 1/day charm monster, Spell resistance 10+HD.
Flotsam ooze: Medium size, amphibious, blindsight 60ft (and blind), baseline 10ft speed 30ft swim. 1 slam attack. 40% concealment in water, adhesive. Ooze traits
Adhesive: A flotsam ooze exudes a sticky slime that holds fast any creature or item touching it. It automatically grapples any creature it hits with its slam attack. Opponents so grappled cannot get free while the ooze is alive. The ooze makes one additional slam attack each round against any creature stuck to it.

LevelClassBase Attack BonusFort SaveReflex SaveWill SaveSkillsFeatsClass Features1stLA-------2ndLA-------3rdRacial Hit Die 1+0+0+0+08: {+4 CC} Know(Psionics): 2; {+4 CC} Psicraft: 2; Mindsight 4thRHD 2+1+0+0+02: Know(Psionics): 2; Psicraft: 2; {+2 CC} Spellcraft: 1; 5thArdent 1+1+0+0+22: Know(Psionics): 2; {+2} Psicraft: 4; Spellcraft: 1; Practiced ManifesterFreedom mantle, Energy mantle6thCleric of the dark six 1+1+2+0+42: Know(Psionics): 2; {+2} Know(Religion): 2; Psicraft: 4; Spellcraft: 1; Celerity domain, Magic domain, rebuke undead7thArdent 2+2+2+0+52: {+2} Know(Psionics): 4; Know(Religion): 2; Psicraft: 4; Spellcraft: 1; Time Mantle8thCleric 2+3+3+0+62: Know(Psionics): 4; {+2} Know(Religion): 4; Psicraft: 4; Spellcraft: 1; Surrogate spellcasting9thCleric 3+4+3+1+62: Know(Psionics): 4; {+2} Know(Religion): 6; Psicraft: 4; Spellcraft: 1; 10thArdent 3+5+4+2+62: {+2} Know(Psionics): 6; Know(Religion): 6; Psicraft: 4; Spellcraft: 1; 11thPsychic Theurge 1+5+4+2+82: {+2} Concentration: 2; Know(Psionics): 6; Know(Religion): 6; Psicraft: 4; Spellcraft: 1; Still spell 12thPsychic Theurge 2+6/+1+4+2+92: {+2} Concentration: 4; Know(Psionics): 6; Know(Religion): 6; Psicraft: 4; Spellcraft: 1; 13thPsychic Theurge 3+6/+1+5+3+92: {+1} Concentration: 5; Know(Psionics): 6; Know(Religion): 6; Psicraft: 4; {+1} Spellcraft: 2; 14thPsychic Theurge 4+7/+2+5+3+102: Concentration: 5; Know(Psionics): 6; Know(Religion): 6; Psicraft: 4; {+2} Spellcraft: 4; Practiced spellcaster 15thPsychic Theurge 5+7/+2+5+3+102: {+2} Concentration: 7; Know(Psionics): 6; Know(Religion): 6; Psicraft: 4; Spellcraft: 4; 16thPsychic Theurge 6+8/+3+6+4+112: {+2} Concentration: 9; Know(Psionics): 6; Know(Religion): 6; Psicraft: 4; Spellcraft: 4; 17thPsychic Theurge 7+8/+3+6+4+112: {+2} Concentration: 11; Know(Psionics): 6; Know(Religion): 6; Psicraft: 4; Spellcraft: 4; Selective spell 18thPsychic Theurge 8+9/+4+6+4+122: {+2} Concentration: 13; Know(Psionics): 6; Know(Religion): 6; Psicraft: 4; Spellcraft: 4; 19thPsychic Theurge 9+9/+4+7+5+122: {+2} Concentration: 15; Know(Psionics): 6; Know(Religion): 6; Psicraft: 4; Spellcraft: 4; 20thPsychic Theurge 10+10/+5+7+5+132: {+2} Concentration: 17; Know(Psionics): 6; Know(Religion): 6; Psicraft: 4; Spellcraft: 4; Expanded knowledge Mindsight: like blidnsight but telepathy based
Practiced manifester: +4 ML of ardent
Freedom mantle: +10ft movement speed when psionically focused (take 20), expend focus to add ML to escape a grapple (never!!)
Energy mantle: expend psionic focus for a little energy resistance, so practically never
Celerity domain: +10ft movement speed
Magic domain: antimagic field is 6th level instead of 8th level for us
Surrogate spellcasting: can do verbal/somatic components even without the appropriate body parts
Time mantle: untyped +2 to initiative, 1/day expend focus immediate action delay one damaging effect by 1 turn
Still spell: +1 metamagic, spell doesn't require somatic component
Practiced spellcaster: +4 CL of cleric
Selective spell: +1 metamagic, area spell does not affect one designated creature
Expanded knowledge: one mroe power known of a level lower than the highest, we picked contingency, psionic
Power point and Bonus slots from high wisdom included, orisons and domain slot omitted
at 16th level, we finally have access to the extract gift spell, our cl is 13, so that's +3 enhancement bonus to wisdom ( and in due time, everything else), +4 at 19th when the CL is 16
at 18th level, we finally have access to planar ally, therefore wishes-> +4 inherent to wisdom to begin with, and in due time, everything else
ECL/HDCL/MLWisdomPower PointsNew Powers known1st level slots2nd level slots3rd level slots4th level slots5th level slots6th level slots7th level slots5/3-/3122Dimension hop; Energy ray-------6/41/4132 2------7/51/5137Hustle2------8/62/6137 3------9/73/6137 31-----10/83/71414Fly, psionic32-----11/94/81421Energy burst43 12/105/91430Teleport, psionic431 13/116/101441Freedom of movement, psionic442 14/1211/111553Temporal acceleration4421 15/1312/121566Anticipatory strike5432 16/1413/131890Energy wave55431 17/1514/1418108Energy bolt55442 18/1615/1523139Teleport, psionic greater765432 19/1716/1624168Time hop, mass766443 20/1817/1724192Time regression; Contingency7765432Powers
Dimension hop: 1PP swift action teleport 10ft, aug. +5ft/PP
Energy ray: 1PP standard action ranged touch attack 1d6+rider energy damage, aug. +1die/PP
Hustle: 3PP swift action gain extra move action
Fly, psionic: 7PP, as the spell but personal only
Energy burst: 5PP standard action 40ft burst centered on us, 5d6+rider energy damage reflex/fortitude halves, aug +1die/PP , DC +1/2 extra dies
Teleport, psionic: 9PP, as the spell
Freedom of movement, psionic: 9PP, as the spell but personal only
Anticipatory strike: 9PP immediate action take your next turn now
Temporal acceleration: 11PP, swift action like time stop but only 1 round, aug. +1round/4PP , shaken for 1 round afterward
Energy wave: 13PP standard action 120ft cone, 13d6+rider energy damage reflex/fortitude halves, aug +1die/pp , DC +1/2 extra dies
Energy bolt: 5PP standard action 1200ft line, 5d6+rider energy damage reflex/fortitude halves, aug +1die/PP , DC +1/2 extra dies
Teleport, psionic greater: 17PP as the spell
Time hop, mass: 15PP standard action willing creatures within close range hop forward in time for up to ML hours, aug 6PP immediate action
Time regression: 17PP, 1000xp, standard action rewind last round, you can act differently
Contingency, psionic: 11PP, 15xp, ML/day duration, set up one power contingency
the energy "rider" is the same for all, depending on the energy type selected Cold: +1 damage/die, saving throw is fortitude instead of reflex
Electricity: +2 DC and +2 to penetrating power resistance
Fire: +1 damage/die
Sonic: -1 damage/die and ignore hardness
noncore spells
Blood wind : swift action for 1 round can do melee attacks as if they were thrown weapon, 20ft increment
Balor nimbus : standard action round/level stuff grappling with you take 6d6 fire damage
Mass conviction : 170 juicy munites of +4 morale bonus to all saves for us and our allies!
Mass resist energy : 170 juicy minutes of 30 energy resistance to us and our allies! (most relevant to make them not take damage from our energy bursts!)
Resistance, superior : 24h of +6 resistance bonus to all saves
Extract gift : make deals with demons for permanent enhancement bonuses

ECL 4-5
Here we are, a ... strange ooze, roll for insanity of thinking how an half illithid ooze comes to be.
Either way, we desire really really hard, you could almost say we are fervent about getting more speed, and turns out we our mind is strong enough to bend reality to conform to our wishes! what a shocking surprise!
So here we are, happiliy zooming about at twice the speed we used to have (after an handy dandy take 20 on concentration to become focused, insert joke about getting distracted by squirrels here)
2/day we can even blip forward, goodness us!
*cough* whack stuff with your slam and tentacles I guess, and it's automatic grapple so... yay extract? If we hit it's basically automatic death for whatever dared cross our zoomy path, if they got a brain at all
mindsight is an handy dandy 40 more ft of awareness than our native blindsight, and telepathy is handy dandy for those pesky adventuring requirements, like, you know, communicate with your party members
I'm using handy dandy a lot for a creature without hands, aren't I?
We should be passably survivable even with the 2 LA, thanks to that big CON modifier, 40 or so HP, which is about in line with what a d8 class with 14 CON would have at 5 HD. it's BAB and STR where we lagging behind, but we gotta pay out our going for theurging somewhere, eh.
Amusing thing about mindsight+blindsight-actual sight = we bump into ALL THE THINGS! We can roleplay ramming into walls because we perceived a mind behind them but not the wall themself! That should be an injoke we gotta milk for at least a level or 10!

ECL 6-10 wishing/praying/wishing harder for "MORE SPEED!!1!" brought us to the attention of the dark six when we... slammed into some barrels of red paint!
And with faith, comes our purpose : zoom about, bunch things up, then go boom!

Translated, mechanically, after we're finally allowed to tag things at range with blood wind, they get automatically grappled, meaning they are also automatically dragged in our own square.
So, we got 5 natural attacks, with finger tentacles crossed for, you know, actually hitting things (tangent : *can* we *somehow* use wands? magic domain *does* make us able to use wraithstrike without fizzles, but... hands... I guess no wraithstrike unless gimmicky stuff... perhabs some handwavium about greelcrafted wand holder something something? this is musing and not actually in use by the entry, but IF we can use wands then magic domain double dips in usefulness other than "giving us access to antimagic field").

Anyway, we do a bit of experimenting between power of the mind (move more! blast stuff!, but mostly move more!) and power of the faith (touch stuff that was otherwise too fast for us to catch!) until we decide we like both very much!
We can even fly! at 70ft even ! that's more than twice our boosted land speed!
Spells prepared: 3x Blood wind, 2X Balor nimbus. Domain Expeditious retreat, Identify
So.. we did what we wished we could have done at ECL 5, but now we also set ourselves on fire! Our land speed is up to 30ft, and we got tactically relevant powers to zip about the battlefield
be it one or five! Actualyl if it's one jsut suck the brain out, because, I can't stress this enough, automatic grapple that can't be broken out of

ECL 11-20
this is simply a slow accomulation of power, there's... not really much to add here, because the build is kind of self evident, I'll list an hypothetical list of spells prepared because it would be way too lazy to skip that, and of course being a cleric comes with the caveat of the versatility of changing what spells are prepared, but I'm going to list the "average adventuring day" and be happy with that.

What needs to be called out is : we are amorphous, nominally we can't have any magic item equipped, so we need to jump through some hoops to get stat boosts.
Here comes the juicy spell Extract gift. It's basically making pacts with demons in exchange for permanent enhancement boosts. There could be some argument that we can benefit from only one of these, coming from whoever thinks that multiple "resist energy" of different elements can't affect a target at the same time, and I guess that's fair, in which case I suppose I'll convert to goodness and take a vow of poverty (Book of Exalted deeds).
We actually need it because otherwise we don't have the wisdom for 7th level spells and 7th-9th level powers! So if it is limited to only one, take wisdom and... wish for ioun stones to your planar allies I guess

Anyway:
7x Blood wind
7x Balor nimbus
2x mass conviction, 2x mass resist energy, 2x still Balor nimbus
5x divine power
4x still divine power
1x resistance, superior, 2x still righteous might
2x still heal

domain Expeditious retreat; still expeditious retreat; Blur; Still blur; Still haste; Wind walk; Selective Antimagic Field
Of course, this is "simplified", because "of course" we'd prepare a death ward, or lesser restoration, or other common utility stuff, but let's be real we don't need a bucket list of all the spells that are possibly useful, right?.
The offtime is planar ally into extract gift, then the bare minimum acceptable wishing for handwaving away the entry problems that are body-shape derived

Of course, the "capstone" here is the selective(us) antimagic field, to make absolutely sure whatever we touch is.. in for a bad time, and no wiggly fingers shenanigans to get out of it!
The contingent power can be either the time regression, but that's fairly expensive to "renew" eveyr 17 days at 1000xp, a contingent temporal anticipation ( augmented, of course) is plenty good for those emergency like "we are about to receive lethal damage" or whatever trigger you're most worried about.

An amusing thing about adhesive : thigns we grapple also get automatically smacked by 1 slam each round, we can do our standard action still spells without caring that we actually have ot attack those dudes!

Are you ready for a wild ride!?
This started out as (undecided race) into fighter/warblade/bloodstorm blade, to do grappling at range with the natural attacks! with ranged weapon mastery to have adeguate range.

I pivoted into psychic warrior as a base to get the illithid heritage feats to get some tentacles for more grabs, that also made me decide to go for mind flayer, because "tentacle face, now with extra tentacles!"

Dropped bloodstorm blade in favor of using blood wind instead, as there are no doubt that one can be used with natural attacks

went for pious templar a while to qualify for ranged weapon mastery without taking fighter levels.

Got to think about how I need to counter the most common counters to grappling, and so fiated myself into "I need to antimagic field somehow, mmmm, let's divine crusader "of magic" "

latest "large impact" chance was going form normal mind flayer to psionic mind flayer, for easier qualification into psychic theurge, and also a very much substantial power point reserve to fuel into expansion

Did the whole table and power table, but I was wioth a bitter taste in the mouth, because while "fun", this was feeling "uninspired", build at this point was RHD8/LA3/psychic warrior 1/ cleric 3/ psythic theurge 5 (advancing telepath excep for one on psychic warrior for ML 7 for expansion) it was very solid, but "nothing special"

flirted for a bit with a stirge ardent10/bloodstorm blade 10, the stupid stupid idea was "I'm going to "attach" to everything in range! do some mental gymnastic about "they are grappled therefore dragged in my square" and go boom with energy burst!

Dropped it because I hate being sleazy with the legality of stuff

Saw that flotsam ooze has a no-sell automatic grapple that can't be excaped from.

Decided that actually worked really well, and so went for it!

"but what about communication, and OMG -8/-10/-10 to all the mental stats, how am I going to get this working!?"

was content to use that DMG2 "arcane adept" template for 3/day blood wind, on a 100% melee chassis

"but I only have one attack per day, sadpanda about no bloodstorm blade capstone"

Saw half illithid and like... the circle is complete, telepathy for communication, a bit of "fix" to the mental stats, let's do it!

and so here we are with ardent 3/ cleric 3 / theurge 10 :)

Was "goody good" for a while with vow of poverty, because we cna't use any item anyway, so might as well, right?

but I hated all those useless exalted feat, and I doubly hate taking "RP-heavy" feats so in the end, no VoP, yes gifts! :)

Tables made, writing stuff down, was doing the recap when I got the rug pulled frum udner me: half illithid is humanoids only!? Curse you sudden but inevitable betrayal!

Tried to salvage it with half-celestial / half-dragon, but it was just not the same

Scrapped it for 7RHD(huge size!) flotsam /monk 3/weapon master 9/ (1LA template boosting intelligence), to "do shenanigans" with standard action whirlwind, because that would be funny with adhesive, but it was "weak" because no telepathy= no communication

Found out half-illithid was reprinted in underdark, the urge is back!

Q: Half-illithid can't be applied to oozes, fiend folio says "humanoid only" A: Underdark is the most recent print of half-illithid, and it expand the applicability. The possible controversy is "does the LA we assigned to fiend folio carry over?" the template itself hasn't changed, so I'm going with the assumption that yes, it carries over

Q: why are you applying a -8 racial to INT? shoulnd't it be -10? A: the LA repository states that an INT of "-" is to be considered as a INT of "3" for the purpose of playability

Q: don't you lose the ooze traits with the template changing the type to aberration A: I actually don't know, BUT the flotsam entry lists "ooze traits" under special qualities, and the template says we have the special qualities of the base creature, so I'm going to say we keep the ooze traits, so enjoy those immunities!

Q: you can't spellcast while grappling! them somatic components! A: there is a bit of a gray area about us being actually grappled, or only our opponents being "stuck" thanks to adhesive. Either way, stiff metamagic and swift action powers to the rescue! Those don't provoke and can be safely used while grappling! Or just do that concentration check, it's not like we have +12 from the CON modifier

Q: adhesive specifically says it's only the slam attack that automatically grapples A: Ok, sure, seems reasonable to me that it's the contact that triggers, and so it works with all natural attacks, but it matters not it's still strong; I will be sad about not having such a shortcut to illithid-sourced extract brains, but I can live with that. Because automatic grapple is still frelling automatic grapple

Q: You got surrogate spellcasting, but what about the divine focus? A: this is somewhat awkward, as how a divine focus is "manipulated" to enable casting isn't well defined, I'm going to say our divine focus is some dark pebble inside our mass and fiat surrogate spellcasting to account for that, too? the "can't wear gear" of amorphous body type shoulnd't matter here, as the focus doesn't "take" a slot, and we got illithid tentacles around which we could conceivably string an amulet or something. The thing that most awkwardly get impacted by this is Balor nimbus, the other spells cited don't actually require a divine focus. if this becomes a problem, I suggest to be good, and exchange practiced spellcaster/selective spell and still spell for vow of poverty+prerequisite and worldy focus from Faiths of Eberron. Can safely drop magic domain for Strength devotion ( Complete champion) while at it, for another juicy slam attack!

Q: How in the holy name of Ilsensine are you manipulating the material components of Extract gift (or other spells with material components) A: that's very fair, I'm asking this myself, but luckily, "using" material components are up to the interpretation of the GM, other a vague "have a free hand". To which I would smartassely say "our hands ar eindeed free, we got nothing in our hands!" and whistle innocently over the total lack of hands.
A bit less smartassely, I guess we could... roll around the stuff? I mean, we're adhesive! soap is our bane! but sopa isn't the material component! If we touch ti with any part of our body, it's our *forever* (modulo soap)
I actually considered getting the feat "Spell hands" from complete arcane, jsut ot have mage hands but... it's underwhelming, by which I mean to say all the tables always played mage hand as more versatile than it actually is!

Q: Shouldn't you be "immune" to morale bonuses, due to your mindlessness? A: good point actually, but the only morale effect I mentioned is conviction, which does NOT have the mind affecting tag! And the SRD says about morale bonus that creatures with intelligence 0 can't benefit from them, but we are a veyr smart pudding! I'm 100% ready to accept we are not immune to mind affecting effects tho, fair's fair. If I were to do a ruling on this, I'd say we have the *anatomy related* ooze immunities, but not the "mindless" immunities. And most importantly, since I'm staying true and try to mitigate with choices the handicaps that are anatomy related, pretty please leave me with the anatomy related immunities, yeah?

Q: blabla ardent practiced manifester cheese blabla A: yeah we all know it, but the wording on what new power known are allowed doens't have any ambiguity. If this bothers you, the only difference will be a bit of rearrangement of the order the powers are taken in, basically everything delayed by one or two level, a power known "wasted" on deceleration, and no 8th and 9th level powers
Fiend Folio: flotsam ooze, half-illithid (LA'd for +2, reprinted in Underdark to be appliabe to "any nonconstruct corporeal creature" instead of "humanoids except humans")
Lords of Madness: mindsight
Savage Species: surrogate spellcasting
Eberron campaign setting: the dark six pantheon/deities
Spell compendium: celerity domain, assorted noncore spells
Complete psionics: ardent, psionic mantles, practiced manifester, dimension hop, anticipatory strike
Psychic theurge (https://web.archive.org/web/20150421120315/http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040925b)
Complete divine: practiced spellcaster
shining south: selective spell
expanded psionic handbook: expanded knowledge, all other psionic powers
Fiendish codex I: Extract gift spell

Just for fun, how would this be if it was single classed ardent?
Well, first of all, point buy shall be reshuffled to : STR 14 DEX 12 CON 14 INT 8 WIS 18 CHA 8, before racial.
At some point we take one more RHD, since that increases our size to large, which is a yummy +8STR -2DEX +4CON +2 natural armor
I'm still taking practiced manifester, but probably at a later time.
I'd probably take both dominant ideal and substitute powers (https://web.archive.org/web/20120205031108/http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070629a), dominant energy mantle of course, and substitute power just for energy emanation, as it is the one that's closest to emulate Balor nimbus, and the one that best goes with grappling. let's say ECL 12, thereabouts after getting at least fly
Mantles would be, in order : Freedom,Creation,Energy, Time, Mental power
feats 1:mindisght 3:skin of the construct 6:practiced manifester 9:tap mantle(life) 12:overchannel 15:talented 18:(empower or maximize power) (skin and tap are form complete psionics)
a wisdom ioun stone sooner or later, and tome
Skin of the construct is either another, separate celerity for 10ft of land movement, or some poor man flight :)
ECL | WIS | PP | new powers
5 | 12 | 2 | dimension hop; astral construct
6 | 13 | 7 | Energy ray
7 | 13 | 12 | hustle
8 | 13 | 19 | energy emanation (round/level of emanation damage)
9 | 15 | 30 | fly, psionic
10 | 16 | 44 | stygian ward (death ward but psionic)
11 | 16 | 56 | teleport, psionic
12 | 16 | 56 | freedom of movement, psionic
13 | 16 | 60 | temporal acceleration
14 | 19 | 90 | mend wounds (heal but psionic)
15 | 19 | 108 | restoration, psionic (restoration but psionic)
16 | 19 | 128 | energy wave
17 | 21 | 156 | true metabolism (fast healing 10/round for minutes/level)
18 | 24 | 192 | teleport, psionic greater
19 | 26 | 226 | true creation (make real items)
20 | 26 | 255 | time regression

Sadly, no tentacley shenanigans at range with this, but much more streamlined boombooms! 4 ranks on psicraft, then all on concentration and call it a day! wander about, touch stuff, and if enough stuff get stuck on you without dying, it's emanation time!

Beni-Kujaku

2022-06-24, 06:37 PM

Don’t let others tell you what you can’t and can’t do ! If you want to stay at home and build magical devices and traps like a fantasy Kevin from Home Alone, then do it ! It doesn’t matter if you don’t have arms !

Manifest, the Multifarious Doom
NE Gelatinous Cube Artificer 16

https://i.postimg.cc/FKn6tNxV/Manifest.png

Note: Values in parentheses are final, post-bonus values. Inherent ability score bonuses are counted as part of base ability score and save values.

ECL
STR
DEX
CON
INT
WIS
CHA
HP
Engulf DC
AC
Initiative
Move Speed

5
14
1
24
10
1
8
56
15
4, touch 4, flat-footed 4
-5
25 ft

10
14 (24)
1 (2)
24
11 (18)
1 (4)
8
103
18 (23)
4, touch 4, flat-footed 4
-5 (+3)
(55 ft)

15
14 (50)
1 (7)
24 (40)
12 (21)
1 (9)
8
150 (270)
20 (38)
18, touch 4, flat-footed 18
-5 (+5)
(210 ft)

20
19 (55)
6(12)
29 (45)
19 (28)
6 (14)
8
238 (398)
25 (43)
65, touch 51, flat-footed 64
-2 (+8)
(210 ft)

HD
Class
BAB
Fort
Ref
Will
Skills
Feats
Class Features

1
Racial

Skill Focus (Craft(trapmaking))
Acid, Engulf, Paralysis, Quick(trait)

2
Racial

3
Racial

Skill Focus(UMD)

4
Racial
+3
+8
-4
-4
Craft(trapmaking) 3(CC), Craft(toolmaking) 1(CC), Craft(smelting) 1(CC), UMD 1, Profession(scavenger) 1(CC), Profession(miner) 1(CC)

5
Artificer
+3
+8
-4
-2
Craft(trapmaking) 7(+4), Craft(toolmaking) 1, Craft(smelting) 1, UMD 1, Profession(scavenger) 1, Profession(miner) 1

Artificer Knowledge, Artisan Bonus, Disable Trap, Item Creation, Scribe Scoll

6
Artificer
+4
+8
-4
-1
Craft(trapmaking) 7, Craft(toolmaking) 1, Craft(smelting) 1, UMD 5(+4), Profession(scavenger) 1, Profession(miner) 1
Extraordinary Artisan
Brew Potion

7
Artificer
+5
+9
-3
-1
Craft(trapmaking) 7, Craft(toolmaking) 1, Craft(smelting) 1, UMD 8(+3), Knowledge(arcana) 1(+1), Profession(scavenger) 1, Profession(miner) 1

Craft Wondrous Item

8
Artificer
+6
+9
-3
0
Craft(trapmaking) 8(+1), Craft(toolmaking) 1, Craft(smelting) 1, Craft(clothing) 1(+1), UMD 10(+2), Knowledge(arcana) 1, Profession(scavenger) 1, Profession(miner) 1
Still Spell
Craft Homunculus, bonus feat

9
Artificer
+6
+9
-3
0
Craft(trapmaking) 10(+2), Craft(toolmaking) 1, Craft(smelting) 1, Craft(clothing) 1, UMD 10, Knowledge(arcana) 1, Sense Motive 1 (+1 CC)
Profession(scavenger) 1, Profession(miner) 1
Magical Artisan(Extraordinary Artisan)
Craft Magic Arms and Armor, Retain Essence

10
Artificer
+7
+10 (+12)
-2 (+9)
+1 (+11)
Craft(trapmaking) 10, Craft(toolmaking) 1, Craft(smelting) 1, Craft(clothing) 1, Craft(armorsmithing) 1(+1), UMD 12(+2), Knowledge(arcana) 1, Spellcraft 1(+1), Sense Motive 1, Profession(scavenger) 1, Profession(miner) 1

Craft Wand

11
Artificer
+8
+10
-2
+1
Craft(trapmaking) 10, Craft(toolmaking) 1, Craft(smelting) 1, Craft(clothing) 1, Craft(armorsmithing) 1, UMD 14(+2), Spellcraft 2(+1), Knowledge(arcana) 1, Knowledge(engineering) 1(+1), Sense Motive 1, Profession(scavenger) 1, Profession(miner) 1

Metamagic Spell Trigger

12
Artificer
+9
+10
-2
+2
Craft(trapmaking) 10, Craft(toolmaking) 1, Craft(smelting) 1, Craft(clothing) 1, Craft(armorsmithing) 1, Craft(pottery) 1(+1), UMD 15(+1), Spellcraft 5(+3), Knowledge(arcana) 1, Knowledge(engineering) 1, Sense Motive 1, Profession(scavenger) 1, Profession(miner) 1
Legendary Artisan, Craft Construct
bonus feat

13
Artificer
+9
+11
-1
+2
Craft(trapmaking) 10, Craft(toolmaking) 1, Craft(smelting) 1, Craft(clothing) 1, Craft(armorsmithing) 1, Craft(pottery) 1, UMD 15, Spellcraft 10(+5), Knowledge(arcana) 1, Knowledge(engineering) 1, Sense Motive 1, Profession(scavenger) 1, Profession(miner) 1

Craft Rod

14
Artificer
+10
+11
-1
+3
Craft(trapmaking) 10, Craft(toolmaking) 1, Craft(smelting) 1, Craft(clothing) 1, Craft(armorsmithing) 1, Craft(pottery) 1, UMD 15, Spellcraft 15(+5), Knowledge(arcana) 1, Knowledge(engineering) 1, Sense Motive 1, Profession(scavenger) 1, Profession(miner) 1

15
Artificer
+11
+11 (+21)
-1 (+10)
+3 (+22)
Craft(trapmaking) 10, Craft(toolmaking) 1, Craft(smelting) 1, Craft(clothing) 1, Craft(armorsmithing) 1, Craft(pottery) 1, UMD 16(+1), Spellcraft 18(+3), Knowledge(arcana) 1, Knowledge(engineering) 1, Knowledge(the planes) 1(+1), Sense Motive 1, Profession(scavenger) 1, Profession(miner) 1
Magical Artisan(Legendary Artisan)
Metamagic Spell Completion

16
Artificer
+12
+12
0
+4
Craft(trapmaking) 10, Craft(toolmaking) 1, Craft(smelting) 1, Craft(clothing) 1, Craft(armorsmithing) 1, Craft(pottery) 1, UMD 19(+3), Spellcraft 19(+1), Knowledge(arcana) 2(+1), Knowledge(engineering) 1, Knowledge(the planes) 1, Sense Motive 1, Profession(scavenger) 1, Profession(miner) 1
Chain Spell
Craft Staff, bonus feat

17
Artificer
+12
+12
0
+4
Craft(trapmaking) 10, Craft(toolmaking) 1, Craft(smelting) 1, Craft(clothing) 1, Craft(armorsmithing) 1, Craft(pottery) 1, UMD 20(+1), Spellcraft 20(+1), Knowledge(arcana) 5(+3), Knowledge(engineering) 1, Knowledge(the planes) 1, Sense Motive 1, Profession(scavenger) 1, Profession(miner) 1

Skill Mastery

18
Artificer
+13
+12
0
+5
Craft(trapmaking) 10, Craft(toolmaking) 1, Craft(smelting) 1, Craft(clothing) 1, Craft(armorsmithing) 1, Craft(pottery) 1, UMD 21(+1), Spellcraft 21(+1), Knowledge(arcana) 6(+1), Knowledge(history) 1(+1 CC), Knowledge(engineering) 1, Knowledge(the planes) 1, Sense Motive 1, Profession(scavenger) 1, Profession(miner) 1
Practiced Spellcaster
Forge Ring

19
Artificer
+14
+15
+4
+8
Craft(trapmaking) 10, Craft(toolmaking) 1, Craft(smelting) 1, Craft(clothing) 1, Craft(armorsmithing) 1, Craft(pottery) 1, UMD 22(+1), Spellcraft 22(+1), Knowledge(arcana) 7(+1), Knowledge(engineering) 1, Knowledge(the planes) 1, Knowledge(history) 1, Knowledge(religion) 1(+1 CC), Sense Motive 1, Profession(scavenger) 1, Profession(miner) 1

20
Artificer
+15
+15 (+42)
+4 (+30)
+9 (+42)
Craft(trapmaking) 10, Craft(toolmaking) 1, Craft(smelting) 1, Craft(clothing) 1, Craft(armorsmithing) 1, Craft(pottery) 1, UMD 23(+1), Spellcraft 23(+1), Knowledge(arcana) 13(+6), Knowledge(engineering) 1, Knowledge(the planes) 1, Knowledge(history) 1, Knowledge(religion) 1, Sense Motive 1, Profession(scavenger) 1, Profession(miner) 1
Extra Rings
bonus feat

Introduction
As the dungeon the future Manifest occupied began to degrade, magical radiation from a nearby trap empower the Gelatinous Cube with significant mental capacity. It naturally sought to study the devices that expanded its horizons, and over time, it learned how to replicate them. As roving monsters and unfortunate explorers passed through the halls of the decrepit structure and the surrounding caves, many fell prey to Manifest’s increasingly elaborate mechanisms, of both the magical and mundane variety. Though some traps followed the standard template, the greedy Cube sought to carry as much with it as it could, using melee traps, magical dispensers, and wondrous gear to supplement its own capabilities as it ambushed and devoured the unlucky souls passing through. Meanwhile, it zealously sought out raw materials for use in crafting ever more elaborate creations.
In time, the dungeon could no longer sate Manifest’s desire for resources, power, knowledge, and expanded mental horizons. With the benefit of gear that greatly enhanced its limited base mobility, it began to wander, seeking out underground regions with abundant materials or regular passage of well-equipped individuals – preferably both. As Manifest’s powers continue to grow, so too do its ambitions. Only time will tell where they lead…

ECL 5(9K WBL, 50% cost)
Finishing Blow Trap
These traps are carried 1-2 at a time, and are rigged to bludgeon a foe as soon as they are engulfed by the cube.
Mechanical, touch trigger, manual reset, attack +14 melee, 10d6+8 bludgeoning, Search DC 10, Disable Device DC 15, Price 300 gp, Weight 50lb. (craft: 100 gp) x10
Heavy Spear Trap
These traps have their trigger plates scattered in across the terrain, waiting for unwitting foes to blunder into them.
Mechanical, location trigger, manual reset, attack +14 ranged, 8d6+4 piercing, Search DC 24, Disable Device DC 1, 200 ft max range, Price 300 gp (craft 100 gp) x40+
Moving Wall Trap
These traps can be triggered by the cube as it retreats with a Run action, forcing pursers into pathways littered with spear trap triggers.
Mechanical, location trigger, manual reset, moving wall, DC 5 Reflex to avoid, Search DC 33, Disable Device DC 10, Price 100 gp (craft 34gp) x10+

This build gets off to a somewhat erratic start. Initially, Manifest takes a defensive approach: when it registers foes, it retreats (with a Run action) down a prepared hallway, passing over triggers for moving wall traps that seal off most of the corridor, leaving only a passage filled with triggers for heavy spear traps for pursuers to follow. If the pursuers follow, it hides behind a corner and, if there are two or fewer foes remaining, prepares to strike. It can carry two Finishing Blow traps at light encumbrance, and engulf two more while waiting, bringing it to medium encumbrance.
As the foes round the corner, it moves up and attempts to engulf them both (Reflex DC 15). Any who fail are not only grappled and subject to acid damage, but also are targeted by the Finishing Blow traps. If a foe survives and escapes the grapple while there are no un-triggered Finishing Blow traps, Manifest uses a Run action to retreat and engulf more Finishing Blow traps lying around, leading its pursuer through a maze of more Heavy Spear and Moving Wall traps.

Beni-Kujaku

2022-06-24, 06:38 PM

Part 2/2 of the previous one :

Note: Due to Extraordinary Artisan (obtained at ECL 6)) and Magical Artisan(Extraordinary Artisan) (obtained at ECL 9), the crafting costs of all items are reduced to 28.125% of the sale price. By applying a NE alignment restriction, the crafting costs of personal-use items are further reduced by 30%, to 19.6875% of the sale price. All costs listed are the final crafting costs.

ECL 10(49K WBL, 28.125% trap cost, 19.6875% personal item cost)

Helm of the Egoist
This black, sinister metal helm radiates a sense of overweening ambition. It increases the wearer’s Intelligence by 7 and Wisdom by 3, in the form of an enhancement bonus. It does not earn the wearer extra skill points.
Moderate transmutation, CL 8th, Craft Wondrous Item, fox’s cunning, owl’s wisdom, must be NE, 12,304 gp
Amulet of Malevolent Design
This amulet contains a complex assembly of interlocking gears, slowly moving with inscrutable purpose. It adds a +8 competence bonus to Craft(trapmaking) checks.
Faint transmutation, CL 5th, Craft Wondrous Item, fabricate(Trapsmith), must by NE, 1260 gp
Robe of Suborned Artifice
The sleeves of this robe contain a variety of analysis tools, which can be drawn out and used to give insight into bending enchantments to the wearer’s will. The wearer receives a +5 competence bonus on Use Magic Device checks when wearing this item.
Faint divination, CL 3rd, Craft Wondrous Item, identify, must be NE, weight: 50 lb., 493 gp
Belt of Stone Giant Essence
This plain, grey belt radiates a sense of implacable selfishness. The wearer receives a +8 enhancement bonus to their Strength. At will, they may grow a size category, receiving a +2 size bonus to Strength, a -2 size penalty to Dexterity, and a -1 penalty to attack rolls and AC. This effect may be dismissed at-will.
Faint transmutation, CL 1st and CL 3rd, Craft Wondrous Item, enlarge person and strength of stone, must be NE, 2954 gp
Boots of Villainous Momentum
These strangely-shaped boots radiate a sense of urgent ambition. The wearer receives a +30 enhancement bonus to their land speed.
Faint transmutation, CL 1st, Craft Wondrous Item, expeditious retreat, must be NE, 394 gp
Pearl of Black Speech(Arcane)
This resembles a typical Pearl of Speech, but is lined with black highlights. It enables the wearer to speak arcane verbal components and command words, and does not require an item slot.
Moderate divination, CL 7th, Craft Wondrous Item, command, tongues, must be NE, 238 gp
Tunic of Dark Grace
This dark purple tunic features intricate silver inlays. When worn, it adds a +3 enhancement bonus to the wearer’s Dexterity score.
Moderate transmutation, CL 8th, Craft Wondrous Item, cat’s grace, must be NE, 1772 gp
Projector of Multifarious Malevolence
This strange contraption consists of a segmented tube, with an attached mount for the larger end, and the smaller end featuring several sharp hooks. When the smaller end is hooked up to a nonmagical trap, tool, clothing item, or armor piece, and the open end is facing the raw materials needed to construct it, speaking the command word will immediately convert the raw materials into the finished product, provided the required DC is not higher than 30 (for trapmaking) or 20 (for clothing, armor, or tools). If the item consists of more that 5 cubic feet of mineral material or 50 cubic feet of other material, the item will be only partially completed. The projector can be used once per day.
Faint transmutation, CL 5th, Craft Wondrous Item, fabricate(Trapsmith), must be NE, 2127 gp
Monocle of Cyclopean Vision
This large iron monocle glows with a faint red light. It can summon a magical eye behind it, which the wearer can use to perceive their surroundings. It can remain behind the monocle, or, if the wearer concentrates, move away at 30 feet per round. If the eye is destroyed, after 3 minutes have elapsed, or at will, the eye reappears behind the monocle. While the eye is behind the monocle, the wearer can use their Artificer Knowledge class feature (if they have it), and a success will enable you to spend an additional minute of study to identify the item abilities as if they had cast Identify.
Faint divination, CL 3rd and 5th, Craft Wondrous Item, arcane eye(Trapsmith), identify, must be NE, 2658 gp
Periapt of Dominant Will
This dark crimson necklace supports a large ruby laced with blood. It provides a +6 bonus to will saves (resistance 5, profane 1).
Faint abjuration, CL 5th, Craft Wondrous Item, magic circle against good, must be NE, 5316 gp
Gloves of the True Mountebank
These dark crimson gloves are inlaid with gold thread. On command, the wearer of both gloves can employ a dimension door to any location with 520 feet. When they disappear, they leave a cloud of smoke, appearing in a similar fashion at their destination.
Faint conjuration, CL 3rd, Craft Wondrous Item, dimension door(Trapsmith), must be NE, 2127 gp
Shuriken of Dominance
This spiked, dark iron circlet resembles a throwing star, but seems unsuited to throwing. When held, it provides a +7 bonus to initiative (2 luck, 5 insight), a +2 untyped bonus to all saves, a +6 resistance bonus to reflex saves, and a +10 circumstance bonus to Move Silently.
Moderate enchantment, CL 7th, Craft Magic Arms and Armor, Agility, Initiative, Spellstrike, Warning, Silent Moves, must be NE, 323 gp
Compass-Necklace of the Greedy Scavenger
An intricate compass hangs from this golden necklace, with a compartment underneath. The compass does not point north, instead, when the necklace is worn, a material is stored in the compartment, and the command word is spoken, the compass will point toward the nearest source of the stored material not in the possession of the owner. There is a 25% of the needle instead spinning around erratically for each activation.
Faint divination, CL 5th, Craft Wondrous Item, divination(Oracle), must be NE, 5316gp
Gauntlets of the Stoneheart
These heavy gauntlets of interlocking granite are difficult to equip. At will, the wearer can activate and deactivate the gauntlets. When active, opening the palms will cause stone to shirt away, opening a hole; closing a fist will cause stone to pull toward the region in front of the gauntlet, potentially sealing a passage. The gauntlets can move up to 15 cubic feet of stone per round.
Faint transmutation, CL 3rd, Craft Wondrous Item, stone shape(Trapsmith), must be NE, 2127 gp
Masterwork Tools
These manipulation and analysis tools provide +2 circumstance bonuses to Craft(trapmaking), Use Magic Device, and Spellcraft, respectively.
66 gp x3
Resetting Net Trap
For every round that a foe is present in the square in front of the trap, the net attempts to entangle them with a net. It launches the net with a +19 attack bonus, and if it hits, the target must make a DC 29 reflex save. If they fail the save, they become grappled by the net. Once the net is launched, the trap reloads with another net and is ready to launch it the following round.
Mechanical, location trigger, auto reset, attack +19 melee, DC reflex 29, Search DC 1, Disable Device DC 1, weight: 60 lb., 676 gp
Flurrying Scythe Trap
These heavy scythes shoot forward into any targets present in front of or below themselves, attacking with a +14 bonus. Afterwards, they return to their original position and can strike again the following round.
Mechanical, proximity trigger, auto reset, attack +14 melee, 18d6+8 slashing, Search DC 1, Disable Device DC 1, weight: 100 lb., 132 gp x8
True Strike Trap Enhancer
This enchanted mechanism is connected to the mechanism of the Resetting Net or a Flurrying Scythe trap. Whenever they start to trigger, this trap applies the True Strike effect to their attacks, increasing the attack bonus by +20.
Spell, timer, auto-reset, apply True Strike CL 1, 141 gp x9
Magic Weapon Trap Enhancer
One of this enchanted mechanism is connected to the mechanisms of each Flurrying Scythe trap. Whenever it starts to trigger, this trap applies the Magic Weapon effect to their attacks, adding +1 to their attack bonus and damage, and making it count as a magic weapon attack.
Spell, touch, auto-reset, apply Magic Weapon CL 1, 141 gp x8
Dispenser of Cure Light Wounds
Every round, this trap heals the target touching it by 1d8+1 hp.
Spell, timer, auto-reset, heal 1d8+1 hp CL 1, 141 gp x3
Dispenser of Protection from Energy
Every round, this trap enables the target touching it to resist up to 20 damage from the associated energy type. This value is reset the following round.
Spell, timer, auto-reset, Protection From Energy(Trapsmith) CL 2(acid, cold, fire), 282 gp x3
Trigger of Greater Invisibility
When toggled on as a free action, this trap applies greater invisibility to the target, refreshing it every round. When toggled off, the effect expires after 3 rounds.
Spell, touch, timer, auto-reset, greater invisibility(Shadowlord) CL 3, 844 gp
Trigger of See Invisibilty
When toggled on as a free action, this trap applies see invisibility to the target, refreshing it every round. When toggled off, the effect expires after 10 minutes.
Spell, touch, auto-reset, see invisibility(Runescarred Berserker) CL 1, 141 gp

Dispenser of Lesser Restoration
Every round, this trap assists the target touching it by improving exhausting to fatigue or eliminating fatigue, and by dispelling effects reducing ability scores, or, if there are none, curing up to 1d4 points of temporary ability damage.
Spell, timer, auto-reset, lesser restoration CL 1, 141 gp
Trigger of Obscuring Mist
When touched (as a free action) by the bearer of this trap, an obscuring mist effect is created, lasting for 1 minute.
Spell, touch, auto-reset, obscuring mist 1 min CL 1, 141 gp
Dispenser of Mental Integrity
Every round, this trap performs a selective dispel on the target touching it. If an effect is mind-affecting, it attempts to remove the effect with a roll of 1d20+6 against a DC of 11 plus the spell’s caster level.
Spell, timer, auto-reset, dispel magic(Trapsmith) CL 6, 844 gp x2

915 gp to spare

After ECL 5, the build starts to pick up. At ECL 6, Manifest can take its chances making CL 1 auto-resetting Cure Light Wounds, Obscuring Mist, and Invisibility(Shadowlord) traps, with an 88% chance of success, enabling much stealthier attacks. At ECL 8, it can use Stilled Skill Enhancer infusions to greatly boost its crafting capabilities. By ECL 10, its ambushes are extremely formidable.
The Monocle of Cyclopean Vision enables remote, risk-free scouting. If a good target is identified, Manifest engages its greater invisibility trigger, and uses its Gloves of the True Mountebank to Dimension Door along the route the targets are moving. If they fail to see through its invisibility, they enter the Cube and are engulfed with no save, then subjected to a barrage of Flurrying Scythe traps with a +35 attack bonus due to their enhancers. Manifest can support 933 lbs at Light encumbrance when enlarged, so it can bring along 8 Flurrying Scythe traps and the Net, which can engage both engulfed and adjacent foes thanks to their Proximity trigger. With 71 average damage apiece, few foes within reach can survive.
Should some foes survive the first round, Manifest can trigger an Obscuring Mist to further limit visibility, and move up to 55 feet then use a standard action to try and engulf other foes (Reflex DC 24 when Enlarged, if they can see it), with a priority on eliminating casters. Manifest tries to angle itself so the net trap targets arcane casters, since they tend to be the most unpredictable threats. Anyone without invisibility-seeing will struggle to hit Manifest, especially since it Dimension Doors every round. If, for whatever reason, the foes persist and deal enough damage to threaten Manifest despite Protection from Energy effects and 3d8+3 hp/round of healing, it can always Dimension Door away and try again later. Unless they get mind-affecting effects past its +11 will save which aren’t rapidly dispelled by the Dispensers of Mental Integrity, Manifest can always try again later. It is very patient. And it targets the Wizard first.
Outside of combat, Manifest struggles to find appropriate raw materials, but the Compass-Necklace of the Greedy Scavenger and Gauntlets of the Stoneheart are highly useful. Crafting items is time-consuming, but the act of crafting can be its own reward, and the Projector of Multifarious Malevolence helps cut down on the requirements. Manifest has also learned the value of planning ahead, and applies Skill Enhancer bonuses to Sense Motive in order to anticipate the tactics of potential foes and calculate how to beat them.

ECL 15(200K WBL, 28.125% trap cost, 19.6875% personal item cost)
Amulet of Malevolent Design, Robe of Suborned Artifice, Projector of Multifarious Malevolence, Gloves of the True Mountebank, Compass-Necklace of the Greedy Scavenger, Gauntlets of the Stoneheart, Shuriken of Dominance, Masterwork Tools: 13,971 gp
Dedicated Wright
These are standard versions of the Dedicated Wright. Once started on a task with successful Crafting and Use Magic Device checks provided, they can finish crafting the item on their own.
Craft Construct, arcane eye, fabricate, 1182 gp x4
Monocle of Sinister Arcana
This large iron monocle glows with a faint red light. It can summon a magical eye behind it, which the wearer can use to perceive their surroundings. At will, the eye can glow red and gain the ability to perceive magical auras with 120 feet, as with arcane sight. It can remain behind the monocle, or, if the wearer concentrates, move away at 30 feet per round. If the eye is destroyed, after 3 minutes have elapsed, or at will, the eye reappears behind the monocle. While the eye is behind the monocle, the wearer can use their Artificer Knowledge class feature (if they have it), and a success will enable you to spend an additional minute of study to identify the item abilities as if they had cast Identify.
Faint divination, CL 1st, CL 3rd and CL 5th, Craft Wondrous Item, arcane sight(Trapsmith), arcane eye(Trapsmith), identify, must be NE, 3052 gp
Mantle of the Daemonic Titan
This heavy black mantle is a blend of thick fur and sharp scales. At will, the wearer can grow to Huge size, gaining a +16 size bonus to Strength, a +4 size bonus to Constitution, a +3 size bonus to natural armor, a -2 size penalty to Dexterity, and a -2 size penalty to their attack bonus and AC. They can return to their normal size at will.
Strong transmutation, CL 13th, Craft Wondrous Item, giant size, must be NE 32,249 gp
Belt of Bestial Essence
This belt of thick, dark leather is interwoven with blackened bear fur. When donned, the wearer’s form shifts to resemble a bear: if they have hands, they become claws, and if they have a mouth, it gains a bite attack. The wearer gains a +16 enhancement bonus to Strength, a +8 enhancement bonus to Constitution, a +2 enhancement bonus to Dexterity, and a +7 enhancement bonus to natural armor. This effect reverts if the belt is removed. The wearer also experiences a doubled carrying capacity. Twice a day, the wearer can sacrifice a spell slot of 5th level or higher to use Teleport, using their own or the belt’s caster level.
Moderate transmutation, CL 11th, and CL 9th, Craft Wondrous Item, bite of the werebear, teleport, must be NE, 28,350 gp
Raiment of Daemonic Grace
This intricate shirt features layers of interwoven dark purple and silver fabric. When worn, it adds a +8 enhancement bonus to the wearer’s Dexterity score.
Moderate transmutation, CL 8th, Craft Wondrous Item, cat’s grace, must be NE, 12,600 gp
Boots of Unnatural Momentum
These deep black, unusually shaped boots radiate dark tendrils of power into the area around and beneath them. When donned, the wearer’s legs are temporarily altered to enable faster movement. If they lack normal legs, their body adjusts to compensate. As long as the boots are equipped, the wearer receives a +80 bonus to their base land speed (30 enhancement, 50 untyped).
Faint transmutation, CL 1st and 5th, Craft Wondrous Item, expeditious retreat, footsteps of the divine, must be NE, 6497 gp
Rapid Vile Wrath (shortspear)
This variation of the Rapid Wrath shortspear design seems suboptimal for making attacks. If this shortspear is in a NE creature’s inventory, their movement speeds are doubled.
Craft Magic Arms and Armor, must be NE, 3292 gp
Helm of the Mastermind
This elaborate helm of umbral metal features a spiked crown encrusted with dark purple stones. It increases the wearer’s Intelligence by 9 and Wisdom by 8, in the form of an enhancement bonus. It does not earn the wearer extra skill points.
Moderate transmutation, CL 8th, Craft Wondrous Item, fox’s cunning, owl’s wisdom, must be NE, 34,847 gp
Periapt of Ascendant Will
This dark crimson necklace supports a large red diamond laced with blood. It provides a +11 bonus to will saves (resistance 8, profane 3).
Faint abjuration, CL 5th, Craft Wondrous Item, magic circle against good, must be NE, 16,144 gp
Talisman of the Untouched Self
This trinket is composed of multiple layers of colored glass, with the interior inscrutable. When in the inventory of a NE creature, it projects an invisible disk of force that provides the bearer with a +4 shield bonus to AC, and negates magic missile attacks against them.
Faint abjuration, CL 1st, Craft Wondrous Item, shield, must be NE, 788 gp
Bag of Avaricious Holding IV
This functions like a normal bag of holding, except it can only be accessed by those with the NE alignment. It can store up to 1500 lb. or 250 cu. ft. of material, whichever is lower.
Moderate conjuration, CL 9th, Craft Wondrous Item, secret chest, 1969 gp
Resetting Net Trap 676 gp x1
Lead Curtains
The heavy curtains of this trap can be activated by the creature supporting them, causing them to drop down and seal off the area above, completely insulating the creature from the outside world. Another activation will cause them to raise back up.
Mechanical, touch, auto-reset, DC Ref 14, Search DC 1, Disable Device DC 30, Weight 600 lb., 29 gp
Flurrying Scythe Trap 132 gp x20
True Strike Trap Enhancer 141 gp x21
Magic Weapon Trap Enhancer 141 gp x20 (combo)
Dispenser of Cure Light Wounds 141 gp x20
Trigger of Greater Invisibility 844 gp
Trigger of Obscuring Mist 141 gp
Dispenser of Protection from Energy
Every round, this trap enables the target touching it to resist up to 40 damage from the associated energy type. This value is reset the following round.
Spell, timer, auto-reset, Protection From Energy(Trapsmith) CL 4(acid, cold, fire, sonic), 563 gp x4
Trigger of True Seeing
When toggled on as a free action, this trap applies true seeing to the target, refreshing it every round. When toggled off, the effect expires after 7 minutes.
Spell, touch, auto-reset, true-seeing(Urban Ranger) CL 7, 3938 gp
Trigger of Fly
When toggled on as a free action, this trap applies fly to the target (giving a flight speed of 60, or 40 with a medium or heavy load), refreshing it every round. When toggled off, the effect expires after 5 minutes.
Spell, touch, auto-reset, fly CL 5, 2110 gp
Dispenser of Valiant Fury
Every round, this trap assists the target by applying Valiant Fury, giving a +4 morale bonus to Strength and Constitution, and a +2 morale bonus to will saves.
Spell, timer, auto-reset, valiant fury CL 9, 6329 gp
Dispenser of Restoration
Every round, this trap assists the target touching it by dispelling effects reducing ability scores and applying negative levels. It also removes all temporary ability damage, eliminates all fatigue or exhaustion, restores one experience level lost to level drain, and restores all points drained from a random drained ability score.
Spell, timer, auto-reset, restoration(Healer) CL 7, 4922 gp
Dispenser of Mental Integrity
Every round, this trap performs a selective dispel on the target touching it. If an effect is mind-affecting, it attempts to remove the effect with a roll of 1d20+10 against a DC of 11 plus the spell’s caster level.
Spell, timer, auto-reset, dispel magic(Trapsmith) CL 10, 1407 gp x3

4669 gp to spare

At this point, Manifest has begun to range throughout the broader world, seeking out rare materials, interesting items, and opportunities to grow stronger. Thanks to the Helm of the Mastermind, it can now conceive of more advanced tactics on the fly, rather than always having to plan everything out ahead of time. The improvements to the Monocle enable more informative scouting, resulting in even better planned ambushes.
With 20 flurrying scythe traps available, Manifest can end many ambushes in the first round, but it now has more staying power for longer fights. 20 cure light wounds dispensers and the restoration dispenser combine with its 270 hp to keep it going through many nasty effects, the obscuring mist and greater invisibility continue to make it hard to target, the at-will Dimension Door and 220 ft move speed give extreme mobility (and Fly is available if needed), its Engulf DC of 38 (which can be applied to several foes at once, and is followed by a paralyze DC of 32) will rapidly disable enemies, and if subject to an Antimagic Field or other dangerous emanation that it can’t just move out of, it can trigger the Lead Curtains to block the effect, letting it temporarily disengage.
Mind control effects remain a concern, but a will save of +22 and 3 mental integrity dispensers offer some security. Ultimately, Manifest places a high priority on eliminating potential sources of these effects in the opening round.
ECL 20(760K WBL, 28.125% trap cost, 19.6875% personal item cost)
Helm of the Mastermind, Amulet of Malevolent Design, Robe of Suborned Artifice, Projector of Multifarious Malevolence, Compass-Necklace of the Greedy Scavenger, Gauntlets of the Stoneheart, Mantle of the Daemonic Titan, Belt of Bestial Essence, Raiment of Daemonic Grace, Rapid Vile Wrath, Talisman of the Untouched Self, Masterwork Tools: 125,774 gp
Dedicated Wright: 1182 gp x10
Gloves of the Maleficent Mountebank
These dark crimson gloves are inlaid with dizzying patterns of gold thread. At will, the wearer of both gloves can employ a dimension door to any location with 520 feet. When they disappear, they leave a cloud of smoke, appearing in a similar fashion at their destination. Alternately, once per round as a free action, the wearer may grant themselves the ability to perform a standard action at that specific moment. If they use this ability, they will be dazed the following round.
Moderate transmutation, CL 3rd and CL 7th, Craft Wondrous Item, dimension door(Trapsmith), celerity, must be NE, 14,567 gp
Monocle of Malevolent Arcana
This large obsidian monocle is pointed like a star, and glows with a faint red light. It can summon a magical eye behind it, which the wearer can use to perceive their surroundings. At will, the eye can glow red and gain the ability to perceive magical auras with 120 feet, as with greater arcane sight. It can remain behind the monocle, or, if the wearer concentrates, move away at 30 feet per round. If the eye is destroyed, after 3 minutes have elapsed, or at will, the eye reappears behind the monocle. While the eye is behind the monocle, the wearer can use their Artificer Knowledge class feature (if they have it), and a success will enable you to spend an additional minute of study to identify the item abilities as if they had cast Identify.
Strong divination, CL 3rd, CL 5th, and CL 13th, Craft Wondrous Item, arcane eye(Trapsmith), identify, greater arcane sight, must be NE, 37,131 gp
Manual of Superior Exercise/Quickness of Grasp/Bodily Supremacy/Tome of Objective Thought/Higher Understanding:
These guidebooks resemble the typical magical manuals and tomes, but their words are slanted toward those of a selfish disposition, and the magic only takes effect for those of a NE alignment. Reading each book gives the reader a permanent+5 inherent bonus to the appropriate ability score, using up the stored magic.
Strong evocation, CL 17th, Craft Wondrous Item, miracle, must be NE, 2461 gp (and 10,041 xp) x5
Bracers of Unholy Armor
These bulky, plain iron bracers radiate a sense of implacability. They sheath the wearer in a field of force, granting a +88 armor bonus.
Moderate conjuration, CL 7th, Craft Wondrous Item, mage armor, must be NE, 12,600 gp
38,588 gp
Boots of Daemonic Mobility
These deep black, unnaturally-shaped boots writhe with dark tendrils of power. When donned, the wearer’s legs are temporarily altered to enable faster movement. If they lack normal legs, their body adjusts to compensate. As long as the boots are equipped, the wearer receives a +80 bonus to their base land speed (30 enhancement, 50 untyped). The sound of the wearer’s movement is greatly dampened: they receive a +30 competence bonus on Move Silently checks.
Faint transmutation, CL 1st and 5th, Craft Wondrous Item, expeditious retreat, footsteps of the divine, silence, must be NE, 27,169 gp
Robe of Unnatural Deflection
This robe is composed of a smooth, dark material that irregularly refracts the light around itself. The wearer receives a +10 deflection bonus to their AC.
Moderate evocation, CL 9th, Craft Wondrous Item, wall of force, must be NE, 39,375 gp
Periapt of Supreme Will
This dark crimson necklace supports a massive red diamond laced with blood. It provides a +22 bonus to will saves (resistance 10, profane 4, enhancement 4, competence 4).
Moderate abjuration, CL 11th, Craft Wondrous Item, magic circle against good, must be NE, 38,588 gp
Robe of Ultimate Greed
This robe is comprised of elaborately interwoven gold and silver threads, with lines of gems and pearls forming patterns throughout. When an unworked item is placed in the right breast pocket, the wearer can speak the command word, and duplicates of the item will pour out of the bottom of the robe. The robe can create up to 13 cubic feet of material, but can make no more than 469 gp worth of material per activation. It can be used in this manner three times per day.
Strong conjuration, CL 15th, Craft Wondrous Item, true creation, must be NE, 39,366 gp
Ring of Temporal Dominance:
This ring is composed of solid force, and contains dizzying patterns within the transparent boundaries. Once per day, the wearer can activate a time stop effect upon themselves, in the same manner as the spell.
Strong transmutation, CL 17th, Craft Wondrous Item, time stop, must be NE, 24,097 gp
Ring of Daemonic Insight
This spiked, twisting ring is made out of a strange red stone. Three times per day, the wearer can activate the ring as a free action, and apply a +16 insight bonus to the saving throw, opposed ability check, skill check, or saving throw they are making. They can alternately apply this bonus to their AC against a single attack.
Strong divination, CL 16, Craft Wondrous Item, moment of prescience, must be NE, 27,216 gp
Ring of Daemonic Protection
This dull gray ring is heavier than it appears, and radiates a sense of futility. The wearer receives a +14 bonus to their Armor Class (6 profane, 6 insight, 2 competence).
Moderate divination, CL 9th, Craft Wondrous Item, contact other plane, must be NE, 37,407 gp
Ring of Selective Flexibility
The intertwined steel components of this ring can be shifted to unpredictably adjust its shape. The wearer receives a +12 bonus to reflex saves (4 profane, 4 competence, 4 insight).
Moderate abjuration, CL 7th, Craft Wondrous Item, freedom of movement, must be NE, 18,900 gp
Ring of the Objective Self
This ring appears pitch black, reflecting no light. It endows the wearer with a +14 bonus to fortitude saves (6 resistance, 4 profane, 4 insight).
Moderate transmutation, CL 7th, Craft Wondrous Item, bear’s endurance, must be NE, 19,688 gp
Totem of Reversed Karma
This carved obsidian totem portrays a daemon pointing and laughing. When in the inventory of a NE individual, it bestows on them a +5 luck bonus to their Armor Class.
Moderate evocation, CL 7th, Craft Wondrous Item, desecrate, must be NE, 24,610 gp
Charm of Swift Maleficence
This cloth pendant is in the shape of a dark purple bat wing. Once per round, as a free action, a NE character can activate it to immediately gain a move action. They are dazed the following round.
Weak transmutation, CL 3rd, Craft Wondrous Item, celerity, must be NE, 4725 gp
Shuriken of Supremacy
This spiked, dark iron circlet resembles a throwing star, but seems unsuited to throwing. When held, it provides a +7 bonus to initiative (2 luck, 5 insight), a +5 untyped bonus to all saves, a +5 untyped bonus to AC, a +6 resistance bonus to reflex saves, and a +10 circumstance bonus to Move Silently.
Moderate enchantment, CL 7th, Craft Magic Arms and Armor, Agility, Initiative, Defending, Spellstrike, Warning, Silent Moves, must be NE, 638 gp
Bag of Avaricious Holding IV: 1969 gp, x2

Lead Curtains 29 gp
Resetting Net Trap 676 gp x1
Flurrying Scythe Trap 132 gp x30
True Strike Trap Enhancer 141 gp x41
Magic Weapon Trap Enhancer 141 gp x40 (combo)
Dispenser of Cure Light Wounds 141 gp x20
Trigger of Cure Light Wounds 141 gp x40 (linked in groups of 10)
Trigger of Greater Invisibility 844 gp
Trigger of Obscuring Mist 141 gp
Trigger of True Seeing 3938 gp
Trigger of Fly 2110 gp
Dispenser of Valiant Fury 6329 gp
Dispenser of Restoration 4922 gp
Flurrying Slayer Trap
These heavy scythes rocket forward into any targets present in front of or below themselves, attacking with a +24 bonus. Afterwards, they return to their original position and can strike again the following round.
CR 10 Mechanical, proximity trigger, auto reset, attack +24 melee, 20d6 slashing, Search DC 1, Disable Device DC 1, Price 5000 gp (craft 938 gp) Weight: 130lb, x10
Dispenser of Protection from Energy
Every round, this trap enables the target touching it to resist up to 80 damage from the associated energy type. This value is reset the following round.
Spell, timer, auto-reset, Protection From Energy(Trapsmith) CL 8(acid, cold, fire, sonic), 1125 gp x4
Dispenser of Stoneskin
Every round, this trap enables the target touching it to ignore 10 physical damage per attack, for a maximum of 150 physical damage ignored. Adamantine attacks bypass the protection. This value is reset the following round.
Spell, timer, auto-reset, Stoneskin CL 15, 11,250 gp
Dispenser of Mind Blank
Every round, this trap refreshes a Mind Blank effect on the target touching it, protecting the from all mind-affecting spells and information-gathering divinations.
Spell, timer, auto-reset, Mind Blank reapplication, 16,875 gp
Aegis of Disjunction Counterspelling
On any round, if this trap detects that a disjunction effect will be applied anywhere within 20 feet of itself, it automatically counterspells the caster of the effect when they try to employ it.
Spell, spell trigger, auto-reset, Foresight, Mage’s Disjunction, 43,032 gp
Disruptor of True Sight
When this trap registers entities other than its creator with active effects that enable seeing invisible objects, it randomly selects one and attempts a targeted dispel to remove such effects from them. For each such effect, it attempts a check of 1d20+16 against 11 plus the CL of the effect. It can do this once per round.
Spell, sight, spell trigger, auto-reset, arcane eye CL 1, greater arcane sight CL 13 greater dispel magic(Trapsmith) CL 16, 19,688 gp
Dispenser of Heal
At the start of every round, this trap applies a Heal effect to the touched target, healing 90 hp, removing ability damage, and removing the blinded, confused, dazed, dazzled, deafened, diseased, exhausted, fatigued, feebleminded, insanity, nauseated, stunned and poisoned conditions.
Spell, timer, auto-reset, Heal CL 9, 6329 gp
Dispenser of Revivify (with linked Dispenser of Cure Light Wounds)
When the creature touching this trap is dead, once per round, this trap can activate a Revivify effect followed by Cure Light Wounds, bringing them back to life with 1d8 hp and no lost levels.
Spell, spell trigger, auto-reset, Revivify CL 9, Cure Light Wounds CL 1, 34,594 gp
Spawner of Summon Monster IX
This heavy iron trap features a large, glowing blue needle that can be manually aimed. It includes a switch and two dials; the first to select the monsters available to Summon Monster VII, VIII and IX, and the second to select wave size. When switched on, it will manifest a Summon Monster IX effect once per round, summoning monsters of the selected type. The monsters will wait until their number is equal or larger than the selected wave size, then they will travel in the selected direction, engaging any entities en-route (other than the trap creator) with their default behavior. Each summon lasts for 16 rounds.
Spell, touch, auto-reset, Summon Monster IX CL 17, 21,516 gp x2

8,431 gp to spare

With the Robe of Ultimate Greed, Manifest is finally freed from the constraints of limited resources. Now only the rarest of magical and mundane materials require effort to secure, and even those are just a matter of time. To celebrate its now-abundant crafting materials, Manifest adds a variety of new equipment to itself, boosting its AC and saves to extreme levels. With a Dispenser of Mind Blank and an Aegis of Disjunction Counterspelling, it is now fully secure from effects which could previously shut it down.
Manifest still prefers to strike from ambush, but is now more willing to seek prolonged engagements. Against more serious threats, the Spawners can force foes to leave their fortifications and engage on ground of Manifest’s choosing. With Fabricate infusions to craft custom mundane traps, and the Gauntlet of the Stoneheart to modify the terrain, foes must evade numerous mundane obstacles while facing a foe with 65 AC, 398 HP (with buffers from Stoneskin and Protection from Energy), Greater Invisibility (backed by Mind Blank), 150+60d8 healing per round, a DC 43 Engulf that can be used twice/round (thanks to Celerity from the gloves – Heal removes the daze afterward), at-will Dimension Door, and 30 different 18d6+8 attacks hitting at a +35 modifier with another 10 20d6 attacks hitting at a +45 modifier. All the while, summoned monsters will continue to pour in, and, if needed, Manifest will have used Chained Spell Storing Item to prepare a number of different (4th level or lower) spells specifically for the occasion. Should any problems emerge, the Ring of Temporal Dominance gives ample time to reevaluate the situation. Even if its foes manage to slay Manifest, the Revivify trap can restore it to life once every round, and free-action mass-cure-light-wounds, Dimension Door, Lesser Celerity and regular Celerity, all give Manifest a variety of options in that unfortunate situation. Temporary retreat is always an option. Manifest is patient, but its goals are implacable, and it will always return…

Eberron Campaign Setting: Artificer, Dedicated Wright
Magic of Eberron: Artificer’s Monocle
Magic Item Compendium: Pearl of Speech, Belt of the Wide Earth, Warning weapon enchantment
Ghostwalk: Rapid Wrath shortspear
Oriental Adventures: Agility weapon enchantment, Initiative weapon enchantment, Silent Moves weapon enchantment
City of Splendors: Waterdeep: Spellstrike weapon enchantment
Unapproachable East: Teflemmar Shadowlord (Invisibility(1), Greater Invisibility(2)), Runescarred Berserker(See Invisibility(1))
Dungeonscape: Trapsmith (Arcane Sight(1), Dispel Magic (1), Protection from Energy (1), Arcane Eye(2), Dimension Door(2), Stoneskin(2), Stone Shape(2), Fabricate(3), Greater Dispel Magic(3))
Unearthed Arcana: Quick trait, Urban Ranger(True Seeing(4))
Miniatures Handbook: Healer (Restoration(3)), Revivify
Player’s Handbook II: Lesser Celerity, Celerity
Complete Divine: Oracle (Divination(3))
Complete Champion: Footsteps of the Divine
Complete Warrior: Valiant Fury
Complete Arcane: Giant Size
Spell Compendium: Strength of Stone, Bite of the Werebear

Beni-Kujaku

2022-06-24, 06:39 PM

And here we have it! Four builds that are sure to "grab" the attention of the judges!

loky1109

2022-06-25, 12:17 AM

You'll post your stub after the reveal, more entries are always interesting, even unfinished ones

Well, I don't need do it. I'll'lick longpod is sounds like my idea, but better. My first thought was ilitid flayerspawn psychic. But next I realized it doesn't work good.

ciopo

2022-06-25, 12:30 AM

I had this terrible idea of doing a topiary guardian of one of the octopus/squid , with the symbiotic template, putting a (small race humanoid) inside the topiary guardian

The hackeyed story was that the humanoid was a thief caught by the topiary guardian of the ruins of a wizard tower, and it learned to live with it somehow.

That was the setup for getting normal mental stats on a large octopus chassis, but from there it was standard fare grapple optimization

Thurbane

2022-06-26, 05:33 PM

Congrats to the entrants! I might be able to handle judging 4 entries, but I'm gonna need to check my work schedule first.

My entry that I stopped working on was a Choker Aberration 3/Bard 7/Sublime Chord 6/Wyrm Wizard 2.

The whole point of the build was to get Persisted Giant Size (as per the Wu Jen spell); the build didn't achieve that until level 20, and even then probably would have been ruled not to work due to the wording of Metamagic Song. Also, it took literally every last skill point of the first 12 levels to meet the reqs for Sublime Chord (Chokers get -6 Int), which felt just plain bad.

Of course the upside of the build was a Choker getting an extra action per round, and throwing around 8th level spells.

Since he was a singing Choker, I was going to make him Elvis themed with a few related puns.

Elvis the Choker

https://i.imgur.com/Zj10K0i.jpg

Level
Class
Feats
Class Features

5th
Aberration 1
Extended Reach, Improved InitiativeB
Darkvision 60 ft., improved grab, constrict, quickness

5th
Aberration 2
-
-

5th
Aberration 3
3 (?)
-

6th
Bard 1
-
Bardic music, bardic knowledge, countersong, fascinate, inspire courage +1

7th
Bard 2
-
-

8th
Bard 3
Extend Spell
Inspire competence

9th
Bard 4
-
-

10th
Bard 5
-
-

11th
Bard 6
Arcane Preparation
Suggestion

12th
Bard 7
-
-

13th
Sublime Chord 1
-
Bardic lore, bardic music

14th
Sublime Chord 2
Practiced Spellcaster
Song of arcane power

15th
Sublime Chord 3
-
-

16th
Sublime Chord 4
-
-

17th
Sublime Chord 5
Metamagic Song
-

18th
Sublime Chord 6

Song of timelessness

19th
Wyrm Wizard 1

Knowledge of the wyrm

20th
Wyrm Wizard 2
Persist Spell
Spell research

loky1109

2022-06-26, 06:05 PM

I had chocker with some size increasers in my mind, but I couldn't make it work.

Thurbane

2022-07-04, 06:59 PM

Beni-Kujaku

2022-07-05, 01:09 AM

Just an update from me, with the new financial year kicking in here in Australia, my work is pretty time consuming right now. If I were able to judge, it wouldn't be for at least 2 weeks or so, unless anything changes.

Okay, thank you for the update. If anybody could step up as a judge, that would be greatly appreciated. Even if Thurbane ends up judging anyway, having another judge would be great.

In the mean time, you can choose the theme of the next competition. As it was requested, this round should be a little more open than the previous ones:

Monsters, Magic & Mayhem: The character must end up with the spellcasting ability of a sorcerer of at least 10th level. The initial race may or may not have any spellcasting ability of its own.

Monsters in the Darkness: The character must end up with sneak attack +5d6 or death attack, regardless of whether the initial race has any of these abilities.

Frenzied Monsters: The character must end up with a way to go into a rage, fury or similar at least 3/day, regardless of whether the initial race can rage on its own.

What do you think of those? Which one would you prefer?

ciopo

2022-07-05, 12:42 PM

If I can make a dorkness pun, I will, and thetefore dorkness shall be forme!

Tohron

2022-07-05, 12:51 PM

I'll put it a vote for the Magic option. To be clear, that would rule out monsters with psionic, wizard, cleric, etc. casting?

Tzardok

2022-07-05, 12:53 PM

I think Monster in the Dark sounds fun.

Beni-Kujaku

2022-07-05, 01:33 PM

I'll put it a vote for the Magic option. To be clear, that would rule out monsters with psionic, wizard, cleric, etc. casting?

Supposedly yes. The point is sorcerer is vastly less used than the other ones in optimization contests‚ and I wanted some variety.

If several people ask for it‚ I may change the class‚ this is just a proposition after all.

ciopo

2022-07-05, 02:05 PM

First MM was "have at least one of : fighter, cleric, rogue, wizard"
could be nice have a round of "barbarian, sorcerer, (another 2 "core but not original core" classes)

loky1109

2022-07-09, 02:59 PM

Table. Better late than never.

Name Alignment / Race Class Levels Total Place
Necahualeztli (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25500971&postcount=25) NE Psionic Yuan-Ti Abomination Soul Eater 2/War Mind 5/Hoardstealer 3
Exfoliant squidre (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25500972&postcount=26) LN Gargantuan Octopus tree Warblade 1/Kensai 4
I'll'lick longpod (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25500976&postcount=27) NE Half-Illithid Flotsam Ooze Cleric 3/Ardent 3/Psychic Theurge 10
Manifest (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25500978&postcount=28), part 2 (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25500979&postcount=29) NE Gelatinous Cube Artificer 16

Beni-Kujaku

2022-07-09, 05:06 PM

First MM was "have at least one of : fighter, cleric, rogue, wizard"
could be nice have a round of "barbarian, sorcerer, (another 2 "core but not original core" classes)

I don't think the builds would be very meaningfully different going from barbarian to fighter, from wizard to sorcerer... Maybe something like classes from different magic systems instead? At least one level of Binder/Incarnate/Warlock/Psion may be interesting in my opinion.

Or you could make it with a bit more obscure base class that technically still use regular magic but in a weirder way, like one level of Artificer/Spellthief/Healer/Factotum.

Or, if you want to remain in core, why not use some classes with some originality in how they work, namely the "sub-classes" from previous editions? Bard/paladin/Druid/Ranger might be good. I will probably propose these three for round VI, if I don't have other ideas or somebody doesn't suggest better ones before.

loky1109

2022-07-16, 10:01 AM

Maybe here isn't Dead Magic Zone?

I'm casting "Summon Judge"!

pabelfly

2022-07-16, 03:18 PM

Maybe here isn't Dead Magic Zone?

I'm casting "Summon Judge"!

Thurbane expressed interest before, you might want to ask how he is going.

loky1109

2022-07-16, 03:30 PM

Thurbane expressed interest before, you might want to ask how he is going.

You're right! Somehow I blink it. Good health for you and your wife Thurbane.

Thurbane

2022-07-19, 06:17 PM

For anyone who doesn't know, my wife and I currently have COVID. Neither of us are all that well.

I have to withdraw my offer of judging, I simply don't feel up to it mentally, sorry...

Paragon

2022-07-21, 04:17 PM

I'm halfway through judging :)

Beni-Kujaku

2022-07-21, 04:49 PM

Thank you paragon for your efforts!

loky1109

2022-07-21, 05:32 PM

I'm halfway through judging :)

Sounds cool! Thank you!

Paragon

2022-07-25, 06:49 AM

Here comes.

Originality
I've seen the main combo "Body Pouch/Hoardstealer" done before in the IRC XCIII so unlucky for you but it's less original to me - but you're the sole scaly one in the comp so 3/5

Power
"Practiced Manifester" which class ? Punching through PR isn't really valuable according to the powers listed and duration isn't really a problem.
Body Pouch doesn't like changing sizes but choosing low con form and augmented expansion can help killing it before changing back
Baleful Polymorph comes online at level 9 which makes you on par with the tier 1 classes. The fact that it MAKES any creature NEED to breath (undead, plants, contructs) is a massive bonus for your combo +
Sweeping Strike plus Hustle justify the War Mind pick and Soul Eater is a nice touch (lol)

Expansion doesn't work for your combo since your Improved Grab ability specifically calls for "Large or smaller" and not "one size smaller"
Hoardstealer 3 means you can only fit 300lbs in your deep pocket meaning your Body Pouch (when you expand) is actually bigger without the trick. If you manage to baleful polymorph beforehand it works but then anything works if that goes through so it's pointless.

Not familiar with Yuan-Ti but an extra limb in the form of a tail is another Energy Drain and limb to grab with no ?

The "all content disappear" is a bit cheesy to me but if it flies, I can't deny it's effective. On the other hand, Freedom of Movement destroys your build (if they escape baleful polymorph that is) 3/5"

Elegance
Skill point problem ? 3 Knowledge skills when Abomination says "any two". you picked arcana and history. Easily fixable but still -
"Craft or Knowledge (any two)" can mean different things. The most permissive reading would be "any two craft + any two knowledge" but even like this, you're a knowledge skill short. My reading would tend to be ""either 2 craft, 2 knowledge or 1 each and it can be anyone you want"" which would put you in default for craft alchemy as well (but I'm not enforcing this since I'm not a native speaker)
Brute forcing most of the skill prereqs with your +10 Int isn't particularly elegant to me

Pretty sure you need Craft (Poisonmaking) and not just Craft (Alchemy) to use with your Minor Creation power.

You did include the "stealing from a dragon" & "found some tomes" prereqs but it feels very halfassed (probably lack of time I guess). - 3/5

Monster
Your Improved Grab entry superceeds the "at least one size smaller" and that's good since it reads : "To use this ability, an abomination must hit a Large or smaller creature with its bite attack." and you are Large to begin with BUUUUUT, it also means, Expansion does nothing for you.
Cheesing bites attacks that benefit from the Improved Grab ability even though I imagine they're smaller serpent heads by using a Yuan-ti only graft convinced me this race is KEY for you build. Too bad the Improved Grab wording is a double edged sword (but already penalized in Power so not here) 5/5

Originality
An underwater tree, Kensai PrC what is up ??
I am keeping that build idea of using kensai to enhance multiple attacks cheaply.
Philosopher hugging plant is really fun to picture. I got this image of a creature that's passionate yet boring and grabs people to force them to listen to it. 4/5

Power
Huge creature (and eventually Gargantuan), plant immunities, regeneration (the fire vulnerability isn't much of a problem underwater), massive STR keep your relevant.
Grapple is a good strategy for you (8 attempts per turn) and you somehow mitigated FoM which IS a big deal in this round

That being said, dispel at CL14 +4 Inquisition means you get 50% chance to dispel spells cast by a level 17th CL. The Steady Concentration feat plus a Dispelling Chord (MIC, 1k gp) would get you 100% dispel on CL19 spells (barring CL enhancement)
If your enemy is FoMless AND in your reach AND doesn't have some miss chance/invisibility/defensive buffs THEN your schtick is really doing what it needs to be doing. But to be fair, it's kind of the point of this round.

As for the choice of maneuvers, I didn't find anything worth to do with Douse the Flame and you should remember that most Mountain Hammer advanced maneuvers don't have prereqs (other that the required IL). Overwhelming Mountain Strike is nice for instance. 4/5

Elegance
Ok your idea of backfitting the fluff to the crunch can work, it screams Monster Academy to me but I guess a monstrous type of Hedwige at Hogwart works as well. What problematic though is that it's not my job to write the story. You leave bits and pieces and expect me to do ... what exactly ?

Second thing I find inelegant is the discussion about technicality over knowledge skills as class skills for some time but not after you switch your touchstone. It's sketchy at best. What I mean is that no DM is going to let that slide without an in-depth questionning

Lastly your forcing skills that aren't supposed to be there : Ride for instance. I get that you have to and it does fit legally in the end but it just feels like your stomping it in.

No mistakes per say but you bent the rules as much as possible to make your build happen and while it works in the end, it's not what I call elegant BUT you did take the time to walk me through your decision making and that is really nice of you +1 2/5

Monster
You're a monster all right. In between the Kraken and a Ent you used Improved Grab with the good ol' "the more the merrier" and improving your chances to make hits matter and you didn't try to make the chain grab/maw/swallow amount to much.
A monster you can simply run away from is a lot less scary though, not to mention flight and i'm not buying that 3/d Obscuring Mist will save your ass vs ranged attacks. 2/5

Originality
Well this feels so illegal I can't say I've even thought about something so horrifying. I guess that's one way to score in originality but it's not the best way imho. 3/5

Power
Well obvious power grabs give you exactly that ; power. You're the only entry that can fly at 70ft.
You have automatic grapple attacks which can be made from a distance (although I wouldn't feel like the grapplees are automatically brought back to your square but I wouldn't know how to handle this as a DM so...)
You even get a selective spell AMF which takes care of your own worst enemies : FoM and teleporting spells
Adding to this mix are some well thought powers and theurging is always stonks at higher levels so I agree this build is powerful. 5/5

Elegance
Half-Illithid over oozes shenanigan, you knew it was coming and sure enough, it's there -1
Casting with no hand, voice, components or Divine Focus, that's another ding. I was not convinced by your demonstrations sorry.
Extract Gift abuse to have the casting stats you need, another penalty.
Celerity Domain isn't offered in any of the Dark Sixes (certainly not in the Shadow's which is the only one that has the Magic one) 1/5

Monster
An sticky ooze with 4 tentacles yeah you got your monster card alright. You have the best grapple ability possible since it's an automatic win as soon as you touch anyone so aces here.
I can't shake off that you are a monster because you pile up monsters on top of each others that have nothing to do with one another 4/5

Originality
Optimizing the craft skills of an Artificer to have the best possible equipment at the level you're at in order to do all the things you can't usually do ? Nothing mindblowing here.
I guess the fact that you engulfed people into traps is a bit of a novelty. 2/5

Power
Well having optimized to the brim of insanity your capacity to get the best possible stuff WBL can get you, you are powerful. Shameless power grabs usually work well in this section and we'll assume here everything you want to do is legal.
You can scout, hide, teleport, protect yourself from energies, heal etc. Basically, you're a Gelatinous Batman.
But unlike Bruce Wayne you forgot to address the Kryptonite problem ; what about freedom of movement and teleport abilities that can just kite you ? 4/5

Elegance
Oozes have neither hands nor vocal chords so it can be using all those items you painstakingly described in your entry.
"To imbue an item with an infusion, an artificer must have an Intelligence score equal to at least 10 + the infusion level (Int 11 for 1st-level infusions, Int 12 for 2nd-level infusions, and so forth)" So you can't use infusions most of the time.

You have 4 Ooze HD meaning your entry's first 4 level description are wrong. It is written as if your first levels are LA (meaning they don't get you anything) when they are, in fact, Racial Hit DIce levels getting you what the Ooze type provides per HD. More explanations here (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/typesSubtypes.htm#oozeType)
This means you have BaB, saves and skill points at first level and increases of those parameters as you gain HD. For instance you should be getting 4x (2+Int) skills points at your first level then 1 point per level since you had 18-8=10 Int at level 1 (had to reverse engineer your point buy btw which I guess was Str 14, Dex 8, Con 8, Int 18, Wis 8, Cha 16 before racial adjustments). So that's 8 skill points at level 1 and another 2/level afterwards totaling 14 skills points for your 4 HDs.

Early spell cheese from Telflammar and Trapsmith is a plain trade flavor for power.
Quick Trait is inelegant as per the competition's rules.
"When you place a pearl of speech upon your tongue" you have none

Oh and you didn't source the traps you mentioned. I found some and gave up on others. Do the most work you can for the judges, always. 0/5

Monster
You are a stealthy ingenious Gelatinous Cube that finds way to either dispose of people through carefully engineered traps or simply engulfing them until they dissolve. I feel the monster has been anthropomorphized too much and lost some of its luster
Adding to this the fact that you actually need a butt-load of circumstances to do what you want to do (available material and in large quantities, a dungeon to haunt etc.) 2/5

loky1109

2022-07-25, 09:27 AM

Paragon, thank you!

Beni-Kujaku

2022-07-25, 12:39 PM

Thank you very much Paragon for your efforts! To celebrate it, here's the first dispute!

Skill point problem ? 3 Knowledge skills when Abomination says "any two". you picked arcana and history. Easily fixable but still -
"Craft or Knowledge (any two)" can mean different things. The most permissive reading would be "any two craft + any two knowledge" but even like this, you're a knowledge skill short. My reading would tend to be ""either 2 craft, 2 knowledge or 1 each and it can be anyone you want"" which would put you in default for craft alchemy as well (but I'm not enforcing this since I'm not a native speaker)
Knowledge (any two) means all Knowledge are in-class.
Let's look in the first Monster Manual.

Yuan-Ti Pureblood stat block: Skills: Concentration +7, Disguise +4*, Hide +3, Knowledge (any one) +5, Listen +4, Spot +4
Yuan-Ti Purebloods as Characters: Racial Skills: A yuan-ti pureblood’s monstrous humanoid levels give it skill points equal to 7 × (2 + Int modifier). Its class skills are Concentration, Disguise, Hide, Knowledge (any), Listen and Spot.
And

Skills: All dragons have skill points equal to (6 + Int modifier, minimum 1) × (Hit Dice + 3). Most dragons purchase the following skills at the maximum ranks possible: Listen, Search, and Spot. The remaining skill points are generally spent on Concentration, Diplomacy, Escape Artist, Intimidate, Knowledge (any), Sense Motive, and Use Magic Device at a cost of 1 skill point per rank. All these skills are considered class skills for dragons. (Each dragon has other class skills as well, as noted in the variety descriptions.)
Plus

Very Old Red Dragon: ... Skills and Feats: Appraise +31, Bluff +37, Concentration +28, Craft (trapmaking) +18, Hide +2, Intimidate +39, Jump +48, Knowledge (arcana) +31, Knowledge (local) +31, Knowledge (religion) +31, Listen +37, Search +37, Sense Motive +37, Spellcraft +39, Spot +37, Use Magic Device +22;
We can see from dragon's description what Knowledge (any) means "all". And can see from Yuan-Ti description what Knowledge (any one) in monster description means Knowledge (any) for playing race.

Brute forcing most of the skill prereqs with your +10 Int isn't particularly elegant to me
What inelegant is in it???

"Practiced Manifester" which class ?
I have only one psionic class - War Mind.

Expansion doesn't work for your combo since your Improved Grab ability specifically calls for "Large or smaller" and not "one size smaller"
I see. I think RAI is clear, but RAW you are right, but it anyway improves my grapple check.

Hoardstealer 3 means you can only fit 300lbs in your deep pocket meaning your Body Pouch (when you expand) is actually bigger without the trick.
If "all content disappear" works, I don't need big deep pocket. Actually, it's better to have smaller deep pocket.

Edit: and another one, for good measure!

Just had a few responses to the Elegance section in Manifest's score.

First, regarding the Racial HD, I didn't realize there was a specific formatting requirement for those in the table, so that could be an oversight on my part, but regarding skill ranks, all the skills are cross-class (as indicated in the table), so 14 skill points are needed for 7 skill ranks. The rules (as far as I could see) only mentioned that flaws, not traits, are inelegant.

Regarding traps, all the traps were created using the SRD trap rules:
https://www.d20srd.org/srd/traps.htm
so I didn't see the need to specify a source. The net trap was based on a specific example on that page, the others were using the custom trap rules.

ciopo

2022-07-25, 04:00 PM

Thank you for judging!

Paragon

2022-07-26, 05:08 AM

Hmm your explanation seems fair but something is still bugging me. First off, if (any one) means (any) why bother writing it in the first place and what's more why would you even go to (any two). Let's say I'm not convinced but you do have some backbone behind your claim so +0.5 in Elegance

As for the brute forcing part maybe I should explain. Your monster race has class skills nominally : Concentration Hide Listen Move Silently Spot and those Craft or Knowledge (any two). Those skills are the essence of how this race is built yet you brute force stuff like Appraise, Open Lock, Disable Device, Heal, Escape Artist. and this feels out of place, inelegant.
You left out Listen Spot Concentration which is almost half the creature's identity.

Practiced Manifester is mostly me wanting people to remember they have to specify a class. Since you have an ML for your race, this could have been it for making baleful polymorph relevant vs PR.

As for the "smaller is better", I'm all for it man but I can't figure out why you'd be happy with this. Bigger pouch means bigger opponents that you can "engulf" and the fact that Hoardstealer limits it at 300lbs means you can't use "all content disappear" on creatures that are Large or bigger.

final review +0.5 in Elegance, total grade is 14.5

Okay so you tell me that the scores here are the end skill points and not the number of skill points you put in. Fair enough but you still have one too many (which is better than having god knows what). +1 Elegance since it's not AS illegal as I thought
As for Fort, Ref and Will they're the save from the class (here it's race) and do not factor in the Con, Dex and Wis factors usually but I guess this was easy to reconcile so it's more of a convention than anything. If you're unconvinced, imagine having to fill up BaB with every bonuses ; that's weird right ?

If they are indeed SRD, you need not specify it too much but custom traps ? I mean how am I supposed to reverse engineer that ? If that settles you, it's more of an advice for the next competitions you'd want to partake in ; always make the judges' life the easiest way possible.

final review +1 in Elegance, total grade is 9

Beni-Kujaku

2022-07-26, 07:19 AM

Thank you Paragon for your quick response. Here's the reveal!

Name Alignment / Race Class Levels Chef Judge 1 Judge 2 Judge 3 Total Place
Necahualeztli (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25500971&postcount=25) NE Psionic Yuan-Ti Abomination Soul Eater 2/War Mind 5/Hoardstealer 3 loky1109 14.50 1st
Exfoliant squidre (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25500972&postcount=26) LN Gargantuan Octopus tree Warblade 1/Kensai 4 ciopo 12.00 3rd
I'll'lick longpod (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25500976&postcount=27) NE Half-Illithid Flotsam Ooze Cleric 3/Ardent 3/Psychic Theurge 10 ciopo 13.00 2nd
Manifest (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25500978&postcount=28), part 2 (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25500979&postcount=29) NE Gelatinous Cube Artificer 16 Tohron 9.00

Congratulations to all contestants! I will post the next competition tonight. With 2 votes against one, it will be Monsters in the Darkness!

ciopo

2022-07-26, 07:48 AM

Beni-Kujaku

2022-07-26, 08:27 AM

I'm on vacation and books are overseas relative to me, so I'm peace out about dispute :) thing I'm curious is about floatsam ooze entry, I wasn't expecting 1 elegance. I took care of going surrogate spellcasting to allow spellcasting, so I'm not sure why you say I can't cast? Doesn't surrogate spellcasting cover it?

Celerity domain might be a failure to source from me, but I can't cross check from where I am, I only got the phone with me, I do not remember if spell compendium says what deities had it, or if I should have referred a "step up"

I don't think I've strayed from rules-legal, other than some wigglyness of divine focus

I suspect the "You must still have suitable appendages and vocal organs." clause from Surrogate Spellcasting is the problem here. You could argue that the tentacles can be wiggled for Surrogate Spellcasting, but an ooze definitely has no vocal chords.

Also, Paragon:
"First off, if (any one) means (any) why bother writing it in the first place and what's more why would you even go to (any two). Let's say I'm not convinced but you do have some backbone behind your claim"

The point here is that the skills in a monster's profile are not only a list of class skills but above all the skills the standard monster invested in. Even if a monster has all Knowledges as class skills, it doesn't have enough skill points to put at least one in each of them, and there is no real point to mentioning them all in the profile. The way they chose was to just say that different monsters of the same species invested in different class skills, and for example, a standard Yuan-ti abomination focuses on two of these Knowledge skills to put points in.

Paragon

2022-07-26, 10:20 AM

I suspect the "You must still have suitable appendages and vocal organs." clause from Surrogate Spellcasting is the problem here. You could argue that the tentacles can be wiggled for Surrogate Spellcasting, but an ooze definitely has no vocal chords.
Ninja'ed

Also, Paragon:
"First off, if (any one) means (any) why bother writing it in the first place and what's more why would you even go to (any two). Let's say I'm not convinced but you do have some backbone behind your claim"

The point here is that the skills in a monster's profile are not only a list of class skills but above all the skills the standard monster invested in. Even if a monster has all Knowledges as class skills, it doesn't have enough skill points to put at least one in each of them, and there is no real point to mentioning them all in the profile. The way they chose was to just say that different monsters of the same species invested in different class skills, and for example, a standard Yuan-ti abomination focuses on two of these Knowledge skills to put points in.

I know that, I meant why bother writing "any one" instead of "any"

loky1109

2022-08-01, 06:51 AM

I know that, I meant why bother writing "any one" instead of "any"

I think it's because number is important. I'm not native speaker, but it sounds like "any two" or "any four" are subcategory of "any". And this is difference between monster statblok format and playable race description format.

And I didn't dispute about this, because Necahualeztli has already 5/5 in Monstrosity, but I wish to draw attention to the fact I used not only Yuan-Ti Abomination LA Assignment, but also Abberant Limbs.