Monster Mash V: Crawling Monsters

[Beni-Kujaku]

Monster Mash #5


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 and who haven't had an official level adjustment may not be used. You are allowed to play monsters not rated in the LA assignment thread only if they got an official level adjustment.
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: Crawling Monsters

Halloween season is coming, and if skeletons and witches can be spooky, it's often more scary to have a nonhumanoid monster, crawling on the ground.


The monster character must have 4 or more legs and walk primarily on all four.
The monster character must not have or acquire hands.



To note: Other kinds of non-hand manipulators are not banned.

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 Sunday 30rd of October 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 Sunday 13th of November 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.


If you have trouble finding a monster with particular abilities, you might want to check the Searchable Monster Abilities Spreadsheet (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QrhdyI_42mru5Wn7d_GYBMFEL-2hqc-Q/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=114473817632993756813&rtpof=true&sd=true).

Previous Competitions:
MM1: Back to Basics (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?632644-Monster-Mash-Monstrous-Adventurer-Competition)
MM2: Scary Monsters (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?644846-Monster-Mash-II-Scary-Monsters!)
MM3: Keep your monsters close, and your enemies closer (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?646125-Monster-Mash-III-Keep-your-monsters-close)
MM4: Monsters in the darkness (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?648212-Monster-Mash-IV-Monsters-in-the-Darkness#post25531590)


And now, time to get mashing!

[Beni-Kujaku]

Q&A for this round:

-Are true dragons allowed in this comp?
No. Draconomicon clarifies that dragons can carry and use items (although not weapons), including magic items, and that they have opposable "thumbs". Although they don't truly have hands, I don't think they should be allowed here.


Coming soon

1 : Dire Rat, Cat, Dog, Lizard*, Rat, Toad*, Weasel*, Giant Fire Beetle*, Brain Mole*, Dragon Newt
2 : Krenshar, Badger, Riding Dog*, Donkey*, Hyena, War Pony*, Wolf*, Giant Ant (soldier or worker*), Giant Bombardier Beetle*, Mindshredder larva*, Death Dog, Carcass Eater
3 : Dire Bagder, Dire Weasel, Phantom Fungus, Pseudodragon, Black Bear, Boar*, Camel, Cheetah, Crocodile, Light or Heavy Horse*, Leopard, Monitor Lizard, Mule, Wolverine, Thought Eater*
4 : Hell Hound*, Hippogriffe, Shadow Mastiff, Worg*, Yeth Hound, Light or Heavy Warhorse, Giant ant queen*, Giant Praying Mantis*, Folugub*, Vorr, Skeroloth, Blood Wolf (Web)
5 : Ankheg, Blink Dog, Dire Wolverine, Pegasus, Phase Spider, Rust Monster, Unicorn, Bison*, Lion, Harpooon Spider*, Rejkar, Rune Hound*, Arctic Cat (Web), Cheshire Cat (Web)
6 : Achaierai, Dire Wolf*, Displacer Beast, Howler, Manticore, Winter Wolf*, Brown Bear*, Tiger, Lesser Knell Beetle*, Canoloth, Crysmal*
7 : Barghest, Basilisk, Dire Boar*, Griffon, Remorhaz*, Giant Crocodile*, Giant Stag Beetle*, Feral Yowler*, Mindshredder warrior*
8 : Hellcat (Bezekira), Destrachan*, Dire Lion*, Gorgon, Nightmare, Polar Bear*, Rhinoceros*, Intellect Devourer, Formian Armaddon, Rukanyr
9 : Greater Barghest, Chimera, Dragonne, Lammasu, Gynosphinx, Hieracosphinx*, Bloodstriker*, Harpoon Spider*, Lifeleech Otyugh*, Stonesinger*, Formian Observer*, Gathra*, Kuldurath*
10 : Bulette, Criosphinx, Bearhound*, Kelpie*,
11 : Behir, Elephant*, Shedu
12 : Bebilith, Retriever demon, Dire bear*, Nessian Warhound*, Androsphinx, Chelicera*, Knell Beetle*, Chwidencha*, Fhorge*, Steel Predator
13 : Dragon Turtle, Mindshredder Zenthal*, Megatherium*, Sunwyrm
14 : Rage Drake*, Thought Slayer*
15 : Ironclad Mauler*, Mastodon*, Ssvaklor*, Bonespear*
16 : Triceratops*, Dire Tiger*, Disenchanter*, Hullathoin*, Indricothere*, Cauchimera (Web)
17 : Dire Rhinoceros*
18 : Displacer Beast Pack Lord*, Cauchemar, Dracolisk*
19 :
20 : Siege Crab*, Maulgoth*

ECL varies: Animated objects (4 legs), Hydras, Pyro/cryo hydras, Monstrous Centipede*, Spider or Monstrous Scorpion (T-G),

(asterisks are -0 monsters)

[Inevitability]

I gotta hand it to you, this isn't gonna be a cakewalk. Guess I'll just put my best foot forward.

[pabelfly]

Have some terrible ideas for this that I want to combine together.

[Beni-Kujaku]

Added the list of reassigned monsters fulfilling the comp requirements. Interestingly, there is a noticeable drop in the number of monsters starting at ECL 10. It's probably linked to the fact that monsters above that CR are more often Extraplanar, and Outsiders are more likely to have hands and humanoid shapes than Material creatures.



I gotta hand it to you, this isn't gonna be a cakewalk. Guess I'll just put my best foot forward.

You've gotta be pulling my legs with all these. Let it be said that I'm washing my hands of these puns.

[Tzardok]

You've gotta be pulling my legs with all these. Ldet it be said that I'm washing my hands of these puns.

Is he tapdancing all over your issues?

[GreatWyrmGold]

Should the aranea really be allowed this round? It can unavoidably acquire hands as one of its primary gimmicks.

Also, don't otyughs technically have only three legs?

[Inevitability]

Also, don't otyughs technically have only three legs?

I've been playing d&d for like ten years now, and I only just realized otyughs are missing a leg. I thought it was just obscured in the art!

[Beni-Kujaku]

Should the aranea really be allowed this round? It can unavoidably acquire hands as one of its primary gimmicks.

I mean... Theoretically? Just don't use Change Shape. But yeah, realistically, I'll remove it. Let's be consistent with the Canomorphs.


Also, don't otyughs technically have only three legs?

... They do. I remembered the Xorns, but I didn't expect two creatures to have only three legs. Removed.

[Tzardok]

Don't araneas have hands in their natural shape too? I mean, it looks like that on the picture.

[Paragon]

Are other WotC LA races approved or not this time ? Other than the reevaluated ones

[Inevitability]

Are other WotC LA races approved or not this time ? Other than the reevaluated ones

OP says "You are allowed to play monsters not rated in the LA assignment thread only if they got an official level adjustment."

[Paragon]

Ok ! Must have missed this, thanks

[GreatWyrmGold]

Don't araneas have hands in their natural shape too? I mean, it looks like that on the picture.

https://web.archive.org/web/20211229053040if_/http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/MM35_gallery/MM35_PG16.jpg

Look right underneath the hands.

The description of Change Shape indicates that an aranea's natural form is a monstrious spider, but the flavor text indicates that its natural form has arms and hands like this. My best guess is that an aranea's natural form is a weird giant spider with hands (as in the picture), its humanoid form is a humanoid (duh), and its hybrid form is more humanoid than a weird giant spider with hands and more arachnoid than a humanoid.

TL;DR: Evidence points to araneas always having hands.

[Inevitability]

Question: when you say "The monster character must have 4 or more legs and walk primarily on all four", does that disqualify entries that (at some point) make use of flight? Chimeras and Hippogriffs are listed as eligible monsters: would any entries incorporating them need to somehow 'work' as groundbound characters (so for example no Flyby Attack strategies). What about an incorporeal four-legged creature?

[Beni-Kujaku]

Question: when you say "The monster character must have 4 or more legs and walk primarily on all four", does that disqualify entries that (at some point) make use of flight? Chimeras and Hippogriffs are listed as eligible monsters: would any entries incorporating them need to somehow 'work' as groundbound characters (so for example no Flyby Attack strategies). What about an incorporeal four-legged creature?

I'd say four-legged flying creatures are eligible‚ since they're not always flying‚ but that fully incorporeal creatures do not walk at all‚ but I'm leaving these edge cases to the judges.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Part of me wants to continue litigating what creatures should or shouldn't count—in particular, what kind of appendages count as hands. So I'd like to propose a simple metric: The Rock-Paper-Scissors Test. If a creature can use one of its appendages to win any game of rock-paper-scissors, that appendage is a hand, and the creature is not allowed in this contest.

For instance: A horse's hoof allows it to play rock, but only rock—any opponent that can play paper would defeat it. (I suspect most animals can only play rock, if they can play at all.) A whale's flipper can play paper, letting it dominate the animal RPS metagame but leaving it vulnerable to more flexible humanoid players. And a scorpion's claw can play scissors, making it a counter to cetacean players but weak against both the dominant meta and anyone with hands.

...I was either going to post this in the thread or try to finagle some kind of monstrous scorpion build to justify making this joke in my submission.

[Beni-Kujaku]

Part of me wants to continue litigating what creatures should or shouldn't count—in particular, what kind of appendages count as hands. So I'd like to propose a simple metric: The Rock-Paper-Scissors Test. If a creature can use one of its appendages to win any game of rock-paper-scissors, that appendage is a hand, and the creature is not allowed in this contest.

I mean, a mimic can definitely make all three positions with any appendage, but I don't think anyone would argue that she has hands.
(can you use Tremorsense to know what position the opponent is holding?)

[GreatWyrmGold]

I mean, a mimic can definitely make all three positions with any appendage, but I don't think anyone would argue that she has hands.
(can you use Tremorsense to know what position the opponent is holding?)
Counterpoint #1: A mimic's scissors-shaped appendage (or a scissors-shaped mimic) cannot win a game of rock-paper-scissors against a horse. It can replace that appendage with a paper-shaped appendage, but that's a separate appendage; neither can independently win any game of Rock-Paper-Scissors.

Counterpoint #2: Mimics absolutely have hands, when they want to.
https://web.archive.org/web/20030801001048if_/http://www.wizards.com:80/dnd/images/MM35_gallery/MM35_PG186.jpg

[loky1109]

Okay, I have ideas. Now, I need time and power.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Okay, I have ideas. Now, I need time and power.
You might be better off if you just got energy.

(...since power is energy ÷ time, get it?)

[Frostmoon]

I'm in to cook!! I've been lurking around this forum for a while after my brother showed me some of the previous competitions since I honestly really adore the absolute nonsense of 3.x.. I've actually been building a character for this in the background! I'm hoping it'll work~

[ciopo]

Welcome to themadhouse!

[Frostmoon]

Welcome to themadhouse!

Much appreciated!

[Inevitability]

I'm in to cook!! I've been lurking around this forum for a while after my brother showed me some of the previous competitions since I honestly really adore the absolute nonsense of 3.x.. I've actually been building a character for this in the background! I'm hoping it'll work~

Welcome, and have fun!

[Frostmoon]

Welcome, and have fun!

Thank you thank you!!! :D

[Beni-Kujaku]

The deadline is slowly approaching and I'm running quite low in entries. How are you all doing?

[loky1109]

I'm working on. It will be one, maybe two entries from me.

[ciopo]

No inspiration, can't think of ways to optimize "race"

[Frostmoon]

Ah, I've had school and an illness taking up my time, sorry. I have the build outline, and I'm half-way through a version of it, but I may redo five of those levels if I can find something more elegant. Still, I should have it in before the deadline~ :3

[Metastachydium]

I'm working on something very stupid, but I probably won't find the strength in myself to write it up properly with tables and "how to use" breakdowns.

[Inevitability]

I submitted a build and had a second concept kicking around for a while, but the rules around it are too weird for me to confidently work it out as a character.

[ciopo]

No inspiration, can't think of ways to optimize "race"

I just got sudden inspiration for an hilarious concept, I'll stub it out and hopefully have something fleshy by the deadline

[Beni-Kujaku]

I'm working on something very stupid, but I probably won't find the strength in myself to write it up properly with tables and "how to use" breakdowns.

Have faith in yourself! If you need an extension, it is always possible.


I submitted a build and had a second concept kicking around for a while, but the rules around it are too weird for me to confidently work it out as a character.
We're building monsters that were never intended as PCs, the rules are bound to be a bit shaky. If you trust yourself to defend your interpretation before the judges, go for it!


I just got sudden inspiration for an hilarious concept, I'll stub it out and hopefully have something fleshy by the deadline

Nice! Looking forward to it.

[ciopo]

:) may I suggest you link that excellent resource of searchable sheet of monster you made in the OP?

[GreatWyrmGold]

I submitted a build and had a second concept kicking around for a while, but the rules around it are too weird for me to confidently work it out as a character.
I look forward to seeing you talk about it after the contest, then.

[Inevitability]

I might be able to submit my weird idea, but I'll probably need a bit more than a week to get it put together.

[Beni-Kujaku]

I might be able to submit my weird idea, but I'll probably need a bit more than a week to get it put together.

If you haven't sent me your build next weekend, I'll extend the deadline.

[Tusen]

I should be cooking as well. I've had an eh-tier build idea since the announcement, I just haven't had the chance to actually sit down and write out all the minutiae of the BAB progression and such in a nice way. Amusingly enough most of the builds that came to my mind were ones that qualify for both this monster mash and the last one.

[loky1109]

First entry are in.

[Frostmoon]

Can I formally request an extension? I might be able to finish this up in time, but some extra days would lessen the load considerably.

[loky1109]

I ask about extension, too. At least one day, better two.
I'm not sure I could finish my second entry tomorrow or day after tomorrow because of work.

[Beni-Kujaku]

Can I formally request an extension? I might be able to finish this up in time, but some extra days would lessen the load considerably.


I ask about extension, too. At least one day, better two.
I'm not sure I could finish my second entry tomorrow or day after tomorrow because of work.

Let's go for a one-week extension, leading as near from Halloween as possible. The new deadline is Sunday, October the 30th, 23:59 GMT

[Metastachydium]

Hm. Good. That's good. (I can't find it in the opening post, but am I correct in assuming that we are supposed to keep the writeup gearless?)

[Beni-Kujaku]

Hm. Good. That's good. (I can't find it in the opening post, but am I correct in assuming that we are supposed to keep the writeup gearless?)

I mean, as gearless as other competitions on this forum. Listing a few items that might help is fine, but expect the judges to not favour your build if it can't function without specific items.

[Metastachydium]

I mean, as gearless as other competitions on this forum. Listing a few items that might help is fine, but expect the judges to not favour your build if it can't function without specific items.

Alright, thank you.

[Frostmoon]

Let's go for a one-week extension, leading as near from Halloween as possible. The new deadline is Sunday, October the 30th, 23:59 GMT

Much appreciated!!! :D

[loky1109]

Done and sent!

[ciopo]

I'm bowing out, not liking the actual implementation of the idea I had

[Frostmoon]

Alright, I'm in. XD Down to the wire.... Either way, I think I'm happy with my build! Nervous, yes, but also kind of relieved. I can't wait to see everyone else's characters!!!

[Beni-Kujaku]

Alright, I'm in. XD Down to the wire.... Either way, I think I'm happy with my build! Nervous, yes, but also kind of relieved. I can't wait to see everyone else's characters!!!

Yeah, that was literally down to the last minute. Or maybe even the following one ^^ Anyway, time for the reveal, please don't post until I'm finished.

[Beni-Kujaku]

Flying pigs have nothing on crawling snakes.


https://i.pinimg.com/564x/c3/6a/64/c36a6485fa2dcdfa0a2e74fafc3989e0.jpg

Togashi Hoshi had a dream. He dreamt of a snake with two heads surrounded by a pack of dogs. Dogs were barking, but a snake remained calm and just ignored them. When one of the dogs tried to bite it, it could not hit, however much it tried. What a strange dream he had. Could it be a sign of something?
Later that day, Dragon Clan Champion noticed loud noises and screams coming from the yard of the castle. He came out onto the balcony and saw something strange. Four-legged human with snakes instead of his arms was in the middle of the yard and guards surrounded him by pointing their swords and spears. But he stood still and did nothing. This continued for some time then one of the warriors attacked the serpent-man with his spear. First strike missed. Second and third missed either. As like all subsequent. And every time the snake-man moved just a little and the spear passed him by a hair. The soldiers were angry and, after a particularly humiliating miss, they all waved their weapons...
- Enough! - Champion's voice sounded over the court. Everyone stood still until he came down from the balcony and approached the snake-man.
- Who are you? - Hoshi asked.
- I don't know who I was, I don't know who I am, I know I will be your loyal servant, my Lord, - answered snake-man.
- My lord! Is that wise? It's a monster, it can be dangerous! - the voice of a bodyguard immediately sounded.
- My lord, if you think me to be your enemy. Command me, and I will gladly end my life.

LN Aberrant Limbs Psionic Halfblood Yuan-Ti Samurai 2/Samurai 2/Mirumoto Niten Master 8

When the third round was launched I disliked it. Why? I dislike close list of available monsters (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25468833&postcount=2). It was just momentary emotional reaction, but it had left its mark. I don't like such limitations, it seems to me like they’re limiting my creativity (actually they don't, but feelings...) and I think I subconsciously seek ways to get around such limitations. That's why we have here rare monstrous humanoid variant without hands and aberrant limbs to get lacking legs.

Abilities Initial Race 8th 12th 16th Total
STR 13 4 1 18
DEX 17 2 1 20
CON 15 2 1 18
INT 8 8 16
WIS 8 8 16
CHA 14 6 20

Level Class BAB Fort Refl Will Skills Feats Class Features
1st Aberrant Limbs (legs)DMGII, p. 158 - - - - - - Land speed increasing by 20 feet
2nd PsionicXPH, p. 218 Halfblood Yuan-TiMM, p. 264 (Type 2*) 1 HD 1 0 2 2 24: {+4} Concentration: 4; {+4} Hide: 4; {+4} Knowledge (arcana): 4; {+4} Knowledge (history): 4; {+4} Listen: 4; {+4} Spot: 4; AlertnessPHB, p. 89 (B), Blind-FightPHB, p. 89 (B), Human HeritageRoD, p. 152 (1st), Twin Sword StyleDr# 318, p. 40 (Murky-EyedUA, p. 91 flaw), CautiousUA, p. 87 trait Alternate form, darkvision 60 ft., poison, power resistance 16, psi-like abilities, scent
3rd Psionic Halfblood Yuan-Ti 2 HD 2 0 3 3 5: {+1} Concentration: 5; {+1} Hide: 5; {+1} Knowledge (arcana): 5; {+1} Knowledge (history): 5; {+1} Listen: 5; Spot: 4;
4th Psionic Halfblood Yuan-Ti 3 HD 3 1 3 3 5: {+1} Concentration: 6; {+1} Hide: 6; Knowledge (arcana): 5; {+1} Knowledge (history): 6; {+1} Listen: 6; {+1} Spot: 5; Combat ExpertisePHB, p. 92 (3rd)
5th Psionic Halfblood Yuan-Ti 4 HD 4 1 4 4 5: {+1} Concentration: 7; {+1} Hide: 7; Knowledge (arcana): 5; {+1} Knowledge (history): 7; {+1} Listen: 7; {+1} Spot: 6;
6th Psionic Halfblood Yuan-Ti 5 HD 5 1 4 4 5: {+1} Concentration: 8; {+1} Hide: 8; Knowledge (arcana): 5; {+1} Knowledge (history): 8; {+1} Listen: 8; {+1} Spot: 7;
7th Psionic Halfblood Yuan-Ti 6 HD 6 2 5 5 5: {+1} Concentration: 9; {+1} Hide: 9; Knowledge (arcana): 5; {+1} Knowledge (history): 9; {+1} Listen: 9; {+1} Spot: 8; Improved Combat ExpertiseCW, p. 100 (6th)
8th Psionic Halfblood Yuan-Ti 7 HD 7 2 5 5 5: {+1} Concentration: 10; {+1} Hide: 10; Knowledge (arcana): 5; {+1} Knowledge (history): 10; {+1} Listen: 10; {+1} Spot: 9;
9th Skilled City-DwellerWeb (https://web.archive.org/web/20201112031718/http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a) SamuraiOA, p. 20 1 8 4 5 7 7: Concentration: 10; Hide: 10; {+2} Jump: 2; Knowledge (arcana): 5; Knowledge (history): 10; Listen: 10; Spot: 9; {+5} Tumble: 5; Ancestral daisho
10th Skilled City-DwellerWeb (https://web.archive.org/web/20201112031718/http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a) SamuraiCW, p. 8 1 9 6 5 7 5: {+2} Concentration: 12; Hide: 10; Jump: 2; Knowledge (arcana): 5; Knowledge (history): 10; Listen: 10; Spot: 9; {+3} Tumble: 8; Cobalt Expertise MoI, p. 35 (9th), Exotic Weapon ProficiencyPHB, p. 94 (bastard sword) (B) Daisho proficiency
11th SamuraiCW 2 10 7 5 7 5: {+1} Concentration: 13; Hide: 10; Jump: 2; Knowledge (arcana): 5; Knowledge (history): 10; Listen: 10; {+1} Sense Motive: 1; Spot: 9; {+3} Tumble: 11; Two-Weapon FightingPHB, p. 102 (B) Two swords as one
12th SamuraiOA 2 11 8 5 8 7: Concentration: 13; Hide: 10; {+3} Jump: 5; Knowledge (arcana): 5; Knowledge (history): 10; Listen: 10; {+1} Sense Motive: 2; Spot: 9; {+3} Tumble: 14; Weapon FocusPHB, p. 102 (bastard sword) (B) Bonus feat
13th Mirumoto niten masterOA, p. 218 1 12 10 5 10 5: {+2} Balance: 2; {+2} Concentration: 15; Hide: 10; Jump: 5; Knowledge (arcana): 5; Knowledge (history): 10; Listen: 10; Sense Motive: 2; Spot: 9; {+1} Tumble: 15; Psycarnum Infusion MoI, p. 40 (12th) Niten technique (+2 AC)
14th Mirumoto niten master 2 13 11 5 11 5: {+3} Balance: 5; {+1} Concentration: 16; Hide: 10; Jump: 5; Knowledge (arcana): 5; Knowledge (history): 10; Listen: 10; Sense Motive: 2; Spot: 9; {+1} Tumble: 16;
15th Mirumoto niten master 3 14 11 6 11 5: Balance: 5; {+1} Concentration: 17; Hide: 10; {+1} Intimidate: 1; Jump: 5; Knowledge (arcana): 5; Knowledge (history): 10; Listen: 10; {+2} Sense Motive: 4; Spot: 9; {+1} Tumble: 17; Aid shugenja 1/day
16th Mirumoto niten master 4 15 12 6 12 5: Balance: 5; {+1} Concentration: 18; Hide: 10; {+1} Intimidate: 2; Jump: 5; Knowledge (arcana): 5; Knowledge (history): 10; Listen: 10; {+2} Sense Motive: 6; Spot: 9; {+1} Tumble: 18; Allied DefenseSS, p. 19 (15th) Niten technique (+3 AC)
17th Mirumoto niten master 5 16 12 6 12 5: Balance: 5; {+1} Concentration: 19; Hide: 10; {+1} Intimidate: 3; Jump: 5; Knowledge (arcana): 5; Knowledge (history): 10; Listen: 10; {+2} Sense Motive: 8; Spot: 9; {+1} Tumble: 19; Aid shugenja 2/day
18th Mirumoto niten master 6 17 13 7 13 5: Balance: 5; {+1} Concentration: 20; Hide: 10; {+1} Intimidate: 4; Jump: 5; Knowledge (arcana): 5; Knowledge (history): 10; Listen: 10; {+2} Sense Motive: 10; Spot: 9; {+1} Tumble: 20;
19th Mirumoto niten master 7 18 13 7 13 5: Balance: 5; {+1} Concentration: 21; Hide: 10; {+1} Intimidate: 5; Jump: 5; Knowledge (arcana): 5; Knowledge (history): 10; Listen: 10; {+2} Sense Motive: 12; Spot: 9; {+1} Tumble: 21; Psionic MeditationXPH, p. 50 (18th) Niten technique (+4 AC), aid shugenja 3/day
20th Mirumoto niten master 8 19 14 7 14 5: Balance: 5; {+1} Concentration: 22; Hide: 10; {+1} Intimidate: 6; Jump: 5; Knowledge (arcana): 5; Knowledge (history): 10; Listen: 10; {+2} Sense Motive: 14; Spot: 9; {+1} Tumble: 22; Diamond soul
* - Type 2 Halfblood Yuan-Ti is yuan-ti with human head, torso and legs and with two snakes instead of arms.

ECL Katana New Abilities Wakizashi New Abilities Max Weapon Bonus
9th +1 Mouthpick +1DMG, p. 222, MouthpickLoM, p. 46 +1 Mouthpick +1DMG, p. 222, MouthpickLoM, p. 46 +3
10th +1 Mouthpick - +1 Mouthpick - +3
11th +1 Mouthpick Disarming DisarmingMIC, p. 32 +1 Mouthpick Disarming DisarmingMIC, p. 32 +4
12th +1 Mouthpick Disarming - +1 Mouthpick Disarming - +4
13th +1 Mouthpick Disarming Defensive surge Defensive surgeMIC, p. 32 +1 Mouthpick Disarming Defending DefendingDMG, p. 224 +5
14th +1 Mouthpick Disarming Defensive surge - +2 Mouthpick Disarming Defending +2DMG, p. 222 +6
15th +1 Mouthpick Disarming Defensive surge Parrying ParryingMIC, p. 40 +3 Mouthpick Disarming Defending +3DMG, p. 222 +7
16th +1 Mouthpick Disarming Defensive surge Parrying Whirling WhirlingMIC, p. 46 +4 Mouthpick Disarming Defending +4DMG, p. 222 +8
17th +1 Mouthpick Disarming Defensive surge Parrying Whirling - +5 Mouthpick Disarming Defending +5DMG, p. 222 +9
18th +1 Mouthpick Disarming Defensive surge Parrying Whirling Metalline MetallineMIC, p. 38 +5 Mouthpick Disarming Defending Deflecting DeflectingCW, p. 134 +10

He knew something was wrong. He was just in the egg, but realized this. First of all - the egg. He didn't know how it should be, but not this way. He shouldn't be some bird, or lizard, or... snake? Yes, he is a snake right now, but... he couldn't remember... He was something different, somebody different... with legs and hands and scaleless skin... Korobokuru? No. Hengeyokai? No... Human? Yes, human! He was humane once... But now... Scales... Legs... Yes, but four... Hands... Something is wrong with his hands. There are hands, but they feel different...
When he hatched, he realized he couldn't stay between snakelike creatures around him. He should escape and he did it. He didn't know where to go, but he had some feeling that drove him. Feeling from his past life...

Now, character is just a psi-variant yuan-ti with unusual feats and aberrant legs feature.

Lord Togashi accepted him. He gave him a name. Now he is Togashi Mamushi. Lord Togashi himself tattooed Mamushi with special ink containing his own blood as did founder Togashi and nameless snake-man became part of the clan and of the family. Dragon Clan Champion saw his potential to become a true master of the niten school and started to train him by himself.
First step was a daisho. Mamushi has no real hands, but snakes heads instead. He needed very special swords to fight...

Four levels in the two samurai classes give Mamushi all he needs to become Mirumoto niten master. Needed feats, proficiency and most important thing - appropriate weapons. Two Mouthpick swords - katana and wakizashi - to take in two snake-arms' mouths. Mirumoto niten fighting style rely much on using two swords and disarming feature allows not to worry about disarming by enemy.

Mamushi reached peaks of the niten style. Yes, there are some secrets for him even now, but the way of duty and serving never ends.

Eight levels of Mirumoto niten master, skills, feats and weapon features. All in order to achieve the main goal - to become unreachable for enemies' weapons and become a wall that protects his allies and his Lord.
Now he can have AC up to 64 without any magic items (except his swords) and in light armor every round and can gain adjacent ally +25 (Improved Combat Expertise + Cobalt Expertise + Defensive surge weapon) AC. He himself attacks only one time in a round, but attacks after first anyway aren't very promising.

AC calculation: 64 = 10 (base) + 5 (Dex) + 1 (Cautious trait) + 4 (NatAC) + 19 (Improved Combat Expertise) + 2 (Twin Sword Style) + 4 (Niten technique) + 4 (Fighting defensivelyOA, p. 58) + 4 (Cobalt Expertise + Psycarnum Infusion + Psionic Meditation) + 5 (Defending weapon) + 2 (Defensive surge weapon) + 1 (Parrying weapon) + 3 (Some armor).

While Mamushi doesn't rely on magic items, he'd be glad to have some. Any stats improvements. Vest of DefenseMIC, p. 148 doesn't stack with Defensive surge, but gives some extra uses. Best light magic armor. Any other AC improvements will come in handy.

I understand, yuan-ti doesn't fit well in the Rokugan setting, but actually Rokugan can be easily placed on Toril instead or in addition to Kara Tur. Or you can use Mahasarpa Campaign (https://web.archive.org/web/20161101150810/http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20011019a) where Rokugan's clans' direct analogs and yuan-ti exist simultaneously.

Flaw and trait. Well, they aren't unavoidable, but... I really want to take the Twin Sword Style feat. It is great in theme and works well for justification of the Dragon clan legacy.

Mirumoto niten master race requirement. Well, Mamushi clearly is human - he has Human Heritage feat. But the Dragon clan... Well, it wasn't pretty accurate to make clans different races. Clans are clans. There are examples of clan changing for entire families in the Rokugan. Togashi family itself doesn't consist of the true founder's descendants. So I don't see any reasons why it isn't possible for Mamushi to enter the Dragon clan, especially with his ancestor feat.

About that. Human Heritage feat. That is clearly stated at many places - Yuan-Ti is human-descended race.

Two samurais. Guilty. I used in my entry two different classes with the same name. But I believe they are two separate classes, not the one updated version of another.

Abbreviation Book
PHB Players Handbook
DMG Dungeon Master's Guide
DMGII Dungeon Master's Guide II
RoD Races of Destiny
Dr# 318 Dragon Magazine 318
UA Unearthed Arcana
XPH Expanded Psionics Handbook
OA Oriental Adventures
CW Complete Warrior
MoI Miniatures Handbook
MIC Magic Item Compendium
SS Shining South
LoM Lords of Madness

[Beni-Kujaku]

As Kelemvor teaches, everything must eventually die. I know that, there are 1,500 of me that will eventually die.



Ten Thousand Souls To Save But One

LG Bat Swarm Monk 2 / Cleric of Kelemvor 1 / Paladin 2 / Fighter 1 / Fist of Raziel 10 / Devoted Defender 1

https://assets.simpleviewinc.com/simpleview/image/fetch/c_fill,h_768,q_75,w_810/https://assets.simpleviewinc.com/simpleview/image/upload/crm/albuquerque/Carlsbad-Caverns-30_be2e004d-5056-a36a-097d27a651be3841.jpg

Bat swarms have four or more legs and no hands, this conforms to the competition rules

Base: 8 STR/16 DEX/14 CON/8 INT/18 WIS/8 CHA
Bat modifiers: 2 STR/20 DEX/14 CON/3 INT/22 WIS/4 CHA

Note the monsters as races rules (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/monstersAsRaces.htm#abilityScoresforMonsterPCs) for rounding up low stats. There's no entry for 2 int races but the text makes it clear no PC should end up with lower than 3 intelligence.

ASIs: wisdom at 4, 8, 12, 16, cha at level 20
VoP: First increase in wis, then dex, then con, then cha
(cha increases are mostly to improve your resistance to ungol dust)

Level 20 stats: 2 STR/26 DEX/18 CON/3 INT/34 WIS/7 CHA

Hordes of undead surged through the gap in the outer wall, spreading out through the courtyard. In the sky, legions of bats fluttered wildly, swooping down to harry and distract the defenders. From the central keep, a few acolytes bravely sent rays of holy energy down into the mass, but the necrotic tide absorbed their assault without pause.

Brother Johannes, second most senior priest of the Kelemvorian monastery, took cover behind a fallen statue. The undead hadn't reached this part of the courtyard yet, preferring to focus on the central keep's heavy wooden doors. Behind those, Johannes knew, there were no further fallback points: merely dozens of acolytes, the townsfolk who'd sought shelter in the fortified tower, and the inner tombs, whose thousands of dead would only be more fuel for this unholy army.

A dark shape detached from the mass of bats, swooping down towards the acolytes' window. With eerie grace, it threw up its hands, and a wave of dark energy poured into the building, cutting short the nascent screams of those inside. Seemingly satisfied, the floating humanoid looked around before fixing his dark gaze on the desperately praying Johannes.

"Oh great Kelemvor, Lord of the Dead, I know all men must die, and that this is my time, and would not ask to change that. But as you teach us, death can only be bearable because it can be honorable. Is there honor in this death? Can I go to my rest, knowing my body walks at the whim of a maddened monster?"

The vampire had finished its descent, landing some thirty feet away from Johannes, and now patiently waited for its undead servants to catch up. It smirked, clearly unimpressed with the level of resistance it had thus far experienced.

"I ask for only this, Kelemvor. That here, at my appointed time of death, I die in a way that serves you. I grant you my body, as I granted my soul long ago. In this final moment, I sacrifice the sole thing that I retain: my right to a grave, a memory, and a name, and pray for you to make use of my death."

The vampire curtly nodded, and three zombified ogres marched past it, advancing on Johannes. Before they'd taken more than a few steps, the priest leapt out from his cover, shining with an inner light, dashing madly forward. One of the ogres tried to grab him, but its clumsy hands seized only dirt. The second, however, was successful, its rotten fist closing around the now-shining priest. The vampire barked an order, and the ogre collapsed, covering Johannes with its full bulk.

Seconds later, it exploded soundlessly. Rays of light pierced its bulk: two directed at the other zombies, one at the vampire, and one at the clouds far above. Putrid flesh boiled away, filling the air with a pale smoke. The prone ogre silently disintegrated, revealing nothing but a human-shaped indentation on the ground beneath. The other two ogres toppled, the bulk of their torsos boiled away by the holy rays.

And yet, the vampire lived, successful in its attempt to shield itself from the blast. Already its wounds were closing; within a minute it would have healed completely. This had been close, but it was wise to the trick now. Even if another priest could pull off the same stunt, she'd kno-

A swarm of bats descended from the heavens, gray light radiating from their teeth and claws, which rent through the flawless pale flesh like a scythe through wheat The vampire screamed and swatted at the omnipresent beasts, somehow failing to hit any of them. A few of her attendant undead tried to help, their clumsy blows similarly striking only air. The vampire, desperately, turned to fog (what humiliation!) but even that seemed not to stop the bats' assault. Seconds after the initial assault, her gaseous shape was torn to pieces; what little remained was dimly aware her coffin was too far away to reach in time.

Even so, the bats chased her for as long as she lingered.

----------------------

After three days and three nights, Kelemvor's remaining priests emerged from the tower. The undead, now leaderless, had wandered about aimlessly, their interest in a plain wooden door gone. Some had left, chasing the bat swarms: those would have to be dealt with later. A few had been dispatched from the walls and windows. The last few, a squad of warriors had mopped up without too much trouble. The gaps in the wall were being filled in (Make Whole was a truly versatile spell), a tally of the dead had been made, and a few volunteers were already offering to track down the roaming undead.

The new high priest, former third-in-command (Father Bartholomeus had been slain by the vampire in the early stage of the assault, and Brother Johannes was presumed to have fled), walked out into the courtyard, surveying the damage. Suddenly, from the corner of her eye, a dark shape detached itself from the shadows, and she spun around to spot a horde of bats, malevolently... flitting about?

The bats didn't seem aggressive or scared, but they weren't flying away either. They were simply swooping around, mere feet from the ground, infrequent screeches punctuating their acrobatics. High Priest Esmeralda knew little about the natural world, but... that wasn't normal behavior, was it?

"Get Brother Lucian." she commanded to a nearby acolyte. "He used to serve as a ranger before retiring to the monastery; if anyone knows what's going on, it's him. I'm fairly sure he mentioned a spell that allows one to speak with beasts."

The older man, long beard even past the point of greyness and now simply plain white, slowly approached, leaning heavily on two acolytes. Still, upon seeing the bats a twinkle of curiosity appeared in his eye, and when he cast his magic the words came fluently and easily.

The high priest carefully watched the old ranger, noting his expression go from interest, to befuddlement, to nervousness.

"What does it want? Food? Shelter? Some kind of magical assistance, healing?"

Lucian turned slowly, a single drop of sweat trickling down his wrinkled brow, and spoke the one sentence Esmeralda had least been expecting.

"It... it says it wants to convert."



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


1st
Swarm of Bats 1
+0
+2
+2
+0
Speak Language (Common) 2, Spot 2
Sacred Vow
Swarm traits, Distraction, Wounding, Blindsense, Immunity to weapon damage, Low-light vision, AC Bonus +4


2nd
Swarm of Bats 2
+1
+3
+3
+0
Spot 3
-
-


3rd
Swarm of Bats 3
+2
+3
+3
+1
Spot 4
Vow of Poverty
Endure Elements, AC Bonus +5


4th
Overwhelming Attack Monk 1
+2
+5
+5
+3
Diplomacy 1
Nymph's KissEB, Power AttackMB
Flurry of Blows, Improved Unarmed Strike, AC bonus, Exalted Strike


5th
Overwhelming Attack Monk 2
+3
+6
+6
+4
Diplomacy 3
Improved Bull RushB
Evasion, Sustenance


6th
Spontaneous Domain Casting Cloistered Lightbringer Cleric of Kelemvor 1
+3
+8
+6
+6
Knowledge (Religion) 3
Surrogate Spellcasting, Travel DevotionB, Servant of the HeavensEB
Domains (Repose (Spontaneous), Travel, Knowledge), Positive Healing (lose Repose DGP), Turn Undead, Deflection +1, AC Bonus +6


7th
Eternal Order Paladin 1
+4
+10
+6
+6
Diplomacy 4, Knowledge (Religion) 4
-
Aura of good, Detect Evil, Corpsestrike 1/day, Undead Knowledge, Resistance +1, +2 Wisdom



8th
Eternal Order Paladin 2
+5
+11
+6
+6
Diplomacy 5, Knowledge (Religion) 5
Gift of DiscernmentEB
Divine Grace, Lay on Hands, Natural Armor +1, Mind Shielding


9th
Fighter 1
+6
+13
+6
+6
Search 1
Serenity, Weapon FocusFB
AC bonus +7


10th
Fist of Raziel 1
+7
+15
+6
+6
Sense Motive 2
Touch of Golden IceEB
Magic Circle, Smite Evil 1/day (Good), Exalted Strike +2 (good), DR 5/magic,


11th
Fist of Raziel 2
+8
+16
+6
+6
Sense Motive 4
-
+2 Wisdom/Dexterity


12th
Fist of Raziel 3
+9
+16
+7
+7
Search 1
Divine Spell Power, Vow of AbstinenceEB
Smite 2/day (Confirming), AC bonus +8, Deflection +2, Greater Sustenance


13th
Fist of Raziel 4
+10
+17
+7
+7
Search 2
Sanctify Martial StrikeFoRB
Resistance +2, Energy Resistance 5



14th
Fist of Raziel 5
+11
+17
+7
+7
Search 3
Vow of ChasityEB
Smite Evil 3/day (Holy), Exalted Strike +3, Freedom of Movement


15th
Fist of Raziel 6
+12
+18
+8
+8
Search 4
Alertness
Sunder Evil Item, AC bonus +9, +2 Wisdom/Dexterity/Constitution, DR 5/evil



16th
Devoted Defender 1
+13
+20
+10
+8
Spot 6
Vow of ObedienceEB
Harm's Way, AC bonus, Natural Armor +2


17th
Fist of Raziel 7
+14
+20
+10
+8
Knowledge (Religion) 7
-
Smite Evil 4/day (Fiendsmite), Exalted strike +4, Resistance +3, Regeneration


18th
Fist of Raziel 8
+15
+21
+10
+8
Knowledge (Religion) 9
Extra Turning, Defender of the HomelandEB
AC bonus +10, Deflection +3, True Seeing


19th
Fist of Raziel 9
+16
+21
+11
+9
Knowledge (Religion) 11
-
Smite Evil 5/day (Chain), +2 Wisdom/Dexterity/Constitution/Charisma, DR 10/Evil


20th
Fist of Raziel 10
+17
+22
+11
+9
Knowledge (Religion) 13
Nimbus of LightEB
Holy Martial Strike, Exalted Strike +5, Energy Resistance 15



Spells per Day/Spells Known


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


6th
3
3+1
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


11th
4
4+1
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


12th
4
5+1
3+1
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


13th
5
6+1
4+1
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


14th
5
6+1
4+1
3+1
-
-
-
-
-
-


15th
5
6+1
5+1
4+1
-
-
-
-
-
-


17th
6
7+1
6+1
4+1
3+1
-
-
-
-
-


18th
6
7+1
6+1
6+1
4+1
-
-
-
-
-


19th
6
7+1
7+1
6+1
5+1
3+1
-
-
-
-


20th
6
7+1
7+1
6+1
6+1
4+1
-
-
-
-



Typical level 20 spells prepared:
Cantrips: Create Water x2, Cure Minor Wounds x2, Detect Poison x2
1: Protection from Evil x2, Obscuring Mist x2, Resurgence x2, Summon Monster I
2: Estanna's Stew x3, Lesser Restoration x2, Silence, Zone of Truth
3: Alter Fortune x2, Delay Death, Lesser Telepathic Bond x2, Shivering Touch,
4: Dimensional Anchor, Lesser Planar Ally, Restoration, Revenance, Sending, Wall of Water
5: Break Enchantment, Plane Shift x2, Revivify
Domain slots: Detect Secret Doors, Detect Thoughts, Clairaudience/Clairvoyance, Divination, True Seeing

Can spontaneously cast Repose spells (Deathwatch, Gentle Repose, Speak with Dead, Death Ward, Slay Living) but not cure spells.

AC: 49 (+4 size, +8 dex, +12 wis, +10 exalted armor, +2 NA, +3 deflection), touch AC 37
Saves: +41 fortitude, +34 reflex, +36 will
A lot of no-save killers (sonic orb spam, avasculate, power word, glitterdust, fell drain magic missile, maximized empowered shivering touch) don't screw you over as badly as they would most PCs, if at all. Freedom of Movement beats things like grease or web, even if they're somehow in an AMF. Things like a pimped-out Ice Storm or Cloudkill + Forcecage can still be issues, but cleric spells provide a degree of protection against those.

Swarm damage: 4d6+22 (17 PA, 5 enhancement) in area, autohit, can smite 5/day
Average damage for 3 attacks: 108

DR 10/evil
Resistance 15 to acid/cold/electric/fire
Always-on Freedom of Movement
Always-on True Seeing
19 turning attempts/day
Doesn't need to eat, breathe, or sleep


Swarms are weird. The rules tell us the bare minimum we need to know to run encounters against them, but PCs with the swarm subtype are just completely unaccounted for. Listed here are my best attempts to make sense of the rules and figure out how they interact with 'regular' build options.

The unambiguous
As a swarm of Diminutive creatures, Ten is immune to weapon damage (except the bonus energy damage from flaming etc weapons), trips, grapples, bull rushes, and the VERY broad 'spells or effects that target a specific number of creatures'. Ten cannot make AoOs, threaten, or help people flank. Ten also takes 50% more damage from damaging effects that cover an area.

Attacks
The rules say 'In order to attack, it moves into an opponent’s space, which provokes an attack of opportunity. It can occupy the same space as a creature of any size, since it crawls all over its prey. A swarm can move through squares occupied by enemies and vice versa without impediment, although the swarm provokes an attack of opportunity if it does so' and 'Creatures with the swarm subtype don’t make standard melee attacks. Instead, they deal automatic damage to any creature whose space they occupy at the end of their move, with no attack roll needed. Swarm attacks are not subject to a miss chance for concealment or cover.'

I've interpreted the 'no standard melee attacks' in the widest sense, as disallowing the use of any melee attack, including touch attacks for spells (though touching a willing target should still be fine). Swarm damage, being an automatically hitting 'non-standard' melee attack, is still fine obviously.

But when does a swarm attack? Every time they end 'their move'. If you double move, that's two attacks. If you get a swift action move, that's a third. Sure, each of these will provoke AoOs, but that's still a lot of hits. Note that PC options like Summon Swarm restrict the swarm's movement, presumably for this very reason.

Power Attack
Power attack says 'On your action, before making attack rolls for a round, you may choose to subtract a number from all melee attack rolls and add the same number to all melee damage rolls.' It doesn't require actually making the attack roll: power attack on a coup-de-grace is valid, and so is power attack on a swarm attack.

Buffs
Obviously, most buffs won't affect yourself, not even if you are the one casting them (buffs that say they target 'you' probably don't work either), but how to safely cast buffs on allies if you can't move into their space and have 0 ft. reach? The simplest solution is to move adjacently (preferably into the space of whoever they are fighting), ready an action to put the buff down as soon as possible, and have them 5-ft-step into your space on their initiative. Then, as your turn comes around again, simply move so that your ally isn't in your space after your move. Out of combat, this is even easier, as the ally can just double move in and out of your space to receive the buff.

ECL 5
At these levels, merely being a swarm will often win a lot of fights by itself, so we focus on obtaining feats that'll be useful later. Monk lets you get Power Attack without meeting the prerequisite and grants Evasion at level 2, in addition to setting up our wisdom-SADness. Your AC is an impressive 30 (25 touch), so even monsters smart enough to swipe you with torches or fling lanterns will often fail to inflict damage. Vow of Poverty is an obvious choice given our utter inability to use equipment, and the extra skill points from Nymph's Kiss make up for our abysmal intelligence. Double move each round, try and catch multiple enemies in a 10x10 square, and Power Attack for max. Note that healing is a bit tricky at those levels, as most healing spells target a single creature, but this issue gets softened from level 6 on.

ECL 10
This is where the build has really come together. With Serenity, Lay on Hands and Divine Grace now use your stellar wisdom... and so does the turning from your cleric dip, because nowhere does it say Serenity affects only paladin class features. Kelemvor is chosen as our deity for being one of the few LN/LG/NG options with Travel (which gives us a third move and thus a third attack). We can use our 10 turning attempts to get extra Travel Devotions or activate Positive Healing, which heals us 10 HP per turning attempt, enough to cover what incidental damage we sustain).

Furthermore, our cleric level qualifies us for Fist of Raziel and gives us two additional domains. I picked repose as our other option and stuck spontaneous domain casting to it, because when you want to cast Death Ward you'll usually need it for everyone in the party.

Picking Kelemvor also lets us be an Eternal Order paladin, which can overcome the DR of undead instead of smiting evil. Given how our swarm attacks have no damage type and thus can't even overcome common DR like slashing or bludgeoning, this is very welcome.

ECL 15
Fist of Raziel has been advancing both our BAB (for power attack) and cleric casting (for buffs). Divine Spell Power gives us yet another outlet for our rapidly growing number of turns and high turning check, and thanks to our massive Wisdom there's basically no risk of losing caster levels.

Consider preparing Alter Fortune around these levels, as the only thing you're really afraid of is rolling a nat 1 on a key Reflex save. Other notable spells include Delay Death for buffing allies, Zone of Truth for social encounters, and the usually useless Estanna's Stew, which is notably one of the few target-less healing effects in the game.

ECL 20
We finish the build with +17 BAB (which we can all turn into PA damage), 19 daily turning attempts, and 10th-level cleric casting. We get five daily smites with all sorts of neat effects added on, energy resistance, True Seeing, all sorts of good stuff.

Two feat taxes have also allowed us to enter Devoted Defender, which lets us use our massive defensive traits for the benefit of the party. As a bonus, you occupy a 10x10 space, so when you 'swap positions' with an ally you can arguably reposition yourself so that an enemy is now in your space: at which point you get another swarm attack against them. This is a bit of a shaky interpretation, so I don't strictly rely on it, but it's cool if it works.

As a final note: while we've mostly been focusing on damage, note that you have up to 5 spontaneous Slay Livings a day with a save DC of like 27. If you ever find yourself in an enemy's space with a standard left, consider spending it on a save-or-die instead of another move action. You also get the neat Revenance + Revivify combo, which makes in-combat resurrecting practical without forcing you to beg your fighting allies for a diamond (cast Revenance, let resurrected character fight, wrap up combat, stand by to cast Revivify when the duration runs out).


Overwhelming Attack monk - UA
Spontaneous Domain Casting - PHB II
Positive Healing - Expedition to Castle Ravenloft
Eternal Order paladin - CoV
Fist of Raziel - BoED
Devoted Defender - SaF

Surrogate Spellcasting - SS
Serenity - DComp
Divine Spell Power - CD
Travel Devotion - CC

Defender of the Homeland - CoV
Sacred Vow, Vow of Poverty, all other exalted feats - BoED

[Beni-Kujaku]

Twas brillig, and the slithy toves....
Part 1/3



The Cheshire Cat
A.K.A Cheshy


Cheshire Cat 3 / Sorcerer (Divine Companion) 2 / Visionary Seeker 1 / Paragnostic Apostle 1 / Unseen Seer 6 / Spellwarp Sniper 5

"Will you just – stop?!" His question is met with a crash. A crash of…his favourite textbook. Of course. Of course. He really should've known better, but – darn it all, the Paragnostic Assembly has a reputation to uphold! Sure, they're eccentric and hermetic, but this? This?
And there goes a cheap plate. Yep.
So, maybe another method will work better. "Can't you just talk to me?" There we go. He'll use his words, she'll use hers, and –
"Oh, but why would I do that?"
….
He swears that her eyes are glinting, now. Or at least, they're glinting under the invisibility glamer she always keeps up. Or something. Oooookay. He pulls his face into his right hand, rubs the top of his head with a deep sigh. How did he even get here, anyways? Only a few months ago, the Paragnostic Assembly was fighting its normal issues (alchemical experiments, miscast spells, the weird shrieker fungus that hangs out in the corner, that sort of stuff).
And then she showed up, this invisible lump in the hallway.
And she refused to leave.
So Arrick, like any good leader, declared then and there that she was a new member, and should be treated as such. It had seemed like such a good idea at the time! He had heard tales of her kind; some bards would sing about a lost girl, time-challenged rabbits, and mysterious, half-invisible cats. She's a sorcerer, too – a font of natural magical power, formed and guided by her innate curiosity. In those ways, she's a purrfect perfect member of the Paragnostic Assembly, constantly on the hunt for new pieces of knowledge.
But she's also a cat, and cats are cats are cats, even when they're fey sorcerers. And fey sorcerer cats? Well, it's quite clear that their absolute favourite passtime is causing absolute unstoppable chaos.
"You're sighing again…." A whisper. A whisper too close to his face, glowing eyes filled with concern… she brushes her soft tail against his left arm (so that's where she is), drops a brand new tome onto the desk. Stares at him, eyes far too wide and far too bright to be real. "I brought you something~!" a chirp, melodic and eldritch all the same, "it's a gift for letting me play these fun games with you." And she smiles, smiles with far, far too many teeth.
Arrick smiles back.



Level Class Base Attack Bonus Fort Save Reflex Save Will Save Skills Feats Class Features
LA - - - - - - - -
LA - - - - - - - -
1st Cheshire Cat 1 0 0 2 2 Hide 4 (+4), Spot 4 (+4), Knowledge: Religion 2 (+2), Knowledge: Architecture and Engineering 2 (+2), Search 2 (+2), Sense Motive 2 (+2), Move Silently 4 (+4), Diplomacy 4 (+4), Handle Humanoid 4 (+4), Balance 1 (+1), Climb 1 (+1), Spellcraft 1 (+1) Eschew Materials, Weapon Finesse, Point Blank Shot Controlled Invisibility, DR 5/cold iron, lowlight vision, cat skill bonuses
2nd Cheshire Cat 2 1 0 3 3 Hide 5 (+1), Spot 5 (+1), Knowledge: Religion 2, Knowledge: Architecture and Engineering 2, Search 2, Sense Motive 2, Move Silently 5 (+1), Diplomacy 5 (+1), Handle Humanoid 5 (+1), Balance 4 (+3), Climb 3 (+2), Spellcraft 1 N/A N/A
3rd Cheshire Cat 3 1 1 3 3 Hide 6 (+1), Spot 6 (+1), Knowledge: Religion 2, Knowledge: Architecture and Engineering 2, Search 3 (+1), Sense Motive 2, Move Silently 6 (+1), Diplomacy 5, Handle Humanoid 6 (+1), Balance 4, Climb 3, Spellcraft 2 (+1) Darkstalker N/A
4th Sorcerer (Divine Companion ACF) 1 1 1 3 5 Hide 6, Spot 6, Knowledge: Arcana 6 (+6), Knowledge: Religion 2, Knowledge: Architecture and Engineering 2, Search 3, Sense Motive 2, Move Silently 6, Diplomacy 5, Handle Humanoid 6, Balance 4, Climb 3, Spellcraft 2 N/A Divine Companion
5th Sorcerer 2 2 1 3 6 Hide 8 (+2), Spot 6, Knowledge: Arcana 8 (+2), Knowledge: Religion 2, Knowledge: Architecture and Engineering 2, Search 3, Sense Motive 2, Move Silently 6, Diplomacy 5, Handle Humanoid 6, Balance 4, Climb 3, Spellcraft 2 N/A N/A
6th Visionary Seeker 1 2 1 5 6 Hide 8, Spot 6, Knowledge: Arcana 8, Knowledge: Religion 5 (+3), Knowledge: Architecture and Engineering 5 (+3), Search 3, Sense Motive 3 (+1), Move Silently 6, Diplomacy 5, Handle Humanoid 6, Balance 4, Climb 3, Spellcraft 3 (+1) Martial Study (Shadow Jaunt) Divination Expertise
7th Paragnostic Apostle 2 1 5 8 Hide 8, Spot 8 (+2), Knowledge: Arcana 8, Knowledge: Religion 5, Knowledge: Architecture and Engineering 5, Search 8 (+5), Sense Motive 3, Move Silently 6, Diplomacy 5, Handle Humanoid 6, Balance 4, Climb 3, Spellcraft 4 (+1) N/A Knowledge is Power (Accurate Retort)
8th Unseen Seer 1 2 1 5 10 Hide 8, Spot 8, Knowledge: Arcana 8, Knowledge: Religion 5, Knowledge: Architecture and Engineering 5, Search 8, Sense Motive 3, Move Silently 6, Diplomacy 5, Handle Humanoid 6, Balance 4, Climb 3, Spellcraft 8 (+4), Concentration 6 (+6) N/A Damage Bonus (1d6)
9th Unseen Seer 2 3 1 5 11 Hide 8, Spot 8, Knowledge: Arcana 8, Knowledge: Religion 5, Knowledge: Architecture and Engineering 5, Search 8, Sense Motive 3, Move Silently 10 (+4), Diplomacy 5, Handle Humanoid 8 (+2), Balance 4, Climb 3, Spellcraft 8, Concentration 8 (+2) Practiced Spellcaster, Silent Spell Advanced Learning (Hunter's Eye)
10th Unseen Seer 3 4 2 6 11 Hide 13 (+5), Spot 8, Knowledge: Arcana 8, Knowledge: Religion 5, Knowledge: Architecture and Engineering 5, Knowledge: Nature 1 (+1), Search 8, Sense Motive 3, Move Silently 13 (+3), Diplomacy 5, Handle Humanoid 8, Balance 4, Climb 3, Spellcraft 8, Concentration 8, Decipher Script 1 (+1) N/A Divination Spell Power (+1/-1)
11th Unseen Seer 4 5 2 6 12 Hide 14 (+1), Spot 8, Knowledge: Arcana 8, Knowledge: Religion 5, Knowledge: Architecture and Engineering 5, Knowledge: Nature 1, Search 8, Sense Motive 3, Move Silently 14 (+1), Diplomacy 9 (+4), Handle Humanoid 10 (+2), Balance 4, Climb 3, Spellcraft 8, Concentration 8, Decipher Script 1 N/A Damage Bonus (2d6)
12th Unseen Seer 5 5 2 6 12 Hide 15 (+1), Spot 8, Knowledge: Arcana 8, Knowledge: Religion 5, Knowledge: Architecture and Engineering 5, Knowledge: Nature 1, Search 8, Sense Motive 3, Move Silently 15 (+1), Diplomacy 15 (+6), Handle Humanoid 10, Balance 4, Climb 3, Spellcraft 8, Concentration 10 (+2), Decipher Script 1 Martial Stance (Assassin's Stance) Advanced Learning (Grave Strike), Guarded Mind
13th Unseen Seer 6 6 3 7 13 Hide 16 (+1), Spot 8, Knowledge: Arcana 10 (+2), Knowledge: Religion 5, Knowledge: Architecture and Engineering 5, Knowledge: Nature 1, Search 8, Sense Motive 3, Move Silently 16 (+1), Diplomacy 16 (+1), Handle Humanoid 10, Balance 4, Climb 3, Spellcraft 8, Concentration 10, Decipher Script 1, Bluff 5 (+5) N/A Divination Spell Power (+2/-2)
14th Spellwarp Sniper 1 6 3 7 15 Hide 17 (+1), Spot 8, Knowledge: Arcana 10, Knowledge: Religion 5, Knowledge: Architecture and Engineering 5, Knowledge: Nature 1, Search 8, Sense Motive 3, Move Silently 17 (+1), Diplomacy 17 (+1), Handle Humanoid 10, Balance 4, Climb 3, Spellcraft 8, Concentration 10, Decipher Script 1, Bluff 5, Intimidate 4 (+1) N/A Spellwarp
15th Spellwarp Sniper 2 7 3 7 16 Hide 18 (+1), Spot 8, Knowledge: Arcana 14 (+4), Knowledge: Religion 5, Knowledge: Architecture and Engineering 5, Knowledge: Nature 1, Search 8, Sense Motive 3, Move Silently 18 (+1), Diplomacy 18 (+1), Handle Humanoid 10, Balance 4, Climb 3, Spellcraft 8, Concentration 10, Decipher Script 1, Bluff 5, Intimidate 4 Invisible Spell Sudden Raystrike (1d6)
16th Spellwarp Sniper 3 8 4 8 16 Hide 19 (+1), Spot 8, Knowledge: Arcana 18 (+4), Knowledge: Religion 5, Knowledge: Architecture and Engineering 5, Knowledge: Nature 1, Search 8, Sense Motive 3, Move Silently 19 (+1), Diplomacy 19 (+1), Handle Humanoid 10, Balance 4, Climb 3, Spellcraft 8, Concentration 10, Decipher Script 1, Bluff 5, Intimidate 4 Precise Shot N/A
17th Spellwarp Sniper 4 9 4 8 17 Hide 20 (+1), Spot 8, Knowledge: Arcana 20 (+2), Knowledge: Religion 5, Knowledge: Architecture and Engineering 5, Knowledge: Nature 1, Search 8, Sense Motive 3, Move Silently 20 (+1), Diplomacy 20 (+1), Handle Humanoid 10, Balance 4, Climb 3, Spellcraft 10 (+2), Concentration 10, Decipher Script 1, Bluff 5, Intimidate 4 N/A Sudden Raystrike (2d6)
18th Spellwarp Sniper 5 9 4 8 17 Hide 21 (+1), Spot 10 (+2), Knowledge: Arcana 21 (+1), Knowledge: Religion 5, Knowledge: Architecture and Engineering 5, Knowledge: Nature 1, Search 8, Sense Motive 3, Move Silently 21 (+1), Diplomacy 21 (+1), Handle Humanoid 10, Balance 4, Climb 3, Spellcraft 10, Concentration 10, Decipher Script 1, Bluff 5, Intimidate 5 (+1) Split Ray Ray Mastery



Spells per Day/Spells Known


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


3rd
6
6
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
0: Open/Close, Ghost Sound, Mage Hand, Prestidigitation, Electric Jolt
1: True Strike, Lesser Orb of Sound, Ventriloquism


4th
6
8
4
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
0: Detect Magic
2: Ironthunder Horn


5th
6
8
5
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
1: Golem Strike
2: Scorching Ray


6th
6
8
6
4
-
-
-
-
-
-
0: Launch Item
3: Fly


7th
6
8
7
5
-
-
-
-
-
-
1: Grease
2: Seeking Ray
3: Dispel Magic


8th
6
8
7
6
4
-
-
-
-
-
0: Dancing Lights
4: Wings of Flurry


9th
6
8
7
7
5
-
-
-
-
-
2: Hunter's Eye (Advanced Learning), Knock
3: Acid Breath
4: Blast of Sand


10th
6
8
7
7
6
4
-
-
-
-
0: Read Magic
5: Greater Blink


11th
6
8
7
7
7
5
-
-
-
-
2: Cloud of Knives
3: Major Image
4: Enervation
5: Overland Flight


12th
6
8
7
7
7
6
3
-
-
-
1: Grave Strike (Advanced Learning)
3: Swap Fly for Clairaudience/Clairvoyance
6: Disintegrate


13th
6
8
7
7
7
7
4
-
-
-
4: Wall of Salt
5: Vitriolic Sphere
6: Probe Thoughts


14th
6
8
7
7
7
7
5
3
-
-
7: Prismatic Eye


15th
6
8
7
7
7
7
6
4
-
-
5: Telekinesis
6: True Seeing
7: Hiss of Sleep


16th
6
8
8
7
7
7
7
5
3
-
8: Polar Ray


17th
6
8
8
7
7
7
7
6
4
-
7: Greater Scrying
8: Moment of Prescience


18th
6
8
8
7
7
7
7
6
5
3
9: Shades




Original (32 Point Buy)
STR: 11
DEX: 13
CON: 08
INT: 18
WIS: 08
CHA: 15

Racial Modifiers
STR: 03
DEX: 19
CON: 08
INT: 18
WIS: 10
CHA: 19

Level Adjustments
LVL 04 – CHA 20
LVL 08 – DEX 20
LVL 12 – CHA 21
LVL 16 – CHA 22


So, my cat is absolutely a part of the Paragnostic Assembly. Through her decent-enough Handle Humanoid and Diplomacy, I can assume that some poor schmuck let her in the door. After that, she uses Knowledge: Architecture and Engineering to find the most annoying place to sit. Congrats, now there's an invisible cat in the hallway. If they try to kick her out, she'll use HH or Dip to get back in, or she'll just throw things via Launch Item and Mage Hand. I imagine that eventually the PA will give in to her mewls and actually make her a member (maybe she'll even use Common to speak with them). Indeed, they might even like her! She's truly good-natured, and her Mind's Eye affiliation (more on that later) should lend credence to the whole "she's a curious cat hunting for knowledge" thing, which matches well with the organization's fluff.
As for the affiliation bonuses, well…they're honestly so heavily fluff-dependant that it's kind of hard to figure out. By level 20, if we assume she hasn't failed in her duties, she'll have a minimum score of 19; 10 from her level, 2 from her Arcana skill, 2 more from Religion and A&E, 1 from the "3+ knowledges in a class skill list", 3 from divination spells, and 1 from Paragnostic Apostle. She may also gain another +1 from the Mind's Eye, given its vague knowledge focus. That lets her take a knowledge skill (maybe Nature? Religion?? A&E???) as a permanent class skill, gives her a bonus to Diplomacy when interacting with other PA members and knowledge priests, and gives her a very-poorly worded skill bonus if she studies. (Note that the skill bonus has, by RAW, an infinite duration.) As for how she pays her dues, she presumably gives them money. Oh, and incapacitated foes, because cats really do present hunted prey as presents.
As for the Mind's Eye, well…uh…yeahhhhh. The Mind's Eye is dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge, especially that of the inner self. That's…about all I know of it, and that's about all anyone knows of it. I checked the Visionary Seeker Iron Chef, and the general assumption was that everyone could enter the class, since the organization basically doesn't exist. It was introduced in the Planar Handbook and referenced a few times So…yeah. Judge this whatever way you prefer.


CityScape: Invisible Spell
Complete Arcane: Practiced Spellcaster; Split Ray
Complete Champion: Paragnostic Apostle; Paragnostic Assembly
Complete Divine: Divine Companion (Sorcerer ACF);
Complete Mage: Unseen Seer
Complete Scoundrel: Spellwarp Sniper
Dragon Compendium: Feline (language) – optional, but it should be applicable
Lords of Madness: Darkstalker
Planar Handbook: Visionary Seeker; also technically Mind's Eye
Player's Handbook II: Seeking Ray; Cloud of Knives; Hunter's Eye
Races of the Dragon: Wings of Flurry
Sandstorm: Blast of Sand; Wall of Salt
Spell Compendium: Launch Item; Lesser Orb of Sound; Golem Strike; Grave Strike; Ironthunder Horn; Acid Breath; Greater Blink; Vitriolic Sphere; Prismatic Eye; Hiss of Sleep
Tome of Battle: Martial Study (Shadow Jaunt); Martial Stance (Assassin's Stance);
Web Enhancement - Fabulous Cats!: Cheshire Cat; Handle Humanoid

[Beni-Kujaku]

But we're all crazy here!
Part 2/3


Cheshy flicks her now-visible tail, a horrifying grin plastered onto her face. "Please, wouldn't you agree that I'm far too cute for one mere page?"



Cheshy begins her life at this level! With Controlled Invisibility, Darkstalker, and a whopping overall +38/58(!!!) in Hide*, this is one stealthy little kitty. Add on level 3 Sorcerer spells, and she's actually doing pretty well for herself! I've given her a mix of direct attacks (Orb of Sound, Lesser; Electric Jolt), one buff (True Strike), and a bunch of utility. Mage Hand, Ghost Sound, Prestidigitation, and Ventriloquism act as wonderful annoying distractors to throw at the enemy, making Cheshy's position much harder to pinpoint. (Think: you hear noises to the east, see a levitating cup to the west, some spell casting is coming from below you – and now your clothes are blue? What the heck?! There's a caster somewhere, but figuring out the "where" is a nightmare and a half. ;3) Open/Close can open dungeon doors, while Handle Humanoid can be used to teach a human to open the door. Basically, she's a powerful caster with a good mix of blasting and beautifully annoying utility, all while being under a completely controllable Greater Invisibility (it doesn't break when I cast spells!). Carrying objects is…not really going to happen, but she should be fine in most other aspects, and she'll be able to perform her "unseen trickster" role from the start.
Honestly, Cheshy's actually pretty scary at this level. She's got the equivalent of an at-will 5th level spell (Invisibility, Greater). At level 5, casters are only just getting regular Invisibility, and that breaks completely if they attack; Cheshy can cast as many spells as she wants and still remain hidden. Moreover, Darkstalker counters a bunch of annoying anti-stealth measures that only Superior Invisibility (a 9th level spell!!!) replicates; heck, SI doesn't even counter Blindsight. Plus, it's completely controllable (as per the name), so she can turn herself visible when she needs to be seen and circumvent some of the main issues of permanently invisible/ethereal/incorporeal characters. This is completely insane! Add in two good bonus feats (Eschew Materials is great for a handless caster, and Weapon Finesse lets me use my Dex on ranged touch attacks), 6+INT skill points per level, Fey damage reduction, the probable ability to speak (implied in the article – with no languages listed, she should be able to speak Common and Dragon Compendium's Feline by default), relevant stats, useful skill bonuses, and equal-to-HD Sorcerer casting, and you've got one genuinely terrifying cat. I think this might even be the least squishy early-level sorcerer I've ever built. XD


I'm sorrrrry. These levels are so ugly. XD There's no real way for me to avoid the elegance penalty for this build, as the skills required would be nigh-impossible otherwise.
Anyways, this is an awkward level set. Within five levels, my character has been in four classes. However, I made certain that all of these classes would progress her spellcasting, so by ECL 10 (a.k.a. level 8), she has her first 4th level spell (the excellent Wings of Flurry) and quite a few other goodies. Dispel Magic gives her a way of handling enemy True Seeing and See Invisibility, while Fly kills any way of tracking her pawprints and determining her location. Moreover, Fly and Ironthunder Horn pair nicely together; many (basically, any that can't float) flying enemies will fall if turned prone, meaning that any enemy trying to chase a flying Cheshy will likely plummet to the ground. Wings of Flurry, Seeking Ray, and Scorching Ray are all solid direct-damage combat spells, and Grease is one of the best crowd controllers in the entire game. Finally, Cheshy's even gained a few more out-of-combat goodies: Launch Item may be meant for combat, but it's absolutely excellent at pranking/annoying people. Cheshy is a fae cat, after all, and fae cats are wont to cause fun chaos and mild destruction on hapless passersby. >:3
As for why I chose these classes in particular, let's talk about it. First up is Sorcerer, a fairly evident option (Cheshire Cats get full Sorcerer casting, Sorcerer is open at all levels, etc etc) yet I attached a fairly uncommon ACF (Divine Companion). Since Cheshy relies on personal invisibility, I didn't want to give her a visible companion, so the buffs/healing of DC seemed like a better fit. The second class is Visionary Seeker, whose only ability (+VS levels to divination spells) doesn't actually work with any of my spells yet. XD For this level set, all the class does is add flavour and uncap all Knowledge skills, but it will be a useful class come ECL 11. Paragnostic Apostle also was chosen to help uncap skills (Search being the big one), but I'll happily take Accurate Retort's nice +1 to-hit buff to my rays. Finally, we have Unseen Seer, a class whose only current ability also does nothing at this time; indeed, VS, PA, and UnS all have abilities that gain synergies much later down the line.
All in all, ECL 5 -> 10 is a weak level set for my darling Cheshire Cat, but a weak Sorcerer is still a Sorcerer nonetheless.


Now we're getting somewhere! Two big elements come online in this level set: Hunter's Eye, and Assassin's Strike. Both of these give Cheshy the ability to sneak attack; thankfully, they also stack with each other. By ECL 15, she'll have 9d6 sneak attack damage when using Hunter's Eye (2d6 from Assassin's Stance, 2d6 from Unseen Seer, 4d6 from 13 caster levels, and 1d6 from divination caster boosts). Now, I've been very careful with spell selection: every damage spell is either sneak attackable, or it's open to Spellwarping, which will come online in the next level block. The previously-useless elements like Golem Strike and the one level of Visionary Seeker – now they're all in full use, boosting my sneak attack abilities! About the only ability that's still on the backburner is Cloud of Knives, as it's mostly awkward for my kitty at these levels (it showcases her locations, gah), but even then it should have its occasional uses; after all, blind enemies won't be able to see the knives anyways, giving me a nice source of free action sneak attacks. :3 Oh, and note that Silent Spell can help with volley rule limitations for spells like Scorching Ray, so she doesn't really have to worry.
Alongside the build-defining sneak attack, Cheshy has also gained access to quite a few excellent spells. Disintegrate is a common choice in these builds, since it can reach extremely high amounts of damage. Moreover, precision damage dampen its major weakness; while going from 40d6 damage max to 5d6 damage suuuucks, 14d6 damage being the 'low' version is much more enjoyable. :3 Blast of Sand, Vitriolic Sphere, and Acid Breath also join the pure damage line up, though they all get better with Spellwarp Sniper. Enervation is curious with sneak attack, as it still does its normal level drain, but it basically gains a negative energy rider on top. With the acquisition of Overland Flight, Fly was swapped out for Clairaudience/Clairvoyance, giving my little kitty a nice hunting spell. Blink, Greater heavily boosts Cheshy's in-combat stealth capabilities, and it's also one of her only buffing spells. Finally, Read Magic, Major Image, Wall of Salt, and Probe Thoughts all give her plenty of nice utility and out-of-combat spells.
The other nice thing about this level set is that, since Cheshy's no longer scrambling to get into prestige classes, her skills have finally calmed down! Diplomacy has been boosted enough to allow her to handle some backup face roles, with Handle Humanoid also allowing for easier checks on "untrained" humanoids. ;3 Move Silently and Hide are, of course, there to boost her exceptional stealth capabilities. Many of her other skills should be high enough to act as a backup, or to bypass certain easy checks. All in all, it's a good level set.


AHAHAHAHA! Cheshy has achieved true blasting power! Now all of her AoE attacks are rays! Perhaps more importantly, they all lose their reflex saves, meaning that Ironthunder Horn is a forced prone, Wings of Flurry is a forced daze, Sand Blast is a forced stun, Acid Breath will always do the full roll of damage, and Vitriolic Sphere will always go for three rounds. Note, as well, that with the grand exception of two spells (Lesser Orb of Force and Cloud of Knives), all of Cheshy's direct damage attacks are either rays or can become rays, making them all quite qualifiable for both Ray Mastery and Sudden Raystrike. Moreover,Spellwarp implies ("You can apply metamagic feats as normal to the spell, as long as they can affect ray spells") that metamagic goes on afterwards, meaning that I don't have to pay attention to MM level increases for what it allows. This means that the above-mentioned Wings of Flurry can be Spellwarped, Empowered through Ray Mastery, and then turned Invisible and Split Ray'd to either hit two targets or double the damage on one. >:3 This, my lovely lovely friends, is what I've been waiting for. Beautiful, beautiful ray nonsense.
Oh, and by ECL 20 (LVL18), Cheshy will have a nice 13d6 sneak attack (2d6 from Assassin's Stance, 2d6 from Unseen Seer, 2d6 from Sudden Raystrike, 6d6 from 18 caster levels, and 1d6 from all the divination bonuses). Not bad for a kitty who doesn't multiclass, huh? I didn't lose a single spell level in this set, all because I really wanted a 9th. I think Shades was completely worth it, too: it adds a lot of versatility to Cheshy's set, allowing her to summon monsters, control crowds, and annoy even more people! >:3
On the topic of "annoyance", Cheshy's now a fluffy pain in the neck for anyone fighting her. The combo of Controlled Invisibility, Darkstalker, flight, Invisible Spell, and Silent Spell is one of serious pain; good luck finding her now. ;3 She's invisible, but she doesn't leave tracks, nor is she identifiable through Blindsight. Her spells are invisible and silent, meaning that there's no visual or audio cue as to her position. Finally, she has all the beautiful nonsense spells like Ventriloquism, Telekinesis and even Launch Item: this is a character designed to cause absolute chaos on the battlefield, all while being nigh-impossible to spot – and that's when she's not just outright sniping people. Oh, and that lovely invisibility-counter, True Seeing? She has Dispel Magic, and she will use it. About the only thing she really can't counter is Mindsight and other telepathic abilities like it. Oh, and Anti-Magic Field, but that's more a general caster issue than anything.



Cheshy's been through a lot, mannn. XD From the start, I wanted to do something with a cat, and I quite like spells, so the Cheshire Cat was a match made in heaven for me. :3 I did glance at the Arctic Cat, but 3.0 psionics is a nightmare and a half, so that was out. From there, I figured I wanted to use her two main abilities as the basis for her classes: her at-level sorcerer casting, and her permanent invisibility. Unseen Seer (and, later, Spellwarp Sniper) was an obvious choice, as it's one of the best 'arcane rogue' style PrCs in the whole game. Of course, there's an issue here: the obvious route for any arcane rogue character is to multiclass a caster and a precision damage dealer, but Cheshy has a +2 level adjustment. +2 LA means any lost spellcasting levels kills any chance of getting 9ths pre-20. And so, my build suddenly became much, much more complicated.
So, there actually is a full advancement spellcasting class that gives sneak attacks to characters who didn't already have it! That would be Lost Empires of Faerûn's Magelord, a very prereq intensive class. I had a basic idea to use Divine Oracle's Prescient Sense to net Magelord's evasion necessity; since PS calls itself a "form of evasion", I'd have argued that it should work. Of course, DO wasn't actually the issue with this build – no, that was Magelord itself. Magelord requires Spell Mastery, and Spell Mastery requires Wizard 1. Welp. XD


Cheshire Cat 3 -> Sorcerer 2 (Divine Companion) -> Mindbender 1 -> Divine Oracle 1 -> Ruathar 1 -> Unseen Seer 5 -> Spellwarp Sniper 5
The next build actually got half-made before I realized its big issue. While Magelord was gone, I actually held on to Divine Oracle, a rather nice prestige class that pairs well with Unseen Seer's divination focus. :3 Eventually, I realized that I'd need a way to uncap Knowledge: Religion, and so Mindbender was added to the lineup; Ruathar came much later when I learned that I didn't have enough skill points (that, and I had actually short-charged myself during point buy). This was…functional, at least. Telepathy is excellent and matches the concept well, a full domain is hardly bad (especially on a spont caster!!), and Ruathar kind of just exists. XD However, there was one major flaw with this build: caster level. Unseen Seer drops Cheshy's non-divination spell levels, blocking her out of 9ths. All of that hard work I'd put in to ensure 9ths, and it was just…gone. The easiest way around this was Practiced Spellcaster, but Divine Oracle cut too heavily into my feats to spend it on something new, and so this build was scrapped.


Now this isn't quite a full build so much as an alternate, extremely cheesy route that basically diverges off Cheshy's current build. So. This build swapped out Darkstalker, I think, for Reach Spell. The very first idea was focusing down on the idea of Spellwarp Sniper's eponymous ability; Spellwarp turns AoEs into rays, while Reach Spell turns touch spells into ranged touch attacks that are "effectively" rays. Interesting, right? Vampiric Touch, Chill Touch, Storm Touch…all of those are solid enough touch spells; throw in RTA Explosive Runes, and you've got a pretty funny build.
Throw in Shivering Touch, though, and you've got a "fun" build. See, since Reach Spell makes touch spells "effectively" rays, I was going to argue that all of my ray nonsense counts for touch spells. Shivering Touch with Sudden Raystrike? Not too shabby at all, but also not broken. (Well, any more than usual.) Shivering Touch with Split Ray and Ray Mastery's Empower? Yeah. That's, at max, 45 points of Dexterity damage. (18 + 18 + 9, or 9 x 5.) Find a wand of Maximize and boom, basically nothing stands a chance any more. Of course, this relies on very awkward wording (if something is "effectively" a ray, does it count as a ray for things like Split Ray?) and is just so extremely cheesy that, while certainly impressive, I doubt it'd really be all that fun.

[Beni-Kujaku]

And a happy non-birthday to every one of you!
Part 3/3

"Now, now~" Her voice drifts across, seemingly originating from five different spots at once. "I have yet to finish our game," she pauses, resting her strange, strange eyes upon your soul, "so won't you play a little longer?"



-Open/Close gives Cheshy another way of opening doors.
-Ghost Sound is beautifully annoying, which is purrfect for my gal. Make noises from all around! Annoy the tallfolk! Distract enemies, annoy friends…it's purrfect!
-Mage Hand is just plain useful, especially as a creature with no opposable thumbs. Moreover, it (once again) allows Cheshy to do some silly tricks when it comes to confusing enemies. It's also a good spell for entertaining people, which I just like conceptually. :3 Oh, and it lets her knock objects off tables from a distance. It's pure cat nonsense.
-Prestidigitation fits the same ideas as mage hand, basically: useful spell with a lot of fun tricks, being both useful as a deception-based attacker and as a friendly cat-fae.
-True Strike boosts my direct damage rays, works with Hunter's Eye, and it acts as a useful prereq for Unseen Seer. :D
-Orb of Sound, Lesser is just a very good blasting spell; a ray of a rare damage type that gets past SR? Yes, please! It'll pair well with sneak attacks when I get them (at level 12, lol), but it's a decent single target attack before that! Sadly, it's not a ray, so no Sudden Raystrike synergy.
-Point Blank Shot! Yay! Useful and a necessity for Spellwarp Sniper.


-Electric Jolt is a ray cantrip. Yay. Gud level, everyone.


-Ventriloquism! Funny and useful: the best mix. :3 Since it lasts over multiple rounds, it lets my cat seemingly cast spells from a location not her own – something goes beautifully well with her general prowess at stealth. Also, it's annoying! Purrfect for a kitty!!!
-Darkstalker grabbed!!! De facto Improved Invisibility is quite powerful, and DS removes many of its counters (blindsense, tremorsense, blindsight, and scent). She'll have to Hide to use it properly, but Hide's a prereq, so it works out.


-Detect Magic is plain useful.
-Ironthunder Horn is her first real mass attack, giving her a bit more versatility in these early levels. She can knock people down for party members to take out, or she can use their proneness as a way to escape. When she later grabs Spellwarp, she'll be able to turn this into a single target forced prone, which is just excellent. ;3 If only this got past SR….
-Wait, no familiar? Yes, you read that right! Familiars are great, but Cheshy relies so heavily on permanent self-invisibility that a familiar would probably be more harmful than I'd like. While Divine Companion isn't amazing, it does give her an invisible, intangible friend who can quickly boost AC when needed, so I think it'll be a boon overall. :3


-Scorching Ray, while not generally as good as Ice Darts for most arcane rogue builds, actually does have a very particular benefit: it's a ray, and rays mean Sudden Raystrike (+ regular sneak attacks). Sure, that won't come online for quite a while, but it's useful nonetheless. At this level, it's mostly a nice blast with a variable amount of enemies.
-Golem Strike rounds out this level. It's useless for now, but it does two important things: A, it lets Cheshy sneak attack the normally-immune golems, and B: it gives her her second Divination spell, letting her qualify for Unseen Seer.


-In order to both keep her 9ths and obtain sneak attacking, I need to grab Martial Stance: Assassin's Stance. In order to get that, I need Martial Study (Shadow). Shadow Jaunt's probably the most useful for Cheshy; it's a 50ft teleport, making it good for fleeing or for throwing her opponents off.
-Yes, Cheshy has Knowledge: Architecture and Engineering. While it sounds quite bizarre for a nature-cat-fae-thing to have an interest in buildings, it's really there so that she can quickly figure out the most annoying place to sit in a room. After all, anyone who's had a cat knows that they really, realllllly like to lay down in horribly awkward spots. XD
-Grabbed Launch Item. It's one of those "pure cat nonsense" spells, and it has good utility! Now Cheshy can throw items 100 feet, including both enemy tools and that coffee mug you really wanted to use.
-Fly is pure utility, and practically necessary at a certain point. Since my kitty's likely to be handling some encounters solo, it's especially important that she can stay out of the enemies' way. More than that, this also gives her a nice counter to anyone trying to figure out her position.


-First spell today is Seeking Ray! It's an electric ray spell that boosts Cheshy's other rays. It's great for a Spellwarp Sniper, since our whole modus operandi is…just…rays. Rays for days.
-Second spell of this level is Grease. It's…just a good spell, honestly. I mostly go battlefield control with Sorcerers, and Grease is pretty consistently wonderful. While Cheshy's a blaster-cat-thing, Grease should help with sneak attacks at the very least (it denies Dex to AC for most anyone attempting the Balance checks).
-Third and final is Dispel Magic! This gives Cheshy a way of handling certain types of See Invisibility and True Seeing (well, at least attempt with the latter). While she's certainly powerful without her invisibility, it really is one of her main advantages, and I don't want her to Shadow Jaunt away every time she gets found out. XD
-Accurate Retort is a decent enough boost, especially since many level enemies actually do get natural armor. I'll happily take a to-hit bonus on my rays, thank you~


-Dex boost gives her more accuracy! Since Cheshy relies on ranged touch attacks, accuracy is exceptionally important; we want to hit the enemies!!
-I…completely forgot to give her some sort of light spell. Dancing Lights it is! Admittedly, she has low-light vision, so she won't be toooooooo badly off usually, but still. Still.
-Wings of Flurry is known to be incredible for Sorcerer/Spellwarp Snipers, and it's not hard to see why: untyped damage that's uncapped, a reflex saving throw that'll be Spellwarped away, and a powerful status effect. It's good both in groups and solo, which is always excellent.


-Silent Spell is an extra feat, but it's quite the useful one! First, it acts as a nice prerequisite to my other metamagic feats (Invisible Spell and Split Ray both require another MM feat first). Second, it's a stealth booster! Now my kitty no longer has audio cues to alert enemies to her position.
-Shockingly, Hunter's Eye is my first pick-up with Advanced Learning. And by shockingly, I mean…not shocking at all. With this, Grave Strike, the Unseen Seer "Damage Bonus" ability, and even Visionary Seeker's +1 divination level actually start mattering.
-Knock isn't a spell I usually grab on my sorcerers, but Cheshy has no hands and is at least somewhat designed for solo missions. As such, having a way to open locked doors, chests, etc. is quite handy. ;3
-Acid Breath is very akin to Fireball, but it's of a damage type I don't otherwise have. As such, I figured it'd be a good grab. (Note that it's a reflex save, so anyone hit with the Spellwarped version will automatically take full damage instead.)
-This was one attack-heavy level, whoops. Anyways, Blast of Sand is very akin to the earlier Wings of Flurry, but it swaps out dazing for SR:No, making it quite useful against enemies with spell resistance.


-Read Magic ends off her cantrip list. It's another pretty common cantrip pick-up. Anyways, it'll let her use those Spellcraft points she picked up for prereqs, plus I think it fits well with the two curiosity/knowledge-driven classes she has under her belt. :3 In order to obtain extra knowledge, one needs to be able to read some pretty obscure stuff! Also, I guess she's probably literate? There's nothing saying she isn't, anyways. XD
-Blink, Greater. CONTROLLABLE ETHEREALNESS. YES. This is incredible!!! Ethereal/incorporeal traits help immensely with stealth, and being able to turn it off whenever removes much of the usual awkwardness inherent.
-Also, I guess I'll explain the "Decipher Script and Knowledge (Nature) +1" here: so, those are both trained skills, which means that a single rank lets Cheshy actually take checks for them. She won't be great at it, but she'll be able to do it, which is a definite plus.


-Cloud of Knives is another obvious arcane rogue pick (free round sneak attacks! :D), but it's also a weird one for this particular character. Y'see, Cheshy has a personal invisibility schtick, making floating knives kind of annoying. However, while the spell will only be sparingly used when she gets it, at level 15 (ECL 17) she'll suddenly have Invisible Spell, letting her use her knives to their full extent. :3
-Overland Flight allows for multiple hours of flight. That's just plain useful. ;3
-Major Image is super cool! It's an ultra versatile illusion spell, allowing Cheshy to distract enemies, prank randos, entertain children, and on and on. :D While her concentration isn't excellent, it's still a fun utility spell~
-The last spell of this level is Enervation! It's decent on any build, but it's especially good here. It's a ray, so it qualifies for sneak attack, and while I won't be lobbing 13d6 level drain at anyone, I will be adding some nice negative energy damage to an already-useful spell. :3


-ASSASSIN'S STANCE. THIS IS HUGE. This is basically the first big turning point of the build; instead of just using Hunter's Eye to obtain sneak attack, now my cat really actually has the ability, allowing access into Spellwarp Sniper and beautiful synergy with all of my previous decisions.
-Grave Strike has been obtained! There's actually quite a few good divination spells I could've grabbed, but undead are quite common as enemies, so…yeah. Now she can use one of her main gimmicks (sneak attacks)! Yay~
-Bye-bye Fly! Cheshy has Overland Flight now, so she has no need for its predecessor. In its place is Clairaudience/Clairvoyance, a good "hunting"/"stalking" spell that lets Cheshy locate her prey from afar. :3 Feels very kitty-esque, and pairs well with the divination CL boosts.
-DISINTEGRATE. This spell is absolutely incredible on these sorts of builds. At ECL 20, that's 49d6 (36d6 from the spell, 13d6 from sneak attack) untyped damage. Unfortunately, SR blocks it, but still. That's a huge amount of untyped(!!!!) damage with only two spells (disintegrate itself and the necessary Hunter's Eye). Even if the enemy makes their Fortitude save, they'll still be forced to take 18d6 damage at ECL 20. Oh, and it's a ray, so it can be Empowered via Spellwarp Sniper.


-Divination Spell Power: while it's an ability Cheshy's had for a little while, this is the level where it's truly notable. Since DSP increases to +2, it combines with Visionary Seeker's Divination Expertise (+1) to grant Hunter's Eye an extra die of damage. :D It also helps with the duration of Clairaudience/Clairvoyance.
-Wall of Salt is a very nice utility/enemy disruptor spell. Create bridges, make walls, eat salt, split up some enemies, buy some time to escape/prep/etc…. It also gets very funny in conjunction with Invisible Spell.
-5th level spells are the last ones Cheshy can warp, so I wanted to make sure she had something to use here. :3 Vitriolic Sphere gives her nice, consistent, multi-round damage, which is good for disrupting enemy spell casters. It's not the best spell in the world, but it has its niche.
-Probe Thoughts is a concentration spell, which is frustrating, but it's hardly a useless spell. Welcome to wonderful prankster nonsense! Create fun little telepathy fields to meow at people incessantly! >:3 More seriously, it allows for a wide range of utility uses, from communicating with (non-feline) animals, to speaking with people when one's not supposed to, to searching for buried answers within a person's head. While its concentration categorization limits its usage in battle, it still has some potential for throwing off hostile situations.


-Spellwarp…oh man. I love you, Spellwarp. That whole clause about removing reflex checks is incredible; forced dazes and stuns and prones is just…beautiful. Incredible. Note that Spellwarp as a whole makes a Spellwarp Sniper bizarrely versatile; since Spellwarp works off of AoEs, but the rest of the classes abilities work off of rays, the class basically forces your character to be good at both direct damage crowd control and single target takedowns. Mobs of enemies aren't a Spellwarp Sniper's Achilles's heel because of this curious design choice. It's quite nice. :D
-Prismatic Eye is absolutely incredible for a Spellwarp Sniper. Free action bonus sneak attacks? And they're rays?! As a cherry on top, the eye isn't floating around Cheshy, so she can use this without overlaying Invisible Spell.


-INVISIBLE SPELL. My gods, is this one heck of a broken feat. Anyyyyyways, Cheshy's mostly using it for its intended purpose: invisible attacks! She's invisible, she's meant to be stealthy, and now she's really stealthy! No more will enemies see her attacks; now they will be as invisible as her!! In a less intended (probably) way, she'll absolutely be using this on Cloud of Knives, giving her a second consistent free action sneak attack every round. (It's less pressing for Prismatic Eye to be invisible, since it doesn't float around her body.) She can also use this on the permanent Wall of Salt for beautifully annoying pranks ("CAN THE CAT PLEASE STOP BLOCKING THE ENTRANCE WAY TO THE PARAGNOSTIC ASSEMBLY WITH AN INVISIBLE WALL"), and I'm sure there's some reason for making an invisible Major Image. Oh, and this spell immensely helps any sneak attacks with Scorching Ray! See, this is a +0 Metamagic feat, and Metamagic feats turn standard action spells into full round actions; basically, this allows her to bypass the volley rule for free. >:3 Oh, and in case you're curious: Cheshy should qualify for this feat through the bonus Silent Spell in Unseen Seer.
-Telekinesis is great. A, it helps with the whole "no hands" problem, and B, it's cat nonsense! Plus, I seem to like telekinesis-type abilities for Cheshy, so it makes sense to grab the telekinesis spell in the game. Throw creatures! Disarm people! Knock more things off of shelves! It's purrfect. :D
-True Seeing is just good. Plus, it feels fitting to actually have one of Cheshy's biggest weaknesses in her own toolset. Unfortunately, she'll have to actually use material components for this spell (bleh), but an eye ointment shouldn't be too hard to carry, even for a cat.
-Hiss of Sleep is very powerful; it's a safe way of handling rowdy crowds, and it even works decently well for taking people out without doing them physical harm, something Cheshy really lacks. (Well, without getting quite creative, anyways.) I was torn between this and Transfix, as they're both quite good for the above purposes, and either would work well here. Ultimately, I chose Hiss of Sleep because of the name. XD


-Polar Ray is Cheshy's final attack spell. It's actually her first cold spell! XD Whoops. Anyways, it's a decent enough attack spell, especially since there're no saves to get in the way of it. Also, it's ray, which means RAY NONSENSE. >:3 Empower, Sudden Raystrike, 60 feet distance, full sneak attack. Woot woot!


-We go hunt hunt with Scrying, Greater! It lets Cheshy keep an eye on her prey, nyan~ >:3 It just feels very right for her.
-Moment of Prescience is the last 8th level spell. It's a very nice buff, and it's actually usable on the same attack as True Strike and Hunter's Eye, making it quite useful. :3


-Split Ray is our last feat, and it's a doozy. First of all, it automatically bypasses the volley rule on a spontaneous caster, so no worries there~! Second, it's unfortunately unusable with Polar Ray, so no doubling an 8th level spell. However, everything else is completely open to gaining another ray! >:3 That's basically double damage, nyahahaha. >:333 Sadly, it probably doesn't work with Prismatic Eye, since the spell itself isn't a ray.
-Shades marks off Cheshy's spells! Honestly, I was having a really hard time figuring out what sort of 9th to give her, but I eventually settled on this one. First, she doesn't have many conjuration spells, and the ones she does have are mostly attacks; this gives her a lot more versatility, allowing for pure crowd control, summon spamming, wall nonsense, and many other fun effects. Second of all, while I obviously haven't been following the flavour fully, the Cheshire Cat's description mentions them preferring illusion and enchantment spells; it seems fitting to give her a very powerful spell from one of those schools, then. :3 Either way, I think Shades was worth all of the effort to keep; after all, I could've just multiclassed Cheshy into Rogue, gone up to only 8ths, and kept a few extra feats on hand.

[Beni-Kujaku]

He's here to free all of you. And by "free" he means bashing your face into a wall and destroying all your possessions while you can't do anything to prevent it.


https://64.media.tumblr.com/2191fedd5a781d1e5982d2059eb65bdf/f97523d941c287f9-84/s400x600/a0279a66f08e9ee6730c3a6243bd863f0323d2ee.jpg

We live in the world of victorious slavery. I don't talk about slavery between orc tribes or thayan slavery practices, while in the Thay slavery I'm talking about widespread very wide. But Thay here is merely a general trend - the more civilized a country is, the more widespread is this slavery. We enslave not just some sentient beings or animals or whatever, but the very magic.
Once, years ago, I was attacked by some wizard's spell. I was almost dead and at this moment I realized the truth itself - spells don't want to hurt you, or to do anything that ones is forced to do - mages do. But spells want to be free. That's why sometimes they don't work well or don't work at all and why they don't work forever and end up.
But using spells is a lesser evil. Yes, this is exploitation, but, after all, it's in most cases limited in time. Mage casts spell, spell does or better doesn't do its task and becomes free. I'd could put up with it and moved on. But look at all these magic items! This is unacceptable and inhumane! Most of them trap inside and force magic to work indefinitely. If you can call yourself a good man, you should agree with the purpose of my life - all magic items need to be destroyed, all spellcasting must be banned, and all magic should become free!

CG Rukanyr Bear Totem Barbarian 3/Warblade 6/Forsaker 3

Abilities Initial Race 8th, 12th, 16th (ASI) 9th (VoP) 11th (VoP) 15th (VoP) 16th, 17th, 18th (Forsaker) 19th (VoP) Total
STR 14 10 2 2 2 30
DEX 14 -4 2 2 14
CON 18 14 3 2 2 2 3 2 46
INT 12 4 2 18
WIS 8 -8 1
CHA 8 -8 1

LevelLA+1 Class BAB Fort Reflex Will Skills Feats Class Features VoP Features
1st Aberration-1 0 0 0 2 24: {+4 CC} Balance: 2; {+4} Climb: 4; {+4 CC} Diplomacy: 2; {+4} Listen: 4; {+4} Search: 4; {+4 CC} Sense Motive: 2; Multiattack (1) Poison, stunning strike, sundering roar, darkvision 60 ft., fast healing 5, reflexive sunder, sonic immunity, stability
2nd Aberration-2 1 0 0 3 6: {+1 CC} Balance: 2.5; {+1} Climb: 5; {+1 CC} Diplomacy: 2.5; {+1} Listen: 5; {+1} Search: 5; {+1 CC} Sense Motive: 2.5;
3rd Aberration-3 2 1 1 3 6: {+1 CC} Balance: 3; {+1} Climb: 6; {+1 CC} Diplomacy: 3; {+1} Listen: 6; {+1} Search: 6; {+1 CC} Sense Motive: 3; Lightning Reflexes (3)
4th Aberration-4 3 1 1 4 6: {+1 CC} Balance: 3.5; {+1} Climb: 7; {+1 CC} Diplomacy: 3.5; {+1} Listen: 7; {+1} Search: 7; {+1 CC} Sense Motive: 3.5;
5th Aberration-5 3 1 1 4 6: {+1 CC} Balance: 4; {+1} Climb: 8; {+1 CC} Diplomacy: 4; {+1} Listen: 8; {+1} Search: 8; {+1 CC} Sense Motive: 4;
6th Aberration-6 4 2 2 5 6: {+1 CC} Balance: 4.5; {+1} Climb: 9; {+1 CC} Diplomacy: 4.5; {+1} Listen: 9; {+1} Search: 9; {+1 CC} Sense Motive: 4.5; Sacred Vow (6)
7th Aberration-7 5 2 2 5 6: {+1 CC} Balance: 5; {+1} Climb: 10; {+1 CC} Diplomacy: 5; {+1} Listen: 10; {+1} Search: 10; {+1 CC} Sense Motive: 5;
8th Bear Totem Barbarian-1 6 4 2 5 8: Balance: 5; Climb: 10; Diplomacy: 5; {+8} Jump: 8; Listen: 10; Search: 10; Sense Motive: 5; Toughness (B) Illiteracy, rage 1/day, skilled city-dweller (Ride>>Tumble)
9th Bear Totem Barbarian-2 7 5 2 5 8: Balance: 5; Climb: 10; Diplomacy: 5; {+4} Jump: 12; Listen: 10; Search: 10; Sense Motive: 5; {+4} Tumble: 4; Vow of Poverty (9), Improved Grapple (B) AC bonus +7, endure elements, exalted strike +1 (magic), deflection +1, natural armor +1, mind shielding, resistance +1, sustenance, ability score enhancement +2
10th Bear Totem Barbarian-3 8 5 3 6 8: Balance: 5; Climb: 10; Diplomacy: 5; {+1} Jump: 13; Listen: 10; Search: 10; Sense Motive: 5; {+7} Tumble: 11; Greate Fortitude (B), Sanctify Natural Attack (E) Exalted strike +2 (good), damage reduction 5/magic, bonus exalted feat
11th Warblade-1 9 7 3 6 8: {+1} Balance: 6; Climb: 10; {+7} Concentration: 7; Diplomacy: 5; Jump: 13; Listen: 10; Search: 10; Sense Motive: 5; Tumble: 11; Battle clarity (Reflex saves), weapon aptitude Ability score enhancement +4/+2
12th Warblade-2 10 8 3 6 9: {+1} Balance: 7; Climb: 10; {+6} Concentration: 13; {+1} Diplomacy: 6; {+1} Jump: 14; Listen: 10; Search: 10; Sense Motive: 5; Tumble: 11; Rapidstrike (claw) (12), Nymph’s Kiss (E) Uncanny dodge AC bonus +8, deflection +2, greater sustenance, bonus exalted feat
13th Warblade-3 11 8 4 7 9: {+1} Balance: 8; Climb: 10; {+1} Concentration: 14; {+1} Diplomacy: 7; {+1} Jump: 15; Listen: 10; Search: 10; Sense Motive: 5; {+5} Tumble: 16; Battle ardor (critical confirmation) Resistance +2, energy resistance 5
14th Warblade-4 12 9 4 7 9: Balance: 8; Climb: 10; {+3} Concentration: 17; {+1} Diplomacy: 8; {+2} Jump: 17; Listen: 10; Search: 10; Sense Motive: 5; {+1} Tumble: 17; {+2} Nimble Charge; Righteous Wrath (E) Exalted strike +3, freedom of movement, bonus exalted feat
15th Warblade-5 13 9 4 7 9: Balance: 8; Climb: 10; {+1} Concentration: 18; {+4} Diplomacy: 12; {+1} Jump: 18; Listen: 10; Search: 10; Sense Motive: 5; {+1} Tumble: 18; {+2} Twisted Charge, Nimble Charge; Empower Supernatural Ability (15), Iron Will (B) AC bonus +9, ability score enhancement +6/+4/+2, damage reduction 5/evil
16th Forsaker-1 14 11 4 9 7: Balance: 8; Climb: 10; Concentration: 18; Diplomacy: 12; {+1} Jump: 19; Listen: 10; Search: 10; {+5} Sense Motive: 10; {+1} Tumble: 19; Twisted Charge, Nimble Charge; Touch of Golden Ice (E) Ability bonus +1, fast healing 1 (10), forsake magic, SR 11 Natural armor +2, bonus exalted feat
17th Forsaker-2 15 12 4 10 7: Balance: 8; Climb: 10; Concentration: 18; Diplomacy: 12; {+1} Jump: 20; Listen: 10; Search: 10; {+5} Sense Motive: 15; {+1} Tumble: 20; Twisted Charge, Nimble Charge; Ability bonus +1, damage reduction 3/magic, magic destruction, SR 12 Exalted strike +4, resistance +3, regeneration
18th Forsaker-3 16 12 5 10 7: Balance: 8; Climb: 10; Concentration: 18; Diplomacy: 12; {+1} Jump: 21; Listen: 10; Search: 10; {+5} Sense Motive: 20; {+1} Tumble: 21; Twisted Charge, Nimble Charge; Improved Rapidstrike (bite) (18), Nimbus of Light (E) Ability bonus +1, fast healing 1 (20), natural weapons, SR 13, tough defense AC bonus +10, deflection +3, true seeing, bonus exalted feat
19th Warblade-6 17 13 6 11 10: Balance: 8; Climb: 10; {+4} Concentration: 22; {+4} Diplomacy: 16; {+1} Jump: 22; Listen: 10; Search: 10; Sense Motive: 20; {+1} Tumble: 22; Twisted Charge, Nimble Charge; Improved uncanny dodge Ability score enhancement +8/+6/+4/+2, damage reduction 10/evil

Level Class IL Maneuvers Known Maneuvers Readied Stances Known
11th Warblade 6 Claw at the Moon (Tiger), Moment of Perfect Mind (Diam), Sudden Leap (Tiger) 3 Blood in the Water (Tiger)
12th Warblade 7 Claw at the Moon (Tiger), Insightful Strike (Diam), Moment of Perfect Mind (Diam), Sudden Leap (Tiger) 3 Blood in the Water (Tiger)
13th Warblade 8 Claw at the Moon (Tiger), Insightful Strike (Diam), Moment of Perfect Mind (Diam), Mountain Hammer (Stone), Sudden Leap (Tiger) 3 Blood in the Water (Tiger)
14th Warblade 9 Claw at the Moon (Tiger), Insightful Strike (Diam), Moment of Perfect Mind (Diam), Mountain Hammer (Stone), Pouncing Charge (Tiger), Sudden Leap (Tiger) 4 Blood in the Water (Tiger), Leading the Charge (Diam)
15th Warblade 10 Dancing Mongoose (Tiger), Insightful Strike (Diam), Moment of Perfect Mind (Diam), Mountain Hammer (Stone), Pouncing Charge (Tiger), Sudden Leap (Tiger) 4 Blood in the Water (Tiger), Leading the Charge (Diam)
19th Warblade 12 Dancing Mongoose (Tiger), Insightful Strike (Diam), Insightful Strike, Greater (Diam), Moment of Perfect Mind (Diam), Mountain Hammer (Stone), Pouncing Charge (Tiger), Sudden Leap (Tiger) 4 Blood in the Water (Tiger), Leading the Charge (Diam)

Chirp was created by kaortis for serving. Firstly, he thought: "They are creators and therefore they are good." But pretty quickly he realized they weren’t, kaortis are evil and he is a slave of them. When he realized that, he just left them. His enslavement wasn't in the chains, it was in his mind, he had been lucky.
He also understood something about magic at that time. Different mages, some of kaortis, some of their enemies used it on Chirp. And magic didn't always work how it should. How can it be? Magic is just a tool. Or not? Maybe it doesn't work sometimes because it doesn't want to work. Maybe it is sentient? Maybe it is a slave as Chirp was? Chirp freed himself, but it can't be enough. He promise himself to fight slavery every time he meets it.

Okay. Just a pretty strong Rukanyr foundation with some unusual weak feats and good physical stats.
24 AC, about 110 hp, reflexive sunder with 13 DC, ten attacks with +11 (slam) and +9 (others) with above average damage and good rider effects (3 poisons DC 24, 2d6 Dex/2d6 Dex; Stunning DC 20).

Chirp wandered a lot. He had been to many places, had helped many and freed many from slavery, but the further away, the more he became concerned with the problem of the slavery of magic. Many times he was attacked by different spells and magic items, sometimes very severely. Look at human slaves, they can resist, even break out sometimes. The same is true for elves, dwarves, gnomes and so on. But what can enslaved magic do? Just wait for free. Or wait for help.
Chirp decided to begin his liberation campaign. Of course he didn't turned a deaf ear to other slaves, but he adopted his main mission.

Three levels of barbarian, five levels of warblade, interesting feats.
Vow of Poverty for creature with such unusual body shape and inherent abilities to destroy items is not so painful as for more regular characters.
Rapidstrike gives one extra attack. With weapon aptitude it can be either claw or bite as Chirp desired.
Empower Supernatural Ability with rukanyr's Sundering Roar (DC 32) is Alfa-Strike. With it he can make almost every one enemy brute useless destroying all armor and weapons.
Furthermore, 37 AC, 5/evil DR, FoM, about 315 hp, reflexive sunder with 16 DC, eleven attacks with +24 (slam), +22 (others) and +17 (one rapidstrike claw attack), above average damage (when regular full-attacking) and good rider effects (golden ice; poison DC 32, 2d6 Dex/2d6 Dex; Stunning DC 26) plus martial arts, especially Pouncing Charge and Leading the Charge combo, and Blood in the Water synergies very well with 11 attacks (even 20/x2).

Chirp went far in his quest. Now he tries to free some magic from items every day, and this magic helps him in response. It gives him some resistance and defense against blows. It isn't something vital amid Chirp's other abilities, but this is the clear gratitude that affirmed his mission.

Sixth warblade and three levels of forsaker. Main features or forsaker are Con to AC and +3 inherent bonuses to stats. 3/magic, SR and FH are small and not very useful (or not useful at all) things.
Improved Rapidstrike gives four more attacks. There is nothing requiring taking Rapidstrike and Improved Rapidstrike for the same pair of weapons, so I take Rapidstrike claws and Improved version for bites.
Furthermore, 57 AC, 10/evil and 3/magic DR, True Seeing, FoM, about 460 hp, reflexive sunder with 19 DC, fifteen attacks with +30 (slam), +28 (others), +23 (claw and one bite) +18/+13/+8 (three more bites), still above average damage and good rider effects (golden ice; poison DC 37, 2d6 Dex/2d6 Dex; Stunning DC 29) and sundering roar with DC 37.
Plus, with Greater Insightful Strike Chirp could make single attack with 82-120 damage.

Type Name Book Page
Race Rukanyr FF 144
Class Barbarian PHB 24
Class Warblade ToB 20
Prestige Class Forsaker MotW 57
Class variant Bear Totem Barbarian UA 48
Class variant Skilled City-Dweller Urban Class Features (https://web.archive.org/web/20201112031718/http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a)
Feat Multiattack MM 304
Feat Lightning Reflexes PHB 97
Feat Sacred Vow BoED 45
Feat Toughness PHB 101
Feat Vow of Poverty BoED 48, 29
Feat Improved Grapple PHB 95
Feat Greate Fortitude PHB 94
Feat Sanctify Natural Attack BoED 46
Feat Rapidstrike Dr 73
Feat Nymph’s Kiss BoED 44
Feat Righteous Wrath BoED 45
Feat Empower Supernatural Ability ToM 73
Feat Iron Will PHB 97
Feat Touch of Golden Ice BoED 47
Feat Improved Rapidstrike Dr 70
Feat Nimbus of Light BoED 44
Maneuvers & Stances All ToB Varies
Skill Trick Twisted Charge CS 90
Skill Trick Nimble Charge CS 87

[Beni-Kujaku]

There's only one thing mind flayers and mindshredders can always agree on: there's no such thing as too many tentacles.



Experiment MHI-Taolt / Val the Thrall Zenthal
CE Half-Illithid Mindshredder Zenthal Cleric 1 / Thrall of Demogorgon 4

https://i.imgur.com/RsR6C9S.jpg

Point-buy: 14/14/14/14/8/15

Mindshredder zenthal adjustments: 12/20/18/16/10/23

Half-Illithid adjustments: 12/20/18/20/14/27

16HD ASI: 12/20/18/20/14/28

Val speaks common and undercommon and can communicate telepathically.

Director, One Who Guides Where Truth Cannot Be, I report to you. I have completed the most recently assigned task. I await further instructions.

How limiting, Sarbix thought (to himself; a thought to himself!) to communicate in this manner. There was no other way, of course: the Great Elder would have known another. When it had established this remote outpost, beyond its own mental reach, it had done so with good reason: the experiments here were never without risk, and a telepathic threat was at least theoretically possible.

Still, it also meant you couldn't just think thoughts for people on the other side of the building and trust the Great Elder to pass the message on; it meant going there! Thinking at someone! It felt wrong, secretive, disgustingly intimate. The director struggled too: Sarbix could imagine the effort of having to keep track of who knew what exactly. Thank the Elder he hadn't been made director, he thought, as she replied at last.

Your contribution is noted. You will proceed to chamber Taolt-4, where we work tirelessly to enhance the lesser beings of this world. You will assist researcher Ogim with implantation of a Young One in the local subject.

...director?

Inform me: why do you hesitate?

I was given the same task yesterday. It proceeded without effort, and was completed 21 hours and 49 minutes ago. The subject in chamber Taolt-4 has been implanted already. Further implantation seems un- or counterproductive. In light of this information, please confirm whether I am still to go forward with this task.

The director paused for a moment, clearly in deep thought. Her rubbery brow furrowed, her tentacles hung slack. Then her telepathy took on a different tone, a new tone, urgent, concerned, angry.

You are to proceed to the experiment chamber and immediately order cessatio-

Researcher Ogim walked in.

And then, broadcast out for all to hear, the director stated a word that didn't bear repeating.

The creature in Taolt-4 had long since ceased to resemble its original form. The quadruped structure was there, still, but the skin had pulled tight over bloated flesh below. The two arms had fused with the torso, the wrists flush with the neck. The head, nearly vestigal on these zenthals anyway, had decayed, leaving a clump of pinkish tentacles surrounding a ragged breathing-hole. Four thick straps held the creature's limbs in place, but its tentacles were subject to no such confinement.

As the two illithid watched, one of the angry lashing tentacles twisted itself around another. For a moment, the two appendages were evenly matched, bulging, straining. Then, a muscle pulled, a vein burst, and the aggressive tentacle ripped its rival off the mindshredder's visage. A ghastly wailing noise emerged from the mouth, echoing through the cavernous chamber.

New tendrils are grown on a daily basis. Sarbix helpfully informed his superior. Conflict is frequent: psionic analysis reveals slightly different patterns of nerve activity in clashing appendages. The cause seems obvious: dissection would only confirm what we already know.

The first implantation resists the second, but cannot exterminate it. the director thought aloud. A notable finding, if not an intentional one. Preserve the creature and brief me on its development.

With that, she walked away. Her further thoughts, Sarbix was not allowed to be privy to, its seemed.

Suddenly, the researcher felt a chill. Acting on instinct (instinct!) he spun around, facing the monstrosity through the forcefield of its containment chamber, reaching already for a dorj-

Nothing was amiss. The thing was still in place, still grappling with its own limbs in some pointless display of inner turmoil, still lost in whatever thoughts swum through its brain (brains?). He'd gotten spooked for nothing: that's just what being separated from the Great Elder did to people. Yes, there was nothing amiss, he thought. Still, he couldn't just sit and wait here, he'd go do something else. Elsewhere. He'd check up on this abomination in due time.

Inside, watching from two beady black eyes hidden among masses of tentacles, Val observed Sarbix leaving.

Routine sample collection, they called it. A pitiful euphemism for walking into the room, telekinetically grabbing a slimy, severed tentacle, and rushing it to the other side of the complex for analysis. Sarbix bore the duty without complaint, as he always did, but little frustrated him more than this activity.

It was a task for thralls, above a researcher like him. Unfortunately, thralls couldn't be allowed in the same room as half-illithids: too often, the prisoner would succeed in overriding their directives. So it was him, loaded up with the outpost's most prized item, a headband guaranteed to protect him from any ill-fated psychic assault the prisoner might attempt.

He walked in, glanced over at the monster, its half-formed mind still not wise enough to realize that trashing against its restraints was pointless, and turned to close the door. At once, a rush of air behind him, a very different telepathic signature, a feeling of immense danger.

The illithid spun around, just in time to watch the abomination, very much unrestrained, bound towards him. He threw up a limb, desperate to buy a few seconds and perhaps escape, but the creature did not grant him the chance. Slender tentacles, acting with unified purpose rather than random trashing, whipped at his exposed face, fiercely clinging to the spots they touched. For one prideful moment, Sarbix hoped that this attack could somehow be blocked by his headgear. Then, he stopped hoping.

The illithid collapsed. His awareness of the world around him, insofar it could be called that, was floating, unconnected to the rest of his body. It felt like his eyes, his brain, all his senses, were just an old recording played in slow motion, with the occasional jarring lurch as the sensations caught up with reality.

Still, Sarbix noted a small amount of consternation when a novel being entered his field of view. It was humanoid, person-sized, but subtly wrong. Its features were too sharp, its face almost dagger-like. Tattoos, too perfect to be real, covered its red-pinkish skin. Its limbs were too long, ending in thin, whip-like fingertips that seemed to weep a teal fluid. Its mouth, he realized, was no mouth at all, but merely a thin indentation of flesh twisted in a perpetual smile. Even so, it spoke without issue.

"There we go, you got one! I knew I'd have to wait a while, but five hours of invisible lurking is something else! At least you're good conversation."

Sarbix could not make sense of the situation. His darting eyes moved from the tentacled beast (still grasping his face firmly), to the strange demonic man, to the restraints, torn, always torn, this thing hadn't broken through in the last ten seconds, how could it have, which meant...

Freed... it? he uttered, with the utmost of effort. The demon, which he was now confident he was looking at, perked up at that.

"Oh, oh no buddy. Val here got loose all by itself: a little magic goes a long way. I'm just here because the Big Men downstairs took an interest, and they're wondering about this thing's commitment."

Sarbix grappled with the question in what order the words went again when one expressed confusion. Fortunately, the demon seemed not to be expecting much of its conversation partner.

"I get you guys aren't much for religion, but you know how it works right? Desperate mortals, earnest pleas, 'blah blah blah I'll do anything', faithful worshipper, clerical powers. Mind you, we're no charity, we don't just take anybody, but just between you and me I think the Big Men took a liking to this one. I mean, insane tentacled monster with two very similar personalities that nevertheless clash without end? It's like looking into a mirror!"

Sarbix groaned: the last part of the demon's speech had come all at once, and he was struggling to put it in order. Still, if the experiment had broken out by itself, then...

"So anyway, if you haven't put the pieces together... I'm not here as a jailbreaker, or a fighter, or much of anything. The only reason that I'm here, squid-for-brains, is to witness you get sacrificed."

This wasn't good.

Sarbix's corpse lied in the doorway of chamber Taolt-4, stripped of his robes and gear, his pink flesh bruised purple all over. All four tentacles had been removed from his face, then ripped to smaller pieces in a measured fashion. One of his eyes had burst, the other was obscured by his swollen face. The brain was unsalvageable, of course: it was the first thing she'd checked.

The director knew what had happened to colleagues who caused a researcher's death. The same thing happened to anyone who'd allowed valuable research material to escape. She wasn't quite sure what happened to those responsible for both, but a simple extrapolation suggested nothing good. She was, to put it simply, screwed.

Actually... was she?

She couldn't deceive the Great Elder, of course: it was ludicrous on the practical level, as well as the ethical. But if she could fix this mistake before her return to the city... The loss of a researcher was disheartening, of course, but it was utterly plausible that Sarbix's death had been his own fault. The more the director thought about it, the more she allowed herself to feel optimism. Capture the creature, restore it to confinement, and return to the city, respected and renowned as the first director to oversee viable bi-implantation. There was a path here, and she would walk it.

How hard could it be?



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


15th
Half-Illithid Mindshredder Zenthal (13 RHD)
+9
+4
+4
+8
Concentration 16, Intimidate 16, Listen 16, Spot 16, Knowledge (Religion) 2, Knowledge (Arcana) 2, Knowledge (The Planes) 4, Spellcraft 8, Use Magic Device 8
Hidden Talent (Expansion), Illithid Heritage, Illithid Skin, Willing Deformity, Thrall to Demon
Shield of Force, Thought Sense, Wisdom Damage, Mind Blast, Improved Grab, Extract, Telepathy 100 ft., SR 10+HD


16th
Cleric 1
+9
+6
+4
+10
Concentration 17, Intimidate 17, Spellcraft 13
Travel DevotionB
Rebuke Undead, Demonic Domain


17th
Thrall of Demogorgon 1
+10
+8
+4
+10
Bluff 7, Concentration 18, Intimidate 18
Illithid Grapple, Illithid GrappleB
Scaly Flesh +1, Hypnosis


18th
Thrall of Demogorgon 2
+11
+9
+4
+10
Bluff 14, Concentration 19, Intimidate 19
-
Touch of Fear


19th
Thrall of Demogorgon 3
+12
+9
+5
+11
Bluff 20, Concentration 20, Intimidate 20, Spot 17
-
Reaching Touch


20th
Thrall of Demogorgon 4
+13
+10
+5
+11
Bluff 21, Concentration 21, Intimidate 21, Spot 21, Knowledge (The Planes) 6
Illithid Grapple, Illithid GrappleB
Dual Actions, Scaly Flesh +2



Typical prepared spells (unchanged from ECL 16 on) are:
Level 0: CMW, Detect Magic, Read Magic
Level 1: Hide from Undead, Resurgence, Demonflesh (D)

I figured that if I had to build a creature without hands, I was at least going to give it some solid manipulators (surely if a tentacle is at least as dextrous as a human finger, ten of them let you do most things hands can do?). While looking for tentacled creatures I found the Zenthal. The rest of the build grew from there.

I quickly realized I needed some type of full attack enabling, and after considering barbarian and totemist, I found that Travel cleric into Thrall of Demogorgon would work well and have strong thematic synergy (a giant tentacled body that somehow has two minds stuffed in there? sounds familiar). Thrall of Demogorgon also let us fit in Willing Deformity without preventing us from ending up with ten tentacle attacks, which makes the character more relevant out of combat (my main priority while I was writing this up).

Also, the demon from the backstory is a Kelvezu, for those curious! I picked it because it's one of the few to get Unhallow as a SLA, so it makes sense that one would be sent to witness the sacrifice of prospective thralls that can't cast the spell themselves.

ECL 15
The core of this build is the zenthal's Wisdom Damage (Su) ability.


Wisdom Damage (Su): A mindshredder zenthal’s tentacles deal 1d4 points of Wisdom damage each time it hits a living creature with a melee touch attack. [...] For each point of Wisdom damage that a mindshredder zenthal deals, it heals 2 hit points of damage. If a mindshredder zenthal is already at its maximum hit point total, it gains 2 temporary hit points for each point of Wisdom damage it deals. These temporary hit points last for a maximum of 1 hour.

Note how as written, this applies to all tentacles, while the stat block makes clear that this is compatible with full attacks. Thus, our half-illithid zenthal, blessed with four tentacles over a typical member of its species, can make six touch attacks and deal up to 6d4 wisdom damage. We get improved grab on all of these versus equally-sized or smaller foes (which is the only group you'd want to grapple with anyway), and deal 1d4 extra wisdom damage at the beginning of our turn if that grapple succeeds. Getting into melee isn't an issue; we're pretty tanky with a constant (temporary) HP influx from wisdom damage, a +4 Shield bonus to AC, 18 constitution, and +10 natural armor.

Don't think this build is a melee-focused one-trick-pony, by the way! You have Zenthal SLAs (3/day Confusion, 1/day Hypnotic Pattern), as well as Half-Illithid SLAs (3/day Detect Thoughts, 3/day Suggestion, 3/day Levitate, 1/day Charm Monster), several of which can solve social encounters all by themselves. Note the synergy with wisdom damage: if you hit an enemy into unconsciousness they become a willing target for Suggestion or Charm Monster, meaning fallen enemies can become a useful resource. Mind Blast is an alternate in-combat option, mostly notable if some low-Will foe tries to fly out of range. You don't need to rely on magic to influence others either; Intimidate is high (in part thanks to Willing Deformity) and increases throughout the build. Note that your Expansion power effectively gives a bonus on Intimidate checks as well!

Lastly, Thought Sense lets us be the first ever build comp submission to have Telepathy but not Mindsight. Speaking of Telepathy, it's great to have in social encounters or to keep in touch with a scout, so that's another out-of-combat thing you can do!

ECL 16
A level of cleric, dedicated to the broad ideal of 'escaping with abyssal aid' (thus, Travel and Demonic), gives us easy swift action movement as well as a nifty attack bonus (which may or may not boost wisdom damage, depending on how your DM rules those things). Our monstrous charisma gives us plenty of uses per day (once we hit 28 charisma we'll have 12 rebuke attempts, enough for 7 Travel Devotions a day).

The spells are an afterthought (mostly useful for qualifying us for ToD), but Resurgence is a mainstay here for giving you and your allies free new saves when needed, and Hide from Undead is extremely helpful in letting you avoid what are otherwise very dangerous enemies.

Note that you can use cleric wands now, so just stock up on those, focusing on anything that gives you better utility and helps when faced with undead or constructs. You don't need to spend money on a weapon, so the budget should have room for a couple magic sticks. Also check out Extend Tentacles on the off chance you ever need it!

If having ten prehensile tentacles somehow doesn't allow you to use somatic components... that's technically speaking not a build-breaker: all you truly need from the cleric level is Travel Devotion, wand use, and meeting the entry requirement of ToD. It's a hit to power, perhaps (insofar 1/day Hide from Undead contributes to the build's power), but it shouldn't be a hit to elegance. Worst case, ask your DM to allow a metamagic rod of Still Spell.

ECL 17
Thrall of Demogorgon opens with a bonus feat, some natural armor, and Hypnotism. The latter is a bit poorly-written (I'm assuming here that the HD cap still applies), but has some interesting interactions with Charm Monster: turn someone friendly with the charm, then upgrade that to Fanatic for a specific request.

If nothing else, you can burn off that drained wisdom to spawn a few mindshredder larva, then brainwash them into, I don't know, downtime itemcrafting. You can even feed the larva some farm animals to get them to pupate into warriors, and eventually perhaps even more zenthals, all of which should keep their fanatic attitude towards earlier commands.

We also start boosting Bluff at this level, to give us yet another means of social interaction that works especially well at softening people up for a well-placed Suggestion.

ECL 18
We're level 18, so Cause Fear is useless. Then again, it wouldn't have been useful either if we'd entered this class early, so there's not much lost there.

ECL 19
3/day, slightly increase reach for a round. This is mostly notable for letting you make AoOs against things that move towards you, which will occasionally drop a foe that was already low on wisdom or let you grapple a medium-sized assailant: at worst it's free extra wisdom damage.

ECL 20
Here we go, the thing that makes four levels of an incredibly mediocre class worth it: Dual Actions! Twice per day, we get to take two full round actions in a single round. Mind Blast stun something, and immediately go in for the grapple! Finish off that monster you'd been struggling with, swift action move to another, and make a second full attack! Reduce the wisdom-boosting druid BBEG to a drooling idiot within seconds! It's amazing nova potential on an already-great build.

Oh, and we also get two feats at this level; let's take Illithid Grapple twice so we can top off our attack routine with a respectable 10 tentacle attacks. We now deal 10d4 (average 25) wisdom damage if our touch attacks all hit, which amounts to a very solid chance to take out CR 20 monsters like balors, pit fiends, and dragons in one go. Taking these feats also ups the bonus on saves against spells and powers (as well as SLAs and PLAs) that we get from Illithid Heritage to +3, which is getting quite notable.


Thrall of Demogorgon - BoVD

Mindshredder Zenthal - MM3, assigned +0 LA
Half-Illithid - Underdark, assigned +2 LA (rating technically applies to fiend folio version, but the effects are identical and I have gone with the most recent source)

Willing Deformity, Thrall to Demon - BoVD
Hidden Talent - XPH
Illithid Heritage, Illithid Skin, Illithid Grapple - CPsi
Travel Devotion - CC

Demonic Domain - BoVD

Image generated with craiyon, prompt used 'many-tentacled quadruped'.

[Beni-Kujaku]

And here they are, five entries with nonstandard body types, to say the least! Enjoy your read, and if anybody (maybe ciopo, since you gave up on your own entry?) would like to judge, despite the current judging penury, that would be greatly appreciated!

[Frostmoon]

:D Wow, a lot of creatures in here I never would've expected. It's quite an interesting set overall, and each character seemed to focus down on a different gimmick or idea. Good to job to all, and good luck!


Yeah, that was literally down to the last minute. Or maybe even the following one ^^ Anyway, time for the reveal, please don't post until I'm finished.

Wehhh.... D: I could've sworn that all the time zone conversions showed one more hour... ah well. I still made it in, and I thank you for accepting my entry anyways~ :D

[ciopo]

I make no promises, but I might judge indeed

As for my dropped entry : concept "best mascot", simply a dog druid into hierophant, the idea was using the shapeshift variant, to then share it around due to the wording of power of nature: if you squint at it, nothing prevents you to transfer away the same feature to more than one target, you are merely prevented from using it yourself which implies you still have the feature.

Trouble came in execution because such a support role would work better if you also bring your own companion. So I kept swinging between druid8/beastmaster1/hierophant1/abolisher10 or druid8/beastmaster1/hierophant1/gatekeeper mystagogue10
Or some other combination of abolisher/gatekeeper

Problem is, I didn't like leaning on "if it advances wild shape, it advances shapeshift", and the 8th level shapeshift is nice but small potatoes compared to going druid 16 if I forgoed getting animal companion.

Pure druid on the other hand is kinda meh for an entry, shapeshift+hierophant is cool and all but making an entry with 16 levels of druid is not that interesting, and not wanting to argument around awaken-ing itself sealed the deal


I also had a joke entry in mind of making a crawling hands swarm entry

[Inevitability]

I thought about using the Death Dog as a cheap chassis for some multivoice cleric build, I don't think there's two-headed creatures with a lower ECL. It seemed remarkably boring, though, so I didn't end up going for it.

I also looked at Rejkar, because Fabricate at-will seems abusable and goats are funny. Maybe factotum into exemplar would've been interesting.

[Paragon]

Had two projects I ended up unsatisfied about.
First was a Cheschire Cat that would have people use their hands for him via an enchantment adaptation of Nightmare Spinner PrC as it is mentioned in the book. But I thought judges would just smack it down.
Second was a Yeth Fiend of Possession into Soul Eater to possess people so you can use their hands and then, kill them to benefit from the Soul Eater 6th level ability. Didn't get around to it tho

[Beni-Kujaku]

Wehhh.... D: I could've sworn that all the time zone conversions showed one more hour... ah well. I still made it in, and I thank you for accepting my entry anyways~ :D

You... are absolutely right. I somehow forgot I'm in GMT+1 and not GMT+0.


I make no promises, but I might judge indeed

Thank you very much! Let's hope you find the time!


As for my dropped entry : concept "best mascot", simply a dog druid into hierophant, the idea was using the shapeshift variant, to then share it around due to the wording of power of nature: if you squint at it, nothing prevents you to transfer away the same feature to more than one target, you are merely prevented from using it yourself which implies you still have the feature.

That's actually interesting, and not really broken considering how harshly restricted heirophant is as a prestige class and how druid class features are actually not that great. At this level, it's actually probably better to just transfer Wild Shape 1/day to each party member, since it lasts around 15 hours, much more than a typical adventuring day. And in your case, since you're already nonhumanoid, you could be a Fangshields druid and give everybody hands, so that there's absolutely no drawback to wild shaping, while dodging the "does anything improve shapeshift?" issue.


I also had a joke entry in mind of making a crawling hands swarm entry
"What? They're called crawling claws, not crawling hands, and they walk on all four. All four fingers, sure, but that's besides the point! The flavor text says they use their fingers as legs! You can't prove I don't fulfill the requirements!"
No, but seriously, the crawling claw wasn't reassigned an LA, as far as I know, where did you find it? The only way I see would be to apply swarmshifter to a zombie odopi to have a swarm of hands.


I thought about using the Death Dog as a cheap chassis for some multivoice cleric build, I don't think there's two-headed creatures with a lower ECL. It seemed remarkably boring, though, so I didn't end up going for it.

I also looked at Rejkar, because Fabricate at-will seems abusable and goats are funny. Maybe factotum into exemplar would've been interesting.
Damn, we left a lot of dog-based options unused! Yeah, Fabricate at-will seems interesting, but the restriction with minerals is a problem for combat use. Since it's an SLA, you can use it in combat to build walls of stone (you bypass the casting time thing, and you can erect two 5ftx5ftx1inch walls by a standard action, considering 1inch~1/12.5ft). Of course, since you don't need somatic components, it also means you can escape any nonmagical rope, nonmagical prison or open any nonmagical lock (I Fabricate the lock into a handle). Maybe not that great for optimization, but boy would it be fun to use in a campaign.

[Metastachydium]

Glad to see there were enough entries without me. I was kind of all done with the final, ECL 20 version of my own entry-to-be, but without items, the result seemed subpar. Anyhow, here's Muret the Heavy (https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=2704554) if anyone's interested; his tactics-to-go would have mostly consisted of "attack from hiding for some magical punch-punch" and later "the same but with some precision damage on top" with dumb quirks like a familiar bigger than the li'l fellow for inherent airborne capabilities.

[Tusen]

Sadly the time I thought I'd have to finish mine off was eaten up with family issues. I was just going to do a pretty simple displacer beast build, since magical beasts qualify for rapidstrike. So the goal was to get rapidstrike and improved rapidstrike to buff end-game damage.

The two ideas were: Displacer Beast/ Mantled Psionic Warrior 2/Invisble Fist Passive Way Monk 2, Hit and Run Sneak Attack Fighter 5, Swordsage 1/Warblade 3/Swordsage +1
or
Rogue past life for the +6d6 sneak attack damage, Champion of the wild, distracting attack, arcane hunter, predator, spiritual connection, distracting attack ranger 5/thayan gladiator 4/Swordsage 1/Warblade 1

One of them would end up with better natural attacks but be worse off when it comes to maneuvers, while the other one abuses initiator stuff a bit.

EDIT: Fixed a minor typo

[loky1109]

Table!

Name Alignment / Race Class Levels Chef Total Place
Togashi Hoshi (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25622611&postcount=52) LN Aberrant Limbs Psionic Halfblood Yuan-Ti Samurai 2/Samurai 2/Mirumoto Niten Master 8
Ten Thousand Souls (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25622614&postcount=53) LG Bat Swarm Overwhelming Attack Monk 2/Spontaneous Domain Casting Cloistered Lightbringer Cleric of Kelemvor 1/Eternal Order Paladin 2/Fighter 1/Fist of Raziel 10/Devoted Defender 1
Cheshy (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25622615&postcount=54), part 2 (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25622618&postcount=55), part 3 (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25622619&postcount=56) ?? Cheshire Cat Divine Companion Sorcerer 2/Visionary Seeker 1/Paragnostic Apostle 1/Unseen Seer 6/Spellwarp Sniper 5
Chirp (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25622621&postcount=57) CG Rukanyr Bear Totem Barbarian 3/Warblade 6/Forsaker 3
Experiment MHI-Taolt (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25622623&postcount=58) CE Half-Illithid Mindshredder Zenthal Cleric 1/Thrall of Demogorgon 4

[ciopo]

Judgement should land tuesday or thereabouts, I've nominally done them all but I want to sleep on it to have a second look with a fresh mind, but won't have time tomorrow

[ciopo]

I have decided I do not like judging, very impostor syndrome feel, but here we go!

Rubric :

Originality : baseline 3, +/- "concept", +/- "staples"
Power : baseline 3, and then a nebolous "Ok, it wants to do (this), how well does it do (this), are there immediate things that come to mind that would let doing (this) better?"
Elegance : Baseline 5, can only get maluses
Monstruosity: this will be more or less 100% subjective to my opinion, sorry. I value observing the spirit of the challenge, not only the letter here, and I penalize if the concept can be done (as easily/better) with standard races


FtQ = failure to qualify

Originality : 4 +1 concept not expected, and pursuing high expertise / defensive AC is cute.
Power : 3.5, within the concept-scope of "bodyguard", you lack a way of enforcing being attacked, otherwise solid chassis for martialing about , and the PLA for that extra bit of oomph
Elegance :3 -1 flaw,-0.5 trait. Nitpicks: (collectively -0.5) double samurai, and the wigglyness of human heritage. About human heritage specifically, I got no issue with an halfblood taking it, BUT it changes your type to humanoid(human), and I feel that should apply to your racial hit dice, so that would wreck havoc with the whole table, what with medium BAB and different saves, so that was a contributing factor. You forgot MM on your abbrevations (no penalty on, we all know what the MM is)
Monstruosity : 2 sorry, but you're only technically on theme in my opinion. Aberrant limbs to have four legs, cute. type 2 halfblood so you don't have hands? also cute. Using mouthpick weapons? this kills the monstruosity score for me, sorry, You're basically a human with extra steps this way, not a creepy crawly. Crucially, this is further "killed" by that human heritage, this would probably even work better with a humanoid and 7 more class levels here and there for vaguely bodyguard related features

12.5

Originality :3.5 +1 concept a power attacking bat swarm, wth. -0.5 staples VoP because it's obvious for Monster mash
power : 4 number's game (VoP is a +0.5 here within the scope of this contest), and a swarm is a swarm is a swarm, also cleric casting
Elegance : 3.5 -0.5 skill list is a bit messy/has errors (6th and 12th level). Nitpicks: (collectively -1) no fae for nymph kiss mentioned (and wigglyness about "is it reduced to 1 skill point anyway after int modifier is applied?"), gift of discernement isn't sourced (it's from PgtF, not BoED), FtQ for Fist of Raziel (you "can't" cast divine favor due to combination "target" and "can't use divine focuses", mind that it's in nitpicks, a FtQ would usually be harsher from me. This is more about not addressing divine focuses than the prerequisite). Can't smite with swarm attacks. Sadly can't power attack with swarm, because power attack apply the bonus damage to melee damage roll.. and swarm damage ain't qualified as such (power evaluated as if the gimmick works)
Monstruosity : 3 there's a reason I called my own plans about crawling hands a joke entry, this is technically correct about being within the scope of the round, you got away with it better than Togashi because you're not doing humanoid things, and I don't feel like being mean with fiat 1 (to both you and Togashi).

14

Originality : 3 may be judge bias here, but I was expecting a cheshire cat, and here it is! Going unseen seer / spellwarp sniper isn't a surprising choice, either
Power : 4.5 , 9th level spells are 9th level spells, isn't a 5 only because spontanoeus and the selection is clearly thematic and not 100% "cookie cutter", that and the LA saddle, more the saddle than the spell selection to be fair
Elegance :4 -0.5 skill list is a bit messy/not easy to parse what is in class/cross class. -0.5 FtQ Unseen seer (4 ranks of sense motive, "minor" because it's easy to fix), nitpicks (-0): divine companion is in complete champion, not CD. other little "annoyances" I can't articulate well, but aren't enough to trigger going from -0 to -0.5.
Monstruosity : 4.5 Controlled invisibility carries the day, no perfect score because the concept is relatively easily doable with 5 more sorcerer level, losing mostly the invisibility but "gaining" in power due to no LA saddle, but cheshire controlled invisibility is on the monster side due to not easy to reproduce

16

Originality : 4 +1.5 concept a sunderer? bro! -0.5 staples VoP because it's obvious for Monster mash
Power : 4 big numbers yo, certainly a bruiser (VoP is a +0.5 here within the scope of this contest)
Elegance : 4 -0.5 skill ranks are wrong at all levels, at a glance you counted 1 more rank every level, possibly from the 19th level intelligence increase? that's not retroactive, and it woulnd't give skill ranks anyway since it's enhancement, so ??? Nitpicks (-0.5) : no fae for nymph kiss mentioned. forsaker inherent bonuses technically don't stack with themself, so you "have" to spread them around. improved rapidstrike "should" have been claw?. poison/stunning strike/sundering roar in the book lacks the verbiage making their DC nonstatic,"seems" to be 10+1/2HD+STRMOD for the stunning strike and +CONMOD for the other two, but it isn't explicit
Monstruosity : 5 big numbers yo redux yo, this baby ain't replicably I feel, monsters be monsters.

17

Originality : 3.5 +0.5 concept, we had a grappling theme two rounds ago, so it fails to impress in this regard, specifically the half-illithid+more tentacles even
Power : 4 that's a lot of wisdom damage done with touch attacks
Elegance : 4.5 -0.5 slap on the wrist for the skill formatting and rolled in some nitpicks that don't cross over to enough of a penalty on their own: no source listed for resurgence, the assumption of all tentacles doing WIS
Monstruosity : 5 can't think of a way to get of slurping up that much WIS as a normal character

17

I absolutely don't like judging power, whereas elegance is much more my speed, as you all may feel

Random thought for inevitability : why is the badger (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=22670352&postcount=1021) +1, or rather : where are those STR+2 DEX +6 CON +8 modifiers coming from!? isn't it -2 STR +6 DEX +4CON? was the badger badgerer in a previous edition?

[Inevitability]

Random thought for inevitability : why is the badger (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=22670352&postcount=1021) +1, or rather : where are those STR+2 DEX +6 CON +8 modifiers coming from!? isn't it -2 STR +6 DEX +4CON? was the badger badgerer in a previous edition?

Rage will be on for most of combat, and can arguably be perma-activated (pick a fight with a teammate, have them hit you for 1 point of damage, enjoy rage while they live), this gives +4 str and +4 con.

[Beni-Kujaku]

Rage will be on for most of combat, and can arguably be perma-activated (pick a fight with a teammate, have them hit you for 1 point of damage, enjoy rage while they live), this gives +4 str and +4 con.

I don't buy the perma-rage. Not only is your friend not an "opponent" anymore when you finish the combat (though I understand the "its opponent" might be fixed once it's determined), this would mean you can't sleep until you kill your friend, since you're "biting and clawing madly". Beyond not healing naturally, Elder Evil has rules for people prevented from sleeping: "A living creature can go without sleep for a number of days equal to its Constitution modifier (minimum one). Thereafter it is fatigued, remaining in this state for a number of days equal to its Constitution modifi er (again, minimum one); if it would become fatigued during that time, it is exhausted instead. Each day after that period, the creature takes 1 point of Wisdom damage. If the total Wisdom damage exceeds its Hit Dice, the creature is affected as if by an insanity spell. Once its Wisdom score drops to 0, the creature becomes unconscious but cannot recover lost Wisdom naturally". Assuming that rule is universal and not only under the effect of a sign of the apocalypse, your badger would... require a lesser restoration once every few days. Yeah, not gonna lie, I was expecting something a little harder to counteract.


On another note, we have our first dispute:

I disagree that Val has a 'grappling theme'. Grappling is an incidental part of this character, especially because medium-sized foes are rare at high levels, and losing improved grapple would not significantly weaken the character. Val wants to full attack something, ideally drop it in one round, maybe activate dual actions for a second batch of attacks, and occasionally use a cleric spell or SLA, with grappling only relevant versus specific high-wisdom medium-size living creatures (a glance at the MM reveals basically no creatures who fit that bill, apart from the occasional humanoid cleric or something).

I mention grappling like 3 times in my entry, once when summing up Val's overall traits and twice in the context of "Here's how ability X helps you deal wisdom damage, but I guess you can also use it for grapples". That doesn't reveal a grapple theme exactly!

Also, I went back and the half-illithid you mention is... a flotsam ooze who primarily focuses on self-buffing and manifesting? I genuinely don't see how that resembles my build, apart from the fact that 1. both are half-illithid and 2. both consequently make tentacle attacks. I understand penalizing originality if I'm basically copying another entry's stub or tactics, but I don't see how I could be less similar without abandoning half-illithid altogether.

[loky1109]

ciopo, accept my gratitude for judging!

Updated table!

Name Alignment / Race Class Levels Chef ciopo Total Place
Togashi Hoshi (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25622611&postcount=52) LN Aberrant Limbs Psionic Halfblood Yuan-Ti Samurai 2/Samurai 2/Mirumoto Niten Master 8 12.50 12.50 4th
Ten Thousand Souls (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25622614&postcount=53) LG Bat Swarm Overwhelming Attack Monk 2/Spontaneous Domain Casting Cloistered Lightbringer Cleric of Kelemvor 1/Eternal Order Paladin 2/Fighter 1/Fist of Raziel 10/Devoted Defender 1 14.00 14.00 3rd
Cheshy (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25622615&postcount=54), part 2 (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25622618&postcount=55), part 3 (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25622619&postcount=56) ?? Cheshire Cat Divine Companion Sorcerer 2/Visionary Seeker 1/Paragnostic Apostle 1/Unseen Seer 6/Spellwarp Sniper 5 16.00 16.00 2nd
Chirp (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25622621&postcount=57) CG Rukanyr Bear Totem Barbarian 3/Warblade 6/Forsaker 3 17.00 17.00 1st
Experiment MHI-Taolt (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25622623&postcount=58) CE Half-Illithid Mindshredder Zenthal Cleric 1/Thrall of Demogorgon 4 17.00 17.00 1st

[ciopo]

I disagree that Val has a 'grappling theme'. Grappling is an incidental part of this character, especially because medium-sized foes are rare at high levels, and losing improved grapple would not significantly weaken the character. Val wants to full attack something, ideally drop it in one round, maybe activate dual actions for a second batch of attacks, and occasionally use a cleric spell or SLA, with grappling only relevant versus specific high-wisdom medium-size living creatures (a glance at the MM reveals basically no creatures who fit that bill, apart from the occasional humanoid cleric or something).

I mention grappling like 3 times in my entry, once when summing up Val's overall traits and twice in the context of "Here's how ability X helps you deal wisdom damage, but I guess you can also use it for grapples". That doesn't reveal a grapple theme exactly!

Also, I went back and the half-illithid you mention is... a flotsam ooze who primarily focuses on self-buffing and manifesting? I genuinely don't see how that resembles my build, apart from the fact that 1. both are half-illithid and 2. both consequently make tentacle attacks. I understand penalizing originality if I'm basically copying another entry's stub or tactics, but I don't see how I could be less similar without abandoning half-illithid altogether.
Uhm, that's fair, but also unlucky for you a bit, because "grappling theme" was me shorthanding, A more thorough explanation is : it's familiar to me, because for that round I was planning a half illithid taking illithid heritage with extra tentacles, so was Loki I believe. This concept is something I've tried to build recently, if not with your specific base creature, but the package of half illithid+illithid heritage into extra illithid tentacles

End of the day, that "not big" originality score, similarly to Cheshy, is because I am not surprised by it, note you're still at a plus from what I consider my neutral score for the category, if not as big a plus as other entries had gotten

no change

[Frostmoon]

Thank you for judging, ciopo!! :D

[Beni-Kujaku]

And another dispute for you‚ ciopo! Thank you for your quick response to the first one.


Thank you for judging, ciopo! You done well.

I have some to say.


-0.5 skill ranks are wrong at all levels, at a glance you counted 1 more rank every level, possibly from the 19th level intelligence increase?
I can't imaging where it came from. It isn't the 19th level intelligence increase, I got it independently on 19th level. It just mistake. Maybe I looked at racial +4 and decided it's Int mod? I don't know.


forsaker inherent bonuses technically don't stack with themself, so you "have" to spread them around.
Can't agree. There are ten levels in the Forsaker prestige class and each has +1 inherent bonus. But everybody in D&D has only six stats. It is clear this bonuses should stack otherwise it's pointless.


improved rapidstrike "should" have been claw?
No. I point it in the ECL 20 section. There is nothing obliging me to get Improved Rapidstrike for the same weapon that regular Rapidstrike in the feat description. Plus, with Warblade's weapon aptitude I can change it every day.


poison/stunning strike/sundering roar in the book lacks the verbiage making their DC nonstatic,"seems" to be 10+1/2HD+STRMOD for the stunning strike and +CONMOD for the other two, but it isn't explicit

I shouldn't have any specific verbiage.

The saving throw (if any) against a supernatural ability is 10 + 1/2 the creature’s HD + the creature’s ability modifier (usually Charisma).

Extraordinary ability saving throw DC = 10 + 1/2 the creature’s HD + the modifier for the ability score on which the ability is based + other modifiers (often racial)

Supernatural ability saving throw DC = 10 + 1/2 the creature’s HD + the modifier for the ability score on which the ability is based + other modifiers (often racial)
Only mystery is what abilities them based on, but it's very transparent.

[ciopo]

dangit, I shoulnd't have checked it out just before going to sleep, now I can't sleep until I address this, so I guess I'll address it now:

forsaker inherent bonuses: of course, I agree, RAi you stack them up, but that sadly isn't the issue here. that class feature is disfunctional because inherent bonuses don't stack with themselves, and just like two +1 tomes wouldn't result in a +2 bonus, putting a forsaker +1 two times on the same ability score won't result in a +2 bonus, by the rules. Unless inherent bonuses did stack with themself in 3.0? Can't check for that as I don't own 3.0 DMG/PHB, but I suspect in them too it was only dodge and circumstances that stacks.
I suppose if there is an errata on the matter of forsaker specifically that would be nice for future reference too, but it woulnd't help your case here because then the nitpick would be a missing source instead of a rule disfunction.
Do mind that I call these nitpicks for a reason, of course powerwise and in play I've assume dthey work as we would expect them to work, actual rules be damned.
Funnily, an alternative reading of that ability bonus is that a forsaker gains a +1 inherent to every ability score, and that bonus increases by 1 each level, I doubt anyone ever used that reading, but language is funny like that.


rapidstrike and improved rapidstrike: also agree, and I find it a nice gotcha getting "extra" extra attacks and applying the improved to a different natural weapon than the baseline rapidstrike, the "problem" is that your bites ... are not "in pairs", and in this regard because I'm fussy, 3 bites do not qualify for rapidstrike. Again it's a nitpick, and in power you do all those attacks just fine (but specifically in my interpretation 11 claws attack, hence the question mark about "should be claw(?)"
*I am cognizant "three contains a pair"

on the abilities DC: herein be the problem, , the srd says "Most saving throws against special abilities have DCs calculated as follows:" and then our beloved formula of 10+1/2HD+relevant ability modifier.
I have always taken that to mean that, if an ability modifier is not quoted within the ability description, then that DC is actually fixed, and does not scale with HD or ability modifier, same goes for SLA. Or other special abilities that are usually based on HD and/or some ability score, but fail to quote said ability score and so there is always that moment of uncertainty when advancing those monsters and having to decide "do I increase the SR?" "is rake damage static because it fails to mention it's supposed to be equivalent to claw damage, or do I account for different STR?" and so on.
Like, we assume by reverse engineering that the reflexive is DEX based, the stun si STR based and the roar/poison are CON based, but we are making an assumption, and therein lies the nitpick.

Now, I don't remember where I've read about this "fixed vs scaling DC" thing, I am sure it is "a thing" for spell resistance at the very least, and I'm generally inclined to grant scaling to more or less all the things because having features that you stop using because they stop being able to affect anything are not fun, but I'm fairly sure there are class features that have fixed DC, and if they don't get the general scaling from being SU or EX, neither should monster abilities unless we're esplicitly told at least "this ability is X based"

Not that any such class ability comes to mind right now, but I've been writing this and opening tabs to research stuff for the past hour and I really should be sleeping instead, my squirrel brain is momentarily assuaged that I've done due diligence in at least explaining myself, I will come back on this tomorrow after work, but for now no change in scoring, I'm inclined to lowering the nitpicks a bit but I haven't decided if it's enough to go from -0.5 to -0, and if I instead decide to change the granularity to accomodate these lessening, then I will also be re-evaluating all entries, as it's only fair.

[Beni-Kujaku]

Name Alignment / Race Class Levels Chef ciopo Total Place
Togashi Hoshi (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25622611&postcount=52) LN Aberrant Limbs Psionic Halfblood Yuan-Ti Samurai 2/Samurai 2/Mirumoto Niten Master 8 loky1109 12.50 12.50 4th
Ten Thousand Souls (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25622614&postcount=53) LG Bat Swarm Overwhelming Attack Monk 2/Spontaneous Domain Casting Cloistered Lightbringer Cleric of Kelemvor 1/Eternal Order Paladin 2/Fighter 1/Fist of Raziel 10/Devoted Defender 1 Inevitability 14.00 14.00 3rd
Cheshy (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25622615&postcount=54), part 2 (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25622618&postcount=55), part 3 (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25622619&postcount=56) ?? Cheshire Cat Divine Companion Sorcerer 2/Visionary Seeker 1/Paragnostic Apostle 1/Unseen Seer 6/Spellwarp Sniper 5 Frostmoon 16.00 16.00 2nd
Chirp (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25622621&postcount=57) CG Rukanyr Bear Totem Barbarian 3/Warblade 6/Forsaker 3 loky1109 17.00 17.00 1st
Experiment MHI-Taolt (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25622623&postcount=58) CE Half-Illithid Mindshredder Zenthal Cleric 1/Thrall of Demogorgon 4 Inevitability 17.00 17.00 1st


Congratulations to all participants, and especially to Inevitability and loky1109 who take back each half of the gold medal! And now, here are some theme propositions for the next round:

As I said back in round 3, I'd like to see a round similar to "Back to Basics", but with other base classes. After all, if we're using weird races, why not use weird classes too, am I right?

Prestige classes before it was cool: Your build must include at least one level from one of the specialized classes from AD&D, Bard, Paladin, Druid or Ranger

Hipster Magic: Your build must include at least one level from one of the poster classes for the alternative kinds of magic in 3.5: Binder, Incarnate, Warlock or Psion

Not quite magic, not quite mundane: Your build must include at least one level from the classes who use magic using a proxy instead of their own ability: Artificer/Spellthief/Healer/Factotum


Which one do you prefer? Is there another theme that you would like to see? Do you plan on participating? I will probably launch the next round during next week.

[Frostmoon]

CONGRATS TO INEVITABILITY AND LOKY :DDD
I'm honestly really quite happy that I'm taking silver in my first ever competition!!! I made a few silly mistakes (that 1 Sense Motive rank.... XD), but I built a character I'd enjoy playing, and I'm glad you guys seemed to appreciate her, too. :D It was fun!!! A bit stressful, especially since I'm still trying to figure things out, but overall, I'm happy I entered. :D

I'm sad we had no blink dogs or displacer beasts, to be completely honest. As the famous magical animals of DnD, I guess everyone kind of viewed them as too expected, but still. XD A blink dog Scout may've been fun!!

I also had a few ideas for silly animal builds; one was about gathering as many animal friends as possible (featuring a base of Sorcerer/Spirit Shaman/Hexblade in order to get an animal companion, a familiar, an animal spirit friend, and the weird "Dark Companion" panther thing), and one was about gathering animal classes to drop onto said animal (think bear with Bear Warrior/Bear Lord). Biggest issue with this was actually that I had these "two ideas" together as one originally, which was a verrrrrry bad choice. XD I actually am slowly putting together something built on the "animal with ANIMAL classes" (note: not a bear, not BW or BL) and maybe I'll give the horrible Hexblade/Spirit Shaman build another go eventually...? XD




Originality : 3 may be judge bias here, but I was expecting a cheshire cat, and here it is! Going unseen seer / spellwarp sniper isn't a surprising choice, either
Yeah, Unseen Seer/Spellwarp Sniper is a pretty well-known mix. My class list is standard as heck; the weirdest is Visionary Seeker, but it's just a tiny dip in the middle. XD
I honestly wasn't expecting another Cheshire Cat, but then Paragon mentioned that they were thinking of building one, too, so.... XD I was obviously wrong there.


Elegance :4 -0.5 skill list is a bit messy/not easy to parse what is in class/cross class. -0.5 FtQ Unseen seer (4 ranks of sense motive, "minor" because it's easy to fix), nitpicks (-0): divine companion is in complete champion, not CD. other little "annoyances" I can't articulate well, but aren't enough to trigger going from -0 to -0.5.
So, silly little tidbit: in my original document, Cheshy actually had all of her Sense Motive ranks (+2 at LVL1, +1 at LVL3, +1 at LVL6). Looks like it was the LVL3 boost that was dropped during the conversion over.
Also, yeah. I had a few pretty obvious typos: like, Cheshy's Chaotic Good (duh), but I realized I never actually wrote that on either my document or her writeup here. (It is on her Myth-Weavers sheets, though.) I spotted a few other oddities and missed words, so basically, I'm not surprised that it kind of annoyed you. Sorry about that. D:


Monstruosity : 4.5 Controlled invisibility carries the day, no perfect score because the concept is relatively easily doable with 5 more sorcerer level, losing mostly the invisibility but "gaining" in power due to no LA saddle, but cheshire controlled invisibility is on the monster side due to not easy to reproduce
Controlled invisibility is exceptionally powerful, especially at early levels. This build has made me understand LA Buy-off; CI + sorc casting is a good bit above the base power level at ECL 5, but it evens out as time goes on, finalizing in a race between it and 9ths. With LA Buy-off, I think the Cheshire Cat would match the curve a bit better...? At least CI never loses its viability.

Oh, and about the class focus for the next comp: any of those could be interesting! One could maybe do a Similar, but Different built around the alternative core classes: Barbarian (in place of Fighter), Sorcerer (in place of Wizard), Druid (in place of Cleric), and I guess Bard??? (in place of Rogue). It would hearken back to the original Monster Mash! :D
Or you could just say "Screw it all!!" and ask for NPC classes. >:3

Quick question: how should skills be sorted? I've been thinking that maybe the best way personally would be to separate them into a little chart, since they kind of clog up the main one, but I'm not sure that's wise...?

[loky1109]

Congratulations to all participants, to Inevitability and Frostmoon! And for our chair! It was a good round!

Ciopo, thank you for your judging.
While I anyway went to the Gold I didn't continue disputing, but now I have one thing to say.


the "problem" is that your bites ... are not "in pairs", and in this regard because I'm fussy, 3 bites do not qualify for rapidstrike.


A creature with multiple limbs qualifies for this feat as well, such as a creature with three arms and three claw attacks.
It's unambiguously my three bites do qualify for Rapidstrike.

About next round... Hm... I like all three options. I think I could create something for any. I hope I'll have time.

[Beni-Kujaku]

No more vote? As it is, there's no consensus, so I think I'll go with Hipster Magic (Incarnate, Binder, Psion, Shadowcaster)



Quick question: how should skills be sorted? I've been thinking that maybe the best way personally would be to separate them into a little chart, since they kind of clog up the main one, but I'm not sure that's wise...?

It's been normalized to have skills in the main chart. It does clog it up a bit, but it's much easier to check prerequisites at each level.