Optimization Iron Chef Optimization Challenge in the Playground CXXVI [Archive]

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The Viscount

2023-04-23, 01:06 PM

Welcome to Optimization Stadium, the field of combat for our storied competition. Here the contestants will be transmuting lead into gold as we showcase the overlooked, underused, weird, wild, and wonky prestige classes.

There's an ingredient on my list that I've been holding in reserve for when I've got a little more time to answer what will likely be clarification questions due to the oddity of it. I think the interesting nature is worth attempting to navigate the rules, and I hope you think so, too. Crack open The Mind's Eye Article (http://web.archive.org/web/20060628002304/http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20030426b) and find your center, this time we're cooking with Ballisteer!

Welcome, contestants, judges, and guests to Iron Chef. Here in Optimization Colosseum, contestants will endeavor to create an optimized and flavorful character using a specified D&D 3.5 prestige class as a "Secret Ingredient".

Contestants: You will need to present a full 20-level build for your entry. 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 from 1-20 in a real game. Traditionally contestants give "snapshots" of tactics and abilities at levels 5, 10, 15, and 20. The purpose of these snapshots is not just to showcase your use of the SI, it is to demonstrate that your character is playable at every level. For this reason, it's still worth giving a snapshot before you have entered the SI.

Menu: The "special ingredient" can be drawn from any legal source. Originally, the plan was to mostly use Core and Completes, but that was a long time ago, and we've started running out of interesting classes to use if we restrict ourselves to those.

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.

Kitchen: Competitors will be free to use any official 3.5 rulebook in constructing their builds. Dragon magazine is disallowed, and Unearthed Arcana is allowed; but see Elegance below. Web-exclusive 3.0 or 3.5 materials 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. Here's a guide to most of what has and hasn't been updated. (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dnd/20050110x) Alternate rule systems from UA such as gestalt or Generic Classes are not allowed, as they create a different playing field. Also, item familiars are forbidden. Please refrain from using Taint unless it's necessary for the Secret Ingredient.
NB: 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.

Cooking Time: Contestants will have until 13:59 GMT on Sunday, May 14th, 2023 to create their builds and PM them to the Chairman, The Viscount. You may submit build by email if it is too large for a single PM. Please put the name of your build in the subject line of your PM. Builds will then be posted simultaneously, to avoid copying. Judges will have until 13:59 GMT on Sunday, May 28th, 2023 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.

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, Use of Secret Ingredient.

Power level is up to you. Cheese is acceptable, but should be kept to a sane level unless you're showcasing a new TO build you've discovered. In the words of one of my predecessors, a little cheddar can be nice, but avoid the mature Gruyere unless you're making a cheese fondue.
Elegance could bear a little elaboration. It basically measures how skillfully you put your build together, and whether you sacrificed flavor for power. We're cooking here - if your dish doesn't taste good, it doesn't matter how well-presented it is. 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. Please note the following: 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.
Presentation: Builds will be posted anonymously, in order to avoid the potential of bias towards a particular competitor. For this reason, please don't put your name in the build, as I'm likely to miss it when reviewing the entries!

Due to concerns about standardizing entry format, I'd like everyone to try to use the following table for their entry. (A fillable, pre-formatted version found here (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BG0-5sq4dL9Ooh7-QfXuyHzO4rXSz-CRcj29t6BeUVE/edit#gid=0))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
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-

For other systems (Psionics, ToB, Incarnum, etc.) keep track of PP/maneuvers/essentia separately, preferably in a nice neat list.
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.

Leadership is banned; we're producing a meal, not a seven-course banquet for a hundred diners. If your entry includes a prestige class or ACF that grants Leadership or a Leadership-like ability as a bonus feat, the feat should be ignored and is not eligible to be traded away for another feat or ACF through any means. If your entry includes a prestige class that requires Leadership, you still need to qualify, but the feat should thereafter be ignored.

So! Who wants to sign up as a contestant, and who wants to sign up as a judge? Looking for as many contestants and judges as feel like playing!

We will award 1st through 3rd places, as well as a shout-out for honorable mention. The honorable mention prize is given to the most daring or unexpected build. Judges, contestants and guests alike are invited to vote for honorable mention via post in the thread or PM. If there are no votes, Honorable Mention will go to the chairman's favorite build.

Past Competitions

Courtesy of some wonderful volunteers, there is a handy-dandy spreadsheet guide to all previous builds here (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oyjVU5JmeCnC8YTMqDArDqE5PszHl0Ysadz630kuTGk/edit?ts=59a4835f#gid=0). PM if you'd like to contribute to the spreadsheet for access.

Iron Chef I: Entropomancer (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=142470)
Iron Chef II: Psibond Agent (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=146583)
Iron Chef III: Cancer Mage (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=148584)
Iron Chef IV: Stonelord (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=150595)
Iron Chef V: War Chanter (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=152543)
Iron Chef VI: Master of Masks (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=156876)
Iron Chef VII: Green Star Adept (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=158633)
Iron Chef VIII: Pyrokineticist (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=160266)
Iron Chef IX: Animal Lord (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=162702)
Iron Chef X: Mythic Exemplar (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=164381)
Iron Chef XI: Blade Bravo (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=166539)
Iron Chef XII: War Mind (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=9426386)
Iron Chef XIII: Vigilante (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=172233)
Iron Chef XIV: Seeker of the Song (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=174434)
Iron Chef XV: Drunken Master (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=176049)
Iron Chef XVI: Assassin (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=178202)
Iron Chef XVII: Ardent Dilettante (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=182492)
Iron Chef XVIII: Unseelie Dark Hunter (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=186097)
Iron Chef XIX: Dread Pirate (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=190607)
Iron Chef XX: Incandescent Champion (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=10976416)
Iron Chef XXI: Ghostwalker (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=198921)
Iron Chef XXII: Dervish (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=206576)
Iron Chef XXIII: Divine Crusader (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=210071)
Iron Chef XXIV: Tactical Soldier (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=214198)
Iron Chef XXV: Scion of Tem-Et-Nu (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=217441)
Iron Chef XXVI: Shadowdancer (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=220956)
Iron Chef XXVII: Mindbender (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=224008)
Iron Chef XXVIII: Cryokineticist (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=227304)
Iron Chef XXIX: Consecrated Harrier (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=229688)
Iron Chef XXX: Initiate of Pistis Sophia (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=233346)
Iron Chef XXXI: Shadow Sentinel (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=236908)
Iron Chef XXXII: Temple Raider of Olidammara (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=239786)
Iron Chef XXXIII: Drow Judicator (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=243052)
Iron Chef XXXIV: Dragon Disciple (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=246072)
Iron Chef XXXV: Death Delver (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=249542)
Iron Chef XXXVI: Acolyte of the Skin (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=252923)
Iron Chef XXXVII: Justiciar (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?255215-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-XXXVII)
Iron Chef XXXVIII: Hand of the Winged Master (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=255215)
Iron Chef XXXIX: Renegade Mastermaker (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=260333)
Iron Chef XL: Nightsong Infiltrator (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=263173)
Iron Chef XLI: Geomancer (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=266709)
Iron Chef XLII: Shadowblade (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=270196)
Iron Chef XLIII: Bladesinger (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=274122)
Iron Chef XLIV: Urban Soul (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=279116)
Iron Chef XLV: Talon of Tiamat (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=15216595)
Iron Chef XLVI: Cipher Adept (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=287314)
Iron Chef XLVII: Cold Iron Warrior (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=291294)
Iron Chef XLVIII: Shadow Sun Ninja (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=297327)
Iron Chef XLIX: Thrall of Orcus (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=302487)
Iron Chef L: Corrupt Avenger (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=307823)
Iron Chef LI: Black Flame Zealot (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=312773)
Iron Chef LII: Anointed Knight (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=317934)
Iron Chef LIII: Zerth Cenobite (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=325164)
Iron Chef LIV: Osteomancer (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=330890)
Iron Chef LV: Mountebank (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?336373-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LV)
Iron Chef LVI: Dwarven Defender (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?342807-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LVI)
Iron Chef LVII: Darkrunner (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?349040-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LVII)
Iron Chef LVIII: Spellsword (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?357412-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LVIII)
Iron Chef LIX: Fleet Runner of Ehlonna (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?364667-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LIX)
Iron Chef LX: Lasher (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?371835-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LX)
Iron Chef LX(II): Acolyte of the Ego (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?372145-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LX)
Iron Chef LXII: Dungeon Lord (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?376810-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXII)
Iron Chef LXIII: Witchborn Binder (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?382632-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXIII)
Iron Chef LXIV: Slime Lord (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?387166-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXIV)
Iron Chef LXV: Thunder Guide (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?394981-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXV)
Iron Chef LXVI: Dwarven Chanter (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?400810-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXVI)
Irogn Chef LXVII: Gnome Giant Slayer (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?406613-Irogn-Chef-Optimisatiogn-Challegnge-ign-the-Playgrougnd-LXVII)
Iron Chef LXVIII: Fang of Lolth (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?412530-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXVIII)
Iron Chef LXIX: Shiba Protector (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?420165-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXIX)
Iron Chef LXX: Order of the Bow Initiate (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?425634-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXX)
Iron Chef LXXI: Silver Key (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?431484-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXXI)
Iron Chef LXXII: Spellfire Channeler (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?439020-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXXII)
Iron Chef LXXIII: Flux Adept (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?448596-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXXIII)
Iron Chef LXXIV: Crinti Shadow Marauder (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?458711-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXXIV)
Iron Chef LXXV: Thief of Life (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?472831-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXXV)
Iron Chef LXXVI: Legacy Champion (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?477153-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXXVI)
Iron Chef LXXVII: Great Rift Skyguard (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?482249-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXXVII)
Iron Chef LXVIII: Risen Martyr (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?487560-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXXVIII)
Iron Chef LXXIX: Black Blood Hunter (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?492923-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXXIX)
Iron Chef LXXX: Master of Many Forms (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?498359-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXXX)
Iron Chef LXXXI: Serene Guardian (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?502666-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXXXI)
Iron Chef LXXXII: Elocator (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?505762-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXXXII)
Iron Chef LXXXIII: Winterhaunt of Iboorighu (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?510581-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXXXIII)
Iron Chef LXXXIV: Waverider (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?514631-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXXXIV)
Iron Chef LXXXV: Astral Dancer (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?519296-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXXXV)
Iron Chef LXXXVI: Twisted Lord (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?525401-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXXXVI)
Iron Chef LXXXVII: Shadowsmith (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?528361-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXXXVII)
Iron Chef LXXXVIII: Arboreal Guardian (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?533367-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXXXVIII)
Iron Chef LXXXIX: Thrall of Demogorgon (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?536247-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXXXIX)
Iron Chef XC: Bloodstorm Blade (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?542380-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-XC)
Iron Chef XCI: Fatemaker (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?550203-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-XCI)
Iron Chef XCII: Eye of the Xanathar (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?556092-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-XCII)
Iron Chef XCIII: Hoardstealer (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?560330-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-XCIII)
Iron Chef XCIV: Doomlord (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?564804-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-XCIV)
Iron Chef XCV: Gnomish Artificer (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?571065-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-XCV)
Iron Chef XCVI: Oozemaster (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?576075-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-XCVI)
Iron Chef XCVII: Aerial Avenger (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?579553-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-XCVII)
Iron Chef XCVIII: Visionary Seeker (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?583331-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-XCVIII)
Iron Chef XCIX: Life Eater (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?589964-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-XCIX)
Iron Chef C: Swiftblade (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?601292-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-C)

Iron Chef CI: Night Mask Deathbringer (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?610308-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-CI)
Iron Chef CII: Blade Dancer (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?613031-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-CII)
Iron Chef CIII: Psion Uncarnate (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?614461-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-CIII)
Iron Chef CIV: Atavist (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?615697-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-CIV)
Iron Chev CV: Primeval (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?618136-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-CV)
Iron Chef CVI: Disciple of Mammon (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?620730-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-CVI)
Iron Chef CVII: Insidious Corruptor (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?622560-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-CVII)
Iron Chef CVIII: Crimson Scourge (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?624099-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-CVIII)
Iron Chef CIX: Tattooed Monk (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?626458-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-CIX)
Iron Chef CX: Rage Mage (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?628809-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-CX)
Iron Chef CXI: Watch Detective (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?630421-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-CXI)
Iron Chef CXII: Spinemeld Warrior (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?632291-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-CXII)
Iron Chef CXIII: Celebrant of Sharess (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?633637-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-CXIII)
Iron Chef CXIV: Thayan Gladiator (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?635212-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-CXIV)
Iron Chef CXV: Shining Blade of Heironeous (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?637097-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-CXV)
Iron Chef CXVI: Peregrine Runner (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?638522-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-CXVI)
Iron Chef CXVII: Imaskari Vengeance Taker (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?640260-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-CXVII)
Iron Chef CXVII: Siren (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?641848-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-CXVIII)
Iron Chef CXIX: Arcane Duelist (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?645786-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-CXIX)
Iron Chef CXX: Berserk (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?646933-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-CXX)
Iron Chef CXXI: Dragon Descendant (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?648507-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-CXXI)
Iron Chef CXXII: Cerebrex (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?650262-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-CXXII)
Iron Chef CXXIII: Defiant (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?651923-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-CXXIII)
Iron Chef CXXIV: Beast Heart Adept (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?652714-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-CXXIV)
Iron Chef CXXV: Shadowspy (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?654631-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-CXXV)

The Viscount

2023-04-23, 01:07 PM

FAQ:
Q: What's this even about?
A: I'm glad you asked, actually... (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=15415117&postcount=1)

Q: Is Dragon Compendium Allowed?
A: Yes (as well as its Errata), but individual issues of Dragon Magazine are not.

Q: What about 3.0 materials?
A: 3.0 materials, whether online or in printed form, are allowed unless they've been officially updated to a 3.5 edition.

Q: Are Dragonlance, Ravenloft, Planescape, Dark Sun, or Kingdoms of Kalamar allowable sources?
A: 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). Materials from Ravenloft, Planescape, Dark Sun, and Kingdoms of Kalamar are considered 3rd party for purposes of this contest, and are therefore not allowed.

Q: What about online sources in general?
A: If the online source is a) published by WotC, and b) not replaced by an updated version at a later time, it is eligible. Use it, link it.

Q: Where's the line drawn with "acceptable/unacceptable" for Unearthed Arcana?
A: A few specific things are explicitly acceptable. The elemental/environmental races, spelltouched feats, variant character classes, specialist wizard variants, whirling frenzy, aspect of nature, and racial paragon classes are legal. Item Familiars and Gestalt have always been verboten, since before IC migrated to GitP; don't expect that to change. Flaws have similarly always been noted as warranting a deduction; I'm extending that to Traits, though they warrant 1/2 the penalty in Elegance that a Flaw would because they're roughly 1/2 as useful. Alternate spell systems, alternate skill systems and alternate crafting rules all create an uneven playing field, and as such, will be disallowed for as long as I am Chairman. In a similar vein, LA buyoff and fractional BAB are also disallowed. Bloodlines and the Retraining options presented in the PHB2 are ripe for abuse, and will be strongly discouraged as long as I am Chairman. Note that judges are allowed to look askance at any use of Unearthed Arcana not specifically mentioned above, at their discretion, and otherwise penalize Elegance according to their preference.

Q: What, exactly, does the ban on Leadership mean?
A: As folks have started to try to work around the edges of this one, I'm forced to spell it out more plainly. No Leadership, Draconic Cohort, or Feats that grant a similar ability are allowed EXCEPT Wild Cohort. Any PrC you choose with Leadership or a Leadership-analog has that ability entirely ignored for this contest, as it may neither be used nor traded away via any means whatsoever.

Q: What's the minimum score in a category?
A: Assuming an entry is legal, the minimum score in any category is 1. If a judge is convinced that an entry is mechanically illegal by the RAW, the judge may give the build a score of 0 in Elegance, and proceed to judge the entry as if the offending material was not included. Failing to meet a special requirement for a prestige class does not merit a 0, but may qualify for a penalty, at the judge's discretion. Because this contest focuses on Player Characters, an entry that is not technically allowed for a PC, but is viable as an NPC, counts as a legal entry, but may receive a minimum score at the judges' discretion.

Q: Creatures and templates with no listed LA are playable, right?
A: No. No listed LA is equivalent to LA: -. It is not suitable for PCs. If you use it, expect judges to look extremely disfavorably on it.

Q: So what's the deal with equipment, anyway?
A: There is no official policy on how much equipment you should list. Historically, judges have frowned upon "item dependent" builds, but unfortunately the definition of that has been applied to mean anything from builds that don't function if you remove one very specific item, to builds that so much as mention a particular weapon. Builds that don't list gear should be assumed to buy useful generics - items to boost their primary stats, cloaks of resistance, appropriate magical weapons and armor, and so forth. If a build would find particular items useful, they should be listed, but experience suggests that the more generic you keep them, the more favorably judges are likely to look upon them, as a build being shut down because the Thundering Bagpipes of Urist McTrumpetbritches were unavailable is considered a weakness. Similarly, requiring items in order to be able to qualify for things tends to be frowned upon.

Q: Do you have any other rules and guidelines on how to judge?
A: We do, actually, designed to try and avoid unpleasantness we've encountered in past contests. The things we've come up with to avoid repeating this are given below.

One Mistake, One Penalty

Judges are only allowed to penalise once for a given mistake. If someone messes up their skills and doesn't qualify for a PrC, ding them as hard as you like. Once. In one category. You don't then get to declare that because they didn't qualify for that PrC, they don't get those levels, and thus don't qualify for anything else. If Ranger is a common ingredient, ding them for Originality. Once. Don't also take off points for Two-Weapon-Fighting being a common ingredient.

Non-exhaustive list of examples:

Skills

Allowed:

Giving a penalty for miscalculating the number of skill points gained
Giving a penalty for not having enough ranks to meet a prerequisite
Increasing the harshness of a skill miscalculation penalty if it affects critical skills including prereqs

Not allowed:

Giving separate penalties for miscalculating skill points and for non-qualification where the non-qualification is solely caused by the miscalculation

Prereqs

Allowed:

Giving a penalty for not meeting prereqs
Scaling the penalty depending on how important the item that the build failed to qualify for is
Giving minimum score in UotSI for not qualifying for the SI
Not giving credit for (note: not the same as penalising for) tactics using feats or classes other than the SI that were not qualified for (but see below)

Not Allowed:

"Cascading" failures to qualify - declaring that because a build doesn't qualify for a feat, for example, it also doesn't qualify for anything using that feat as a prereq
Treating a build as having fewer levels than it does because of FtQ for classes

Other general things that are no longer allowed:

Penalizing because someone has chosen to build a tribute to an existing creative work
Deciding that a backstory has not met a fluff prerequisite well enough, or because its method of meeting it is "unrealistic". You may penalize if a fluff prereq is not addressed at all, but not for how well it is addressed.
Please don't base your scores off the scores of another judge.

Note that these are protections, not licenses. Deliberately taking a feat that you know you don't qualify for hoping to just suck up the judging penalty for a feat that you couldn't normally take is not okay, and may lead to your build being disqualified.

Q: Do you have any contest house rules or clarifications to ambiguous rules?
A: Some that have come up in previous contests and needed answers to:

All creatures are proficient with any natural weapons they may have or acquire.
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.
Able Learner's benefit applies to the level you take it.
Weapons from soulmelds are considered to be magic weapons for the purpose of overcoming DR.
Unarmed Swordsage grants Improved Unarmed Strike at level 1.
Not finishing Savage Progression is subject to a penalty to Elegance
One dispute per entry. Submit disputes by PM to the Chair.
Ghostwalk ghost is banned
Gold, silver, and bronze are awarded regardless of ties (e.g., 2 silvers does not preclude bronze)
Spelltouched feats are legal and can be taken just like any other feat when you meet the prerequisites and have the feat slot available.
The Variant Classes in Unearthed Arcana are considered ACFs.

Q: Can I submit more than one entry?
A: You may submit up to two entries into a given competition.

Q: Can I make edits or revisions to my submission?
A: As long as it is before the dishes have been posted in the reveal, you are welcome to revise or make edits to your entry. Please do so by sending a new PM with the changes incorporated.

Q: How are we updating this 3.0 class to 3.5 rules?
A: Remove the line about not gaining bonus power points.
Delete the Psionic Combat section and 0-level powers section entirely.

Paragon

2023-04-23, 02:19 PM

Looks very promising, in to cook if time allows.

Quick question, are we keeping the text about Psywar's 0th level powers that was introduced in the CPsi and deleted in the update ? Or should we just ignore the related Ballisteer's class feature

Same question for the Psionic "attack and defense mode"

I learned to read in the meantime, apologies

Inevitability

2023-04-23, 03:25 PM

I'll probably sit this one out: we got a lot of competitions running concurrently and I don't feel like this particular one would be too much fun. I'll probably judge though, will post criteria in the next week or so.

loky1109

2023-04-23, 03:51 PM

I have questions!

1) Psionic Sidestep and Improved Psionic Sidestep feats. Both have wording "reserve power points N+." which means "To use this feat he must maintain a power point reserve of N+ power points." But! All feats with such wordings were converted from 3.0 to 3.5 with wording "While you are psionically focused..."
How we should read these feats? As them is or convert them into psi focus version?

2) Power Points and Powers Discovered.

Ballisteers gain power points every level as though they gained a level of psychic warrior.

With the exception of1st, 4th, 7th, and 10th levels, ballisteers discover powers as though they gained a level of psychic warrior.

Their effective manifester level is increased by one for each level of the prestige class.
a) PP are gained at every level while Powers only at 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 8th, and 9th. How should we interpret this?
b) What if I never was psychic warrior? What if I was psion, or wilder, or enter PrC in some another way?
3) "Shot" abilities.

This ability is applied as the attack is made.

This ability is applied as the attack is made, but the cost must be paid before the attack roll.
What does this means? I'll decide to use ability after madding attack? How could it possible with Ethereal Shot, Incorporeal Shot, Phase Shot, even with Invisible Shot. Using this abilities directly affects attack result.

The Viscount

2023-04-23, 04:22 PM

Good questions.

1. In the spirit of updating things to 3.5, you may use psionic sidestep and improved psionic sidestep while psionically focused.

2. PP and manifester level increases every level. Powers known are only gained at the specified level. If you were not a psychic warrior before entering, you choose psychic warrior powers as if you were a psychic warrior of level equal to levels as given on the chart (i.e. choose as a 1st level psychic warrior at Ballisteer 2, choose as a 6th level psychic warrior at Ballisteer 9).
For the sake of sanity, we will say that you can just advance PP as per your original class. Add PP as if you had gained a level in psychic warrior. If you had a class other than psychic warrior before Ballisteer, add PP as per the rules for multiclassing in XPH p 17-18.

3. We can say that using the class features is kind of like a smite. If you are going to make an attack roll, spend the PP before you make the attack roll as a free action. You may use more than one class feature, but (following the normal psionic rules) your total PP expenditure for a single attack cannot exceed your manifester level, like when augmenting a power.

H_H_F_F

2023-04-23, 05:02 PM

Just to clarify: A psion 8/ SI 10 is about to take their 19th level (+1 psion). Their ML is going to be 19. Is their maximum power level known (for psion powers) going to be 5, 8, or 9?

The Viscount

2023-04-23, 05:09 PM

Their maximum power level known for psion powers would be 5th.

H_H_F_F

2023-04-25, 06:32 AM

I have something. I still need to figure some stuff out, but I think I have something.

Haven't submitted in the last 5 rounds. Excited!

Just realized I missed something major. Ugh.

Malphegor

2023-04-25, 08:51 AM

I have an old idea that’s maybe semi-obvious and probably has been used in tandem with this class in threads way back when, just need to check the skills would balance out, and also figure out what to put in the last 5 levels as like, Ballisteer takes up so many levels, gives a ton of cool abilities, but none of them are all that impressive, so it’s really up to the roleplay to shine where you improve incrementally or gain side benefits but not especially dramatically satisfyingly so.
Will keep ya posted if it works out

The Viscount

2023-04-25, 09:33 AM

Reading through the rules some more I realize some more clarification would be helpful (and to line up with the multiclass rules). I've updated my earlier post as well.

If you do not manifest as a psychic warrior before entering Ballisteer, you essentially become a multiclass character. When manifesting psychic warrior powers, your manifester level for those powers is equal to your Ballisteer level. You add PP as if you had multiclassed into psychic warrior (add PP as given for psychic warrior level = Ballisteer level, example in XPH p 17-18).

Ballisteer class features work on thrown weapons as well as projectiles (such as arrows).

H_H_F_F

2023-04-26, 06:01 PM

My entry has taken shape! I'll definitely be entering this round. Woo!

Clarification regarding Explosive shot: is the damage that the surrounding creatures take the energy shot damage, or the full damage of the shot? Seems very clear to me that it's referencing only the energy damage, but wanted to make sure.

The Viscount

2023-04-26, 07:10 PM

Clarification regarding Explosive shot: is the damage that the surrounding creatures take the energy shot damage, or the full damage of the shot? Seems very clear to me that it's referencing only the energy damage, but wanted to make sure.

Surrounding creatures take the additional energy damage as per energy shot.

H_H_F_F

2023-04-27, 07:57 AM

Entry sent. Looking forward to the reveal!

loky1109

2023-04-29, 03:35 PM

I was struck by inspiration!

UPD: and I have another question.
Could we use that class update in future rounds?

Inevitability

2023-04-29, 04:18 PM

Judging guidelines:

All scores start at 1.

Originality:
1 point for your race: humans and strongheart halflings get 0 points, anything well-supported or obviously suited for the secret ingredient gets 0.5, and more obscure or unexpected things get 1.

1 point for classes: how surprised am I to see these classes in an iron chef submission, especially considering the SI? This includes breakpoints: Fighter 2 is an obvious dip: Fighter 4 less so.

0.5 points for feats: full points here if I'm solidly impressed by at least half the feats you select (that is, not counting mandatory bonus feats).

0.5 points if any of the above are unexpected to see together. Halflings are pretty common, and barbarian 1 is one of the most notorious dips, but a halfling barbarian would earn points here. Same with a wizard who grabs Power Attack, or a Stunning Fist paladin.

1 points for tactics and concept: can I quickly name a cool thing you do that's impressive or evocative on either the mechanical or practical level? Backstory can also deliver a small bonus in this area, though no more than half a point.

Power:
1 point for your skill at your chosen specialization assuming a reasonably favorable matchup. How good can the fireball-spamming wizard incinerate a cluster of mooks, how much sneak attack does the rogue bring to the table? Assume classes with a roughly similar power level as a point of comparison.

1 point for covering your weaknesses: that can be offensive (making sure your sneak attacker picks up Penetrating Strike) or defensive (giving your low-HP wizard some source of concealment and evasion).

How's your utility? 0.5 points if you're a complete face, scout, trap expert, tracker, or utility caster. Another 0.5 points for filling a second of these roles, or having enough bibs and bops that I think you'll be an useful backup for most of those roles.

A face should have good Diplomacy, supplemented by Bluff, Intimidate, or Sense Motive or magic that does something similar.

A scout should be able to avoid ambushes and traps through stealth or other means, while having the senses to perceive what's ahead.

A trap expert should be able to both detect and disable mundane and magical traps.

A tracker needs to be able to track down enemies. Merely having the Track feat and some Survival investment isn't quite sufficient: you have to possess a complementary ability as well.

An utility caster should offer a wide array of useful magic: whether curative, transporation-focused, or random problem-solvers like Silence and Legend Lore. Relying on external items (wands to UMD, scrolls to add to your spellbook) gets you half points.

How consistent is the build throughout your career? I expect the build to be broadly playable by level 5 and to have obtained all important elements by level 15 at the latest. 0.5 points here.

Another 0.5 points for making it through four encounters a day without a significant drop in power.

Elegance:

1 point for avoiding multiclass XP penalties.

1 point for avoiding mechanical errors, having all your sources in order, and giving me a good overview of your build.

1 point for avoiding reliance on ambiguous rules: taking the sane interpretation where they pop up also helps here.

1 point for your build's playability: do you need alignment shifts, specific items, conflicting memberships, or other things that the DM will probably not outright veto, but that might be impractical to acquire in an actual game?

UoSI:

Ballisteer has 11 class features: you get 0.1 points for each one that your character appreciates having (that is, something that meshes with your normal tactics and isn't outclassed by a feature you already possess), 0.25 points for a minor combo or synergy, and 0.5 points for a combo that truly wows me. 'Minor combo' or 'major combo' is defined relative to how useful I expect a feature to be: to use last round's Shadowspy as an example I'd have lower standards for rewarding use of Immunity to Blindness or Radiance of Pelor compared to Hide in Plain Sight.

Ballisteer has many prerequisites: do you use them for anything interesting? Up to 0.5 points here if the Tumble investment or feats get significant use beyond their default benefits.

Ballisteer is a psionic class, and subsystems don't get enough love in IC: do you do anything neat with its psionics, or are they just kind of there? Up to half a point here.

If you find some other unique trait of the SI to optimize (like including Cerebrex on a build to easily get Heal as a caster), you can get up to half a point of bonus here.

The Viscount

2023-04-29, 04:31 PM

I was struck by inspiration!

UPD: and I have another question.
Could we use that class update in future rounds?

Use the updated version of Ballisteer?
Sure.

H_H_F_F

2023-04-30, 06:05 AM

I've had an idea for another entry. It's interesting, but I'm not a 100% certain it's worth the judges' time.

loky1109

2023-04-30, 11:43 AM

I've had an idea for another entry. It's interesting, but I'm not a 100% certain it's worth the judges' time.

Quite often, after such words entries get Gold. )))

H_H_F_F

2023-04-30, 12:47 PM

I think I'll just ask The Viscount what the amount of entries looks like once the deadline draws nearer. If the number will be low, I'll submit the other entry - otherwise, I'll just share it after the reveal.

FactualArcher

2023-05-01, 02:16 PM

I'm extremely new here, but I have an idea for a build. I've read the rules, so hopefully my entry is properly formatted. I apologize in advance for any errors. I'm really excited to be competing.

H_H_F_F

2023-05-01, 02:35 PM

I'm extremely new here, but I have an idea for a build. I've read the rules, so hopefully my entry is properly formatted. I apologize in advance for any errors. I'm really excited to be competing.

Welcome to the playground, FactualArcher! Looking forward to seeing your entry. Have you checked out some previous rounds, to get a general idea of what's expected?

Inevitability

2023-05-01, 02:55 PM

I'm extremely new here, but I have an idea for a build. I've read the rules, so hopefully my entry is properly formatted. I apologize in advance for any errors. I'm really excited to be competing.

Welcome, always good to have new people here! I'd offer to go easy on the judging if entries weren't anonymous. :P

FactualArcher

2023-05-01, 03:06 PM

Thanks for the greetings. H_H_F_F, I've read some of the earlier contests, so I think I know generally how this works. I'm very excited to be competing.

loky1109

2023-05-01, 04:15 PM

FactualArcher

2023-05-01, 04:51 PM

I'm almost done with my build, but I'm having trouble formatting the tables in a PM. Does anyone know how to properly insert a build table?

H_H_F_F

2023-05-01, 05:17 PM

I'm almost done with my build, but I'm having trouble formatting the tables in a PM. Does anyone know how to properly insert a build table?

So, I can't know what the issue is without more info, but were you perhaps trying to just copy the table and fill it? Cause you can't do that, you have to use forum formatting. There's a fillable, pre-formatted version made by the marvelous Mattie_p linked in the original post, right above the spoilered table. There's also a code spoiler underneath the table in that spoiler.

If that's not your issue... have you made sure you're copying all the lines?

FactualArcher

2023-05-01, 05:34 PM

I failed a spot check on the pre formatted version, but now that I found it I think I've got it worked out. Thanks for your help!

loky1109

2023-05-02, 04:28 PM

Entry sent!
I hope you'll enjoy it!

Paragon

2023-05-02, 04:50 PM

Mine too
Damn we had the exact timing together haha

quetzalcoatl5

2023-05-02, 11:48 PM

Also new here and super excited to cook if I can!

H_H_F_F

2023-05-03, 02:31 AM

Also new here and super excited to cook if I can!

Welcome to the playground, Quetzalcoatl!

Paragon

2023-05-03, 08:56 AM

Also new here and super excited to cook if I can!

Well my entry is sent so if I can help you with anything just send me a pm :)

H_H_F_F

2023-05-04, 05:24 AM

3 days left! How's everyone doing?

FactualArcher

2023-05-04, 05:39 AM

My entry's in. I'm excited to see the others.

The Viscount

2023-05-04, 07:10 PM

I had been musing on "maybe I'll build with [REDACTED] since I like it and few people do," but I was pleased to find someone had in fact built with it.

I was a little worried about turnout given that it's psionics, but those fears were unfounded.

loky1109

2023-05-04, 07:43 PM

I was a little worried about turnout given that it's psionics, but those fears were unfounded.

I always looked at 3.0 psionic content with pity. Somebody made it, gave their strength, and now it's unusable because nobody said us how convert it officially. And there are some very unique and pretty things.

Paragon

2023-05-05, 01:11 AM

H_H_F_F

2023-05-05, 01:56 AM

I had been musing on "maybe I'll build with [REDACTED] since I like it and few people do.

Soulborn 10 doesn't qualify, silly.

loky1109

2023-05-05, 07:02 AM

Soulborn 10 doesn't qualify, silly.
Actually...

The Viscount

2023-05-05, 07:10 PM

Soulborn 10 doesn't qualify, silly.

Absolutely savage burn.

H_H_F_F

2023-05-07, 04:50 AM

Reveal today, right?

Macabaret

2023-05-07, 06:26 AM

Aaaaand... submitted!

Wow, it's been awhile since I've entered one of these competitions! Expect a bevy of mistakes, everybody!

H_H_F_F

2023-05-07, 06:46 AM

Aaaaand... submitted!

Wow, it's been awhile since I've entered one of these competitions! Expect a bevy of mistakes, everybody!

Just in time! Looking forward to seeing your entry.

And a while is certainly right - more than 4 years, in fact. Before my time. Welcome back!

By the way, your sig is out of date - you've won silver with Touchy Mcphee (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=23618922&postcount=52) back in the oozemaster round.

The Viscount

2023-05-07, 10:20 AM

I have received a few requests for an extension.
The reveal will be in 1 week's time on May 14th. I will update the OP accordingly.

H_H_F_F

2023-05-07, 10:49 AM

https://media1.giphy.com/media/L02M3FJhkF19S/giphy.webp?cid=ecf05e47fbsm85l16zppotr8rqcp9ld5ce1 vjqeztffawvzm&ep=v1_gifs_search&rid=giphy.webp&ct=g

Oh well. Looking forward to next week!

loky1109

2023-05-07, 11:04 AM

I suddenly found new silly idea. )))

Paragon

2023-05-08, 06:28 AM

https://media1.giphy.com/media/L02M3FJhkF19S/giphy.webp?cid=ecf05e47fbsm85l16zppotr8rqcp9ld5ce1 vjqeztffawvzm&ep=v1_gifs_search&rid=giphy.webp&ct=g

Oh well. Looking forward to next week!

Damn, I just finished my first thread and I was going to chill watch the entries. I concur and love that Gif (especially since the actor actually read the caption text as text he should say outloud)

H_H_F_F

2023-05-09, 06:04 AM

Damn, I just finished my first thread and I was going to chill watch the entries. I concur and love that Gif (especially since the actor actually read the caption text as text he should say outloud)

Kevin Sorbo denied (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7nC4H28Sjc) that story.

For what it's worth, I tend to believe him. He was an experienced actor at the time, very unlikely to make that sort of error. That's compounded by further unlikelihood of leaving it in, and by no one ever providing evidence or testimony to support the urban legend.

So as much as I like the story, I don't think it's true.

Paragon

2023-05-09, 02:13 PM

Kevin Sorbo denied (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7nC4H28Sjc) that story.

For what it's worth, I tend to believe him. He was an experienced actor at the time, very unlikely to make that sort of error. That's compounded by further unlikelihood of leaving it in, and by no one ever providing evidence or testimony to support the urban legend.

So as much as I like the story, I don't think it's true.

You didn't have to ruin it for me...

H_H_F_F

2023-05-09, 02:22 PM

You didn't have to ruin it for me...

I have freed you from untruth! It can hurt while we get readjusted, but the pain is unjustified. You are now slightly more enlightened than you were but an hour ago. Rejoice!

Back on topic, how's everyone still building doing?

loky1109

2023-05-09, 03:00 PM

Back on topic, how's everyone still building doing?

Maybe I, but I'm not sure.

quetzalcoatl5

2023-05-09, 03:08 PM

Excited to have made my first submissions!

Can't wait to see what everyone comes up with!

Paragon

2023-05-09, 04:15 PM

Glad to see the flame of the IRC revived with every new comer :)

loky1109

2023-05-11, 05:36 PM

Back on topic, how's everyone still building doing?

Second entry sent! I really didn't expect that. Hope it will be amusing. )

H_H_F_F

2023-05-12, 04:55 AM

While we're waiting for the reveal, can we get a hint as to the next ingredient? Do I smell an eastern feudal warrior class with an affinity towards legendary reptilian creatures?

The Viscount

2023-05-12, 09:13 PM

Here's the top three I'm considering at the moment:

Insane Clown Posse
In there like swimwear
Tofurky

H_H_F_F

2023-05-13, 02:53 AM

Here's the top three I'm considering at the moment:

Insane Clown Posse
In there like swimwear
Tofurky

None of those sound like a real threat. Guess I'm still paranoid from SBoH.

It's Tofurky for me.

loky1109

2023-05-13, 02:56 AM

Here's the top three I'm considering at the moment:

Insane Clown Posse
In there like swimwear
Tofurky

I have no idea what this means!

H_H_F_F

2023-05-13, 03:02 AM

I have no idea what this means!

Oh, neither do I. I just think tofurkey "something that fails at pretending to be something else." And I like that. Also, when I signed my vegan contract 11 years ago, it included a commitment to always vote for the vegan option in any competition including one. They're very careful, those vegan lawyers.

Inevitability

2023-05-13, 04:59 AM

Here's the top three I'm considering at the moment:

Insane Clown Posse
In there like swimwear
Tofurky

Tofurky sounds fun.

FactualArcher

2023-05-13, 05:30 AM

As a vegetarian, I am obligated to vote for Tufurkey, though until today I thought it was some sort of hybrid abomination, not a plant based substitute.

The Viscount

2023-05-13, 08:46 AM

None of those sound like a real threat. Guess I'm still paranoid from SBoH.

There are very few ingredients left on the list on the same level of insulting as Shining Blade. None of them are among the three here.

H_H_F_F

2023-05-13, 08:53 AM

There are very few ingredients left on the list on the same level of insulting as Shining Blade. None of them are among the three here.

You know what we fear.

But yeah, I assumed it's not any of those.

loky1109

2023-05-13, 09:05 AM

There are very few ingredients left on the list on the same level of insulting as Shining Blade. None of them are among the three here.

I hope to see Fist of Hextor as SI once. It's not awful, but after SBoH it should be here for the name of harmony!

Inevitability

2023-05-13, 09:36 AM

I hope to see Fist of Hextor as SI once. It's not awful, but after SBoH it should be here for the name of harmony!

Fist of Hextor seems absolutely awful to build with. It's so incredibly generic, and the one part of it that isn't a flat numerical bonus could be obtained with a feat. Even Ravager seems like it'd make for a more varied round.

Paragon

2023-05-13, 11:36 AM

Vegetarian as well, turkufey it is !

H_H_F_F

2023-05-13, 12:00 PM

loky1109

2023-05-13, 12:23 PM

Still, Vizzini truly haunts my dreams. Looking forward to knowing if we all did the same thing or not.

At least l made two very different things. )
But yeah, Vizzini haunts.

The Viscount

2023-05-13, 12:37 PM

Inevitability

2023-05-13, 01:29 PM

I'm really looking forward to the reveal. I actually ended up really liking this SI; felt like it had plenty to catch on to, unlike certain (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?630421-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-CXI) rounds (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?638522-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-CXVI)I could (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?632291-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-CXII)mention (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?626458-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-CIX.).

Still, Vizzini truly haunts my dreams. Looking forward to knowing if we all did the same thing or not.

I wasn't on these forums around the time of Peregrine Runner, but I actually had an idea for a (viable-ish) build with it while looking at the class sometime after the competition.

You see, Berronar Valkyrie is a paladin variant that trades Turn Undead for the ability to Pounce 3+cha mod times per day, but only against enemies that are currently threatening an ally. Peregrine Runner fixes the obvious issues with that variant by offsetting the slow base speed of dwarves and giving you a falcon companion that can easily move into (flanking) position to make enemies chargeable. At the same time, Valkyrie offers an obvious way to enable Skirmish and paladin gives two of the skills needed for entry (the other two are offered by stoneblessed).

The immunity to fatigue thing could be left as-is (it's useful for a charger, if nothing else) but has some minor synergy with the 6th Berronar Valkyrie level, which lets you create binding oaths that fatigue anyone who breaks them, and inform all involved parties (you + the two oathmakers). Fatigue immunity lets you use this ability on yourself and use it to send simple messages (such as "Orcs are coming") over any distance. On the way there, you get Charging Smite from paladin 5, because it's not like a mount is too useful in rugged terrain anyway.

The remaining one or two levels would probably be used to fix peregrine runner's light armor prerequisite; being a dream dwarf with a level in swift hunter druid would probably be the easiest way to get Wisdom to AC without violating favored class restrictions, and even gives a slight boost to your falcon companion. (edit: nm, this would obviously not work for alignment reasons)

H_H_F_F

2023-05-13, 02:48 PM

I wasn't on these forums around the time of Peregrine Runner, but I actually had an idea for a (viable-ish) build with it while looking at the class sometime after the competition.

You see, Berronar Valkyrie is a paladin variant that trades Turn Undead for the ability to Pounce 3+cha mod times per day, but only against enemies that are currently threatening an ally. Peregrine Runner fixes the obvious issues with that variant by offsetting the slow base speed of dwarves and giving you a falcon companion that can easily move into (flanking) position to make enemies chargeable. At the same time, Valkyrie offers an obvious way to enable Skirmish and paladin gives two of the skills needed for entry (the other two are offered by stoneblessed).

The immunity to fatigue thing could be left as-is (it's useful for a charger, if nothing else) but has some minor synergy with the 6th Berronar Valkyrie level, which lets you create binding oaths that fatigue anyone who breaks them, and inform all involved parties (you + the two oathmakers). Fatigue immunity lets you use this ability on yourself and use it to send simple messages (such as "Orcs are coming") over any distance. On the way there, you get Charging Smite from paladin 5, because it's not like a mount is too useful in rugged terrain anyway.

The remaining one or two levels would probably be used to fix peregrine runner's light armor prerequisite; being a dream dwarf with a level in swift hunter druid would probably be the easiest way to get Wisdom to AC without violating favored class restrictions, and even gives a slight boost to your falcon companion.

Very cute!

The Viscount

2023-05-13, 07:05 PM

You know what we fear.

But yeah, I assumed it's not any of those.

This time I'm not sure that I do. I'm struggling to think of that many bogeymen left.

Venger

2023-05-13, 10:54 PM

I am desperately curious to see what insane clown posse is.

Wildstag

2023-05-14, 02:46 AM

I'm intrigued by "In there like swimwear".

As for the Peregrine Runner discussion, I wish I'd thought of the best way for my build to use the Peregrine Falcon before submitting it, with the character using the bird to carry the Tibbit in cat form anywhere and everywhere, using it as a form of aerial bombardment. But any build I can work in Warshaper is a fun PrC, and I used it in a fun way.

loky1109

2023-05-14, 03:03 AM

Yeah, Peregrine Runner round. I somehow got 4th place with really awful entry. Looking at in now and understand I'd build it much more better now.

H_H_F_F

2023-05-14, 03:26 AM

This time I'm not sure that I do. I'm struggling to think of that many bogeymen left.
Then I'll keep my silence, happy and secure :tongue:

loky1109

2023-05-14, 03:54 AM

Here's the top three I'm considering at the moment:

Insane Clown Posse
In there like swimwear
Tofurky

Okay. It isn't fair. I'm hungry and you give me food. Of course Tofurky.

H_H_F_F

2023-05-14, 08:35 AM

Hype, hype, hype, hype!

Paragon

2023-05-14, 08:44 AM

Hype, hype, hype

loky1109

2023-05-14, 08:47 AM

Hype! Hype! Hype!

Paragon

2023-05-14, 12:19 PM

Hyyyyype ?

H_H_F_F

2023-05-14, 12:48 PM

Hyyyyype ?

The Viscount is American. He might be busy driving for about 50 hours straight to get from one coast of his enormous country to the other.

Paragon

2023-05-14, 02:32 PM

The Viscount is American. He might be busy driving for about 50 hours straight to get from one coast of his enormous country to the other.

That'd take a lot less time in other countries ;-)

daremetoidareyo

2023-05-14, 02:54 PM

I suspect we are waiting for one more submission

loky1109

2023-05-14, 03:02 PM

I suspect we are waiting for one more submission
It makes sense.

That'd take a lot less time in other countries ;-)
And lot more in some another.

H_H_F_F

2023-05-14, 03:09 PM

I suspect we are waiting for one more submission

Sure seems like it... Guess I'll find the time to read the entries tomorrow, if they don't come up in the next hour or so.

Did you enter this round, Dare?

daremetoidareyo

2023-05-14, 03:31 PM

Sure seems like it... Guess I'll find the time to read the entries tomorrow, if they don't come up in the next hour or so.

Did you enter this round, Dare?

Got my monstrosity in yesterday.

H_H_F_F

2023-05-14, 03:33 PM

Got my monstrosity in yesterday.

Looking forward to reading it!

The Viscount

2023-05-14, 03:46 PM

The Viscount is American. He might be busy driving for about 50 hours straight to get from one coast of his enormous country to the other.

This is very funny.

Anyway, it's time for the reveal! (Please hold off on posting until the all clear.)

The Viscount

2023-05-14, 03:56 PM

Weapon properties and weapon properties and weapon properties

Middle Aged LG Kalashtar Psion 3/Monk 2/Soulknife 2/Soulbow 1/Balisteer 4/Soulbow +1/Balisteer +6/ Soulbow +1
Str 7 Dex 13 Con 12 Int 14 Wis 18(+1 every four levels) Cha 12
Elithkhad grew up in a monastery in Adar, raised by Psion parents. They taught him to manifest at a very young age, and his psicrystal Otari was a friend to him from his teenage years. As he reached adulthood, however, Elithkhad grew restless. Urged on by his spirit and by Otari, he joined a monastery high in the mountains where monks trained to blend the power of their mind and body.

Elithkhad begins his career as a traditional telepath, albeit one with a lower than normal intelligence. In combat, he manifests charms. Outside of combat, he’s a solid face and his Psicrystal plus Sense Link makes him a decent scout. Once Elithkhad gets a level in monk, his AC rockets up. With his great wisdom, Force Screen, Inertial Armor, and Dodge, his AC is significantly over 20 and he can fight in melee using Stunning Fists and Psychic Scimitar. His damage is fairly low, but over time he will wear down opponents. Otari is a Hero/Resolved Psicrystal, which helps his already fairly high saves.

Elithkhad trained for almost twenty years at the monastery, practicing with both his fists and his powers. One day, a troop of Soulbows traveled through the monastery, heading towards the border to fight Riedra. Elithkhad was curious, and Otari urged him to follow them. He did, but the Soulbows sent him back to the monastery as soon as they noticed him following them. Before he was brought back, however, he saw a book filled with the techniques used to manifest a Soulbow. He didn’t get a chance to read it, but he memorized the pages using the techniques he learned at the monastery. Over the next few years, Elithkhad learned to manifest first a permanent mind blade, and then the arrows that were a Soulbow’s calling card. On his own, he began to develop new techniques unknown to other Soulbows.

At these levels Elithkhad learns to wield a Mind Blade and then soul arrows. The blade gives him another melee option, but his main weapon is mind arrows. He’ll generally open a fight with a volley bolstered with Psionic Shot. The damage isn’t great, but at tenth level he can boost his accuracy with Invisible Shot. Before combat he uses Chameleon to help his Psicrystal scout more effectively. Throw Anything lets him start with a greatsword or other large weapon and throw it for a slight damage boost. Psionic Sidestep isn’t terribly useful yet, but it’s going to be more helpful later.

Once Elithkhad had mastered the basics of his unique style, he left the monastery to fight the Inspired on Khorvaire with just Otari by his side. The two of them learned to fight in sync while mastering more of the techniques of a Soulbow. Elithkhad soon discovered more techniques unknown to Soulbows, making his arrows ethereal and imbuing them with mental force. He soon became a known enemy of the Inspired, who sent assassin after assassin to try to kill him. He began to hone his defense as well as offense and was able to avoid each and every attempt.

The pieces of Elithkar’s build are starting to fall into place. His offense is still fairly limited, but Energy Shot lets him make up some ground. Defensively, though, Elithkar shines. With Dancing Shadows, Combat Expertise and several defensive powers, his AC most rounds is over 30 and his attacks are barely affected. His mind arrow enhancement is generally Lucky, which allows him to reroll each attack, greatly increasing his hitting odds. He can also deal with ethereal foes well, due to his class abilities.

Elithkhad eventually decided to go on the offensive against the assassins and their leaders. Otari stealthily followed the enemies back to their homes, while Elithkhad followed her, firing arrows that cut through human Inspired and Quori spirit alike. Soon he mastered the ability to fire ethereal shots, allowing his arrows to skip through the Astral Plane and emerge under the armor of his targets. As time went on, the Inspired came to call him the Dancing Shadow, and his name was feared throughout Riedra. His most feared exploit was the killing of an Inspired general staying in a palace in Riedra from an inn four blocks away. No one at the inn saw him do more than glance towards the palace, but the pattern of wounds in the general’s body matched his techniques exactly.

Elithkhad picks up three cool tricks here. The first is the combination of Improved Psionic Sidestep and Elusive Target. When Elithkhad fires an arrow in melee, he can move up to ten feet, hopefully into a flanking position. This activates the Diverting Defense ability of Elusive Target, hopefully causing one of his foes to hit the other. The other two combinations both rely on Phased Shot. The first is used when Otari is ahead, scouting. With Sense Link, Elithkhad can see what she sees, thus aiming his Phased Shots at foes potentially hundreds of feet away. With Swift Concentration, he can take a full attack while Concentrating. The third trick relies on the fact that Phase Shot denies the target dex and dodge bonuses if the balisteer fires from “a concealed position”. With Concealing Amorpha, any position Elithkhad fires from is concealed, giving him a massive boost to his accuracy. Defensively, Elithkhad is as solid as ever. His AC with Intertial Armor, Force Screen, Defensive Precognition, his Wisdom, Combat Expertise and his tumble enhanced defensive fighting is well over 40, and with the addition of a few magic items, it could easily reach 50.

Level
Level Class Base Attack Bonus Fort Save Reflex Save Will Save Skills Feats Class Features
1st Telepath 1 0 0 0 2 Diplomacy 4, Gather Information 4, Concentration 4, Bluff 4 Dodge. Psicrystal Affinity (B) Discipline (Telepath)
2nd Telepath 2 1 0 0 3 Diplomacy +1 (5), Gather Information +1 (5), Concentration +1 (5), Bluff +1 (5) - -
3rd Kalashtar Telepath 3 1 1 1 3 Diplomacy +1 (6), Gather Information +1 (6), Concentration +1 (6), Bluff +1 (6) Mobility Compound Psicrystal, Mindlink +1 Day
4th Kalashtar Monk 1 2 3 3 5 Tumble +6 (6) Point Blank Shot, Improved Unarmed Strike (B), Stunning Fist (B) Unarmed Strike, Psychic Insight
5th Kalashtar Monk 2 3 4 4 6 Autohypnosis +1 (1), Perform Dance +5 (5) Psionic Shot (B) Evasion
6th Soulknife 1 1 4 6 8 Autohypnosis +5 (6), Concentration +1 (7) Weapon Focus Mindblade (B) Mind Blade, Align Mind Blade
7th Soulknife 2 2 4 7 9 Autohypnosis +3 (9), Concentration +1 (8) Hide +1 (1), Move Silently +1 (1) - Throw Mind Blade
8th Soulbow 1 3 4 9 11 Concentration +3 (11), Hide +1 (2), Move Silently +1 (2), Autohypnosis +1 (10) Zen Archery (B*) Mind Arrows
9th Balisteer 1 3 4 11 11 Concentration +1 (12), Autohypnosis +1 (11), Swift Concentration Path of Shadows, Psionic Sidestep (B), Throw Anything (B) -
10th Balisteer 2 4 4 12 11 Concentration +1 (13), Autohypnosis +1 (12), Spot +2 (2) - Invisible Shot
11th Balisteer 3 5 5 12 12 Concentration +1 (14), Autohypnosis +1 (13), Spot +2 (4) - Ethereal Shot
12th Balisteer 4 6 5 12 12 Concentration +1 (15), Autohypnosis +1 (14), Spot +2 (6) Dancing with Shadows Energy Shot
13th Soulbow 2 7 5 13 13 Concentration +1 (16), Autohypnosis +1 (15), Hide +2 (4), Move Silently +2 (4) - Mind Arrow Enhancement +1
14th Balisteer 5 7 5 13 13 Concentration +1 (17), Autohypnosis +1 (16), Spot +2 (8) - Incorporeal Shot
15th Balisteer 6 8 6 14 14 Concentration +1 (18), Autohypnosis +1 (17), Spot +2 (10) Combat Expertise, Pinpoint Shot (B) -
16th Balisteer 7 9 6 14 14 Concentration +1 (19), Autohypnosis +1 (18), Spot +2 (12) - Explosive Shot
17th Balisteer 8 10 6 14 14 Concentration +1 (20), Autohypnosis +1 (19), Clarity of Vision Improved Psionic Sidestep (B) -
18th Balisteer 9 10 7 15 15 Concentration +1 (21), Autohypnosis +1 (20), Spot +2 (14) Elusive Target Phased Shot
19th Balisteer 10 11 7 15 15 Concentration +1 (22), Autohypnosis +1 (21), Spot +2 (16) - Infused Shot
20th Soulbow 3 12 8 15 15 Concentration +1 (23), Autohypnosis +1 (22), Hide +2 (6), Move Silently +2 (6) Precise Shot (B) Mind Arrow +1

Level PP per Day (Psion/ Psywar) Powers Learned
1st 4/0 Inertial Armor, Psionic Charm, Sense Link
2nd 10/0 Force Screen, Offensive Prescience
3rd 17/0 Psychic Scimitar
4th 18/0
5th 19/0
6th 20/0
7th 21/0
8th 22/0
9th 22/3
10th 22/8 Chameleon*
11th 22/13 Extend Range
12th 22/19
13th 22/20
14th 22/25 Defensive Precognition
15th 22/33 Moment of Insight
16th 22/41
17th 22/49 Concealing Amorpha
18th 22/57 Hustle
19th 22/65
20th 22/66
*Powers learned before tenth are psion powers. Powers learned later are psychic warrior powers

Monk, Dodge, Mobility, Point Blank Shot, Combat Expertise, Stunning Fist, Precise Shot and skills other than Autohypnosis from PHB.
Soulknife, Psion, Psionic Shot, and Autohypnosis are from the EPH, as well as powers not credited to a different source.
Soulbow, Extend Range, and Moment of Insight are from Complete Psionic.
Elusive Target and Zen Archery are from Complete Warrior
Psychic Scimitar is from Sandstorm
Kalashtar is from Eberron Campaign Setting
Kalashtar substitution levels, Dancing with Shadows, and Path of Shadows are from Races of Eberron.
Balisteer and related material is from the Mind’s Eye articles

The Viscount

2023-05-14, 03:58 PM

It does in fact have to be like this.

Son’Har, the killer whale
ECHOOO, EChoo, echo

https://cdnb.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/005/202/483/large/sarai-sprewell-whale.jpg?1489272745

CN Anthropomorphic Whale3/Psywar4BloodstormBlade4/Ballisteer 9

Feat Summary
Alignment : CN
Race : Anthropomorphic Whale
Level 1 : Martial Study (Steely Wind)
Level 3 : Point Blank Shot
Level 4 : Dodge (Psywar)
Level 5 : Martial Stance (Punishing Stance) (Psywar)
Level 6 : Power Attack, Throw Anything (Bloodstorm)
Level 8 : Mobility (Bloodstorm)
Level 9 : Psionic Shot
Level 12 : Martial Study (Shadow Stride), Psionic Sidestep (Ballisteer Bonus), Throw Anything (Ballisteer Bonus)
Level 15 : Martial Stance (Shadow Hand)
Level 17 : Pinpoint Shot (Ballisteer)
Level 18 : Far Shot
Level 19 : Improved Psionic Sidestep (Ballisteer)

Point Buy
Point Buy at level 1
STR 18 +8
DEX 10 +4
CON 16 +4
INT 10
WIS 10 +4
CHA 8

All level increases in Str

In a sea water-filled classroom, a bunch of humanoid whale-looking youngsters are singing to one another resulting in a very loud mess.

“Quiet down children quiet down” asked the teacher

As per usual, the latter had to repeat the order ever so louder until his “voice” overwhelmed the rest and only then would his pupils let him speak.

“There we go, he exhaled, at last we can hear ourselves speak.” He took a moment to appreciate this rare relief before continuing. “Do any of you know, how is it that us, whale tribesmen, can see with our voices ?

The question hit a nerve, like it did every year he asked it ; they had no clue ! Seeing was the same as holding one’s breath or swimming, it was so obvious that it begged no further questioning.

“Well let me tell you about the almighty powers of soundwaves, he begun, you emit them everytime you sing, as naturally as you swim and they travel to the astonishing speed of 1500m.s-1 and come back to you with equal velocity should they encounter some obstacle along the way, giving your brain a code he will interpret to give you a full three dimensional modelization of your environment !”

The students were quiet, letting the meaning of how their teacher sink in.

Son’Har chuckled as she remembered this particular class and how much it changed her life. As this thought emerged, she immediately cast it aside and grabbed the massive sword coming right at her, with bits and pieces of something that appeared to be within "her environment".

LevelClassBase Attack BonusFort SaveReflex SaveWill SaveSkillsFeatsClass Features
1stAnthropomorphic Whale 11022Balance (+4) 4; Tumble (+4 CC) 2; Martial Study (Steely Strike)Blindsight 60ft, Hold Breath
2ndAnthropomorphic Whale 22033Balance (+1) 5; Tumble (+1 CC) 2.5; -
3rdAnthropomorphic Whale 33133Balance (+1) 6; Tumble (+1 CC) 3; Point Blank Shot-
4thPsychic Warrior 13333Balance (+1) 7; Concentration (+1) 1; Tumble 3; Dodge (Psywar Bonus)Bonus Feat
5thPsychic Warrior 24433Balance (+1) 8; Concentration (+1) 2; Tumble 3; Martial Stance (Punishing Stance) (Psywar Bonus)Bonus Feat
6thBloodstorm Blade 15633Balance 8; Concentration (+1) 3; Tumble (+3) 6; Power Attack, Throw Anything (Bloodstorm Blade Bonus)Returning Attacks, Throw Anything, Weapon Aptitude
7thBloodstorm Blade 26733Balance 8; Concentration (+3) 6; Tumble (+1) 7; Martial Throw, Thunderous Throw
8thBloodstorm Blade 37744Balance 8; Concentration (+3) 9; Tumble (+1) 8; Mobility (Bloodstorm Blade Bonus)Bonus Fighter Feat
9thBloodstorm Blade 48844Balance 8; Concentration (+3) 12; Tumble (+1) 9; Psionic ShotLightening Ricochet
10thPsychic Warrior 39855Balance (+1) 9; Concentration (+1) 13; Tumble 9; -
11thPsychic Warrior 410955Balance (+1) 10; Concentration (+1) 14; Tumble 9; -
12thBalisteer 110975Balance 10; Concentration 14; Tumble (+2) 11; Martial Study (Shadow Stride), Psionic Sidestep (Ballisteer Bonus), Throw Anything (Ballisteer Bonus)Psionic Sidestep, Throw Anything
13thBalisteer 211985Balance 10; Concentration 14; Tumble (+2) 13; Invisible Shot
14thBalisteer 3121086Balance 10; Concentration 14; Tumble (+2) 15; Ethereal Shot
15thBalisteer 4131096Balance 10; Concentration 14; Tumble (+2) 17; Martial Stance (Assassin's Stance)Energy Shot
16thBalisteer 5131096Balance 10; Concentration 14; Tumble (+2) 19; Incorporeal Shot
17thBalisteer 61411107Balance (+1) 11; Concentration 14; Tumble (+1) 20; Pinpoint Shot (Ballisteer Bonus)Pinpoint Shot
18thBalisteer 71511107Balance (+1) 12; Concentration 14; Tumble (+1) 21; Far ShotExplosive Shot
19thBalisteer 81611117Balance (+1) 13; Concentration 14; Tumble (+1) 22; Improved Psionic Sidestep (Ballisteer Bonus)Improved Psionic Sidestep
20thBalisteer 91612118Balance (+1) 14; Concentration 14; Tumble (+1) 23; Phased Shot

LevelClassML1st2nd3rd4thTotal PP
1st
2nd
3rd
4thPsywar 11Expansion 1
5thPsywar 22Extend Range 3
6th
7th
8th
9th
10thPsywar 33Call Weaponry 17
11thPsywar 44 Targeted Mind 24
12th 5 31
13thPsywar 56 Hustle 29
14thPsywar 67 Strength of my Enemy 34
15th 8 43
16thPsywar 79 Psionic Weapon 52
17thPsywar 810 Keen Edge, Psionic 61
18th 11 70
19thPsywar 912 Mental Barrier 79
20thPsywar 1013 Dimension Door, Psionic92

Steely Wind (ECL 1) and Punishing Stance (ECL 5), Shadow Stride (ECL 12) Assassin’s Stance (ECL 15)

Son’Har starts with pretty good advantages ; she is Large, has 26 Str, 20 Con, Blindsight 60ft, 40ft swim speed (can hold her breath for 4 minutes too!) and +9 NA at first level.
Even though her tail slaps for 1d4 damage, the +12 that follows one-shots pretty much any level-appropriate encounter.
Martial Study grants her an Iron Heart Maneuver maneuver and Balance as a permanent class skill much needed for later and since she is quite the agile whale, she also picks cross-class ranks in tumble (Have you ever seen a whale doing funambulism ?)
Psywar comes into play with Expansion 1/d (to Huge ty very much) but mostly for the martial proficiencies allowing Son’Har to play with a size-appropriate Greatsword. That’s a sight to behold.

Entering Bloodstorm Blade.
Son’Har is going to spend 4 levels here for several reasons :
1. Being able to Throw Anything (read : a large Greatsword) and have it come back to her is a pretty good deal, especially with Power Attack since you can treat your ranged attack as though they were melee ones (for a swift action). With Bloodstorm 4, she even gets to throw her greatsword multiple times since it bounces back immediately to her with 1-½ times her Str bonus on every hit to boot.
2. It has Tumble as a class skill, twice the skill points per level and a Bonus Fighter Feat
The second power she learned is Extend Range letting her throw her greatsword up to a 100ft away for a -8 to hit. Being able to hit someone reliably 40 ft away and, in the same full attack, an adjacent enemy is pretty strong. If she expends her psionic focus to trigger Psionic Shot we’re looking at 3d6 (large greatsword)+2d6(Psionic Shot) +1d6(Punishing Stance)+13 (1-½ Str) damage before Power Attack, not too shabby.
Now Son’Har only needs to be able to manifest 2nd level powers to enter the SI.

After her 2 more levels in Psywar, Son’Har enters Ballisteer.
Psionic Sidestep is a bit underwhelming because you can’t 5-foot step in a round you had ANY movement at all meaning you could very well just 5-foot step to have the same benefits… The very niche uses I found are :
- When you can’t indeed 5-foot step then Psionic Sidestep becomes useful : difficult terrain or darkness are instances where it comes in handy and should Son’Har ever be in those kinds of situation, she can either manifest a power non-defensively to provoke or simply throw her weapon (as she likes to do) because ranged attacks made while threatened provoke too. The strategy will be worth it even more when Improved Psionic Sidestep kicks in.
- When you need an extra 5ft of movement you can avoid using you Tumble skill to avoid taking AoOs and enjoy the bonus from Psionic Sidestep

Shadow Stride (like Steely Strike) is once per encounter but outside of that, the ability to teleport 50ft at wil, as an (Ex) ability is pretty darn useful.
Invisible Shot is hilarious (at least to me). Imagining an anthropomorphic whale throwing a large greatsword that turns invisible until it hits its intended target… is the reason these competitions exist in the first place.
I’m pretty sure “denies the target the ability to deflect the attack through normal means” means "denied its Dexterity bonus” which will trigger Assassin’s Stance if within 30ft (which incidentally is in Point Blank Shot range as well) for an extra 2d6+1 damage. And since it’s “per shot” as long as Son’Har has enough PP, she can use it on every throw of her greatsword.
Same goes for Energy Shot, available on every iterative attack, for up to 4d4 for now.

Improved Psionic Step makes the previous strategy even more effective. When Son’Har throws her sword, she can make a 10ft move to reposition and still full-attack melee or range. If Son’Har miscalculated, she still has a panic button : Mental Barrier. +4 deflection bonus as an immediate action stacking with the psionic sidestep bonuses as well as the Dodge and Mobility ones for a total of +13 to AC means she’s probably ok (let us not forget her +9 NA either).
Explosive Shot has been ruled to only work on the damage from Energy Shot which is a pity but at least your thrown sword has splash damage now and she hits BAB 16 which means 4 attacks !
This is where things get extra fun. As Son’Har’s first 2nd level power she picked Targeted Mind which enables her to do the following, pretty funny tactic.
1. Use her Blindsight to negates displacement and blur effects while selecting her target whom will then be ingrained so deeply in her mind, she will know where she is within the 500+ft radius of her even though line of sight is broken
2. She Shadow Strides/Dimension Doors (augmented as a move action) away to cover. The latter option can make her end up inside a building of sorts.
3. She manifests Extend Range as a swift action and ends her turn, leaving the enemy wondering what’s happening
4. Next turn she rains Hell upon her target, from behind closed wall/doors/whatever with Phase Shots. Since the target has no Dex nor Armor boni, she pour her (big) heart’s content into Power Attacking the target until it’s dead.
Between Throw Anything, Far Shot and augmented Extend Range, she can throw up to 80ft per range increment and Targeted Mind lasts for 13 rounds and, as the Fuggees would say, here I come, you can’t hide (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIXyKmElvv8).

Expansion (EPH) : Son’Har can get back to whale-size (Gargantuan) for 7PP. Sadly her greatsword only stays gargantuan if she holds it.
Extend Range (CPsi) : Throw Anything gives Son’Har a 10ft range. Fat shot makes it 20ft and with this power and for 9 PP it becomes 80ft range increment ; that’s a light crossbow range ! (up to 400ft).
Call Weaponry (EPH) : Fail safe in case you threw your weapon and the enemy had readied an action to prevent it from coming back to you. Or even worse, catch it.

Targeted Mind (Web) : This makes Phase Shot great as described in the snapshot 15-20
Hustle : It can be Pounce but more generally is gold when it comes to tactical positioning.
Strength of my Enemy : You rain down attacks and are Str SAD. Need more convincing ?

Psionic Weapon (Web) : Mindfeeder (see Notes & Discussions) feeds the voracious PP consumption of Ballisteer. Lucky is a staple, especially to avoid rolling a 1 or 2 on Phase Shot, and Collision is yet another good choice. Note that you get melee weapon enhancement with this build when others have only access to ranged ones.
Keen Edge, Psionic (EPH) : Makes your greatsword 17-20 or your Falchion 15-20. Adding Mindfeeder via Psionic Weapon power is really good (see above)
Mental Barrier (EPH) : immediate action +4 deflection to AC is a good panic button to have.

Dimension Door, Psionic (EPH) : If you cast Hustle as a swift and then augment Dimension Door, you can teleport as a swift action.

- Psionic Weapon weapon abilities choice. The power itself references an outdated source (PsH) so Viscount told me to update it to EPH and I agreed. Keep in mind the Magic Item Compendium self promotes itself as the primary source on item and enhancements but it's among the many things debated in these forums.

- We don’t need more than 14 Concentration since Psionic Focus is DC20 and we can only manifest powers up to 4th level. We got 1d20 (min 1), 5 Con and 14 ranks. Otoh, Tumbling can be very useful (oh and more than 5 ranks in balance means we’re in the very closed circle of “not being flat-footed in Grease spells”, horrayyy)

SRD - Feats
Expanded Psionic Handbook - Psychic Warrior, Psionic Shot,
Web - Psionic Sidestep, Improved Psionic Sidestep, Pinpoint Shot, Powers, Ballisteer
Psionic Handbook - Weapon abilities mentioned in the Psionic Weapon Power
Savage Species - Anthropomorphic Whale
Tome of Battle - Maneuvers, Bloodstorm Blade

The Viscount

2023-05-14, 04:02 PM

Everyone loves a good revenge story

"Gosh, that spear's big. Like a weaver's rod."

"Well, it's a big… person? Seems fitting."

"Do you think he's dead?"

Goliath groaned, and heard two gasps.

"Well, not quite, apparently. I'm going to go get help."

Goliath opened his eyes. He was laying on the hard ground, staring up at a sky of unfamiliar starts. All around him was dark ash, as far as the eye could see. A figure was rushing towards the horizon, while another man was standing over him. There was something wrong with him.

He had horns.

Goliath sat up with a jump, his head spinning. "Hades! I'm in Hades." Memories exploded into his head in a flash, and he roared with anger. "The son of Yishai! He tricked me. A sling. Deception!" His hand reached up to his throat. "He cut off my head…"

The man put a small hand on his shoulder. "Relax, buddy. You're alive. You're not in Hades, you're still in the prime material plane. Black Ash Plain, to be exact. Breathe. Who are you?"

The strangers words made no sense. Goliath clasped onto the one part that did. "I am Goliath, son of Rapha, of Gath." He blinked. "He killed me."

"Brother, I've seen goliaths. You're not a goliath. You're bigger, for a start."

Goliath stared at the insane being. "What in the name of the great and powerful Dagon do you mean, a Goliath? I am Goli- wait, what do you mean by "a"? What do I mean by- gods, what language am I speaking? I need to lay down."

The horned figure paled as Goliath thumped back on the ground, a cloud of ash rising around him. "Woah, brother. I know what my ancestry is, but we're not into the whole demon worship thing around here, so keep that **** in your head."

Goliath couldn't even attempt to wrap his head around those statements. "I'm dead," he decided. It didn't make sense, really, but nothing else did either. The stars weren't right, the air wasn't right, the language wasn't right. Goli, I have a feeling we're not in Pleshet anymore. "The son of Yishai killed me. Shot a sling stone right under my helmet and cut off my head."

"Oof. Sounds painful. I empathize. Well, someone must've brought you back, huh? Lucky you. I wonder why they didn't stick around."

Goliath stared. "Surely, such things aren't possible."

"What, resurrections? Happens all the time. You've got a second chance at life, buddy. You should figure out what you want to do with it. Hopefully less demon-worship involved."

A group of people was approaching them now, from where the other figure first went. Some of them were tiny, others as big as Goliath was. He looked around, trying to adjust to this mad new reality. A second chance. Despite everything, despite nothing making sense, he had a second chance. How would he use it? What would be his fate? His destiny?

Goliath was a true warrior. There was only one answer. His fist clenched. "I'm going to get the little goat-****er back."

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/Osmar_Schindler_David_und_Goliath.jpg

Goliath of Gath

TN Anthropomorphic Baleen Whale Rogue 1/ Psychic Warrior 1/ Ardent 4/ Ballisteer 6/ Legacy Champion 5.

Abilities Point buy Anthrowhale
STR 16 24
DEX 9 13
CON 14 18
INT 10 10
WIS 17 21
CHA 8 8
All HD advancements go to Wis.

Level Class Base Attack Bonus Fort Save Reflex Save Will Save Skills Feats Class Features
1st Monstrous Humanoid 1 1 0 2 2 Psicraft 2, Spot 4 Point Blank Shot Large size, +9 Natural Armor
2nd Monstrous Humanoid 2 2 0 3 3 Psicraft 2.5, Spot 5 - Tail slap (1d4 + 1.5 Str)
3rd Monstrous Humanoid 3 3 1 3 3 Psicraft 3, Spot 6 Dodge Hold Breath (144 rounds), low light vision, Darkvision (60), blindsight (120)
4th Psychic Warrior 1 3 3 3 3 Concentration 2, Psicraft 3, Spot 6 Psionic Shot -
5th Poison Use Wilderness Martial Rogue 1 3 3 5 3 Concentration 2, Psicraft 3, Spot 6, [b]Survival 2, Tumble 6 Mobility Poison Use
6th Ardent 1 3 3 5 5 Concentration 2, [b]Knowledge (History) 1, Psicraft 4, Spot 6, Survival 2, Tumble 6 Practiced Manifester (Ardent) Primary mantles: Deception, Fate
7th Ballisteer 1 3 3 7 5 Concentration 2, Knowledge (History) 1, Psicraft 4, Spot 8, Survival 2, Tumble 6 Psionic Sidestep , Throw Anything [B] -
8th Ballisteer 2 4 3 8 5 Concentration 2, [b]Knowledge (History) 2, Psicraft 4, Spot 8, Survival 2, Tumble 6 - Invisible Shot
9th Ballisteer 3 5 4 8 6 Concentration 2, Knowledge (History) 3, Psicraft 4, Spot 8, Survival 2, Tumble 6 Zen Archery Ethereal Shot
10th Ardent 2 6 4 8 7 Concentration 2, Knowledge (History) 5, Psicraft 4, Spot 8, Survival 2, Tumble 6 Least Legacy (Sling of the Dire Wind) Secondary Mantle: The Planes
11th Legacy Champion 1 6 4 8 9 Concentration 2, [b]Knowledge (History) 9, Psicraft 4, Spot 8, Survival 2, Tumble 6 Lesser Legacy (Sling of the Dire Wind) Reduced ritual cost (lesser), bond of lore
12th Legacy Champion 2 7 4 8 10 Concentration 2, [b]Knowledge (History) 10, Psicraft 4, Spot 11, Survival 2, Tumble 6 Expanded Knowledge: Metamorphosis Replace legacy ability (Stunning Stone -> Extend Power), Energy Shot
13th Legacy Champion 3 8 5 9 10 Concentration 2, Knowledge (History) 10, Psicraft 4, Spot 15, Survival 2, Tumble 6 - Extra Legacy Ability Use (extend power), Incorporeral Shot
14th Legacy Champion 4 9 5 9 11 Concentration 4, Knowledge (History) 10, Psicraft 4, Spot 17, Survival 2, Tumble 6 Pinpoint Shot , Channel Legacy (Gust of Wind) [B] -
15th Legacy Champion 5 9 5 9 11 [b]Concentration 7, Knowledge (History) 10, Psicraft 4, Spot 18, Survival 2, Tumble 6 Hand Crossbow Focus Replace legacy ability (Wind Wall-> Aptitude Weapon), Explosive Shot
16th Ballisteer 4 [8] 10 5 10 11 Concentration 8, Knowledge (History) 10, Psicraft 4, Spot 19, Survival 2, Tumble 6 Improved Psionic Sidestep -
17th Ballisteer 5 [9] 10 5 10 11 [b]Concentration 9, Knowledge (History) 10, Psicraft 4, Spot 20, Survival 2, Tumble 6 Greater Legacy (Sling of the Dire Wind) Phased Shot
18th Ballisteer 6 [10] 11 6 11 12 [b]Concentration 10, Knowledge (History) 10, Psicraft 4, Spot 21, Survival 2, Tumble 6 Tap Mantle: Creation Infused Shot
19th Ardent 3 12 7 12 12 Concentration 12, Knowledge (History) 10, Psicraft 4, Spot 21, Survival 2, Tumble 6 - -
20th Ardent 4 13 7 12 13 Concentration 14, Knowledge (History) 10, Psicraft 4, Spot 21, Survival 2, Tumble 6 - -

Level ML (Psychic Warrior/Ardent) PP (assuming no items) New Powers
4th 1/0 [0+3]=3 Psychic Warrior: Extend Range
5th 1/0 [0+3]=3 -
6th 1/5 [0+3+2+15]=20 Ardent: Offensive Precognition, Clairvoyant Sense
7th 2/6 [1+6+2+18]=27 -
8th 3/7 [3+9+2+21]=35 Psychic Warrior: Expansion
9th 4/8 [5+12+2+24]=43 Psychic Warrior: Defensive Precognition
10th 4/9 [5+12+6+27]=50 Ardent: Plane Shift, Psionic
11th 4/9 [5+12+6+27]=50 -
12th 5/10 [7+17+6+35]=65 Ardent: Metamorphosis
13th 6/11 [11+21+6+38]=76 Psychic Warrior: Hustle
14th 7/12 [15+24+6+42]=87 Psychic Warrior: Perfect Archery
15th 8/13 [19+28+6+45]=98 -
16th 9/14 [23+31+6+49]=109 Psychic Warrior: Strength of my Enemy
17th 10/15 [27+35+6+52]=120 Psychic Warrior: Vampiric Blade
18th 11/16 [35+38+6+56]=135 -
19th 11/17 [35+38+11+59]=143 Ardent: Bend Reality
20th 11/18 [35+44+17+72]=168 Ardent: True Creation
Goliath starts the game strong. Anthrowhales have 3 racial HD, which can be very harsh later on, but they make for a powerful start of the game. Large size, Great ability scores, natural weapon attack, blindsight, 9 natural armor – what's not to like? This is one of the strongest melees a third level character could be, even with the less-than-awesome feats.

First level of psychic warrior gives weapon and armor proficiencies, and gives Goliath some good ranged options to complement his melee-heavy chassis so far. Between extend range and psionic shot, he just became a serious threat from afar as well as at melee. He'll mostly be using thrown weapons, or a sling if he really needs some distance, so he can utilize his extremely high Strength score.

Level 5 is replace-everything rogue. Poison use is very nice to have on a ranged character, and will be further supported by the end of the build, but if you believe that it's only accessible to drow – so be it. Beyond that, rogue gives us the last bonus feat we need to qualify for the SI, 8 skill points we desperately need (all in-class, thanks to wilderness rogue) and hand crossbow proficiency, which would normally take a feat. Not that Goliath will be shooting a hand crossbow any time soon, but he's fascinated by the little contraption and can enjoy toying with it by the campfire and training with it while shooting at trees. This alone makes rogue better for us than fighter, even if we were to ignore the skill ranks. Fun is important too, you know.
Things start picking up speed. An ardent dip at 6 with practiced manifester is a classic for easy access to third level powers. Goliath can't go for those, however, since he needs second level powers to qualify for Ballisteer, and Offensive Precognition is just too darn good to give up. I don't know if you've noticed, but Goliath's to-hit has been suffering ever since we started taking class levels. It's still fine at melee, but range is starting to look decisively less awesome. Offensive Precognition helps address that, and it's an option that can stay relevant all the way to 20, as long as one manages to keep their ML decently high. This level also grants Goliath the deception and fate mantles' granted powers (deception is great throughout the campaign, IMO) and significantly increases his PP – thanks to bonus points from (his awesome) WIS bonus relying on ML and not on class levels.

Next comes the SI. Ballisteer does a lot for Goliath, but I'm not going to pretend it's starting to pay off immediately. Throw anything is helpful given that we rely on thrown weapons and slings, and psionic sidestep is a cute defensive maneuver, in the extremely likely event Goliath (plate armor and all) fails a tumble check, but this level isn't all that impressive.

The next couple of levels are much better. Our poor BaB starts advancing again, invisible shot helps further with that, and ethereal shot certainly helps since we don't want to waste wbl on special ammunition or weapon enhancement (it's also going to become much more important immediately).

Advancing both our Psychic warrior ML and our Ardent ML helps keep PP up through bonus points, and Goliath can certainly afford to use them liberally on invisible shot. I hope someone made a build advancing 10 different classes on top of crazy mental attributes for an ungodly amount of PP, but I couldn't think of anything interesting to do with that. Defensive precognition and the classic EXPANSION join the party, just at the moment that EXPANSION can be given a decent duration. EXPANSIONcan make Goliath huge size, and it comes just in time: Zen Archery shows up at level 9, and is a game changer. Goliath's ranged attacks just got as good as his melee, and they don't decrease when he loses dex as he EXPANDS. Remember: thrown weapon damage explicitly doesn't increase, but sling damage does, since any sling we hold automatically grows to our new size, and projectiles deal damage in accordance with the size of the weapon that launched them. Which means it's time for level 10, and introducing a couple of very important equipment pieces.

Our last level this bracket is another dip into ardent. Ballisteer has quietly helped Goliath's ardent ML, bringing up to 9 at this level – just one level behind. That opens up fifth level powers, and Goliath picks Plane Shift from his new mantle. I don't need to explain why Plane Shift is awesome, but I do need to mention one unique thing it opens up: far more guaranteed access to Elemental Loadstones [sic]. They've been Goliath's favorite sling ammunition for a while now: they do 2d6 damage from a medium size sling, and as that sling increases to huge size with EXPANSION, they do 4d6 damage. They're very heavy at 50 lbs a piece, but we have a 1400 lbs carrying capacity. They have a shorter range increment, but we have a power for that making it an easy fix. They're also expensive at 200 gp a pop (even if I do think that it's ridiculous that a tiny 50 lbs stone is going to be "destroyed" on a hit) which means that we have to use them sparingly. Plane shift helps us get to the source, and makes them far more accessible.

The second thing Ardent does for Goliath is have K. History back on the menu as a class skill, which means we're ready to qualify for Legacy Champion next level. In order to do that, we also need to perform a ritual to bond with a Weapon of Legacy. Our weapon of choice is Sling of the Dire wind. We have the 2 points in survival necessary, thanks to wilderness rogue. The price is heavy, but we're ready to take it on: losing 6 hp is nothing to us with 18 Con, -1 to hit is much easier to swallow since Zen Archery, invisible shot and Offensive Precognition came on, and Will is by far our strongest saving throw. In return, we get a +2 sling that counts as adamantine, with the ****ty 11 DC stunning throw thrice a day and the situationally cute Gust of Wind once a day. Binding ourselves to a legacy weapon and a specific type of non-magical ammunition is very restricting, which makes ethereal shot far more necessary – we don't have ways to just solve issues like that with WBL.

What makes all these issues worth it is the one aspect of the sling I hadn't mentioned yet: pebble to boulder. Pebble to boulder makes bullets Goliath throws from the sling deal damage as if we were two sizes larger than we are. When the sling adapts to Goliath's EXPANDED size, that makes it deal colossal damage. With a normal bullet, that's a respectable 3d6. With a loadstone, when we need it and are in the right range, it's 8d6.

The final thing level 10 does for Goliath is increasing BaB to six, giving him a second iterative. That's nice for melee and all, but it doesn't help him in his path towards being the greatest slinger, unfortunately. Loading a sling is a move action, which makes full attacks with it impossible to pull off.
Well, easy to follow. This build has switched classes quite a bit until now, but all these levels are Legacy Champion 1-5, nice and easy. I know that Legacy Champion can sometimes induce an eyeroll by now, but do note that this isn't some easy way to escape a half BaB SI or something: I'm using Legacy Champion here for its own merits, with precisely as many levels as I need, while advancing the SI.

Level 11 is yawn inducing, with the sling becoming giant bane. Wow. Level 12 is the real deal: it gives Goliath energy shot for when he really needs to pile on the damage, it lets him replace the trashy stunning strike with a "Metapsionic, Lesser" option from menu A, and it's a feat level. The metapsionic option we choose is a free extend power 3/day, which is awesome for our augment-dependent buffs, especially for EXPANSION. Pebble to boulder itself also increases from 2 virtual size increases to 3. Note that unlike, say, greater mighty wallop, the "effective size increase" of pebble to boulder isn't capped at colossal, so Goliath's damage keeps increasing. The feat we take is expanded knowledge, as an ardent. Metamorphosis is obviously awesome, and makes for a huge power and flexibility boost for Goliath, who's only two levels behind on ML, and will stay that way. There are more useful forms than we can count, but of note is the humble Treant. It has hands, and it's huge, so goliath can become gargantuan when he EXPANDS as one – pushing the damage to being 2 over colossal, in that case. Obviously, we're not counting on being metamorphized, and Goliath is fully operational as his normal self, but it's a nice option to have. Overall, this level is a huge power boost.

Level 13 brings forth incorporeal shot, which is awesome for the same reason ethereal shot was for us – Goliath's locked into a specific weapon-ammunition combo to be at full capacity, and that combo doesn't natively include a way to hit incorporeal enemies. This level also brings forth another free use of extend power, and hustle – a generally awesome power that Goliath can also use to load his sling.

Level 14 gives goliath access to the perfect archery power, to avoid AoOs for ranged attacks. Sometimes he'll be able to get away by killing the foe threatening him with, but if he doesn't loading still incurs them, so it's good that he's a freaking tank with great AC and psionic sidestep. Channel legacy will usually be better than gust of wind, and pinpoint shot is tremendously supported by having blindsight and a great spot check – finding an enemy hiding behind non-full cover is effortless, and pinpoint shot means shooting them is effortless too. Sacrificing a full round action is far less of a big deal for Goliath than for most archers, as he's not really reliant on full attacks and can load by using hustle.

Level 15 brings explosive shot, which is nice against groups of mooks – Goliath hasn't had real tools for those so far, save from metamorphosis forms more suited to the challenge. It's also perhaps the "sweet spot" of the build, or at the very least one of them. See, Goliath has been toying with a hand crossbow since level 5, and has just taken the hand crossbow focus feat, allowing him to load a hand crossbow as a free action and giving him a +1 to-hit with a hand-crossbow, equivalent to the weapon focus feat. This level of Legacy Champion also gives goliath the option to replace a lesser ability. He immediately replaces wind wall without ever using it, for the "weapon enhancement" ability from Menu D, which lets him pick a +1 special ability to add to his sling. Goliath chooses aptitude weapon.

Now, I've seen it argued before that an aptitude sling can be used with the rapid reload feat to reload as a free action. I vehemently disagree. Rapid reload isn't a feat that "affects the use of a particular type of weapon", and even if it was, you'd have to fiat that it has the effect it does on a light crossbow, and not a heavy one. It's a mess. Hand crossbow focus, on the other hand, is exactly the type of feat aptitude works with. It's a feat that affects the use of a particular type of weapon, in a well-defined and non-ambiguous way. It's explicitly equivalent of weapon focus, for crying out loud.

That means that level 15 lets Goliath load the Sling of the Dire Wind as a free action. He can make full attacks, and his damage output is enormously increased. He still provokes when loading, so it's good he has psionic sidestep to help him avoid that – but other than that, he's golden.
Leaving Legacy champion behind once we got what we came for, we're going back into the SI for a BIG level. Strength of my enemy is an awesome power, and sling is the only ranged weapon fit to fully utilize it - adapting for changing Strength scores with ease. Improved psionic sidestep is another important defensive asset for provokes-when-loading Goliath. It's also the level that brings Psychic Warrior ML to 9 – the ML necessary EXPAND 2 size categories without giving up duration (3 hours, with the free extend from the sling). At this same level, we get another virtual size category with pebble to boulder. So that's 2 more increases of our base damage – Gargantuan +4 sizes in Goliath's natural form, or sometimes Colossal +4 sizes if we happened to be able to prepare with a metamorphosis – going for MMII's sun giant now, rather than treant, for the better strength score.

Level 17 lets Goliath pull off a phase shot. Hey, remember which second level power he qualified for Ballisteer with? That's right, it's clairvoyant sense. With a pumped spot check, and darkvision. And we also have blindsight, mind you. Goliath has the tools it takes to figure out where someone is on the other side of a wall, and sling an elemental loadstone straight to their head. This level also brings our last psychic warrior power, the third level power vampiric blade. It lets Goliath lifesteal half the damage he does, but it's considered a bad power because it only applies to the base damage of the weapon, which as we all know always sucks. Hah. Hah.

Level 18. We get Forcefull Strike from the sling, which combined with improved psionic sidestep, should make sure we avoid taking AoOs for loading the sling by keeping everyone away. It's also the last level of Ballisteer, brings forward infused shot. Infused shot doubles the base damage of the ammo. DOUBLES. DOUBLES. Only the base damage, but for Colossal/Gargantuan+4 sizes on a 2d6 base damage, that's the absolute majority of the damage Goliath does – and he does a LOT of damage. It also finally gives Goliath a third iterative. That's a capstone if I've ever seen one.

But we still have 2 levels to go, thankfully, so we can round Goliath up. Done with Ballisteer, we're going back to Ardent, after having taken tap mantle last level. Both levels increase our BaB, thankfully, and each beings forward a new power. Level 19 is Bend Reality from the deception mantle. If you want to round out your character, and Metamorphosis wasn't enough, here's your solution. It's the "anything" button, and though it does cost some xp it's one of the best powers there is, period. Level 20 takes true creation, through the mantle we tapped. It's yet another "play god" power, but for Goliath it has even more usefulness than for most: he can make poisons to use, and if at any point you can't find loadstones by planeshifting, and you can't buy them either – just make 'em.

Level 20 also brings us our final base damage increase from Pebble to Boulder. We ended up with base damage 4 size categories higher than a colossal greatsword (5 if metamorphed). If my math is right, that should be 16d6/18d6 for a loadstone, and 10d6/12d6 for a normal bullet. As a cherry on top of that damage, we always get to add our changing strength (strength of my enemy, metamorphosis) because we're using a sling. The enormous base damage is doubled every time due to the SI capstone, and the SI lets us get attack targets we wouldn't otherwise be able to fight, and it also helps us deal with provoking when loading. We have Zen archery to be able to shoot without suffering from the decreased dex of being gargantuan, with a wis of 26 before any items. Combined with a +1 from hand crossbow focus, Sling of the Dire Wind being +5 to hit, the SI's invisible shot (and phase shot), and ML 18 offensive precognition, we're equipped to hit our full attacks, even despite our to-hit challenges. Not needing to take any power attack penalties or the like really helps. If we ever run into issues with range – the only remaining meaningful threat to our to-hit – we have the trusty extend range to double our increment, and double it again, and again if necessary.
Anthropomorphic Baleen Whale: Savage Species, pages 215 (rules for anthro-animals) and 217 (the line for baleen whale).

Ardent: Complete psionic, page 6.

Legacy Champion: Weapons of Legacy, page 19.

Rogue and Psychic warrior are in the SRD. The wilderness and martial ACFs for rogue are in the SRD.

The poison use ACF is in Drow of the Underdark, page 58.
Practiced Manifester: Complete Psionic, page 57.

Zen Archery: Complete Warrior, page 106.

Channel Legacy, Least/Lessr/Greater Legacy: Weapons of Legacy, pages 13-15.

Hand Crossbow Focus: Frow of the Underdark, page 50.

Tap Mantle: Complete Psionic, page 58.

All other feats either come from the SI or are found in the SRD.
Ardent mantles (Creation, Deception, Fate, the Planes): Complete Psionic, pages 67, 68, 71.

Extend range: Complete Psionic, page 89.

Perfect Archery: Complete Psionic, page 93.

The rest of the powers used are in the SRD.
Sling of the Dire Wind: Weapons of Legacy, page 150.

Metapsionic (Lesser) Legacy Ability: Weapons of Legacy, page 190. Extend power is in the SRD.

Weapon Enhancement Legacy Ability: Weapons of Legacy, page 195. Aptitude weapon is in Tome of Battle, page 148.

Elemental Loadstone: Planar Handbook, page 76.

The Viscount

2023-05-14, 04:06 PM

Chaka will rock you

Boomerang sound (https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/XqheflioQa/)
https://i.makeagif.com/media/1-26-2018/nNqPvZ.gif
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior

Rookies... We taught them, but they didn't even understand truisms... And here again...
- What happened here? - lieutenant asked.
- Three soldiers... They stayed and smoked. Single boomerang came from the dark. Two... died instantly - they were made into chopsticks like they’d been pounding on sticks all day. Third alive somehow. He talked about some flash. He recoiled back by instinct, but it wasn't enough, his wounds are severe, sir!
- It's this short partisan again, sarge.
- I think so. Damn halfling! - sergeant cursed, - We should move on, sir.
- Yes, but how many more soldiers will we lose? - officer sighed.
- Those who remain forever remembered: you can not stand close together while you are on the Talenta plains!

CE Strongheart Halfling Binder 5/Skilled City-Dweller Fighter 4/Ballisteer 10/Master Thrower 1
Abilities Initial Strongheart Halfling ASI Total
STR 14 -2 12
DEX 15 2 5 22
CON 14 14
INT 14 14
WIS 14 14
CHA 8 8
Level Class BAB Fort Save Reflex Save Will Save Skills Feats Class Features
1st Binder 1 0 2 0 2 16: {+4} Bluff: 4; {+4} Concentration: 4; {+4} Craft (weaponsmithing): 4; {+4} Sense Motive: 4; Talenta Warrior (1), Point Blank Shot (SH) Soul binding (1 vestige)
2nd Skilled City-Dweller Fighter 1 1 4 0 2 4: Bluff: 4; Concentration: 4; Craft (weaponsmithing): 4; {+2} Jump: 2; Sense Motive: 4; {+2} Tumble: 2; Dodge (F) Bonus feat
3rd Binder 2 2 5 0 3 4: {+1} Bluff: 5; {+1} Concentration: 5; Craft (weaponsmithing): 4; Jump: 2; {+2} Sense Motive: 6; Tumble: 2; Mobility (3) Pact augmentation (1 ability), suppress sign
4th Fighter 2 3 6 0 3 4: Bluff: 5; Concentration: 5; Craft (weaponsmithing): 4; {+2} Jump: 4; Sense Motive: 6; {+2} Tumble: 4; Weapon Focus (Talenta boomerang) (F) Bonus feat
5th Binder 3 4 6 1 3 4: {+1} Bluff: 6; {+1} Concentration: 6; Craft (weaponsmithing): 4; Jump: 4; {+2} Sense Motive: 8; Tumble: 4;
6th Fighter 3 5 6 2 4 4: Bluff: 6; Concentration: 6; Craft (weaponsmithing): 4; {+2} Jump: 6; Sense Motive: 8; {+2} Tumble: 6; Boomerang Ricochet (6)
7th Binder 4 6 7 2 5 4: {+1} Bluff: 7; {+1} Concentration: 7; Craft (weaponsmithing): 4; Jump: 6; {+2} Sense Motive: 10; Tumble: 6; Improved Binding (Bi) Bonus feat
8th Fighter 4 7 8 2 5 4: Bluff: 7; Concentration: 7; Craft (weaponsmithing): 4; {+2} Jump: 8; Sense Motive: 10; {+2} Tumble: 8; Boomerang Daze (F) Bonus feat
9th Binder 5 7 8 2 5 4: {+3} Bluff: 10; {+1} Concentration: 8; Craft (weaponsmithing): 4; Jump: 8; Sense Motive: 10; Tumble: 8; Psionic Shot (9) Pact augmentation (2 abilities)
10th Ballisteer 1 7 8 4 5 4: {+1} Autohypnosis: 1; Bluff: 10; {+1} Concentration: 9; Craft (weaponsmithing): 4; Jump: 8; Sense Motive: 10; {+2 CC} Sleight of Hand: 1; Tumble: 8; Throw Anything (Ba), Psionic Sidestep (Ba) Psionic Sidestep, Throw Anything
11th Ballisteer 2 8 8 5 5 4: {+1} Autohypnosis: 2; Bluff: 10; {+1} Concentration: 10; Craft (weaponsmithing): 4; Jump: 8; Sense Motive: 10; {+2 CC} Sleight of Hand: 2; Tumble: 8; Invisible shot
12th Ballisteer 3 9 9 5 6 4: {+1} Autohypnosis: 3; Bluff: 10; {+1} Concentration: 11; Craft (weaponsmithing): 4; Jump: 8; Sense Motive: 10; {+2 CC} Sleight of Hand: 3; Tumble: 8; Greater Psionic Shot (12) Ethereal shot
13th Ballisteer 4 10 9 6 6 4: {+1} Autohypnosis: 4; Bluff: 10; {+1} Concentration: 12; Craft (weaponsmithing): 4; Jump: 8; Sense Motive: 10; {+2 CC} Sleight of Hand: 4; Tumble: 8; Energy shot
14th Ballisteer 5 10 9 6 6 4: {+1} Autohypnosis: 5; Bluff: 10; {+1} Concentration: 13; Craft (weaponsmithing): 4; Jump: 8; Sense Motive: 10; Sleight of Hand: 4; {+2} Tumble: 10; Incorporeal shot
15th Ballisteer 6 11 10 7 7 4: {+1} Autohypnosis: 6; Bluff: 10; {+1} Concentration: 14; Craft (weaponsmithing): 4; Jump: 8; Sense Motive: 10; Sleight of Hand: 4; {+2} Tumble: 12; Psionic Meditation (15), Pinpoint Shot (Ba), Precise Shot (V) Pinpoint Shot
16th Master Thrower 1 12 10 9 7 6: Autohypnosis: 6; {+5} Bluff: 15; {+1} Concentration: 15; Craft (weaponsmithing): 4; Jump: 8; Sense Motive: 10; Sleight of Hand: 4; Tumble: 12; Quick Draw (MT) Quick Draw, thrown weapon trick (two with one blow)
17th Ballisteer 7 13 10 9 7 4: {+1} Autohypnosis: 7; Bluff: 15; {+1} Concentration: 16; Craft (weaponsmithing): 4; Jump: 8; Sense Motive: 10; Sleight of Hand: 4; {+2} Tumble: 14; Explosive shot
18th Ballisteer 8 14 10 10 7 4: {+1} Autohypnosis: 8; Bluff: 15; {+1} Concentration: 17; Craft (weaponsmithing): 4; Jump: 8; Sense Motive: 10; Sleight of Hand: 4; {+2} Tumble: 16; Far Shot (18), Improved Psionic Sidestep (Ba) Improved Psionic Sidestep
19th Ballisteer 9 14 11 10 8 4: {+1} Autohypnosis: 9; Bluff: 15; Concentration: 17; Craft (weaponsmithing): 4; Jump: 8; Sense Motive: 10; Sleight of Hand: 4; {+3} Tumble: 19; Phased shot
20th Ballisteer 10 15 11 11 8 4: {+1} Autohypnosis: 10; Bluff: 15; Concentration: 17; Craft (weaponsmithing): 4; Jump: 8; Sense Motive: 10; Sleight of Hand: 4; {+3} Tumble: 22; Infused shot
SH - Strongheart Halfling bonus feat, F - Fighter bonus feat, Bi - Binder bonus feat, Ba - Ballisteer bonus feat, MT - Master Thrower bonus feat, V - feat granted by Vestige.

Level Class New Powers (Level) Maximum Power Level PP
9th Ballisteer 1 - - 0+1
10th Ballisteer 2 Chameleon (1) 1st 1+2
11th Ballisteer 3 Extend Range (1) 1st 3+3
12th Ballisteer 4 - 1st 5+4
13th Ballisteer 5 Compression (1) 1st 7+5
14th Ballisteer 6 Darkvision, Psionic (2) 2nd 11+6
15th Ballisteer 7 - 2nd 15+7
17th Ballisteer 9 Burst (1) 2nd 19+8
19th Ballisteer 10 Body Adjustment (2) 2nd 23+9
20th Ballisteer 11 - 2nd 27+10

For now I throw my boomerangs quite well, also I have a variety of 1st and 2nd level vestiges to bind. Leraje is favorite, but it isn't mandatory.
I enter Ballisteer through Improved Binding feat and Arete vestige. It lets me manifest several 2nd-level powers. At this level I could hit two targets with one boomerang throw and daze both targets. Psionic Shot gives good additional damage. AoO could be a problem now - boomerang has only a 30 ft range. Yes, it's good for throwing weapons, but it still isn't so much. Psionic Sidestep helps with it.
At this level I become able to manifest a 2nd-level power via Ballisteer itself and don't need to bind Arete any more. I return to Leraje. Also I have improvements for Psionic Shot: its Greater version and Psionic Meditation which lets me use it every turn. Plus I have four useful powers now: Chameleon and Compression for better hiding (yes, it isn't my best talent), Extend Range talks for himself (plus, more range - more Spot penalty), and Darkvision plus to Leraje's Low-Light Vision (you know, darkness also gives some penalties for Spot).
Also I get several "Shot" abilities from SI. They are useful, but too situational. If I'll meet Incorporeal or Ethereal foe - they will come in handy, if not - not. Only Energy Shot is useful every time.
Now is time for the main trick explanation. At this level I have the Boomerang Ricochet feat, the Two with One Blow thrown weapon trick, and Ricochet granted ability of the Leraje vestige.

You can hurl a Talenta boomerang in such a way that it ricochets off one target to strike a second target of your choice. If your initial attack hits, you immediately make a second attack roll at a -2 penalty against any target adjacent to the original target.

If a master thrower with this ability uses a thrown weapon to attack two opponents adjacent to each other, she may take a –4 penalty on the attack roll and attempt to hit both opponents at once. The attack may hit either, both, or neither opponent depending on the roll and the Armor Class of each opponent.

As a standard action, you can make a single ranged attack against two adjacent targets. Make a single attack roll and apply that result to the Armor Class of both targets. Any hit you score deals damage to the target normally.
I use Ricochet as a standard action and apply Two with One Blow to this attack. Single throw became two attacks against two targets - four attack total. If all attacks hit each ricochets via Boomerang Ricochet feat. I have eight attacks with one standard action. And all these attacks are made by a single weapon. This means multiple applying Greater Psionic Shot damage and Explosive Shot damage.

In addition I get Burst power for the case of retreating.
Far shot, Phased and Infused shot abilities, more levels let me use Energy and Explosive Shots better. All this moves as it should be. Nothing changes dramatically, but improvements are good and useful.

While I really need to bind Arete until 15th level and Leraje after most days, but as Binder I have other options. Best of them is Astaroth. This vestige gives me any item creation feat I want (with prerequisite up to 5th caster level). This is difficult to overestimate even with my limited power selection. At least I could craft enough Cognizance Crystals. Or ask somebody for help to meet item power/spell prerequisites.

Having Astaroth I theoretically could make my own weapon more easily than regular fighters. If I manage to find casters' help I want this: +5 Distance Returning Collision Boomerang of True Aim. Distance and Returning are obvious choices. I really need to hit every time because my throws are too pricey to miss. That's why +5 is here. Plus this is +5 damage which will multiply with every of my multiple hits. This is also true for Collision. Weapon of True Aim is another story. This enchantment has synergy with the Pinpoint Shot feat. Pinpoint Shot lets me "ignore the cover bonus of a target," but cover itself is still there, so True Aim works. Free +1 AB over and above maximum +5 is good for my build. Plus rerolling concealment miss chance could be actual for throwing at maximum distance (with Far Shot, Distance and Extend Range) at night.

Inevitability, I read your guidelines and after seeing this paragraph:

1 point for your race: humans and strongheart halflings get 0 points, anything well-supported or obviously suited for the secret ingredient gets 0.5, and more obscure or unexpected things get 1.
I decided to change my race, but... next ten-minute I found a Mad Max Feral kid gif (you can see it at the beginning of the entry) and changing race stopped being an option. But I really don't want a penalty in originality and I made for you an alternative Chaka, with a different race. It should demonstrate that Strongheart Halfling wasn't taken forcibly, but for the style only.

CE Hadozee Binder 5/Skilled City-Dweller Fighter 4/Ballisteer 10/Master Thrower 1
Abilities Initial Hadozee ASI Total
STR 12 12
DEX 15 2 5 22
CON 14 14
INT 14 14
WIS 14 14
CHA 10 -2 8
Level Class Feats
1st Binder 1 Point Blank Shot (1), Dodge (H)
2nd Skilled City-Dweller Fighter 1 Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Talenta boomerang) (F)
3rd Binder 2 Mobility (3)
4th Fighter 2 Weapon Focus (Talenta boomerang) (F)
5th Binder 3
6th Fighter 3 Boomerang Ricochet (6)
7th Binder 4 Improved Binding (Bi)
8th Fighter 4 Far Shot (F)
9th Binder 5 Psionic Shot (9)
10th Ballisteer 1 Throw Anything (Ba), Psionic Sidestep (Ba)
11th Ballisteer 2
12th Ballisteer 3 Greater Psionic Shot (12)
13th Ballisteer 4
14th Ballisteer 5
15th Ballisteer 6 Psionic Meditation (15), Pinpoint Shot (Ba), Precise Shot (V)
16th Master Thrower 1 Quick Draw (MT)
17th Ballisteer 7
18th Ballisteer 8 Boomerang Daze (18), Improved Psionic Sidestep (Ba)
19th Ballisteer 9
20th Ballisteer 10
There still are some differences: halfling's +1 AB and AC size bonuses and +1 AB for thrown weapons, but also better hadozee's speed with Gliding option and better damage dice. It looks like tie.

Type Name Book Page
Race Strongheart Halfling Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting 18
Race Hadozee* Stormwrack 41, 151
Class Binder Tome of Magic 9
Class Fighter PHB 37
Prestige Class Ballisteer The Mind's Eye link (https://web.archive.org/web/20060628002304/http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20030426b)
Prestige Class Master Thrower Complete Warrior 58
Class variant Skilled City-Dweller Cityscape, WE link (https://web.archive.org/web/20201112031718/http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a)
Feat Talenta Warrior Races of Eberron 112
Feat Point Blank Shot PHB 98
Feat Dodge PHB 93
Feat Mobility PHB 98
Feat Weapon Focus PHB 102
Feat Boomerang Ricochet Races of Eberron 112
Feat Improved Binding Tome of Magic 74
Feat Boomerang Daze Races of Eberron 112
Feat Psionic Shot Expanded Psionics Handbook 50
Feat Throw Anything Complete Warrior 105
Feat Psionic Sidestep Expanding Your Mind link (https://web.archive.org/web/20060628001815/http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/pse/20030426a)
Feat Greater Psionic Shot Expanded Psionics Handbook 47
Feat Psionic Meditation Expanded Psionics Handbook 50
Feat Pinpoint Shot Expanding Your Mind link (https://web.archive.org/web/20060628001815/http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/pse/20030426a)
Feat Precise Shot PHB 98
Feat Quick Draw PHB 98
Feat Far Shot PHB 94
Feat Improved Psionic Sidestep Expanding Your Mind link (https://web.archive.org/web/20060628001815/http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/pse/20030426a)
Feat Exotic Weapon Proficiency* PHB 94
Vestige Arete The Mind's Eye link (https://web.archive.org/web/20161031215630/http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070119a)
Vestige Astaroth Cityscape, WE link (https://web.archive.org/web/20161101150501/http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070307a)
Vestige Leraje Tome of Magic 38
Powers All Expanded Psionics Handbook and Complete Psionic Varies
Weapon Enchantment Distance DMG 224
Weapon Enchantment Returning DMG 225
Weapon Enchantment Collision Magic Item Compendium 31
Weapon Enchantment True Aim Oakheart Lodge link (https://web.archive.org/web/20161031215325/http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/vv/20051228a)
Weapon Talenta Boomerang Eberron Campaign Setting 119
* - Ingredients needed for alternative.

The Viscount

2023-05-14, 04:07 PM

The censor prevents me from discussing the reference any further

Lord save me, thinks I, that must be the harpooneer, the infernal head-peddler. But I lay perfectly still, and resolved not to say a word till spoken to. Holding a
light in one hand, and that identical- REST OF THE STORY IS UNAVAILABLE DUE TO CONCERNS FOR GETTING A 0 IN ORIGINALITY FOR PLAIGARISM

https://64.media.tumblr.com/a05e308a6a60dad6256b437c889bf2ba/tumblr_nmrnytiepU1u8npafo1_r1_1280.jpg

Queequeg, CG male Stony Azurin.
Str 19 (17), Con 16 (12), Dex 13 (13), Int 6 (8), Wis 14 (16), Cha 6 (8). All increases to Str.
Level Class Base Attack Bonus Fort Save Reflex Save Will Save Skills Feats Class Features / New Powers
1st Psychic Warrior 1 0 2 0 0 Concentration 2, Tumble 2 Point Blank Shot, Psionic Shot, Weapon Focus (Harpoon), Midnight Dodge Soulbond Weapon (https://web.archive.org/web/20130320000832/http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070214a) (Harpoon), Skilled City Dweller (http://web.archive.org/web/20160612142357/http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a) (Ride->Tumble) / Call Weaponry
2nd Psychic Warrior 2 1 3 0 0 Concentration 2, Tumble 3 - Precognition, Offensive
3rd Psychic Warrior 3 2 3 1 1 Concentration 2, Tumble 4 EWP (harpoon) Adrenaline Boost
4th Psychic Warrior 4 3 4 1 1 Concentration 2, Tumble 5 - Wall Walker
5th Psychic Warrior 5 3 4 1 1 Concentration 2, Tumble 6 Mobility Hustle
6th Ballisteer 1 3 4 3 1 Concentration 3, Tumble 6 Brutal Throw, Psionic Sidestep, Throw Anything -
7th Ballisteer 2 4 4 4 1 Concentration 4, Tumble 6 - Invisible Shot / Disonnant touch
8th Ballisteer 3 5 5 4 2 Concentration 5, Tumble 6 - Ethereal Shot / Telekinetic Boomerang
9th Ballisteer 4 6 5 5 2 Concentration 5, Tumble 6, sleight of hand 0.5 Shape Soulmeld: Mauling Gauntlets Energy Shot
10th Ballisteer 5 6 5 5 2 Concentration 5, Tumble 6, sleight of hand 1 - Incorporeal Shot / Empathic Transfer, Hostile
11th Ballisteer 6 7 6 6 3 Concentration 5, Tumble 6, sleight of hand 1.5 Pinpoint Shot Dimension Slide
12th Ballisteer 7 8 6 6 3 Concentration 5, Tumble 6, sleight of hand 2 Precise Shot Explosive Shot
13th Ballisteer 8 9 6 7 3 Concentration 5, Tumble 6, sleight of hand 2.5 Improved Psionic Sidestep Immovabillity
14th Ballisteer 9 9 7 7 4 Concentration 5, Tumble 6, sleight of hand 3 - Phase Shot / Open Chakra, Psionic
15th Totemist 1 9 9 9 4 Concentration 5, Tumble 6, sleight of hand 4 Mindsight Wild Empathy
16th Master Thrower 1 10 9 11 4 Concentration 7, Tumble 6, sleight of hand 4 Quick Draw Two with one blow
17th Psychic Warrior 6 11 10 12 5 Concentration 8, Tumble 6, sleight of hand 4 - Freedom of Movement, Psionic
18th Psychic Warrior 7 12 10 12 5 Concentration 9, Tumble 6, sleight of hand 4 Azure Talent Psychokinetic Weapon
19th Psychic Warrior 8 13 11 12 5 Concentration 10, Tumble 6, sleight of hand 4 Psycarnum Infusion Dimension Door, Psionic

So, Queequeg is meant to be a competent weapon warrior/thrower with a unique trick: using a harpoon to lock down targets above and beyond the expected capability of the weapon to do such. I should note that the chair ruled all ballisteer abilities mentioning ammo to work with thrown weapons as well. Let's review.

Queequeg starts his career as a Psychic warrior stony azurin. Mineral warrior is an extremely powerful template early on; DR 8/adamantine is wild at these levels, and the Strength, constitution and NA are all appreciated too. With a high Strength score, Queequeg is a very capable fighter, with a mean trick up his sleeve: a harpoon. At these very early levels, that's normally not his soulbond weapon, but just a normal harpoon. It should be noted though, that a harpoon is perhaps the best-suited thrown weapon to use a soulbound weapon. Soulbound weapons disappear in a couple of rounds if they leave your hands, and a harpoon is probably the only thrown weapon that you still hold after having thrown it.

The harpoon is a thrown weapon from stormwrack, comprised of a broad bladed spear and 30 ft of chain. If an opponent is hit with a harpoon, they need to make a DC 10+damage dealt reflex saving throw, or the harpoon lodges into them, reducing them to half-speed and not letting them charge or run on top of making spellcasting a bitch to do. If you throw it at an enemy within 30 feet, you can control the chain with an opposed Str check, not allowing the enemy to get further than thirty feet from you. The only way to remove the harpoon is pulling it from the wound, which requires two free hands and a full round action. RAW, no one else can help a harpooned creature, and no appendage but hands can take care of the issue. Removing it also causes the creature to take the harpoon's damage again, unless they happen to be trained at heal and make a DC 15 check. Pretty mean.

Queequeg can throw his harpoon as a psionic shot, meaning the reflex save DC is significantly higher than expected of a first level character, and pulling it out doubles the effective damage of the feat. It's also a weapon that makes most sense to use within 30 ft – Point-blank shot's range. The only shame is not being able to take EWP at this level, as it requires a +1 BAB. Instead, Queequeg takes midnight dodge, which is twice as effective as normal dodge due to his preexisting essentia pool. Nothing goes to waste – Queequeg starts out with 4 feats, and they're all immediately effective. He can still use his power for none-soulbound weapons, offering him some nice versatility. There are some very cheesy things that call weaponry can (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24889093&postcount=121) do (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25467050&postcount=25), but I'm not really relying on those.

Queequeg's next feat is EWP, obviously, which makes the harpoon a much more reliable option. By this point he's taken two more powers. Adrenaline boost is notable for increasing his Strength for the opposed harpoon check. Wall walker, at level 4, allows for superior harpooning position to really lock down enemies – you can make the 30-ft rope far more restrictive by getting some vertical, and that can mean an opponent often can't reach Queequeg (who's on the wall), nor his friends (who are more than thirty feet away, when vertical is included). Cool! Queequeg is meant to be a slippery foe, staying close but just out of reach, using thrown weapons and the occasional harpoon throw as his go-to. Hustle comes next, significantly increasing Queequeg's mobility.

Speaking of mobility, that's his fifth level bonus feat, opening up the SI. Balisteer starts out with throw anything and brutal throw, significantly expanding Queequeg's capabilities. It's also the level in which he reaches ML 6, which allows him to give a summoned harpoon a special weapon quality. That opens up a lot of options if he knows in advance which kind of foe he'll be facing, but one that is very worth noting is binding from the Arms and Equipment guide. A harpoon is about locking enemies down, and binding can stick an enemy who'd usually be able to easily get away. Another is power-storing (SRD), which could be particularly useful with his next power, disonnant touch – reducing the enemy's strength just when they need it to get out of range.

Telekinetic boomerang isn't useful for harpooning, but it is for general throwing. Which is good, because with throw anything, invisible shot, ethereal shot, and a coming iterative attack, general throwing is what Queequeg does best.

Level 9 is a big level. The aforementioned iterative is here, sure, but so are energy shot and shape soulmeld. Mauling gauntlets give Queequeg a +2 to Strength checks, and he has 2 points of essentia to divert there (one from race, one from midnight dodge) for a further +4. Given that unlike most Strength checks, size doesn’t help here, and that Queequeg already has +5 Str before items, he should now be easily able to lock down the absolute majority of opponents, with a total of +11 before items and before powers. Energy shot isn't just "more damage" for Queequeg, too. Sure, it can be, if wasted on a normal thrown weapon – but with his harpoon, it means both a higher reflex save DC and the same damage on the way out if the enemy pulls the harpoon out – potentially doubling the damage output per PP.

Level 10 is a good point to talk about both incorporeal shot and ethereal shot, and a big huge difference between the wording on them and the wording on ghost touch weapons and similar abilities. Ghost touch says "A ghost touch weapon deals damage normally against incorporeal creatures." What happens if you shoot a ghost with a ghost-touch harpoon? Well, kind of unclear, isn't it? There's a case to be made that it functions normally, sure, but it's not the strongest case.

Ballisteer abilities, however, say something quite more potent. "It affects incorporeal targets normally". Not much wiggle room there – the harpoon sticks into incorporeal targets. And most of those are going to be TRASH at strength checks, so they're not going anywhere.

The power taken at level 10 is hostile empathetic transfer, which is quite nasty – and if Queequeg wants, he can call a power-storing harpoon, and load it with the transfer. That's the reason for a direct damage power on a build that so far focused on buffing and utility.

At this point in the build, however, I sort of have to acknowledge a problem. The harpoon is written with some very specific language that I've been relying on – no one else can help the harpooned creature, has to have hands, you take the entirety of initial damage upon pulling out the harpoon, etc. However, one place where its language isn't super restrictive is getting away from the harpooner: sure, it can't get further away than thirty feet from you without winning a strength check – but there's nothing saying you get to do anything to stay in place. Since RAW doesn't say "your place" or "your space", it opens up a spot for DM interpretation. And a very reasonable interpretation for, say, harpooning a wyvern, is that you can certainly prevent it from ripping the chain from your hands by winning the strength check – but there's nothing stopping it from flying up and taking you with it. Sure, Queequeg can be as heavy as a male Azurin can be, and you can beg the DM to let you roll a strength check to prevent that, but you don't have the means to fully stop the option.

That changes at level 13. If Queequeg really needs to restrict a foe's movement, he can throw a harpoon at them, and then use Immovability. That forces anyone trying to make him move by any means to roll an opposed Strength check – and Queequeg is not only a beast at those, but gets a +20 from the power. It's a heavy price to pay, but when you need to stop a dragon from flying away, it's there.

Level 14, however, is the 9th level of Ballisteer, and it's when things are about to get nasty. Phase shot is fascinating. Imagine throwing a harpoon at someone leaning on a 10 foot thick wall, from 20 ft away. They're going to be completely stuck. Now imagine if you could do that to anyone standing, by simply being 30 ft underneath them.

Well, you can. Because Queequeg is a mineral warrior, and one thing I hadn't mentioned yet, is that those have a burrow speed. He can burrow underground, and throw energy-shot harpoons at enemies, holding them in place through the astral freaking plain. Nothing they can do to stop it, and they can't even pull him up with a spell or anything, cause he can just chill underground, immovable.

There are three main issues with this tactic.

One, phase shot has a 10% chance of losing the weapon. That's no biggy with ammunition, but is terrifying for someone relying on thrown weaponry. Two, Queequeg needs a way to figure out where the enemy is – and three, even if he did, phase shot still explicitly gives them total concealment if you shoot through total cover.

Well, problem uno is already dealt with. No risk to Queequeg's WBL – he throws his soulbound weapon, so it's no biggy if it's lost in the astral plane. Third issue is also already dealt with by soulbound weapon: Queequeg can make the harpoon a seeking weapon (SRD, possibly on top of binding/ power storing) to ignore miss-chance. The second issue is solved within one level.

You see, Queequeg's first chosen 4th level power is open chakra. It's a cute power, with 24 hours of duration – it's basically a whole bunch of class features, at the cost of a few PP. Better, cause you can use it on others, too. So, at level 15, Queequeg dips totemist. That means another point of essentia to put in his mauling gauntlets, and two more soulmelds. One of them will be changing, utilizing the enormous flexibility offered by totemist. Common options for Queequeg are dread carapace for when he needs to burrow QUICK, blink shirt cause it's awesome, Kraken Mantle for water stuff, and sphinx claws for another +1 to Strength checks.

The other is always Shedu crown.

Shedu crown makes Queequeg immune to bullrushing (very good for him, as we recall he doesn't want to be moved) but it's also permanently bound to his psychically opened crown chakra, giving him telepathy. And wouldn't you know it, 15 is a feat level, which means mindsight. An enemy is walking around, and then an energy-fused harpoons emerges from the freaking earth, not letting them move an inch as they're being held by a rope that's in the astral freaking plane. If they're lucky enough to have hands, and for two of those to be free, they can decide to waste a full round action to take the whole pile of damage again.

Next, Queequeg goes into master thrower, qualifying with a prereq and a bonus feat. Quick Draw is late to the party, but still a nice addition – even if telekinetic boomerang is usually far better. The big thing here is two with one blow, allowing Queequeg to stick to enemies with the same harpoon. That's incredibly efficient. On top of that, it doubles energy shot's damage potential again and then doubles it again. See, I didn't mention explosive shot when we got it – but now, if you make an energy shot, it hits to oponnents, and then each of them takes the explosive shot damage from the other person getting hit. And if they want to move, they need to take the energy shot damage again by pulling the harpoon out.

Back to psychic warrior for the last three levels. Freedom of movement is always good, but it's hilarious when combined with immovability – you can move, but no one else can move you. Psychokinetic weapon as a passive source of damage is good for someone who occasionally needs to spend entire turns concentrating on a power underground to ruin monsters' lives. It’s also the level in which ML 16 opens up +3 weapon enhancements. That's a lot of flexibility, including summoning huge elementals (DMG II, the "elemental power" enhancements). It also allows for a binding, seeking, power storing harpoon if that's really necessary, but most of the time just seeking will do fine. Queequeg takes Azure talent, assigning a fourth essentia point to mauling gauntlets.

The last level is some more utility through dimension door, an increase to +2 bonus for the soulbound harpoon, and psycarnum infusion – combined with Azure talent for out of combat (and once per combat, sensibly) access to 10 bonus pp for one turn, ostensibly very significantly expanding the amount of times per day Queequeg can use his tricks and buff himself up.

Complete Adventurer: Brutal Throw.

Complete Warrior: Master Thrower.

Lords of Madness: Mindsight.

Magic of Incarnum: Azurin, totemist, soulmelds, feats (Shape Soulmeld, Midnight Dodge, Azure Talent, Psycarnum infusion), open chakra power.

Player's Guide to Eberron: Disonnant touch.

Stormwrack: Harpoon.

Underdark: Mineral Warrior template.

Everything else can be found in the SRD. All powers not mentioned above are from Complete Psionic and the SRD.

The Viscount

2023-05-14, 04:08 PM

There's so many whales I can't stop laughing

Lewis Z

Anthropomorphic Baleen Whale 3/Barbarian 1/Psychic Warrior 4/Hulking Hurler 1/Ballisteer 10/Psychic Warrior +1

Alignment: Chaotic Good

Str 16 +8 24
Con 14 +4 18
Dex 14 +4 18
Int 12 -- 12
Wis 14 +4 18
Cha 08 -- 08

All level increases to Strength.

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

3th
RHD 3
+3
+1
+3
+3

4 Autohypnosis (2)
6 Listen (6)
6 Spot (6)
2 ST: Listen To This

1st: Power Attack; 3rd: Dodge
--

4th
(Skilled City Dweller) (Bear Totem) Barbarian 1
+4
+3
+3
+3

- Autohypnosis (2)
1 Listen (7)
- Spot (6)
4 Tumble (4)
- ST: Listen To This

--
Improved Grab; Rage 1/day

5th
(Skilled City Dweller) Psychic Warrior 1
+4
+5
+3
+3

1 Autohypnosis (3)
- Listen (7)
- Spot (6)
2 Tumble (6)
- ST: Listen To This

B: Weapon Focus (Trident)
--

6th
(SCD) Psychic Warrior 2
+5
+6
+3
+3

1 Autohypnosis (4)
2 Concentration (2)
- Listen (7)
- Spot (6)
- Tumble (6)
- ST: Listen To This

6th: Point Blank Shot; B: Psionic Shot
--

7th
(SCD) Psychic Warrior 3
+6/1
+6
+4
+4

1 Autohypnosis (5)
2 Concentration (4)
- Listen (7)
- Spot (6)
- Tumble (6)
- ST: Listen To This

--
--

8th
(SCD) Psychic Warrior 4
+7/2
+7
+4
+4

1 Autohypnosis (6)
2 Concentration (6)
- Listen (7)
- Spot (6)
- Tumble (6)
- ST: Listen To This

--
--

9th
Hulking Hurler 1
+8/3
+7
+6
+4

- Autohypnosis (6)
- Concentration (6)
- Listen (7)
3 Psicraft (1.5)
- Spot (6)
- Tumble (6)
- ST: Listen To This

9th: Mobility
Catch Weapon; Really Throw Anything

10th
Ballisteer 1
+8/3
+7
+8
+4

1 Autohypnosis (7)
1 Concentration (7)
- Listen (7)
1 Psicraft (2)
- Spot (6)
- Tumble (6)
- ST: Listen To This

B: Psionic Sidestep; B: Throw Anything
--

11th
Ballisteer 2
+9/4
+7
+9
+4

1 Autohypnosis (8)
1 Concentration (8)
- Listen (7)
1 Psicraft (2.5)
- Spot (6)
- Tumble (6)
- ST: Listen To This

--
Invisible Shot

12th
Ballisteer 3
+10/5
+8
+8
+5

1 Autohypnosis (9)
1 Concentration (9)
- Listen (7)
1 Psicraft (3)
- Spot (6)
- Tumble (6)
- ST: Listen To This

12th: Fell Shot
Ethereal Shot

13th
Ballisteer 4
+11/6/1
+8
+9
+5

1 Autohypnosis (10)
1 Concentration (10)
- Listen (7)
1 Psicraft (3.5)
- Spot (6)
- Tumble (6)
- ST: Listen To This

--
Energy Shot

14th
Ballisteer 5
+11/6/1
+8
+9
+5

1 Autohypnosis (11)
1 Concentration (11)
- Listen (7)
1 Psicraft (4)
- Spot (6)
- Tumble (6)
- ST: Listen To This

--
Incorporeal Shot

15th
Ballisteer 6
+12/7/2
+9
+10
+6

1 Autohypnosis (12)
1 Concentration (12)
- Listen (7)
- Psicraft (4)
1 Spot (7)
- Tumble (6)
- ST: Listen To This

15th: Far Shot; B: Pinpoint Shot
--

16th
Ballisteer 7
+13/8/3
+9
+10
+6

1 Autohypnosis (13)
1 Concentration (13)
- Listen (7)
- Psicraft (4)
1 Spot (8)
- Tumble (6)
- ST: Listen To This

--
Explosive Shot

17th
Ballisteer 8
+14/9/4
+9
+11
+6

1 Autohypnosis (14)
1 Concentration (14)
- Listen (7)
- Psicraft (4)
1 Spot (9)
- Tumble (6)
- ST: Listen To This

B: Improved Psionic Sidestep
--

18th
Ballisteer 9
+14/9/4
+10
+11
+7

1 Autohypnosis (15)
1 Concentration (15)
- Listen (7)
- Psicraft (4)
1 Spot (10)
- Tumble (6)
- ST: Listen To This

18th: Psionic Meditation
Phased Shot

19th
Ballisteer 10
+15/10/5
+10
+12
+7

1 Autohypnosis (16)
1 Concentration (16)
- Listen (7)
- Psicraft (4)
1 Spot (11)
- Tumble (6)
- ST: Listen To This

--
Infused Shot

20th
(SCD) Psychic Warrior 5
+15/10/5
+10
+12
+7

2 Autohypnosis (18)
1 Concentration (17)
- Listen (7)
- Psicraft (4)
- Spot (11)
- Tumble (6)
- ST: Listen To This

B: Practiced Manifester
--

Powers Known

Level
Power Points Per Day
Powers Known

1st

--

--

2nd

--

--

3rd

--

--

4th

--

--

5th

0+2

Expansion

6th

1+4

Grip Of Iron

7th

3+6

Extend Range (Complete Psionic)

8th

5+8

Strength Of My Enemy

9th

5+8

--

10th

7+10

--

11th

11+12

Perfect Archery (Races of Stone)

12th

15+14

Prowess

13th

19+16

--

14th

23+18

Telekinetic Boomerang (Races of the Wild)

15th

27+20

Dimension Slide

16th

35+22

--

17th

43+24

Evade Burst

18th

51+26

Steadfast Perception

19th

59+28

--

20th

67+38

Freedom of Movement, Psionic

Anthro-Whale is a large creature (neccessary for pre-reqs of the build) with absolutely perfect stat adjustments for a psy-warrior.
Barbarian is there for the bear totem's improved grab ability, which will come in useful later in the build. For now though, the play is to be a large creature power attacking with reach to draw smaller creatures into a grapple just to give them a fun little (re: crushing) hug.
Psychic Warrior, at this point, offers Expansion... which can be huge! (Haha, see what I did there?) Weapon Focus is a pre-req, and, I mean, trident 'cause, ya know, whale!

Most of these levels are still fulfilling pre-reqs for later levels (Mobility, for example). Point Blank Shot and Psionic Shot, however, also add versitility to fighting styles. Add in both Grip of Iron and Extend Range as powers known and fighting can be either melee or ranged, with the Strength and Dexterity to make either function.
Strength Of My Enemy serves as a 2nd level power pre-req and is also a fun little add-on for a large, strong character.

But it's the dip into Hulking Hurler that makes this build so much fun. The Really Throw Anything ability opens up opportunity to throw things that aren't otherwise classed as weapons, so long as they can be lifted as a light load. A large bipedal creature with a Strength of 26 (24 plus 1 at 4th level, plus 1 at 8th) can lift 612 lbs as a light load. (If, theoretically, that large creature had been Expansioned to Huge, light load would be up to 1224 lbs.) (Player's Handbook p.162)
When used as an improvised weapon, a 600 lbs object deals 6d6 damage. (Something weighing 1200 lbs would deal 9d6 damage.) Even more if the improvised weapon in question is sharp. (Complete Warrior p.159)

So... a melee attack against an enemy of up to one size catagory smaller triggers improved grab for a free grapple attack. If successful, that enemy can then be thrown via Really Throw Anything as an improvised weapon. Oh, yes... let the fun ensue!

This is all Ballisteer, which is why we're here in the first place. Let's go over it level by level:

11th: Invisible Shot: oddly, there is no listed duration. If you miss your target and the weapon/ammo is recoverable, is it still Invisible? The party Rogue, once thrown, might find some benefit to this!
12th: Ethereal Shot: see Invisible Shot above.
Fell Shot feat: What's better than ranged attacks? Ranged touch attacks! For when you absolutely must hit your target.
13th: Energy Shot: More damage, what's not to like?
14th: Incorporeal Shot: see Invisible Shot above.
Telekinetic Boomerang: throw a house on someone and get your house back! Repeat as needed. ("Throw the fish away... and it comes back to me." --Lew Zealand--)
15th: Pinpoint Shot feat: hit things behind cover.
Far Shot feat: hit things farther away.
16th: Explosive Shot: big thing goes boom! Mwah-ha-ha!
17th: Evade Burst power: for when the big things goes boom close by.
18th: Phased Shot: for every time you feel the need to throw a wall through a wall. Also useful for capturing an enemy inside a doorless cage.
19th: Infused Shot: Uhmm... double the damage of a thrown house?! Ouch.

Rounds out the build with some more PP and a higher ML.

Anthropomorphic Baleen Whale: Savage Species
Skill Tricks: Complete Scoundrel
Psychic Warrior; Psionic Shot feat; Fell Shot feat; Psionic Meditation feat: Expanded Psionic Handbook
Hulking Hurler: Complete Warrior
Bear Totem Barbarian ACF: Complete Champion
Skilled City Dweller ACF: Cityscape
Practiced Manifester feat: Complete Psionic

The Viscount

2023-05-14, 04:09 PM

Ah, Dvati. Every time you see one you ask "wait how do I do that with Dvati?"

I looked at this round SI and thought. Its capstone ability - Infused Shot. It doesn't worth level if I'd use a thrown dagger or even a thrown greatsword. I need something with big base damage. I saw two ways. First is boooring and too unoriginal - Greater Mighty Wallop. Second is better - "I want to backstab him with the ballista"... Well, actually I much prefer Heavy Trebuchet, but sometimes I could use Scorpion, or Ballista, or Mangonel.

https://i.redd.it/byye6v4aj6s51.jpg

First thing first. Where did I get the Trebuchet? Well...

Siege engines are large weapons, structures, and machines that armies use to lay siege to a castle, fortified town, or other kind of fortress.

You call a weapon “from thin air” into your waiting hand (actually, it is a real weapon hailing from another location in space and time). You don’t have to see or know of a weapon to call it—in fact, you can’t call a specific weapon; you just specify the kind (longsword, shortbow, warhammer, or some other).
Siege engines are weapons and Call Weaponry gives me a weapon. Easy.

But there is another difficulty with Siege engines - they are too slow. Aiming and loading of Heavy Trebuchet takes 30 full-round actions. It's too much for one person in most cases. Well, I need more persons - that's why I'm dvati. Also very helpful are Fission, Anticipatory Strike, and Temporal Acceleration powers. First give me another two pairs of hands - it's four persons in the squad now. Second and third give more full-round actions in one round. Also I should mention Time Hop power. If it works well, the target is stationary for all time I need.

Two more very useful powers are Extend Range - obvious and Expansion. Let’s dwell on this in more detail.
Expansion could increase my size to Huge. Look at Siege engines description:

All statistics for the siege engines in this chapter assume they are designed for Medium creatures. Adjust as appropriate for siege engines designed for smaller or larger creatures.

Large or larger creatures load a catapult in half the given time
This means I have an option to increase base Heavy Trebuchet damage to 28d6 (add two sizes) or increase it to 14d8 and accelerate loading to "only" 12 full-round actions. If we talk about Heavy Ballista it will be 10d8 base damage with only 4 full-round actions to reload. Plus, all my three comrades could aid me aim and give +8 or +12 to AB (depends on whether Fission doubles count as twins or not), which covers -4 non proficiency penalty in spades.

Ballisteer's Invisible, Ethereal, and Incorporeal shot abilities could be used for "zeroing" of Mangonels, Trebuchets and Scorpions without disturbing targets.
Also there is synergy with Phase Shot.

Once a catapult successfully hits the target square, all subsequent shots automatically hit the same square with no attack roll needed, until the catapult is aimed at a different square.
If I don't need to make attack rolls I couldn't roll a natural "1" or "2" and miss.

At 20th ECL Poroc brothers have a broad variety of combat options with significant damage potential.
From 12d8 every two rounds with about +15 AB with Light Ballista for almost free (I need only 1 PP for 19 minutes of Call Weaponry and 9 pp for 190 minutes of Expansion and 3 PP for 19 minutes of Animal Affinity to compensate for Dex decreasing from Expansion).
To 56d6 every six rounds with Heavy Trebuchet. It will cost me an additional 13 PP for 19 rounds of Fission and 19 PP for 3 rounds of Temporal Acceleration (six extra full-round actions) if I'm in a hurry.
And this is excluding Psionic Shot and Ballister's Energy and Explosive shots.

At earlier levels most were in the same vein.
At 16th ECL I have Fission, Expansion and Animal Affinity and are already capable of making good damage.
Before these powers I highly likely don't use Trebuchets, unless a successful combination of circumstances happens, but with Ardent powers you couldn't call me useless.

LE Dvati Ardent 9/Ballisteer 10
Abilities Initial 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th Total
STR 12 12
DEX 14 14
CON 14 14
INT 14 14
WIS 16 4 20
CHA 8 8
LevelLA+1 Class BAB Fort Save Reflex Save Will Save Skills Feats Class Features
1st Ardent 1 0 0 0 2 16: {+4} Concentration: 4; {+4} Profession (siege engineer): 4; {+4} Psicraft: 4; {+4 CC} Tumble: 2; Dodge1 Assume psionic mantles (Justice, Time)
2nd Ardent 2 1 0 0 3 4: {+1} Concentration: 5; {+1} Profession (siege engineer): 5; {+1} Psicraft: 5; {+1 CC} Tumble: 2.5; Assume psionic mantle (Guardian)
3rd Ardent 3 2 1 1 3 4: {+1} Autohypnosis: 1; {+1} Concentration: 6; {+1} Profession (siege engineer): 6; Psicraft: 5; {+1 CC} Tumble: 3; Mobility3
4th Ardent 4 3 1 1 4 4: {+1} Autohypnosis: 2; {+1} Concentration: 7; {+1} Profession (siege engineer): 7; Psicraft: 5; {+1 CC} Tumble: 3.5;
5th Ardent 5 3 1 1 4 4: {+1} Autohypnosis: 3; {+1} Concentration: 8; {+1} Profession (siege engineer): 8; Psicraft: 5; {+1 CC} Tumble: 4; Assume psionic mantle (Knowledge)
6th Ardent 6 4 2 2 5 4: {+1} Autohypnosis: 4; {+1} Concentration: 9; {+1} Profession (siege engineer): 9; Psicraft: 5; {+1 CC} Tumble: 4.5; Point Blank Shot6
7th Ardent 7 5 2 2 5 4: {+1} Autohypnosis: 5; {+1} Concentration: 10; {+1} Profession (siege engineer): 10; Psicraft: 5; {+1 CC} Tumble: 5;
8th Ardent 8 6 2 2 6 4: {+1} Autohypnosis: 6; {+1} Concentration: 11; {+1} Profession (siege engineer): 11; Psicraft: 5; {+1 CC} Tumble: 5.5; Change primary mantle (Justice to Guardian)
9th Ardent 9 6 3 3 6 4: {+1} Autohypnosis: 7; {+1} Concentration: 12; {+1} Profession (siege engineer): 12; Psicraft: 5; {+1 CC} Tumble: 6; Psionic Shot9
10th Ballisteer 1 6 3 5 6 4: {+1} Autohypnosis: 8; {+1} Concentration: 13; {+1} Profession (siege engineer): 13; Psicraft: 5; {+1} Tumble: 7; Psionic Sidestep, Throw Anything
11th Ballisteer 2 7 3 6 6 4: {+1} Autohypnosis: 9; {+1} Concentration: 14; {+1} Profession (siege engineer): 14; Psicraft: 5; {+1} Tumble: 8; Invisible shot
12th Ballisteer 3 8 4 6 7 4: {+1} Autohypnosis: 10; {+1} Concentration: 15; {+1} Profession (siege engineer): 15; Psicraft: 5; {+1} Tumble: 9; Expert Siege Engineer12 Ethereal shot
13th Ballisteer 4 9 4 7 7 4: {+1} Autohypnosis: 11; {+1} Concentration: 16; {+1} Profession (siege engineer): 16; Psicraft: 5; {+1} Tumble: 10; Energy shot
14th Ballisteer 5 9 4 7 7 4: {+1} Autohypnosis: 12; {+1} Concentration: 17; {+1} Profession (siege engineer): 17; Psicraft: 5; {+1} Tumble: 11; Incorporeal shot
15th Ballisteer 6 10 5 8 8 4: {+1} Autohypnosis: 13; {+1} Concentration: 18; {+1} Profession (siege engineer): 18; Psicraft: 5; {+1} Tumble: 12; Expanded Knowledge (Fission)15 Pinpoint Shot
16th Ballisteer 7 11 5 8 8 4: {+1} Autohypnosis: 14; {+1} Concentration: 19; {+1} Profession (siege engineer): 19; Psicraft: 5; {+1} Tumble: 13; Explosive shot
17th Ballisteer 8 12 5 9 8 4: {+1} Autohypnosis: 15; {+1} Concentration: 20; {+1} Profession (siege engineer): 20; Psicraft: 5; {+1} Tumble: 14; Improved Psionic Sidestep
18th Ballisteer 9 12 6 9 9 4: {+1} Autohypnosis: 16; {+1} Concentration: 21; {+1} Profession (siege engineer): 21; Psicraft: 5; {+1} Tumble: 15; Expanded Knowledge (Temporal Acceleration)18 Phased shot
19th Ballisteer 10 13 6 10 9 4: {+1} Autohypnosis: 17; {+1} Concentration: 22; {+1} Profession (siege engineer): 22; Psicraft: 5; {+1} Tumble: 16; Infused shot
Level Class New Powers PP
1st Ardent 1 Call Weaponry (1), Deceleration (1) 2+1 (3)
2nd Ardent 2 Deaden Blow (1) 6+3 (9)
3rd Ardent 3 Incite Bravery (2) 11+4 (15)
4th Ardent 4 Damp Power (2) 17+6 (23)
5th Ardent 5 Time Hop (3) 25+7 (32)
6th Ardent 6 Dispel Psionics (3) 35+9 (44)
7th Ardent 7 Detect Remote Viewing (4) 46+10 56
8th Ardent 8 Wall of Ectoplasm (4) 58+16 (74)
9th Ardent 9 Anticipatory Strike (5) 72+18 (90)
10th Ballisteer 1 - 72+18+0+2 (92)
11th Ballisteer 2 Extend Range (1) 72+18+1+4 (95)
12th Ballisteer 3 Inertial Armor (1) 72+18+3+6 (99)
13th Ballisteer 4 - 72+18+5+8 (103)
14th Ballisteer 5 Expansion (1) 72+18+7+10 (107)
15th Ballisteer 6 Animal Affinity (2), Fission (7, feat) 72+18+11+12 (113)
16th Ballisteer 7 - 72+22+15+17 (126)
17th Ballisteer 8 Ethereal Volley (2) 72+22+19+20 (133)
18th Ballisteer 9 Stygian Erasure (2), Temporal Acceleration (6, feat) 72+22+23+22 (139)
19th Ballisteer 10 - 72+22+27+25 (146)
Type Name Book
Race Dvati Dragon Compendium
Class Ardent Complete Psionic
Prestige Class Ballisteer SI
Feat Dodge PHB
Feat Mobility PHB
Feat Point Blank Shot PHB
Feat Psionic Shot Expanded Psionics Handbook
Feat Expert Siege Engineer Heroes of Battle
Feat Expanded Knowledge Expanded Psionics Handbook
Powers All Complete Psionic & Expanded Psionics Handbook
Siege Engines All Heroes of Battle

The Viscount

2023-05-14, 04:14 PM

Children throw. A true warrior hurls.

Ponee Tutrix - Psionic Ghost Control Unit

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/704885103867723830/1107151867160559806/MvhBo3eehdNEOTUm3on1--3--5e21f.jpg?width=400&height=300

Neutral Goliath
Psychic warrior 6 / fighter 1/ ballisteer 10/ hulking hurler 1/bear spiritual totem barbarian 1

This build is inspired by the question: What is the funniest thing I can do with the abilities of the ballisteer?

Brainstorming: Round 1
To use the totality of the class features, we need a big funny ranged projectile weapon. Footbow? Blow gun? crossbow winch?

Trebuchet?

Yes.

Trebuchet. How do we guarantee access to a trebuchet?

Soulbound psychic warrior.

Counter argument: so what, you got big damage dice and colossal weapon that you need to get a staff of 12 to get working?.

Rebuttal:
Using ethereal and incorporeal shot, I can trebuchet all of the ghosts and ethereal filchers off the face of the planet, harming no one. Evil clerics will pay you handsomely to exorcise their manor’s without disturbing anything, from a large distance away.
Phase shot is hilarious to imagine when the result isn’t an exploding arrow, but instead a massive meteor of shot material delivered at high velocity from the astral plane. “Oh, no. THe bandits made it back to their woodland fortress! What ever can I do, other than explode them all from a distance?

—------------
Brainstorming: Round 2
I noticed that the energy shot and explosive shot do not need to be a projectile weapon. Any ranged weapon can work with those abilities.

What is the best ranged weapon, that isn’t a trebuchet, to use with this power.

Spear spikards? Eldritch blasts? Flasks of oil?

Picked-up opponents that you throw at other opponents?

Picked-up opponents that you throw at other opponents.

Using feats?

Nope. Using obscure archived online content resources and….grappling rules. Also, hulking hurler’s superior ability called “really throw anything.” This ability is unlike the feat “throw anything”, where the designers tried to hit the brakes on what you can do with it. .

Counter argument: So what, you threw a dude for 2d6 damage against him and another opponent and you get to tack on some extra d4s for damage.

Rebuttal:
The dude I throw will explode. Does he insta-die? Is it a horrific spray of guts and psychic energies? Is it a dragonball z style crater-leaving explosion? Who cares, cuz both are cool.

Brainstorm 3
Those ideas are mutually exclusive.

Tie them together with a clever name.

Abilities

Initial
Race
4th
8th
12th
16th
20th

STR

17
+4= 21
21
22
22
22
22

DEX
15
-2 = 13
13
13
13
13
13

CON
10
+2 = 12
12
12
12
12
12

INT
11
11
11
11
12
12
12

WIS
14
14
15
15
15
16
16

CHA
8
8
8
8
8
8
8

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

1st
Skilled city dwellin' Soulbound weapon (https://web.archive.org/web/20130320000832/http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070214a) psychic warrior
0
2
0
0
8: {+2} Tumble: 2; {+2} Concentration: 2; {+2} Profession (Siege Engineer): 2; {+2} Search: 2;
Dodge, Point Blank shot, Weapon Focus (trebuchet)
Soulbound weapon (trebuchet), bonus feat, call weapon
0

2nd
Psychic warrior
1
3
0
0
2: {+1} Tumble: 3; {+1} Concentration: 3; Profession (Siege Engineer): 2; Search: 2;

expansion
1

3rd
Psychic warrior
2
3
1
1
2: {+1} Tumble: 4; {+1} Concentration: 4; Profession (Siege Engineer): 2; Search: 2;
mobility
grip of iron
3

4th
Psychic warrior
3
4
1
1
2: {+1} Tumble: 5; {+1} Concentration: 5; Profession (Siege Engineer): 2; Search: 2;

dimension swap
5

5th
Psychic warrior
3
4
1
1
2: {+1} Tumble: 6; {+1} Concentration: 6; Profession (Siege Engineer): 2; Search: 2;
Psionic Shot
Bonus feat, dissolving weapon
7

6th
Fighter
4
6
1
1
2: Tumble: 6; {+1} Concentration: 7; {+1} Profession (Siege Engineer): 3; Search: 2;
Power Attack, Weapon Focus (thrown weapon)
Bonus feat, tower shield proficiency
7

7th
Ballisteer 1
4
6
3
1
2: Tumble: 6; {+1} Concentration: 8; {+1} Profession (Siege Engineer): 4; Search: 2;
Psionic Sidestep, Throw anything
psionic sidestep, throw anything
11

8th
Ballisteer 2
5
6
4
1
2: Tumble: 6; {+1} Concentration: 9; {+1} Profession (Siege Engineer): 5; Search: 2;

invisible shot, dimension slide
15

9th
Hulking Hurler
6
6
6
1
2: Tumble: 6; Concentration: 9; {+2} Profession (Siege Engineer): 7; Search: 2;
Expert Siege Engineer, Snatch arrows, Throw anything
Catch weapon, really throw anything
15

10th
Ballisteer 3
7
7
6
2
2: Tumble: 6; {+1} Concentration: 10; {+1} Profession (Siege Engineer): 8; Search: 2;

ethereal shot Telekinetic boomerang CPsi, 103
19

11th
Ballisteer 4
8
7
7
2
2: Tumble: 6; Concentration: 10; {+2} Profession (Siege Engineer): 10; Search: 2;

energy shot
23

12th
Bear spiritual totem Goliath Barbarian
9
9
7
2
5: Tumble: 6; Concentration: 10; Profession (Siege Engineer): 10; Search: 2; {+1} listen: 1; {+4} survival: 4;
Owlbear berzerker
improved grab (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#improvedGrab), Mountain rage
23

13th
Ballisteer 5
9
9
7
2
3: Tumble: 6; {+1} Concentration: 11; {+1} Profession (Siege Engineer): 11; Search: 2; listen: 1; survival: 4; {+1} Use Rope: 1;

incorporeal shot Escape Detection
27

14th
Ballisteer 6
10
10
8
3
3: Tumble: 6; {+1} Concentration: 12; {+1} Profession (Siege Engineer): 12; Search: 2; listen: 1; survival: 4; {+1} Use Rope: 2;
pinpoint shot
pinpoint shot psychokinetic weapon CPsi, 96
35

15th
Ballisteer 7
11
10
8
3
3: Tumble: 6; {+1} Concentration: 13; {+1} Profession (Siege Engineer): 13; Search: 2; listen: 1; survival: 4; {+1} Use Rope: 3;
improved grapple
explosive shot
43

16th
Ballisteer 8
12
10
9
3
3: Tumble: 6; {+1} Concentration: 14; {+1} Profession (Siege Engineer): 14; Search: 2; listen: 1; survival: 4; {+1} Use Rope: 4;
improved psionic sidestep
improved psionic sidestep Living Arrow CPsi, 92
51

17th
Ballisteer 9
12
11
9
4
3: Tumble: 6; {+1} Concentration: 15; {+1} Profession (Siege Engineer): 15; Search: 2; listen: 1; survival: 4; {+1} Use Rope: 5;

phased shot Empower Weapon (CPsi, 85)
59

18th
Ballisteer 10
13
11
10
4
3: Tumble: 6; {+1} Concentration: 16; {+1} Profession (Siege Engineer): 16; Search: 2; listen: 1; survival: 4; {+1} Use Rope: 6;
empower supernatural ability
infused shot
67

19th
Psychic warrior
14
12
11
5
3: {+1} Tumble: 7; {+1} Concentration: 17; {+1} Profession (Siege Engineer): 17; Search: 2; listen: 1; survival: 4; Use Rope: 6;

personal Mindblank
79

20th
LA+1

Level Breakdown

Level 5 Snapshot:
You’re a goliath psychic warrior with skilled city dweller trading the ride skill for tumble and the ability to summon a trebuchet for a single power point. For Melee, break out a greatsword. You have expansion in there to make your size even bigger. Carry some sort of high damage touch attack ranged weapon to use point blank shot or psionic shot. The iron grip power is relevant later in the game, but it’s an immediate action power for grappling, so you may find utility for it here. Dimension swap lends some utility to team work situations. Dissolving weapon doesn’t specify that it only applies to melee weapons, so enjoy throwing acidic trebuchet shots.

Level 10 Snapshot
A level of fighter grants a bonus feat that helps fulfill the prerequisites for hulking hurler. Ballisteer then begins providing interesting ranged weapon supplementation. Invisible shot allows you to turn your trebuchet ammunition invisible, which doesn’t help much. But nothing is stopping you from using a bow to hurt people without any ability to trace that damage to you. Ethereal shot however, allows us to start our ethereal creature pest eradication service. It hurts nothing in a town if you trebuchet every square of it with explosive ethereal ammunition. Setting up the impressive short ranged damage trick of this build is the hulking hurler. Not only can we now snatch arrows aimed at us, but we can really throw anything as an improvised ranged weapon.

Level 15 Snapshot: High point of the build.
At level 15, all of the build is together in a cohesive piece. Our business of carpet bombing ghosts at great cost and no collateral damage is well underway with our trebuchet skills. But the final tools for the covert death attack ability of ballisteer is unlocked.

According to the Rules of the Game online article found here: https://web.archive.org/web/20071113014215/http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/rg/20050315a

Toss Your Foe: Make an opposed grapple check as a melee attack. If you succeed, you can literally pick up your foe (provided you can lift your foe's weight). Make a Strength check; if your result is at least 10, you toss your foe 5 feet. For every 5 points your Strength check result exceeds 10, you toss your foe another 5 feet, to a maximum of 25 feet.

I can throw my opponent. Can I throw him as a weapon?
Hulking Hurler gives us a compatible answer that allows us to throw our opponents, so long as we pin an opponent and make large DC strength check.

Really Throw Anything (Ex): A hulking hurler gains the Throw Anything feat (described in Chapter 3 of this book) as a bonus feat. However, since a hulking hurler depends on brute strength more than skill, he can throw anything (not just weapons) he can lift as a light load. If the item is an improvised weapon, he takes a —2 penalty on his attack roll instead of the normal —4. Use the rules in Chapter 4 of this book to determine the amount of damage the thrown weapon does. The range increment of a thrown weapon or improvised weapon wielded by a hulking hurler is 10 feet + 5 feet per size category the hulking hurler is beyond Large (this is a modification of the Throw Anything feat).

Ballisteer has two abilities that work on any ranged weapon, not just a projectile ranged weapon: Energy shot and Explosive shot. If I pin an opponent through grappling, I can toss them as a melee attack with some bonus fiddly rules, and If “really throw anything” lives up its name, that opponent is now an improvised weapon.

Which means we can infuse that person with psychic energies to deal damage against other opponents (+ point blank shot). Which means, that, at level 15, we can make our ranged weapon explode on a hit.

Explosive Shot: The ballisteer can now make his Energy Shots explode with a 10-ft.-radius burst with the expenditure of 2 additional power points. This ability is applied as the attack is made, but the cost must be paid before the attack roll. Explosive shots that miss their target do not explode and the energy dissipates harmlessly. Creatures other than the initial target in the affected area may attempt a Reflex save (DC 20) for half damage.

What does it mean by explode? The weapon is consumed in the process of exploding, right? Right?

Towards this goal we get ourselves into a level of barbarian, not for the rage, but for the access to the owlbear berzerker feat, (+4 on grapple checks) as well as improved grab. So we can hit with a two handed sword, improved grab, grapple. Pin them on round 2 and throw them at other bad guys as a sacrificial exploding improvised weapon to hurt his buddies.

Level 20 Snapshot
Tutrix can now phase shot, double damage trebuchet blasts anywhere he can get a clairvoyant sensor to within 1500 feet. Truly terrifying. Imagine being raided from the astral plane by someone you couldnt see approaching up until 5 minutes before the attack. And even if you have a counter offensive, the siege engineer is a giant who can throw an opponent so hard that they explode, no saving throw, no nothing. You just have to hope he misses his target.

A number of psionic powers augment the siege engineer. He can grow to gargantuan size. He can manifest psychokinetic weapon on his trebuchet, quite possibly removing the need for it to have a crew entirely, because again, there isn’t an explicit prohibition on the power limiting it to melee weapons. Empower weapon has some hilarious implications for putting powers into your allies if you wield them as improvised ranged weapons, Allowing you to touch them to manifest powers while you rage. More simply, you could just deck yourself out in weapons with powers stored in them. This allows you to manifest while raging. Living arrow seems appropriate to put onto this character, as we can still use bows like a normie. And if you miss with your opponent as a weapon, (or hell, if you hit) telekinetic boomerang is hilarious.

The Viscount

2023-05-14, 04:15 PM

The Greater Redoubt is surprisingly poorly guarded.

Gregor Redbane of the Lesser Redoubt

https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/2e19e1ca-5068-49c4-beba-94a0f229f67f/da7m2cq-48d1e4b8-9308-4e8f-9871-a3c1de923ae6.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJ IUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQz NzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZT BkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6 W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcLzJlMTllMWNhLTUwNjgtNDljNC1iZW JhLTk0YTBmMjI5ZjY3ZlwvZGE3bTJjcS00OGQxZTRiOC05MzA4 LTRlOGYtOTg3MS1hM2MxZGU5MjNhZTYuanBnIn1dXSwiYXVkIj pbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.fGZpnV4Z mTiFer3EXa6nNHvyGXymDlrVwgQTQMDLmKI

Lawful Neutral Human Warblade 2 / Psychic Warrior 4 / Bloodstorm Blade 4 / Ballisteer 10

In the time long past the extinguishing of the Sun, mankind huddles together in great structures for protection while being watched by Eldritch abominations waiting to lay waste to the last survivors. Gregor Redbane was a warrior born and raised in the Lesser Redoubt, a city that had stood strong for centuries against the horrors of The Night Land (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Night_Land). But now, the defenses were crumbling, and the abhumans were pressing closer every day.

Gregor had never been one to shy away from battle, but he knew that brute strength alone would not be enough to save his city, however skilled he might be with the terrifying Diskos. (Warblade 1,2) He and the other defenders had to master their brain elements, learning to use their minds to fight as well as their bodies. It was a difficult and often painful process, but they had no choice. (Psychic Warrior 1-4)

Occasionally, they would venture out into the Night Land, risking their lives to repel the abhuman attackers and protect their people’s dwindling connection to the Earth Current that had sustained them through the millenia. They knew that they could not win the war, but they hoped to buy time for the people of the Lesser Redoubt to find a way to escape to the Last Redoubt, the only place of safety left in the world. Desperation led Gregor to become increasingly skilled and using his psionic abilities extended to enhance his weapons, becoming a master of throwing and directing his Diskos (Bloodstorm Blade 1-4) and charging it with psionic energy (Ballisteer 1-10). Ever an excellent student in the blending of arm and mind, Gregor would constantly train to learn new applications of his mental force. He was a talented warrior learning to break the laws of physics in order to win battles in an unwinnable war.

Lady Mirdath had been gathering information about the Last Redoubt with her powerful brain element. She had made contact with someone in the ancient structure who confirmed that its own connection to the Earth Current has remained strong and that they had continued to thrive. It was the only hope for Gregor’s people. The people of the Lesser Redoubt had heard tales of its vast size and impregnable defenses, and they clung to the hope that they could make it there in time.

Gregor Redbane was not a man given to despair, but sometimes the weight of their situation threatened to crush him. He saw the fear in the eyes of his fellow defenders, and he felt it too. But he knew that they could not give up, not now. Even as the walls began to crack, they had to fight until the bitter end, for the sake of their city and for the hope of a better future in the Last Redoubt.

Initial Stats
STR 16
DEX 12
CON 14
INT 12
WIS 14
CHA 10

ASIs
4: Strength
8: Strength
12: Strength
16: Strength
20: Wisdom

Abilities Initial Race / Template 4th 8th 12th 16th 20th
STR 16 1 1 1 1
DEX 12
CON 14
INT 12
WIS 14 1
CHA 10

Level \ Abilities STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
1st 16 12 14 12 14 10
2nd 16 12 14 12 14 10
3rd 16 12 14 12 14 10
4th 17 12 14 12 14 10
5th 17 12 14 12 14 10
6th 17 12 14 12 14 10
7th 17 12 14 12 14 10
8th 18 12 14 12 14 10
9th 18 12 14 12 14 10
10th 18 12 14 12 14 10
11th 18 12 14 12 14 10
12th 19 12 14 12 14 10
13th 19 12 14 12 14 10
14th 19 12 14 12 14 10
15th 19 12 14 12 14 10
16th 20 12 14 12 14 10
17th 20 12 14 12 14 10
18th 20 12 14 12 14 10
19th 20 12 14 12 14 10
20th 20 12 14 12 15 10

Level Class Base Attack Bonus Fort Save Reflex Save Will Save Skills Feats Class Features
1st Warblade 1 2 0 0 Balance x 4, Tumble x 4, Concentration x 4, Martial Lore x 4, Intimidate x 4, Spot x 4 Dodge (Level 1), Power Attack (Human Bonus Feat) Battle clarity (Reflex saves), weapon aptitude
2nd Psychic Warrior 1 4 0 0 Tumble x 1, Autohypnosis x 5 Mobility (Psychic Warrior Bonus Feat)
3rd Psychic Warrior 2 5 1 1 Concentration x 2, Tumble x 1, Knowledge (Psionics) x 3 Brutal Throw (Level 3) Mantle: Freedom
4th Psychic Warrior 3 5 1 1 Knowledge (Psionics) x 3
5th Psychic Warrior 4 6 1 1 Concentration x 1, Tumble x 2, Knowledge (Psionics) x 1
6th Warblade 5 7 1 1 Balance x 4, Intimidate x 1, Diplomacy x 1 Point Blank Shot (Level 6) Uncanny dodge
7th Bloodstorm Blade 6/1 9 1 1 Spot x 6 Throw Anything (Warblade Bonus Feat) Returning attacks
8th Bloodstorm Blade 7/2 10 1 1 Balance x 2, Concentration x 1, Intimidate x 1, Spot x 2 Martial throw, thunderous throw
9th Ballisteer 7/2 10 3 1 Spot x 2, Autohypnosis x 2 Psionic Shot (Level 9), Throw Anything (Ballisteer Bonus Feat), Psionic Sidestep (Ballisteer Bonus Feat)
10th Ballisteer 8/3 10 4 1 Spot x 2, Autohypnosis x 2 Invisible Shot
11th Ballisteer 9/4 11 4 2 Spot x 2, Autohypnosis x 2 Ethereal Shot
12th Ballisteer 10/5 11 5 2 Spot x 2, Autohypnosis x 2 Vital Recovery (Level 12) Energy Shot
13th Ballisteer 10/5 11 5 2 Spot x 2, Autohypnosis x 1, Knowledge (Psionics) x 1 Incorporeal Shot
14th Bloodstorm Blade 11/6/1 11 6 3 Balance x 2, Concentration x 1, Intimidate x 1, Spot x 2 Power Throw (Warblade Bonus Feat)
15th Bloodstorm Blade 12/7/2 12 6 3 Balance x 2, Concentration x 1, Intimidate x 1, Spot x 2 Psionic Mediation (Level 15) Lightning ricochet
16th Ballisteer 13/8/3 13 7 4 Knowledge (Psionics) x 4 Pinpoint Shot (Ballisteer Bonus Feat)
17th Ballisteer 14/9/4 13 7 4 Balance x 4 Explosive Shot
18th Ballisteer 15/10/5 13 8 4 Autohypnosis x 4 Ironheart Aura (Level 18), Improved Psionic Sidestep (Ballisteer Bonus Feat)
19th Ballisteer 15/10/5 14 8 5 Spot x 4 Phase Shot
20th Ballisteer 16/11/6/1 14 9 5 Concentation x 2, Knowledge (Psionics) x 2 Infused Shot

Effective Character Level Psychic Warrior Level Manifesting Power List Power Points Per Day Powers Known Maximum Power Level Known Bonus Power Points from Wisdom Modifier
2nd 1st Psychic Warrior 0 1 1 1
3rd 2nd Psychic Warrior 1 2 1 2
4th 3rd Psychic Warrior 3 3 1 3
5th 4th Psychic Warrior 5 4 2 4
10th 5th Psychic Warrior 7 5 2 6
11th 6th Psychic Warrior 11 6 2 7
13th 7th Psychic Warrior 15 7 3 9
16th 8th Psychic Warrior 19 8 3 10
18th 9th Psychic Warrior 23 9 3 12
19th 10th Psychic Warrior 27 10 4 13

Powers Known
Deflection Field (2), Expansion (3), Vigor (4), Hustle (8), Darkvision, Psionic (9), Strength of My Enemy (11), Fly, Psionic (12), Keen Edge, Psionic (16), True Venom Weapon (18), Weapon of Energy (19)

Level Class Initiator Level Maneuvers Known Maneuvers Readied Stances Known
1st Warblade 1 3 3 1
2nd Warblade 4 4 3 1

Maneuvers Known (ECL)
Steel Wind (1), Steely Strike (1), Moment of Perfect Mind (1), Iron Heart Surge (6)

Stances Known (ECL)
Punishing Stance (1)

This build obviously loves magic weapons and can use a good variety of armors, but nothing is “required” for the build to work. He wants a big two hander that he can huck at foes to take advantage of the unique class features and then everything else would be gravy. A flaming weapon or a Sun Blade would really nail a Diskos, but that is more to fulfill the lore of the setting rather than being mechanically required. Just assume that he gets the standard stat boosting items for Strength, Wisdom, and Constitution (in that order), along with magic weapons and armor, and whatever “neat” items would be good to have on hand like a Figurine of Wondrous Power or whatever.

SNAPSHOTS
“I truly believe that I can get us through this. Just get me in front of him and we can end this.” - Gregor
“You aren’t ready. Now raise your guard!” - Goddrick Oncekilled, Man at Arms of the Lesser Redoubt
Opening with Warblade makes the character a durable combatant from the get go and then immediately going into Psychic Warrior pretty much sets the overall tone of the character. Everything after level 2 just better defines the range of abilities that the character has, so level 5 marks a solid snapshot of the base abilities the character will wield over the course of the game. Hell, Gregor can even begin using thrown weapons as his ranged option, so everything after will feel like an evolution.

“You aren’t dealing with the average warrior anymore. There will be legends spoken about me.” - Gregor
By the time we’re at level 10, Gregor is able to do all of his tricks, even if there’s room to grow. This is a melee guy who effectively gets super reach. He’s got extra tricks from what a pure martial character would have and is competitive with their damage output, via buff powers, though definitely not the best in any category.

“Finally! Finally those Abhuman monstrosities will fear me! We move at dawn!” - Gregor
Bloodstorm Blade 4 is the best stuff from that class. This is frankly the sweet spot for the build as you get every “type” of action sequence possible. Do you want a crazy frenzy of a ricochetting great axe? Well… here you go! It’s a dope figure to roleplay. Full attacks with a thrown great sword and psionic enhancements makes Gregor pretty solid, especially since this lets Gregor recharge a spent maneuver. He’s not doing particularly new things from previous levels, but this is where it all comes together, like Goku mastering Kaio-ken.

“I was hoping for a challenge, but I’ll settle for a workout. I’m to meet with the Lady Mirdath tomorrow, so if you avoid the face, I swear I’ll let you live.” - Gregor
This is a fun level, with those hucked greatsword attacks getting equal amounts of psionic damage tacked on. It’s nothing fancy. He’s just better at the same basic thing he’s been doing since level 2. He should be something akin to One Punch Man, a Shonen style hero who longs for a real challenge, or a great end point for a Vegeta style character that leaned more evil.

Psychic Warrior was the obvious entry point and trying to make a bruiser version of the Ballisteer led me to work in the Bloodstorm Blade. It’s very feat intensive and definitely trades out higher level powers in exchange for a broader spread of tricks. By the late game, this class will be using full round attacks more than maneuvers, and despite the secret ingredient and the almost required entry class both being ¾ BAB, Gregor gets the 4th iterative by the end. He’ll be powering up with his psionic powers, such as expansion to become large sized, dealing 6d6 plus 1.5 x his augmented strength mod, before taking on the Balisteer abilities to boost damage and deal splash damage in an area of effect. I think it would be fun to play.

Players Handbook
Complete Warrior
Tome of Battle: Book of Nine Swords
Complete Psionics
Expanded Psionics Handbook
Wizards of the Coast Minds Eye Articles

The Viscount

2023-05-14, 04:16 PM

Bowister, if you will.

Gailan Harcael of the Sunwhispers

https://cdn.midjourney.com/8f3d7c70-8e03-4a9a-8947-07d819312dac/0_1.png

Chaotic Good Elf Cloistered Cleric 1 / Psychic Warrior 7 / Paladin of Freedom 2 / Ballisteer 10

I always loved plants.

It was clear to me from my youth that I wished to learn everything there was to know about the untamed world. It led me to pledge myself to a monastery in the service of Ehlonna, cultivating the gardens and making notes about the heritable traits of our bred crops. These were the happy years of my life. (Cloistered Cleric 1)

The ground beneath us betrayed us. From up out of the realm below, the Underdark, they came. Twisted Dwarves with fierce powers emanating from their very minds. They captured everyone of my monastic order and dragged us deep below. There were a lot of screams in those days. They experimented on us. Tortured us. Then finally they sacrificed us.

Each night they would come with a monster that they were bartering with, a creature of tentacles, an Illithid! The cursed mind flayer would strike a group of us and pick one to claim. The Duergar would then take the chosen and offer them in exchange for whatever relations they had forged with the monsters. Our numbers dwindled from hundreds to a scant few when it came my time. After countless exposure to their blasts, I suddenly understood the energies striking me and I saw an opening. (Trading Knowledge Domain for Devotion) I resisted the effects of the attack but feigned weakness. When the Duergar came for me, I surprised them, stole their weapons, and freed my comrades. (Psychic Warrior 1) With the swiftness of Ehlonna, we fled into the darkness. (Trading Travel Domain for Travel Devotion)

Years passed. With each battle, I came to understand the mental tricks of our enemies better and better. Though I had not cared for archery in my youth, my shot grew ever surer. (Psychic Warrior 2 - 5)

Though I prayed to Ehlonna every day, I could feel my faith slipping. I had become bitter and hard in my many battles with the Illithids and their allies, but then Ehlonna appeared to me. We were being rapidly advanced upon by superior numbers, but then the rocks above gave out and fell, crushing them. The chamber we were in filled with light so bright that I had to look away, but slowly I came to realize that I was seeing the moonlight from the night sky far above. The moonlight! My eyes had become so accustomed to the darkness that I couldn’t even tolerate the moon. I knew in this moment that I was destined to live out my days in the darkness, but that the warmth of the sun awaited me in the next life. My faith rekindled, in that moment I vowed to free all those that the Duergar and Illithid would imprison. I would lead the bravest among my order and forge a knighthood dedicated to Freedom! (Paladin of Freedom 1-2, ELf Substitution Level 1)

With our purpose newly defined, we forged a new method of fighting, combining the mental techniques we had learned from our foes, our faith, and the deadliness of our arrows. We became a reminder to all that lurked below that no matter how hushed, there would always be a whisper of the Sun! (Ballisteer 1-10, Psychic Warrior 6-7)

Initial Stats
STR 10
DEX 14
CON 14
INT 12
WIS 16
CHA 10

ASIs
4: Wisdom
8: Wisdom
12: Wisdom
16: Wisdom
20: Wisdom

Abilities Initial Race / Template 4th 8th 12th 16th 20th
STR 10
DEX 12 2
CON 16 -2
INT 12
WIS 16 1 1 1 1 1
CHA 10

Level \ Abilities STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
1st 10 14 14 12 16 10
2nd 10 14 14 12 16 10
3rd 10 14 14 12 16 10
4th 10 14 14 12 17 10
5th 10 14 14 12 17 10
6th 10 14 14 12 17 10
7th 10 14 14 12 17 10
8th 10 14 14 12 18 10
9th 10 14 14 12 18 10
10th 10 14 14 12 18 10
11th 10 14 14 12 18 10
12th 10 14 14 12 19 10
13th 10 14 14 12 19 10
14th 10 14 14 12 19 10
15th 10 14 14 12 19 10
16th 10 14 14 12 20 10
17th 10 14 14 12 20 10
18th 10 14 14 12 20 10
19th 10 14 14 12 20 10
20th 10 14 14 12 21 10

Level Class Base Attack Bonus Fort Save Reflex Save Will Save Skills Feats Class Features
1st (Cloistered) Cleric 0 2 0 2 28 Ranks (4x(6 Ranks for Cleric, 1 for Int Bonus) Dodge (1-st Level Feat), Travel Devotion (Domain Exchange), Knowledge Devotion (Domain Exchange) Rebuke or command plant creatures, Plant Domain, Spellcasting (Cleric Level 1), Turn Undead
2nd Psychic Warrior 0 4 0 2 3 (2 ranks for Psychic Warrior, 1 for Int Bonus): Tumble 3 Mobility (Psychic Warrior Bonus Feat)
3rd Psychic Warrior 1 5 0 2 3 (2 ranks for Psychic Warrior, 1 for Int Bonus): Tumble 3 Point Blank Shot (Level 3) Mantle: Freedom (ACF)
4th Psychic Warrior 2 5 1 3 3 (2 ranks for Psychic Warrior, 1 for Int Bonus): Concentration 3
5th Psychic Warrior 3 6 1 3 3 (2 ranks for Psychic Warrior, 1 for Int Bonus): Concentration 3
6th Psychic Warrior 3 6 1 3 3 (2 ranks for Psychic Warrior, 1 for Int Bonus): Tumble 2, Autohypnosis 1 Psionic Shot (Level 6), Precise Shot (Psychic Warrior Bonus Feat)
7th Paladin (of Freedom?) (Elf Paladin Variant) 4 8 1 3 3 (2 ranks for Paladin, 1 for Int Bonus): Sense Motive 3 Smite Evil, Aura of Good, Detect Evil
8th Paladin (of Freedom?) (Elf Paladin Variant) 5 9 1 3 3 (2 ranks for Paladin, 1 for Int Bonus): Sense Motive 2, Knowledge (religion) 1 Divine Grace, Lay on Hands
9th Ballisteer 5 9 3 3 3 (2 ranks for Ballisteer, 1 for Int Bonus): Spot 3 Zen Archer (Level 9), Throw Anything (Ballisteer Bonus Feat), Psionic Sidestep (Ballisteer Bonus Feat)
10th Ballisteer 6/1 9 4 3 3 (2 ranks for Ballisteer, 1 for Int Bonus): Spot 3 Invisible Shot
11th Ballisteer 7/2 10 4 4 3 (2 ranks for Ballisteer, 1 for Int Bonus): Spot 3 Ethereal Shot
12th Ballisteer 8/3 10 5 4 3 (2 ranks for Ballisteer, 1 for Int Bonus): Autohypnosis 3 Serenity (Level 12) Energy Shot
13th Ballisteer 8/3 10 5 4 3 (2 ranks for Ballisteer, 1 for Int Bonus): Autohypnosis 3 Incorporeal Shot
14th Ballisteer 9/4 11 6 5 3 (2 ranks for Ballisteer, 1 for Int Bonus): Autohypnosis 3 Pinpoint Shot (Ballisteer Bonus Feat)
15th Ballisteer 10/5 11 6 5 3 (2 ranks for Ballisteer, 1 for Int Bonus): Autohypnosis 3 Psionic Mediation (Level 15) Explosive Shot
16th Ballisteer 11/6/1 11 7 5 3 (2 ranks for Ballisteer, 1 for Int Bonus): Concentra 3 Improved Psionic Sidestep (Ballisteer Bonus Feat)
17th Ballisteer 11/6/1 12 7 6 3 (2 ranks for Ballisteer, 1 for Int Bonus): Concentra 3 Phase Shot
18th Ballisteer 12/7/2 12 8 6 3 (2 ranks for Ballisteer, 1 for Int Bonus): Spot 3 Animal Devotion (Level 18) Infused Shot
19th Psychic Warrior 13/8/3 13 9 7 3 (2 ranks for Psychic Warrior, 1 for Int Bonus): Knowledge (psionics) 3 Greater Psionic Shot (Psychic Warrior Bonus Feat)
20th Psychic Warrior 14/9/4 13 9 7 3 (2 ranks for Psychic Warrior, 1 for Int Bonus): Tumble 3

Level Class 0th 1st
1st Cleric 3 1+1

Bonus Spell Slots: 1 first level slot (ECL1-15), 2 first level slots (ECL 16-20)

Effective Character Level Psychic Warrior Level Manifesting Class List Power Points Per Day Powers Known Maximum Power Level Known Bonus Power Points from Wisdom Modifier
2nd 1st Psychic Warrior 0 1 1 1
3rd 2nd Psychic Warrior 1 2 1 3
4th 3rd Psychic Warrior 3 3 1 4
5th 4th Psychic Warrior 5 4 2 6
6th 5th Psychic Warrior 7 5 2 7
10th 6th Psychic Warrior 11 6 2 14
11th 7th Psychic Warrior 15 7 3 16
13th 8th Psychic Warrior 19 8 3 20
14th 9th Psychic Warrior 23 9 3 22
16th 10th Psychic Warrior 27 10 4 32
17th 11th Psychic Warrior 35 11 4 35
19th 12th Psychic Warrior 43 12 4 40
20th 13th Psychic Warrior 51 13 5 42

Powers Known
Deflection Field (2), Dimension Hop (3), Vigor (4), Hustle (5), Darkvision, Psionic (6), Thought Shield (10), Fly, Psionic (11), Keen Edge, Psionic (13), Evade Burst (14), Weapon of Energy (16), Dimension Door, Psionic (17), Inertial Barrier (19), Catapsi (20)

From level 2 on, the goal for Gailan would be to get the best bow and heaviest armor available. This build isn’t dramatically reliant on any magic items to make work. Obviously, stat boosting items and magical weapons and armor will improve the character, and he wouldn’t say “no” to nightsticks, but none of that is required for Gailan to feel like his concept is fulfilled.

Snapshots

Ehlonna granted me a love for that which grows above, but here in the darkness I have learned to hate the chains of those who fester below.
At fifth level, Gailan has the foundation of the overall build established. The character has a mixture of divine magic, psionic powers, and a burgeoning martial prowess. Coming from a scholarly monastic tradition, his greatest contribution to the party is the breath of his magical and psionic tricks, though many of those tricks (such as his Travel devotion feat) can go a long way to making his combat abilities solid enough. 2 pools of Turning (Undead and Plants) makes up for the abysmal charisma score, allowing a good amount of uses of Travel Devotion making Gailan a solid skirmisher. Knowledge Devotion has been hugely useful in keeping up on damage output up until this point and it will continues to contribute, but it won’t noticeably improve except for with Psionic foes (though the narrative certainly supports this with the bulk of their enemies being Duergar and Illithids).

Though we continue our fight in this eternal night, those I lead carry the message that there is a light above and that such wonders are birthed on the land from it. It is a message of hope for the hopeless. A cry to lead those who have been wronged to rise up.
At tenth level, the build is definitely online. While it will grow in power and options, the fundamental flavor of the character is defined at level 9 with the first level of the Ballisteer prestige class. With Zen Archer, the martial aspect of the character is fully crystalized and the Paladin levels express a fusion of the various aspects of the character, moving them away from a ragtag freedom fighter and into a liberating Knight, wielding an arsenal of weapons in the name of his Goddess, even if the real benefit of those levels are yet to be apparent. We’re just shy of the sweet spot, but this is definitely the character the player is here for. Envisioning the Ballisteer levels as sort of a liberating order of archers, it gives a sort of Robin Hood vibe. And Gailan at this point is going to have a lot of trick shot style abilities, blending his combat abilities with his supernatural ones seamlessly.

We have fought for so long that giving up now would be impossible. Do your worst! With Ehlonna’s blessings protecting and empowering both my body and my mind, even death will not stop me from seeing this war to the end.
We are thoroughly in the range of the sweet spot at level fifteen! Serenity transforms the more thematic levels that the Paladin of Freedom levels had been up until this point into a potent boost, particularly with saves and massively boosted pool of Turn uses to fuel Travel Devotion. At this point, the Turn pool is big enough that we’ll be looking for an additional use. While Gailan won’t be outpacing a two handed greatsword wielder in damage, he’s going to be pretty durable and self sufficient, able to contribute meaningfully in battle and often have the right tools to overcome obstacles.

It’s hard to remember the chirping of the birds and the taste of sweet fruit, but I will lay my life down that you all may step into that paradise and experience its wonder. Go. I will distract them and buy you time.
The last few levels of this build cement areas that Gailan was already good at. Animal Devotion adds options beyond pure combat enhancements, though it also helps with damage on a magical compound bow or if melee is required. It would have been flashier earlier, but it’s not unwelcome. Otherwise, there’s not much that changes. Gailan just barely squeezes into 5th level Psychic Warrior powers, but has a reasonably large Power Point pool, making him similar to a ranged, psionic version of a Duskblade, but with better utility and a little tankier.

The second I read the article featuring the secret ingredient, I envisioned a Zen Archer. Even after playing around with other approaches, I couldn’t shake the idea of a Wis SAD character archer. It’s a build that always has some new thing each level and lots of fun lower power tricks to use. Fundamentally, the Ballisteer is a ranged focus for the Psychic Warrior and doesn’t dramatically change anything about how one plays. It just gives some interesting specifics. Adding levels of Paladin and throwing in Serenity helped to make the Ballisteer feel more like a special order of psychic archers!

Players Handbook
Unearthed Arcana
Complete Psionics
Expanded Psionics Handbook
Complete Warrior
Complete Adventurer
Complete Champion

The Viscount

2023-05-14, 04:19 PM

And here's our contestants for the round! Judges, over to you!

H_H_F_F

2023-05-14, 04:39 PM

Boys, BOYS!

Very proud of y'all. Worth the wait.

Going to sleep now, I'll articulate thoughts on an HM tomorrow.

Frostmoon

2023-05-14, 07:51 PM

...gotta admit, I was not expecting four(?!) separate whales.

EDIT: Ahem, three whales and one...whaler...? Sure. Why not. XD

Paragon

2023-05-15, 01:03 AM

I feel I've read one build 5 times over x)

I even read the second entry I wanted to build done better than it would have.
Originality is dead for me x)

loky1109

2023-05-15, 02:31 AM

Table.

Name Alignment / Race Class Levels Chef Judge 1 Total Place
Elithkhad the Dancing Shsadow (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25779578&postcount=91) LG Kalashtar Kalashtar Telepath 3/Kalashtar Monk 2/Soulknife 2/Soulbow 3/Balisteer 10
Son'Har (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25779580&postcount=92) CN Anthropomorphic Baleen Whale Psychic Warrior 4/Bloodstorm Blade 4/Ballisteer 9
Goliath of Gath (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25779583&postcount=93) TN Anthropomorphic Baleen Whale Psychic Warrior 1/Poison Use Wilderness Martial Rogue 1/Ardent 4/Ballisteer 6/Legacy Champion 5
Chaka (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25779589&postcount=94) CE Strongheart Halfling Binder 5/Skilled City-Dweller Fighter 4/Ballisteer 10/Master Thrower 1
Queequeg (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25779591&postcount=95) CG Mineral Warrior Azurin Soulbond Weapon Skilled City Dweller Psychic Warrior 8/Ballisteer 9/Totemist 1/Master Thrower 1
Lewis Z (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25779592&postcount=96) CG Anthropomorphic Baleen Whale Skilled City Dweller Bear Totem Barbarian 1/Skilled City Dweller Psychic Warrior 5/Hulking Hurler 1/Ballisteer 10
Poroc brothers (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25779595&postcount=97) LE Dvati Ardent 9/Ballisteer 10
Ponee Tutrix (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25779597&postcount=98) TN Goliath Soulbond Weapon Skilled City Dweller Psychic Warrior 6/Fighter 1/Ballisteer 10/Hulking Hurler 1/Bear Spiritual Totem Goliath Barbarian 1
Gregor Redbane (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25779599&postcount=99) LN Human Warblade 2/Mantled Warrior Psychic Warrior 4/Bloodstorm Blade 4/Ballisteer 10
Gailan Harcael (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25779600&postcount=100) CG Elf Cloistered Cleric 1/Mantled Warrior Psychic Warrior 7/Elf Paladin of Freedom 2/Ballisteer 10

Paragon

2023-05-15, 07:41 AM

Thanks for the table Loky. I've grown accustomed to it so much that it doesn't feel like the reveal is done until I see it formatted in your table ^^

Did we have a judge for this comp ? Inevitability maybe ?

loky1109

2023-05-15, 07:53 AM

Thanks for the table Loky. I've grown accustomed to it so much that it doesn't feel like the reveal is done until I see it formatted in your table ^^

Thanks to mattie_p for his tables' template.

H_H_F_F

2023-05-15, 07:58 AM

So, obvious shout-out to the Two Trick Pony, for combining two tricks that we saw repeated elsewhere in the same build - but my HM goes to Chaka, for qualifying in a way that really tickled me, while actually wanting to be a binder regardless. Also, I just like the name. CHAKA! Say it to the tune of "FLOCKA!" from Hard in Da Paint.

I really liked reading your builds. Very well done by everyone, I think. I believe I can make an educated guess as to who built what, even considering the new guys. Looking forward to seeing if I was right, and to reading the judgements of course!

All entries have been registered to the ICO sheet.

Inevitability

2023-05-15, 08:47 AM

Did we have a judge for this comp ? Inevitability maybe ?

I am currently working on judging, 3/10 done. (why are there three whales am I being pranked)

A question to our chair. Chaka's build post contains a build as well as a fully fleshed-out variant with a message directly targeted at me. Which of these should I treat as the final build? Or, if Chaka's creator has no second entry, I will judge both. Until this is resolved, I will work on judging the other entries.

If Chaka's creator has an opinion on the matter, they can share it with the chair via PM.

H_H_F_F

2023-05-15, 08:55 AM

I am currently working on judging, 3/10 done. (why are there three whales am I being pranked)

Swift! Thanks, Inevitability.

quetzalcoatl5

2023-05-15, 09:55 AM

...gotta admit, I was not expecting four(?!) separate whales.

EDIT: Ahem, three whales and one...whaler...? Sure. Why not. XD

Would you say... "Something must be in the water?"

...

I'll see myself out.

Wildstag

2023-05-15, 11:00 AM

Kinda surprised one of them isn't a Darfellan.

The Viscount

2023-05-15, 12:20 PM

I am currently working on judging, 3/10 done. (why are there three whales am I being pranked)

A question to our chair. Chaka's build post contains a build as well as a fully fleshed-out variant with a message directly targeted at me. Which of these should I treat as the final build? Or, if Chaka's creator has no second entry, I will judge both. Until this is resolved, I will work on judging the other entries.

If Chaka's creator has an opinion on the matter, they can share it with the chair via PM.

I wonder if seeing Ballisteer primed people subconsciously to think of baleen. Either way Vizzini is crowned as secret winner this round.

Unless I hear anything from the chef, I would say to judge based on the variant build. [EDIT: The chef has weighed in and agreed.]

Kinda surprised one of them isn't a Darfellan.

That would require people to remember Darfellan exists, and then navigate the minefield of whether or not they have the aquatic subtype.

daremetoidareyo

2023-05-15, 01:58 PM

No one wanted a whale, they wanted size increases. Darfellan doesn’t deliver on that front

H_H_F_F

2023-05-16, 03:54 AM

Do we have anyone other than Inevitability lurking in the shadows and considering judging these whales ballisteers?

Inevitability

2023-05-16, 04:08 AM

Do we have anyone other than Inevitability lurking in the shadows and considering judging these whales ballisteers?

Any judge who shares in my suffering will receive my eternal admiration and a free coupon for Future Build Comp Advice.

TerrickTerran

2023-05-16, 04:30 AM

Just looking at a couple of these characters made my head hurt. Good luck to anyone who agrees to judge as well.

Wildstag

2023-05-16, 11:13 AM

That would require people to remember Darfellan exists, and then navigate the minefield of whether or not they have the aquatic subtype.

Not to derail the thread further, but there's a debate around that? The table shows them having the Humanoid (aquatic) type. Is there a similar argument about PC Domovoi having the (fire) subtype?

Venger

2023-05-16, 12:02 PM

Not to derail the thread further, but there's a debate around that? The table shows them having the Humanoid (aquatic) type. Is there a similar argument about PC Domovoi having the (fire) subtype?

While that's true, and in practice it's harmless to let them have it in actual play, tables are considered secondary sources (the old "text trumps table" credo). In darfellan's writeup as a race on page 37, it is omitted. Clearly an oversight, but I believe that's what the Viscount is talking about.

Analytica

2023-05-16, 02:18 PM

I would love to see an actual play by play battle now between the whaler and the whales, see what happens!

The Viscount

2023-05-16, 03:55 PM

Not to derail the thread further, but there's a debate around that? The table shows them having the Humanoid (aquatic) type. Is there a similar argument about PC Domovoi having the (fire) subtype?

There are four places in Stormwrack where Darfellan's subtypes should come up. The first, as mentioned, is the table, where they are said to have the aquatic subtype. The second is the entry on the race itself, where they get no subtypes. The third is the entry in the monster section, where they do not get the aquatic subtype (though they do have the Darfellan subtype in the statblock, and also gain a bonus on handle animal for sea mammals like whales, which isn't mentioned in the race entry). The fourth is the sample Leviathan hunter who is a Darfellan, and has the aquatic subtype. So it's two for and two against. Sloppy editing in a 3.5 book, tale as old as time.
If we refer to the aquatic subtype itself, it mentions that creatures with the aquatic subtype have swim speeds and can breathe underwater. Darfellan has a swim speed but still breathes air, so by this argument shouldn't have the subtype. For reference, Sea Kin from Races of Destiny is another race with a swim speed but without water breathing, and it does not have the aquatic subtype. Whales of all kinds also lack the aquatic subtype.

I learned this lesson the hard way when I tried to use Darfellan to enter scaled horror during the Talon of Tiamat round. Funnily enough that entry was called the White Whale, for obvious reasons.

Wildstag

2023-05-16, 09:11 PM

While that's true, and in practice it's harmless to let them have it in actual play, tables are considered secondary sources (the old "text trumps table" credo). In darfellan's writeup as a race on page 37, it is omitted. Clearly an oversight, but I believe that's what the Viscount is talking about.

Fwiw, there are several races without type/subtype in their text write-up. The Asherati and Bhuka in Sandstorm don't have type listed in their write-up either. Interestingly, the Catfolk in Races of the Wild don't either (framing that sentence in case another book does have them).

But I get it, this and the Viscount's comment puts the wonky writing in context.

The Viscount

2023-05-17, 09:20 AM

Want to know something really funny?
Bhuka has the Goblinoid subtype in the monster entry in the same book. Given how much text is dedicated to them being goblinoids, this one I think is actually an oversight.

Inevitability

2023-05-17, 01:53 PM

Making good progress on judging, currently mostly working on making sure the scorings are internally consistent.

I also came up with a hilarious build for if Blighter ever becomes our secret ingredient, but somehow I doubt that'll happen...

H_H_F_F

2023-05-17, 02:11 PM

Making good progress on judging, currently mostly working on making sure the scorings are internally consistent.

Thanks for the update!

I also came up with a hilarious build for if Blighter ever becomes our secret ingredient, but somehow I doubt that'll happen...

I have a couple half formed ideas rattling in the back of my mind myself. One day.

loky1109

2023-05-17, 02:38 PM

Blighter sounds interesting for me.

The Viscount

2023-05-17, 06:08 PM

I'm not champing at the bit to put Blighter on the list. It's extremely restrictive in a way that I worry will create some homogeneity rather than innovation. There's no cryptic clue in there, I really am not looking to do Blighter any time soon.

H_H_F_F

2023-05-18, 03:11 AM

I'm not champing at the bit to put Blighter on the list. It's extremely restrictive in a way that I worry will create some homogeneity rather than innovation.

But it's so weird.

I get where you're coming from, anyway.

quetzalcoatl5

2023-05-18, 09:25 AM

Maybe do Blighter with a criteria that judging emphasizes the higher level Snap Shots since the first 10ish levels would likely be pretty similar?

loky1109

2023-05-18, 09:34 AM

Maybe do Blighter with a criteria that judging emphasizes the higher level Snap Shots since the first 10ish levels would likely be pretty similar?

Even with so conservative entry requirements there could be a lot of difference at starting levels. Plus, there are some... tricky entries.

quetzalcoatl5

2023-05-18, 12:01 PM

Even with so conservative entry requirements there could be a lot of difference at starting levels. Plus, there are some... tricky entries.

Sure, I'm not saying don't reward creativity, just saying don't dock people on a lack of creativity if everyone ends up with like 10 levels that are pretty similar.

Paragon

2023-05-18, 12:23 PM

Well tbf, this Ballisteer dude ended up with very similar builds too.
It only increasing psywar MLs would obviously lead to the same base build and yet the Binder one came out of nowhere :D

Inevitability

2023-05-19, 01:20 PM

Judging!

Re-posting my criteria:

All scores start at 1.

Originality:
1 point for your race: humans and strongheart halflings get 0 points, anything well-supported or obviously suited for the secret ingredient gets 0.5, and more obscure or unexpected things get 1.

1 point for classes: how surprised am I to see these classes in an iron chef submission, especially considering the SI? This includes breakpoints: Fighter 2 is an obvious dip: Fighter 4 less so.

0.5 points for feats: full points here if I'm solidly impressed by at least half the feats you select (that is, not counting mandatory bonus feats).

0.5 points if any of the above are unexpected to see together. Halflings are pretty common, and barbarian 1 is one of the most notorious dips, but a halfling barbarian would earn points here. Same with a wizard who grabs Power Attack, or a Stunning Fist paladin.

1 points for tactics and concept: can I quickly name a cool thing you do that's impressive or evocative on either the mechanical or practical level? Backstory can also deliver a small bonus in this area, though no more than half a point.

Power:
1 point for your skill at your chosen specialization assuming a reasonably favorable matchup. How good can the fireball-spamming wizard incinerate a cluster of mooks, how much sneak attack does the rogue bring to the table? Assume classes with a roughly similar power level as a point of comparison.

1 point for covering your weaknesses: that can be offensive (making sure your sneak attacker picks up Penetrating Strike) or defensive (giving your low-HP wizard some source of concealment and evasion).

How's your utility? 0.5 points if you're a complete face, scout, trap expert, tracker, or utility caster. Another 0.5 points for filling a second of these roles, or having enough bibs and bops that I think you'll be an useful backup for most of those roles.

A face should have good Diplomacy, supplemented by Bluff, Intimidate, or Sense Motive or magic that does something similar.

A scout should be able to avoid ambushes and traps through stealth or other means, while having the senses to perceive what's ahead.

A trap expert should be able to both detect and disable mundane and magical traps.

A tracker needs to be able to track down enemies. Merely having the Track feat and some Survival investment isn't quite sufficient: you have to possess a complementary ability as well.

An utility caster should offer a wide array of useful magic: whether curative, transporation-focused, or random problem-solvers like Silence and Legend Lore. Relying on external items (wands to UMD, scrolls to add to your spellbook) gets you half points.

How consistent is the build throughout your career? I expect the build to be broadly playable by level 5 and to have obtained all important elements by level 15 at the latest. 0.5 points here.

Another 0.5 points for making it through four encounters a day without a significant drop in power.

Elegance:

1 point for avoiding multiclass XP penalties.

1 point for avoiding mechanical errors, having all your sources in order, and giving me a good overview of your build.

1 point for avoiding reliance on ambiguous rules: taking the sane interpretation where they pop up also helps here.

1 point for your build's playability: do you need alignment shifts, specific items, conflicting memberships, or other things that the DM will probably not outright veto, but that might be impractical to acquire in an actual game?

UoSI:

Ballisteer has 11 class features: you get 0.1 points for each one that your character appreciates having (that is, something that meshes with your normal tactics and isn't outclassed by a feature you already possess), 0.25 points for a minor combo or synergy, and 0.5 points for a combo that truly wows me. 'Minor combo' or 'major combo' is defined relative to how useful I expect a feature to be: to use last round's Shadowspy as an example I'd have lower standards for rewarding use of Immunity to Blindness or Radiance of Pelor compared to Hide in Plain Sight.

Ballisteer has many prerequisites: do you use them for anything interesting? Up to 0.5 points here if the Tumble investment or feats get significant use beyond their default benefits.

Ballisteer is a psionic class, and subsystems don't get enough love in IC: do you do anything neat with its psionics, or are they just kind of there? Up to half a point here.

If you find some other unique trait of the SI to optimize (like including Cerebrex on a build to easily get Heal as a caster), you can get up to half a point of bonus here.

Originality (3.75)
Kalashtar aren't humans, but they're definitely on my list of things to expect in any psionic round. 0.5/1

Monk 2 and Psion 3 are some of the quirkier ways to grab your prerequisites, but Monk 2 is a notorious dip. I did think about Soulknife + Soulbow (it's a wisdom-based psychic archer ingredient, soulbow is no huge leap) but it's still decently original compared to the simple psychic warrior entry. 0.5/1

Feats after prereqs are Zen Archery (obvious given the ingredient), Combat Expertise (wait what), Elusive Target (certainly known as one of the better reasons to grab Mobility, but cool to see) and Path of Shadows + Dancing With Shadows (I've seen these used in one of stormwind's optimization showcases and nowhere else). More than enough stuff here to impress me. 0.5/0.5

Psion on a build that otherwise feels so martial and wisdom-based is a bit remarkable. 0.25/0.5

Magical senses + shooting people through walls is a strategy I'm always a sucker for. I also really like the 'deliberately provoke, then flashstep 10 ft. and make your attacker hit his buddy' trick; it helps sell this character as a swift and evasive martial artist. 1/1

Power (2.25) (2.5)
Wisdom to attack and damage (and AC), impressive defenses, a Lucky reroll on each hit, and a sky-high AC boost are all very impressive. That said, your stated combat style leaves me with some questions.

From what I understand, you want to fight in melee, but using soulbow's ranged attacks. That robs you of one of the big benefits of archery: getting to reliably full attack each round. Keeping Combat Expertise active requires you to be in melee, and when 'melee' stops being where you are, you need to scramble to reposition to make sure you keep building towards that Dancing With Shadows payoff. Until Hustle arrives at level 18, you will only get a single attack on many turns. Worse, you're still provoking with every arrow you fire, and Psionic Sidestep only applies to one AoO per round: if you use it to set up an elusive target, you are still putting yourself in a flanking position with no way to get out until next turn.

The whole loop just feels a bit silly: you are fighting in melee to give yourself an AC bonus that would be less important if you weren't in melee, while decimating your accuracy for the first few turns of doing so. 0.25/1

You put some work into shoring up your lowest saving throw (and Autohypnosis helps against one of the common effects of failing that save), but with only 12 constitution and many low-HD classes your HP is still on the low side for a primary melee fighter, and there's so many ways to lose hit points that I'm not sure I'm fully comfortable with this. 0.5/1

Out of combat, you have a psicrystal with Chameleon, 16 ranks in Spot, and linked senses, which you suggest will make for a solid scout. However, your Move Silently leaves a lot to be desired, and your psicrystal won't have Darkstalker, so it seems to me that the first monster with good Listen checks or blindsight might just rob you of a class feature, to say nothing of magical traps. 0.25/0.5

Outside of that, your out-of-combat utility is limited to Mindlinks, manifesting a few low-DC Psionic Charms and rolling the occasional social skill at low levels. It all feels a bit front-loaded, but I acknowledge that you'll be a decent help at early levels at least. 0.25/0.5

Precise Shot is all but a feat tax for archers, so why don't you get it until level 20? By slightly re-ordering class levels you could've gotten you the feat at level 10. A lot of the time you'll be taking a totally avoidable -4 penalty to attack rolls.

Worse, I'm not sure I'd call the build playable before you enter soulbow. Your level 5 snapshot is a supposed melee attacker with 7 strength and zero class features that support melee: its strongest ability is probably Stunning Fist, but that's 2/day and difficult to land. Psychic Scimitar is nice, but at that point you're still just making +1 to hit touch attacks that deal 1d6 damage, at the expense of a steady trickle of PP all day. You suggest using Charms in-combat, but that's an inconsistent effect that your enemies will have +5 on their saves against. 0/0.5

You claim 88 power points by level 20. Assuming 4 daily combats of 4 rounds, that leaves you... slightly more than five points per round. I'm not sure what sort of point allocation you're expecting, but I don't think it feels anything but strained, especially when you'll feel quite underwhelming in rounds where you aren't using ballisteer abilities or psychic powers. 0/0.5 With the recalculation of psion ML, you have just a few more PP, and I'm comfortable giving you a moderate amount of points for endurance. 0.25/0.5

Elegance (4)
No multiclass XP penalties. 1/1

You meet the 5 rank Perform (Dance) requirement for Path of Shadows, but not the subsequent 8 ranks requirement for Dancing With Shadows. I also really don't like how your power points are formatted: you split up psion and psychic warrior PP (which is fine), but then proceed to add the kalashtar bonus to one of the other, switching over partway through. It's all one pool, where you assign it doesn't matter!

I also think you miscalculate your power points. You say you have 88 power points. From what I can see, at ECL 20 you should have 20 kalashtar PP, (11 + 2 x 3 x 1/2 = 14) from psion, and (27 + 10 x 6 x 1/2 = 57) from your 10 effective psychic warrior levels. That adds up to 91, not 88; am I missing something? 0.25/1

Aging rules often work out to free points for mentally biased characters. It gets a bit 'something for nothing' and won't fly at some tables, so I think a minor penalty is in order. 0.75/1

This build seems extremely playable, with nothing I can see bringing up issues in-game. 1/1

UoSI (3.4)
Use of class features.
Psionic Sidestep: Yeah, you'll regularly be provoking the AoOs that let you make use of this, and it has uses with Elusive Target in increasing the chance hits miss you. 0.25
Throw Anything: A passing mention, but let's be fair: you have 7 strength and a much better psychic bow; why -would- you bother with chucking stuff? 0
Invisible Shot: Cute synergy with soulbow in erasing all visual manifestation of you shooting people. 0.25
Ethereal Shot: You use this. 0.1
Energy Shot: You use this. 0.1
Incorporeal Shot: You use this. 0.1
Pinpoint Shot: You make no mention of this, and trying to put yourself next to enemies leaves me wondering if cover will be a big issue for you. 0
Explosive Shot: Explosive shot interacts weirdly with your melee preference. For obvious reasons, you don't want to explode anyone in the melee cluster you're part of, but melee has a way of clumping, and enemies near you might be all you've got. You fail to address this awkward element, so I'm left without any idea of how you plan to use it. 0
Improved Psionic Sidestep: The 5 -> 10 ft. upgrade is pretty relevant with how you want to use this for tactical positioning. I like the combo with Elusive Target. 0.25
Phased Shot: A cool little combo with Sense Link to get around both the cover and concealment that walls pose. The secondary one with Concealing Amorpha feels a bit impractical, as it takes a standard action to set up and you already need several rounds of defensive fighting to come fully online, but it still contributes. Also, your Lucky rerolls will decrease the odds of astral shots being lost above and beyond the to-hit benefit they offer. 0.50
Infused Shot: You use this. 0.1
Total: 1.65

Tumble is taken and forgotten, with only a passing reference made to it. Psionic Shot gets no real love, but Dodge, Mobility and Point-Blank Shot all become more relevant the closer to melee you are, and all show up in some of your other prerequisites. 0.5/0.5

At early levels, Psionics are a big part of what power you have, and Chameleon helps with the scouting side gig, so psionics touch on everything you do even if it's never particularly earthshaking. 0.25/0.5

Final Verdict
A fun build overall; this one definitely feels like one of the more unique ones, taking a surprising route to arrive at a very oddball strategy. You commit to the ballisteer theme, though its mechanics are a bit unexplored sometimes. I did like seeing someone explore Psionic Sidestep and its unique uses, so props for that!

Originality (2.75)
Landbound anthropomorphic whales, those beautiful insanities of D&D. I know they're good, you know they're good, they're a staple on crazy strength-based builds, have half points. 0.5/1

Psychic Warrior is the single most obvious class, and 4 levels are the obvious breakpoint if you're entering Ballisteer. Bloodstorm Blade is not something I'm surprised to see on mandatory-ranged builds, and you take it for an expected number of levels, so I can't award more than a small bonus. 0.25/1

Martial Study, Martial Stance, Power Attack... not surprising on most builds, but somewhat interesting in the context of the ingredient. 0.25/0.5

Nothing of this feels insane to see together, aside from the maneuvers-ballisteer combination I already awarded points for. It's a bloodstorm blade, it has a weird mix of melee and ranged feats, we know the drill. 0/0.5

I like the sniping-through-walls trick, and you expand on the greatsword-throwing in a fun way, but the latter is conceptually similar to any old bloodstorm blade. 0.75/1

Power (3.5)
Okay, let's get the obvious out of the way. You're big, you're strong, you took levels in the best weapon-throwing class in the game, you get four attacks. My only criticism is the lack of Precise Shot in this build. 0.75/1

As always, bloodstorm blade mixes the best parts of thrown weapons and melee combat. Your worst save is still decent, your HP is high, and even Grease isn't a problem with Balance as permanent class skill (not like you're that reliant on positioning yourself). 1/1

Out of combat, you can Shadow Stride, but if short distance self-only teleportation isn't the answer to a problem, you have to sit it out. 0/0.5 0/0.5

Your build is competent from the get-go. 0.5/0.5

92 PP gives you five or six points per round to play with, depending on how badly you want to keep Psionic Sidestep up, but unlike some psychic warriors you don't need to manifest hustle every round (more on manifesting later, actually). I still think this is a bit on the low side, given how power-hungry ballisteer can get and how much you tout your ability to make four attacks a round, but it should last you through most of the day. 0.25/0.5

Elegance (3.25)
Ka-ching! No multiclass XP penalties. 1/1

If you're going to use 3.0 web content, link it. Targeted Mind is core to your build: I should not have to play Data Archeologist to discover what it does and where it is exactly. The issue recurs with Psionic Weapon.

Furthermore, let's talk power points. You say you have 92 at level 20; I think you should have 51 (13 effective psychic warrior levels) + 2 x 13 x 1/2 = 64. Am I missing something here? 0.25/1

I think that your reading of invisible shot, while not indefensible, is very questionable. You assume that rendering your target unable to "deflect the attack through normal means" means they lose their dexterity bonus. The way I see it, this refers to things like the monk's Deflect Arrows ability, not the dex-to-ac that everyone gets (which is more like 'evading' or 'dodging' anyway, not 'deflecting'). While your reading makes sense, it goes beyond RAW or obvious RAI, and not all tables will agree. 0.5/1

Being Large comes with a set of issues. 5 ft. corridors force you to squeeze, anything smaller (like, say, low-level goblin and kobold warrens) is impossible to pass until you get shadow stride (you could have fixed this by grabbing Compression somewhere). Magic loot may or may not be an issue: from your illustration, so-so dex, and proficiencies I am left assuming you plan to wear armor, which will not innately come in whale-size. 0.5/1

UoSI (2.5)
You use the class features as follows.
Psionic Sidestep: You talk about using this, but ultimately conclude it's not often useful. 0.1
Throw Anything: When you get this, you already have it from Bloodstorm Blade, so I don't think you can argue obtaining this feature does anything for you. 0
Invisible Shot: I think using this with Assassin's Stance rests on shaky RAW, but conceptually it makes perfect sense. 0.25
Ethereal Shot: You use this. 0.1
Energy Shot: You use this. 0.1
Incorporeal Shot: You use this. 0.1
Pinpoint Shot: Much has been said about your ability to make big four-hit full attacks, and pinpoint shot is not compatible with that. You appreciate having it, but does it 'mesh with your normal tactics'? Cover doesn't seem to be a particular issue for you, and even when an enemy has it, do you really want to use this instead of throwing a flurry of swords and hoping one hits? 0
Explosive Shot: You use this. 0.1
Improved Psionic Sidestep: You talk about repositioning during a mixed melee/thrown full attack, which I think goes above and beyond the default use cases. 0.25
Phased Shot: You go above and beyond my expectations when using this, combining the range of a sniper with the damage of a power attacker. However, even with Lucky, you have a 1% chance on each throw to straight-up lose your primary weapon. That's a big deal, and will probably prevent you from using your best, most enchanted blade here. As such, I assigned points for a minor rather than major combo. 0.25
Infused Shot: Unobtained; a pity. The fact you use a weapon bigger than a longbow would've earned you some points here. 0
Total: 1.25

Tumble is maxed out and Point Blank Shot doubles for getting you into Bloodstorm Blade, but the other prerequisites play a minimal role in the build. 0.25/0.5

A lot of your given psionic tactics use swift/immediate actions, which you can't spare if you want to keep using Thunderous Throw. It's a bit of an awkward situation, and I feel like unlike other entries, you won't be able to use psionics even in many situations where they'd help out, because hitting attacks is more useful. 0/0.5

Final Verdict
A very middle-of-the-pack build. You're competent with some cool tricks, but the build has a lot of rough edges that you failed to properly shave. The action economy issue, the missing sources, the struggle to contribute out of combat, the 1% chance to lose your primary weapon with every Astral Shot; all these could have been considered and to an extent mitigated during building.

Also, I'm not sure if this build had to be an anthropomorphic whale. The RHD is actually pretty annoying in this cramped of a build, and forces you to get into Bloodstorm Blade with feats (for a total of six PrC prerequisite feats essentially) while also preventing you from taking ballisteer's capstone. Yes, the size and strength make you more powerful, but my standards for power aren't so high that you need to be an anthropomorphic whale before I give a perfect score. You could've gone with a more conventional race and used the extra levels to fix some of the build's issues, rather than go all-in on raw strength.

Originality (4)
Anthropomorphic Baleen Whale number two. Not as expected as human, still quite a bit less original than many other things. 0.5/1

There's rogue, which I guess is a source of easy bonus feats if not the one I saw coming. There's psychic warrior, which is the source of easy bonus feats I saw coming. There's Ardent, which did occur to me as a one-level way to get 2nd-level powers, but I was expecting dips, not this modest investment. And there's legacy champion, which is never quite surprising and never quite expected. 0.75/1

The feats are on this level where they weren't quite expected, but fail to wow me. All very 'oh, that makes sense, I think handbooks list those a lot'. Hand Crossbow Focus intrigues me, though. 0.25/0.5

Ardent and Anthrowhale is a bit of a wacky combo, unified only by the first letter of their names and the strong aroma of cheese. Psionic legacy champions in general are unexpected, I guess. 0.5/0.5

So conceptually, you do this cool thing where you're the biblical Goliath, isekai'd to the forgotten realms or wherever and gradually adapting to this new world by mastering the weapon that slew him... but you're also a whale. Like, you've got blindsight, you have a tail, you're adapted for life underwater, you're a whale, and trying to squeeze that into the Goliath backstory is inherently ridiculous. I like the backstory, but you make your choice to prioritize mechanics over flavor very clear, and I feel like giving it a point reward would be showing it much more respect than you yourself are.

Fortunately, the fact that you submitted a sling build makes me excited enough for you to get full marks here anyway; they're definitely some of the most iconic but hard-to-optimize weapons. 1/1

Power (4)
You're slinging veritable mountains and arguably warping reality itself. Getting strength to damage already makes you a better ranged attacker than most, and the psychic warrior powers help out as well. I'd have liked to see Precise Shot, though. 0.75/1

Saves are good, you don't have a ton of backup options against something unusually resistant to big boulders, stealth or similar abilities might be annoying if blindsight doesn't break them, but generally I think it's fine to say you're a hard character to cheese. 1/1

The out-of-combat role you're closest to is utility caster, which is largely dependent on two spells until level 19. They're useful and versatile spells, but still, certainly not a 'wide array' of magic. True Creation and Reality Revision both come with pretty big XP costs, but they're impressive compared to the competition's baseline, and even impressive compared to other ardents. 0.25/0.5 0.5/0.5 Outside of that role, not much for you to do other than make the occasional Spot check. 0/0.5

Your to-hit is in the gutter before you get around to grabbing Zen Archery (at level 9!), and EXPANDING will only make the problem worse. You're a sling specialist in theory, but you're only primarily using the sling from level 15 on. There's a lot of places where your build has to 'catch up' to class features that you've had for a while. Still, no matter how awkward it gets, you generally find something to do at every level. 0.25/0.5

You have quite a lot of PP, so I'm sure you can keep going throughout the day. 0.5/0.5

Elegance (1.75) (2.75)
Anthropomorphic baleen whale's favored class is not ardent, so you take a multiclass XP penalty during level 19. This is very rough, but my criteria were up for weeks and clearly stated that multiclass XP penalties result in a one-point deduction. People put in effort to avoid these penalties, and I want to reward those people. 0/1

So, manifesting. The chair had this to say:

If you do not manifest as a psychic warrior before entering Ballisteer, you essentially become a multiclass character. When manifesting psychic warrior powers, your manifester level for those powers is equal to your Ballisteer level. You add PP as if you had multiclassed into psychic warrior (add PP as given for psychic warrior level = Ballisteer level, example in XPH p 17-18).

Now, it seems to me that this implies you do not actually advance ardent ML. Your manifester level is 4+4 for ardent and 11 for psychic warrior, your PP total is those of a 4th-level (maybe 8th-level) ardent and a 11th-level psychic warrior put together, and your powers known are wonky but not in the way you want them to be. 0/1

Mechanically the build is airtight. 1/1

You intend to use the Sling of Dire Winds, which is sized for medium creatures and only resizes for small ones. When using expansion, weapons do not 'adapts to Goliath's expanded size' (which you falsely claim), but they are instead 'similarly expanded by this power' (RAW). An undersized sling will stay undersized, meaning you take a -2 penalty on attack rolls from using a sling that consistently stays one size too small for you to use normally. Metamorphosis into a bigger form worsens the issue, and while ranged undersized weapons never become unusable by strict RAW, a lot of DMs might complain about a Huge creature using a Medium sling anyway. It's a relatively minor issue, but one I'd like to have seen addressed. 0.75/1

Are there issues with playing this build in a campaign? Yes: you have to obtain a specific item at the DM's mercy, and then subsequently make Knowledge (History) checks (checks that you do not optimize) to unlock its powers and get free feats. You have a +5 modifier to make a DC 20 check with, then a +9 modifier for a DC 25 check, and finally a +15 modifier for a DC 30 check. Even if you get a +10 bonus from somewhere, you're statistically unlikely to make all three of these, sourcing that bonus might or might not mesh with whatever the other PCs have going on, etc etc. Basically, you made your build dependent on performing certain in-game actions that you cannot guarantee you'll be able to perform, and you pay the price for that. Also, you're Large and never really grab magic that lets you navigate the occasional Small-sized space. 0/1

UoSI (2.90) (3.20)
Use of class features as follows:
Psionic Sidestep: No real advantages over 5-ft. steps 0.1 You're going to be provoking more than other ranged attackers because of how slings work, so this is useful enough. 0.25
Throw Anything: You throw a thing or two at low levels, but the strategy is eventually eclipsed by your sling focus. 0.1
Invisible Shot: This gets used. 0.1
Ethereal Shot: You make the interesting claim that because the sling forces you to use pebbles, you can't just grab magic sling bullets to deal with ethereal foes. Except the sole ability that mentions 'stones' instead of 'stones or bullets' is Stunning Stone, which you deride and trade away. Ethereal shot is still useful for you, but not much more than it would be for most archers. 0.1
Energy Shot: At level 12, you grab metamorphosis and spend a paragraph describing how great it is. No mention of Energy Shot, which I think says something about the priorities of this build. Still, you can obviously use it. 0.1
Incorporeal Shot: As with ethereal shot. 0.1
Pinpoint Shot: Not quite the power drop it is for some other entries: not actually having usable iteratives at the level you get this helps convince me you'll use it sometime. 0.1
Explosive Shot: This gets used. 0.1
Improved Psionic Sidestep: Another of those features you forget to mention in your build stub because you're too excited about manifesting. Presumably you will provoke sometimes, and this will help you, but it's not offering a qualitative benefit over the lesser version. 0.1 You use this, and you combine it with perfect archery to get around the issues on your sling attacks, particularly the more short-ranged ones. 0.25
Phased Shot: Some form of remote sensing to combo with phase shot. 0.25
Infused Shot: I expected people to get 1d8 or so damage per hit out of this, you're getting a ton more, to a frankly impressive extent, and then combo it with Vampiric Blade for very relevant amounts of healing. 0.5
Total: 1.65 1.95

Tumble is left by the wayside, Dodge/Mobility/PBS don't even get mentioned in your build, and Psionic Shot gets a one-time namedrop. The prerequisites are only here to get you into ballisteer. 0/0.5

Ballisteer's in-house psionics (that is, the psychic warrior powers) are used, though almost always in an incidental rather than essential way. Vampiric Blade gets worked in nicely, Perfect Archery is a very nice find, especially because you don't use it in a way that renders Psionic Sidestep useless. 0.25/0.5

Final Verdict
This build beautifully reflects the two faces of 3.5 optimization. On the one hand, you're making a traditionally useless weapon core to your strategy, you're combining wildly different classes in a complementary way, and you're writing up some hilariously insane fluff to tie it all together.

On the other, you bend over backwards to force 9ths into a build that didn't necessarily need them, you re-use the same tired optimizations everyone's been using since 2006, and you fail to think about the character as a character, as something to be introduced and played in an actual campaign. This is reflected in the mismatch of fluff and crunch, the lack of consideration for very mundane obstacles, and the handwaving of legacy champion's rituals research difficulty.

I asked Son'Haar and I will ask you too: did this have to be a whale, or did you think 'oh, anthrowhales make good psychic warriors, right' and throw it in there?

NOTE: as per the chair's advice I will be judging the variant (hadozee) build.

Originality (4.25)
Hadozee is neat but reliably shows up with secret ingredients that require Dodge. 0.5/1

I imagined someone might enter fighter; not that they'd stay past level 2. A Master Thrower dip isn't overplayed but hardly earth-shaking. Binder 5 gets my immediate interest. Also, there's no psionic classes in here, which I didn't know was even a possibility. 1/1

Boomerang thrower is an archetype I'm not too surprised to see pop up here, but just because the feats fit an archetype doesn't mean they can't be original. 0.25/0.5

Am I surprised to see these classes together? Quite! 0.5/0.5

Throwing one (1) boomerang and watching it bounce all over the battlefield is conceptually fascinating. On top of that, your qualification trick is elegant, unambiguous, and a complete and utter surprise, nice job! 1/1

Power (2.25) (2.5)
The good first: you can hit a truly massive number of attacks as a single standard action, all of which get your damage boosts and force saves vs daze. If combat goes to your liking, you can stunlock two enemies all the battle long... but without guaranteed access to a returning weapon, you might run out of competitive boomerangs before that battle ends. You can't just gesture at astaroth and assume every magic weapon is obtainable at no penalty. 0.75/1

However: all of your ricochet abilities require adjacent foes specifically, and your efficiency dramatically drops if those don't present themselves (or if they, y'know, move away from each other). Also, constructs and undead are immune and you don't bring much to use against them. I'm sorry to say, but when I ask 'is your build easily shut down', the worst possible answer is 'yes, but only if my enemies move'. And that's before getting into the possibility of (gasp) single-enemy encounters. Yes, you can attack normally, but you much prefer your ricochet stacking over increasingly inaccurate iteratives. 0/1 0.25/1

Out of combat, you're not doing much. You can try to hide from stuff and scout, and Compression + Chameleon + Leraje almost makes you good at that, except you have no way to move silently and no darkstalker, limiting your utility quite a bit 0.25/0.5. Outside that situation, you have a few ways to help out, mostly during multi-day downtime stretches. 0.25/0.5

Boomerang Daze at level 18 is very late, and I'm unsure what you're actually doing at low levels. 0/0.5

37 PP is basically nothing if you want to stack an appreciable number of damage dice on your boomerang daze. Assuming 4 combats of 4 rounds a day, you can add about 2d4 damage to your hits in an average round, assuming you want the occasional other special ability. Even multiplied by 8, that's not an impressive amount at all. 0/0.5

Elegance (3.75)
No multiclass XP penalties thanks to your careful level ordering. 1/1

Improved Binding requires 4 ranks in Intimidate. 0.5/1

You're qualifying for Psionic Shot and ballisteer using a vestige, then dropping the vestige the moment ballisteer supports its own entry, and switching to a different vestige to qualify for a different PrC. It's RAW legal (the first part: the second part depends on whether the 'benefit' of precise shot includes qualifying for things with it), but many DMs dislike having self-supporting classes or temporary abilities qualifying you for permanent PrCs. All in all there's enough here for a penalty to elegance. 0.25/1

No real difficulties in playing this that I foresee. You'll probably succumb to Leraje's influence from time to time, but it's not particularly obnoxious unless the campaign heavily features elves. 1/1

UoSI (3.1)
Use of class features as follows.
Psionic Sidestep: You get use out of this with your short range, but you don't use it for anything special. 0.1
Throw Anything: Well, you're not just throwing anything, you're throwing something in particular that's already a thrown weapon. I don't think this will come up often, especially with your build so heavily focused on boomerangs. 0
Invisible Shot: Essentially doubling (quadrupling, octupling) the effect by stacking ricochets, interesting. 0.25
Ethereal Shot: You use this, but as you cannot see into the ethereal, I'm not sure how you'd know when to use your ricochet trick for it. 0.1
Energy Shot: Big ability for you: getting to pile a bunch of d4s on your boomerang really helps make it a threat, and your various ricochets give you extra return on investment... when they apply. 0.25
Incorporeal Shot: Most incorporeal foes are undead, who are immune to your key trick, and you don't have the power points to throw handfuls of energy shot d4s at them. Incorporeal Shot makes you better at fighting the incorporeal, but does it truly combo with anything? 0.1
Pinpoint Shot: I can see this being used sometime, but I'm not giving combo points for pointing out how a specific weapon enchantment gives +1 to hit and damage with this. 0.1
Explosive Shot: Dazing people leaves them standing next to each other for next turn's Boom of Doom, clever. 0.25
Improved Psionic Sidestep: You get use out of this. 0.1
Phased Shot: Your build spotlight mentions this by name. No word on how you plan to use it, though: you don't have an obvious way to create cover or move behind it, and you can't see through solid objects so you wouldn't even know when to phase shot ricochet. Still, it's not utterly useless. 0.1
Infused Shot: 1d6 extra damage isn't much, but it adds another few points to your Boomerang Daze DC. 0.25
Total: 1.6

Point blank shot helps you get into Master Thrower, Dodge and Mobility don't really get used, Tumble is invested, Psionic Shot is a major part of what you like to do and qualifies you for a subsequent feat. 0.5/0.5

Your psionics are... limited. Two powers are used for stealth, one improves mobility, one gives healing, and the final two offer darkvision and extended range. Aside from the last of those, they're unlikely to significantly impact how you function round-to-round, and with power points such a scarce resource, I think this build makes less use of psionics than any other submission, and certainly less than the average ballisteer. 0/0.5

Final Verdict
Few other builds I've ever seen show such a drastic difference between their idealized and practical performance. When enemies stand next to each other, you're a vengeful dazing god; when they 5-ft. step away next turn you're a kid throwing bent sticks. Also, there's the whole "No boomerang daze until level 18" thing; that's awkward also.

Still, I like this build a lot! Your entry method is absolutely insane and I cannot emphasize enough how impressed I am by the find, and you leverage damage into more-than-damage in a way that only Queequeg rivals. The boomerang thrower is a well-worn archetype, but innovatively combining an old archetype with a SI is half the fun of iron chef.

Fun fact: I'm actually reading Moby Dich right now.

Originality (3) (3.25)
Azurin, aka 'humans when you need essentia synergy'. I'm not saying that I expected a mineral warrior, but if you told me someone took a template, it would've been in my top five guesses (the other four, if you're curious, would've been half-fey, phrenic, primordial giant, and dark) 0/1 Okay, I still don't think a human-with-a-good-template should be rewarded more than options like elf or kalashtar, but there is some boldness in it, and it deserves a small bonus. 0.25

Psychic Warrior was expected, going all the way to level 8 only slightly less so. Master Thrower is not entirely surprising, but Totemist is, especially when it's only a one-level dip instead of the common two-level one. 0.5/1

A heavy incarnum focus in your feats: not what I expected in this round. 0.5/0.5

Nothing else too unexpected in what I see mixed together here. 0/0.5

Do you have cool tricks that make me excited to see more? Definitely. 1/1

Power (3.75)
Your core trick is clean, impressive, and optimized far more than most harpoon builds manage. You can definitely style on the right kind of enemy. Mineral warrior's burrow and mindsight help you start fights on your own terms, which is nice for such a buff-heavy character. 1/1

Of course, gimmicky strategies tend not to be foolproof. Against foes with ranged attacks, you're not doing all that much by restricting their movement, burrowing requires certain terrain, and wall-walker is useless against climbing or flying things. Your DR and bulk should make you an fine meatshield, so it's not the end of the world if a harpooned foe gets to attack you, but a lot of your theoretically impressive power reduces to 'tank with awkward aggro mechanic' in the wrong encounter. 0.5/1

Outside of combat, you have... zilch, basically. You can use a few soulmelds, but you'd prefer to shape the ones with combat benefits. Your Wild Empathy is awful, your powers are tailored towards battle, and you have fewer skill ranks than hit dice. Mindsight is the saving grace here, so let's say you fail to fulfill any out of combat role 0/0.5 but can at least contribute a little in odd situations. 0.25/0.5

Delaying Precise Shot until level 12 is a bit rough, but you're good at keeping a target from joining melee, and at least you take it. Brutal Throw at level 6 means a pure throw-based strategy might struggle a little early-game, but a decent array of psiwar powers should keep you relevant there. 0.5/0.5

So your augmented Call Weaponry is... not cheap, especially not when you have to manifest it after 10% of your phase shots. The Azure Talent + Psycarnum Infusion combo helps, but you can't quickly refocus in-battle. I guess you have quite a few power points from the sheer bulk of your psychic warrior levels, though, and you focus on single hits rather than flurries, so I'm going to say you can keep going throughout the day. 0.5/0.5

Elegance (2.25) (2.5)
That point of essentia comes at a price: Azurin have favored class (soulborn) instead of (any) and thus you take a multiclass XP penalty from the moment you enter totemist. 0/1

Qualifying for Mindsight with nonpermanent powers is a bit sketchy... but not as sketchy as taking Mindsight at the same level that grants you the soulmeld that gives the telepathy that you're using to qualify for Mindsight. At the moment you're selecting your 15th-level feat, you won't even have totemist class features, let alone a fully shaped and bound soulmeld: how are you meeting Mindsight's prerequisite? Also, you seem to purchase your final rank in Sleight of Hand as a class skill, even though it doesn't appear on the totemist list. Level 15 is an awkward place for you, mechanically! Finally, I'd have liked to see a clear overview of your power points. 0/1 0.25/1

You really want the trailing rope of your harpoon to count as part of the weapon so that Call Weaponry doesn't deactivate twelve seconds after throwing it. But if so, wouldn't the rope also turn incorporeal/ethereal/astral when the main body does so? Moreover, when the rope rematerializes with a solid object between you and the target, will it be stuck but unharmed? Shunted out? Cut in two? I cannot in good conscience assume the abilities will work out exactly like you hope at every table. Worse, though it's not quite RAW, realistically a lot of DMs are going to say you can't harpoon oozes and elementals and such, or that foes can attack the rope, or that they can sunder the harpoon itself... 0.25/1

You appreciate having dirt to burrow into, but simple cover works fine too, and otherwise this character isn't really dependent on terrain or the DM's good graces. 1/1

UoSI (4) (4.25)
Use of class features as follows.
Psionic Sidestep: On the one hand, you'll be chaining yourself to enemies on the regular, which restricts mobility and make sidestep less powerful overall. On the other, you could use this to scamper up walls or dive underground, which other PCs cannot do. Call it a wash. 0.1
Throw Anything: Sometimes, your harpoon will be stuck in stuff, and you'll appreciate being able to chuck a greatsword as a backup. 0.1
Invisible Shot: I imagine you'll want to use this sometimes. 0.1
Ethereal Shot: So you can use this, but without a way to look into the ethereal I'm not sure you use it better than the typical ballisteer. 0.1
Energy Shot: Clear synergy with the harpoon in increasing the single-hit damage that matters for you, and you use TWOB to make this more efficient. 0.5
Incorporeal Shot: Lets you harpoon things that strictly speaking should not be harpoonable, very cool! 0.25
Pinpoint Shot: The nature of your harpoon means that iteratives matter little if the first attack hits, spending a full-round on one attack that ignores cover might very well be worth it. With how mediocre this feat is, I'm kind of impressed to see a build where it's a solid option. 0.25
Explosive Shot: If you're already hitting two targets next to each other, might as well have them both take splash damage. Even better, your harpoon will keep them adjacent, in case you want to drop the rope, pull out a new weapon, and repeat the same trick next round. 0.25
Improved Psionic Sidestep: Used similarly to the base feature. 0.1
Phased Shot: Mindsight is equivalent to blindsense, not blindsight, so unless I'm missing something you are still risking the 50% miss chance imposed by total concealment. Able to pull off the wallsnipe special even on perfectly flat plains, and using it to immobilize foes totally, combined with Seeking to ignore all miss chances? That's a major combo, hands-down. 0.25 0.5
Infused Shot: A pity you don't take this, as it'd combo pretty nicely with harpoons as well. 0
Total: 2 2.25

Psionic Shot is useful beyond a basic damage boost, Point-Blank Shot fits perfectly with what you want to do (and again, does more than merely increase attack and damage numbers) and helps you get into Master Thrower, Midnight Dodge goes above and beyond regular Dodge. Tumble and Mobility are both abandoned after using them to qualify, but I still think you use enough of the prereqs elsewhere. 0.5/0.5

Your psionics directly expand on the ones granted by 8 levels of psychic warrior, granting you access to high-level powers that directly enhance your core strategy. On top of that, you make use of power-storing weapons to tie the psionics to your broader strategy. 0.5/0.5

Final Verdict:
My favorite of the builds. Simply picking up a harpoon makes so much of ballisteer fall into place, but you don't stop there. You devote considerable resources to giving everything (except maybe the sidestep feats) their time to shine, consider and mitigate logical weaknesses of the concept, and tie it together with a nice literary reference. The multiclass XP penalty here feels really painful, and a simple switch from azurin to human would've fixed it.

Judging continued in the next post, which will be up in a minute.

Inevitability

2023-05-19, 01:23 PM

Judging, continued.

Originality (3)
ENOUGH WITH THE WHALES 0.5/1

Hulking Hurler dip, barbarian dip, psychic warrior 5. Minimal points, mostly because I forgot about hulking hurler until you reminded me of it. 0.25/1

Nothing too remarkable among the feats you pick. 0/0.5

Barbarian is interesting to see amidst all those psionics. 0.25/0.5

Okay, picking up enemies and throwing them so you can imbue them with various magical properties is hilarious conceptually. 1/1

Power (3.5)
You can throw real well and arguably banish your foes to different planes as you do so, or just land a guaranteed-to-hit touch attack each turn with massive damage dice and a ton of bonus damage piled on. Lack of Precise Shot hurts less here, as you can just touch attack each round. 1/1

Your bulk and saves are good, and your powers will help out against BFC and other cheap tricks. I do think mobile enemies are a bit of a weakness for you, as you struggle to reach and grapple them. You can still throw stuff in those situations, though. 0.75/1

A total of 20 skill ranks invested in sensory skills is the sum of your out-of-combat utility. 0/0.5

You're a fine brute from the get-go, with rage and grapples early on that you can slowly phase out for psionics and mountain-throwing, but Psionic Meditation and reliable Fell Shots only happen from level 18 on, which is a bit late for a trick that did earn you points in other places. 0.25/0.5

Your power points are pretty high and not in insane demand by your desired combat routine. No other abilities are limited throughout the day. 0.5/0.5

Elegance (3.25)
No multiclass XP penalties, as your favored class is barbarian; nicely done. 1/1

Minor nitpick: I'd have liked to see your first few HD listed separately in the table. I'm also unsure about your power points: you have ML 15, so shouldn't your bonus PP be 15 * 4 * 0.5 = 30? 0.75/1

The language for improvised weapons consistently talks about 'objects'. On a less RAW and more intuitive note, holding a struggling living creature is a very different thing than lifting a lifeless lump of rock. Throughout this judging I do not dispute your claims about throwing enemies: here you pay the price for that assumption. 0/1

Like the other whales, you fail to give me a satisfying answer to the question of: 'what if the DM puts a slightly narrow corridor in front of you' or 'what if the cool magic loot you find does not fit'. 0.5/1

UoSI (3.8)
Use of class features as follows.
Psionic Sidestep: Okay, I see how you want to shift between range and melee, I can see this work, I just don't think it's really comboing. 0.1
Throw Anything: By the time you get this, you already have Really Throw Anything, which makes this class feature completely redundant. 0
Invisible Shot: Make your rogue permanently invisible by tossing him in the air? Sure, why not. 0.25
Ethereal Shot: woe ethereal be upon ye 0.25
Energy Shot: One of the less appreciated class features. You don't really care about 10d4 damage when throwing small castles is doing so much already. But hey, you can use it if you need energy damage for something, so that's an use. 0.1
Incorporeal Shot: Throw people and turn them incorporeal? Sure, that's a combo. 0.25
Pinpoint Shot: If you have a full round to spare, chances are you'll get more out of making a Fell Shot and refocusing than attacking with Pinpoint Shot. 0
Explosive Shot: Nice synergy with throwing an enemy, as it assures you there'll be a secondary target to take splash damage. 0.25
Improved Psionic Sidestep: No real listed use for this. 0.1
Phased Shot: Cute idea in using this to imprison enemies: the risk of losing them on the astral is more of a bonus in this case, so congratulations on turning that downside in a feature. 0.5
Infused Shot: Throwing crazy high-damage objects is certainly one way to get the most out of this feature. 0.5 just for the sheer number of dice you get to double with this.
Total: 2.3

Point-Blank Shot does double duty in qualifying you for Hulking Hurler, and Psionic Shot gets you Fell Shot a bit later, but Dodge, Mobility, and Tumble might as well not exist. 0.25/0.5

Your psionics do fix an important issue of the hulking hurler concept (how to find and lift multiple houses a turn) by making your light-load boulders return after each hit, but other than that they're hardly front and center in the build. I can imagine a world where ballisteer didn't advance manifesting and you still submitted basically the same character. 0.25/0.5

Final Verdict
I think this is the only of our three anthropomorphic whales who has clear business being one. It's a silly build, but a little silliness is fine, and it's undeniably powerful and well-designed.

I'm going to be honest; I was somewhat surprised to see this score so well, but I must conclude your entry is simply solid; there are none of the preventable losses that so many other builds incur. You also make really good use of the SI, and do so by bringing a single trick and showing how it works with the different class features.

Originality (4)
Dvati isn't ultra-obscure, and we see builds with it from time to time, but full marks anyway, because unlike most other races this round you can't just slap this one on a build and be done with it. 1/1

Ardent was one of the expected classes, but I was expecting dips more than full-on nine level commitments. 0.5/1

Expert Siege Engineer is very interesting, even if two Expanded Knowledges are a bit dry. 0.25/0.5

An ardent without practiced manifester? That's new. 0.25/0.5

You summon a siege weapon out of nowhere, fire invisible incorporeal ammo to calibrate it stealthily, and then smash someone with a massive boulder that teleported past several solid walls. Conceptually intriguing! 1/1

Power (1.75)
Alright, here's where things get awkward. I like your concept, I like the idea behind what you're creating, I just don't think it is, like, practically executable. You can Time Hop someone, set up a trebuchet, and ready it to fire as they reappear, but the victim has a solid chance of reappearing too quickly. You can wait for Phase Shot and set up the big gun where your target can't see it... except you can't see them either, because you have zero remote senses, so you wouldn't know where to aim. You can aim and fire something weaker, like a ballista, at which point you claim to be dealing what, 12d8 damage per two rounds? That's not insignificant, but it comes down to... 27 DPR. A sorcerer throwing an Orb of Force (a 4th level spell!) is dealing more than that, a rogue making a single sneak attack is dealing more than that, a power attacking fighter is definitely dealing more than that.

Realistically, you start setting up a trebuchet and get interrupted partway through, either by your target attacking you or fleeing you, or you have to burn a lot of PP and setup rounds to get it ready in appreciable time. I'm just not sure that such a thing compares well to a more traditional ardent, or even a more traditional psychic warrior.

And what is your plan for when the big guns fail? You don't have the psionic or martial capabilities to really take advantage of fission doubles, as far as I can see. You can shoot some people with crossbows and pile on ballisteer bonuses, I guess? 0/1

So yeah, all that was considering the kind of foe you can deal with, in theory. In practice, your Fortitude save is pretty low, and your Reflex is okay but nothing special, which worries me with how frail dvati can get (grabbing Evade Burst or something would've reassured me a little there). You highly invest into some very specific and finnicky strategies, which will fail to apply in some encounters, and have little to fall back on. Time Hop is probably your best direct offensive power, which is okayish at level 5, but not at level 20. 0/1

Out of combat, you at least bring some utility casting to the table. 0.25/0.5 Even so, you'll be sidelined in social situations, many trap encounters, scouting missions, tracking, and so on. 0/0.5

I find myself wondering what you do at low levels. Your powers are limited in number and niche in purpose, and you have some ranged feats but little mention of non-trebuchet ranged tactics. Everything you do is dedicated to the Promised Trebuchet, to the point where you seem to go ahead and say that 75% of your build is spent waiting for the big trick to come online. Explain to me how your ardent powers will be useful before then; are you going to Time Hop every problem? 0/0.5

Throughout the day, you have a solid pool of power to draw on and do not rely on limited-use abilities. Your 'basic' routines require relatively modest amounts of PP, your main combo takes a bit more but can still be performed reasonably often. 0.5/0.5

Elegance (3) (3.5) (4)
No multiclass XP penalties. 1/1

Yes, ardent power acquisition is a mess, but you just flat out cannot manifest any powers above level 5 at ECL 15 (on account of not having any), and thus do not qualify for Expanded Knowledge. That means two of your feats are illegal with no easy way to fix that. As it seems, I was wrong about both Expanded Knowledge and the way ballisteer advances ML under the contest fix. Carry on.

An ardent cannot choose a power from a secondary mantle if doing so would give her more powers known from that secondary mantle than she knows from either of her primary mantles.

You take your 6th-level power, Dispel Psionics, from the guardian mantle, which is at that point in time secondary. However, at that point you already know 2 powers from this mantle (Damp Power and Deaden Blow). You also have 2 powers from the Time Mantle (Deceleration, Time Hop) and 2 from the Justice Mantle (Call Weaponry, Incite Bravery). In other words, picking Dispel Psionics gives you more powers known from your secondary guardian mantle (3) than either of your primary mantles (2 and 2). 0/1 (0.5/1)

Dvati are poorly-written, and strictly speaking the only action that requires mutual focus is spellcasting, but few DMs read that as 'dvati get two full sets of actions to be used on any other thing'. Siege engineering is among the more reasonable of things to suppose, but even so I think a minor penalty is in order.

Furthermore, while most siege weapons are unique objects of certain size, a ballista is explicitly a Huge heavy crossbow. Call Weaponry says 'you can’t call a specific weapon; you just specify the kind', and 'kind' might very well mean 'nonspecific heavy crossbow'. Given how ballistas are sort of your fallback in a lot of situations where crazier weapons won't work, that's a bad thing. 0.5/1 No questionable assumptions for the build as currently interpreted. 1/1

Heavy trebuchets are Colossal. That won't matter on a perfect featureless plain, but they'll fail to simply fit in many confined spaces, even if you can summon and man and aim them. Your performance in a practical game will lag behind the idealized numbers. 0.5/1

UoSI (2.95)
Use of class features as follows.
Psionic Sidestep: No mention of you using this, but you can make use of it. 0.1
Throw Anything: No mention of you using this. 0
Invisible Shot: See below
Ethereal Shot: See below
Energy Shot: Sure, you can throw some extra d4s on top of your siege ammo. 0.1
Incorporeal Shot: See below. Also, you pick Ethereal Volley as a power, which seems like it just outperforms Incorporeal Shot on a per-missile basis?
Pinpoint Shot: Siege weapons and cover interact weirdly, but this should work with some of them. I guess if you never make more than a single attack per round, you might as well use this. 0.1
Explosive Shot: Sure, this can do something for you. 0.1
Improved Psionic Sidestep: No mention of you using this, I'm not even sure firing a ballista provokes. 0
Phased Shot: Even if you can't see what you're shooting at, positioning will often be awkward until you get this to shoot through walls. The attack roll negation is interesting. 0.25
Infused Shot: This is what you built for, and I acknowledge your dedication. Major combo, hands down. 0.5

(Okay, so you suggest using Invisible/Ethereal/Incorporeal shot to 'zero' weapons, to which I ask: if your target cannot see or perceive the missile landing, how can you? You don't have any special senses, and while -you- may know you rolled a 18 on that attack roll, your character does not. I do think all three of these abilities are useful for you, but they don't reach combo level, so you get 0.3 for them combined)

Total: 1.45

You boost Tumble even after your entry into Ballisteer, which is more than some other builds can say. However, I'm left wondering how the prerequisite feats connect to your combat style; the only one I can imagine coming into play often is Psionic Shot. For that matter, I'm not sure how you plan to use Tumble. 0/0.5

Psionics are a big part of the build, and tricks like Stygian Erasure to get around the drawback of Fission are very cute to see. Getting psychic warrior powers actually matters for what you've chosen to do. 0.5/0.5

Final verdict
I don't feel like I'm looking at a build; I feel like I'm looking at a proof of concept for your central trick. You put in effort to be a one-man siege crew, and did so reasonably well, but then failed to properly consider how it would play in practice, or why it's a good ballisteer specifically. You brought a pile of frosting to a cake-baking competition: fun to look at, sweet at first bite, but with no substance to it.

Originality (3.75)
Goliath feels similar to anthrowhale here, in that I didn't necessarily expect it for a psychic archer build, but the race is so solid that it isn't a huge surprise either. It's a bit less notoriously cheesy; have nearly full marks. 0.75/1

Fighter dip, barbarian dip, fill the rest up with psychic warrior. Hulking Hurler saves you from zero points. 0.25/1

Expert Siege Engineer is remarkable, Owlbear Berserker is not something I've ever seen before, and Improved Grapple is not what I expected in this round. 0.5/0.5

Empower Supernatural Ability on a martial build is kind of unexpected (though I strongly question whether it does enough for you to include), as is the mix of barbarians and psionics. 0.25/0.5

Summoning trebuchets and throwing enemies into the ethereal? Both of these would've gotten you full marks for concept, so here you go. 1/1

Power (3.75)
At times, you're a grappler who then throws his foe and tries to argue for explosions happening; at others you can summon your pet trebuchet and try to deal some insane damage; between this you can toss boulders with hulking hurler (though you don't really mention this much) or grab a greatsword and go to town in melee. You also talk about using "some sort of high damage touch attack ranged weapon". Like what? I'm not aware of any such thing, and if you are, your build should've named it.

I think your build has solid numbers (effectively-Gargantuan grappling will be scary to a lot of monsters, Expansion is simply great) and can hit hard as well. 1/1

Do you struggle with any kind of adversary? Mobile or hard-to-reach foes seem annoying, and your damage will be less than is typical of a hulking hurler because Powerful Build does not boost carrying capacity. Hustle would have helped you more than most other entries, and I'm baffled why you didn't pick it. Your Will save is concerningly low also. 0.5/1

You also suggest your character should make for a decent ethereal pest eradicator. I'm sadly forced to disagree there; you can't effortlessly destroy incorporeal and ethereal creatures just by spending enough time and effort throwing stuff into their planes, any more than you can kill everyone in a human village by setting up your trebuchet and chucking away (people will run, people will fight you, etc). You also don't have a real way to -detect- those ethereal creatures, and no better plan for fighting them other than 'carpet bomb an entire plane and hope this kills them somehow'. Other than that, your utility is limited to a handful of random skills, a bit of teleportation, and Escape Detection; not enough to fill a real role 0/0.5 but perhaps enough to be useful sometimes. 0.25/0.5

While the build's main tricks get online in the mid-to-lategame (Improved Grab at level 12, Explosive Shot at level 15, Psychokinetic Weapon at level 14), it's a fine psychic warrior bruiser beforehand. 0.5/0.5

I almost gave you zero points here before realizing your table doesn't include bonus PP. With that fixed, I think you can stay on two legs throughout the day. 0.5/0.5

Elegance (2)
Multiclass XP penalties from your psychic warrior level far outpacing your fighter dip. 0/1

How are you getting into Hulking Hurler? Goliaths are Medium-size, powerful build or not, and hulking hurler requires Large or larger size. You can make the argument that you qualify while Expanded or Mountain Raging, but that requires you to enter the class in the first place. Furthermore, you don't have 8 ranks in Profession (Siege Engineer) at the moment you take Expert Siege engineer. You seem to add a rank in Concentration when taking your fighter level, but it's not a class skill when you do so. You suggest using multiple Empowered Weapons to manifest while raging, ignoring the 'one weapon with one power' rule given in the description. 0/1

It didn't cost you points, but Weapon Focus (thrown weapon)? Really? You could at least have pretended to care about the feat.

You're a bit more conservative about what Hulking Hurler does or doesn't let you hurl compared to the other build, but you're ultimately still making a leap from "tossing a foe" to "throwing a weapon" that I'm not sure the rules actually support. Also, while it's heavily implied to destroy the ammunition, 'exploding with energy' leaves just enough wiggle room for a DM to say 'yeah, energy bursts out of him, which obviously deals damage but does not instakill'.

You also seem to assume that ballisteer's power learned progression only limits when you get powers, and not which ones you can get, so you still have Personal Mind Blank with 10 levels of ballisteer and 6 levels of psychic warrior. I'm not sure that interpretation holds: the way I see it, you become this weird sort of character with the power points and ML of a 16th-level psiwar, but the available powers and number of powers fitting a 12th-level one. And speaking of power points, your table does not include any bonus PP,

Psychokinetic weapon says the weapon can 'attack of its own volition [...] to the best of its ability'. I would at the very least assume the weapon still has to be loaded manually, but there's arguments to be made that you still need to load and aim manually, and only then does the trebuchet get the ability to attack by itself (that is, the weapon is only performing the final step in the sequence). Even if it can aim itself, I'm sceptical it does so quickly enough to be useful in combat.

Between all this, there's enough ambiguous rules that I'm comfortable deducting elegance points. 0/1

Playing this in a campaign should be doable, silly as the concept is. You don't really rely on the DM presenting you with a specific world for your build to function. 1/1

UotSI (3.1)
Use of class features as follows.
Psionic Sidestep: I don't think you mention this anywhere, but sure, you're in melee, you will probably provoke an AoO sometimes. 0.1
Throw Anything: Unlike the other hulking hurler you get this one before Really Throw Anything, so it's usable for a few levels, though your low dexterity makes using this somewhat awkward. 0.1
Invisible Shot: You suggest 'using a bow to hurt people without anyone being able to trace that damage back to you'. I don't know, when people get hit by invisible arrows they might suspect the guy dry-firing a bow a short distance away. As you say, it doesn't even work with trebuchets. 0.1
Ethereal Shot: So this is the core of your extermination business, but like... 'use ethereal shot to shoot things that are ethereal' is not a 'combo'. I think this + Living Arrow lets you see into the Ethereal Plane, but your build doesn't really tell me it wants to do that. 0.1
Energy Shot: You can use this; otherwise it's only mentioned as a step towards Explosive Shot. 0.1
Incorporeal Shot: Same as ethereal shot; yes, you can hit incorporeal things with incorporeal trebuchets, but a ballisteer archer can hit incorporeal things with incorporeal arrows; how is this more synergistic? 0.1
Pinpoint Shot: Pretty sure this doesn't work with trebuchets, and at any rate Living Arrow is set to eclipse it soon anyway. 0
Explosive Shot: This is core to your strategy of throwsploding people. 0.25
Improved Psionic Sidestep: As with Psionic Sidestep, not seeing the use case. 0
Phased Shot: You get living arrow to help you make use of this, very nice. You talk about clairvoyant sensors which you... don't seem to have, unless we're talking about the split-second glimpses augmented Living Arrow grants. 0.25
Infused Shot: You did what I like to see people doing here, securing a bigger damage die for your weapon, and did so in a way that exceeded my expectations. 0.5
Total: 1.6

Mobility and Dodge should be usable (though you never mention them). On the other hand, Psionic Shot isn't too relevant to your build (yes, you can Empower it, but that's only adding a few points of damage 1/day; I have slightly higher standards), Tumble is barely acknowledged, and Point Blank Shot is just kind of there. 0/0.5

Your psionics get plenty of screentime, with Expansion and Grip of Iron helping out with grappling, Living Arrow and Psychokinetic Weapon boosting your trebuchet, and Psionic Mind Blank being a good all-day buff. 0.5/0.5

Final Verdict
You combine the concepts of the previous two builds into one, but that lack of focus hurts you. not as good at firing trebuchets as the Brothers are, not as creative with flinging people as Lewis is. You ignore potential uses of abilities (a brief mention of Invisible Shot throwing your rogue would have earned you points here). A bit more care for prerequisites and penalties would also have saved you a lot of points. The build feels like it falls in a similar trap as the Porocs, where the cool trick (in this case, tricks) is front and center, but the rest of the build disappoints.

Originality (2)
The last iron chef where nobody used plain basic human was Peregrine Runner back in 2021... which is a goliath-only ingredient. 0/1

Bloodstorm Blade with the warblade dip for entry, and then psychic warrior 4. The most surprising part about this stub is that you went warblade 2 instead of psychic warrior 5, but I guess it makes sense from a maneuver and skill point perspective. 0.25/1

Brutal Throw isn't too surprising. Vital Recovery isn't something I see a lot, Psionic Meditation made sense given the round, but Ironheart Aura is another 'huh, what does -that- do' moment. 0.5/0.5

No surprise in the combination of build elements. 0/0.5

Nothing you do jumps out at me. Throwing swords is cute, but you don't really take it any further than any other Bloodstorm Blade. Flavorfully, you're a brave warrior in a sunless world, which is neat, but this doesn't really reflect in the build aside from Psionic Darkvision showing up. 0.25/1

Power (3)
I question some aspects of the build. Feats like Vital Recovery don't feel like they do much, and you fail to make a case for them. Mantled Warrior likewise feels like a questionable decision: is flight so important it's worth sacrificing a feat for, on a build going into such a feat-hungry PrC? Making this worse is the absence of Precise Shot, which means you'll be taking a -4 penalty for shooting into melee a lot of the time. You take Psionic Meditation, suggesting you want to restore your psionic focus in combat, which both conflicts with your +16 BAB and relatively uninvested Concentration. You hit pretty hard with Expansion, but everyone has expansion, and I think your build is unoptimized in multiple ways. 0.5/1

Are there any fights you really don't want to be fighting? Will is a bit weak, but Iron Heart Surge and Moment of Perfect Mind help with that somewhat, even if they're both only 1/encounter. I'm not seeing any major weakness here; warblade and psychic warrior are well-rounded classes. 0.75/1

Outside of combat you have some very modest investment in knowledges, some more in spot, you can fly for a bit which should be decently useful, but you don't really fit any of the out-of-combat roles 0/0.5 and are only situationally useful with your smattering of utility. 0.25/0.5

From the moment you have brutal throw, you're flinging things and doing so pretty well. However, you delay Lightning Ricochet until level 15; that's a lot of levels where you have ballisteer class features but limited ability to combine them with your best weapon, and you can't even refocus and Psionic Shot every round because Psionic Meditation is also delayed to level 15. Moving either of these forward would have let you come online much sooner. 0.25/0.5

You suggest you have only 40 power points, which is fortunately understating it (see below), but even so I feel like you start running low towards the end of the day. Warblade maneuvers help bring this score back up. 0.25/0.5

Elegance (4)
No multiclass XP penalty. 1/1

I really dislike your skill presentation. If I want to determine your total points in any given skill, you force me to look through 20 boxes. "Wizards of the coast mind's eye articles" is also not a good enough source when there's no link (those articles are hard to find ever since the archives went down). You list Throw Anything and Power Throw as warblade bonus feats, which isn't how you obtain them.

When selecting your 9th level, you cannot pick Ballisteer, because that requires Psionic Shot and you won't have psionic shot until you've taken your 9th level. Fixing this would require reshuffling your levels. You also don't have the 13 dexterity required for Dodge.

You take Iron Heart Surge at level 6. When you do so, your effective warblade level is 4 (2 for warblade levels, 4/2=2 for psiwar levels) and thus you do not actually qualify to take 3rd-level maneuvers.

You mess up the power progression. You have more power points than you think (because ML and power points advance at every level of ballisteer). You also learn your powers at the wrong levels: you should not gain any powers at ECL 9 (because Ballisteer 1 does not advance powers known), but you say you grab Psionic Darkvision then. 0/1

I see nothing in the way of questionable ruling reliance; you stick with the straightforward interpretation everywhere. 1/1

Playing this in an actual game shouldn't cause any trouble: Gregor is not a character whose skills demand specific environments. 1/1

Not going to lie; there's so many little mechanical errors here that I feel really awkward letting you walk away with 4 elegance, and I'll probably switch up the way I handle this section in future contests. But I posted my criteria, and rules are rules, so I won't be retroactively changing anything.

UoSI (2.3)
Use of class features as follows.
Psionic Sidestep: I can assume you'll use this sometimes. 0.1
Throw Anything: You already have this from Bloodstorm Blade when you obtain it from Ballisteer. 0
Invisible Shot: This makes sense to use. 0.1
Ethereal Shot: You use this; sense a pattern? 0.1
Energy Shot: I can see this being useful. 0.1
Incorporeal Shot: This, too, is useful for you. 0.1
Pinpoint Shot: Do you use this? With four attacks a round, I'm not sure you get much out of sacrificing three of them for an attack bonus on the first. 0
Explosive Shot: Can be used, but no synergies I can see. 0.1
Improved Psionic Sidestep: Again, you'll probably use this sometimes. 0.1
Phased Shot: You can bypass AC with this, but where most other builds expand on it further, yours doesn't. 0.1
Infused Shot: A greatsword deals more damage than my baseline expectation for the weapons people would use, so props for getting one to count as ranged. 0.25
Total: 1.05

You get Psionic Meditation to (presumably?) get more use out of Psionic Shot, but with how strong your attacks are, giving up three of them for 2d6 more damage on one is questionable. You make no mention of Dodge and Mobility, though I guess Point-Blank Shot helps you get into Bloodstorm Blade. Tumble is ignored after it gets you into ballisteer. Ultimately, I'm unconvinced the prereqs do much for you. 0/0.5

Your psionics exist, certainly. You get Psionic Fly, you get some buffs to stack on your weapon, you get Expansion, and while I don't think these powers are useless to you, you do nothing exceptionally interesting with them. Unlike the other bloodstorm blade you did grab Brutal Throw, so you can use swift action psionics without sacrificing accuracy, which saves you from a lower score. 0.25/0.5

Final analysis:
I think your build description is a little bit sparse. In many cases, I'm left wondering what your build wants to do and how it wants to use the secret ingredient. There's a lot of little mistakes throughout the build, and the presentation is a bit hard to read in places (in addition to your skill table, I think the ability score table is much too granular; just tell me what you start with, what you increase, and when you do so).

Originality (3)
Seeing elf for an archery-focused round; not a surprise (though having another look, I'm not sure whether being an elf does all that much for you). But hey, it's no human. 0.5

Cloistered Cleric 1 is a really common dip. Paladin 2 is pretty standard, and psiwar 7 is of course the expected entry class. 0.25/1

Zen Archery is to be expected, Serenity surprises me more than it should, Psionic Meditation is kinda obvious, Animal Devotion is famous for being good but not something I expected here. 0.25/0.5

Yes, those are standard paladin and cleric dips, but they're hardly standard for a psychic warrior build. 0.5/0.5

The backstory is quite neat: I like the idea of a Robin Hood-type psychic warrior who got his powers after repeated psychic assaults, and the rekindled-faith bit fits your paladin dip perfectly. Mechanically, I'm less impressed by what you have going on; you shoot, you have psychic powers to shoot better, and that's it. 0.5/1

Power (3)
Zen Archery is on the other builds, but you go all the way by making a fully wisdom-based character; something I quite like. The use of travel devotion is somewhat lost on me: the benefit of archery is that you don't have to worry about moving into position each turn, and you grab Hustle before you ever have to worry about full attacks.

You invest in mobility and defenses but leave your offenses sorely lacking. Sure, you have big shiny saving throw bonuses, but do those matter if the monsters want to prioritize your allies anyway? You don't really fix any of the issues inherent in archery as a strategy; without actively investing power points and/or turns, you'll be dealing 1d8 damage per hit. Knowledge Devotion will only apply on a handful of hits. You also gesture towards using a 'magical compound bow' but don't actually have a strength modifier worth speaking of, and if you buy one sized for buffed strength, you'll struggle to use it without buffs. If you instead intend to make one Greater Psionic Shot per turn and charge up your bow with your move action, then why do you lack the Concentration investment to reliably do so even at level 20? I just don't think you're as effective as most other psychic warriors. 0.25/1

Your saves are all pretty good, but you run into the ever-awkward archer problem: modest amounts of DR. That said, you're generally pretty good at covering your weaknesses; as I said your problem isn't defensive in nature. 0.75/1

Out of combat, you have first-level cleric spells and the cleric spell list access that comes with it, which is something, but you don't really fit one of the major roles other than that. 0/0.5 Outside of that, you have weak knowledge investment, some spot and a tiny bit of sense motive with a good wisdom score backing those up, and always-on detect evil. Sure, that's worth a quarter-point. 0.25/0.5

Level 9 is awkwardly late for Zen Archery, but your dexterity isn't the worst before that so we'll count it. 0.5/0.5

You have more PP than you think, but you heavily lean on it, and I'm not sure if you'll be able to stretch it through the day and still contribute competently. Even if your interpretation of Travel Devotion is to be accepted, Serenity definitely does not affect Rebuke Plants, so you end up with only 11ish turn attempts a day: enough for three total recharges of Animal Devotion or Travel Devotion, so you can't use those quite as freely as you'd hope. 0.25/0.5

Elegance (1.75)

Multiclass XP penalties from ECL 4 on. 0/1

I'm just going to go and dedicate a paragraph to you skill table here. Firstly, your presentation is bad; I do not want to check 20 boxes to figure out your total ranks in a skill at ECL 20. I don't need to read "(2 ranks for [class], 1 for Int Bonus)" nineteen separate times; instead consider including some running totals. You get Knowledge Devotion, but don't explain to me which skill you're making a permanent class skill. Your skills for first level are just straight-up not listed, which is a pity, because you don't get too many afterwards. You don't explain to me that you took Skilled City-Dweller to make Tumble a psychic warrior class skill (at least, I hope that's what you're doing), or even refer to the ACF.

Your class table makes an error in forgetting to list the cloistered cleric's Lore ability. I'd also like you to list a sample set of cleric spells. You take the Mantled Warrior ACF but fail to link or explain it anywhere; a less experienced judge would be left wondering where you're getting that ability from.

As for errors of mechanics rather than mere presentation, Psionic Meditation requires 7 ranks in Concentration but at ECL 15 you only have 6. You also take a psychic warrior bonus feat at ECL 19, when taking your 6th level of psychic warrior, but the class does not grant a bonus feat at that level. 0/1

Using your plant rebuking to fuel travel devotion is... not quite outright illegal, but does require you to read the feat in a favorable way and argue that it then supersedes the general rules for domain feats. Not elegant!

If you have the ability to turn or rebuke undead, you can gain additional daily uses of a domain feat's benefit by permanently sacrificing daily uses of that ability.

Several of the buffs you seemingly intend to put on your longbow would require houserules to actually work, because it's not the bow hitting people but the projectiles it shoots.

Lastly, you miss the ruling where psychic warrior increases your manifester level and power points at every level, as opposed to only six out of ten, so you have more power points and a bigger ML than your table implies. 0/1

If the campaign doesn't heavily feature psionic creatures, your choice of knowledge skill is all but useless, and Knowledge Devotion with it. Other than that minor nitpick, Gailan can easily slot in at any table. 0.75/1

UoSI (2.4)
Use of class features as follows.
Psionic Sidestep: Could be useful if you ever get a foe up in your face. 0.1
Throw Anything: You're an archer, not a thrower. 0
Invisible Shot: You can use this. 0.1
Ethereal Shot: As above. 0.1
Energy Shot: As above. 0.1
Incorporeal Shot: As above (notice a pattern). 0.1
Pinpoint Shot: Is sacrificing two iteratives or a psionic shot refocus attempt truly worth a slight bonus against foes with cover? I just don't see you using this much, even when it could apply. 0
Explosive Shot: You use this. 0.1
Improved Psionic Sidestep: Like its lesser version, not bad for you but nothing special. 0.1
Phased Shot: You can use this to bypass armor, but you don't have any kind of remote senses or concealment negation, so unlike many other builds you can't really expand on this to shoot through walls and such. 0.1
Infused Shot: You get the baseline level of use out of this by doubling your 1d8 to 2d8. 0.1
Total: 0.9

Your prerequisites see some use. Tumble gets modest investment, but like Dodge and Mobility doesn't mesh all that well with your strategy. Psionic Shot is expanded on with Greater Psionic Shot and Psionic Meditation, and Point-Blank Shot pops up as a prerequisite in places. 0.25/0.5

Your psionics are there. You use them, they help you, but they're not used in such an impressive way that it makes me want to award more than a small bonus here. 0.25/0.5

Final verdict: A few times, I was disappointed by the build choices you make. You have Travel Devotion, the Freedom Mantle's speed bonus, and eventually Hustle; so why not take Expeditious Dodge (RotW) instead of Dodge? You're an elf cleric who needs to obtain Point-Blank Shot, so why not slightly switch up your deity and grab the Elf domain (SComp)? You're a pure elf, but it seems like nothing prevented you from grabbing a subrace without a constitution penalty (like the +2 dex -2 int wild elf) and freeing up your point buy a bit.

The whole thing feels very handbooky; get the cloistered cleric dip and pick up arguably the three best devotion feats, grab mantled warrior (freedom), grab Vigor and Hustle and Dimension Hop. There's broad-strokes optimization, but no effort to make your optimization fit this particular build, and I think your UoSI score reflects that. While you can use most of the ballisteer's class features, you never do so in a way that sets you apart from a hypothetical generic build, unlike every other entry.

Honorable mention goes to Queequeg, whose build, in my opinion, takes one of the most elegant yet multifaceted approaches to making ballisteer's class features shine.

My gratitude and appreciation to all chefs for participating, now bring on the disputes!

H_H_F_F

2023-05-19, 02:04 PM

Thank you very much for judging, Inevitability! Looking forward to digging into these.

The Viscount

2023-05-19, 07:50 PM

Thank you for judging, Inevitability.

I have a few disputes for you.

Hi inevitability, thank you for your work here! I have a few qualms I'd like you to address.

but you're only primarily using the sling from level 15 on
Level 10, as my tactical portion covers. Within 2 levels, I get zen archery, pebble to boulder, long duration expansion and plane shift for loadstones. Those all let me make the shift worth it when compared to full attacking with a traditional option. Sure, level 15 is a huge spike in power, but I'm using the sling from the moment I go through the ritual.

but my criteria were up for weeks and clearly stated that multiclass XP penalties result in a one-point deduction Not really a dispute, if that's the standard we're all equally held to then that's that. Just a clarification of why I didn't go the extra mile to completely avoid multiclass. I generally try not to build based on judge criteria, but in this case, I also just though it was granular and not binary. "1 point for avoiding multiclass XP penalties" is the exact same language is anywhere else in your criteria, which usually means "up to 1 point". Like in the case of "1 point for avoiding reliance on ambiguous rules", "1 point for covering your weaknesses", "1 point for race/classes", etc. None of the other categories are binary, including the one that mentions "avoiding" something. I just assumed I'd get a small penalty for going through 1 level of multiclass penalties, in the same logic with everything else.

Now, it seems to me that this implies you do not actually advance ardent ML. The chair said you advance the ML of your existing psionic class. I felt like being psionically multiclassed was maybe testing the water, so I PMd the chair to make sure, and got confirmation that "If you have multiple psionic classes before entering, your ML for all is advanced by 1 per level of SI." So, this issue (a full point?) and everything relating to it (powers, flexibility, PP, etc) is covered.

You intend to use the Sling of Dire Winds, which is sized for medium creatures and only resizes for small ones. When using expansion, weapons do not 'adapts to Goliath's expanded size' (which you falsely claim), but they are instead 'similarly expanded by this power' (RAW). An undersized sling will stay undersized, meaning you take a -2 penalty on attack rolls from using a sling that consistently stays one size too small for you to use normally. Metamorphosis into a bigger form worsens the issue, and while ranged undersized weapons never become unusable by strict RAW, a lot of DMs might complain about a Huge creature using a Medium sling anyway. It's a relatively minor issue, but one I'd like to have seen addressed. ****, good point. I guess I read "similarly expanded" as "similarly expanded to gargantuan", but I think your reading of "similarly expanded by 2 size categories" is definitely more solid. It doesn't incapacitate the build (I assume you meant it's medium when I'm large, because by your reading it's still large when I'm huge and huge when I'm gargantuan) but it's definitely a hit. Note that if we were to go RAI and treat it as a melee weapon, it'd still be usable – PHB on TWF equates slings to one handed weapons, which means with one size difference they'd be light (still usable). Like you said, RAW is on my side anyway, but I think RAI is too.

I'm mainly commenting on this to clarify that this is why I went whale, above all else. It was never about "they're good psychic warriors", like you thought in your final verdict. I read expansion uncarefully (I don't think my reading is impossible, just far less likely/supported), and wanted to start as large as possible so I don't have to rely on metamorphosis. As a side note, that's also what led to the fluff – playing a 3 meter tall sling user just made my mind jump to the 3 meters tall dude killed by a sling.

you have to obtain a specific item at the DM's mercy
Okay, I'll admit I'm kind of salty about this one. An item of legacy is what the champion of legacy is all about, and you need to pick one for the class – you can't just say "oh, whatever one I happen to find". They have prereqs, the class features make you choose specific abilities.

I feel like this treatment of a legal PRC is somewhat unfair. Would you give me a hard time for taking Blood Magus? Stormlord? Swanmay? Basically any "organization" PRC?

Some PRCs require some "coincidinces", or DM cooperation. Throwing out an entire class (and an entire book with it) because they require it seems harsh.

You have a +5 modifier to make a DC 20 check with, then a +9 (+10, actually) modifier for a DC 25 check, and finally a +15 modifier for a DC 30 check. Even if you get a +10 bonus from somewhere, you're statistically unlikely to make all three of these.
So, I agree this can be an issue, but I don't agree it's as severe as you're making it out to be. As per the rules on legacy items, someone else can make the check – as long as it's communitcated correctly to the wielder, they're fine. Which means not just someone else at the party – finding an old book is fine, talking to a sage is fine. There's also the gift of knowledge from defeating another wielder of a legacy item. In short, there are plenty of ways to get around the possibility of a failed check.

The specific numbers were chosen based on the assumption that the PRC is telling me "5 points is fine". I keep the exact same distance from the DC at every stage.

Sure, I get why you may penalize this, but I think you might be overstating the issue a little bit. I understand if you disagree.

You make the interesting claim that because the sling forces you to use pebbles, you can't just grab magic sling bullets to deal with ethereal foes. Except the sole ability that mentions 'stones' instead of 'stones or bullets' is Stunning Stone, which you deride and trade away
The sling doesn't force me to use pebbles, that's not my point. I'm using loadstones, which aren't normal ammunition but a special item. I devote a lot of build resources to getting them reliably, and they're a massive increase to my damage, especially early on. That's what I meant by being locked into a very specific weapon-ammo combo for maximum capacity, and I still think that makes ethereal and incorporeal shot a much bigger deal for me than they are for most. Sure, I'll sometimes use bullets, and I can make them magical – but when I want to put on the real hurt, I just couldn't do so against ethereal/incorporeal enemies without these abilities, period.

Improved Psionic Sidestep: Another of those features you forget to mention in your build stub because you're too excited about manifesting. Presumably you will provoke sometimes, and this will help you, but it's not offering a qualitative benefit over the lesser version.
"Improved psionic sidestep is another important defensive asset for provokes-when-loading Goliath." I say this, in the first paragraph of the relevant levels. Perfect archery is helpful to mitigate the damage, but unlike most archers/throwers, Goliath provokes when loading. Unlike with shooting, there are no ways out. He's going to take more AoOs than most, that's just a price he pays for his huge damage. (Improved) Sidestep is a big help in mitigating that.

Ballisteer's in-house psionics (that is, the psychic warrior powers) are used, though almost always in an incidental rather than essential way
This build is completely and utterly reliant on expansion. This is what makes it shine, this is what allows it to push further than any other user of sling of the dire wind. It's built around expansion, and it's built around raching ML 9 with expansion, and it has 4/day free extend power to make sure it stays expanded. Expansion is mentioned more than any other power in the build. You noted the other big important powers here, but I simply can't see how you'd ever see psychic warrior powers as incidental to this build, ever.

One last note, because I wasn't sure if this was directed (and therefore, reductive) to what rogue is doing in my build, or simply pointing out the fact that it "could've been foreseeable".

There's rogue, which I guess is a source of easy bonus feats if not the one I saw coming. Ooh, but rogue is so much more than that, right? It's a bonus feat, sure – but it's also skill points in a skill point starved build (just enough to get the prereqs for ballisteer and the sling) free crossbow proficiency (basically another crucial feat from the same level), and poison use on a build with true creation. I genuinely struggled with getting this build to work, and martial rogue made it all pan out. It's a dip I'm very proud of here.

Sorry for the long rant! I hope we can see eye to eye on most of these things, but I understand if we don't. Thanks again for judging!

Hi inevitability! I'm really glad you liked my entry, that's the most important thing to me here. I hope you enjoy Moby D*ck! That book is great. It's also so weird, which is something people often don't associate with "classics". Anyway, I do have a few issues:
OOF. I knew that Azurin is expected, obviously, but I felt like the choice of taking LA just isn't obvious, even if it is a template you'd be probably able to guess in a few tries if you would've been told someone's going to take an LA template. I still feel like a 0 is a little harsh for a build that took that risk, and for a good reason too – it's here for the part of it that is usually most ignored.

I get that this is a pretty subjective category though. No hard feelings.
I don't think qualifying for mindsight is sketchy when it's literally 24/7 telepathy unless I go into a comma or something. Open chakra is 24 hours duration, I do it once every day. Shedu crown stays there until I unshape it. However, I recognize that the order of operations is problematic, and that I should've swapped ballisteer 9 with totemist, and immoavability with open chakra. Ugh. Stupid mistake.

I didn't make an error with the skills though, totemist gets 4+int.

As for complaints about the harpoon: I tried as hard as I could to strictly obey RAW in this build, because I wanted to enjoy the fruits of the silly RAW of harpoon – and of phase shot. Phase shot describes its effects very concretely, and what I do should work, IMO.
I think telepathy should allow me to sense ethereal creatures? It's arguable, at least.

As for phase shot: I went through hurdles to make sure it works! I've detailed the issues and solutions in my breakdown, including the fact that native access to the Seeking weapon enhancement through Soulbound lets me ignore the miss chance. I think I fully "solved" phase shot in this build, I really do.

Hello, Inevitability. If I didn't already give thanks to you in the thread I'll say it here. If I did, I shall not repeat.

Also, constructs and undead are immune and you don't bring much to use against them.

Incorporeal Shot: Most incorporeal foes are undead, who are immune to your key trick, and you don't have the power points to throw handfuls of energy shot d4s at them.
Sorry, but to what constructs and undead are immune? All ricochets clearly work for them.
Are you talking about daze? Yes, them are immune, but... Do I really need to stunlock undead? It's very likely undead will not survive a single attack with all ricochets, Greater Psionic Shot, and Explosive shot. My average damage with all this on is about 230 hp* (for two targets). This is hit points of 35 HD undead.

Constructs could have more hit points, but I still have good outcome. 230 hp is 27 HD Colossal construct, almost 31 HD Gargantuan, 34 HD Huge, 36 HD Large and so on.

(1d6 base damage + 4d6 GPS + 8d4 Energy shot)*4 + (8d4 Explosive shot)*4

This is without any flat damage bonuses.
You said:

You can't just gesture at Astaroth and assume every magic weapon is obtainable at no penalty.
But at least I can gesture at Astaroth and get +5 Boomerang - it's 20 more damage right there, it's 3-4 more HD.

I'm sorry to say, but when I ask 'is your build easily shut down', the worst possible answer is 'yes, but only if my enemies move'.
Yes, it hurts. I thought about Distracting Ember, but I had no free feats.
But even recognizing the existence of a problem I should point my damage output. It's very possible I don't need more than one good attack which is doable even with such limitations.

many DMs dislike having self-supporting classes or temporary abilities qualifying you for permanent PrCs.
I see your point. I disagree, but have no counterpoints about self-supporting classes - in my book this is opposite very elegant. But about temporary abilities qualifying... These temporary abilities are 24/7 with me if I need.

Thank you for judging, Inevitability!

Yes, ardent power acquisition is a mess, but you just flat out cannot manifest any powers above level 5 at ECL 15 (on account of not having any), and thus do not qualify for Expanded Knowledge. That means two of your feats are illegal with no easy way to fix that.
You argue that I should qualify for Expanded Knowledge by having power of at least one level higher than I want to get. But I couldn't agree with this.
Look at feat description in the XPH:

For example, a 7th-level psion gains either a new 1st, 2nd, or 3rd-level power.
No mention about current power known. Doesn't matter if this 7th-level psion knows only 1st-level powers, only matter is maximum power level known.
I'm ardent, my maximum power level known bases on my ML. I have ML=CharL all the way so at 15th level I have MPLK 8th and qualify for Expanded Knowledge (Fission).
And even you still are disagree, with Expanded Knowledge (Fission) I clearly qualify for Expanded Knowledge (Temporal Acceleration). Looking at "One Mistake, One Penalty" rule we could see:

Not Allowed:
"Cascading" failures to qualify - declaring that because a build doesn't qualify for a feat, for example, it also doesn't qualify for anything using that feat as a prereq
I think it should lower penalty anyway.

You also take your 6th-level power, Dispel Psionics, from the guardian mantle, which is at that point in time secondary. However, at that point you already know 2 powers from this mantle (Damp Power and Deaden Blow). You also have 2 powers from the Time Mantle (Deceleration, Time Hop) and 2 from the Justice Mantle (Call Weaponry, Incite Bravery). In other words, picking Dispel Psionics gives you more powers known from your secondary guardian mantle (3) than either of your primary mantles (2 and 2).
Stupid mistake. I for some reason thought that limiting is about sum of all powers from all secondary mantles against all powers from all primary mantles not amount in individual mantles.

Furthermore, while most siege weapons are unique objects of certain size, a ballista is explicitly a Huge heavy crossbow. Call Weaponry says 'you can’t call a specific weapon; you just specify the kind', and 'kind' might very well mean 'nonspecific heavy crossbow'. Given how ballistas are sort of your fallback in a lot of situations where crazier weapons won't work, that's a bad thing.
Let's look at HoB.

Ballista: This torsion-powered catapult looks rather like a huge crossbow that launches large harpoonlike bolts through the air.
"Looks rather like" and "is explicitly" explicitly aren't the same. Heavy crossbow isn't "kind" I specify when I call Ballista, Ballista is.

Heavy trebuchets are Colossal. That won't matter on a perfect featureless plain, but they'll fail to simply fit in many confined spaces, even if you can summon and man and aim them.
If I can summon and man and aim trebuchet I could shot even within confined spaces - Phased shot helps. Only issue is if I have no enough space to summon and aim.

(Okay, so you suggest using Invisible/Ethereal/Incorporeal shot to 'zero' weapons, to which I ask: if your target cannot see or perceive the missile landing, how can you? You don't have any special senses, and while -you- may know you rolled a 18 on that attack roll, your character does not. I do think all three of these abilities are useful for you, but they don't reach combo level, so you get 0.3 for them combined)
Actually I don't need to see my missile, I only need LoS to target. Yes, it's silly RAW and I don't pretend it's work, I just decided to mention it. )

Plus I could give Ethereal or Incorporeal state for one of my Fission doubles shooting him from the trebuchet, place him at the needed square and shoot at him using Deaden Blow until hit him. )

Last point isn't fair because it wasn't in the entry and I actually thought up it just right now and you are free to not to consider that argument.

quetzalcoatl5

2023-05-19, 08:08 PM

Thanks for judging, Inevitability!

loky1109

2023-05-20, 03:33 AM

Thanks for judging!

Updated table:
Name Alignment / Race Class Levels Chef Inevitability Total Place
Elithkhad the Dancing Shsadow (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25779578&postcount=91) LG Kalashtar Kalashtar Telepath 3/Kalashtar Monk 2/Soulknife 2/Soulbow 3/Balisteer 10 13.65 13.65 3rd
Son'Har (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25779580&postcount=92) CN Anthropomorphic Baleen Whale Psychic Warrior 4/Bloodstorm Blade 4/Ballisteer 9 12.00 12.00 8th
Goliath of Gath (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25779583&postcount=93) TN Anthropomorphic Baleen Whale Psychic Warrior 1/Poison Use Wilderness Martial Rogue 1/Ardent 4/Ballisteer 6/Legacy Champion 5 13.95 13.95 1st
Chaka (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25779589&postcount=94) CE Strongheart Halfling Binder 5/Skilled City-Dweller Fighter 4/Ballisteer 10/Master Thrower 1 13.60 13.60 4th
Queequeg (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25779591&postcount=95) CG Mineral Warrior Azurin Soulbond Weapon Skilled City Dweller Psychic Warrior 8/Ballisteer 9/Totemist 1/Master Thrower 1 13.75 13.75 2nd
Lewis Z (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25779592&postcount=96) CG Anthropomorphic Baleen Whale Skilled City Dweller Bear Totem Barbarian 1/Skilled City Dweller Psychic Warrior 5/Hulking Hurler 1/Ballisteer 10 13.55 13.55 5th
Poroc brothers (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25779595&postcount=97) LE Dvati Ardent 9/Ballisteer 10 12.70 12.70 6th
Ponee Tutrix (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25779597&postcount=98) TN Goliath Soulbond Weapon Skilled City Dweller Psychic Warrior 6/Fighter 1/Ballisteer 10/Hulking Hurler 1/Bear Spiritual Totem Goliath Barbarian 1 12.60 12.60 7th
Gregor Redbane (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25779599&postcount=99) LN Human Warblade 2/Mantled Warrior Psychic Warrior 4/Bloodstorm Blade 4/Ballisteer 10 11.30 11.30 9th
Gailan Harcael (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25779600&postcount=100) CG Elf Cloistered Cleric 1/Mantled Warrior Psychic Warrior 7/Elf Paladin of Freedom 2/Ballisteer 10 10.15 10.15 10th

daremetoidareyo

2023-05-20, 10:27 AM

No disputes here

H_H_F_F

2023-05-21, 04:15 AM

While we're waiting for Inevitability to address the disputes, do we have any other prospective judge somewhere in the thread? It could be anyone. It could even be... You!

Inevitability

2023-05-21, 04:35 AM

Level 10, as my tactical portion covers. Within 2 levels, I get zen archery, pebble to boulder, long duration expansion and plane shift for loadstones. Those all let me make the shift worth it when compared to full attacking with a traditional option. Sure, level 15 is a huge spike in power, but I'm using the sling from the moment I go through the ritual.

Let's look at level 10. If you Enlarge to Huge, then a sling is going to be Large and deal 2d6+10 damage per hit (including its +2 to damage). Meanwhile, a +1 composite longbow sized for 20 strength has better to-hit (the +2 from the sling's enchantment cancels out the -2 from being undersized), the same average damage (3d6+6) but with a better crit multiplier, more range, more flexibility when movement is required (the sling eats your move action every turn and you don't have hustle yet), and an entire second iterative. And that's a deliberately underwhelming weapon; something that actually fits your strength (even if restricted to pre-expansion strength!) or carries better enchantments will do even better. I really don't see how using a sling at this level is anything but holding yourself back. Even at level 12, when the sling jumps up another size, I'm inclined to say the bow still pulls ahead. As for the loadstones, let's hold that thought and look at the next section. No change

The sling doesn't force me to use pebbles, that's not my point. I'm using loadstones, which aren't normal ammunition but a special item. I devote a lot of build resources to getting them reliably, and they're a massive increase to my damage, especially early on. That's what I meant by being locked into a very specific weapon-ammo combo for maximum capacity, and I still think that makes ethereal and incorporeal shot a much bigger deal for me than they are for most. Sure, I'll sometimes use bullets, and I can make them magical – but when I want to put on the real hurt, I just couldn't do so against ethereal/incorporeal enemies without these abilities, period.

This doesn't assume loadstones, because I didn't heavily consider the references to those in your build. Up until now, I have been interpreting them as 'nice to have' equipment that your actual build cannot reliably obtain (you'll see why), but if you want me to treat loadstones as a core part of your build and thus open to elegance-based criticism, let's see how that would go.

1. Loadstones don't work the way you want them to. RAW, a loadstone is not some way to put heavier-than-usual boulders in your sling, it's an extraordinary item with . A medium creature who slings a loadstone does 2d6 damage. A Gargantuan creature who slings a loadstone does 2d6 damage. A fine creature probably can't lift them, but if it could, it would deal 2d6 damage. It's like acid, or alchemist's fire, it's not a weapon with a scaling damage die. As you say, they aren't normal ammunition: why would they work by the same rules?

2. Bypassing the 200 GP cost by getting loadstones from the source makes sense in-character, but not in the context of D&D being a game with rules and expected wealth-by-level. There's lots of ways to handle a player saying "I would like to teleport to [plane] to grab [valuable substance that is abundant there]", and given that few people seem to play D&D with the assumption that WBL goes out of the window the moment the cleric hits level 9, we're left to conclude that something, somehow, will prevent you from doing this. Maybe it's the DM explicitly vetoing the rule, maybe the dao send a hitsquad after you, maybe planar resources are simply not that abundant, and the abundant spots are already tightly controlled. It matters not: "I can simply ignore WBL with my magic" will always get smacked down by an elegance penalty.

3. You do not 'devote a lot of build resources' to getting them yourself. You take The Planes as your secondary mantle and grab a power from it, and you seem to assume that this power, in its singular entirety, should take care of the issue. Except you have no powers that would be useful in locating these stones, no Knowledge (the planes), no way to mitigate the single obvious downside of plane shift, and if you have a cool trick with Metamorphosis in mind you're not mentioning it in the build. I think an attempt to get you ammo would go something like this:

-You run out of elemental loadstones and manifest Plane Shift
-The rest of the party might have stuff going on, but sure, they can put it on hold and join you here
-You appear somewhere on the elemental plane of earth (presumably that's where you find these, right)
-You now have zero skills or powers for actually finding these stones. Let me stress this: you're looking for rocks, on the plane of earth, and if there's any trick to it you are not aware of one. If you do know of a place where they can be found, you appeared hundreds of miles off-target, and have no idea where you are in relation to your destination.
-You start roaming the plane of earth to look for the stones, battling starvation, hostile denizens, cave-ins, etc etc etc. You don't seem to have a powerset obviously suited to dealing with any of this, maybe you can transform into something with earth glide or a burrow speed, I don't know.
-Eventually, somehow, you find loadstones. It is now that encumbrance rears its ugly head: a 10000 GP bag of holding will hold 30 loadstones. Your party members, if they have 14 strength and no equipment of their own, can overload themselves with seven. You yourself can carry an impressive 56, again before equipment, so maybe you get a hundredish total out there.
-You reappear 5d100 miles from your original location, again without any clue as to your position, and start trekking home.
-After several dozen encounters, you run out of elemental loadstones and manifest Plane Shift.

This is, frankly, not something that can be glossed over. This could realistically be a multi-session effort in an actual game, which it fortunately will never be because "Put everything on hold so we can grab some cool ammo for my whale" is not something that the other human beings at your table will appreciate. Even if the party has all the skills to pull this off, you are a very small part of it, manifesting one power two times.

------

Now, between all this, are you guaranteed not to get the stones? Not quite; the DM might rule they increase with size, you might find a seller, the DM might take pity and just give you some as loot. But to suggest that they are a major, consistent part of your playstyle, to suggest you use them primarily, that they are what justifies your use of slings over bows: that will run afoul of elegance penalties, whether for questionable mechanics, reliance on magic item shoppe stock, or semi-regularly having to drag everyone in the party on a planar excursion so they can make Knowledge (the planes) checks for you and help tussle with angry locals.

Remember, the original disputes were about the level at which your build gets going (where your score can improve from 0.25 to 0.5) and the degree to which you use Ethereal Shot and Incorporeal Shot (0.1 to 0.25 for both). If I agree you have consistent access to loadstones and will be able to use them primarily from level 10 on, your score will improve by 0.25 + 0.15 + 0.15 = 0.55 points. Your elegance is currently 1.75, and none of those penalties are for the things listed above: those final 0.75 points will be lost if I factor in the plentiful ways in which your build might not have the loot you suggest you always have.

With that in mind, do you really want me to treat loadstones as an essential part of your build's capabilities, rather than a nice-to-have that you end up being unable to consistently get?

Not really a dispute, if that's the standard we're all equally held to then that's that. Just a clarification of why I didn't go the extra mile to completely avoid multiclass. I generally try not to build based on judge criteria, but in this case, I also just though it was granular and not binary. "1 point for avoiding multiclass XP penalties" is the exact same language is anywhere else in your criteria, which usually means "up to 1 point". Like in the case of "1 point for avoiding reliance on ambiguous rules", "1 point for covering your weaknesses", "1 point for race/classes", etc. None of the other categories are binary, including the one that mentions "avoiding" something. I just assumed I'd get a small penalty for going through 1 level of multiclass penalties, in the same logic with everything else.

I will make this clearer in future rounds. No change

The chair said you advance the ML of your existing psionic class. I felt like being psionically multiclassed was maybe testing the water, so I PMd the chair to make sure, and got confirmation that "If you have multiple psionic classes before entering, your ML for all is advanced by 1 per level of SI." So, this issue (a full point?) and everything relating to it (powers, flexibility, PP, etc) is covered.

Alright, that's an awkward solution then. I was personally going off of the "If you do not manifest as a psychic warrior before entering Ballisteer, you essentially become a multiclass character." quote. To me, it seems that 'essentially become a multiclass character' straightforwardly means your original class does not increase in ML. Holding off on score change until the chair clarifies.

(I assume you meant it's medium when I'm large)

Yes, but you talk about using metamorphosis (does not change equipment size) to turn into a sun giant or treant, which is innately Huge; that's what I was referring to.

Okay, I'll admit I'm kind of salty about this one. An item of legacy is what the champion of legacy is all about, and you need to pick one for the class – you can't just say "oh, whatever one I happen to find". They have prereqs, the class features make you choose specific abilities.

I feel like this treatment of a legal PRC is somewhat unfair. Would you give me a hard time for taking Blood Magus? Stormlord? Swanmay? Basically any "organization" PRC?

Some PRCs require some "coincidinces", or DM cooperation. Throwing out an entire class (and an entire book with it) because they require it seems harsh.

The 'obtaining a specific item at the DMs mercy' bit was a small part of my overall criticism. If you look at the other whales, you'll note that 'Large-sized and no real way to work around that' earned both of them half a point deduction in the same category. The other half, unique to you, is from failing to offer an in-house way to succeed on the skill checks.

I try to let purely flavor-based prerequisites fly unless there's an obvious clash with other flavor or mechanics, or unless a build requires too many of them to be waived. I actually do that with you too; if lacking a plausible mechanism to locate the sling was the only issue, you'd have no penalty in this category.

But it's not the only issue: you need to obtain the sling of dire winds and learn the rituals, which requires further DM involvement in what should ideally be a self-supporting build. A build that could do either task on its own would not get penalized: both the ability to find the sling by yourself (powerful divinations?) or the ability to learn its rituals by yourself would have removed the penalty, just as I would penalize a build that needs to join the zhentarim soldiers and worship NG mielikki.

You might disagree with this way of doing things, but if you can be a legacy champion and obtain a perfect score in elegance, I'm hardly 'throwing out' the class. No change

The specific numbers were chosen based on the assumption that the PRC is telling me "5 points is fine". I keep the exact same distance from the DC at every stage.

The PrC isn't telling you '5 points is fine'. The PrC is telling you five ranks is fine. 5 ranks are a minimum requirement: if they're all you need to learn the rituals that's great, if they aren't, that sucks. If a PrC that requires a BAB of +5 has an important ability that requires you to hit enemies with a melee weapon, and you enter it as a level 10 wizard with 10 strength, and then I complain because your to-hit is in the gutter, then "the PrC told me a +5 attack bonus was fine" is not a good counterargument. No change

"Improved psionic sidestep is another important defensive asset for provokes-when-loading Goliath." I say this, in the first paragraph of the relevant levels. Perfect archery is helpful to mitigate the damage, but unlike most archers/throwers, Goliath provokes when loading. Unlike with shooting, there are no ways out. He's going to take more AoOs than most, that's just a price he pays for his huge damage. (Improved) Sidestep is a big help in mitigating that.

A fair point. Updated score from 0.1 to 0.25 in both categories

This build is completely and utterly reliant on expansion. This is what makes it shine, this is what allows it to push further than any other user of sling of the dire wind. It's built around expansion, and it's built around raching ML 9 with expansion, and it has 4/day free extend power to make sure it stays expanded. Expansion is mentioned more than any other power in the build. You noted the other big important powers here, but I simply can't see how you'd ever see psychic warrior powers as incidental to this build, ever.

I don't think we use 'reliant' in the same way. If you EXPAND, you become Gargantuan and start flinging colossal-plus-several boulders. If you don't expand... you stay large and fling slightly smaller boulders. Yes, you mention Expansion a lot, but it's all in the context of 'sling gets big deals big damage'. You are pushing further than other users of your sling, perhaps, but you aren't pushing further than I expect in a contest where literally everyone can pick up Expansion. I understand that 'deal the biggest damage you can do' is somewhat of a personal goal for yours, but I can't exactly reward you for picking Expansion when optimizing the thing it's intended to be used for.

The builds that scored 0.5/0.5 in the psionics category were Ponee Tutrix, the Poroc Brothers, and Queequeg.
-Ponee uses Expansion for the damage boost and the increased carrying capacity, and in addition tries to set up combos with psiwar-exclusive powers like Psychokinetic Weapon.
-The Porocs have psionic powers as a core part of their strategy (to the point where the neglect of other build aspects hurts their power). They can theoretically use Expansion as a force multiplier thanks to having more bodies to use it on.
-Queequeg uses several psychic warrior powers in utterly unforeseen ways, relying heavily on Call Weaponry to get his harpoon on demand, using Wall Walker or Immovability to remarkable extent, and working some incarnum in there with Psionic Open Chakra, and then marries the psionic and martial components via innate access to Power-Storing weapons.

These builds all do more than simply saying 'oh, I have expansion, I love expansion, I wanna be expanded all the time'. They offer qualitative uses of psychic warrior powers, they would be genuinely different builds and play differently if you took away their psionics. Half the builds got 0.25/0.5 here, and you simply do not set yourself apart from them enough to warrant a higher score. No change

Ooh, but rogue is so much more than that, right? It's a bonus feat, sure – but it's also skill points in a skill point starved build (just enough to get the prereqs for ballisteer and the sling) free crossbow proficiency (basically another crucial feat from the same level), and poison use on a build with true creation. I genuinely struggled with getting this build to work, and martial rogue made it all pan out. It's a dip I'm very proud of here.

A fair point: I'm happy to tell you rogue earned you originality points, and I acknowledge its usefulness.

Originality:
I've given this some thought, so bear with me here.

I acknowledge your specific usage of the template is largely for reasons orthogonal to its usual use, but then again I didn't give Lewis (using anthrowhale chiefly for hulking hurler qualification) more points than Son'Haar (using anthrowhale chiefly for the stat boosts and bigger weapons).

Then again, the whole point of (the first half of) my originality criteria is to punish anyone who took the easy way and picks the most generally applicable race in the game.

Except I wouldn't punish someone who, say, played a half-elf and took the paragon class to get a free feat anyway. And if you made me justify that decision, I'd say something like "Well, compared to a human, the half-elf is giving up a level, so it's not as centralizing and should be fine to give half a point."

But your template puts you in a similar boat: you too are getting a feat and losing a level. Not to the same extent, obviously; a human mineral warrior and half-elf are at almost opposite ends of the optimization spectrum, but the situations are comparable.

Which is a long way of saying: have a quarter-point, still less than I'd award to any nonhuman, but more than I'd give to a plain human or azurin. 0.25 added to originality

(I'll sit down and turn this into a properly outlined rule in the future)

Elegance:
Good catch on the skill points; I could've sworn totemist was 2 + int, but just like the barbarian it keeps tripping me up. 0.25 added to elegance

I disagree that qualifying with a power is fine if you can keep it continually applied. Yes, the power lasts 24 hours, but if it ever gets dispelled, things get complicated. You bind chakras when you shape them (after 8 hours of rest and 1 hour of meditation), which means that even if you re-open your chakra with another Open Chakra manifestation, you cannot re-bind the Shedu Crown to it until you rest for the night. With how common dispels are, and how significant the loss of telepathy and mindsight is for your most impressive trick, I think the 0.25 penalty that this shaky method of qualification cost you is more than reasonable. No change

Yes, you stick to the harpoon's silly RAW. But "Monks aren't proficient with unarmed strikes" is silly RAW, and "Drowning someone heals them" is also silly RAW, and "Scorpion whips deal 1d43 damage" is also silly RAW, and in a real game none of these would stick around as actual parts of the game world. I acknowledge that by RAW, victims of your harpoon can only get rid of it by pulling it out with hands (and if they lack hands, tough luck). But realistically, "the monster attacks the rope to get free" or "the harpoon cannot actually lodge in an air elemental" is within the realm of reasonable houserules (which is a subjective category! but would you really say that a DM telling you up-front that he houserules harpoons to work that way was being unreasonable?)

Also, the movement-controlling that is a big part of your tricks specifies that it requires you to 'control the trailing rope', which is a state that's never defined in game terms and thus defaults to natural language. A DM who claims the entire weapon, including the rope, turns incorporeal, might subsequently point out that you do not actually have the ability to 'control' incorporeal objects.

Overall, you expect harpoons to work as incomprehensible artifacts of binding instead of sharp sticks with a rope tied to them, which is the exact kind of thing that elegance penalties are meant for. Everywhere else I ran with your interpretation: you'll notice I didn't mention unharpoonable foes in the power section (just foes with ranged attacks and fly speeds), you'll notice I named none of those ambiguities in the UoSI section. No change

UoSI:
Telepathy does not let you detect ethereal creatures. The ethereal is an entirely different plane than the one you're on; the material-ethereal boundary might be notably thin, and easy to cross with specifically designed magic, but not with telepathy. No change

Thanks for pointing out the Seeking enhancement; I'd failed to consider that. In that case, I agree with you that your use of Phasing Shot should count as a major combo. Score for Phased Shot updated from 0.25 to 0.5.

Final score adjustment: 13.00 to 13.75

I will edit my original judging post to reflect these changes.

H_H_F_F

2023-05-21, 04:55 AM

Hey Inevitability, just making sure you noticed you also have disputes from Chaka and the Poroc Bros. They were added in a later edit, which is why I thought you might've missed them.

Thanks again for judging!

Inevitability

2023-05-21, 05:20 AM

Ah, you're right. I'll get to those right away.

Also, in case our chairman missed my brief reference in goliath's dispute response, I'd like to request some clarification on the very unclear matter of ballisteer advancement.

Inevitability

2023-05-21, 08:05 AM

Sorry, but to what constructs and undead are immune? All ricochets clearly work for them.
Are you talking about daze? Yes, them are immune, but... Do I really need to stunlock undead? It's very likely undead will not survive a single attack with all ricochets, Greater Psionic Shot, and Explosive shot. My average damage with all this on is about 230 hp* (for two targets). This is hit points of 35 HD undead.

I think this calculation is somewhat optimistic in how it ignores your tanked to-hit and the middling reflex save DC, but overall, fair point. Even if your first shot doesn't outright take someone out, it should be able to obliterate weaker foes and seriously hurt stronger ones.

...if they stay in formation, of course. The undead/construct thing was part of your penalty here, but by no means the biggest part, which was and continues to be the struggle of not having two adjacent foes, or having two foes at all. Your argument about killing those outright still presupposes that you got some lined up, but many encounters will simply not have foes standing shoulder-to-shoulder. Still, have some points.

Score increased from 0 to 0.25

I see your point. I disagree, but have no counterpoints about self-supporting classes - in my book this is opposite very elegant.

I remember having a similar debate when judging Dragon Descendant last year...

But about temporary abilities qualifying... These temporary abilities are 24/7 with me if I need.

Even so, it's a point of failure that 'regular' class abilities and feats simply don't have. If you want to summon Astaroth for crafting, you're going to go without your ballisteer qualification for some days: and that's not a problem to be suffered for a little while, but anywhere between level 9 and 14. That's a quarter of your build, during which up to one third of your levels blink on and off on a regular basis.

More importantly, qualifying for something with a temporary ability, even one that's continuously applicable, opens the door to a whole lot of shenanigans (Persistent Heroics/Polymorph or Opportunistic Piety/Bone Talisman are the usual offenders, but there's many others). A lot of DMs, rather than try and draw a line, simply ban the whole practice (and I as a judge am of similar mind). The elegance penalty suffered here is relatively minor, and you ended up gaining more in originality than you lost in elegance, but I want to be consistent in how I disapprove of such entry methods. No change

For example, a 7th-level psion gains either a new 1st, 2nd, or 3rd-level power.

Full confession: not a line I was aware of, as it's missing from the SRD. That's a weird situation! I do want to point out that example text is very frequently incorrect, but I do think this makes your reading a lot stronger than mine. Ardents really are something.

I have ML=CharL all the way

Okay, so once more I'm seeing the unclear situation around ardent ballisteer ML pop up. I still think that class only advances psychic warrior ML, or its own ML if you lack psychic warrior levels, and I would once more like to ask the chair. I also have some thoughts about this use of One Mistake One Penalty, but I'll reserve them until the chair has commented. Holding off on score change until the chair clarifies.

Let's look at HoB.

I was gonna be annoying about the DMG directly defining these in terms of crossbows, but HoB has a little line about superseding that, so nice find. 0.5 added in elegance

Only issue is if I have no enough space to summon and aim.

That's the issue I was talking about, yeah. 25 ft. ceilings are not common dungeon design unless the dungeon-builders want to accommodate their pet tarrasque.

Actually I don't need to see my missile, I only need LoS to target. Yes, it's silly RAW and I don't pretend it's work, I just decided to mention it.

I mean, if you want to stick to the silly RAW then I'm obligated to point out that your target gets a DC 15 Reflex save DC despite being wholly unaware of the shot approaching, and negates all damage on a success. I think real-world sensibilities dominating over game logic is in your favor, on the whole, especially because you suffer fewer elegance penalties this way. No change

The Viscount

2023-05-21, 02:39 PM

FactualArcher

2023-05-21, 03:37 PM

I have a question about HM voting. Do we do it in the thread or in a PM?

H_H_F_F

2023-05-21, 03:49 PM

I have a question about HM voting. Do we do it in the thread or in a PM?

RAW is PM, but it's a pretty widely accepted houserule to do it in the main thread. :tongue:

The Viscount

2023-05-21, 04:44 PM

RAW is PM, but it's a pretty widely accepted houserule to do it in the main thread. :tongue:

I'll be honest I had forgotten that the OP mentions to vote by PM. I'll edit it to reflect reality (either is fine).

daremetoidareyo

2023-05-21, 06:47 PM

Queequee gets my HM

Inevitability

2023-05-22, 02:54 AM

That was some vague wording on my part. As it is a prestige class, my intent was that the "increase manifester level by 1" takes precedence for a multiclass character, so ML for the prior class should also increase.

Alright:

The chair said you advance the ML of your existing psionic class. I felt like being psionically multiclassed was maybe testing the water, so I PMd the chair to make sure, and got confirmation that "If you have multiple psionic classes before entering, your ML for all is advanced by 1 per level of SI." So, this issue (a full point?) and everything relating to it (powers, flexibility, PP, etc) is covered.

As the chair confirmed, you increase ardent ML.

0.25 point added in power for being a very strong utility caster

1 point added for having a legal manifester level for ardent

I have ML=CharL all the way

So it would seem. I think your reading of expanded knowledge is still a little shaky, but I'm not going to split hairs over it. Score in elegance improved by 0.5 points

I do want to say this: if the chair had ruled you don't have the required ML, I would have come down hard on this attempted use of 'one mistake one penalty' to keep one of the feats anyway. It's not 'cascading failures to qualify' if you straight-up take two illegal feats that are illegal for the same reason and try to have one support the other, that's an attempt to exploit the contest rules.

(If you really believe that the first Expanded Knowledge is legal, for some claimed reason X, then you should believe that the second, by itself, is also legal, because any character that can take ExpKnow(8) could already take ExpKnow(7). If you instead declare that you are supporting the second with the first, that suggests to me you do not really believe ExpKnow(8) was a legal choice when you took it: if you truly did, why not claim you qualify for ExpKnow(7) for the exact same reasons that allowed you too take the precursor feat? You are deliberately constructing a chain of qualifications that, if you were taking the feats in good faith, would not be necessary.

I don't think your build was a cynical attempt to exploit the system, to be clear, but I just want to pre-emptively state to anyone thinking of cynically exploiting the system like this to not even try.)

H_H_F_F

2023-05-22, 03:06 AM

Alright:
Thanks for the update, Inevitability! I updated the scores in the spreadsheet.

That being said: A judge! A judge! My kingdom for a judge!

loky1109

2023-05-22, 03:13 AM

Table updated!

Inevitability

2023-05-22, 03:35 AM

Also, realized the ruling has implications for Elithkhad as well. His power point total is influenced by advanced psion manifester level, so he ends up with a psion ML of 13 instead of 3 and 10 more power points as a result. It's a small amount, but it does pass a threshold I was setting for this particular character, so Elithkhad receives 0.25 to power.

Also no idea for how scores will change, so assume my HM ranking in order of preference is Queequeg -> Chaka -> Porocs -> Elithkhad and just assign my vote to the highest of these four to not show up on the podium (we don't typically give HM to medalists, right? if we do, disregard this entire thing and assume i always vote for queequeg).

FactualArcher

2023-05-22, 02:10 PM

Thanks for the clarification on HM voting. My HM goes to Chaka. The binder entry was a cool trick that I tried and failed to make work in a very early draft of my submission, so I’m glad it showed up in the contest

H_H_F_F

2023-05-24, 11:36 AM

Surely, you good folks won't leave Inevitability as a sole judge, will you?

Paragon

2023-05-24, 03:53 PM

Surely, you good folks won't leave Inevitability as a sole judge, will you?

We haven't had more than 1 judge for a while now. What we need is the next ingredient :D

H_H_F_F

2023-05-24, 04:24 PM

We haven't had more than 1 judge for a while now. What we need is the next ingredient :D

Defiant wasn't that long ago, was it?

5/15 of the previous rounds had two judges. It happens, and I always want it to happen more.

Also, (and I have a vested interest here, for sure) There are a lot of coinciding comps on the forums right now, and another week without a new ingredient might give them some space to breathe. Not saying we should just wait around, obviously - but that'll be the cherry on top if we get a second judge.

Also also, I'm beginning to have doubts about how ready I am to face Tofurky.

You know what really hasn't happened in a while? 3 judges. It used to be way more common (we had multiple rounds with 5 judges, and a single judge used to be the exception rather than the rule), but a 3 judge round hasn't happened since 2016.

H_H_F_F

2023-05-25, 02:53 PM

Actually...

Hey loky, is there a way to do soulborn 10 / ballisteer 10? Forgot to ask.

loky1109

2023-05-25, 03:15 PM

Hey loky, is there a way to do soulborn 10 / ballisteer 10? Forgot to ask.

Well, really there is no 10/10, but there are 12/8 and 8/10 with 2HD.

RAW you can qualify for "able to manifest 2nd level power" with PLA. 12/8 way is Psion's Eyes binded to Brow chakra (that's why 12), 8/10 is Lizardfolk, Quanak. Also you could use Giths races.

The Viscount

2023-05-28, 01:00 PM

It's time for the reveal!

Name Alignment / Race Class Levels Chef Inevitability Total Place
Elithkhad the Dancing Shadow (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25779578&postcount=91) LG Kalashtar Kalashtar Telepath 3/Kalashtar Monk 2/Soulknife 2/Soulbow 3/Balisteer 10 FactualArcher 13.65 13.65 3rd
Son'Har (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25779580&postcount=92) CN Anthropomorphic Baleen Whale Psychic Warrior 4/Bloodstorm Blade 4/Ballisteer 9 Paragon 12.00 12.00 8th
Goliath of Gath (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25779583&postcount=93) TN Anthropomorphic Baleen Whale Psychic Warrior 1/Poison Use Wilderness Martial Rogue 1/Ardent 4/Ballisteer 6/Legacy Champion 5 H_H_F_F 13.95 13.95 1st
Chaka (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25779589&postcount=94) CE Strongheart Halfling Binder 5/Skilled City-Dweller Fighter 4/Ballisteer 10/Master Thrower 1 loky1109 13.60 13.60 4th
Queequeg (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25779591&postcount=95) CG Mineral Warrior Azurin Soulbond Weapon Skilled City Dweller Psychic Warrior 8/Ballisteer 9/Totemist 1/Master Thrower 1 H_H_F_F 13.75 13.75 2nd
Lewis Z (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25779592&postcount=96) CG Anthropomorphic Baleen Whale Skilled City Dweller Bear Totem Barbarian 1/Skilled City Dweller Psychic Warrior 5/Hulking Hurler 1/Ballisteer 10 Macabaret 13.55 13.55 5th
Poroc brothers (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25779595&postcount=97) LE Dvati Ardent 9/Ballisteer 10 loky1109 12.70 12.70 6th
Ponee Tutrix (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25779597&postcount=98) TN Goliath Soulbond Weapon Skilled City Dweller Psychic Warrior 6/Fighter 1/Ballisteer 10/Hulking Hurler 1/Bear Spiritual Totem Goliath Barbarian 1 daremetoidareyou 12.60 12.60 7th
Gregor Redbane (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25779599&postcount=99) LN Human Warblade 2/Mantled Warrior Psychic Warrior 4/Bloodstorm Blade 4/Ballisteer 10 quetzalcoatl5 11.30 11.30 9th
Gailan Harcael (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25779600&postcount=100) CG Elf Cloistered Cleric 1/Mantled Warrior Psychic Warrior 7/Elf Paladin of Freedom 2/Ballisteer 10 quetzalcoatl5 10.15 10.15 10th

Congratulations to all of our entrants, and a special congratulations to FactualArcher for medaling in a first-time entry!

Coming up: we feast on tofurkey.

Inevitability

2023-05-28, 01:37 PM

Congratulations H_H_F_F for a double podium place, grats to FactualArcher for a first-time medal, and congratulations to everyone else for participating! I had a blast judging this round, lots of amazing ideas all around. Here's to a great next one; hope to see you guys there!

edit: also, if your sig is up to date this is your first gold, HHFF? Extra congrats in that case!

H_H_F_F

2023-05-28, 01:52 PM

Congratulations on bronze and HM, FactualArcher and Loky!

Congratulations H_H_F_F for a double podium place, grats to FactualArcher for a first-time medal, and congratulations to everyone else for participating! I had a blast judging this round, lots of amazing ideas all around. Here's to a great next one; hope to see you guys there!

edit: also, if your sig is up to date this is your first gold, HHFF? Extra congrats in that case!

It is up to date! After almost three years in Iron Chef… My first gold! Hooray! And silver, too! Double Hooray! And if it wouldn't have placed, seems like sliver would've been HM, instead! Triple Hooray! And it's the judge's favorite, too! QUADROPLE HOORAY!

Quite often, after such words entries get Gold. )))
Very close, loky. That was the idea that ended up as Queequeg.

Like I already said, I thought Chaka and the Pony were awesome. Ultra-ricochet boomerangs were such a cool way to approach this class, and even if I did think that going all the way to binder 5 (without getting to BL 8 for 2 vestiges) was more about the flex of qualifying that way than about the actual class, I was still intimidated by said flex. As for pony – Dare, were you surprised that others figured it out alongside you? You're slowing down, old man. We're almost catching up to you.

In general, I really enjoyed many entries this round, including my own! Though, oh my god I'm beating myself up so much for the order of operations issue on mindsight with Queequeg. You know the most frustrating thing? I originally built it right. I got open chakra asap, and immediately went for totemist. But then I glossed over the build before submitting, and was like "why am I getting totemist before I need it? Finish ballisteer first, it's more elegant that way." UGH. Stupid. STUPID. Why take the risk? I should've seen it.

Inevitability, I may be mistaken, but I got the feeling that you did not like Goliath, did you? I'm really glad you liked Queequeg, but if I'm right about your feelings on Goliath, I also really appreciate the fact that you can give gold to a build you clearly dislike a lot about, when that's what you think the criteria call for. I obviously agree with a lot of your criticism (how did I arrive at such a weird reading of expansion, only the gods know, and it made my racial choice stupid) but I do have some more post-dispute thoughts on Goliath, if you're not too sick of thinking about him by now:
Legacy Champion issue: fair. Not the way I see it, but very fair nonetheless. If you would've been fine with "I heard about the item with K. History, and have some means to locate it" then that's fair. I took your stance to be harsher than it actually is. Just out of curiosity (and maybe for the future, lol): would stuff like bardic knowledge get some credit here, or does one need more direct means of locating the item? Also, would a perfect score require being able to pass the tests with a natural 1, without item reliance?

As for Ballisteer manifesting: I can always accept a judge thinking I didn't push something far enough. If I would've seen expansion mentioned in that part, I wouldn't have disputed the score, even if I wouldn't agree with it – it is what it is. I disputed because I didn't see it there, and to me it is a cornerstone of what the build does.

Even now, though, I think expansion is utilized better here than what others can do. First thing first, expansion doesn't work for thrown weapons. That's many of the builds out the gate who couldn't be said to synergize with it just as much as goliath. Expansion is also numerically far more impactful if you already do "big" damage. If you're shooting a longbow, expansion increases you to 2d6, and then 3d6. If you're already large, it's to 3d6 then 4d6. You'd have to be huge foe your second size increase to get you 2d6 on its own. From not-too-late in the build, each size category gets Goliath 2d6 damage improvement on its own, which isn't what others would gain if they took it. The sling and expansion make a sum bigger than its parts, in that way, especially during mid levels. That synchronizes with the fact that "base damage" is what I need for infused shot and vampiric blade. Expansion is usually also bad for range attackers because it messes up your dex, I address that with Zen archery. I'm also using the only weapon that can benefit from the Str increase of expansion without relying on specific enchantments. I don't know – I feel that expansion does a whole lot more for this build than it does for most, and gets more attention than it gets from most.

As an aside, I really enjoyed that you teared into me by gushing about how clever and remarkable my other build was. Really helps softening the hit to the old ego, lol. You also mention Ponee using it for increased carrying capacity, but I care about that as well! For the same reason I felt like I care about extend range more than most. Because, you know.

Yeah. I feel like the main point we're disagreed on is Loadstones, right? I shouldn't throw stones because I live in a glass house (GENIUS level pun, by the way). Let's talk about that:

To me, they're definitely supposed to be something less than "core part of your build" and more than "nice to have". I disagree that it's either they can be enhanced, or they don't scale with size; I think they're "special stones" basically. They're used as a slingshot, so their damage will scale normally. But they're not bullets, so they can't be enhanced. Just like a normal ass-stone would be sling ammo, scale with size, but can't be enhanced. That's the clearest analogue to me here. Maybe we disagree about stones, too.
I wasn't trying to break WBL, I was trying to avoid "specific item reliance". This wasn't to say "I can use them every time, lol" I even say I don't. This is to say "I'm less reliant on DM cooperation for always having a few loadstones than others would be, and if I need them I'll use them." Which, yeah, if I'm fighting a boss-of-an-arc ghost, I'm going to want to do max damage, and I'm going to want incorporeal shot to do that.
Now that you get my perspective on my attempt to achieve loadstones "reliably" rather than "cheaply/freely", I don't agree that I don't spend significant resources on this goal. Sure, they're good powers to have anyway, but I take the planes mantle and devote one of my ardent powers known to plane shift, and then I take tap mantle as my final feat and devote my only 9th level power to true creation. Could've taken anything an ardent can do, but I take that, because I want maximal reliability for loadstones. I then lean into it with poison use, but the main case for the power is loadstone access, as mentioned in-text. To me, those are significant build resources invested.

Well, that's that from me! Thank you everyone for participating, especially the new faces! A thousand thanks again to Inevitability for judging, and as always – thanks to our beloved chairman, The Viscount! See you all next round!

FactualArcher

2023-05-28, 01:58 PM

I'm surprised to get third. If my calculations are right, it was only the last second boost from other people's disputes that put me on the podium. That was quite a close race. I'm super excited for next round! Thanks to Inevitability and the Viscount for judging/chairing.

Inevitability

2023-05-28, 03:30 PM

Inevitability, I may be mistaken, but I got the feeling that you did not like Goliath, did you? I'm really glad you liked Queequeg, but if I'm right about your feelings on Goliath, I also really appreciate the fact that you can give gold to a build you clearly dislike a lot about, when that's what you think the criteria call for.

That's basically it, yeah. In a roundabout way I'm kind of happy to see the build I so dislike score first, because it implies a degree of objectivity in my criteria that I think is essential to good judgement.

Legacy Champion issue: fair. Not the way I see it, but very fair nonetheless. If you would've been fine with "I heard about the item with K. History, and have some means to locate it" then that's fair. I took your stance to be harsher than it actually is. Just out of curiosity (and maybe for the future, lol): would stuff like bardic knowledge get some credit here, or does one need more direct means of locating the item? Also, would a perfect score require being able to pass the tests with a natural 1, without item reliance?

1. Bardic knowledge specifically calls out 'legendary items' as one of the things it should know about. I feel like the location of a legacy item should be around 20-25, so a build that can hit something like that reliably would get my blessing as far as locating an item goes.
2. Obviously the ideal case is that your build can do something 100% without item reliance, but I don't think I'd be quite as stringent in practice. I'd probably grant a +5 boosting item without too many complaints, I'd definitely grant a masterwork tool or whatever alchemical stuff you can brew up yourself. The exact criteria for a perfect score are a bit less stringent than 'succeed on a natural 1 without items', but unless you have a very respectable intelligence or other bonus you would probably need more than the ranks suggested by the feats.

Even now, though, I think expansion is utilized better here than what others can do. First thing first, expansion doesn't work for thrown weapons. That's many of the builds out the gate who couldn't be said to synergize with it just as much as goliath. Expansion is also numerically far more impactful if you already do "big" damage. If you're shooting a longbow, expansion increases you to 2d6, and then 3d6. If you're already large, it's to 3d6 then 4d6. You'd have to be huge foe your second size increase to get you 2d6 on its own. From not-too-late in the build, each size category gets Goliath 2d6 damage improvement on its own, which isn't what others would gain if they took it. The sling and expansion make a sum bigger than its parts, in that way, especially during mid levels. That synchronizes with the fact that "base damage" is what I need for infused shot and vampiric blade. Expansion is usually also bad for range attackers because it messes up your dex, I address that with Zen archery. I'm also using the only weapon that can benefit from the Str increase of expansion without relying on specific enchantments. I don't know – I feel that expansion does a whole lot more for this build than it does for most, and gets more attention than it gets from most.

What I like to see in UoSI is something transformative, a magic point where the ingredient ceases to just increase number size and gives you a qualitatively different result. Queequeg is an excellent example of that, with Call Weaponry and Immovability and even Wall Walker all adding meaningful tactical options that are simply impossible without these powers; goliath has a basic 'use sling' routine and while all sorts of powers reward or improve that trick, none really turn it into something categorically different. I do acknowledge you got better quantitative use out of expansion than anyone else, but quantity wasn't all I was looking for.

As an aside, I really enjoyed that you teared into me by gushing about how clever and remarkable my other build was. Really helps softening the hit to the old ego, lol.

I kind of expected you to be behind goliath (I swear I judged fairly and without bias!) but I didn't have the slightest suspicion pre-reveal that you'd made queequeg too, so I'm glad how that worked out.

Yeah. I feel like the main point we're disagreed on is Loadstones, right? I shouldn't throw stones because I live in a glass house (GENIUS level pun, by the way). Let's talk about that:

To me, they're definitely supposed to be something less than "core part of your build" and more than "nice to have". I disagree that it's either they can be enhanced, or they don't scale with size; I think they're "special stones" basically. They're used as a slingshot, so their damage will scale normally. But they're not bullets, so they can't be enhanced. Just like a normal ass-stone would be sling ammo, scale with size, but can't be enhanced. That's the clearest analogue to me here. Maybe we disagree about stones, too.
I wasn't trying to break WBL, I was trying to avoid "specific item reliance". This wasn't to say "I can use them every time, lol" I even say I don't. This is to say "I'm less reliant on DM cooperation for always having a few loadstones than others would be, and if I need them I'll use them." Which, yeah, if I'm fighting a boss-of-an-arc ghost, I'm going to want to do max damage, and I'm going to want incorporeal shot to do that.
Now that you get my perspective on my attempt to achieve loadstones "reliably" rather than "cheaply/freely", I don't agree that I don't spend significant resources on this goal. Sure, they're good powers to have anyway, but I take the planes mantle and devote one of my ardent powers known to plane shift, and then I take tap mantle as my final feat and devote my only 9th level power to true creation. Could've taken anything an ardent can do, but I take that, because I want maximal reliability for loadstones. I then lean into it with poison use, but the main case for the power is loadstone access, as mentioned in-text. To me, those are significant build resources invested.

1. At that point, it becomes unclear whether these things even come in different sizes. Like, the loadstone is clearly some sort of unnatural formation where 50 pounds of stone occupy the space of a medium-sized sling bullet, but that does not immediately imply that there's 400-pound loadstones the size of a bullet one category bigger, or 6.25 pound stones the size of a small sling bullet. They're the same as alchemist's fire to me, as I said in the dispute; I think we just disagree about what the closest analogue to these is.
2. Do you see how there's tension here? To optimize your UoSI, you want to use loadstones against incorporeal and ethereal foes. But unless the boss-of-an-arc is a ghost, that means not using them in boss encounters, unless you have a large supply which increases reliance on provided items. There's a tradeoff between UoSI, power, and elegance that I don't think the build has the tools to navigate.
3. A fair point, I mostly didn't consider True Creation for because expending hundreds of XP for one loadstone is still a lot. And as you say, the two powers are good in their own right; I wouldn't have batted an eye at a build that grabs both and never mentions loadstones; if it doesn't feel like there's opportunity cost, I have more trouble parsing it as 'investment'. My main gripe with the loadstones, however, remains that insofar Plane Shift is 'significant investment', it's still not sufficient, for reasons already outlined.

I hope I didn't come across as too hostile, and that the reasons why I judged the way I judged made sense, and I'd like to wish you good luck in the next round.

I'm surprised to get third. If my calculations are right, it was only the last second boost from other people's disputes that put me on the podium. That was quite a close race. I'm super excited for next round! Thanks to Inevitability and the Viscount for judging/chairing.

It was, yeah! I incorrectly handled psion/ballisteer PP beforehand.

Score changes because of someone else's disputes aren't wholly unheard of: they occurred last round as well.

quetzalcoatl5

2023-05-28, 04:07 PM

Definitely didn't show as well for my two entries as I had hoped but learned a lot about formatting for the future. Excited to do better in the future.

Thanks again to Inevitability for judging and Viscount to chairing!

H_H_F_F

2023-05-29, 12:09 AM

That's basically it, yeah. In a roundabout way I'm kind of happy to see the build I so dislike score first, because it implies a degree of objectivity in my criteria that I think is essential to good judgement.Yeah, exactly!

What I like to see in UoSI is something transformative, a magic point where the ingredient ceases to just increase number size and gives you a qualitatively different result. Queequeg is an excellent example of that, with Call Weaponry and Immovability and even Wall Walker all adding meaningful tactical options that are simply impossible without these powers; goliath has a basic 'use sling' routine and while all sorts of powers reward or improve that trick, none really turn it into something categorically different. I do acknowledge you got better quantitative use out of expansion than anyone else, but quantity wasn't all I was looking for.

I get that, which is why I wouldn't have disputed 0.25 had expansion been mentioned. It's the lack of even acknowledging it that got me twisted up, and then saying it's basically as good on goliath as on anyone else.

I kind of expected you to be behind goliath (I swear I judged fairly and without bias!) but I didn't have the slightest suspicion pre-reveal that you'd made queequeg too, so I'm glad how that worked out. I knew by the way you responded that you didn't clock at all the possibility that both builds were by the same chef. I always try to format my builds a little bit differently when I submit two.

Out of curiosity: what gave me away on Goliath? The fluff?

1. At that point, it becomes unclear whether these things even come in different sizes. Like, the loadstone is clearly some sort of unnatural formation where 50 pounds of stone occupy the space of a medium-sized sling bullet, but that does not immediately imply that there's 400-pound loadstones the size of a bullet one category bigger, or 6.25 pound stones the size of a small sling bullet. They're the same as alchemist's fire to me, as I said in the dispute; I think we just disagree about what the closest analogue to these is.

Ooh, interesting. See, to my mind, if a fine-sized wu jen casts a stone from a sling after casting giant size, the stone becomes appropriate fir a colossal sling - even if it's a type of stone that wouldn't naturally come at that size. Some crystal that wouldn't form beyond a few millimeters, or whatever.

If I get what you're saying, you're saying that since loadstones naturally only come at one size, expansion wouldn't change them (even the sling of the dire wind wouldn't) because the fact of them being one size points to a fixed nature that encourages a RAW reading akin to an alchemical weapon's rather than a stone?

I don't think I agree, but it's very interesting.

I hope I didn't come across as too hostile

Not at all! You were harsh, critical, highly analytical, and very fair. That's how I want to be judged. Having rules disagreements or different things we appreciate in a build doesn't change that at all. Thanks again for judging!

Paragon

2023-05-29, 12:29 AM

H_H_F_F

2023-05-29, 12:40 AM

I didn't contest anything about Son'har because I realized his Phase Shot trick doesn't work since the sword isn't in the Ethereal plane when it comes back to him... Meaning it simply sticks itself in a wall or smg :-D

I mean, probably? At least by common sense, yeah. However, Lightening Ricochet just says the weapon gets back to you. You could argue that RAW, it just does, even if it has no physical way to do that.

Whales. Together. Strong.

Inevitability

2023-05-29, 01:52 AM

Out of curiosity: what gave me away on Goliath? The fluff?

Fluff, partially, but the sentence structure felt indicative as well. You use a lot of relatively short sentences, even where multiple of those could be joined into a single comma-spliced one. That in itself just makes me think english is someone's second language, but unlike most of those builds yours then also tend to have some longer sentences in there. It's not super distinctive or anything, but I once I already suspected it wasn't hard to realize the connection.

Also, you're one of the few people on this forum who powers through the autocensor and just leaves the asterisks in place, as opposed to replacing them with some accepted synonym.

H_H_F_F

2023-05-29, 02:06 AM

Fluff, partially, but the sentence structure felt indicative as well. You use a lot of relatively short sentences, even where multiple of those could be joined into a single comma-spliced one. That in itself just makes me think english is someone's second language, but unlike most of those builds yours then also tend to have some longer sentences in there. It's not super distinctive or anything, but I once I already suspected it wasn't hard to realize the connection.

Interesting! I had a couple of professors in university who hated run-on sentences with a passion, and that hate spilled over into any sentence that could've been two. Guess I have that fear drilled into me. I'll watch out for that. (Feeling super self-conscious about this paragraph having four sentences :smalltongue:)

Also, you're one of the few people on this forum who powers through the autocensor and just leaves the asterisks in place, as opposed to replacing them with some accepted synonym.

Really? I never noticed that. Fascinating.

I'm pretty happy with myself this round as far as recognizing chefs goes, too - I got them all. I can always spot a Loky entry, Dare is Dare, I can usually tell a Paragon entry when I see one, and I knew what my own entries were, obviously. That left four: two of them had the same, unfamiliar formatting and a hint of new chef smell, so I pegged them to be Quetzalcoatl's, who mentioned making submissions, plural. That left Macabaret and FactualArcher, and Lewis Z seemed more likely to be the kind of idea someone would get hyped enough about to submit after four years of absence.

loky1109

2023-05-29, 07:00 AM

Paragon

2023-05-29, 09:47 AM

I can usually tell a Paragon entry when I see one

What gives me away ? ^^

H_H_F_F

2023-05-29, 10:44 AM

Congratulations to medalists! Thanks to Inevitability for judging. Thanks to Viscount for chairing!

And another HM for me. 4th. It was very close this time. Now I see, I really should take Distracting Ember instead Far Shot. This wrong choice highly likely cost me Gold.

You'll get 'em next time, loky!

I've never once gotten HM, in any competition. Hope that changes one day.

What gives me away ? ^^

Lots of things that you usually do, and the more of those show up together, the more likely it is to be you. The big one is formatting: name at the top, quote (usually one you made up) immediately underneath it, picture (usually very high-fantasy feeling) and then lots and lots and lots of spoiler tags, often with the same naming scheme. Even when you do give more prose-like names, you never fully commit - some/most of the spoiler tags will always have "technical" names.

Other than that, it's mainly the tendency to go for well rounded characters rather than "one big trick", which goes together with a holistic rather than specific approach to the SI, and a strong inclination towards "when in doubt, go caster!".

There's a few more that are harder to define - just something about the way you approach character optimization, and something about the way you write your tactical section.

Paragon

2023-05-29, 11:47 AM

You'll get 'em next time, loky!

I've never once gotten HM, in any competition. Hope that changes one day.

Lots of things that you usually do, and the more of those show up together, the more likely it is to be you. The big one is formatting: name at the top, quote (usually one you made up) immediately underneath it, picture (usually very high-fantasy feeling) and then lots and lots and lots of spoiler tags, often with the same naming scheme. Even when you do give more prose-like names, you never fully commit - some/most of the spoiler tags will always have "technical" names.

Other than that, it's mainly the tendency to go for well rounded characters rather than "one big trick", which goes together with a holistic rather than specific approach to the SI, and a strong inclination towards "when in doubt, go caster!".

There's a few more that are harder to define - just something about the way you approach character optimization, and something about the way you write your tactical section.

That is disturbingly specific and all the more so ring very true. You described my vision of what Elegance is about better than I could ever do it

daremetoidareyo

2023-05-29, 01:16 PM

Like I already said, I thought Chaka and the Pony were awesome. Ultra-ricochet boomerangs were such a cool way to approach this class, and even if I did think that going all the way to binder 5 (without getting to BL 8 for 2 vestiges) was more about the flex of qualifying that way than about the actual class, I was still intimidated by said flex. As for pony – Dare, were you surprised that others figured it out alongside you? You're slowing down, old man. We're almost catching up to you.

I wasn't surprised to see another trebuchet, it seemed like the obvious big numbers choice. Especially after having put it on the table during crimson scourge. I debated with some other optimizers about the liklihood of another soulbound trebuchet, and they didn't see others gravitating towards it.

I didn't expect to get another use others as ammunition that explodes on impact, and if you look at the comparators, you can see that i went through a number of hoops to justify the ability to throw living beings through grapple checks, which is more RAW likely a way to thread the needle of throwing living beings using the hulking hurler ability "really throw anything." So I felt i locked the raw down on that one pretty darn elegantly, even as i left room for the possible interpretation that "No, you can't autokill people by throwing them." I thought that i had a good chance to nab uniqueness on one of those two fronts. Hence the name.

The fact that multiples of the same tricks showed up in comp, thereby lowering originality scores all around definitely didn't do me (or them) service, in a real analysis both of those entries do better if i never submitted, having casually cheapened the originality in both, especially with a name that further disparages the uniqueness of approaches.

My attention was also split between this and the E6 plant competition, and i suspect you know which of my entries is there, or will when you read the write up. That was eating a lot of my focus for entry-composition for this comp. Sometimes convincing other people to be stupid with you requires a lot of effort

H_H_F_F

2023-05-29, 02:14 PM

The fact that multiples of the same tricks showed up in comp, thereby lowering originality scores all around definitely didn't do me (or them) service, in a real analysis both of those entries do better if i never submitted, having casually cheapened the originality in both, especially with a name that further disparages the uniqueness of approaches.

I think judgement-wise, they weren't impacted. The entries utilizing these tricks got full marks in the "concept" sub-category. I think it's just that sub-categorized criteria don't favor entries that rely on one extremely creative thought to carry them all the way.

My attention was also split between this and the E6 plant competition, and i suspect you know which of my entries is there, or will when you read the write up. That was eating a lot of my focus for entry-composition for this comp. Sometimes convincing other people to be stupid with you requires a lot of effort

That'll happen. Didn't have the time to read the entries immediately post reveal, and forgot too because I already commented. Thanks for the reminder!