Monster Mash X: Buds of a monster flock together

[Beni-Kujaku]

Monster Mash #10


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


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

Round Theme: Buds of a monster flock together

Most monsters are a lonely bunch. Most Undead frighten animals, some monsters cannot be looked at, or are constantly surrounded by storms, or drown their allies if they come too close. But D&D is a collaborative game, and the first thing every player learns is always "Never split the party".
Entrant builds are subject to the following guidelines:


You should keep the rest of the party close, and gain tangible advantages from it, either by being more effective yourself or by giving advantages to your party.
These advantages can be gained either in or outside combat, ideally both.
"Close" is a relative term, that you can interpret as you wish. "5ft from me", "In my threatened area", "Within my 50ft aura" or even "in my belly" are all acceptable interpretations.



To note: Having damaging auras or all-around debuffs can be considered an incentive to keep close to you in combat if you can ensure that it doesn't inconvenience your teammates.

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


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

Competitors will be free to use any official 1st party (WotC) 3.5 rulebook in constructing their builds. Dragon Compendium is allowed, but Dragon magazine is disallowed. Unearthed Arcana is allowed. Unupdated 3.0 materials, as well as web exclusives by WotC are expressly allowed, but take care to verify that an updated version did not appear in print elsewhere, as this may cause an Elegance deduction at the judges' discretion.
Official Errata and 3.5 updates to 3.0 content are considered valid regardless of whether their sources would otherwise be legal. This includes the 3.5 update of Oriental Adventures given in Dragon Magazine, and the 3.5 updates of Dragonlance Campaign Setting content given in later third party Dragonlance books.
Alternate rule systems from UA such as gestalt or Generic Classes are not allowed, as they create a different playing field. Item Familiars and Taint are also banned from the competition.

Specific bans:

Any material that grants you leadership without you specifically taking it should be ignored and may not be traded away for another feat or ACF. Any variant of Leadership, such as Undead Leadership and Dragon Cohort are likewise banned. Wild Cohort and Obtain Familiar are allowed. If you are not sure if a specific feat violates the 'no leadership' rule, err on the side of caution, or ask me.
However, Leadership may be taken to qualify for another feat or class (such as the Great Captain feat or Legendary Leader prestige class), though a character still doesn't get its usual benefit in those cases. This is to allow characters to access unproblematic material that'd otherwise be made unavailable because of the Leadership ban.

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


Judging
Judging will be based on the following criteria, with each build rated on a scale from 1 (very poor) to 5 (exemplary) in each area: Originality, Power, Elegance, and Monstrosity.
Scores of zero may be applied in cases of exceptional misconduct (plagiarism earns a 0 in Originality, failure to meet prerequisites earns a 0 in Elegance, non-monstrous races earn a 0 in Monstrosity, etc); otherwise, all entries should receive at least one full point in each category.
Originality: Is it unexpected or novel?
Power: Can it do what the concept asks of it? Is this a powerfully-built character?
Elegance: Is it mechanically straighforward or “pretty”?
Monstrosity: Is the monstrous character’s race used?

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

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

NAME OF ENTRY


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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



Code immediately below (spoiler).

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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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



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

Spells per Day/Spells Known


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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

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

Deadlines

Contestants will have until 23:59 GMT Saturday 15th of July to create their builds and PM them to the chair. Builds will then be posted simultaneously, to avoid copying. Judges will have until 23:59 GMT Saturday 29th of July 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. Deadlines are subject to extension as/if required.

Submission
To standardize Entries, please use this format when sending it in:
PM: Beni-Kujaku
Subject: Monster Mash #, Name of your Entry
For Revisions and disputes, do the same thing. It makes it easier for me finding the entries in my mailbox.

More questions? Either ask in the thread or PM me with Monster Mash Questions in the header. Please use PMs for any questions relating to a specific build to avoid violating rules against speculation.

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

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


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

Previous Competitions:
MM1: Back to Basics (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?632644-Monster-Mash-Monstrous-Adventurer-Competition)
MM2: Scary Monsters (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?644846-Monster-Mash-II-Scary-Monsters!)
MM3: Keep your monsters close, and your enemies closer (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?646125-Monster-Mash-III-Keep-your-monsters-close)
MM4: Monsters in the darkness (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?648212-Monster-Mash-IV-Monsters-in-the-Darkness#post25531590)
MM5: Crawling Monsters (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?650003-Monster-Mash-V-Crawling-Monsters/)
MM6: Mysterious Monster Magic (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?651675-Monster-Mash-VI-Mysterious-Monster-Magic)
MM7: Monsters through the Snow (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?652584-Monster-Mash-VII-Monsters-through-the-Snow)
MM8: Half-Adventurers Half-Monsters (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?654615-Monster-Mash-VIII-Half-adventurers-half-monsters)
MM9: Blazing (Mon)Stars (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?655824-Monster-Mash-IX-Blazing-(Mon)Stars)


And now, time to get mashing!

[Beni-Kujaku]

Q&A for this round:

-

[Paragon]

Already have 3 ideas. Probably won't be able to finish 2 entries but I'll work hard on one

[FactualArcher]

I’ve got some ideas as well. Probably making 1-2 entries

[loky1109]

Well, I have an idea.

[Paragon]

Well, my job here is done, how's everyone doing ?

[FactualArcher]

My first entry is almost finished, and I’m making decent progress on the second.

[loky1109]

Both mine are sent.

[Inevitability]

I might have an idea: should be able to get it in before the deadline.

[Paragon]

Is everyone done or are we waiting on some other last minute builds ?

[loky1109]

Is everyone done or are we waiting on some other last minute builds ?

Maybe I'll make some minor updates. But I'm not sure.

[Beni-Kujaku]

So, a bit more than a day before the reveal, do we already have people available for judging? (for your information, if there's no last minute submission, there will be seven monsters in this mash)

[Beni-Kujaku]

I have someone asking in PM for a short extension to submit another build. I'll happily agree.

The new submission deadline is now Wednesday, July the 19th, 23:59. Feel free to submit new builds if you want until then.

[Clause]

There is a link to submit the build, or a address??

[Beni-Kujaku]

There is a link to submit the build, or a address??

You've got to send me the build in a private message by clicking on my name then "Send private message". Be sure to include explainations about how the build works at various levels (generally every 5 levels or so‚ but you may want to highlight other specific points in your progression. The main progression should be presented as a table (you can take example from previous itérations of this comp or use the example table in the opening post of this thread) including levels‚ save bonuses‚ skills‚ feats and class features.

If you have an idea‚ but it's not fully formed‚ or you don't have time to format it‚ you can simply post it here after the reveal. It will not be judged but people will be able to read and enjoy it.

[Clause]

I send it for you

[Beni-Kujaku]

Let's go for the reveal! Don't post until I'm finished.

[Beni-Kujaku]

Whenever Buckler is not on screen, people should be asking "Where Buckler?"


Were-Buckler
CE EntomanthropeWeb PrimordialSoX Half-TrollFF Brain MoleXPH
Ex-monk 2/Vermin 1/SoulbornMoI 2/WarshaperCWar 3/Rogue 2/Nightsong EnforcerCAdv 7

https://i.imgur.com/OUcBNh0.jpg


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


(LA -0)
Brain Mole
-
-
-
-
-
Racial: Weapon Finesse
Tiny Magical Beast
Bite (1d3 plus disease)
Speed 15ft, burrow 15ft
Low-light vision
Scent
Hide mind (cannot be detected as psionic by divination/clairsentience)
PLAs: at will - detect psionics, power leech (also heals 1 hp); 3/day - aversion, mind thrust
+4 racial bonus on Hide and Move Silently checks
-2 on Spot checks


(LA +2)
Half-Troll
-
-
-
-
-
-
Type change to Giant
2 claws (1d2 plus rend)
Darkvision 60ft
Fast healing 5


(LA +0)
Primordial Giant
-
-
-
-
-
-
SLA: invisibility at will
Magical Knack (+1 CL with SLAs)
+2 on Spellcraft and UMD checks


1st
Monk 1
+0
+2
+2
+2
12: Hide 4, Spot 4, Move Silently 4
JotunbrudRoF
Monk: Combat Expertise, Improved Unarmed Strike
AC Bonus
Unarmed strike 1d3
Flurry of blows
Fighting Style: Passive WayUA (+2 Bluff, different bonus feats)


2nd
Monk 2
+1
+3
+3
+3
3: Hide 5 (+1), Spot 5 (+1), Move Silently 5 (+1)
Monk: Improved Trip
Evasion


(LA +1)
Entomanthrope
-
-
-
-
-
-
Shapechanger subtype
Command vermin (as Su command undead)
Immune to mind-affecting effects
+2 natural armor
Alternate form (vermin or hybrid, sum ability mods, gain DR 5/silver)
Curse of entomanthropy


3rd
Vermin 1
+2
+3
+3
+3
1: Move Silently 6 (+1)
Combat Reflexes
Any form: Deflect Arrows (as the feat but for creature bonded to buckler)
Vermin form (beetle bucklerA&EG): natural armor becomes +8, bite 1d3, spd 10ft or fly 40ft (good)


4th
Soulborn 1
+3
+4
+3
+3
1: Knowledge [arcana] 1
-
Change alignment from Lawful Evil to Chaotic Evil
Aura
Smite Opposition 1/day


5th
Soulborn 2
+4
+4
+4
+4
1: Knowledge [the planes] 1
-
Incarnum defense (Strength score cannot be reduced)


6th
Warshaper 1
+5
+5
+4
+4
1: Concentration 1
Deflect Arrows
Morphic immunities (stunning, critical hits)
Morphic weapons (grow a natural weapon)


7th
Warshaper 2
+5
+5
+4
+4
1: Concentration 2 (+1)
-
Morphic body (+4 Str/Con)


8th
Warshaper 3
+6
+6
+5
+5
1: Concentration 3 (+1)
-
Morphic reach (+5ft)


9th
Rogue 1
+7
+6
+5
+5
7: Hide 9 (+4), Move Silently 9 (+3)
Improved Initiative
Rogue: Shield SpecializationPHB2
Martial Rogue ACFUA (trade sneak attack for fighter bonus feats)


10th
Rogue 2
+8
+7
+6
+5
7: Hide 12 (+3), Move Silently 13 (+4)
Rogue: Active Shield DefensePHB2
Spell Reflection ACFCM (lose evasion; 1+Dex/day can reflect a missed spell attack as an immediate action)


11th
Nightsong Enforcer 1
+9
+7
+6
+6
3: Hide 14 (+2), Move Silently 14 (+1)
-
Sneak attack +1d6
Teamwork (+20 Spot/Listen to notice allies)


12th
Nightsong Enforcer 2
+10
+7
+7
+6
3: Hide 15 (+1), Move Silently 15 (+1), Spot 6 (+1)
Spinning DefenseDrComp
Agility (-2 armor check penalty reduction for light armor)


13th
Nightsong Enforcer 3
+11
+8
+7
+6
3: Hide 16 (+1), Move Silently 16 (+1), Spot 7 (+1)
-
Skill teamwork +2 (allies in 30ft gain bonus on Balance, Climb, Escape Artist, Hide, Listen, Move Silently and Spot checks)


14th
Nightsong Enforcer 4
+12
+8
+8
+7
3: Hide 17 (+1), Move Silently 17 (+1), Spot 8 (+1)
-
Sneak attack +2d6


15th
Nightsong Enforcer 5
+13
+8
+8
+7
3: Hide 18 (+1), Move Silently 18 (+1), Spot 9 (+1)
DarkstalkerLoM
Flanking teamwork (all flankers gain extra +1 attack)


16th
Nightsong Enforcer 6
+14
+9
+9
+7
3: Hide 19 (+1), Move Silently 19 (+1), Spot 10 (+1)
-
Opportunist (1/round make AoO against foe struck in melee)


17th
Nightsong Enforcer 7
+15
+9
+9
+8
3: Hide 20 (+1), Move Silently 20 (+1), Spot 11 (+1)
-
Sneak attack +3d6, skill teamwork +4



Be an EntomanthropeWeb whose were-form is a beetle buckler, a wearable Tiny creature from Arms & Equipment Guide p15 which can share an ally’s space and use Deflect Arrows on their behalf. Ideally we’d use this in hybrid form, but getting a Tiny Humanoid or Giant to act as the base race takes some finagling...

Brain Mole is an LA -0 Tiny Magical Beast from Expanded Psionics Handbook. The Half-TrollFF template changes its type to Giant, allowing it to become an Entomanthrope. While we’re at it we add Primordial GiantSoX for some bonuses that synergise nicely with the brain mole’s racial abilities, including at-will invisibility (combos with Hide Mind to make it harder to pierce) and +1 caster level for SLAs (which also applies to PLAs; especially useful if you rule that brain mole PLAs have a base manifester level equal to your HD).

Our Strength score would normally receive -8 from brain mole and -4 from primordial giant, plus a further -10 while transformed. So we take two levels in Soulborn to pick up the chaotic evil Incarnum Defense ability, negating all Strength penalties and leaving us only with the bonuses; soulborn is also our source of shield proficiency for Active Shield Defense.


Base: Str 10, Dex 14, Con 10, Int 16, Wis 14, Cha 14
Brain Mole: Str -8, Dex +4, Con -4, Int -8, Wis +4
Half-Troll: Str +6, Dex +2, Con +6, Int -2, Cha -2
Primordial Giant: Str -4, Con -2, Int +4, Cha +4
Entomanthrope: Int -2, Wis +2
Warshaper: Str +4, Con +4
Vermin/Hybrid Form: Str -10, Dex +12
Total: Str +10, Dex +18, Con +4, Int -8, Wis +6, Cha +2
Final: Str 20, Dex 32, Con 14, Int 8, Wis 20, Cha 16

Does not include bonuses from magic items or levelling up.

As said above, a beetle buckler receives a version of the Deflect Arrows feat which extends to its wielder, and we also take the feat ourselves just to make sure we’re covered too. The Spinning Defense feat from Dragon Compendium lets us use Deflect Arrows any number of times per round (and without a free hand) whenever we take the total defense action. Due to our great stealth abilities, most enemies will have no idea what’s deflecting their attacks (probably assuming that our ally has some spell that grants deflection bonuses to AC).

That’s ranged defence covered, but what about enemies who fight in melee? Well, despite being Tiny, we have 10ft reach due to warshaper + wielding a reach weapon; combine that with Jotunbrud, Improved Trip and our hefty Str/Dex bonuses and we’ve got a decent chance of knocking foes down with AoOs before they can get close. How are we making AoOs if we’re spending our actions on total defense? The Active Shield DefensePHB2 feat lets us do it at a -4 penalty.

Since we get evasion twice we trade one of them for the Spell Reflection ACF, letting us sometimes reflect spells that require an attack roll back at the attacker. The situations where we can use it are niche though; spells are still something we struggle to protect our ally against.

Eventually Nightsong EnforcerCAdv lets us go on the offense more often, using Opportunist to gain free attacks.

We go into battle in hybrid form, wearing hellforgedDMG2 gnome twist clothRoS. Our weapons are a feycraftDMG2 trident, and a light or heavy shield with shield spikes (or alternately a manopleSand).

Note that the AC bonus from a Tiny or smaller suit of armor is halved. We have the monk’s unarmored AC bonus which would be superior to this weak armor, but we can’t use it since need a shield to use Active Shield Defense. And our Dex bonus is so high that few types of armor would let us make use of it. So we use gnome twist cloth (which has no maximum Dex bonus), and gain some AC back with the hellforged template (+1 AC while adjacent to an ally, with drawbacks that we can ignore or negate). We don’t really need the Exotic Armor Proficiency feat for it, though it’s still nice to have if we can get it for free somehow.

The trident is picked for being a one-handed reach weapon usable with Spinning Defense, and feycraft lets us use it with our racial Weapon Finesse feat. But since we have a bite attack, we could always use the mouthpick property to gain an extra hand and expand our options (since we're tripping, something like a guisarme with the sweepingMoF property would be good).

Since we count as a buckler you could argue that our body can receive shield enchantments, but we probably wouldn’t be able to receive their benefits ourselves (and our fighting style has us never being equipped as a buckler anyway).

For other magic items, consider a collar of umbral metamorphosisToM to further boost our stealth.



Avenging ExecutionerCS (prestige class): 2 levels allows making demoralize attempts as a move action, giving you a use for your spare move actions. You can use the Flayed HandWeb ACF to add Intimidate to your list of monk class skills for easier qualification.
Death’s ChosenLM (prestige class): Easy prerequisites, and a 1-level dip lets you swear your service to a sentient undead, who can exclude you from the effect of its special attacks.
Defender of SealtielBoED (prestige class): Grants some decent defensive abilities including a continuous magic circle against evil, but its Lawful Good requirement clashes with Chaotic Evil soulborn.
Divine MindCPsi (class): A 1-level dip gets various bonus for yourself and allies within 5ft for as long as you remain psionically focused, and the Guardian and Justice mantles both grant useful abilities by expending your psionic focus (Guardian lets you tank a melee attack aimed at an ally, Justice lets you attack someone who tried to attack your ally). Combined with the Psionic Meditation feat, this can give you something to spend your move actions on.
Exceptional DeflectionELH (epic feat): Extends Deflect Arrows to work on magical and oversized ranged attacks.
GiantbaneCWar (feat): Gives some offensive options that trigger off using total defense against a creature two or more size larger than you, including an ability to make your opponent flat-footed. See also similar feats like Underfoot CombatRotW and Confound the Big FolkRotW.
Heraldic Crest of ValiantHoB Defense (item): A magic item which attaches to your shield and lets you cast shield other 1/day. But it requires specific conditions to use.
Infinite DeflectionELH (epic feat): Upgrade to Spinning Defense which can replace a good chunk of our build if we can get it.
Island of BladesToB (stance): Use flaws to pick this up through the Martial Study and Martial Stance feats. Allows you and your wielder to always flank with each other, making your Nightsong Enforcer class features easier to use.
Pebble UnderfootDrComp (feat): Grants a +4 bonus on trip attempts when your target is two or more sizes larger than you.
Raging MonkDr310 (alternate class feature): Trades the monk’s flurry of blows, still mind and quivering palm for the barbarian’s rage, greater rage and mighty rage class features.
Shield WardPHB2 (feat): Allows applying shield bonuses to touch AC and rolls to resist combat maneuvers.
Spellcaster GuardianHoB (teamwork benefit): If you can fit 4 ranks of Spellcraft then you and your wielder can learn this trick, letting you tank any AoOs they would normally provoke from casting spells.
TanglefootDr303 (martial art mastery): You have most of the prereqs for this already, apart from the Dodge feat. Count as one size larger for trip attempts, and can strike for nonlethal damage at only a -1 penalty.

[Beni-Kujaku]

A Sea Drake with a successful party? I ship it.


https://gamerwall.pro/uploads/posts/2023-03/thumbs/1679112892_gamerwall-pro-p-morskoi-zmei-pinterest-4.jpg
https://content.quizzclub.com/trivia/2020-12/v-kakom-gosudarstve-byl-postroen-pervyj-derevyannyj-kolyosnyj-parohod-prednaznachennyj-dlya-kolki-lda.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/df/LZ_130_Graf_Zeppelin_in_flight.jpg/640px-LZ_130_Graf_Zeppelin_in_flight.jpg
https://i0.wp.com/militaryhistorynow.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/hunley1.jpg
https://naked-science.ru/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/field_image_subterrina_10.jpg
https://media.tenor.com/AugugpNMdVEAAAAd/wild-wild-west-sunset.gif

We know very little about Captain Drakkar. He is a leader of a team of mercenaries they called themselves Howlers. Captain himself always said that when he was younger he met an old wandering monk who greatly influenced his worldview and all his accomplishments are only the result of this. Captain Drakkar and his Howlers are legends of mercenaries. They prefer work at sea, but in their portfolio were land missions, too. Howlers are always hired with their own war vehicles. They have marine and riverine ships, zeppelins, reportedly also subterrene, and somebody said there is even a sea dragon between them!

TN Sea Drake Ardent 7/Legendary Captain 1
Abilities Initial Race/Template 16th 20th Total
STR 8 24 32
DEX 10 10
CON 14 10 24
INT 16 16
WIS 16 2 1 1 20
CHA 12 8 20
Level Class BAB Fort Reflex Will Skills Feats Class Features
1st Dragon HD 1 1 2 2 2 38: {+4} Appraise: 4; {+4 CC} Craft (boatbuilding): 2; {+4} Knowledge (architecture and engineering): 4; {+4 CC} Knowledge (geography): 2; {+4} Knowledge (local): 4; {+4} Knowledge (nature): 4; {+3 CC} Profession (sailor): 1.5; {+2 CC} Profession (siege engineer): 1; {+4} Listen: 4; {+1} Spot: 1; {+4} Swim: 4; Apprentice (Philosopher) (1) Constrict ship, crushing blow, dragon traits, ink cloud, regeneration 2, swallow whole
2nd Dragon HD 2 2 3 3 3 9: {+1} Appraise: 5; {+1 CC} Craft (boatbuilding): 2.5; {+1} Knowledge (architecture and engineering): 5; {+1 CC} Knowledge (geography): 2.5; Knowledge (local): 4; {+1} Knowledge (nature): 5; {+1 CC} Profession (sailor): 2; Profession (siege engineer): 1; {+1} Listen: 5; {+1} Spot: 2; {+1} Swim: 5;
3rd Dragon HD 3 3 3 3 3 9: {+1} Appraise: 6; {+1 CC} Craft (boatbuilding): 3; {+1} Knowledge (architecture and engineering): 6; {+1 CC} Knowledge (geography): 3; Knowledge (local): 4; {+1} Knowledge (nature): 6; {+1 CC} Profession (sailor): 2.5; Profession (siege engineer): 1; {+1} Listen: 6; {+1} Spot: 3; {+1} Swim: 6; Draconic Aura (Swiftness) (3)
4th Dragon HD 4 4 4 4 4 9: {+1} Appraise: 7; {+1 CC} Craft (boatbuilding): 3.5; {+1} Knowledge (architecture and engineering): 7; {+1 CC} Knowledge (geography): 3.5; Knowledge (local): 4; {+1} Knowledge (nature): 7; {+1 CC} Profession (sailor): 3; Profession (siege engineer): 1; {+1} Listen: 7; {+1} Spot: 4; {+1} Swim: 7;
5th Dragon HD 5 5 4 4 4 9: {+1} Appraise: 8; {+1 CC} Craft (boatbuilding): 4; {+1 CC} Knowledge (architecture and engineering): 7.5; {+1 CC} Knowledge (geography): 4; Knowledge (local): 4; {+1} Knowledge (nature): 8; {+1 CC} Profession (sailor): 3.5; Profession (siege engineer): 1; {+1} Listen: 8; {+1} Spot: 5; {+1} Swim: 8;
6th Dragon HD 6 6 5 5 5 9: {+1} Appraise: 9; {+1 CC} Craft (boatbuilding): 4.5; {+1 CC} Knowledge (architecture and engineering): 8; {+1 CC} Knowledge (geography): 4.5; Knowledge (local): 4; {+1} Knowledge (nature): 9; {+1 CC} Profession (sailor): 4; Profession (siege engineer): 1; {+1} Listen: 9; {+1} Spot: 6; {+1} Swim: 9; Leadership (6)
7th Dragon HD 7 7 5 5 5 9: {+1} Appraise: 10; {+1 CC} Craft (boatbuilding): 5; {+1 CC} Knowledge (architecture and engineering): 8.5; {+1 CC} Knowledge (geography): 5; Knowledge (local): 4; {+1} Knowledge (nature): 10; {+1 CC} Profession (sailor): 4.5; Profession (siege engineer): 1; {+1} Listen: 10; {+1} Spot: 7; {+1} Swim: 10;
8th Dragon HD 8 8 6 6 6 9: {+1} Appraise: 11; {+1 CC} Craft (boatbuilding): 5.5; {+1 CC} Knowledge (architecture and engineering): 9; Knowledge (geography): 5; {+1} Knowledge (local): 5; {+1} Knowledge (nature): 11; {+1 CC} Profession (sailor): 5; Profession (siege engineer): 1; {+1} Listen: 11; {+1} Spot: 8; {+1} Swim: 11;
9th Dragon HD 9 9 6 6 6 9: {+1} Appraise: 12; {+1 CC} Craft (boatbuilding): 6; Knowledge (architecture and engineering): 9; Knowledge (geography): 5; {+1} Knowledge (local): 6; {+1} Knowledge (nature): 12; {+1 CC} Profession (sailor): 5.5; Profession (siege engineer): 1; {+1} Listen: 12; {+2} Spot: 10; {+1} Swim: 12; Draconic Aura (Vigor) (9)
10th Dragon HD 10 10 7 7 7 9: {+1} Appraise: 13; Craft (boatbuilding): 6; Knowledge (architecture and engineering): 9; Knowledge (geography): 5; {+1} Knowledge (local): 7; {+1} Knowledge (nature): 13; {+1 CC} Profession (sailor): 6; Profession (siege engineer): 1; {+1} Listen: 13; {+1} Spot: 11; {+1} Swim: 13; {+2} Point it Out;
11th Dragon HD 11 11 7 7 7 9: {+1} Appraise: 14; {+1 CC} Craft (boatbuilding): 6.5; {+1 CC} Knowledge (architecture and engineering): 9.5; Knowledge (geography): 5; {+1} Knowledge (local): 8; {+1} Knowledge (nature): 14; {+1 CC} Profession (sailor): 6.5; Profession (siege engineer): 1; {+1} Listen: 14; {+1} Spot: 12; {+1} Swim: 14; Point it Out;
12th Dragon HD 12 12 8 8 8 9: {+1} Appraise: 15; {+1 CC} Craft (boatbuilding): 7; {+1 CC} Knowledge (architecture and engineering): 10; Knowledge (geography): 5; {+1} Knowledge (local): 9; {+1} Knowledge (nature): 15; {+1 CC} Profession (sailor): 7; Profession (siege engineer): 1; {+1} Listen: 15; {+1} Spot: 13; {+1} Swim: 15; Point it Out; Double Draconic Aura (12)
13th Ardent 1 12 8 8 10 5: Appraise: 15; {+1} Craft (boatbuilding): 8; {+1} Knowledge (architecture and engineering): 11; Knowledge (geography): 5; Knowledge (local): 9; Knowledge (nature): 15; Profession (sailor): 7; {+1} Profession (siege engineer): 2; Listen: 15; {+2} Psicraft: 2; Spot: 13; Swim: 15; Point it Out; Assume psionic mantles (Freedom, Justice)
14th Ardent 2 13 8 8 11 5: Appraise: 15; {+1} Craft (boatbuilding): 9; {+1} Knowledge (architecture and engineering): 12; Knowledge (geography): 5; Knowledge (local): 9; Knowledge (nature): 15; Profession (sailor): 7; {+1} Profession (siege engineer): 3; Listen: 15; {+2} Psicraft: 4; Spot: 13; Swim: 15; Point it Out; Assume psionic mantle (Natural World)
15th Ardent 3 14 9 9 11 5: Appraise: 15; {+1} Craft (boatbuilding): 10; {+1} Knowledge (architecture and engineering): 13; Knowledge (geography): 5; Knowledge (local): 9; Knowledge (nature): 15; {+1} Profession (miner): 1; {+1} Profession (sailor): 8; {+1} Profession (siege engineer): 4; Listen: 15; Psicraft: 4; Spot: 13; Swim: 15; Point it Out; Practiced Manifester (Ardent) (15)
16th Legendary Captain 1 14 11 9 13 7: Appraise: 15; Craft (boatbuilding): 10; {+1} Knowledge (architecture and engineering): 14; Knowledge (geography): 5; Knowledge (local): 9; Knowledge (nature): 15; {+4} Profession (miner): 5; {+1} Profession (pilot): 1; {+1} Profession (sailor): 9; Profession (siege engineer): 4; Listen: 15; Psicraft: 4; Spot: 13; Swim: 15; Point it Out; Great Captain (B) Great Captain
17th Ardent 4 15 11 9 14 5: Appraise: 15; {+1} Concentration: 1; Craft (boatbuilding): 10; {+1} Knowledge (architecture and engineering): 15; Knowledge (geography): 5; Knowledge (local): 9; Knowledge (nature): 15; {+1} Profession (miner): 6; {+1} Profession (pilot): 2; {+1} Profession (sailor): 10; Profession (siege engineer): 4; Listen: 15; Psicraft: 4; Spot: 13; Swim: 15; Point it Out;
18th Ardent 5 15 11 9 14 5: Appraise: 15; {+1} Concentration: 2; Craft (boatbuilding): 10; {+1} Knowledge (architecture and engineering): 16; Knowledge (geography): 5; Knowledge (local): 9; Knowledge (nature): 15; Profession (miner): 6; {+2} Profession (pilot): 4; {+1} Profession (sailor): 11; Profession (siege engineer): 4; Listen: 15; Psicraft: 4; Spot: 13; Swim: 15; Point it Out; Linked Power (18) Assume psionic mantle (Time)
19th Ardent 6 16 12 10 15 5: Appraise: 15; {+1} Concentration: 3; Craft (boatbuilding): 10; {+1} Knowledge (architecture and engineering): 17; Knowledge (geography): 5; Knowledge (local): 9; Knowledge (nature): 15; Profession (miner): 6; {+1} Profession (pilot): 5; {+1} Profession (sailor): 12; {+1} Profession (siege engineer): 5; Listen: 15; Psicraft: 4; Spot: 13; Swim: 15; Point it Out;
20th Ardent 7 17 12 10 15 5: Appraise: 15; {+1} Concentration: 4; Craft (boatbuilding): 10; {+1} Knowledge (architecture and engineering): 18; Knowledge (geography): 5; Knowledge (local): 9; Knowledge (nature): 15; Profession (miner): 6; {+1} Profession (pilot): 6; {+1} Profession (sailor): 13; {+1} Profession (siege engineer): 6; Listen: 15; Psicraft: 4; Spot: 13; Swim: 15; Point it Out;

Level Class ML New Powers Known PP
13th Ardent 1 1 Call Armor (1st), Call Weaponry (1st) 2+2
14th Ardent 2 2 Dimension Hop (1st) 6+4
15th Ardent 3 7 Metamorphosis (4th) 11+6
17th Ardent 4 8 Incite Bravery (2nd) 17+8
18th Ardent 5 9 Psionic Teleport (5th) 25+10
19th Ardent 6 10 Psionic Freedom of Movement (5th) 35+12
20th Ardent 7 11 Temporal Acceleration (6th) 46+15

Drakkar is an adult sea drake now. Sea drakes are the most low HD Gargantuan creatures I could find. Plus, sea drake is, y'know, a dragon! At the very beginning Drakkar has two draconic auras which he can use simultaneously. These auras not only helps Drakkar's allies in the battle directly, but also let him swallow some of them with less danger if necessary. Also he has good stats and variety of skills needed for sea (and not only sea) captain.
Three levels of Ardent, Practiced Manifester feat and Captain Drakkar has Metamorphosis. It's cool power, it lets you transform into various creatures and more importantly into objects. For example into ships or other vehicles. In the table below I brought up some of the more interesting options.
Name Size Speed Skill Book
Theurgeme Colossal propellers 35 ft. (good) Profession (sailor) Stormwrack, p. 102
Elf Wingship Colossal wind × 40 ft. (good) Profession (sailor) Stormwrack, p. 100
Zeppelin Colossal wind × 20 ft. (clumsy) Profession (pilot) Arms and Equipment Guide, p. 55
Dirigible Gargantuan wind × 15 ft. (clumsy) Profession (pilot) Arms and Equipment Guide, p. 55
Gnome Submersible Colossal oars 10 ft. (nautical poor) Profession (sailor) Arms and Equipment Guide, p. 54
Dwarven Tunneler Huge burrow 10 ft. (clumsy) Profession (miner) Arms and Equipment Guide, p. 58
Nautilus* Colossal 20 ft. (nautical poor) Profession (sailor) Arms and Equipment Guide, p. 59
Astral Skiff Huge fly 120 ft. (average) Profession (sailor) Planar Handbook, p. 72
Gate Zeppelin* Colossal fly 40 ft. (nautical average) Profession (pilot) Planar Handbook, p. 73
Forest Crawler* Huge 40 ft. (poor) Handle Animal Arms and Equipment Guide, p. 58
*- These vehicles have some magical parts that of course Captain Drakkar can't emulate, but even without these parts they are still useful more or less.
Of course Captain Drakkar prefers to stay in the sea, but could turn himself into a form suitable even for astral plane if necessary.
How good is Great Captain feat when you are your ship yourself need not even mention.
Another four Ardent levels give Captain Drakkar some new powers. Incite Bravery gives another option to help allies. Teleport and Freedom of Movement speak for themselves. Temporal Acceleration lets Captain Drakkar re-manifest Metamorphosis into another vehicle or when time is almost out without disturbing his crew.
Linked Power allows Captain Drakkar combine Metamorphosis power with Call Armor power or Call Weaponry (some Ship Weapon) power.

I think my idea is obvious, but say it directly. My allies want to be close to me, because I'm their vehicle. And also I have two auras, Great Captain feat and Incite Bravery power. Also they could retreat of a bad fight in my belly with some discomfort, but with very little danger.

Type Name Book Page
Race Sea Drake Fiend Folio 147
Class Ardent Complete Psionic 5
Prestige Class Legendary Captain Stormwrack 56
Feat Apprentice DMG 2 176
Feat Draconic Aura Dragon Magic 16
Feat Leadership PHB 97
Feat Double Draconic Aura Dragon Magic 16
Feat Practiced Manifester Complete Psionic 57
Feat Great Captain Stormwrack 92
Feat Linked Power Complete Psionic 62
Draconic Aura Swiftness Dragon Magic 87
Draconic Aura Vigor PHB 2 13
Skill Trick Point it Out Complete Scoundrel 88
Powers All Expanded Psionics Handbook & Complete Psionic Varies

[Beni-Kujaku]

In the name of the Moon‚ I will take over this child‚ give her some revealing clothes‚ make her grow into a blooming teenager and give her magic powers. And then justice will prevail!



Ally of Justice

“Uwaaah!”
“Hanako, are you okay?!”
“Ehehe. I’m fine, see? Not a scratch. Anyway, I’ve got to get to the student council meeting!”

Sticking out her tongue goofily, the girl skedaddled from the room.

My name’s Nijino Hanako, just your average middle school student! I’m a little clumsy and I’m not that bright, but when I see someone in trouble I’ve just gotta help them out!

Suddenly an explosion came from the school yard, followed by the voices of students screaming. Hanako’s eyes immediately shot to her pocket, which had seemed empty until a moment ago, where her suspicions were confirmed by a familiar warm pulse.

And... I have a little secret.

“Hold it right there, Jaasharu!”. Hanako skidded to a halt before the intruder, a huge blue-skinned man with six eyes and a military uniform marked with the symbol 悪.* She held before her a small but brilliant crystalline orb, carved with details that evoked a bouquet of flowers.
(Translator’s Note: this was too small for me to read lol)

Seeing her, the demon-man scowled. “So you have come, sacred warrior! Sacred warrior, using 「Light Garden's」 most hated power 「Shiny Prism Stone」, such an existence this Jaashalu will not forgive!”

Hanako tapped on the stone and a handle extended from it with a faint snap, transforming it into a baton which she raised above her head.

“Bloooooming Change!”

In an instant, ribbons of light burst forth to coccoon the girl’s body, shimmering for a moment before resolving into the frills of a dazzling pink dress. Her short hair erupted into waves that cascaded almost to her feet, while her gentle eyes gleamed and took on an iron strength. Her ribboned boots clacked as she slid into a fighting stance.

“The light of life becomes the blessings of the land! The forces of evil will be pierced by shining thorns!”

With a gesture the last few flickers of light swirled about her hand, condensing into the form of a sword which she flourished with newfound grace.

“Banishing Girl, Shiny Rose!”

https://i.imgur.com/kHhxPc6.png


Shiny Prism Stone
LG Psicrystal (former dragonborn warforged)
Cleric 3/Church InquisitorCD 4/Sacred ExorcistCD 5/Twisted LordTSGoS 6/Shaper of FormDrComp 2



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


1st
Cleric 1
ACFs: championUA, cloistered clericUA
+0
(0 2/4)
+2 (G)
(2 3/6)
+0
(0 2/6)
+2 (G)
(2 3/6)
24: Bluff 4 (+4), Craft [X] 4 (+4), Intimidate 4 (+4), Knowledge [religion] 4 (+4), Knowledge [the planes] 4 (+4), Spellcraft 4 (+4)
Hidden TalentXPH (call to mind), Improved Initiative, Knowledge DevotionCC
Cleric casting (1st), lore (as bardic knowledge), smite evil 1/day, spontaneous casting (cure spells)
Dragon domain: Add Bluff and Intimidate to class skills
Knowledge domain: Traded for Devotion feat
Time domain: Improved Initiative as a bonus feat


2nd
Cleric 2
+1
(1 0/4)
+3 (G)
(3 0/6)
+0
(0 4/6)
+3 (G)
(3 0/6)
6: Bluff 5 (+1), Craft [X] 5 (+1), Intimidate 5 (+1), Knowledge [arcana] 2 (+2), Knowledge [the planes] 5 (+1)
-
Cleric casting (2nd)


3rd
Cleric 3
+1
(1 2/4)
+3 (G)
(3 3/6)
+1
(1 0/6)
+3 (G)
(3 3/6)
6: Bluff 6 (+1), Knowledge [arcana] 4 (+2), Knowledge [the planes] 6 (+1), Knowledge [religion] 6 (+2)
Great Fortitude
Aura of courage (fear immunity, allies within 10ft get +4 morale on saves vs fear), cleric casting (3rd)


4th
Church Inquisitor 1
+2
(2 1/4)
+3
(3 5/6)
+1
(1 2/6)
+4 (G)
(4 0/6)
4: Bluff 7 (+1), Craft [X] 6 (+1), Knowledge [religion] 7 (+1), Knowledge [the planes] 7 (+1)
Abilities: Con +1
Detect evil, Inquisition domain (+4 on dispel checks), cleric casting (4th)


5th
Church Inquisitor 2
+3
(3 0/4)
+4
(4 1/6)
+1
(1 4/6)
+4 (G)
(4 3/6)
4: Bluff 8 (+1), Craft [X] 7 (+1), Intimidate 6 (+1), Knowledge [the planes] 8 (+1)
-
Immune to charms, cleric casting (5th)


6th
Church Inquisitor 3
+3
(3 3/4)
+4
(4 3/6)
+2
(2 0/6)
+5 (G)
(5 0/6)
4: Bluff 9 (+1), Craft [X] 8 (+1), Intimidate 7 (+1), Knowledge [the planes] 9 (+1)
Spell Focus (transmutation)
Pierce illusion (always receive save), cleric casting (6th)


7th
Twisted Lord 1
+4
(4 2/4)
+4
(4 5/6)
+4 (G)
(4 3/6)
+5
(2 2/6)
8: Craft [alchemy] 5 (+5), Intimidate 8 (+1), Knowledge [arcana] 5 (+1), +1
-
Twisted form (move action until dimissed; +4 feint, demoralize, Escape Artist; -4 Diplomacy and attempts to influence attitude)


8th
Shaper of Form 1
+5
(5 1/4)
+5 (G)
(5 2/6)
+4
(4 5/6)
+5 (G)
(5 5/6)
2: Hide 1 (+2 cross-class)
Least LegacyWoL (Mau-Jehe)
Abilities: Wis +1
Like begets like (change nonmagical items to similar ones), modify self (Renaissance: psicrystal), cleric casting (7th)


9th
Shaper of Form 2
+6/+1
(6 0/4)
+5 (G)
(5 5/6)
+5
(5 1/6)
+6 (G)
(6 2/6)
2: Collector of StoriesCS (skill trick)
Assume Supernatural AbilitySS
Fortify item (permanently grant item +1 hardness), polymorph 1/day


10th
Church Inquisitor 4
+6/+1
(6 3/4)
+6
(6 1/6)
+5
(5 3/6)
+6 (G)
(6 5/6)
4: Knowledge [religion] 10 (+3), Knowledge [the planes] 10 (+1)
-
Pierce disguise (+4 Spot to see through), cleric casting (8th)


11th
Sacred Exorcist 1
+7/+2
(7 2/4)
+6
(6 3/6)
+5
(5 5/6)
+7 (G)
(7 2/6)
2: Never OutnumberedCS (skill trick)
Lesser LegacyWoL (Mau-Jehe)
Exorcism, turn undead, cleric casting (9th)


12th
Sacred Exorcist 2
+8/+3
(8 1/4)
+6
(6 5/6)
+6
(6 1/6)
+7 (G)
(7 5/6)
2: Knowledge [religion] 11 (+1), Knowledge [the planes] 11 (+1)
Improved Assume Supernatural AbilitySS
Abilities: Wis +1
Detect evil, resist possession, cleric casting (10th)


13th
Sacred Exorcist 3
+9/+4
(9 0/4)
+7
(7 1/6)
+6
(6 3/6)
+8 (G)
(8 2/6)
2: Knowledge [religion] 12 (+1), Knowledge [the planes] 12 (+1)
-
Chosen foe (+1 Bluff, Intimidate, Listen, Sense Motive, Spot vs evil outsiders; +1 to overcome their SR), cleric casting (11th)


14th
Sacred Exorcist 4
+9/+4
(9 3/4)
+7
(7 3/6)
+6
(6 5/6)
+8 (G)
(8 5/6)
2: Knowledge [religion] 13 (+1), Knowledge [the planes] 13 (+1)
-
Dispel evil 1/week, cleric casting (12th)


15th
Sacred Exorcist 5
+10/+5
(10 2/4)
+7
(7 5/6)
+7
(7 1/6)
+9 (G)
(9 2/6)
2: Knowledge [religion] 14 (+1), Knowledge [the planes] 14 (+1)
Quicken Spell
Consecrated presence, cleric casting (13th)


16th
Twisted Lord 2
+11/+6/+1
(11 1/4)
+8
(8 1/6)
+7 (G)
(7 4/6)
+9
(9 4/6)
8: Listen 4 (+4), Spot 4 (+4)
Abilities: Wis +1
Sneak attack +1d6


17th
Twisted Lord 3
+12/+7/+2
(12 0/4)
+8
(8 3/6)
+8 (G)
(8 1/6)
+10
(10 0/6)
8: Listen 8 (+4), Spot 8 (+4)
Greater LegacyWoL (Mau-Jehe), Improved Feint
Improved Feint


18th
Twisted Lord 4
+12/+7/+2
(12 3/4)
+8
(8 5/6)
+8 (G)
(8 4/6)
+10
(10 2/6)
8: Listen 12 (+4), Spot 12 (+4)
Quicken Spell-like Ability (polymorph)
Peripheral invisibility (1/minute, become invisible as a swift action for 1 round, but only if no one attacked you or succeeded on a Spot check against you last round)


19th
Twisted Lord 5
+13/+8/+3
(13 2/4)
+9
(9 1/6)
+9 (G)
(9 1/6)
+10
(10 4/6)
8: Listen 16 (+4), Spot 16 (+4)
-
Sneak attack +2d6


20th
Twisted Lord 6
+14/+9/+4
(14 1/4)
+9
(9 3/6)
+9 (G)
(9 4/6)
+11
(11 0/6)
8: Listen 20 (+4), Spot 20 (+4)
Abilities: Wis +1
Improved demoralize (move action)



Starting Abilities (after racial adjustments): Str 8, Dex 6, Con 21, Int 10, Wis 16, Cha 6

Monstrosity
The Shaper of Form's Renaissance ability allows a character to permanently change their race to anything LA +0 of the same type, but while retaining their ability scores; with psicrystal receiving an LA of -0, it not only becomes playable from lv1 but also a valid target for this ability.
Starting as a dragonborn warforged allows it to have a Constitution bonus and higher mental ability scores than a standard psicrystal. Even if there were other monsters with better stats which could be used, warforged is still one of the best options for this... because it's one of the few Constructs with a digestive system, required for eating twistroot and thus becoming a Twisted Lord.
If this sounds cheesy, note that I'm going with the least charitable interpretation of PC psicrystals (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24069242&postcount=272), where they receive only the abilities in the statblock and can't use anything which needs to be activated by their master.

Secret Ingredient
It may be a cleric, but as a masterless psicrystal the Shiny Prism Stone cannot move or speak, meaning it can’t supply components for its spells (nor present a holy symbol to turn undead). Actions it can take in its natural form are limited to the following. Entries marked with a * require physical contact, making them more difficult to use.

Feats: Hidden Talent (call to mind), Knowledge Devotion
Legacy Weapon: Mindlink, suggestion; Passive: never flat-footed
Cleric (champion): Passive: aura of courage
Church Inuisitor: Detect evil; Passive: pierce disguise, pierce illusion
Sacred Exorcist: Detect evil, exorcism*, dispel evil* 1/week (fortunately this is a kids’ anime where monsters only attack once per week on Saturday mornings); Passive: consecrate
Shaper of Form: (Quickened) polymorph 1/day, like begets like* (Fine object), fortify item* (Fine object)
Twisted Lord: Peripheral invisibility, twisted form (switch between stone and baton forms)

When Hanako holds it and gives the command, it uses Quickened polymorph to take the form of a raggamoffynMM2 (a monster composed of animated clothing), and then makes a full attack in which it grapples her and activates its Wrap ability. On the following round it uses Control Host to merge with Hanako into the captured oneMM2 Shiny Rose, who then casts Quickened divine power. Aside from a flashy outfit the merger also causes Hanako to come under the effects of twisted form, giving her magical girl persona longer hair and making her slightly taller and more mature in demeanour.



Apply to an animal, giant, humanoid, monstrous humanoid or vermin; cannot be larger than the raggamoffyn
Construct type
Two HP pools, with damage split evenly
Special attacks and qualities of both creatures, except for raggamoffyn's Improved Grab and Wrap.
Higher of two natural armor bonuses
Attacks, movement modes, senses, skills, feats, Con, Int and Cha of the base creature
Alignment, initiative, base saving throws, Str, Dex and Wis of the raggamoffyn



When building Hanako herself, the optimal route would dump all the stats that captured one replaces, while still including abilities which benefit from them - this means that in her civilian life she ends up being a clumsy ditz who's nonetheless good at befriending people. Levels in Survivor would be a good option, since their lack of BAB furthers the benefit of Divine Power.

You can potentially speed up the transformation sequence by having Hanako use abilities like white raven tactics to grant you more actions, having her start the initial grapple herself, or having her provoke AoOs from you so that you can grapple or Wrap for free (assuming the "hold with one part of the body, you aren't considered grappled" option so that you can still take AoOs).

Equipping a psicrystal is hard, much less one that changes shape - even grafts and soulmelds don't work. There is one interesting way to spend your gp though, which extends the theme of abilities you can use while merged but not while alone.

Mau-Jehe from Weapons of Legacy is a short sword which can be converted into a mind blade, allowing it to be summoned or dismissed at will. You can't wield it yourself because you don't have hands, and merging into Shiny Rose disables its legacy abilities since they're based on feats. However, if you use the Sharing a Legacy rules on p208 to grant Hanako permission to wield it, then while merged you get to ignore most of the penalties for wielding a legacy weapon altogether - your personal costs are to stats which are replaced by Hanako's, and the negative levels for wielding a borrowed weapon don't apply to Constructs.

You probably won't get much use out of Stable Focus, so see if you can get a custom legacy which trades it for the AC Bonus of Eventide's EdgeToB (works like a monk's belt). Likewise you could swap out mindlink and suggestion for different powers if you want to stay as a completely silent magic wand.

Other options

Tomes that grant inherent bonuses to ability scores should still be usable.
Extract giftFC1, despite being a [chaotic] spell which imbues you with the power of a demon, is also viable as long as you're not the one to cast it. The "demon gets status on you" and "demon can communicate with you telepathically" modifiers could even be tied to a villain to provide a plot hook, and you can pump the DC beyond that pretty safely - "demon can see through your eyes and hear through your ears" and "demon can cast demand on you" are both effects which you're immune to by virtue of being a Construct with no sensory organs.
Psychoactive skins can also potentially be equipped regardless of form, and can be transferred between users pretty easily.
You could drop the legacy weapon angle and use flaws to pick up Vow of Poverty, but as a feat it wouldn't apply when merged. Still, you could pick up a few flavourful options like Nimbus of Light.
Dragon #305 has rules for "prestige races", which are basically permanent magical rituals that require the feat Sculpt Self. Normally you pay in XP, but there are suggestions to charge 5x that amount in gp instead, or even to remove the feat requirement.
If Hyperconscious is allowed (or the PF updates to its content by Dreamscarred Press), then you could also attach yourself to a psicrystal staff and some of its companion items. It's not much, and only applies in your natural form, but they're pretty cheap if you have any spare cash lying around.




ECL 9: The minimum level at which this build's gimmick comes online. If your Hanako is Small then you can become a tatterdemanimal (1 HD) to grant her Str 10, Dex 21, and immunity to bludgeoning weapons, as well as the other benefits of the captured one template above. Depending on how the caster level of your polymorph SLA is calculated, then you can also opt for a common raggamoffyn (3 HD) with Str 14, Dex 15 and +5 natural armor, or a guttersnipe (8 HD) with Str 13, Dex 13 and +10 natural armor.
ECL 12: You and Hanako have come to an understanding, and can now transform without penalties or a risk of failure. You can manifest suggestion (ML 10) at will with +2 save DC, though it's still not too high without a Cha boost from merging. Shrapnyl (12 HD) is now a polymorph option for Hanakos up to Large size, with Str 18, Dex 11, and +15 natural armor.
ECL 16: You now get to add Quickened divine power into your transformation sequence, compensating for Hanakos with poor BAB. Even without Hanako you're a holy object that villains don't want to be around - you radiate consecrate at all times, and can attempt to exorcise or dispel evil opponents who touch you.
ECL 20: You now have the ability to demoralise multiple foes as a move action, which synergises with the +4 on Intimidate from Twisted Form; partner with a Hanako who took the Imperious Command feat and go to town. You also have Peripheral Invisibility, which besides enabling sneak attacks is useful for quick getaways or preventing people from noticing that weird wand Hanako's always carrying around.


CD = Complete Divine
CS = Complete Scoundrel
DrComp = Dragon Compendium
MM2 = Monster Manual II
SS = Savage Species
TSGoS = The Shattered Gates of Slaughtergarde
UA = Unearthed Arcana
WoL = Weapons of Legacy
XPH = Expanded Psionics Handbook

[Beni-Kujaku]

Diablo II : Friendship is magic
These balloons in her cutie mark only represent your lives flying away.


https://derpicdn.net/img/2012/8/18/76995/small.png
I was always almost a regular horse. Well, not completely regular. I was too smart for horses. I had a master. He was a paladin. Knight of Light and Good, who fights Evil, demons and undead every time he meets them. That’s what killed him. He was a powerful fighter, but in one fight he was cursed so much that he couldn't heal his wounds and was slowly bleeding to death. I can't save him, he even didn't get on me, what could I do? Dying he spoke to me and left me his magical crown. He was a great paladin and good master. I was with him for a long time and saw many miracles he made. I think I could become a paladin instead of him and for his glory... And for the friendship of course!

LG Light Warhorse Paladin* 17
*- I should draw your attention. This paladin isn't PHB paladin. It's Diablo II paladin. Check the Books section.
Abilities Initial Race/Template Levels Total
STR 13 6 19
DEX 14 2 16
CON 14 6 20
INT 8 -8 3
WIS 10 2 12
CHA 17 -4 5 18
Level Class BAB Fort Save Reflex Save Will Save Skills Feats Class Features
3rd Light Warhorse 2 3 3 1 6: {+6 CC} Concentration: 3; Wild Talent (1), Ancestral Relic (3), Quick (T) Low-light vision, scent
4th Paladin 1 3 5 3 1 1: Concentration: 3; {+1} Knowledge (religion): 1; Prayer
5th Paladin 2 4 6 3 1 1: Concentration: 3; {+1} Diplomacy: 1; Knowledge (religion): 1; Might
6th Paladin 3 5 6 4 2 2: Concentration: 3; {+2} Diplomacy: 3; Knowledge (religion): 1; Nimph Kiss (6) Sacrifice
7th Paladin 4 6 7 4 2 2: Concentration: 3; {+2} Diplomacy: 5; Knowledge (religion): 1;
8th Paladin 5 7 7 4 2 2: Concentration: 3; {+2} Diplomacy: 7; Knowledge (religion): 1; Defiance
9th Paladin 6 8 8 5 3 2: {+1 CC} Concentration: 3.5; {+1} Diplomacy: 8; Knowledge (religion): 1; Shape Soulmeld (Worg Pelt) (9) Holy Bolt
10th Paladin 7 9 8 5 3 2: {+1 CC} Concentration: 4; {+1} Diplomacy: 9; Knowledge (religion): 1; Thorns
11th Paladin 8 10 9 5 3 2: Concentration: 4; {+2} Diplomacy: 11; Knowledge (religion): 1;
12th Paladin 9 11 9 6 4 2: Concentration: 4; {+2} Diplomacy: 13; Knowledge (religion): 1; Open Least Chakra (Feet) (12) Zeal
13th Paladin 10 12 10 6 4 2: Concentration: 4; {+2} Diplomacy: 15; Knowledge (religion): 1; Blessed Aim
14th Paladin 11 13 10 6 4 2: Concentration: 4; {+2} Diplomacy: 17; Knowledge (religion): 1; Cleansing
15th Paladin 12 14 11 7 5 2: Concentration: 4; {+1} Diplomacy: 18; {+1} Knowledge (religion): 2; Psycarnum Infusion (15)
16th Paladin 13 15 11 7 5 2: Concentration: 4; {+1} Diplomacy: 19; {+1} Knowledge (religion): 3; Vigor
17th Paladin 14 16 12 7 5 2: Concentration: 4; {+1} Diplomacy: 20; {+1} Knowledge (religion): 4; Blessed Hammer
18th Paladin 15 17 12 8 6 2: Concentration: 4; {+1} Diplomacy: 21; {+1} Knowledge (religion): 5; Expanded Soulmeld Capacity (18) Vengeance
19th Paladin 16 18 13 8 6 2: Concentration: 4; {+1} Diplomacy: 22; {+1} Knowledge (religion): 6;
20th Paladin 17 19 13 8 6 2: Concentration: 4; {+1} Diplomacy: 23; {+1} Knowledge (religion): 7; Conversion

Level Maximum relic value Total price New abilities Price change
3rd 1350
4th 2700
5th 4500 4500 Circlet of Persuasion (DMG, 252) +4500
6th 6500 4500
7th 9500 8500 Charisma +2 (MIC, 234) +4000
8th 13500 8500
9th 18000 8500
10th 24500 20500 Charisma +4 (MIC, 234) +12000
11th 33000 20500
12th 44000 20500
13th 55000 20500
14th 75000 73750 Admiral's Bicorne (Storm, 131) +53250
15th 100000 93750 Charisma +6 (MIC, 234) +20000
16th 130000 129750 Intellect +6 (DMG, 258) +36000
17th 170000 168750 Wisdom +6 (MIC, 234), Diamond Eye Circlet (Ghost, 70) +39000
18th 220000 168750
19th 290000 267750 Helm of Teleportation (DMG, 259) +99000
20th 380000 267750

It's not clear for me is it legit to add item abilities from items that occupy different body slots. If answer is yes I also want to add this items' abilities:
New abilities Price change
Sandals of Sprinting (MIC, 131) +3450
Incarnum Focus (boots) (MIC, 112) +22500
Veil of Allure (MIC, 145) +21000
Collar of Umbral Metamorphosis (ToM, 156) +16200
Third Eye Concentrate (MIC, 141) +15000



Diane is a very quick and charismatic horse with two friendly abilities: Prayer and Might. Her charisma check for now isn't good enough to guarantee success at all checks, but she working on it and her former master's crown helps her.
New four friendly abilities (Defiance, Thorns, Blessed Aim and Cleansing) helps Diana and her friends fight evildoers. Holy Bolt is a weapon against undead and another healing source. Zeal works good for paladin with natural weapons only. At 14th level Diane's crown opens its power enough and from this time Diana always succeeds at charisma check after using all her abilities.
16th level is Diane's sweet spot. She got Vigor ability and could give all her friends her speed improved by 10 ft. for 10 minutes. And she can do it all day long. Also she has Worg Pelt soulmeld bonded to feet chakra and Psycarnum Infusion feat. With it she could improve her speed by 25 ft (30 ft at 18th level) right before using Vigor. This means 110 ft. speed for her and all her friends. For all day long. It could be even more with some debatable crown improvements.
Also she got Blessed Hammer, Vengeance and her most powerful weapon against demons and undead - Conversion. First two are just various sorts of damage, but the third... Option to convert any demon or undead into LG alignment allies is very strong!

Type Name Book Page
Race Light Warhorse MM 274
Class Paladin Diablo II - Diablerie 15
Feat Wild Talent Expanded Psionics Handbook 52
Feat Ancestral Relic Book of Exalted Deeds 39
Feat Nimph Kiss Book of Exalted Deeds 44
Feat Shape Soulmeld Magic of Incarnum 40
Feat Open Least Chakra Magic of Incarnum 39
Feat Psycarnum Infusion Magic of Incarnum 40
Feat Expanded Soulmeld Capacity Magic of Incarnum 38
Soulmeld Worg Pelt Magic of Incarnum 93
Trait Quick Unearthed Arcana 89

[Beni-Kujaku]

Sometimes the edgy character is the most helpful. Sometimes, the helpful character must become the edge.



The Vorpal Poet

CE Caligrosto Marshal 1 / Warrior of Darkness 4 / Devoted Defender 2 / Warrior of Darkness +2 / Warrior Skald 1

In which half did his love go, in which his soul and mind?
In which half now remain his thoughts, and where his dreams I'll find?

Which half of this pile of bones did once contain his skill?
And if I sieve each drop of blood, shall I sift out his will?

Or were they in the slice of meat I crudely carved away?
And if so, with a perfect cut, might all those phantoms stay?

For all the things he seemed to be now very much are gone.
And it is quite a strange sum when half plus half makes none.


A wasteland, far removed from our world in space and time both. A small band of humanoids, clad in scarce animal hides, takes shelter from the burning sun above. Hunger and thirst have greatly reduced their numbers, and another tribe has moved in to occupy their lands. They fought bravely to resist the invaders; they lost.

The survivors now face a monstrous choice: depart into the waste, and hope fertile lands lay beyond? Or return and fight, almost certainly doomed to fail? They must choose, or the desert will choose for them: so the bolder members of the tribe already crawl up to their matriarch, demanding leadership in a screechy proto-language.

But their leader shows little interest in her scattered tribe; she is working. A dark stone in her right hand is hit, time and time again, by a grey pebble. Sharp-edged shards of rock are chipped off and land in the sand as the stone grows ever more pointed in shape. It is a labor foreign to the tribe, to the world, and yet she works with a determined exactness, as if a skilled teacher stands besides her, sharing his wisdom and guiding her hands.

This is, of course, exactly the case.

-----

The same people, perhaps a day later, their lips dry and parched, their stomachs empty. They walk now; their leader boldly, the others a distance behind, ready to scatter at a moment's notice. They approach the watering hole they were banished from, and at once are spotted by the invaders: powerfully-built fierce warriors, armed with bone clubs and stone bludgeons. They send their champion: a giant of a man, adorned with a dragon-skull, who jeers and pounds his chest.

The starveling leader still advances, which infuriates her enemy. Is it stupid? How dare it not recognize power, how dare it imply that such a display of strength would need to be backed up? It charges, teeth bared, club at the ready, at the now-poised intruder.

At the last moment, she sidesteps. Something small, concealed in her hand, catches the sunlight: the small black rock, now sharpened and polished to a mirror finish. She thrusts it forward, at her opponent's unprotected neck...

...and as she does so, establishes a pattern that will echo across time and space...

...as a khopesh-bearing warrior slays another in the shadow of an enormous monument...

...as a freedom fighter thrusts a dagger from the shadows, unaware a worse tyrant will come to replace this one...

...as a convicted murderer, rotting in his cell, draws a carefully-hidden blade and takes his guards by surprise...

...as the same man, recaptured at great loss, watches the executioner's axe swing down...

...as two helmeted knights do battle, unaware they are brothers by blood, and one lowers his guard for the merest instant...

...as all these events, and more, occur across eternity, there is a single sound that follows them, a single sound that heralds separation and upheaval and death, a single sound that finds its origin in the purest, greatest bloodshed, that art that is to Cut, and then to End, with not a moment in between...

...and the sound is...

SNICKER-SNACK

Ability Scores:
Pre-racial: 8 str/16 dex/12 con/12 int/12 wis/16 cha
ECL 10: — str /26 dex/20 con/14 int/16 wis/28 cha
ASIs (12 HD, 16 HD) go in charisma.



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


10th
Caligristo (8 Outsider RHD, +2 LA)
+8
+7
+7
+7
110: Bluff +11 (11), Craft (Alchemy) +6cc (3), Diplomacy +2cc (1), Intimidate +11 (11), Knowledge (Arcana) +6cc (3), Knowledge (Local) +5 (5), Knowledge (The Planes) +11 (11), Listen +11 (11), Perform (Poetry) +8cc (4), Search +4 (4), Sense Motive +11 (11), Spellcraft +2cc (1), Spot +11 (11), Tumble +11 (11)
Hidden Talent (Dimensional Pocket), Mindsight, Ghostly Grasp
Fiendish Shade, Infuse Weapon, Invisibility, Martial Prowess


11th
Marshal 1
+8
+9
+7
+9
6: Bluff 11, Craft (Alchemy) 3, Diplomacy +1 (2), Intimidate 11, Knowledge (Arcana) 3, Knowledge (Local) 5, Knowledge (The Planes) 11, Listen 11, Perform (Poetry) +5 (9), Search 4, Sense Motive 11, Spellcraft 1, Spot 11, Tumble 11
Iron Will, Skill Focus (Diplomacy)B
Minor Aura (Accurate Strike)


12th
Warrior of Darkness 1
+9
+11
+7
+11
6: Bluff +2 (13), Concentration +1 (1), Craft (Alchemy) 3, Diplomacy 2, Intimidate 11, Knowledge (Arcana) 3, Knowledge (Local) 5, Knowledge (The Planes) +2 (13), Listen 11, Perform (Poetry) 9, Search 4, Sense Motive 11, Spellcraft +1 (2), Spot 11, Tumble 11
Combat ReflexesB
Black Magic Oil (Demonic Celerity)


13th
Warrior of Darkness 2
+10
+12
+7
+12
6: Bluff +1 (14), Concentration +2 (3), Craft (Alchemy) 3, Diplomacy +2cc (3), Intimidate 11, Knowledge (Arcana) 3, Knowledge (Local) 5, Knowledge (The Planes) +1 (14), Listen 11, Perform (Poetry) 9, Search 4, Sense Motive 11, Spellcraft 2, Spot 11, Tumble 11
-
Darkling Weapon


14th
Warrior of Darkness 3
+11
+12
+8
+12
6: Bluff +1 (15), Concentration 3, Craft (Alchemy) 3, Diplomacy +4cc (5), Intimidate 11, Knowledge (Arcana) 3, Knowledge (Local) 5, Knowledge (The Planes) +1 (15), Listen 11, Perform (Poetry) 9, Search 4, Sense Motive 11, Spellcraft 2, Spot 11, Tumble 11
Alertness, Power AttackB
Black Magic Elixer (Violent Knowledge)


15th
Warrior of Darkness 4
+12
+13
+8
+13
6: Bluff +1 (16), Concentration +2 (5), Craft (Alchemy) 3, Diplomacy +2cc (6), Intimidate 11, Knowledge (Arcana) 3, Knowledge (Local) 5, Knowledge (The Planes) +1 (16), Listen 11, Perform (Poetry) 9, Search 4, Sense Motive 11, Spellcraft 2, Spot 11, Tumble 11
-
Black Magic Oil (Malign Fury)


16th
Devoted Defender 1
+13
+15
+10
+13
4: Bluff +1 (17), Concentration 5, Craft (Alchemy) 3, Diplomacy 6, Intimidate 11, Knowledge (Arcana) 3, Knowledge (Local) 5, Knowledge (The Planes) 16, Listen +1 (12), Perform (Poetry) 9, Search 4, Sense Motive +1 (12), Spellcraft 2, Spot +1 (12), Tumble 11
-
Harm's Way


17th
Devoted Defender 2
+14
+16
+11
+13
4: Bluff +1 (18), Concentration 5, Craft (Alchemy) 3, Diplomacy 6, Intimidate 11, Knowledge (Arcana) 3, Knowledge (Local) 5, Knowledge (The Planes) 16, Listen +1 (13), Perform (Poetry) 9, Search 4, Sense Motive +1 (13), Spellcraft 2, Spot +1 (13), Tumble 11
Mage Slayer
Defensive Strike


18th
Warrior of Darkness 5
+15
+16
+11
+13
6: Bluff +1 (19), Concentration 5, Craft (Alchemy) 3, Diplomacy +2cc (7), Intimidate 11, Knowledge (Arcana) 3, Knowledge (Local) 5, Knowledge (The Planes) +3 (19), Listen 13, Perform (Poetry) 9, Search 4, Sense Motive 13, Spellcraft 2, Spot 13, Tumble 11
-
Scarred Flesh


19th
Warrior of Darkness 6
+16
+17
+12
+14
6: Bluff +1 (20), Concentration +1 (6), Craft (Alchemy) 3, Diplomacy +2cc (8), Intimidate 11, Knowledge (Arcana) 3, Knowledge (Local) 5, Knowledge (The Planes) +1 (20), Listen 13, Perform (Poetry) 9, Search 4, Sense Motive 13, Spellcraft +1 (3), Spot 13, Tumble 11
CleaveB
Black Magic Elixer (Violent Knowledge)


20th
Warrior Skald 1
+16
+19
+14
+14
6: Bluff +1 (21), Concentration 6, Craft (Alchemy) 3, Diplomacy +2 (10), Intimidate 11, Knowledge (Arcana) 3, Knowledge (Local) 5, Knowledge (The Planes) 20, Listen 13, Perform (Poetry) +3 (12), Search 4, Sense Motive 13, Spellcraft 3, Spot 13, Tumble 11
Extra Music
Bardic Music (countersong, fascinate, inspire competence, inspire courage, inspire greatness, and suggestion)



ECL 10:
We have a lot of capabilities even without class levels, so lets go over them one by one.

Firstly, our racial traits. We're incorporeal, invisible, immune to several energy types, enjoy DR 15 versus most weapons (except morningstars and bite attacks), and have great stats across the board. With Mindsight and investment in sensory skills, we're basically a perfect scout, able to map out a whole dungeon before the party ventures in.

But scouting is of course the opposite of what we're supposed to be doing: which is sticking close to our friends. Which is why we'll spend most of our time possessing the weapon of the party's primary melee warrior (preferably a barbarian or martial initiator, but any brute type works), granting it a free Keen enchantment and 2000xHD worth of additional enchants (our subtype refers to the possession rules on page 21 of fiendish codex I, which are very obviously something separate from Infuse Weapon, and let us add additional enchantments; Sudden Stunning comes to mind as a hilariously overpowered one relative to its price, especially with our great charisma, but even if you reasonably refrain from it free enhancements are never bad). That's quite the benefit, especially when it all stacks with whatever you were already spending your WBL on. And note that, per the rules on magic items, all those enchantments increase its hardness and HP: a triviality normally, but a big deal when the weapon is your actual material body.

(and you should be able to shift what enchantments you're duplicating, so if a niche situation comes up you can pull out the exact right bonus for the job; bane enhancements are a good example)

Once that souped-up weapon connects, we can additionally wrench it from the wielder's grasp and enter our fiendish shade form. Visually, we come to resemble a ghostly fiend wielding the weapon; mechanically we're still possessing it and can now attack with it normally (using your dexterity modifier for attack rolls and our charisma for damage rolls, even letting us add our modifier 1.5 times with a two-handed weapon). This also gives us a bonus on attack and damage rolls against the foe whose form we assumed. While possessing a weapon, we also get Weapon Focus and Weapon Specialization with it for free, with Greater Weapon Focus added on at 12 HD and Greater Weapon Specialization at 18 HD.

Our combat strategy is simple: let our buddy carry us into melee and attack (delaying if necessary), then break free and start attacking the same target. This effectively lets us double up on the benefit of the weapon's many enchantments, allows us to make a full attack t1 even if we start the turn out of melee range, and gives us the nice little bonus that comes with forming a Fiendish Shade.

Other fun tricks at this level include our Dimensional Pocket power, which lets us stow away one-pound items (daggers, but also wands or scrolls) and access them at our leisure, letting us transport them through walls. Ghostly Grasp lets us selectively interact with material objects, for instance allowing us to break a mechanism from the inside, leaf through books we find while scouting, or tie ropes for the other party members to climb across. We also boast huge modifiers to Bluff, Intimidate, and Sense Motive, as well as an okay Diplomacy modifier (making us a solid face) and can roll decently on some knowledges.

ECL 13:
With how there will always be at least one keen weapon on the battlefield, there's going to be a lot of crits that need confirming. A level in Marshal adds our charisma modifier to those rolls, all but guaranteeing that threats become crits. The effect applies both when we are fighting in shade form and when we're being wielded by an ally; telepathy means we can even project it in areas of silence.

We then enter Warrior of Darkness, a very niche class that for now gives us Combat Reflexes as a bonus feat (great with our high dexterity) and lets us add another +1 enchantment to our weapons with Darkling Weapon. Bane is great if you're expecting a particular kind of foe, but Smoking from CoR is incredibly potent as well, and depending on the party you might get some use out of Spell Storing as well. If you've got a reliable source of out-of-combat healing (if necessary by using your strength-draining touch on helpless victims), then Vicious adds a very tasty 2d6 typeless damage at the cost of 1d6 recoil.

Other than that, Warrior of Darkness grants Concentration and thus lets us prepare for a later prerequisite, we start investing a bit in cross-class diplomacy (helped by the marshal's Skill Focus) and our saves continue to improve.

ECL 17:
Two more levels in Warrior of Darkness give us two great abilities. Malign Fury lets us take a move action and full attack three times per day, which helps with the occasional situation where you've got a fiendish shade and lack nearby foes. Violent Knowledge grants us Power Attack as a bonus feat (thus circumventing the prerequisite), which lets us turn our great to-hit into increased damage. By RAW, we can also use it with our incorporeal touch, making touch attacks that take our full BAB as a penalty to-hit and that drain 1d6+14 points of strength (how many enemy casters will have more strength than that?).

Given the incredible hardness that our possessed form has, Devoted Defender makes quite a bit of sense in how it lets us take hits for others. The secondary ability increases our number of attacks per round by allowing us to attack anyone who swings at our charge (say, the guy who carried us into melee). By the FCI possession rules, we should be able to animate our possessed sword even when we're not manifesting a shade, which might be enough to redirect and punish attacks even when we seem to be an ordinary held weapon, but ask your DM. Also note the option of lurking in invisible incorporeal form to defend allies when your foes least expect it!

Infuse Weapon now makes the weapon Wounding as well as Keen, so every hit is going to chip away at the target's constitution score and drain their HP somewhat faster (or leave them easy prey for Fortitude-targeting effects).

ECL 20:
Getting Cleave and Power Attack as an incorporeal creature wasn't easy (though not pointless either), but here's the payoff: Warrior Skald. We now have five uses of Bardic Music a day. The one we're most excited about is Inspire Greatness, which is poorly written (no two people seem to agree on what '2 bonus hit dice' means) but unquestionably seems to move you from 18 to 20 HD... which means that Infuse Weapon hits the next tier, and makes anything we possess Vorpal. Free kills on a roll of 20, no questions asked!

(You can also use the other bardic music effects, and on off days you might get serious use out of Inspire Competence or Fascinate, which is quite hard to resist despite your non-maxed perform investment)

To maximize the odds of this happening, we pick up a lot of ways to get extra attacks. +16 BAB is one obvious way, but we additionally get 9 AoOs per round (which we can use against foes that attack our allies or try to cast spells within our reach), we get possible bonus attacks with cleave, we can add the Speed enchantment to the weapon for an extra hit on our full attacks. And there's of course our customary way to enter battles, which gives us several more opportunities to activate vorpal as our ally takes their first turn. Worst case, all of those hits are still dealing a ton of normal damage.

(Another fun possession-derived magical effect at these levels is Brilliant Energy: ignoring armor is incredibly good against the right foe, especially if you're power attacking, and you can switch off the effect if you ever face an undead or construct)

Better still: there's nothing preventing us from initiating bardic music whenever we're outside of combat, and maintaining the effect until we ever need to take another action. We don't need to spend actions to move, we don't need to eat or breathe, and we can recite poetry in a fully mental manner: nothing should prevent us from keeping Inspire Greatness up all day long, and finishing fights within the five rounds it lingers after our concentration ends. Plus, a cursed sword that ceaselessly beams its telepathic murder-centric poetry into others' minds makes for great characterization.

So there you have it: a build that takes an unique approach to boosting allies through proximity: by possessing and enhancing their weapon! Obviously once combat proper starts, we have all the things you'd expect on a melee character, with a ton of attacks, good mobility, great defenses, and the occasional vorpal-derived instakill. We put our defenses to use via Devoted Defender, which forces foes to attack us or suffer an AoO and then attack us anyway.


All numbers apply at ECL 20, before magic items, while under the effects of Inspire Greatness or its 5-round cooldown.

We are wielding/possessing a mundane greatsword, upgraded into a +1 Speed (Possession) Keen Wounding Vorpal (Infuse Weapon) Vicious (Darkling Weapon) Greatsword. All enhancements except Vicious apply while an ally wields the weapon as well. Effective enhancement bonus is +13, effective hardness is 36 and HP is 140.

To-hit: +31 (+8 dexterity, +16 BAB, +1 weapon focus, +1 greater weapon focus, +2 fiendish shade, +1 enhancement, +2 inspire greatness)

Attacks per round: +31/+31/+26/+21/+16
AoOs: Up to 9 per round.

Damage (before PA): 4d6+22 (2d6 base, +2d6 vicious, +15 cha +2 weapon specialization +2 greater weapon specialization +1 enhancement +2 fiendish shade) + 1 constitution damage
Critical range: 17-20 (Keen), beheads on 20, +10 to confirmation rolls

HP: 8+8d8+6d10+2d12+1d6+(18x5) = 183 HP. (+2d10+10 or 21 temporary HP from inspire greatness)

AC: 28 (+10 deflection, +8 dexterity), touch 28, flat-footed 20, +1 while acting in defense of our charge, permanently invisible

DR: 15/Piercing and Bludgeoning, as well as Warrior of Darkness's "DR 5/+3" (at the very least 5/magic)

Immunities: Fire, Acid, Electricity, incorporeal traits

Resistances: Cold 10

+25 fortitude (19 base, 5 con, 1 inspire greatness)
+22 reflex (14 base, 8 dex)
+20 will (14 base, 3 wis, 2 iron will, 1 mage slayer)

Notable social skills include +31 Bluff (+21 ranks, +10 modifier), +27 Diplomacy (+10 ranks, +10 modifier, +3 skill focus, +4 synergy), +23 Intimidate (+11 ranks, +10 modifier, +2 synergy), +22 perform (+12 ranks, +10 modifier), and +16 Sense Motive (+13 ranks, +3 modifier)



Caligristo: Web (https://web.archive.org/web/20090217155017/http://wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/drigg/20071024) (+2 LA assignment (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25443504&postcount=1408))

Marshal - MH
Warrior of Darkness - BoVD
Devoted Defender - S&F
Warrior Skald - RoF

Hidden Talent - XPH
Mindsight - LoM
Ghostly Grasp - LM
Mage Slayer - MMV
Extra Music - CAdv

[Beni-Kujaku]

Music is what brings us all together! That and magical buffing spells, of course.



Lyra

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/forgottenrealms/images/e/ea/Lillend3e.jpg

CG Lillend Virtuoso5/War Weaver5/Sublime Chord1




Alignment : Chaotic Good
ECL 3 : Celestial Bloodline
ECL 5 : Flyby Attack
ECL 8 : Enlarge Spell
ECL 11 : Melodic Casting
ECL 14 : Extend Spell
ECL 17 : Metamagic Song
ECL 20 : Extra Music



Race : Lillend
All increases in Cha
Str 16 +10
Dex 14 +6
Con 14 +4
Int 8 +4
Wis 8 +6
Cha 16 +8




In a world of magic and wonder, a Lillend named Lyra soared through the skies, her serpentine body twisting and turning with grace. She was a creature of beauty and power, her voice capable of enchanting even the most hardened hearts.
One day, Lyra came across a young human girl named Elsie, lost and alone in the forest. Moved by the girl's plight, Lyra took her under her wing and vowed to protect her. Together, they journeyed through the enchanted woods, encountering all manner of creatures along the way.
As they traveled, Lyra regaled Elsie with tales of her adventures, of battles fought and won, of love and loss, of triumph and tragedy. And in turn, Elsie shared her own stories, of a life lived in fear and uncertainty, of a family torn apart by war. Through their shared experiences, Lyra and Elsie formed a bond that transcended their differences. And when they finally emerged from the forest, they emerged not as two strangers, but as friends, united by a common purpose.
For Lyra, it was a reminder that even the most powerful of creatures could find meaning in helping others and she decided to devote herself to be that helper to anyone worthy of her.



LevelClassBase Attack BonusFort SaveReflex SaveWill SaveSkillsFeatsClass Features
1stLA +1
2ndLA +2
3rdLillend 11222Craft (Weaving) (+4 CC) 2; Diplomacy (+4) 4; Intimidate (+4 CC) 2; Know (Arcana) (+4) 4; Listen (+4) 4; Perform (X) (+4) 4; Profession (Astrologer) (+4 CC) 2; Spellcraft (+4) 4; Use Magic Device (+4 CC) 2; Celestial Bloodline
4thLillend 22333Craft (Weaving) (+1 CC) 2.5; Diplomacy (+1) 5; Intimidate (+1 CC) 2.5; Know (Arcana) (+1) 5; Listen (+1) 5; Perform (X) (+1) 5; Profession (Astrologer) (+2 CC) 3; Spellcraft (+1) 5; Use Magic Device 2;
5thLillend 33333Craft (Weaving) (+1 CC) 3; Diplomacy (+1) 6; Intimidate (+1 CC) 3; Know (Arcana) (+1) 6; Listen (+1) 6; Perform (X) (+1) 6; Profession (Astrologer) (+2 CC) 4; Spellcraft (+1) 6; Use Magic Device 2; Flyby Attack
6thLillend 44444Craft (Weaving) (+1 CC) 3.5; Diplomacy (+1) 7; Intimidate (+1 CC) 3.5; Know (Arcana) (+1) 7; Listen (+1) 7; Perform (X) (+1) 7; Profession (Astrologer) (+2 CC) 5; Spellcraft (+1) 7; Use Magic Device 2;
7thLillend 55444Craft (Weaving) (+1 CC) 4; Diplomacy (+1) 8; Intimidate (+1 CC) 4; Know (Arcana) (+1) 8; Listen (+1) 8; Perform (X) (+1) 8; Profession (Astrologer) (+2 CC) 6; Spellcraft (+1) 8; Use Magic Device 2;
8thLillend 66555Craft (Weaving) (+4 CC) 6; Diplomacy (+1) 9; Intimidate 4; Know (Arcana) (+1) 9; Listen (+1) 9; Perform (X) (+1) 9; Profession (Astrologer) 6; Spellcraft (+1) 9; Use Magic Device 2; Melodic Casting
9thLillend 77555Craft (Weaving) 6; Diplomacy (+1) 10; Intimidate 4; Know (Arcana) (+1) 10; Listen (+1) 10; Perform (X) (+1) 10; Profession (Astrologer) 6; Spellcraft (+1) 10; Use Magic Device (+4 CC) 4;
10thVirtuoso 17557Craft (Weaving) 6; Diplomacy (+1) 11; Intimidate (+1) 5; Know (Arcana) (+1) 11; Listen (+2 CC) 11; Perform (X) (+1) 11; Profession (Astrologer) 6; Spellcraft (+1) 11; Use Magic Device 4;
11thVirtuoso 28558Craft (Weaving) 6; Diplomacy (+1) 12; Intimidate (+1) 6; Know (Arcana) (+1) 12; Listen (+2 CC) 12; Perform (X) (+1) 12; Profession (Astrologer) 6; Spellcraft (+1) 12; Use Magic Device 4; Enlarge Spell
12thWar Weaver 185510Craft (Weaving) 6; Diplomacy 12; Intimidate 6; Know (Arcana) (+1) 13; Listen (+2 CC) 13; Perform (X) 12; Profession (Astrologer) 6; Spellcraft 12; Use Magic Device 4;
13thSublime Chord 185512Craft (Weaving) 6; Diplomacy (+1) 13; Intimidate 6; Know (Arcana) 13; Listen 13; Perform (X) (+2) 14; Profession (Astrologer) 6; Spellcraft (+2) 14; Use Magic Device 4;
14thWar Weaver 295513Craft (Weaving) 6; Diplomacy 13; Intimidate 6; Know (Arcana) 13; Listen 13; Perform (X) (+2 CC) 15; Profession (Astrologer) 6; Spellcraft (+1) 15; Use Magic Device 4; Extend Spell
15thWar Weaver 396613Craft (Weaving) 6; Diplomacy 13; Intimidate 6; Know (Arcana) 13; Listen 13; Perform (X) (+2 CC) 16; Profession (Astrologer) 6; Spellcraft (+1) 16; Use Magic Device 4;
16thWar Weaver 4106614Craft (Weaving) 6; Diplomacy 13; Intimidate 6; Know (Arcana) 13; Listen 13; Perform (X) (+2 CC) 17; Profession (Astrologer) 6; Spellcraft (+1) 17; Use Magic Device 4;
17thWar Weaver 5106614Craft (Weaving) 6; Diplomacy 13; Intimidate 6; Know (Arcana) 13; Listen 13; Perform (X) (+2 CC) 18; Profession (Astrologer) 6; Spellcraft (+1) 18; Use Magic Device 4; Metamagic Song
18thVirtuoso 3107714Craft (Weaving) 6; Diplomacy (+4) 17; Intimidate (+1) 7; Know (Arcana) 13; Listen 13; Perform (X) (+1) 19; Profession (Astrologer) 6; Spellcraft (+1) 19; Use Magic Device 4;
19thVirtuoso 4117715Craft (Weaving) 6; Diplomacy (+3) 20; Intimidate (+2) 9; Know (Arcana) 13; Listen 13; Perform (X) (+1) 20; Profession (Astrologer) 6; Spellcraft (+1) 20; Use Magic Device 4;
20thVirtuoso 5117715Craft (Weaving) 6; Diplomacy (+1) 21; Intimidate (+4) 13; Know (Arcana) 13; Listen 13; Perform (X) (+1) 21; Profession (Astrologer) 6; Spellcraft (+1) 21; Use Magic Device 4; Extra Music


LevelClass0th1st2nd3rd4th5th6th7th8th
1stLA +1
2ndLA +2
3rdBard 12
4thBard 230
5thBard 331
6thBard 4320
7thBard 5331
8thBard 6332
9th
10th
11thBard 73320
12th
13thSublime Chord 1 21
14thSublime Chord 2 22
15thSublime Chord 3 321
16thSublime Chord 4 332
17thSublime Chord 5 3321
18thSublime Chord 6 4332
19thSublime Chord 7 44321
20thSublime Chord 8 44332

LevelClass0th1st2nd3rd4th5th6th7th8th
1stLA+1
2ndLA+2
3rdBard 1Detect Magic
Summon Instrument
Resistance
PrestidigitationProtection from Evil-
4thBard 2MessageInstant of Power
Grease
5thBard 3Mage HandInspirational Boost
6thBard 4xxInvisibility
Battle Hymn
Daylight
7thBard 5Trade ?Cure Light WoundsBlur
8thBard 6xxx
9th
10th
11thBard 7xxInsight of Good FortuneDisplacement
Haste
Magic Circle Against Evil
12th
13thSublime Chord 1Sirine's Grace
Dimension's Door
Freedom of Movement
Rainbow PatternResistance, Superior
Dismissal
14thSublime Chord 2Invisibility, GreaterDraconic Polymorph
15thSublime Chord 3xxAntimagic Field
Guards and Wards
16thSublime Chord 4xXorn MovementRepulsion
17thSublime Chord 5xxxPlanar Bubble
Sequester
18thSublime Chord 6xIndomitabilityMisleadArcane Spellsurge
19thSublime Chord 7xxxxMind Blank
Sunburst
20thSublime Chord 8xxTrue SeeingBrilliant AuraPrismatic Wall





Lillend is 7HD of outsider meaning 8+Int to skills, full BAB and good saves plus a total of +38 to stats, a decent 70ft fly speed, a Tail slap with which you can use Improved Grab and Constrict, +5 NA, Fire (10) and poison immunity.
To all this you add some SLAs (Hallucinatory Terrain 3/d is nice and Knock can unlock some situations) and 6th level Bard casting as well as Bardic Music ability.
Our first feat is Celestial Bloodline which is not only completely fitting but also quite the boost to our spells known list. Protection from Evil is really good and even more so later on while Daylight makes your teammates lacking darkvision happy.
Flyby Attack is a given since it’s the equivalent of Spring Attack without the 2 horrible feats prereqs.
Finally Melodic Casting is great for multiple reasons. It lets you cast spells and activate magic items while using your Bardic Music ability but also lets you replace Concentration checks by Perform ones (which you’re much better at !)
Spell wise, we pick good ol’ Grease to help set up the battlefield in our team’s favor. Inspirational Boost makes Inspire Courage a +2 bonus (for now) and Instant of Power (FoW) is just a really versatile spell that can get anyone out of a pinch. Invisibility is always solid and Battle Hymn is a 4th level Sor/Wiz spell that we can learn at 2nd ; yes please.



Lillend’s chassis lets us take levels in Virtuoso from the start which gives us an area Diplomacy ability and additional Bardic Music uses for the day. Second level gets us to Bard 7th on the casting side, just in time to qualify for War Weaver. Eldritch Tapestry is awesome enough that you’re willing to lose yet another CL (it won’t matter anyway) ; you can have 7 creatures in the tapestry with whom you can share spells.
New spells known include CLW, Blur, Haste, Displacement and Magic Circle Against Evil ; the latter costs a 3rd level slot but multiplies the duration by 10 and adds an area effect.
Only 1st level spells are Tapestriable for now but Instant of Power, CLW, Protection from Evil and Resistance are all golden candidates.


We can enter Sublime Chord right on schedule. The trick is that we managed our lost CLs before getting into this PrC so it doesn’t impact the SC spell progression.
After this dip we get back to War Weaver to increase the casting cap of our tapestry. Sublime Chord casting provides last spells from the best spell list in the game resulting greats candidates for one casting/multiple beneficiary :
1st : Instant of Power (FoW), Cure Light Wounds, Resistance (0th), Protection from Evil
2nd : Blur, Invisibility, Insight of Good Fortune (PHBII)
3rd : Displacement, Magic Circle Against Evil
4th : Sirine’s Grace, Dimension Door, Freedom of Movement, Greater Invisibility
5th : Superior Resistance, Draconic Polymorph (Dra), Xorn Movement, Indomitability
Among which CLW, Sirine’s Grace and Freedom of Movement are only accessible via Bard casting and Battle Hymn’s spell level is lowered thanks to it too.
Quiescent Weaving is another gold ability for you ; imagine releasing Freedom of Movement, Displacement, Draconic Polymorph, Magic Circle Against Evil and Greater Invisibility with one move action while casting Haste as your standard all of which affect your entire team.
Our Celestial Bloodline grants us Rainbow Pattern which is a great setup for our Suggestion Bardic Music ability and Dismissal as a cherished SoL.



Last levels improve the bard music ability as well as the SC casting.
We reach Bard 11th as far as music is involved meaning Inspire Courage is +2 (+3 with Inspirational Boost) for any ally who can hear you.
On the spell side, we reach 8th level casting !
We keep the focus of our spells known on being a dependable support with Antimagic Field or Repulsion to disable enemies and let Martials rule the world for once or Brilliant Aura is for your teammates and Prismatic Wall for battlefield control.
But the real deal for us is Planar Bubble.
This beauty of a spell, cast on a Lillend mimics the Heroic Domains of Ysgard. According to the Manual of the Planes (p.90), the Domains have a Minor Positive-Dominant trait which implies two things : first, any living creature gets Fast Healing 2 and second, if you friends die while this spell is ongoing, they will get a free True Resurrection the next morning !
Finally some self-preservation means are of the essence since you want to remain alive to buff your friends so Mind Blank comes in handy, Mislead and True Seeing are milestones in that regard.
The Celestial Bloodline continues to serve its purpose giving us Guards and Wards for those special times you just have to defend the dungeons you’re in, Sequester as the penultimate stealth option and Sunburst when you’re alone in the dark.
Finally the last levels of Virtuoso grant us more Bardic Music and two new songs ; one to automatically stabilize dying allies (so that you can set up Planar Bubble before they actually do) and one to prevent enemy spellcasting.
Last but not least, we get Metamagic Song to use 1 use of our Bardic Music to cast Extended spells in the tapestry, effectively doubling our buffing capacity and Extra Music to fuel all of these goodies.




SRD - Feats, Spells
MM - Lillend
CAd - Virtuoso
MH - War Weaver
CAr - Sublime Chord
CM - Melodic Casting
RoS - Metamagic Song
DC - Celestial Bloodline

[Beni-Kujaku]

The living proof that wizard even make better tanks than martials.


Nerian Argentis
LG Ogre Mage 5+2/Past Life Cleric 1/Wizard 3/Shapeshifter 2/Wizard +1/Silver Pyromancer 5/Wizard +1
Str 22 Dex 14 Con 20 Int 22 Wis 12 Cha 14
Increases from levels go to intelligence


Level Class Base Attack Bonus Fort Save Reflex Save Will Save Skills Feats Class Features
7th Ogre Mage 5+2 3 4 1 1 Concentration 8 (+8), Spellcraft 8 (+8), Spot 8 (+8), Listen 8 (+8), Knowledge (Religion) 4 (+4) CC, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 4 (+4) CC, Knowledge (Arcana) 4 (+4) CC, Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) 4 (+4) CC Empower Spell, Retributive Spell Regeneration, spell like abilities, Change Shape
8th Past Life (Cleric) 3 4 1 1 No new skills Turn Undead 1/day, +2 on attacks, skills, and saves
9th Wizard 1 3 4 1 3 Concentration 9 (+1), Spellcraft 9 (+1), Spot 9, Listen 9, Knowledge (Religion) 6 (+2), Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 4, Knowledge (Arcana) 6 (+2), Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) 6 (+2) Practiced Spellcaster, Scribe Scroll (B) Energy Affinity (Fire), Evocation Specialty, Banned Schools Necromancy and Enchantment
10th Wizard 2 4 4 1 4 Concentration 10 (+1), Spellcraft 10 (+1), Spot 8, Listen 8, Knowledge (Religion) 8 (+2), Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 4, Knowledge (Arcana) 8 (+2), Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) 8 (+2)
11th Wizard 3 4 5 2 4 Concentration 11 (+1), Spellcraft 11 (+1), Spot 8, Listen 8, Knowledge (Religion) 10 (+2), Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 4, Knowledge (Arcana) 10 (+2), Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) 10 (+2)
12th Shapeshifter 1 4 7 4 6 Concentration 12 (+1), Spellcraft 12 (+1), Spot 8, Listen 8, Knowledge (Religion) 10, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 4, Knowledge (Arcana) 10, Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) 10, Knowledge (Nature) 6 (+6) Boar's Ferocity Wild Shape 3/day
13th Shapeshifter 2 5 8 5 7 Concentration 13 (+1), Spellcraft 13 (+1), Spot 8, Listen 8, Knowledge (Religion) 10, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 4, Knowledge (Arcana) 10, Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) 10, Knowlegde (Nature) 12 (+6)
14th Wizard 4 5 8 5 8 Concentration 14 (+1), Spellcraft 14 (+1), Spot 8, Listen 8, Knowledge (Religion) 11 (+1), Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 5 (+1), Knowledge (Arcana) 11 (+1), Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) 11 (+1), Knowledge (Nature) 14 (+2)
15th Silver Pyromancer 1 5 8 5 10 Concentration 15 (+1), Spellcraft 15 (+1), Spot 8, Listen 8, Knowledge (Religion) 15 (+4), Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 5, Knowledge (Arcana) 14 (+3), Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) 11, Knowledge (Nature) 14 Arcane Thesis (Scorching Ray) Bow Proficency, Pyromancer, Purge Undead
16th Silver Pyromancer 2 6 8 5 11 Concentration 16 (+1), Spellcraft 16 (+1), Spot 8, Listen 8, Knowledge (Religion) 16 (+1), Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 5, Knowledge (Arcana) 16 (+2), Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) 15 (+4), Knowledge (Nature) 14 Sacred Flame
17th Silver Pyromancer 3 6 9 6 11 Concentration 17 (+1), Spellcraft 17 (+1), Spot 8, Listen 8, Knowledge (Religion) 17 (+1), Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 5, Knowledge (Arcana) 17 (+1), Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) 17 (+2), Knowledge (Nature) 14, Sense Motive 3 (+3) Smiting Spell 1/day
18th Silver Pyromancer 4 7 9 6 12 Concentration 18 (+1), Spellcraft 18 (+1), Spot 8, Listen 8, Knowledge (Religion) 18 (+1), Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 5, Knowledge (Arcana) 18 (+1), Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) 18 (+1), Knowledge (Nature) 14, Sense Motive 7 (+4) Fiery Spell/Battle Blessing Persistent Fire
19th Silver Pyromancer 5 7 9 6 12 Concentration 19 (+1), Spellcraft 19 (+1), Spot 8, Listen 8, Knowledge (Religion) 19 (+1), Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 5, Knowledge (Arcana) 19 (+1), Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) 19 (+1), Knowledge (Nature) 14, Sense Motive 11 (+4) Smiting Spell 3/day (blinding), Improved Sacred Flame
20th Wizard 5 8 9 6 12 Concentration 20 (+1), Spellcraft 20 (+1), Spot 8, Listen 8, Knowledge (Religion) 20 (+1), Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 5, Knowledge (Arcana) 20 (+1), Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) 20 (+1), Knowledge (Nature) 18 (+4), Sense Motive 11 Ocular Spell (B)

Level Class 0th 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th
8th Ogre Mage - - - - - -
9th Wizard 1 3 1+1 - - - -
10th Wizard 2 4 2+1 - - - -
11th Wizard 3 4 2+1 1+1 - - -
12th Shapeshifter 1 4 2+1 1+1 - - -
13th Shapeshifter 2 4 3+1 2+1 - - -
14th Wizard 4 4 3+1 2+1 1+1 - -
15th Silver Pyromancer 1 4 3+1 2+1 1+1 - -
16th Silver Pyromancer 2 4 3+1 3+1 2+1 - -
17th Silver Pyromancer 3 4 4+1 3+1 2+1 1+1 -
18th Silver Pyromancer 4 4 4+1 3+1 3+1 2+1 -
19th Silver Pyromancer 5 4 4+1 4+1 3+1 2+1 1+1
20th Wizard 5 4 4+1 4+1 3+1 3+1 2+1

At this point Nerian is basically an ogre mage with slightly higher numbers due to Past Life. In combat, Nerian generally tries to tank in melee throughout the first few levels of Wizard. Using his natural spell-like abilities, he starts the battle invisible and in a smaller form, such as a halfling. Once he sees enemies, he turns into a larger giant, such as a Bladerager troll, for battle. His high strength and Past Life bonuses help him stay only a little behind a true martial in combat. His primary spell at these levels is Karmic Aura, which helps punish foes who engage him. At range he uses his innate cone of cold or lesser orb of fire. Nerian is also a decent scout between darkness, invisibility, and his decent spot and listen modifiers. At 11th level, Nerian picks up second level spells, which at this point he mostly uses to cast resist energy to patch up his regeneration weaknesses. For about an hour a day at 11th level, Nerian has resistance 20 against acid and fire, enough to make him extremely hard to bring down, though offensively he is still rather lackluster.

Through these levels Nerian is mostly continuing to supplement his natural toughness with spellcasting. 12th level is Nerian’s first in Shapeshifter, from Oriental Adventures. The class requires shape changing ability, which Nerian’s ogre mage blood gives him. At first level, Nerian gains the ability to wild shape into a small or medium animal three times per day. On its own, this is quite useless, but with Boar’s Ferocity, which Nerian picks up the same level, allows him to remain conscious when knocked unconscious as a free action by using a wild shape. This effect lasts one minute, which means that for three minutes a day, Nerian is basically an Ikea Tarrasque, albeit a still rather offensively lackluster one. Offensively, his larger supply of second level spell slots allows him to use scorching rays as his new main offensive spell. At 14th level, Nerian unlocks 3rd level spells, which gives him some exciting new offensive options. One is finally using Retributive Spell. This metamagic feat raises spell level by one and allows the spell to be cast as an immediate action upon being targeted in melee. Nerian’s predilection for melee allows him to get this off more often than most wizards. Also befitting his melee tendencies, Nerian picks up Karmic Backlash, an upgraded version of Karmic Aura that weakens those who attack him. At 15th level, Nerian finishes his thesis on Scorching Ray, and to celebrate, levels up in Silver Pyromancer. This change vastly increases his offensive options. First of all, Purge Undead makes an entertaining combo with Past Life. Because past life turns at effective cleric level eleven, with Practiced Spellcaster, Nerian can dish out a 20d6 damage attack against undead once per day. Much more generally applicable is the feature Pyromancer, which sets his caster level for fire spells equal to his character level, which combined with Practiced Spellcaster and Energy Affinity allows Nerian to throw out three ray, empowered, retributive scorching rays from a 3rd level slot. While this damage is finally noticeable, lots of enemies are still highly resistant or immune to fire damage. Another cool feature of Silver Pyromancer is their ability to cast paladin spells as arcane spells. This lets Nerian grab some interesting low level spells like Divine Favor, Magic Circle or Cure Light wounds for wand usage, adding a little depth to his heavy focus on Abjuration and Evocation. Sixteenth level gives Nerian Sacred Flame, which gives him a better option against fire immune or resistant foes. The new spell slots improve his stamina with metamagicked Scorching Rays, and sometimes give him space for a Protection from Energy, if facing a particularly strong wielder of fire or acid.

Nerian’s most exciting combo comes online at this level. The 4th level Paladin Spell, Glory of the Martyr is normally a bit of a trap, (You take half of the whole party’s damage? Very well, that empowered cone of cold does 200 damage to your paladin) but with Regeneration, Boar’s Ferocity and good energy protection, Nerian can take half the damage of the whole party and keep fighting. Glory of the Martyr also extends the protection of Nerian’s Karmic Aura and Karmic Backlash to the whole party, mildly inconveniencing anyone who attacks the party. Glory of the Martyr also makes targeting Retributive Spell super easy, helping with Nerian’s damage per round. Another helpful 4th level spell for Nerian is Blood of the Martyr, a favorite of les Amis de l’ABC. This allows Nerian to take damage to heal an ally at range, and due to his regeneration, Nerian can take enough damage to heal an ally to full and continue fighting. At 18th level Nerian picks up another feat. I recommend Fiery Spell, which is normally fairly weak, but combined with Arcane Thesis and Empower spell makes for some powerful scorching rays. At this point, from a third level slot Nerian can cast an Empower, Fiery, possibly retributive, Scorching Ray, which does (12d6+12)*1.5, an average of 81 damage. A slight variant on the build is to take Battle Blessing instead of Fiery Spell. RAW, I’m not sure Silver Pyromancers qualify, but if they do it’s a nice boost for Nerian, significantly helping with his action economy. At 19th level, Nerian picks up a 3/day smiting spell. This gives a nice boost to his nova damage, but is less useful than Improved Sacred Flame. Improved Sacred Flame makes all of Nerian’s fire spells completely holy, should he choose to. This is a huge help against the ubiquitous fire immune enemies at these levels. No 5th level spells are hugely exciting for Nerian, but spells like Teleport help versatility and Fire and Brimstone is a fire blasting spell that is a particularly good target for Smiting Spell. 20th level unlocks Ocular Spell, which is a further aid to burst damage. In big boss fights, Nerian can theoretically open fights with a swift action Karmic Retribution followed by two Ocular, Empowered, Fiery, Smiting, Scorching Rays, which do (12d6+12)*2 each, followed up by a Retributive, Empowered, Fiery, Smiting Scorching Ray on the enemies turn for another (12d6+12)*2 damage, about 324 damage on average with no saving throws involved.



Nerian doesn’t start to benefit from his allies being close to him until fairly high level, but when it happens, it’s his main trick. Blood of the Martyr and Karmic Retribution let him tank for the whole party, the whole day. Karmic Retribution inconveniences foes on top of that, making Nerian a center of the party’s offense and defense.

Shapeshifter- Oriental Adventures
Silver Pyromancer- Five Nations
Ogre Mage- Monster Manual
Past Life (Cleric)- DMG II
Energy Affinity- Unearthed Arcana
Retributive Spell- Complete Mage
Practiced Spellcaster- Complete Divine
Boar’s Ferocity- Complete Divine
Battle Blessing- Complete Champion
Arcane Thesis- PHB II
Ocular Spell- Lords of Madness
Fiery Spell- Sandstorm
Karmic Aura+Karmic Backlash- Complete Mage
Glory of the Martyr+Blood of the Martyr- Book of Exalted Deeds

[Beni-Kujaku]

With this one as your conscience‚ we cannot guarantee that you won't go around killing unicorns and attacking tabaxis‚ but at least you'll do it efficiently.



General Jiminy
"The tiniest commander”


https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT90HuV96uYTholeQ291hfNXlx-xAziPqCCCw&usqp=CAU

NG Grig Marshal4/Crusader1/Evangelist5/Seeker of the Song 7




Alignment : Neutral Good
ECL 4 : Persuasive, Skill Focus (Diplomacy) (Marshal Bonus), Dodge & Weapon Finesse (Racial Bonus)
ECL 6 : Craft Wondrous Item
ECL 9 : Skill Focus (Perform (Oratory))
ECL 12 : Words of Creation
ECL 15 : Craft Magic Arms and Armor
ECL 18 : Imperious Command



Race : Grig
All increases in Cha
Str 8 -4
Dex 14 +8
Con 14 +2
Int 12
Wis 8 +2
Cha 18 +4




A party of 4 adventurers are on their way to the infamous Ruins of Riches.
Only those whose greed prevails over their safety venture in the woods around this place for it is said that they seldom ever come back.
The few that do speak of an indescribable army guarding the Ruins with a most fearsome leader at their heads.
Our group has paid no heed to these backwater-village talk and trusted their years of experience to keep them from harm.
“How far are we from the Ruins ?” asked the wizard, grimacing as his expensive boots’ leather dampened with every step.
“I smell something” said the Barbarian, as if this answered his teammate’s question.

“Halt travelers, you’re about to venture into the territories of the Mighty Creek Eht without showing the crest of our venerable Shausekeliak. Leave now before anyone gets hurt” a springing cricket-like creature said that seemed to have appeared out of thin air.

After a second of silence, the Barbarian burst out laughing “funny little cricket wants me to leave” hahaHAhaHA. The wizard, being a little more astute than the humongous mass of muscles, said “Hold on Krug, those are Grigs if memory serves and they are pretty tricky to deal with, maybe…”


“WAHAHAHA, puny Al’manis is scared of crickets”, laughed out loud once more and then finally calmed down and said “I’ll show you there’s nothing to fear” and proceeded to step forward.

“Wrong choice” said the grig as it pulled out a fiddle and started playing.

“This is getting ridiculous, said Krug, raising his Double Orc Axe with a smile… that disappeared from his face a split second later.

Dozens of grigs appeared out of nowhere and charged him to the tune of the fiddle.



LevelClassBase Attack BonusFort SaveReflex SaveWill SaveSkillsFeatsClass Features
1stLA +1
2ndLA +2
3rdLA +3
4thMarshal 10202Bluff (+4) 4; Gather Information (+4) 4; Intimidate (+4) 4; Perform (Oratory) (+4) 4; Sense Motive (+4) 4; Persuasive, Skill Focus (Diplomacy) (Mashal Bonus), Dodge & Weapon Finesse (Grig Bonus)Skill Focus (Diplomacy), Minor Aura
5thMarshal 21303Bluff (+1) 5; Gather Information (+1) 5; Intimidate (+1) 5; Perform (Oratory) (+1) 5; Sense Motive (+1) 5; Major Aura (+1)
6thMarshal 32313Bluff (+1) 6; Gather Information 5; Intimidate (+1) 6; Know (Religion) (+2) 2; Perform (Oratory) (+1) 6; Sense Motive 5; Craft Wondrous Item
7thMarshal 43414Bluff (+1) 7; Diplomacy (+1) 1; Gather Information 5; Intimidate 6; Know (Religion) (+2) 4; Perform (Oratory) (+1) 7; Sense Motive 5; Grant Move Action 1/d
8thCrusader 14614Bluff (+2 CC) 8; Diplomacy 1; Gather Information 5; Intimidate (+2) 8; Know (Religion) (+1) 5; Perform (Oratory) 7; Sense Motive 5; Furious Counterstrike, Steely Resolve
9thEvangelist 14616Bluff 8; Diplomacy (+1) 2; Gather Information 5; Intimidate 8; Know (Arcana) (+4) 4; Know (Religion) 5; Perform (Oratory) (+2) 9; Sense Motive 5; Skill Focus (Perform (Oratory))Great Orator (Inspire Dread/Hope)
10thEvangelist 25617Bluff 8; Diplomacy (+1) 3; Gather Information 5; Intimidate 8; Know (Arcana) (+5) 9; Know (Religion) 5; Perform (Oratory) (+1) 10; Sense Motive 5; Fast Talk
11thEvangelist 35727Bluff 8; Diplomacy 3; Gather Information 5; Intimidate (+2) 10; Know (Arcana) (+2) 11; Know (Religion) 5; Perform (Oratory) (+1) 11; Sense Motive 5; Never Outnumbered; Great Orator (Inflame the Righteous)
12thEvangelist 46728Bluff 8; Diplomacy (+1) 4; Gather Information 5; Intimidate (+2) 12; Know (Arcana) (+1) 12; Know (Religion) 5; Perform (Oratory) (+1) 12; Sense Motive 5; Use Magic Device (+2 CC) 1; Never Outnumbered; Words of CreationSkill Mastery
13thEvangelist 56728Bluff 8; Diplomacy (+4) 8; Gather Information 5; Intimidate (+1) 13; Know (Arcana) (+1) 13; Know (Religion) 5; Perform (Oratory) (+1) 13; Sense Motive 5; Use Magic Device 1; Never Outnumbered; Great Orator (Convert the Unfaithful)
14thSeeker of the Song 167210Bluff 8; Diplomacy (+2) 10; Gather Information 5; Intimidate (+2 CC) 14; Know (Arcana) 13; Know (Religion) 5; Perform (Oratory) (+1) 14; Sense Motive 5; Use Magic Device 1; Never Outnumbered; Rapture of the Song (+2 AC), Seeker Music
15thSeeker of the Song 277211Bluff 8; Diplomacy (+2) 12; Gather Information 5; Intimidate (+2 CC) 15; Know (Arcana) 13; Know (Religion) 5; Perform (Oratory) (+1) 15; Sense Motive 5; Use Magic Device 1; Never Outnumbered; Craft Magic Arms and ArmorCombine Songs
16thSeeker of the Song 378311Bluff 8; Diplomacy (+2) 14; Gather Information 5; Intimidate (+2 CC) 16; Know (Arcana) 13; Know (Religion) 5; Perform (Oratory) (+1) 16; Sense Motive 5; Use Magic Device 1; Never Outnumbered;
17thSeeker of the Song 488312Bluff 8; Diplomacy (+2) 16; Gather Information 5; Intimidate (+2 CC) 17; Know (Arcana) 13; Know (Religion) 5; Perform (Oratory) (+1) 17; Sense Motive 5; Use Magic Device 1; Never Outnumbered; Rapture of the Songs (+2 saves)
18thSeeker of the Song 588312Bluff 8; Diplomacy (+2) 18; Gather Information 5; Intimidate (+2 CC) 18; Know (Arcana) 13; Know (Religion) 5; Perform (Oratory) (+1) 18; Sense Motive 5; Use Magic Device 1; Never Outnumbered; Imperious CommandSubvocalize
19thSeeker of the Song 699413Bluff 8; Diplomacy (+1) 19; Gather Information 5; Intimidate (+2 CC) 19; Know (Arcana) 13; Know (Religion) 5; Perform (Oratory) (+1) 19; Sense Motive 5; Use Magic Device (+1 CC) 1.5; Never Outnumbered;
20thSeeker of the Song 799413Bluff 8; Diplomacy (+1) 20; Gather Information 5; Intimidate (+2 CC) 20; Know (Arcana) 13; Know (Religion) 5; Perform (Oratory) (+1) 20; Sense Motive 5; Use Magic Device (+1 CC) 2; Never Outnumbered; Rapture of the Songs (DR 2/-)




A Grig has the same LA according to both WotC and the LA Assignment Thread, is that called “balanced” ?
Let’s find out !
Tiny size means +8 to Hide, +2 to Hits and AC and 0ft reach in melee.
Other goodies include SR 17 and DR5/Cold Iron which means you’re quite the tank at low levels, Dodge and Weapon Finesse as bonus feats let you get into melee do deal 1 damage but mostly probably take the hits for the big folks; AC is 25 (+2 Leather +2 Heavy Shield +6 Dex +2 Nat +1 Dodge +2 Size) which beats regular fighter types at low levels.
You fly albeit with poor maneuverability but flight is basically a have-or-lose at low levels, especially if you have a bow and many arrows.
You have relatively good SLAs at CL9 to boot : Entangle is the most broken one and I don’t see anyone beating a DC 17 easily early game. Invisibility (self only) is great when your +14 Hide isn’t enough (+6 Dex +8 Size). Pyrotechnics, Disguise Self and Ventriloquism are all versatile and fun spells to have around.
Finally, we picked the Fiddle (Su) version of the Grig meaning we can force a DC16 Will save or have every non-sprite be affected by an 8th level Sor/Wiz spell, at ECL 4; that is purely insane.
Grigs are also mentioned to be in Gang (2-4), band (6-11), or tribe (20-80) and we’ll see how this build moves from one to the other as it gains abilities.



The first 4 levels go to the Marshal class. We’re building a leader and it shall have the demeanor of one. Size doesn’t matter.
We get Motivate Charisma as our first Minor Aura, d8 HDs 4+Int skill points, good Fort and Will saves, ¾ Bab, all martial, armor and shield proficiencies (Tower shield excepted, as per usual).
What’s more, we can trade the Handle Animal skill through the Skilled City Dweller ACF for Gather Information and now we have everything we need.
As a second minor aura, we pick Motivate Dexterity since Initiative is key as well as Hide, Move Silently and Tumble checks.
According to Dragon Magic 86, Marshals can pick a Draconic Aura instead of a Major Aura and we’re going for Vigor in order to have an emergency way to stabilize our gang.
Grant Move Action 1/d is very situational but "all of his allies within 30ft" can be optimized as we'll see later.
We top it off with Crusader as our 5th class level because Marshal 5 is as dead a level as it can be and Crusader brings the Bolstering Voice stance which is a 60ft aura of +2 to Will saves (+4 vs fear specifically). As for your 5 maneuvers :
* Mountain Hammer can find its uses even though you don’t have a lot Str ; it’ll take longer but you’ll get through that wall !
* Shield Block lets you protect allies (and cheesily doesn’t care that you’re Tiny),
* Leading the Attack, Crusader’s Strike and Douse the Flames can be used as well to grant allies some edges even though you deal no damage.
Lastly Crusader’s delay pool adds to our tanking ability.

Spotlight starts in this ECL range : Craft Wondrous Item and the standard WBL allows you to craft a Master Fiddle (SS 58). This beauty of an object grants you Bardic Music “as if it were being played by a 9th-level bard”.
As written, “it replaces the normal effects of a grig fiddle with the bardic music abilities” and since “normal effects of a grig fiddle” are at will, I see no reason this should change.
What this all means is, you just got the most interesting abilities of a Bard, at will, at a level that’s beyond your own.
Inspire Courage is +2 out of the box and if you crafted your Badge of Valor it can even be +3. Inspire Greatness is really strong at those levels as well ; +2 HDs, it’s like a 25% increase on life itself.
Let’s not forget the at will DC20 Suggestion and the world of opportunities it opens up.



We enter Evangelist.
This class is great for many reasons. First, it stacks with bard levels to determine the strength of known bard songs meaning you don’t learn new ones but you continue the progression of the ones you do know (we get to Bard 14 equivalent aka Inspire courage +3 and Greatness on 2 allies). Its abilities are fueled by bardic music which we have an unlimited supply of, making it really attractive.
Inspire Dread/Hope is a net +4 (sacred)/-4 on Will saves which can make a big difference given how many SoL are Will-dependent.
Inflame the Righteous gives a divine damage version of Fire Shield (CL10) to all your allies within 30ft
Convert the Unfaithful is basically an at will Charm Monster ability with a duration of days per level (assuming 5 days) at the end of which, they can decide to join the gang for good !
This is how you get from Gang (2-4 grigs) to a massive Tribe (80-100 grigs). What’s more, a 100 grig Tribe would fit in 25 squares and your auras are a minimum of 30ft radius meaning you can Inspire, Motivate, Bolster the entire Tribe !
You also get Skill Mastery for 3 skills (Diplomacy, Intimidate and Bluff) and the ability to rush Diplomacy checks with a -5 penalty.

Now this is when we get Words of Creation.
Not only is this completely fitting for our build, it comes with really good options ; doubling the bonuses from Inspire Courage making it a +6 bonus to melee and damage and Inspire Greatness gives 4 extra HDs to 2 targets now. And since we have somewhat of a crafting build, Words of Creation is useful there too, improving the items we equip our tribesmen with.
Getting your first rank in UMD just to get it trained and let your Cha and aura do the heavy lifting ; this opens up using wands so every 4th level is within grasp (can be used for mass crafting too).


Entering Seeker of the Song opens up a lot of options and even gives some nice bonuses while you perform : +2 AC, +2 to save and DR2/- (I guess it’s nice to have if enemies use Cold Iron).
Fire Resistance 15 with a swift action 6d6 30-foot cone of fire
Cold Resistance 15 with a swift action 10d6 60-foot line of cold that fatigues on failed saves
Electricity Resistance 15 with a swift action 10d6 electricity 20ft ray that can arc twice more
Acid Resistance 15 with a swift action 10d6 acid 60ft ray that deals another 10d6 next turn
Other utilities include an area of up to 7d8 untyped damage to constructs in a 30ft burst, a poison and disease immunity with swift+std actions healing for Perform check HPs and a caster shutdown area ; force a Concentration check DC = Perform Check with a swift action area dispel magic.
The Combine Songs class feature lets you have 2 Bardic/Seeker Songs ongoing at once which is a pretty sweet deal and Subvocalize should answer the “why oh why didn’t he pick Song of the White Raven ?!” question you were asking yourself.

Featwise, we get Craft Arms and Armor because we have to equip that army of ours (small Words of Creation synergy is appreciated).

By the end of the build, you have 26 Charisma and the ability to craft a +6 Cha item, which means a +11 modifier, as well as a Circlet of Persuasion meaning any Cha based skill check has +25 (+11 Cha +11 Motivate Cha +3 Circlet) :
* Bluff is 45 (8 ranks +25 +2 Persuasive +take 10)
* Intimidate is 64 (20 ranks +25 +2 synergy +2 Persuasive +5 Fearsome enhancement +take 10) making our Imperious Command/Never Outnumbered combo pretty decent (+52 vs Large opponents).
* Perform is 1d20+50 (20 ranks +25 +3 Skill Focus +2 Songblade)
* Diplomacy is 57 as a rushed check (20+11+11+3+3 +4 synergies +take 10 -5 Fast Talk) makes Hostile people Friendly in one full round action.
Those last 2 skills can turn your tribesmen into Fanatics.
This means +2 morale bonus to Str and Dex, +1 Will for -1 to AC as an (Ex) effect for 12
days ! (This explicitly stack with Inspire Courage since it’s ability boni and not attack bonus)
* Hide is +25 (+8 Tiny +6 Dex +11 Motivate Dexterity), Move Silently +22 in forest areas.

Let’s not forget all your fanatic tribesmen get +11 to Cha and Dex based checks (including Initiative checks).




Your social skills let you find people to cast the necessary spells for you or simply buy the casting services or wands you need (UMD is your friend).

- Master Fiddle (SS 58) : THE cornerstone of the build, thankfully you can build it for yourself.

- Circlet of Persuasion +3 to all Cha checks is always welcomed

- Cloak of Charisma +6 (and then a Belt of Magnificence because why not)

- Regalia of the Hero set :
* Badge of Valor 3/d Increase Inspire Courage bonus by 1 or grants +2 on saves against charm/fear
* Helm of Tactics : 3/d allies deal +2 damage against flanked foes (which none of your tribe can do), or increase effect of minor aura by 1.
* Horn of Resilience : 2/d, allies gain DR 5/—, or increase effect of major aura by 1, or grant
additional 50 temporary hp with Inspire Greatness.
Synergy : both 1/d grant nearby ally +5 on attack, save, or skill check and basically doubles the uses of “Grant move action” Marshal class ability

Useful enhancements
You could theoretically wear a +5 Mithral Mechanus Gear of Nimbleness but according to the Reinforced Wings feat, creatures can’t fly in medium or heavy armor so we’ll stick to +5 Mithral Shirts.
You can go nuts on shields though.
* Fearsome (DotU 97) : Imperious Command/Never Outnumbered combo as a move action and +5 to Intimidate ? yes please
* Inspiration (https://web.archive.org/web/20150920080952/http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20070618a&page=4)(web) : Heraldic Crest is DM dependent but can let you double the range of your auras meaning you can include other tribes !
* Harmonizing (MIC 35) : Great because Evangelist and Seeker abilities are not “Bardic Music” so you can have your Inspire Courage last while you use your other abilities. If your DM rule Combine Song works you can even have IC and IG being maintained !
* Warning (MIC 46) : +5 to Initiative is good even if you’re probably already winning.

Other cool stuff :
* Commander (MIC 9) : +2 competence to Diplomacy and +1 morale on Will saves (same as Inspire Courage) and really fitting.
* Songblade (CAd 130) : +2 enhancement bonus to Perform, good base for Harmonizing and really fitting thematically.
* (DMGII 274). You’re a fey so you can craft it. You don’t need it according to the MM errata since Grigs have Weapon Finesse as a bonus feat but it’s also a way to reduce weight.
* Vest of Legends (DMGII 272) could work in order to use your fiddle as a 19th level bard which would mean Inspire Greatness can target 4 allies.
* Slippers of Battledancing (DMGII 272) can make you fearsome in melee but I doubt your cricket legs can wear them.



I would have loved to pick 2 levels of Dragon Shaman to get Skill Focus (Perform) but that would have meant going “homebrew” since, you see, Sorcerers’ Dragon Heritage are allowed to go outside of the MM to find their Heritage but the same is denied to DS.
A Battle Dragon Shaman would have been awesome.
Even a Diplomacy one would have been able to be exchanged for the Marshal feat but nooooooo !

- Bonus stacking : Marshal’s aura is a circumstance bonus so masterwork tool is out but Circlet of Persuasion and the Fearsome enhancement are ok.

- Being tiny means you have half the light load of a 4 Str medium creature. But since armor and weapons are 1/10th the weight, you’re still winning compared to medium creatures ; you could wear a Full plate as a light load (5 out of 6 lbs) while they couldn’t even wear it since it exceeds their heavy load (50 out of 40 lbs). You rock.

- I see a world where Words of Creation applies to both Evangelist and Seeker of the Song bard music-like abilities. It’s a wonderful world.



SRD - Grig, Bardic Musics, feats
MIC, DotU, CAd, Web - Armors, Weapons, Enhancements
SS - Master Fiddle
BoED - Words of Creation
CD - Evangelist
CAr - Seeker of the Song
ToB - Crusaders, Stance and Maneuvers
MH - Marshal
DM - Draconic Auras

[Beni-Kujaku]

Horrible Undead composed of equal parts darkness and absolute evil? No‚ not really. More like a stealthy fairy with a sword.


“Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee”
Nightshade
LG Petal OA Samurai 1/Crusader 1/Fighter 2/Samurai +1/Swordsage 1/Master Thrower 1/Crusader +1/Iaijutsu Master 5/Devoted Defender 2/Exemplar 1/Marshall 2

Abilities Initial Race / Template 6th 10th 14th 18th
STR 14 -8
DEX 12 10
CON 10 4
INT 12 6
WIS 8
CHA 18 8 1 1 1 1

Level Class Base Attack Bonus Fort Save Reflex Save Will Save Skills Feats Class Features
3rd Petal OA Skilled City Dweller Samurai 1 1 2 0 2 Iaijutsu Focus 4 (+4), Diplomacy 4 (+4), Tumble 4 (+4), Climb 4 (+4), Sense Motive 4 (+4), Sleight of Hand 2 (+2) CC, Perform (Tea Ceremony) 4 (+4), Craft (Flower Arranging) 4(+4), Point Blank Shot, Weapon Finesse (B) Ancestral Daisho, DR/Cold Iron, Sleep Songs,
4th Skilled City Dweller Crusader 1 2 4 0 2 Iaijutsu Focus 5 (+1) CC, Diplomacy 5 (+1), Tumble 5 (+1), Climb 4, Sense Motive 4, Spot 1/2 (+1/2) CC, Sleight of Hand 2, Perform (Tea Ceremony) 5 (+1) CC, Craft (Flower Arranging) 5(+1), - Furious Counterstrike, Steely Resolve
5th Skiled City Dweller Hit and Run Tactics Fighter 1 3 6 0 2 Iaijutsu Focus 6 (+1) CC, Diplomacy 5, Tumble 6 (+1), Climb 4, Sense Motive 4, Spot 1 (+1/2) CC, Sleight of Hand 2, Perform (Tea Ceremony) 5 1/2 (+1/2) CC, Craft (Flower Arranging) 6 (+1), Alertness, Precise Shot (B) Hit-and-Run Tactics
6th Fighter 2 4 7 0 2 Iaijutsu Focus 7 (+1) CC, Diplomacy 5, Tumble 7 (+1), Climb 4, Sense Motive 4, Spot 1 1/2 (+1/2) CC, Sleight of Hand 2, Perform (Tea Ceremony) 6 (+1/2) CC, Craft (Flower Arranging) 7 (+1), Combat Reflexes (B)
7th Samurai 2 5 8 0 3 Iaijutsu Focus 8 (+1), Diplomacy 7 (+2), Tumble 8 (+1), Climb 4, Sense Motive 4, Spot 2 (+1/2) CC, Sleight of Hand 2, Perform (Tea Ceremony) 8 (+2), Craft (Flower Arranging) 8 (+1), Improved Initiatve (B)
8th Swordsage 1 5 8 2 5 Iaijutsu Focus 9 (+1) CC, Diplomacy 7, Tumble 8, Climb 4, Sense Motive 4, Spot 2, Sleight of Hand 4 (+2) CC, Perform (Tea Ceremony) 8, Craft (Flower Arranging) 8, Concentration 2 (+2) Close Quarters Fighting, Weapon Focus (Diamond Mind Weapons) (B) Quick to Act +1, Discipline Focus (Diamond Mind)
9th Master Thrower 1 6 8 4 5 Iaijutsu Focus 10 (+1) CC, Diplomacy 7, Tumble 8, Climb 4, Sense Motive 4, Spot 2, Sleight of Hand 7 (+3), Perform (Tea Ceremony) 10 (+2), Craft (Flower Arranging) 10 (+2), Concentration 2 Quick Draw (B) Thrown Weapon Trick (Palm Throw)
10th Crusader 2 7 9 4 5 Iaijutsu Focus 11 (+1) CC, Diplomacy 7, Tumble 8, Climb 4, Sense Motive 4, Spot 2, Sleight of Hand 7, Perform (Tea Ceremony) 10, Craft (Flower Arranging) 11 (+1), Sleight of Hand 7, Concentration 7 (+5) - Indominitable Soul
11th Iaijutsu Master 1 8 9 6 5 Iaijutsu Focus 12 (+1), Diplomacy 7, Tumble 12 (+4), Climb 4, Sense Motive 4, Spot 2, Sleight of Hand 7, Perform (Tea Ceremony) 12 (+2), Craft (Flower Arranging) 12 (+1), Sleight of Hand 7, Concentration 7 Underfoot Combat Katana Finesse, Canny Defense
12th Iaijutsu Master 2 9 9 7 5 Iaijutsu Focus 13 (+1), Diplomacy 7, Tumble 13 (+1), Climb 4,Sense Motive 4, Spot 2, Sleight of Hand 7, Perform (Tea Ceremony) 13 (+1), Craft (Flower Arranging) 13 (+1), Sleight of Hand 7, Concentration 11 (+4) - Lightning Blade
13th Iaijutsu Master 3 10 10 7 6 Iaijutsu Focus 14 (+1), Diplomacy 8 (+1), Tumble 14 (+1), Climb 4, Sense Motive 4, Spot 2, Sleight of Hand 7, Perform (Tea Ceremony) 14 (+1), Craft (Flower Arranging) 14 (+1), Sleight of Hand 7, Concentration 14 (+3) -
14th Iaijutsu Master 4 11 10 8 6 Iaijutsu Focus 15 (+1), Diplomacy 8, Tumble 15 (+1), Climb 4, Sense Motive 4, Spot 4 (+2) CC, Sleight of Hand 7, Perform (Tea Ceremony) 14, Craft (Flower Arranging) 14, Sleight of Hand 7, Concentration 14, Search 2 (+2) CC Confound the Big Folk, Skill Focus (Iaijutsu Focus) (B)
15th Iaijutsu Master 5 12 10 8 6 Iaijutsu Focus 16 (+1), Diplomacy 8, Tumble 16 (+1), Climb 4, Sense Motive 4, Spot 4, Sleight of Hand 7, Perform (Tea Ceremony) 14, Craft (Flower Arranging) 14, Sleight of Hand 7, Concentration 14, Search 4 (+2) CC - Strike from the Void
16th Devoted Defender 1 13 12 10 6 Iaijutsu Focus 17 (+1) CC, Diplomacy 9 (+1) CC, Tumble 16, Climb 5 (+1), Sense Motive 5 (+1), Spot 4, Sleight of Hand 7, Perform (Tea Ceremony) 14, Craft (Flower Arranging) 14, Sleight of Hand 7, Concentration 14, Search 4 - Harm's Way, AC bonus
17th Devoted Defender 2 14 13 11 6 Iaijutsu Focus 18 (+1) CC, Diplomacy 10 (+1) CC, Tumble 16, Climb 7 (+2), Sense Motive 5, Spot 4, Sleight of Hand 7, Perform (Tea Ceremony) 14, Craft (Flower Arranging) 14, Sleight of Hand 7, Concentration 14, Search 4 Mercurial Strike Defensive Strike
18th Exemplar 1 14 13 11 8 Iaijutsu Focus 19 (+1), Diplomacy 16 (+6), Tumble 16, Climb 7, Sense Motive 5 , Spot 4, Sleight of Hand 7, Perform (Tea Ceremony) 14, Craft (Flower Arranging) 14, Sleight of Hand 7, Concentration 19 (+5), Search 4 - Skill artistry (Iaijutsu Focus), Skill mastery (Iaijutsu Focus, Tumble, Climb, Diplomacy, Concentration)
19th Marshall 1 14 15 11 10 Iaijutsu Focus 20 (+1) CC, Diplomacy 20 (+4), Tumble 16, Climb 7, Sense Motive 5 , Spot 4, Sleight of Hand 7, Perform (Tea Ceremony) 14, Craft (Flower Arranging) 14, Sleight of Hand 7, Concentration 19, Search 4, Rhetorical Flourish Skill Focus (Diplomacy) (B) Minor Aura (Motivate Charisma)
20th Marshall 2 15 16 11 11 Iaijutsu Focus 21 (+1) CC, Diplomacy 21 (+1), Tumble 16, Climb 7, Sense Motive 5 , Spot 4, Sleight of Hand 7, Perform (Tea Ceremony) 19 (+5), Craft (Flower Arranging) 14, Sleight of Hand 7, Concentration 19, Search 4, Rhetorical Flourish Giantbane Major Aura +1 (Motivate Care)

Level Class Crusader Maneuvers Known Crusader Maneuvers Readied and Granted Crusader Stances Swordsage Maneuvers Known Swordsage Maneuvers Readied Swordsage Stances
3rd Samurai 1
4th Crusader 1 Douse the Flames, Leading the Attack, Crusader's Strike, Vanguard Strike, Stone Bones 5 (2) Iron Guard's Glare
5th Fighter 1
6th Fighter 2
7th Samurai 2
8th Swordsage 1 Moment of Perfect Mind (R), Saphire Nightmare Blade (R), Action Before Thought, (R) Emerald Razor, Wolf Fang Strike (R), Sudden Leap 4 Flame's Blessing
9th Master Thrower 1
10th Crusader 2 Thicket of Blades
11th Iaijutsu Master 1
12th Iaijutsu Master 2
13th Iaijutsu Master 3
14th Iaijutsu Master 4
15th Iaijutsu Master 5
16th Devoted Defender 1
17th Devoted Defender 2
18th Exemplar 1
19th Marshall 1
20th Marshall 2


Nightshade begins her career as a samurai without too much damage dealing capacity. Her high dex, free weapon finesse and size make her accurate and quick to react, allowing her to deal some damage with Iaijutsu thrown daggers on the first turn. Outside of combat, her high diplomacy makes her a solid face. The next couple of levels boost Nightshade’s offense, though her social skills lag behind a bit. Iron Guard’s Glare makes it harder for enemies to attack Nightshade’s allies, forcing them to contend with her decent hitpoints, high AC, damage reduction and crusader abilities. She generally uses a shield and leather armor to complement her high dex. Her offense is augmented slightly by maneuvers, but she still struggles to land melee attacks against medium or smaller opponents due to her tiny size. With her first level of fighter, Hit and Run tactics increase her odds of landing Iaijutsu and give her a solid damage boost and Precise Shot helps keep her accuracy high even once her allies are in melee. Now her first round damage is about 1d2-2+6+4d6, not great, but not terrible. More fighter is mostly there to fill out pre-reqs, as right now combat reflexes do little for Nightshade.


Another level of Samurai gives Nightshade improved initiative, bringing her modifier up to +12 and making it quite rare for her to lose to the bad guys. Swordsage is next after Samurai, and while a dip in swordsage is extremely common, it gives Nightshade a better benefit than normal. 3 of her prestige classes require weapon focus and Diamond Mind provides weapon focus in Katana (for Iaijutsu Master), Shortspear and Trident (for master thrower), and Rapier (which doesn't really do anything). All four of these are also melee weapons for Devoted Defender. Pre-reqs aside, Swordsage is hardly bad for Nightshade’s power. The Diamond Mind counters are a nice defensive buff, and improve much faster than saves, and Sapphire Nightmare Blade and Emerald Razor help Nightshade’s offense by making it easier to land Iaijutsu Focus and hit, respectively. Master Thrower is a huge offensive boost for Nightshade, moving her attacks per round from 1 to 4. Using daggers with Iaijutsu Focus and Palm Throw on the first round averages around twenty damage per hit, and potentially four hits, finally making Nightshade more of an offensive threat. The next level is Crusader, which gives two important things to Nightshade, one is Thicket of Blades, which gives her the opportunity to often land attacks of opportunity against opponents. Right now, her AoOs do very little damage, but Thicket of Blades is involved in several other combos. Indomitable Soul is a huge boost to Nightshades’ will save, previously her weakest. This helps make Nightshade defensively extremely solid and an annoying foe, with her high maneuverability.

Throughout this section, Nightshade is taking levels in Iaijutsu master. The first level gives her Canny Defense, Katana Finesse, and Underfoot Combat. This makes Nightshade’s primary tactic to go in close after the first round, usually entering an opponent’s square with her katana for the big AC boost. Sometimes, she’ll also hang out in an allies square while using her thrown weapons. Next level Nightshade picks up lightning blade, another extreme boost to initiative. Right now it is about +20, and it caps out at +22 by 18th level. The next level is dead, but 15th level brings two things. First is free Skill Focus in Iaijutsu Focus, helping Nightshade qualify for exemplar. Next, however, is much more important. Confound the Big Folk is hugely helpful for Nightshade. Underfoot defense, its second maneuver, is fun and useful against mobs of melee creatures, but Kneestriker is absolutely huge. Automatically making opponents flat footed after the first round is huge, and it significantly buffs Nightshade’s damage. Fifteenth level brings Strike from the Void. This brings Nightshade’s damage to ridiculous levels with her +9 charisma, her damage per round can reach a few hundred.


This section is where most of Nightshade’s teamwork abilities come in. First off is Harm’s Way, allowing Nightshade to protect her teammates much more effectively. Next level is another important combo-Mercurial Strike+Defensive Strike. These two allow Nightshade to make attacks of opportunity against any opponent that attacks her charge in melee. Nightshade works best with another melee combatant to use this ability, and though she can only make the AOO against an opponent whose space she occupies, she almost always will be in the most threatening opponent’s space between Underfoot Combat and Confound the Big Folk. Now that this combo is online, Nightshade will generally start combat with a few thrown weapons at less threatening foes, and then a flight into the largest opponent’s space. Then she uses more close range thrown daggers to take advantage of Palm Throw and take down her current foe before moving on to anyone else. Thicket of Blades ensures that anyone who tries to run away from her also gets hit with an attack of opportunity, meaning that enemies near Nightshade have basically no choice but to attack her if they don’t want to be hurt by her attacks of opportunity. After Devoted Defender is a level in Exemplar to get skill mastery in Nightshade’s most important skills. This doesn’t change her tactics much, just gives her higher numbers. Next is Marshall, whose auras help allies who stay close to Nightshade. Between Motivate Charisma, Skill Mastery, free Skill Focus from Marshall, Rhetorical Flourish, super high charisma and a bunch of ranks, Nightshade can also use diplomacy in combat with 100% efficiency, sort of a side note to being able to hit DC 50 Iaijutsu checks reliably. Last level is Marshall, giving a slight defensive boost to Nightshade and her allies. Giantbane also gives her Climb Aboard which she uses to stay on large foes and prevent them from running away.


Before Nightshade was born, her parents were captured by an oni. Nightshade grew up in captivity, being forced by the oni to perform for them, along with her parents. When Nightshade was six her father and mother were killed by disease while still imprisoned. After her parent’s death, Nightshade tried to break free several times, but never managed it. Finally, after several years, a roving samurai of the Crane clan slew the Oni, freeing Nightshade. The old samurai had no children of his own, and as Nightshade was an orphan, he decided to raise her. Nightshade grew up idolizing the noble samurai, and after the old man died, Nightshade sought training to become a Samurai in honor of her adopted father. The samurai bequeathed his Daisho to her, as he lacked an heir, but despite this, the first several academies she sought to join would not accept her. Finally the Kakita academy, recognizing her claim to Crane heritage and skill with the wakizashi, wielded in two hands, as well as her extremely persistent manner of applying for entry- hovering outside the entrance and threatening to cry.
Once accepted, Nightshade proved to have a natural grasp of Iaijutsu, but her inability to carry a katana proved troublesome. Nightshade was the best in her class with the wakizashi, but time and time again, her classmates bested her in training bouts with their katanas. Eventually, the master of the academy told Nightshade that she had advanced as far as she could with just the wakizashi and daggers. He told her that she had to leave until she had at least some skill with the katana. A silver lining, however, was that she was invited to the elite school of the Iaijutsu Masters once she could wield the katana with skill. No amount of whining could save Nightshade this time, so she left to practice with the katana. Nightshade journeyed throughout the land searching for monsters to fight. Nightshade had little success until she met a traveling ninja who threw shurikens faster than the fastest samurai at Kakita could draw their katana. The two briefly allied to fight oni. During their battle, the ninja recognized Nightshade’s good heart, despite her rather childish nature, and when he left, he left behind a manual of techniques that showed Nightshade how to use the palm throw. She practiced for the better part of a year before mastering the throw, and at the end of her study realized a way to use her adopted father’s daisho. She paid a smith to reforge the weapons to Nightshade’s size. Now she was able to wield the wakizashi in one hand and the katana in two, just like the other Kakita samurai. On her way back to Kakita academy, Nightshade wondered why it had taken so long to figure it out that reforging her swords made sense.
Once she was accepted back into the academy, she rocketed up the ranks in record time. She finished the main course in three years, around the same time as her classmates who had gone straight in from the first level of Kakita. Nightshade originally intended to finish the full course, but several high ranking servants of the clan leader sought her services as a bodyguard that could remain unnoticed and strike deadlily. Nightshade served for several years, but was passed over for promotion several times. Finally, when a group of assassins hired by another clan penetrated the Crane’s defenses, making their way nearly to the final room. They overlooked Nightshade, however, assuming she wasn’t a threat and sending only one of their number to kill her. She slew the assassin sent to defeat her with one blow and then followed the others to Crane's daimyo. There, she slew six ninjas within seconds and then as the last of the ninjas prepared to deliver the final blow, she intercepted the strike, parrying with her katana and counterattacking and slaying the ninja. Without Nightshade’s heroism, the Crane would have been destroyed, but even with her, the Crane lost a dozen high ranking Samurai and several generals. The high turnover and her heroics propelled Nightshade up the ranks, allowing her to become a general. At first, her inexperience made her struggle, but eventually her bravery and persistence made her popular among her troops. After years of campaigning, Nightshade and her soldiers became legends for their skill and determination, and Nightshade’s prowess was the most famous of all. The group’s legendary credo was to float like butterflies and to sting like bees.


PHB- Anything not cited elsewhere
Oriental Adventures- Samurai, Iaijutsu Focus, Iaijutsu Master
Tome of Battle- Swordsage, Crusader, various Maneuvers
Sword and Fist- Devoted Defender
Complete Warrior- Master Thrower, Giantbane
Races of the Wild- Underfoot Combat, Confound the Big Folk
Dragon Compendium- Mercurial Strike
Complete Adventurer- Exemplar
Miniatures Handbook- Marshall
Drow of the Underdark- Hit and Run Fighter
Complete Scoundrel- Rhetorical Flourish
Monster Manual III- Petal

[Beni-Kujaku]

"I LOoVve yoOUuU MmoOmMMmyY...!"



Child of Twilight

https://i.imgur.com/QMC2EP5.png

CG female Unholy scionHoH (LA +3) Lesser aasimarPGtF fetus
WarlockCArc 3/Cleric 1/Sha’irDrComp 2/Prestige Paladin of FreedomUA 3/Beloved of ValarianBoED 1/Eldritch DiscipleCM 4/Eldritch TheurgeCM 3


An unholy scion “has full access to their mental abilities, skills and spell-like abilities” even in utero. I’m interpreting this to mean that it works something like an intelligent item or graft:

No physical ability scores.
Not entirely a creature, but counts as a native outsider when relevant (like how intelligent items sometimes count as constructs).
Cannot be targeted separately from the mother (could be targeted by mind-affecting effects, but it’s immune), and her body blocks line of effect in both directions. Can touch its mother for the purpose of using lay on hands etc.
Dies if the mother dies.
If the mother is polymorphed into something which can’t support the pregnancy, will merge into her body like equipment.

Aasimars typically come from non-aasimar parents, giving some flexibility as to our mother’s race. It also balances out the fiendish corruption to explain how an unholy scion managed to be exalted. And the stats work for this build, too.

We have Vow of Poverty and I swear this is an actually valid use case, since it's nigh-impossible for an unborn fetus to use their wealth in any way (not even a Ritual of AlignmentSav to get rid of that pesky evil subtype). We also benefit from the bonus exalted feats, since they help meet the prereqs for Beloved of Valarian.

The fetus's ability to have their mother deliver SLAs for them makes warlock an obvious choice, but there's a few other tricks in here as well.

ECL 5: Only two character levels, but we're not that far off granting mom the abilities of a 5th level warlock, with unholy scion's charm person SLA standing in for an extra invocation. Our eldritch blast is a die and a half behind, but she likely has her own offensive options. We're not a heavy baby, if anything mom feels more nimble and evasive than ever.

ECL 10: We can cast 1st level cleric and sha'ir spells, though we're limited to using them to buff/heal mom and our familiar. Fortunately the spells we can prepare aren't fixed, so we can tailor them to her abilities. Or we can just tell our familiar to obey mom and let her shop for whatever spells she wants. Major image is nice utility and can also be used as a means of communication with the outside world.

ECL 15: Our unicorn from Beloved of Valarian has arrived, and as long as it sticks around we stop aging, becoming a permanent resident in mom's belly. We can also communicate with it telepathically, making it a handy interpreter. Unfortunately it refuses to be ridden by a pregnant woman, but fortunately we have a second magic horse from paladin levels and it agreed to carry mom around. Vow of Nonviolence boosts our already-high save DCs even further (making our baleful polymorph and dominate person SLAs very dangerous), and arguably we bypass some of its restrictions by letting mom channel our SLAs for us (as long as she doesn't kill anyone). We also offer her a bunch of potent buffs, including divine grace +9 (and an extra +4 vs fear), a +2 draconic aura, and true seeing. And finally we can use Lay on Hands to heal her wounds for 50 HP/day.

ECL 20: We can cast gate without components, game over. But aside from that, we can now cast area spells freely by having mom deliver them through a spellblast, or use healing eldritch glaive to potentially heal 20d6 damage per turn (higher, if items like a chasuble of fell power work when worn by mom). And we have Vow of Peace generating an aura of calm emotions with a high DC against foes who get too close.




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


1st
Warlock 1
+0
+0
+0
+2
7x4: Concentration 4, Knowledge (arcana) 4, Knowledge (nature) 2CC,Knowledge (nobility and royalty) 2CC, Knowledge (religion) 4, Knowledge (the planes) 4, Ride 2CC
Sacred VowBoED
Str -, Dex -, Con -, Int 20, Wis 20, Cha 24
(32pt buy = Str 8, Dex 8, Con 8, Int 14, Wis 16, Cha 18)
Eldritch Blast 1d6
Warlock invocations (CL 1st)
Unholy Scion SLAs: charm person 3/day
Least Invocation: Leaps and Bounds


2nd
Warlock 2
+1
+0
+0
+3
7: Concentration 5 (+1), Knowledge (arcana) 5 (+1), Knowledge (religion) 5 (+1), Knowledge (the planes) 5 (+1), Spellcraft 3
-
Detect magic
Warlock invocations (CL 2nd)
Least Invocation: Entropic Warding


3rd
Warlock 3
+2
+1
+1
+3
7: Knowledge (arcana) 6 (+1), Knowledge (nature) 3 (+1CC) Knowledge (religion) 6 (+1), Knowledge (the planes) 6 (+1), Ride 3 (+1CC)
Vow of PovertyBoED
DR 1/cold iron
Eldritch Blast 2d6
Warlock invocations (CL 3rd)
Unholy Scion SLAs: desecrate 1/day


4th
Sha'ir 1
+2
+1
+1
+4
8: Concentration 7 (+2), Knowledge (arcana) 7 (+1), Knowledge (the planes) 7 (+1), Knowledge (religion) 7 (+1), Spellcraft 6 (+3)
VoP: Nymph's KissBoED
Milestone: Cha +1
Str -, Dex -, Con -, Int 20, Wis 20, Cha 25
Summon Gen Familiar
Sha'ir spellcasting (1st)


5th
Sha'ir 2
+3
+1
+1
+4
8: Concentration 8 (+1), Knowledge (arcana) 8 (+1), Knowledge (nature) 4 (+1CC), Knowledge (religion) 8 (+1), Knowledge (the planes) 8 (+1), Ride 4 (+1CC)
-
Sha'ir spellcasting (2nd)
Unholy Scion SLAs: enervation 1/day, protection from good 3/day


6th
Cleric 1
+4
+4
+2
+5
8: Concentration 9 (+1), Knowledge (arcana) 9 (+1), Knowledge (history) 4, Knowledge (religion) 9 (+1), Knowledge (the planes) 9 (+1)
Mounted Combat
VoP: Vow of ChastityBoED
Turn Undead
Cleric spellcasting (1st)
CharmSpC domain (1/day gain +4 Cha for 1 minute)
FamilySpC domain (1/day grant +4 AC to allies for 1 round/cleric level, ends if they move more than 10ft away)


7th
Prestige Paladin of Freedom 1
+5
+4
+2
+5
8: Knowledge (nature) 5 (+1CC), Knowledge (religion) 10 (+1), Ride 9 (+5)
VoP: Ability Score Enhancement (Cha +2)
Str -, Dex -, Con -, Int 20, Wis 20, Cha 27
Detect evil
Smite Evil 1/day
Sha'ir spellcasting (3rd)
Unholy Scion SLAs: major image 3/day, poison 3/day


8th
Prestige Paladin of Freedom 2
+6
+5
+2
+5
8: Concentration 11 (+3), Knowledge (nobility and royalty) 5 (+3) Knowledge (religion) 11 (+1), Ride 10 (+1)
VoP: Gift of GraceBoED
Milestone: Cha +1
Str -, Dex -, Con -, Int 20, Wis 20, Cha 28
Divine Grace
Lay on Hands (Cha x [class level +3])
Special Mount (class level +3)


9th
Prestige Paladin of Freedom 3
+7
+5
+3
+6
8: Concentration 12 (+1), Knowledge (nobility and royalty) 11 (+6) Knowledge (religion) 12 (+1)
DragontouchedDrM
Aura of Courage
Divine Health
Sha'ir spellcasting (4th)
Unholy Scion SLAs: dominate person 1/day, baleful polymorph 1/day


10th
Beloved of Valarian 1
+8
+6
+3
+6
8: Concentration 13 (+1), Knowledge (nature) 12 (+7)
VoP: Hands of a HealerBoED
Call Unicorn
Telepathic Bond
Timelessness
BoV spellcasting (1st)


11th
Eldritch Theurge 1
+8
+6
+3
+6
8: Knowledge (arcana) 14 (+5), Knowledge (religion) 14 (+2), Knowledge (the planes) 10 (+1)
VoP: Ability Score Enhancement (Wis +2/Cha +4)
Str -, Dex -, Con -, Int 20, Wis 22, Cha 28
DR 1/cold iron
Sha'ir spellcasting (5th)
Warlock invocations (4th)
Unholy Scion SLAs: animate dead 1/day, true seeing 3/day
Least Invocation: Eldritch Glaive


12th
Eldritch Theurge 2
+9
+6
+4
+7
8: Concentration 14 (+1), Knowledge (arcana) 15 (+1), Knowledge (religion) 15 (+1), Knowledge (the planes) 15 (+5)
Draconic AuraDrM
VoP: Vow of NonviolenceBoED
Milestone: Cha +1
Str -, Dex -, Con -, Int 20, Wis 22, Cha 29
Fiendish Resilience 1
Sha'ir spellcasting (6th)
Warlock invocations (5th)


13th
Eldritch Theurge 3
+10
+7
+4
+7
8: Concentration 16 (+2), Knowledge (arcana) 16 (+1), Knowledge (religion) 16 (+1), Knowledge (the planes) 16 (+1), Spellcraft 9 (+3)
-
Spellblast
Sha'ir spellcasting (7th)
Warlock invocations (CL 6th)
Unholy Scion SLAs: unholy aura 3/day, unhallow 1/day
Lesser Invocation: Curse of Despair


14th
Eldritch Disciple 1
+11
+7
+4
+8
8: Concentration 17 (+1), Knowledge (arcana) 17 (+1), Knowledge (religion) 17 (+1), Knowledge (the planes) 17 (+1), Spellcraft 13 (+4)
VoP: Vow of PeaceBoED
Gift of the Divine Patron (healing blast)
Warlock invocations (7th)


15th
Eldritch Disciple 2
+11
+8
+5
+8
9: Concentration 18 (+1), Knowledge (arcana) 18 (+1), Knowledge (religion) 18 (+1), Knowledge (the planes) 18 (+1), Spellcraft 18 (+5)
Practiced SpellcasterCArc (warlock)
VoP: Ability Score Enhancement (Int +2/Wis +4/Cha +6)
Str -, Dex -, Con -, Int 22, Wis 24, Cha 31
Sha'ir spellcasting (8th)
Warlock invocations (8th +4 CL)
Unholy Scion SLAs: harm 1/day
Lesser Invocation: Flee the Scene


16th
Eldritch Disciple 3
+12
+8
+5
+9
9: Concentration 19 (+1), Knowledge (arcana) 19 (+1), Knowledge (nature) 16 (+4), Knowledge (religion) 19 (+1), Knowledge (the planes) 19 (+1), Spellcraft 19 (+1)
VoP: Knight of Tyr's Merciful SwordCoV
Milestone: Cha +1
Str -, Dex -, Con -, Int 22, Wis 24, Cha 32
Sha'ir spellcasting (9th)
Warlock invocations (9th +4 CL)


17th
Eldritch Disciple 4
+13
+9
+5
+9
9: Concentration 20 (+1), Knowledge (arcana) 20 (+1), Knowledge (nature) 20 (+4), Knowledge (religion) 20 (+1), Knowledge (the planes) 20 (+1), Spellcraft 20 (+1)
-
Gift of the Divine Patron (protective aura)
Sha'ir spellcasting (10th)
Warlock invocations (10th +4 CL)
Unholy Scion SLAs: gate 1/day
Lesser Invocation: Walk Unseen




The Divine Spirit paladin ACF from Dungeonscape would work well here (do we really need a gen familiar, a special mount and a unicorn?), but it specifies 5th level so it’s probably not legal with prestige paladin.

The Celestia planar domainSpC (counts as both domains) can give us a 1/day aura of menace with penalties that are impossible to end early (since that requires you to attack the source of the aura directly). It requires us to be lawful good however, while eldritch disciple requires us to be chaotic or evil. We could also pick up a continuous aura of menace (and an alternate source of aura of courage) from a 1-level dip in the Enlightened SpiritCM PrC.

Granting mom the fell flight invocation would be nice... but if uses our speed rather than hers then it’s useless. Hideous blow is also more viable than usual here as an alternative to eldritch glaive, since using it won’t provoke AoOs.

Alternate Unholy Scion build: it would require the Human HeritageRoD feat, but a daelkyr halfbloodMoE develops its personal symbiont while in the womb, so if you pick spellwurm you now have a roommate who casts as a 5th level sorcerer.

If you’re pregnant with a baby that has the Divine Health class feature, do the holy antibodies flow back into your body and protect you from disease too?

[Beni-Kujaku]

And here we have it‚ folks! 10 entries for your reading and judging pleasure. A new record for this competition! I also received an unformatted build stub‚ if you want to read it:


Nhom-nhom: NE sentry ooze gelatinous cube,
dread necromancer 7/ tainted sorcerer 6


In a common dungeon of a crazy mage, a simple gelatinous cube was created to guard and clean the library. So the mage give to thee ooze, inteligence to distinguish the books and things that can be consumed or not. The ooze was quitely livin her simple live until one day, adventurers invade the room fighting the mage, Nhom-nhom see a breach on the library wall and hide herself for security.
The fight ended and the mage is now Dead, and a foul odor and black purulent blood from her dead corpse soiled the room. When was secure, nhom-nhom turn of from his secure place and do what she do... clean(eating) the rests of her old master.
When he did it, all corrupition and vilennes of the dead body, maculate and desecrate her "soul?" And now the ooze was tainted in mind and body and soul and.. wathever..
Want to have power for vengeance, he studied the arcane books at the library for years and become a dread necromancer, her depravity escalates until dungerous levels and now, he devoted his time to worship a creature he meet at the books. An evil elder god, named Dagon .
He used to conjure minor undeads( as conjure undead1 spell) to carry him on a litter, take and open the tomes, flip the pages, capture invaders, an so on.
The experience comes, but nhom-nhom can't understand the spells in the tomes and dont evolue in spellcasting(char 11 🤣) but class features granting him a best survivor chance.( rebuke, dr 4/ bludgeoning, scabrous touch, fear aura) finally, he suceed in acquire a familiar. A fantasmagoric ghost visage, to paralys the enemies, and the one is not afected by the corrosion of the ooze. Thus the life and combats become less dangerous for nhom-nhom, and he prepares to leave the dungeon for adventure, vengeance and spread the horros of dagon. The 4 undeads that carry the litter, are the best resource to move. But he can use some 1st level spells to improve this.

At the time the worship improves, Dagon send a messenger to teatch secrets of dark magic for the cube, and now, all the ununderstanding spelks are clear on its mind. He turned in a tainted sorcerer and seek out this path until this days.




HD Feats: improved graple, fell conspiracy, blessing of the godless,
Class feats: exotic weapon: arpoon

Level feats:
1-arcane disciple (travel domain) c.arcane 79
3-spell focus ( necromancy) phb
6-shadow weave magic. c. arcane.
9- dimensional jaunt. C. Mage 79
12- improved spell focus ( necromancy) phb


Feats from severe corruption and depravity:
1-profane lifeleech( libris mortis pg29)
2-surge of malevolence
3-corrupt spell focus
4-improved corrupt spell focus

Feats from worship a elder evil:

1-vile deformity
5- deformity tall
10-abominable form
15-dark speech
20- gruesome finish.


Tatics:
Nhom-nhom uses basic oose tatics until CR7

From 7th to 15th, he relies on undead to Hunt for him and to carry rim in a litter. In combat, reloes on the undead and if multiples enemies are close enought, he uses profane lifeleech to cause damage and cure herself. He use the harpoon to pull enemies close enought to engulf, and so cause damage wth touch habilities while digests the flesh. The ghostly visage familiar, paralyse enemies until Nhom-nhom approach and take the lunch. She have only 1st level spells because the 11 char stat.

From 16th to 20, Nhom-nhom uses magic drainning power from his taint and turning a true danger. With good bonuses to diplomacy and intimidade, he can be a party face on emergences. Her rituals can make him a good suport, and magic turns him a good controler. Enemies with 18- hd will be panicked because apearence+fear aura+darkspeach and so, engulfed. Mindweaves and undeads help in combat. There is so mutch he can do.





I want to have maked it in the correct form. If not, gimme guidelines to Rectfy the post. And please forgive my poor english. Im learning the language.

[Paragon]

I'm so glad I'm not judging ! You guys outdid yourselves on originality here and 10 entries jeez, that's Iron Chef standards

[Inevitability]

I kept going "Okay, surely this entry is the weirdest one, the next will be a nice normal monster-with-class-levels." and somehow it never was. Looking forward to the judgements!

[Beni-Kujaku]

Do we have anybody to judge all these great entries?

[loky1109]

At least we have the table!

Name Alignment / Race Class Levels Chef Total Place
Were-Buckler (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25827979&postcount=18) LE -> CE Entomanthrope Primordial Half-Troll Brain Mole Ex-Passive Way Monk 2/Soulborn 2/Warshaper 3/Martial Spell Reflection Rogue 2/Nightsong Enforcer 7
Drakkar (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25827980&postcount=19) TN Sea Drake Ardent 7/Legendary Captain 1
Ally of Justice (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25827982&postcount=20) LG Psicrystal Champion Cloistered Cleric 3/Church Inquisitor 4/Sacred Exorcist 5/Twisted Lord 6/Shaper of Form 2
Pinkamena Diane Pie (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25827983&postcount=21) LG Light Warhorse Paladin 17
The Vorpal Poet (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25827984&postcount=22) CE Caligrosto Marshal 1/Warrior of Darkness 6/Devoted Defender 2/ Warrior Skald 1
Lyra (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25827985&postcount=23) CG Lillend Virtuoso 5/War Weaver 5/Sublime Chord 1
Nerian Argentis (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25827987&postcount=24) LG Past Life (Cleric) Ogre Mage Energy Affinity (Fire) Wizard 5/Shapeshifter 2/Silver Pyromancer 5
Jiminy (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25827988&postcount=25) NG Grig Marshal 4/Crusader 1/Evangelist 5/Seeker of the Song 7
Nightshade (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25827989&postcount=26) LG Petal Skilled City Dweller Samurai 2/Skilled City Dweller Crusader 2/Skilled City Dweller Hit-and-Run Tactics Fighter 2/Swordsage 1/Master Thrower 1/Iaijutsu Master 5/Devoted Defender 2/Exemplar 1/Marshal 2
Child of Twilight (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25827992&postcount=27) CG Unholy Scion Lesser Aasimar Warlock 3/Cleric 1/Sha’ir 2/Prestige Paladin of Freedom 3/Beloved of Valarian 1/Eldritch Disciple 4/Eldritch Theurge 3


I kept going "Okay, surely this entry is the weirdest one, the next will be a nice normal monster-with-class-levels." and somehow it never was. Looking forward to the judgements!
Totally agree!

[Paragon]

At least we have the table!

But do we have a judge ? I fear the few people that like participating in this comp, have done so this round, leaving no one to judge

[pabelfly]

I'll put my hand up for judging, and I'll get started tonight. Judging takes a lot of time for me so your patience is appreciated.

[Beni-Kujaku]

Hi everyone! While judgement is slowly going on (Pabelfly should be about halfway done by the end of the weekend), what do you say we choose the next theme?

Like always, three themes for you:

One-Punch Man: the monster should focus on one big attack per round and make the most out of it.
Death of a thousand claws: the monster should have at least five attacks in their full attack and use the fact that it attacks multiple times in its tactics.
See your enemies fall before you: The monster should be all about making people helpless easily (paralysis, sleep, nonlethal, full unconsciousness...).

And a fourth slightly more challenging one:
"It hurts me, mon. But it'll hurt choo more.": the character should have abilities that require them to hurt themselves, or profit from being hurt.

What do you say? What would you prefer? And as always, do you have other propositions?

[Inevitability]

I'd be interested to explore One-Punch Man, but I have some ideas for the fourth one as well!

[Paragon]

Third or 4th one, for the gigs

[Beni-Kujaku]

One-Punch Man: the monster should focus on one big attack per round and make the most out of it.
Death of a thousand claws: the monster should have at least five attacks in their full attack and use the fact that it attacks multiple times in its tactics.
See your enemies fall before you: The monster should be all about making people helpless easily (paralysis, sleep, nonlethal, full unconsciousness...).

And a fourth slightly more challenging one:
"It hurts me, mon. But it'll hurt choo more.": the character should have abilities that require them to hurt themselves, or profit from being hurt.

Little bump for this. Loky? FactualArcher? Pabelfly? Clause? What do you think?

[FactualArcher]

I’d vote One Punch Man.

[loky1109]

I think I have some ideas for all of these options. Take any.

[pabelfly]

Little bump for this. Loky? FactualArcher? Pabelfly? Clause? What do you think?

No opinion from me, but I'm looking forward to whatever happens in the next round.

[pabelfly]

Just to update everyone, I'm halfway done with judging and I'm starting on the sixth entry tonight.

Apologies for my lack of speed on this, but I am still doing judging.

[loky1109]

Thank you for update!

[Paragon]

Hey how's it going pabelfly ? Hang in there and thanks again for taking this task

[pabelfly]

Hey how's it going pabelfly ? Hang in there and thanks again for taking this task

Work's been pretty demanding of late but I've just finished judging the seventh entry and am about to look at the eighth entry.

[Paragon]

Work's been pretty demanding of late but I've just finished judging the seventh entry and am about to look at the eighth entry.

Hang in there, we're rooting for you

[Paragon]

Can we have a judgement now ? It's been 3 months guys...

[pabelfly]

Can we have a judgement now ? It's been 3 months guys...

Slowly working through it. I'm not the quickest judge and I don't have a huge amount of spare time. Apologies.

Progress update: I'm in the middle of judging the ninth entry and am really hoping to finish up next week some time.

[Paragon]

Slowly working through it. I'm not the quickest judge and I don't have a huge amount of spare time. Apologies.

Progress update: I'm in the middle of judging the ninth entry and am really hoping to finish up next week some time.

Wasn't really trying to pressure you sorry. I forgot you agreed to judge around month 2

[pabelfly]

Wasn't really trying to pressure you sorry. I forgot you agreed to judge around month 2

I started about a month after entries were posted, because no-one had volunteered to judge and I like the idea of being part of a community where we have comps and proper judging. Beni was also nice enough to judge the last comp for Junkyard wars for us, which I really appreciate.

Thanks for your patience, by the way. I understand that waiting this long can be frustrating.

[Beni-Kujaku]

Good luck Pabelfly for your judging.
In the mean time, here is my own judgement of these entries, because only one judgement isn't enough for entries so unique:


3 templates gets you a good score here, but the templates themselves are pretty standard. Monk/Vermin/Soulborn is weird enough to me too and Nightsong Enforcer is a barely seen PrC, contrary to Warshaper, which is painfully common.
Being an actual object from the A&EG is really nice
The monk-to-grab-feats-quickly is a bit sad 3.75/5

The 3 templates get you a bad score here ; bullying the game and eating up LA is just bad taste. Furthermore Jotunbrud is Human only and even though you change type 3 times, you're never one.
I don't buy Incarnum Defense being able to prevent the cumulating adjustment to Strength (it's not a penalty, damage or drain, just an adjustment). Therefore you can't assume beetle form ergo the build is moot. At the very best and with a lenient DM, it may delete the racial adjustment of the vermin you get after it, but even then your final strength is only 8.
It’s also hard to tell how you use Deflect Arrows when you’re detached from your buddy’s arm ? Are you stuck around them ? Can you move ? Can you still Deflect if you can’t fly ? How does ‘it cannot be ordered to attack’ work if the beetle is sentient ? Maybe you can move alright and still Deflect Arrows, but it’s basically all a DM’s call and must ding Elegance.
Also, technically a reach weapon doesn’t increase a Tiny creature’s reach, according to Rules Compendium, even if the creature in question has already a 5ft reach. I don’t make the rules, but I can tell when they’re dumb.
1.75/5

Assuming everything works as planned (cf Elegance), your ranged attacks covering your allies is cool. Spell Reflection is something for nothing even though it's niche. Your AC is really good : +8 Dex, +2 Tiny, +12 NA (6 beetle buckler (assuming, the statblock is wrong) +2 Enthomotrope +4 half troll) despite the difficulty to wear armor (or a shield). DR5/Silver is never bad and getting your Vermin immunities help but overall, spells are hard on you.
On the stealth side, you've got everything one can dream off ; at will Invis, high Dex, Tiny size, max hide skill, Darkstalker and Hive Mind. Only True Seeing beats you and not automatically.
If the ‘no penalty to Str’ trick works, it allows you to trip anything and Jotunbrud treats you as Large so you can trip people rather reliably. Sadly BAB falls short of 1 extra attack 3/5

You are helping your teamates pretty well, but something other than a Beetle Buckler would probably be able to do something similar, with the exception of Deflect Arrows.
Nightsong Enforcer focuses on that. I love the fact that you can get Enhanced as an object to help the wearer, the infinite deflect and kind of tripping build (in the theoretical world where you can actually make AoOs that is). You hit head first the issue of all the other sentient items : either you stay as an item and give your wielder AC and your enchanted abilities, or you use actions and you don’t. But the fact that the buckler beetle is meant to be removed is a step in the right direction. 2.5/5



Legendary Captain is the only original ingredient otherwise and the Ardent + Practical Manifester is overused.
The concept is fun and I can't say I've ever heard of a PC trying to be a boat before. 3/5

dipping Legendary Captain for a free feat isn’t inelegant in my book, but the whole ‘I can be a ship, so I’m a ship captain to qualify for legendary captain’ is a bit iffy.
I’m also not a fan of combining casting with a high-strength Gargantuan race. You only have so many actions and you don’t focus on either part.
You actually bother to have the "appropriate skill check" (whatever that means) to transform into a "complex object". I have no idea how that could work (multileveled massive object with mecanisms etc.) but let's say you take 10 while using Craft (boatbuilding) and you have 10 ranks so that's okay.
3.5/5

Dragon type is strong coupled with interesting abilities for the sea setting you're chosen like Constrict Ship and Swallow Hole. I'm convinced you can use your Gargantuan size to your advantage, even at ECL12 and the idea of one ship becoming a sea drake to crush the enemy's is funny to me.
Metamorphosis is pretty great all by itself and since you picked the "object" option, it's hours per level meaning you can do this all day. Nice.
2 Draconic auras benefiting everyone is pretty cool, and aiding and supporting over 40 people is a good way to make numbers matter.
Your psionics come in handy as a support : FoM and Teleport.
The Temporal Acceleration into Metamorphosis costs 18 pp, you can do it 3 times per day max, which is generally enough.
Incite Bravery is a nice use of swift action (assuming we forgo Metamorphosis' last rule).
What doesn't work though, is the last part of Metamorphosis ; if you want to manifest anything, you have to make a Concentration check 20+Power level and while you Con is massive, it's nowhere near enough to make the check. What's more, if you were to suceed thanks to the dice gods, your entire fleet would fall into the water since you lose your form. Additionally, as a ship you lose the strong physical capabilities of a Sea Drake, which makes a lot of your build irrelevant. Since your main trick doesn't work, I can't give you any passing grade but the rest is good even when you’re not a drakkar so…
2/5

You're helping your teamates with some utility powers, auras and aid another (who would've thought ?).
They want to stay close to you, obviously, and the fact you're their captain and boat at the same time must generate some kind of unconditional respect for you. Could you have done it with something else than a Sea Drake ? Honestly, probably. Transforming into a boat could be done by anyone, but being Gargantuan really increases the amount of squares adjacent to you, and the flavor would be much worse.
4/5



Cloistered Cleric and Knowledge Devotion, yawn, Church Inquisitor/Sacred Exorcist are a known plain upgrade on Cleric with low investment. Twisted Lord on the other hand, I've never seen before.
Your gimmick of using the raggamoffyns' abilities to merge with your anime girl is a pretty original way of "keeping them close".
3.25/5

This is where things get complicated. I appreciate the effort to reproduce the feel of a magical girl, but the way you do it is you take bits and pieces of everything and mush them together to attain a mechanical goal.
Obvious unexplicable(cated at least) power grabs: Dragonborn warforged, really ? Weapon of Legacy without the ability to conduct the actual legacy ritual (also have troubles wrapping my head around a Legacy weapon for something that has no ascendance nor the ability to wield it), bypassing the Ebon Cabal requirement to get the twistroot to become a Twisted Lord (that's downright disqualifying for the PrC). You didn't even bothered to find a Craft skill that might make sense in this build.
Your BAB and saves are messed up too. Did you use fractional ? It’s explicitly a house rule in Unearthed Arcana, which we do not use it here. 1.5/5

13th level cleric casting is enough to take you seriously. Forcing a gestalt character in a regular game is pretty strong too (depending on your "Hanako's class obviously). Negating the penalties from the Legacy means even though it's not awesome, it's just upsides. Demoralizing oppponents is an ok alternative strategy (evey though you rely on Hanako picking Imperious Command). Of course, the problem is that either these two characters are considered only one with the Captured One template (which you seem to imply), or it’s two characters with one under the control of the other. But in the first case the problem is of course that you only have one set of action for two characters in the party (unless you’re just using a random citizen as your host, in which case she dies of the first attack targetting you). I’m not really seeing anything here that would make ‘polymorph into a ragamoffyn and possess my friend’ that much better than ‘just don’t change into a psicrystal and act as a cleric alongside my friend’. After all, Gestalt is still worse than a party. D&D does operate on power of friendship, and less on Megazord overkill.
But the real problem here, unless I missed something, is that you have optimised a full build upon something you can have up and going 20min per day, at most. Again, unless you show me what I missed here, this is going to ding your Power a bit. 2/5

You don’t really use your racial abilities except for flavorful purposes, but you did nail the flavor. Hanako doesn't want to (or can't really) leave your side alright. You have support casting, ability to help through feinting and triggering some degree of sneak attack, intimidating. You're good to be around sure but I'm getting the feeling that you need other people more than they need you in general. While that's not much of a problem here since this round is about teamwork, I’m still a bit unconvinced that you are more effective with your teammate than without. 3.25/5



Simply playing a horse may seem simplistic, but since the beginning of MM there has only been one other Animal base race (the bat swarm from MM5). And using the Diablo 2 paladin is actually something unique in all of the competition history on the website, to my knowledge. Worg Pelt is also an exceedingly rare soulmeld, and Wild Talent isn’t the regular way to gain psionics. 5/5

One race, one class, so that’s good. You know what you want (go fast, and buff your friends). However, you take a trait for that. Traits are a flat -0.5 to Elegance. And finally, the elephant in the room : paladin from Diablo II. Is it a legal source ? I’d say most probably, but it may be frowned upon. Especially since it’s technically 3.0 and ‘paladin’ was updated for 3.5. All in all, I think I will remove 1 for the class, but no more. 4.5/5

Well, you’re… quite weak. Full BAB isn’t that good when your only attack is a weak hooves attack. All your abilities either increase your speed, which has diminishing returns beyond a 60/70 ft speed. Your paladin abilities are weak (except the infinite out of combat healing), and all require an action for buffs that only last a round. This means you only get two buffs, including Vigor, if you want to move or attack, or three if you only do that for a round. Also, you seem to write that Vigor shares your bonuses to speed from your psycarnum soulmeld with your party. Unless I missed something, it doesn’t. If it could, you’d be much better, but right now… Conversion with DC 25 is actually quite good, but it comes too late to be useful during most of your career. 1.5/5

You’re dedicated to helping your allies, and they have to keep close to you at all times, which fits the comp to a T. Still, you’re not that good at it, and can only improve secondary stats in combat which means that your allies do not lose that much by going away from you. However, you definitely don't use your monster race well. Being a horse not only doesn’t help you that much, it’s actively detrimental through bad Int and Cha 2.5/5



The Caligrosto is pretty recent in the LA thread, but it's such a weirdo that it deserves points. Funnily enough, you're the third person that wants to be an item this round. Mashal and Devoted Defender are kind of expected but Warrior of Darkness isn't. Feat and skillwise nothing stands out to me. 3/5

Everything seems in place except from the easily solvable fact you don't qualify for Warrior Skald since you're missing another Perform skill. Edit: 3.0 weirdness means that you didn't have to have 2 Perform skills. Good skill presentation otherwise. 4.5/5

Well, as you point out, your race does at lot for you both offensively and defensively. While I don't buy that you can access the enhancer role of possession for multiple enhancements to weapons because of the duplicate of one rule (plus, the web article doesn’t refer to FC1, and even in FC1, the loumara that could actually assume possession roles said it in its description, which the loumara doesn’t), this is still an impressive ability (Keen, Wounding Vorpal is nothing to laugh at).
Marshal aura confirming most of your crit threats with Keen is a good combo and 4 levels of Warrior of Darkness is enough to get Malign Fury and 2 free feats. I like that Devoted Defender makes any option for the enemy a bad one. Attacking your charge makes them attacking you (and you attacking them) which makes them have 50% chance of missing and, even if they do hit you, they take 15 damage themselves.
Warrior Skald is a great addition since you get all Bardic Music up to suggestion.
I don't really see a use case for Mage Slayer since you want to hit brutes with slashing weapons mostly but it doesn't hurt you (except for your Suggestion vs SR but this was never going to work in the first place) so might as well have it.
Mindsight is really good for you too

I just feel like you’re a bit too slow, requiring a first hit from the party brute to trigger everything, and even then I’d have liked to see a bit more versatility in your actions, both before and after assuming fiendish shade than only crit fishing and the occasional bardic music (which you can’t use as a blade anyway. Would have liked to see a few buffing SLAs, maybe a level of warlock, DFA or Binder with Improved Binding for the Green Lady ? 4/5

I like your race pick, which is absolutely integral to your strategy, and it makes people want to stay close to you through protection as well as your auras. You give them advantages while in the sword sure but (and this is a big one) what happens when you Fiendish Shade for you BBSF weaponless friend ? It always requires that they have several weapons available and/or Quick Draw.
The overall feeling of the build is ok but it suffers a bit of the same problem as Ally of Justice that either you’re helping as an item but lose your actions or you’re helping as a party member but are less effective of a support 4/5



Virtuoso to gain bardic music, War Weaver and Sublime Chord are well-known prestige class. The feats are all extremely standard ‘bard casting’ feats. Especially compared to the other entries, this is 1/5.

The whole build has one goal, it’s clear, it’s legal. There’s no actually interesting prereq combos, and you didn’t write your class features in your table, but otherwise, I don’t have much to say. 4.5/5

We all know about War Weaver and Sublime Chord, they’re absolutely busted prestige classes. They’re made even better with metamagic song and your ability score adjustments, but your CL is pretty low (15 at ECL 20), however, which makes your buffs more easily dispellable, and your melee capabilities are not enough to reliably hold your own if an opponent gets close to you. 4.5/5

You’re definitely a support character, but you don’t really gain or keep advantage from having your party around you, except during the first round of combat in order to cast your tapestry. Planar Bubble does fit the comp, but it’s just one spell, whose effect isn’t integral to your build nor to your friends’ strategy, especially since, as a caster, you’re probably staying far from melee in most fights. Also, I’m not convinced that having six levels of bard and two levels of something else instead of being a Lillend would change much to your character. Most of your power comes from your classes anyway. 3/5



Ogre Mage could go either way, Shapeshifter in order to get Boar's Ferocity is new, ok I can dig this. Silver Pyromancer is quite unheard of, but Arcane Thesis+stacking metamagic on a scorching ray is a super old trick. I somehow never knew of Retributive spell but it's nice on a gish.
Nothing overly creative but not completely expected either 2.5/5

Nothing to say here, feats are clean, skills are clean. Optimization is good without going overboard, the whole build melds together without forcing stuff together ; I like it.
That said, the ‘martyr’ spells you use were updated in Player’s Guide to Faerun and are now exclusive to the Initiate of Ilmater feat. I’m not quite sure how it works exactly in that case, but it seems pretty clear in PGtF that they aren’t supposed to be Paladin spells anymore.
The complete absence of a story for a class as lore-based as Silver Pyromancer, especially as an Eberron-based class combined with spells associated with a very Faerun deity are another thing that prevents you from getting full mark here. 3.5/5

Good stats all around thanks to your race making your Intelligence carry the DC of your spells a bit, but not enough. Any creature with SR will run circles around you before you got that fiery goodness working for you. The SLAs make you a bit more resilient and Regeneration is a real boon but Con 20 is nowhere near enough to carry d8/d6/d4 HDs with +3 LA ; you're risking big. Sadly, Boar’s Ferocity does not work with regeneration since you never actually go below 0 HP. Still, you can keep going into infinite nonlethal realm while unconscious, soaking up your team's damage is pretty lawful good and useful indeed. In a lot of fights, you’ll be at the mercy of coup-de-grace, and actuall
Offensively, Empowered Fiery Scorching Ray deal 81 damage, at ECL 18.
It's reasonable and you can do it 5 times a day (unless you fill higher level slots)
Overall, good tank, pal 4th and wiz 5th are good lists, some offensive ability even though it comes up when casters get Wish. 3.5/5

You use your monster race’s abilities at multiple points of the build, with Regeneration preventing your death, and Alternate Form opening Shapeshifter. However, you’re not that invested in the comp’s theme. You knew what you were getting into. You’re more of a mailman than a support character. Your build helps your team very late in the game. If we divide levels in 5 tiers, you help in the last one and barely amount to a BSF with a few spells before. Also, I almost feel like the whole party would be better off if you cast Glory of the Martyr, then stayed far away to not risk any coup-de-grace, which i not really the point here. 2.5/5



Initiator dips are a plague on this community, and Marshal is an obvious choice this round, but Evangelist isn’t, and though your feats are in general pretty known, their combination was surprising, especially the use of a grig fiddle to fuel bardic feats. Seeker of the song is also far from the first thing that comes to mind as a bardic music PrC. And an army of crickets is definitely a peculiar sight. 3.75/5

Slight ding for the dip and the CC skills, but otherwise a really elegant build, with synergistic classes and prerequisites, flavorful and powerful skills and abilities. Also a nice story to set the ambience. 4.75/5

100 grigs attacking at the same time with +6 to damage can make a dent in a lot of things. A hundred entangles has to do something. Of course, the problem is that even with all your bonuses, a creature with DR 10/Magic would take basically no damage from your swarm’s attacks (which doesn’t mean your bonuses are useless, you’re supposed to have an actual high-level party as well). Also, you know the problem with having 100 small creatures in a 30ft radius ? Fireball. Even with your Resistance 15 and inspire greatness, a grig has only 20 HP and a fireball deals 35-15=20 damage, which has a fair chance of killing the whole swarm, even those that succeed on a reflex save if their greatness wasn’t inspired. Even without the bunch of them (you know, if you go literally anywhere slightly dangerous and you don’t want to pass as a mass murderer or as Hamelin’s pied piper), you can still start two bardic music per round with no limit, give big bonuses to your friends, use white raven maneuvers, have high Diplomacy and Intimidate with the ability to affect multiple people with it (though no ability to make them frightened, unless I missed something, but Imperious Command makes it more viable). You also have decent SoL, though the DCs are not great, and they’re almost all mind-affecting. UMD and Craft Wondrous Items/Magic Arms and Armors improve your versatility outside of combat. A strong and well-built character. 4/5

Wow. Is there a single thing in this build that isn’t dedicated to improving allies close to you, getting some allies close to you, or debuffing enemies to allow allies to finish them off more easily? Jiminy really embodies the buddy system more than every other build here, while not sacrificing too much power for itself. And being a gri gis an absolutely integral part to it through the ability to use the fiddle. I very much liked it. 5/5



Love that you kept Flower Arranging and added Tea Ceremony. Otherwise I'm torn because Samurai is rare but a Iaijutsu build has been done many times with all it's regular tricks (Exemplar, Marshal aura, Iaijutsu Master for multiplier etc.). The ACFs and initiator dips are all very unoriginal.
Devoted Defender and Marshal are expected in this round. 1.5/5

Iron Guards Glare and Thicket of Blades only works on threatened squares, which you lack since you're Tiny and use thrown daggers.
Nice prereq use (weapon focus namely).
Your skills are atrociously written and I'm pretty sure you considered Swordsage as a 4+Int instead of 6+Int.
How many dips did you take exactly ?
3/5

Well, you put everything there, and it is there. You can pretty much destroy any opponents before they get a chance to act. Init is +12, Palm Throw + Iaijustsu + Strike from the Void + Hit and Run tactics amounts to a ****ton of damage. I would have added Shadow Blade for the heck of it.
You knew what you were doing and you do it right 4.5/5

I still don't understand how you're supposed to help your friends. Why would they need to be close to you ? Is it the Iron Guard's Glare/Thicket of Blade, the late-to-the-party Marshal Aura and 2 Devoted Defender levels ? You spent a lot of optimizing on your Iaijustsu focus to deal extreme damage in melee and tried to sprinkle some of the round's SI on it. Basically, you’re already meant to be the biggest threat, so protecting your allies is often moot. It just feels out of place. At least you use the Petal’s size and stats to your advantage with Comfound the Big Folks. 2.5/5



This has to be the weirdest build I've seen all competitions overall. Unholy Scion going to make VoP useful. Son of a b***h I'm in ! Beloved of Valarian over Prestige Paladin with both Eldritch classes improving the same 2 base classes. That's original. The only slightly overused choices are the cleric dip and lesser aasimar race 4.5/5


All unholy scions are irredeemably evil
Sorry, can't be exalted which means no Paladin nor Beloved PrC nor VoP. In all other cases, you could argue that a baby did no good in their life, but this one did, simply by existing.
Also I'm pretty sure you can't be devoted to Valarian and the Knights of Tyr at the same time.
Also (bis), Prestige Paladin requires LG so there is no CG one. Homebrew is bad for this comp's elegance score.
Also, Nymph’s Kiss ? For a fetus ? I mean, ‘intimate relationship’ can have many meanings, but I cannot see any of them as okay, except if the mother is the fey in question.
Adding Dragontouched is legal but ohh so not ok on this mess of a race.
No verbal components in the womb, even if a DM allows somatics. And even if you could, you can cast all SLAs from your mom, not spells.
Barring the Warlock synergy, nothing works, which makes me sad because I love the concept 0/5

The template is pretty good, carrying the lower levels of Warlock and shameless dips.
Casting (assuming it works) grants some leeway, especially the Sha'ir since identifying spells is so easy.
Ending with Sha'ir at CL10 is pretty good
Being able to cast Gate for free... is basically winning D&D yeah.
You have insane ability scores due to VoP and your BaB could help mommy wield an Eldritch Glaive basically giving her a second full attack since she'd be executing yours. Other than that you can't move, attack, manipulate anything or hide when you want to. 4/5

Your familiar charm ability makes your mother want to stay close to you, no matter what. That's... a legal option for this round.
You have many ways of helping her too ; rides, spells, slas, invocations, divine grace/health, lay on hands. Really, you're the perfect child. And about how much your choice of race is necessary to the build ? Well, let’s say I’m pretty sure it would be hard to do it any other way. 4.5/5



And here you go, enjoy your read, and I'm waiting for disputes during next week before we get Pabelfly's judgement.

[Beni-Kujaku]

Everything seems in place except from the easily solvable fact you don't qualify for Warrior Skald since you're missing another Perform skill.

That's a consequence of how perform used to work: back in 3.0 you'd select X performance modes if you had X ranks in Perform, and were considered proficient with all. In 3.5 they changed it to a system more like Craft, which led to some prerequisite weirdness. Reading these unupdated prerequisites the way you do here would outright break some of the more skill-heavy PrCs (which end up demanding 8 ranks in like 5 or 6 different modes of perform). Surely that can't be the intended way to update them?


the occasional bardic music (which you can’t use as a blade anyway)

I can? Bardic music effects are Su or Sp, so they don't innately require components. Sure, Inspire Greatness says 'To inspire greatness, a bard must sing and an ally must hear him sing.' but the description for bardic music itself says: 'While these abilities fall under the category of bardic music and the descriptions discuss singing or playing instruments, they can all be activated by reciting poetry, chanting, singing lyrical songs, singing melodies, whistling, playing an instrument, or playing an instrument in combination with some spoken performance'. We can telepathically recite poetry and fulfill the requirement to use Inspire Greatness.


It always requires that they have several weapons available and/or Quick Draw.

When we assume a fiendish shade form, we are definitionally next to a wounded enemy that we then proceed to full attack, and then an entire round happens before our fighter buddy's turn comes around again. Chances are by that time, the enemy we were fighting is dead and the fighter is forced to move over to the next foe anyway, in which case he gets to draw a new weapon for free as part of that movement. Randomly losing your weapon is of course bad, but we innately only make it happen in the least bad situation.

The point on Perform is valid. +0.5 Elegance

I really don't buy the telepathic bardic music. All examples include some sort of rythm, music or at least rhyme. Something that can be considered singing. Telepathy does not include that, it isn't even in a specific language, since you can communicate with any creature that has a language, even one that you yourself don't speak. And even if you could, using telepathy on several creatures at the same time requires the same amount of concentration as speaking to two people at the same time which, unless you're a chronotyryn, seems pretty difficult especially while rhyming. No change

I very much think all enemies do not die in one round in all campaigns, even at high levels. The brute will not be able to full attack on their turn anyway, and even if they can draw while moving, they'll have to use their secondary, probably weaker weapon. I agree you're not disabling the brute completely, but enabling your main schtick take the breath out of them for a round. No change

[loky1109]

Beni, hide author's name!

[Beni-Kujaku]

Beni, hide author's name!

I am bad at this... Thank you and done.

[loky1109]

Thank you, for judging!
Two judges is great news!

[Beni-Kujaku]

Sorry, can't be exalted which means no Paladin nor Beloved PrC nor VoP. In all other cases, you could argue that a baby did no good in their life, but this one did, simply by existing.
Even true demons with alignment entries of "Always Chaotic Evil" can be Lawful Good, and there's at least one with levels in paladin. It's a highly unusual event, but this is a highly unusual child - exposed to the forces of both good and evil, while carrying dragon blood and the blessings of good-aligned fey. Since there's precedent for aasimar being born from exposure to holy power in the womb, it's even possible that they became an aasimar after they became an unholy scion.


Also I'm pretty sure you can't be devoted to Valarian and the Knights of Tyr at the same time.
Clerics can worship multiple gods as a pantheon and receive powers from all of them. We have the added excuse that our mother could have a patron separate from our own, who needs to take our presence into account when considering her well-being. Though the Tyr feat can be dropped without significantly hurting the build.


Also, Nymph’s Kiss ? For a fetus ? I mean, ‘intimate relationship’ can have many meanings, but I cannot see any of them as okay, except if the mother is the fey in question.
A fairy godmother who personally imbued us with the power of good, in order to limit the immense damage that can be done by an unholy scion left run around unchecked (possibly on orders of Valarian or Tyr). You can't join an organization before you can sign the admission paper, and you can't join two organizations on different planets.


No verbal components in the womb, even if a DM allows somatics. And even if you could, you can cast all SLAs from your mom, not spells.
Barring the Warlock synergy, nothing works, which makes me sad because I love the concept 0/5
We piggyback some of our spells onto a Spellblast in order to make them spell-like abilities which can be channelled through the mother. Being a spell-like ability also means that any difficulty in supplying components is no longer an issue.

Spellblast (Sp): This invocation (Lesser; 4th; Eldritch Essence), learned at 3rd level, allows you to place an arcane spell that affects an area upon your eldritch blast. If the eldritch blast hits its target, the spell's area is centered on any corner of the target's space, even if the spell could normally be centered only on the caster. If the eldritch blast misses its target, the spell is lost with no effect.

It takes a full-round action to cast the spell and fire the eldritch blast. Only an area spell with a casting time no greater than 1 standard action can be placed upon your eldritch blast.

Only the first target of your eldritch blast is affected by the spell (for example, an eldritch chain spellblast centers the spell on the initial target, not on any of the secondary targets). If your eldritch blast doesn't specify a target, you can't apply this invocation to the blast.

Treat spellblast as a spell whose level is equal to the area spell placed upon the eldritch blast (minimum 4th level).

Yes, there are good demons. And the rules support that with the "always" Alignment entry mentioning : "It is possible for individuals to change alignment, but such individuals are either unique or rare exceptions". On the other hand, there's no such language for the Unholy Scion. They're all evil, period. Becoming an aasimar does not change that.

"Clerics can worship multiple gods". I'm pretty sure, outside specific exceptions like the Sovereign Host, a cleric takes their power from a single source, either a deity or an ideal. Even if it was possible, the Knights of Tyr would not welcome a fetus among them, and are anyway justice-loving fighters, basically supercops, while a beloved of Valarian shuns herself from civilization to worship him exclusively. Oh yeah, also Valarian is from Greyhawk and Tyr is from Faerun too.

"There could be a fairy godmother imbuing us with power" Oh, yeah, yeah, there definitely could be. But you see, I'm here to judge what you wrote in your build. Not something you tell me afterwards. Not like I could infer that myself. If your entry requires a story to make sense (and yours definitely does), I expect to see the story in question in said entry.

"I use Spellblast to change any spell into an SLA".

This invocation allows you to place an arcane spell that affects an area upon your eldritch blast. [...] It takes a full-round action to cast the spell and fire the eldritch blast.
You're definitely casting the spell first, then launching the SLA. It does bypass the "only SLAs can be cast from your mother", but not the need for verbal components. And after a short search, the amount of wizard spells below 5th level that affect an area and do not require a verbal component is very limited, especially in combat capabilities.

No change.

[Tzardok]

"Clerics can worship multiple gods". I'm pretty sure, outside specific exceptions like the Sovereign Host, a cleric takes their power from a single source, either a deity or an ideal. Even if it was possible, the Knights of Tyr would not welcome a fetus among them, and are anyway justice-loving fighters, basically supercops, while a beloved of Valarian shuns herself from civilization to worship him exclusively. Oh yeah, also Valarian is from Greyhawk and Tyr is from Faerun too.


No disagreement, just a clarification.

Deities and Demigods introduced the idea of worshipping a pantheon as a whole, but that is only possible if it is a tight pantheon (the deities are connected by common origin, family ties or ethos, like the Norse pantheon, the Elven pantheon or, yes, the Souvereign Host). It doesn't work with loose pantheons (multiple mostly unrelated deities that are worshipped in the same general area or culture, like the Greyhawk pantheon or the Faerûnian pantheon). It's also explicitely forbidden in Forgotten Realms, where trying to worship multiple gods causes you to be judged False in the afterlife.
(Deities and Demigods also mentions that sometimes a few close related deities are usually worshipped together (like Isis, Osiris and Horus), but in that case those deities will explicitely mention it.)

Also, I aggree with not allowing stuff that requires dedication to one deity over all for clerics of multiple deities.

[Beni-Kujaku]

Beni, thanks for judging. I have something to discuss.


And finally, the elephant in the room : paladin from Diablo II. Is it a legal source ? I’d say most probably, but it may be frowned upon.
I'd day "big clearly yes."


Competitors will be free to use any official 1st party (WotC) 3.5 rulebook in constructing their builds. Dragon Compendium is allowed, but Dragon magazine is disallowed. Unearthed Arcana is allowed. Unupdated 3.0 materials, as well as web exclusives by WotC are expressly allowed, but take care to verify that an updated version did not appear in print elsewhere, as this may cause an Elegance deduction at the judges' discretion.
It's clearly official 1st party (WotC): Publisher: Wizards of the Coast (https://isbnsearch.org/isbn/0786917601)
It's explicitly D&D 3.0 - it's in the book, right in the introduction.


Especially since it’s technically 3.0 and ‘paladin’ was updated for 3.5.
Yes, but no.
Well, we both know there are several examples of very different things with the same name in D&D 3.0 to 3.5 (Quick Change - Savage Species vs Races of Eberron, Verminfriend - Book of Vile Darkness vs Drow of the Underdark, Celestial Bloodline - Races of Faerûn vs Dragon Compendium), but here I come not only with "It's different!" claim, but with the evidence. Evidence that Paladin from Diablo II: Diablerie and Paladin from Players Handbook 3.0 are different classes. More, I have two of these kinds of evidence.
1) Diablo II: Diablerie intro.

the Diablo II barbarian and paladin aren't exactly what you remember from the D&D Player's Handbook - and the sorceress class isn't just a female version of the sorcerer. These are new, built specially for D&D version of Diablo II - though they'll also fit pretty well into any D&D campaign setting.
2) Let's dive into Diablo II - To Hell and Back.
Page 86 introduce us Natalia. She is Paladin 15. Paladin 15 without any Diablo II paladin's abilities, bit with PHB paladin's prepared spells. You can say "Well, they just changed horses in midstream. Look, there even are no NPC with Diablo II classes!" You're good! But!
Page 141, Grater Mummy's ability Unholy Bolt.

This ability operates like the paladin's holy bolt with negative energy instead of positive.
They still remember that D2 paladin exists!

So, D2 Paladin and PHB (3.0 or 3.5) Paladin are different classes which coexists simultaneously (even in the same setting).



Also, you seem to write that Vigor shares your bonuses to speed from your psycarnum soulmeld with your party. Unless I missed something, it doesn’t. If it could, you’d be much better, but right now…
Okay, let's look closier.

Vigor: You spend a partial action to concentrate. Your and all allies within 20 feet have your base speed increased by 10 feet for 10 minutes. You cannot use this ability if you are already under its effect.


Worg Pelt
Chakra Bind (Feet)
Your base land speed increases by 5 feet, plus an additional 5 feet for every point of essentia you invest in your worg pelt.

Worg Pelt specifically increases base speed, not add enchantment or some another bonus to it. Psycarnum Infusion gives "virtual" essentia for my Worg Pelt and my base land speed becomes 100 until the start of my next turn. And I use Vigor while having such speed and add 10 more feet - total 110 for me and my friends. 10 more if Collar of Umbral Metamorphosis is available to be part of my crown. 5 more if Incarnum Focus (boots) is also available.
At worst, I don't get 10 feet improvement from Vigor. But I shouldn't they are unnamed bonuses from different sources.


That's a well-put together argument. I like the example of Natalia being a regular paladin to prove that the two are supposed to coexist. I'll say I'm convinced. Elegance +1

For Vigor, I never said it doesn't stack with Worg Pelt. If you activate both, your own speed definitely becomes 110ft. What I'm saying is that your friends do not gain a 110ft speed. They increase their speed by 10ft due to Vigor, but Vigor doesn't say "Your allies gain a land speed equal to yours". It just says both you and them gain +10ft. If you travel with a halfling, they only have a 30ft land speed after you use Vigor, not 110ft like you wrote.

[loky1109]

Table.

Name Alignment / Race Class Levels Chef Beni-Kujaku Total Place
Were-Buckler (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25827979&postcount=18) LE -> CE Entomanthrope Primordial Half-Troll Brain Mole Ex-Passive Way Monk 2/Soulborn 2/Warshaper 3/Martial Spell Reflection Rogue 2/Nightsong Enforcer 7 11.00 11.00 8th
Drakkar (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25827980&postcount=19) TN Sea Drake Ardent 7/Legendary Captain 1 12.25 12.25 5th
Ally of Justice (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25827982&postcount=20) LG Psicrystal Champion Cloistered Cleric 3/Church Inquisitor 4/Sacred Exorcist 5/Twisted Lord 6/Shaper of Form 2 10.00 10.00 9th
Pinkamena Diane Pie (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25827983&postcount=21) LG Light Warhorse Paladin 17 13.50 13.50 3rd
The Vorpal Poet (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25827984&postcount=22) CE Caligrosto Marshal 1/Warrior of Darkness 6/Devoted Defender 2/ Warrior Skald 1 15.50 15.50 2nd
Lyra (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25827985&postcount=23) CG Lillend Virtuoso 5/War Weaver 5/Sublime Chord 1 13.00 13.00 4th
Nerian Argentis (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25827987&postcount=24) LG Past Life (Cleric) Ogre Mage Energy Affinity (Fire) Wizard 5/Shapeshifter 2/Silver Pyromancer 5 12.00 12.00 6th
Jiminy (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25827988&postcount=25) NG Grig Marshal 4/Crusader 1/Evangelist 5/Seeker of the Song 7 17.50 17.50 1st
Nightshade (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25827989&postcount=26) LG Petal Skilled City Dweller Samurai 2/Skilled City Dweller Crusader 2/Skilled City Dweller Hit-and-Run Tactics Fighter 2/Swordsage 1/Master Thrower 1/Iaijutsu Master 5/Devoted Defender 2/Exemplar 1/Marshal 2 11.50 11.50 7th
Child of Twilight (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25827992&postcount=27) CG Unholy Scion Lesser Aasimar Warlock 3/Cleric 1/Sha’ir 2/Prestige Paladin of Freedom 3/Beloved of Valarian 1/Eldritch Disciple 4/Eldritch Theurge 3 13.00 13.00 4th

[pabelfly]

Monster Mash X Judging, Part 1 (Pabelfly)

Okay, let’s judge some Monster Mash builds. Thank you all very much for your patience.

All categories for scoring start at a score of 3/5, with various additions and deductions in score explained.


HP (ECL 20) (before items or item equivalents):


Under 100 HP
100 to 125HP
125 to 150HP
150 to 200HP
200HP or more


-1 point
-0.5 points
0 points
0.5 points
1 point



How much HP does your character have, after a Belt of Might Constitution is taken into account and removed from a character (to take into account options like Vow of Poverty, persisted spells, etc). Related defensive options like innate miss chances, stealth, etc are scored elsewhere.

Skill Points (ECL 20)


Under 2 per level
2-3 per level
3-4 per level
4-5 per level
6+ per level


-2 points
-1 point
0 points
0.5 points
1 point



Average skill points per level at level 20. I will critique skill point allocation elsewhere, expect to lose some points if you don't have a lot of high-level skills.

Average Damage Per Round (ECL 20)


Under 50 per round
50-60 per round
60-80 per round
80+ damage per round


-2 point
-1 point
0 points
1 point



How much damage are you able to reasonably do per round, under optimal conditions, against a Tarrasque. It has an AC of 35 (flatfooted 32, touch 5) and DR 15/epic.


So I think this was an interesting concept – a character that effectively doubles as another character’s shield. High marks for originality and monstrousness. I think the build falls apart in that there are a bunch of things that are illegal/inelegant/don’t work, and I don’t think you’re strong enough either offensively or defensively.

I would also appreciate a list of sources for your build. Yes, I can see that you’ve put the abbreviations after the feats and the like but I’d find it helpful if you listed your sources in full and linked the web archive pages. No penalty though.

Thanks for the entry.

Stuff I thought was original or unusual:

The build concept of a playable buckler is pretty original to me.
Ermanothrope, Half-Troll templates
Brain mole creature
Soulborn class
Nightsong Enforcer PrC
Shield Specialization, Active Shield Defense and Spinning Defense
Deflect Arrows


Stuff I thought was unoriginal or overused

Monk 2
Rogue 2. Martial Rogue
Warshaper
Primordial template
Jotunbrud feat

Anything not on either list I consider foundation options or am on-the-fence as to its originality or lack therof

All up, a score of 4/5 here.


You have made an error with Entomanthrope Primordial Half-Troll Brain Mole’s stats for its racial hit dice. It’s a giant with d8, ¾ BAB, not 1 BAB (it’s not a Magical Beast Type any more) and good Fort saves. I’ll penalize this in Elegance, but I note it here since I need to calculate stuff like damage and saves. (0 points)
Since you can’t improve your ally’s damage output, let’s do some damage calcs.:

The damage output here seems extremely low for a level 20 character. If I’ve messed up in doing these calcs, let me know where I went wrong and what you think they should be.

Let’s assume your character has 14 STR (discussed in Elegance) and 36 DEX, because you put your levelling stats you didn’t do into DEX. Let’s assume you have a +6 STR and +6 DEX from items, for a total of 20 STR and 42 DEX.
Let’s assume you have a +1 weapon.
Let’s assume you’re tiny in size, and wielding a tiny weapon.
Let’s assume you are flanking the enemy and can use your Sneak Attack, and you get a +1 to attack rolls
Let’s assume you get your opportunity attack in for the round.
You have 14 BAB, not 15 (error from how you applied giant template to your character’s monster dice)

Attack rolls – 16 DEX + 1 Weapon + 1 Flanking Teamwork + 14/9/4 BAB
Attack rolls – 32/27/22

Damage – 1d4 Trident + 3d6 Sneak Attack + 7 STR + 1 Weapon
Damage – 2.5 + 10.5 + 7 + 1
Damage – 21

I don’t think I have to go any further with the calculations if you’re doing 21 damage with your attacks before damage reduction and 6 after, let alone if you can’t trigger sneak attack. (-2 points). Your support doesn’t really help other characters do more damage either, outside of some niche circumstances, which could have otherwise reduced this penalty.
You have 117 HP before equip items, which is pretty low. (-0.5 points)
Base saves are 11/9/8 (Giant-type gives you 2 Fort for its one hit dice). After stats, the saves are 13/25/13. Really nice reflex save, but I’d opine it’s the least important save. The other saves are not where I want to see them. No score change. (0 points)
Your skill points are pretty low in two different ways. First, you don’t have many skill points overall – you have two skills maxed out, and a small amount in some miscellaneous skills. Secondly, as a character that seems to want to engage in stealth-based activities, you’re kind of lacking – you have Sneak Attack, as well as Hide and Move Silently, but only some ranks in Spot and none in Listen. (-1 point)
You should also list your entire skill list and how many ranks your skills have. No penalty for not doing this. (0 points)
You’re great against arrow attacks, credit where it’s due. However, out of all the ranged attack options out there, I’m more worried about spells, spell-like abilities, and stuff like dragon’s breath. Arrows rate pretty low on the concern list beyond the first few levels, and you don’t get Deflect Arrows until mid levels. It's not nothing, but not very impressive either. (+0.5 points)



You put a decent amount of levels into Nightsong Enforcer, but you don't complete any Prestige Classes. No points won or lost. (0 points)
While you have a lot of classes with only a few levels invested, you never switch back to old classes. I like that. (+1 point)
You’re supposed to include the bonuses from levelling up. I’ll assume you would throw these bonuses into DEX, given its your main stat. No points won or lost (0 points)

Part of the contest rules has this:


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

There’s no breakdown by level or ECL. You haven’t taken the time to tell me what it’s like to play this character at lower levels. Given you’ve got 17 character levels, I don’t think it unreasonable to expect three more snapshots spread out through your character levels. Loss of half a point for each of these missing snapshots. (-1.5 points)
Jotunbrud has a prerequisite of “Damaran or Illuskan human”. You are not human, let alone from this specific region. This is a crucial build feat but you don’t remotely qualify. (-1 point)
Not a fan of acquired templates after you’ve started taking classes - I don't like that you would require that of your DM, regardless of what you're doing in-game. I would prefer you start with the template or not have it at all. (-0.5 points)
Deflect Arrows specifies that you deflect arrows that would normally hit you. You don’t get to deflect arrows that would hit other people like you seem to think. No point change. (0 points)
You’re just going to slip a mandated character alignment change in the middle of your levelling table so you can combine two opposing alignment-restricted classes together, solely to get some cheese in the build? No. (-2 points)
So you’re trying to use Soulborn to negate all the penalties from all of your templates. I would instead interpret it that you get your strength penalties negated on the sum of your character’s build after all templates are applied – after all, you are a creature that is a combination of your templates. You’re an Entomanthropic Primordial Half-Troll Brain Mole with a STR score of 4, and let’s say it’s negated to a base score of 10. With the bonus of Warshaper, you would go to 14. (0 points)
Since you made an error with the Vermin’s BAB (it doesn’t get a BAB point due to the type change to Giant-type) you don’t qualify for Warshaper at 6th level. (-1 point)
Penalty for specific item recommendations – builds should not presuppose that you will encounter specific items when playing a character. Your suggestions aren’t terrible, granted, but requiring specific items to work is still a penalty on the build. (-0.5 points)
So you take Rogue for Evasion, trade out Sneak Attack for some Fighter feats, but then take a prestige class that gives you sneak attack? I get why you did it, but I feel that this is pretty inelegant.(-0.5 points)

So the contest concept was that you either had to gain something from being close to other party members, or from you being close to them. Your nearby allies get a +4 to Balance, Climb, Escape Artist, Listen, Move Silently and Spot. Allies that you are flanking with get a +1 to attack rolls. You don’t get to reflect arrows targeting other people, like you seem to think, even if you are sharing the same square. I feel like these bonuses are relatively minor, so half marks.(+0.5 points)
I feel like you’ve leveraged the monster’s innate qualities to create a contest concept that would be extremely difficult to create with a more standard humanoid race instead. I also like that your entry takes advantage of the free +1 LA from the altered adjustment rules. (+1 point)


This was a fun build concept – a character that is effectively (or is) the party’s transport. Good marks for originality and an interesting way to meet contest pre-reqs. The biggest problem here is elegance. It's hard to quantify, but I would describe elegance as creating synergies between all parts of a build, which I don't see here.

Thanks for the entry.
Stuff I thought was original or unusual:

Being a dragon that’s also a sea vessel.
Sea Dragon
Legendary Captain PrC
Apprentice (Philosopher) – I see other variations of Apprentice typically picked, but Philosopher is an unusual one
Great Captain feat
Draconic Auras – some of them are overused but the ones you’ve picked are more niche options.
Justice, Natural World Mantles


Stuff I thought was unoriginal or overused

Ardent
Practiced Manifester
Ardent + Practiced Manifester cheese to try to select powers beyond what you’d normally select for your class level
Freedom Mantle and Time Mantle
Linked Power
Psionic Abilities are all pretty standard stuff


Anything not on either list I consider foundation options, or am on-the-fence as to its originality or lack thereof. Leadership for this build is not considered since it’s a feat tax for your build and gives no benefits.

All up, I think a score of 4/5 is warranted.
Since your build can’t boost the damage output of your allies, let’s do some damage calcs for your character:

The damage output here seems extremely low for a level 20 character. If I’ve messed up in doing these calcs, let me know where I went wrong and what you think they should be.

We have two options to work out attack damage. The first is as if you had metamorphosed into a ship. A ship typically gets a ram attack. The first few ships I checked from your list had damage around 4d6 to 6d6 for said ram attack. I’d envisage this working once a round at best, presuming you have room to manoeuvre and circle around before ramming into the opponent. That’s pretty low.

Our other option is to Bite and perhaps do two tail smashes, depending on the distance we are from enemies. Let’s pit Drakkar against an ECL 20 Tarrasque.

Let’s assume you get your bite and two tail smashes in.
Let’s assume you have a +6 STR item equipped, for a total of 38 STR.
Let’s assume your bites and tail attacks are treated as +1 weapons.

Attack Rolls – 14 STR + 1 Weapon + 17 BAB = 32 Bite, 27 Tail Smash

Damage – 2d8 + 15 Bite (22 damage), 1d8 + 8 (12.5 damage) Tail Smash

I don’t think I need to go further when only one of your attacks is penetrating damage reduction. (-2 points). Your support doesn’t really help other characters do more damage either, outside of some niche circumstances, which could have otherwise reduced this penalty.

252 HP at level 20. Good work. (+1 point)
Saves are 19/10/20. Although the Reflex isn’t great, Fort and Will are solid. I’ll pass this. (+1 point)
Lots of skill points. I like. (+1 point)
I think your skill points are mis-allocated. You have a lot of skills with decent ranks in them, but nothing that reaches the skill point cap and allow you to pass really high skill check DCs by level 20. (-0.5 points)
You took the Apprentice (Philosopher) feat, which is great – I like seeing feats spent on improving character skills – but then you didn’t invest in Sense Motive and didn’t pump your Knowledge skill up to cap. Seems like a missed opportunity.(-0.5 points)
We've all taken a few cross-class skills in our gaming career, but this is excessive here. (-0.5 points)
Ardent says that you can select your powers based on your Ardent level, giving the example that a fifth-level ardent can select powers that cost 5PP or less. You’re seemingly trying to bypass this with Practiced Manifester, which is the usual attempt at cheese in this situation, even if you haven't explictly spelled this out. While I understand your argument, I disagree with this rule interpretation. Practiced Manifester says it only helps overcome power resistance and increases duration and other effects, and also explicitly says "this feat does not affect your powers per day or powers known." So no, you can’t get the higher-level powers you’re trying to get with this exploit. (-2 point)
Pretty tidy build stub with only a brief detour to get your prestige class and the ability you’re after. I like. (+1 point)
Here’s where I’ll judge how well your build meets contest prereqs. Here’s what other party members get from you: A safe, free method of travelling the sea. A +20 bonus to Climb, Fly and Swim, which is pretty nice for a group of sailors. Fast Healing 4, when under 50% health. The ability to “Aid Another” and give allies a +2 for any boat-related skill check. And the ability to grant immunity to fear, even if only temporarily. While I would have liked to have seen a boost to damage and/or accuracy, there's lots of good stuff here. I'll pass this. (+1 point)
Yeah, you couldn’t remotely do this with a humanoid build. (+1 point)



So this was an interesting way to make a transforming anime girl character, and I do like interesting. The biggest failings here seem to be that the character only barely meet the contest prereqs, you didn't get the maths right, and there is some mechanical confusion as to how your character would actually work. But, as I said, it's interesting, and that makes up for a lot of things to me.

Thanks for the entry.

Stuff I thought was original or unusual (anything not on either list I consider foundation options, or am on-the-fence as to its originality or lack thereof.:

The transforming Magical Girl concept is fairly fresh, at least for DnD
Is the body horror element of this build intended? I don’t know. Regardless, I am intrigued.
Champion Cleric
Shaper of Form prestige class
Twisted Lord prestige class and the Shattered Gates sourcebook
Weapons of Legacy
Assume Supernatural Ability, Improved Assume Supernatural Ability
Quicken Spell-like Ability


Stuff I thought unoriginal or overused:

Dragonborn
Warforged
Cloistered Cleric
Church Inquisitor prestige class
Sacred Exorcist prestige class
Psicrystals
Knowledge Devotion
Hidden Talent
Quicken Spell


All up… let’s give this a 4/5.
I don’t know how you worked out your stats, but they’re completely wrong. I’ve recalculated them for reference.



Class
BAB
Fort
Ref
Will


Cloistered Cleric 3
1
3
0
3


Church Inquisitor 4
3
1
1
4


Sacred Exorcist 5
3
1
1
4


Twisted Lord 6
4
2
5
2


Shaper of Form 2
1
3
0
3


Total
12
10
8
16



No score change. (0 points)
It’s really hard to work out combat ability for this build. Before level 9, you’re a regular Cleric with regular Cleric casting. Being a level or two behind with your casting here isn’t a big issue, so let’s give full marks here. You then turn into a psicrystal at level 9, and switch between that and a Raggamoffyn as required. There are considerable downsides to this, chiefly being that you have no way of casting your spells. You seem to think that merging with another character will fix this, but that’s not correct. They’re two distinct creatures, and the one with spells and spell slots can’t use them because they have none of the body features that would allow them to use verbal or somatic components, or manipulate the material parts of the build. You do give something of a boost to your ally, but does that make up for losing the breadth and utility of spells and spellcasting, not to mention the tactical advantages of a second person? I'd say it does not. (-1 point)
Over 200HP for your character is really good. Full points. (+1 point)
Saves are 18/6/21, after ability scores and Great Fortitude. Fort and Will are great but that dex score is awful. Half a point. (+0.5 points)
For the future, can fully list your skill points at each level? It makes judging a lot easier. I've also seen other judges penalize this, although I won't. In any case, you seem to be lacking in skill points in two ways. You seem to have few skill points in general and a lot of skills that are only partially-invested in. You have good Listen and Spot checks at least, but I want more. (-1 point)
You put a decent amount of levels into Church Inquisitor, Sacred Exorcist and Twisted Lord, but you don't finish any prestige classes. No points won or lost. (0 points)
I don't like that you take a prestige class, go out of it, and later come back in. In terms of elegance, I much prefer staying with a class until you've gotten what you want. No points won or lost. (0 points)
In the rules, there is this section regarding spells and spell slots:
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).Except you don’t have a spell slots table. It's something I'd really like to see. (-1 point)
I would have liked to see a recommended spell list for your build. No points won or lost. (0 points)
I can’t work out your point buy. You have a Dragonborn Warforged, which has -2 DEX, +4 CON and -2 WIS. I don’t know how you ended up with the point buy you did. Did you not spend all your points or something? And as far as I can figure, it’s impossible for you to have 6 CHA. No score change. (0 points)
How are you getting Quickened Divine Power on your spell list? How are you using it on another character? You reach Cleric Level 13, which gives you seventh-level spells. Divine Power is a fourth-level spell, Quickend Spell requires a spell slot four levels higher, so you need eighth level spell slots. Even if I’ve missed something and that were to work, Divine Power only works on yourself. Oh, and you have no way to actually cast since you can’t do any spell components. (-1 point)
You want to be an LG character, the Ebon Cabal which you plan on joining is for ambitious and amoral characters, which sounds awfully like N rather than LG to me. (-1 point)
You are trying to use Knowledge Devotion to boost your attack and damage output, and you only partially invest in two out of the six Knowledge checks that would help you do this. I feel that this is an afterthought and underutilized. (-0.5 points)
The contest remit is to give advantages to the rest of the party. You can give one specific character a bunch of advantages, but this is not necessarily the same as boosting the entire party. Unless you're in a group with only two players, of course. I feel like you’re only supporting the party to the level a generic cleric at early levels, and even less after that. I'm not going to deduct marks - you at least do the cleric casting bit - but I want to see more than that to be awarding points here. (0 points)
Your character spends the first nine levels of their career as a Dragonborn Warforged, and I would not consider the race, the template or their combination a “monster race”. They require no level adjustment or monster hit dice, no do they have any unusual traits or abilities making them distinct from regular humanoid characters. You take this non-monster race to get better ability scores and the ability to access a specific prestige class that your psicrystal would not otherwise be able to access. I would have much preferred you started with the psicrystal and worked out your build from there instead, you'd get full marks here if you did that. With this particular build, though, no penalties but no points either. (0 points)


So this was a really interesting choice of class. I wasn’t even aware that this was official first-party before working on this. Good job. However, I felt most of your feats were uninteresting and moreover, can’t understand why you chose those feats. I don’t think they helped the build concept as much as you intended. The chief example of this was taking Ancestral Relic, presumably to meet the CHA roll reqs of DII:R Paladin’s abilities, but there are easier (and more interesting ways) to pass that roll.

Thanks for the entry.
Stuff I thought was original or unusual:

Diablo II: Diablerie sourcebook
Diablo II Paladin and mechanics
Psycarnum Infusion
Worg Pelt soulmeld

Stuff I thought unoriginal or overused:

Wild Talent
Ancestral Relic
Nymph’s Kiss
Shape Soulmeld, Open Least Chakra


Anything not on either list I consider foundation options, or am on-the-fence as to its originality or lack thereof.

I really enjoyed reading the class rules, but other choices for your build were really unadventurous and I think you could have picked much more interesting things to do. Still, the class choice and their abilities make up a significant portion of a build and they’re both pretty unusual. Overall a 4/5 is merited.
I don’t have to do any damage calcs to tell you your damage as a character is going to be extremely sub-par and the buffs you can offer are also weak. You've taken several offensive options for your Paladin but I don't see their use being worthwhile with the build as it is now. (-2 points)
Having a mount is really nice for a character that wants to move and do full attack actions (eg standard melee attackers without Pounce, spontaneous spellcasters with metamagic), so presumably you will be helping an ally do more damage. Still, mounts aren’t too expensive. (+1 point)
You’ll help your allies and mounted character, if they’re melee, do slightly more damage. It’s not nothing but it could have been better. (+0.5 points)
You have over 200HP before items. Great to see. (+1 point)
Saves are 18/11/7. Nice fort save, shame about the other two, especially the Will save. (-1 point)
You’re really lacking in skill points, even after taking Nymph’s Kiss. At least your Diplomacy is good. (-1 point)
Penalty for picking a trait. (-0.5 points)
If you’re going to take Wild Talent, you might as well take Hidden Talent and get the extra psionic ability for free. A missed opportunity. (-0.5 points)
Edit: while I would have still picked Wild Talent, I think the argument that Wild Talent is for high-power campaigns, while Diablo II is not a high-power campaign, has weight. (+0.5 points)[/B][/I]
I don’t understand what combo you’re trying to present with Diablo II Paladin’s Vigor. Vigor says you can boost everyone’s movement by 10ft for 10 minutes, how does it interact with Worg Pelt or Psycarnum Infusion to allow a boost of 100ft per round? No points won or lost. (0 Points)
Incredibly simple build stub. No complaints on elegance in that regard. (+1 point)
Ancestral Relic is superficially compelling but has a lot of issues. Firstly, you need to spend a day in solitude per 1,000 gold worth of abilities you want. It’s questionable to presume you’d be allowed 268 days of rest through a campaign to charge your item how you want. Secondly, locking a third of your wealth up into head slot items means you can’t spend that money on other gear, and there’s lots of other gear a character would want by level 20. Third, having one single, superpowerful item is a point of weakness. And, lastly, if you’re going to do item spend I have to critique it. Some choices make sense, but I don’t think the Helm of Teleportation is worth 10% of your total wealth at level 20, and the Headband of Intellect doesn’t make a great case for itself either. (-0.5 points)
So, let’s talk contest reqs. The extremely small radius of effect of 10ft for nearly all effects might be a problem in the context of a normal game, but for a contest that specifies characters have to be close together to get buffing benefits, I’ll give it a pass. You have a bunch of different boosts taking the same part of your turn and lasting only one turn (Vigor is the sole exception), so you can’t really stack any boosts, and the DII:R Paladin’s boosts have weak scaling. I’d rate this higher if the boosts were stronger, you could stack more boosts together or even if they had more range. (+0.5 points)
So your character is basically a warhorse with some minor buffing abilities, a weak attack routine and some better stats. Normal players can't do the stuff mounts do, but they can just purchase a mount instead. If you were a more impressive mount, maybe I'd score this higher, since that would make a stronger case over a regular mount, but as it stands, they're only somewhat better than if they had bought a regular mount. Call it half a point. (+0.5 points)



A list of things I found original and interesting in the build.

Possessing and controlling weapons
Focusing on niche weapon enchants that are typically outclassed by more standard, all-round options
Warrior of Darkness PrC
Dimensional Pocket
Mindsight
Ghostly Grasp

Edit: Devoted Defender and Warrior Skald were originally included on this list, but as you are unable to enter these classes as you haven't met class prereqs, it's unfair to consider these classes in the context of originality. (-1 point)

A list of things I found unoriginal and uninteresting in the build.

Marshal 1
Iron Will
Power Attack, Cleave, Combat Reflexes
Extra music feat


If something has not appeared in either list I am either on the fence about its originality, or feel that such an option is too foundational to critique.

All up, there’s a lot of unusual stuff in this build, good job here. I’ll give this a 4.5/5 (This has been reduced to 3.5/5).
Let’s judge the offensive/support presence of the build.
We have the ability to inhabit and empower an ally’s weapon, and we have bardic music. We can’t do both at once though (see Elegance). We can also just hit things ourselves.
As a sword, there are two benefits you offer someone if you inhabit their weapon. First, they don’t have to spend money improving their melee weapon, nor should they, when you can be locked out of the weapon forever if you fail to possess or repossess a weapon. They’re also free to focus their money on defenses and utility, which is a nice benefit. The second is that, with at least three rounds advance notice, you can tailor your weapon to specific enemies. As you point out, you have some niche options that can be quite powerful when you get to prep against specific encounters.
As a bard, you have some nice bard buffs, although these boosts are not at the level of a dedicated bard.
Lastly, you can work solo as a melee combatant, you have decent stats and feats for it. Malign Combatant means that you can only move and full-attack three times a day. It’s not nearly as consistent as other methods like Pounce, Travel Devotion, etc, but it’s something.
I think all-round, you make a decent combatant. (+0.5 points)
Edit: As your build is not able to use Power Attack or Cleave, your damage and utility in combat is much reduced. (-0.5 points)
183HP is pretty decent. (+0.5 points)
25/22/20 are a great set of saves. I also like that you’ve boosted your Will save with feats, even if those feats are prestige class prereqs. Full marks. (+1 point)
You have lots of skill points. (+1 point)
Your skill don't have many skills with a high amount of skill points so you can beat really high skill check DCs at level 20. You at least have some decent skill synergies. (-1 point)
You have some really good defense bonuses such as three elemental immunities, incorporealness, permanent invisibility, and some good DR. I'd give you points for this but you're already at 5/5 for power, so I'm just noting my appreciation.
Edit: Judging says, “failure to meet prerequisites earns a 0 in Elegance”. Typically, with one minor mistake, I’d be happy to set this to a 1/5, but there’s some serious failures in your build that are not easily fixed:
1) Devoted Defender requires Weapon Focus, which you simply do not have.
2) Warrior of Darkness requires you to meet feat prereqs before taking Power Attack and Cleave, but you don’t have the STR score to do this.
3) Warrior Skald requires Power Attack and Cleave to take, but you aren’t eligible for these feats

With these issues in mind, I've set Elegance to 0 / 5.

You put a decent amount of levels into Warrior of Darkness but you don't finish any prestige classes. No points won or lost. (0 points)
You only go back to an old class once with your build order. Half-point. (+0.5 point)
So, can we do Bard stuff as a sword, namely, recite poetry for Bardic Music? In sword form, we can only communicate telepathically. However, Bardic music states how music effects work:


While these abilities fall under the category of bardic music and the descriptions discuss singing or playing instruments, they can all be activated by reciting poetry, chanting, singing lyrical songs, singing melodies, whistling, playing an instrument, or playing an instrument in combination with some spoken performance.

To me, this says that we need to have a verbal component to our bardic performance. However, telepathy does not have that. We can’t use bardic music as a sword. You can still at least use Bardic music while not being a sword. (-1 point)
Lots of cross-class skill points. (-1 point)
Minor nitpick – your build table listing level is actually Effective Character Level, or ECL (what you are if you add your character level and the Level Adjustment). I would have went from level 8 to 18 for your build table. No points won or lost. (0 points)
So the contest remit is to bring direct benefit to the rest of the party, and I’d presume a party would consist of 3-4 people. You do bring a lot of great benefits to one single person, but that is not the same as boosting the rest of the party. (0 points)
Impossible to do this sort of build without a specific monster being used. That’s exactly what I want to see when I look at Monster Mash builds, great stuff. (+1 point)

[pabelfly]

Monster Mash X Judging, Part 2 (Pabelfly)


There’s a balance entries make between being powerful and unoriginal (powerful options and combos in 3.5 are pretty well-documented) and being weak but original. I think you’ve fallen completely on the side of power. If you’re not fairly new to the 3e system, you’ve not done much research on Bards before entering this comp. My suggestion would be to read more material – source books, handbooks, lists, thread topics, anything 3.5 – and develop a knowledge base to gain more original build ideas. Judging is also a great way to learn how to make a good comp build - if you have a basic familiarity with the rules, you can research the rest. I’d consider doing it at least once if you’re interested in improving your entries for future comps.

Thanks for the entry.
I honestly can’t see anything original here. Buffing with Bardic music and spells is pretty standard. Your Prestige Classes are a bunch of the best Bard prestige class recommendations, your feats are all the feats you see highlighted in Bard handbooks. Sublime Chord even gets discussed in the writeup for Lillend in the LA Assignment thread, that’s how unoriginal this build is. It can be fun doing an all-the-best-stuff textbook build, but when I’m reading competition entries either as a judge or a third party, I want to be surprised and see interesting build ideas. I’m not getting anything like that here. Score is a 1.
I'm not going to calculate your damage output - that's just a waste of both of our times - so, instead, I'm going to judge your ability to support the party. It's pretty solid - you get some solid spells up to eighth-level, even though you're arguably fairly light on said spell slots. You also get bardic music. I think you’ll do a good job at supporting the rest of the party, so I'll pass this. (+1 point)
So you have about 149HP at level 20. Could worse, but could be a lot better too. (0 points)
You have plenty of skill points. (+1 point)
I’m disappointed that you don’t have more high-level skills to beat high-DC skill checks by level 20. A lot of skills with only a small amount of skill points invested. (-0.5 points)
Your saves are 11/12/17. The will save is alright, but the others are kinda weak. Lillend has pretty solid base stats, I would have considered trying to work out how to use alternate stats to your saves, or at least have reallocated your base stats. (-0.5 points)
You completed one five-level prestige class. (+0.5 points)
Not really a fan of one-level dips into accelerated casting classes then using other classes to progress that spellcasting. (-0.5 points)
Where are all your class features? The build table is totally missing them. (-1 point)
A bunch of cross-class skills. At least you have the skill points to afford it without too much trouble. (-0.5 points)
Perform (X) as a skill? Could you really not spend five seconds to choose an instrument? (0 points)
Your stats are a mess in comparison to your build. You’ve invested a lot in STR, which should indicate a melee build, but you’ve taken no feats and made no build choices to make that worthwhile besides Flyby Attack. Anyway, why would you want to attack with a weak attack when you’re so geared towards buffing the party? You would have been much better off investing in a more defensive setup that boost HP, saves and/or initiative. (-1 point)
You’ve decided to solve the problem of how to support the party by being a bard. Unoriginal, sure, but that’s not relevant here. It works and it’s a good solution to the problem. (+1 point)
So as far as I can see, you’re a Sublime Chord Bard that just happens to be a Lillend. You get some nice stats out of it, which I don’t think were well-leveraged, but you lose three Bard levels in the process and lose out on ninth-level spells. While it’s an understandable trade to make, I don’t feel the monster aspect of the build was really necessary to the build. I'm not going to dock points, but I'm not giving points here either. (0 points)


My main observation with this build is that you should try to take advantage of what a monster provides that a regular race does not, and I don't think you really do that here. You try to make your Ogre Mage into a blaster, but being eight caster levels behind for a blaster is really rough. Thanks for the entry.
A list of things I found original and interesting in the build.


Ogre Mage
Past Life unique NPC template/trait
Retributive Spell
Boar’s Ferocity
Glory of the Martyr


A list of things I found unoriginal and uninteresting in the build.

Wizard
Shapeshifter PrC class
Silver Pyromancer PrC class
Empower Spell
Practiced Spellcaster
Arcane Thesis
Fiery Spell
Ocular Spell


If something has not appeared in either list I am either on the fence about its originality, or feel that such an option is too foundational to critique.

There’s a lot of standard fire-oriented blaster caster options here, and I think a fire-element blaster is the most common element choice for how many feat and prestige class options it has, but at least there’s a few nonstandard build choices. I’ll give this a 2/5.

Damage output for this build is weird. At very low levels, you’ll do well as a melee character – you have good STR and decent attack rolls. In the mid levels, your damage falls off badly. At high levels, you start to get back to reasonable damage with blasting, although your lack of spell slots will always be a problem with the presumed four encounters per day. I honestly don't think your build is, overall, sufficient in terms of damage. (-1 point)
Let’s go over the problems you’ll have with your blaster build:
- Fire Resistance and Immunity. You’re guaranteed to at least do half damage from Silver Pyromancer’s Sacred Flame at level 16, and you get to deal full damage at level 19, presuming you’re not facing an enemy resistant to both holy and fire damage. You’ve solved it fairly well by then, yes, but level 16 and 19 is pretty late for a solution to come online to rather standard enemy abilities.
- Spell Resistance. Your caster level equals your character level (eventually), which is still rather low. Say you fight an enemy of the same level with 11 + Character Level Spell resistance. You’d only have a 50% chance of hitting with each ray in such a situation, and that situation will occasionally occur, especially with tougher monsters. And it only gets worse if they’re higher-level than you are.
- Swarms and mooks – scorching ray is nice in certain situations – single enemies and small amounts of strong enemies - but you’re going to struggle against swarms and hordes of weak mooks.
There’s lots of exceptions that will reduce your standard damage output, and the stuff that does get solved is solved rather late. Specializing in a few different spells and/or gaining more metamagic options would greatly help cover your bases in future blaster builds. (-1 point)
Your tanking ability at low levels and high levels is really good. I think the tanking at lower levels is somewhat negated by a lack of firepower (enemies can ignore you) but I think you deserve some marks here. (+0.5 points)
155HP is decent. (+0.5 points)
Saves are 14/8/13. Fort and Will saves are subpar and ref are terrible. (-1 point)
Lots of skill points gives you plenty of utility outside of combat. (+1 point)
Please learn what paragraphs are. Reading huge chunks of text with no formatting is unnecessarily difficult. No points won or lost. (0 points)
I would have liked to see a recommended spell list for your build. You at least mention a few spells in your level breakdowns. No points won or lost. (0 points)
You completed a short prestige class. (+0.5 points)
You only go back to a previously-entered class once. Half-point. (+0.5 points)

So, what benefits are you offering the rest of the party? You get the standard Wizard and Paladin spells, and there are some nice options in both lists. However, you’re very late to the party with spells and light on spell slots. I also think you’ll need a lot of them for yourself before you start buffing the rest of the party, especially since you’re making a blaster build. At level 17, you can take damage dealt to others, which is pretty cool and the sort of stuff I wanted to see when judging these builds, but… it’s level 17 before it comes online. All up, let’s call it half a point. (+0.5 points)
How necessary is Ogre Mage to this build? It gives you some nice stats and some cool abilities like Flight and Change Shape (which is needed for your prestige class). The last is good synergy and what I want to see. However, Ogre Mage also cripples you because you’re eight levels behind a regular blaster wizard getting specific class abilities. Let’s call it half a point. (+0.5 points)


A fairly solid entry. Bard was a pretty common solution to buffing the party, and I think your over-reliance on crafting held you back, but there was some fun stuff in here too.

Thanks for the entry.
Stuff I thought was original or unusual:

More than two levels of Marshal
Evangelist
Skill Focus
Master Fiddle item
Imperious Command


Stuff I thought was unoriginal or overused:

Crusader 1
Seeker of the Song PrC
Craft Wondrous Item and crafting in general
Words of Creation
Bard buffing
Diplomancy shenanigans


If I haven’t put something in, I’m either on-the-fence about its originality or consider it a foundational option.

A few interesting and unusual things here, but a lot of standard stuff here, even with my fairly basic knowledge of Bard builds. 2.5/5.

I'm not going to calculate your damage output - that's just a waste of both of our times - so, instead, I'm going to judge your ability to boost the damage of others. It's pretty solid - +6 to damage rolls is minor unless you have an attack or spells with lots of attacks, which isn't too hard to achieve, but +6 to attack rolls is amazing for everyone. I'll pass this. (+1 points)
HP is 129 at level 20. Not great. (-0.5 points)
Your saves are 12/10/15, presuming you remain in your Stance. Will is okay but your other saves are underwhelming. (-0.5 points)
You have a decent amount of skill points, including full ranks in Diplomacy, Intimidate, and Perform Oratory. I like that you make up for your +3 level adjustment with Skill Focus of your preferred skills. I think you would have benefited more from investing in something other than Diplomacy and Intimidate on the same build, and further optimizing your skill point allocation. Half a point. (+0.5 points)
You missed your BAB increase for Evangelist 3 and you should have a total BAB of 10. No score change. (0 points)
You finish off one short prestige class and put a decent amount of levels into a second prestige class. Half a point. (+0.5 points)
Smooth levelling order for your build - you never re-enter a previously-taken class. I like that. (+1 point)
Your build requires a lot of crafting. I’ve got a few critiques.

First, let’s list and value the items:
Master Fiddle – 18,000gp
Circlet of Persuasion – 4500gp
Cloak of Charisma – 36,000gp
Belt of Magnificence – 200,000gp
Regalia of the Hero – 8,200gp
Total – 266,700gp
- Master Fiddle. Requiring a specific item to make your build legal necessitates a penalty. In your defense, it’s an item specifically intended for your race, you gain the feats to craft it yourself, and it won’t take too long to craft. Half-point penalty. (-0.5 points)
- Every other item – you have a bunch of other items you want to craft. There are a few problems with crafting, though. There’s a big presumption you’re going to have all the time you want to craft your items, and that’s not necessarily true. Finding a spare eighteen days to craft your Master Fiddle is one thing, but all up, you’re asking for the better part of a year’s worth of time, in-game, to craft everything on your main list. That’s even before you start enchanting extra weapons or armor. I don’t feel that that’s a safe assumption to make. (-1 point)
- The other crafting critique is that you’re spending a bunch of XP on crafting. 1/25th of your gold cost (minimum of 266,700gp) would be 10,668 XP, and that’s before we get into enchanting weapons or armor. However, I’m going to let this slide, presuming that being part of a level behind will mean you’ll get XP faster and eventually make up the difference. No points won or lost here. (0 points)
Coming up with a list of items for a build invites critique for how you’ve spent your money. I’d really question the value of a Belt of Magnificence – even at half price, it’s over 10% of your wealth at level 20, has questionable utility for several stats, and you have less money for items that solve in-game issues like immunities, improving your weak flight, mind blank, true sight and so forth. (-0.5 points)
How well did you meet contest prereqs? Bard abilities are a pretty good way to buff the party. Your Marshal auras have decent range and your tiny size makes it easier to spread those auras about. You can grant a move action once a day, which is helpful for repositioning chargers and characters that require full-round actions, like martials without pounce or spontaneous metamagic casters, but the lack of repeats means they'll still have to sort something out. You even get the ability to craft items, which you can presumably do for other characters to help them get specific items and save money. Full marks. (+1 point)
As for the monstrosity of the build, you need the specific race to craft the racial item you need. You take into account the various bonuses of the race, it definitely feels like a monstrous build. Full marks. (+1 point)



Firstly, I would opine that your character does excessive amounts of damage. To paraphrase the melee handbook, the tarrasque only has 858 health. If your damage is excessive, the DM will have to boost the health and defenses of your enemies to meet their desired difficulty level, making your optimization moot. This leads to my other point: the levels and feats you spent getting damage to ridiculous levels could have instead been directed elsewhere and overall improved your character. Work out what good damage should look like for your character, shoot for around that, and use those spare build resources to make your build more consistent and meet contest goals earlier.

Thanks for the entry.
Stuff I found original and interesting:

Devoted Defender PrC
Iaijutsu Master PrC
Your specific Iajutsu attack combo


Stuff I found unoriginal or uninteresting:

Samurai 2, Crusader 2, Fighter 2, Swordsage 2, Master Thrower 1, Exemplar 1, Marshal 2 dips
Tiny size + Confound the Big Folk and Giantsbane


So there's a few things going on here that are pretty standard. Tiny size and some normal small-warrior options like Confound the Big Folk, and Iajutsu and thrown weapon strategies are both fairly standard. Lots of the regular dips are standard too. Combining Iajutsu with tiny size is pretty unusual though. I'll give this 2.5/5.
You’re an Iaijutsu user. You haven’t calculated your Iajutsu skill for me at each benchmark, so let’s calc that first before doing damage:

Level 6
Ranks – 7
Charisma – 8 modifier
Total – 15

Level 10
Ranks – 11
Charisma – 9 modifier
Total – 20

Level 15
Ranks – 16
Charisma – 9 modifier
Iaijutsu Focus – 3
Total – 28

Level 20
Ranks – 21
Charisma – 10 modifier
Iaijutsu Focus – 3
Marshal Aura – 10 modifier
Total – 44

Let’s assume you’re throwing tiny daggers, for d2 damage (average 1.5 damage per roll)
Let’s assume you get a +6 DEX item and a +6 CHA item.
Your STR bonus is irrelevant for the weapon.
Let’s add +2 size bonus for being tiny size
We’ll multiply your damage output by 0.75 (you need to roll at least a 6 on a d20 for your skill check)

Attack roll
16 BAB + 9 DEX Modifier + 2 Size
27 Attack Roll

Attack Routine
27 (two hits) / 22 (two hits) / 17 (two hits) / 12 (two hits)

Damage Roll
1 (dagger) + 9d6 Iaijutsu +9x13 Charisma = 149.5 damage per hit (134.5 after DR)

134.5 x 0.7 x 2 x 0.75 + 134.5 x 0.45 x 2 x 0.75 + 134.5 x 0.2 x 2 x 0.75 + 134.5 x 0.05 x 2 x 0.75 = 282.45 damage
Okay, nearly 300 damage per round is a bit excessive. I’ll pass it. (+1 point)
Iajutsu relies on having flat-footed opponents to trigger. So, what are your conditions for triggering flatfooted, besides winning initiative and flanking?
- Whenever an enemy attempts to grapple you (ECL 8).
- The turn after moving into the square of an enemy at least two sizes larger than you (medium or larger) (Confound the Big Folk) (ECL 14)
- Whenever an opponent attacks one specified ally, as long as you are adjacent to that ally (mercurial strike + defensive strike combo) (ECL 17)
Now, there are several problems with your damage setup, as I understand it, besides coming online rather late.
First problem, Confound the Big Folk is only going to work every second turn. Let’s say you’ve won initiative, got your thrown weapon attacks in. But that’s a full-round action. Second turn, you can move into the space of an enemy, triggering Confound the Big Folk, but you don’t get the benefits of this yet because Confound the Big Folk only works the turn after. As I understand it, you’re only really getting to attack every second turn.
Second problem, you’ll need to stick right next to the ally you’re defending to get your Defensive Strike combo working, which really lessens your tactic of charging up into an enemy’s space.
I’m seeing a lot of consistency problems with making opponents flatfooted.
(-1 point)
Enemies you hate: firstly, mobs and swarms, although most martials suffer from this. You’re going to have problems with enemies at anything other than short range, but again, most martials suffer from this. Lastly, enemies that aren’t at least medium size, since your feats are based on fighting enemies two sizes larger than you. There are lots of large enemies, especially at higher level, but there’s still a sizeable portion of enemies you’ll struggle to have ready answers to. (-0.5 points)
You have 131 HP. Normally I’d say this was a pretty ordinary HP score and give you zero points, but you want to tank the damage multiple characters would receive with this much HP, or alternatively, you want to charge enemies and provoke opportunity attacks from them while doing so? I’m not buying it. (-1 point)
Saves are 18/12/17. Dex is slightly low, but you have good Fort and Will saves. I’ll pass this. (+1 point)
Paragraphs, please. It would make reading your entry so much easier. No points won or lost. (0 points)
Would have been nice if you had calculated your Iaijutsu skill ranks at each benchmark for me. No points won or lost. (0 points)
I would have started at level 1 and went to 18 for your build table, you’ve given me your ECL instead. No penalty. (0 points)
You put a decent amount of levels into Iaijutsu Master, but didn’t complete it. You haven’t completed any other prestige classes either. No points won or lost. (0 points)
You re-enter a class you were previously in twice. No points won or lost. (0 points)
Your skill points are all wrong. Not sure how this happened, perhaps there is a misunderstanding on how cross-class skills work. You should have 24 ranks at level 1 (2 Class, Samurai + 4 INT) x 4 for being at level 1, but you have 32 ranks. You should add 8 ranks for Crusader at level 2, taking you to 32, but you have 37 ranks total. Fighter should be 6 more and take you to 38 but you’re at 46 ranks. I’m not bothered to keep going but it’s obvious there’s lots of problems with your skill points. At least you have some skills that are more for flavour than combat so with some work it could be fixed. (-1 point)
So many cross-class skills. (-0.5 points)
An explanation of your skill points and why you invested in them would have been nice. No points won or lost. (0 points)
How do you get Improved Initiative with Samurai 2? It’s character level 5 (ECL 7), so it’s not a regular feat, but it’s not a bonus feat you should get until Samurai 8. (-0.5 points)
So how you help the team: you claim you can take attacks meant for allies. And while you have the feat to do just that, and you do have good, if not great saves, 131 HP and only a slightly boosted AC is going to make this a very unrealistic goal. You can get attacks of opportunity if your opponents attack one specific ally, which doesn’t quite meet the contest prereqs. You can boost Charisma, which could help some charisma-based characters, and you give a +1 boost to AC. That’s a 5% chance for enemies to miss attacks – not nothing, but not particularly impressive either. All of this comes online really late. I’m not even awarding half a point for this. (0 points)
Tiny size and flight is hard to get on a standard character. I would have liked to have seen you make more use of your spell-like abilities, but still, full marks. (+1 point)


Unholy Scion is an interesting template, but brings with it a lot of issues if you don’t properly take it into account. I don’t quite think you did. Similarly with Vow of Poverty, which is incompatible with a lot of classes. I also think you would have benefited from spending more text writing about your character and explaining build options and synergies better. You can send contest entries over multiple DMs if you need to.

There are two options I would suggest. Firstly, you might consider judging in a future comp. It’s a good way to learn what good competition entries look like, and you’ll be able to improve future competition entries. If you don’t have the time for that, take a look at other builds in both this comp and previous comps, check the various entries and see what scored well and see what you can learn from that. Particularly in terms of formatting and presentation.

Thanks for the entry.
Stuff I found original and interesting:

Unholy Scion template
Beloved of Valarian PrC
Advancing Sha’ir with Eldritch Theurge and Eldritch Disciple


Stuff I found unoriginal and uninteresting:

Warlock
Sha’ir
Cleric dip
Sacred Vow, Vow of Poverty
Prestige Paladin PrC
Eldritch Theurge PrC
Eldritch Disciple PrC
Practiced Spellcaster feat
Draconic Aura


So a pretty standard eldritch theurge build. Unholy Scion is an unusual option. Vow of Poverty is a debuff but fairly well-known, and once you have VoP, I see you picked all the standard “well, I have to pick some exalted feats” options. 1.5 / 5.
So, your best offensive option at level 20 is 2d6 from Eldritch Blast. That’s extremely low damage.
You can’t cast Sha’ir spells for two different reasons (see Elegance) and even if both of those reasons were wrong your spell selection options are going to be extremely restrictive (again, see Elegance). Therefore, I’m not going to be taking Sha’ir spellcasting power into account as part of the power of your build.
Warlock Invocations give you a few options, the best combat option seems to be Bestow Curse, which makes ally attacks and spells more likely to hit or more effective, and you can use that all day. You have some utility Invocations, which are nice, but Bestow Curse is your best choice in combat.
Unholy Scion has some nice spell-like abilities like Harm, Gate and Polymorph Any Object. Unfortunately, most of those are once per day so you’ll run out of them quickly.
While you do have some tools to use, overall, I feel like you’re generally lacking options, and depth of options, for a four-encounter adventure day. (-1 point)
You have a good amount of skill points here. (+0.5 points)
I like how all of your skills are fully maxed-out. (+0.5 points)
Your saves are 19/15/26 after ability score adjustments, Divine Grace, and adding the +3 to resistances and taking away two since everyone else gets to buy a Cloak of Resistance and you can’t. Pretty good saves. (+1 point)
You haven’t completed any prestige classes or spent significant time in a base class. No points won or lost. (0 points)
You don't re-enter a previously entered class. (+1 point)
No spell table. If you’re playing a caster, I want to know what levels you’re getting your spells, and how many spell slots you’ll have at each level. Especially for a theurge build with stunted progression. (-1 point)
You can’t summon your familiar for Sha’ir. You need to use raw materials that cost 100gp, but first, you have no raw materials since you take Vow of Poverty one level before you take Sha’ir. Second, you have no raw materials since you’re a foetus and have no access to said materials. This is a fundamental, class-destroying problem since Sha’ir spellcasting requires the familiar to retrieve the spells for them. You’re a caster that can’t cast their spells. (-2 points)
Even disregarding the previous problem about getting spells, you haven’t included a recommended spell list. Normally, I’d let this slide for a prepared spellcaster with a note to add it next time, or just assume your spell list is “whatever I can get my hands on”, but you’re playing a character with very specific restrictions on spells – you’re a foetus and there are obvious issues with using verbal components, material components, and holy symbols. What are your go-to spells with those specific restrictions? I don’t know, you haven’t bothered to tell me. (-1 point)
I really don’t like how Vow of Poverty is used here. It’s a Vow to voluntarily be poor when you have the option not to be, not a “well, I can’t use items so might as well get some free power out of it” card. (-1 point)
What aura is your Draconic Aura boosting? You haven’t told me. (-1 point)
You haven’t included all of the stuff you get from Vow of Poverty. Would have been handy for me trying to work out this build. No points won or lost. (0 points)
No sourcebook list? No points won or lost. (0 points)
Unholy Scions are irredeemably evil, as per the template rules and flavour, and you’ve made a good version. No. (-1 point)
The contest remit is to give benefits to all of the party, or get benefits from all of the party. What can you do? You aren’t able to use Sha’ir spellcasting. You get first-level Cleric spellcasting, but that’s not relevant at level 20. You get Invocations, but your list of Invocations isn’t showing anything in the way of party-wide buffs. Gift of Grace would let you spread around boosts to saves, and that would be really good, but you’re limited to buffing your character’s mother. Draconic Aura works, but it’s a +4 bonus that you haven’t specified. I really wanted more from a party buffer. (0 points)
Due to the restrictions on operations and function of your character, Unholy Scions feel pretty monstrous to me. Full marks. (+1 point)

[pabelfly]

Once again, apologies for the delay. I didn't really have time to judge, but I really didn't want to leave Monster Mash in limbo without any proper judging either. And I want to work on my Monster Mash contest skills for future comps.

I'll start looking at disputes tomorrow, and see how Beni scored the same entries I did.

Thanks again to everyone for their interesting contest entries.

[Beni-Kujaku]

Thank you pabelfly for your judging! As always, I await your disputes by PM.

[loky1109]

Updated table.

# Name Alignment / Race Class Levels Chef Beni-Kujaku Pabelfly Total Place
1 Were-Buckler (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25827979&postcount=18) LE -> CE Entomanthrope Primordial Half-Troll Brain Mole Ex-Passive Way Monk 2/Soulborn 2/Warshaper 3/Martial Spell Reflection Rogue 2/Nightsong Enforcer 7 11.00 10.50 21.50 8th
2 Drakkar (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25827980&postcount=19) TN Sea Drake Ardent 7/Legendary Captain 1 12.25 13.50 25.75 3rd
3 Ally of Justice (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25827982&postcount=20) LG Psicrystal Champion Cloistered Cleric 3/Church Inquisitor 4/Sacred Exorcist 5/Twisted Lord 6/Shaper of Form 2 10.00 10.50 20.50 9th
4 Pinkamena Diane Pie (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25827983&postcount=21) LG Light Warhorse Paladin 17 13.50 12.00 25.50 4th
5 The Vorpal Poet (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25827984&postcount=22) CE Caligrosto Marshal 1/Warrior of Darkness 6/Devoted Defender 2/ Warrior Skald 1 15.50 13.00 28.50 2nd
6 Lyra (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25827985&postcount=23) CG Lillend Virtuoso 5/War Weaver 5/Sublime Chord 1 13.00 10.00 23.00 7th
7 Nerian Argentis (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25827987&postcount=24) LG Past Life (Cleric) Ogre Mage Energy Affinity (Fire) Wizard 5/Shapeshifter 2/Silver Pyromancer 5 12.00 12.00 24.00 5th
8 Jiminy (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25827988&postcount=25) NG Grig Marshal 4/Crusader 1/Evangelist 5/Seeker of the Song 7 17.50 13.50 31.00 1st
9 Nightshade (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25827989&postcount=26) LG Petal Skilled City Dweller Samurai 2/Skilled City Dweller Crusader 2/Skilled City Dweller Hit-and-Run Tactics Fighter 2/Swordsage 1/Master Thrower 1/Iaijutsu Master 5/Devoted Defender 2/Exemplar 1/Marshal 2 11.50 10.00 21.50 8th
10 Child of Twilight (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25827992&postcount=27) CG Unholy Scion Lesser Aasimar Warlock 3/Cleric 1/Sha’ir 2/Prestige Paladin of Freedom 3/Beloved of Valarian 1/Eldritch Disciple 4/Eldritch Theurge 3 13.00 10.50 23.50 6th

Thank you pabelfly! It was deep analysis!

Beni, did I already send you table link?

[Beni-Kujaku]

First dispute for you, pabelfly:

I thought a bard with **infinite uses** of its bardic abilities was going to score a bit higher on the Power scale. What's more, it's not just Bardic Music here, there are a lot of Seeker of the Song tricks added that ride the "infinite fiddle" trick.
Furthermore, this round was about buffing allies and I made it my point to have the most allies possible buffed here. You say +6 damage is nothing impressive, but +6 times 100 creatures is a different story !
Also, with the Fanatic trick, it's +7 to atk/dmg and badge of valor makes it +8 (it's 2 days crafting time).
Also the fact that the Marshal's auras buff a 100 allies for tremendous amount both in Cha (they're all diplomancers) and in Initiative/Hide/MS (they always **all** play first) has been omitted from the section imo.

Speaking of an army, I feel this build has the means to create it from scratch (via Diplomacy + Evangelist) and is able create the stuff it needs to be efficient.
It takes time, yes but that's just how it works with armies.
General Jiminy single-handedly raises said army with its own abilities and fanatics are paying for it with **their** WBL so if anything you're making money and probably not using your own XP either (distilled joy, transference etc).

Finally for the stuff part, considering what I said just above, having it all is a boon for everyone so everyone will chip in (fanatics are useful) effectively making stuff like belt of magnificence, worth it.


loky, no you haven't sent me the table link yet. That would be great, thank you!

[ciopo]

Pabelfly, your "hard scoring" rubric only list 3 bullet points for, I assume, power, is that intentional or there is more of a rubric but it got ate by the ether?? I like reading about rules :)

And thank you for judging, of course, tho I have no horse in this race

[pabelfly]

Pabelfly, your "hard scoring" rubric only list 3 bullet points for, I assume, power, is that intentional or there is more of a rubric but it got ate by the ether?? I like reading about rules :)

And thank you for judging, of course, tho I have no horse in this race

The three things I can easily quantify with numbers for power are damage output, HP, and skill points.

Power is calculated at level 20, with the presumption that power will typically scale at a fairly steady rate, with occasional small leaps as build benchmarks are achieved. If there are huge leaps in build power, I'll make note of that here too, although this is pretty rare. Sometimes I get to skip that step with the presumption that in-built class progression (spell slots, initiator levels), etc should meet damage benchmarks. Buffing is harder to judge, but I'll typically ask myself, "would I do better if my own characters had this buff or another party member to hit things?"

There's other things I look for too - every build has their saves considered, but it's hard to quantify what passes and fails, given saves can be so widely varied. I'll also give points if there are notable defensive options. For example, Vorpoal Poet had immunity to three elements and a resistance to the fourth, incorporeality and permanent invisibility - that's worth extra recognition.

Lastly with saves... I would opine that Will saves are more important than Fort, which are more important than Reflex saves. I typically want to see at least two saves of at least 15, preferrably with one of those saves being Will saves, and the third save at least being decent. But as I said, it's hard to directly quantify what a set of "good saves" looks like.

Hope this helps.

[Beni-Kujaku]

Pabelfly, here is a... I wanna say dispute, but... I wanna say judging help... It's just one competitor showing that they know their build better than we do, and reinforcing the "check your prerequisites, always" rule:


Greetings, thank you for judging and for placing VORPAL POET so high. However, I have a revelation.


Characters must still meet all prerequisites for a feat, including ability scores and base attack bonus (see Chapter 5 of the Player’s Handbook for descriptions of feats and their prerequisites)

I missed over a clause when reading warrior of darkness. Thus, I do not qualify for Power Attack and Cleave. Thus, I cannot be warrior skald. Thus, I cannot use Inspire Greatness. Presumably, this hurts the build. Lower its score please.

My apologies for the requesting of extra judging time. Sorry!

That... is absolutely right. And it's not like it's an easily solvable problem either, since you're fully incorporeal. This jeopardizes the whole build. And I'm sad of it.
The only way I can see would be a level of Monk for Power Attack, then possessing a Rankbreaker Glaive to gain Cleave long enough to enter Warrior Skald, but even then it requires the questionable interpretation of using the short-term benefits of a feat to qualify for something. All in all, it requires changing a level (-2), item dependency (-1) and questionable interpretations (-1). Total: -4 in elegance.
Alternatively, the last level considered illegal and not taken, that's -1 to elegance for illegality of a single level, -1 for illegality of two non-necessary bonus feats, -0.5 to power for losing two combat feats and -0.5 for losing bardic music and -0.5 to Monstrosity for losing one of your main ways of helping your teammates. Total : -3.5 (-2 Elegance, -1 Power, -0.5 Monstrosity. I'll go with this one, but it still doesn't feel right considering you yourself are the one who told us. Did you wait for the second judgement just to see if either of us saw it? Anyways, thank you for your honesty.

[Beni-Kujaku]

And an actual dispute for you, pabelfly, from the horse marching in hell for a heavenly cause:


Thank you, pabelfly!

Saves are 18/11/7. Nice fort save, shame about the other two, especially the Will save.
Saves are 20/13/12 actually, you forgot about +6 Wis from Ancestral relic and about Admiral’s Bicorne aura. Last also could be important in Monstrosity.


You've taken several offensive options for your Paladin but I don't see their use being worthwhile with the build as it is now.
Even Conversion? For me it looks very powerful and unique offensive option.


If you’re going to take Wild Talent, you might as well take Hidden Talent and get the extra psionic ability for free. A missed opportunity.
Opportunity to get 1/day (one because I can't afford be without PP) 1st level power with 1 ML? Well, there are several useful powers even in that format, but I don't sure it is essential. Plus:

Note: This is an expanded version of the Wild Talent feat, intended for use in high-psionics campaigns.
I don't sure Diablo II is high-psionics campaign.


I don’t understand what combo you’re trying to present with Diablo II Paladin’s Vigor.
It's my shame.
I didn't read this ability correctly. I read "Your and all allies within 20 feet have your base speed increased by 10 feet for 10 minutes." as "Me and all allies within 20 feet have my base speed (at the moment I use the Vigor) increased by 10 feet for 10 minutes."



The chief example of this was taking Ancestral Relic, presumably to meet the CHA roll reqs of DII:R Paladin’s abilities, but there are easier (and more interesting ways) to pass that roll.
I'm wondering about these ways. What did I miss?

[loky1109]

Beni, what's about next round theme? What did we select?

And, maybe for future, I again come with "Reborn" idea. I thought a little and reborn it as "Should change race or type via class or prestige class".

[Inevitability]

And, maybe for future, I again come with "Reborn" idea. I thought a little and reborn it as "Should change race or type via class or prestige class".

The class restriction seems interesting indeed - but when so many type-changing classes do so as their capstone, and a lot are casters, doesn't that form a really strong incentive against people using high-ECL monsters? It's already too tempting to grab some 3 HD monster and staple a standard PC build to it - the last thing we need to do is actively encourage that.

Plus, I think any efforts to actually make the type change matter are going to drift very close to the previous VC round.


How about a halloween theme? I suggested Jack 'O Lantern (Plant type, fire abilities) in Villainous Competition, where it got rejected to avoid having two type-based rounds in a row, but I don't see why it wouldn't work here.

Alternatively: Cuz this is Thriller, a round where all the entries need to be capable of creating zombies (or other corpse-based minions) either through class features or racial abilities.

[Beni-Kujaku]

I was definitely thinking a Halloween theme would be best (hopefully so that we can have a Christmas round afterwards). I just had some difficulty finding inspiration, but Jack o' Lantern and Thriller are absolutely great themes.
I'll add two more ideas:

Spreading the Curse: the monster should be able to inflict long-running (permanent is a plus) curse on an opponent (debuffs, damage over time, diseases and poisons can be considered curses)

All Hallow's day/Unhallowed Eve : the monster should be an angel or archon, have the Saint template or be able to cast Hallow, or to the contrary should be a Yugoloth or Demodand, have the Corrupted template (considered here to be LA+2) or be able to cast Unhallow.

Thriller : the monster should be able to create zombies

Jack o' Lantern : the monster should be a plant and have fire capabilities.


Do you like these, do you have other spooky ideas? I'm awaiting any proposition.

[loky1109]

Do you like these, do you have other spooky ideas? I'm awaiting any proposition.
Mom, there is a monster under the bed!
Invisible/camouflaging/mimicry/hiding monster. It could literally be under the bed and you couldn't find it.


Spreading the Curse - Interesting.

All Hallow's day/Unhallowed Eve - Don't like.

Thriller - Very interesting, but slightly restricted. I don't know. If I should select only one - it will not be this one.

Jack o' Lantern - It's really cool, but we have only 41 suitable plant creatures.

I vote the first.

[Inevitability]

Spreading the Curse seems pretty interesting!

[pabelfly]

Okay, let's start going through the disputes (so far):


"Saves are 20/13/12 actually, you forgot about +6 Wis from Ancestral relic and about Admiral’s Bicorne aura. Last also could be important in Monstrosity.

I'm ignoring item effects when calculating your saves because whatever items you'd have access to, so would other builds.


Even Conversion? For me it looks very powerful and unique offensive option.

A few points:
1) This is your level 20 ability. It's going to be relevant for, what, 5% of your character's play career? What happens in the low and mid levels is much more relevant to me, they’re what you’ll be using for the vast majority of the time.
2) Conversion only works against demons and undead. Demons are a very specific type of monster and there are only a few demons, so they will rarely be an issue. Undead is slightly more broad, but in the vast majority of combats (outside of specific campaigns) this will not be relevant.

It's a nice, flavourful ability, but it's very rarely going to be relevant for you. Even solely at level 20.


Opportunity to get 1/day (one because I can't afford be without PP) 1st level power with 1 ML? Well, there are several useful powers even in that format, but I don't sure it is essential. Plus:

Note: This is an expanded version of the Wild Talent feat, intended for use in high-psionics campaigns.

I would have went with Wild Talent but this is fair. (+0.5 points)


The chief example of this was taking Ancestral Relic, presumably to meet the CHA roll reqs of DII:R Paladin’s abilities, but there are easier (and more interesting ways) to pass that roll.
I'm wondering about these ways. What did I miss?
I wish you had included your CHA check score in your level breakdowns, since it's so essential to your build functioning.

Anyway, we need to reach a check of 17 Charisma, and we’ve accepted we’re happy to spend money to get that check.

4 Point Buy + Race + Levelling
2 (Circumstance) Nymph’s Kiss
3 (Competence) Circlet of Persuasion, 4,500 gp
3 (Untyped) Horseshoes of Flame, 30,240gp. This is the perfect item for your character – cheaper than a Cloak of Charisma, but also boosts DEX and gives 90ft flight.
3 (Enhancement) Cloak of Charisma, 36,000gp
1d6 Pious Soul feat
1 Minimum d20 roll

I remember researching this over a month ago when judging your build and seeing some other options, which I can’t find now, but I think what’s here is sufficient.



I’ll work on the other two disputes later.

[pabelfly]

Okay, let’s look at the anti-dispute.


I missed over a clause when reading warrior of darkness. Thus, I do not qualify for Power Attack and Cleave. Thus, I cannot be warrior skald. Thus, I cannot use Inspire Greatness. Presumably, this hurts the build. Lower its score please.

My apologies for the requesting of extra judging time. Sorry!

Firstly, I really appreciate and respect your honesty, because I didn’t thoroughly check prereqs when going through the build. And I’d like to get the judging right as best I can, so I don’t mind the extra work.

Still, I need to make deductions to the score. Thank you for your understanding on this:

Originality
You’re not eligible to take Devoted Defender or Warrior Skald (discussed in Elegance edits). It’s not fair to other players to include these classes when considering the originality of your build, when you’re not eligible for these classes. -1 point (Score is now 3.5 / 5)

Power
Offensive presence: While you’re going to lack offensive presence without Power Attack and Cleave, your build can still do Bardic support or really buff another player’s weapon. I think at that point I’d probably rather another combatant though. Half a point instead. -0.5 points (Score is 4.5 / 5)

Elegance
Judging says, “failure to meet prerequisites earns a 0 in Elegance”. Typically, with one mistake, I’d be happy to set this to a 1/5, but there’s some serious failures in your build that are not easily fixed:
1) Devoted Defender requires Weapon Focus, which you simply do not have.
2) Warrior of Darkness requires you to meet feat prereqs before taking both Power Attack and Cleave as feats, but you don’t have the STR score to do this.
3) Warrior Skald requires Power Attack and Cleave feats, but you aren’t able to take these feats without serious build reworking

With this in mind, I feel that an elegance score of "0" is justified. Elegance score set to 0. (Elegance set to 0 / 5)

Monstrosity is unchanged.

Total score, 12/ 20 (adjusted from 15 / 20)

Lastly, I’d like to apologize for not more thoroughly examining your build and catching this earlier. While it was an honest mistake on my part, it’s unfair on you that I got your hopes up with a high judging score that needs to be adjusted backwards. Again, I do appreciate your honesty in this matter and for allowing me to correct my judging scores.

[Beni-Kujaku]

I will launch the next round tomorrow evening, which will be about curses, unless other people speak up about other themes. Pabelfly, do you think you could answer Jiminy's dispute before then?

[pabelfly]

I will launch the next round tomorrow evening, which will be about curses, unless other people speak up about other themes. Pabelfly, do you think you could answer Jiminy's dispute before then?

Yeah, I'll do Jiminy in a few hours.

[pabelfly]

Okay, let's tackle the Jiminy dispute:


I thought a bard with **infinite uses** of its bardic abilities was going to score a bit higher on the Power scale. What's more, it's not just Bardic Music here, there are a lot of Seeker of the Song tricks added that ride the "infinite fiddle" trick.

1) Direct combat power, as in how much damage you can output or how much support you can provide to your allies in a combat situation, is only be worth one point maximum. You already got that point. Any reworking of this section would only change the text and not your score.
2) How many uses of Bardic music do you really need to use in a day? Bardic music lasts multiple rounds as long as you make the concentration check. I don’t see your Concentration being interrupted, or that you'll be changing what Bardic music you play to the extent that, say, a level 10 Bard with ten uses of Bardic music is going to be meaningfully different to a level 10 bard with infinite uses of Bardic music.
3) Seeker of the Song gives you nice new tricks, sure, but you can only have one effect going at once, as far as I understand the build.

Before we continue, let’s break down the Diplomancy skill. I should have done this in the judgement itself, but I didn’t think the Diplomancy aspect of the build was relevant. Let’s go into detail as to why this is:

Firstly, a Diplomacy check typically only works once. We can’t assume that we’ll get to keep on doing Diplomacy checks to keep on improving an NPC’s attitude. Otherwise, if we got to keep on making new checks to keep on improving their attitude, we would only need to meet a check of 20 several times in a row to turn a hostile enemy into a helpful ally. The Diplomancy check also says that you typically don’t get to try to make the check again.

You have a check of 50, you'll be able to turn anyone into a Helpful Ally. So, what are the roles a “helpful ally” can take? They can protect, back up, heal or aid. Direct combat is a different thing entirely, that’s more in line with epic skill attitude Fanaticism, which requires a check of 90, presuming the other Grigs start at a neutral position. Your check, however, is not that high.

The next problem with Diplomancing a bunch of NPCs into joining you as warriors are their levels, stats, abilities and feats. Even if you were to persuade someone to become a fanatic and join your cause, most NPCs will just be Commoner X. If you want NPC warriors, you have to pay for Hirelings. Unfortunately, you get what you pay for here. Your Commoner army is going to die to the first stray fireball sent their way, never mind a serious opponent like a dragon.

Last point, before we get into the rest of the dispute, is that we presume we start off at Neutral because you have the same race. If you suddenly have Grigs dying en-masse since they took Profession (Meatshield), or they are robbing their family to give you their family fortune, I’d quickly expect that starting attitude to turn into open hostility, making your Diplomancy efforts that much more difficult.

With that discussed, let’s continue the dispute:


Furthermore, this round was about buffing allies and I made it my point to have the most allies possible buffed here. You say +6 damage is nothing impressive, but +6 times 100 creatures is a different story !
Also, with the Fanatic trick, it's +7 to atk/dmg and badge of valor makes it +8 (it's 2 days crafting time).
Also the fact that the Marshal's auras buff a 100 allies for tremendous amount both in Cha (they're all diplomancers) and in Initiative/Hide/MS (they always **all** play first) has been omitted from the section imo.

On first glance, this sounds great. But then you realize that the army you have assembled has Commoner-tier hit dice, Commoner stat arrays, and don’t even have armor or anything like that. And as for Hide and Move Silently, if you are rolling checks for a hundred NPCs who have a base DEX bonus of zero, have no ranks because they spent their lives learning Craft (Pottery) or Profession (Baker), you’re not going to be able to hide an entire swarm from sight, even if you do get to add a decent CHA bonus to that check.

I feel the most effective way to achieve in-game goals is to boost a few powerful superhuman characters (aka other players), rather than a multitude of weak NPC characters.


Speaking of an army, I feel this build has the means to create it from scratch (via Diplomacy + Evangelist) and is able create the stuff it needs to be efficient.
It takes time, yes but that's just how it works with armies.

As stated before, d4 + 0 or 1 CON means that army is going to die from a weak fireball, never mind any serious opponent.


General Jiminy single-handedly raises said army with its own abilities and fanatics are paying for it with **their** WBL so if anything you're making money and probably not using your own XP either (distilled joy, transference etc).

Finally for the stuff part, considering what I said just above, having it all is a boon for everyone so everyone will chip in (fanatics are useful) effectively making stuff like belt of magnificence, worth it.

1) As stated before, you don’t have the Diplomancy skill to turn indifferent allies fanatic
2) Even if you can circumvent WBL guidelines this way (no you can’t) commoner wealth is measured in silver pieces, and you plan on having a hundred allies. Even the weakest version of Belt of Magnificence costs 50K gold. It’s not happening.
3) Fleecing your allies of their money to empower yourself while leaving them with nothing is really going to drive down those NPC attitudes you’ve been working so hard to boost.

No changes to point score.

[Beni-Kujaku]

And now, [dramatic pause] the REVEAL!


# Name Alignment / Race Class Levels Chef Beni-Kujaku Pabelfly Total Place
1 Were-Buckler (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25827979&postcount=18) LE -> CE Entomanthrope Primordial Half-Troll Brain Mole Ex-Passive Way Monk 2/Soulborn 2/Warshaper 3/Martial Spell Reflection Rogue 2/Nightsong Enforcer 7 Prime32 11.00 10.50 21.50 7th
2 Drakkar (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25827980&postcount=19) TN Sea Drake Ardent 7/Legendary Captain 1 loky1109 12.25 13.50 25.75 2nd
3 Ally of Justice (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25827982&postcount=20) LG Psicrystal Champion Cloistered Cleric 3/Church Inquisitor 4/Sacred Exorcist 5/Twisted Lord 6/Shaper of Form 2 Prime32 10.00 10.50 20.50 8th
4 Pinkamena Diane Pie (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25827983&postcount=21) LG Light Warhorse Paladin 17 loky1109 13.50 12.00 25.50 3rd
5 The Vorpal Poet (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25827984&postcount=22) CE Caligrosto Marshal 1/Warrior of Darkness 6/Devoted Defender 2/ Warrior Skald 1 Inevitability 12.00 12.00 24.00 4th
6 Lyra (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25827985&postcount=23) CG Lillend Virtuoso 5/War Weaver 5/Sublime Chord 1 Paragon 13.00 10.00 23.00 6th
7 Nerian Argentis (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25827987&postcount=24) LG Past Life (Cleric) Ogre Mage Energy Affinity (Fire) Wizard 5/Shapeshifter 2/Silver Pyromancer 5 FactualArcher 12.00 12.00 24.00 4th
8 Jiminy (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25827988&postcount=25) NG Grig Marshal 4/Crusader 1/Evangelist 5/Seeker of the Song 7 Paragon 17.50 13.50 31.00 1st
9 Nightshade (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25827989&postcount=26) LG Petal Skilled City Dweller Samurai 2/Skilled City Dweller Crusader 2/Skilled City Dweller Hit-and-Run Tactics Fighter 2/Swordsage 1/Master Thrower 1/Iaijutsu Master 5/Devoted Defender 2/Exemplar 1/Marshal 2 FactualArcher 11.50 10.00 21.50 7th
10 Child of Twilight (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25827992&postcount=27) CG Unholy Scion Lesser Aasimar Warlock 3/Cleric 1/Sha’ir 2/Prestige Paladin of Freedom 3/Beloved of Valarian 1/Eldritch Disciple 4/Eldritch Theurge 3 Prime32 13.00 10.50 23.50 5th

Congratulations to everyone, especially to loky1109 and Paragon for their placement on the podium, to Prime32 for his first participation to Monster Mash, to Inevitability for his honesty on his dispute, and to pabelfly for his judging! This was one of the most varied and original round of any competition I've seen, thank you.

Next round will be up soon.

[Inevitability]

Congrats y'all! Prime, absolutely loved Child of Twilight, by far the most out-there build this round (and that's saying something). Also a big fan of captain drakkar.

As for the Poet - it is what it is, I wish I'd made an actually legal build this round, but I'm glad I caught the mistake before any judgements were finalized.

[loky1109]

Congratulations to Paragon and everyone! Thanks to pabelfly and Beni-Kujaku!

Prime32, I'm your fun! Both your builds are awesome! Very creative!


About Pinkamena Pie... It's very sad I read vigor wrongly. It was core idea of whole entry. I take all elements - feats, race, soulmeld, etc. for it. Without granting 110 ft speed to allies it looks really not very good.

To Beni, about Drakkar.

You actually bother to have the "appropriate skill check" (whatever that means) to transform into a "complex object". I have no idea how that could work (multileveled massive object with mecanisms etc.)
This is Knowledge (architecture and engineering). At least for ships. Look at Stormwrack, p. 85

[Paragon]

Thanks, really happy Jiminy got placed first !

About that Pabelfly, I don't really mind you not liking the build but I just want to answer some of your remarks.
- Infinite uses is really good because all Bardic, Evangelist and SotS abilities are based on them
- Subsing lets you have 2 at once
- On the Diplomacy matter, Evangelist let's you Charm Monster (with the added bonus of the target that might be willing to join you afterwards) and from there you Diplo them into fanatism. It is doable, and Jiminy can actually do it and to everyone commoner grig he finds.
- Grigs have high Dex and they're tiny so that +12 to Hide with no ranks (also, they have invisibility) and +9 to move silently in forest settings. As for Initiative, it's +4 from Dex.
- Finally the crafting part, there are a thousand ways to make crafting worthwhile (timeless planes etc) and the items presented needn't be crafted. It was just to sum up stuff that could be helpful as it is described in the comp ; "give an idea of what items would best complement you build"