Junkyard Wars XLIII - Natural Weapons + Spellcasting - Druid

[pabelfly]

Welcome to Junkyard Stadium! It is in this hallowed pile of miscellaneous parts that we will hold a competition of Practical Optimization with three components. The catch? Competitors may not use the third item in their builds!

Goal: Create a build that showcases the selected ingredients while steering clear of the Forbidden Ingredient.

This competition has two Necessary Components and one Forbidden Component. This round's components are...

Necessary: Natural Weapons
Necessary: Spellcasting
Forbidden: Druid


https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/l5r/images/a/a6/Ogre_Mage.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20190121130509



Creation: 32 point-buy is the presumed creation method. You may assume that you will have enough exp to reach ECL 20, and that the occasional bit of crafting, use of spells with exp components, or the like won't prevent you from doing so. However, LA buyoff is an alternate rule which is not in play.
Workshop: Competitors will be free to use any official 3.5 rulebook in constructing their builds. Dragon Magazine is disallowed, and Unearthed Arcana is allowed; but see below. Web-exclusive 3.0 or 3.5 materials by WotC are expressly allowed, but take care to verify that an updated version did not appear in print elsewhere as this may cause an Elegance deduction at the judges' discretion. If you use web material, please link it. Dragon Magazine Compendium is allowed, as are Oriental Adventures (and its 3.5 updates in Dragon Magazine) and the Dragonlance Campaign Setting. Alternate rule systems from UA such as generic classes, spontaneous divine casters, gestalt and fractional saves and BAB are not allowed, as they create a different playing field.
Leadership is banned: We're creating one thing, not all of the things. If your entry includes a prestige class or ACF that grants Leadership or a Leadership-like ability as a bonus feat, the feat should be ignored and is not eligible to be traded away for another feat or ACF through any means. If your entry includes a prestige class that requires Leadership, you still need to qualify, but the feat should thereafter be ignored.
Speculation: Please don't post or speculate on possible builds until after the reveal in order to avoid spoiling the surprise if a particular competitor is producing a build along those lines. Speculation and stub posting is to be avoided until the reveal is completed.
Disputes: Any scoring disputes should be sent to the Chair via PM. Valid disputes include RAW misreadings, arithmetic errors, things missed that are present in the entry, and inconsistently applied criteria. Invalid disputes include disagreements on matters of opinion, a judge not catching something not explicitly presented in the entry, and the like. Invalid disputes will be responded to via PM by the Chair, but valid disputes will be posted in-thread for the judge to review. When disputing, please indicate the judge the dispute is intended for and provide a quote of the disputed comment or comments. Note: the Chair may edit or paraphrase any disputes in presenting them to the judges.
Presentation: You will need to present a write-up of your build at at least one of the following points: 5th level, 10th level, 15th, 20th, and a "sweet spot" that you feel is the high point of the build, as well as presenting a fully-fleshed out 20-level build in the table below. Please give a rundown of the build's abilities and playability throughout its life. Builds will be posted anonymously, in order to avoid the potential of bias towards a particular competitor. For this reason, please don't put your name in the build as I'm likely to miss it when reviewing the entries. Also for this reason, PLEASE do not include any material that may or may not offend any potential viewers/judges/competitors OR break forum rules. Any builds which violate forum rules WILL be withheld from posting.
Anonymity: if you are submitting multiple entries, please try not to have entries reference each other, or have other obvious "tells" that they are from the same competitor. If it is essential for your concept that entries are somehow linked, that is fine, but otherwise, please try to limit info that will give away who competitors are.



Due to concerns about standardizing entry format, please 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
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


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

mattie_p has also kindly made a Google Document that greatly assists with creating and formatting tables: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BG0-5sq4dL9Ooh7-QfXuyHzO4rXSz-CRcj29t6BeUVE/edit?usp=sharing




Scoring: Each judge is required to provide the criteria by which they are judging the builds. By "criteria," we mean a simple explanation of what the judge is looking for in each of the below categories and what kind of scoring we can expect. If a judge deems a build to be illegal, they may provide a 0 in Elegance but may not refuse to judge any build presented by the Chairman.
The Categories: Judging will be based on the following criteria, with each build rated from 1 (very poor) to 5 (exemplary) in each area: Originality, Power, Elegance, Use of Components.


Originality: Is the build unique? Does it deviate from the obvious? Does it forge its own path, or does it fall back on common, established optimization tricks? Some judges score entries for the quality of their concept & backstory as well, though not all do. Providing at least some backstory is heavily encouraged, as it helps the judges figure out who the entry is. Note that the purpose of this category is not to penalize entries that independently came up with the same idea as another entry, but rather to reward entries that explore underutilized and non-obvious areas of optimization, so, judges, try not to base your judging in this category too heavily on what other builds are doing. Multiple entries using the same element may certainly be evidence that the element is unoriginal, but you shouldn't impose anything like a "-1 for each other build using the same class" penalty.
Power: Power level is up to you. Cheese is acceptable, but should be kept to a sane level unless you're showcasing a new TO build you've discovered. In the words of one of my predecessors, a little cheddar can be nice, but avoid the mature Gruyere unless you're making a cheese fondue.
Elegance: This category was formerly titled "Build Stability." Here, we're essentially measuring how skillfully you put your build together and how you balanced flavor with power. We're cooking here - if your dish doesn't taste good, it doesn't matter how well-presented it is. Use of flaws is an automatic loss of one point per flaw in this category. Other things that will cause lost points here are excessive multiclassing (meaning any multiclassing that results in an xp penalty), and classes that don't fit the concept - using Cloistered Cleric in a front-line melee fighter, for example, may lose you points. Rule adherence and legality of sources is scored under this category; additionally, reliance on a questionable, controversial, or ambiguous ruling can and should result in a deduction. Neither the number of sources nor their relative obscurity should be penalized--contestants should feel free to use any books they like. Dipping should not be penalized unless it results in a multiclass xp penalty; if the system won't penalize it, neither should judges.
Use of Components: Was the Forbidden Component avoided? Were the Necessary Components showcased, or simply used because they were necessary?



Note on scoring: if you are going to penalize an entry for something specific, it is strongly recommend that it only be penalized in one of the four categories for this - the one you feel is the most relevant. It is OK to put different penalties for different instances in their own category, but if, say, someone fails to qualify for a PrC, try not to ping them in Elegance and Power, for instance.
Disputes: Any scoring disputes will be posted by the Chairman in-thread after reviewing them privately. Valid disputes include

RAW misreadings,
arithmetic errors,
things missed that are present in the entry,
and inconsistently applied criteria.

Note: only competitors are to raise disputes, and only on their own entry. If you, as a spectator, find an error in judging (or in an entry, for that matter), please hold off on comment until after the final reveal. Thank you.
Invalid disputes include

disagreements on matters of opinion,
a judge not catching something not explicitly presented in the entry,
and the like.

Invalid disputes will be responded to via PM by the Chair, but valid disputes should be responded to by each individual judge. Judges are obligated to respond to disputes to ensure that everyone gets a fair shake. A judge's scores will only be recognized if they have recognized all disputes. In the absence of any other judges, the entries will be judged by the chairman.


*NEW*
In the event that no suitable judge is found in a reasonable time, we will trial the alternate method:

Each contestant picks their three favourite entries that they did not submit. They will rank the three in order from first to third, and this will be submitted privately to The Chair.
Entries that are not rated by a contestant are presumed to rated at 4th place.
The score of each entry is averaged, and competition winners will be decided with the lowest number taking first place, second-lowest taking second and so forth.




Completion Time:

Contestants will have until 23:59 GMT Monday October 2, 2023 to create their builds and PM them to the chairman (note: you are free to submit builds up until I start posting entries, even if this deadline has passed).
Builds will then be posted simultaneously to avoid copying.
Judges will have until 23:59 GMT Monday October 16, 2023 to judge the builds and submit their scores.
Should there not be a reasonable prospect of a judge for the competition, the backup judging method will take place from 23:59 GMT Monday October 23, 2023 to rank and average prospective builds.
As the precedent has been set from Episode 2, should all prospective judges have posted their rulings in a neat, timely fashion and all disputes have been settled satisfactorily (to either judges, contestants, or the Chairperson), the judging period may end prematurely to give way to a new episode. No reason to keep working on a finished building and avoid moving onto the next one.


Looking for as many contestants and judges as feel like playing! We will award 1st through 3rd places, as well as a shout-out for honorable mention. The honorable mention prize is given to the most daring or unexpected build that doesn't gain a medal. Contestants are invited to vote for honorable mention via PM. Everyone else can vote in-thread. Ready? Set? Get to the junkyard and start building!

On the subject of messaging the chair (me), a few guidelines:
- I am not here to give critiques on your build or guess how the judges might score it!
- For entries, please keep the entry to no more than 2 messages, if at all possible.
- For entries, don't expect me to search through your entry and edit in or out material. Entries should be sent to me complete - if there is a later revision, re-submit the full build. PLEASE DON'T INCLUDE TEXT IN YOUR SUBMISSION YOU WANT ME TO EDIT OUT FOR THE POST - SUBMIT IT TO ME EXACTLY HOW I WILL POST THE FINISHED PRODUCT.
- Please make sure the name of your entry is clearly present in the message.



Junkyard Wars in the Playground I: Shadowdancer + Sneak Attack - Rogue (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?337864)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground II: Healing Spells + Ruby Knight Vindicator - Cleric (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?342896)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground III: Dragons + Theurges - Kobolds (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?347412)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground IV: BoED + Undead Type - Completes (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?355278)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground V: Dread Witch + Reaping Mauler - Fighter (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?360271)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground VI: Wonderworker + Profession Skill - Factotum (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?369604)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground VII: Metamagic Feats + LA - Metamagic Reducers! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?374504)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground VIII: Pounce+Small Size-Barbarian (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?388151)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground IX: Earth Dreamer + Ordained Champion - Cleric (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?395791)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground X: Meldshaping + Natural Attacks - Totemist (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?403880)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground XI: Magical Darkness + Improved Familiar - Wizard (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?409650)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground XII: Dragonmark Heirs + Touchstones - Martial Weapons (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?430214)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground XIII: Mulhorandi Divine Minion + Monk - Any Other Wildshaping (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?465901)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground XIV: Racial Paragon Classes + Spellcasting - Base Classes (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?479427)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground XV: Ruathar + Stoneblessed - Human (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?497904)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground XVI: Trapsmith + Combat Trapsmith - Rogue (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?540521)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground XVII: Elemental Warrior + Jaunter - Fighter (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?552569)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground XVIII: Argent Savant + Holy Scourge - Wizard (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?555404)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground XIX: Incarnum Blade + Exotic Weapon Master - Spiked Chain (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?562523-Junkyard-Wars-XIX-IB-EWM-SC)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground XX: Xorvintaal Exarch + The Pact-Bound Adept - Sorcerer (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?568541-Junkyard-Wars-XX-XE-PBA(a)-S)
Junkyard Wars in the Playground XXI: Rebuke Undead + Teamwork Benefits - [Divine] feats (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?572680-Junkyard-Wars-XXI-Halloween-Round!)
Junkyard Wars XXII: Battle Trickster + Magical Trickster - Uncanny Trickster (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?577512-Junkyard-Wars-XXII-Show-Me-Your-Skillz)
Junkyard Wars XXIII: Spellwarp Sniper + Silver Pyromancer - Energy Substitution (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?581736-Junkyard-Wars-XXIII-Ready-Aim-Fire)
Junkyard Wars XXIV: Vow of Peace + Saint - Divine casting (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?585567-Junkyard-Wars-XXIV-VoPe-S-DC)
Junkyard Wars XXV: Silverwood Arcanist + Share Soulmeld - Soulcaster (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?590622-Junkyard-Wars-XXV-SA-SS-S)
Junkyard Wars XXVI: RSL + ACF - PrCs (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?593374-Junkyard-Wars-XXVI-RSL-ACF-PrCs)
Junkyard Wars XXVII: Unholy Scion + Mark - Affiliation (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?598151-Junkyard-Wars-XXVII-US-M-A)
Junkyard Wars XXVII: 1MF + CPA&A - T (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?603826-Junkyard-Wars-XXVIII-1MF-CPA-amp-A-T)
Junkyard Wars XXIX: Social Distancing Edition! (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?610153-Junkyard-Wars-XXIX-Social-Distancing-Edition!)
Junkyard Wars XXX: Something a Little Spicy (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?631758-Junkyard-Wars-XXX-Something-a-Little-Spicy)
Junkyard Wars XXXI: Giddy-Up! (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?633325)
Junkyard Wars XXXII: Theurge Without Theurge (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?634803)
Junkyard Wars XXXIII: LotD + AF - Necropolitan (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?636185)
Junkyard Wars XXXIV: SE + HoS - Soulmelds (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?637670)
Junkyard Wars XXXV: Complete Class + Complete PrC - PHB Classes (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?641168)
Junkyard Wars XXXVI: Vestige Binding + MWP - Binder (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?642413)
Junkyard Wars XXXVII: Bone Collector + Necropotent - ToB (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?644772)
Junkyard Wars XXXVIII: NPC Class + Prestige Class - Base Classes (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?645816)
Junkyard Wars XXXIX - Stunning Fist + Evasion - Monk (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?646976)
Junkyard Wars XL - Ninths + Metamagic - Prepared Spells (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?648718)
Junkyard Wars XLI - Spellcasting + Rage - Rage Mage (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?653216)
Junkyard Wars XLII Smite + Mounted Combat - Paladin (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?655908)

[pabelfly]

Contest Questions and Answers

Q1: Are Psionics, Invocations, etc. considered spellcasting for the purposes of this competition?
A1: Psionics, Invocations, etc are considered spellcasting for the purposes of this competition.

Q2: If a monster has racial spellcasting "as if it was a Xth level Y (class), does it count for fulfilling prereqs for a PrC? And if it does, is it increased by a PrC that raises spellcaster levels?
A2: 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).

Edit: Invocations included to clarify their elligibility as "spellcasting", in the context of this competition.

[pabelfly]

Housekeeping:

I threw up a poll a couple of days ago on future contest ideas, but you're still welcome to vote: https://take.quiz-maker.com/poll4919844x5aab4E87-152.

So far, it looks like we'll do "Abjuration + Exotic Weapon Proficiency - Abjurant Champion" and "Arcane Casting + Heavy Armor – Still Spell" in future comps, but I might add others options to that list if they get enough votes.

That should be about it from me, except to clarify any points about the contest. Good luck with your entries.

[H_H_F_F]

Contest Questions and Answers

Q1: Are Psionics, etc. considered spellcasting for the purposes of this competition?
A1: Psionics, etc are considered spellcasting for the purposes of this competition.

That's a bit easy, isn't it?

[pabelfly]

That's a bit easy, isn't it?

It's what I did last time with Spellcasting + Rage - Rage Mage.

Without trying to speculate too much on entries or prejudice any potential judges, I suspect the challenge will be finding a way to balance the two parts so you're not just a spellcaster who is better off forgoing attacks for spellcasting; my personal experience is that natural attacks are harder to get to work compared to martial weapons. And I imagine a potential entry would want to find a way of being original.

But I'm not a judge, of course. Take my thoughts with a grain of salt.

[Inevitability]

Without trying to speculate too much on entries or prejudice any potential judges, I suspect the challenge will be finding a way to balance the two parts so you're not just a spellcaster who is better off forgoing attacks for spellcasting; my personal experience is that natural attacks are harder to get to work compared to martial weapons. And I imagine a potential entry would want to find a way of being original.

This. Rounds like Rage + Casting - Rage Mage or Ninths + Metamagic - Prepared weren't hard to fulfill (druidic avenger 20 or sorcerer 20 with hand-picked metamagic respectively), their difficulty lied in navigating the internal contradiction between their elements. This round is kind of the same: how to unify casting (ranged, mental, broad) with natural weapons (melee, physical, focused).

I don't know if I'll judge or compete, but if I end up doing the former I will harshly judge any build that could've put its caster levels to better use in straightforward caster ways, or that ends up doing something boring like 'I buff with spells then rush into the fray'. I expect some interesting overlap of the two that result in me saying 'ah yes, you do something useful and interesting here, and both casting and natural weapons specifically are needed for it to work at all'.

[loky1109]

I somehow forgot this.

[quetzalcoatl5]

What's really cool about this one is that there's a lot of ways to approach both elements. It is 3.5, so spellcasting trumps everything, but that doesn't mean there aren't some cool avenues to utilize.

[pabelfly]

I somehow forgot this.


What's really cool about this one is that there's a lot of ways to approach both elements. It is 3.5, so spellcasting trumps everything, but that doesn't mean there aren't some cool avenues to utilize.

Glad you're both digging the contest idea. Good luck with any entries you submit.

[loky1109]

Glad you're both digging the contest idea. Good luck with any entries you submit.

Yeah! I'm working on one idea right now.

[quetzalcoatl5]

So as I've been home sick with my 6-month-old daughter this whole week, an unserious build came to mind, built on the principle of "you know who have vicious claw attacks? ****ing babies!"

So
Chaotic Neutral Level 6 Human Baby
Full BAB
Spontaneous Caster with Verbal and Somatic Competents handled through screams and plastic replicas for arcane foci.
Key abilities: Punishing Saves - The baby punishes anyone who successfully resists her charm spells by inflicting 2d6 Thunder and Psychic damage.
Slashing Casting - As a swift action after casting a charm spell, regardless if the target/parent fails or succeeds on any saving throws, the baby can make a natural attack with her surprisingly sharp fingernails, dealing 1d4 slashing damage, with a dc15 fortitude save to resist taking an additional 1d6 bleed damage

Think I got a winner here!

[Korahir]

So as I've been home sick with my 6-month-old daughter this whole week, an unserious build came to mind, built on the principle of "you know who have vicious claw attacks? ****ing babies!"

So
Chaotic Neutral Level 6 Human Baby
Full BAB
Spontaneous Caster with Verbal and Somatic Competents handled through screams and plastic replicas for arcane foci.
Key abilities: Punishing Saves - The baby punishes anyone who successfully resists her charm spells by inflicting 2d6 Thunder and Psychic damage.
Slashing Casting - As a swift action after casting a charm spell, regardless if the target/parent fails or succeeds on any saving throws, the baby can make a natural attack with her surprisingly sharp fingernails, dealing 1d4 slashing damage, with a dc15 fortitude save to resist taking an additional 1d6 bleed damage

Think I got a winner here!

I could add my 5 month old son who for reasons unknown seems to have the improved grab ability.

[quetzalcoatl5]

I could add my 5 month old son who for reasons unknown seems to have the improved grab ability.

Clearly they get several bonus feat from the fighter list

[quetzalcoatl5]

I am abandoning a line of thinking I had that was ultimately too martial, with spellcasting being more of an afterthought, but I wanted to share it because it was funny:

-Outcast Champion from Races of Destiny has a Desperate Fury ability that it can share with it's allies in a 30 foot aura. Comparisons are made to Barbarian Rage, though explicitly isn't the same thing.

-Bear Warrior from Oriental Adventures and Complete Warrior has a poorly defined prerequisite of "Rage or Frenzy type ability" in part because it was meant for the Sohei class to be able to enter single classed.

So I was thinking it would be hilarious to have a character that can extend a Bear Aura and make its allies all bears! Does it work by RAW? Probably not. Would it be that powerful? Nah. Would I allow it as DM? Probably, but I'd definitely allow an NPC to utilize that combination.

Like I said, spellcasting isn't the focus here which means that even if it worked it wouldn't fit the contest. It's minimum 6 levels of non caster between 5 Outcast Champion levels and at least 1 (but really you want 5 for Brown Bear form which would be 10 non caster prestige class levels).

[loky1109]

Second entry sent. First still work in progress.

[FactualArcher]

I just sent my entry. I had a really fun time this round. I can't wait to see what everyone else cooked.

[pabelfly]

Hello all,

I do apologize, but I got my dates slightly wrong for the contest when drafting this topic. I've included the updated days here:


Completion Time:

Contestants will have until 23:59 GMT Monday October 2, 2023 to create their builds and PM them to the chairman (note: you are free to submit builds up until I start posting entries, even if this deadline has passed).
Builds will then be posted simultaneously to avoid copying.
Judges will have until 23:59 GMT Monday October 16, 2023 to judge the builds and submit their scores.
Should there not be a reasonable prospect of a judge for the competition, the backup judging method will take place from 23:59 GMT Monday October 23, 2023 to rank and average prospective builds.
As the precedent has been set from Episode 2, should all prospective judges have posted their rulings in a neat, timely fashion and all disputes have been settled satisfactorily (to either judges, contestants, or the Chairperson), the judging period may end prematurely to give way to a new episode. No reason to keep working on a finished building and avoid moving onto the next one.


As always, if you're working on an entry and you don't think you have enough time, let me know and I'll be quite happy to extend deadlines for you. I'd much prefer everyone got in the entries they wanted than for me to adhere to some arbitrary contest dates.

[loky1109]

I think I'll send my "first" entry tomorrow.

Upd: and done!

[pabelfly]

Just a reminder that there are only a few days left to get your entries in.

If you need an extension, feel free to ask here or via DM.

[quetzalcoatl5]

I would request an extension to Wednesday! I've been talking out the stories and formatting fory two ideas but now I'm worried about time to write them up this weekend.

[pabelfly]

I would request an extension to Wednesday! I've been talking out the stories and formatting fory two ideas but now I'm worried about time to write them up this weekend.

Done. If you need more time, let me know.

[quetzalcoatl5]

Thank you!

[quetzalcoatl5]

Ugh... Sorry... I was trying to get everything typed up tonight, but my daughter is sick. Can we extend until Friday?

[pabelfly]

I'm happy to wait till you're done. Once you send your entry through, I'll post them all up.

[quetzalcoatl5]

Thank you. I will get those to you as soon as I can this week

[Inevitability]

While we await the reveal, how about:

Patron Deity + Healing - Cleric?

A bit of an open round, so maybe not best done for the very next one, but hinting at some interesting combos. Plus, I think 1-level cleric dips are much too common and it'd be nice to see a round where nobody is tempted to go for them.

[Paragon]

While we await the reveal, how about:

Patron Deity + Healing - Cleric?

A bit of an open round, so maybe not best done for the very next one, but hinting at some interesting combos. Plus, I think 1-level cleric dips are much too common and it'd be nice to see a round where nobody is tempted to go for them.

I agree, I find this intriguing

[pabelfly]

While we await the reveal, how about:

Patron Deity + Healing - Cleric?

A bit of an open round, so maybe not best done for the very next one, but hinting at some interesting combos. Plus, I think 1-level cleric dips are much too common and it'd be nice to see a round where nobody is tempted to go for them.

Not bad, I'll put it on my list of potential ideas for future comps.

So these two comps will be happening in the future:

Arcane Casting + Heavy Armor – Still Spell
Abjuration + Exotic Weapon Proficiency - Abjurant Champion



There's also the Sculpt Self feat, which is in Dragon 304 but has the Open Gaming Licence attached to it, so I can link to the feat and system and we could use it in a future comp. Not sure what I'd put with this and what I'd forbid yet. I'm open to ideas.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1H5nnivJgSVWjaveRpt1yxuHtOOibfDw8/view

I'd implement a cap on exp spent, I'm thinking 15K exp or one completed foci path.

But I'd like to know what other people think of this idea.

[Paragon]

Ugh... Sorry... I was trying to get everything typed up tonight, but my daughter is sick. Can we extend until Friday?

It's Saturday.
Can we get the reveal now ? :)

[pabelfly]

It's Saturday.
Can we get the reveal now ? :)

I'll post when I get the entries. Thanks for everyone's patience.

[quetzalcoatl5]

Sorry. I'm almost done. I'll have them in tonight.

[quetzalcoatl5]

Confirming that my two entriries are in.

[pabelfly]

The Lonely Fir

https://i.postimg.cc/HLKPSDrm/image.png

Among these snows once stood a fir
that listened here
to sages and their words so wise

They worshipped mind and scale and lore
not prepared for
their ancient foes becoming bold

The slavers came in midnight dark
tore branch from bark
they took an axe and claimed their prize

They warped the tree with rites arcane
turned it profane
they made it hunt down its old clan

For sport, they made their monster fight
and when it died
its husk was cast out in the cold

The snow is now its burial gown
for trees cut down
will never plant their roots again

NE Needlefolk Fangshield Ranger 2 / Fighter 1 / Pious Templar 3 / Impure Prince 5 / Thayan Gladiator 5


Stats: 16 STR / 12 DEX / 10 CON / 14 INT / 16 WIS / 8 CHA
Racial: 18 STR / 12 DEX / 12 CON / 10 INT / 20 WIS / 2 CHA
ECL 20: 22 STR / 12 DEX / 12 CON / 10 INT / 20 WIS / 2 CHA



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


2nd
Needlefolk 1
+0
+2
+0
+0
Gather Information 1cc, Hide 1, Knowledge (Religion) 2cc, Move Silently 1
Toughness
-


3rd
Needlefolk 2
+1
+3
+0
+0
Gather Information +1cc (2), Hide 1, Knowledge (Religion) 2, Move Silently 1
-
-


4th
Needlefolk 3
+2
+3
+1
+1
Gather Information 2, Hide 1, Knowledge (Religion) +1cc (3), Move Silently 1
True Believer
-


5th
Trap Expert Ranger 1
+3
+5
+3
+1
Gather Information 2, Hide 1, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) +4 (4), Knowledge (Religion) 3, Move Silently 1, Search +2 (2)
-
Favored Enemy (Aberrations), Spiritual Connection, Trapfinding


6th
Fangshields Ranger 2
+4
+6
+4
+1
Gather Information 2, Hide 1, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) +4 (8), Knowledge (Religion) 3, Move Silently 1, Search +2 (4)
MultiattackB
Combat Style


7th
Fighter 1
+5
+8
+4
+1
Gather Information 2, Hide 1, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 8, Knowledge (Religion) +1cc (4), Move Silently 1, Search 4
Improved Multiattack, Weapon Focus (Claw)
Hit-And-Run Fighter


8th
Pious Templar of Sardior (http://rpg.nobl.ca/archive.php?x=dnd/psm/20030124a) 1
+6
+10
+4
+3
Gather Information 2, Hide +1cc (2), Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 8, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Move Silently 1, Search 4
-
Mettle, Spellcasting


9th
Pious Templar 2
+7
+11
+4
+4
Gather Information 2, Hide +1cc (3), Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 8, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Move Silently 1, Search 4
-
Smite 1/day


10th
Pious Templar 3
+8
+11
+5
+4
Gather Information 2, Hide 3, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 8, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Move Silently 1, Search 4, Speak Language (Daelkyr) +1cc
Symbiont Mastery, Weapon SpecializationB
DR 1/-


11th
Impure Prince 1
+9
+11
+5
+6
Gather Information 2, Hide +2 (5), Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 8, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Move Silently 1, Search +2 (6), Speak Language 1
-
Expanded Spell List, Lure Symbiont


12th
Impure Prince 2
+10
+11
+5
+7
Gather Information 2, Hide +2 (7), Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 8, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Move Silently 1, Search +2 (8), Speak Language 1
-
Favored Enemy (Aberrations)


13th
Thayan Gladiator 1
+11
+13
+5
+7
Gather Information 2, Hide +1cc (8), Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 8, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Move Silently 1, Search 8, Speak Language 1
Improved Natural Attack (Claw)B, Rapidstrike (Claw)
Study Opponent


14th
Thayan Gladiator 2
+12
+14
+5
+7
Gather Information 2, Hide +1cc (9), Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 8, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Move Silently 1, Search 8, Speak Language 1
Improved CriticalB
Natural Armor +1


15th
Impure Prince 3
+13
+15
+6
+7
Gather Information 2, Hide +2 (11), Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 8, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Move Silently 1, Search +2 (10), Speak Language 1
-
Aberrant Anatomy


16th
Impure Prince 4
+14
+15
+6
+8
Gather Information 2, Hide +2 (13), Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 8, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Move Silently 1, Search +2 (12), Speak Language 1
Mitigate Suffering
Aberrant Fortitude


17th
Impure Prince 5
+15
+15
+6
+8
Gather Information 2, Hide +2 (15), Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 8, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Move Silently 1, Search +2 (14), Speak Language 1
-
Otherworldly Surge


18th
Thayan Gladiator 3
+16
+15
+7
+9
Gather Information 2, Hide +1cc (16), Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 8, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Move Silently 1, Search 14, Speak Language 1
-
Stunning Critical, Silver Strike


19th
Thayan Gladiator 4
+17
+16
+7
+9
Gather Information 2, Hide +1cc (17), Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 8, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Move Silently 1, Search 14, Speak Language 1
Improved Rapidstrike (Claw)
Natural Weapon Focus (Claw)


20th
Thayan Gladiator 5
+18
+16
+7
+9
Gather Information 2, Hide +1cc (18), Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 8, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Move Silently 1, Search 14, Speak Language 1
-
Imbue Natural Weapon (Frost), Natural Armor +2




Most things that people call 'ranged natural weapons' aren't. A manticore's spikes or a gibbering mouther's acid spittle are special attacks that happen to get listed in their attack section (as is commonly done). In the manticore's case, the same attack section makes some revealing claims: it doesn't consider the possibility of a manticore attacking with bite and tail spikes both (which should be a perfectly valid full attack if the spikes were natural weapons), and it doesn't treat the spikes as secondary weapons when they're used to make a normal attack.

But just because the obvious examples are wrong doesn't mean ranged natural weapons don't exist.

Enter MM2's needlefolk, 3 HD +1 LA plants with two claws and a 'needles' attack that deals 1d12+1 (1d12 + str?) damage at range. The needles aren't listed among its special attacks or qualities, and they're the primary rather than secondary weapon so their attack bonuses check out.

Two arguments stand against the needles being a natural weapon. The first is that even as part of a full attack, the stat block doesn't combine them with the monster's claws. The second is that the claws don't get the -5 penalty for being a secondary attack, which we'd expect to apply if they were secondary weapons to the primary needles.

Fortunately, we can explain both these things away. Firstly, you can only use a single part of your body once per full attack, and the part of the body used to make a needles attack is... your body. You can't subsequently also use part of that body to make claw attacks. And secondly, MM2 is 3.0 material, so the rules for secondary natural weapons got updated since its release: previously a single attack with a secondary natural weapon did not incur a penalty, but now it does (we will take feats to fix the issue this creates).

Conclusion: needlefolk have a needles attack (primary natural weapon) and two claw attacks (secondary natural weapons) though they cannot necessarily use the former in the same full attack as the latter.

Alright, but that's just splitting hairs, right? Whether it's a weird ranged attack or an actual natural weapon doesn't matter in practice.

Well...


If you don’t discharge the spell in the round when you cast the spell, you can hold the discharge of the spell (hold the charge) indefinitely. [...] Alternatively, you may make a normal unarmed attack (or an attack with a natural weapon) while holding a charge. [...] If the attack hits, you deal normal damage for your unarmed attack or natural weapon and the spell discharges. If the attack misses, you are still holding the charge.

Nowhere in this block of text are melee attacks mentioned.

That means that if we cast a touch spell, hold the charge, and start making needles attacks, the first target we hit with our needles will become the spell's target regardless of whether we missed with our needles beforehand. A lot of spells that are touch with good reason suddenly can reliably affect foes up to 200 feet away. Thus, a build concept was born.

The last thing to do was to acquire some spells that worked well with this. I tried to make a Shivering Touch build work initially (which is where a lot of the ice fluff comes from) I eventually realized the Corrupt list was just fine. At that point, the only challenge was to find a full-BAB easily entered casting class (not going rapidstrike would be a waste, which left me unable to drop too many points of BAB), grabbing Restoration from somewhere, and throwing on some general natural weapon support.


Spells per Day


Level
1st
2nd
3rd
4th


8th
2
-
-
-


9th
3
-
-
-


10th
3
1
-
-


12th
3
2
-
-


15th
3
2
1
-


16th
3
2
2
-


17th
4
2
2
1


Spells prepared:
1: Disguise Self, Resurgence, Seething Eyebane, Summon Monster I
2: Lesser Restoration, Zone of Natural Purity
3: Invesiture of the Erinyes, Touch of Juiblex
4: Claws of the Savage

ECL 5:
Being a plant comes at a steep level cost, but we're decent-ish at low levels. We got pretty dang good strength and wisdom, we're immune to poison, crits, and mind-affecting effects, and we can do some basic melee fighting / trapfinding when needed, in addition to having a weird knowledge base. Just wield a nice two-hander and occasionally help out with your weird skills.

(speaking of weird skills, did you know needlefolk have a 1500-feet elf radar? now you do!)

ECL 10:
Pious Templar gives us a solid +2 damage on all of our claw attacks, Mettle to go with our sky-high Fortitude, and some spells! As an evil character, we cast from the blackguard list, further expanding our utility with spells like Summon Monster or boosting our damage with Divine Sacrifice. We can't wear heavy armor without losing Multiattack, so we trade away our fighter proficiency to get +2 initiative and a very small bonus on damage against flat-footed foes.

We can start doing the needle-channel technique at this point, but cannot reliably heal the ability damage this inflicts. Still, our Wisdom is pretty high and Seething Eyebane is a very nasty spell to fail a save against (permanent blindness that takes a Regenerate to get rid of).

ECL 15:
With Rapidstrike, we're now making two claw attacks in addition to our only-two-points-behind-full-BAB weapon attacks. Impure Prince grants us a symbiont: the Breed Leech is probably best for now, but we're going to swap it out soon anyway. The class also lets us deal AoE damage (something a bit lacking up until now), lets us add our Wisdom modifier to Fortitude saves (by now, we might as well be immune to fortitude-targeting effects), and gives us some new spells to cast.

Disguise Self is another utility-enhancer. Zone of Natural Purity is a fun long-duration area buff that gives plants (like us) +1 to several rolls and weakens aberrations, which might sometimes end up being worth it. Lesser Restoration lets us start using corrupt spells a bit more seriously... like the ridiculously deadly Touch of Juiblex, which is a 3rd-level save-or-die kept in check only by the fact that it's touch range and takes a while to kick in. We, however, can cast it from afar and then flee or hide while the timer runs out, making us a notably better user than most other characters. "Snipe people with a functional save-or-die from 150 feet away" is somewhat above the power level that our mix of tier 4 classes suggests! Sure, we don't have darkstalker, but special senses rarely function beyond 60 or so feet.

Moreover, remember that symbionts get Share Spells, and the blackguard gets a lot of underleveled selfbuffs that give new attack modes. These, our symbiont(s) can take full advantage of with its own set of actions. Investiure of the Erinyes is a really nice option here, basically forcing a free save-or-suck each round that also improves your battlefield position (ways to solve the Pounce Conundrum: make the foe come to YOU). We're a good user of natural weapons, we're using natural weapons to deliver our spells, and we get better use out of a lot of spells than you'd expect at first glance: how's that for fulfilling the round's conditions?

Thayan Gladiator improves our claws first and foremost, but also has a little feature that grants a stacking bonus on attacks and AC during the first round of combat if we spend some time studying our opponent. If we get the chance to rack this up (via Disguise Self / stealth / simply betraying people) it's actually a quite meaningful bonus.

ECL 20:
With Improved Rapidstrike and Natural Weapon Focus, we're looking at seven claw attacks per round, or six claw attacks and four tentacle whip attacks. The claw attacks all count as silver for the purpose of overcoming DR, threaten a DC 21 save vs stun on a crit (which, by the way, occur on a roll of 19-20), and get 1d6 damage from our imbued ability. The tentacle whip injects poison on a hit, has huge reach, and can be used to grapple or disarm. That's a very respectable melee presence, especially when we can open the fight with a needle barrage from afar and deliver some nasty debuff that way. Favored enemy is a notable per-hit effect, adding +4 damage on each hit against the relatively common aberration type.

Claws of the Savage is a very good mid-duration buff for this sort of strategy, upping our claws by two sizes (for a final 2d6 base damage) and adding on a +2 enhancement bonus, though other 4th-level spells definitely compete for its spot. Good alternatives include Absorb Strength (for potentially insane ability buffs), Revenance, Summon Undead IV (which gets you an allip; tarrasques beware!) and Invesiture of the Barbed Devil.

Mitigate Suffering helps us save spell slots when using corrupt spells by giving us a free 4-point ability damage buffer in all our stats; this is also helpful when adding or removing any symbionts we might acquire.

A brief note about casting: we've mostly been focused on combat spells, but between the 3 lists we're pulling from, there's quite some utility available to us as well. Absorb Mind is a very useful information source once you get a way to negate the wisdom damage, Demon Wings gives mid-duration flight, Bedevil is an infinite-range no-save debuff that lasts days/level and is actually quite hard to end prematurely, and Demoncall brings your knowledge (religion) modifier back to decent levels. Deeper Darkness cast on a pebble you keep in a drawstring bag gives a quick source of concealment, in case that Touch of Juiblex target is slightly fast to run away from.

Finally, a look at our skills. We're by no means a skill monkey, but we've got nearly-maxed Hide (and a huge situational bonus for a pretty common environment type) and can snipe at range much better than sneak attackers or most casters, and we can find DC 34 traps (9th-level magic traps; the highest target listed in the DMG) by taking 20 on Search.

MM2 - Needlefolk
CoV - Fangshields Ranger
DotU - Hit-and-run Fighter
Dun - Trap Expert Ranger
CDiv - Spiritual Connection Ranger, Pious Templar, True Believer, Mitigate Suffering
MoE - Impure Prince, Symbiont Mastery
ECS - Tentacle Whip
CoR - Thayan Gladiator
Drac - Rapidstrike, Improved Rapidstrike, Improved Multiattack

[pabelfly]

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/7d/5c/0e/7d5c0e8b971b698fa6f968d61ed0d268.jpg

TN Stone Spike Binder 1/Ardent 2/Fighter 2/Psychic Weapon Master 9

Spiker was regular elemental creature once. It was summoned by duergar wizard to serve in crystal mine. It was unusual mine, the crystals that were mined there were psionically active. There was the forge where crystals were forged in various psionic items and in crystal blades right in the mine. Spiker wasn't very smart, but quick-witted enough to become crystalsmith's helper. It worked in this capacity for decades, saw many and many crystals. It was just bring-bring, but it was very curious and while it didn't understand all happened in forge, but try to remember and to realize later.
Years passed... Something happened once. Duergars left the mine and didn't come back. Spiker was left alone. For years and decades or even centuries. But it was happy, it used its time for understanding. Spiker realized it consists of crystals itself. This means it could become psionic. This became its purpose for which it works. And it achieved success!

Abilities Initial Race Large 4th 8th, 12th 16th Total
STR 16 8 8 2 34
DEX 16 -2 -2 1 13
CON 14 8 4 26
INT 8 -6 3
WIS 14 1 15
CHA 8 8

ECL Class BAB Fort Reflex Will Skills Feats Class Features
3rd Elemental HD 1 0 2 0 0 4: {+4 CC} Psicraft: 2; Dodge (1st) Elemental traits
4th Elemental HD 2 1 3 0 0 1: {+1 CC} Psicraft: 2.5;
5th Elemental HD 3 2 3 1 1 1: {+1 CC} Psicraft: 3; Psionic Dodge (3th)
6th Elemental HD 4 3 4 1 1 1: Psicraft: 3; {+1} Spot: 1; Large size
7th Binder 1 3 6 1 3 1: {+1} Concentration: 1; Psicraft: 3; Spot: 1; Improved Sunder (Aym Bonus) Soul binding (1 vestige)
8th Ardent 1 3 6 1 5 1: Concentration: 1; {+1} Psicraft: 4; Spot: 1; Practiced Manifester (Ardent) (6th), Weapon Focus (slam) (Ardent Bonus) Assume psionic mantles (Conflict, Freedom)
9th Fighter 1 4 8 1 5 1: Concentration: 1; {+1} Jump: 1; Psicraft: 4; Spot: 1; Mobility (Fighter Bonus), Exotic Shield Proficiency (extreme shield) (Fighter Bonus) Bonus feat
10th Fighter 2 5 9 1 5 1: Concentration: 1; {+1} Jump: 2; Psicraft: 4; Spot: 1; Power Attack (Fighter Bonus) Bonus feat
11th Ardent 2 6 9 1 6 1: {+1} Concentration: 2; Jump: 2; Psicraft: 4; Spot: 1; Psionic Weapon (9th) Assume psionic mantle (Knowledge)
12th Psychic Weapon Master 1 7 9 3 6 1: {+1} Concentration: 3; Jump: 2; Psicraft: 4; Spot: 1; Alertness (Bonded Weapon) Bonded weapon (Nimble), psionic damage
13th Psychic Weapon Master 2 8 9 4 6 1: {+1} Concentration: 4; Jump: 2; Psicraft: 4; Spot: 1; Increased multiplier 1/day
14th Psychic Weapon Master 3 9 10 4 7 1: {+1} Concentration: 5; Jump: 2; Psicraft: 4; Spot: 1; Improved Critical (slam) (12th) Psionic weapon focus
15th Psychic Weapon Master 4 10 10 5 7 1: {+1} Concentration: 6; Jump: 2; Psicraft: 4; Spot: 1; Increased multiplier 2/day
16th Psychic Weapon Master 5 11 10 5 7 1: {+1} Concentration: 7; Jump: 2; Psicraft: 4; Spot: 1; Combat Reflexes (PWM Bonus) Combat Reflexes
17th Psychic Weapon Master 6 12 11 6 8 1: {+1} Concentration: 8; Jump: 2; Psicraft: 4; Spot: 1; Rapidstrike (slams) (15th) Increased multiplier 3/day
18th Psychic Weapon Master 7 13 11 6 8 1: {+1} Concentration: 9; Jump: 2; Psicraft: 4; Spot: 1; Improved Critical
19th Psychic Weapon Master 8 14 12 7 9 1: {+1} Concentration: 10; Jump: 2; Psicraft: 4; Spot: 1; Increased multiplier 4/day
20th Psychic Weapon Master 9 15 12 7 9 1: {+1} Concentration: 11; Jump: 2; Psicraft: 4; Spot: 1; Improved Rapidstrike (slams) (18th), Whirlwind (PWM Bonus) Whirlwind

Powers
ECL Class ML New Powers Known PP
8th Ardent 1 5 Offensive Prescience (1st), Dimension Hop (1st) 2+1
11th Ardent 2 6 Dimension Slide (3rd) 6+2
13th Psychic Weapon Master 2 7 Psionic Lion's Charge (2nd) 11+3
15th Psychic Weapon Master 4 8 Touchsight (3rd) 17+4
17th Psychic Weapon Master 6 9 Psionic Teleport (5th) 25+5
19th Psychic Weapon Master 8 10 Psionic Freedom of Movement (5th) 35+6
Powers are from Complete Psionic (Dimension Hop) and Expanded Psionics Handbook (all others).

Weapon
ECL Bonded Weapon New Abilities Max Weapon Bonus
12th +1 +1 +1
14th +1 Metalline Metalline +3
16th +1 Metalline Collision Collision +5
17th +2 Metalline Collision +2 +6
18th +3 Metalline Collision +3 +7
19th +4 Metalline Collision +4 +8
20th +5 Metalline Collision +5 +9
Weapon special abilities are from Magic Item Compendium.

Spiker got 1 extra HD and became large. Once, when mine and forge still were active, one young duergar came and placed an order. He was a psychic weapon master apprentice and needed a crystal blade to pass the test and become full-fledged psychic weapon master. He told very much how hard he worked and what he did, studied and trained to get this chance. Spiker remembered all this completely and this is its way. First steps were feats of Dodge. There were two of them. One was for everybody, but another should be fueled with psionic energy. Spiker didn't have such an energy yet, but it remembered the young apprentice's descriptions and knew it would get this energy later.

Okay, let's talk in rules terms. How could Spiker get Psionic Dodge at its 3rd level?
Easily!

A nonpsionic character could, in theory, take Psionic Fist, but without psionic energy to fuel it, the feat is worthless.
Spiker had goal and moved to it. Next steps were: became a psion, get feat of powerful blows, get feat of mobility, improves its abilities with its slam weapon in psionic and prowess ways. But this all is very hard steps and Spiker needed some guidance for it. It remembered some of duergars made specific rituals and summon some entity called Aim. It was ancient dwarf or some part of him. It should became a good guidance.

All requirements for Psychic Weapon Master are completed. All feats here, Spiker could manifest a 3rd-level power thanks to Ardent, he has a crystal melee weapon. Let's talk in more detail about last.
I know PWM was made and re-made with weapons made of crystals from EPH, p. 182 (and I didn't found source of crystal weapons in 3.0) in mind. But! Requirement sounds "Crystal melee weapon". Slam is a weapon and it's melee. What about crystal? Look at MM2

A stone spike resembles a roughly sculpted column of stone with four or more crystal-tipped arms. Sharp, stony protrusions cover its body.
I think it's clear.
Spiker achieved its goal, it became Psychic Weapon Master. It's psionic abilities and fighting skills merged in single perfection.

Spiker is a very straight-forward melee fighter. Four attacks with bonded slam (plus one with regular slam), Lion's Charge, great Strength and Constitution. +35 first attack AB with 34 damage and 17-20 crit range and x2-x3 multiplier before any items, feats and powers. Metalline lets ignore most DRs. Powers give Spiker good mobility options, some damage improvements and Touchsight against invisible and hidden enemies.
Spiker's 10 NatAC, +1 Dex, Heavy Armor and Exotic Shield Proficiency with Aym's Dwarven Step, and Psionic Dodge give Spiker good AC.
Improved Sunder improved by Ruinous Attack (both from Aym) is a great tactical option against foes who rely on their items.
Whirlwind is an option against many weak or well placed enemies and combines well with Lion's Charge or Dimension Hop.
Also I want to mention the Knowledge mantle. Yes, Spiker has Intelligence of only 3, but it still could make Knowledge checks untrained and with expending his psi focus it even has positive check. Remember, it could hold second psionic focus in its slam and use both these options simultaneously.
Funny, Spiker's slam is more intelligent than it itself.

Type Name Book Page
Race Stone Spike MM2, Update Booklet 191
Class Binder ToM 11
Class Ardent CPsi 5
Class Fighter PHB 37
Prestige Class Psychic Weapon Master The Mind's Eye link (https://web.archive.org/web/20201111173022/http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040827d)
Feat Dodge PHB 93
Feat Psionic Dodge EPH 50
Feat Improved Sunder PHB 96
Feat Practiced Manifester CPsi 57
Feat Weapon Focus PHB 102
Feat Mobility PHB 98
Feat Exotic Shield Proficiency RoS 139
Feat Power Attack PHB 98
Feat Psionic Weapon EPH 50
Feat Improved Critical PHB 95
Feat Combat Reflexes PHB 92
Feat Rapidstrike Draco 73
Feat Improved Rapidstrike Draco 70
Feat Whirlwind PHB 102
Shield Extreme Shield RoS 157

[pabelfly]

Princess Graceful Twilight isÂ…
The Big Little Lady
Chaotic Good Halfling
Marshall 2, Savage Fey Bard 18

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1002625027860090920/1160099967294255124/caseaiken_a_warrior_princess_surrounded_by_animals _in_a_Disney__87e14763-7e37-4960-8db6-bec3616a137b.png?ex=65336e49&is=6520f949&hm=12c2ad7436890fa65d9d469a8f76aaeb7a5b91c271bc17d f9df730f020253142&=&width=1464&height=976

A long time ago, in a place far, far away...


(Verse 1)
In the royal court, where banners fly so high,
There lived a princess under the endless sky,
Graceful, her name, a prodigy, they'd say,
In matters of war, she led the fearless way.

(Chorus)
But in the woods, where the wildflowers bloom,
She found her solace, escaping her gloom,
Her mother's heart ached, a fierce military queen,
For a child in the forest, it was quite unforeseen.

(Verse 2)
Princess Graceful, with a mind so keen,
Tactics and strategy, she'd often glean,
Yet the whispering leaves, they called her name,
In the woods, her spirit set aflame.

(Chorus)
But in the woods, where the rivers flow,
She sought adventure, her heart all aglow,
Her mother's dreams, a warrior to be,
But the forest's call was a melody so free.

(Bridge)
The clash of swords or the song of a stream,
Two worlds colliding, like a forgotten dream,
A mother's pride and a daughter's yearning,
In their hearts, a lesson they're both learning.

(Verse 3)
Princess Graceful, with her bow and her blade,
In the woods, her secret, her silent crusade,
Yet her mother's eyes, they held only dismay,
For a warrior princess, she wished her to stay.

(Chorus)
But in the woods, where the moonlight gleams,
She found her purpose, her world of dreams,
Her mother's wishes, a path laid in stone,
Yet the forest's magic, she'd never disown.

(Outro)
In the royal courts, under the starry night,
They sing of a princess who followed her light,
Graceful, the child prodigy, so wild and free,
In the heart of the woods, her destiny decree.


Level Class Base Attack Bonus Fort Save Reflex Save Will Save Skills Feats Class Features
1st Marshal 0 2 0 2 16: {+4} Diplomacy: 4; {+4} Handle Animal: 4; {+4} Knowledge (History): 4; {+4} Ride: 4; Wild Cohort, Skill Focus (Diplomacy) (Marshal 1) Minor aura (Master of Tactics)
2nd Marshal 1 3 0 3 4: {+2} Bluff: 2; {+1} Diplomacy: 5; Handle Animal: 4; Knowledge (History): 4; {+1} Ride: 5; Major aura +1 (Resilient Troops)
3rd Savage Fey Bard 1 5 0 5 6: Bluff: 2; {+1} Diplomacy: 6; Handle Animal: 4; Knowledge (History): 4; {+1} Perform (): 1; {+4} Use Magic Device: 4; Ride: 5; Draconic Aura (Vigor) Animal companion, nature sense, wild empathy
4th Savage Fey Bard 2 6 0 6 6: Bluff: 2; {+1} Diplomacy: 7; Handle Animal: 4; Knowledge (History): 4; Perform (): 1; {+1} Use Magic Device: 5; Ride: 5; {+4} Sleight of Hand: 4; Bardic music, countersong, fascinate
5th Savage Fey Bard 3 6 1 6 6: Bluff: 2; {+2} Concentration: 2; {+1} Diplomacy: 8; Handle Animal: 4; Knowledge (History): 4; Perform (): 1; {+1} Use Magic Device: 6; Ride: 5; {+2} Sleight of Hand: 6;
6th Savage Fey Bard 4 7 1 7 6: Bluff: 2; {+1} Concentration: 3; {+1} Diplomacy: 9; Handle Animal: 4; Knowledge (History): 4; {+1} Perform (): 2; {+1} Use Magic Device: 7; Ride: 5; {+2} Sleight of Hand: 8; Obtain Familiar Resist natureÂ’s lure
7th Savage Fey Bard 4 7 1 7 6: Bluff: 2; {+1} Concentration: 4; {+1} Diplomacy: 10; Handle Animal: 4; Knowledge (History): 4; {+2} Perform (): 4; {+1} Use Magic Device: 8; Ride: 5; {+1} Sleight of Hand: 9;
8th Savage Fey Bard 5 8 2 8 6: Bluff: 2; {+1} Concentration: 5; {+1} Diplomacy: 11; Handle Animal: 4; Knowledge (History): 4; {+2} Perform (): 6; {+1} Use Magic Device: 9; Ride: 5; {+1} Sleight of Hand: 10; Suggestion
9th Savage Fey Bard 6/1 8 2 8 6: Bluff: 2; {+3} Concentration: 8; {+1} Diplomacy: 12; Handle Animal: 4; Knowledge (History): 4; Perform (): 6; {+1} Use Magic Device: 10; Ride: 5; {+1} Sleight of Hand: 11; Improved Familiar
10th Savage Fey Bard 7/2 9 2 9 6: {+1} Bluff: 3; {+2} Concentration: 10; {+1} Diplomacy: 13; Handle Animal: 4; Knowledge (History): 4; Perform (): 6; {+1} Use Magic Device: 11; Ride: 5; {+1} Sleight of Hand: 12;
11th Savage Fey Bard 7/2 9 3 9 6: {+2} Bluff: 5; {+1} Concentration: 11; {+1} Diplomacy: 14; Handle Animal: 4; Knowledge (History): 4; Perform (): 6; {+1} Use Magic Device: 12; Ride: 5; {+1} Sleight of Hand: 13;
12th Savage Fey Bard 8/3 10 3 10 6: Bluff: 5; {+1} Concentration: 12; {+1} Diplomacy: 15; {+2} Gather Information: 2; Handle Animal: 4; Knowledge (History): 4; Perform (): 6; {+1} Use Magic Device: 13; Ride: 5; {+1} Sleight of Hand: 14; Music of Growth
13th Savage Fey Bard 9/4 10 3 10 6: Bluff: 5; {+1} Concentration: 13; {+1} Diplomacy: 16; {+2} Gather Information: 4; Handle Animal: 4; Knowledge (History): 4; Perform (): 6; {+1} Use Magic Device: 14; Ride: 5; {+1} Sleight of Hand: 15;
14th Savage Fey Bard 10/5 11 4 11 6: Bluff: 5; {+1} Concentration: 14; {+1} Diplomacy: 17; {+2} Gather Information: 6; Handle Animal: 4; Knowledge (History): 4; Perform (): 6; {+1} Use Magic Device: 15; Ride: 5; {+1} Sleight of Hand: 16; Song of freedom
15th Savage Fey Bard 10/5 11 4 11 4: Bluff: 5; {+1} Concentration: 15; {+1} Diplomacy: 18; Gather Information: 6; Handle Animal: 4; Knowledge (History): 4; Perform (): 6; {+1} Use Magic Device: 16; Ride: 5; {+1} Sleight of Hand: 17; Melodic Casting
16th Savage Fey Bard 11/6/1 12 4 12 6: {+1} Balance: 1; Bluff: 5; {+2} Concentration: 17; {+1} Diplomacy: 19; Gather Information: 6; Handle Animal: 4; Knowledge (History): 4; Perform (): 6; {+1} Use Magic Device: 17; Ride: 5; {+1} Sleight of Hand: 18;
17th Savage Fey Bard 12/7/2 13 5 13 6: {+2} Balance: 3; Bluff: 5; {+1} Concentration: 18; {+1} Diplomacy: 20; Gather Information: 6; Handle Animal: 4; Knowledge (History): 4; Perform (): 6; {+1} Use Magic Device: 18; Ride: 5; {+1} Sleight of Hand: 19;
18th Savage Fey Bard 13/8/3 13 5 13 6: Balance: 3; Bluff: 5; {+1} Concentration: 19; {+1} Diplomacy: 21; {+2} Gather Information: 8; Handle Animal: 4; Knowledge (History): 4; Perform (): 6; {+1} Use Magic Device: 19; Ride: 5; {+1} Sleight of Hand: 20; Greenbound Summoning
19th Savage Fey Bard 13/8/3 13 5 13 6: Balance: 3; Bluff: 5; {+1} Concentration: 20; {+1} Diplomacy: 22; {+2} Gather Information: 10; Handle Animal: 4; Knowledge (History): 4; Perform (): 6; {+1} Use Magic Device: 20; Ride: 5; {+1} Sleight of Hand: 21;
20th Savage Fey Bard 14/9/4 14 6 14 6: Balance: 3; Bluff: 5; {+1} Concentration: 21; {+1} Diplomacy: 23; {+2} Gather Information: 12; Handle Animal: 4; Knowledge (History): 4; Perform (): 6; {+1} Use Magic Device: 21; Ride: 5; {+1} Sleight of Hand: 22; Mass suggestion

Princess Graceful Twilight was raised by her Warrior Queen Mother Esmiranda to be a great warrior herself. She was a prodigy but she felt a call to nature.


(Verse 1)
In a land of sand and stars, where the moonlight softly gleams,
I'm Princess Graceful, and you're the stuff of dreams.
You're not a typical cub, in a world that can't define,
The love I feel for you, Topanga, is purely mine.

(Chorus)
Oh, Topanga, my dear friend, our bond is strong and true,
We're more than what they say we are, me and you.
In a world that tries to shape us, let's break those chains apart,
For love can conquer anything, it's the magic of the heart.

(Verse 2)
Topanga, my bear cub, with eyes so full of grace,
You found your way to me, and a smile lit up your face.
Though they call us different, our friendship knows no bounds,
Together we will prove to all, love's the sweetest sound.

(Chorus)
Oh, Topanga, my dear friend, our bond is strong and true,
We're more than what they say we are, me and you.
In a world that tries to shape us, let's break those chains apart,
For love can conquer anything, it's the magic of the heart.

(Bridge)
Through trials and adventures, we'll stand side by side,
In the face of darkness, our love will be our guide.
For we know in our hearts, we're more than what they see,
In the eyes of love, forever you and me.

(Verse 3)
So, let the world keep talking, with its judgments and its fears,
Topanga, you and I know love will dry those tears.
We're a team of pure enchantment, in a world that can't define,
The love we share so bravely, the most magical of signs.

(Chorus)
Oh, Topanga, my dear friend, our bond is strong and true,
We're more than what they say we are, me and you.
In a world that tries to shape us, let's break those chains apart,
For love can conquer anything, it's the magic of the heart.

(Outro)
In the kingdom of acceptance, where true love finds its way,
Topanga, you and I, we'll make our hearts sway.
So, let's sing our story, in this Disney melody,
A tale of love and friendship, for all eternity.


Now in her journey's Princess Graceful befriended many animals. First there was Topanga, a bear cub the Graceful rescued from a forest blaze (Wild Cohort - Use Badger stats until ECL7 when she can use the Black Bear stats and a Brown Bear at ECL10). Then when Princess Graceful first fled into the wilderness to escape to the Feywild, Corey a mischievous cat took up the role of her protector (Animal Companion from Fey Bard. Use the Serval stat block at ECL3 until ECL 6 when he buffs up to a Leopard, then a Tiger at ECL9). Finally once she began her training in magic among the Fey, she bonded herself to a beautiful raven named Sean (Obtain Familiar) who was transformed into a Hippogriff during their adventures (Improved Familiar - Oh, hey, Sean!).



Then one day after a horrid battle, she saw that her mother's way only brought harm to the land that Graceful loved so much. After much consternation, she took off and escaped into the Feywilds, coming to be accepted by the Faerie and learning of their magics.


(Verse 1)
In a world of magic and dreams so bright,
I found my way through the starry night.
Among the Fey and friends so dear,
I've learned to smile, to conquer my fear.

(Chorus)
I may miss my mother, I may miss my father,
But I've found a family here like no other.
In this mystical land where dreams take flight,
I'll cherish each moment, hold on so tight.

(Verse 2)
With shimmering wings and a heart that's true,
I dance through the forest, skies so blue.
My animal friends, they've shown me the way,
To find my own path, to seize the day.

(Chorus)
I may miss my mother, I may miss my father,
But I've found a family here like no other.
In this mystical land where dreams take flight,
I'll cherish each moment, hold on so tight.

(Bridge)
Though the palace is distant, and memories so dear,
I'll make a new home in this land so clear.
With courage and love, I'll find my own way,
In the heart of the Fey, where I'll forever stay.

(Verse 3)
The stars up above, they twinkle and gleam,
As I chase my own dream, like a radiant beam.
In the embrace of the night, I'll forever roam,
With my Fey and my friends, I've found my home.

(Chorus)
I may miss my mother, I may miss my father,
But I've found a family here like no other.
In this mystical land where dreams take flight,
I'll cherish each moment, hold on so tight.

(Outro)
So here's to the Fey, and my heart's true desire,
In their magical world, I'll never tire.
With love in my heart and a song to sing,
I'll find acceptance and joy in everything.


Abilities Initial Race / Template 4th 8th 12th 16th 20th
STR 10 0 0 0 0 0 0
DEX 16 0
CON 14 1 1
INT 10
WIS 10
CHA 16 1 1 1
Level \ Abilities STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
1st 10 16 14 10 10 16
2nd 10 16 14 10 10 16
3rd 10 16 14 10 10 16
4th 10 16 14 10 10 17
5th 10 16 14 10 10 17
6th 10 16 14 10 10 17
7th 10 16 14 10 10 17
8th 10 16 14 10 10 18
9th 10 16 14 10 10 18
10th 10 16 14 10 10 18
11th 10 16 14 10 10 18
12th 10 16 15 10 10 18
13th 10 16 15 10 10 18
14th 10 16 15 10 10 18
15th 10 16 15 10 10 18
16th 10 16 16 10 10 18
17th 10 16 16 10 10 18
18th 10 16 16 10 10 18
19th 10 16 16 10 10 18
20th 10 16 16 10 10 19



(Verse 1)
In a kingdom where love and courage reside,
I must make a choice, deep down inside.
My loyal friends, so valiant and true,
But duty to my parents, I can't undo.

(Pre-Chorus)
In the castle's grand hall, I stand alone,
Heart torn between worlds, like a gemstone.
But I know in my heart, I must decide,
To be a dutiful daughter, or let love be my guide.

(Chorus)
Oh, I'm torn between two worlds, so it seems,
The love for my friends, and my family's dreams.
But I'll find a way to bridge this divide,
With love in my heart, I'll stand by their side.

(Verse 2)
My friends by my side, we've laughed and we've cried,
Through battles and storms, we've stood side by side.
But my parents need me, their kingdom's at stake,
I can't let them down, for their sake.

(Pre-Chorus)
In the castle's grand hall, I stand alone,
Heart torn between worlds, like a gemstone.
But I know in my heart, I must decide,
To be a dutiful daughter, or let love be my guide.

(Chorus)
Oh, I'm torn between two worlds, so it seems,
The love for my friends, and my family's dreams.
But I'll find a way to bridge this divide,
With love in my heart, I'll stand by their side.

(Bridge)
I'll fight for justice, for peace to prevail,
With my friends and my parents, together we'll sail.
Through darkness and light, we'll find a way,
To keep love and loyalty in our hearts every day.

(Chorus)
Oh, I'm torn between two worlds, so it seems,
The love for my friends, and my family's dreams.
But I'll find a way to bridge this divide,
With love in my heart, I'll stand by their side.

(Outro)
In the end, love and loyalty will unite,
Guiding me through the battles, into the light.
No matter the challenges that we may face,
In our hearts, love will always find its place.


She had found a place that she loved, but time came when her mother came for her with an army at her back. Graceful rallied the animals of the forest to protect her new home from her old one.



At Level 5, Princess Graceful Twilight is up and running, using an animal companion, a wild cohort, and summons as her front line, with buffs to boost their effectiveness. While her third companion is yet to come and her Bardic music isn't doing much, she's bringing a strong wall of meat to keep her party safe. Topanga is intended to be a meat shield, while Corey acts as striker.


Graceful now has a powerful flying mount in Sean (Oh, hey, Sean!) to keep her out of reach from melee threats while she keeps up the buffs on Topanga, Corey, and the rest of her party.



Music of growth means that the fallow Bardic Music feature is finally getting utilized for combat and now that she has incentive to keep Bardic Music up while in combat it made sense to pick up Melodic Casting to let her multitask!

Greenbound Summoning makes the summons that Graceful's been bolstering her ranks with even stronger. The more allies that Graceful has, the more her buffing abilities get utilized.



And in the end... there was peace. Graceful ended years of animosity and anger. She became a hero to sing songs about, for though she was just a wee lass, she was big in spirit!


(Verse 1)
In a world of twilight, where dreams take their flight,
Princess Graceful, a beacon of light,
With a heart that's pure and a spirit so free,
She'll bring together what's meant to be.

(Chorus)
Princess Graceful, of worlds twined in one,
She dances through moonlight, a diplomatic run,
With grace and kindness, she'll pave the way,
To unite the Humans and the Fey today.

(Verse 2)
In the Human kingdom, a fierce divide,
With swords drawn high, they've cast peace aside,
In the Forest of Fey, where enchantments bloom,
They stand strong, ready to face their doom.

(Chorus)
Princess Graceful, of worlds twined in one,
She dances through moonlight, a diplomatic run,
With grace and kindness, she'll pave the way,
To unite the Humans and the Fey today.

(Bridge)
With a heart full of hope and courage untold,
She'll mend the rift, make the story unfold,
In the moonlit grove, where secrets reside,
She'll show them a path they can walk side by side.

(Verse 3)
With words like a melody, and eyes full of stars,
She'll heal the wounds, break down prison bars,
For the Humans and Fey, a chance to forgive,
With Princess Graceful, they'll learn how to live.

(Chorus)
Princess Graceful, of worlds twined in one,
She dances through moonlight, a diplomatic run,
With grace and kindness, she'll pave the way,
To unite the Humans and the Fey today.

(Outro)
In harmony and love, they'll stand hand in hand,
Together they'll protect this enchanted land,
Princess Graceful, forever their guide,
In unity and peace, they'll all now reside.



CORE
Bard


Unearthed Arcana
Fey Bard
Savage Bard

Miniatures Handbook
Marshal

Web
Wild Cohort (https://www.realmshelps.net/charbuild/feat/Wild_Cohort)

Complete Arcane
Obtain Familiar

Eberron Campaign Setting
Music of Growth

Complete Mage
Melodic Casting

Lost Empires of Faerûn
Greenbound Summoning


Dragon Magic
Draconic Aura


Players Handbook II
Draconic Aura: Vigor


https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1002625027860090920/1160490032050745374/caseaiken_a_depiction_of_an_army_of_elves_faeries_ and_animals_c_2f60d8ad-f920-41b9-a484-47fcab86290b.jpg?ex=6534d990&is=65226490&hm=30aeff35ded5df70e36df1af61e429a575ff1a6320111d1 41c2a330f5559a001&

[pabelfly]

https://p16.tiktokcdn.com/musically-maliva-obj/1662819538467845~c5_720x720.jpeg
Petunia Twins (https://www.facebook.com/petuniatwins/?locale=es_LA)

If you'd see two women in tightly covered cloaks be careful. They are Сoloured Whitch-Twins! They are beautiful as Hell hot, but their beauty is only for chosen ones. All others could see only their cloaks. Why? Use your ears, man! I said they are Witches! There were some morons who tried sneak peek under the cloaks. All that’s left is a bloody fog! Really just red fog. The witches themselves are intact! What? Why colored? Because they really colored! Whole bodies are covered with tattoos. And these tattoos are magical. Witches, by the way, sell tattoos. Very expensive!

TN Dvati Divine Companion Dead Levels Dragonblood Planar Sorcerer 5/Dragonheart Mage 10/Argent Savant 4

Abilities Initial ASI Total
STR 10 10
DEX 10 10
CON 14 14
INT 14 14
WIS 8 8
CHA 18 4 22

Level Class BAB Fort Reflex Will Skills Feats Class Features
1st Divine Companion Sorcerer 1 0 0 0 2 16: {+4} Craft (tattoo): 4; {+4} Knowledge (acana): 4; {+4} Spellcraft: 4; {+4} Spot: 4; Draconic Heritage (Force) (1) Divine Companion
2nd Dead Levels Sorcerer 2 1 0 0 3 4: {+1} Craft (tattoo): 5; {+1} Knowledge (acana): 5; {+1} Spellcraft: 5; {+1} Spot: 5; Magical affinity (dragon)
3rd Sorcerer 3 1 1 1 3 4: {+1} Craft (tattoo): 6; {+1} Knowledge (acana): 6; {+1} Knowledge (the planes): 1; Spellcraft: 5; {+1} Spot: 6; Draconic Knowledge (3)
4th Dragonblood Sorcerer 4 2 1 1 4 4: Craft (tattoo): 6; {+1} Knowledge (acana): 7; {+1} Knowledge (religion): 1; Knowledge (the planes): 1; {+1} Spellcraft: 6; Spot: 6; {+1} Use Magic Device: 1; Arcane insight +2, spell-like ability
5th Planar Sorcerer 5 2 1 1 4 4: {+2} Craft (tattoo): 8; {+1} Knowledge (acana): 8; Knowledge (religion): 1; Knowledge (the planes): 1; {+1} Spellcraft: 7; Spot: 6; Use Magic Device: 1; Force-charged energy
6th Dragonheart Mage 1 2 3 1 6 4: {+1} Bluff: 1; Craft (tattoo): 8; Knowledge (acana): 8; {+1} Knowledge (nature): 1; Knowledge (religion): 1; Knowledge (the planes): 1; {+1} Spellcraft: 8; {+1} Spot: 7; Use Magic Device: 1; Draconic Claw (6), Draconic Breath (Acid) (B) Draconic Breath (2d6)
7th Dragonheart Mage 2 3 4 1 7 4: {+1} Bluff: 2; Craft (tattoo): 8; Knowledge (acana): 8; {+1} Knowledge (local): 1; Knowledge (nature): 1; Knowledge (religion): 1; Knowledge (the planes): 1; {+1} Spellcraft: 9; {+1} Spot: 8; Use Magic Device: 1; Draconic Toughness (D) Draconic feat
8th Dragonheart Mage 3 3 4 2 7 4: {+1} Bluff: 3; Craft (tattoo): 8; Knowledge (acana): 8; {+1} Knowledge (dungeoneering): 1; Knowledge (local): 1; Knowledge (nature): 1; Knowledge (religion): 1; Knowledge (the planes): 1; {+1} Spellcraft: 10; {+1} Spot: 9; Use Magic Device: 1;
9th Dragonheart Mage 4 4 5 2 8 4: {+1} Bluff: 4; Craft (tattoo): 8; Knowledge (acana): 8; Knowledge (dungeoneering): 1; {+1} Knowledge (geography): 1; Knowledge (local): 1; Knowledge (nature): 1; Knowledge (religion): 1; Knowledge (the planes): 1; {+1} Spellcraft: 11; {+1} Spot: 10; Use Magic Device: 1; Arcane Preparation (9), Draconic Resistance (D) Draconic feat
10th Dragonheart Mage 5 4 5 2 8 4: {+1} Bluff: 5; Craft (tattoo): 8; Knowledge (acana): 8; Knowledge (dungeoneering): 1; Knowledge (geography): 1; {+1} Knowledge (history): 1; Knowledge (local): 1; Knowledge (nature): 1; Knowledge (religion): 1; Knowledge (the planes): 1; {+1} Spellcraft: 12; {+1} Spot: 11; Use Magic Device: 1;
11th Dragonheart Mage 6 5 6 3 9 4: {+1} Bluff: 6; Craft (tattoo): 8; Knowledge (acana): 8; {+1} Knowledge (architecture and engineering): 1; Knowledge (dungeoneering): 1; Knowledge (geography): 1; Knowledge (history): 1; Knowledge (local): 1; Knowledge (nature): 1; {+1} Knowledge (psionics): 1; Knowledge (religion): 1; Knowledge (the planes): 1; Spellcraft: 12; {+1} Spot: 12; Use Magic Device: 1; Draconic Breath (2d8)
12th Dragonheart Mage 7 5 6 3 9 4: {+2} Bluff: 8; {+1} Concentration: 1; Craft (tattoo): 8; Knowledge (acana): 8; Knowledge (architecture and engineering): 1; Knowledge (dungeoneering): 1; Knowledge (geography): 1; Knowledge (history): 1; Knowledge (local): 1; Knowledge (nature): 1; Knowledge (psionics): 1; Knowledge (religion): 1; Knowledge (the planes): 1; Spellcraft: 12; {+1} Spot: 13; Use Magic Device: 1; Practiced Spellcaster (Sorcerer) (12)
13th Dragonheart Mage 8 6 7 3 10 4: {+2} Bluff: 10; {+1} Concentration: 2; Craft (tattoo): 8; Knowledge (acana): 8; Knowledge (architecture and engineering): 1; Knowledge (dungeoneering): 1; Knowledge (geography): 1; Knowledge (history): 1; Knowledge (local): 1; Knowledge (nature): 1; Knowledge (psionics): 1; Knowledge (religion): 1; Knowledge (the planes): 1; Spellcraft: 12; {+1} Spot: 14; Use Magic Device: 1; Draconic Arcane Grace (D) Draconic feat
14th Dragonheart Mage 9 6 7 4 10 4: {+2} Bluff: 12; {+1} Concentration: 3; Craft (tattoo): 8; Knowledge (acana): 8; Knowledge (architecture and engineering): 1; Knowledge (dungeoneering): 1; Knowledge (geography): 1; Knowledge (history): 1; Knowledge (local): 1; Knowledge (nature): 1; Knowledge (psionics): 1; Knowledge (religion): 1; Knowledge (the planes): 1; Spellcraft: 12; {+1} Spot: 15; Use Magic Device: 1;
15th Dragonheart Mage 10 7 8 4 11 4: {+2} Bluff: 14; {+1} Concentration: 4; Craft (tattoo): 8; Knowledge (acana): 8; Knowledge (architecture and engineering): 1; Knowledge (dungeoneering): 1; Knowledge (geography): 1; Knowledge (history): 1; Knowledge (local): 1; Knowledge (nature): 1; Knowledge (psionics): 1; Knowledge (religion): 1; Knowledge (the planes): 1; Spellcraft: 12; {+1} Spot: 16; Use Magic Device: 1; Draconic Senses (15) Draconic Breath (3d6)
16th Argent Savant 1 7 8 4 13 4: Bluff: 14; Concentration: 4; {+4} Craft (tattoo): 12; Knowledge (acana): 8; Knowledge (architecture and engineering): 1; Knowledge (dungeoneering): 1; Knowledge (geography): 1; Knowledge (history): 1; Knowledge (local): 1; Knowledge (nature): 1; Knowledge (psionics): 1; Knowledge (religion): 1; Knowledge (the planes): 1; Spellcraft: 12; Spot: 16; Use Magic Device: 1; Force specialization
17th Argent Savant 2 8 8 4 14 4: Bluff: 14; Concentration: 4; {+2} Craft (tattoo): 14; Knowledge (acana): 8; Knowledge (architecture and engineering): 1; Knowledge (dungeoneering): 1; Knowledge (geography): 1; Knowledge (history): 1; Knowledge (local): 1; Knowledge (nature): 1; Knowledge (psionics): 1; Knowledge (religion): 1; Knowledge (the planes): 1; Spellcraft: 12; Spot: 16; Use Magic Device: 1; {+2} Spot the Weak Point; Force armor
18th Argent Savant 3 8 9 5 14 4: Bluff: 14; Concentration: 4; {+2} Craft (tattoo): 16; Knowledge (acana): 8; Knowledge (architecture and engineering): 1; Knowledge (dungeoneering): 1; Knowledge (geography): 1; Knowledge (history): 1; Knowledge (local): 1; Knowledge (nature): 1; Knowledge (psionics): 1; Knowledge (religion): 1; Knowledge (the planes): 1; Spellcraft: 12; Spot: 16; Use Magic Device: 1; {+2} Clarity of Vision, Spot the Weak Point; Draconic Persuasion (18) Enduring force
19th Argent Savant 4 9 9 5 15 4: Bluff: 14; Concentration: 4; {+2} Craft (tattoo): 18; Knowledge (acana): 8; Knowledge (architecture and engineering): 1; Knowledge (dungeoneering): 1; Knowledge (geography): 1; Knowledge (history): 1; Knowledge (local): 1; Knowledge (nature): 1; Knowledge (psionics): 1; Knowledge (religion): 1; Knowledge (the planes): 1; Spellcraft: 12; Spot: 16; Use Magic Device: 1; {+2} Point it Out, Clarity of Vision, Spot the Weak Point; Ablate force

Spells per Day
Level Class 0th 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th
1st Sorcerer 1 5 3+1
2nd Sorcerer 2 6 4+1
3rd Sorcerer 3 6 5+1
4th Sorcerer 4 6 6+1-1 3+1-1
5th Sorcerer 5 6 6+1-1 4+1-1
7th Sorcerer 6 6 6+1-1 5+1-1 3+1
8th Sorcerer 7 6 6+2-1 6+1-1 4+1
9th Sorcerer 8 6 6+2-1 6+1-1 5+1 3+1
10th Sorcerer 9 6 6+2-1 6+1-1 6+1 4+1
12th Sorcerer 10 6 6+2-1 6+1-1 6+1 5+1 3+1
13th Sorcerer 11 6 6+2-1 6+1-1 6+1 6+1 4+1
14th Sorcerer 12 6 6+2 6+2 6+1 6+1 5+1-1 3-1
15th Sorcerer 13 6 6+2 6+2 6+1 6+1 6+1-1 4-1
17th Sorcerer 14 6 6+2 6+2 6+1 6+1 6+1-1 5+1-1 3
18th Sorcerer 15 6 6+2 6+2 6+1 6+1 6+1-1 6+1-1 4
19th Sorcerer 16 6 6+2 6+2 6+1 6+1 6+1 6+1 5-1 3-1

Spells Known
Level Class 0th 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th Dragonblood Sorcerer's Spell-like ability
1st Sorcerer 1 4 (Mage Hand, Prestidigitation, Arcane Mark, Detect Magic) 2 (Shield, Mage Armor)
2nd Sorcerer 2 5 (Amanuensis) 2
3rd Sorcerer 3 5 3 (Hoard Gullet)
4th Sorcerer 4 6 (Caltrops) 3 1 (Tail Slap) Hoard Gullet
5th Sorcerer 5 6 4 (Blood Wind) 1 Hoard Gullet
7th Sorcerer 6 7 (Detect Poison) 4 1 1 (Explosive Runes) Hoard Gullet
8th Sorcerer 7 7 5 (Wings of Swift Flying) 2 (Magic of the Dragonheart) 2 (Ferocity of Sanguine Rage) Hoard Gullet
9th Sorcerer 8 8 (Mending) 5 2 2 1 (Firestride Exhalation) Hoard Gullet
10th Sorcerer 9 8 5 3 (Craft Magic Tattoo) 3 (Ball of Fangs) 2 (Tail Sweep) Hoard Gullet
12th Sorcerer 10 9 (Read Magic) 5 3 3 2 1 (Overland Fly) Hoard Gullet
13th Sorcerer 11 9 5 4 (Fuse Arms) 4 (Girallon's Blessing) 3 (Shimmermantle) 2 (Primal Speed) Hoard Gullet
14th Sorcerer 12 9 5 4 4 3 2 1 (Howling Chain) Overland Fly
15th Sorcerer 13 9 5 4 5 (Vision of the Omniscient Eye) 4 (Wings of Flurry) 3 (Superior Magic Fang) 2 (Aura of Evasion) Overland Fly
17th Sorcerer 14 9 5 4 5 4 3 2 1 (Justice of the Wyrm King) Overland Fly
18th Sorcerer 15 9 5 4 5 5 (Primal Senses) 4 3 (Greater Dispel Magic) 2 (Animate Breath) Overland Fly
19th Sorcerer 16 9 5 4 5 5 4 3 2 1 (Polymorph Any Object) Animate Breath

I decide not to make regular 5th/10th/15th/20th snapshots. My entry has almost no dead levels and I'll try to tell you about every step.

Little preambular section. Actually, I started to make this entry having "Abjuration + Exotic Weapon Proficiency - Abjurant Champion" round's theme in mind, but I found with very few changes it also fits well in "Natural Weapons + Spellcasting - Druid" limitations.

1st Level.
It's a pain to be a first level dvati. Doesn't matter if you are a wizard or barbarian - you still have not enough hit points for 2nd ECL character. My Twins survive as best they can. Spell for AC, spells for healing. Only crossbows for offense. Of the pros, they have in-class Spot due Force Draconic Heritage. It's a good choice if you have two pairs of eyes!
2nd Level.
Well, ok. This level is dead. It says so right there: "Dead Levels Sorcerer 2." Ability to recognize a dragon doesn't look very useful, but... It works regardless of the dragon's form. Any fool can identify a dragon in a big flying reptile, but understand that the innkeeper in front of you is not really a man... Priceless!
3rd Level.
Our second [Draconic] feat. Useful one. Yes, Twins will never be true walking encyclopedias, but with time they will be able cover any mid-level knowledge DC. And a new spell. It is Hoard Gullet. Having a free bag of holding is cool. It's not clear how this spell will work with dvati's body plan, maybe both twins could have their own pocket dimension, maybe only one twin could have it, or maybe they will have one, but share access. It's dvati. Last option of course is best, but realistically looking I rely on the second variant.
4th Level.
Twins' first offensive spells: Tail Slap and Caltrops. Placing Caltrops and pushing the enemy on it with Tail Slap sounds interesting. Here also is "dvati question." Spell explicitly permits to attack with an evoked tail at the casting round. How about another twin's tail which was evoked earlier? Well, I think issue not only in dvati wording, but also in Tail Slap wording:

...strike at a target once per round as a standard action (including the round in which you evoke it)...
but... I don't have standard action in this round anymore... RAI is clear the first attack should be part of the casting (or casting time should be swift), but RAW... I see only three options to use casting round attack: some method to Quick spell for Sorcerer, Arcane Spellsurge or being dvati. It's good to be dvati. )
Also I made Hoard Gullet SLA. This is a useful spell, but I really don't need it more times per day.
And I should mention 1 rank in UMD. Yes, it's first and last rank, but with high Charisma and maybe some items Twins at least will have a chance.
5th level.
Hello Blood Wind! For now it's not great - all natural weapons Twins have are Tail Slaps and I even don't sure. There is no wording "natural weapon" in Tail Slap description and without DM's permission it doesn't work.
More important is Planar Sorcerer substitution level. Its Force-charged energy ability also doesn't work for now, but later it will be great! Yes, Twins will have only one spell with energy damage, but:

A spell successfully activated from a scroll works exactly like a spell prepared and cast the normal way. (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/scrolls.htm)

Spell trigger activation is similar to spell completion, but it’s even simpler. (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/magicItemBasics.htm#spellTrigger)
so it definitely works with scrolls and arguably works with wands and staffs.
6th Level.
Twins enter Dragonheart Mage. They get two new [Draconic] feats: Claw and Breath. First is great in many ways. It gives Twins natural weapons, highly likely it should be four claw attacks, but yes, dvati - in feat written "You can make a natural attack with two claws" so maybe Twins will have only two. But it anyway is a method to combine casting spells and attacking with natural weapons in the same round. Having in mind that dvati have one set of actions (including swifts) for every twin they get TWO claw attacks after casting a spell. And of course it can be used with Blood Wind.
Second feat for now isn't very impressive, but it anyway is a [Draconic] feat so it improves Draconic Knowledge and other feats that will come later. And it's free. Acid looks the most useful energy type.
7th Level.
Third level of spells opens with Explosive Runes. This spell is very useful by itself, but I decided to make Witches all around it. Unfortunately it will be fully opened only at 20th ECL, but for now it just works as it works. Force damage is anyway a very good type of damage.
Also bonus [Draconic] Toughness. HP is always a weak spot for dvati. Way to improve it for both twins is always welcome.
8th Level.
Three new spells of different levels. Wings of Swift Flying is taken for future prospects of working with Overland Fly. Ferocity of Sanguine Rage improves claw attacks. And Magic of the Dragonheart... Oh, it's a great spell. Considering that Twins have two more [Draconic] feats is so good! It greatly improves many feats. Its second option ("for the purpose of determining the benefit of a draconic feat, treat magic of the dragonheart as if its spell level equaled 1/2 your caster level") doesn't work now, but it will be revealed at the next level. And the bonus on Spot is also good.
And 20 Charisma also is relevant.
9th Level.
And here we are! Arcane Preparation. What reason did I take it for? For Magic of the Dragonheart + Draconic Breath (and Draconic Arcane Grace later). Let's look at descriptions:

for the purpose of determining the benefit of a draconic feat, treat magic of the dragonheart as if its spell level equaled 1/2 your caster level.
Draconic Breath is draconic feat so Twins could use memorized Magic of the Dragonheart to fuel Draconic Breath with actual 2nd level slots, but as they are 4th level slots for now or even “10th level slots” at 20 ECL.
There is an issue:

As a standard action, you can convert an arcane spell slot into a breath weapon.
As Written feat shouldn't work with memorized spells. Hm...

Draconic Breath (Su): At 1st level, you gain the Draconic Breath feat. As a dragonheart mage, you realize some additional benefits from taking this feat. As stated in the feat description you can use a standard action to change arcane spell energy into a breath weapon that deals 2d6 points of damage per level of the spell that you expend.
Here we have two possibilities: 1) authors didn't distinguish between "spell" and "spell slot" - it's ok for my goals; or 2) Dragonheart Mage overwrites how Draconic Breath works with its own version - it's ok either.
And [Draconic] Resistance feat. Twins heritage from Force dragon, this means they get very unique resistance from that feat - resistance to force. Now it is 18 or 24 with active Magic of the Dragonheart. At the 20 ECL it will be 27-33. Very useful for spellcasters who specialized in [Force] spells.
And last, but not least Twins get their sole fire damaging spell - Firestride Exhalation. It's not only a source of damage, it also gives them mobility options. It's as usual not clear how it works with dvati: could it teleport both twins at once? Maybe. If yes - cool. With one spell Twins can damage enemy with fire (three levels later with fire and force), flank him and make two claw attacks. If not - well, it will be slightly less useful, but still very good. Plus there is another dvati-ambiguity: "You aren't damaged by the spell's effect when you appear within its area." Hm... my second dvati's body also is "me," is it damaged or isn't?
10th Level.
Three new spells: Craft Magic Tattoo, Ball of Fangs, and Tail Sweep. Two last are just various forms of force damage, but first is a useful tool for all levels. It's a shame Dragonheart Mage doesn't have Craft in-class and Twins are stuck with 8 ranks, but with Int and aid it will be at least +12 bonus and it's also good. And again I have dvati-issue. "A single creature can have only three magic tattoos at a time." Okay. I think it should be three for both bodies, but... Would tattoos on the one twin work for both? Anyway, Craft Magic Tattoo is in before bedtime to do list if there are not used spell slots. For self Twins will use "+1 spellcaster level", "+2 competence bonus on attack rolls", "+1 luck bonus on attack rolls", "+2 resistance bonus on saving throws" in this order of precedence.
11th Level.
The most uselessness level. Only improvement of Draconic Breath to per spell level 2d8.
12th Level.
Practiced Spellcaster helps with CL lagging and with Craft Magic Tattoo let Twins have CL = ECL.
Overland Fly eventually online and synergies with long-waiting Wings of Swift Flying. Total fly speed will be 70 ft. for 12 hours at this level.
13th Level.
[Draconic] Arcane Grace is online and from this moment Twins always have at least all their 2nd level slots full with memorized Magic of the Dragonheart. Now it gives +6/+7 (with Tattoo) on saves or 12d8/14d8 breath weapon damage. Both options are great for 2nd level slots.
Also online are four new spells: Fuse Arms, Girallon's Blessing, Shimmermantle, and Primal Speed. Primal Speed is another thing to do before bedtime. Shimmermantle is very cool and long lasting enough protection spell. Fuse Arms and Girallon's Blessing together is a combo. Firstly Girallon's Blessing, next - Fuse Arms and repeat, when all done enough - cast Fuse Arms one more time. With the price of five 3rd level slots (all 2nd level slots are occupied by Magic of the Dragonheart) one Twin gets +12 Strength and she has now only one hand and only single natural weapon this means 1-1/2 Strength mod to damage. This technique takes time to prepare, but has no real limitation.
14th Level.
6th level spells and Howling Chain. It's not a bad spell, but mostly it's a prerequisite for Argent Savant. There are not so many 6th level Force spells and this looks best of them.
And Overland Fly becomes 3/day SLA.
15th Level.
[Draconic] Senses is another [Draconic] feat and another Spot boost. Also Twins get 3d6 per spell level Draconic Breath - this means 21d6/24d6 acid damage.
New spells: Vision of the Omniscient Eye, Wings of Flurry, Superior Magic Fang, Aura of Evasion. Vision of the Omniscient Eye also boosts Spot. Wings of Flurry is just a very good offensive spell - 16d6/17d6 damage in 30 ft. without danger of friendly fire. Superior Magic Fang is obvious. Greater Magic Fang looks better, but unfortunately it isn't a sorcerer's spell. Aura of Evasion synergies with two Twins' attack options: Draconic Breath and Firestride Exhalation.

When you cast this spell, you have the option of becoming part of the breath weapon and teleporting instantly to any unoccupied space within the breath weapons area.
16th Level.
First level of Argent Savant. No new spellcasting, but instead another good ability: Force Specialization. It's noticeable bonus damage for example for Wings of Flurry.
Also Argent Savant has Craft in-class. And Charisma is 22 from now.
17th Level.
One minor but nice defensive spell improvement and Justice of the Wyrm King new spell. Good spell for melee sorcerer. Also Spot the Weak Point is very useful, too.
18th Level.
[Draconic] Persuasion. With Magic of the Dragonheart it gives Twins +33 Bluff check.
Enduring Force is a free extend for a big half of Twins' spells.
And of course new spells: Primal Senses, Greater Dispel Magic, Animate Breath.
Primal Senses goes into before bedtime to do list. Greater Dispel Magic is just a spell that everyone should have. And Animate Breath. It's a method to weaponize 1st level spell slots. Yes, the spell itself is casted from 7th level slot (for now), but it needs some "energy of your breath weapon" to "imbue it with coherence, mobility, and a semblance of life." Actually, the spell has poor wording, but I suppose it needs to expend breath weapon use. Theoretically Twins can use even 0th level slot, yes damage of Draconic Breath fueled with it will be 0d6, but it will still be a breath weapon.
19th Level.
Ablate Force is 4 more to Force resistance - 37 total. Polymorph Any Object is needed as part of the main combo. Let me explain. From the very beginning I had the idea to weaponize one Abjuration spell. This spell is Explosive Runes. I want to explode runes enough to destroy anybody, but Force Dragon. There was a problem. Explosive Runes explode. And destroy not only enemies, but also objects with another Explosive Runes. So I decide to use something or more precisely somebody who will not be destroyed - the caster himself. But... Caster actually isn't immune to the force damage - that's why I need all these [Draconic] feats and especially Draconic Resistance and Draconic Heritage (Force). Plus little bonus from Argent Savant. But caster anyway isn't an object and even if he was... What shall I do if an enemy just closes its eyes or is blind? PAO is half of the answer on the first question and dvati is the other half and also answer on the second. One twin polymorphing another in some inanimate object weighing no more than 10 lb., casts all Explosive Runes she wants and can, next repeat vice versa. At moment when it is needed Twins flank or even just stay close to the enemy, open their tattooed bodies and read Explosive Runes on each other one by one. Reading is free action, so the limit is only the amount of Explosive Runes. Another theoretical limitation is damage. Yes, Twins have 37 Force resistance, but their Explosive Runes cause up to 42 hp damage. If all spells will cause maximum damage and Twins will fail all Reflex saves... Well, Twins read Explosive Runes one by one and can stop at any moment. Every Twin has 95 hp average, damage per spell they get is 5 - it is 18 explosions - it is 756 damage for the enemy. And this is extremely unlikely event development.
Also Animate Breath is SLA now. Realistically Twins don't need this spell often and 8th level slots aren't used - PAO is casted out of encounters.

Some other total numbers at the 20 ECL.
Spot 16 (ranks) -1 (Wis) + 10 (Magic of the Dragonheart) + 10 (Vision of the Omniscient Eye) + 11 (Draconic Senses)=+46
20 ft blindsense, 60 ft darkvision, low-light vision and uncanny dodge.
+14 on all Knowledges (Arcane +23).

Type Name Book Page
Race Dvati Dragon Compendium 14
Class Sorcerer PHB 51
Prestige Class Dragonheart Mage Races of the Dragon 88
Prestige Class Argent Savant Complete Arcane 24
Class variant Dragonblood Sorcerer Races of the Dragon 107
Class variant Planar Sorcerer Planar Handbook 35
Class variant Dead Levels Sorcerer Character Class Dead Levels (https://web.archive.org/web/20161031215847/http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/cwc/20061013a)
Class variant Divine Companion Complete Champion 51
Feat Draconic Heritage Races of the Dragon 102
Feat Draconic Knowledge Dragon Magic 17
Feat Draconic Claw Races of the Dragon 102
Feat Draconic Breath Races of the Dragon 102
Feat Draconic Toughness Races of the Dragon 105
Feat Arcane Preparation Complete Arcane 73
Feat Practiced Spellcaster Complete Arcane 82
Feat Draconic Resistance Races of the Dragon 105
Feat Draconic Arcane Grace Races of the Dragon 102
Feat Draconic Senses Dragon Magic 17
Feat Draconic Persuasion Races of the Dragon 104
Skill Tricks All Complete Scoundrel 82-90
Spell Shield PHB 278
Spell Mage Armor PHB 249
Spell Hoard Gullet Dragon Magic 68
Spell Blood Wind Spell Compendium 33
Spell Wings of Swift Flying Races of the Dragon 119
Spell Tail Slap Races of the Dragon 118
Spell Magic of the Dragonheart Dragon Magic 69
Spell Craft Magic Tattoo Spell Compendium 55
Spell Fuse Arms Spell Compendium 100
Spell Explosive Runes PHB 228
Spell Ferocity of Sanguine Rage Dragon Magic 67
Spell Ball of Fangs Wyrms of the North Malaeragoth, "The Dragon Unseen" (https://web.archive.org/web/20200314182553/http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/wn/20030423a)
Spell Girallon's Blessing Spell Compendium 106
Spell Firestride Exhalation Dragon Magic 67
Spell Tail Sweep Races of the Dragon 118
Spell Shimmermantle Wyrms of the North Raulothim, "The Silent Shadow" (https://web.archive.org/web/20200314182542/http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/wn/20031119a)
Spell Wings of Flurry Races of the Dragon 119
Spell Primal Senses Dragon Magic 72
Spell Overland Fly PHB 259
Spell Primal Speed Dragon Magic 72
Spell Superior Magic Fang Draconomicon 80
Spell Howling Chain Spell Compendium 116
Spell Aura of Evasion Spell Compendium 18
Spell Greater Dispel Magic PHB 223
Spell Justice of the Wyrm King Dragon Magic 69
Spell Animate Breath Spell Compendium 11
Spell Polymorph Any Object PHB 263

[pabelfly]

Bros in the Sharn
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/forgottenrealms/images/1/1d/Sharn2e.png/revision/latest?cb=20200403213640


Alignment : CN
Race : Sharn (Anauroch)
HD 1 : Combat Reflexes, Alertness, Multiattack, Multiweapon Fighting (as Racial Boni)
HD 3 : Extend Spell
HD 6 : Arcane Strike
HD 9 : Versatile Spellcaster
HD 12 : Persistent Spell
HD 15 : Power Attack


Point Buy at level 1
STR 14 +8
DEX 12 +10
CON 12 +10
INT 14 +8
WIS 14 +8
CHA 14 +10

All level increases in Cha



They were three brothers, sons and citizens of the great empire of Netheril. The eldest had taken a look at the Nether scrolls and was entranced by the intricacies of arcane magic. The middle child saw the beauty of Mystryl and dedicated his life to worshiping the goddess of magic. And the smallest one followed the path of the arts, and amused his brothers with his beautiful dances and his soothing songs. Thus they lived their life, happy and loving each other as much as they loved their nation. But even happiness and brotherly love don’t protect from the unstoppable tide of history. And history was made in the year -345 in Netheril, the year where the Phaerimm launched their last offensive. What followed were 6 years of desperate fighting, as the lands of the Empire were slowly turned to barren wastelands and more and more of the population fled the area. One day, the Sharns emerged from the Plane of Shadows and helped fighting the Phaerimm, ultimately escalating the war into full-on devastation.
On that fateful day of -339, the brothers had decided to serve to defend Karsus’ enclave against the Phaerimm. They knew something big was being prepared, and that if they could hold their lines for a few hours the war could end right then and there. But even with the help of the Sharns, they were slowly forced to retreat. As a last resort, the three brothers decided to bet it all. The eldest casted Wish, the middle Child asked for a Miracle, and the youngest synchronized them through an improved Soul Link that made them like one. But at the last second, Karsus’s Avatar took full effect. Mystryl died in the middle of granting the Miracle. The Weave imploded before the Wish was completed. The three brothers were submerged by wild magic, annihilating their bodies, and then nothing. They saw, heard, touched, smelled and tasted nothing. The only things they perceived were each other’s mind through the link, and they grabbed this last spark of comfort as their souls hurtled through the planes.
When they woke up, they were not humans anymore. They had become like their allies, the multi-armed abomination that is a Sharn. They didn’t remember their name, or how they became like that. But they remembered that they were brothers, and that now, nothing could ever tear them apart. Once again, they were happy, and they roamed the world. One of them wanted to learn to dance. One of them wanted to learn arcane magic. One of them wanted to learn divine magic. All of them wanted to share their passion with their brothers. They were one, and if one progressed in his field, then they should all progress too ! And during their journey, they heard of a secret organization that studied art, divine and arcane alike : the Fochlucan Lyrist. They wanted in. And, by will or by force, they would become truly one, in mind and career as they were in body.



Level Class Base Attack Bonus Fort Save Reflex Save Will Save Skills Feats Class Features
1st LA +1
2nd LA +2
3rd LA +3
4th LA +4
5th LA +5
6th Sharn 1 0 0 0 2 Concentration (+4) 4; Diplomacy (+4) 4; Gather Information (+4 CC) 2; Know (Arcana) (+4) 4; Know (Religion) (+4) 4; Know (Nature) (+4 CC) 2; Perform (Wind Instruments) (+4 CC) 2; Sleight of Hand (+4 CC) 2; Combat Reflexes, Alertness (B), Multiattack (B), Multiweapon Fighting (B) Regeneration 2, spells, independant actions, weapons, hex portals, evasion, immunity to mind-affecting, inviolate form, SR 20, archetypal shape, incorporate consciousness
7th Sharn 2 1 0 0 3 Concentration (+1) 5; Diplomacy (+1) 5; Gather Information (+1 CC) 2.5; Know (Arcana) (+1) 5; Know (Religion) (+1) 5; Know (Nature) (+1 CC) 2.5; Perform (Wind Instruments) (+1 CC) 2.5; Sleight of Hand 2; Spellcraft (+1) 1;
8th Sharn 3 2 1 1 3 Concentration (+1) 6; Diplomacy (+1) 6; Gather Information (+1 CC) 3; Know (Arcana) (+1) 6; Know (Religion) (+1) 6; Know (Nature) (+1 CC) 3; Perform (Wind Instruments) (+1 CC) 3; Sleight of Hand 2; Spellcraft (+1) 2; Extend Spell
9th Sharn 4 3 1 1 4 Concentration (+1) 7; Diplomacy (+1) 7; Gather Information 3; Know (Arcana) 6; Know (Religion) 6; Know (Nature) 3; Perform (Wind Instruments) 3; Sleight of Hand (+2 CC) 3; Spellcraft (+4) 6;
10th Bard 1 3 1 3 6 Concentration 7; Diplomacy 7; Gather Information 3; Know (Arcana) 6; Know (Religion) 6; Know (Nature) (+4) 7; Perform (Wind Instruments) (+5) 8; Sleight of Hand (+2) 5; Speak Language (+1) 1; Spellcraft 6; Bardic music, bardic knowledge, countersong, fascinate, inspire courage +1
11th Mystic Theurge 1 3 1 5 8 Concentration (+2) 9; Decipher Script (+3) 3; Diplomacy 7; Gather Information 3; Know (Arcana) 6; Know (Religion) 6; Know (Nature) 7; Perform (Wind Instruments) (+2 CC) 9; Sleight of Hand 5; Speak Language 1; Spellcraft (+1) 7; Arcane Strike
12th Mystic Theurge 2 4 1 6 10 Concentration (+1) 10; Decipher Script (+1) 4; Diplomacy 7; Gather Information (+4 CC) 5; Know (Arcana) 6; Know (Religion) 6; Know (Nature) 7; Perform (Wind Instruments) (+2 CC) 10; Sleight of Hand 5; Speak Language 1; Spellcraft 7;
13th Mystic Theurge 3 4 2 6 10 Concentration (+1) 11; Decipher Script (+1) 5; Diplomacy 7; Gather Information (+4 CC) 7; Know (Arcana) 6; Know (Religion) 6; Know (Nature) 7; Perform (Wind Instruments) (+2 CC) 11; Sleight of Hand 5; Speak Language 1; Spellcraft 7;
14th Mystic Theurge 4 5 2 7 11 Concentration (+1) 12; Decipher Script (+1) 6; Diplomacy 7; Gather Information 7; Know (Arcana) 6; Know (Religion) 6; Know (Nature) 7; Perform (Wind Instruments) (+2 CC) 12; Sleight of Hand 5; Speak Language 1; Spellcraft (+4) 11; Versatile Spellcaster
15th Mystic Theurge 5 5 2 7 11 Concentration (+1) 13; Decipher Script (+1) 7; Diplomacy 7; Gather Information 7; Know (Arcana) 6; Know (Religion) 6; Know (Nature) 7; Perform (Wind Instruments) (+2 CC) 13; Sleight of Hand (+4 CC) 7; Speak Language 1; Spellcraft 11;
16th Fochlucan Lyrist 1 6 3 8 12 Concentration (+1) 14; Decipher Script 7; Diplomacy (+6) 13; Gather Information 7; Know (Arcana) 6; Know (Religion) 6; Know (Nature) 7; Perform (Wind Instruments) (+1) 14; Sleight of Hand (+2) 9; Speak Language 1; Spellcraft 11; Conceal Spellcasting; Bardic knowledge, bardic music, unbound
17th Fochlucan Lyrist 2 7 3 8 12 Concentration (+1) 15; Decipher Script 7; Diplomacy (+2) 15; Gather Information 7; Know (Arcana) 6; Know (Religion) 6; Know (Nature) 7; Perform (Dance) (+7) 7; Perform (Wind Instruments) (+1) 15; Sleight of Hand (+1) 10; Speak Language 1; Spellcraft 11; Conceal Spellcasting; Persistent Spell
18th Fochlucan Lyrist 3 8 4 9 13 Concentration (+1) 16; Decipher Script 7; Diplomacy (+1) 16; Gather Information 7; Know (Arcana) 6; Know (Religion) 6; Know (Nature) 7; Perform (Dance) (+1) 8; Perform (Wind Instruments) (+1) 16; Sleight of Hand (+1) 11; Speak Language 1; Spellcraft (+5) 16; Conceal Spellcasting; Collector of Stories;
19th Fochlucan Lyrist 4 9 4 9 13 Concentration (+1) 17; Decipher Script 7; Diplomacy (+1) 17; Gather Information 7; Know (Arcana) 6; Know (Religion) 6; Know (Nature) 7; Perform (Dance) (+2) 10; Perform (Wind Instruments) (+1) 17; Sleight of Hand (+6) 17; Speak Language 1; Spellcraft (+1) 17; Conceal Spellcasting; Collector of Stories;
20th Fochlucan Lyrist 5 10 4 10 14 Concentration (+1) 18; Decipher Script 7; Diplomacy (+1) 18; Gather Information 7; Know (Arcana) 6; Know (Religion) 6; Know (Nature) 7; Perform (Dance) (+7) 17; Perform (Wind Instruments) (+1) 18; Sleight of Hand (+1) 18; Speak Language 1; Spellcraft (+1) 18; Conceal Spellcasting; Collector of Stories; Power Attack


Sorcerer and Favored souls (same progression)
Level0th1st2nd3rd4th5th6th7th8th
6th6653
7th6664
8th66653
9th66664
10th666653
11th666664
12th6666653
13th6666664
14th66666653
15th66666664
16th666666653

Bard: 4 cantrips



Sorcerer
ECLClass0th1st2nd3rd4th5th6th7th8th
6thSorcerer 6Resistance
Detect Magic
Prestidigitation
Read Magic
Ghost Sound
Touch of Fatigue
Mage HandParching Touch
Shield
Bestow Wound
Chill TouchWraithstrike
CombustGreater Mage Armor
7thSorcerer 6
8thSorcerer 6
9thSorcerer 6
10th
11thSorcerer 7Critical StrikeVeil of ShadowHaste
12thSorcerer 8Arcane MarkGreater Invisibility
13thSorcerer 9Ghoul GlyphFerocity of Sanguine RageBloodstar
14thSorcerer 10MessageSuperior Magic Fang
15thSorcerer 11Wings of CoverMind PoisonResilient SpherePermanency
16thSorcerer 12Mummify
17thSorcerer 13Solid FogTeleportSpectral Touch
18thSorcerer 14Limited Wish
19thSorcerer 15Touch of VecnaContingencySimulacrum
20thSorcerer 16Maze

Favored Soul’s Spell Known
ECLClass0th1st2nd3rd4th5th6th7th8th
6thFavored Soul 6Cure Minor Wound
Inflict Minor Wound
Guidance
Create Water
Virtue
Purify Food and Drink
MendingSpell Flower
Identify
Ice Slick
Divine Favor
Blood WindExecration
Restoration, Lesser
Silence
Divine InsightShivering Touch
Bestow Curse
Animate Dead
7thFavored Soul 6
8thFavored Soul 6
9thFavored Soul 6
10th
11thFavored Soul 7Resurgence
12thFavored Soul 8LightTyche's TouchAlter FortunePoison
Divine Power
Death Ward
13thFavored Soul 9
14thFavored Soul 10XElationRefreshmentFreedom of MovementTrue Seeing
Slay Living
Bleed
15thFavored Soul 11
16thFavored Soul 12Girallon's BlessingAssay Spell ResistancePlaneshiftPlanar Ally
Heal
Superior Resistance
17thFavored Soul 13
18thFavored Soul 14Blindsight, GreaterChoking SandsGeas/QuestBestow Curse, Greater
Withering Palm
Resurrection
19thFavored Soul 15
20thFavored Soul 16HallowDispel Magic, GreaterInvestiture of the Ice DevilPlanar Ally; Greater
Spell Immunity, Greater
Symbol of Insanity



0: Prestidigitation, Detect Magic, Know Direction, Ghost Sound




ECL 9
You’re among the top 2 apex races in all the 3.5 universes (the other one being your worst enemy ; the Phaerimm). 4 stats with a +8 racial bonus, the last two with +10, 9 claws (that can all wield weapons btw), double casting progression of Sorcerer and Favored Soul but you cast as if the spells were SLAs, Immunity to polymorphing, regeneration and the sweet ability to have one move and 3 std actions per turn .
Oh yeah, did I mention the fact you can attack or cast spells through ethereal portals moving around a 100ft radius of your position ? Even SR 20 and Evasion are lackluster on this chassis.
Combat Reflexes even have a special clause, just for us : we get 18 attacks of opportunity (but only up to 6 per AoO).
On the spell side, we’re running a lot of goodies ; Greater Mage Armor and Shield when AC is needed adding to the +6 Dex and +5 Nat Armor (-1 Size) we have 30 AC. If we do get hit however, DR10/Cold Iron or Lawful, Regeneration 2 as well as an eventual 40% miss chance (if enemy readies an attack to hit you when you attack through a hex portal) give us really good sustainability.
Casting as if spells were SLAs opens up the regular shenanigans we all know and love : Identify and Animate Dead without material cost and Ghoul Glyph as a Std action for instance.
The rest of our arsenal is going to be focusing on damaging (or debilitating) touch spells, namely Chill Touch, Combust, Parching Touch, Execration, Bestow Wound, Shivering Touch and Bestow Curse.
Spell Flower allows us to use all those spells at once when you full attack a target; the end result is : 1d6 cold (Fort or -1 Str), [CL]d8 fire (Ref of catch fire), 1d6 desiccation (Fort or -1 Con), Will or -2 to saves, 3d6 Dex, [CL] damage (that heals for the same amount) and a permanent curse.
If you had time to cast Wraithstrike as well, you probably hit all nine claws which, in addition to the above damage, adds 9*(1d6+4) physical damage.
To avoid being hit at all, you can even cast Blood Wind and benefit from a 20ft range to make melee attacks through a Hex Portal therefore not even risking the 60% chance they might have to hit back.
Ignoring even combat, having the ability to see through invisible screens that can move around you in a 100ft radius ranks you in the top notch scouting roles. The team rogue can even sneak attack targets that you threaten through your portals.
Component-free Animate Dead plays into all of this by adding meatshields to protect us, flankers for our party and for us, and obstacles for battlefield control that doesn't hinder the movement of our portals.

ECL 10 -15
Our first level is… Bard ! Why you ask ? Well because of the skill points, skill list, Bardic Music & Knowledge abilities. The 4 additional cantrips are just for being pedantic.
Then we can enroll in Mystic Theurge up until we reach HD10. This improves both our Sorcerer and Favored Soul casting reaching 11th level on both classes.
On the spell-side, getting an insane selection :
Buffing : Critical Strike, Divine Power, Freedom of Movement, True Seeing, Ferocity of Sanguine Rage, Haste, Greater Invisibility, Superior Magic Fang, Elation, Refreshment and Deathward.
Damaging : Poison, Bleed, Slay Living, Bloodstar
Utility (abuse) : Permanency, Alter Fortune (can also be used on us if we fail saving throws despite our buffs)
Also, Resilient Sphere is really good for us since we can hit through our portals, outside of the sphere while being protected from inside (if we need time to buff for instance). Additionally, Ghoul Glyph becomes incredible when cast as a standard action. It's a touch range no-save-just-paralysis, and you do not activate it yourself. Remember, you can also cast it from your portals to disable distant opponents. Refreshment on a regenerating monster simply becomes a full heal (very good with contingency).
While one might be appalled by the time it would take to cast all of these and the sheer number of slots required, let’s remember we have 3 std actions per turn and 2 spontaneous casting classes which are both Cha-based (our highest stat) for the number of bonus spells.
To get an idea of just how many spells we’re sitting on, assuming a +6 item to Cha at ECL 15, we’re looking at 18 1st and 2nd level, 16 3rd and 4th level and 12 5th level spells.
If we still have too many spells slots, we can use Versatile Spellcaster to get more uses of our most devastating ones or simply burn them to add to our physical damage with claws with Arcane Strike (that applies to all claws for the full round, mind you).

ECL 16 - 20
Reaching the apex of the food chain, we can finally enter Fochlucan Lyrist. Full BAB, 6+Int skill points, better saves, Bardic Music progression and both casting classes improvement. This is a solid step up from Mystic Theurge.
Persistent Spell comes online in time to Persist ‘(Spell Flower) in a newly acquired 7th level spell slot (finally) so that the holding the charge part can last 24h now, allowing us to unleash devastating full attacks from the get go. Persistent Spell synergizes nicely with Versatile Spellcaster, accelerating our access to the most dangerous of our persisted spells, or allowing us to use 6th level slots to cast persisted Spell Flower, for example.
Power Attack is there right when we can Persist Wraithstrike meaning we don’t actually lose our hitting chances (even probably improve them) while having -15 to hit/ +15 to damage thanks to Divine Power.
As before, the anthology of spells we learn is tremendously powerful
Buffing : Girallon’s Blessing (11 claws !), Assay Spell Resistance, Superior Resistance, Greater Blindsight, Greater Spell Immunity, Investiture of the Ice Devil
Control : Ice Slick, Solid Fog, Maze, Planeshift (as a touch attack)
Damaging : Mummify, Spectral Touch, Touch of Vecna, Choking Sands, Withering Palm, Greater Bestow Curse, Symbol of Insanity (as a std, remember ?)
Utility (abuse) : Limited Wish, Simulacrum, Contingency, Resurrection, Geas/Quest, Hallow

This is the truly game-breaking part. I mean really, what we did until now was cheesy but this is over the top.
You can Greater Planar Ally anything within 18 HD, cast Simulacrum on them at no cost. You can basically create an entire army of Simulacra for free at the rate of 3 soldiers every 2 rounds.
That’s not even it, Limited Wish has no cost either ; the entire list of 5th level spells in the game is opened. Versatile enough ?
Or maybe the Contingency (Resurrection) combo, for free again ? You’re not almighty Pun-Pun style, but close enough that it’s scary.



Well, given our stats, any ability enhancement item is gravy, especially Cha ones. As good are caster level enhancers. Even if we can rebuff ourselves three times as fast as a regular caster (and without the stress of having to prepare everything twice), it sucks to have everything dispelled.

Necklace of Natural Weapons (SS) can bring really good buffs for our claw attacks and it’s a budget since we have 9 claws that can benefit from it. If it’s too expensive, the Amulet of Mighty Fists is great.

Fanged Amulet (DrM) is awesome for us because it gives us the benefit of 2 feats. IUS lets us use our BAB first then attack with our 9 claws (11 with Girallon’s Blessing), the other one increases our claw damage from 1d6 to 1d8.




Speak Language (Druidic) isn’t meant to be learned by anyone other than druids. Otoh, nothing prevents us from bribing a Blighter or any other Ex-druid which doesn't really care about the oath anymore (fluffwise).

A blighter may even be impressed by the ability of a Sharn to absorb magic from the land around it to cast its spells (similar to the phaerimm), leaving it barren, and teach the brothers druidic in return.

On Combat Reflexes: Anauroch has a special clause for the Sharn saying "because of its independant action and 20 Dexterity, a sharn's Combat Reflexes feat allows it to make fifteen additional attacks of opportunity, but no more than five per opportunity". It's pretty clear that a sharn can make three times its Dex bonus AoO per turn, and several attacks each time. It's probably "Dex bonus attacks per opportunity", but even if the 'five' figure doesn't depend on your stats, it's still extremely good.



SRD - Feats, Spells, Bard
Anauroch, the Empire of Shades - Sharn
BoED - Elation
RotD - Versatile Spellcaster, Wings of Cover
CW - Arcane Strike
CAr - Persistent Spell
CD - Favored Soul
CCh: Bleed, Execration
DMG - Mystic Theurge
CAd - Fochlucan Lyrist
CM - Touch of Vecna
DrMag - Superior Magic Fang
LEoF - Tyche's Touch
Spell Compendium - lots of spells
FC2 - Investiture of the Ice Devil
Frostburn - Shivering Touch, Ice Slic
HoB - Battlemagic Perception
HoH - Bestow Wound
PHB2 - Alter Fortune
Sandstorm - Choking Sands, Mummify, Parching Touch

[pabelfly]

Jas'Quinn Liadon of Cyre

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1002625027860090920/1160484573952626758/JasQuinn.jpg?ex=6534d47b&is=65225f7b&hm=9aeea2f817397c3dad9a1a8aa571f27447e4bcd9f5d3fac 7db8a3317432858a3&

Lawful Good Half-Elf (Deepwyrm Half-Drow)

In the late days of the Last War, in the nation of Cyre, there was a ranger serving in the Queen's Forward Blades known as Jas'Quinn Liadon. A scout for the arcanists of his homelandÂ’s rivals, he gained a reputation for successful guerilla strikes against the forces he rooted out. Combined with the streak of white that bisected his raven hair, a trait unique to his family among the Half-Elves of Cyre, his escapades earned him the nickname of “The Wet Badger”. Were the war to continue, Jas’Quinn would have become something of a folk hero. But then… the Day of Mourning.

That day that a cataclysmic event unlike anything the world had ever seen tore through Cyre. It was as if the very fabric of reality had unraveled, leaving nothing but devastation in its wake. Jas'Quinn, caught on the borders of the catastrophe, barely survived. As the dust settled, he discovered a newfound power coursing through his veins – the magic hidden within his blood, awakened by the cataclysm itself.

What Jas’Quinn had always taken to be a tall tale that his grandparents told him, turned out to be true… generations ago, one of the dark elves of Xen'drik came to Cyre and found a home among the Elven community. They said that he had seen The Dragon Below with his own eyes and had come to Galifar to escape his past. He repaid his hosts by protecting them from attacks by bandits out of the Talenta Plains.

Jas’Quinn felt magical abilities surge through him as he stumbled out of the edge of the Mournlands. He sensed magic all around him, overwhelming his nascent attunement to these energies. His body burned and his mind dazed, JasÂ’Quinn crawled into an abandoned animal den and fell unconscious. Nightmares of The Dragon Below filled Jas’Quinn as he slept. Enlightening nightmares of the true fabric of the universe and all its cruelty. Awakened and filled with anger and a burning desire for vengeance, Jas'Quinn embarked on a quest to discover the truth behind the cataclysm and those responsible for it. His journey took him across the Five Nations and led him to confront powerful adversaries, both magical and martial. With each battle, his mastery of his newfound magic grew, and his skills as a warrior became sharper than ever before. His scarred flesh came to resemble blackened scales and his bloodstained fingers became sharpened talons.

But Jas'Quinn knew that to truly harness his powers and achieve his ultimate goal of vengeance, he needed to focus his mind and body. His travels had brought him to the distant land of Sarlona and while there he sought refuge at a secluded monastery, where he dedicated himself to the rigorous discipline of martial arts. The Kalashtar monks there taught him not only physical combat techniques but also the importance of inner balance and control. Though their arts were best suited for psionics, Jas’Quinn was able to adapt them to his draconic features and magical aptitude. When he felt ready, he left the monastery with a newfound purpose: to use his combined mastery of magic and martial arts to become a champion for the survivors of Cyre, a symbol of hope and resilience for his people.

Jas'Quinn entered martial arts tournaments across the world, defeating opponent after opponent with his unique blend of magic-infused combat. His reputation grew, and he became known as the "Cyran Avenger" a nod to his homeland and his unwavering determination to seek Justice.

With each victory, Jas'Quinn not only gained fame but also garnered the support of many who had also suffered in the wake of the Mourning. Together, they formed a tight-knit community of survivors, united by their determination to rebuild their shattered nation and seek justice for the devastation that had been wrought upon them.

The "Cyran Avenger" had transformed from a lone ranger seeking vengeance into a beacon of hope and a champion for his people. With his martial prowess and mastery of magic, he continued to fight for justice, vowing never to rest until those responsible for the cataclysm were held accountable.

In the world of martial arts tournaments, the legend of Jas'Quinn Liason, the Cyran Avenger, grew ever stronger, echoing like a battle cry for all who had suffered and survived the cataclysm of Cyre.



Level Class Base Attack Bonus Secondary Natural Attacks Snap Kick "Full Attack Sequence
(Before Modifiers)" Fort Save Reflex Save Will Save Skills Feats Class Features
1st Ranger (Arcane Hunter) 1 - - 1 2 2 0 24: {+4} Concentration: 4; {+2 CC} Gather Information: 1; {+4} Jump: 4; {+2 CC} Knowledge (Arcana): 1; {+4} Survival: 4; {+2 CC} Sense Motive: 1; {+2 CC} Spellcraft: 1; {+4} Spot: 4; Combat Casting, Track (Ranger 1) Favored enemy (Arcanists), Wild empathy
2nd Battle Sorcerer (Dragonblooded) 1 - - 1 2 2 2 2: Concentration: 4; Gather Information: 1; Jump: 4; Knowledge (Arcana): 1; Survival: 4; Sense Motive: 1; {+2} Spellcraft: 3; Spot: 4; Dragontouched (Battle Sorcerer 1) Spellcasting in Light Armor, Arcane Insight
3rd Battle Sorcerer 2 -3/-3 - 2/-3/-3 2 2 3 2: Concentration: 4; Gather Information: 1; Jump: 4; {+2} Knowledge (Arcana): 3; Survival: 4; Sense Motive: 1; Spellcraft: 3; Spot: 4;
4th Battle Sorcerer 3 -2/-2 - 3/-2/-2 3 3 3 2: {+2} Concentration: 6; Gather Information: 1; Jump: 4; Knowledge (Arcana): 3; Survival: 4; Sense Motive: 1; Spellcraft: 3; Spot: 4;
5th Battle Sorcerer 4 -1/-1 - 4/-1/-1 3 3 4 2: Concentration: 6; Gather Information: 1; Jump: 4; Knowledge (Arcana): 3; Survival: 4; Sense Motive: 1; {+2} Spellcraft: 5; Spot: 4;
6th Monk 4 -1/-1 - 2/2/-3/-3 5 5 6 4: {+2} Concentration: 8; Gather Information: 1; Jump: 4; {+2} Knowledge (Arcana): 5; Survival: 4; Sense Motive: 1; Spellcraft: 5; Spot: 4; Ascetic Mage, Improved Unarmed Strike (Monk 1), Stunning Fist (Monk 1) flurry of blows, unarmed strike
7th Enlightened Fist 4 -1/-1 - 2/2/-3/-3 5 7 8 4: Concentration: 8; {+4 CC} Gather Information: 3; Jump: 4; Knowledge (Arcana): 5; Survival: 4; Sense Motive: 1; Spellcraft: 5; Spot: 4; Ki strike (magic), monk abilities
8th Enlightened Fist 5 0/0 - 3/3/-2/-2 5 8 9 4: Concentration: 8; {+2 CC} Gather Information: 4; Jump: 4; Knowledge (Arcana): 5; {+2 CC} Survival: 5; Sense Motive: 1; Spellcraft: 5; Spot: 4; Fist of energy
9th Enlightened Fist 6/1 1/1 4 2/2/2/-3/-3/-3 6 8 9 4: Concentration: 8; Gather Information: 4; Jump: 4; Knowledge (Arcana): 5; {+4 CC} Survival: 7; Sense Motive: 1; Spellcraft: 5; Spot: 4; Snap Kick Arcane fist
10th Enlightened Fist 7/2 2/2 5 3/3/3/-2/-2/-2 6 9 10 4: Concentration: 8; Gather Information: 4; Jump: 4; Knowledge (Arcana): 5; {+2 CC} Survival: 8; {+2 CC} Sense Motive: 2; Spellcraft: 5; Spot: 4; Heroic Spirit (Cyran Avenger 1) Avenging Strike
11th Abjurant Champion 8/3 3/3 6 4/4/4/-1/-1/-1 6 9 12 2: Concentration: 8; Gather Information: 4; Jump: 4; Knowledge (Arcana): 5; Survival: 8; {+2 CC} Sense Motive: 3; Spellcraft: 5; Spot: 4; Discern lies 1/day, enemy region
12th Abjurant Champion 9/4 4/4 7 5/5/5/0/0/0 6 9 13 2: Concentration: 8; Gather Information: 4; Jump: 4; Knowledge (Arcana): 5; Survival: 8; {+2 CC} Sense Motive: 4; Spellcraft: 5; Spot: 4; Minor Shapeshift Avenging strike (ranged)
13th Cyran Avenger 10/5 5/5 8 6/6/6/1/1/1 8 9 13 4: {+2} Concentration: 10; {+2} Gather Information: 6; Jump: 4; Knowledge (Arcana): 5; Survival: 8; Sense Motive: 4; Spellcraft: 5; Spot: 4; Speak with dead 1/day
14th Cyran Avenger 11/6/1 6/6 9 7/7/7/2/2/2/-3 9 9 13 4: {+2} Concentration: 12; {+2} Gather Information: 8; Jump: 4; Knowledge (Arcana): 5; Survival: 8; Sense Motive: 4; Spellcraft: 5; Spot: 4; Enemy region
15th Cyran Avenger 12/7/2 7/7/2 10 8/8/8/3/3/3/-2 9 10 14 4: {+2} Concentration: 14; {+2} Gather Information: 10; Jump: 4; Knowledge (Arcana): 5; Survival: 8; Sense Motive: 4; Spellcraft: 5; Spot: 4; Rapid Strike Abjurant armor, extended abjuration
16th Cyran Avenger 13/8/3 8/8/3 11 9/9/9/4/4/4/-1 10 10 14 4: Concentration: 14; Gather Information: 10; Jump: 4; Knowledge (Arcana): 5; Survival: 8; Sense Motive: 4; Spellcraft: 5; {+4} Spot: 8; Swift abjuration
17th Cyran Avenger 14/9/4 9/9/4 12 10/10/10/5/5/5/0 10 10 14 4: Concentration: 14; Gather Information: 10; Jump: 4; Knowledge (Arcana): 5; Survival: 8; Sense Motive: 4; Spellcraft: 5; {+4} Spot: 12;
18th Abjurant Champion 15/10/5 10/10/5/0/-5/-10 13 11/11/11/6/6/6/1/-4/-9/-14 11 11 14 2: {+2} Concentration: 16; Gather Information: 10; Jump: 4; Knowledge (Arcana): 5; Survival: 8; Sense Motive: 4; Spellcraft: 5; Spot: 12; Improved Rapid Strike Arcane Boost
19th Abjurant Champion 16/11/6/1 11/11/6/1/-4/-9 14 12/12/12/7/7/7/2/-3/-8/-13 11 11 15 2: {+2} Concentration: 18; Gather Information: 10; Jump: 4; Knowledge (Arcana): 5; Survival: 8; Sense Motive: 4; Spellcraft: 5; Spot: 12; Martial Arcanist
20th Abjurant Champion 17/12/7/2 12/12/7/2/-3/-8 15 13/13/13/8/8/8/3/-2/-7/-12 11 11 15 2: {+2} Concentration: 20; Gather Information: 10; Jump: 4; Knowledge (Arcana): 5; Survival: 8; Sense Motive: 4; Spellcraft: 5; Spot: 12;


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


So the goal here is to make a character that combines natural attacks and spell casting without being a druid, so that made me want to be something arcane and it made me want to see how those aspects could be part of one concept and not just two boxes to be checked.


Hey that Draconic Claws feat is pretty sweet! It gives you a claw attack and lets you make a swift action claw attack (which feels very 5e) when you cast a spell as a standard action. Oh, but let's remember that you can use a natural weapon or unarmed strike to make the touch attack for a spell. Throw in snap kick and you could move, make a standard action unarmed strike to cast a spell, follow with a snap kick, then get a third attack as a swift action! This is a number of attacks that is competitive with pounce! And it has a rider effect of casting spell!


So we're making a bad touch character, so why not build out a martial artist concept? The Enlightened Fist prestige class provides a means to use touch spells as part of a full attack so if we build around this we can open up a huge number of attacks.

Yes, Jas'Quinn only gets 8ths. I know. Bad optimizer. However, compare with the excellent Pathfinder 1e Sacred Fist or the Tashalatora Monk which only gets 6th level abilities. Jas'Quinn is getting 8ths and he's not hurting for class features. Avenging Strike, for example, can ultimately be used on any attack roll and adds a great buff to hit and a boatload of extra damage. Once I realized that getting the 4th iterative on the main BAB for the character was going to burn most of my feat slots, I made my peace with only getting 8th levels and leaned into a sturdier frame and higher BAB.

Ranger makes it easier to qualify for Cyran Avenger which was a class that I've always wanted to fit into a build. Arcane Hunter actually really fit the setting (If he was from Thrane, I swear I would have used Undead). Going with a full BAB class upfront made the Monk level with Ascetic Mage line up so I didn't have the awkwardness of taking the Monk level earlier might have caused.




In order learned, top down.

Cantrips (8)
Touch of Fatigue
Resistance
Ray of Frost
Message
Prestidigitation
Daze
Read Magic
Detect Poison

1st (4)
Enlarge Person
Shocking Grasp
Shield
Lesser Shivering Touch

2nd (4)
Touch of Idiocy
Mirror Image
Scorching Ray
Dispelling Touch

3rd (3)
Vampiric Touch
Shivering Touch
Haste

4th (3)
Polymorph
Mass Enlarge Person
Touch of Years

5th (3)
Arcane Fusion
Lightning Leap
Draconic Polymorph

6th (2)
Spectral Touch
Mummify

7th (1)
Limited Wish

8th (1)
Greater Arcane Fusion


Jas'Quinn is a little made, as all Gish builds risk being. Items that boost stats will be much appreciated, as will a Monk's belt. Pearls of Power, wands, and anything else that assist a caster will be well loved. Anything that a monk or a charisma focused mage will use should be sought out.


Jas'Quinn can wear light armor and use a melee weapon at low levels to be a capable if not flashy gish. Draconic Claws is an early leg up in the action economy race. It's not flashy, but it won't feel behind the curve.

Skill requirements forced me to take all 4 planned levels of Enlightened Fist, but it means that the core Martial Artist concept is fully explored before getting into the juicy back 10. The ability to mix spell casting with melee attacks in multiple ways makes the character feel like a cogent martial magician!

So why the weird split of Abjurant Champion and Cyran Avenger levels? Well, this actually was my ideal so you go the early nice casting buffs from Abjurant Champion and then got the martial bumps from Cyran Avenger before finishing off Abjurant Champion, BUT I wasn't going to split it that way so that the classes could better represent life stages for Jas'Quinn, HOWEVER getting the necessary skill ranks proved to be a bear which required me to hold off on entering Cyran Avenger. My one regret is not making room for more abjuration spells in this build. Minor Shapeshift has added a lot of functionality to Jas'Quinn, even if the claws option is redundant. Rapid Strike finally kicks in at 15th level.

Jas'Quinn is able to make a ridiculous number of attacks as a full attack, really punishing any foe that stays in melee range. The back ten levels haven't really opened up new options, aside from new spells, so much as making all of the options WAY STRONGER!




SRD
Ranger
Monk
Improved Unarmed Strike
Stunning Fist
Combat Casting
Track

Unearther Arcana
Battle Sorcerer

Dragon Magic
Dragontouched Feat
Dragonblooded Sorcerer

Races of the Dragon
Draconic Claws

Complete Adventurer
Ascetic Mage

Tome of Battle
Snap Kick

Complete Mage
Minor Shapeshift
Arcane Hunter Ranger

Draconomicon
Rapid Strike
Improved Rapid Strike

[pabelfly]

Str 14 Dex 10 Con 14 Int 16 Wis 10 Cha 14
+1 to intelligence at 4th, 8th, 12th, and 20th level, +1 to charisma at 16th
NG Daelkyr Half Blood
Hunter Bear Totem Barbarian 1/ Wu-Jen 3/Metamagic Specialist Sorcerer 1/Impure Prince 5/ Ultimate Magus 10

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/eldenring/images/4/43/ER_Godrick_the_Grafted.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/1000?cb=20220417190541
Not Nars exactly, but the same general idea

I was born in the deep swamps of the Shadow Marches, to the warrior daughter of a chieftain. By the time I was five, the tribe had been completely destroyed. All of my orc family was slain, save for me, a Daelkyr half blood. The aberrations of the swamp raised me, teaching me how to fight and awakening my symbiont. Even at that young age, I rebelled against the aberration within me, but my keepers gave me no freedom. I bided my time while mastering the magic I had been born with. Even at a young age, I could use the power of stone and wind to strike hard at a distance, a skill that allowed me to survive in the harsh swamps. When I was seventeen, my chance for freedom came. Druids, of the gatekeeper sect, came through the swamp, fighting the aberrations. During the fighting, I seized my chance to run. The druids found me, and though I thought they would strike me down, they instead took me with them.
I soon found out why. One of the druids, an old orc by the name of Grisgtha, was something called an Impure Prince. She too bore a symbiont, though her aberration blood was far more distilled than mine. Though my aberrant blood prevented me from following the path of the druid, Grisgtha decided to teach me nonetheless. There's a kind of magic, even older than that of the Gatekeepers, called the way of the Five Elements, or the path of the Wu Jen.
The five elements accepted me more readily than the magic of the druids, and under Grisgtha, I advanced rapidly. I learned to use the power of the elements and the protection of the spirits to shield myself from the influence of my symbiont and to control my cursed blood, using it to transform myself into other aberrations. After a few years, Grisgtha deemed me ready to become an Impure Prince like herself. The first technique she taught me was the art of luring another symbiont. With two symbionts, both Crawling Gauntlets at the time, my powers surged. Due to their connection to my magic, the symbionts copied my spells and used them at my direction. For a while, everything was good. I was learning, and occasionally fighting aberrations with Grisgtha and the other Gatekeepers.
Then, one day Grisgtha did not return from one of her aberration hunts. When it became clear she wasn’t coming back, I set out in search of her. My spells of scrying yielded nothing, but my search on wings called by magic eventually yielded fruit. A week after she was lost, I encountered Grisgtha in the deep swamps. It seemed her iron control over her symbiont had somehow faltered and the aberrations of the swamp had warped her. Instead of one tentacle whip, she bore several, as well as crawling gauntlets and doubtless other creations of the Daelkyr. She attacked me, along with a horde of shrieking Dolgrims. Against my former master, now bolstered by the foul magic of the Daelkyr, I stood no chance. Soon, I was captured and brought deep into the swamp, to the domain of the Dolgrim. Though they sought to reawaken my aberrant heritage, the spirits protected me from their efforts, and I was able to stay in control. Again, I had to escape, but the aberrations made a mistake. I was no longer the youngling they had trapped. My mastery of water let me summon a fog to hide my escape, and I was able to make it back to safety. The experience had changed me, however. The attempts of the aberrations to control me had awakened cursed magic within me, but with the guidance of the spirits, I could control it. I learned to mix my two magics together. Though accepting my symbionts tore at my mind, I soon learned feats of magic far beyond what I had imagined possible. With my newfound power, I was ready to take the fight to the swamps.


Xafragt the mind flayer surveyed his forces. It had taken months, but now a veritable horde of aberrations was poised to assault a dimensional seal. The wards had been weakening for millenia, but another push now would restore a manifest zone to Xoriat, and allow the Daelkyr to return. He’d been waiting for this for a long time. Only a half a dozen druids and a score of warriors guarded the gate, and Nars Three-Spirits was far away. The beauty of the dimensional seal was that it would block them from teleporting in to help protect it.
Xafragt looked up to command the vanguard of beholders to lead the attack. As he gestured them forward, one shifted into something else. The circular bulk of the beholder dropped away into a humanoid form with tentacles, too many tentacles. Before the beholders could bring their central eye upon them, Nars attacked. Though it seems their flying tentacles, claws, and fists wouldn’t reach the beholders, they fell nonetheless.
As the beholders fell, Xafragt prepared a mind blast, but before he could fire, the mist of the swamp rose up, obscuring all sight, and limiting movement. Xafragt fired in a random direction, to no avail, and then Nars loomed out of the mist, with tentacles and claws growing at random angles from their flesh.
“Today, you die,” Nars said as they attacked.
The fight was brief and deadly. Before Xafragt could ready another mind blast, a dozen claws and slashing tentacles bit into his flesh. As he bled out, Nars shook their head sadly. "So few aberrations escape the corruption of the Daelkyr. Someday, I will bring the fight straight to them for what they've done."


Level Class Base Attack Bonus Fort Save Reflex Save Will Save Skills Feats Class Features
1st Hunter Bear Totem Barbarian 1 1 2 0 0 Gather Information 2 (+2) CC, Listen 4 (+4), Search 2 (+2) CC, Survival 4 (+4), Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 2 (+2) CC, Intimidate 4 (+4), Swim 2 (+2), Speak Language (Daelkyr) 1 (+1) CC Nemesis (Aberrations) Favored Enemy (Aberrations) +2, Bear Totem (Improved Grab), Illiteracy
2nd Metamagic Specialist Sorcerer 1 1 2 0 2 Gather Information 2 1/2 (+1/2) CC, Listen 4, Search 2 1/2 (+1/2) CC, Survival 4, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 2, Intimidate 4, Swim 2, Knowledge (Arcana) 3 (+3), Speak Language (Daelkyr) 1 Metamagic Specialist
3rd Wu Jen 1 1 2 0 4 Gather Information 3 (+1/2) CC, Listen 4, Search 3 (+1/2) CC, Survival 4, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 5 (+3), Intimidate 4, Swim 2, Knowledge (Arcana) 3, Speak Language (Daelkyr) 1 Guardian Spirit, Extend Spell (B) Watchful Spirit
4th Wu Jen 2 2 2 0 5 Gather Information 3 1/2 (+1/2) CC, Listen 4, Search 3 1/2 (+1/2) CC, Survival 4, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 7 (+2), Intimidate 4, Swim 2, Knowledge (Arcana) 3, Spellcraft 1 (+1), Speak Language (Daelkyr) 1
5th Wu Jen 3 2 3 1 5 Gather Information 4 (+1/2) CC, Listen 4, Search 4 (+1/2) CC, Survival 4, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 8 (+1), Intimidate 4, Swim 2, Knowledge (Arcana) 3, Spellcraft 3 (+2), Speak Language (Daelkyr) 1 Spell Secret (Blood Wind, Extend)
6th Impure Prince 1 3 3 1 7 Gather Information 4, Listen 4, Search 4, Survival 4, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 9 (+1), Intimidate 4, Swim 2, Knowledge (Arcana) 4 (+1) CC, Spellcraft 5 (+2) CC, Speak Language (Daelkyr) 1 Hasty Spirit Expanded Spell List (Wu Jen), Lure Symbiont
7th Impure Prince 2 4 3 1 8 Gather Information 4, Listen 4, Search 4, Survival 4, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 10 (+1), Intimidate 4, Swim 2, Knowledge (Arcana) 4, Spellcraft 8 (+3) CC, Speak Language (Daelkyr) 1 Favored Enemy (Aberrations) +4
8th Impure Prince 3 5 4 2 8 Gather Information 4, Listen 4, Search 4, Survival 4, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 11 (+1), Intimidate 4, Swim 2, Knowledge (Arcana) 4, Spellcraft 8 (+3) CC, Speak Language (Daelkyr) 1, Concentration 1 (+1) Aberrant Anatomy 25%
9th Impure Prince 4 6 4 2 9 Gather Information 4, Listen 10 (+6), Search 4, Survival 4, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 12 (+1), Intimidate 4, Swim 2, Knowledge (Arcana) 4, Spellcraft 8, Speak Language (Daelkyr) 1, Concentration 2 (+1) Vengeful Spirit Aberrant Fortitude
10th Impure Prince 5 7 4 2 9 Gather Information 4, Listen 10, Search 4, Survival 4, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 13 (+1), Intimidate 4, Swim 2, Knowledge (Arcana) 4, Spellcraft 8, Speak Language (Daelkyr) 1, Concentration 9 (+7) Otherworldly Surge
11th Ultimate Magus 1 7 4 2 11 Gather Information 4, Listen 10, Search 4, Survival 4, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 14 (+1), Intimidate 4, Swim 2, Knowledge (Arcana) 4, Spellcraft 10 (+2), Speak Language (Daelkyr) 1, Concentration 12 (+3) Arcane Spell Power +1
12th Ultimate Magus 2 8 4 2 12 Gather Information 4, Listen 10, Search 4, Survival 4, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 15 (+1), Intimidate 4, Swim 2, Knowledge (Arcana) 4, Spellcraft 12 (+2), Speak Language (Daelkyr) 1, Concentration 15 (+3) Practiced Spellcaster (Wu Jen) Expanded Spell Knowledge (Protection from Evil)
13th Ultimate Magus 3 8 5 3 12 Gather Information 4, Listen 10, Search 4, Survival 4, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 16 (+1), Intimidate 4, Swim 2, Knowledge (Arcana) 4, Spellcraft 16 (+4), Speak Language (Daelkyr) 1, Concentration 16 (+1) Augmented Casting
14th Ultimate Magus 4 9 5 3 13 Gather Information 4, Listen 10, Search 4, Survival 4, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 17 (+1), Intimidate 4, Swim 2, Knowledge (Arcana) 7 (+3), Spellcraft 17 (+1), Speak Language (Daelkyr) 1, Concentration 17 (+1) Arcane Spell Power +2, Expanded Spell Knowledge (Lesser Restoration)
15th Ultimate Magus 5 9 5 3 13 Gather Information 4, Listen 10, Search 4, Survival 4, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 18 (+1), Intimidate 4, Swim 2, Knowledge (Arcana) 10 (+3), Spellcraft 18 (+1), Speak Language (Daelkyr) 1, Concentration 18 (+1) Quicken Spell, Persistent Spell (B)
16th Ultimate Magus 6 10 6 4 14 Gather Information 4, Listen 10, Search 4, Survival 4, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 19 (+1), Intimidate 4, Swim 2, Knowledge (Arcana) 14 (+4), Spellcraft 19 (+1), Speak Language (Daelkyr) 1, Concentration 19 (+1) Expanded Spell Knowledge (Displacement)
17th Ultimate Magus 7 10 6 4 14 Gather Information 4, Listen 10, Search 4, Survival 4, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 20 (+1), Intimidate 4, Swim 2, Knowledge (Arcana) 18 (+4), Spellcraft 20 (+1), Speak Language (Daelkyr) 1, Concentration 20 (+1) Acane Spell Power +3
18th Ultimate Magus 8 11 6 4 15 Gather Information 4, Listen 10, Search 4, Survival 4, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 21 (+1), Intimidate 4, Swim 2, Knowledge (Arcana) 21 (+3), Spellcraft 21 (+1), Speak Language (Daelkyr) 1, Concentration 21 (+1), Knowledge (Nature) 1 (+1) Echoing Spell Expanded Spell Knowledge (Solid Fog)
19th Ultimate Magus 9 11 7 5 15 Gather Information 4, Listen 10, Search 4, Survival 4, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 22 (+1), Intimidate 4, Swim 2, Knowledge (Arcana) 22 (+1), Spellcraft 22 (+1), Speak Language (Daelkyr) 1, Concentration 22 (+1), Knowledge (Nature) 6 (+5) Twin Spell (B)
20th Ultimate Magus 10 12 7 5 16 Gather Information 4, Listen 10, Search 4, Survival 4, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 23 (+1), Intimidate 4, Swim 2, Knowledge (Arcana) 23 (+1), Spellcraft 23 (+1), Speak Language (Daelkyr) 1, Concentration 23 (+1), Knowledge (Nature) 11 (+5) Arcane Spell Power +4, Expanded Spell Knowledge (Fire Breath)

Level 0th 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th
Wu Jen 1 3 2
Wu Jen 2 4 3
Wu Jen 3 4 3 2
Impure Prince 1 4 3 2
Impure Prince 2 4 4 3
Impure Prince 3 4 4 3 2
Impure Prince 4 4 4 4 3
Impure Prince 5 4 5 4 3 2
Ultimate Magus 1 4 5 4 3 2
Ultimate Magus 2 4 5 4 4 3
Ultimate Magus 3 4 5 4 4 3 1
Ultimate Magus 4 4 5 4 4 3 1
Ultimate Magus 5 4 5 4 4 4 2
Ultimate Magus 6 4 5 5 5 4 2 1
Ultimate Magus 7 4 5 5 5 4 2 2
Ultimate Magus 8 4 5 5 5 4 3 2
Ultimate Magus 9 4 5 5 5 5 3 2 1
Ultimate Magus 10 4 5 5 5 5 4 3 2

Level 0th 0th Known 1st 1st Known 2nd 2nd Known 3rd 3rd Known 4th 4th Known 5th 5th Known
Metamagic Specialist Sorcerer 1 5 Ghost Sound, Light, Mage Hand, Detect Magic 4 Blood Wind, Fist of Stone
Wu Jen 1 5 4
Wu Jen 2 5 4
Wu Jen 3 5 4
Impure Prince 1 5 4
Impure Prince 2 5 4
Impure Prince 3 5 4
Impure Prince 4 5 4
Impure Prince 5 5 4
Ultimate Magus 1 6 Prestidigiation 5
Ultimate Magus 2 6 6 Ghostly Tail
Ultimate Magus 3 6 Arcane Mark 7 4 Listening Lorecall
Ultimate Magus 4 6 7 Mage Armor 5 Balor Nimbus
Ultimate Magus 5 6 Resistance 7 6 3 Evard's Menacing Tentacles
Ultimate Magus 6 6 7 Combat Readiness 7 Wraithstrike 4 Girallon's Blessing
Ultimate Magus 7 6 Mending 7 7 5 3 Bite of the Werewolf
Ultimate Magus 8 6 7 7 Extend Tentacles 6 Ferocity of Sanguine Rage 4 Stoneskin
Ultimate Magus 9 6 Detect Poison 7 7 6 5 3 Bite of the Wereboar
Ultimate Magus 10 6 7 7 Scent 6 Greater Mage Armor 6 Greater Invisibility 4 Nightstalker's Transformation

Nars has a weird first few levels, beginning as a barbarian who can't rage and is really good at fighting aberrations. Bear totem is for improved grab, which only comes in useful much later. They tend to wield a one handed sword or axe and use his first symbiont, a crawling gauntlet, as a pseudo iterative. Next level is a sorcerer dip which lets Nars add some spells to their repertoire. Fist of Stone doesn't last long, but it affects the crawling gauntlet as well as Nars, boosting both of their damage. Blood Wind lets Nars use their potential 4 (Crawling gauntlet+Nars' Fist of Stone+ Nars' Claw attack+ the crawling gauntlet's natural attack) attacks at range a few times a day. 3rd level is a level in yet another class, Wu Jen this time. First level spells that are good are Accuracy, for boosting Blood Wind, and Obscuring Mist for battlefield control. Watchful Spirit is handy for winning initiative, and Guardian Spirit can help Nars control their symbiont more reliably. Level two of Wu Jen doesn’t do much, but level three brings some nice tricks. Alter Self into a Carrion Crawler lets blood wind combo with Improved Grab from Bear Totem, theoretically letting Nars grapple people over to them from a hundred feet away.

These levels bring Impure Prince and improved Wu jen casting. At sixth, Nars gets a second crawling gauntlet, making Fist of Stone weirder and more powerful. The next few levels give some nice new tricks. 7th brings more favored enemy and spells, but doesn’t introduce any new tactics. At 8th, Aberrant Anatomy helps defensively and brings third level spells. Stinking Cloud is a powerful battlefield control spell, which Nars usually uses in the day's big battle. 9th brings little from Impure Prince or spells, but does give Nars Vengeful Spirit, helping them defensively. With 4 Watchful Spirit uses a day, Nars more or less rerolls anything under a fifteen to trigger Vengeful and Hasty Spirits as much as possible. 10th brings 4th level spells for Nars. Polymorph is the highlight here. Nars’ preferred form is a Mimic, for a very specific reason. The Adhesive of the Mimic starts a grapple that is impossible to escape. With Improved Grab from Bear Totem, Nars can grapple their opponents with one hand, inescapably. With Blood Wind they can do that at range. This lets the rest of Nars’ attacks, plus the symbionts, to beat on the vulnerable opponent. In addition, a tenth level/Impure prince 5, Nars swaps out their symbionts for a pair of Tentacle Whips, giving improved reach and area coverage. Another favorite fourth level spell for Nars is Solid Fog, though its true combo value doesn’t show up until later. Through these levels, Nars and co’s attack routine is either Claw/claw/slam from Nars and two claws/slams from the claws, or Tentacle/slam plus two slams from the tentacle whips. Otherworldly Surge is a decent AoE, but it will probably only see use against aberrations.

Now Nars is into Ultimate Magus. 11th level brings rather little, though Ghostly Tail is helpful because Nars threatens out to fifteen feet with the tentacle whips, and the Ghostly attack isn’t a true AoO. 12th brings Augment Spell, which eventually opens up a lot of combos for Nars, as well as Practiced Spellcaster to boost their CL back to normal. 13th brings a new level of spells for Wu Jen and Sorcerer. For Wu Jen, the highlights are mostly out of combat utility like Teleport. For Sorcerer, Listening Lorecall opens up a nice combo. With Heart of Water to give Freedom of Movement Nars and their tentacle whips, they can operate within a solid fog, allowing them to easily win a large segment of encounters. 14th brings Balor Nimbus, to give a nasty addition to the Mimic+Bear Totem combo. 15th opens up 3rd level sorcerer spells, specifically Evard’s Menacing Tentacles. Because of Share Spells, Nars can theoretically make nine AoOs on a single provocation; three iterations of Evard’s Menacing tentacles, as well as three Ghostly Tails. Nars’ lower level Sorcerer spells are generally minor buffs cast at the beginning of the day. The all day buffs Nars runs at this level are Mage Armor, Ghostly Tail, Heart of Water and Heart of Earth, adding Listening Lorecall when dungeon delving.

With two options to render enemies unable to fight back (Solid Fog+Freedom of Movement+Blindsight and Mimic+Improved Grab+Blood Wind), Nars focuses on improving their damage output. At 16th Girallon’s Claws give four claw attacks to Nars+two to each tentacle whip. 6th level Wu Jen spells also open up persistomancy with Augment Spell. At first, Nars persists Evard’s Menacing Tentacles, and as they get more higher level slots persist the other natural weapon buffs. 17th level adds Bite of the Werewolf to the swiftly growing buff stack. 18th adds Ferocity of Sanguine Rage, significantly buffing their damage. 19th and 20th bring a few more buff spells, adding to the already impressive stack.19th also brings Giant Size, a classic Wu Jen buff which works even better for Nars, letting their symbionts do some impressive damage. By the end, Nars can afford to persist three spells at the bare minimum, if they give up giant size can persist at least five. They generally choose Wraithstrike, Claws of the Girallon, Fist of Stone, Evard’s Menacing Tentacles, and Ferocity of Sanguine Rage. 18th level also lets Nars use Augment Spell to lead off battles with a quickened Solid Fog, enabling their various restricting combos. At 20th, assuming time for minutes buffs, this gives Nars the following full attack, all of which hit on touch attacks and work at a range of up to 200 feet;
Nars proper- Slam+unblockable grapple/claw/claw/claw/claw/bite/tentacle/tentacle
For each tentacle whip-Slam/claw/claw/bite/sting/tentacle/tentacle
Once per round, when creature within fifteen feet provokes- tentacle/tentacle/tail/tentacle/tentacle/tail/tentacle/tentacle/tail


PHB-Barbarian and Sorcerer classes, spells, feats, and skills not cited elsewhere
MMI-Mimic, Carrion Crawler
Complete Arcana- Wu Jen, Accuracy, Giant Size, Guardian Spirit, Practiced Spellcaster, Persistent Spell, Twin Spell, Greater Mage Armor
Complete Mage- Ultimate Magus, Hasty Spirit, Vengeful Spirit, Elemental Heart line
Magic of Eberron- Impure Prince, Crawling Gauntlet, Daelkyr Half-Blood
Eberron Campaign Setting- Tentacle Whip
Secrets of Xen’drik- Echoing Spell
Book of Exalted Deeds- Nemesis
Complete Champion- Bear Totem Barbarian
Unearthed Arcana- Hunter variant Barbarian, Metamagic Specialist Sorcerer
Drow of the Underdark- Combat Readiness
Races of the Dragon- Ghostly Tail
Complete Adventurer- Listening Lorecall, Wraithstrike, Nightstalker’s Transformation
Spell Compendium- Balor Nimbus, Scent, Extend Tentacles, Girallon’s Blessing, Bite of the Werewolf, Bite of the Wereboar, Fist of Stone, Blood Wind
PHB II-Evard’s Menacing Tentacles
Dragon Magic- Ferocity of Sanguine Rage
Picture- Elden Ring by From Software

[pabelfly]

A. Jade

https://i.pinimg.com/1200x/34/74/44/3474447131327c0aeebcaaae5e903759.jpg

"Miss Green? We're going to need you to come with us."

The six man-strong guard patrol stood tensely in line, weapons at the ready. None of them had spoken: that had been the newly-appointed witchfinder, dressed in his plain black suit with golden sash, unarmed but for the cane that Anna knew contained a hidden blade.

The jaebrin comfortably leaned back in the very best chair the inn had to offer, showing no inclination to obey the order given. She reached for her half-empty mug of ale, tossed most of it back, and only then deigned to glance over her shoulder.

"Whatsh the matter, offisherses?" lisped the wildly grinning woman as she reclined a little further. Her clothes were a wild motley of greens and orange, decorated with rainbow-colored gemstone brooches, sewn-on pockets, and medals she almost certainly hadn't earned herself. At the sight of her smile, the closest soldiers took a step back: her teeth were decidedly nonhuman, almost needle-like. Anna just knew that images of exsanguinated corpses were already playing through their minds.

"This isn't the time to play dumb, miss. You may conduct yourself as a hedonistic fool, but the city guard can no longer avoid the obvious truth: you are the vampire that has been plaguing this town for the past months. Your killing spree is over: come quietly and we'll make the staking quick and painless."

"Oh? And what makesh you think it'sh me?"

"There's the matter of your teeth, for one. But in addition, several citizens have come forward and accused you of bewitching them, you've repeatedly gone out at night despite the ongoing danger, and you have repeatedly spoken of events in the distant past as if you were present there. Do you have anything to say in your defense before you're taken in?"

By way of response, Anna called out to the bartender for another drink. Her addressee pointedly ignored her, instead choosing to redouble his ongoing efforts to banish every last spot from an already-clean glass. The witchfinder gave a curt nod, and one guard stepped forward and firmly put his hand on Anna's shoulder.

She spun around, eyes wild, mouth spread open impossibly far, pointed teeth shining white, and bit down on the hand. The tough leather glove was no impediment, as evidenced by the guard's cry, and the other soldiers jumped to action. Anna herself was already launching herself out of her chair, shouting strange syllables as she did so, and took cover below a nearby table.

The guards fell into position, only for the one that'd been bitten to let out a cry and jump-tackle his nearest companion, sending the pair crashing into a third soldier and throwing the formation in disarray. Seconds later, Anna vaulted over the table, sped past the prone guards, and leapt straight towards the witchfinder, impossibly bright fire flaring around her teeth as she did so. The wide-eyed man fumbled with his cane; too little, too late. Already, Anna's teeth clamped down on his unprotected neck. With a savage twist of her head, she ripped out a sizeable chunk of meat, staining her mottled cloak with a spray of warm, red... nothing?

The witchfinder, an unreadable expression on his face, finally pulled the sword from his cane. The gaping wound in his neck, which did not seem to hamper him in the slightest, slowly began to knit itself back together, and the guards turned in slow, dawning realization. Anna smiled smugly and spit out the ragged chunk of flesh - it was pale, dry, and stiff, not like the bodies of the living at all. She quickly flicked her head towards the dumbfounded guards.

"Hey guyshes, sorry about that trick there, have a free bit of advice to make up for it: you shtay back and let me handle him!"

With a roar, the vampire leapt forward; Anna laughed uproariously, sidestepped the first blow, twisted past another, slipped past the undead's defense with a quick feint, and bit down through his suit. Flames burst from the wound, and the vampire slid back with narrowed eyes, bruised but hardly beaten. Anna stuck out her tongue.

It was going to be a tough battle, but who cared? Fighting was dangerous, dirty, thankless work, but she'd be damned if it wasn't fun.

Natural weapons and casting? Sounds like the perfect time to pull out MMV's Jaebrin; human-sized fey with ridiculous personalities, a +1 luck bonus to AC, complete immunity to a very nasty school of magic, several neat skill bonuses, and a natural bite attack that applies a -4 penalty to Will.

(also, beguiler as a favored class)

...of course, having a bite and being a good user of it are two different things. The Will debuff only applies if the target fails a Will save in the first place, so unless you're really worried about conserving spell slots, you don't gain much from including the bite in your routine... normally, that is.

Maneuvers and JPM to the rescue! Not only can we now easily bite multiple foes a round (and then follow up with a save-or-lose targeting whoever failed the save to resist), we eventually get an 1/encounter free quickened spell to follow up on our maneuvers. Plus, swordsage into JPM doesn't need to worry about base damage or iteratives much, making our bite a very viable primary weapon.

Pointbuy: 12 str, 16 dex, 14 con, 16 int, 8 wis, 10 cha
Racial: 10 str, 16 dex, 14 con, 16 int, 8 wis, 12 cha
ASIs: 4 and 8 into intelligence, 12 and 16 into dexterity


CG Jaebrin Beguiler 7 / Swordsage 1 / Jade Phoenix Mage 10 / Paragnostic Apostle 1




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


2nd
Beguiler 1
+0
+0
+0
+2
36: Bluff +4 (4), Concentration +4 (4), Disable Device +4 (4), Knowledge (Arc) +4 (4), Knowledge (History) +2 (2), Knowledge (Religion) +4 (4), Knowledge (The Planes) +2 (2), Search +4 (4), Tumble +4 (4), UMD +4 (4)
Education (Arcana, the Planes)
Armored Mage, Spellcasting, Trapfinding


3rd
Beguiler 2
+1
+0
+0
+3
9: Bluff +1 (5), Concentration +1 (5), Disable Device +1 (5), Knowledge (Arc) +1 (5), Knowledge (History) 2, (2) Knowledge (Religion) +1 (5), Knowledge (Planes) +1 (3), Search +1 (5), Tumble +1 (5), UMD +1 (5)
-
Cloaked Casting (+1 DC), Surprise Casting


4th
Beguiler 3
+1
+1
+1
+3
9: Bluff +1 (6), Concentration +1 (6), Disable Device +1 (6), Knowledge (Arc) +1 (6), Knowledge (History) 2, Knowledge (Religion) +1 (6), Knowledge (Planes) +1 (4), Search +1 (6), Tumble +1 (6), UMD +1 (6)
Versatile Spellcaster
Advanced Learning (Net of Shadows)


5th
Beguiler 4
+2
+1
+1
+4
9: Bluff +1 (7), Concentration +1 (7), Disable Device +1 (7), Knowledge (Arc) +1 (7), Knowledge (History) 2, Knowledge (Religion) +1 (7), Knowledge (Planes) +1 (5), Search +1 (7), Tumble +1 (7), UMD +1 (7)
-
Clever Wording (Dead Levels)


6th
Beguiler 5
+2
+1
+1
+4
9: Bluff +1 (8), Concentration +1 (8), Disable Device +1 (8), Knowledge (Arc) +1 (8), Knowledge (History) 2, Knowledge (Religion) +1 (8), Knowledge (Planes) +1 (6), Search +1 (8), Tumble +1 (8), UMD +1 (8)
Silent Spell
Silent Spell


7th
Swordsage 1
+2
+1
+3
+6
9: Bluff 8, Concentration +1 (9), Disable Device +2cc (9), Knowledge (Arcana) +1 (9), Knowledge (History) 2, Knowledge (Religion) +1 (9), Knowledge (Planes) +1 (7), Search +2cc (9), Tumble +1 (9), UMD 8
Weapon Finesse
Quick To Act +1, Discipline Focus (Diamond Mind)


8th
Jade Phoenix Mage 1
+3
+3
+3
+6
5: Bluff 8, Concentration +1 (10), Diplomacy +2 (2), Disable Device 9, Knowledge (Arcana) 9, Knowledge (History) 2, Knowledge (Religion) 9, Knowledge (Planes) +1 (8), Search 9, Tumble +1 (10), UMD 8
-
Arcane Wrath, Rite of Waking


9th
Jade Phoenix Mage 2
+4
+4
+3
+6
6: Bluff 8, Concentration +1 (11), Diplomacy +3 (5), Disable Device 9, Knowledge (Arcana) 9, Knowledge (History) 2, Knowledge (Religion) 9, Knowledge (Planes) +1 (9), Search 9, Tumble +1 (11), UMD 8
-
Mystic Phoenix Stance


10th
Jade Phoenix Mage 3
+5
+4
+4
+7
6: Bluff 8, Concentration +1 (12), Diplomacy +2 (7), Disable Device 9, Knowledge (Arcana) 9, Knowledge (History) 2, Knowledge (Religion) 9, Knowledge (Planes) 9, Search 9, Tumble +1 (12), UMD 8, Collector of Stories
Knowledge Devotion
-


11th
Jade Phoenix Mage 4
+6
+5
+4
+7
6: Bluff 8, Concentration +1 (13), Diplomacy +2 (9), Disable Device 9, Knowledge (Arcana) +1 (10), Knowledge (History) 2, Knowledge (Religion) 9, Knowledge (Planes) +1 (10), Search 9, Tumble +1 (13), UMD 8
-
Empowering Strike


12th
Jade Phoenix Mage 5
+7
+5
+4
+7
6: Bluff 8, Concentration +1 (14), Diplomacy +2 (11), Disable Device 9, Knowledge (Arcana) +1 (11), Knowledge (History) 2, Knowledge (Religion) 9, Knowledge (Planes) +1 (11), Search 9, Tumble +1 (14), UMD 8
-
-


13th
Beguiler 6
+8
+6
+5
+8
10: Bluff 8, Concentration +1 (15), Diplomacy 11, Disable Device +5 (14), Knowledge (Arcana) 11, Knowledge (History) 2, Knowledge (Religion) 9, Knowledge (Planes) 11, Search +1 (10), Tumble +1 (15), UMD +2 (10)
Ability Focus (Will Sapper)
Surprise Casting (Move Action)


14th
Jade Phoenix Mage 6
+9
+7
+6
+9
6: Bluff +2cc (9), Concentration +1 (16), Diplomacy 11, Disable Device 14, Knowledge (Arcana) +1 (12), Knowledge (History) 2, Knowledge (Religion) 9, Knowledge (Planes) +1 (12), Search 10, Tumble +1 (16), UMD 10
-
Firebird Stance, Jade Phoenix Master


15th
Jade Phoenix Mage 7
+10
+7
+6
+9
6: Bluff +2cc (10), Concentration +1 (17), Diplomacy 11, Disable Device 14, Knowledge (Arcana) +1 (13), Knowledge (History) 2, Knowledge (Religion) 9, Knowledge (Planes) +1 (13), Search 10, Tumble +1 (17), UMD 10
-
-


16th
Jade Phoenix Mage 8
+11
+8
+6
+9
6: Bluff +2cc (11), Concentration +1 (18), Diplomacy 11, Disable Device 14, Knowledge (Arcana) +1 (14), Knowledge (History) 2, Knowledge (Religion) 9, Knowledge (Planes) +1 (14), Search 10, Tumble +1 (18), UMD 10
Spell Focus (Enchantment)
Quickening Strike


17th
Jade Phoenix Mage 9
+12
+8
+7
+10
6: Bluff +2cc (12), Concentration +1 (19), Diplomacy +2 (13), Disable Device 14, Knowledge (Arcana) 14, Knowledge (History) 2, Knowledge (Religion) 9, Knowledge (Planes) 14, Search 10, Tumble +1 (19), UMD 10
-
-


18th
Jade Phoenix Mage 10
+13
+9
+7
+10
6: Bluff +2cc (13), Concentration +1 (20), Diplomacy +3 (16), Disable Device 14, Knowledge (Arcana) 14, Knowledge (History) 2, Knowledge (Religion) 9, Knowledge (Planes) 14, Search 10, Tumble 19, UMD 10
-
Emerald Immolation


19th
Paragnostic Apostle 1
+13
+9
+7
+12
8: Bluff +2cc (14), Concentration +1 (21), Diplomacy 16, Disable Device 14, Knowledge (Arcana) +3 (17), Knowledge (History) 2, Knowledge (Religion) 9, Knowledge (Planes) +3 (17), Search 10, Tumble 19, UMD 10
Unsettling Enchantment
Holy Texts, Knowledge is Power (Backhanded Attack), Lore


20th
Beguiler 7
+13
+9
+7
+12
10: Bluff 14, Concentration +1 (22), Diplomacy 16, Disable Device +8 (22), Knowledge (Arcana) 17, Knowledge (History) 2, Knowledge (Religion) 9, Knowledge (Planes) 17, Search 10, Tumble 19, UMD +1 (11)
-
Advanced Learning (Maddening Whispers)



Casting:
Spells per Day/Spells Known


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


2nd
5
4
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


3rd
6
5
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


4th
6
6
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


5th
6
7
4
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


6th
6
7
5
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


9th
6
7
6
4
-
-
-
-
-
-


10th
6
7
7
5
-
-
-
-
-
-


11th
6
7
7
6
4
-
-
-
-
-


12th
6
7
7
7
5
-
-
-
-
-


13th
6
7
7
7
6
3
-
-
-
-


15th
6
7
7
7
7
4
-
-
-
-


16th
6
7
7
7
7
5
3
-
-
-


17th
6
7
7
7
7
6
4
-
-
-


18th
6
7
7
7
7
6
5
3
-
-


19th
6
7
7
7
7
6
6
4
-
-


20th
6
7
7
7
7
6
6
5
3
-



Maneuvers known:
7: Action Before Thought, Burning Blade, Cloak of Deception, Emerald Razor, Moment of Perfect Mind, Mountain Hammer
8: Flashing Sun
10: Crusader's Strike
12: Searing Charge
15: Radiant Charge
17: Desert Tempest

Stances:
7: Flame's Blessing
12: Thicket of Blades

Maneuvers Readied:
7: 4
10: 5
14: 6
17: 7

Typical readied maneuvers (level 17+): Action Before Thought, Cloak of Deception, Desert Tempest, Emerald Razor, Moment of Perfect Mind, Searing Charge, Radiant Charge


ECL 5
You're a beguiler with Versatile Spellcasting: enjoy spells like Glitterdust and Color Spray while they're at their strongest, cast utility spells, find traps, use your racial Bluff/Diplomacy bonuses to navigate social situations. Any enchantments we cast have +1 to their save DC as well, courtesy of jaebrin; most other racial traits I already mentioned earlier.

Net of Shadows is a pretty nasty debuff that hampers the vision of multiple foes for multiple rounds, and in a pinch it can be used to enable a stealthy party member or slap some quick miss chances on your allies.

ECL 10
With a swordsage dip and our entry in Jade Phoenix Mage, we're ready to venture into melee a bit more. Our damage largely derives from maneuvers and Arcane Strike, which don't care much about the weapon used to deliver them, so in spite of our weak base damage we're keeping up very well with other JPMs! Though we're not doing anything insane quite yet, we are mitigating the beguiler's infamous inefficacy against anything with high SR or immunity to mind-affecting effects.

(and speaking of direct damage, we also just got Knowledge Devotion and can roll pretty well against most common enemies, especially with JPM's Rite of Waking bonus)

The maneuvers themselves are pretty cool too: getting to apply our maxed-because-caster Concentration to our saves is quite nice, as are invisibility, free touch attacks, lockpicking, and Burning Blade with its scaling fire damage. Flashing Sun notably lets us make two bite attacks in one round, distributing Will drops faster and more reliably than we otherwise could, and Flame's Blessing grants scaling resistance to the most common energy type.

Now, sceptical readers might ask whether we really want to be using our 1d3 bite for all that. And the answer is yes, we actually do.

Like nearly all swordsages, we're a finesse-based fighter, so our best alternative is something like a rapier. A rapier deals 1d6 and gets Weapon Focus, so +1 to hit and +1.5 more damage per hit. However, consider that we're a gish without darkvision or in-class light spells: we'll need one hand to cast spells and one to hold a light source, leaving no room for a weapon. Fighting with our teeth would make sense even if we didn't have Will Sapper: but we do, so it's unquestionably superior.

On top of all that, our bite is a natural weapon, so we can pre-cast a touch spell (like Touch of Idiocy, or at higher levels Overwhelm), hold the charge, and get the effect for free the first time we hit someone in battle. I'll gladly take a slight nerf to my damage if it lets me rob Bob Cleric of his highest-level slots!

ECL 15
If we find ourselves with a spare move action (and initiators commonly do), we now get to use our not-insignificant jaebrin-boosted Bluff to make a feint attempt, possibly getting some extra to-hit out of the bargain. Feinting was always one of the more awkward parts of the beguiler to me, and getting to actually use it in a fitting context is really exciting! Our Search gets boosted to the point where we can detect 9th-level magic traps as long as we take 20, which are the highest DCs listed in the PHB.

Thicket of Blades might be a bit of a weird stance to see on an arcane skillmonkey, but we're really just getting it because anything that gives more bite attacks is good, and we have the illusions to make ourselves too risky a target to attack. Besides, it's not like we have all too many stances to pick from, and fire resistance (soon to be immunity) won't always be useful.

Empower is a bit of an awkward metamagic to get for free on a beguiler, but we make decent use of it. Touch of Idiocy appreciates having its impact boosted, Net of Shadows gets a bit more reliable with its duration lengthened, the Whelm line becomes somewhat less bad. Note that if you finish an encounter without much need for post-combat healing, you can save the ability for the last round of combat, cast an Empowered Touch of Idiocy, and hold the charge all the way until your first bite attack during the next encounter.

ECL 20
We delay the final beguiler level to get our second Advanced Learning as we get 8th-level spells, granting us access to Maddening Whispers (SComp), a very powerful multi-target save-or-lose with some flexibility in how our foes lose on top of that. It works great as a follow-up to a flurry of bites, in addition to benefitting from our new Spell Focus and Unsettling Enchantment (which adds a notable debuff to all our enchantment spells whether they succeed or not). The Enchantment half of the beguiler list was always the one we were more incentivized to deploy, and especially at higher levels we're comfortable specializing in it.

We can now deal a ton of damage with Radiant Charge against evil targets (like the fiends that are prevalent at high level, plus nearly all undead), or soften up an entire battlefield's Will saves by using Desert Tempest to bite as many foes as we can move past (possibly dropping an Overwhelm or Touch of Idiocy on the first of those). Immediate after, we use the free 1/encounter Quicken granted by Jade Phoenix Mage to drop a swift action Dominate Person, Feeblemind, or Friend to Foe.

The JPM capstone is as awesome as it ever is, and helps compensate for our relative frailty: if we ever get really close to death, just explode, take some foes with you, and reappear a few rounds later. Paragnostic Apostle, one level later, grants Lore and a +1 to every save DC against a secondary effect of our attack... like every single Will Sapper bite, which is now up to DC 24 before items. Assuming modest ability-boosting equipment, even high-level high-will foes struggle to reliably make that, and once they fail, we're off to the races.

We also max out Disable Device, letting us take 20 with a masterwork tool and avoid mishaps on any PHB trap (aside from 9th-level magic traps, and any intelligence or skill boost takes care of those too).


"And so, Anna slew that vampire, and went on to fight many other mighty foes before her eventual death in battle... but that's a story for another time. Now, as I recall, some of you have schoolwork to do: isn't Magister Pedro's Phytology exam tomorrow? And though my memory might worsen with age, I also recall a certain old killjoy assigning you kids a ten-page essay on the fall of the Lomenian Empire..."

The pupils slunk away, grumbling at their sorry fates, leaving the wizened old storyteller alone with his wall-spanning bookshelves and ornately carved desk. He drew a pen from the folds of his garish purple robe ready to jot down some comments in the margins of a tome, when a small voice came from the door; a lingering young student, tone betraying insecurity and embarassment.

"Magister? I have a question."

The old man smiled kindly and made a little 'go on, then' gesture.

"That story... was that real? Like... I know there was a vampire plague in Brenport in the 840s, but that was nine hundred years ago and half a continent away, and there were a lot of little details in your telling. Did someone write this down, or did we use magic to figure out what happened exactly?"

The magister scratched his beard while composing his answer, then at last spoke in a soft, restrained voice:

"Ah, no. Historians simply love to make up little stories like this; it helps bring those bygone ages to life, makes it a bit more memorable than some dry tables of dates in your textbook. Magic doesn't easily look back that far, and we certainly don't have many surviving books or letters from that period."

The child nodded and left, satisfied with the explanation, and closed the door.

And inside, Magister Andrei returned to his book, smiling with pointed teeth.


Jaebrin - MMV
Beguiler - PHBII (dead level) (https://web.archive.org/web/20070302074855/http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/cwc/20070227x)
Swordsage and Jade Phoenix Mage - ToB
Paragnostic Apostle - CChamp

Education - ECS
Versatile Spellcaster - RotD
Unsettling Enchantment - CMage

[pabelfly]

Okay, these are our eight entries to the comp. Thanks to everyone for entering, I'm interested in finally reading over the entries and see what everyone came up with for this.

Of course, we're looking for a judge to critique these entries and work out who won our competition. Judging is a great way to learn how to improve your future competition entries, and learn new build ideas and synergies. Everyone appreciates those who volunteer their time to judge and makes these competitions possible. Don't worry if you don't feel like you have enough experience, as long as you have some familiarity with the system, the willingness to spend time researching and learning entries will get you the rest of the way. You'll learn quite a lot quite quickly if you decide to do judging work.

Now, I'll open the thread up to speculation and discussion about the contest, potential build ideas, and your favourite entries in the comp.

[Inevitability]

Some very interesting builds! I especially like to see so many people bit the bullet and went with a monster race - 3 builds with RHD is a lot in a caster-focused round!

Most of my unsubmitted ideas were rather basic, though there's a couple I'd like to share:

-Dire Hunger is a spell that gives a creature a bite attack and then forces it to mindlessly try to eat nearby living creatures. It seemed like a very creative way to approach the round's theme, but I couldn't really make it justify itself over regular save-or-die spells unless I went into persist cheese. Plus, it's a druid-only spell, which brought all sorts of new headaches with it.

-I noticed that Claws of Darkness, unlike most natural weapon-granting spells, doesn't limit the number of natural weapons it gives you; the spell simply says your 'hands' turn into shadowy claws. I played with the idea of going anthropomorphic giant octopus and getting 6 reach touch attacks, but eventually decided that anthro-octo was a bit too common as far as sources of natural attacks went.

-Lastly, I looked at a number of Renegade Mastermaker ideas, with the logic that it's one of the few natural weapons that gives innate iteratives and counts as a manufactured weapon when convenient, but I couldn't really make it work. I put a bit of work into a Divine Crusader / Renegade Mastermaker idea that worshipped the Becoming God (favored weapon slam) and took the Artifice Domain (various creation spells, plus insanely high craft check synergy). It'd have made for a flavorful character, but it didn't appeal enough to me to warrant submitting.

[loky1109]

Table.

Name Alignment / Race Class Levels Chef Total Place
The Lonely Fir (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25885193&postcount=33) NE Needlefolk Trap Expert Spiritual Connection Fangshield Ranger 2/Hit-And-Run Tactics Fighter 1/Pious Templar 3/Impure Prince 5/Thayan Gladiator 5
Spiker (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25885194&postcount=34) TN Stone Spike Binder 1/Ardent 2/Fighter 2/Psychic Weapon Master 9
The Big Little Lady (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25885196&postcount=35) CG Halfling Marshall 2/Savage Fey Bard 18
Coloured Whitch-Twins (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25885197&postcount=36) TN Dvati Divine Companion Dead Levels Dragonblood Planar Sorcerer 5/Dragonheart Mage 10/Argent Savant 4
Bros in the Sharn (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25885199&postcount=37) CN Sharn Bard 1/Mystic Theurge 5/Fochlucan Lyrist 5
Jas’Quinn Liadon (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25885200&postcount=38) LG Deepwyrm Half-Drow Arcane Hunter Ranger 1/Dragonblood Battle Sorcerer 4/Monk 1/Enlightened Fist 4/Abjurant Champion 5/Cyran Avenger 5
Nars Three-Spirits (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25885201&postcount=39) NG Daelkyr Half Blood Bear Totem Hunter Barbarian 1/Wu-Jen 3/Metamagic Specialist Sorcerer 1/Impure Prince 5/Ultimate Magus 10
A. Jade (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25885202&postcount=40) CG Jaebrin Dead Levels Beguiler 7/Swordsage 1/Jade Phoenix Mage 10/Paragnostic Apostle 1

[quetzalcoatl5]

I am really impressed with these entries! Fun concepts!

(And none have made me convulse with shivers like Wet. Horse. Teeth. which I think has saved me from Pavlovian conditioning to make me fear the reveal )

[loky1109]

All entries look interesting. Some are unexpected.

About my ideas I didn't use.

My very first idea was Spirit Shaman, but it looks pretty unoriginal (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25713034&postcount=48).
Also I had in mind: Warlock with Hellspawned Grace, Grim Psion or Dread Champion, Spell Weaver and Fensir, but all these was only ideas.

Do we have a judge?

UPD:

-Dire Hunger is a spell that gives a creature a bite attack and then forces it to mindlessly try to eat nearby living creatures. It seemed like a very creative way to approach the round's theme, but I couldn't really make it justify itself over regular save-or-die spells unless I went into persist cheese. Plus, it's a druid-only spell, which brought all sorts of new headaches with it.

Two words: Spirit Shaman.

[loky1109]

Housekeeping:

I threw up a poll a couple of days ago on future contest ideas, but you're still welcome to vote: https://take.quiz-maker.com/poll4919844x5aab4E87-152.

So far, it looks like we'll do "Abjuration + Exotic Weapon Proficiency - Abjurant Champion" and "Arcane Casting + Heavy Armor – Still Spell" in future comps, but I might add others options to that list if they get enough votes.

That should be about it from me, except to clarify any points about the contest. Good luck with your entries.
Actually I want some NON-spellcasting SI next round. Three of last four rounds were about spellcasting (9th level spells, spellcasting+rage, spellcasting+Nat Weapons).

[Inevitability]

I have to agree with that.

How about some good old-fashioned combinations of short PrCs? I tried to avoid anything that'd incentivize full casters first and foremost, though there's a few that would still have some casting going on.

Meanest dog on these streets
Avenging Executioner + Streetfighter - Imperious Command

Heirs of Tarkanan
Sharn Skymage + Child of Khyber (https://web.archive.org/web/20070419053544/http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ebds/20070416a) - Dragonborn

Respect nature OR ELSE
Dread Commando + Eldeen Ranger - Ranger

Postmortem Windfall
Lurking Terror + Fortune's Friend - Necropolitan (or -Templates, if we want to be really mean)

The Blade of Evil's Bane
Shadowstriker + Sword of Righteousness - Paladin

Zigging and Zagging
Chaotician + Thief-Acrobat - Rogue

Pinocchio
Reforged + Knight of the Pearl - Cleric

Wait, there's other goblinoids?
Stonedeath Assassin + Wild Plains Outrider - Goblin

Of course, these are only suggestions - there's lots of ways to recombine these classes, so if you think individual parts of this would make for a good ingredient, feel free to speak up!

[loky1109]

Sounds interesting. But I have some questions.


Sharn Skymage + Child of Khyber - Dragonborn
Why Dragonborn? It looks to specific restriction. Like not a restriction at all.


Lurking Terror + Fortune's Friend - Necropolitan (or -Templates, if we want to be really mean)
"Without templates" it looks to much. And generally it looks slightly similar to XXXIII round.

I can't say much about other suggestions. Most these prestige classes are pretty obscure for me.

And I suggest from myself.
Weapon Specialization + Bond with weapon - Fighter (once again :smallsmile:)
Exotic Weapon Master + Weapon Master - Any other PrC with Weapon Focus prerequisite.

[Inevitability]

"Without templates" it looks to much. And generally it looks slightly similar to XXXIII round.

The way I see it, junkyard has two kinds of round:

-How can I combine these ingredients in an interesting way?
-How can I combine these ingredients at all?

I think it's been a really long time since we've had anything from the second category. Arguably 38 (NPC Class + Prestige Class - Base Classes), but even there I can come up with some builds without looking anything up. Something like undead - templates is fun because there's no boring entries - everything is guaranteed to be weird and unexpected.

For the record, I do think your weapon specialization - fighter rounds are a good example of something I'd like to see!


Why Dragonborn? It looks to specific restriction. Like not a restriction at all.

The easiest way to get innate permanent flight on a dragonmark-eligible race. Though looking at it again, Sharn Skymage is pushing magic-based flight enough that dragonborn is probably not the most likely approach anyway.

...y'know, maybe restricting the Fly spell specifically would be fun, just to see what other flight spells people would end up drawing on.


But yeah, while I'd be down to do a short PrC + short PrC round, I think I should actually focus on coming up with some good 'wait, how do you even fulfill this' rounds. Will send some partial ideas in a second.

[Inevitability]

As promised, some partial ideas for a junkyard round where meeting the requirements at all is a big part of the challenge:

Spellbook + ??? - Wizard

Serenity + ??? - Paladin

Energy Drain + ??? - Soul Eater

Mindspy + ??? - Spellcasting

Huge size + ??? - Expansion

Multiweapon Fighting + ??? - Thri-Kreen

[pabelfly]

Bumping this thread. We're still after a prospective judge and I think there's some interesting entries here. Anyone is welcome to judge, as long as you have some basic understanding of the system, research will get you the rest of the way there.

[loky1109]

And I suggest from myself.
Weapon Specialization + Bond with weapon - Fighter (once again :smallsmile:)
Exotic Weapon Master + Weapon Master - Any other PrC with Weapon Focus prerequisite.

One more idea:
Abyss-Bound Soul+ Thrall of (PrC) (maybe including prestige classes from Magazines) - Humanoid (I'm not sure about this).

[Inevitability]

One more idea:
Abyss-Bound Soul+ Thrall of (PrC) (maybe including prestige classes from Magazines) - Humanoid (I'm not sure about this).

I like Abyss-Bound Soul and Thrall of X as ingredients, but I'd advise against putting them together unless we make it explicit in the rules that you can, for instance, pledge your soul to Demogorgon while being a thrall of Orcus.

If we do that, then perhaps a good forbidden ingredient could be Barbarian? It's a common enough melee dip in its own right, it leads decently well into most thrall classes, and it'd nip the brainless combo of Abyss-Bound Soul of Baphomet + Pounce right in the bud.

[loky1109]

Yeah, Barbarian sounds better.

About "pledge your soul to Demogorgon while being a thrall of Orcus"... Well, if you can it could give more combinations, maybe it's good.

[Inevitability]

A totally legitimate future contest I came up with, and definitely not an excuse to bump this thread and ask for judges:

Any Type-Changing Template + Any Type-Changing Class - Human Heritage (or -Undead, or -Necropolitan, which iirc is the only +0 LA type-changing template without getting into Unseelie Fey cheese)

[H_H_F_F]

A totally legitimate future contest I came up with, and definitely not an excuse to bump this thread and ask for judges:

Any Type-Changing Template + Any Type-Changing Class - Human Heritage (or -Undead, or -Necropolitan, which iirc is the only +0 LA type-changing template without getting into Unseelie Fey cheese)

In similar spirit, I think that RHD+LA positive template - Incarnate construct might be a fun way to get some creativity flowing.

[Inevitability]

In similar spirit, I think that RHD+LA positive template - Incarnate construct might be a fun way to get some creativity flowing.

I think my love of +LA templates and monster races is pretty well-established after The Word, Jeremy, and Gronk, so I'd be similarly in favor of this one. My only concern is that it's a bit too directionless for my tastes, especially if it'd be following on the heels of a round as broad as this one.

[H_H_F_F]

I think my love of +LA templates and monster races is pretty well-established after The Word, Jeremy, and Gronk, so I'd be similarly in favor of this one. My only concern is that it's a bit too directionless for my tastes, especially if it'd be following on the heels of a round as broad as this one.

Fair.


In other news, I shall be judging this round. Might take a wee bit, or might be really fast, depending on the situation here in my country - but it's happening either way.

[quetzalcoatl5]

In other news, I shall be judging this round. Might take a wee bit, or might be really fast, depending on the situation here in my country - but it's happening either way.

Thank you!

[Beni-Kujaku]

In similar spirit, I think that RHD+LA positive template - Incarnate construct might be a fun way to get some creativity flowing.

As a person with a whole competition dedicated to that, I agree it is much too directionless. Something like "starting ECL above 5 +divine casting -initiator classes" may be much better in my opinion.

[H_H_F_F]

Making progress already. Hopefully I can keep this up.

[H_H_F_F]

Something I wrote for Iron Chef, but will be largely relevant here as well:

I don't really do the whole "X points for this, Y for that" thing. I don't like constricting myself this way if half of your ECL is spent on playing an inevitable or something, and it makes sense and is brilliant and unexpected, I don't want to sit here and say "the maximal half-point for a creative race" and give you the same score as the "didn't see Skarn coming" entry. The point isn't that high rhd/la is necessarily helpful in originality (not the case). The point is that you could make or break a build with a single feature in any of these categories, if you go hard enough. So, no "guidelines" per se, but here's some of the things you'll see rewarded (and punished) anyway:

Fluff: I'll usually ignore it here. You might get a small boost if you blew me away, and you'll always get a penalty if it's none-existent. I know this isn't a creative writing competition, but give me something.

mechanics: Obviously, common cheese will get you hurt here (craven, persistomancy, etc), as will "this is the kind of build I expected for this SI." However, if you want a full 5 here, you'll need more than "didn't see this class coming, didn't see this race coming." You need to show me something new. So, a creative trick or two can do a lot for you here, regardless of your chassis.

BUT WHAT DOES IT DO: to clarify further: just going "bet you didn't see a maenad CW samurai coming!" is going to do very little for you here if there's no reason for it except to get good originality. You'll be a lot luckier here with a human-fighter doing something very weird than with whatever class-race combo you thought up that doesn’t have a raison d'etre.

martial supremacy: I'm a little bit of an ******* when it comes to clerics and wizards. Even if you think a caster is unexpected for an SI, expect to be fighting an uphill battle here if you're going tier 1. It's not impossible to get a 5 here with a full caster, but if you're just going CODzilla with some SI on top, you're not going to do well.
Some judges basically treat this as "legality", and will give you a five for any old build with no "mistakes." However, any old "Warblade 5/ SI 10/ Warblade +5" with no internal cohesion or synergy isn't elegant to me. If you want a 5 here, you'll need to avoid the negatives – but also have the positives.

Rules issues: Illegal stuff hurts, obviously. Disqualifications hurt you. Ambiguity hurts you. Alignment shenanigans, "I only need to qualify while entering the class", etc also hurt you. Same for qualifying for something with a non-permanent part of your build.

Presentation issues: You need to tell me which book every non-srd, non-SI element of the build comes from – page numbers are welcome, but the important part is the book. In addition, if you use web material, you need to link the [internet-archived] article.
I want to see running totals of all your skills, as well as a clear indication of which skills you've increased at every level.
I want tactical sections that showcase the unique aspects of your build. If you're a prepared caster, a meldshaper, or otherwise a highly-augmentable character, tell me what your typical setup is.

Item reliance: This isn't a WBLmancy competition. Specific item reliance is bad, but much less so if you can assure access to it. It's worse the more specific and rare the item is – "I have to have a keen weapon" is less of an issue than "I have to have a feycraft collision suglin".

miscellaneous issues: I penalize multiclass penalties, and I penalize them more the more severe and long-term they are. Don't shy away from them if you need them, but be watchful – if you can achieve the same result without falling prey to them, it's better.
Same logic goes for cross-setting material.

Cohesion and synergy: Ideally, you want everything in your build to work together, and you want it all to be absolutely necessary for whatever the build does to work. A build being a convoluted mess is bad only if it's unnecessary. A straightforward entry that has 4 feats and five levels which could be replaced by others without impacting the way it plays will do a lot worse here than a convoluted mess that would break apart if you take any of its levels away.

Efficiency: Dead weight is bad, throwing away build resources is bad. Qualifying for three different PRCs with the same unique racial bonus feat is good. Simple as. Show me that you put thought into squeezing everything you can from every level, every feat.

Live by the RAW, Die by the RAW: As mentioned, illegal stuff will hurt you here, as will reliance on ambiguity. However, exactly how much it'll hurt heavily depends on how your build approaches the rules. If your build is RAI and common sense, I'll be more lenient on you if you rely on a sensible DM to handle slightly dysfunctional RAW. However, if at any point in your build your defense is "it's stupid, but it's RAW", then you better make sure that you don't have any ambiguity, legal issues, or appeal to common sense in your build, because I'll come down on you hard. Basically, you can either say "any sensible DM would rule X" or "RAW is RAW" – but never both in one build.
Least interesting category. I tend to be pretty combat-focused here, so if you build an entry that's not great at it, make sure to highlight how it can excel in other parts of the game, and don't come in expecting a 5. I consider defense as well as offense, but I'm not rigid. If your build is omniscient and can kill with a thought, I don't care that your saves are trash or that you're a bad skill monkey. Lean into your strength.
My main note here is to make sure you support what you do. If you're a tiger-claw swordsage, don't let your jump score stagnate because UMD is a better skill. FOCUS.
What do you do with the features? Like always, the scores don't have an upper bound here. If you broke the game with a single feature from the class, you can get a lot of credit even if the rest is underutilized. The more the merrier, obviously, but fully expect to do worse here with a build that's "just fine" with all the features than with a build that does nothing with half of them but absolutely relies on one for everything it does.

How do you deal with the downsides? Tough prereqs? It's good if you made them work for you. Low bab? It's good if you circumvented the issue. You get it.

How many levels did you take? Don't really care.

Well, that's an over-simplification. Like I said, you'll always have an easier time here the more you use the features and deal with the downsides. If you bail out on downsides and give up on features, there's going to be an impact here – but if you can push the level 9 feature to the stratosphere with one more level, NEVER give up on that because you "need" to go SI 10. It's a balancing act, I trust you to figure it out.

[H_H_F_F]

I've hit some motivation issues, but I have 6 builds fully judged and I'm chipping away at the seventh.

[H_H_F_F]

Just one build to go, which I should find time for in the coming 24 hours - so expect judgement by then.

[loky1109]

Just one build to go, which I should find time for in the coming 24 hours - so expect judgement by then.

Great! Thank you!

[Beni-Kujaku]

Just one build to go, which I should find time for in the coming 24 hours - so expect judgement by then.

Thank you very much, and good luck for everything!

[H_H_F_F]

Apologies for the delay folks, stuff just keeps piling on. I just need to find 40 minutes.

[H_H_F_F]

Apologies for the delay there, folks! Honestly, judging this round was more fun than I thought it'd be, and I appreciate all your contribution. As always, I try to be fair even when I'm harsh, and please remember that any criticism I provide is meant to be constructive, and help you build better in the future! I know how much effort and thought goes towards every entry, and I appreciate that.

Anyway, here are your judgements! (part 1 - don't post 'till I post part 2!)


Originality:

That meter with that slant rhyming scheme for just the 2 first lines is so uncomfortable. Maybe I'm just chanting it wrong in my head, but it's like an axe going through each of the stanzas just by the end. If it was meant to make me feel uneasy, it certainly did.

Anyway.

Can't say a rapidstrike build is revolutionary, but this isn't really what it is. It's a build with a ranged natural attack, which you use to capitalize on corrupt spells, which happens to be a plant with claws so you get to take rapidstrike. Even though a few of the basic ingredients (fangshields ranger, Thayan Gladiator) aren't too surprising, they're still not exactly expected in a context in which you'd expect deeper investment in spellcasting. What's left – impure prince, needlefolk, blackguard list, heavy corrupt spell focus, your ranged touch spell tactic – is all great, and done with reason and care.

Overall, very original approach.

Score: 4.75 points.


Power:

So, as I think you know, this is clearly under the expected power curve for this round. I recognize that you managed to pull a lot of juice from a half-caster spells and non-pounce-no-(at-will)-rider natural weaponry, but when push comes to shove, you're really not up to snuff.

I'm also concerned about ability damage. Lesser restoration, and later mitigate suffering, offer some help, but not nearly enough – especially with only one instance of lesser restoration prepared, and once you cast that mitigate suffering is gone. I feel like you may have wanted to show off the fact that you get more than expected utility out of ZoNP, but that "more than expected utility" is still pretty damn low utility, especially considering how much you need lesser restoration. I think your breakdown should have simply noted that you get use out of the spell, for days when you'll be defending an area from enemies immune to corrupt spells. Having it as a default prepared spell exasperates the main issue with your build. You've got two spells per day causing you 1d6 damage to a vital ability each, and your answer is 4 points of temporary replacement from level 16 onward as a standard action, and one spell healing 1d4 of one ability ability score. I acknowledge that with your tactic of shoot-and-run, mitigate suffering can be effectively used, much moreso than for most combatants. It's still insufficient once you consider a couple of days in a row of combat, or any less favorable encounters.

That being said, your build is capable of preparing lesser restoration twice, significantly reducing harm, and I'm not going to really dig into your score here just because I find your default prepared spells insufficient. One can assume that if actual play sees your ability damage ramping up, you'd address it. It's still an issue your build suffers from, in my opinion, but its admittedly not as bad as mitigate suffering would be on builds that tend to get ability-damaged in more action economy intense situations.

Other than that… You make for a decent (though no more than that) melee in your later career, you provide some utility, and you have a decent DC on your spells in your early career despite not really investing in your casting stat. They're still low level spells, accessed late in your career, so still not great. Your early levels are rough, with dead feats galore, rhd, and LA.

Overall, I think you know this category is far from being your focus on this build, and it's scored appropriately.

Score: 1.75 points.


Elegance:

I really don't buy your arguments for the needles being a natural weapon. "Plausible deniability because 3.0" and "from its body means FROM ITS ENTIRE BODY, requiring a special action taken by ITS ENTIRE BODY" aren’t strong argument when compared to language like "each round" in the ability description.

I won't call it strictly illegal; I wouldn't call manticore spikes strictly illegal either. That's mainly because it's too much of a hassle for me to figure out where I stand in the argument, and I'm trying not to spend the next 3 hours bookdiving and reading the forum backlog, on the first point made by the first entry I'm judging this round. Either way, it's very shaky language at best. Take a hefty penalty, and we'll be done with it.

Speaking of natural weapons, I think you're relying on slightly ambiguous language when it comes to the tentacle whip. First, it's unclear whether you can use a natural weapon with the hand its attached to or not. Second, and much more significantly, you're making some assumptions when it comes to "attacking with it as a weapon." That is, it's unclear to me that you wouldn't need to grab it with your hands if you're using it as a weapon. It's a one handed weapon. What happens if you power attack with it? Can you hold it with both hands? You also talk about weapon attacks in addition to claws before you first mention tentacle whip. How would that work? I feel like the commonsense interpretation just holds better. You've presented a case for rapidstrike, increasing your score.

This all comes to another hefty penalty – though that is somewhat counteracted by the very elegant use you make of impure prince in general. Expanding your spell list to allow you to better deal with the corrupt component (through a feat, too, which you couldn't have accessed otherwise), conserving your full BaB, and granting you a way to attack with a weapon and your claws simultaneously (or so you claim). Aberrant anatomy is superfluous, which is a shame.

Qualifying for pious templar and thayan gladiator with the same feat is non-trivial and worthy of praise.

I should note that cross-setting material is something I penalize here. Speaking of annoyances, you also forgot to source your spells, which are pulled from all over the place – nor did you refer me to the MMII update, which is necessary to understand where you pulled playable needlefolk from.

I'm also giving you a slap on the wrist for not clarifying that you include bonuses from wisdom-before-items in the spells per day table, since the assumed default is to not include it. I'm not giving you a slap on the wrist for drow fighter or Fangshields ranger, since I believe the inclusive language in the text itself overrules the exclusive language implied by the name.

Overall, I think this build is very smooth and synergistic, despite a couple of features not getting any support and a table that might be a tad jumpier than it had to be. Unfortunately, it relies on two instances of shaky interpretation to get its main tactics across, and has a few miscellaneous issues.

Score: 2.3 2.55 points.


UoC:

Good stuff. You're not satisfied with "I have spells that buff/create natural weapons" or druid-light "the class that grants me spells also grants me natural weaponry". You have spells that improve your use of natural weapons and natural weapons that facilitate better-than-expected use of spells.

Overall, top notch.

Score: 5 points.


Total Score: 13.8 14.05 points. I feel like you've given yourself a lot of leeway when it came to rules, and you didn't really create a very powerful character – but you achieved what you set out to do, which was an excellent integration of both the components into a larger whole. That's what I like to see!


Originality:

On the one hand, this is the most basic approach to "big dude with rapidstrike can buff himself and get some movement/utility", and psychic warrior / ardent were the most obvious choices IMO from the moment it was declared psionics were allowed.

On the other hand… this is psychic weapon master. Yes, it's some elemental I've never looked at before, but it's also psychic weapon master. Which definitely isn't meant for natural weapons (more on that later), making it very unexpected this round, but what makes it even more unexpected this round is that it's PSYCHIC WEAPON MASTER.

Other than the racial choice and PWM, I don't see anything too compelling about this entry or its tactics. However, it's hard to deny that 15/20 ECL and a whole bunch of feats are directly tied to that premise, so it's not like there was too much else you could've done.

Overall, well done.

Score: 4.5 points.


Power:

You start out on ECL 6 with 4 rhd, but having a +16 to strength, +12 con, and a heap of NA certainly helps make up for that. Your feats are trash, obviously, and you only get rapidstrike deep into late levels, but you can still make for a decent melee opponent throughout your career. I'd say you shine most at early levels and at 20, with everything in between suffering from slow advancement.

I'm not in love with the binder choice here. All of this… for Aym? Very situational, and the text doesn't really make the case for it. I feel like you could've done much better with this level.

Just as a note regarding manifesting, you have more PP than you claim you do. Text trumps table, and the text clearly states that its done by ML, not class level. No penalty, of course.

Overall, you make for a decent brute with a rough patch in your middle career, and you can taxi by the end.

Score: 3.25 points.


Elegance:

So, the crystal thing. It's very ballsy, but I'm not sure it holds up to scrutiny. Let's review.

As you've noted, the class was clearly made with the crystals from XPH in mind, and gets real weird real fast if you do it with a natural weapon. However, given that the rules for bonded weapons are independently presented as a riff on psicrystal rules, and do not directly refer to intelligent item rules, I'm not inclined to say you've done something illegal by having conscious arms. We'd have to explore whether the class's description of "crystal weapon" is really as imprecise as you say it is, and if so, does it apply to your slam attack.

Well, the words "crystal weapon" don't appear as-is in the XPH, which is good for you. Deep crystal does convey that it is like a "mundane crystal weapon", but context makes it very clear that this is a "mundane-crystal weapon", and not "mundane crystal-weapon".

However, the bonded weapon ability itself does mention it has to be "a standard crystal melee weapon". I'd say the word "standard" carries a lot of weight here. Sure, you could claim it just means "without any enhancement", but I find that reading and its assumption of repetition not fully convincing.

More severe than that, I think "Crystal tipped" really does a number on your credibility here. If you had a claw attack, it'd be more convincing. A claws attack is done with the claws, and you'd have crystal claws. A slam attack, however, is done with the appendage, and you don't have crystal arms.

Now, I can't fully say that your interpretation is out. I'm not overruling it. I am saying the language here is far less beneficial to you than you present it as being, and that you're taking a penalty for relying on a shaky interpretation.

In addition, the idea that you can enchant both slams as one weapon isn't obvious, and could be easily contested, toppling your build. This is untrue, as addressed in the dispute.

I should relay that other than your core trick, I don't see too much synergy here in this build. You get prereqs, and you execute. Not too much to praise here (either than the usual meticulous sourcing, down to the page level, which I always appreciate.)

Dex and dodge: I guess that works, yeah. My brain doesn't want it to, but you certainly were a medium sized creature with 14 dex when you took these feats. Clever.

Shield: it's explicitly a variant rule, so it's a penalty. A small one, since it’s not something-for-nothing, but it's still a penalty. Which is a shame, because I'm really unclear on what you'd use an extreme shield for. It's strapped to your arm and held by your hand. You need both your arms for your routine – and oh, did I mention you have no hands?

Overall, I don't see this build as particularly elegant, and it very much suffers from relying on ambiguous language.

Score: 1.5 2 points.


UoC:

I have to admit, I'm pretty disappointed in this category. You've made a significant effort (which I'm sure took a lot of time) to find a monster that'd let you get bonded weapon on a natural weapon. But like… why? What's the big upside when compared to using a manufactured weapon? From where I'm sitting, it seems like the main answer to that is "because that's what the components are".

PWM grants you improvements to critical hits, combat reflexes, and whirlwind attack. So, you want a crit-heavy weapon and reach. A slam is neither. I guess it is (arguably) a way to get more attacks with the "same" weapon.

I say all of that to preface that I can't just say "maybe there's not that much synergy between your powers and natural weapons, but the class that gives said casting synergizes in ways XYZ". Sure, you buff your natural weapons, but these buffs could have been applied to manufactured weapons just as well.

Overall, you make heavy investment into both components, and you manage to force natural weapons down PWM's throat – but you never achieve real synergy, which is a shame.

Score: 2 points.


Total Score: 11.25 11.75 points. This was a cool find! But you spent too much time asking if you can, and then went ahead anyway without a clear answer, never asking if you should.


Originality:

Not personally a fan of all the AI generated stuff. No penalty, just wanted to throw that out there.

Marshal/Cha caster isn't revolutionary. I can't say bard was anywhere near the top of my list, though. Halfling's cute, and I guess it's surprising in a natural weapons round, even if that isn't really relevant to you. Greenbound summoning is somewhat of an eyeroll.

Overall, I didn't get the chance to be surprised by anything, and your tacitcs seem like they're pretty bog-standard, but the heavy bard focus deserves some credit here.

Score: 2.25 points.


Power:

Hmmm. What do I do with your spells? Ignoring them would be double penalizing, but I can't assume optimization for free. I guess I'll assume what I'd consider a baseline level of competence for a low op table, and be done with it.

Also, what the heck is up with your stats? Why do you need 10 str? 10 wis? Why do you suddenly go for con in the middle of the build? Inefficient. This build could've finished with 23 Cha easily, and it finishes with 19 for no real reason.

There is also the question of being a halfling. I've got no qualms with halflings, and I like seeing none-strongheart ones. But why aren't you glimmerskin? You take draconic aura, you could've quadroupled its efficiency. It would have gone from +1 to +4 by level 20.

I don’t at all get what's going on with your feat and skill progression. You take greenbound summoning, but only at 18 – for a feat with such high usefulness at early levels, that's strange. You pounce on the chance to take UMD, but then you slow down, forget about it, pick it up again, slow down again, forget about it again. Generally, you're less of a skill monkey and more of a hodgepodge. You're riding a hippogriff from mid-levels, right? Why the sudden urge to take balance?

Overall, I'm having a hard time judging this category, due to lack of information as we'll discuss next category. However, I have to give some credit to a lot of helpers, some well-known feats, and nearly full bard casting.

Score: 2.5 points.


Elegance:

First, please, do not link websites like realmshelps. This (https://web.archive.org/web/20161101073942/http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a) is the link you should've used. Please make sure you link only original sources next time around.

Second, a slap on the wrist for some mild cross-setting material, and a penalty for multiclass penalties.

Third, no penalty, but I found your presentation somewhat disorienting. It didn't feel like there was any reasoning behind the choice to place the songs where you did, it was a weird move to put the whole table before the stats, with a song in between… I don’t know. Felt very jarring.

Fourth, this build is a ****show.

You don't give me a spells per day table, nor (and far more importantly) do you give me your spells known. You've got 18 levels of spellcasting, in a spellcasting competition, and the word spell doesn't even show up in your entire entry. What the hell. This is insane. You see that this is insane, right? I swear, I've tripled checked that I opened every spoiler tag, and I'm still doubting myself.

You don't stat out your animal companion, or your wild cohort.

As for your stats: I questioned your choices in power. Here, I'll note that no halfling I know of has +0 to dex and strength. Seems like you just forgot to adjust them – which is weird, since you obviously knew you should be adjusting them, given that they're the only stats noted with a 0 next to them in the race/template section.

Why do you only give yourself your 1st level bard abilities at level 2?

You don't qualify for obtain familiar (no knowledge arcana). You don't source Improved Familiar, but since you're using a hippogriff I believe that means you take the CW version, which means you don't qualify for a hippogriff because your BaB is too low. You don't tell me which perform skill you have, and I'm mentioning the perform skill because guess what, you don't have enough ranks to qualify for music of growth. You do have enough ranks for melodic casting, but you didn't take spellcraft, so you don't qualify for that either. I can assume from context clues that you take some iteration of summon nature's ally, which you have access for as a savage bard, which would qualify you for greenbound summoning. Other than that "would qualify", the only feats you qualify for are the two that don't have any prerequisites, and draconic aura. And taking the draconic aura feat for an Dragon Shaman aura is a somewhat shaky reading of RAW, in my opinion.

I find your snapshots severely lacking. You don't mention any specific buffs, or summons, or what you even do at levels 1-2. Shoot a bow, one would presume. Or a sling, given that you're a halfling.

Overall, this build qualifies for nothing, and has a huge amount of other issues. It'd be a 1 in a heartbeat. However, it is also strictly incomplete. It's an edge case, because if you had a single level of bard for something, I'd probably not give you a 0 because you didn't tell me which cantrips you know. However, I'd also not give a 0 to a build for forgetting to choose skills at level 20, while I would give a 0 to a build that didn't bother with allocating skills at all. Given that you're a main caster for 18/20 ECL, I'd say it's more like the latter than the former.

Score: 0 points.


UoC:

You have spells, even if you don't select them and never mention them. You don't have natural weapons, though your pets do (not what the contest is about). You're not a druid.

That's enough for this to not be a 0, though you did come close. I've only ever given 0s in elegance, because as I once pointed out: we only give 0s in elegance because straight up illegal or incomplete builds happen, but something would have to be straight up plagiarism to get a 0 in originality from me, something would have to be literally solely detrimental to itself and the party to get a 0 in power, and something would have to literally not take the components to get a 0 in UoC.

This came close.

Score: 1 point.


Total Score: 5.75 points. This entry kind of baffles me. At points, it almost felt like AI played a larger part than the obvious. I don't mean to offend, it's just… weird.

Still, I'll try to assume good faith. This could very well be a relatively new chef that ran out of free time. If so, I hope my criticism has been helpful, and I hope you take it to heart. I know I'm a harsh judge, but I try my best to also be fair and constructive. In the future, ensure that all the basic elements of the build (such as known spells) are present, and go through all your classes, ACFs, and feats to ensure that you qualify for them. Having an idea you like simply isn't enough; you have to do the legwork. Better luck next time!


Just had to say this: I love the way that sometimes I'll be reading through an entry, English very clearly being a second language for you, and out of the blue you'll hit me with a word like "preambular". Always makes me smile.
Originality:

"Colored" has an icky history when applied to people. How 'bout "painted", "colorful" or "iridescent"?

Dvati don't get the same treatment here from me as humans do, but as you know by now, they do get an eyeroll. Less expected on a full caster, though. There's no doubt in my mind that you needed this, but it's a small penalty nonetheless.

Speaking of what you needed to be Dvati for: you naughty, naughty boy. You tricked me with your emphasis on magic tattoos, so that I wouldn't figure out what you were doing when it came to explosive runes. Bravo. We'll further discuss the trick in the coming categories. Magic of the dragonheart abuse is also really interesting, and will also be addressed.

It's interesting as a part of a whole though: going all in on draconic feats through a PRC and your feat choices. That's pretty surprising, and it's not done as a mere novelty; you have legitimate motivations behind your choices. Argent savant isn’t something you see every day either.

These two tricks sit on a chassis – sorcerer casting – that I can't say is mindblowing to me. Full casters have a hard time in this category from me, especially in a time like this.

Overall, unsurprising core ingredients advanced by unusual PRCs and cooked in a very interesting way. I like it.

Score: 3.5 points.


Power:

I've just had a discussion with someone else on the forums on how much I lean towards "raw power" in this category, rather than "power compared to the expected power of your chassis." So it should be no surprise to you that you're doing well here.

Honestly though, this build can pull off a few impressive tricks from level 9 forward, that significantly increase your damage output when compared to a normal sorcerer.

I'm obviously concerned, however, with survivability. It's always the issue with Dvati, and that's true here too. You have 3 HP per twin at level 1. I like having healing through the divine companion to help with that, but come on. A house cat can take you down in one round.

Overall though, despite some difficulties, you obviously make for a competent caster with a few unique tricks up your sleeve.

Score: 4.25 points.


Elegance:

Dvati is, as you well recognize, inherently inelegant and a headache to deal with. Note that I don't consider this double penalization: it's a very common cheesy race (hence the originality penalty) and it causes a ton of messy rules issues in the build (hence the elegance penalty).

I swear, I dislike Dvati more and more every time I have to judge a pair. Ugh. You had a good reason, but ugh.

Slap on the wrist for not specifying that you speak Draconic. Dvati have bonus languages: any, so with 14 int you're fine, but you should've still explicitly had it in the build.

I really don't want to push back on this, because I'm really impressed with the arcane preparation trick, but I think it's a little more limited than you think. The spell goes "while this spell is active… for example… in addition… for example… finally". So, unless you want to claim the "finally" part works regardless of the spell being active, you'd have to recognize that the spell has to be active for you to benefit from "in addition". However, the specific language of in addition doesn't reference "this spell" or "the spell", but tells you to "treat magic of the dragonheart as if its spell level equaled 1/2 your caster level."

So, while magic of the dragonheart is in effect (because you've cast it) you treat magic of the dragonheart (the one you prepared) as being this level or that. So your trick does work (and is brilliant, in my opinion), but it's limited to you actually casting the spell as well. Also, I think there's a much better argument against you when it comes to Draconic Arcane Grace. No language like on dragonheart mage to help you avoid the "spell slot" limitation.

Okay, let's talk runes.

This trick is obviously a brilliant attempt at something really cool. Pumping your resistance that high would make you functionally immune: the chance of rolling 31 and above on a 6d6 roll is ~1%. It kind of runs into the issue of "is it a free action to read", and "are there infinite such actions in a turn" and "can you read in an explosion", but these aren't really solid objections, in my opinion. There's also the fact that True Dragons outside the monster's manual explicitly require DM permission, which means you're getting a malus here for your choice of heritage regardless. However, you have two big issues here, one of which unfortunately nullifies your trick.

The first is "do you keep the runes when you stop being an object". What happens to a magnet that was stuck to you when you were a piece of metal? It gets dropped, right? There's an argument to be made that the same thing is true for PAM. I'm not going to delve into that argument, however, since I believe your other issue conclusively ruins the trick.


You gain resistance to the energy type associated with your draconic heritage equal to three times the number of draconic feats you have, including draconic feats you take after gaining this feat.

This feat grants no benefit to a character whose draconic heritage is not associated with an energy type, such as a sorcerer with pan lung heritage.

Is force an energy type? I'd say no, but that’s a trick question. The unfortunate truth is that Draconic Heritage clarifies things for us.


Many of the draconic bloodlines listed on the table don't grant a bonus on saves against effects of a particular energy type. Instead, you gain a bonus on saves against spells and abilities associated with the effect (such as force for the Tarterian dragon) or subschool (such as compulsion for the chaos dragon) that matches the entry on the table, as well as the normal bonus provided by the feat against magic sleep and paralysis effects.

I'd say this is unfortunately very conclusive. Draconic heritage grants you a bonus against [force] effects, but it explicitly calls out that this isn't an energy type – which in turn, means draconic resistance grants you no benefit, which means the whole trick is gone.

Oof.

So on the one hand, a very focused build achieving some very cool synergies. On the downside, the big one doesn't work.

No issues I can see outside of those, and the build has some real upsides in this category, and as always is meticulously sourced and well communicated. My main criticism, in the end, was directed at a failed strategy moreso than something actually breaking the build. So despite the thrashing, your score here is still pretty good.

Score: 3.65 points.


UoC:

Very weak category. Sure, you (barely) have natural weapons, but those are very unessential to your build, and are radically overshadowed by your spellcasting. They're vestigial. Sure, you blew the "spellcasting" out of the water, but you're nearly a full T2 caster. Blowing spellcasting out of the water is easy, synergizing it with natural weapons was the point of this round.

I undersold your investment in enhancing natural weapons with your spells, and your ability to use them. I think the action conflict between blood wind and draconic claw is still problematic, for someone who'd stil ideally like to avoid melee plenty of turns. Still, I better than I gave you credit for.

Score: 1.25 1.75 points.


Total Score: 12.65 13.05 points. There was a lot of brilliance on display here. Just as I finished writing the UoC part, I remembered that you said that this was adapted from another round, which explains a lot of my complaints. It's a brilliant build – shame it doesn't work, and shame that you didn't find a more "appropriate" context to show it off in.

Part 2 coming in a bit!

[H_H_F_F]

Originality:

Maybe this would've caught me more off-guard a couple of years ago, but as things stand, Sharn is a big eyeroll from me. Taking an infamously OP creature (and perhaps one of the only monsters WoTC ever gave too low of an LA to) with natural weapons and innate spellcasting and saying "yeah, that" isn't the sort of thing I really tend to reward in this category.

I also don't think you built on the basic chassis in a very interesting way. "I went for lyrist rather than just theurge" isn't interesting enough to distract from the fact that you went the default route of theurging (though more thoughts on the specifics of that approach are coming later).

Some of your spells aren't default, but many are. The main thing here showing real creativity, in my opinion, is spell flower and the way you've built on it – but overall, I think this build isn't doing too much on this category. Could've been much worse without some of your spell selection.

Score: 2 points.


Power:

I mean, yeah. I'm not going to sit here and waste my time and yours. You're very powerful, you've mostly made good spell choices, and you take some game-breaking TO by the end.

Score: 5 points.


Elegance:

So, when I judge, things like TO when and cheesing Fochlucan Lyrist's prereqs make your build contend with a heuristic I like to call "Live by the RAW, die by the RAW". This means that I take RAW very seriously here, even in places where you wouldn't necessarily want me to.

PRCs that advance casting do so by referring to "casting classes you had before entering". There are exceptions: Naga Overlord (Serpent Kingdoms), for example, says "The character gains new spells… as if he had also gained a level in whatever arcane spellcasting class he had (or could cast spells as).

As you've probably noted, Mystic Theurge and Folhucan Lyrist have no such stipulation.

"But H!" I imagine you saying, incensed. "Sharn lets me advance it as a theurge! Specific trumps general!"

Well, first of all, this wouldn't help you with Lyrist. Second of all: does it?

"Sharns often take levels in mystic theurge, since they already meet the entrance requirements".

Where in this sentence do you learn that Sharns can advance with mystic theurge? It says they often take it, and already qualify. That could easily mean anything, including "they take one level of each of their favored classes, and then mystic theurge (which'd normally take 6 more levels) because they already qualify", or "they often take mystic theurge to advance whatever classes they take, because they already qualify". Is there an implication that the writer didn't realize that it doesn't advance them? Sure. Is that an ironclad RAI case? Far from it. Is it RAW? Absolutely not.

Now, you'll note that I didn't kill your power score. Obviously, this is largely fixable, and pretty easily so. Tanking your power score would feel like breaking the one-mistake-one-penalty in this case; it's not like without the interpretation all your power would go away, and you give me a clear idea of how you'd build the character right. it'd be an extreme case of cascading an error, since you could obviously just take the base classes and be slightly behind or avoid Lyrist altogether, missing some skill points and solely relying on your Divine Power.

Still, this means I have to rebuild your character from the ground up for it to function – and with a build that adorns itself as nearing pun-pun, I take this very seriously.

Overall, this build is illegal.

I got so caught up by the (perceived) illegality last time, that I didn’t manage to really address the build, so this is more like a re-evaluation of your elegance than a simple dispute response.

In general, the build is decently synergistic, with a couple of spell choices (especially Spell Flower) that take it to the next level. Cheesing druidic is always a rules argument, but qualifying with innate evasion is great.

You fail to qualify for Arcane Strike when you take it – fixable, but a shame, and always a penalty from me. I'm paranoid now that I'm missing something else, so hit me up with a second dispute if I am.

Power attack feels like a somewhat wasted feat here, which I dislike. Sure, wraithstrike + PA is a powerful combo, but with your to-hit not being that awesome even with Divine Power, you'd find yourself underutilizing it against plenty of enemies.

Overall, other than these issues, this is a pretty elegant entry.


Score: 0 3.25 points.


UoC:

I hate to say this, but with arcane flower you've made a legitimately compelling case for your natural weapons being an integral part of your approach to casting. I say "I hate to say this" because I don't like this type of casting optimization, but I have to be honest with myself here: you've not just picked a strong caster with natural weapons, you made a legitimately impactful use of those natural weapons. You want to have as many hands as possible, you have 9, and you add two for good measure. You have a reason to want to hit with them, you buff them to do so, and given that you're actually doing that you're adding very decent damage capabilities.

Overall, it doesn't get much better than that.

Score: 4.75 points.


Total Score: 12 15.25 points. I can see and appreciate that this build was a lot of effort, and really gave thought to the advancement and spell selection to make for a powerful build that fit the theme of the round. Don't let the catastrophically unfortunate rules error/disagreement or my personal dislike for this type of optimization deter you for a moment; this was a great idea, and aside from said error/disagreement, very well executed.


Come on, tell me that wasn't intentional.
Originality:

Eberron! Easy way to get me to approach your entry with a good mood is having it feel entrenched in its setting, and it's much better if wer'e talking about The Good SettingTM. I'm not a fan of your choice to have enlightened fist as some Tashalotra-inspired stuff. I feel like eberron did a very good job making psionics and spellcasting feel distinct, and I don't like the idea that skills from one would be so transferable to the other. In my opinion, the obvious approach would be the order of the Mystic Fist from PGtE, which is explicitly a sorcerer/monk order. PGtE doesn't give them a lot of grounding in the setting, but in this dragonmark article (https://keith-baker.com/monks/), Keith Baker suggested placing them in the Lhazaar Principalities, as heritors to a pre-sundering Sarlonan tradition.

I like Eberron.

As for other aspects of the build: rapidstrike, as I mentioned, was very high on my list of things to expect. We'll talk about it more in elegance. Abjurant Champions are very obvious in the context of the competition. Enlightened fists – less so, and an interesting direction to go with.

I also thought Deepwyrm Half-Drow was an interesting racial choice, but it doesn't feel like it has any mechanical use beyond being a dragonblooded race. I don’t see what's the (again, mechanical) upside here compared to, say, silverbrow human. If I'm missing something, feel free to table a dispute.

Cyran avenger is cute, and even if I'm not too impressed with how well its utilized, it can't be said not to have a role within the build.

Overall, this is a pretty basic arcane-gish, but it made a couple of surprising choices I'm pleased with.

Score: 3 points.


Power:

This build gets some nasty spells. Between both Shivering Touch spells, haste, and polymorph, you run a lot of the "to sorcerer spells" early on. (Greater) Arcane Fusion gives you the action economy to really stack on some buffs and attacks, and Limited Wish is limited wish.

I do feel that the neglect towards your main casting attribute impacts you a lot – though obviously, you have enough no-save options to remain a threat even without high Charisma.

I'm not as impressed by the none-spellcasting parts of your build. I think you can easily suffer from the flurry of misses phenomenon, and have a hard time doing significant damage.

Overall though, this makes for a potent (if narrow) spellcaster that can hold their ground in melee.

Score: 3.75 points.


Elegance:

You've got a couple of presentation issues: one is an issue with your table: you messed around with your levels, and class features show up in the wrong place. This issue is exacerbated by the fact that your table onluy mentions the class (not the level) and you don't have a stub. That means I have to do some legwork to figure out what's going on with your build at any point, even if I know the classes. Might I suggest that next time, you fill the class column in your table with Sorcerer 1, Sorcerer 2, etc? And it'd be really helpful if you added "Ranger 1 / Battle Sorcerer 4/ Monk 1/ Enlightened Fist 4/ Abjurant Champion 5/ Cyran Avenger 5" to "Lawful Good Half-Elf (Deepwyrm Half-Drow)". A build stub like that means I can make a mental note of how your build looks like at 20, and it helps me reorient myself if I get lost in the weeds of your table.

In a similar vein, I'd also like levels attached to your spells known. If you're not going through each new spell in your snapshots, it leaves me needing to reverse-engineer your necessary sorcerer level to qualify for minor shapeshift, and then go to your messy table to figure out if you qualify in time (you do).

Finally, if I was to look at your table, I'd say you never take Draconic Claws. It seems like a copy-paste error more than anything else – you mention having them by 5, and you don't take a feat at 3 – but it's still very messy.


Oh, but let's remember that you can use a natural weapon or unarmed strike to make the touch attack for a spell.

Can you?

I really don't want to get into the weeds of this argument if I don't have to. I personally believe that "holding the charge" happens after you've cast the spell, and that the touch attack granted by the spell is part of the spellcasting process itself, and cannot be subsumed by an action that's allowed while "holding a charge" without further evidence. I also think the permissive interpretation makes Complete Arcane's rules for IUS unnecessary, which is another argument against it.

That being said, those Complete Arcane rules (given under the "weaponlike spells" section) make most of your spell choices a valid target for this strategy. They apply to any touch-range spell that deals damage; Shocking Grasp and vampiric touch deal damage, the Shivering Touches deal ability damage (which is still considered damage), and Mummify deals damage (if they fail the save, but I'd say that's enough to be considered damage-dealing). Touch of fatigue, touch of idiocy, and dispelling touch deal no damage, and touch of years deals ability drain (which isn't damage).

Snap kick is infamously badly written, but I'd say it still works on top of a swift action claw attack, which means even with the spells that don't let you transfer them with an unarmed strike can be followed by a claw attack + snap kick.

Arcane fist obviously lets you do the rest of your spells, which is why you didn't see any significant impact on power, and only a mild penalty here. The length of this discussion was more about setting things straight than tearing into you.

What's far more impactful for your score, though, is not qualifying for the rapidstrike feats. Did you think dragonblood gave you the dragon type, perhaps? It doesn't. You straight up don't qualify, and there's nothing even approaching an easy fix for this.

You didn't source your spells, which I dislike. You're pulling them from all over the place (Frostburn, Phb II, Complete Mage, Sandstorm) and they need to be properly sourced.

Holler at me with a dispute if I'm missing some rules here, but I don't get how you get Dragontouched instead of Draconic Heritage from your sorcerer substitution levels, and I don't know what'd be the advantage of that anyway, given that it disqualifies you from draconic claws. I think you just mistyped a feat, and forgot to elaborate on your heritage. Given that deep dragon isn't one of the options, I don't even have a "default" option.

Other than all my criticism, I'm having a hard time seeing how everything in this build harmonizes. You labor to get into Cyran avenger, but mechanically speaking, why? Cyran Avenger comes in far too late, in my opinion, for avenging strike to be all that meaningful. It's Cha/day, and 5d6 is a lot more impressive in level 10 than 17. Besides, you can't even nova with it really well, since you have to announce before rolling the attack, and you're extremely likely to miss later attacks in your flurry. I also feel that you feel to squeeze a lot except swift boosted shield and full BaB from Abjurant Champion. This class is an automatic ding in originality because it's such a powerhouse, but your CL is 1 away from your BaB anyway, you barely have any abjuration spells, your action economy is doing fine as-is, and you want your swift actions for something else.

Overall, I think this build is very messy, suffers from rules issues, and has little to speak of when it comes to synergy aside from the spell choice on an enlightened fist.

Score: 1.15 points.


UoC:

You make use of spells that encourage you to get up close and personal, and have a couple of buffs that can help with that and the action economy to implement them. Unfortunately, a lot of your build is focused on an alternative to your natural weapons (no, I'm not willing to consider unarmed strikes a natural weapon for the purposes of this category) and the attention they do get is illegal. You could take out draconic claws from this build, and it'd function virtually the same outside of levels 3-8 or so.

You still get valiant attempt credit, and it's far from the worst we've seen here. Arcane fist and Draconic Claws mean you have every incentive to attack with your claws while spellcasting, because you might as well, and you have a couple of buffs that directly enhance the impact of these attacks.

Overall though, I'm not convinced that this build really needed its claws, or that it plays all that differently because of them.

Score: 2.75 points.


Total Score: 10.65 points. This build obviously had some issues, but I'd definitely say it shows deeper care towards the round components and the rules at large than the other build that received similar criticisms from me – and definitely helped abate my worries that the other one was some sort of trolling attempt or an AI generated build. It's clear you didn't have the time to check every detail in your submissions, but I hope my commentary has proved helpful. I'm sorry if at any point I offended or insulted you, I know that getting a harsh judgement can suck. Thanks for your submission, and better luck next time!


Originality:

More Eberron? Come on guys, you're spoiling me. PgTE seems to suggest that Wu-Jen magic is younger than druidic magic, not older, but Nars can believe what he believes. I feel like your fluff doesn't make sense though: it seems to say that Nars had no access to symbionts before becoming an impure prince, but mechanically speaking, separation from his gauntlet would kill him in two weeks.

I like the heavy focus on the aberration hunter theme, expressed both mechanically and through your background.

Daelkyr Half-Bloods I only saw coming in the context of easy access to rapidstrike, like Elans. You're not doing that at all, and I didn't see coming the way you approach this – the whole tactic is certainly creative, even if (as we'll explore later) problematic. Impure Prince's great, Barbarian and full casting classes less so. Such heavy investment in Wu Jen spirit feats, however, is surprising in principle – but I don't see you having any unique use for them. Same goes for Echoing Spell.

Buff persistomancy always gets a thrashing from me here, and in this round it is especially expected. Alter-self and polymorph tactics aren't too new either.

Your saving grace here is mostly the main tactic: buff sharing with symbionts is an interesting direction to take the build. Unfortunately, even that isn't as innovative as I'd like for this category to really make an impact, since "abusing share spells" is already such a staple of a lot of buffing.

Overall, this build has a lot of classics, has a core premise (creating and buffing NW with spells) that's extremely expected in this context, and not enough weirdness to counteract the issues.

Score: 2 points.


Power:

Just let me make sure that I get your fifth level recommended strategy straight: You spend the first turn in combat casting fist of stone, and then you make attacks from a distance, with two of them allowing you to pull the enemy towards your 10 AC self if they hit? You do that with 32 HP?

Maybe not, since you explicitly only mention improved grab in the context of turning into a carrion crawler… Which would addmitedly let you target medium creatures, but in no way shape or form is able to cast spells with verbal and somatic componnents. So like, I'm not sure what you're about at these levels, but it seems like a lot of ****ing around and finding out. The only alter self form you propose is one that nullifies your entire deal, and your entire deal doesn't do well with 10 AC.

I'll discuss the utility of your shared combat buffs in elegance.

Mimics do have hands, though, and they speak common – so polymorph didn't go to waste (obviously). So you can use the pull trick on them.

I really like Solid Fog + FOM +Listening Lorecall, but it's not as effective as you make it up to be – you're relying on a lot of independent attacks and Aoos by your symbionts, who don't get blindsight, since they don't have 10 ranks in listen.

Before persistomancy comes into effect, and in large part even after, you're extremely reliant on buffing pre-combat.

Something I haven't mentioned thus far but was the first thing I noticed about the build: your to-hit SUCKS. Your bab is low, your Str stagnates. You're not good at grappling and you're not good at hitting people. Your tentacle whips, which you rely on to make attacks on their own, have 1 Bab. Give them all the natural attacks you want: they'll still miss every single one. Giant size is great, and it's good for your grappling, but it only exacerbates the problem for your tentacles.

Overall, I can assume you eventually have some decent Wu-Jen spells prepared, but you have a rough start, you don't have the numbers to back up your approach to combat, and you require a lot of buffing to work.

Score: 2.25 points.


Elegance:

Having a 40% multiclass penalty from level 5 is something I penalize here.

You forgot to list Symbiont Mastery in your feats, which is just a slap on the wrist. No penalty, but you source to Car a spell that was reprinted in SC.

I'm sorely missing a typical prepared spells list for Wu-Jen. It's fine to just name spells in your tactical section, but you name 2 first level spells (one of which is pretty useless when you mention it – you can only treat your natural weapons as thrown weapons for the round Blood Wind is cast), 1 second level spell, 1 third level spell (and much later, heart of water), 2 fourth level spells (and later, heart of earth), no fifth level spells I don't think, no sisxth level spells I don't think, and one seventh level spell.

I'd have liked to see either a typical spells prepared list, or something like "this level opens up third level spells, including staple options such as X, Y, Z (with those being spells your character uses at least as well as the average wu-jen – not spells that utilize high range or count on maxxed Int). Of particular note is (spells that your build really relies on)." That'd been fine; being completely oblivious to most of your wu-jen spellcasting isn't.

I was confused at first about your statement that there are 4 attacks happening with bloodwind. The gauntlet takes its own action in addition to granting you a claw attack – cheesy, but sure – and a clever way to get over the tiny creature having no reach. It grants you a claw attack, and fist of stone grants you a slam attack with your other hand. It took me a minute to figure out what you were doing, a tactic which defines your build – fist of stone supposedly giving the symbionts a slam attack.

Well, no. Fist of stone, like every spell in SC, has a little fluff blurb and then starts mechanically describing the spell – and the description clearly states "you transform one of your hands into a mighty fist of living stone, granting you…"

A dude without hands can't benefit from fist of stone, and your symbionts are dudes without hands. They gain nothing.

Same argument for Evard's Menacing Tentacles and shoulders. Ghostly tail is fine, with no body-part-specific language. Girallon's Blessing is allowed – the fluff text says Torso, so I'm giving you a slap on the wrist, but it's just the fluff text so no more than that and I'm not overruling it. Bite of the werewolf / wearbear is fine, except granting you a bite and granting a mouth isn't the same, and tentacle whips don't have mouths – or if they do, those ae 100% attached to your arm. The SRD explains that a bite attack is "a creature attacks with its mouth". It's not as clear as say, fist of stone, but it's still an issue, and a penalty.

I really like the idea where it works (which is mostly just Ghostly Tail, but still) and I find it very synergistic. However, that’s not very true for many other parts of the build.

Counter synergy between an extra crawling gauntlet taking the space for your slam attack. I'm not a fan of bite of the wereboar coming two levels after bite of the werewolf – feels like one of these is a huge waste of a spell known. Being so very MAD without a real solution is tough. None of those are a huge deal, but they do stack up.

Overall, Though there are a couple of bright spots, this build has a lot of mess within it.

Score: 1.65 points.


UoC:

It took me a minute to figure out, and therefore appreciate, what you were going for here. Granting symbionts extra attacks through share spells, and basically getting bonus utility for spells you're already casting on yourself – that's a good idea. Some of it doesn't work by the rules (but still gets valiant attempt credit here) and some of it does work, even if it's not as strong as I'd have liked it to be.

From level 10 to persistomancy, you go through a period of simply not having a natural attack if you didn't get to buff, and your natural weapons being dispellable is a miss for me.

But overall, it's an interesting combination of the components.

Score: 3 points.


Total Score: 8.9 points. I liked this build way more than the score might represent. It's bold and interesting. I do find myself wondering if you could've found more spells without restricting language, and if a version of this build that could overcome the symbiont's basic attack issue could be done. Something based on divine power would be the obvious go-to, but I wonder if there's a more fun way around the issue.


Originality:

I like Jaebrin too! I worked on one for the Unseelie Dark Hunter round of Iron Chef, but it sort of fell apart. It's certainly a creative choice – not one I would've seen coming, and it naturally births a creative tactic for this round – using natural weapons to enhance spellcasting, rather than vice versa.

JPM, on the contrary, shows up very often and is very expected in the context of a gish round – especially one that wouldn't naturally be a full attacker. Beguiler is not where my mind would immediately go to, however, even if it is a full caster.

Your tactics, once the chassis has been established, don't do anything too innovative. Net of shadows would've gotten you a nod here if it was better supported, but as-is I don't feel it's significant enough to count.

Overall, this build is based around a decently creative idea, but follows through quite predictably.

Score: 2.25 points.


Power:

No adaptive style is bad here, in my opinion. Maneuvers are supposed to be your way out of your bite sucking, but they can't be refreshed. On top of the fact that JPM grants you just one maneuver of the sort of force multipliers that you'd want, I feel like your character would struggle more in combat than a version that could afford a warblade dip or something like that.

JPM is a great augmentation to beguiler regardless of anything, as it offers you ways to be helpful against enemies that are immune to mind affecting. I still would like to see you doing better martially, though – your to-hit isn't awful with your knowledge devotion, but it is still of some concern.

Overall though, you manage to maintain a stable amount of power throughout your career, and do so while appropriately supporting the basic gist of the beguiler core.

Score: 3.75 points.


Elegance:

I really like paragnostic apostle here. It loses you a point of BaB, which is a shame, but you wanted to stagnate beguiler – and doing so with a prc you already qualify for that also offers you an ability that's tailored to your main tactic was a great move. That's the sort of efficient thinking I always want to see more of!

Slap on the wrist for not sourcing net of shadows. Also, just a couple of notes with no associated penalty: you mention Arcane Strike (a feat you don't have) when you presumably mean arcane wrath (a class feature), and you only show collector of stories when you take it; I'd really like to see something like that remaining in your skills listing, since you're showing me running totals, and that's especially the case when you don't mention it in-text.

Overall, I felt that this was a simple but efficient and clever entry.

Score: 3.9 points.


UoC:

Will sapper is the highlight of this category. Using natural weapons to enhance your spells is very clever. I wish it'd give something more uniquely helpful than a save malus you can save against, but it's still good.

Putting beguiler on top of a build that's all about reducing will saves is of course a great way to synergize with it.

Overall, this is a simple and clever amalgamation of the components.

Score: 4 points.


Total Score: 13.9 points. Nice work. I would've liked it more if it was less focused on maxed casting, and more so on expanding Will Sapper utility for said casting as much as possible – but I recognize that this is no easy task, and that you managed to do it well enough even while devoting yourself to nearly full casting. Not my favorite entry this round, but a well-deserved high score!


My Honorable Mention goes to Nars Three-Souls.


As for future rounds: I think it's possibly been brought up before, but what do y'all think about Karsite+spellcasting_classes-draconic_heritage? I get that it's extremely limiting, very hard, and I don't have any idea what I'd do with that, but I thought it could prove a worthy challenge!

[pabelfly]

Thanks again for judging, H_H_F_F.

First dispute:


Thank you H_H_F_F for judging, I very much appreciate it.

I have a few remarks regarding Bros in the Sharn, one being more subjective and one being more objective.
First, the subjective one, about Originality. I can get that persistomancy is a pretty well-known tactics, but I'm confused why you seem to penalize the Sharn here. I can't remember this race being chosen even once either in Iron Chef or Junkyard Wars (there may have been one or two sharn builds over the years but it really doesn't strike me as common), and Spell Flower seems to me like a pretty unique spell to persist (at least I've never seen Persisted Spell Flower spoken of literally anywhere), making good use of both the class and race, which makes me feel a bit weird about only getting a 2 in Originality.

And then, the more objective dispute :
Your main gripe in elegance seems to be that I cannot advance the bros' innate spellcasting through a prestige class. However, the FAQ of this very competition includes the following answer : "A2: 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)."
Since the rules of the competition obviously supersede strict RAW, I don't see how this build is illegal in any way. Also, thanks, I didn't know the word "incensed" before your comment.

[H_H_F_F]

My bad when it comes to the ruling! Managed to miss it. Obviously, it changes everything. I'm AFK, but I'll edit this comment to address the originality dispute and adjust the score soon as I'm back on my laptop.

[loky1109]

Table!

# Name Alignment / Race Class Levels Chef H_H_F_F Total Place
1 The Lonely Fir (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25885193&postcount=33) NE Needlefolk Trap Expert Spiritual Connection Fangshield Ranger 2/Hit-And-Run Tactics Fighter 1/Pious Templar 3/Impure Prince 5/Thayan Gladiator 5 13.80 13.80 2nd
2 Spiker (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25885194&postcount=34) TN Stone Spike Binder 1/Ardent 2/Fighter 2/Psychic Weapon Master 9 11.25 11.25 5th
3 The Big Little Lady (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25885196&postcount=35) CG Halfling Marshall 2/Savage Fey Bard 18 5.75 5.75 8th
4 Coloured Whitch-Twins (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25885197&postcount=36) TN Dvati Divine Companion Dead Levels Dragonblood Planar Sorcerer 5/Dragonheart Mage 10/Argent Savant 4 12.65 12.65 3rd
5 Bros in the Sharn (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25885199&postcount=37) CN Sharn Bard 1/Mystic Theurge 5/Fochlucan Lyrist 5 12.00 12.00 4th
6 Jas’Quinn Liadon (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25885200&postcount=38) LG Deepwyrm Half-Drow Arcane Hunter Ranger 1/Dragonblood Battle Sorcerer 4/Monk 1/Enlightened Fist 4/Abjurant Champion 5/Cyran Avenger 5 10.65 10.65 6th
7 Nars Three-Spirits (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25885201&postcount=39) NG Daelkyr Half Blood Bear Totem Hunter Barbarian 1/Wu-Jen 3/Metamagic Specialist Sorcerer 1/Impure Prince 5/Ultimate Magus 10 8.90 8.90 7th
8 A. Jade (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25885202&postcount=40) CG Jaebrin Dead Levels Beguiler 7/Swordsage 1/Jade Phoenix Mage 10/Paragnostic Apostle 1 13.90 13.90 1st

Looks like it will change drastically after disputes. But for now it is what it is.

Thank you, H_H_F_F!

Updated table is here!
# Name Alignment / Race Class Levels Chef H_H_F_F Total Place
1 The Lonely Fir (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25885193&postcount=33) NE Needlefolk Trap Expert Spiritual Connection Fangshield Ranger 2/Hit-And-Run Tactics Fighter 1/Pious Templar 3/Impure Prince 5/Thayan Gladiator 5 14.05 14.05 2nd
2 Spiker (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25885194&postcount=34) TN Stone Spike Binder 1/Ardent 2/Fighter 2/Psychic Weapon Master 9 11.75 11.75 5th
3 The Big Little Lady (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25885196&postcount=35) CG Halfling Marshall 2/Savage Fey Bard 18 5.75 5.75 8th
4 Coloured Whitch-Twins (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25885197&postcount=36) TN Dvati Divine Companion Dead Levels Dragonblood Planar Sorcerer 5/Dragonheart Mage 10/Argent Savant 4 13.05 13.05 4th
5 Bros in the Sharn (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25885199&postcount=37) CN Sharn Bard 1/Mystic Theurge 5/Fochlucan Lyrist 5 15.25 15.25 1st
6 Jas’Quinn Liadon (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25885200&postcount=38) LG Deepwyrm Half-Drow Arcane Hunter Ranger 1/Dragonblood Battle Sorcerer 4/Monk 1/Enlightened Fist 4/Abjurant Champion 5/Cyran Avenger 5 10.65 10.65 6th
7 Nars Three-Spirits (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25885201&postcount=39) NG Daelkyr Half Blood Bear Totem Hunter Barbarian 1/Wu-Jen 3/Metamagic Specialist Sorcerer 1/Impure Prince 5/Ultimate Magus 10 8.90 8.90 7th
8 A. Jade (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25885202&postcount=40) CG Jaebrin Dead Levels Beguiler 7/Swordsage 1/Jade Phoenix Mage 10/Paragnostic Apostle 1 13.90 13.90 3rd

[pabelfly]

To go to administrative stuff, I'd like someone else to take over the position as Chair after this contest is over. I've not really got the time to be dedicating to the role of Chair at the moment, I just want to finish up judging Villainous Competition and take a bit of a break from chairing and judging comps for a while.

[pabelfly]

A dispute from Spiker:


Straight to the point.


I'm not in love with the binder choice here. All of this… for Aym? Very situational, and the text doesn't really make the case for it. I feel like you could've done much better with this level.
I don't think Dwarven Step is too situational for pouncer. I really want have enchanted full plate at the 20th level. After all, it doesn't interfere with my psionics.
And I don’t share the majority opinion that Sunder is worst attack option. In my eyes Sunder is great. Yeah, it looks like you destroy your money, but "Don't divvy up the fur of an unkilled bear." Yes, there is issue that not every foe has something to Sunder, but it depends. Very very depends. I could imaging games with any percentage of enemies with sundering items from 0% to 100% and non of them is unusual.


In addition, the idea that you can enchant both slams as one weapon isn't obvious, and could be easily contested, toppling your build.
Sorry if it was unclear, but I didn't have such idea at all. I want enchant single one slam, not both. Look here:

Four attacks with bonded slam (plus one with regular slam)
See? "Regular" slam means it isn't enchanted one.


Dex and dodge: I guess that works, yeah. My brain doesn't want it to, but you certainly were a medium sized creature with 14 dex when you took these feats.
Why doesn't your brain want it?
All way I have enough Dex to qualify for Dodge. Firstly it was 14, at 4 HD it became 13, which is enough. I understand you didn't give me penalty here, but I'm curious what is issue.


You need both your arms for your routine
No, I don't.

If you have a pair of natural weapons, such as two claws, two wings, or two slams, you can make two or more extra attacks with one of those weapons
Nothing here force me use both natural weapons with rapidstrike routine. I need have pair to qualify and I "can make two or more extra attacks with one of those weapons." For what I need the second (weaker) one? I'm free to use it for using a shield.

I don't see it in your judgement, but did you found my Psionic Dodge getting elegant or non-elegant? In my eyes it was pretty elegant finding. Without which I couldn't qualify for PWM at time.


PWM grants you improvements to critical hits, combat reflexes, and whirlwind attack. So, you want a crit-heavy weapon and reach. A slam is neither.
I'm Large, so my slam has a reach.


If you had a claw attack, it'd be more convincing. A claws attack is done with the claws, and you'd have crystal claws.
Agree. But I don't find crystallin creature with claw attack, not stratospheric starting ECL (there is crystallin troll in some FR book, I maybe get two or three PWM levels with it at best).

[pabelfly]

A dispute from Whitch Twins


Thank you for judging again (or firstly? who knows...)


and out of the blue you'll hit me with a word like "preambular"
Funny. )))
Actually it is a word in my first language, too. Not very widespread, but existent.



"Colored" has an icky history when applied to people. How 'bout "painted", "colorful" or "iridescent"?
Ouch. I see. Sorry if it was insulting for somebody. I didn't want it. I just don't have cultural background of this expression.


I'd say this is unfortunately very conclusive. Draconic heritage grants you a bonus against [force] effects, but it explicitly calls out that this isn't an energy type – which in turn, means draconic resistance grants you no benefit, which means the whole trick is gone.
I see. Well, I have some objections, but they make this topic questionable at best. Force is poorly worded. There are some evidences of RAI at least some authors think it is energy type (description of Animate Breath spell from Draconomicon for example), but it looks like they didn't even have consensus on this among themselves.


Very weak category. Sure, you (barely) have natural weapons, but those are very unessential to your build, and are radically overshadowed by your spellcasting. They're vestigial. Sure, you blew the "spellcasting" out of the water, but you're nearly a full T2 caster. Blowing spellcasting out of the water is easy, synergizing it with natural weapons was the point of this round.
Sure, I knew it'll be weak, but is it so weak as you evaluate it?

Of course I'm nearly a full T2 caster, but look at my spell known. Big part of my spells is built around natural weapons or has synergy with them.
Look:
Shield, Mage Armor, Shimmermantle, Justice of the Wyrm King - very needed defenses for melee type.
Firestride Exhalation and Overland Fly give me mobility needed for melee type.
Tail Slap - arguably gives semblance of natural weapon itself.
Fuse Arms + Girallon's Blessing combo gives me great Str which synergy with claw attack is obvious.
Ferocity of Sanguine Rage, Craft Magic Tattoo and Superior Magic Fang directly improve natural weapons.
Blood Wind - need I say something about this spell and how it synergies with natural weapons?

And do you remember, there is inherent synergy it the Draconic Claw itself. I could cast spell any attack with a claw (maybe twice) in the same round. It work especially great with Firestride Exhalation (I described this in the 9th Level). Yeah, there are some dvati mess, but even if we look at this combination in the worst way: single dvati (or even non-dvati) casts Firestride Exhalation, makes damage to the enemy, teleports into adjacent square and attacks with (highly likely very buffed) claw. Isn't it synergy?


Just as I finished writing the UoC part, I remembered that you said that this was adapted from another round, which explains a lot of my complaints. It's a brilliant build – shame it doesn't work, and shame that you didn't find a more "appropriate" context to show it off in.
Looking at it now I think in the "Abjuration + Exotic Weapon Proficiency - Abjurant Champion" round it'd be even more out of theme. Exotic Weapons works with this entry's spellcasting worse than Draconic Claw.

[Inevitability]

My HM goes to Spiker. Thanks for bringing a very cool monster race to my attention!

[pabelfly]

A dispute from Lonely Fir


Greetings and thank you for the judging of the builds, H_H_F_F!

This isn't a real dispute, but I'm sad to see no comment on the symbiont share spells tricks. I know they're not exactly uncommon, but c'mon, I've never seen someone use Invesiture of the Erinyes like that!


You also talk about weapon attacks in addition to claws before you first mention tentacle whip. How would that work?

In that case, I am simply referring to wielding a weapon in one hand and using the other for claw attacks. Rapidstrike works with any paired natural weapon - it doesn't require you to be attacking with both of the pair. We attack with our right claw, we use rapidstrike to make an extra attack with our right claw, the fact that our left claw is wielding a weapon is irrelevant.

Similarly, at higher levels we get our base right claw, our rapidstrike right claw, and four improved Rapidstrike right claw attacks, plus either a left claw attack or four tentacle whip attacks. Rapidstrike and Improved Rapidstrike are separate feats and I don't see anything about the latter superseding the former's effect.

Though upon second reading - perhaps I was overly ambitious there. At any rate, one fewer claw attack only slightly decreases our total damage.

Would this mitigate some of the 'hefty penalty' that all this comes to?

[Inevitability]

Also, I might be interested in taking over after this round - no hard promises yet, though.

I'm interested in the Divinations + Precision damage - Unseen Seer idea, but I'll probably go with a more "how do you even qualify" round first, like loky's Weapon Specialization + Bonded Weapon - Fighter idea, or maybe something wild like Invisibility + Devotion Feats - Spellcasting. I also do still like the Abjurations + Melee - AbjChamp idea, but that one needs a little rest after two out of the last three rounds were gish-focused.

[H_H_F_F]

First thing first, sorry to see you leave, Pabelfly! Thanks for your time as a chair, and I hope to see you come back to the comps once you've had a decent time-off. I'd be very much in favor of Inevitability running the show going forward.

Dispute responses:


As I said, completely valid dispute for the objective part. A reevaluation of your elegance will replace the current section shortly. As for the more subjective part - I don't think that not showing up on Iron Chef or most previous comps is relevant. Iron Chef wants you to take 10 levels in a class, and never offered a theurge before. Even with that being said, we still had a sharn (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?312773-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LI&p=16451172#post16451172), and it even took gold - though two of the three judges only granted it a 3.5 in originality, and that was in a context it wasn't expected in.

Which comes back to my point: it's about context. You don't see as many true dragons in Iron Chef as you do in the VC, because the context is different. A round with no class limitations and an emphasis on spellcasting and natural weapons will draw more "notoriously op monster with these things" entries, when that monster basically requires an advancement path that's invalidated by any Iron Chef round and plenty of JW rounds. So, to me sharn is indeed expected, and classic theurging + persistomancy buries you completely (before accounting for spell choice).

I did recognize the impact of spell flower, and it raised your score by a significant amount. We just disagreed on how low I should've gone if it weren't for these factors, I think.

No change in score on that front - not that you need it.



As for Aym, I just don't think you're movement-based enough to give up armor just because it would have slowed you down. Agree to disagree, I guess.

I really wanted to avoid getting into the weeds here, but I guess I have to: (improved) rapidstrike is a freaking mess, and has to withstand a lot of interpretation to be usable at all. RAW, it's borderline meaningless. People often get swept up in the "is it possible to get 4 extra attacks without 16 BaB" and "is the penalty for the second and later strikes cumulative or static", but the issues start way beforehand:
you can make one extra attack with one of those weapons at a —5 penalty

You can make two or more extra attacks with one of those weapons.What the hell does that mean? When? Whenever you attack with your natural weapon? Whenever you make a full attack? Whenever you take the feat? This feat is terribly written, and misses a lot of language to be coherent at all. So we're left with the heavy lifting - and fortunately, I think it's very clear there's a RAW interpretation that seems RAI - "whenever you make a full attack with just your natural weapons"

However, I fully recognize that your build doesn't break because you can only bond to one slam. On the shield issue though, my point stands:
You strap a shield to your forearm and grip it with your hand.You can't use shields, you don't have hands.

Found psionic dodge clever, but not enough to make an impact on your score. Dex and dodge - I just have this tendency to ignore the fact that monsters don't come out evolved, it happens over time. If it's unclear - it was praise, not condemnation.

Being large would grant you reach even with manufactured weapons, and there are plenty of large forms you could've gotten with a 6 ECL investment. My point - "I don't see the utility of using a natural weapon rather than building something using a manufactured weapon" - still stands.



I agree that there is a certain case for [Force] occasionally being treated as an energy type, but the feats in question unfortunately are very clear that it's not in this case. Sorry.

In UoSI, I agree that I undervalued your spell choice investment, especially as it comes to the offensive spells. It's still not the sort of synergy I'd ideally like to see, but it's better than you got credit for, for sure. Score will be updated.



I rambled for a bit about Investiture of the Erinyes originally, but it felt too argumentative and didn't have any point, so I deleted it - and failed to keep the part where I acknowledged the cleverness. It was accounted for.

As for rapidstrike, I talked about that in my reply to Spiker, and same points apply to you - in your case, it's a reading I find less convincing, but I'm willing to recognize enough validity to bump your score.



Original judgement post will be updated with new scores momentarily.

[loky1109]

Table is updated.

[FactualArcher]

No (potentially further, you'll never know until the reveal) disputes from me. I have a couple of comments for after the reveal, but nothing that'll really change my score.

On the subject of chair stuff: Thanks for chairing Pabelfly. I hope you take some well deserved time off. I'd happily support Inevitability as next chair, assuming they remain happy with that. I think the "How do you even qualify?" ideas seem cool

Also, my HM goes to Jas Quinn Liadon for an interesting story and concept. I always feel bad for Cyre, so it's nice to see them getting some love.

[H_H_F_F]

No (potentially further, you'll never know until the reveal) disputes from me. I have a couple of comments for after the reveal, but nothing that'll really change my score.

On the subject of chair stuff: Thanks for chairing Pabelfly. I hope you take some well deserved time off. I'd happily support Inevitability as next chair, assuming they remain happy with that. I think the "How do you even qualify?" ideas seem cool

Also, my HM goes to Jas Quinn Liadon for an interesting story and concept. I always feel bad for Cyre, so it's nice to see them getting some love.

Anyone who's not a hardcore Karrnathi nationalist gets their originality score set to 0. Sorry folks, that's just how it is.

[FactualArcher]

By the Flame, a supporter of the dastardly Karnns! My life for Thrane, the undisputed victors of the Last War!

Thrane actually did win the Last War, as far as I'm concerned. They got Thaliost and lost no territory. Everyone else lost at least a small country, and Cyre lost even more. Plus, Jaela Daran's awesome.

[H_H_F_F]

By the Flame, a supporter of the dastardly Karnns! My life for Thrane, the undisputed victors of the Last War!

Thrane actually did win the Last War, as far as I'm concerned. They got Thaliost and lost no territory. Everyone else lost at least a small country, and Cyre lost even more. Plus, Jaela Daran's awesome.

I have to disagree that winning/maintaining territory is the measure of winning a war - especially a war that wasn't started as a territorial dispute. If we look at the goals set by Thalin, then the fact that his house has lost all power can't be considered a great victory.

Also, IIRC Forge of War says Thrane lost some territory to the Brelish. Keith really hates Forge of War though, so there's a question of Kanon versus Canon there.

But we should probably not derail the thread into a Skyrim-Civil-War-Esque discussion of the Last War. All hail to Ulfric, you are the High King!

[FactualArcher]

That's a really good point about Thalin. I also didn't know the part from Forge of War. Anyway, you're right about not derailing the thread. I'll obey the treaty of Thronehold from now on.

[pabelfly]

Dispute from "The Big Little Lady"


Thank you again for judging, even if it was a bit humbling.
You are correct that I ended up pressed for time and made several copy-editing errors. The most egregious of which is that I forgot to paste the spell list from the document I was working on. Obviously that won't effect your judgement but I'd rather you know it where the error lay...

Spells
In order of first learned to last of each level.

Cantrips (6)
Mage Hand
Prestidigitation
Ghost Sound
Dancing Light
Summon Instrument
Read Magic

1st (5)
summon nature's ally I;
Cure Light Wound
Ray of Hope
Disguise Self
Immediate Assistance

2nd (5)
summon nature's ally II;
Bull’s strength
Heroism
Tactical Precision
Shatter

3rd (5)
summon nature's ally III;
Haste
Good Hope
Cure Serious Wounds
Dispel Magic

4th (5)
summon nature's ally IV;
Insect plague
Shout
Greater Invisibility
Dimension Door

5th (5)
summon nature's ally V;
commune with nature
Greater Heroism
Song of Discord
Dance of Blades


6th (4)
summon nature's ally VI;
reincarnate,
creeping doom,
Mass Cure Moderate Wounds


The next one is that the character was intended to be a Halfling early on, hence the title, but I switched it last minute to a Half-Elf to get around the multi-class penalty and decided the title would still work, updated my notes and made a few references to a human parent in the flavor text, and then completely forgot to update the actual slug at the top. So... ****.

I did use AI for the musical numbers. Sorry if that was a sore spot. I got overly ambitious in my concept and cut corners. I'm also neurodivergent so the prose might read a bit robotic, but that actually was a very tired me.

Lastly, I want to apologize for favoring a weird layout. My idea was to make a Disney Musical Pitch that happened to be a D&D character but I see in retrospect how hard it is to read. I see several ways I could have arranged it so you could gloss over the fluff when trying to look at the crunch and that's entirely on me for not thinking through how it would present. Clearly it screwed me over too since I missed the whole spell section and didn't even see it when the post went live.

Anyway, I guess no real disputes. Just shame.
I will be better in the future.

[H_H_F_F]

I appreciate the explanation given by this Junkyard Warrior. Copy-pasting while tired and stressed is very prone to such things. I'm sure you'll do better next time!

Also, there's nothing to be ashamed of. For real. I know my tone when I judge can be very stern and harsh - that's partly due to the headspace I'm in when judging, and partly just the nature of the task. But criticism is just criticism, no more. Also, me not being a fan of something personally (AI "art" in your entry's case, or high-level casting optimization for Bros in the Sharn) does not mean the thing is bad, or even penalized by itself in my judging.

Especially given that you've noted you're neurodivergence, I feel the need to make this very clear: you and I are all good, I have no beef with you. We all make mistakes. Gods know I've submitted some messy entries in my life. Live and learn! Hope to see you do better next round :smallsmile:

[pabelfly]

Dispute from 'Jas'Quinn Liadon of Cyre"



YASSS queen!
Come on, tell me that wasn't intentional.


Absolutely! Combined with a running joke one of my tables has about naming every Half-Elf "Something Quinn" that I couldn't resist. Thank you for catching that, as well as for judging, and for sharing my LOVE of Eberron!



I also thought Deepwyrm Half-Drow was an interesting racial choice, but it doesn't feel like it has any mechanical use beyond being a dragonblooded race. I don’t see what's the (again, mechanical) upside here compared to, say, silverbrow human. If I'm missing something, feel free to table a dispute.



What's far more impactful for your score, though, is not qualifying for the rapidstrike feats. Did you think dragonblood gave you the dragon type, perhaps? It doesn't. You straight up don't qualify, and there's nothing even approaching an easy fix for this.



Holler at me with a dispute if I'm missing some rules here, but I don't get how you get Dragontouched instead of Draconic Heritage from your sorcerer substitution levels, and I don't know what'd be the advantage of that anyway, given that it disqualifies you from draconic claws. I think you just mistyped a feat, and forgot to elaborate on your heritage. Given that deep dragon isn't one of the options, I don't even have a "default" option.


You are correct twice over. I miswrote Dragontouched instead of Draconic Heritage and I thought the Dragonblood Subtype qualified me for Rapid Strike (particularly since I had it from both the Deepwyrm Drow Dragonblood and Draconic Heritage). Chalk that up to misunderstanding some of the Byzantine elements of 3.5. I've seen handbooks recommend Draconic Races for just that reason, so I'm guessing this is a common misconception, but looks like on closer reading that I'm still wrong.

I guess the only rebuttal besides "you appear to be correct" is the Special bit for Draconic Heritage


Special
With your DM's permission, you can choose a draconic heritage associated with a kind of dragon not found in the Monster Manual. For details and more options, see Draconic Heritage, page 102 of Races of the Dragon.


Which should allow Deepwyrm to fly here, but don't think I got dinged. I dunno.

[H_H_F_F]

Unfortunately, no help there I'm afraid. By default, you can pick any true dragon from the MM. With DM approval, you cab pick one from the list in page 102, which still does not include deep dragons. Given that that list has no deep dragon, going for heritage (deep) would be homebrew (since you'd have to pick a skill and spells known).

Better luck next time!

[Inevitability]

No further disputes.

So I've been toying with more possible ideas for the next round, and... do we want something winter/christmas-themed? A lot of competitions are doing such rounds (VC and Monster Mash at the least, IC vaguely, no clue about ZS and ICE6 (huh, Ice Six)). Of course, I'd be watching out for redundancy and trying to prevent too much overlap - but what I'm most interested in knowing is whether this sort of thing appeals to people at all.

If so, I might have an idea ready to go. It'll be a noncaster round, after all the recent rounds focused on casting (or emulating a casting class), with a little bit (but not much) of 'how do you even manage this' energy.

[H_H_F_F]

I like "how do you even manage this" rounds, and I'd be in favor of something seasonal.

[pabelfly]

Okay, so here are the results. Thanks to everyone for entering, and again to H_H_F_F for his time in judging all of the entrants.


#
Name
Alignment / Race
Class Levels
Chef
H_H_F_F
Total
Place


1
The Lonely Fir (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25885193&postcount=33)
NE Needlefolk
Trap Expert Spiritual Connection Fangshield Ranger 2/Hit-And-Run Tactics Fighter 1/Pious Templar 3/Impure Prince 5/Thayan Gladiator 5
Inevitability
14.05
14.05
2nd


2
Spiker (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25885194&postcount=34)
TN Stone Spike
Binder 1/Ardent 2/Fighter 2/Psychic Weapon Master 9
Loky1109
11.75
11.75
5th


3
The Big Little Lady (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25885196&postcount=35)CG HalflingMarshall 2/Savage Fey Bard 18
Quetzalcoatl5
5.75
5.75
8th


4
Coloured Whitch-Twins (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25885197&postcount=36)
TN DvatiDivine Companion Dead Levels Dragonblood Planar Sorcerer 5/Dragonheart Mage 10/Argent Savant 4
Loky1109
13.05
13.05
4th


5
Bros in the Sharn (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25885199&postcount=37)
CN Sharn
Bard 1/Mystic Theurge 5/Fochlucan Lyrist 5
Beni-Kujaku
15.25
15.25
1st


6
Jas’Quinn Liadon (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25885200&postcount=38)
LG Deepwyrm Half-Drow
Arcane Hunter Ranger 1/Dragonblood Battle Sorcerer 4/Monk 1/Enlightened Fist 4/Abjurant Champion 5/Cyran Avenger 5
Quetzalcoatl5
10.65
10.65
6th


7
Nars Three-Spirits (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25885201&postcount=39)NG Daelkyr Half BloodBear Totem Hunter Barbarian 1/Wu-Jen 3/Metamagic Specialist Sorcerer 1/Impure Prince 5/Ultimate Magus 10
FactualArcher
8.90
8.90
7th


8
A. Jade (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25885202&postcount=40)
CG Jaebrin
Dead Levels Beguiler 7/Swordsage 1/Jade Phoenix Mage 10/Paragnostic Apostle 1
Inevitability
13.90
13.90
3rd



See you all in the next Junkyard Comp.

[H_H_F_F]

Congratulations, guys! Well done. Looking forward to reading your non-dispute commentary.

Thank you all for participating, and a huge thanks to Pabelfly for his time as the chair of the comp!

[FactualArcher]

Thank you for chairing Pabelfly and judging H_H_F_F. I look forward to the next round.

For the most part I thought your judging was really fair and pointed out a lot of flaws in my entry that I missed. There were a few minor things that might have raised my score a little, but definitely not enough to contend for anything higher than, like 6th place at best. I'm also really glad you liked my entry despite its flaws.

The bulk of my actual commentary is on the discussion process itself. I was super inspired by this rounds components, but I underestimated just how much time it takes to make a gish/theurge. Spell tables are so exhausting. You were definitely right about needing to find spells I could actually use, but it was really hard to actually do so. WotC seems to hate unnatural abominations that try to take over your mind for some reason. I think I'm definitely going to stay away from the theurges for a long time. Anyways, I'm glad you liked my entry even though it was a bit of a mess and hope you didn't have too rough of a time judging it.

[Inevitability]

Alright: I'm not currently able to get a new round up quite yet (please have patience, perhaps a few days' worth of it), but here's some seasonally appropriate round ideas:

The Northern Winds: Flight + Cold damage - Spellcasting
Nothing complex here, just a nice no-caster round with some things that are easiest to obtain through casting. The 'no spellcasting' rule would exclude psionic powers but keep most other subsystems.

That Other Red Redistributor: People's Champion (https://web.archive.org/web/20011119135430/http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/cg/cg20011024a) + Level Adjustment - Fighter
A nice dwarf-only round where just picking a PHB dwarf won't quite get you there, with weird but optimizable class abilities.

Tundra Titans: Frostburn Weapons + Huge Size - Expansion
Frostburn has some pretty fun and unique weaponry, so let's combine them with a very difficult size requirement and get ourselves some weapon-wielding discount frost giants? This may seem restrictive, but I actually thought of quite a few ways to fulfill the requirement.

Which of these would have your preference? Feel free to vote for multiple, or add a little ranking.

[FactualArcher]

I’d vote Titans for next round. I like the difficulty in filling the requirements.

[H_H_F_F]

Northern winds from me.

[loky1109]

Pabelfly, thank you for chairing! It was good three rounds!
My congratulations to medalists!

Do we have HM winner?

Inevitability, I vote Tundra Titans.

[H_H_F_F]

Do we have HM winner?


I believe we have a three way tie. Jas'quinn, spiker, and nars all got one vote.

[quetzalcoatl5]

Pabelfly, thank you so much for chairing! I'm super new to all of this and you were extremely understanding when I was dragging getting my stuff together.

Inevitability, I vote That Other Red Redistributor, since I know that's one you were excited about!


H_H_F_F, I am really appreciative of your judgement, even though it was hard to read when I first saw it. I was overly reliant on being clever about non-build things (the Disney musical stuff and the Boy Meets World references for The Big Little Lady, the Street Fighter stuff for Jas'Quinn) and not solid on the fundamentals. While I had been working both out in my head for weeks, even playing out in my kitchen late at night the attack patterns and all that, I didn't actually get the tables together until the night of and it shows. I think it particularly shows that Jas'Quinn was finished first before I was WAY more sleep deprived, hence the fewer errors.

You did ask why I didn't go (silver brow) human and the honest answer is that I've been dinged for going human in the past and now I'm wary of ever using them.

[H_H_F_F]

H_H_F_F, I am really appreciative of your judgement, even though it was hard to read when I first saw it. I was overly reliant on being clever about non-build things (the Disney musical stuff and the Boy Meets World references for The Big Little Lady, the Street Fighter stuff for Jas'Quinn) and not solid on the fundamentals. While I had been working both out in my head for weeks, even playing out in my kitchen late at night the attack patterns and all that, I didn't actually get the tables together until the night of and it shows. I think it particularly shows that Jas'Quinn was finished first before I was WAY more sleep deprived, hence the fewer errors. I totally get that, that's unfortunate. I'd highly recommend going for a table as soon as you know what you're doing - even if it changes later, it lets you make sure that everything's in order, that you have no qualification issues, etcetera. Getting excited about fluff or tactics is great, and if that's the source of your inspiration, more power to you! It's just that as you said, you still need to ensure that you have the fundamentals.


You did ask why I didn't go (silver brow) human and the honest answer is that I've been dinged for going human in the past and now I'm wary of ever using them. I get that completely: I'm harsh on humans, as are many other judges, and sometimes that's a fair consideration to make. But to me, the point is that you still need to always ask yourself WHY. You don't have to pick a race that's better than human, but you do need to pick a race that does something fir your build that an obvious better alternative doesn't. It doesn't always have to be something fancy like a racial feat/class or such, or a super unique racial feature that's the crux of your build. It can also just be an ability bonus you highlight, size, whatever. I'm not here to ask every build "why aren't you human", unless human would clearly be strictly superior in every way, not just "probably overall stronger".

And again, ai apologize if it felt like I was coming for you at any point. Better luck next time!

[Inevitability]

While we're waiting for the votes to come in: H_H_F_F, once more thank you for judging. Your criticism was harsh where warranted, generous where deserved, and delivered clearly.

On the Fir: of course the elegance and power hits stung, but you're basically correct that those areas were not my main priority while building, and getting a perfect and near-perfect score in the other two made up for a lot. I consider UoSI the category I'm most pleased to do well in, and that 5 felt great to see. I'm also happy you didn't give me a hard time over the sardior thing - it felt like the most notably awkward element in the build to me. I'm glad to hear you loved the build overall, though!

On Jade: in retrospect, I leaned way too hard on jaebrin as a source of originality - the rest of the build ended up disappointingly standard, and I definitely could've squeezed more out of it in that respect. Being unable to really make up for the deficit in power didn't help. I thought your judging was unnecessarily harsh on first reading, but quickly found myself agreeing with it, and with all said and done I think 3rd is an eminently fair place for Jade to end up in.

[quetzalcoatl5]

It doesn't always have to be something fancy like a racial feat/class or such, or a super unique racial feature that's the crux of your build. It can also just be an ability bonus you highlight, size, whatever. I'm not here to ask every build "why aren't you human", unless human would clearly be strictly superior in every way, not just "probably overall stronger".

And again, ai apologize if it felt like I was coming for you at any point. Better luck next time!

The half-drow thing appealed to me because it let them start with magical abilities from level one, though I guess that would have been less important if you saw the magical transformation to be the change from levels 1 to 2, but I took the transformation to be the process of going level 1 to 2 and it vibed with me.

And NO WORRIES. I legitimately just want to improve and may be coming overly humbled on the tone of voice free text medium we're using. I appreciate it and am trying to convey that I'm not taking it angrily.

[Inevitability]

With a plurality of votes, Tundra Titans is the winner for next round (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?662629-Junkyard-Wars-XLIV-Huge-Size-Frostburn-Weapons-Expansion)'s theme! Happy building!