Monster Mash XI: What a horrible monster to give a curse

[Beni-Kujaku]

Monster Mash #11


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


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

Round Theme: What a horrible monster to give a curse

It's October, everybody! And when regular adventurers are spooked by skeletons, spiders and other ghosts, those are actually quite tame in this competition. Thus, we have to go deeper, and delve into curses!
Entrant builds are subject to the following guidelines:


You should be able to inflict a persistent curse on foes, lasting at least until the end of combat, and optimally being permanent.
"Curses" include actual curses, debuffs, damage over time, diseases and poisons.



To note: Having a spooky curse, and having abilities that synergize with the curse, is a plus.

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


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

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

Specific bans:

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

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


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

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

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

NAME OF ENTRY


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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



Code immediately below (spoiler).

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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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



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

Spells per Day/Spells Known


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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

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

Deadlines

Contestants will have until 23:59 GMT Saturday 18th of November to create their builds and PM them to the chair. Builds will then be posted simultaneously, to avoid copying. Judges will have until 23:59 GMT Saturday 2nd of December 2023 to judge the builds and submit their scores. If no judges have scored by that point, only the scores of the first judge to submit will be counted. Deadlines are subject to extension as/if required.
If you need help for judging, do not hesitate to read Inevitability's Build Competition Judging Handbook. (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?662048-Build-Competition-Judging-Handbook)

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

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

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

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


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

Previous Competitions:
MM1: Back to Basics (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?632644-Monster-Mash-Monstrous-Adventurer-Competition)
MM2: Scary Monsters (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?644846-Monster-Mash-II-Scary-Monsters!)
MM3: Keep your monsters close, and your enemies closer (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?646125-Monster-Mash-III-Keep-your-monsters-close)
MM4: Monsters in the darkness (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?648212-Monster-Mash-IV-Monsters-in-the-Darkness#post25531590)
MM5: Crawling Monsters (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?650003-Monster-Mash-V-Crawling-Monsters/)
MM6: Mysterious Monster Magic (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?651675-Monster-Mash-VI-Mysterious-Monster-Magic)
MM7: Monsters through the Snow (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?652584-Monster-Mash-VII-Monsters-through-the-Snow)
MM8: Half-Adventurers Half-Monsters (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?654615-Monster-Mash-VIII-Half-adventurers-half-monsters)
MM9: Blazing (Mon)Stars (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?655824-Monster-Mash-IX-Blazing-(Mon)Stars)
MM10: Buds of a monster flock together (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?657225-Monster-Mash-X-Buds-of-a-monster-flock-together)

And now, time to get mashing!

[Beni-Kujaku]

Q&A for this round:

-


1: Dire Rat, Vargouille, Brain Mole*, Blood Hawk
2: Small Taint Elemental, Death Dog, Bonesting
3: Ghoul, Bat swarm, Ophidian*
4: Ghast, Rat Swarm*, Medium Taint Elemental, Bog Imp, Skulvyn*, Filth Imp, Vorr, Slaymate, Sea Hag
5: Bloodbag Imp, Tombmote, Blood Elemental
6: Cockatrice, Barbazu
7: Medusa, Basilisk
8: Chaos Beast*, Mummy, Gloom Golem*, Large Taint Elemental*, Gray Jester, Gorgon
9: Aboleth, Yuan-ti Abomination, Nymph
10: Blue Slaad, Bloodrot*, Maelephant
11: Clay Golem*, Night Hag, Needletooth Swarm*, Jackal Lord
12: Devourer, Ironmaw, Chrysalis Spinner (Gonzales), Rakka*
13: Laghathti
14: Mohrg*, Nycaloth*
15: Shrieking Terror, Corruption Eater*, Night Twist
16: Plague Spewer*, Huge Taint Elemental, Dust Wight*
17: Cornugon
18: Deathshrieker*, Sorrowsworn, Xerfilstyx, Boneworm
19: Grisgol
20: Pit Fiend, Prismatic Golem*, Titan (Evil)
Templates: Lich, Lycanthrope, Huecuva, Mummified creature, Gravetouched Ghoul, Bloodstained, Enthomanotrope

[Inevitability]

Seems interesting! I'll give it a look-over and if nothing pops out I'll judge.

[loky1109]

Already have at least one idea.
Upd: or two... or three.. or... a lot!

[pabelfly]

I am inspired to cook.

[Inevitability]

Might as well get those judging guidelines up as early as possible.

(and if you're reading this: may the promise of thorough, fair, and utterly unbiased Inevitability Judgement spur you to participate! I'm not afraid of large rounds)

All categories start at 1.

Originality:
Do your classes surprise me? This metric considers both the classes you pick and the levels you take - monk is more commonly seen in these competitions than factotum, but factotum 8 will surprise me less than monk 8 would. 1 point to be gained here.

What about your feats, key skills, weapon choice, spells, does anything jump out to me? 1 point for all the non-class elements of your build.

Are your tricks and tactics new or unexpected? Is there anything really cool you can do? 1 point for innovative tactics.

Are any components of your build surprising to see together? Weapon Finesse and wizard won't get you points individually, but together they catch my interest. Ogre clerics and pixie barbarians go here too. 0.5 points

Do you have a backstory that goes beyond merely listing power sources? I'm not asking for a Hugo-winning novella, just show me you've put more than the bare minimum of thought into who this character -is-. 0.5 points

Elegance:
If you incur -any- multiclass XP penalties, at any point, for any reason, you miss out on 1 point. Pay attention to your level order!

2 points for avoiding awkward elements. This covers outright mechanical errors (including presentation errors), but also questionable rules assumptions, irreconcilable flavor clashes, or the lack of basic abilities that aren't strictly required to be a competent adventurer (things like being capable of speech, having thumbs, walking into towns without causing a stir).

1 point for efficient building. Do feat choices or class levels elegantly qualify you for multiple things? Does your build smoothly flow from one class to the next? If you're SAD to a notable extent, expect a boost here too.

Lastly, a penalty of up to 1 point if your build tries anything notoriously cheesy. A lot of something-for-nothing stuff like elder evil worship, the otyugh hole, or draconic rites fall here, as do infamously overpowered classes like Ur-Priest and Beholder Mage.

Power:
How good are you at whatever you want to do? Note that the more power you're cooking with, the more power I expect - turning a swashbuckler into a respectable damage-dealer is more impressive than making a warblade do the same. 1 point for my assessment of your raw combat prowess. If you leave notable power on the table, this is where I'll deduct points for that.

Do you have notable weaknesses? 1 point for being able to deal with Fortitude/Reflex/Will targeting-effects, SR, battlefield control, hordes of monsters, flight, really big beatsticks, or anything else a build might fall short against.

How much can you contribute out of combat? 1 point for being a capable face, traptripper, scout, tracker, or anything else the party might need. If you're a full caster who doesn't put any other effort into being good out of combat, you'll probably get about half a point by default here.

How early does your build come online? Do you acquire all key feats reasonably early? 0.5 points if you're functional by ECL 10 (monsters with a high starting ECL can somewhat stretch that benchmark, but generally I expect them to be functional by the time they start taking class levels).

How consistent is the build throughout the day, assuming four encounters of 2-6 rounds each? To earn the 0.5 points here, you need to remain competent later in the day and during the tall end of battles both.

Monstrosity:
Whatever you do: how badly do you need to be a monster to do it? Half a point if I could more-or-less replicate your build with a PC race (zero points if I could do better with a PC race), one point if you're on the whole the better choice (or if a lower-ECL monster could do what your current race is doing), and the full 1.5 points for a build that truly couldn't function without the monstrous component.

How integral is your curse to your PC? 1 point for builds where it's a core part of what they do, half a point for builds where it's relevant but not a focus, and zero points for builds that have to go out of their way to actually benefit from it (like a dire rat druid that will hardly ever want to use its own bite attack).

How many creatures will be immune to your curse? 0 points for something like a mundane disease where large swathes of the game are immune, 0.25 points for something where there'll be the occasional resistant foe, 0.5 points for something almost nothing is immune to.

What is the 'natural' duration of your curse? 0.5 points for permanent curses, 0.25 points for something that lasts on the order of hours or days, and 0 points for anything that won't stick around long after combat ends.

How hard is it to prematurely remove your curse? 0.25 points for the baseline of 'cast Remove Curse or a similarly-leveled spell', 0.5 points for something much harder, 0 points for something much easier.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Hmm. Hmmm! No good ideas yet, but I like the round!

[loky1109]

Already have at least one idea.
Upd: or two... or three.. or... a lot!

Okay, I selected two of them. Now I need time to give ideas flesh.

[FactualArcher]

Inspiration has struck for me. I’m hoping to get in an entry, time permitting.

[Inevitability]

Some generic ideas to put on the list for future rounds:

One shot, one kill: Enough pouncing uberchargers and twinned repeated orb spammers, let's build a PC that deals as much damage in a single hit as possible.

They look just like everybody else! Sometimes you just want to do your shopping without getting weird looks. The monster PC must possess an innate 'humanoid' form that looks basically like a PHB race, as well as a 'monstrous' one (doesn't matter which one is your true form). The forms should be very different, if possible - merely growing/concealing natural weapons wouldn't count.

Rule the skies Flight round! Whatever you submit should be capable of flight, air-themed powers are a plus.

[pabelfly]

Okay, have my entry in. I'm pretty happy with what I came up with, and I'm looking forward to seeing how a judge interprets my build.

Good luck to everyone else.

[loky1109]

Maybe I'll need extension. Let's look how will it be at this week.


One shot, one kill: Enough pouncing uberchargers and twinned repeated orb spammers, let's build a PC that deals as much damage in a single hit as possible.
Sounds interesting.

[Beni-Kujaku]

How are you cooking around here? I don't have many entries yet, and I'm willing to give extensions to anybody asking for them.

[loky1109]

How are you cooking around here? I don't have many entries yet, and I'm willing to give extensions to anybody asking for them.

I think I need one more week, maybe decade. Two entries, both is only half way done.

[FactualArcher]

I’m still working on my entry. I should be able to finish by the current deadline, but I wouldn’t mind an extension if other people want one.

[Beni-Kujaku]

I think I need one more week, maybe decade. Two entries, both is only half way done.

One week it is! I'm very sorry to not be able to give you another decade for cause of probable thread necromancy.

New deadline: Saturday 18th of November

[PoeticallyPsyco]

None of my ideas came together, sad to say. Looking forward to what others came up with.

[Beni-Kujaku]

How are you doing? Especially loky, do you think your entries will be done by Saturday?

[loky1109]

How are you doing? Especially loky, do you think your entries will be done by Saturday?

Yes, I should be in time. I have days off today and tomorrow, it should be enough. Maybe even look at Iron Chef idea. )))

Upd: first is sent.

Upd 2: and second, too.

[Beni-Kujaku]

Maybe the curse was the children we made along the way.



https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/forgottenrealms/images/1/1e/Gray_slaad-5e.jpg

Do you know what dolgrim is? Oh... It's a strange thing! Imagine two goblins alloyed together. They have four hands, two mouths, two brains! Very strange even for me, for slaad. When I found such image and description in my precursor's stuff I liked them on sight. "That'll be my name!" - I thought. And yes, it is my name. Who could object? Right, nobody. And you now couldn't, too. I think you, at this moment, couldn't even think at all. It’s okay, there’s not much left...


CE Gray Slaad Slaad Brooder 9
Abilities Initial Race 12th, 16th Total
STR 14 8 22
DEX 12 6 18
CON 16 10 2 28
INT 14 4 18
WIS 10 4 14
CHA 12 4 16

ECL Class BAB Fort Reflex Will Skills Feats Class Features
2nd Gray Slaad 1 1 2 2 2 48: {+4} Climb: 4; {+4} Concentration: 4; {+4 CC} Disguise: 2; {+4} Hide: 4; {+4 CC} Intimidate: 2; {+4} Jump: 4; {+4} Knowledge (arcana): 4; {+4} Move Silently: 4; {+4} Search: 4; {+4} Spellcraft: 4; {+4} Spot: 4; {+4} Survival: 4; Multiattack (1st) Change shape, DR 10/lawful, darkvision 60 ft., fast healing 5, immunity to sonic, resistance to acid 5, cold 5, electricity 5, and fire 5, spell-like abilities, summon slaad
3rd Gray Slaad 2 2 3 3 3 12: {+1} Climb: 5; {+1} Concentration: 5; {+1 CC} Disguise: 2.5; {+1} Hide: 5; {+1 CC} Intimidate: 2.5; Jump: 4; {+1} Knowledge (arcana): 5; {+1} Listen: 1; {+1} Move Silently: 5; {+1} Search: 5; {+1} Spellcraft: 5; {+1} Spot: 5; {+1} Survival: 5;
4th Gray Slaad 3 3 3 3 3 12: {+1} Climb: 6; {+1} Concentration: 6; {+1 CC} Disguise: 3; {+1} Hide: 6; {+1 CC} Intimidate: 3; {+1} Jump: 5; {+1} Knowledge (arcana): 6; {+1} Listen: 2; {+1} Move Silently: 6; Search: 5; {+1} Spellcraft: 6; {+1} Spot: 6; {+1} Survival: 6; Improved Multiattack (3rd)
5th Gray Slaad 4 4 4 4 4 12: {+1} Climb: 7; {+1} Concentration: 7; {+1 CC} Disguise: 3.5; {+1} Hide: 7; {+1 CC} Intimidate: 3.5; {+1} Jump: 6; {+1} Knowledge (arcana): 7; {+1} Listen: 3; {+1} Move Silently: 7; Search: 5; {+1} Spellcraft: 7; {+1} Spot: 7; {+1} Survival: 7;
6th Gray Slaad 5 5 4 4 4 12: {+1} Climb: 8; {+1} Concentration: 8; {+1 CC} Disguise: 4; {+1} Hide: 8; {+1 CC} Intimidate: 4; {+1} Jump: 7; {+1} Knowledge (arcana): 8; {+1} Listen: 4; {+1} Move Silently: 8; Search: 5; {+1} Spellcraft: 8; {+1} Spot: 8; {+1} Survival: 8;
7th Gray Slaad 6 6 5 5 5 12: {+1} Climb: 9; {+1} Concentration: 9; {+1 CC} Disguise: 4.5; {+1} Hide: 9; {+1 CC} Intimidate: 4.5; {+1} Jump: 8; {+1} Knowledge (arcana): 9; {+1} Listen: 5; {+1} Move Silently: 9; Search: 5; {+1} Spellcraft: 9; {+1} Spot: 9; {+1} Survival: 9; Great Fortitude (6th)
8th Gray Slaad 7 7 5 5 5 12: {+1} Climb: 10; {+1} Concentration: 10; {+1 CC} Disguise: 5; {+1} Hide: 10; {+1 CC} Intimidate: 5; {+1} Jump: 9; {+1} Knowledge (arcana): 10; {+1} Listen: 6; {+1} Move Silently: 10; Search: 5; {+1} Spellcraft: 10; {+1} Spot: 10; {+1} Survival: 10;
9th Gray Slaad 8 8 6 6 6 12: {+1} Climb: 11; {+1} Concentration: 11; {+1 CC} Disguise: 5.5; {+1} Hide: 11; {+1 CC} Intimidate: 5.5; {+1} Jump: 10; {+1} Knowledge (arcana): 11; {+1} Listen: 7; {+1} Move Silently: 11; Search: 5; {+1} Spellcraft: 11; {+1} Spot: 11; {+1} Survival: 11;
10th Gray Slaad 9 9 6 6 6 12: {+1} Climb: 12; {+1} Concentration: 12; {+1 CC} Disguise: 6; {+1} Hide: 12; {+1 CC} Intimidate: 6; {+1} Jump: 11; {+1} Knowledge (arcana): 12; {+1} Listen: 8; {+1} Move Silently: 12; Search: 5; {+1} Spellcraft: 12; {+1} Spot: 12; {+1} Survival: 12; Power Attack (9th)
11th Gray Slaad 10 10 7 7 7 12: {+1} Climb: 13; {+1} Concentration: 13; {+1 CC} Disguise: 6.5; {+1} Hide: 13; {+1 CC} Intimidate: 6.5; Jump: 11; Knowledge (arcana): 12; {+1} Listen: 9; {+1} Move Silently: 13; Search: 5; {+1} Spellcraft: 13; {+1} Spot: 13; {+1} Survival: 13; {+2} Assume Quirk;
12th Slaad Brooder 1 11 9 7 9 6: Climb: 13; {+1} Concentration: 14; {+1 CC} Disguise: 7; {+1} Hide: 14; {+1 CC} Intimidate: 7; Jump: 11; Knowledge (arcana): 12; Listen: 9; Move Silently: 13; Search: 5; Spellcraft: 13; Spot: 13; {+2 CC} Survival: 14; Assume Quirk; Implant, improved grab
13th Slaad Brooder 2 12 10 7 10 6: Climb: 13; {+1} Concentration: 15; {+1 CC} Disguise: 7.5; {+1} Hide: 15; {+1 CC} Intimidate: 7.5; Jump: 11; Knowledge (arcana): 12; Listen: 9; Move Silently: 13; Search: 5; Spellcraft: 13; Spot: 13; {+2 CC} Survival: 15; Assume Quirk; Track (12th) Imbue pellet
14th Slaad Brooder 3 13 10 8 10 6: Climb: 13; {+1} Concentration: 16; {+1 CC} Disguise: 8; {+1} Hide: 16; {+1 CC} Intimidate: 8; Jump: 11; Knowledge (arcana): 12; Listen: 9; Move Silently: 13; Search: 5; Spellcraft: 13; Spot: 13; {+2 CC} Survival: 16; Assume Quirk; Deep implant
15th Slaad Brooder 4 14 11 8 11 6: Climb: 13; {+1} Concentration: 17; {+1 CC} Disguise: 8.5; {+1} Hide: 17; {+1 CC} Intimidate: 8.5; Jump: 11; Knowledge (arcana): 12; Listen: 9; Move Silently: 13; Search: 5; Spellcraft: 13; Spot: 13; {+2 CC} Survival: 17; Assume Quirk; Rapid hatching
16th Slaad Brooder 5 15 11 8 11 6: Climb: 13; {+1} Concentration: 18; {+1 CC} Disguise: 9; {+1} Hide: 18; {+1 CC} Intimidate: 9; Jump: 11; Knowledge (arcana): 12; Listen: 9; Move Silently: 13; Search: 5; Spellcraft: 13; Spot: 13; {+2 CC} Survival: 18; Assume Quirk; Multigrab (15th) Chaos focus
17th Slaad Brooder 6 16 12 9 12 6: Climb: 13; {+1} Concentration: 19; {+1 CC} Disguise: 9.5; {+1} Hide: 19; {+1 CC} Intimidate: 9.5; Jump: 11; Knowledge (arcana): 12; Listen: 9; Move Silently: 13; Search: 5; Spellcraft: 13; Spot: 13; {+2 CC} Survival: 19; Assume Quirk; Multiple implant
18th Slaad Brooder 7 17 12 9 12 6: Climb: 13; {+1} Concentration: 20; {+1 CC} Disguise: 10; {+1} Hide: 20; {+1 CC} Intimidate: 10; Jump: 11; Knowledge (arcana): 12; Listen: 9; Move Silently: 13; Search: 5; Spellcraft: 13; Spot: 13; {+2 CC} Survival: 20; Assume Quirk; Color choice
19th Slaad Brooder 8 18 13 9 13 6: Climb: 13; {+1} Concentration: 21; {+1 CC} Disguise: 10.5; {+1} Hide: 21; {+1 CC} Intimidate: 10.5; Jump: 11; Knowledge (arcana): 12; Listen: 9; Move Silently: 13; Search: 5; Spellcraft: 13; Spot: 13; {+2 CC} Survival: 21; Assume Quirk; Greater Multigrab (18th) Heighten chaos
20th Slaad Brooder 9 19 13 10 13 6: Climb: 13; {+1} Concentration: 22; {+1 CC} Disguise: 11; {+1} Hide: 22; {+1 CC} Intimidate: 11; Jump: 11; Knowledge (arcana): 12; Listen: 9; Move Silently: 13; Search: 5; Spellcraft: 13; Spot: 13; {+2 CC} Survival: 22; Assume Quirk; Corporeal instability, death spawn

Dolgrim is just gray slaad now. The powerful one, but nothing very special. With its innate SLAs, three natural attacks complimented by Power Attack and Improved Multiattack feats, good stats and ten perfect possible HD it is a formidable enemy from the very beginning. With at will invisibility, Change Shape, not bad Disguise and Assume Quirk it can even be a scout or at least "walking into towns without causing a stir".
Nine levels of Slaad Brooder. It's a very straightforward prestige class. Made for one race - slaad, with one purpose - to reproduce. There is no room for wide customization - all abilities are what they are, nothing selectable. Also full BAB, okish skill list (while only 2+Int skill points), two good saves. It's a big melee striker. I added to it Greater Multigrab feat line to compliment Slaad Brooder's first level improved grab ability and Track if it needs to, y'know, track escaped incubator.
I think you already understand what I offered you as such. Yeah, it's Brooder's Implant ability. Plus Corporeal instability at 20th ECL. Alien type of reproduction is very horrible part of slaads' "society". I think it's enough to called "curse".

Type Name Book Page
Race Green slaad Monster Manual 230
Prestige сlass Slaad Brooder Savage Species 86
Feat Multiattack Monster Manual 304
Feat Improved Multiattack Draconomicon 70
Feat Great Fortitude Player's Handbook 94
Feat Power Attack Player's Handbook 98
Feat Track Player's Handbook 101
Feat Multigrab Savage Species 37
Feat Greater Multigrab Savage Species 35
Skill trick Assume Quirk Complete Scoundrel 85

[Beni-Kujaku]

Your spinning top will never stop as long as they're watching you.



Morpheus
https://i.imgur.com/T7Epxwx.png
Look, there aren’t a lot of pictures of Dream Fanes

NG Dream Fane Exemplar 1/Planewalker Ranger 4/Exemplar +3

Abilities Initial Race / Template VOP 1 VOP 2 ASI 1 VOP 3 ASI 2 VOP 4
STR 8 -
DEX 8 6
CON 14 2 2 2 2
INT 18 -4 1 2 1 2
WIS 10 6 2
CHA 14 8 2 2 2 2

Cereth Mindbreaker smiled as he walked away from his target, several shrunken chests of gold in his bag. The theft had gone off perfectly, and the mark didn’t seem to suspect a thing. With his powers, why would they? The merchant wouldn’t remember the heist, and instead remember a staggeringly unsuccessful night of gambling. The rest of the crew was waiting in the room to the left. Cereth turned right. They wouldn’t be getting their share anytime soon, and given the enchantment he’d laid upon them, they wouldn’t even remember why. As he exited the inn, he took a circuitous path down alleyways, making the way to his ready carriage stealthily.
After a few winding turns, Cereth figured he was safe enough, and slowed his pace a little. His mind wandered, imagining what he’d spend his newfound wealth on. A few alleys later, a squawk interrupted his thoughts. There was a raven sitting perched atop a fence in the alleyway. It squawked again, and the Cereth realized it was speaking.
“Where are you going, thief?” it squawked.
Cereth stared at the raven. Was he imagining things? He shook his head, trying to clear away the vision. Unfortunately, the raven was still there.
“I asked where are you going.” the raven squawked.
Cereth supposed that in a world where psions could modify memories, talking ravens weren’t so strange. He’d heard tell of wizards whose familiars could speak. Now that he thought about it, that must be what it was. But where was the wizard?
Behind him, he heard another voice.
“Answer Quoth,” it said. “Don’t be impolite.”
Cereth turned towards the voice to see a rather horrifying sight. The creature looked like a cloud of mist, but with eyes. Cereth pulled out a dagger and slashed at it. The dagger went through the cloud of mist, and the creature let out what sounded like a sigh.
“Why does it always come to fighting?” it asked. “Well, I suppose I’ll have to put you to sleep and try again.”
It reached out a tendril of mist and touched Cereth, who felt his body go numb. He lost consciousness-

and woke up in a grassy field. The sun was shining and birds were chirping. Cereth was confused. He almost never left the city, and the last thing he remembered was. . .
After a minute's consideration, Cereth realized he couldn’t remember what the last thing that had happened to him was. For a psion who specializes in messing with the memories of others, it was quite the traumatic experience. Suddenly, he felt a wave of calm wash over him. A human man wearing rich clothes was walking towards him. It reminded him of his father. Distant, but comforting.
Then the man spoke, and everything clicked back into place. “How are you?” the man asked, but Cereth recognized the voice. It was the weird cloud from the alleyway.
“Where’s the bird?” he stammered, confused by the sudden turn of events.
The man laughed. “That’s not the first question most people ask. Quoth’s outside, waiting to wake you up.”
“Outside? Where are we?” Cereth asked.
“Now that’s the first question most ask. We’re in the region of Dreams. Your own private dreamscape, to be precise. I’m here to help you work through your problems with morality and get you back on the straight and narrow. I’m Morpheus. You should think of me as your guide.”
Cereth started to protest, but he realized that he actually felt good here. He may as well listen to what the weird shapeshifting cloud thing had to say.
The cloud thing began to talk about morality and stuff. Cereth tuned out most of it. It was mostly boring crap about “protecting the innocent” and “no murder”. Cereth was too smart to commit murder himself anyway. Still, the field was pretty relaxing, and Cereth decided to just lie down and listen. Cereth lost track of time. Though it felt like he had been lying on the field for hours, he didn’t feel thirsty or sleepy. Eventually, Cereth started to pay more attention to what Morpheus was saying. They were actually making some good points. He hadn’t thought about how the people he stole from felt, or how by changing people’s memories, he was depriving them of freedom of choice. After what felt like about a day to Cereth from the start of the lecture, he stood up.
“I see your point,” he said to Morpheus. “When I get back, I’m going to give back to people, and use my powers for good.”
“That’s good to hear,” Morpheus replied. “I must say, I’m getting better at this. I used to have a lot more trouble convincing people. It only took two weeks this time.”
“Two weeks?” Cereth asked in astonishment. “How am I still alive?”
“Time runs faster in the Dreamscape.” Morpheus replied. “It’s only been a day and a half outside. Do you want to leave now?”
Cereth nodded, and Morpheus waved their hands. The grassy field broke up and Cereth found himself back in the alleyway with the weird cloud floating next to him.
“Where are you going to go now?” Morpheus asked Cereth.
‘“I’m not sure,” he replied. “I thought maybe I’d stick with you for a while.”
“A lot of people say that,” Morpheus replied. “Sounds good. The next bad guy I’m going after is an incredibly powerful Blackguard that’s running the underground in the next city over.”
“If you’ll have me, I’ll gladly come,” Cereth answered.
Together the two moved down the alleyway, quickly joined by Quoth. On the way, Morpheus mentioned offhand “I wonder, with your memory altering magic and my dream powers, what we could do. It reminds me of a dream I once had. Something about planting an idea in someone’s head while they slept. . .”

Level Class Base Attack Bonus Fort Save Reflex Save Will Save Skills Feats Class Features
1st Fey 1 0 0 2 2 Lucid Dreaming 2 (+2) CC, Knowledge (the planes) 2 (+2) CC, Spot 4 (+4), Listen 4 (+4), Survival 2 (+2) CC, Spellcraft 2 (+2) CC, Diplomacy 2 (+2) CC, Concentration 4 (+4) Sacred Vow Incorporeal Traits
2nd Fey 2 1 0 3 3 Lucid Dreaming 2 1/2 (+1/2) CC, Knowledge (the planes) 2 1/2(+1/2) CC, Spot 5 (+1), Listen 5 (+1), Survival 2 1/2 (+1/2) CC, Spellcraft 2 1/2(+1/2) CC, Diplomacy 2 1/2 (+1/2) CC, Concentration 5 (+1) See in Darkness
3rd Fey 3 1 1 3 3 Lucid Dreaming 3 (+1/2) CC, Knowledge (the planes) 3 (+1/2) CC, Spot 6 (+1), Listen 6 (+1), Survival 3 (+1/2) CC, Spellcraft 3 (+1/2) CC, Diplomacy 3 (+1/2) CC, Concentration 6 (+1) Vow of Poverty Sleep Touch
4th Fey 4 2 1 4 4 Lucid Dreaming 3 1/2 (+1/2) CC, Knowledge (the planes) 3 1/2 (+1/2) CC, Spot 7 (+1), Listen 7 (+1), Survival 3 1/2 (+1/2) CC, Spellcraft 3 1/2(+1/2) CC, Diplomacy 3 1/2 (+1/2) CC, Concentration 7 (+1), Knowledge (local) 1 (+1) Nymph's Kiss (B) Dream Gaze
5th Fey 5 2 1 4 4 Lucid Dreaming 4 (+1/2) CC, Knowledge (the planes) 4 (+1/2) CC, Spot 8 (+1), Listen 8 (+1), Survival 4 (+1/2) CC, Spellcraft 4 (+1/2) CC, Diplomacy 4 (+1/2) CC, Concentration 8 (+1), Knowledge (local) 2 (+1) Dr 5/cold iron
6th Fey 6 3 2 5 5 Lucid Dreaming 4 1/2 (+1/2) CC, Knowledge (the planes) 4 1/2 (+1/2) CC, Spot 9 (+1), Listen 9 (+1), Survival 4 1/2 (+1/2) CC, Spellcraft 4 1/2(+1/2) CC, Diplomacy 6 (+2), Concentration 9 (+1), Knowledge (local) 2 Martial Study (Douse the Flames), Vow of Nonviolence (B) At will- Brain Lock
7th Fey 7 3 2 5 5 Lucid Dreaming 5 (+1/2) CC, Knowledge (the planes) 5 (+1/2) CC, Spot 10 (+1), Listen 10 (+1), Survival 5 (+1/2) CC, Spellcraft 5 (+1/2) CC, Diplomacy 8 (+2), Concentration 10 (+1), Knowledge (local) 2 At will- Concealing Amorpha
8th Fey 8 4 2 6 6 Lucid Dreaming 5 1/2 (+1/2) CC, Knowledge (the planes) 5 1/2 (+1/2) CC, Spot 11 (+1), Listen 11 (+1), Survival 5 1/2 (+1/2) CC, Spellcraft 5 1/2(+1/2) CC, Diplomacy 10 (+2), Concentration 11 (+1), Knowledge (local) 2 Vow of Peace (B) At will- Crisis of breath
9th Fey 9 4 3 6 6 Lucid Dreaming 6 (+1/2) CC, Knowledge (the planes) 6 (+1/2) CC, Spot 12 (+1), Listen 12 (+1), Survival 6 (+1/2) CC, Spellcraft 6 (+1/2) CC, Diplomacy 12 (+2), Concentration 12 (+1), Knowledge (local) 2 Skill Focus (Dipomacy) 3/day Dispel Psionics +17
10th Fey 10 5 3 7 7 Lucid Dreaming 6 1/2 (+1/2) CC, Knowledge (the planes) 6 1/2 (+1/2) CC, Spot 13 (+1), Listen 13 (+1), Survival 6 1/2 (+1/2) CC, Spellcraft 6 1/2(+1/2) CC, Diplomacy 13 (+1), Concentration 13 (+1), Knowledge (local) 3 (+1) Exalted Spell Resistance (B) 3/day Dream Travel, self only
11th Fey 11 5 3 7 7 Lucid Dreaming 7 (+1/2) CC, Knowledge (the planes) 7 (+1/2) CC, Spot 14 (+1), Listen 14 (+1), Survival 7 (+1/2) CC, Spellcraft 7 (+1/2) CC, Diplomacy 14 (+1), Concentration 13, Knowledge (local) 3, Speak Language (Common) 1/day Death Urge
12th LA 1 5 3 7 7 NA
13th Exemplar 1 5 3 7 9 Lucid Dreaming 15 (+8), Knowledge (the planes) 7, Spot 14, Listen 14, Survival 7, Spellcraft 8 (+1), Diplomacy 15 (+1), Concentration 13, Knowledge (local) 4 (+1), Speak Language (Common) Narrowed Gaze, Gift of Faith (B) Skill artistry (Diplomacy), Skill mastery (Diplomacy, Lucid Dreaming, Concentration)
14th Ranger 1 6 5 9 9 Lucid Dreaming 15, Knowledge (the planes) 11 (+4), Spot 14, Listen 14, Survival 9 (+2), Spellcraft 8, Diplomacy 16 (+1) CC, Concentration 13, Knowledge (local) 4, Speak Language (Common, Terran) Track (B) Fast Movement, Wild Empathy, Favored Enemy Evil Outsiders
15th Ranger 2 7 6 10 9 Lucid Dreaming 15, Knowledge (the planes) 11, Spot 14, Listen 14, Survival 15 (+6), Spellcraft 8, Diplomacy 17 (+1) CC, Concentration 13, Knowledge (local) 4, Speak Language (Common, Terran, Aquan) Animal Friend (B)
16th Ranger 3 8 6 10 10 Lucid Dreaming 15, Knowledge (the planes) 13 (+2), Spot 14, Listen 17 (+1), Survival 18 (+3), Spellcraft 8, Diplomacy 18 (+1) CC, Concentration 13, Knowledge (local) 4, Speak Language (Common, Terran, Aquan, Ignan) Astral Tracking, Endurance (B)
17th Ranger 4 9 7 11 10 Lucid Dreaming 15, Knowledge (the planes) 14 (+1), Spot 17 (+3), Listen 19 (+2), Survival 19 (+1), Spellcraft 8, Diplomacy 19 (+1) CC, Concentration 13, Knowledge (local) 4, Speak Language (Common, Terran, Aquan, Ignan, Auran), Rhetorical Flourish Nemesis (Evil Outsiders) (B), Combat Expertise (B) Urban Companion
18th Exemplar 2 10 7 11 11 Lucid Dreaming 20 (+5), Knowledge (the planes) 16 (+2), Spot 19 (+2), Listen 20 (+1), Survival 20 (+1), Spellcraft 8, Diplomacy 20 (+1), Concentration 13, Knowledge (local) 4, Speak Language (Common, Terran, Aquan, Ignan, Auran), Rhetorical Flourish Lend talent (1/2 penalty), Skill Mastery (Survival, Knowledge (the planes))
19th Exemplar 3 11 8 12 11 Lucid Dreaming 21 (+1), Knowledge (the planes) 19 (+3), Spot 21 (+2), Listen 21 (+1), Survival 21 (+1), Spellcraft 8, Diplomacy 21 (+1), Concentration 13, Knowledge (local) 4, Speak Language (Common, Terran, Aquan, Ignan, Auran), Rhetorical Flourish, Clarity of Vision Flyby Attack, Improved Initiative (B), Vow of Chastity (B) Skill mastery (Spot)
20th Exemplar 4 12 8 12 12 Lucid Dreaming 22 (+1), Knowledge (the planes) 22 (+3), Spot 22 (+1), Listen 22 (+1), Survival 22 (+1), Spellcraft 8, Diplomacy 22 (+1), Concentration 13, Knowledge (local) 4, Speak Language (Common, Terran, Aquan, Ignan, Auran, Undercommon, Draconic), Rhetorical Flourish, Clarity of Vision, Collector of Stories Skill artistry (Survival), Sustaining Presence, Skill mastery (Listen)

Dream Fane doesn’t get going until ECL 12, but that gives Morpheus plenty of time to get ready. Defensively, Morpheus is incredibly annoying. Between incorporeality, Vow of Peace, and Dream Phase few things can target him, and Power Resistance boosted by Exalted Spell Resistance and hard to overcome damage reduction let them get ready. Offensively, Morpheus is very much a one trick pony. Sleep Touch, Morpheus’ curse, is easy to be immune to, but hard to save against. At 12th level, it is DC 23, but Dream Gaze and Vow of Nonviolence make it harder to resist. Once they’re asleep, part two comes in. Morpheus’ main trick uses the dreaming rules from Manual of the Planes. While the rules aren’t the best written, they are pretty interesting.
Basically, they say that whenever someone falls asleep they go to their own private demiplane in the Region of Dreams called a dreamscape. The book also introduces a new skill, Lucid Dreaming, that allows people to move between Dreamscapes and invade the dreams of others. Interestingly, death isn’t permanent in the dreamscape, but people still keep their memories. This sets the scene perfectly for part two of the trick. After the fight is over, Morpheus puts them self to sleep and uses Lucid Dreaming to find the dreamscape of the people who fell asleep during the fight. At 12th level, their Lucid Dreaming modifier isn’t that great, but you can retry Lucid Dreaming checks without penalty and by 13th, with skill mastery, any DC in the book is achievable without fail. Now, once Morpheus is in their dreams, they try to capture their enemy. They can change the environment every round, and if their opponent manages to take them out, they just wake up and can go back in. An opponent can wake up from a threatening Dreamscape with a wisdom check, but Morpheus has Vow of Peace, and can use their aura to keep them from feeling threatened. Plus, by using a rushed diplomacy check, Morpheus can bring hostile people to indifferent or friendly.
Once they give up and get captured, Morpheus can begin to use the Book of Exalted Deeds redemption mechanics. They require a good character to talk to an evil character who is captured for an hour a day. At the end of each lecture, the evil creature gets a will saving throw with an extra bonus equal to their level. The DC is equal to the good character’s diplomacy check. Initially, Morpheus’ check is +14 ranks, +8 charisma, +2 nymph’s kiss, +4 vow of peace, and +2 sacred vow, for a total of +30. By next level, with skill artistry and mastery, the save is DC 45, and it only continues to go up. In addition, Vow of Nonviolence and Dream Gaze can potentially penalize the evil creature’s save even more. If an evil creature fails seven saving throws in a row, their alignment becomes neutral, and if a neutral character fails seven more, they become good. While normally, redemption is impractical for normal play, time runs ten times as fast in the dreamscape, allowing Morpheus to redeem at least one bad guy a day.
Outside of this trick, Morpheus still has a few abilities. Obviously, defensively, they are extremely powerful. In addition, they have good spot and listen scores, which combined with incorporeal movement, allows for pretty decent scouting. Plus, Morpheus' Psi-like abilities give some out of combat utility (Dream Travel), provide combat options (Brain Lock, Dispel Psionics), and help with defense (Concealing Amorpha).
By the time Morpheus takes a level in exemplar, they can navigate any dreamscape flawlessly, as with their modifier and skill mastery they can’t fail any Lucid Dreaming DC in the book. A few levels in ranger let them Track, potentially through the Astral Plane or Dreamscapes with Astral Tracking, move slightly faster, and befriend animals and magical beasts, but the big payoff from ranger doesn’t come until ECL 17.

And the big payoff from ranger is an Urban Companion. Urban Companions share the rules for familiars, though they have more hit points and are easier to get back. The main benefit for Morpheus is that they share skill ranks. In this case, ranks in Lucid Dreaming and Diplomacy. This allows Morpheus to send Quoth into the Dreamscape while they continue adventuring, hugely expediting the whole process of dream therapy. With the rest of their levels, Morpheus improves their defense and utility skills. More exemplar lets them perfect their scouting skills, as well as their planar knowledge. Combat Expertise and Flyby Attack improve their defense, allowing them to avoid more full attacks and increasing their AC. Really, once Quoth arrives, Morpheus’ tactics don’t actually change at all. For reference, at 20th level, Morpheus’ diplomacy check is +47 with skill mastery and the save DC for Sleep Touch is 29 with the other save penalties. Improved Initiative and the various bonus exalted feats are mostly small perks that don’t affect the main aspects of the build much. Overall, Morpheus really only does one thing, and everything is built to support it.


The idea behind my build came when I watched the movie Inception. I jokingly told my family I would try and make a build that could perform inception in D&D, but I didn’t think it would actually work. The idea sat for a while as I went through various wildly different iterations with the build. Then, I ran across the Dream Fane in the archive. Its ability to put people asleep and dream flavor sparked the idea again, and I decided to look for dream related stuff. Lucid Dreaming was the first thing to come up, and it and the rest of the dreaming rules in Manual of the Planes worked well. Unfortunately, Dream Fane’s ECL is too high to do a modify memory based build for true inception, but the redemption mechanics in BOED provided a way to make people nicer by invading their dreams. Of course, time only runs 10x as fast, not 20 compounded, so Morpheus needs longer than a single plane ride. The ranger and astral tracking stuff was added on later, to give a bit more depth to a rather one note build. I figured sleep would be a good idea for this round since eternal sleep is a fairly classic curse.

Dream Fane- Web https://web.archive.org/web/20210729144952/http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psb/20070711a
Planewalker Ranger, Predator Ranger- Unearthed Arcana
Champion of the Wild Ranger- Complete Warrior
Urban Companion- Cityscape Web Enhancement
Exemplar- Complete Adventurer
Lucid Dreaming- Manual of the Planes pg 201
Skill Tricks-Complete Scoundrel
Exalted Feats-Book of Exalted Deeds
Astral Tracking- Dragon Compendium
Flyby Attack-Monster Manual 1
Narrowed Gaze-Savage Species
Psionic powers-EPH

[Beni-Kujaku]

No, when I said "curse", I didn't mean actually curse. Swearing at people will not help you win a figh... I stand corrected.




“Curses" include actual curses, debuffs, damage over time, diseases and poisons

You know, there’s an entire class based around debuffing and damage over time effects...

https://i.imgur.com/5njOWIe.png

Talad Silverhorn, Unicorn
Build Stub Unicorn 4 / Truenamer 15

Monster: Unicorn Size: Large. Alignment: Chaotic Good. Deity: Ehlonna, Goddess of the Woodlands
HP: 212. BAB: 15. Move Speed: 60ft. Initiative: 3. Fort: 16. Ref: 12. Will: 16.

Humans ever encroach upon the magical woodland areas that the Unicorns inhabt. To ignore humans is to accept the slow and protracted death of Unicorns, and to fight them will only hasten that death. Thus, Talad Silverhorn sees only one solution to the problem: he sets off on a quest to gain new powers and abilities, learn about Man and see if there is some way to find a way to coexist with them. His mission is not only personal, but also a sacred duty - Unicorns need to find some way to survive as the sacred messengers of Ehlonna, Goddess of the Woodlands.

Talad does not like laws and rules, although he innately chooses to do Good and help other sentient beings. He also likes to ensure others are free to make their own choices, but will severely punish those that deliberately set out to do evil (Chaotic Good alignment).

As a representative of Ehlonna, Talad has some connection with his Goddess, and this can occasionally manifest itself in influencing the outcome of events. (Pious Soul and Pious Defense feats).

He likes interacting with others and wants to develop his skills here in case he needs to develop a pact between Humans and Unicorns. He also prefers to solve problems through diplomacy and discussion, rather than resorting to violence (high Charisma, Skill Prodigy feat, Diplomacy and Gather Information skills).

Due to his very nature as a Unicorn, Talad has some innate understanding of nature and religion that evolves as he adventures and develops, although he's never undertaken formal study or training (Knowledge (Nature) and Knowledge (Religion) skills), Knowledge Focus class feature).
Unicorn has some solid synergies with Truenamer. Losing five levels of casting definitely hurts, but the racial hit dice and strong base stats of the Unicorn greatly improve the Truenamer’s HP, saves, and the DCs of some powerful debuffing utterances. Truenamer doesn’t care about a Unicorn’s lack of hands. And, lastly, utterances give a Unicorn a lot of extra options that expand the Unicorn’s support abilities. It's quite a fair trade.

Truenamer works quite well to spread debuffs and damage over time:

We can cast our strongest debuffs as easily, and as often, as our weakest debuffs.
Quicken Utterance helps us cast two debuffs per turn.
A lot of our debuffs don’t allow saving throws, they only require a Truespeak check which our build easily passes
Any utterances have the same save DCs, regardless of utterance level, which means they still stay relevant regardless of character level
Our utterances don't just spread debuffs or status ailments, they can also do damage over time with the Mortalbane feat. 2d6 damage per round mightn't seem like much, but you can add that twice that per round, and then you add another two negative effects and another 4d6 damage per round the next round... well, it starts to add up then.

The huge Charisma increase and debuffing focus means we take some Utterances that would not appear on more standard Truenamer builds. Diplomacy and Gather Information have been added to our class skills to make use of our high Charisma stat and our character’s non-combat utility changes from a knowledge-based role to a more social and information-gathering role. And, lastly, we choose Charisma over Intelligence as our main build stat to further strengthen Utterances with save DCs.



STR
DEX
CON
INT
WIS
CHA


Unicorn Base Stats
10
6
10
0
10
14


Point Buy
8
10
14
16
12
16


Level 1
18
16
24
16
22
30


Level 19
18
16
24
16
22
34



Talad Silverhorn stats
Strength: We’re a mount with support and debuff options. We don’t really need STR, but our solid racial score means we do decent damage at low levels before Truenamer comes online.
Dexterity: A small investment in DEX alongside the strong natural stats of a Unicorn helps with Initiative, Reflex Saves and wearing lighter armor for higher mobility.
Constitution: Some investment here alongside the good natural stats of a Unicorn gives us great HP and a good Fort save, which are normally weak points for a Truenamer. This also helps with Concentration checks.
Intelligence: Intelligence helps with Truespeak, Knowledge (Nature), and Knowledge (Religion) checks, the Skill Prodigy feat, and gives more skill points.
Wisdom: investing a little here helps improve our Will save.
Charisma: This helps improve the DCs of our save-based Utterances, Diplomacy and Gather Information. This is the stat we'll invest in while we level.

Talad Silverhorn Skill List
Concentration: some of our Utterances need Concentration checks to function, and we'll need this if we get hit.
Diplomacy: this skill makes sense for us for a variety of reasons. We're an envoy of Ehlonna. We're seeking to come to an arrangement with man to help safeguard the existence of our race, and we prefer discussing problems if we can solve them without fighting. It also synergizes well with our high Charisma stat.
Gather Information: we want to gather information about the world our character finds itself in, to help our fellow Unicorns. It also utilizes our high Charisma stat.
Knowledge (Nature): unicorns are a creature of nature with religious undertones. It makes sense our character would have knowledge to match its innate nature.
Knowledge (Religion): unicorns are a creature of nature with religious undertones. It makes sense our character would have knowledge to match its innate nature.
Truespeak: our class is based off this skill and the higher it is, the better. We even get this skill as a class skill early to be sure we're at maximum ranks the moment we start the Truenamer class.


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


4th
Unicorn 4
4
4
4
1
Diplomacy (7) (includes 2 CC at level 1)
Gather Information (7)
Jump (4)
Listen (5)
Spot (5)
Truespeak (7) (includes 2 CC at level 1)
(1) Skill Prodigy (Diplomacy, Gather Information, Truespeak)
(3) Skill Focus: Truespeak
Darkvision 60ft
Magic Circle Against Evil
Detect Evil
Spell-Like Abilities
Immunity to Poison, Charm and Compulsion
Low-Light Vision
Scent
Wild Empathy


5th
Truenamer 1
4
4
4
3
Concentration +4 (4)
Diplomacy (7)
Gather Information (7)
Jump (4)
Know. (Nature) +1 (1)
Know. (Religion) +1 (1)
Listen (5)
Spot (5)
Truespeak +1 (8)

Known Personal Truename


6th
Truenamer 2
5
4
4
3
Concentration +4 (8)
Diplomacy +1 (8)
Gather Information +1 (8)
Jump (4)
Know. (Nature) (1)
Know. (Religion) (1)
Listen (5)
Spot (5)
Truespeak +1 (9)
(6) Mortalbane
Knowledge Focus (Nature)


7th
Truenamer 3
6
5
5
4
Concentration +2 (10)
Diplomacy +2 (10)
Gather Information +1 (9)
Jump (4)
Know. (Nature) +1 (2)
Know. (Religion) (1)
Listen (5)
Spot (5)
Truespeak +1 (10)




8th
Truenamer 4
7
5
5
4
Concentration +1 (11)
Diplomacy +1 (11)
Gather Information +2 (11)
Jump (4)
Know. (Nature) +1 (3)
Know. (Religion) +1 (2)
Listen (5)
Spot (5)
Truespeak +1 (11)




9th
Truenamer 5
7
5
m5
5
Concentration +1 (12)
Diplomacy +1 (12)
Gather Information +1 (12)
Jump (4)
Know. (Nature) +1 (4)
Know. (Religion) +2 (4)
Listen (5)
Spot (5)
Truespeak +1 (12)
(9) Extend Utterance



10th
Truenamer 6
8
6
6
5
Concentration +1 (13)
Diplomacy +1 (13)
Gather Information +1 (13)
Jump (4)
Know. (Nature) +2 (6)
Know. (Religion) +1 (5)
Listen (5)
Spot (5)
Truespeak +1 (13)
(B) Truename Research



11th
Truenamer 7
9
6
6
6
Concentration +1 (14)
Diplomacy +1 (14)
Gather Information +1 (14)
Jump (4)
Know. (Nature) +1 (7)
Know. (Religion) +2 (7)
Listen (5)
Spot (5)
Truespeak +1 (14)

Knowledge Focus (Religion)


12th
Truenamer 8
10
6
6
6
Concentration +1 (15)
Diplomacy +1 (15)
Gather Information +1 (15)
Jump (4)
Know. (Nature) +2 (9)
Know. (Religion) +1 (8)
Listen (5)
Spot (5)
Truespeak +1 (15)
(12) Quicken Utterance
(B) Recitation of the Vital State



13th
Truenamer 9
10
7
7
7
Concentration +1 (16)
Diplomacy +1 (16)
Gather Information +1 (16)
Jump (4)
Know. (Nature) +1 (10)
Know. (Religion) +2 (10)
Listen (5)
Spot (5)
Truespeak +1 (16)

See the Named


14th
Truenamer 10
11
7
7
7
Concentration +1 (17)
Diplomacy +1 (17)
Gather Information +1 (17)
Jump (4)
Know. (Nature) +2 (12)
Know. (Religion) +1 (11)
Listen (5)
Spot (5)
Truespeak +1 (17)

Knowledge Focus (Nature)


15th
Truenamer 11
12
7
7
8
Concentration +1 (18)
Diplomacy +1 (18)
Gather Information +1 (18)
Jump (4)
Know. (Nature) +1 (13)
Know. (Religion) +2 (13)
Listen (5)
Spot (5)
Truespeak +1 (18)
(15) Pious Soul



16th
Truenamer 12
13
8
8
8
Concentration +1 (19)
Diplomacy +1 (19)
Gather Information +1 (19)
Jump (4)
Know. (Nature) +2 (15)
Know. (Religion) +1 (14)
Listen (5)
Spot (5)
Truespeak +1 (19)




17th
Truenamer 13
13
8
8
9
Concentration +1 (20)
Diplomacy +1 (20)
Gather Information +1 (20)
Jump (4)
Know. (Nature) +1 (16)
Know. (Religion) +2 (16)
Listen (5)
Spot (5)
Truespeak +1 (20)

Sending


18th
Truenamer 14
14
8
8
9
Concentration +1 (21)
Diplomacy +1 (21)
Gather Information +1 (21)
Jump (4)
Know. (Nature) +2 (18)
Know. (Religion) +1 (17)
Listen (5)
Spot (5)
Truespeak +1 (21)
(18) Pious Defense
Knowledge Focus (Religion)


19th
Truenamer 15
15
9
9
10
Concentration +1 (22)
Diplomacy +1 (22)
Gather Information +1 (22)
Jump (4)
Know. (Nature) +1 (19)
Know. (Religion) +2 (19)
Listen (5)
Spot (5)
Truespeak +1 (22)
(B) Recitation of the Fortified State



Utterances are listed by ECL (Character Level + 1 LA). All strategies relating to their use are discussed in more detail in individual ECL breakdown sections.

Lexicon of Evolving Mind
6 – Knight’s Puissance
7 – Inertia Surge
8 – Temporal Twist
9 – Hidden Truth
10 – Silent Caster
11 – Temporal Spiral
12 – Greater Speed of the Zephyr
13 – Energy Negation
14 – Moderate Word of Nurturing
15 – Spell of Rebirth
16 – Word of Bolstering
17 – Breath of Cleansing
18 – Morale Boost
19 – Ward of Peace
20 – Sensory Focus

Lexicon of Evolving Mind utterances require a Truespeak skill check of 15 + 2 x CR of Target.
Any utterance requiring a saving throw has a DC of 10 + 1/2 Truenamer Level + Charisma

Lexicon of Crafted Tool
9 – Fortify Armor
12 – Analyze Item
16 – Rebuild Item
20 – Suppress Item

Lexicon of Crafted Tool utterances require a Truespeak skill check of 15 + 2 x CL of Item.
If an item has no caster level, it requires a Truespeak skill check of DC of 25.

Lexicon of Perfected Map
13 – Fog from the Void
17 – Energy Vortex

Lexicon of Perfected Map utterances have a DC of 25 + 5 x Level of utterance.
We’ve covered our +1 LA and the four racial hit dice of a Unicorn. Unicorn, in spite of its racial dice and LA, has quite the synergies with the Truenamer class. First, the Unicorn's stats and racial hit dice really boost our defensive stats and saves, normally weak points of a Truenamer. The boost to Charisma means utterances with saving throws are harder to beat. The Unicorn's lack of hands are not a problem for a Truenamer. And buffing and debuffing utterances have good synergy for a mount build.

Combat is simple at low-level. We charge, attack the enemy with our horn, and as a mount option, we can help an ally move and full attack each turn. Compared to a standard mount, we'll have better saves, more HP and a variety of extra effects and immunities. If mounted combat isn't an option, we can still contribute without a rider. Our high carry capcity also means we can carry the party's loot back to civilization, which is a nice early-game bonus.

Unicorn Abilities
Dark Vision and Low-Light Vision - being able to see in all sorts of lighting conditions is always appreciated
Magic Circle Against Evil – +2 Resistance bonus to AC and saves against Evil enemies is a nice early-game bonus, and also hampers some evil creatures to boot.
Detect Evil - this lets you find out the alignments of other people, and can penetrate some barriers to help find evil people in hiding. This is a strong ability at any level.
Cure Light Wounds, Cure Moderate Wounds and Neutralize Poison have limited uses, but free healing is never unwelcome in a party.
Immunity to Poison, Charm and Compulsion – these are some very nice immunities to have.
Scent – this works well with Detect Evil to give us a second method to foil potential ambushes, even without investment in listen or spot.
Unicorn Horn – this gets treated as a +3 weapon, and with our strength score, helps make a Unicorn’s offensive presence much more effective in early-game, w.

Feats
Skill Prodigy – this lets us pick our INT modifier worth of cross-class skills and make them class skills. We’ve picked Diplomacy, Gather Information and Truespeak. Unfortunately, skill point allocation happens before feats when levelling a character, so we lose two skill points to cross-class skills each for Diplomacy and Truespeak at first level. It’s a small price to pay to ensure we have high ranks in these skills as early as possible. The reason we take Truespeak, even though it’s a class skill from fifth level, is to ensure we have maxed-out skill points for Truespeak as soon as we have our first utterance.
Skill Focus: Truespeak – for a build based around maximizing a specific skill check, Skill Focus is an obvious choice.

Skill Check Totals
Diplomacy – 7 Ranks + 10 Charisma (17)
Gather Information – 7 Ranks + 10 Charisma (17)
Jump – 4 Ranks + 4 Strength (8)
Listen – 5 Ranks + 1 Wisdom (6)
Spot – 5 Ranks + 1 Wisdom (6)
Truespeak – 7 Ranks + 3 Intelligence + 3 Skill Focus (13)

We now have five levels of Truenamer under our belt, a caster(like) class whose main feature is their access to Utterances. To cast our Utterances, we need to meet a Truespeak skill check, which gets increasingly difficult as you reuse that same utterance through the day (thanks to the "Law of Resistance").

Instead of attacking, we’re using our standard action to buff or debuff and deal damage-over-time effects. We can also do this before or after our move action. If we’re debuffing, Mortalbane allows us to add 2d6 damage to most enemy types (excepting Outsiders, Undead, and Constructs). 2d6 doesn’t appear to be a great deal of damage, but since this damage happens every round and for every debuff we put on an enemy, this is more substantial than it first appears.

Lastly, let's discuss items and the Truespeak skill check. There’s an in-built expectation that any characters using the Truespeak skill will be spending part of their wealth to boost said skill check. All the example characters with Truespeak in Tome of Magic, including the Truenamer, have an “Amulet of Silver Tongue” as part of their equipment. The example Truename character also has a Headband of Intellect. When calculating our expected Truespeak check, we'll assume we have a suitable Amulet of Silver Tongue as part of our calculation (which provides an Enhancement bonus), and a suitable version of the Headband of Intellect.

We'll also be making use of the rules for custom Competence items (Dungeon Master’s Guide). It’s important to note that the DM decides if such an item is allowed in-game, and if so, how such an item is priced. This build presumes a custom Truespeak competence item is allowed, priced according to the guidelines (matching other, similar skill-boosting items), and that players are receiving average WBL in order to purchase the aforementioned skill and stat-boosting items.

Class Features
Known Personal Truename – if we want to buff ourselves, we get a +2 on the check (the +4 check is added to what is a -2 penalty to use a Personal Truename). There are a few utterances we wouldn't mind using on ourselves, so it's a useful bonus.
Knowledge Focus (Nature) – a +3 to Knowledge (Nature) checks. We like having good Knowledge checks.

Feats
Mortalbane – we can add 2d6 damage to each utterance 5/day. It’s a good way to add damage over time to our utterances.
Extend Utterance – this lets us double the duration of our utterances. We have some nasty effects we can give enemies and being able to double their duration is quite handy. It also works rather well with Mortalbane to help rack up extra damage over time if we think an enemy will survive several rounds. We won't always want to do this, though: we can't use the same utterance again, or its reversed version, while this is on cooldown ("Law of Sequence").

Utterances
Knight’s Puissance (ECL 6) - this gives either an ally +2 to attack rolls or gives an enemy -2 to AC. There are obviously situations where each of these are good but in either case, that's 10% more chance for allies to land their hits.
Inertia Surge (ECL 7) - this can free an ally from effects that impede movement, and make you the favourite of the party ubercharger. The other option is to stop an enemy from moving from their square for a turn (two, when you have Extend Utterance).
Temporal Twist (ECL 8) - this has two good effects. The first is allowing an ally an extra attack. The reverse version is better though: it can stop an enemy from being able to take any action for one turn, or two turns when you have Extend Utterance. Trading a standard action for two turns of an enemy is a great trade. The reversed version requires a Will Save, but a DC 22 save (at ECL 8), even before extra items, is going to be hard to make.
Silent Caster (ECL 9) - giving a party spellcaster Silent Spell effect is situational, but the reverse version stops casters from using somatic components. It mightn’t completely shut down a spellcaster, but will greatly limit their options. And this can also help with stealth-based missions. The reversed version requires a Will Save, but a DC 22 save (at ECL 8), even before extra items, is going to be hard to make.
Fortify Armor (ECL 9) - This helps prevent crit hits on an ally. When we can pump our Truespeak check enough, it offers 100% critical immunity.
Hidden Truth (ECL 10) - boosting our Nature and Religion checks and recalling Knowledge untrained is pretty nice. Or you can help the party diplomat with his bluff check.

Skill Check Totals
Concentration – 12 Ranks + 7 Constitution (19)
Diplomacy – 12 Ranks + 11 Charisma (23)
Gather Information – 12 Ranks + 11 Charisma (23)
Jump – 4 Ranks + 4 Strength (8)
Knowledge (Nature) – 4 Ranks + 3 Intelligence + 1 Headband of Intellect + 3 Knowledge Focus (11)
Knowledge (Religion) – 4 Ranks + 3 Intelligence + 1 Headband of Intellect (8)
Listen – 5 Ranks + 1 Wisdom (6)
Spot – 5 Ranks + 1 Wisdom (6)
Truespeak
12 Ranks
3 Intelligence
1 Headband of Intellect
3 Skill Focus
10 (Enhancement) Amulet of Silver Tongue, Greater
11 Competence Custom Truespeak Item
Total – 40

Utterance Save DC (ECL 10) – 23

Total wealth spent – 16,100 gold
Headband of Intellect +2 – 4,000 gold
Amulet of Silver Tongue, Greater – 10,000 gold
Custom Truespeak Item + 11 – 12,100 gold

This allocates approximately 50% of average WBL at ECL 10.


Overcome Spell Resistance: +5 to check to automatically overcome spell resistance (ECL 6)
Increase Utterance Level: +4 to check to increase utterance level by +1 (ECL 6)
Mortalbane: +2d6 damage to nonoutsiders, halves damage to outsiders, undead or constructs. 5/day per utterance. (ECL 7)
Extend Utterance: +5 to check to double duration of utterance (ECL 10)
Quicken Utterance: +20 to check to use utterance as a swift action (ECL 13)
Our combat strategy becomes more efficient with the addition of Quicken Utterance, helping us cast a second utterance every turn as a quickened action, on top of our standard action utterance and our move action. However, a quickened action utterance has a Truespeak DC increase of 20.

Let’s discuss probability calculations for Quickened Utterance. At ECL 15, to quicken an utterance against a CR15 opponent, we’ll typically need to hit a DC of 65. Some utterances, like Fog from the Void or Lexicon of Crafted Tool utterances have much lower checks and will be able to succeed automatically. Our Truespeak check (calculated below) is 54 + 1d20. So we have a 45% chance to pass at the start of the day. We’re not passing every check, but trying to cast is free, and there’s no penalty for failing to quicken an Utterance.

We also get more utterances and more options to debuff our opponents, which are discussed below.

Class Features
Knowledge Focus (Religion) – a +3 to this Knowledge check.
Knowledge Focus (Nature) – a second +3 to one of our Knowledge checks.
See the Named – we get 1/day scrying for people whose Truename we know. However, we have not really assigned our skill points for researching Truenames, so this isn't really relevant to our build.

Feats
Truename Research – getting the most out of researching Truenames requires the relevant Knowledge skills to do research, but we have elected to allot our skill points elsewhere. This isn't really relevant to our build.
Quicken Utterance – we get the chance to cast a second utterance each turn. Some of our utterances, like Fog from the Void or Energy Vortex, we’ll be able to cast freely even after taking a +20 penalty to our Truespeak check to Quicken our utterance. Others will be done by chance through a dice roll, but this costs nothing to use.
Recitation of the Vital State – this allows us to free ourselves of any disease. It’s niche, but maybe you’ll find one specific scenario during the campaign to use it.

Utterances
Temporal Spiral (ECL 11) – the reverse of this utterance lets us trade one action of ours for three turns of an enemy. Daze is hard to negate and we can inflict it quite easily. This requires a 24 DC Will saving throw (ECL 11).
Greater Speed of the Zephyr (ECL 12) – we get to put haste or slow on one target.
Analyze Item[B] (ECL 12) – being able to work out how magical items work is always handy.
[B]Energy Negation (ECL 13) – 2d6 of one element type (Fire, Cold, Electricity or Acid) as damage over five rounds (10 rounds with Extend Utterance, and 4d6 with Mortalbane).
Fog from the Void (ECL 13) – firstly, we can add 10 to our Truespeak check to make this into Solid Fog, which is a nice upgrade, and the relatively low DC means we have no reason not to do this, unless we're using it as a Quickened Utterance. This means enemies inside the fog can only move at 5ft per round, and they take 2d6 damage per round from Mortalbane. This also allows us to target most swarms and mooks, which we’d typically have a hard time with.
Moderate Word of Nurturing (ECL 14) – The amount of healing this provides is not enough to be relevant in combat, but will be greatly helpful topping up the party out-of-combat. Adding 4d6 damage a round for five rounds (10 rounds with Extend Utterance, and another 2d6 damage with Mortalbane) is helpful if we want stack a few extra d6s of damage per round from an utterance on an enemy, or if we run into those pesky Outsiders, Undead or Constructs and want to do some damage over time effects.
Spell of Rebirth (ECL 15) – This has two great effects. The first is to restore a spell that was dispelled or dismissed in the last round. The other option is to dispel one spell with the highest caster level, no save allowed. The latter is an especially powerful effect, since there is no cap for max allowable caster level that can be dispelled.

Skill Check Totals
Concentration – 17 Ranks + 7 Constitution (24)
Diplomacy – 17 Ranks + 11 Charisma (28)
Gather Information – 17 Ranks + 11 Charisma (28)
Jump – 4 Ranks + 4 Strength (8)
Knowledge (Nature) – 12 Ranks + 3 Intelligence + 2 Headband of Intellect + 6 Knowledge Focus (23)
Knowledge (Religion) – 12 Ranks + 3 Intelligence + 2 Headband of Intellect + 3 Knowledge Focus (20)
Listen – 5 Ranks + 1 Wisdom (6)
Spot – 5 Ranks + 1 Wisdom (6)
Truespeak
Ranks – 17
Intelligence – 3
Headband of Intellect +4 – 2
Skill Focus – 3
Amulet of Silver Tongue, Greater – 10
Custom Truespeak Item – 22

Total – 57 + d20

Utterance Save DC (ECL 15) – 26

Total wealth spent – 74,400 gold
Headband of Intellect +4 – 16,000 gold
Amulet of Silver Tongue, Greater – 10,000 gold
Custom Truespeak Item +24 – 48,400 gold

This allocates approximately 35% of WBL at ECL 15
Another five levels helps make our build strategy more consistent. Our Truespeak skill check improves enough to make Quickened Utterances consistent, at least at the start of the day, and we some interesting utterances in our arsenal.

Let’s discuss probability calculations for Quickened Utterance. At ECL 20, to quicken an utterance against a CR20 opponent, we’ll typically need to hit a DC of 75. Some utterances, like Energy Vortex or Lexicon of Crafted Tool utterances have much lower checks and will be able to succeed automatically. Our Truespeak check (calculated below) is 80 + 1d20. With the addition of Pious Soul, we can use the feat to help pass a few checks that we might have otherwise failed, by choosing to add a further 1d6 if we don’t quite make our check.

Class Features
Sending – this allows us to do long-distance communication with someone whose Truename we know. However, our focus on other skills means we likely won’t have a good enough Knowledge check to be able to do the Truename research to properly use the skill.
Knowledge Focus (Religion) – a second +3 to one of our Knowledge checks.

Feats
Pious Soul – This feat gives you the opportunity to earn and spend “Faith Points” to boost any saves or check. Faith points are offered at the discretion of the DM, and are given for doing things related to serving our religion or goddess, such as proselytizing or undertaking missions furthering our deity’s causes. We should expect to receive an average of 5 points + half our character level worth of Faith points each level, but this can vary depending on what we’re doing and how well it relates to our faith and religion. Pious Soul also lets us spend our point after rolling our d20, but before finding out the result of our roll. Let’s say we need a 10 on our d20 roll to Quicken our utterance, and we roll an 9. We can choose to add our d6 then, and be guaranteed to turn a failure into a success. Depending on how many Faith points we’re earning, we might decide it’s worth doing only if we’re one point away from winning our roll, or if we might take the risk on rolling a 1d6 for a 2 or better. We can also use Pious Soul to boost saving throws. While our saves are pretty solid, if there's a saving throw you really need to beat, this could help with that.
Pious Defense – if we were going to take a hit that would lower us to 0 health or less, this lets us spend a faith point (discussed in the ECL 15 section) to halve that damage. Not applicable to every situation, but this is a nice defensive addition to the build and gives us a second use for Faith points.

Utterances
Word of Bolstering – this lets us do 1d6 damage to a physical ability score. While this initially seems underwhelming, we can add Mortalbane to do another 2d6 damage, since Mortalbane does not specify what type of damage it can be added to. While targeting Strength and Dexterity has its uses, if we target an enemy’s HP, we can expect to do an average of 10.5 x enemy HD worth of HP loss to one enemy. Oh, and no saving throws, either.
Breath of Cleansing – allowing a second saving throw against an ongoing effect is quite a nice effect, and the reverse version puts nausea on an enemy, which stops them doing anything besides a single move action each turn. This requires a 28 DC Fortitude saving throw (ECL 17).
Energy Vortex – this is another option to damage swarms and mooks, dealing 2d6 damage per turn before Mortalbane. It combos quite well with Solid Fog – Solid Fog locks them in place, while Energy vortex helps boost damage over time.
Rebuild Item – rebuilding a broken item is a nice ability in general, but can be a lot nicer if you can rebuild items that are meant to be broken for use without being repaired, like Potion Tiles or Skull Talismans. This build makes no presumption that you’ll have access to such items though.
Morale Boost – this can remove fear from an ally or inflict Fear on an enemy, a great debuff if the enemy isn’t immune. This requires a 28 DC Will saving throw (ECL 18).
Ward of Peace – this has two great effects. First, we can put this on an ally, or ourselves, to stop targeted attacks and even targeted spells, which greatly increases longevity on the field. If we use it on ourselves, we can’t use hostile effects without breaking the Ward but we can still spread around buffs to our allies and still do mount work. The other effect is banishing a target, which can take one tough enemy out of an encounter for a few rounds to make a fight more manageable. This requires a 29 DC Will saving throw (ECL 19).
Eldritch Attraction – We have two options to force movement from an enemy, closer to us or further away from us. Each option has the chance of triggering attacks of opportunity, Sending a creature away from us requires a saving throw, but this can help break up groups of enemies or force an enemy to approach yourself and your rider again, which would be devastating should your rider have sufficiently large reach with a weapon
Sending a creature away from us requires a 29 DC Will saving throw (ECL 20).
Suppress Item – spending a standard action to suppress an item isn’t generally a great course of action, but having the option to temporarily deactivate magical items can be helpful for plot-related artifacts that might otherwise be difficult to handle or destroy.

Skill Check Totals
Concentration – 22 Ranks + 7 Constitution (29)
Diplomacy – 22 Ranks + 11 Charisma (33)
Gather Information – 22 Ranks + 11 Charisma (33)
Jump – 4 Ranks + 4 Strength (8)
Knowledge (Nature) – 19 Ranks + 3 Intelligence + 3 Headband of Intellect + 6 Knowledge Focus (31)
Knowledge (Religion) – 19 Ranks + 3 Intelligence + 3 Headband of Intellect + 6 Knowledge Focus (31)
Listen – 5 Ranks + 1 Wisdom (6)
Spot – 5 Ranks + 1 Wisdom (6)
Truespeak
Ranks – 17
Intelligence – 3
Headband of Intellect (36,000) – 3
Skill Focus – 3
Amulet of Silver Tongue (10,000) – 10
Custom Truespeak Item (193,600) – 44

Total – 80 + d20 + 1d6

Utterance Save DC (ECL 20) – 29

Total wealth spent – 239,600 gold
Headband of Intellect +6 – 36,000 gold
Amulet of Silver Tongue, Greater – 10,000 gold
Custom Truespeak Item + 44 – 193,600 gold

This allocates approximately 30% of WBL at ECL 20
The Paragnostic Assembly is a factional option to gain a Truespeak bonus of +5. It has been forgone as it did not suit this character concept. While the faction can also grant a +10 bonus to our Truespeak check, this would require significant roleplay work with the Assembly, reworking the character skill list to include many more Knowledge skills, and further focusing on Intelligence stat over Charisma.
Book of Vile Darkness – Mortalbane feat
Complete Divine – Pious Soul, Pious Defense feats
Dungeon Master’s Guide – Custom competence item
Kingdoms of Kalamar – Skill Prodigy
Level Adjustment Assignment Thread – Link (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=22467180&postcount=515)
Monster Manual – Unicorn creature
Player’s Handbook – Skill Focus, Unicorn picture
System Resource Document – Headband of Intellect
Tome of Magic – Truenamer class, Utterances, Extend Utterance, Quicken Utterance, Truename Research, Recitation of the Vital State, feats, Recitation of the Fortified State, Amulet of Silver Tongue
Tome of Magic Errata – Lexicon of Perfected Map skill check DCs

[Beni-Kujaku]

The Great Serpent beneath appreciates your offering. I mean Merrshaulk. I mean Sseth. I mean Set. Ah, dammit, just make your mind on your snakey god's name!



https://img.freepik.com/vector-premium/ilustracion-simbolo-ouroboros_23-2150117734.jpg

The little boy planted a sapling of a rose bush. His mother loved roses very much, that’s why he decided to plant it on her grave. It was an orcs' raid. His village was destroyed and all inhabitants were killed, he was the only survivor. The Boy couldn’t bury them all, but at least the mother he had to.
The Boy finished planting roses, watered it and sat on the ground right where he stood. He was drained and desperate. Suddenly there was a hissing voice over his head: "Sss... There you are, kid! I’ve been looking for you." There was an enormous snake with some semblance of human face looming over him. "You aren't afraid, kid. It'sss good. You will go with me. Hsss... I shhhow you what your blood hidesss."


CE Tainted One Human Psionic Pureblood Yuan-Ti Psionic Halfblood Yuan-Ti Psionic Yuan-Ti Abomination Spontaneous Domain Casting Cloistered Cleric of Merrshaulk 1/Yuan-Ti Cultist 10
Abilities Initial Tainted One Pureblood Halfblood 12th Abomination 16th 20th Total
STR 14 4 4 22
DEX 10 2 12
CON 14 2 -2 2 4 20
INT 12 2 6 2 22
WIS 15 8 1 2 1 1 28
CHA 14 2 4 2 22
It's slightly unclear should Human cleric 1 transformed into Halfblood Yuan-Ti Cleric 1 get 8th level ASI or not. If your answer is "yes, of course" - look at table below.
Abilities Initial Tainted One Pureblood Halfblood 8th 12th Abomination 16th 20th Total
STR 12 4 4 20
DEX 10 2 12
CON 14 2 -2 2 4 20
INT 12 2 6 2 22
WIS 16 8 1 1 2 1 1 30
CHA 14 2 4 2 22

ECL Class BAB Fort Reflex Will Skills Feats Class Features
1st Spontaneous Domain Casting Cloistered Cleric of Merrshaulk 1 0 2 0 2 24: {+2} Concentration: 2; {+4} Craft (alchemy): 4; {+4} Decipher Script: 4; {+1} Knowledge (arcana): 1; {+1} Knowledge (nature): 1; {+4} Knowledge (religion): 4; {+4} Profession (herbalist): 4; {+4} Speak Language: 4 (Chultan, Yuan-ti, Draconic, and Abyssal); Heighten Spell (1), Hidden Talent (Psionic daze) (H), Knowledge Devotion (nature) (D), Martial Weapon Proficiency (longsword) (B), Weapon Focus (longsword) (B) Rebuke undead, domains (Knowledge, Scalykind, War), spontaneous scalykind domain casting, lore
2nd Yuan-Ti Tainted One - Alertness (B) Poison kiss, psionics, immunity poison, mental resistance, spell resistance
5th Psionic Yuan-Ti Pureblood 4 3 4 6 16: {+4} Concentration: 6; Craft (alchemy): 4; Decipher Script: 4; {+1} Knowledge (arcana): 2; {+1} Knowledge (dungeonering): 1; {+1} Knowledge (history): 1; {+4} Knowledge (nature): 5; {+4} Knowledge (religion): 8; {+1} Knowledge (the planes): 1; Profession (herbalist): 4; Speak Language: 4; Divine Metamagic (Heighten) (3), Blind-Fight (B), Hidden Talent (Psionic daze) Psi-like abilities, alternate form, darkvision 60 ft., power resistance
8th Psionic Yuan-Ti Halfblood 7 4 5 7 21: {+3} Concentration: 9; {+1} Craft (alchemy): 5; Decipher Script: 4; {+1} Knowledge (arcana): 3; Knowledge (dungeonering): 1; Knowledge (history): 1; {+1} Knowledge (local): 1; Knowledge (nature): 5; {+3} Knowledge (religion): 11; Knowledge (the planes): 1; {+2 CC} Perform (chant): 1; Profession (herbalist): 4; {+10 CC} Use Magic Device: 5; Blindsight, 5-foot Radius (6) Constrict, poison, psi-like abilities, scent
9th Yuan-Ti Cultist 1 7 6 5 9 7: {+1} Concentration: 10; {+1} Craft (alchemy): 6; Decipher Script: 4; {+1} Diplomacy: 1; Knowledge (arcana): 3; Knowledge (dungeonering): 1; Knowledge (history): 1; Knowledge (local): 1; Knowledge (nature): 5; {+1} Knowledge (religion): 12; Knowledge (the planes): 1; Perform (chant): 1; {+1} Profession (herbalist): 5; {+1} Spellcraft: 1; Speak Language: 4; {+1 CC} Use Magic Device: 5.5; Practiced Spellcaster (cleric) (9) Outer Circle, spit poison
10th Yuan-Ti Cultist 2 8 7 5 10 7: {+1} Concentration: 11; {+1} Craft (alchemy): 7; Decipher Script: 4; {+1} Diplomacy: 2; Knowledge (arcana): 3; Knowledge (dungeonering): 1; Knowledge (history): 1; Knowledge (local): 1; Knowledge (nature): 5; {+1} Knowledge (religion): 13; Knowledge (the planes): 1; {+1} Perform (chant): 2; Profession (herbalist): 5; {+1} Spellcraft: 2; {+1 CC} Use Magic Device: 6; Suffering prestige domain, sticks to snakes
11th Yuan-Ti Cultist 3 9 7 6 10 7: {+1} Concentration: 12; {+1} Craft (alchemy): 8; Decipher Script: 4; {+1} Diplomacy: 3; Knowledge (arcana): 3; Knowledge (dungeonering): 1; Knowledge (history): 1; Knowledge (local): 1; Knowledge (nature): 5; {+1} Knowledge (religion): 14; Knowledge (the planes): 1; {+1} Perform (chant): 3; Profession (herbalist): 5; {+1} Spellcraft: 3; {+1 CC} Use Magic Device: 6.5; Third Circle, snake darts
12th Yuan-Ti Cultist 4 10 8 6 11 7: {+1} Concentration: 13; {+1} Craft (alchemy): 9; Decipher Script: 4; {+1} Diplomacy: 4; Knowledge (arcana): 3; Knowledge (dungeonering): 1; Knowledge (history): 1; Knowledge (local): 1; Knowledge (nature): 5; {+1} Knowledge (religion): 15; Knowledge (the planes): 1; {+1} Perform (chant): 4; Profession (herbalist): 5; {+1} Spellcraft: 4; {+1 CC} Use Magic Device: 7; Ability Focus (Poison) (12) Psionic focus, psionics: chant of pain
13th Yuan-Ti Cultist 5 10 8 6 11 7: {+1} Concentration: 14; {+1} Craft (alchemy): 10; Decipher Script: 4; {+1} Diplomacy: 5; Knowledge (arcana): 3; Knowledge (dungeonering): 1; Knowledge (history): 1; Knowledge (local): 1; Knowledge (nature): 5; {+1} Knowledge (religion): 16; Knowledge (the planes): 1; {+1} Perform (chant): 5; Profession (herbalist): 5; {+1} Spellcraft: 5; {+1 CC} Use Magic Device: 7.5; Second Circle
15th Psionic Yuan-Ti Abomination 12 9 7 12 16: {+4} Concentration: 18; {+3} Craft (alchemy): 13; Decipher Script: 4; Diplomacy: 5; {+1} Knowledge (arcana): 4; {+1} Knowledge (dungeonering): 2; Knowledge (history): 1; {+1} Knowledge (local): 2; Knowledge (nature): 5; {+2} Knowledge (religion): 18; Knowledge (the planes): 1; Perform (chant): 5; Profession (herbalist): 5; Spellcraft: 5; {+2 CC} Use Magic Device: 8.5; {+2} Collector of Stories; Power Attack (15) Improved grab, poison, psi-like abilities, alternate form, darkvision 60 ft., scent
16th Yuan-Ti Cultist 6 13 10 8 13 8: {+1} Concentration: 19; Craft (alchemy): 13; Decipher Script: 4; {+3} Diplomacy: 8; Knowledge (arcana): 4; Knowledge (dungeonering): 2; Knowledge (history): 1; Knowledge (local): 2; Knowledge (nature): 5; {+1} Knowledge (religion): 19; Knowledge (the planes): 1; {+1} Perform (chant): 6; Profession (herbalist): 5; {+1} Spellcraft: 6; {+1 CC} Use Magic Device: 9; Collector of Stories; Greater psionic focus, psionics: chant of agony
17th Yuan-Ti Cultist 7 14 10 8 13 8: {+1} Concentration: 20; Craft (alchemy): 13; Decipher Script: 4; {+3} Diplomacy: 11; Knowledge (arcana): 4; Knowledge (dungeonering): 2; Knowledge (history): 1; Knowledge (local): 2; Knowledge (nature): 5; {+1} Knowledge (religion): 20; Knowledge (the planes): 1; {+1} Perform (chant): 7; Profession (herbalist): 5; {+1} Spellcraft: 7; {+1 CC} Use Magic Device: 9.5; Collector of Stories; Virulent Poison (B) First Circle, unhallow
18th Yuan-Ti Cultist 8 15 11 8 14 8: {+1} Concentration: 21; Craft (alchemy): 13; Decipher Script: 4; {+3} Diplomacy: 14; Knowledge (arcana): 4; Knowledge (dungeonering): 2; Knowledge (history): 1; Knowledge (local): 2; Knowledge (nature): 5; {+1} Knowledge (religion): 21; Knowledge (the planes): 1; {+1} Perform (chant): 8; Profession (herbalist): 5; {+1} Spellcraft: 8; {+1 CC} Use Magic Device: 10; Collector of Stories; Holy Warrior (18) Command reptiles, psionics: chant of death
19th Yuan-Ti Cultist 9 15 11 9 14 8: {+1} Concentration: 22; Craft (alchemy): 13; Decipher Script: 4; {+3} Diplomacy: 17; Knowledge (arcana): 4; Knowledge (dungeonering): 2; Knowledge (history): 1; Knowledge (local): 2; Knowledge (nature): 5; {+1} Knowledge (religion): 22; Knowledge (the planes): 1; {+1} Perform (chant): 9; Profession (herbalist): 5; {+1} Spellcraft: 9; {+1 CC} Use Magic Device: 10.5; Collector of Stories; Deadly Poison (B) Inner Circle, unholy aura
20th Yuan-Ti Cultist 10 16 12 9 15 8: {+1} Concentration: 23; Craft (alchemy): 13; Decipher Script: 4; {+3} Diplomacy: 20; Knowledge (arcana): 4; Knowledge (dungeonering): 2; Knowledge (history): 1; Knowledge (local): 2; Knowledge (nature): 5; {+1} Knowledge (religion): 23; Knowledge (the planes): 1; {+1} Perform (chant): 10; Profession (herbalist): 5; {+1} Spellcraft: 10; {+1 CC} Use Magic Device: 11; Collector of Stories; Voice of Merrshaulk

Per Day
Level Class 0th 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th
1st Cleric 1 3 1+1+1 15
9th Cleric 2 4 2+2+1 23
10th Cleric 3 4 2+2+1 1+2+1 23
11th Cleric 4 5 3+2+1 2+2+1 23
12th Cleric 5 5 3+2+1 2+2+1 1+2+1 24
13th Cleric 6 5 3+2+1 3+2+1 2+2+1 24
16th Cleric 7 6 4+3+1 3+2+1 2+2+1 1+2+1 27
17th Cleric 8 6 4+3+1 3+2+1 3+2+1 2+2+1 27
18th Cleric 9 6 4+3+1 4+2+1 3+2+1 2+2+1 1+1+1 27
19th Cleric 10 6 4+3+1 4+2+1 3+2+1 3+2+1 2+1+1 27
20th Cleric 11 6 5+3+1 4+3+1 4+2+1 3+2+1 2+2+1 1+1+1
Spells Selection
I don't want to talk much about cleric's spells. It isn't a very new topic. I just pointed out several spells.
Substitute Domain (Complete Champion, p. 128). Merrshaulk has 8 domains. Animal, Chaos, Charm, Destruction, Fate and Plant to add to those Boy already has. Not the best possible domains, but still could be useful.
Venomfire (Serpent Kingdoms, p. 158). Of course it’s here.
Surge of Fortune (Complete Champion, p. 128) and/or Guidance of the Avatar (https://web.archive.org/web/2016/http://archive.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/sb/sb20010504a) and/or Divine Insight (Spell Compendium, p. 70) to succeed on UMD check to use some 9th level spell.
Greater Magic Fang (Player's Handbook, p. 250). +4 Bite isn't a bad idea.
Animal Growth (Player's Handbook, p. 198). Combines good with sticks to snakes.
Psychic Poison (Book if Vile Darkness, p. 101, 45). Another great debuff spell which also fits into round theme.

The Master, as he dared to call himself, showed the Boy the way to truth and power.
First was indoctrination. Perfection goes hand in hand with true faith. Faith of Merrshaulk. Great Serpent, who coils the world. God of the perfect creatures - the Yuan-Ti. The Boy was a diligent student, he learned from the master everything: how to pray and how to sacrifice, all rituals and herbs, handling the deity's sacramental weapon - longsword and beginning of divine spells mastery.
Next came a lot of pain and suffering. The Boy thought he'd die during the first trial of the herbs and poison. But he survived and became the Tainted One. Master explained that taint isn't taint actually, it is a step. Step to difference. Step over human nature. Step to perfection. But yes, it has a price, that's why it is called so. Human tainted by perfection.
Then was a long journey. The Master and the Boy traveled to the Chult. Here in the middle of jungles was the ancient yuan-ti temple of Merrshaulk with a lot of yuan-ti cultists. Master needed three of them for the next two steps of the Boy's ascent - becoming true yuan-ti, pureblood and next halfblood. Cultists of the First Circle initially wanted to kill the Master, but when he dominated them with the Voice of Merrshaulk, they changed their minds.
Boy thought the first trial was suffering. He was wrong. Second trial was much worse and painful. It was the quintessence of pain and agony. It reshaped his very soul. No wonder he tried to resist the third trial. Yes, he knew that it threatened him with death, but death looks more coveted than trial itself. But the Master didn’t care about the Boy’s wishes. Boy resisted? Master started again. Boy lapsed into a coma? Master waited almost a full hour, neutralized poison and started again. Boy was stubborn, but the Master was stubborner. At the end the Boy gave up.
- All what happened, happensss and will happen is dessstined, kid, - said he when Boy recovered from the ritual, - I know you better than you know yourself.
- Then you mussst had known I would resssissst! - Boy hissed back.
- Of courssse, I knew. Look here, - Master pointed with his tail at the potion pedestal, - Do you sssee here more infusssionsss? No, becaussse I knew exactly how many will be required! Kid, remember, you can hide nothhing from me. Now, prepare.
- For what, Master?
- For the nexsst moon you'll enter the Outer Cssircle.
As it was promised by the next moon Boy became one of Cultists. With Master's guidance he grew up in the ranks very quickly. Outer Circle, mysteries of Suffering, snake rituals, then Third Circle, secrets of innate psionics and new psionic abilities, and day had come. Day of the last trial. Day then he will become an abomination or die.
- I know what you are thhhinking about, kid, - Master said, - You're thhinking about ressissstancsse. Do not deny. You can't hide it from me. Lisssent to me, kid! You could try. But only oncsse! Firssst attempt will be sssuccessssful, but sssecond kill you. Think.
And again, everything happened as the Master said. The first time the ritual fell apart. Other cultists were enraged. They hissed Boy is sacrilegious! They wanted to tear him limb from limb. But the Master stopped them. He explained that it was necessary, it wasn't an act of resistance to God's will, but a test of the Boy himself. Does he deserve to become a perfect creature or should die. The second time the Boy remembered poorly. It was... something. Something dreadful. Pain he couldn't imagine. But when he awoke he was in the Second Circle, he was a human-headed abomination - one of the high hierarchs of the church of Merrshaulk.
- There you are, kid, - hissed Master, - Came to me to kill me. Yesss, I know. I know anythhing about you, remember?
- Yesss, Massster, I'm here to kill you and you couldn't ssstop me.
- I know. Thisss conssspiratorsss moved you into Inner Cssircle and nexsst you heard Voicsse of Merrshaulk. It isss perfect, isssn't it? - Master kept lying on his bed.
- Yesss, and now heard Hisss Voicsse by myssself I’m no longer at your mercssy.
- Well. I'm happy now, kid. I gave you all that I can. I brought you to Merrshaulk...
- Ssstop talking about our God! Not after your sssinsss, - Boy was infuriated, - Or don't you remember what happened (https://youtu.be/mNpzt_aylAs?si=pYvQ0YM0Kz6yjKwz&t=167) becaussse of your inaction?
- My inaction meansss nothing. Thisss sssummon wasss doomed to failure, - Master waved his tail in annoyance, - It wasss too sssoon.
- Too ssoon? It wasss only opportunity for cssenturiesss! We heeded only to defeat thessse adventuresss...
- And it'd change nothing! - Master interrupted the Boy, - Merrshaulk wasss too hungry! You couldn’t feed him!
- We have enough...
- Enough! Do not be ridiculousss! We need thoussandsss and thiusssandsss sssoulsss! Willingly given! And you had what? Couple of dosssensss charmed Halfbloodsss?
- We at leassst tried, you did nothhhing!
- You're wrong, kid, I wasss waiting, - Master pointed at the table, - Look here, in the bag of holding.
- What? I came here not for...
- LOOK AT THE BAG, KID! HSSSSS! - Master rarely was angry, but in anger was frightening, - I'm ssstill isss your massster and you'll lisssten to me! After you'll kill me, but now - obey!
Boy crawled to the table and looked in the bag. There were one scroll and several hundred shurikens.
- What isss thisss? How isss thisss related to?..
- Thisss isss thinaun ssshurikensss. Every one of them containsss sssoul willingly given for Merrshaulk asss like asss will be thisss one, - Master pointed at the pendant on his neck, - When you will kill me add it to the bag and then look at the ssscroll. Your mothher loved rosssesss, didn't ssshe?
That single rose bush sprawled up in a whole rose clearing. It was so beautiful... as in childhood. But... Time is now. Boy unwound the scroll and read the spell. Now he understood why the Master forced him to study the science of wizards scroll reading - spell was arcane and of highest rank. But, He is gonna make it! Now! Last word... and yes! Spell is complete! Now the main step: "Sss... There you are, kid! I’ve been looking for you..."

First level cleric with +1 LA not bad template. Knowledge Devotion is all way better than Knowledge domain. War domain feats are useful until 15 ECL. Hidden Talent and 4 ranks in Speak Language represent yuan-ti legacy and will be removed and replaced painlessly and unnoticeably when Boy will transform into yuan-ti.
Tainted One's immunities are very good. It's sad true yuan-ti don't have same.
Transformation into psionic version Halfblood Yuan-Ti (it should be "snake tail instead of human legs" form, but actually all but snake-arms form are ok). Good PLAs, PR, alternate form into snakes, scent, darkvision and blindsight from a feat. All these new abilities are good. Plus stat improvement on top of that. DMM is taken mostly for early entry. It's actually the only way to get all Yuan-Ti Cultist even in Monster Mash conditions. This isn't best designed PrC, I think.
Spellcasting improvement with some snake tricks. Most notable new offensive abilities are Enervation from Suffering Domain, Bestow curse and spit poison plus Venomfire combo.
Now we are talking. Becoming yuan-ti abomination and finishing Yuan-Ti Cultist are great, but issues firstly. Human-headed yuan-ti abomination... It's 3.0 relict. I don't know actually why it was removed during the redaction update. I don't see what problems it could cause. But yes, it was removes. There are two options here. We can update Yuan-Ti Cultist and say "it's just regular abomination" or we can say that class description has precedence. I'm ok with both options, but I see how I could lose Elegance points in first option.

or the lack of basic abilities that aren't strictly required to be a competent adventurer (things like being capable of speech, having thumbs, walking into towns without causing a stir).
However, back to the advantages. 6th level cleric casting; good melee damage with single bite (Srt conus *1.5), Power Attack and Holy Warrior feats; good saves, maybe Reflex is slightly average, but Fortitude and Will are 17 and 24 respectively; becoming outsider; nor useless SR (it looks PR could be bigger if we use RAI - base MM Pureblood has SR 14+class levels, it sounds like 10+HD+class levels, but there are no points in Halfblood and Abomination descriptions and psi version lacks it too, but even if we take this into account, 20 + Wis gives more with items); some new Sp and Su abilities including 1/day Save-or-Die, unlimited dominate yuan-ti, 1/day Baleful Polymorph with DC 25 and +4 DC for all innate psionic abilities; situationally useful Improved grab; and more stats improvement.

It's an old idea of mine. I caught it when I read It's Alive! VC round (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?507768). The old one, not ongoing. It was about the beginning of 2021. I'm very glad I could finally make and present it to this competition.

Story... There are some contradictions with rules and if we take the story as it is... Well, it isn't a story of a PC, it's a story of an NPC or even monster-enemy. And Cultist's description says: "the prospective candidate enters the temple warrens and rarely if ever leaves the complex again." It isn't good. But remember, we aren't tied to the single story and could make something different with the almost same character, and even if we are (tied to the single story) there are enough blind spots in it (we are talking about time travel and full life loop after all, many things could happen).

Yuan-Ti Cultist is a very interesting old 3.0 style prestige class. It has a bunch of stuff inside and... It's actually pretty self-contained. It's hard to add something to it. I think some feats could look slightly out of place, but I tried to get all of them to compliment Cultist itself or Yuan-Ti race.

And about Round Theme. What can I do about it?
Well, I have several options.
1) Poison. I have all natural poison feat-improvements I know, I could spit it, I have access to Venomfire.
2) Spells. Bestow Curse is cleric's spell and it's in the Suffering domain. Feeblemind from Suffering domain is a great instantaneous debuff with hard options to remove it! Eyebite from Scalykind domain (with Spontaneous Domain Casting ACF) also not bad.
3) Baleful Polymorph PLA. I mentioned it earlier. It's good. Especially in combo with Feeblemind.
4) Aversion PLA. Long duration debuff with plenty of uses. You can averse a caster with sleeping or part of the verbal component of his favorite spell (or with spellcasting at all if your DM lets you), enemy pouncer with you, or snakes, or his Axe of Yuan-Ti Decapitation. Options are almost limitless.
5) Some other PLAs and Suffering domain granted power don't fit the round theme very well, but come close.
6) Last, but not least. The way of promotion granted by the Yuan-Ti Cultist prestige class. Yes, transformation into Tainted One, then into Pureblood Yuan-Ti, then into Halfblood Yuan-Ti and finally into Yuan-Ti Abomination isn't debuff or something like (of course if we don't take on the point of view that adding HD is debuff), but the very idea of such transformation and descriptions should demonstrate quite unambiguously - this is curse as it is.

Type Name Book Page
Race Human PHB 12
Race Yuan-Ti Pureblood MM 1 263
Race Yuan-Ti Halfblood MM 1 264
Race Yuan-Ti Abomination MM 1 264
Race Psionic Yuan-Ti Expanded Psionics Handbook 217
Template Yuan-Ti Tainted One Monsters of Faerûn, Serpent Kingdoms 94, 191
Class Cleric PHB 30
Prestige Class Yuan-Ti Cultist Savage Species 97
Class variant Spontaneous Domain Casting PHB 2 36
Class variant Cloistered Cleric Unearthed Arcana 50
Feat Heighten Spell PHB 95
Feat Hidden Talent Expanded Psionics Handbook 67
Feat Knowledge Devotion Complete Champion 60
Feat Martial Weapon Proficiency PHB 97
Feat Weapon Focus PHB 102
Feat Alertness PHB 89
Feat Divine Metamagic Complete Divine 80
Feat Blind-Fight PHB 89
Feat Blindsight, 5-foot Radius Sword and Fist 5
Feat Practiced Spellcaster Complete Divine 82
Feat Ability Focus MM 1 303
Feat Power Attack PHB 98
Feat Virulent Poison Savage Species 40
Feat Holy Warrior Complete Champion 60
Feat Deadly Poison Savage Species 31
Skill Trick Collector of Stories Complete Scoundrel 85
Special Material Thinaun Complete Warrior 136
Spell Teleport Through Time Perilous Gateways Portals in Time (https://web.archive.org/web/20200831071938/http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/pg/20030409b)

[Beni-Kujaku]

And here you go! Four kinds of cursed and cursing entries for your reading pleasure! Inevitability, they're all yours!

[loky1109]

Entries are very different.
And cool of course.

Table!

# Name Alignment / Race Class Levels Chef Total Place
1 Dolgrim (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25910610&postcount=20) CE Gray Slaad Slaad Brooder 9
2 Morpheus (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25910611&postcount=21) NG Dream Fane Exemplar 4/Urban Companion Wild Shape Planewalker Ranger 4
3 Talad (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25910613&postcount=22) CG Unicorn Truenamer 15
4 Boy and his master (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25910617&postcount=23) CE Psionic Yuan-Ti Abomination Spontaneous Domain Casting Cloistered Cleric 1/Yuan-Ti Cultist 10

[Tzardok]

The Great Serpent beneath appreciates your offering. I mean Merrshaulk. I mean Sseth. I mean Set. Ah, dammit, just make your mind on your snakey god's name!

Be glad that Hourglass of Zihaja isn't canon. Ottherwise you'd have to add Martuakh to that list. :smalltongue:

[loky1109]

Be glad that Hourglass of Zihaja isn't canon. Ottherwise you'd have to add Martuakh to that list. :smalltongue:

Two snakes, but they one! (https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxegCcbxPjebHgxL69XyKa_HDhgje5o4gQ?si=uj8cfgGz1-ROJuo_)

[Metastachydium]

…
Did someone actually make a Unicorn freaking Truenamer?! Man, these contests are getting out of control!

[Beni-Kujaku]

…
Did someone actually make a Unicorn freaking Truenamer?! Man, these contests are getting out of control!

I must admit, I was secretly hoping there would be one when I included "damage over time" in the list of valid curses. I have now seen enough, I'm satisfied (though I would be even more if there were twice as many builds, but four is still enough for a podium and a participation trophy, so I can't complain).

[Inevitability]

The judgement has, inevitably, arrived.

Originality (2.25)
Slaad Brooder is not something I expected to see, an inspired choice for sure. 1/1

Some of your skills are a bit quirky, but your feats are very cut-and-dry melee with a side of grappler. 0.25/1

You do exactly what is expected of a slaad brooder: grab something, implant it with egg pellets, and occasionally melt someone's form. You do it well, mind you, but this isn't the power section. 0/1

No unexpected combinations of elements. 0/0.5

A quick quip does not a backstory make. 0/0.5

Elegance (4.25)
No multiclass XP penalties. 1/1

I'm not seeing anything out of order here, everything is very mechanically pretty, and obviously there's no playability issues. 2/2

Some minor dual uses for feats (mostly things that qualify you for PrCs but were good to use anyway), but also some minor antisynergy between your SLA-slinging and melee sides. 0.25/1

Power (2.75)
So you're swinging three times a round at higher attack bonuses than an at-level fighter, but for much worse damage. 2d4+6 is bad, adding one-handed Power Attack barely makes it better, 1d6 energy damage behind two saves doesn't really matter - the main impact from your attacks is grappling, but grappling with +25 is... really not cutting it at level 20. Even a basic humanoid martial is going to be a match for you! Sure, you get a really nasty save-or-suck at level 20, but it requires you to hit and the target must fail two saving throws. Sure, to an extent this is just an issue with slaad brooder, but it's not like it's impossible to optimize natural weapons or build a strong monstrous grappler! 0.25/1

One of your saves is incredibly high, and energy resistance and Magic Circle shore up your 'weaker' ones. Even so, a lot of the traditional melee weaknesses are still a problem for you - you can't move and attack in the same round, you'll get AoOd closing in on bigger foes, and your abilities don't work on undead and constructs. 0.5/1

So out of combat, we have some SLAs, great disguise capability but no real social skills, Track, Hide but no Darkstalker, Intimidate and Spellcraft too low to typically matter... It all feels very unfocused. 0.25/1

I really don't think this build is an acceptable melee bruiser until it gets to implant multiple eggs, and perhaps not even until it gets Corporeal Instability, and once 10d6 Lightning Bolt spam loses its luster, what do you have, exactly? Your mid- to lategame is going to be very awkward. 0.25/0.5

No reliance on limited-use abilities. 0.5/0.5

Monstrosity (3.0)
I'm incredibly confused about your choice of monster. You need to be a slaad, sure, but if you're going to fight in melee anyway, why not be a green slaad and get +4 strength, much better grappling, and Slaad Brooder's excellent capstone? If you wanted to be a grey slaad, the build you give is a decent enough path for one, but why be a grey slaad? 1/1.5

Yes, your every attack implants eggs - but this is likely to come up only as add-on energy damage or (at ECL 20) Corporeal Instability. I'd have liked to see some sort of hit-and-run capability, or some other way to squeeze more power out of your eggs. As it is, they'll often be less impactful than a moderately enchanted Necklace of Natural Attacks. 0.5/1

As mentioned, fortitude saves mean constructs and undead will be immune, and presumably things like oozes or incorporeals will be hard to affect as well. 0.25/0.5

Implant lasts for a week, then kills the host. It's technically not permanent, which is a nuance that kind of matters when considering resurrection and other monsters with self-restoration. Plus, the OP said to prefer permanent curses explicitly, so let's go with 0.25/0.5.

Ending your curse prematurely doesn't require any magic at all - a lot of monsters that don't have Remove Curse access will have access to a healer or sawbones, and with only 1d6 points of damage per attempt, the eggs shouldn't be too hard to remove. 0/0.5


FINAL THOUGHTS
In the end, I can't help but wonder about Green Dolgrim, and how he'd have done. The ability to hatch and dominate spawn would have been amazing from a power and monstrosity perspective, and the bigger size would've helped out a lot on your way to level 20. I still don't quite get why you rejected all that for bigger SLAs. I like focused yet competent builds, and I feel like Dolgrim as currently presented is neither.

Other than that, Dolgrim is... bland. Every PC that fits the description of "Grey Slaad Slaad Brooder" will turn out approximately the same, and you've missed out on chances to give this build some character or quirky strategies. A pity: I think the slaad brooder choice was genuinely innovative, and it's a pity to see it play out so predictably.



Originality (4.50)
Ranger 4 and Exemplar 4 are classes that do pop up from time to time, but they weren't exactly my first thought for this round. 0.75/1

I'm seeing some solidly creative feat picks in Animal Friend, Narrowed Gaze, Exalted Spell Resistance, Flyby Attack, Astral Tracking, Combat Expertise, as well as a very creative skill choice in Lucid Dreaming. I think Vow of Poverty is really overused in this contest, so props to getting a full score here in spite of it. 1/1

Turbo-redemption through the medium of dreams: if that doesn't get max points, I don't know what does. 1/1

Ranger is very much out of the blue for an incorporeal fey lucid dreamer. 0.5/0.5

The fluff is a nice window into who Morpheus is and what he does, though it didn't tell me all that much that the build table did not already. 0.25/0.5

Elegance (4.0)
No multiclass XP penalties. 1/1

Not entirely sure how you're picking two skills for skill mastery at your second Exemplar level. Being incorporeal without Ghostly Grasp also leaves you very limited in your ability to interact with the world. Lastly, your skill point calculation is a bit confusing in places (shouldn't you spend 13 points at ECL 20?), but that's a minor problem at worst. 1.25/2

You get actual use out of your prerequisites, your ranger dip connects to your exalted feats in a few nice ways, and Vow of Poverty solves an issue for your build while also making Vow of Peace cheaper to get. Nothing here stuns me, but it's nice to see the cohesion. 0.75/1

Power (4.0)
Hoo, boy. Obviously, spring attack + incorporeality + save-or-lose touch attacks bundled with a debuffing gaze are a strong combination. Plus, you've got Calm Emotions boosted by the same gaze, and all the defensive goodness of Vow of Peace, and the occasional Brain Lock, Crisis of Breath, or technically-pacifist Death Urge. You've got 22 constitution, SR, mind-affecting immunity, your added +10 charisma to fortitude. When you're in your element, you're incredibly capable and can even bring foes to your side rather than merely subduing them. 1/1

But against undead, constructs, and other mind-affecting immune foes, I don't see you contributing at all - you can't even use diplomacy against them, because they will be utterly unable to perceive you. Against things that don't sleep, you're invisible but still dangerous, which is more interesting, but you won't be able to redeem them or kill them, which makes for some very awkward situations. Worse, anyone you put to sleep is only a single standard action away from being awakened. You've specialized to the point where you simply cannot meaningfully overcome large swatches of the game. 0/1

You fill the tracker role impressively well with Astral Tracking and Dream Travel, you're an okay scout, you have some knowledges and can sometimes spot a disguised succubus, and your face aspirations are only somewhat foiled by the awkwardness of Dream Phase. Enough for full points. 1/1

You're doing what you want to be doing by your first class level, which is about all I can ask for. 0.5/0.5

No heavy reliance on limited-use abilities. 0.5/0.5

Monstrosity (4.0)
No questions about your choice of monster: you need defenses, you need an at-will sleep effect, and you need save debuffing - this is perfect. 1.5/1.5

Your sleep touch is core to your combat strategy, and you want to apply it even to foes you've already defeated through other means. 1/1

Unfortunately, mind-affecting immunity is commonplace, and sleep immunity adds elves, elementals, and dragons to that list as well. 0/0.5

Well, technically your slumber lasts forever... 0.5/0.5

...but anyone else can end it with one standard action. 0/0.5

FINAL THOUGHTS:
My favorite build. An innovative strategy, interesting use of a monster's abilities, and unexpected yet well-justified classes. Yes, it's a one-trick pony, but what a trick! I would have liked to see you try and find some offensive option against mind-affecting immune foes - and perhaps it would have been worth looking into the druid variant that gets Track to save a few levels - but that's just me nitpicking.



Originality (3.25)
Maybe truenamer should've been on my radar for this round in particular - but on second thought it's truenamer, so I'm not blaming myself for being taken by surprise here. 1/1

I had to look up Pious Soul and Pious Defense, but your other feats are standard truenamer fare and your skills are nothing special either. 0.5/1

I don't think inviting your allies to ride on your back is actually all that practical, but it's original and a fun flavorful trick. 0/1 0.25/1

The combination of unicorn and truenamer is a bit notable, I suppose. 0.25/0.5

A barebones backstory is still a backstory. 0.25/0.5

Elegance (2.25)
No multiclass XP penalties. 1/1

Kingdoms of Kalamar is illegal material per the rules in the OP.


The Dragonlance Campaign Setting is allowed, but the subsequent books for Dragonlance are considered 3rd party, and are therefore not eligible, despite the "WotC approved" status of those books.

(I was wrong about the books being dragonlance - not about them being 3rd-party and illegal for use)

This means that you need to rework your skill progression entirely and lose a lot of the social utility you were hoping to have.

The build has a huge item reliance, reaching up to 50% of WBL at times - and worse, it's a custom item reliance. Which you don't have the feats to make yourself. You're aware of all of this, you chose to be a truenamer, you knew you were going to have to get this past me - and I'm simply not interested in letting this go unpenalized.

Some table errors: your Will save progression is off by a single level, so it consistently increases late.

You're wrong about the effect of certain utterances. Reversed Moderate Word of Nurturing doesn't last for 5 rounds, it lasts for Concentration (maximum 1). You cannot apply Mortalbane to Fog from the Void, because mortalbane applies to damaging spell-like abilities. Suppress Weapon only gets rid of energy-based special abilities - y'know, Flaming and Frost enhancements. It's not killing artifacts.

All in all, I'm quite unhappy with this build as presented. 0/2

No synergy here beyond the most obvious 'truenamer feats make the truenamer better' stuff. 0.25/1

Power (3.25)
You're a truenamer, so my standards aren't especially high, but even so - what do you do that a normal truenamer cannot? Mortalbane and Quicken Utterance are factory-standard optimizations, custom skill items aren't really unique to you. I'm not going to pretending a normal level 20 truenamer is a powerhouse, but at least those are rewarded for sticking with the class all the way with the okayish SMNAIAT and the utterly busted Conjunctive Gate. What makes you take level 15 of truenamer? Suppress Item? Recitation of the Fortified State? Wouldn't an Exemplar or Marshal dip have been much better? You're an underpowered member of an underpowered class, and it is mostly out of pity that I do not assign a minimum score here. 0.25/1

You've actually got a decently diverse array of options, with some blasting, some debuffing, some support... you rely a lot on single-target effects, and certain magic-resistant foes will force you to resort to buffing your allies, but you're generally quite capable. 0.5/1 0.75/1

With only legal skills considered, you've got knowledge, unicorn powers, and a handful of utterances like Analyze Item. That's really meager as far as out-of-combat utility goes. 0.25/1

The build is broadly playable at the time of your first class level - unicorn helps with the awkward early game. 0.5/0.5

You squeeze enough uses out of your utterances per day to make me award the points for staying power. A pity your way of doing so involves that competence bonus item. 0.5/0.5

Monstrosity (2.50)
Well, I suppose that with the wackiness of truenamers, having a point of LA makes you marginally better at speaking your own true name than you'd otherwise be...

In all seriousness: I'm not seeing any meaningful points of contact between truenamer and unicorn. Like, at all. Being an unicorn does something for you, and being a truenamer does something for you, but the two do not interact, they do not complement each other, and all your reasons for being an unicorn would apply just as well if you'd chosen to be, say, a cleric. Unicorn doesn't even boost the one stat that you as a truenamer need the most!

Why should an unicorn be a truenamer, instead of any other class? Why should a truenamer give up 5 levels to be an unicorn? Your build does not adequately address these questions at all. 0/1.5

Well, treating your utterances as a single monolithic 'curse ability', they're obviously rather essential to what you do. I'd have liked to see some comments about uttering Mortalbane Reversed Energy Negation on someone and haste-galopping away for a minute while they take 40d6 damage, but it's undeniable that when you fight, a lot of that will meet the competition's standards. 0.75/1

Nearly nothing should be resistant or immune to your utterances. 0.5/0.5

Frankly, when the requirement is that your curse lasts 'until the end of combat', I'm nothing too pleased with a duration that caps out around a minute. Combats last longer than that sometimes! But sure, I'm not going to fail a build on something that pedantic, take your minimum points in this subcategory and move on. 0/0.5

Well, it's an ongoing SLA, so a dispel should get rid of your utterances. That's not unseen on higher-level monsters. 0.25/0.5

FINAL THOUGHTS:
I genuinely don't get where this build came from. Like, I get the Ongoing Damage -> Truenamer link, but what compelled you to make it an unicorn? I don't even think unicorns are particularly bad, but truenamer is one of the worst classes to try and make work with it. This feels like it could have been two builds: one an unicorn with a bit of a more appropriate class, and one a truenamer with a more supportive race - both could genuinely have been great!




Originality (3.50)
Yuan-Ti Cultist is something I had to look up, but cloistered cleric 1 is perhaps the single most commonly useful dip in the game, particularly in a curse round. 0.5/1

Divine Metamagic Heighten and its prerequisites, Ability Focus, Practiced Spellcaster, Power Attack... Holy Warrior and Blindsight help here some, though. 0.5/1

Starting with a human and progressively (and RAW-legally!) transforming him into a yuan-ti abomination is... well, it's unexpected, it's clever, and it's deserving of an originality bonus. At first I was unsure about the difference between this and simply starting as a abomination - but then I realized this trick helps with skill point allocation. 1/1

Nothing too weird about the sum of your elements. 0/0.5

This is exactly what I'm looking for in a good backstory; a concept that works great with the context of D&D rules backing it up, a little mystery that drops some hints for the reader to pick up on, potent ouroborian imagery, and a thought-provoking resolution. The whole thing reminded me a little of Dr. Who's Heaven Sent, though it's different enough that I wouldn't deduct points even if I knew for a fact you'd been inspired by it. 0.5/0.5

Elegance (3.0)
No multiclass XP penalties. 1/1

It doesn't really end up mattering, but where are you getting the idea that Tainted One is +1 LA? The Races of Faerun version seems to be +2 LA, and the most recent Serpent Kingdoms version is +3.

Props to acknowledging the ambiguities inherent in transformations - I think the best way to rule it is as you've done, where each change in base creature is treated as the sudden gain of X hit dice with skills appropriate for the new form. However, even by this standard, your halfblood transformation is illegal. Halfbloods' skill list gives us "Craft or knowledge (any two)", but you put ranks in alchemy and three knowledge skills. Hanging on to Knowledge Devotion for a bit could've saved you here (you don't actually need to make the domain feat trade the moment you obtain the domain) (idk why i said this), and there is some precedent for what you want in the pureblood player section, but still - a minor penalty. The same issue returns with the abomination HD increase.

The whole bit about turning into a human-headed snake that doesn't exist anymore is giving me a headache. There's a line in the monster manual about armless creatures getting to cast spells by moving their body, but you obviously would like to keep your hands for other reasons too. Going to assign a tiny penalty and move on.

No sources are provided for Merrshaulk's expanded list of domains; I'm especially confused about the War domain, which isn't listed in the MM or Complete Divine entries.

All in all, a lot of little issues add up to quite the penalty. 0.75/2

Not especially impressed with the build efficiency here - you make use of most Yuan-Ti Cultist features, but the class kind of makes sure you do. 0.25/1

Power (3.75)
You're a good frontliner, with Large size, 22 strength, +16 BAB and a secondary bite, plus a wide array of cleric spells for buffing. You boast far-reaching minionmancy (albeit with heavy restrictions), remarkably respectable SR, a really good wisdom score, and various odd SLAs. You're an extremely respectable gish with lots of versatility... but you were cooking with a tier 1 class, and I cannot reward you for all the power afforded by cleric spells without considering the power -lost- by not getting higher-level access. 0.5/1

Most effects you can inflict are mind-affecting or poison-based, which a host of creatures are immune to. Venomfire is a big help here, though, so you get back what it cost you earlier. 0.75/1

Some UMD, some craft, some knowledge, some diplomacy (the last only slightly hampered by the fact that you're a giant evil snake). You show a willingness to throw the cleric's huge skill boosts onto important rolls, which I cannot fault you for. You're a solid enemy radar with Detect Hostile Intent, you have some charms and suggestions that clerics don't normally get, and you can of course transform and dominate humans, which solves a subset of social encounters. Let's be nice and say 0.75/1

Actually thinking about how this build would play level-to-level is making my head hurt. At any rate you're starting as a competent character at level 1, slide off a little as you take on various sources of LA and RHD, and then reach a weird low point around mid-levels where neither halfblood SLAs nor cleric casting nor low-level Cultist features are impressing me. Not unplayable, but with some awkward progression hiccups. 0.25/0.5

Lots of reliance on at-will abilities and melee attacks, with wisdom pumping your spells per day sky-high. 0.5/0.5

Monstrosity (3.75)
Obviously, as a yuan-ti cultist there's no other race that can replicate your abilities... but a humanoid cleric can get pretty close. The extra domain is as easy as a contemplative dip, sticks to snakes and the various chants are matched pretty well by cleric spells and reserve feats, unhallow and unholy aura are obviously normal spells, and persistomancy can deliver the SR. That leaves the poison bite slash venomfire delivery mechanism, which isn't impossible to obtain, and the free domination of reptiles and yuan-ti, which is. Obviously, no humanoid is going to be able to access your exact mix of abilities, but they get closer than the race-locked PrC might imply. 1/1.5

If you're using it to deliver venomfire, the relevant part of your poison isn't the part that counts as a curse. Bestow Curse, Eyebite, Baleful Polymorph, Aversion, etc are all rather nice and flavorful examples, though. Those abilities are a part of your combat routine, but not front and center - you will often be better off casting another spell, or going for the proper save-or-die, or spraying acid. Half a point for the variety, no points for necessity. 0.5/1

Bestow Curse affects anything and lasts forever but isn't that hard to remove, Baleful Polymorph is permanent but slightly limited in its targets, and the yuan-ti transformations are hardest to remove but incredibly limited in scope. No matter which I evaluate, you get 1.25/1.5 points here.


FINAL THOUGHTS:
That story is going to stick with me for a very long while. The build itself rises to the level of 'okay', though this was probably one of the better rounds to get your idea out and I'm glad you did. Yuan-Ti Cultist is a class that I'm happy to see in an entry... but like Slaad Brooder or Truenamer, I don't think I want to see another for a while.


Four rather distinct builds. I'm a bit disappointed to nobody really cared about the duration that comes with most curse effects - no attempts to apply them and then flee combat, no strategies based around marking random commoners and getting some sort of benefit out of that, and where builds had the ability to do such things, they almost seemed to shy away from it. The final result felt like a short-term debuff round more than a curse round at times, and sometimes not even that. That said, I had a blast judging, and I hope the competitors can agree with most of what I said.

Dispute away!

[loky1109]

Thank you for quick judgement Inevitability!

Updated table.
# Name Alignment / Race Class Levels Chef Inevitability Total Place
1 Dolgrim (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25910610&postcount=20) CE Gray Slaad Slaad Brooder 9 12.25 12.25 3rd
2 Morpheus (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25910611&postcount=21) NG Dream Fane Exemplar 4/Urban Companion Wild Shape Planewalker Ranger 4 16.50 16.50 1st
3 Talad (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25910613&postcount=22) CG Unicorn Truenamer 15 11.25 11.25 4th
4 Boy and his Master (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25910617&postcount=23) CE Psionic Yuan-Ti Abomination Spontaneous Domain Casting Cloistered Cleric 1/Yuan-Ti Cultist 10 14.00 14.00 2nd
Updated after disputes.

[H_H_F_F]

inevitably

You're no longer invited to my birthday party.

[Beni-Kujaku]

Thank you Inevitability for your judgement! And here's the first dispute for you (and, surprisingly, for me too) :


First of all, for you, Beni: Master should start with a capital letter.

And actual dispute.

This is exactly what I'm looking for in a good backstory; a concept that works great with the context of D&D rules backing it up, a little mystery that drops some hints for the reader to pick up on, potent ouroborian imagery, and a thought-provoking resolution.
Meant a lot to me. This story... It's matured in me almost four years. Recognition is important. Thank you!


The whole thing reminded me a little of Dr. Who's Heaven Sent, though it's different enough that I wouldn't deduct points even if I knew for a fact you'd been inspired by it.
It's a shame, but I haven’t seen any episodes of Dr. Who.


It doesn't really end up mattering, but where are you getting the idea that Tainted One is +1 LA? The Races of Faerun version seems to be +2 LA, and the most recent Serpent Kingdoms version is +3.
Such a unstable template... It's +1 in the Savage Species. I did take a glance at the SK version - I can't imagine it has +3 and literally blink it, and didn't even look at MoF update, because it isn't most recent version.


However, even by this standard, your halfblood transformation is illegal. Halfbloods' skill list gives us "Craft or knowledge (any two)", but you put ranks in alchemy and three knowledge skills. Hanging on to Knowledge Devotion for a bit could've saved you here (you don't actually need to make the domain feat trade the moment you obtain the domain), and there is some precedent for what you want in the pureblood player section, but still - a minor penalty. The same issue returns with the abomination HD increase.
How much?! It's third or fourth time (third actually)? And every time it's mine! It's even funny.
Do I really need to proof that "knowledge (any two)" in the monster description means "all knowledge skills are in-class"? I have enough proofs actually.

Maybe we need add it to the FAQ? I'm sure this isn't last Yuan-Ti entry.


No sources are provided for Merrshaulk's expanded list of domains; I'm especially confused about the War domain, which isn't listed in the MM or Complete Divine entries.
My bad. You could find it in the Serpent Kingdoms, page 189.


Venomfire is notorious enough for me to assign a penalty for its use - I expect very few DMs to allow it unchanged. -0.25
Sorry, I didn't understand what are you having against Venomfire? Fact it's existed? But this isn't my fault. I even don't abuse it, I don't up my CL to the sky, just use regular one. I don't rely on it, just mention. Most DMs will nerf it? I agree, but even if, it looks I still shall use this spell.
Do I really deserve penalty here? I see how it could be mulct in the Originality, but Elegance... I don't know.


That story is going to stick with me for a very long while.
It's balm to my soul. Thank you again!

And my response is : I agree that I misspelled your entry's name, but since I didn't penalize you for it, I cannot do much. No other change.

[Inevitability]

Such a unstable template... It's +1 in the Savage Species. I did take a glance at the SK version - I can't imagine it has +3 and literally blink it, and didn't even look at MoF update, because it isn't most recent version.

No change.


My bad. You could find it in the Serpent Kingdoms, page 189.

Hm. So the awkward bit is that this would require your build to exist in FR canon, which means Merrshaulk isn't actually free right now, which means worshipping Merrshaulk actually gets you in touch with a different god who has a different set of domains. "Aspects of Sseth are currently aspects of Set, and follow the rules for Sseth [Aspect of Set]." Thus, worshipping Merrshaulk in the FR should give you access to Air, Darkness, Evil, Hatred, Law, Magic, and Scalykind... but not War, unless Merrshaulk gets free somehow. Score stands, but you did get me thinking about how this whole situation would interact with time travel.


How much?! It's third or fourth time (third actually)? And every time it's mine! It's even funny.
Do I really need to proof that "knowledge (any two)" in the monster description means "all knowledge skills are in-class"? I have enough proofs actually.

I get that RAI is on your side, but unless you can show me a general rule rather than list specific examples. I'm not saying your build is illegal, but I am saying it needs a minor degree of DM adjucation to be unambiguously legal - and that's why it's getting the elegance penalty.


Do I really deserve penalty here? I see how it could be mulct in the Originality, but Elegance... I don't know.

Eh, y'know what. It was an experimental category, it didn't really fit with how I usually judge, and it was indeed better off in originality anyway. Let me scrap it for now, no comment on whether or not i'll have something similar next round. Elegance increased by 0.25

Judgement post will be edited.

[Beni-Kujaku]

Thank you for the response, but here's a new challenger:

Dispute

Thanks for taking the time to judge, Inevitability. Apologies for the long dispute.


your skills are nothing special either.

Diplomacy and Gather Information are not Truenamer class skills and were added on with a feat. The typical class skills, in my opinion, are Truespeak, Concentration, and Knowledge (for Paragnostic Assembly bonuses, which this build forgoes).


Your combat strategy does not deviate from the truenamer norm.

The build is a tanky character and a mount with good defenses, which I think is very different to the frail backline buffer/debuffer a Truenamer typically is.


Kingdoms of Kalamar is illegal material per the rules in the OP.

Kingdoms of Kalamar has no relationship to Dragonlance Campaign Setting, it is its own setting and book. Every other contest has a specific rule that forbids the use of Kingdoms of Kalamar as a material, but Monster Mash does not. The Kingdoms of Kalamar sourcebook also has all of WOTC’s copyright disclaimers and logos and so forth that give it first-party status, and I believe it should be treated as allowable material unless a competition explicitly states otherwise.


In all seriousness: I'm not seeing any meaningful points of contact between truenamer and unicorn. Like, at all. Being an unicorn does something for you, and being a truenamer does something for you, but the two do not interact, they do not complement each other, and all your reasons for being an unicorn would apply just as well if you'd chosen to be, say, a cleric. Unicorn doesn't even boost the one stat that you as a truenamer need the most!

Why should an unicorn be a truenamer, instead of any other class? Why should a truenamer give up 5 levels to be an unicorn? Your build does not adequately address these questions at all. 0/1.5


I attempted to address this in the “Build Concept Overview”, which I will repost for convenience here:


Unicorn has some solid synergies with Truenamer. Losing five levels of casting definitely hurts, but the racial hit dice and strong base stats of the Unicorn greatly improve the Truenamer’s HP, saves, and the DCs of some powerful debuffing utterances. Truenamer doesn’t care about a Unicorn’s lack of hands. And, lastly, utterances give a Unicorn a lot of extra options that expand the Unicorn’s support abilities. It's quite a fair trade.

I also addressed this same point in the ECL 5 writeup:


Unicorn, in spite of its racial dice and LA, has quite the synergies with the Truenamer class. First, the Unicorn's stats and racial hit dice really boost our defensive stats and saves, normally weak points of a Truenamer. The boost to Charisma means utterances with saving throws are harder to beat. The Unicorn's lack of hands are not a problem for a Truenamer. And buffing and debuffing utterances have good synergy for a mount build.

Let’s compare a benchmark Human Truenamer 20, using our same point buy, to the Unicorn 4/Truenamer 15.

HP: 112.5 versus 212.5
Fort: 8 versus 16
Ref: 6 versus 12
Will: 12 versus 16
Utterance DC: 25 versus 29

Let’s address the “Unicorn doesn’t boost the one stat you need the most”. It was partially addressed here:


The huge Charisma increase and debuffing focus means we take some Utterances that would not appear on more standard Truenamer builds… And, lastly, we choose Charisma over Intelligence as our main build stat to further strengthen Utterances with save DCs.

Intelligence becomes less crucial a stat for Truenamers at higher levels, when other bonuses to boost Truespeak come online, and we can make our Truespeak check more reliably without the Intelligence bonus. Fortunately, our Truenaming career starts at ECL 6 when we can afford some Truespeak-boosting items. At ECL 10, we can use the same utterance several times against CR 10 opponents before we need to start rolling our checks, and by ECL 20, we can Quicken our utterances several times per day and use that utterance as a standard action much more than that.

A higher INT would help at some points of the build, but not as much as people think. Delaying Truenamer to ECL 6 really helps with this.


what do you do that a normal truenamer cannot?

Our better defensive stats means we stop being a backline caster and turn into frontline defense and mount. 212HP at level 20 without items puts us ahead of nearly any character defensively, short of a raging Barbarian. Our focus on Charisma means we have higher save DCs than a typical truenamer, which means we select utterances which other Truenamers would normally not pick for options that don’t have save DCs.


You've actually got a decently diverse array of options, with some blasting, some debuffing, some support... but then I look at something like a mid-to-high level outsider and it's just teleporting past your Solid Fog and resisting the energy damage you can throw at it. You don't get shut down by a specific category of foe as much as some enemies just kind of effortlessly deal with everything you have.

Our build is a debuff and buff class. We can’t solo an enemy, but we can make it a lot easier for other party members to do the job. So, what could our build do to debuff the example teleporting Outsider and make life easier for our team to take this enemy out?

Temporal Twist can stop the Outsider from taking any action for two turns.
Temporal Spiral can inflict Daze for three turns.
Greater Speed of the Zephyr puts slow on the target so they can only use one standard action or one move action per turn, no save allowed.
Ward of Peace can banish a target. If that target has Plane Shift, we’ve still traded a swift action of ours for a standard action of theirs and a level 5 or 7 spell slot.
Word of Bolstering can target the weakest stat of an enemy and do 3d6 ability score damage, no save allowed. If we don’t know what stat to target, we can always go for CON and take off over a hundred HP on average, making it that much easier for the rest of the party.

And, given that we have Quicken Utterance, we can use one option to shut down our opponent, and a second to shut down another opponent, repeat targeting the same outsider if they pass an utterance with a save or we’re particularly concerned about them as an opponent, or buff an ally. I feel like we have a lot of good responses to your example enemy in this build.


And all your reasons for being an unicorn would apply just as well if you'd chosen to be, say, a cleric.

A cleric wants to have hands to be able to cast spells with somatic components, use spell pouches, and wield their Holy Symbol. A class I’d think would be more relevant for your argument would be Psion, since they’re not so hindered by the lack of hands, and you’d still get eighth-level psionic abilities. However, Psions still want the other five class levels or a significant Intelligence boost, because you lose a lot of PP only being Psion 15 instead of Psion 20. I honestly think Truenamer is one of the better classes to pair with Unicorn. The class works without hands, Unicorn covers the traditional weaknesses of Truenamer, Quicken Utterance gives us great turn economy that other classes would struggle with, you can go all day with Utterances, and buffing and debuffing just compliments the mount character concept so well.

Regardless of what your responses are, thank you again for your time judging and responding.

Also, it doesn't change much, but regarding Boy and his Master, "Knowledge (Any) means all knowledge are class skills" is arguably not RAI either. In savage species, the monster class for the succubus mentions "The succubus’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are [...] Knowledge (any 1, chosen at 1st level) (Int)", and the astral deva, avoral, ghaele, green and sea hags and mind flayer have similar sentences.

[Inevitability]

To address your issues one by one:


Diplomacy and Gather Information are not Truenamer class skills and were added on with a feat. The typical class skills, in my opinion, are Truespeak, Concentration, and Knowledge (for Paragnostic Assembly bonuses, which this build forgoes).


Kingdoms of Kalamar has no relationship to Dragonlance Campaign Setting, it is its own setting and book. Every other contest has a specific rule that forbids the use of Kingdoms of Kalamar as a material, but Monster Mash does not. The Kingdoms of Kalamar sourcebook also has all of WOTC’s copyright disclaimers and logos and so forth that give it first-party status, and I believe it should be treated as allowable material unless a competition explicitly states otherwise.

Kingdoms of Kalamar is 3rd party. It was written and published by a third-party company, with the 'WotC approved' logo stamped on afterwards. This is what third party means, that's the exact situation of the explicitly-called-out-as-banned OA and Dragonlance supplements. It is not an 'official 1st party (WotC) 3.5 rulebook'. It does most definitely not have the usual copyright disclaimers, but instead talks about 'Kenzer and Company' as the copyright holder of the book and its contents. I was mistaken about it being Dragonlance, my bad for that. However, it, your feat, and your skills are still illegal. No change


Our build is a debuff and buff class. We can’t solo an enemy, but we can make it a lot easier for other party members to do the job. So, what could our build do to debuff the example teleporting Outsider and make life easier for our team to take this enemy out?

Fair point on the teleporting demon thing - I was understating your capabilities there somewhat. I think your build is overall more well-rounded than a regular truenamer, and notably better at covering its frailty and weaknesses - but not quite perfect. Power increased by 0.25


The build is a tanky character and a mount with good defenses, which I think is very different to the frail backline buffer/debuffer a Truenamer typically is.

Being 'tanky' is a meaningful improvement of your defenses, but doesn't really change your tactical impact. Simply having high defenses doesn't force enemies to target you, and your horn isn't exactly hard-hitting enough to deter enemies from simply moving past you and taking the AoO. The fact that you're on the front lines does not seem to actually matter all that much, aside from making BFC zones more awkward to place and giving enemies an easier time targeting you if they want to.

The mount thing is interesting, and I didn't give you quite enough credit for it. That said: at high levels the party will probably have better mobility options, and at low levels I'm not sure who you are planning on carrying. The fighter, who'd prefer to be charging for the attack bonus? The rogue, who wants to flank with you instead? The wizard, who can't reliably cast spells while mounted yet? The character actually optimized for mounted combat, who already has a ride? You talk about synergy with buffing, but you're only targeting one character per action anyway - and that character doesn't really need to be on your back for the strategy to work.

I just want to note here: you talk about how you 'can help an ally move and full attack each turn'. This is not true. Being on an intelligent mount still counts as being mounted, and you explicitly can only make a single melee attack if your mount moved more than 5 ft. For some characters (like those with pounce or travel devotion), riding you gives them fewer attacks per round.

Still, being a mount for other party members is interesting even if it's not really practical. Originality increased by 0.25


Unicorn has some solid synergies with Truenamer...

Sure. It's a big pile of stat bonuses and immunities, everyone likes stat bonuses and immunities, especially a class with this bad a chassis. You already won points for being less defensively compromised than most truenamers.

But consider what you're giving up on in those last levels you don't take. At level 17, truenamers get Speak Unto The Masses. At level 18, Mystic Rampart. And at level 20, Conjunctive Gate and its utter brokenness. A level 20 human truenamer, when he's not summoning angels, is giving two, three, or even four PCs a huge untyped bonus on saves (which incidentally closes most of the gap between him and you), then following it up with a multi-target debuff. Like, I want to stress that you spin a lot of yarn about being a buffer, but you miss out on the single best class feature for buffing truenamers.

So your saves aren't as superior as they seem; what about your DCs? Well, consider a monster with a +19 modifier - it has a 45% chance to fail against your utterances, and only a 25% chance against the human you're using as a point of comparison - but if that human is targeting two or even three enemies, you'll end up affecting fewer foes per utterance anyway. Multi-monster encounters are common, and they almost always share types.

(sure, SotM will cause DCs to ramp up quicker, but if you want to reason about a game where +44 custom items are in play, that's not a huge issue)

Your main advantage over the human truenamer is Magic Circle Against Evil (something something Gate access), poison immunity, and HP. You aren't utterly inferior, but you're the worse choice in most situations, and being an unicorn really does not justify the cost. Maybe if you were a class with a smoother power progression, I'd be inclined to grant the case for being an unicorn - but you're a level 15 truenamer, you toughed out this class for so long, and then just as it starts getting good you bump into the level cap! No change.

(This also touches onto a different issue that I wonder about: why go truenamer 15? I can see the case for level 8, even the case for 12, but 15? The last few utterances you pick up aren't exactly stellar, and plenty of classes would've offered you more if you took a couple levels to detour through them)

Judgement post will be updated.

[FactualArcher]

Thanks for the quick judging, Inevitability. No disputes from me!

[Beni-Kujaku]

Sorry for the delay, I had things to do.

# Name Alignment / Race Class Levels Chef Inevitability Total Place
1 Dolgrim (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25910610&postcount=20) CE Gray Slaad Slaad Brooder 9 loky1109 12.25 12.25 3rd
2 Morpheus (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25910611&postcount=21) NG Dream Fane Exemplar 4/Urban Companion Wild Shape Planewalker Ranger 4 FactualArcher 16.50 16.50 1st
3 Talad Silverhorn (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25910613&postcount=22) CG Unicorn Truenamer 15 pabelfly 11.25 11.25 4th
4 Boy and his Master (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25910617&postcount=23) CE Psionic Yuan-Ti Abomination Spontaneous Domain Casting Cloistered Cleric 1/Yuan-Ti Cultist 10 loky1109 14.00 14.00 2nd
Congratulations to all contestants, especially FactualArcher who took gold, and Inevitability for their judging!

Next time, a Christmas round, what do you prefer :

All I want for Christmas is you : Must have at least one level of bard or Siren, and must be able to obtain someone as a gift (either take control of them or wrap them up and immobilize them)
The perfect Christmas Tree : Must be Plant type, and emulate a christmas tree (deal piercing damage, emit light, have lots of items)
A savior is born : Must be able to cast divine spells, and to revive oneself if killed.

Inevitability, I see your propositions, and I like them (especially one shot, one kill), but they don't really scream "Christmas", except maybe :
Rudolph the flying reindeer : Must be able to fly and act without ever touching the ground. Air-themed powers are a plus.

[Inevitability]

All I Want sounds a bit too mechanically restrictive - how about making it about use of Perform in general? Maybe shift the theme to something caroling-related if so?

The Perfect Christmas Tree is cool, but very narrow and I don't like having an item-based restriction. Nor, for that matter, two light-based rounds in pretty short succession.

A Savior Is Born seems interesting, but are there enough monsters (particularly non-undead ones) to fit the requirements? Regardless, I suppose it has my vote.

And Rudolph is neat but I'd be more than willing to save that one for a later round.

[loky1109]

A savior is born sounds interesting, but I'm not sure...

[FactualArcher]

Woo, first win! Thanks to Inevitability for judging and everyone else for competing. I'm glad you liked Morpheus. He came along late in the process after I spent most of the time on really bizarre ideas. It came together super well, though it ended up a little bit unfinished because of time crunch.

For next round I definitely vote A Savior is Born

[PoeticallyPsyco]

I've got an idea already for Christmas Tree, so that's my vote.

[loky1109]

I'm incredibly confused about your choice of monster. You need to be a slaad, sure, but if you're going to fight in melee anyway, why not be a green slaad and get +4 strength, much better grappling, and Slaad Brooder's excellent capstone? If you wanted to be a grey slaad, the build you give is a decent enough path for one, but why be a grey slaad?

Inevitability, I had one reason. Yes, green is better, but... I already have one (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25407460&postcount=45) and I didn't want to make just Ctrl+C - Ctrl+V.


All I want for Christmas is you : Must have at least one level of bard or Siren, and must be able to obtain someone as a gift (either take control of them or wrap them up and immobilize them)
Beni, I finished looking The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special just right now! )))

[Beni-Kujaku]

I feel a distinct lack of enthusiasm, and to be honest I was really not sure about these themes. Maybe keep the "able to cast divine spells", and replace the reviving thing with something that would be more common. Maybe a focus on healing, or the ability to subdue opponents without harming them, or the ability to judge opponents (ability to detect Evil, and be particularly effective against evil), or to harm with only a word rather than physical objects. What would you think of that, which would you prefer?
Additionally, I just thought of something : a round themed around believing in Santa or not : the monster must have the ability to turn invisible and act as indirectly as possible, being effective while the least amount of people notice that it is even there.

[Inevitability]

I still think a caroling/Perform round would be fine, with lots of options beyond the obvious Bard.

Alternatively, how about:

Happy New Year - Must possess a ranged (single-target) attack that deals fire damage.

Christmas Dinner - Must possess powers related to eating or producing food for others to eat.

The Herald Angels - Must possess the Good subtype and some sound-based ability.



Inevitability, I had one reason. Yes, green is better, but... I already have one (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25407460&postcount=45) and I didn't want to make just Ctrl+C - Ctrl+V.


A fair enough reason I suppose, but not exactly one you could share with your judge. :smallwink:

[Inevitability]

As yet another possible (loosely) christmas-themed round: Down the Chimney. Entries must be tiny/diminutive/fine or amorphous in shape. Probably good to have an explicit chair's call on whether incorporeal creatures are/aren't allowed, I'm personally leaning in the 'no' direction.

I feel like seeing really small creatures, oozes, and whatever else fits the criteria would make for some really varied and unique entries, though like the four-legged round it's very reliant on people finding something that inspires them (then again, the four-legged round went pretty well as far as I'm concerned).

[Beni-Kujaku]

I still think a caroling/Perform round would be fine, with lots of options beyond the obvious Bard.

Alternatively, how about:

Happy New Year - Must possess a ranged (single-target) attack that deals fire damage.

Christmas Dinner - Must possess powers related to eating or producing food for others to eat.

The Herald Angels - Must possess the Good subtype and some sound-based ability.
I'm really not vibing with these. Happy New Year goes in the way of both the recent fire-themed round, and the "One shot, one kill" planned for later. Christmas Dinner is as narrow if not more than resurrecting oneself (and we haven't done the Calzone Golem yet!") and Herald Angels... I don't know, I feel like, like "having ranks in perform", it's just a less clear version of "bard or siren", while still restricting the race choice to ones that aren't that varied (there are only 14 reassigned creatures with the Good subtype, and only 6 below ECL 10) and weren't that popular.


Down the Chimney. Entries must be tiny/diminutive/fine or amorphous in shape.
I like this one as a regular theme, I'll put it on the backburner for next comps.
If anybody else shows interest for a Perform round, it'll show up too, but right now I'll stay with A Savior is Born and try to enlarge a bit the requirement.