Iron Chef Optimization Challenge In the Playground XLII

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lol. happens to the best of us.

okay. slime lord is awesome. I don't know what you're talking about. unlike oozemaster, it doesn't require casting to get in, so you won't have that thorn in your side as far as IC goes. (oozemaster's other incredibly awkward prerequisites aside)

it may not give the ruinous no save con damage that oozemaster does, but its paralysis is arguably just as good. As long as you focus on your con, people shouldn't be able to make the save, at least not easily.

charming gaze is also a gaze attack, so even though your cha probably sucks, you'll be beamspamming so many people at once every time you use it (1/day/lvl!) that you'll eventually hit someone

one more advantage that slimelord gives over oozemaster is actual immunity to critical hits. while oozemaster does give light fortification, and its capstone gives a variety of ooze traits (including immunity to mind affecting, one huge advantage it has over slimelord) it never actually becomes immune to crits.

slime lord also gives you alter self at will. if you don't think that's awesome, then I don't really know what more to say.

I'd be pretty happy with either ingredient, but I'd lean slightly towards slimelord, since SIs that involve casting limit chefs' choices more.

Looking over the PRC again...it is quite as horrible as I remembered. Certainly not bad enough to be a bad SI. I still wouldn't classify it as "awesome" for a few reasons:

• The Paralytic Slime is actually not that great of a ability because they can only be used on your pseudopods. You can only use two natural attacks with hi pseudopods as a full attack action, or one attack as a standard action. This is pretty terrible. Plus the DC won't be that great unless you really pump Con (and this will be hard to do on a sneaky character which is what this class is geared towards).
  
  
• You don't get any of the social skills as class skills which severely limits Disguises usefullness. The charming gaze could have benefitted from it as well.
  
  
• Alter Self at will is indeed awesome. It's probably the best feature of the class. The problem is that you can't combine other natural attacks with your pseudopods which sucks. Alter Self at will is still pretty great though.
  
  
• You only get 4+ Int skills per level. This is a very hard hit towards the sneaky classes which synergize with this class because most are skillmonkeys. Monk is the only one I can think of off the top of my head that isn't (and it's Wis based so that's another stat to add onto).
  
  
• Charming Gaze is a great feature. After you hit enemies with it once the ones that weren't charmed are probably going to avert their eyes though so it's probably best to only use it once per fight (you have limited uses after all). It's still a pretty good feature though.

So yeah, not awesome but still okay probably. I'd classify it as a -1 PRC. It probably looked worse than it actually was since I was also experimenting with Thrall of Juiblex which is an awesome ooze-themed PRC. You get full BAB, All good saves, Alter Self and Polymorph at will (albiet up to 4 HD and 8 HD respectively), as well as all the immunities of Slime Lord. It probably made me biased.

I would prefer Oozemaster because it's abilities are more unique (type changes to ooze for determing what effects and items can do to him, ability to squeeze through an inch-wide crack etc). Plus it's requirements are very open too. Almost every casting PRC can be advanced by it.

On a completely urelated note I've been thinking about Jef Costello's build and it seems that for a more high powered version of him, the ghost template would actually be really nice.

It would make the need for ninja obsolete (thus freeing up 3 levels). It would render Move Silently pointless thus freeing up skill points (though this would probably lower UoSI scores since it means the 5 ranks in Move Silently you need to get into the PRC are wasted as well as partially reducing the effectivness of the Shadow and Stealth class feature), the abilities would mesh well with the character, It would allow him to go ethereal as many times as he wants for as long as he wants, It would allow for an alternate method of attack with the Quicken Manifestation feat from Libris Mortis, and it would allow him to take Flyby Attack without relying on the dubious legality of using animal devotion (he can also fly as long as he wants).

The only problem I can see is that it takes away focus from the SI (also, 1 level in the Savage Progression would be more optimal but also more cheesy. The build would still be fine with the full template).

Thoughts?