Iron Chef E6 Appetizer Edition, Round XL

[Inevitability]

Alright judgement is upon y'all or whatever

seriously though.

Spoiler: Modayn Mo'problums (13)

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Originality (3)
Druid is pretty obvious as far as poison-using classes go, but any E6 build that can incorporate a prestige class is original in my book (+0.5). Warforged is one of the easier ways to get poison immunity, so I kind of expected it too, but it's no human. (+0.25)

Your feats don't consistently impress me. Three pickings of Extra Slot make it seem like you ran out of ideas, Stable Footing is oddball but it doesn't seem to do all that much for you (how often do you want to wade into the enemy-filled Entangle zones?). Necropolis Born and Eldeen Plantgrafter are the winners here, as is the ultra-obscure Spellbinder. Everything else together gets you the final 0.5, for a total of (+1.25).

There's no real character here, save for a vague focus on forests. (+0)

Power (3.25)
You're a druid without wild shape, spontaneous summoning, or one of the big animal companions. In return, you've obtained a slight AC bonus, some bonuses in forests, and a fire elemental. I'm pretty comfortable calling that a negative trade-off. That said, those AoEs you can magic up look nightmarish, so even if your focus is narrow, I acknowledge how strong you are in your element. (+1)

Out of combat, you're again less capable than a regular druid would be. You can still serve as a fine healbot, or dig up some magic to help out with a puzzle or obstacle, but crippled druid levels alone aren't enough to get a full score here. (+0.5)

Your plan against constructs and undead is... Flash Frost Entangles that reduce speed, without any of the poison/fatigue shenanigans. That's a solid level of BFC, but it's only BFC, and incorporeal undead can basically ignore all of it. Elementals are also a bit of an issue, especially if they fly or have earth glide, and a few oozes will dissolve your plants with a touch. Going to be generous and give (+0.75).

Elegance (2.25)
No multiclass penalties. (+1)

Your submission feels slightly incomplete. A bunch of class features, even relevant ones, are unlisted. Fengut, which seems to be an exclusive sorc/wiz spell, appears on your spell list without explanation. You also have to select a climate type if your Favored Environment is forest, which you fail to do. Speaking of Favored Environment, I'm unconvinced that you can take it as a non-ranger, even if you obtain Favored Enemy somehow. (+0.25)

Here's the thing: your build makes a very broad assumption about how entangle works. Yes, the spell says that local plants might affect the effect. It doesn't say your pet hallucinogens will grow in relevant numbers, or how far they'll extend from your body (assuming you're including yourself in the area at all), or that haphazardly throwing hot water on a living plant is at all equivalent to carefully steeping ground and dried leaves.

Even if your DM is crazy enough to allow the central trick, can you guarantee access to a variety of highly rare plants? You don't just enter Landforged Walker and instantly obtain your botanic perils of choice: you select a terrain and then grow unspecified plants native to it. Eldeen Plantgrafter similarly requires you to have access to a number of rare fungi and trees, which your campaign might not include.

UoSI (4.5)
You have some quasi-poisonous options early on, and probably some obscure spells not listed on your sheet, but big poison magic doesn't come until level 5, and your trick has to wait until level 6. You're not without poison at low levels, but I wouldn't call it your best use of an action until quite a while later. (+0.5)

Poison is an integral part of what you do and how you do it. (+1)

You have clearly expended significant resources to make your core concept work, and even where you're boosting Entangle moreso than poison, it still benefits your poisons in a straightforward way. (+1)

Your approach to poisons (hostile tea ceremony) is unique and noteworthy. (+1)

Spoiler: Naa'it Sabes (25)

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Perfect build, obtaining max points in all four categories plus a fifth, secret one.

In unrelated news, I retract my submission.

Spoiler: Najka Valukar (13.75)

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Originality (2.75)
A level of cleric is the barest sprinkle of seasoning on the bland fare of druidhood. (+0.25) Half-Drow is on the obscure end of mainstream, but if you're doing a poison build it's not exactly mind-blowing to see. (+0.25)

Your feats are so-so. Lolth's Caress is interesting, as are Blessed of Vulkoor and the Poison+Smiting Spell combination, but the remaining bits are all pretty straightforward goodstuff. (+0.75)

A solid bit of fluff, more suggestive than entralling, but successful in making me feel like this is more than a tier 1 caster dipping into another. (+0.5)

Power (3)
Not a reason you lost points, but why take the level of cleric at 5th? I get that you take 4 levels of druid first, to get the scorpion, but why delay the final level? Do you really think the domains are more useful than 3rd-level spells and Wild Shape?

Anyway, if everything goes well you're hitting people with a weapon, two poison doses, and a spell. The issue is action economy: setting up a smiting spell and hitting someone with it takes two turns, and the smite sticks around for only one minute; I feel like a poison spell into a poisoned weapon attack is more efficient, without bringing smiting spell into it at all.

On the plus side, Lolth's Caress + Crystal Scorpion Venom is nasty, and you're perfectly set up to exploit it... but it again takes two turns. Wild Shape, again, a turn to set up before you can beat face, and the cleric dip makes you miss out on an use. I'm just not seeing a character here that can act swiftly: having a list of prepared spells would be helpful. Ultimately, when I ask myself whether you are going to outshine a regular 6th-level druid, I'm inclined to say 'no'. (+0.5)

You have a daily use of wild shape and solid perceptive skills, which I'm gonna say qualifies you as a scout. You also got random bits of druid magic and the early part of the cleric list. Still, you don't really improve on what your base classes naturally gain here. (+0.75)

If anything immune to poison shows up, you can send a bear at it, or poorly rebuke undead, but given the power you were cooking with I feel a little unimpressed here. (+0.75)

Elegance (3.75)
The favored class of half-drow protects you from XP penalties. (+1)

Technically, Master of Poisons doesn't qualify you for Poison Expert and Poison Master, as it simply gives the effect of Poison Use without providing the ability itself. (+0.25)

Nothing here that'd make a DM throw books at your head, but I'd like to get a bit of a clearer picture of the spells that you plan on channeling. (+0.5)

Seems like a straightforward, practical character to play. (+1)


UoSI (4.25)
You have a venomous animal companion from level 1 on. (+1)

Poison interacts with your combat routine in various meaningful ways. (+1)

You can, on the face of it, apply poison through magic, you can send in your animal companion to poison people... and yet it's often impractical to apply, and I wonder how often your in-combat turns will consist of firing off an Entangle or summoning a bear. (+0.5)

"Get an animal companion and harvest its venom" has been done, but you build on that to eventually apply two doses of poison in a single attack. (+0.75)

Spoiler: Nyx (11.25)

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Originality (3.25)
Rogue is the single most obvious class to go for. Factotum makes sense in a hindsight-is-2020 sort of way, as does chameleon... but I wouldn't have predicted them, have some points (+0.75). Boring ole human, on the other hand, is something I look a lot less favorably upon. (+0)

Fiendish Legacy is new to me, but seems a bit redundant with your casting. A lot of those other feats are also pretty common. Still, I like it when people go all in on some feat chain in E6, and you certainly do that, so have (+0.5).

You've straight-up written an entire short story to go with the build. Respectable. (+1)

Power (2)
Is this a flurry build? The natural weapons suggest so, but your only per-hit damage bonus is poison, and your attack bonus is in the gutter (no Multiattack, +3 BAB, 10 strength). Is it a tripper? Then where's the combat reflexes? Iaijutsu Focus abuser? Perhaps, but that's two or three d6s of damage, requires flat-footed foes, and eats your move action for draws. A straightforward poison user? Even that's an issue, because you have no way to quickly apply it once the first dose has worn off. You put a lot of emphasis on Haste, but it's actually not great for you: even if you get the buff applied and manage to Full Attack something, your second weapon hit won't have any poison, strength bonus, or sneak attack added on. One gets the impression you're an assassin because anything that fights back is too much trouble.

That said, out of combat you're a potent face with all the useful utility to be found on low-level caster lists. (+1)

What's your plan for Elementals? Constructs? Undead, god forbid? Outside of minimal casting, which you don't elaborate on, I'm not seeing anything.

Elegance (3)
No multiclass penalties. (+1)

Your build stub says you're a human paragon. Your build table says you're a martial rogue, your saves suggests something that grants high Will, your sources only list rogue, and your writeup seems to imply both. Also, if you're a martial rogue, as I ended up assuming, you're short a bonus feat. Enough of a mess for me to give zero points for mechanics.

If getting a free feat from a flaw is worth -1 elegance, getting two free feats from an elder evil shouldn't be any less.

No major issues for playing this ingame, you even include a clever trick to ensure access to spell scrolls. (+1)

UoSI (3)
Poison comes online at level 4. (+0.5)

I hesitate to say poison is what makes you viable, but it's certainly your main source of in-combat damage (outside of perhaps Iaijutsu Focus). (+1)

I can see the logic in going the natural weapons route to deliver more poison attacks, but you only drop 2-3 feats on poison, with useful spells as an afterthought. (+0.25)

I like the visual of launching poisoned natural weapons with Blood Wind. Outside of that, I got nothing. (+0.25)

Spoiler: Sabina Daisy Atis (11.5)

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Well, this build sure looks... anthro-sting!!! get it like interesting

Originality (3.75)
Anthropomorphic terrestrial stingray. (+0.5) I'm not going to reward two levels in two dip classes with a full point of originality, but monk is a genuine surprise, so have (+0.75).

Barbed Stinger, Multigrab, Spear of Doom, Hold the Line, Snatch Arrows? Yeah, there's a lot of stuff here to wow me. (+1.5)

How did the stingrays learn to walk the earth? What motivates their fishy brains? What made one reject its base animal impulses, and turn its flat face to Lawfulness and Goodness? These questions are not answered.

Power (2.25)
Your poison DC is decently high (though it doesn't key off of HD, just RHD, and is thus two points lower), and its effect is very nasty. You got good saves, evasion, and snatch arrows. Movement is a weak point here, as your speed is on the low side (arguably only 20 ft.). A bigger issue is the fact that, even when terrestrially adapted, you're still aquatic and dependent on water. Given that you want to use thrown weapons, you're probably not planning for an aquatic campaign... so how are you not suffocating? Still, if you can get up close with the enemies, they're going to be in trouble. (+1)

Out of combat, you contribute basically nothing.

Against poison-immune foes, you can serve as an okay hands-free grappler that keeps the foes from getting to the casters, or maybe frustrate their approach with ranged pin... but elementals and constructs aren't exactly known for wearing clothes. Immobilizing a single enemy just doesn't cut it, especially when that enemy might be made out of fire, or incorporeal, or acidic. (+0.25)

Elegance (1)
I could talk about a lot of things here. The multiclass XP penalties you almost definitely incur. The difficult relationship between being Exalted good and using ability-damaging poison. The fact that Spear of Doom probably doesn't work with Hold the Line. However, none of that matters, because anthropomorphic animals from outside the MM have no listed LA, and cannot be used as PCs. This disqualifies the central part of your build and results in an automatic minimum elegance score. (I'm not sure if a score of 0 is allowed in this specific competition, but if so, I'm assigning that instead)

UotSI (4.5)
Poison from level 2 on. (+1)

Poison is core to the strategy. (+1)

You got feats that exploit your poison's nauseating effect, feats that exploit its delivery method, that straight-up strengthen it, and that combo to let it become a near-total lockdown. (+1)

Ultimately, 'have a poisonous natural attack and hit people with it' isn't reinventing the wheel, but the Ranged Pin trick is neat. (+0.5)

Spoiler: Xul (14)

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Originality (3.75)
Diablerie Necromancer (+1). No points for human, though.

The undead creation feats alone are surprising enough for me to put (+1.5) here.

The barest vestiges of fluff. (+0.25)

Power (2.75)
Well, you're creating some very souped-up undead or blowing up corpses, and while there's a few question marks in acquiring and transporting the corpses (you can't quite assume you'll always have access, but it's close), things seem pretty well-covered on that front. Your spell slots aren't exactly plentiful either, though relying mostly on a low-level spell helps. I do feel like the undead are a bit underwhelming when you're not actively getting them blown up, though. (+1)

Out of combat, you can... make knowledge checks, I guess? (+0.25)

Poison isn't the biggest part of this build, but you still dislike seeing it go vs immune foes. Your spell pool doesn't have the width to deal with something like a ghost or construct very efficiently. I guess you have some okay blasting, though. (+0.5)

Elegance (5)
No multiclass penalties. (+1)

Mechanically I have questions, but they aren't questions your build could have avoided. (+1)

No issues. (+1)

Taking this from level 1 to epic should go smoothly. (+1)

UoSI (2.5)
Poison is available from level 4 on. (+0.5)

The impact of poison dagger on the build is minimal. Yes, you are in theory inflicting some constitution damage with Poison Dagger, but let's face it, you could do just fine hanging back and animating stuff: going into melee is actively antisynergistic with your undead meatshields. (+0.25)

The build helps out its poisonous component in minor ways. Knowledge Devotion adds to attack rolls with the poisonous dagger, and Fearsome Necromancy adds a save-or-be-shaken on top of it. (+0.5)

Poisoned weapons are the easy way to fulfill the concept, but at least yours is created by magic. (+0.25)

Spoiler: Zashi (13.25)

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Originality (3)
I'm sure some binders can work with poison, but it sure doesn't quickly come to mind. (+1) Similarly, full points for the anthro huge viper. (+0.5)

Most of your feats are pretty standard for AoO fishers. Still, the flanking subfocus and Clever Opportunist earn you points here. (+0.5)

No points for fluff. (+0)

Power (2.75)
Nine AoOs a round and 15 ft. reach make you a pain to get up to and a pain to get past. I do question your ability to actually get in the front, as you have 20 ft. speed and no special movement options, which also makes Dance of Death a lot less powerful than it'd normally be. Are you going to full action run, just to position yourself t1? At least once you're in melee you can reliably force flanks with sky-high tumble and Adaptable Flanker. That said, anything ranged is a huge problem, though flight is at least mitigated by your climb speed and Spit Venom.

Another issue is DR: even low amounts of DR can already negate all damage from your bite, and with it the poison. Against those foes, you're exclusively on crowd control duty, though you're admittedly still quite good at that. (+1)

I don't feel too good about your out-of-combat prowess. Despite good perceptive skills and alternate movement you're not really a scout: stealth is low, trapfinding is nonexistent, and if you encounter trouble you can't outrun it. Being a watchmen or lie detector isn't useless, but often you'll be relegated to the sidelines. (+0.25)

Undead will at least get hit by Golden Ice, but constructs? Elementals? Plants? You can hit them a few times with a bite attack, but 1d4+1 is not a lot of damage! Large and In Charge only gets you so far, especially with your middling strength. (+0.5)

Elegance (3.25)
No multiclass XP penalties. (+1)

Skill points are weird around 4th and 5th level: minor penalty. Improved Binding requires 4 Intimidate ranks, which you lack. (+0.25)

I'm also sceptical that being a humanoid snake qualifies you for extended reach, especially as you seem to want to use it with a bite. Maybe the snake-neck counts as tentacle-like, but a DM would be well within their rights to refuse. (+0.5)

You tried to double-dip and get Touch of Golden Ice along with your poison. I have no issue with Neutral characters using poison, and I'm even willing to let Good ones slide if the fluff is okay... but Exalted Good? Realistically, you lose a solid chunk of your powers the first time you bite something. (+0.5)

UoSI (4.25)
Poison is part of your gameplan from level 3 on. (+1)

You're definitely using poison as a core part of your strategy. (+1)

The non-poison parts of your build are a fairly standard big scary AoO-fisher, which helps out the poison remarkably well. (+1)

Nothing really unique in the way you use the SI, a poison bite with spit venom for minimal variety. (+0.25)

Spoiler: Zhu (13)

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Originality (3.5)
Athach Athach. (+1.5)

Feats are pretty standard for something that focuses on poison, but the unarmed focus comes as a surprise. (+0.5)

I like the little bit of fluff, it's quite charming. (+0.5)

Power (1.5)
On the one hand, you got top-notch strength and a bite. On the other, you only have +4 BAB, and you're triple-wielding relatively weak unarmed strikes, all without an easy mechanism for re-applying poison. I really question your decision to go the unarmed route here, and I don't really understand what it's getting you that multiple manufactured weapons wouldn't. A bunch of your feats seem pointless: will secondary damage ever roll around for Deadly Poison to matter? Is Rapid Metabolism worth a feat, when nearly every party should have a wand of lesser vigor by that point? Comparing you to an equal-level brute, I just can't in good conscience award points here.

No real out-of-combat role here.

Against poison-immune foes, you can... hit them, I guess? Versatile Unarmed Strike helps with the DR of zombies and skeletons, but I was hoping you'd have a better plan than 'punch the acid blob'. (+0.5)

Elegance (4)
No multiclass penalties. (+1)

Mechanically, I don't think that 'applying poison to a weapon' is quite equivalent to 'holding your fists out while you breathe toxic mist on them'. (+0.5)

The rules are extremely unclear on whether or not unarmed strikes can even be dual-wielded. Your build relies on a certain ruling, which not all DMs might replicate. (+0.5)

No awkward character progressions. (+1)

UoSI (4)
Poison comes online at level 3. (+1)

Poison matters for your functionality, but I can't bring myself to say it matters much. (+0.5)

Your build is clearly dedicated to enabling poison, making it work with unarmed strikes, turning it into a ranged option, etc. (+1)

Poisoning a weapon isn't innovative, but putting it on your own fists is a neat twist on the concept. (+0.5)

A few ties, let's hope disputes (or, imagine this, a second judge) break them.