Time for the reveal! Please refrain from posting until dishes have been revealed!

"Anyone who can hear the tale of the little match girl and not burst out laughing as a heart of stone."-- Oscar Wilde

Quote Originally Posted by The Little Match Girl
The Little Match Girl
"Won't you look at those pretty lights..."



LE Strongheart Halfling Duskblade 1 / Monk 2 / Cancer Mage 3

Spoiler: Story
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Sir Francis Perceval hurried through the narrow, dark streets. How he loathed this district, loathed the mud-like snow clinging to his boots, loathed the dank and oppressive air, loathed the-

"Excu-say me, guvner? Wou- *cough* would you like to buy some matches?"

Perceval shuddered as he saw the source of the voice (more a rasp, really): a soiled, pockmarked girl, probably no older than twelve, wrapped in stained rags. One of her small, square fists was wrapped in cloth, in a failed effort to cover two missing fingers. The other, intact but covered in yellowish boils, clutched a small bundle of sooty sticks. Her face, he now noted, was dominated by a large, warty boil, which slightly sagged from its growing place on her forehead, covered in coarse black hair unlike that on her scalp.

A leper? Something worse? Perceval took a step back and prepared to bark something to his bodyguards. They really should have spotted her sooner, he noted, he shouldn't have to tell them to get her out of his way. Really went to show how hard it was to find good help these days...

"Please, guvner! Lookie how pretty they shine!"

One of the matches in her hand flared to life. For the briefest instant, Perceval wondered how that could be, when she hadn't touched it. Then a brightly colored scene flared up in front of him: a cozy dining room, filled with warm light and good friends, singing songs and making merry. The noble froze, his mouth sagging open, as he took in the enchanting scene.

With dim awareness, he noted the girl huddle up to him, but failed to bring himself to care. Even as the little thing coughed (wiping her undoubtedly disgusting mouth on his overcoat), he simply gazed ahead, taking in the scene of holiday merriment, scintillating lights, and pure bliss.

When Sir Francis Perceval came to, several minutes later, the lights were gone. As were, he soon noticed, the little girl, his money-purse, most of the exotic delights he'd come to this district to purchase, his ornate dagger, his golden cuff-links and, so he would find out several days later, his health.

A single burnt-out matchstick, carelessly tossed into the snow, released a final wisp of smoke.


Spoiler: Build Table
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Ability scores: 8/12/13/16/8/17
After adjustments: 6/14/13/16/8/17
ECL 4 boost: 6/14/13/16/8/18

Languages known: Common, Draconic, Elvish, Halfling, Giant

Level Class Base Attack Bonus Fort Save Ref Save Will Save Skills Feats Class Features
1st Duskblade 1 +1 +2 +0 +2 Concentration 4, Craft (Alchemy) 4, Heal 2 {CC}, Knowledge (Arcana) 2, Knowledge (Nature) 2, Spellcraft 4 Fascinating Illumination, Great FortitudeHB Arcane Attunement (6/day), Armored Mage (Light)
2nd Undying Way Decisive Attack Monk 1 +1 +4 +2 +4 Concentration 5, Hide 3, Move Silently 3 Improved Unarmed StrikeB, ToughnessB Decisive Attack, Unarmed Strike, AC bonus
3rd Invisible Fist Halfling Monk 2 +2 +5 +3 +5 Concentration 6, Heal 3 {CC}, Hide 6, Move Silently 6 Poison Immunity (Purple Worm Poison), Weapon FinesseB Invisible Fist
4th Cancer Mage 1 +2 +7 +3 +5 Craft (Alchemy) 5, Craft (Poisonmaking) 1, Hide 7, Move Silently 7, Sleight of Hand 5 - Sneak Attack +1d6, Disease Host
5th Cancer Mage 2 +3 +8 +3 +5 Craft (Alchemy) 8, Hide 8, Move Silently 8, Knowledge (Nature) 4, Sleight of Hand 7 - Cancerous Companion, Contagion
6th Cancer Mage 3 +4 +8 +4 +6 Craft (Alchemy) 9, Hide 9, Move Silently 9, Knowledge (Arcana) 4 {CC}, Sleight of Hand 9 Craven Tatterdemalion, Poison

The Match Girl's cancerous companion has 7 intelligence and 30 ft. blindsight. Once per day, it can use one of her spells or SLAs, though it lacks the reach to use Poison or Contagion (it should still be able to use Contagion on Match Girl to get her disease collection going).

Epic feats:
1: Deceptive Illumination
2: Stench of the Grave
3: Empower Spell-Like Ability
4: Darkstalker
5: Practiced Spellcaster (Duskblade)
6: Obtain Familiar
7: Master of Poisons
8: Martial Study (Shadow Jaunt)
9: Martial Stance (Assassin's Stance)
10: Ability Focus (Hypnotic Pattern)

Spells: The Match Girl knows two 0th-level spells and two 1st-level spells, and can cast three spells per day of both levels. This remains true for each level of her career.
Her 0th-level spells are Acid Splash and Disrupt Undead.
Her 1st-level spells are Chill Touch and Resist Energy



Spoiler: Snapshots
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ECL 1-3
Duskblade + Fascinating Illumination gives us seven Hypnotic Patterns per day at level 1. We also get Disrupt Undead and Chill Touch to save-or-suck the immune undead, Resist Energy for a good spell that shores up our so-so reflex, and some alchemy crafting for downtime.

Two monk levels give us Decisive Strike (taken because we're going to want light armor with this wisdom stat), several prerequisite feats, qualification skills, and Invisible Fist. Note the synergy with Hypnotic Pattern: you can get a round of invisibility, drop a pattern, wait a little, and make another attack from invisibility, or use the invisibility rounds to take actions that would normally break fascination.

What to do while patterns are active? Well, you yourself can't do much yet, but your allies get to regroup, drink potions, save dying allies... With clever use of delays and readied actions, you can turn the spell into a free turn for everyone else in the party. You can also grab some alchemical items or (later) poison vials: drawing a weapon might break fascination, but drawing a funny little flask should not. Once you enter cancer mage you can also use the rounds to infect people! At the very least, it'll force some enemies to waste a turn, and others to waste a turn waking those up, which is fine from an action economy perspective.

By the way, note that we can deliver Chill Touch through our unarmed strike in lieu of a normal touch attack! If you're making a Decisive Attack, it might be worth it.

ECL 4-6
Prestige classes in E6! Cancer Mage starts off by giving us some sneak attack, which we'll augment with Craven later (the halfling bonus on saves vs fear is useful here). We also get blindsight (useful, we can't see in the dark but love stealth), disease immunity, some tatters that nevertheless serve as excellent light armor, 1/day Contagion, and 1/day Poison. Finally, our charisma is upped to 18, increasing the strength of our patterns.

The reason we pick cancer mage is its 3rd-level feature: once per day, your cancerous companion can use a spell or SLA of yours using its own standard action, requiring no actions on your part. Not only does this mean we can get a free Hypnotic Pattern or Resist Energy off when necessary, it tells us that our cancerous companion has standard actions, and can thus maintain concentration on the pattern.

We can then start casting new spells while the pattern is ongoing, letting us catch another few enemies in a secondary Pattern, buff ourselves, or hit the foes with anything that's not an obvious threat. We can also rob them blind with Sleight of Hand checks, which they take a penalty to detect. If they haven't drawn weapons yet, we can even steal those!

Also note that our combat damage is actually pretty respectable. A decisive unarmed sneak attack deals (1d6+1d4-2+6)x2, which is an average of 18 damage. A level 6 human rogue with craven, no strength penalty, and a shortsword is dealing 4d6+6, or an average of 20, but their slightly worse to-hit and lack of alchemical support lead me to conclude we compare favorably. We also have a tool for setting up sneak attacks that the rogue lacks, though in turn we're more reliant on full attacks (though those need not be melee: throwing two alchemical flasks from stealth deals some pretty devastating damage as well).

Epic levels
Deceptive Illumination adds to our light theme in a manner close to the original story and goes great with the fascination. Just surround your fascinated victims with a Silent Image identical to their current view, and they'll be incapable of seeing what you're doing while unaware that something is amiss. It also gives us an extra use, so we can now use both once in four encounters per day.

Stench of the Grave is a flavorful way to debuff saves and attacks, and probably doesn't count as a 'threat' by the rules. Just fascinate people and slowly walk around sickening them.

Empower SLA helps catch bigger monsters (who tend to have worse Will and are thus prime targets) in the effect.

Darkstalker isn't as important in E6 as it normally is, but guard dogs are real and at some point you might want to be able to sneak past them.

Practiced Spellcaster and Obtain Familiar get us a familiar (I recommend a raven to go with the 'filthy scavenger' theme) which can break the action economy wide open and more importantly can perform simple tasks while we're busy concentrating on a pattern. Note that your familiar keeps your skill ranks, and is thus an excellent scout and pickpocket! The caster level boost also helps make Chill Touch a bit more threatening, and gives us an encounter-long source of touch attacks or punch-enhancers.

Master of Poisons lets us get more serious about poison use, in addition to allowing mid-combat refreshing of poisoned weapons.

Martial Study and Martial Stance give us another big pile of sneak attack damage, as well as a neat frequently-reusable teleport: great for getting into confined spaces or escaping from a patch of BFC!

Our final feat is ability focus: I generally dislike those 'basic' feats but Hypnotic Pattern is core to our build, so I want to dedicate resources to it.


Spoiler: Discussion
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I decided to approach this project from the Light angle, as I figured it would be the less explored of the two. Duskblade + Fascinating Illumination is a classic low-level combo that falls off at higher levels: perfect for E6. I then found as many ways to expand it as possible, settling on Cancer Mage as a fun combo piece with an unique mechanical identity. The fluff tied everything together beautifully.

This build shows originality both on the mechanical level (duskblade, monk, and cancer mage aren't exactly expected for a light-based build), the feat choices, and the overall strategy (turning Dancing Lights, of all things, into a combat option). The build shows elegance by meeting all prereqs, avoiding multiclass XP penalties or excessive dipping, and avoiding ambiguous RAW. The build shows power by having a reliable save-or-suck to spam, a solid level of sneak attack damage, and a bunch of noncombat utility. The build showcases the secret ingredient (Light) by focusing on augmenting Dancing Lights and exploiting the free turns it can grant.

If flaws are allowed, consider changing the race to Synad and investing in psionics instead. The ability to get swift action concentration from level 1 on really helps with hypnotic pattern spam, and the freed-up standard actions can be used to . Perhaps some Duskblade/Psychic Rogue/Trapsmith build could be funny, rapidly constructing traps around its dumbfounded enemies before waking them up.


Spoiler: Sources
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Strongheart Halfling - FRCS
Duskblade - PHB2
Cancer Mage - BoVD

Fascinating Illumination, Deceptive Illumination, Master of Poisons - DotU
Poison Immunity - BoVD
Craven - CoR
Stench of the Grave - UA
Darkstalker - LoM
Practiced Spellcaster, Obtain Familiar - Complete Arcane
Martial Study, Martial Stance - ToB