Junkyard Wars XLV: Serenity + Healing - Paladin

[Inevitability]

And lastly, the chair's exhibition entry! Judges are free to share their thoughts but aren't obligated to include it in their judgements.

Really failing to live up to that 'first, do no harm' bit...

Sulphurclaw, Who Dreams Prophecies



LE Greenspawn Zealot Psychic Warrior 2 / Blackguard 10

"Where five became four the door to blood has re-opened, and so should the griffin's house not uncover their traitor, the weavers of stone will bring death to the ursine realm... such intricate connections, so plain to see!"

Spoiler: Description

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The spawn of tiamat are well known in the realm called Eberron. Created in profane rituals enacted by the tainted dragons that serve her, they represent an utter corruption of anything dragons stand for. Some are little more than mindless beasts that serve her cultists as attack dogs and mounts - others, like the greenspawn zealots, are lieutenants and chaplans, second only to the draconic leaders. Sulphurclaw, at first, seems like a typical example of his kind: fiercely devoted to ensuring his mother's freedom, strong in battle, with an interest in the draconic prophecy and some ability to tell its signs.

...and yet things are not that simple. What to think of the flashes of psionic talent shown by the greenspawn? What to think of the fact that its prophecized rambles seem ever-so-slightly wrong? And what to think of the fact that its actions, though perfectly explicable as deeds in Tiamat's service, always seem to advance Riedran interests as well?

Some whispered voices speak of Inspired programs that breed twisted shining dragons, flawless as gems and armed with powers of the mind (DoE page 109). If so, Sulphurclaw represents a truly terrifying possibility: that the quori know of the Pit of Five Sorrows, and intend to use Tiamat as their tool to visit long-awaited revenge upon the dragons. Sulphurclaw himself most likely does not even know of their manipulations: to him, the flawed prophecy his mind accesses is simply the only correct one.

Spoiler: Build Table

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Ability scores: 16/12/12/12/15/10
Post-racial: 22/12/18/12/17/12
All ASIs (8,12,16) into wisdom for a final 20 wisdom.

Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
6th	Greenspawn Zealot	+6	+2	+5	+5	Hide +8cc (4), Knowledge (Arcana) +4cc (2), Knowledge (Religion) +4cc (2), Listen +3 (3), Sense Motive +4 (4), Spot +4 (4)	Draconic Prophesier, Power Attack, Cleave	Tiamat's Grace, Zealotry, Favored Enemy Humans, Touch of Tiamat, Acid Immunity
7th	Psychic Warrior 1	+6	+4	+5	+5	Autohypnosis +1 (1), Hide +2cc (5), Knowledge (Arcana) 2, Knowledge (Religion) 2, Listen 3, Sense Motive 4, Spot 4	Improved SunderB	Manifesting
8th	Psychic Warrior 2	+7	+5	+5	+5	Autohypnosis 1, Concentration +3 (3), Hide 5, Knowledge (Arcana) 2, Knowledge (Religion) 2, Listen 3, Sense Motive 4, Spot 4	Prophecy's MindB	-
9th	Blackguard 1	+8	+7	+5	+5	Autohypnosis 1, Concentration +1 (4), Hide 5, Knowledge (Arcana) 2, Knowledge (Religion) +2 (4), Listen 3, Sense Motive 4, Spot 4	Spontaneous Wounder	Aura of Evil, Detect Good, Poison Use
10th	Blackguard 2	+9	+8	+5	+5	Autohypnosis 1, Concentration +1 (5), Hide 5, Knowledge (Arcana) +2cc (3), Knowledge (Religion) 4, Listen 3, Sense Motive 4, Spot 4	-	Dark Blessing, Smite Good 1/Day
11th	Blackguard 3	+10	+8	+6	+6	Autohypnosis 1, Concentration +1 (6), Hide 5, Knowledge (Arcana) +2cc (4), Knowledge (Religion) 4, Listen 3, Sense Motive 4, Spot 4	-	Command Undead, Aura of Despair
12th	Blackguard 4	+11	+9	+6	+6	Autohypnosis 1, Concentration +3 (9), Hide 5, Knowledge (Arcana) 4, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Listen 3, Sense Motive 4, Spot 4	Serenity	Sneak Attack +1d6
13th	Blackguard 5	+12	+9	+6	+6	Autohypnosis 1, Concentration +1 (10), Hide 5, Knowledge (Arcana) +2cc (5), Knowledge (Religion) 4, Listen 3, Sense Motive 4, Spot 4	-	Fiendish Servant, Smite Good 2/day
14th	Blackguard 6	+13	+10	+7	+7	Autohypnosis 1, Concentration +1 (11), Hide 5, Knowledge (Arcana) +2cc (6), Knowledge (Religion) 4, Listen 3, Sense Motive 4, Spot 4	-	-
15th	Blackguard 7	+14	+10	+7	+7	Autohypnosis 1, Concentration +3 (14), Hide 5, Knowledge (Arcana) 6, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Listen 3, Sense Motive 4, Spot 4	Prophecy's Shepherd	Sneak Attack +2d6
16th	Blackguard 8	+15	+11	+7	+7	Autohypnosis 1, Concentration +3 (17), Hide 5, Knowledge (Arcana) 6, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Listen 3, Sense Motive 4, Spot 4	-	-
17th	Blackguard 9	+16	+11	+8	+8	Autohypnosis 1, Concentration +1 (18), Hide 5, Knowledge (Arcana) +2cc (7), Knowledge (Religion) 4, Listen 3, Sense Motive 4, Spot 4	-	-
18th	Blackguard 10	+17	+12	+8	+8	Autohypnosis 1, Concentration +1 (19), Hide 5, Knowledge (Arcana) +2cc (8), Knowledge (Religion) 4, Listen 3, Sense Motive 4, Spot 4	Craven	Sneak Attack +3d6, Smite Good 3/day

Spoiler: Fiendish Servant

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"Little Dragon"
Fiendish Bat (8 HD)
Feats: Darkstalker, Martial Study (Clinging Shadow Strike), Martial Stance (Island of Blades)
All 11 skill points in Hide for a final +25 Hide before items and boosts.

Spoiler: Manifesting and Casting

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Suphurclaw has 1 power point at level 7, 5 at level 8, and 6 at level 16.
Powers known are Expansion and Call Item.

This is an exhibition entry so I'm just giving typical spells prepared at level 20:
1: Divine Sacrifice, Divine Sacrifice, Divine Sacrifice, Inflict Light Wounds
2: Demoncall, Inflict Moderate Wounds, Soul of Shadow
3: Demon Wings, Inflict Serious Wounds, Mass Resurgence
4: Summon Undead IV, Revenance
Note that 5/day we can convert a prepared spell into an Inflict of equivalent level thanks to Spontaneous Wounder.

Spoiler: Writeup

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6 HD
I won't lie: this build has a rough early game. Slightly better saves and stats are the main thing separating you from a warrior, so just charge ahead, power attack with a two-hander, and hope you face a lot of humans. Once per day you can hurt a creature with a touch and heal yourself for the same amount, which is alright. I mean, it's not like you could craft an entire build around that, right?

10 HD
Psychic Warrior lets us squeeze in the final blackguard prerequisite feat, as well as Prophecy's Mind, which can save you from death once per battle. The class also gives the ever-great Expansion and Call Item for utility.

Spontaneous Wounder isn't that good yet, though your high wisdom at least grants a lot of uses. Use poison to shore up your damage, maybe sunder some holy symbols or component pouches, and use what little magic blackguard gives you where it counts. Divine Sacrifice is notable for adding a ton of damage, and if you stick it onto an ILW touch attack, you heal back its 10 HP cost and more thanks to Touch of Tiamat.

15 HD
Here's where everything starts to come together. Prophecy's Shepherd lets you cast quickened Inflict spells for multiple rounds in a row (including the round you enter prophetic fervor). Touch of Tiamat turns all these spells into an equal amount of healing for you. Sneak Attack further ups the damage dealt by those touch attacks, as does Smite Good if you're so inclined. You also now possess a fiendish bat servant, which can act as short-range enemy radar and which allows you to consider your foes flanked if it's adjacent to the same enemy as you. It's also a pretty solid scout thanks to Darkstalker.

Serenity switches our Dark Blessing from charisma to wisdom, massively upping the save bonus. This neatly synergizes with our racial Zealotry: the higher our save bonuses, the bigger the chance a reroll actually matters when used. RAW, it doesn't affect our Command Undead, Tiamat's Touch, or Smite Good, but a permissive DM (or one running Sulphurclaw as an NPC) might switch those over to wisdom as well, given how clearly they're patterned on Turn Undead, Lay on Hands, and Smite Evil.

Demoncall squeezes some use out of your anemic knowledge ranks (and if it's not useful for the day, just convert it to an inflict spell). Soul of Shadow is a nice long-duration buff to your inflicts that can also remove fatigue from you. Note that all those inflict spells may be low-level, but saves against them (and your allies' spells) are rolled at a -2 penalty thanks to a blackguard's Aura of Despair. Also note Mass Resurgence, which synergizes great with your high saves: you're likely to succeed on your save against most AoE effects and can then proceed to grant everyone who failed a reroll with only a single action.

18 HD
Craven (much less painful with our Will save so high) massively ups the damage of your inflict spells, and thus supercharges the healing received. Sneak attack itself increases as well: even a simple Inflict Light Wounds now deals 1d8+5+3d6+18, for an average of 38 damage and 38 points of healing to you (or a nearby dragonblooded ally). Not bad for something you can do alongside your regular full power attacks! If you go all-out and drop an Inflict Critical Wounds, that's 4d8+10+3d6+18, or 56 damage, again healed in full.

The nice thing about this is how well it works with Prophecy's Mind: if you're in a state of fervor and would drop to -10, you can instead drop to 0, cast an inflict spell with your next action, and heal yourself while hopefully killing whatever is beating your face in. Someone without healing would be forced to stumble away, someone with healing would still have to hope they don't just get downed again next turn, but you can keep attacking when you'd normally have been dead.

Summon Undead IV gets you allips in all their terrifying goodness (or ghouls, who can spread ghoul fever and give you permanent minions to command), and Revenance lets you, however temporarily, heal even death. Note that the resurrected ally is at half health, making them a convenient target for your healing if they happen to be dragonblooded.

Spoiler: Sources

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Greenspawn Zealot - MMV
Psychic Warrior - XPH
Draconic Prophesier, Prophecy's Mind, Prophecy's Shepherd - MoE
Craven - CoR
Serenity - DComp
Spontaneous Healer - CDiv

Divine Sacrifice, Mass Resurgence, Revenance, Summon Undead IV - SComp
Demoncall, Demon Wings - FCI
Soul of Shadow - DrM

Call Item - Psionic Potpourri