PrC Contest XVI: Voting Thread:FINAL VOTING, Vote now!

[ErrantX]

It's that time again, where we vote on our favorite PrC from Contest XVI: Live and Die by the Sword.

This time, however, it's different.

We have 26 entries! That's seriously 15+ more than we usually have had in the past, incredible! Awesome!

With this in mind, we're going to have you vote for your favorite THREE classes, and then we'll do a vote for those. So, vote vote vote your hearts out. Voting for the first heat closes on the 8th, 2nd heat for the finalists will close on the 12th. Get everyone to vote! I want this thread to be three pages long!

It was a long, difficult battle but the winner is Djinn_In_Tonic with the Unfettered Knight! Congrats Djinn!

Final Voting:
{table=head]Class|Author|Voties
Ninja of the Golden Eclipse|Xallace|5
Voidblade Eliminator|Lord_Gareth|7
Unfettered Knight|Djinn_In_Tonic|10[/table]

First Vote Results: Djinn 1st, Lord Gareth 2nd, and Xallace 3rd.
{table=head]Class|Author|Votes
Ninja of the Golden Eclipse|Xallace|8
The Lancer|Kira the 5th|0
Combat Opportunist|Dangerprawn|2
Dynamist|Random_Person|0
Voidblade Eliminator|Lord_Gareth|11
White Lion Knight|Golden-esque|6
Underdog|Eurus|1
Phantom|DeskChairLamp|2
White Raven Commander|Arbitrarious|2
Dashing Swordsman|Boomwolf|0
Master of Perception|Origomar|0
Protector|Vaynor|0
Knight of the Grave|JoshuaZ|1
Cavalier of Raedria|dawnsolara|0
Naked Knight|DaTedinator|7
Leap Dragoon|DracoDei|1
The Bound|DragoonWraith|7
SssSsSss|Glimbur|2
Ghost Blade|Owrtho|1
Grammaton Cleric|Hyooz|0
Sagesword|Lvl45DM!|0
Eldritch Sword|A.J.Gibson|0
Deathbringer|Latronis|2
Unfettered Knight|Djinn_In_Tonic|17
Bloodbow|Kerleth|0
Drunken Master|FlamingKobold|2[/table]

-X

[Xallace]

Naked Knight, Drunken Master, and Unfettered Knight for sure.
It was a darn tough decision though.

[FlamingKobold]

Note: My name isn't DrunkenKobold

Can contestants vote? If so, Leap Dragoon, The Bound and Unfettered Knight. They're all so awesome, with the Voidblade eliminator as my fourth.

I'm going to predict right now that the Unfettered Knight will end up winning.

[ErrantX]

Note: My name isn't DrunkenKobold

Can contestants vote? If so, Leap Dragoon, The Bound and Unfetterred Knight. They're all so awesome, with the Voidblade eliminator as my fourth.

Just making sure you're, umm, paying attention. Yes.

And yes, please vote.

-X

[Glimbur]

I'd like to vote for...

Naked Knight.

The Bound.

Unfettered Knight.

[Djinn_in_Tonic]

The Djinn's Top Three
The Voidblade Eliminator: Good flavor, and strongly executed with Lord Gareth's typical mix of creative genius and mechanical strength. Took the Soulknife in an interesting and--dare I say it?--competitively balanced direction.
The Bound: A wonderfully evocative flavor, backed up by great ability names, interesting powers, and a tie in with a well made and intriguing homebrewed martial discipline.
The Naked Knight: Humorous concept (and great flavor quote) compressed into three levels of abilities that capture the essence of the idea, while making a class that joke characters and serious characters alike can benefit from. I figured it would be a gimmick, but, after reading it, I must say that I can see it getting a lot of use, and adding greatly to the role of the unarmored warrior.
That said, there's some excellent work in this contest! I hope to see you all back for future competitions!

[The Tygre]

I cast my votes to:

Voidblade Eliminator

Deathbringer

Unfettered Knight

And Errant, I think it goes without saying that this has been the single most successful Prestige Class Contest on these boards, EVER. Good show!

[JoshuaZ]

Only 3 choices? Hmm.

Ninja of the Golden Sun

Voidblade Eliminator

Last one is going to to be an almost toss-up between the

White Lion Knight and the Leap Dragoon. I'm going to go for the

White Lion Knight

[ErrantX]

Could we get the class names turned into links (except for mine, which shouldn't have the name itself be a link, but rather have "Part 1, Part 2" as links on the same line with it).

More or less.

-X

[Darkfire2210]

I'm going to go with the Drunken Master, Ninja of the Golden Eclipse and Phantom. But all were very well done.

[Latronis]

Surprisingly difficult to narrow it down to 3.

Were it a single vote for the win I'd choose Naked Knight

Also Drunken Master and White Lion Knight

[DaTedinator]

As has been stated by everyone else, very difficult to narrow it down. The ones I think I'll end up going with though (in alphabetical order):

Combat Opportunist: It's fun, it's flavorful, and it fills a niche that has been curiously empty. It's probably a bit longer than it needed to be, but it stays interesting all 10 levels.

Ninja of the Golden Eclipse: It does a really good job at merging two seemingly disparate concepts: ninjas, and a sun god. The abilities are unique yet still simple. I could totally see myself playing one of these.

Unfettered Knight: This one gets my vote almost for the concept alone. I don't know that I would've implemented it the same way, but it's really a fantastic idea. This is not to imply that it's poor implementation at all, as it's nicely balanced (despite first appearances), and full of interesting, useful abilities.

Plenty of fantastic classes here. People should keep up the good work!

[zagan]

Lot of choice this time, that's great. So my vote go to:

Vote 1: Ninja of the Golden Eclipse. I just love hte flavor and the ability are really cool.

Vote 2: White Lion Knight. Again the flavor his great, the ability are nice and I realy like cat.

Vote 3: SssSsSss. Class well done, not too powerfull, not too weak. And I love Incarnum, we don't see enough of it.

[krko]

Voting for:

Unfettered Knight

Voidblade Eliminator

Combat Opportunist

[DragoonWraith]

Jeeeez, so many!

Anyway, I'll vote for Ninja of the Golden Eclipse, Phantom, and, of course, Unfettered Knight. I don't think you'll be giving out any signatures this time, Djinn, that's awesome.

But man, so many deserving entries. Seriously. In your standard 6 or 7 entry contest, I could see like half this list winning if it wasn't against the others.

[Djinn_in_Tonic]

I don't think you'll be giving out any signatures this time, Djinn, that's awesome.

Always glad to hear people like my work! That said, if not this time, that little reward will still be around until I am finally overthrown.

Don't cut yourself short though...The Bound are pretty freakin' awesome, as are many of the other entries here. I've never felt less confident about my chances of winning this contest.

Also, right here and now, I'd like to heartily commend everyone in this contest for making it the best contest we've had yet. The number of entries is staggering, and the number of quality entries is equally staggering.

[Dante & Vergil]

I vote for the Voidblade Eliminator, the Deathbringer, and the Unfettered Knight, though the pictures for the last two, while not bad, could be better, but that's my opinion.

[Djinn_in_Tonic]

I vote for the Voidblade Eliminator, the Deathbringer, and the Unfettered Knight, though the pictures for the last two, while not bad, could be better, but that's my opinion.

You'd be surprised how hard it is to find a picture of a paladin who is recognizable as once human, but now takes the form of raw positive energy and holy light. I spent hours trying to find a better one, but to no avail.

Yes, it did bother me that much.

[DragoonWraith]

You'd be surprised how hard it is to find a picture of a paladin who is recognizable as once human, but now takes the form of raw positive energy and holy light. I spent hours trying to find a better one, but to no avail.

Yes, it did bother me that much.

You don't even want to know what I went through for that image of the Bound. Searching "chains" on Deviant Art is an... interesting experience (not recommended for workplaces).

[Djinn_in_Tonic]

You don't even want to know what I went through for that image of the Bound. Searching "chains" on Deviant Art is an... interesting experience (not recommended for workplaces).

Good sir, before I settled on the Unfettered Knight, I looked up Whips and Chains (and a variety of other weapons, but that's not the point) on both DeviantArt and Google in hopes of an inspiring picture. I know the situation all to well.

[DragoonWraith]

I am so sorry for you. I didn't even touch whips, though I did check Google. DevianTart was worse, IIRC.

Though, now I have to ask because it struck me as likely earlier: I notice that anyone qualifying for Unfettered Knight's fluff requirement also qualifies for the Bound's. There's something of a similar theme going on there, so I'm curious - was the Bound a source of inspiration on that? The fact that you looked up chains sort of implies that this was the case, so I'm curious.

If so, I'm unbelievably flattered!

[Djinn_in_Tonic]

I am so sorry for you. I didn't even touch whips, though I did check Google. DevianTart was worse, IIRC.

Though, now I have to ask because it struck me as likely earlier: I notice that anyone qualifying for Unfettered Knight's fluff requirement also qualifies for the Bound's. There's something of a similar theme going on there, so I'm curious - was the Bound a source of inspiration on that? The fact that you looked up chains sort of implies that this was the case, so I'm curious.

If so, I'm unbelievably flattered!

I'm sorry to say that's not the case. That's a case of strange coincidence. I didn't actually read through the Bound until after I had finished the Unfettered Knight. That said, a Paladin/Bound/Unfettered Knight would make for an interesting character...especially given the dual themes of chains and freedom...

[DragoonWraith]

Aw, that's OK.

But yes, yes it absolutely would.

[Lord_Gareth]

White Lion Knight, Unfettered Knight, and The Bound.

[DragoonWraith]

Voidblade Eliminator

Hey, I appreciate your vote, but...

Anyways, I would like to raise back an old question that might become necessary now that we have many contestants-should one be allowed to vote for himself?

I personally vote for a no here.

As much as I normally think the smaller contests we've had in the past people have voted for the class they felt was best, even if it was not theirs, in this contest... I'm actually becoming inclined to agree. You bring up a good point Boomwolf. What say the rest of you?

I've never voted for my own entry, as I felt it was unsporting (and of course I wasn't sure whether it was allowed). I'm all for disallowing it.

I'm against voting for your own work, for pretty much all the same reasons already listed, especially when we've got so many contestants.

I feel like a win means more if it's from your fellow 'brewers, so I think it's better to have us vote for not-our-own.

I'm gonna say no self voting. It just feels like it's in bad taste.

[Agi Hammerthief]

UNDERDOG
Combat Opportunist
Unfettered Knight

[FlamingKobold]

1. I was totally right about the unfettered knight going to win. Just saying

2. Right now, for a game in real life, I'm making a paladin whose final build is Paladin/Bound/Unfettered Knight. I'm wondering, DW and Djinn especially, are there any races, feats, dips, etc that you would suggest? I know I need martial study to qualify for the Bound, and prereqs of course, but what else?

[DragoonWraith]

Well, as a Paladin, I assume you're not going the Dex route. You can use Chthonic Grip instead of Improved Grapple, if you wanted, that gives some advantages and avoids the Int 13 requirement of Improved Grapple (though I think for most uses Improved Grapple is probably better). Yeah, hrm. Not really, I don't really know what would be best. Heh, Shape Soulmeld (Kraken whatever-it's-called) for the Grapple bonus? And an appropriate Open Chakra feat? *shrug*

[Schylerwalker]

Unfettered Knight, Knight of the Grave, Voidblade Eliminator.

[Djinn_in_Tonic]

1. I was totally right about the unfettered knight going to win. Just saying

2. Right now, for a game in real life, I'm making a paladin whose final build is Paladin/Bound/Unfettered Knight. I'm wondering, DW and Djinn especially, are there any races, feats, dips, etc that you would suggest? I know I need martial study to qualify for the Bound, and prereqs of course, but what else?

First off, I'd recommend a Martial Paladin variant, if you can slide it by the DM. Since you'll be fighting with your chains, consider the Combat Reflexes and Improved Trip chains. Aside from that, build for a chain-fighting Martial Adept, as the Unfettered Knight really just adds the icing on the cake. Definitely consider postponing at least one of your potential Martial Study feats for 18th level, or you'll lack you highest levels of maneuvers (which may be about level 7-8). Remember that your martial strikes get more bang for your buck against Evil creatures, as your attacks might also stun them.

Also, although I don't normally recommend this, consider taking Whirlwind Attack or other powerful area attacks. Your Victory Assured and Aura of Inimitable Sanctity abilities trigger each time you hit a new foe, so striking as many evil opponents as possible will make you the most invulnerable, and even enable you to do mass battlefield control (via large amounts of stunning).