Villainous Competition IV, or, The Truth is in the (Blood) Pudding

[illyahr]

I'd been trying to keep my deadline away from Iron Chef, but I'll admit I didn't look at this one. Okay, for this time only, because I only have 2 entries, if everyone thinks this is fair, I'm going to extend it until Next Tuesday, same time.

That seems fair. I'm not even in school anymore and I was feeling second-hand pressure from my room mate.

[Gwachitallemall]

By the way, if we don't get enough, we'll have to figure something else out. I'd hope for at least two more entries.

[WeaselGuy]

Mine will be done by sunday, just have to do my Background and Spells list.

[Sam K]

Sorry, my D&D interest has hit a low recently, so my motivation to put something together isn't very strong at the moment. We'll see if I can find the inspiration this weekend, I do have a pretty cool concept. Maybe I could hire a sub-contractor to do the actual writing up!

[WeaselGuy]

Ok, mine's submitted. Thanks again for the extension!

[WhamBamSam]

I'm still hoping to get an entry in. I've been banging my head against some rules issues, but I think it'll all resolve into something really memorable.

[Gwachitallemall]

Alright, well just 12 hours left, 3 entrants so far. I'm probably going to take a break from making these after this one.

[sakuuya]

I'm pretty sure there are enough builds for a reveal.

[Gwachitallemall]

There are definitely enough builds now, hah. I'm a little preoccupied, but I'll get them up soon. Hold off posting until I'm finished.

[Gwachitallemall]

The Undead Knight.

Geroldt Brand

Human Bard1/Paladin5/Dirgesinger5/Bone Knight9

And through it all, the rise and fall, the bodies in the streets.
And when you're gone we want you all to know:
We'll carry on, we'll carry on
And though you're dead and gone, believe me,
Your memory will carry on; we'll carry on.
And in my heart I can't contain it,
The anthem won't explain it.
A world that sends you reeling from decimated dreams
Your misery and hate will kill us all.
So paint it black and take it back
Let's shout it loud and clear
Defiant to the end we hear the call...

Spoiler: Backstory

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In his younger years, Geroldt Brand lived a carefree life in Wakefield, a town near the kingdom’s border. Much to the dismay of his parents, Geroldt spent most of his time in the tavern learning from the Bards that traveled through. He loved his father, and respected his place in the service of the king, but he knew that music was his calling. And what place could music have in the army? One day, his father brought him to the town square to see a passing troop of Paladins, their white uniforms gleaming in the sun. They were led by a troop of six officers, playing flute, drums, and horns, with as much skill and passion as any Bard. Six months later, Geroldt had taken his oaths as a Paladin of Pelor.

He fought bravely in the order, distinguishing himself and rising in rank. His skill on the pipes became known far and wide. But disaster was waiting. Geroldt and his platoon were two days’ march away when the word came that an army of brigands had struck Wakefield. He frantically raised militia across the countryside as they made their way back. He arrived to find the walls barely holding. With his reinforcements, and a furious sortie that splintered the enemy commander’s elite troops, Wakefield was saved. But it was a victory laced with sorrow: his father had fallen to the invaders outside the city walls, holding off the enemy as the last few civilians took shelter.

Geroldt blamed himself for his father’s death. Grief gave way to depression, and depression gave way to despair. He forsook his Paladin’s vows, taking refuge in the only thing that had ever really made him happy: his music. His songs were no longer songs of joy, but grief and loss. If only his music could have saved his father. But maybe there was a way. Music to restore life to the dead, music to bring them back. With this newfound knowledge, it was time to stop wallowing, and start leading again. And he could, he could lead them all. Not a thin line of Paladins in white, but a mighty army clad in black. He would make his own parade.

Now Geroldt is wreaking havoc through the countryside as a Bone Knight. His haunting music strikes fear into the hearts of his enemies. At the sound of his pipes, even the dead can wake, for a time. Necromancers of all descriptions are flocking to his banner, and his undead legions are growing by the day. Such a clear threat to the kingdom demands a response, and your players are just the ones to end his reign of terror…

Spoiler: Starting Ability Scores

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Str 15
Dex 8
Con 10
Int 12
Wis 13
Cha 14

Spoiler: Full Build Table

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Bard1/Paladin5/Dirgesinger5/Bone Knight9

Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Bard1	+0	+0	+2	+2	Craft (Weaponsmithing) 4, Craft (Armorsmithing) 4, Gather Information 4, Know (History) 4, Know (Religion) 4, Perform (wind instruments) 4, Sleight of Hand 4, UMD 4	Melodic Casting, Able Learner	Bardic music, Bardic Knowledge, Countersong, Fascinate, Inspire Courage +1
2nd	Paladin1	+1	+2	+2	+2	Craft (Armor) 5, Know(History) 5, Perform 5, Ride 1	-	Aura of Good, Detect Evil, Smite Evil 1/day
3rd	Paladin2	+2	+3	+2	+2	Craft (Weapon) 5, Know (Religion) 5, Perform 6, Ride 2	Devoted Performer	Divine Grace, Lay On Hands
4th	Paladin3	+3	+3	+3	+3	Craft (Armor) 6, Craft (Weapon) 6, Perform 7, Ride 3	-	Aura of Courage, Divine Health. +1 Str
5th	Paladin4	+4	+4	+3	+3	Perform 8, Ride 6	-	Turn Undead
6th	Paladin5	+5	+4	+3	+3	Perform 9, Ride 9	Requiem	Smite Evil 2/day, Special Mount
7th	Dirgesinger1	+5	+4	+3	+5	Perform 10, Ride 10, UMD 8	-	Song of Sorrow
8th	Dirgesinger2	+6	+4	+3	+6	Perform 11, Ride 11, UMD 9, Know (Religion) 7	-	Song of Bolstering. +1 Con
9th	Dirgesinger3	+7	+5	+4	+6	Perform 12, Ride 12, UMD 11, Know (Religion) 9	Corpsecrafter	Song of Grief
10th	Dirgesinger4	+8	+5	+4	+7	Perform 13, Ride 13, UMD 13, Know (Religion) 11	-	Song of Horror
11th	Dirgesinger5	+8	+5	+4	+7	Perform 14, Ride 14, UMD 14, Know(Religion) 14	-	Song of Awakening
12th	Bone Knight1	+8	+7	+4	+7	Perform 15, Ride 15, UMD 15, Know(Religion) 15	Destruction Retribution	Bonecraft Armor (+4 intimidate, DR 1 or 2/Bludgeoning), Paladin Conversion, Rebuke Undead. +1 Con
13th	Bone Knight 2	+9	+8	+4	+7	Perform 16, Ride 16, UMD 16, Know(Religion) 16	-	Bone March, Summon Skeletal Steed
14th	Bone Knight 3	+10	+8	+5	+8	Perform 17, Ride 17 UMD 17, Know(Religion) 17	-	Master of the White Banner Black Parade
15th	Bone Knight 4	+11	+9	+5	+8	Perform 18, Ride 18 UMD 18, Know(Religion) 18	Mounted Combat	Improved Bonecraft Armor (DR +1, Immune to Stunning and Nonlethal)
16th	Bone Knight 5	+11	+9	+5	+8	Perform 19, Ride 19 UMD 19, Know(Religion) 19	-	Fill the Ranks 1/day. +1 Str
17th	Bone Knight 6	+12	+10	+6	+9	Perform 20, Ride 20 UMD 20, Know(Religion) 20	-	Bonecraft Weapon (+1d6 vs living)
18th	Bone Knight 7	+13	+10	+6	+9	Perform 21, Ride 21 UMD 21, Know(Religion) 21	Battle Blessing	Improved Bonecraft Armor (DR +1, 50% fortification, act without penalty while disabled/dying
19th	Bone Knight 8	+14	+11	+6	+9	Perform 22 Ride 22 UMD 22, Know(Religion) 22	-	Exoskeleton of Undeath (Immune to poison, sleep, paralysis, disease, death effects, fatigue, exhaustion, ability damage to physical scores, ability drain, energy drain, and death from massive damage)
20th	Bone Knight 9	+14	+11	+7	+10	Perform 23, Ride 23 UMD 23, Know(Religion) 23	-	Death Strike 1/day. +1 Str

Bard Spells Known
Prestidigitation, Lullaby, Summon Instrument, Read Magic

Spoiler: Paladin Spells Table

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Spells per Day/Spells Known

Level	1st	2nd	3rd	4th
1st	-	-	-	-
2nd	-	-	-	-
3rd	-	-	-	-
4th	-	-	-	-
5th	0	-	-	-
6th	0	-	-	-
7th	0	-	-	-
8th	0	-	-	-
9th	0	-	-	-
10th	0	-	-	-
11th	0	-	-	-
12th	0	-	-	-
13th	1	-	-	-
14th	1	-	-	-
15th	1	0	-	-
16th	1	0	-	-
17th	1	1	-	-
18th	1	1	0	-
19th	1	1	1	-
20th	1	1	1	-

Spoiler: Level Writeups

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Spoiler: Level 5

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At this level, Geroldt has not yet become a villain. He is a very atypical Paladin, considering his Bardic background. His skill selection is helped by the Able Learner feat, but his combat prowess is not equal to his fellow Paladins, who have taken things like Power Attack and Mounted Combat instead of Melodic Casting and Devoted Performer. The PCs might encounter him as a helpful NPC, taking the role of a “good cop” Paladin. He should mention his father at some point during the interaction to foreshadow his future tragedy and fall from grace.

Spoiler: Level 10

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Geroldt is now in the pit of despair. He is isolated from his former comrades, and more than dabbling in the Necromantic arts. His combat prowess has taken a tremendous hit from Falling. However, his Dirge Songs – with DCs based on his ranks in Perform, rather than his caster level - can be a potent debuffing force.

(Note: Geroldt is no longer Good when he takes his first Dirgesinger level. This will briefly give him levels of Ex-Paladin, until taking Bone Knight for Paladin Conversion).

While spells like Animate Dead are not on his spell list, his ranks in Use Magic Device will allow him to use scrolls and wands (likely obtained through his association with Necromancers). The PCs might find him associating with a small group of Necromancers and their undead hordes; or as a lone madman in a ruined laboratory or library.

Spoiler: Level 15

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Geroldt has embraced his destiny as a Bone Knight, and recovered most of the abilities he lost as an ex-Paladin. With the Desecrate spell now on his list, he is much more able to command a large host of minions. Destruction Retribution allows even the minor undead he creates through scrolls to be more than cannon fodder. His Dirge Songs continue to increase in potency as his ranks in Perform increase. Thanks to his Melodic Casting, he can use the Perform skill in place of Concentration for his Paladin spells, helping him to avoid Attacks of Opportunity while in the thick of battle. The PCs might encounter him as the commander of a fortress full of undead and Necromancers.

Spoiler: Sweet Spot: Level 16

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This is the build’s sweet spot. Much like level 15, but [i]Fill the Ranks[\i] is now active, giving him the ability to make his own undead.

Spoiler: Level 20

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Geroldt now personally commands a troop of Karrnathi Zombies or Skeletons that he has created with his [i]Fill the Ranks[\i] ability. His Exoskeleton of Undeath offers him protection from a wide range of conditions. Battle Blessing allows him to cast his Paladin spells more quickly in combat. His ranks in Use Magic Device and Perform are at their maximum, giving him a significant edge for casting from scrolls, staves, or wands. The PCs might encounter him as the head of an invading undead legion, or a cult leader attempting to conjure up a ghastly undead Deity.

Spoiler: Sources

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Melodic Casting feat: Complete Mage 44.
Able Learner feat: Races of Destiny 150.
Devoted Performer feat: Complete Adventurer 107.
Requiem feat: Libris Mortis 29.
Dirgesinger Prestige Class: Libris Mortis 43.
Corpsecrafter feat: Libris Mortis 25.
Destruction Retribution feat: Libris Mortis 26.
Bone Knight Prestige Class: Five Nations 117.
Battle Blessing feat: Complete Champion 55.
Karrnathi Zombie, Karrnathi Skeleton: Eberron Campaign Setting 292 (referenced by Bone Knight’s [i]Fill the Ranks[\i] ability)

Spoiler: Additional Suggested Equipment

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Bagpipes of the Damned (Libris Mortis)
Harmonizing and Profane weapon enhancements(MIC)
Scepter of the Netherworld (MIC)
Rod of Undead Mastery (MIC)
Circlet of Persuasion
Cloak of Charisma
Vest of Resistance (MiC)
Wand of Animate Dead
Scrolls of Summon Undead, Plague of Undead (Libris Mortis); Create Undead; Create Greater Undead.

[Gwachitallemall]

Dragons for the darkness, dragons for the shadows.

Razlyn’susselsathra
The Shadow of Death

Spoiler: Build Stub

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Mature Adult Loredrake Shadow Dragon Ur-Priest 1/Soul Eater 1/Dispassionate Watcher of Chronepsis 1

Spoiler: Background

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Razlyn’susselsathra (Raz, for short) was, for the greatest expanse of his life, relatively typical of other Shadow Dragons. He lived in a nice dark Duergar graveyard, and set about raising these industrious workers of the Underdark to collect gems and precious metals for him and to extend his cavern network to allow for greater access to other parts of the Underdark. He devoted massive amounts of his free time in the pursuit of magical knowledge, and even did what he could to study religion and various planar entities.

But then came along a group of adventurers. Like nearly all of the short-lived races, they were greedy and disrespectful of life. They snuck into his network of caves with admittedly remarkable skill, bypassing his clever traps (both mundane and magical), and attacked young Raz with a fervor that seemed to be divinely inspired. Raz assaulted them with his own selection of spells, pitting his undead minions against their much smaller force, but Raz was quickly outmatched by the plunderer’s Cleric and Paladin. Those two seemed Heavens-bent on eradicating Raz from the Planes of existence.

It quickly became clear that Raz’s only course of action was to retreat deep into the Underdark, and to sacrifice his wondrous horde to the holy invaders. But he swore revenge in his parting, determined to seek out any advantage it would take to wreak havoc on those that assaulted him. For dragons are the longest living of the races, and they have an exceptional memory.

Moving deeper into the Underdark, Razlyn’susselsathra sought out a new cave network to call his own, within which to renew his studies in order to vanquish his foes. His research eventually led him to a rarely practiced form of divine magic, in which the user literally steals traces of divine magic from the pool that deities allocate their clerics, and his travelling led him to a long forgotten cave wherein various dragons had travelled to in their dying moments, an underground dragon graveyard. Warded over by a group calling themselves Dispassionate Watchers, this cave was lacking a guardian. Recalling what had happened to the last graveyard tended to by a younger Razlyn’susselsathra, Raz claimed dominion over this new cave, and set about preparing for the day when vengeance would be his.

Spoiler: Ability Scores

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Attribute	Base	Racial	From Level	Total
Strength	8	12	-	20
Dexterity	15	-	-	15
Constitution	13	8	-	21
Intelligence	12	10	-	22
Wisdom	14	10	6	30
Charisma	10	10	-	20

All increases from gaining HD go to Wisdom. Racial bonus to ability scores extrapolated by reducing listed ability scores by 10 (or 11).

Spoiler: Progression Table

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Important Notes: Loredrake increases Arcane Caster Level by 2, as well as adds Spellcraft to the list of Class Skills for the Dragon. Shadow Dragon adds Hide, Jump, and Move Silently to the list of Class Skill for the Dragon. Also, with regards to skills per level, a Dragon gains skill points retroactively due to increases in Intelligence from aging. Skill point ranks are calculated using the final intelligence for this dragon.

CR	HD	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
4	4	Shadow Dragon (Wyrmling)	+4	+4	+4	+4	Bluff (3.5), Concentration (7), Diplomacy (7), Hide (7), Intimidate (7), Knowledge {Arcana} (7), Knowledge {The Planes} (7), Knowledge {Religion} (7), Listen (7), Move Silently (7), Search (7), Sense Motive (7), Spellcraft (7), Spot (7), Use Magic Device (7)	Tomb-Tainted Soul, Iron Will	Energy Drain Immunity
5	7	Shadow Dragon (Very Young)	+7	+5	+5	+5	Bluff (5), Concentration (10), Diplomacy (10), Hide (10), Intimidate (10), Knowledge {Arcana} (10), Knowledge {The Planes} (10), Knowledge {Religion} (10), Listen (10), Move Silently (10), Search (10), Sense Motive (10), Spellcraft (10), Spot (10), Use Magic Device (10)	Alertness	Shadow Blend
7	10	Shadow Dragon (Young)	+10	+7	+7	+7	Bluff (6.5), Concentration (13), Diplomacy (13), Hide (13), Intimidate (13), Knowledge {Arcana} (13), Knowledge {The Planes} (13), Knowledge {Religion} (13), Listen (13), Move Silently (13), Search (13), Sense Motive (13), Spellcraft (13), Spot (13), Use Magic Device (13)	Weapon Focus (Claw)	-
9	13	Shadow Dragon (Juvenile)	+13	+8	+8	+8	Bluff (8), Concentration (16), Diplomacy (16), Hide (16), Intimidate (16), Knowledge {Arcana} (16), Knowledge {The Planes} (16), Knowledge {Religion} (16), Listen (16), Move Silently (16), Search (16), Sense Motive (16), Spellcraft (16), Spot (16), Use Magic Device (16)	Fell Animate	Mirror Image, Spellcasting (3rd level Sorcerer)
12	16	Shadow Dragon (Young Adult)	+16	+10	+10	+10	Bluff (9.5), Concentration (19), Diplomacy (19), Hide (19), Intimidate (19), Knowledge {Arcana} (19), Knowledge {The Planes} (19), Knowledge {Religion} (19), Listen (19), Move Silently (19), Search (19), Sense Motive (19), Spellcraft (19), Spot (19), Use Magic Device (19)	Energy Substitution (Cold)	Damage Reduction 5/Magic, Spellcasting (5th Level Sorcerer)
14	19	Shadow Dragon (Adult)	+19	+11	+11	+11	Bluff (11), Concentration (22), Diplomacy (22), Hide (22), Intimidate (22), Knowledge {Arcana} (22), Knowledge {The Planes} (22), Knowledge {Religion} (22), Listen (22), Move Silently (22), Search (22), Sense Motive (22), Spellcraft (22), Spot (22), Use Magic Device (22)	Lord of the Uttercold	Dimension Door, Spellcasting (7th Level Sorcerer)
17	22	Shadow Dragon (Mature Adult)	+22	+13	+13	+13	Bluff (12.5), Concentration (25), Diplomacy (25), Hide (25), Intimidate (25), Knowledge {Arcana} (25), Knowledge {The Planes} (25), Knowledge {Religion} (25), Listen (25), Move Silently (25), Search (25), Sense Motive (25), Spellcraft (25), Spot (25), Use Magic Device (25)	Spell Focus (Evil)	Damage Reduction 10/Magic, Spellcasting (9th Level Sorcerer)
18	23	Ur-Priest 1	+22	+13	+13	+15	Bluff (16.5), Concentration (26), Knowledge {Arcane} (26), Knowledge {The Planes} (26), Knowledge {Religion} (26), Spellcraft (26)	-	Spellcasting (1st Level Ur-Priest)
19	24	Soul Eater 1	+23	+15	+15	+17	Bluff (19.5), Concentration (27), Knowledge {Arcane} (27), Knowledge {The Planes} (27), Knowledge {Religion} (27), Spellcraft (27)	Life Drain	Energy Drain 1
20	26	Dispassionate Watcher of Chronepsis 1	+23	+17	+15	+19	Bluff (21.5), Concentration (28), Knowledge {Arcane} (28), Knowledge {The Planes} (28), Knowledge {Religion} (28), Spellcraft (28)	-	Divine Conversion, Calming Aura, Draconic Knowledge, Spellcasting (10th level Ur-Priest)

Spoiler: Spells

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The following chart represents the spells per day and spells known for the Dragon's innate Sorcerer Spellcasting, before additions due to high casting stat.

Spoiler: Sorcerer Spells

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Spells per Day/Spells Known

Level	0lvl	1st	2nd	3rd	4th
3rd	6/5	5/3	-	-	-
5th	6/6	6/4	4/2	-	-
7th	6/7	6/5	6/3	4/2	-
9th	6/8	6/5	6/4	6/3	4/2

The following table represents the Dragon's Divine casting due to Ur-Priest and DWoC's Divine Conversion, again before adding bonus spells due to high casting stat.

Spoiler: Ur-Priest Spells

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Spells per Day

Level	0lvl	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th
1st	4	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2nd	6	5	5	4	4	4	4	3	2	1

Spoiler: Level Breakdown

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A quick note on the following format: Usually these builds are displayed as level 5, 10, 15, 20, and sweet spot. I shall change this slightly, simply because Dragons are incredibly obnoxious in the fact that they have random breakpoints based on CR. The following will still be presented in a logical format, just not in the standard 5, 10, 15, 20.

• Up to CR 9: Below CR 9, Razlyn’susselsathra is played as a straight up Shadow Dragon. Standard tactics apply, including not landing on the ground, performing strafing runs with energy breath, staying out of the range of archers, and obliterating frail humanoids who appear to be waving their arms in the air and mangling the pristine Draconic language with their spellcasting. After the Spellcasters have been dealt with, follow up with the archers, and then the tin-cans (fighters, knights, and paladins, I believe they are called). Pay special attention to Clerics. They often disguise themselves as tin-cans (odd, since I don’t recall seeing Disguise on their class skills list) and yet manage to throw rather potent spells at you. The same can be said for random small wildlife: More than likely, that sparrow flying annoyingly close is actually a Druid preparing to summon bears or call lightning or some-such other nonsense.
• CR 9 through 14: Yay, you’re a Sorcerer! And a not-half bad one at that, thanks to Loredrake bumping you up 2 caster levels. Fell Animate, Energy Substitution (Cold), and Lord of the Uttercold combine with your 7th level Sorcerer casting to provide some rather useful necromancer shenanigans as well. Chuck Fell Animate on some Lesser Orbs of X and mow down pesky humans to animate yourself a free zombie army.
• CR14 through 17: Alright, CR 17 is the last of the pure Dragon (it's also the Sweet Spot). We have casting as a 9th level Sorcerer now, which means 5th level spells. That’s high enough to Fell Animate a Kelgore’s Grave Mist. With this bad boy, we deal 9 rounds of 1d6 cold damage, and anything that dies in that mist gets Animated as a Zombie. Oh yeah, a note on Fell Animate: It creates a maximum of Zombies whose combined HD add up to double your own HD. Did you catch that? DOUBLE. At CR 17, you have 22 HD. That means you get 44HD worth of Zombies, for FREE! By CR20, you’re lookin’ at a wonderfully solid 25 HD, meaning you can have 50 HD worth of zombies shambling around. My advice? Find yourself a nice pair of dying White Dragons and put them out of their misery with some Fell Animate Lesser Orbs of Fire (4th level spells with Metamagic, 5d8 Fire damage (no save, no SR)). Why White Dragons, you may ask? Because Energy Substitution (Cold) lets you make your spells deal Cold damage instead of whatever else it would do. And Lord of the Uttercold takes half of that damage and makes it Negative Energy. Which means it heals your Undead goons. It’s counteracted by the cold damage they would take, unless they are immune to cold damage. Like Skeletons are. And Frost Giants. And other critters with the Cold Subtype. See where I’m going with this? And oh, by the way, these 44HD worth of Zombies following you around at CR17? Their HD pool is separate from the amount you can have from Animate Dead (that would be 36 HD at CR17). This number will go up soon enough.
• CR18, 19 and 20: Let’s start off with CR18. Dear sweet delicious Ur-Priest cheese. Hello Cleric Spell list, how are you today? This isn’t really anything spectacular right now, but with that spell list opened up to us, and our prodigious UMD skill, it’s pretty safe to say we can use all of the items (easier than before, that is).
  CR19, Soul Eater and Life Drain. “How dare you take a class that doesn’t progress spellcasting! Shun, SHUUUUNNNNN” *ahem* Yeah, worth it in this case. We qualify for Soul Eater thanks to not being a lame humanoid. We benefit from it by getting Energy Drain as a Su ability, which in turn qualifies us for the Life Drain feat. Funny story about this feat, it only says whenever we deal level drain, not whenever you deal level drain from your Su ability. This means that our fantastically awesome breath weapon, which deals negative levels, allows us to benefit from the Life Drain feat. To the tune of 4 negative levels dealt + 44 hit points deducted, and healing yourself for 24 hp of that. Applied to everything in your cone attack.
  CR20, Dispassionate Watcher of Chronepsis, and say hello to my 10th level Ur-Priest casting! Wait, what’s that? How’d I jump from 1 to 10? It’s called Divine Conversion, and it reads to the tune of “convert your innate sorcerer spellcasting over to whatever divine spellcasting class you have level(s) in”. So, we just jumped from 9th level sorcerer and 1st level ur-priest, over to 10th level ur-priest. Which means 9th level spells. It’s only 2 per day, but I mean, come on, they’re 9th level spells! And you can change them every day, since they are divine, and not learned like a sorcerer has to! Now, this doesn’t come without a few drawbacks. We do lose access to our fancy Orb of No Save/No SR spells, along with Kelgore and all of his misty glory. But we gain Desecrate. And we keep Animate Dead. We also get such amazing spells as Divine Power, Righteous Might, Create Undead, and, oh goody, Fell Animate Harm. That’s a flat 100 HP damage spell that will Animate whatever you just killed as your own Zombie.

Spoiler: Items

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Alright, so, Dragons have hoards. It’s a fact of life. They sleep in it, they bathe in it, and they bury hapless adventurers with it. But sometimes they invest it, in themselves. If I were a dragon, especially the type of necromanticly inclined, god-forsaking dragon presented here, I would probably invest in a few items designed to protect my scaly hide. Like, say, a Belt of Magnificence +6. Perhaps even a nice suit of +1 Soulfire Mithral Chainmail Barding as well.

Spoiler: Sources

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With regards to cross-setting interference (using a Shadow Dragon from FR with Loredrake from Eberron): The Shadow Dragon was introduced for 3e in Draconomicon, and updated to 3.5 in Player’s Guide to Faerun, which to me means it’s at least partially setting neutral.

• Draconomicon - Shadow Dragon, age categories, Dispassionate Watcher of Chronepsis
• Player’s Guide to Faerun - Shadow Dragon
• Dragons of Eberron - Loredrake
• Complete Divine - Ur-Priest
• Book of Vile Darkness - Soul Eater
• Libris Mortis - various undead references, Tomb-Tainted Soul, Fell Animate
• Player’s Handbook - Spells, skills, Spell Focus
• Dungeon Master’s Guide - Items
• Monster Manual I - Dragons, Undead
• Player’s Handbook II - Spells
• Spell Compendium - Spells
• Complete Arcane - Energy Substitution, Lord of the Uttercold, Spells
• Miniature's Handbook - Belt of Magnificence

[Gwachitallemall]

Annie seems a little more decayed here..

LE Slaymate Wizard 8/Pale Master 10


Image by Corinthia Ward.

Backstory

Spoiler

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Annabelle always wanted to be a wizard. When a traveling wizard offered to train her, her parents refused, but she snuck out and went with him anyway. He taught her a lot, but not about wizardry. Not on purpose, anyway. Annabelle was too small and weak to stop him from drowning her, but she was a smart kid, even in undeath, so she watched and studied and bided her time until the opportunity to kill her master arose. After taking steps to assure that he could not return as she had, she was finally free. Free, and still ever so curious about magic.

Annabelle's major quirk is that she won't kill children. She'll kill their parents, which generally amounts to the same thing, but she won't outright kill anyone who has yet to reach the age of majority. As far as she's concerned, adults can't be trusted, so her goal is to make herself safe by killing and raising as many of them as possible--preferably under her control, but free-willed undead are better than living grownups. She would be particularly fun in a game where the PCs are children fighting to save all the adults.

Ability Scores & Racial Traits

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Pre-Racial-Adjustment: Str 10, Dex 13, Con 8, Int 15, Wis 12, Cha 14
Post-Racial-Adjustment: Str 12, Dex 15, Con --, Int 15, Wis 12, Cha 18
Increase: Int at HD 4, 8, 12, and 16; Cha at HD 20.

Racial Traits: Undead traits, Pale Wasting (Fort Save 12 + Cha mod); Pale Aura

Build Table

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CR	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
2nd	Slaymate (4 HD)	+2	+1	+1	+4	Concentration 2, Hide 6, Knowledge (Religion) 3, Knowledge (Arcana) 3, Listen 7, Move Silently 7, Spot 7	Skill Focus: Know (Religion), Corpsecrafter	Racial features
3rd	Wizard (Necromancer)	+2	+1	+1	+6	Concentration 3, Know (Religion) 5, Know (Arcana) 4, Spellcraft 1	Scribe Scroll (B)	Familiar
4th	Wizard (Necromancer)	+3	+1	+1	+7	Concentration 5, Know (Religion) 8, Spellcraft 2	Fell Animate
5th	Wizard (Necromancer)	+3	+2	+2	+7	Concentration 6, Know (Arcana) 5, Spellcraft 5
6th	Wizard (Necromancer)	+3	+2	+2	+8	Concentration 7, Know (Arcana) 6, Spellcraft 6
7th	Wizard (Necromancer)	+4	+2	+2	+8	Concentration 8, Know (Arcana) 8, Spellcraft 7	Stitched Flesh Familiar, Fell Drain (B)	Expanded spellbook
8th	Pale Master	+4	+2	+2	+10	Hide 7, Know (Arcana) 9, Movie Silently 8, Spellcraft 8
9th	Pale Master	+5	+2	+2	+11	Concentration 9, Hide 8, Movie Silently 9, Spellcraft 9		Animate Dead 1/day
10th	Pale Master	+5	+3	+3	+11	Concentration 10, Hide 10, Movie Silently 10, Spellcraft 10	Arcane Thesis (Kelgore's Grave Mist)	Darkvision 120'
11th	Pale Master	+6/+1	+3	+3	+12	Concentration 11, Hide 12, Movie Silently 13, Spellcraft 11		Undead Armor Affinity (10%)
12th	Pale Master	+6/+1	+3	+3	+12	Concentration 12, Hide 14, Movie Silently 14, Spellcraft 12		Control Undead 1/day, Deathless Vigor
13th	Pale Master	+7/+2	+4	+4	+13	Concentration 13, Hide 15, Movie Silently 16, Spellcraft 13	Destructive Retribution	Undead Graft, Touch Attack 1/day, Paralyzing Touch
14th	Pale Master	+7/+2	+4	+4	+13	Concentration 14, Hide 17, Movie Silently 17, Spellcraft 14		Tough as Bone, Weakening Touch
15th	Pale Master	+8/+3	+4	+4	+14	Concentration 15, Hide 18, Movie Silently 19, Spellcraft 15		Undead Armor Affinity (20%), Touch Attack 2/day, Degenerative Touch
16th	Pale Master	+8/+3	+5	+5	+14	Concentration 16, Hide 20, Movie Silently 20, Spellcraft 16	Practiced Spellcaster	Undead Cohort, Destructive Touch
17th	Pale Master	+9/+4	+5	+5	+15	Concentration 17, Hide 21, Movie Silently 22, Spellcraft 17		Death Mastery, Touch Attack 3/day, Deathless Master's Touch
18th	Wizard (Necromancer)	+10/+5	+6	+6	+16	Concentration 19, Spellcraft 20
19th	Wizard (Necromancer)	+10/+5	+6	+6	+16	Concentration 22, Spellcraft 22	Fell Frighten
20th	Wizard (Necromancer)	+11/+6/+1	+6	+6	+17	Concentration 24, Spellcraft 25

Spell Table

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Spells per Day

CR	0lvl	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th
2nd	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3rd	3	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4th	4	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5th	4	2	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
6th	4	3	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
7th	4	3	2	1	-	-	-	-	-	-
8th	4	3	2	1	-	-	-	-	-	-
9th	4	3	3	2	-	-	-	-	-	-
10th	4	4	3	2	1	-	-	-	-	-
11th	4	4	3	3	2	-	-	-	-	-
12th	4	4	4	3	2	1	-	-	-	-
13th	4	4	4	3	3	2	-	-	-	-
14th	4	4	4	4	3	2	1	-	-	-
15th	4	4	4	4	3	3	2	-	-	-
16th	4	4	4	4	4	3	2	1	-	-
17th	4	4	4	4	4	3	3	2	-	-
18th	4	4	4	4	4	4	3	2	1	-
19th	4	4	4	4	4	4	3	3	2	-
20th	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	3	2	1

Specialist School:Necromancy
Prohibited Schools: Evocation; Illusion

Level Breakdown

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CR 5: Slaymate is a race with...pros and cons for spellcasters, let's say. On the one hand, slaymates can't cast spells, but reduced metamagic, particularly reduced metamagic that doesn't have the "cannot reduce metamagic cost below 1" caveat, is a pretty good trade-off. At this level, it allows her to add Fell Animate to 0-level spell for a second-level slot, which isn't much, but can get her some minions early. Her pale wasting disease is pretty situational, since it's not worth wading into melee for. I imagine her as already being a free agent at this level, but she doesn't have to be--the PCs could even kill her necromancer master for her.

CR 10 (Sweet Spot): Annabelle has very little reason to actually prepare Animate Dead between her SLA and Fell Animate, which can be added to Kelgore's Grave Mist (from the PHBII) for only +1 effective spell level, and her familiar's all Frankenstein'd up, which lets her control a few extra HD worth of undead. Fell Drain, which is free if it's the only metamagic effect applied to Kelgore's Grave Mist, is a good combo for Fell Animate, since Fell Animate is only useful when someone's going to die from spell damage and Fell Drain is only useful when they're not.

CR 15: A few Pale Master abilities are crossed out on Annabelle's build table either because they're redundant when she's already undead or because leadership is disallowed in this competition. Her touch attacks are another thing like her bite that's probably not worth getting into melee for, particularly at this level. Destructive Retribution is a lot of fun, though, since she should have a lot of humanoid adult skeletons she doesn't care about, which makes for good mobs.

CR 20: Annabelle's touch attack becomes better with the combo of Degenerative Touch + Deathless Master's Touch, but, ehh, Fell Drain is still your cooler friend. Practiced Spellcaster gets her final effective caster level up to 22 (because of her slaymate HD). Not too shabby. Three wizard levels aren't a very exciting way to cap off the build, but they get her up to 9th-level spells, and her build is feat-hungry enough that I couldn't spare any to get her into another PrC.

Gear/Adaptation

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Look, Annabelle's level 19 feat should be Undead Mastery, from the ELH, but Annabelle doesn't qualify without gear. Elite array, grumble mumble. It shouldn't be difficult to get a +2 tome of leadership or cloak of charisma by this level, though, so unless you're running a very low-gear game, just let your BBEG have a stupidly large undead army. I mean, Fell Frighten is fun too (and a free add-on to Kelgore's Grave Mist!), but it's no stupidly large undead army.

Also, if Annabelle did get a cohort, it should be another free-willed undead of about her own age.

Sources

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Complete Arcane: Practiced Spellcaster
Libris Mortis: Slaymate, Pale Master, Corpsecrafter, Destructive Retribution, Fell Animate, Fell Drain, Fell Frighten, Stitched Flesh Familiar
Player's Handbook II: Arcane Thesis, Kelgore's Grave Mist

[Gwachitallemall]

The Wightcalypse has come.

Atalia, the Wight Queen.

Wight warriors by MSpiral
"Oh, but I didn't raise them. They did."
-Atalia

Spoiler: Dawning Scene

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"I'm not a necromancer - I don't raise these creatures. I kill them. They do the raising on their own. Why not try it?"

Atalia is a Chaotic Evil 20th-level sorcerer by the end of her career, though she is more suitable for lower-level encounters due to the increased potency of her abilities. She revolves largely about using negative levels to turn her foes into wights which she can control, either shattering her opponents' rings which protect them, or dispelling the magic they use to defend themselves.

Atalia begins with the following ability scores: Strength 13 Dexterity 12 Constitution 12 Intelligence 11 Wisdom 10 Charisma 17. She increases her Charisma by 5 points due to level advancement.

Atalia is a spellscale (RotD) and sustains no flaws, nor does she have any traits.

Spoiler: Rising Star

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The following table details Atalia's ECL (the same as her character level) and the base values of her saves that she gets for being a sorceress. Her saves should therefore increase by: Fortitude 1 Reflex 1 Will 0. Similarly, her skills should be increased by her ability score modifier of: Bluff 3 (4 at 4th, 5 at 12th, 6 at 20th) Concentration 1 Spellcraft 0

Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Sorcerer 1	+0	+0	+0	+2	Bluff 4 Concentration 4 Spellcraft 4	Spell Focus: Necromancy	Familiar
2nd	Sorcerer 2	+1	+0	+0	+3	Bluff 5 Concentration 5 Spellcraft 5	-	-
3rd	Sorcerer 3	+1	+1	+1	+3	Bluff 6 Concentration 6 Spellcraft 6	Fell Drain Spell (LibMort)	-
4th	Sorcerer 4	+2	+1	+1	+4	Bluff 7 Concentration 7 Spellcraft 7	-	-
5th	Sorcerer 5	+2	+1	+1	+4	Bluff 8 Concentration 8 Spellcraft 8	-	-
6th	Sorcerer 6	+3	+2	+2	+5	Bluff 9 Concentration 9 Spellcraft 9	Practical Metamagic (Fell Drain)	New Class Abilities
7th	Sorcerer 7	+3	+2	+2	+5	Bluff 10 Concentration 10 Spellcraft 10	-	-
8th	Sorcerer 8	+4	+2	+2	+6	Bluff 11 Concentration 11 Spellcraft 11	-	-
9th	Sorcerer 9	+4	+2	+2	+6	Bluff 12 Concentration 12 Spellcraft 12	Empower Spell	-
10th	Sorcerer 10	+5	+3	+3	+7	Bluff 13 Concentration 13 Spellcraft 13	-	-
11th	Sorcerer 11	+5	+3	+3	+7	Bluff 14 Concentration 14 Spellcraft 14	-	-
12th	Sorcerer 12	+6	+4	+4	+8	Bluff 15 Concentration 15 Spellcraft 15	Practical Metamagic: Empower	-
13th	Sorcerer 13	+6	+4	+4	+8	Bluff 16 Concentration 16 Spellcraft 16	-	-
14th	Sorcerer 14	+7	+4	+4	+9	Bluff 17 Concentration 17 Spellcraft 17	-	-
15th	Sorcerer 15	+7	+5	+5	+9	Bluff 18 Concentration 18 Spellcraft 18	Chain Spell	-
16th	Sorcerer 16	+8	+5	+5	+10	Bluff 19 Concentration 19 Spellcraft 19	-	-
17th	Sorcerer 17	+8	+5	+5	+10	Bluff 20 Concentration 20 Spellcraft 20	-	New Class Abilities
18th	Sorcerer 18	+9	+6	+6	+11	Bluff 21 Concentration 21 Spellcraft 21	Practical Metamagic (Chain spell)	-
19th	Sorcerer 19	+9	+6	+6	+11	Bluff 22 Concentration 22 Spellcraft 22	Feats	New Class Abilities
20th	Sorcerer 20	+10	+6	+6	+12	Bluff 23 Concentration 23 Spellcraft 23	-	-

Spoiler: Forming Glory

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The number of spells known is exactly the same as a sorcerer. The number of spells per day is the same as a sorcerer with the charisma that Atalia does. Please, don't do this to me.

Spells are listed in the order they're learned.

0: Acid Splash, Sonic Snap (SpC), Caltrops (SpC), Ray of Frost, Touch of Fatigue, Electric Jolt (SpC), Prestidigitation, Ghost Sound, Dancing Lights.
1: Summon Undead I (SpC) Hail of Stone (SpC), Thunderhead (SpC), Babau Slime (SpC), Lesser Orb of Sound (SpC)
2: Command Undead, Summon Undead II (SpC), Shatter, Body of the Sun (SpC), Disguise Undead (SpC)
3: Summon Undead III (SpC), Chain Missile (SpC), Rainbow Blast (SpC), Dispel Magic
4: Enervation, Thunderlance (SpC) Summon Undead IV (SpC), Burning Blood (SpC)
5: Circlet of Enervation (ShS), Graymantle (SpC), Summon Undead V (SpC), Lesser Spell Matrix (SpC)
6: Malevolent Tentacles (ShS), Greater Dispel Magic, Ghoul Gauntlet (SpC)
7: Control Undead, Energy Ebb (SpC), Sword of Darkness (SpC)
8: Polymorph Any Object, Ghostform (SpC), Veil of Undeath (SpC)
9: Eye of Power (SpC), Energy Drain, Programmed Amnesia (SpC)

Spoiler: Manifesting Form

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"There is something deeply unsatisfying about skeletons. They do not hate. They no not feel. They do not desire vengeance against the things of this world. But I? Do."

From 4th level, Atalia has the ability to throw negative levels out at people, by using such things as Fell Drain Sonic Snap or Fell Drain Caltrops (particularly nasty, as it can affect a large number of people without giving any obvious indication that they're fell drain until they've killed someone). Instantly gifted with four second-level spells, she can throw fell drain caltrops under three first-level characters' feet at first level, and control the three of them. By fifth level, then, she can have 4 wights running around if she's really careful. If that's not enough, she can throw down seven skeletons (not that she much likes using them, but desperate times) or else can chuck more caltrops to cover her escape, along with touches of fatigue if those help. She's also proficient with a morningstar and has a positive strength and constitution modifier, meaning that she stands a chance against a paladin if he's had three of his levels knocked off.

Spoiler: Gathering Army

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"Do you like them? My army of the dead..."
"Silence, witch! This is pointless! You have defiled these people's bodies, raising them from the dead to fulfill your dark purpose!"
"Oh, but I didn't raise them. They did."

Atalia stands at the forefront of an army of wights - some under her control, most cajoled by her lies (no ranks in sense motive, you say? What a pity. What a damned shame that is), wielding a spear made of lightning that allows her to make attacks from 20 feet away, and drops a negative level on anything it touches, as well as 3d6+CHA lightning damage. Oh, or she's firing 2d6+negative level, uhm, bracelets apparently, at people. What else can she do? Go check out thunderhead. It's in the spell compendium: for 1 round/CL it drops a 1-damage lightning bolt on someone, reflex negates for that round only. Do you see where this is going? Anyone who's not immune to negative levels is having 10 reflex-or-negalevel, DC admittedly only 14 but seriously, who has good reflex and isn't a rogue? Even if they pass on a 6, that's still 3 NLs which is pretty mean for a level 1-effective-2 spell.

Obviously, Negalevel immunity is a thing, but so is Shatter - will or you lose that nice ring (used against a single solid object, not as an area attack, so can break magic items) - and so is Dispel Magic. And so, of course, is Command Undead if you're immune that way, or also just throwing evocations at you until you die usually works. She doesn't have to raise you as a wight - one wight's just as good as the next, due to the really, really funky way that wights work. Negalevel a colossal-sized dragon to death? Turns into a medium human-shaped undead. You're welcome.

Spoiler: Ascending Power

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"So now your army has turned against you. Have you any last words?"
"Just two. Control Undead. Oh, wait, three more. Chain enervate."

By this point, Atalia is falling off the radar a little bit. Her armies of CR 3 creatures that can be shot down by a single shot of mass cure serious wounds just aren't as scary on level 15 as they were at level 10. But, fortunately, she can take 1d4 levels off each member of a small army, or she can keep on using the same tricks that she was using before. Control Undead to be able to grab large numbers of wights without faffing around making bluff checks is vital at this point, because the more difficult you can make the PCs' job of keeping your stuff down, the better, and you don't need uncontrollable wights running around complicating things.

Fell drain caltrops is still horribly powerful against random troops, being able to affect 5 squares and making a +4 touch attack. Plus, you can summon an honestly ludicrous number of undead, including more wights if you like. You still have the Spear of Silly, and there exist magic items that can sneak Combat Reflexes onto you if you need it. With a 20 foot reach. And fell drain.

But next level. Next level.

Spoiler: Gleaming Spire

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"Oh come now, I am making undead out of other undead. Surely you can't fault me for that?"

So we're at sixteenth level. Go look at Polymorph Any Object. If I turn a wight into a corporeal (+2) medium (+2) undead (+5), the transformation is permanent. It's also permanent if it's incorporeal or (but not and) nonmedium but has the same or lower INT than the wight's 11. What fits those criteria?

- Greater Shadows straight out of the MM.
- Mohrgs, also from MM.
- Possibly zombies of nigh-on anything, but that's rules-iffy and not amazing anyway.
- Really bad undead that I don't want.

Mohrgs? Mohrgs. We have an army of mohrgs. And greater shadows, I guess. But what else can we do with them? Well, we could make a Dread Wraith that lasted for 12 hours and made more wraiths with anyone it killed. Then, the resulting wight would end up in charge of them, I suppose? Or I can just control them directly. Either way.

Spoiler: Dying Light

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"Today I may die, but my memory shall live. And my people? Not even I know whether they are alive or dead."

This may be the end of the line, but you're not done yet. Metamagic doesn't actually change a spell's level, so there's no reason that you can't drop, say, fell drain chain missiles through it, even though that's your fourth-level slot. Summoning copious numbers of undead III through the eye is funny, but not recommended. Honestly, your best hope is to avoid combat with the PCs. If you do get into combat, either shatter all their stuff and throw your undead hordes at them, or take off your ring and disappear off into a cave with your last wight.

You always dreamed of being a wight.

[Gwachitallemall]

Wood can be undead as well.

[Image Source]


Malcanth Woodrue
NE Wood Elf Ranger 1/Ex-Druid 5/Blighter 10/Warshaper 4
Str 12, Dex 15, Con 12, Int 12, Wis 15, Cha 8
(All increases go to Wis)

Spoiler: Fluff

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Mal and his tribe lived in and protected the Holy Forest until the humans invaded. Smarter and better-organized than orcs, hardier and more numerous than goblins, the humans established a fort-city and began logging and hunting in the Holy Forest, with no regard for its sacredness. Much of Mal's tribe were killed or driven off, and the city-dwellers' poison and filth affected him too, with a strange throbbing pain and dark whispers in his mind. Finally, when he could no longer bear fighting the humans honorably (as if they had any honor!), he listened to the seductive, cancerous voice in his head, which burned through his connection to his forest to reveal new and destuctive powers.

The humans wanted his forest--his world--to die? Well, Mal was the embodiment of all the destruction the humans wrought, turned back upon themselves. He burned down the remains of the forest, blighted the human's crops, spread disease throughout the city...And, finally, he had his revenge, and the city was brought to waste. It wasn't enough. Having abandoned himself so utterly to the ruination of everything he once held dear, Mal found himself unsatisfied with simply destroying one city and despoiling the surrounding environment, so he moved on to wreak his havoc on the world at large.

Spoiler: Crunch

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Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Ranger	+1	+2	+2	+0	Concentration 4, Handle Animal 4, Knowledge (Nature) 4, Listen 4, Profession (Herbalist) 4, Spot 4, Survival 4	Combat Casting, Track (Bonus)	Favored enemy (humans), wild empathy
2nd	Druid	+1	+4	+2	+2	Concentration 5, Listen 4, Profession (Herbalist) 5, Spot 4, Survival 4		Animal companion, nature sesne, wild empathy
3rd	Druid	+2	+5	+2	+3	Concentration 6, Listen 5, Profession (Herbalist) 6, Spot 5, Survival 5	Mother Cyst	Woodland stride
4th	Druid	+3	+5	+3	+3	Concentration 7, Listen 6, Profession (Herbalist) 7, Spot 6, Survival 6		Trackless step
5th	Druid	+4	+6	+3	+4	Concentration 8, Listen 7, Profession (Herbalist) 8, Spot 7, Survival 7		Resist nature's lure
6th	Druid	+4	+6	+3	+4	Concentration 9, Listen 8, Profession (Herbalist) 9, Spot 8, Survival 8	Natural Spell	Wild shape 1/day
7th	Blighter	+4	+8	+3	+6	Concentration 10, Listen 10, Spot 9, Survival 9		Deforestation
8th	Blighter	+5	+9	+3	+7	Concentration 11, Listen 11, Spot 11, Survival 10		Blightfire, sustenance
9th	Blighter	+6/+1	+9	+4	+7	Concentration 12, Listen 12, Spot 12, Survival 12	Multiattack	Undead wild shape 1/day
10th	Blighter	+7/+2	+10	+4	+8	Concentration 13, Knowledge (Nature) 5, Listen 13, Spot 13, Survival 13		Speak with dead animal, undead wild shape 2/day
11th	Blighter	+7/+2	+10	+4	+8	Concentration 14, Knowledge (Nature) 6, Listen 14, Spot 14, Survival 14		Contagious touch 1/day, undead wild shape (large)
12th	Blighter	+8/+3	+11	+5	+9	Concentration 15, Knowledge (Nature) 7, Listen 15, Spot 15, Survival 15	Willing Deformity	Animate dead animal, undead wild shape 3/day
13th	Blighter	+9/+4	+11	+5	+9	Concentration 16, Knowledge (Nature) 8, Listen 16, Spot 16, Survival 16		Contagious touch 2/day
14th	Blighter	+10/+5	+12	+5	+10	Concentration 17, Knowledge (Nature) 9, Listen 17, Spot 17, Survival 17		Unbond, undead wild shape 4/day
15th	Blighter	+10/+5	+12	+6	+10	Concentration 18, Knowledge (Nature) 10, Listen 18, Spot 18, Survival 18	Deformity (Parasite)	Contagious touch 3/day, undead wild shape (Huge)
16th	Blighter	+11/+6/+1	+13	+6	+11	Concentration 19, Knowledge (Nature) 11, Listen 19, Spot 19, Survival 19		Plague, undead wild shape 5/day
17th	Warshaper	+11/+6/+1	+15	+6	+11	Concentration 20, Listen 20		Morphic immunities, morphic weapons
18th	Warshaper	+12/+7/+2	+16	+6	+11	Concentration 21, Spot 20	Abominable Form	Morphic body
19th	Warshaper	+13/+8/+3	+16	+7	+12	Concentration 22, Listen 21		Morphic reach
20th	Warshaper	+14/+9/+4	+17	+7	+12	Concentration 23, Spot 21		Morphic healing

Spoiler: Spells

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Spells per Day

Level	0lvl	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th
1st	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2nd	3	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3rd	4	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4th	4	2	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5th	5	3	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
6th	5	3	2	1	-	-	-	-	-	-
7th	4	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
8th	5	3	0	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
9th	5	3	1	0	-	-	-	-	-	-
10th	6	3	2	1	0	-	-	-	-	-
11th	6	3	3	2	1	0	-	-	-	-
12th	6	3	3	3	2	1	0	-	-	-
13th	6	4	3	3	3	2	1	0	-	-
14th	6	4	4	3	3	3	2	1	0	-
15th	6	5	4	4	4	4	3	2	1	0
16th	6	5	5	4	4	4	4	3	2	1
17th	6	5	5	4	4	4	4	3	2	1
18th	6	5	5	4	4	4	4	3	2	1
19th	6	5	5	4	4	4	4	3	2	1
20th	6	5	5	4	4	4	4	3	2	1

Druid spells are green
Blighter spells are red

Spoiler: Level Highlights

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Level 5: At level 5, Mal is crazy, but not necessarily evil, and certainly not on a BBEG scale. He's a druid who's been driven to the brink by people destroying his forest. The PCs may even want to help him, depending on the group, but even if they route the loggers and convince the whole city to pack up and move, someone else will come along and send Mal spiraling, since his forest is basically undefended. Also note that, in fluff terms, Mal's necrotic cyst is not something he chose or wanted. He shouldn't be using those spells yet.

Level 12 (Sweet Spot): So, the Blighter prestige class. It sucks, but is really interesting and flavorful, especially for an NPC. This is the sweet spot because it's where Mal catches back up to PC spellcasters and therefore becomes a credible personal threat, although if you play him smart, he should be okay a couple levels earlier. Mal's spell list is also sub-optimal (and I suggest adding appropriate spells from the Spell Compendium such as Acid Storm and Infestation of Maggots), but it's got undead creation spells (plus Unhallow) and decent blasting.

Other fun stuff he can do here includes a couple ways to ruin a forest (through deforestation or blightfire), Contagious Touch as an SLA (fun in conjunction with the Mother Cyst spells), and the ability to speak to dead animals. The best things, though, are Undead Wild Shape (which can be used for animals up to Large size now) and Animate Dead Animal. It's more restrictive than regular Animate Dead, but it also has no material component.

Level 20: Unbond, one of the two new abilities Blighters get in the back four, is very situational, but can really give the PCs that extra level of loathing for Mal. Use it either on someone with a tricked-out animal companion of a type that would otherwise be hostile (so it attacks the party) or, to be extra nasty, just do it to whichever player is the most attached to their animal companion/familiar. The other new ability, plague, is a more useful version of Contagious Touch. Since PCs will be able to cure disease pretty easily, only use this in places they won't visit right away, so they won't be able to save everyone.

Since Blighters can't increase their spellcasting past 10th level, Mal loses nothing by finishing up with Warshaper, which helps his undead wild shape be more potent. How does a skeleton bear grow horns? Dunno, but I bet it's creepy to watch! Between his Warshaper abilities, Mother Cyst, and his deformity feats, Mal should be twisted and gross at higher levels; less and less able to pass for normal. Play up how monstrous he looks and acts (especially since there frankly was not room in the build to make him undead) as you head into the final conflict.

Spoiler: Sources

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Core:Wood Elf, Ranger Druid, Track, Combat Casting, Natural Spell, Multiattack

Complete Divine: Blighter
Elder Evils: Abominable Form, Deformity (Parasite)
Heroes of Horror: Willing Deformity
Libris Mortis: Mother Cyst

[Gwachitallemall]

Alright, that's everyone. It's a pretty small showing this time, but at least we have enough for a post. It does mean the entrants can have a good chance to win this time.

[sakuuya]

Alright, that's everyone. It's a pretty small showing this time, but at least we have enough for a post. It does mean the entrants can have a good chance to win this time.

Small showings are fine when they have this much variety! And I almost Vizzini'd myself out of entering. I would've felt pretty dumb.

I gotta run to bar trivia, though, so if someone wants to do a summary post before I get back, go right ahead.

[atemu1234]

Did I agree to judge this one? I hope I did.

[Gwachitallemall]

Did I agree to judge this one? I hope I did.

You can judge even if you didn't agree, we're fine with that!

[atemu1234]

You can judge even if you didn't agree, we're fine with that!

Give me until midnight tomorrow, then!

[Sam K]

Very cool turnout!

My idea was a RKV tasked with defending the undead followers of Wee Jas, hunting down those who transgress against them, and "replentishing the ranks" by turning them into undead. I kept stumbling at the fact that I wanted to add an undead template to it, but then I felt I was gimping my chances to win because I wouldn't have lvl9 spells and it would cost me too much power.

I would offer to judge, but in all fairness I cannot. There's a creepy undead kid among the entries, I would be biased!

[WhamBamSam]

Well, I procrastinate too much on these. Between that and other issues, I didn't get it done. Having taken a few extra hours to finish the level write ups (though it's still missing the spells table and sources list which would have taken still more time), here's my build for your viewing pleasure. I obviously don't expect it to be judged, but I would be interested in hearing any thoughts people have on it.

Abraxin Maure, Black Knight of the White Kingdom
CE Gravetouched Ghoul Human Martial Enhanced Undead Wizard 5/Master Specialist 6/Dragonslayer 1/ /Spellsword 5/Fatespinner 2

The Ghoul

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I feel I should warn readers that the blood and guts get to be a bit much here. If that sort of thing is going to be a problem, it might be best not to read on in the fluff section. I’ll endeavor to give some idea of Abraxin’s identity as a character in the descriptions of his tactics as well. In my defense, Abraxin’s general setup wouldn’t have to be nearly so gruesome if whoever wrote the Contagious Paralysis feat had made it so a Lich could qualify by RAW. Had I been able to use a lich, the resulting character would have been a nice, orderly Hextorian tyrant, instead of a slavering butcher.

***

Sir John Lear rode out the city gates to where the horde waited. The smell alone would have threatened to make a lesser man sick and any ordinary horse would have balked before going near, but John and his mount were made of sterner stuff. Sir John rode on in stoic silence, offering nothing more than cold distaste in response to the hyena-laughter of the gnolls, the moaning of the dead, or even the sounds of voracious feeding from all around him.

At the center of the horde a pavilion, above which two flags were displayed proudly, overlooking the various crude sigils of minor gnoll warlords and undead of small repute which were scattered throughout the horde. Highest flew a banner bearing the three-headed flail of Yeenoghu, Demon Prince of Gnolls, and beneath it, another showing a decomposed skull on a backdrop of bones, representing Doresain, the King of Ghouls. But puffed up Demon Lords and the petty demigods enthralled to them were a worry for another day. Bringing low their cultists on the material plane would suffice for the time being, and Sir John knew that he could do it. Abraxin Maure’s atrocities might have succeeded in terrifying some of his comrades, but Sir John had cut down this “Black Knight of the White Kingdom” or whatever pretentious styling the necromancer had assumed of late back when he was just another minor cult leader that the locals in the area he terrorized had called the “Cannibal Count.” He hadn’t really been a count then, no more than he was a knight now, just some by-blow that had been fired off from House Maure in the time before the cultists’ destruction and had somehow managed to resurface. And resurface again, it would seem. The scion of the old house had, most unfortunately, not stayed dead when Sir John killed him the first time, but risen again in undeath, touched by the King of Ghouls himself at the Beast of Butchery’s behest if tales were to be believed. This time, Sir John resolved, he would ensure that the monster never returned from the abyssal backwaters of his masters’ dominion.

Sir John’s horse cantered into the center of the pavilion, coming to a stop before a seat made of what seemed to be gnawed and shattered bones, with what little grease and viscera the ghouls had been unable to strip off still clinging to them. Seated atop it was a creature that had once been human, but whose skin was now pallid with death. He wore robes and furs that Sir John had seen to have the ugly brown and mangy yellow of Yeenoghu’s cultists, but had been covered in so much filth and stained with the blood of so many different creatures as to be black. In one hand, Maure held a clawed, greenish finger which might once have belonged to a troll, or perhaps still did. The cultist was gnawing absent-mindedly at the finger, but every bit of flesh his ghoulish teeth pulled off seemed to grow back a moment later. Beside the throne of bones was the body of some manner of giant. The giant was stiff as a board and an eye not unlike those gnoll warriors painted on their weapons, that Yeenoghu might see the butchery perpetrated in his name, had been slashed across its gut, but a keen eye revealed it to be clearly alive, and seemingly unlikely to succumb to its injuries anytime soon. Rows of other creatures of all varieties, all of which had been similarly subdued and marked, arrayed the area behind the chair, each one touching the next. Maure dipped the finger into the blood that the eye of Yeenoghu was weeping before returning it to his mouth and a wave of stiffness seemed to spread across the bodies.

“Well, well,” Abraxin said between bites. “If it isn’t Sir John Lear. How lovely to see a familiar face.”

“Pleasantries should be reserved for the pleasant, Maure,” replied Sir John acidly. “My King, in his great folly, has sent me to treat with your rabble before I destroy you. But I know that you are disinclined to march away, and I am disinclined to allow, let alone persuade, you to do so, so if you don’t mind, let us have an end to this farce as soon as may be. Your camp reeks of death.”

The ghoulish face smiled in response. “Your king?” he asked with feigned ignorance. “But he is no king at all. In the sight of Yeenoghu the Destroyer, Demon Prince of Gnolls, Beast of Butchery, and Ruler of Ruin,” he pointed toward the eye upon the giant’s stomach with his troll finger, dunked the flesh once more into the blood, and lifted it back to his mouth to tear off a chunk, “and in the name of Doresain, the King of Ghouls, I have established an earthly incarnation of the White Kingdom and annexed what was once the dominion of your masters. You would do well to surrender and submit yourself to the rule of the gnolls, rather than force me to take the city by force.”

Sir John would not give Maure the satisfaction of his outrage, and merely sneered at the proclamation. “You shall never take this city while I yet live. I’ve killed you once before, and this time I intend to make certain that you stay dead.”

“You will find that more difficult than you might imagine, and the time while you yet live may be shorter than you think, unless I decide to keep you with the rest,” Maure waived his free hand at his paralyzed victims. “Perhaps I need to make this more plain. I will have your city by the time this day is out one way or another. The only choice that is left to you is whether you prefer it to be in the hands of gnolls or ghouls come nightfall. Gnolls are not the gentlest of slave masters, and sacrifices to Yeenoghu will be necessary… but they will only eat those of you who look particularly delicious. The ghouls on the other hand…” his pallid face split into a horrible, ravenous grin. “If you force me to take the city by force, and I give you over to them and this shall truly become the White Kingdom on earth. We shall devour every one of you save those needed to maintain the supplies of paralyzed flesh, who will wish for the dignity and painlessness of cannibalization before their lives end, and what skin we flay off to make the white flag you have denied us in your stubbornness.”

This time, the horror and revulsion did show on Sir John’s face, though they were quickly taken over by a look of righteous fury. He reached for his sword and moved to spur his mount into a charge, aiming to slay the necromancer though it cost him his own life. But the necromancer moved more quickly than seemed possible. In a flash of light he had grown into some enormous monster, large enough to pick up the giant beside him bodily and swing it at his adversary. There was no escape from the path of the creature and horse and rider alike were struck with a sickening crunch and a burst of stinging black blood. Sir John felt a wave of stiffness pass over him, though he managed to resist it. His horse was not so fortunate, and stopped dead in its tracks. Sir John tried to extricate himself from the saddle, to make his attack on foot if need be, but as his hand brushed his horse’s neck, the rigidity passed over him again, this time succeeding in taking hold. He fell from the saddle, unable to move a muscle under his own power. Abraxin Maure dropped his giant back to its original place and resumed his normal form, laughing, as a pair of enormous undead lifted Sir John and his horse and tossed them down adjoining the other frozen victims.

“Have one of the catapults send him over the wall,” Maure said. “If he survives he can inform them that they have one hour to make their decision.”

The Guts

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Ability Scores

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Elite Array: Str 13, Dex 10, Con 8, Int 15, Wis 12, Cha 14
CR 4: Str 13, Dex 10, Con 8, Int 16, Wis 12, Cha
CR 6 (Gravetouched Ghoul): Str 15, Dex 14, Con –, Int 18, Wis 16, Cha 16
CR9: Str 15, Dex 14, Con –, Int 19, Wis 16, Cha 16
CR13: Str 15, Dex 14, Con –, Int 20, Wis 16, Cha 16
CR17: Str 15, Dex 14, Con –, Int 21, Wis 16, Cha 16

The Build

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Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Martial Enhanced Undead Wizard 1	+0	+0	+0	+2	Tumble 2 (cc), Spellcraft 4, Knowledge (Arcana) 4, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Concentration 4	Spell Focus (Necromancy), Arcane Disciple (Evil), Power AttackB	Necromancy Specialization (Ban Illusion and Enchantment), Enhanced Undead variant, Martial Wizard variant, Summon Familiar
2nd	Wizard 2	+1	+0	+0	+3	Tumble 2, Spellcraft 5, Knowledge (Arcana) 5, Knowledge (Religion) 5, Concentration 5, Profession (Gambler) 1	-	-
3rd	Wizard 3	+1	+1	+1	+3	Tumble 2, Spellcraft 6, Knowledge (Arcana) 6, Knowledge (Religion) 6, Concentration 6, Profession (Gambler) 2	Fell Animate, Iron WillOH	-
4th	Wizard 4	+2	+1	+1	+4	Tumble 2, Spellcraft 7, Knowledge (Arcana) 7, Knowledge (Religion) 7, Knowledge (The Planes) 1, Concentration 7, Profession (Gambler) 3	-	-
5th	Master Specialist 1	+2	+1	+1	+6	Tumble 2, Spellcraft 8, Knowledge (Arcana) 8, Knowledge (Religion) 8, Knowledge (The Planes) 2, Concentration 8, Profession (Gambler) 4	Skill Focus(Spellcraft)B	-
6th	Gravetouched Ghoul CR+1	+2	+1	+1	+6	Tumble 2, Spellcraft 8, Knowledge (Arcana) 8, Knowledge (Religion) 8, Knowledge (The Planes) 2, Concentration 8, Profession (Gambler) 4	MultiattackB	Bite, two claws, ability score adjustments, HD increase to d12, Ghoul Fever, Paralysis, Turn Resistance +2, Diet Dependent (Flesh)
7th	Wizard 5	+2	+1	+1	+6	Tumble 2, Spellcraft 9, Knowledge (Arcana) 9, Knowledge (Religion) 9, Knowledge (The Planes) 4, Concentration 9, Profession (Gambler) 5	Contagious Paralysis, DodgeB	-
8th	Master Specialist 2	+3	+1	+1	+7	Tumble 2, Spellcraft 10, Knowledge (Arcana) 10, Knowledge (Religion) 10, Knowledge (The Planes) 5, Knowledge (Local) 1, Knowledge (Nature) 1, Concentration 10, Profession (Gambler) 5	-	Expanded Spellbook (Animate Dead)
9th	Master Specialist 3	+3	+2	+2	+7	Tumble 2, Spellcraft 11, Knowledge (Arcana) 11, Knowledge (Religion) 11, Knowledge (The Planes) 8, Knowledge (Local) 1, Knowledge (Nature) 1, Concentration 11, Profession (Gambler) 5	Greater Spell Focus (Necromancy)B	-
10th	Master Specialist 4	+4	+2	+2	+8	Tumble 2, Spellcraft 12, Knowledge (Arcana) 11, Knowledge (Religion) 12, Knowledge (The Planes) 10, Knowledge (Local) 3, Knowledge (Nature) 2, Concentration 12, Profession (Gambler) 5	Black Lore of Moil	Minor School Esoterica
11th	Master Specialist 5	+4	+2	+2	+8	Tumble 2, Spellcraft 13, Knowledge (Arcana) 11, Knowledge (Religion) 13, Knowledge (The Planes) 10, Knowledge (Local) 5, Knowledge (Nature) 2, Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) 1, Concentration 13, Profession (Gambler) 5	-	Expanded Spellbook (Create Undead)
12th	Master Specialist 6	+5	+3	+3	+9	Tumble 2, Spellcraft 13, Knowledge (Arcana) 11, Knowledge (Religion) 13, Knowledge (The Planes) 10, Knowledge (Local) 5, Knowledge (Nature) 2, Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) 1, Concentration 13, Profession (Gambler) 5	-	Caster Level Increase
13th	Dragonslayer 1	+6	+5	+3	+11	Tumble 3, Spellcraft 13, Knowledge (Arcana) 14, Knowledge (Religion) 13, Knowledge (The Planes) 10, Knowledge (Local) 5, Knowledge (Nature) 2, Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) 1, Concentration 14 (cc), Profession (Gambler) 5, Collector of Stories	Area Attack*	Aura of Courage, Damage Bonus
14th	Spellsword 1	+7	+7	+3	+13	Tumble 3, Spellcraft 15, Knowledge (Arcana) 15, Knowledge (Religion) 15, Knowledge (The Planes) 12, Knowledge (Local) 5, Knowledge (Nature) 2, Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) 1, Concentration 15, Profession (Gambler) 5, Collector of Stories	-	Ignore Spell Failure 10%
15th	Spellsword 2	+8	+8	+3	+14	Tumble 3, Spellcraft 16, Knowledge (Arcana) 16, Knowledge (Religion) 16, Knowledge (The Planes) 13, Knowledge (Local) 6, Knowledge (Nature) 3, Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) 2, Concentration 16, Profession (Gambler) 5, Collector of Stories	Fell DrainB	-
16th	Spellsword 3	+9	+8	+4	+14	Tumble 3, Spellcraft 17, Knowledge (Arcana) 17, Knowledge (Religion) 17, Knowledge (The Planes) 14, Knowledge (Local) 7, Knowledge (Nature) 4, Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) 3, Concentration 17, Profession (Gambler) 5, Collector of Stories	Ability Focus (Paralysis)	New Class Abilities
17th	Spellsword 4	+10	+9	+4	+15	Tumble 3, Spellcraft 18, Knowledge (Arcana) 18, Knowledge (Religion) 18, Knowledge (The Planes) 15, Knowledge (Local) 8, Knowledge (Nature) 5, Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) 4, Concentration 18, Profession (Gambler) 5, Collector of Stories	-	Channel Spell 3/day
18th	Spellsword 5	+11	+9	+4	+15	Tumble 3, Spellcraft 19, Knowledge (Arcana) 19, Knowledge (Religion) 19, Knowledge (The Planes) 16, Knowledge (Local) 9, Knowledge (Nature) 6, Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) 5, Concentration 19, Profession (Gambler) 5, Collector of Stories	-	Ignore Spell Failure 20%
19th	Fatespinner 1	+11	+9	+4	+17	Tumble 3, Spellcraft 20, Knowledge (Arcana) 20, Knowledge (Religion) 20 (cc), Knowledge (The Planes) 16 ½(cc), Knowledge (Local) 10(cc), Knowledge (Nature) 6, Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) 5, Concentration 20, Profession (Gambler) 5, Collector of Stories	Improved Paralysis or Practiced Spellcaster	Spin Fate
20th	Fatespinner 2	+12	+9	+4	+18	Tumble 3, Spellcraft 21, Knowledge (Arcana) 21, Knowledge (Religion) 21 (cc), Knowledge (The Planes) 17cc), Knowledge (Local) 11(cc), Knowledge (Nature) 6, Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) 5, Concentration 21, Profession (Gambler) 5, Collector of Stories	-	Fickle Finger of Fate

*Abraxin only qualifies for Area Attack while polymorphed into a suitable form.
B denotes a bonus feat. OH denotes that Iron Will is obtained through the Otyugh Hole.

Spells

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Spells per Day

Level	0lvl	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th
1st	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2nd	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3rd	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
6th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
7th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
8th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
9th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
10th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
11th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
12th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
13th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
14th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
15th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
16th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
17th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
18th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
19th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
20th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

*Does not account for bonus spells for a high ability score.

The Glory

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CR5

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At this point Abraxin Maure is just your garden variety human necromancer. As a scion of House Maure (a family of human cultists of Yeenoghu from some old adventure modules in Dungeon, at least some of which were 2e, information about Yeenoghu and Doresain is sort of thin on the ground), he worships Yeenoghu (or Doresain if you don’t believe that Demon Princes count as deities for Arcane Disciple, they both offer the Evil Domain, and despite being subordinate to Yeenoghu, the King of Ghouls is a demigod per Libris Mortis), and goes about the general business you’d expect of an evil cultist. Despite not being a high enough level to cast Animate Dead, he can raise zombie/skeleton minions through Fell Animate spells, and indeed can raise rather a lot of them, thanks to having Desecrate from Arcane Disciple. The bonus HP from Enhanced Undead and Desecrate (possibly Fell Energy Desecrate if you can get your hands on a Metamagic Rod of Fell Energy Spell) stack, so Abraxin’s minions will be pretty hale and hardy. The same can’t be said for Maure himself however. He’s a squishy wizard and has dumped Con in the lead up to becoming undead. Wizards also don’t have the same knack for wriggling out of sticky situations at level 5 that they do at later levels, so expect the PCs to kill him in this encounter.

He’ll also pick up Iron Will from the Otyugh Hole during these levels (I have it marked at 3, but any time will do), as we’ll need it later. To fit it into his fluff, perhaps we could say that he’s somehow trapped down in some dank pit and needs to consume human flesh to survive. We’ll need Dodge for the same reason, so we use Master Specialist to delay the 5th level Martial Wizard bonus feat until after getting the Dex bonus from Gravetouched Ghoul.

CR13

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When a person of particular interest to Doresain, the King of Ghouls dies (say a particularly evil, cannibalistic cultist in service Doresain’s liege), they are sometimes “touched by the King” and rise again as a Gravetouched Ghoul. Such is the case for our villain, who will rise again in undeath after his initial defeat at the PCs’ hands (for good measure, if the PCs aren’t thorough about his destruction, have some of his subordinates bury him on desecrated ground). Over the course of these levels, Abraxin also picks up the main ingredients to his primary trick; the Contagious Paralysis feat, the Area Attack feat, and the ability to cast Draconic Polymorph and Brilliant Blade. Draconic Polymorph is mostly here to make him big and strong enough to use Area Attack (I’m fond of the Ibradlin, a 10HD gargantuan dragon in Monsters of Faerun, as a mid-level, high-size form), which you then use to swing the paralyzed bodies of Maure’s previous victims, delivering Paralysis and damage to a large area via Contagious Paralysis. Changing form will disqualify you from Contagious Paralysis, but the Supreme Chancellor said (and I agree), that already paralyzed creatures will stay contagious. Brilliant Blade makes your (improvised) weapon pass harmlessly through undead, which means that you can swing away without worrying about your animated minions. For added fun, have a Contingency at the ready to ensure that the necessary buffs get up on time, and consider throwing a Blade of Blood on

Most unfortunately, Liches do not qualify for Contagious Paralysis, as they have “Paralyzing Touch” rather than “Paralysis” and the prerequisites are obnoxiously specific. Dealing with the shorter duration on Gravetouched Ghoul paralysis is irksome, but manageable. I gave a “cinematic” rendition in the fluff, but for those who did not read it or want a more explanatory description, the setup that I’ve come up with is as follows. Cut a finger off of a troll, then destroy the rest with acid or fire. Each round, Abraxin will take a bite out of that finger (the average damage is close enough to the 5 points regenerated that that shouldn’t be an issue), delivering paralysis to the still-living troll, then touch the finger to the body that you want to use as a paralysis vector. This body can, of course, be touching others, which can in turn be touching more others, and so on, inductively. Thus, contagious paralysis does not only make Abraxin’s Area Attack weapon into a paralysis vector, but also does so for Telekinesis shenanigans, the area attack weapons of any sufficiently large servants who also have the feat, the ammunition of your Hulking Hurler servants, the improvised weapons of your Drunken Master servants, ammunition for your army’s trebuchets, or anything else that you might think of. Of course, there are still inconveniences with this setup, so you will also likely want to smooth things out with various means of Fort save tanking (Bestow Curse and its greater version, Con damage/drain such as from your Ghoul Fever without actually killing them), ensuring that they stay subdued even if a paralysis duration runs out (reducing their Dex to 0 with Ghoul Fever, having an Allip reduce their Wis to 0, various forms of non-fatal mutilation) and will occasionally want to use Smoky Confinement to be able to hold the paralysis duration on a victim without keeping them path connected to the big bad.


Note also that even though you’re transforming from a creature that’s paralysis immune into a creature that’s paralysis immune, polymorph will lose your paralysis immunity in translation. However, Contagious Paralysis gives creatures who save once against the contagious effect immunity to the paralyzing attack for 24 hours. The simplest way to achieve this is probably to simply use a Diamond Mind ring of Mind Over Body and a low level polymorph effect early in the day to get that concern out of the way, but Abraxin is a wizard and this is a thing for which he can specifically prepared. It shouldn’t be an issue.

CR20

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Spell Chanelling and Area Attack are two great tastes that go great together (Area Attack is explicitly an attack per the benefit description, so the area that you Area Attack is a “target of a successful attack”). Maure only gets 3 uses/day, but he’s a BBEG, and hasn’t had to work a full adventuring day in his life or his unlife, and not finishing out Spellsword means that we can scrape 9th level spells. We also finally pick up Fell Drain which in conjunction with Black Lore of Moil can be applied to any Necromancy spell, including some of the really nasty ones like Shivering Touch, Enervation, and Energy Drain. Pack a few (possibly Moilan) Fell Drain Blade of Blood castings as well, and deliver a chunk of damage, a targeted spell, and a paralysis effect (now with a much higher save DC thanks to Ability Focus and Improved Paralysis), with an extra negative level on top to a decent-sized area in one fell swoop. Beyond the nasty necromancy effects, fun spells for Area Attack channeling include Baleful Polymorph, Disintigrate, and Reaving Dispel.

The Gristle

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Sources list goes here.

[Gwachitallemall]

Give me until midnight tomorrow, then!

You have 2 weeks! :) Take your time if you need it.

[Gwachitallemall]

Razlyn just notified me that they built off of 32 point buy instead of elite array. Being a merciful Supreme Chancellor, I've accepted the changes this time, but it just is a notification for everyone, double check your build, make sure everything is correct. I'll accept changes before hand, but not after the fact anymore.

[Morrolan]

Question about the shadow dragon build: What, at CR20, is its Ur-Priest Caster Level?

Normally, Ur-Priest gets 1/2 caster level from other casting class levels, so that would make CL = 1+4,5 = 5,5 at CR 18 for Ur-Priest, I think. But what effect does the Dispassionate Watcher's Divine Conversion have on CL? Would it become 5,5+9 = 14,5 or 5,5-4,5+9 = 10?

[Jormengand]

Question about the shadow dragon build: What, at CR20, is its Ur-Priest Caster Level?

Zero. It loses all Ur Priest class features immediately upon being granted divine spellcasting ability by the Ur Priest class itself.

[Morrolan]

Zero. It loses all Ur Priest class features immediately upon being granted divine spellcasting ability by the Ur Priest class itself.

Fine, same question, while ignoring the rather poorly written entry requirements.

[sakuuya]

I would offer to judge, but in all fairness I cannot. There's a creepy undead kid among the entries, I would be biased!

Is this just a ruse so we don't suspect that the creepy undead kid is your build?

Anyway, here's a summary for atemu and anyone else who feels like judging:

Geroldt Brand: ? Human Bard 1/Paladin 5/Dirgesinger 5/Bone Knight 9
Razlyn’susselsathra, the Shadow of Death: NE? Mature Adult Loredrake Shadow Dragon Ur-Priest 1/Soul Eater 1/Dispassionate Watcher of Chronepsis 1
Annabelle: LE Slaymate Wizard 8/Pale Master 10
Atalia, the Wight Queen: CE Spellscale Sorcerer 20
Malcanth Woodrue: NE Wood Elf Ranger 1/Druid 5/Blighter 10/Warshaper 4

[WhamBamSam]

Question about the shadow dragon build: What, at CR20, is its Ur-Priest Caster Level?

Normally, Ur-Priest gets 1/2 caster level from other casting class levels, so that would make CL = 1+4,5 = 5,5 at CR 18 for Ur-Priest, I think. But what effect does the Dispassionate Watcher's Divine Conversion have on CL? Would it become 5,5+9 = 14,5 or 5,5-4,5+9 = 10?

It loses all Sorcerer casting from Divine Conversion and converts it into Ur-Priest casting. Its caster level is 10, just as it would be for an Ur-Priest 10 entered from a non-caster base.

I'm really kicking myself for not getting my build done on time. There was another Wizard, but I think the Contagious Paralysis shenanigans would have been pretty novel.

[Sam K]

Is this just a ruse so we don't suspect that the creepy undead kid is your build?

Anyway, here's a summary for atemu and anyone else who feels like judging:

Geroldt Brand: ? Human Bard 1/Paladin 5/Dirgesinger 5/Bone Knight 9
Razlyn’susselsathra, the Shadow of Death: NE? Mature Adult Loredrake Shadow Dragon Ur-Priest 1/Soul Eater 1/Dispassionate Watcher of Chronepsis 1
Annabelle: LE Slaymate Wizard 8/Pale Master 10
Atalia, the Wight Queen: CE Spellscale Sorcerer 20
Malcanth Woodrue: NE Wood Elf Ranger 1/Druid 5/Blighter 10/Warshaper 4

No, I already did a creepy undead kid for the first contest. I think they should have a play-date, though!

[Gwachitallemall]

How are all our judges doing?