Villainous Competition XXIX: A Halloween Special

[Thurbane]

A Curst perhaps?

Spoiler: Unkillable

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Unkillable (Ex): Only two ways exist to destroy a curst permanently. One is to destroy its body (by total immersion in acid, or a disintegrate or undeath to death spell, for example). The other is to remove the curse that keeps it from dying. The caster of the remove curse spell must succeed on a caster level check (DC 10 + the curst's HD) to successfully remove the curse.

Wow, seems like Curst would be great for a Jason Vorhees/Michael Myers type.

Just need to stack on a couple of other templates and class levels to make them tough and scary.

[unseenmage]

Wow, seems like Curst would be great for a Jason Vorhees/Michael Myers type.

Just need to stack on a couple of other templates and class levels to make them tough and scary.

Yeah, they're kind of the go-to fir scary nonsense powered monster.

[3SecondCultist]

I had a pretty niche idea for a character based around the concept of The Babadook (keeping things relevant with a 2014 film, cashing in on innovation as opposed to nostalgia). The monster in the story comes from a children’s book, which I thought was pretty scary.

So my idea was going to be a former Artificer - think the kind of people who run the pyrotechnics displays at festivals and carnivals for kids - getting fed up with his audience not seeing his talent, and so imbuing his most bitter thoughts into a particular book... only for his fragmented ‘book’ personality to take control of him and use him to torment and kill children.

The build itself would have been straight Artificer 20, but using Nybor’s Psychic Imprint at CR 9 and having the actual character eventually fail the Will saves so that the item takes over. After that, the Artificer becomes the puppet of his own darkest desires, upgrading the book as he/it/they grow in power. I ended up not submitting largely because the rules for Intelligent Magic Items are incredibly restrictive and ill-defined, and because I thought the concept might have been a bit too obscure / super twisted.

[jdizzlean]

OK, judging commenced. I should be done in a week or so!

how goes it?

[Lionheart]

Apologies, I was hoping to be done before the Christmas/New Year break, but that didn't happen...

I have scores all worked out, just writing up a few notes now, so will post tomorrow at the latest!

[Lionheart]

Sorry for the double post, but JUDGEMENT DAY IS HERE!

Spoiler: The Poltergeist 16.5

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Originality: 3.75 Given the concept, I think the Guecubu and Master of the Unseen Hand are obvious choices. I like the addition of dungeoncrasher and uncanny trickster though, gives a nice martial bent to a normally caster based build. I’m also disappointed that it’s not undead!

Elegance: 4.5 Good all round here I think, a nice, seamless transition through every stage. My only issue is Unarmed Swordsage which might have more to do with the oxymoronic name than its inclusion in the build…

Power: 4.25 A really good set of offensive abilities, versatile but not overly so and some high power and high DCs as well. A couple of minor weaknesses; no hide to remain undetected while possessing, no methods of avoiding detection beyond natural invisibility. Saves are good but not enough to halt a dedicated caster. As befits the source material, a Cleric is this monster's nemesis. (Can you apply sneak attack to Telekinesis?

Memorable Villainy: 4.0 A really good representation of a poltergeist, to a party that isn’t prepared and doesn’t detect the nature of the villain immediately, this will be remembered as a very difficult and frustrating encounter. It will also be an absolute blast to run as DM, being able to hurl the PCs through walls and furniture with an invisible demon is always hilarious! Players aren't liable to forget the time they walked into an empty room only for one or more of their PCs to be slammed around the place without warning, and once a PC's been possessed once, the players will be on edge for more of the same forever.

Spoiler: The Great Pumpkinhead 16.75

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Originality: 4.5 Love it, uses my favourite monster and favourite class, and combining the two concepts very clever. Only issue is that it’s effectively the same schtick as a standard Murderjack, just with a few extra tricks.

Elegance: 4.25 Simple progression, Greenbound is pretty powerful, but can be justified given the concept. Bard isn’t my favourite thematic choice, but again, suits the fey origins of the creature. Not docking points here, just not awarding as many. I appreciate the effort to offer alternatives to increase/decrease power and capabilities.

Power: 4.5 Just like the standard Murderjack, the Great Pumpkinhead is an absolute monster, combining massive sneak attack, frightening presence, invisibility and sudden lunge to practically guarantee one PC is going down in the first combat round. Adding some pretty high DC bard spells and the SLAs from Greenbound to lock down opponents and enable sneak attacks in subsequent rounds. Spell Resistance at CR 11 is still relevant, but not insurmountable. The only weaknesses I can detect are the relatively low will save (presumably countered by taking out the casters first and), and that PCs immune to sneak attacks (while not common, not impossible) may be able to beat it in a war of attrition. Also needs to watch out for trip builds, as its mobility is a large part of its power.

Memorable Villainy: 3.5 This is where I’m going to be docking a few points for the concept, as I’ve said above, I love it, but I see one of the foci of this round being the players’ dawning realisation that they’re fighting a horror film creature, and I don’t think that’s going to come across as well as the other entries. I think the specific tactics of the Great Pumpkinhead also work against it here, as it very much lends itself to a fast TPK with the players having little opportunity to interact with it. However, against parties that detect and are able to counter it, there can be a really fun cat and mouse game to be played.

Spoiler: Quoth, the Raven 15.25

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Originality: 4.25 I can certainly say that I wasn’t expecting this, so it definitely gathers some good points there. I’d never thought of the Raven as being a monster in its own right, but this build seems to really capture the spirit of the original Poe, while also using a non-standard method of combat which is refreshing for 3.5 IMO. Only loss of points for the raven being large, where I feel an ordinary sized raven fits the archetype better, and for not having any background. I want to know how the raven became a Sorceror!

Elegance: 3.0 Monster of Legend is an obvious power grab, and crops up all the time in these contests. Other penalties are for the messy progression, jumping through five(!) separate classes in fairly quick succession, with Mindbender and Warlock sticking out in particular. Some fluff may have mitigated this somewhat.

Power: 3.5 Good array of spells, and extremely effective at locking down PCs with various fear effects. It does have a lot of glaring weaknesses though: no invisibility or even Hide/Move Silently, so PCs will immediately spot the massive bird casting spells at them, and with the raven being, as you say, a non-combatant, once they engage it, it won’t last long. Paladins, archer paladins in particular, will tear it apart pretty quickly. I really want to award more points here, as it has really cool offensive abilities. The Raven would work amazingly as a second to a traditional bruiser boss, or if it had a reliable way to remain hidden, but solo it’s sadly an extremely brittle glass cannon.

Memorable Villainy: 4.5 Almost gets full marks here. If the Raven is able to use all of its abilities and properly torment and scare PCs to death, it can be a terrifying opponent, and players are far more likely to remember the mocking and the nightmares than another standard caster/melee boss. I have to dock points here because I think it would have to be pretty lucky to achieve that. In fairness, a giant bird casting subtle spells in plain sight of the PCs would be memorable in a very different way.

All negative comments are meant in a spirit of fun, so please take them in the same way. I really enjoyed every entry, and given that I wasn't even able to come up with a concept for this round, extremely well done to all participants!

[jdizzlean]

Firstly, thanks for the judging, Lionheart.
No really a dispute as such, but just in regards to your comment in Power to the relatively low Will save. Just a couple of points; firstly, plant type comes with immunity to mind affecting attacks, so that rules out a lot of Will saves right there. Also, Evil's Blessing can add Cha bonus to all saves, if TGH has a round to prepare...
But honestly, no issues with your judging, and I accept all other commentary on the entry.

obligatory 10 characters

[jdizzlean]

as for my own.

monster of legend really was some power grabbing in this case, but also because you know, The Raven is a Legend :) . the warlock dip was only really for "early entry" into dread witch, it probably could've been a few other classes, but that +6 skills for the theme of the build was to good to pass up. Mindbender was only really taken for the telepathy, but not for mindsight as is so often the case. it's easier to torment if you can do it non-verbally.

i chose not to fluff in this case as i was really trying to recreate Poe's Raven, and i felt the original source material was sufficient, (and i was a bit lazy :))

i agree wholeheartedly on the vulnerability to ranged attacks, i chose not to include things like dimension door, invisibility, and the like as i felt it would detract from the source material.

all in all, i had a real blast building this one.

after disputes, if any are taken care of, i'll get the next round up. I promise it's going to be a real doozy

[Falontani]

I have no disputes worth mentioning

[jdizzlean]

new round is up

[jdizzlean]

i have a trainee at work currently, so almost no time. I'll get the reveal posted asap, but coding takes to long to do for the moment

[Thurbane]

Hopefully this might save you some time:

Entry	Competitor	Description	Score 1	Total	Placing
The Great Pumpkinhead	Thurbane	CE Greenbound Murderjack Bard 1/Arcane Trickster 8	16.75	16.75	Gold
The Poltergeist	Falontani	CE Guecubu 4/Unarmed Swordsage 2/Master of the Unseen Hand 5/Uncanny Trickster 3/Dungeoncrasher Fighter 6	16.5	16.5	Silver
Quoth, The Raven	jdizzlean	CE Monster of Legend Giant Raven Sorc 1/Warlock 1/Dread Witch 5/ Mindbender 1/Nightmare Spinner 5/Sorc +3	15.25	15.25	N/A

[Falontani]

My dispute not worth noting; the poltergeist in the movie was specifically called out as demons, and not undead. It actually made my job a lot harder trying to do it without just taking a ghost.