Iron Chef Optimization Challenge: E6 Appetizer Edition (Round XXIII)

[DeTess]

I will say that the next round’s ingredient has already been chosen. It is not a class. It is inspired by recent events. Feel free to speculate away; I ain’t changing it.

So, we're optimizing staying at least 5 feet away from everything all the time?

[daremetoidareyo]

The generic class description states that other base classes should be disallowed. But prestige classes are ok

[thorr-kan]

So, we're optimizing staying at least 5 feet away from everything all the time?

No, it's obviously something to do with The Mandalorian.

Or possibly the new Muppets show that will be coming to Disney+ soon.

[crankykobold]

Just curious if the judging is near to done

[Blackhawk748]

Just peeking in her after the holiday weekend

[Lapak]

Gang, so sorry for the delay; had a major issue crop up and didn't get back here. I'll get judgments posted before the end of the day.

[daremetoidareyo]

Gang, so sorry for the delay; had a major issue crop up and didn't get back here. I'll get judgments posted before the end of the day.

Thanks for judging lapak. No worries.

[crankykobold]

So is this thing just dead?

[DeTess]

So is this thing just dead?

Nah, judging just takes time. If we don't hear something soon Zaq will probably do some asking around, but right now it isn't even taking an unusually long amount of time to get judgings in.

[crankykobold]

Oh. It's been a month since the turn in so I figured it had been forgotten.

[Blackhawk748]

Oh. It's been a month since the turn in so I figured it had been forgotten.

When I judged I think it was a roughly equal length of time, so ya. Life happens and judging requires a fair amount of time to get done.

[daremetoidareyo]

Adding onto that: these builds are kinda wild. There's a lot of content tucked away in them, so that slows you way down. And all of them are some nitty gritty specialists.

[Zaq]

Quick Friday bump! Hope everyone's doing okay despite the coronavirus and despite everything else going on in the world right now.

Also, happy Pride Month to my fellow queer Playgrounders (and allies)! We might not be celebrating in the same way as usual, but it still feels good to be proud regardless.

[daremetoidareyo]

Is there a judging update?

[MicHag]

Definitely ready this evening

[Quentinas]

Definitely ready this evening

Ah so you are judging? Any update?

[MicHag]

Ah so you are judging? Any update?

Sorry, no, it was just a bad joke.

[Zaq]

How's it going, judges/contestants/spectators?

[Quentinas]

If is necessary i can judge, and obviously the build i submitted would be invalidated (for the contest) but i can do it. If anyone would like to judge only my build it would be nice, to see other opinions on that not for medals

[DeTess]

If is necessary i can judge, and obviously the build i submitted would be invalidated (for the contest) but i can do it. If anyone would like to judge only my build it would be nice, to see other opinions on that not for medals

If that becomes necessary I'll certainly take a look over yours once judgings are up.

[Zaq]

Is anyone still judging?

[crankykobold]

I don't think so. Last post from the only person I think was judging was 5 weeks ago. Seeing as how its been 2 months since this thing started maybe someone else should pick up the judging.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

I might be able to judge. I did however just get a very time consuming job, and I'm still job-hunting for better ones, but I'll start whittling away at it and see how it goes.

[Zaq]

Uh... team? Anyone?

[DeTess]

Uh... team? Anyone?

Quentinas said that they would take a look, but they've been very quiet since then, so who knows. I could take a look over the weekend, but if there's no judging on sunday from me don't expect one from me anytime soon either.

[DeTess]

Alright, seems I had nothing better to do this evening. This has been a fairly quick judge, which increases the likelihood that I missed things.

It's also been a long week for me, so my tone will be fairly snarky. Please don't take that personally.

Anyway, a quick guideline for how I judge:

Originality: Default score is 3/5. If you show me something I've rarely seen before, you get a bonus. If you do something I've seen a lot, you get a penalty. I also give bonus points here for things like an interesting backstory or some other thing I believe was funny about your presentation.

Power: Default score is 3/5. I look at both in combat and out of combat performance, and neither can give a bonus or penalty more than 2 points. I'll be fairly lenient on out of combat performance here as it's the fighter.

Elegance: Default score is 4/5, because There's generally a lot more to penalize than to award here. I penalize all building mistakes here, and award points if you do something in a pretty elegant way that I wasn't familiar with. I will also penalize rules interpretation mistakes here that are key to the build. If I do, I'll treat the power rating as if the trick does work. If I mark an interpretation mistake here but don't penalize, it means it's fairly minor and I'll have taken it into account for power.

Use of SI: Default is 3/5. Judging this is a bit tricky because fighter doesn't bring much. Generally, I'll be looking at how many levels you took and whether you managed to get full BaB on the entire class. stylish use of ACF's and substitiuion levels can get you bonus points, especially fi you didn't go full fighter.

Spoiler: Arog 17.5/5

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Originality
You’re an orc, but not a water orc! (+0.5)
3.5/5

Power
You absolutely wreck stuff in combat, your AC and H is decent enough and your saves (after investing a whole stack of feats) are not completely terrible(+2). Out of combat you’re really not going to be much use at all though(-0.5).
4.5/5

Elegance
All your stuff is legal, and making use of the morningstar’s combined damage-type like you did is a nice trick (+0.5).
4.5/5

Use of SI
You have 6 levels in fighter(+1), and make good use of both the +6 BaB and the bonus feats it gives you(+1). And there really isn’t that much more to a fighter (I mean, you even took weapon specialization!)
5/5

Spoiler: The Demon leg of Martok 14.5/20

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Originality
That backstory got a chuckle out of me. (+1)
4/5

Power
You’ve got a very good damage output, and decent HP, but your AC will be nothing impressive and your will save is very bad. (+1.5)
Out of combat, you’ve got some skill bonuses to contribute in a variety of situations, but your only ‘good’ skill is jump, while everything else will only get you some very small bonuses. Being able to craft custom gear if you have a caster to help you by providing the spells is somewhat useful though (net+0 on out-of-combat stuff).
4.5/5

Elegance
From the description from the ‘brand of the nine hells’ feat: “Nondevils can gain this feat, and the feats that require it as a prerequisite, by performing a particularly useful act for an archduke of Hell. This option is unavailable to player characters (unless a DM rules otherwise).” I like that you did actually do something to earn the feat in your backstory, but taking something that is explicitly by DM permission only will still give you an elegance penalty (-0.5).
The trick trying to redirect the attack on yourself to someone else is interesting, but I don’t think it works, as the masterslaying property does not allow you to target anyone else. Since there is no legal target, it just does nothing. (-1)
I don’t see why you’d get the ‘least legacy’ feat for free (-0.5).
Circle kick can only be used when you’re using a full-round action to activate it. (no penalty, just pointing that out).
2/5

Use of SI
You’ve got 5/6 levels in fighter (+0.5). You make decent enough use of the extra feats you get, but missing out on that point of BaB you could have had is a shame. (+0.5)
4/5

Spoiler: Halvena Ironhide 15.5/20

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Originality
I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone make a chariot-rider. Like ever. I had to actually go and do some research to figure out how chariot combat was even supposed to work in DnD. (+1).
4/5

Power
You (literally) hit like a truck, between your own boosted attacks and your horse’s contribution. You’ve got solid AC and HP (+2), but your Reflex save is nothing to write home about, and your will save is abysmal. You’re also severely limited with regards to the situations in which you can fight, and you’re bait for area attacks.(-1)
Outside of combat you’ve actually got a fairly decent skill spread, and the fact that your chariot will have some extra space can come in handy in a lot of situations, though the vehicle will be a liability in some others (crossing rivers or steep mountains comes to mind).
4/5

Elegance
Quick note here about sources: please list what you’re getting from each book. If I need to look up where the spiritual connection ranger ACF comes from, I don’t want to have to guess which of your listed sources it is from. (no penalty, but only because I’m feeling generous).
I cannot find where the fighter acf ‘align weapon’ is from. I assume you meant aligned strike from complete champion? (still no penalty, but if I encounter more things like this you’ll start accruing a ‘half-assed your sources’ tax).
You don’t qualify for weapon supremacy... at all... (-0.5).
3.5/5

Use of SI
You have 4 levels in fighter (+0.5). You’ve made some decent use of fighter ACF’s, with dragonscale husk in particular providing a nice AC boost. Aligned strike however is going to be useful a lot less often. Despite dipping twice you managed to keep full BaB, however (you know a class lacks in things to do when having full BaB is considered a use of that classes features). (+0.5)
4/5

Spoiler: Steve 16/20

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Originality
Would you believe that it took me till almost the end of your build before I got the reference? My first instinct when seeing all the shield stuff was ‘Captain america?’ But then there was all the incarnum weapon stuff that threw me off track, and I only placed the quote once I saw the lightning stuff you were getting. (+0.5 for sneaky references)
3.5/5

Power
You’ve got good damage with a ranged component (meaning something flying won’t completely neuter your contribution), good AC, good HP and decent saves (+1.5)
Your spread of skill is nice, but your lack of full investment in anything does hurt your out-of-combat utility. (-0.5).
4/5

Elegance
You didn’t specify what shield-type you used for shield specialization. (no penalty, as you’re clearly committed to one particular shield)
Bonus essentia doesn’t have any text suggesting you can take it more than once (-0.5)
3.5/5

Use of SI
6 levels in fighter, you do fighter stuff using things that fighter give you. You make decent use of your feats and you git things so full BaB is helpful.
5/5

Spoiler: Irkle 17/20

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Originality
Nothing really to comment on here, for good or ill.
3/5

Power
You hit fairly hard and have some nice riders and you’re fairly hard to hit. Your hp is also decent(all d10’s, unlike what you list in your write-up). Your will save is pretty horrible though. (+1.5)
You’ve got a wide selection of feats and a bunch of them at close to max ranks at well. Your racial abilities and shadow jaunt also give you some decent extra utility out of combat (+1).
5/5

Elegance
You’re trading the same features away twice with your fighter ACF’s, as both thug and hit-and-run fighter trade away armor and shield features. This is not allowed. (-0.5).
…I was initially going to point out that daring outlaw wouldn’t get you any bonus sneak attack dice, but on a closer reading it just makes it so that your swashbuckler levels count as rogue levels, which means you actually get more sneak attack then if they had stacked on top of your fighter levels. This is a pretty elegant trick in my book (+0.5).
4/5

Use of SI
You only have 3 levels of fighter, but interestingly enough, this build wouldn’t actually be possible without it. You need both full BaB and sneak attack to do what you do here, so you need that sneak attack fighter in there, and there’s no other class that could take its place. So despite only taking 3 levels in fighter, you get full marks from me.
5/5

Spoiler: Orthos 14/20

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Originality
Nothing much to comment on here, for good or ill.
3/5

Power
You’re a defensive powerhouse, but at the cost of significantly reducing your offensive power, as the investment from combat expertise will hurt your ability to bring the damage. Your saves aren’t great, but that’s at least somewhat improved by the spellward shirt (+0.5)
Outside of combat you’re really not bringing all that much to the table (-0.5)
3/5

Elegance
You don’t list your stats anywhere (-1)
3/5

Use of SI
6 levels of fighter, lots of fightery feats, including some that require full BaB. (+2)
5/5

Spoiler: Pauli T'Chan 15/20

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Originality
I really like how you wrote most of your write-up in a consistent voice and…
*spots ‘epic feats’ table*
What the **** is that?!
…yeah, I got nothing (+2)

Also, that pun in your name is horrible and took em way too long to spot.
5/5

Power
So, you’ve got friends to help you in combat, and friends to help you out of combat. Frankly, this character is a perfect example of maxim 63 of the seventy maxims of highly effective mercenaries*: “The brass knows how to do it by knowing who can do it.” Full marks here.

*and also of why ‘leadership’ is banned in this competition.
5/5

Elegance
The contacts system does require a cooperative DM (and the specific NPC’s you want existing), so you’re taking a small penalty for that here(-0.5). This goes double for the fairly optimized mentor and apprentice you describe (-0.5).
3/5

Use of SI
On the one hand, you have five levels in fighter. On the other hand, you lose full Bab, which is like half the fighter’s class features right there. Also, this build in no way requires fighter to function. You could safely loose three feats without losing effectiveness, and something like Bard or even Marshal would have done your archetype far, far better.
2/5

Spoiler: Severas 17/20

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Originality
I enjoyed reading that introduction. (+1)
4/5

Power
You can do a lot of damage when you actually hit. However, your combo of two-weapon fighting and eagle’s fury give you a -4 to your attacks, which hurts your chances of actually landing all your attacks, though knowledge devotion helps alleviate that somewhat at least. Defensively your AC will be horribad if you’re using all your feats and your will save is terrible. (+1)
Out of combat you’ve got a niche as knowledge skill specialist, which is nice, but still fairly limited.
4/5

Elegance
Nothing to comment on, for good or ill.
4/5

Use of SI
6 levels of fighter, all your feats have their place in the build, and a number require that full BaB.
5/5

Spoiler: Staffilius 16/20

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Originality
I’ve never seen darksong knight or the dancing with shadows feat before, so kudos for showing me something new (+1).
4/5

Power
You’ve got solid AC, but your offences aren’t all that impressive. Your saves aren’t all that great either (+0.5).
You’ve got some skills, but only perform and climb can really be relied upon as the bonus from everything else is just very small. Overall, you just won’t do much out of combat (-0.5)
3/5

Elegance
You seem to think you can use weapon finesse with the quarterstaff. As far as I know, you can’t. (no penalty).
You also can’t stack the bonuses from expert tactician, as they’d all be from the same source: “Circumstance bonuses stack with all other bonuses, including other circumstance bonuses, unless they arise from essentially the same source.” (no penalty)
4/5

Use of SI
6 levels of fighter, some interesting use of ACF’s and substitution levels.
5/5

Spoiler: The Wanderer 25/20

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link in case image doesn't show: http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/ggma...in20070625.jpg

(just in case the score and webcomic page instead of review didn't make it clear, The Wanderer was my own build, and should therefore be disqualified for prizes this round)

[MicHag]

Thanks for judging, i would like to point out that the one who looks like he got the highest score, actually scored one point less.

[DeTess]

Thanks for judging, i would like to point out that the one who looks like he got the highest score, actually scored one point less.

Yeah, you're right. Corrected it.

[daremetoidareyo]

Thanks for judging. No disputes here

[Blackhawk748]

Mother of- I swore I had deleted Weapon Supremacy off my list of feats when I actually looked it up but apparently not. So that one is entirely my fault.

Anyway, thanks for pointing out layout tips and I have no disputes