Villainous Competition XXXVIII: Spooks and Spectres

[H_H_F_F]

While we await judgement, is it ok to ask for a hint as to the nature the next round?

Also, does anybody else sometimes get an idea that would have been perfect for a previous round? I hope I can still find a way to use it someday.

[Falontani]

Always, or an idea for a monster, but the round that would best use it just doesn't come around.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Also, does anybody else sometimes get an idea that would have been perfect for a previous round? I hope I can still find a way to use it someday.

Almost every round. It did work out well for me when the Do-Over round came, though; just took that awesome idea I had for the last round and polished it up.

[daremetoidareyo]

What's on the docket for the next round?

[Thurbane]

Judging may not be wrapped up in time, but how about an Evil Santa/Krampus/Grinch round?

[GrayDeath]

I`ll ahve time judging this wekend, so it might. ;)

As for that round, hmmm, neither particularly pro nor con.

[H_H_F_F]

How is your head doing, GrayDeath?

Any news regarding judgement?

[GrayDeath]

Well, on the positive side, I finished 2

On the negative, I wont have time to do more before after Christmas.

Work+Corona+Family+unexpected stuff simply make it impossible at the moment.

Sorry for letting you down....

[H_H_F_F]

That's unfortunate, but c'est la vie. Update us when you know more. Thanks again for judging!

[Thurbane]

Sorry for letting you down....

All judging is completely voluntary, and very much appreciated You haven't let us down at all.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

It be like that sometimes. Don't worry about it!

[jdizzlean]

gray, clear some pm space please

[GrayDeath]

gray, clear some pm space please

eh....My PM`s arent full?

But OK, whatever that may do....

[jdizzlean]

it was actually me that needed to clear from sent items... haven't had that happen bfore, no worries

[H_H_F_F]

jdizzlean, have you settled on an idea for the next competition? Can you give us a clue?

[jdizzlean]

I have not yet e even thought about it. life is complicated right now

[daremetoidareyo]

Kaiju monsters!!!!

[AvatarVecna]

I have an idea for a special rule but no idea what theme to present...and the past few contests have made it clear that "special rules without a real theme" does not a contest make.

[H_H_F_F]

I have not yet e even thought about it. life is complicated right now

I hope it gets better soon. Best wishes!

[H_H_F_F]

Graydeath, can you let us know if we can expect judgement any time soon?

[GrayDeath]

I am sorry.

I seem to be cursed with horrible luck these last months.

To get better from one ailment, start on the many stuff I couldnt finish (including this Judging) just to be hit with the next bomb (Health, Family, you name it) a few days later.

As both my physical and mental health cant seem to work well enough, I am stopping to try to finish anything for deadlines and focussing fully on getting better.

So depending on if you find somone else to judge, I ask to be either removed as Judge for this competition or for the Chair/you all to "just do the next Competition(s)" until I am sure I am not only working-capable but WELL again.

Sorry to let you down.

[Doctor Despair]

I am sorry.

I seem to be cursed with horrible luck these last months.

To get better from one ailment, start on the many stuff I couldnt finish (including this Judging) just to be hit with the next bomb (Health, Family, you name it) a few days later.

As both my physical and mental health cant seem to work well enough, I am stopping to try to finish anything for deadlines and focussing fully on getting better.

So depending on if you find somone else to judge, I ask to be either removed as Judge for this competition or for the Chair/you all to "just do the next Competition(s)" until I am sure I am not only working-capable but WELL again.

Sorry to let you down.

I can't say I'm not a little disappointed, but I don't think there's a single reasonable person on this forum who would tell you to prioritize volunteering for a DnD competition over your health. I hope you feel better. 2020 has been rough for everyone, and 2021 isn't off to a strong start, but here's hoping we can turn things around. :)

[H_H_F_F]

I am sorry.

I seem to be cursed with horrible luck these last months.

To get better from one ailment, start on the many stuff I couldnt finish (including this Judging) just to be hit with the next bomb (Health, Family, you name it) a few days later.

As both my physical and mental health cant seem to work well enough, I am stopping to try to finish anything for deadlines and focussing fully on getting better.

So depending on if you find somone else to judge, I ask to be either removed as Judge for this competition or for the Chair/you all to "just do the next Competition(s)" until I am sure I am not only working-capable but WELL again.

Sorry to let you down.

I hope you'll get well soon, Gray. Life can be hard sometimes. Stay strong. Best wishes.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

"Every time you look around, life is gonna try to keep you down..."

Now that I've got that song stuck in my head, yeah, it's a bummer that you can't judge, but probably not nearly as much of a bummer for us as it is for you. Deciding to focus on your health instead of a volunteer position is more than fair.

[jdizzlean]

np gray, get better.


my life is way to hectic to attempt judging right now. if folks want to do a round robin judging, perhaps just do the one entry beneath your own, last entry do the first one. or, at the end of this week when i have some time, i'll call this round and throw up the next one.

[AvatarVecna]

I think I'm just gonna default to judging. I never end up submitting builds anyway, so for this and Iron Chef I think I'm just gonna be a default judge.

Judgement up later today.

[Thurbane]

I am sorry.

I seem to be cursed with horrible luck these last months.

To get better from one ailment, start on the many stuff I couldnt finish (including this Judging) just to be hit with the next bomb (Health, Family, you name it) a few days later.

As both my physical and mental health cant seem to work well enough, I am stopping to try to finish anything for deadlines and focussing fully on getting better.

So depending on if you find somone else to judge, I ask to be either removed as Judge for this competition or for the Chair/you all to "just do the next Competition(s)" until I am sure I am not only working-capable but WELL again.

Sorry to let you down.

You haven't let us down...real life, especially health and family issues, always take priority.

Hope things get better for you soon.

I think I'm just gonna default to judging. I never end up submitting builds anyway, so for this and Iron Chef I think I'm just gonna be a default judge.

Judgement up later today.

Very much appreciated.

[H_H_F_F]

I think I'm just gonna default to judging. I never end up submitting builds anyway, so for this and Iron Chef I think I'm just gonna be a default judge.

Judgement up later today.

Thanks a lot, AvatarVecna!

[AvatarVecna]

Spoiler: F'lautu Lance: 16.50

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Spoiler: Originality: 3.25

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+3.00: Starting Position
+0.25: Phantom template
-0.25: Grey Elf
-0.25: Wizard
+0.25: Master Specialist
-0.25: Feat Choices
+0.25: Skill Choices
+0.25: Overall Concept

Don't usually see somebody take Master Specialist all the way, it's usually a dip in the road to Incantatrix. Phantom is a nice low-CR low-requirement find that lets you fit the contest properly. There were a few unexpected feat selections, but most of it is just typical caster stuff that isn't very surprising. I see how they fit into the concept, though, so you're getting points for the concept, and your feat choices will be helping to boost your Memorability I think.

Spoiler: Elegance: 4.25

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+3.00: Starting Position
+0.25: One Template
+0.25: One Base Class
+0.25: One Prestige Class
+0.25: Qualifies For Everything
+0.25: List Of Sources

Fairly straightforward score. I have weird standards for this contest on Elegance. A perfect score in my mind is basically a normal monster with no templates or classes at all, who just deals with feats and racial options. You're doing pretty good though, and I think the things you took are doing enough for you that you'll make up the few lost points elsewhere.

I will say that I briefly considered giving a penalty here for format issues, but instead of taking off points for something that doesn't really impact the build, I'll specify: I know with something that has so many elements from various splats, it's easier to list them once when they initially get mentioned, but please in the future have a spoiler for "Sources" where you list where everything came from, instead of inserting the source after each element gets mentioned throughout the build. It interrupts the pace of reading through the entry, especially since the full book name is mentioned every time.

Spoiler: Power: 5.00

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+3.00: Starting Position
+0.50: Low CR Power
+0.25: Low-Mid CR Power
+0.50: Mid CR Power
+0.50: Mid-High CR Power
+0.50: High CR Power

You're behind a full spell level, but solo villains tend to be a couple CRs ahead of the party anyway, so you'll end up with spell levels/CL on par with party casters. In the early game when spellcasting isn't nearly as dominant as it gets later, you're still incorporeal, which can be a nightmare for low-level parties to deal with at all. In the low-mid levels where you've yet to get truly powerful spells, and when magic weapons are starting to show up, your power dips down a bit, but not enough to drag your score below the maximum. You're still a full caster, specializing in one of the better schools, and prepared casters in general just seem to be more effective in the hands of DMs than players.

Spoiler: Memorability/Villainy: 4.00

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+3.00: Starting Position
+0.50: Viable villain for any party level
+1.00: Players will never forget
-0.50: Not very Villainous at all

Lance is undoubtedly memorable, and is versatile enough in build to be relevant at any/every point in a campaign. There is one small issue I take with the build, though, and that's how they don't really feel like a villain? Reading through the concept and motivations gave a very strong Chaotic Neutral vibe, and the villain just happens to choose being a deadly nuisance instead of an annoying one less because it fits the character and more because if she doesn't do particularly bad things, she wouldn't count as a villain. Like...if you'd submitted this character for an Iron Chef competition where Master Specialist was the secret ingredient for some reason, you would've made then CN. That's just a fact.

Spoiler: Illithid Shadow 14.00

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Spoiler: Originality: 1.75

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+3.00: Starting Position
-0.50: Vecna-Blooded
-0.25: Dragonborn Of Bahamut
+0.00: Telthor
-0.25: Strongheart Halfling
+0.25: Duskblade
+0.25: Ranger
-0.50: Psion
+0.00: Illithid Slayer
-0.50: Psionic Mindbender
+0.25: Feat Choices
+0.00: Skill Choices
+0.00: Overall concept

There's a lot of elements here, and a lot of them are pretty familiar to people who spend enough time theorycrafting on the boards. Your feat choices are just weird enough to give you a bump, but mostly this is just a pile of charop buzzwords.

Spoiler: Elegance: 2.50

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+3.00: Starting Position
-0.50: 3 Templates
-0.50: 3 Base Classes
+0.00: 2 Prestige Classes
+0.25: Qualifies For Everything
+0.25: List Of Sources
-0.25: Alignment shenanigans

Once again, the build is just an absolute mess. AFAICT you qualify for everything you take, but it's kinda cheap to use an evil-only and a non-evil-only template on the same character. The story explains it well enough, but the story that explains why it's acceptable is literally unknowable in-character, so it just kinda comes across as contrived to players who face down this enemy. You'll get rewarded for the story in Memorability to a degree, but here this giant mess gets penalties.

Spoiler: Power: 4.75

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+3.00: Starting Position
+0.25: Low CR Power
+0.00: Low-Mid CR Power
+0.50: Mid CR Power
+0.50: Mid-High CR Power
+0.50: High CR Power

In what I'm sure will be a common problem for these builds, incorporeality means that at low CRs builds just tend to not be particularly capable outside of the defensive benefits incorporeality brings. In your own words, "Jandar... can't do much". Low-Mid takes away some benefits of incorporeality, and Jandar's own capabilities aren't quite up to snuff yet. They're starting to get there at CR 8, but we need to go a bit further for him to really get good. Past about CR 10, Jandar becomes a force to be reckoned with despite relatively low level powers/spells at his disposal. It's a messy build, but it's really paying off with a good deal of synergy coming online in the mid-levels where most play takes place. The low-level issues are keeping you just out of a perfect score here, but only barely.

Spoiler: Memorability/Villainy: 5.00

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+3.00: Starting Position
+0.50: Viable Villain for any party level
+1.00: Players will never forget
+0.50: Exceedingly villainous

The backstory being unknown to players won't matter too much, because the effect you'll have on a campaign will leave plenty of impact to spare. The scale at which Jandar operates in the latter half of his career and the obsession with improving his own capabilities will serve as a potent danger to anyone around him. This is peak villainy right here.

Spoiler: Draugorex: 16.00

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Spoiler: Originality: 4.25

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+3.00: Starting Position
+0.25: Phantom
+0.25: Entomanothrope
-0.50: Primordial Giant
+0.25: Phaerlin Giant
+0.50: Soul Eater
+0.25: Feat choices
+0.00: Skill choices
+0.25: Overall Concept

Primordial Giant is a chargen staple that gets squeezed in whenever possible, but the rest of it is pretty unexpected. I particularly like the inclusion of an epic destiny, which so rarely gets any attention in these contests just because of how biased they are against epic play.

My own build was going to be entomanothrope phaerlin telthor, so the combo isn't new to me, but that's not something you should lose points for - it's an unexpected choice in general, even if I personally like it. Since it's not highlighting the specific thing I was going to abuse, I think I'll keep that in my back pocket for a future contest.

Spoiler: Elegance: 3.75

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+3.00: Starting Position
-0.50: 3 Templates
+0.50: 1 Base Class
+0.25: 1 Prestige Class
+0.25: Qualifies for everything
+0.25: List Of Sources
-0.25: Attribute Issue

Beyond the template-stacking, it's a fairly clean build overall. Solid job, but definitely room for improvement - would've preferred if you'd somehow just found a giant spider-ghost monster, for example. One small note, though: I'm fairly certain that getting HD from templates doesn't include the attribute bumps specifically, that those have to be gained through more standard progression. I can't find much text indicating either way, that's just been my general understanding, so if you can provide some text that says that it works the way you did it, this is an easy quarter-point to get removed.

Spoiler: Power: 5.00

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+3.00: Starting Position
+0.50: Low CR Power
+0.50: Low-Mid CR Power
+0.50: Mid CR Power
+0.25: Mid-High CR Power
+0.25: High CR Power

This category gets weird for builds that aren't viable at certain power levels if I try to do it normal. It's hard to just a build's viability at CRs 1-4 if they're minimum CR 11. So instead it gets halved, where each tier represents 2 levels instead of 4. From that perspective, you're still getting full markds: at mid-levels, you're a pretty good incorporeal beatstick who picks up some energy drain. It's not the biggest bad you could be at this level, but it's still really solid even if ghost touch weapons are coming online right now - really, 24 HD at CR 11 (meaning fighting a lvl 9 party), incorporeality, and at-will "regenerate" will do you a lot of good defensively. As you gain levels, the lack of more complicated tactics start hurting you, and high level casters will have answers to your various tricks, but it's going to take effort and that's commendable.

One thing you didn't mention but that I think is highly relevant is just how threatening lycanthropy is in the metagame: while it tends to arguably be worth the CR, the HD and LA tend to make any form of lycanthropy a death sentence for a PC. The benefits given just aren't equal to the lost class levels, and now your ECL is so much higher than the rest of the party that you have to fight tougher threats to have a chance at XP...and your capabilities aren't really enough to actually take on those greater threats.

Spoiler: Memorability/Villainy: 3.00

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+3.00: Starting Position
-0.25: Only viable for parties mid-level and up
+0.25: Okay-ish appearance and tactics
-0.25: Villain by default I guess
+0.25: AD-HOC is a freaking deity

There's not much to really say about this villain. He's not available for half the possible CRs, and for the ones he's present, he's a beatstick with some neat tricks. They're very neat tricks mechanically, but if you had this guy show up, nobody's gonna be wondering "wait did we just fight the BBEG?" afterwards. There's not much to his story or motivations, he's not got this grand designs or powerful motivations, he's just a big strong ******* who's trying to take over. Just being a deity means you get to operate on a scale that others don't, and you can kinda assume a base and minions and evil schemes in the background, but because all that stuff isn't fleshed out, I can't really give you credit for the possibility that your villain might do something interesting.

Spoiler: Arelshine: 17.75

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Spoiler: Originality: 4.75

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+3.00: Starting Position
+0.25: Doppleganger
+0.50: Shadow-Bound
+0.50: Tainted Raver
-0.25: Ghost
-0.25: Rogue
+0.50: Spymaster
+0.50: Siren
+0.00: Feat choices
+0.00: skill choices

Ghost is expected, ghost feats are expected. Rogues and similar sneaky types have enough synergy with incorporeality that they're generally expected for this particular contest, and rogue has a lot of support besides. Everything else was lovely to see. Full marks.

Spoiler: Elegance: 3.25

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+3.00: Starting Position
-0.50: 3 templates
+0.25: 1 base class
+0.00: 2 prestige classes
+0.25: Qualifies for everything
+0.25: List Of Sources

Template-stacking is the main problem here, even if it's one everybody expected. Still, you're not doing too badly here.

Spoiler: Power: 4.75

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+3.00: Starting Position
+0.50: Low CR Power
+0.25: Low-Mid CR Power
+0.25: Mid CR Power
+0.25: Mid-High CR Power
+0.50: High CR Power

As has been the case before, incorporeality and monster abilities are sufficient to make you extremely difficult to deal with at low levels, even if your offense isn't exactly keyed towards dealing lvl 4 monster damage, you'll still be doing great. You taper off in the mid-low and mid due to focusing more on skills than anything else, and while an incorporeal doppleganger can make for a great villain, without more punch they're not going to be putting up much of a fight at this point. Of course, that changes in the higher levels, when Siren turns you into a proper monster. I'm not sure it's quite as good as high-level casting, but you're packing some serious oomph at this point. Maybe if Siren kicked in a bit earlier, or Spymaster wasn't quite as much the focus of the fluff/build, you could have a perfect score here, but as it is, near-perfect ain't bad.

Spoiler: Memorability/Villainy: 5.00

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+3.00: Starting Position
+0.50: Viable villain for any party level
+1.00: Players will never forget
+0.50: Menacing villain

The fluff information helped seal the deal here. Nonmagical manipulation being focused so much allows you to make a truly terrifying puppetmaster on par with the absurd psionic capabilities a previous entry had. This is a villain that lasts a campaign, and serves as a puzzle boss/social encounter boss for the first half, and a combat boss as well for the latter half. Very nice.

Spoiler: Pollyanna: 17.50

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Spoiler: Originality: 3.75

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+3.00: Starting Position
-0.50: Human
+0.25: Wendigo
-0.50: Symbiotic Creature
+0.50: Dream Vestige
+0.00: Warlock
+0.00: Hellfire Warlock
+0.50: Feat choices
+0.25: Skill choices
+0.25: Overall concept

Human and Symbiotic Creature are common staples, but you've got a lot going for you outside that. Looking forward to seeing how things get tied together mechanically. Wendigo is a nice qualifying template, although one I've heard now and then unlike some others in this contest that were completely new for whatever reason.

Spoiler: Elegance: 4.00

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+3.00: Starting Position
+0.00: 2 templates
+0.25: 1 base class
+0.25: 1 prestige class
+0.25: Qualifies for everything
+0.25: List Of Sources

Relatively simple build, and you've got all the little stuff taken care of. I initially suspected shenanigans with Symbiotic Creature, but it looks like you've chosen to play it relatively normally, so no reason to ding you for abusing CR shenanigans when you're not.

Spoiler: Power: 4.75

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+3.00: Starting Position
+0.25: Low CR Power
+0.25: Low-Mid CR Power
+0.25: Mid CR Power
+0.50: Mid-High CR Power
+0.50: High CR Power

Early on, you're just a human warlock. And that's fine! But it's not getting big scores the way some other builds are. Yeah, Wendigo could kick in earlier, but that would require screwing around with the build as you said...and also it's not how it was presented, so Wendigo kicking in at low-mid is the version I'm working with. Unfortunately, low-mid is also where incorporeality starts being not quite as super-awesome as it was at the lowest levels, but you've got Lucid Dreaming picking up the slack so you're fine. At mid-high levels, warlock stuff and lucid dreaming is getting good enough to bump you up, and you never fall below top score after that. I'm glad you're really leaning into Lucid Dreaming because it's just absurd even if you're not adventuring just in the Dreamheart.

Spoiler: Memorability/Villainy: 5.00

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+3.00: Starting Position
+0.50: Viable Villain for any party level
+1.00: Players will never forget
+0.50: Exceedingly villainous

The writing is solid. You're not only viable at any level, but it's actually useful to the story that the party knew the villain before they were properly a villain, and that can build extra connections in. Finding out that the little girl they befriended early on has become a monstrous cannibal caster ghost is going to be a big shock and the players will remember this villain going forward. The musical suggestions are also appreciated and are being taken into account for your memorability.

TL;DR

5th/HM: Illithid Shadow

While almost certainly a powerful entry in any campaign, and easily my favorite actual villain of the lot, the mechanical shortcomings and the fact that they're essentially a pile of charop buzzwords are doing more harm than good here. If I was going to try and make a campaign out of any of these villains, this would be the true antagonist, even if some of the others would also be quite wonderful to use at some point. Easily my Honorable Mention.

4th: Draugorex

A pile of neat things is still a messy pile, and at the end of the day the fluff didn't have even a fraction of the effort put in that the mechanics did. If that were the case, I'm sure Draugorex would've scored fairly high even if there were another dozen submissions.

3rd: F'lautu Lance

A simple powerful build with some fun fluff that will elicit laughs years after the campaign ends. Unfortunately, this is a competition for spooks, not spoops, and there's not a great deal that's mechanically interesting to talk about.

2nd: Polyanna

Excellent writing and design, tied in with some very understandable motivations and personal horror story. If there's really a problem here, it's that what makes for a good antagonist in a horror story doesn't necessarily make a great antagonist for a campaign: Polyanna is a phenomenal villain, but isn't going to have the power, scale of threat, or manipulation necessary to be a proper super-villain. She'll still be absolutely wonderful to insert into a campaign, but even as written, her story is a side-plot to whatever the heroes were really sent out to deal with.

1st: Arelshine

I'm a sucker for a decent noncombat build, as well as for a decent noncaster build, and this is doing both. This can do the same puppetmaster thing as Illithid Shadow without having to pull out a ton of powers to do so. Spymaster capstone allows for what is honestly better divination protection than Vecna-Blooded, which is no easy feat. I'd wager that Illithid Shadow would have an easier time taking over the world from the shadows, but the fact that Arelshine is giving them a run for their money without all the fancy magic tricks is a big point in their favor.

[H_H_F_F]

Thank you for the incredibly swift judgement, AvatarVecna!