Iron Chef E6 Appetizer Edition, Round XXX

[Zaq]

INGREDIENT: PRESTIGE CLASSES (round 13)

Dragon totem! Bear totem! Rabbit season! Duck season!

Noma gic CG Shifter Totem barbarian 3/Forsaker 3
This build would be for the Round 13: Prestige Classes

Spoiler: Background

Show

Noma gic was a normal barbarian of the dragon tribe , and his tribe was trying to live in cooperation with a near city, trading with them, sending the youths at exploring the city, and so on. He was one of the many that learned various thing in the city, mainly how brawling in the bar and similar thing, but then the council of the city decided to exterminate the tribe of barbarians , and knowing that they didn’t have many spellcasters they used every magic caster they had to kill each barbarian from afar without having many problems, maybe they were searching for draconic items as that was the dragon tribe. Noma was lucky , as he activated his shifter trait and barely survived from the magical attack, surviving with not so many hp. He walked , rested and escaped until (with other survivors) he arrived at the other tribes were he explained the situation , so the tribe chose to cut off each trade with that city and he was adopted in another tribe, the Bear tribe. Even if he helped the other barbarians he could not forgot how these wizards killed many of his companions, so he searched for something to beat these wizards and he found it , or better him, a master that was wronged like him , forsaking magic and being stronger than other individuals a forsaker. While his master wanted to avenge himself killing every wizard Noma gic instead chose to let everyone know how the wizards were evil, doing various donation to poors and to other ones, fighting for the good , and sometimes collaborating with spellcaster as he knew that exception exists .

Spoiler: Build

Show

Base stats
Strength 16, Dexterity 14, Constitution 16, Intelligence 12, Wisdom 10, Charisma 8
After race modifier
Strength 16 Dexterity 16, Constitution 15, Intelligence 10 , Wisdom 10, Charisma 6
After each modifier from level and from forsaker
Strength 20 Dexterity 16 Constitution 16 Intelligence 10 Wisdom 10, Charisma 6

Spoiler: Progression

Show

Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Dragon Totem Barbarian 1	+1	+2	+0	+0	Total 16(4+int)x4 Sense motive 4*, Listen 4, Tumble 4*,Swim 2 , 2 points spent to be literate	Iron Will,Blind fight	Whirling frenzy ACF, Skilled city dweller ACF, Illiteracy , Rage 1/day
2nd	Dragon Totem Barbarian 2	+2	+3	+0	+0	Total 4 (4+ int),Sense motive 5 , Listen 5, Tumble 5 Swim 3
3rd	Bear Totem barbarian 3	+3	+3	+1	+1	Total 4(4+int) Sense motive 6, Listen 6, Tumble 6 Swim 4	Great fortitude (bonus), Lighting reflexes	Great fortitude
4th	Forsaker 1	+4	+5	+1	+3	Total 2 (2+ int) Sense motive 7, Listen 7, Tumble 6 Swim 4		Ability bonus +1, fast healing 1 (10), forsake magic, SR 11
5th	Forsaker 2	+5	+6	+1	+4	Total 2 (2+ int) Sense motive 8 Listen 8 Tumble 6 Swim 4		Ability bonus +1, damage reduction 3/+1, magic destruction, SR 12
6th	Forsaker 3	+6	+6	+2	+4	Total 2 (2+ int) Sense motive 9, Listen 9, Tumble 6 Swim 4	Power attack	Ability bonus +1, fast healing 1 (20), natural weapons, SR 13, tough defense

Epic feats in order
Ragewild fighting
Sacred vow
Vow of poverty
Healing factor
Shifter instinct
Extra shifter trait (beasthide)
Beasthide elite
Shape soulmeld (spellward shirt)
Bonus essentia
Extra rage

Spoiler: Tactics

Show

Spoiler: Level 1

Show

Let’s start we are a barbarian that doesn’t do anything with pounce as we use the spirit totem barbarian instead of the pounce so we are not interested in that, but we use the whirling frenzy as anything the normal rage give will be more a problem than anything as we will not have so much healing and when we will finish the shift we will gain hit points so losing hit points for a decrease of constitution is not a good idea. Ferocity can be good but the possible additional attack of the whirling frenzy is more interesting than enter in ferocity while flatfooted. We are barbarians with some skills that a barbarian normally doesn’t have as we use the skilled city dweller to gain sense motive and tumble , the first that can be useful in social situation the second useful in combat if we want to move. We have listen and swim as these can be useful . Our mental stats are not so high with charisma the worst , and wisdom and intelligence only at 10. Instead our physical stats are quite good as each one start at 16. The race obviously help here as we are shifter that give a malus to intelligence and charisma while giving a bonus to dexterity, but the main ability of a shifter is the shifting and our primary trait is longtooth so we will gain strength and a bite as natural attack so at level 1 we can do 3 attacks in a round if we want but they would have quite a penalty. For the feats well iron will is useful as we are not so high of wisdom and is a prerequisite for the main ingredient while we gain a bonus feat from our totem the dragon totem. We gain blind fight that is useful especially against invisible enemies , and is like uncanny dodge for us as we will not gain that ability but we will gain a bonus on save against paralysis and fear. And as being illiterate can be a problem we have spent 2 of our skill points to be literate, as swim will be quite boosted by our strength and armor penalty will be 0 in the future

Spoiler: Level 3

Show

Now we are a bear barbarian! Wait how is this possible? In the description of the totem barbarian it says “The choice of a totem must be taken at 1st level, and cannot be changed later except under extreme circumstances (such as the barbarian being adopted by another tribe) " so one can change his totem , it only require some special circumstances as being adopted, so it is possible as for the first two levels he was a barbarian of the dragon tribe while from the third level he is a barbarian of the bear tribe . While not starting directly as a bear tribe barbarian? Because blind fight is more interesting than toughness and this is not a grappling build. I only need the bonus feat of the bear tribe as we are preparing for the prestige class that require the three feats that boost the saves, lighting reflexes , iron will and great fortitude . Against some effects thanks to the 2nd level of the dragon tribe barbarian we even have a bonus so it’s not so bad for now.

Spoiler: Level 6-Epic 1

Show

Finally we entered in the prestige class, and we have 3 levels so as this build is related to the round of prestige classes we are fine (we only needed 2 levels but the 3rd is quite useful) So let’s talk about this class from an obscure manual , a 3.0 class called the Forsaker as he forsake the magic so now we can’t use any magic items , or cast spells or permit that spell are casted on us , as we need to contrast them each time we can doing everytime a save even against harmless spell. This can be a problem but is part of the class that give us some very interesting abilities so let’s go in order. First we gain an SR that stack with another SR we have if we have one. For now is quite low but it’s better than nothing. We gain a fast healing but is limited to a certain amount for day and thanks to the 3rd level of this class we gain 20 hit points for day of fast healing (1 for round) .This is to compensate the missing healing items and the healing spells on us that work only half as we oppose to them with our save. Then at each level we gain a bonus point to one of our stat and we invest each of them in strength as our focus is to do damage (thanks to the whirling frenzy for example) We even have a DR but it’s a 3.0 DR so if one should update that it’s a DR 3/magic that is still good. We only gain this DR if we destroy each day a magic item of the value of 300 gp so potions , scrolls and other consumable that are put in the loot will be destroyed by our forsaker probably as permanent magic items are quite difficult to destroy, and if we have our DR we are considered using magic weapons for bypassing the DR of the enemy that is quite good. Then finally the main ability of the 3rd level tough defense, This ability give us a bonus to our natural armor as our bonus to constitution so is quite good as our AC now will be based on dexterity and constitution that are the same. This class have a good base attack , another one of the motivation for why I didn’t use a class like monk which have a better saves or some other classes, and sadly we don’t have many skill points but they are still enough to boost sense motive and listen that will be our main abilities. As this class require three feats that boost our saves now we have a very good bonus on them even on will (that will be the lower) as it is boosted by the forsaker (reflexes is good thanks to dexterity as neither of the classes we have boost that in a good way , only a +1 for each three levels ) The feats we choose is power attack as our strength now is quite good , and thanks to the class and the race we can even choose a tactical feat that work each time, ragewild fighting . The maneuvers that we have now can be useful as the first talk about failing a will save (that is our lower) and doing an immediate attack so it’s a way to kill the wizard before he dominate us. The second it is why we boosted our strength so much as we need to hit the enemy with a big malus at least in E6 and without having any way to boost our to hit with magic . This is our way to do a control effect as we need first to hit the enemy with an attack, then in the round after that we need to hit with a strike which uses power attack at least with a -5 of penalty and then if we hit he need to pass a DC of at least 18 or be dazed . Why at least? Because while shifting and raging we gain a bonus to strength so the DC is boosted. The third is our way to hit in a good way while doing the double of our strength as we need to charge and if we spend an action point we deal our strength again (or only half of our strength if we use a weapon with two hand so if we have an odd value in strength is better using this with one hand if we are not considering power attack ) . As this maneuver use the action point we could be in the situation where we can’t use it but the best is the second one, this is one more boon.

Spoiler: Epic 3

Show

Yes we use vow of poverty , that is quite good with the forsaker to be honest as we already gave out each magic item so our wealth was based on mundane items , and vow of poverty is at least better than any mundane items that I can think so what we gain and what we lose with this feat? We lose our armor , shield , and martial weapons if we used them, but we gain a +7 to AC (+6 sacred +1 of deflection) endure element on us , we doesn’t need to eat or drink , and a +1 enhancement on any attack and damage we do .Let’s focus on the any as it boost even our bite from the longtooth shifting and now the weapons we wield are considered magic even if we can’t destroy any magic items for that day. Is this worth considering what we have lost? Yes it’s worth as the effect similar to spell are quite useful, the bonus is a direct boost to our class ability , and even if we can only use simple weapons now the damage is not so low as we have still quite a good strength and the bonus on damage reduce that difference at 1 point on average, if we consider only martial weapons that could be wielded only with two hands as we will use a morning star that has the same damage of a warhammer so is fine for us, and we gained on the armor AC as only if we considered a shield (that would be a problem with power attack) we could have a better bonus , if we didn’t the +6 on each AC is quite better than the armor. On the ranged weapons there could be a problem , but our focus is the melee not the ranged combat. Sacred vow is not useful for this character but is more a feat tax than anything else. Why I took the feat only now? Because first we needed various feat for the forsaker and the other exalted feats are not required for this character. And yes this character have vow of poverty without being a monk and without using unarmed attack. For flying enemies the crossbow exists and while dexterity is lower it can still be useful (and the prepared attack can be an option) while against invisible enemies we have blind fight and if flour is considered part of a meal for one day we can use it against them.

Spoiler: Epic 7

Show

After the two exalted feats we take 4 shifter feats so now we can shift 3 times at day for 1 minute , and one of them is quite essential and the reason for why I chose to use the shifter with the forsaker. As we fight in melee we will lose hit points and our fast healing has a limit so how I could regain hit points without using any class (as I needed the bonus feat from the bear totem barbarian)? The answer that I found was using the shifter with the feat healing factor. This feat permit to regain hit points as one had done a rest (as we gain 1 hit point per character level) at the end of the shift so at the end of the shifting we regain 6 hit points. One could say “But it’s not so much” and yes it wouldn’t be so much if we only consider the day while we fight as if the spellcaster as the downtime to craft items, and the other have the down time to buy items , we can use our time to rest more or shift to recover hit points while we don’t have to do anything so it can be useful even if they are only 6 hit points. For this feat I avoided each rage that boosted constitution as at the end we would lose hit points and the shifting that boosted constitution as the benefit of healing factor would be negated by losing hit points for losing constitution. The second shifter feat is a feat that help with initiative (the same bonus that we could gain with the ferocity acf) and with our skills that will be not so high but they can be useful. The third and the fourth feat are a boost to our defense , as these feat increase our natural armor (while shifting) with a +4 bonus so now when shifting we will have 27 of AC (29 if we have whirling frenzy activated) Shifting for this character is quite important as we gain a bonus to strength and an addition attack that thanks to strength and vow of poverty do 1d6+2+half of our strength so at maximum 1d6+6 that it’s not so bad considering that is in addition to the normal attack routine, and as a bite it bypass each damage reduction from the type of damage (as the bite has each type of damage).

Spoiler: Epic 10

Show

These last feats are used to empower ourselves as we still have a SR that can stack with anything so why not gaining an SR so we can be quite annoying against spellcasters (with our saves that are good?) so we use the soulmeld that can be used by a forsaker and the best soulmeld for this is the spellward shirt normally not useful, but with the forsaker become quite an high SR as we pass from having 13 of SR to 27 with two feats so quite better than boost spell resistance that would boost only of two. To use the spellward shirt we need to use the bonus essentia but it’s not a problem and as last feat we take extra rage so now we can rage the same amount for day of our shifting even if there is a big difference as the shifting last 10 round while the rage 6 round

Spoiler: Numbers

Show

Hit points 12+5d12+18=62,5
Armor class 23 (10 base +6 sacred +3 dexterity +3 natural +1 deflection) Touch 20 Flatfooted 20
Armor class while shifting 27 (boost of 4 at natural armor) Touch 20 Flatfooted 24
Armor class while whirling frenzy 25 (+2 dodge) touch 22 Flatfooted 20
Armor class while shifting and whirling frenzy 29 (10 base +6 sacred +3 dexterity +7 natural +1 deflection +2 dodge) Touch 22 Flatfooted 24
Base attack /Grapple+6/+11
Attack Morning star +12 (6 base 5 strength 1 enhancement)
If I shift and activate whirling frenzy it become a Morning star +15 as attack (I gain 6 of strength)
Damage 1d8+8 (generally will be wielded with two hand) that become 1d8+13 while shifting and the frenzy .
Only while shifting Bite +8 (a penalty of 5 compared to the morning star) damage 1d6+2+half strength (as it used as an additional attack)
Best attack routine for number of attack +13 +13 +8 +8 as they are 3 morning star and one bite Normally we will use power attack to use ragewild fighting especially if we see that even with power attack -5 we hit , and if we do that probably we don’t use the additional attack of the whirling frenzy
Saves Fortitude +11 (6 base +3 constitution +2 great fortitude) Reflex +7 (2 base +3 dexterity +2 lighting reflexes) Will +6 (4 base +2 iron will)
SR 27 (13 from forsaker +14 from spellward shirt)
Whirling frenzy 3/day and last 6 round
Shifting 3/day and last 10 round
Initiative +5 (3 dexterity +2 shifter instinct)

Spoiler: List of sources

Show

From player’s handbook: Barbarian , Power attack, blind fight, iron will , great fortitude, lighting reflexes
From unearthed arcana :Totem barbarian , Whirling frenzy
From Eberron Campaign setting: Beasthide elite, Extra shifter trait, Healing Factor
From Races of eberron: Shifter race (with the traits), Ragewild fighting, Shifter instinct
From Complete Warrior : Extra rage
From Book of Exalted deeds: Sacred Vow, Vow of Poverty
From Masters of the Wild :Forsaker
From Magic of Incarnum: Shape soulmeld, Spellward shirt, Bonus essentia
From Cityscape web enhancement Skillled city dweller

[Zaq]

INGREDIENT: PALADIN (round 18)

His armor is the shiniest you've ever seen.

Balnar, the Sacred Shield of Mystra
Neutral Good Dwarf Paladin of Mystra 6

Spoiler: Ability Scores

Show

Stat	Score
Strength	14
Dexterity	10
Constitution	14
Intelligence	13
Wisdom	17+1
Charisma	8

Spoiler: Build Outline

Show

This build utilizes three ACFs: The Mystic Fire Knight substitution levels from Champions of Valor, the Holy Warrior alternate feature from Complete Champion and the Stand Fast alternate from the Cityscape web article.

Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Paladin 1	+1	+2	+0	+0	Sense Motive 4, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Knowledge (The Planes) 4	Knowledge Devotion - Knowledge (The Planes)	Aura of Good, Detect Evil, Smite Evil
2nd	Paladin 2	+2	+3	+0	+0	Sense Motive 5, Knowledge (Religion) 5, Knowledge (The Planes) 5	-	Divine Grace, Lay on Hands
3rd	Paladin 3	+3	+3	+1	+1	Sense Motive 5, Knowledge (Religion) 5, Knowledge (The Planes) 6, Skill Trick: Collector of Stories 2	Serenity	Aura of Courage, Divine Health
4th	Paladin 4	+4	+4	+1	+1	Sense Motive 5, Knowledge (Religion) 7, Knowledge (The Planes) 7	Power Attack	Turn Undead
5th	Mystic Fire Paladin 5	+5	+4	+1	+1	Sense Motive 5, Knowledge (Arcana) 1, Knowledge (Religion) 8, Knowledge (The Planes) 8	-	Smite Evil (2/day), Stand Fast (1/day)
6th	Mystic Fire Paladin 6	+6	+5	+2	+2	Sense Motive 6, Knowledge (Arcana) 2, Knowledge (Religion) 8, Knowledge (The Planes) 8, Spellcraft 2	Ancestral Knowledge	Spellshatter (1/day)

Epic feats below:

Feat Name
Earth Devotion
Mage Slayer
Awesome Smite
Extra Smiting
Combat Expertise
Improved Trip
Protection Devotion
Extra Smiting
Improved Initative
Extra Turning

Spoiler: Level Breakdown

Show

Spoiler: Early Levels

Show

Balnar is a relatively mediocre combatant early on, certainly a more conservative character, his Knowledge Devotion can grant him some additional accuracy and damage against outsiders and undead adversaries. He fights with his dwarven waraxe and will use a shield when defense is necessary but drop it and hold the axe with both hands if he deems that damage is more important. Getting up to the later levels, he becomes more adept at utilizing his Wisdom using the Serenity feat, as well as contributing to his knowledge of adversaries with Ancestral Knowledge. The melee mainstay Power Attack is also present here, although Balnar does not use it very aggressively and mainly utilizing it for smite attacks and finishing blows.

At the fifth level, Balnar gains the Stand Fast ability allowing him to extend the benefits of his Divine Grace to his allies once per day, assisting against area spells that would hinder them. Additionally his smites now disrupt spellcasting, forcing adversaries to make a difficult DC 20 + Spell Level concentration check in order to successfully cast spells after being smitten.

At the sixth level, Balnar can now dispel magic with his attacks once per day, something very useful against mages and their buffed minions.

Spoiler: Epic Feats

Show

Getting into the epic feats, Balnar comes to his own, becoming adept at hunting down evil spellcasters that would wish to use arcane magic for their nefarious ends. Earth Devotion allows him to lock down adversaries from escaping, as well as breaking the occasional charge from melee enemies. With Mage Slayer the lockdown abilities further improve, preventing spellcasters from casting defensively and granting a modest boost to Will saves. Awesome Smite provides even more utility to Balnar's smites, and combined with Improved Trip can even grant additional attacks. A couple instances of Extra Smiting allow the paladin to smite even more as a measly 2 smites are not nearly enough for a day of adventuring.

Closing out the build, Balnar picks up some additional defensive measures with Protection Devotion, which helps both himself and his allies, Improved Initiative to have a chance act quicker in combat and some extra uses of his devotion feats with Extra Turning.

Spoiler: Final Level Tactics

Show

In the end, Balnar has:

• Hit Points 50 (6d10+12)
• Base Attack Bonus +6/+1
• Saves Fortitude +11, Reflex +6, Will +11, with a further +2 against spells and spell-like abilities
• Knowledge Devotion: Religion, The Planes +17, Arcana +11, Everything Else +9
• Armor Class 20 (10 + 8 Armor + 2 Shield) or 18 without the shield

In battle, if enemy spellcasters are present Balnar will attempt to reach them either via charge or even double move and make the ground beneath them difficult terrain with Earth Devotion and using Mage Slayer to lock them down. If time is present beforehand, using Protection Devotion is also advised, but does not take priority over preventing enemy spellcasters from achieving their goals.

Balnar's smites are not the most powerful around but they still pack a punch - especially when combined with Power Attack, Awesome Smite and Improved Trip, assuming a Knowledge Devotion bonus of +3 and a masterwork waraxe held in two hands his attack looks as follows:

Masterwork Dwarven Waraxe w/ Charge, Power Attack 4, Awesome Smite: +14 to Hit, 1d10+20 damage plus Trip +6 and extra attack if the trip succeeds

Against tougher melee opponents Balnar will be more conservative, using his shield and even Combat Expertise to withstand blows. Fighting defensively in this fashion can bring his AC up to 28 which is considerable in an epic 6 setting, if the opportunity presents itself, he will of course lash out with a smite.

Spoiler: Sources

Show

Champions of Valor - Mystic Fire Knight
Cityscape Web - Stand Fast
Dragon Compendium - Serentiy
Complete Arcane - Mage Slayer
Complete Warrior - Extra Smiting
Complete Champion - Awesome Smite, Holy Warrior, Knowledge Devotion, Protection Devotion
Races of Stone - Ancestral Knowledge
Player's Handbook - Combat Expertise, Extra Turning, Improved Initiative, Improved Trip, Paladin, Power Attack

[Zaq]

INGREDIENT: PALADIN (round 18)

To be honest, there's not much that would be scarier than a fey devoted to lawful evil.

The tyrant
Unseelie fey lesser maeluth LE Swashbuckler 1/Paladin of tyranny 5
"I should have partecipated in the round 18 but there were too many paladin with a good alignment for me"

Spoiler: Background “You have to read it”

Show

My story is quite long, but we have time until I can participate in this damn contest so you will listen, or you will pay the consequences for ignoring me.
It starts when I was born, from my mother a fey something, and my father , I never knew him , but he was deluded as he was hoping for a pure maeluth, and I’m only a lesser maeluth with a strange fey heritage, so I was not fine for him, my mother tricked him in thinking she was human from what I heard . Fine for what ? How for the Nine hells should I know? So I was only with my mother and she took at a court, where she was serving a Queen of darkness and something else, I’m not good with the fey culture, never learned it. As I growth here I tried my best to serve the queen ,learning from the soldiers that was here and becoming a quite agile warrior as even if I’m a dwarf I’m quite dextereous, but I was not funny enough for here so I was sold, maybe I should have learned the seduction art... I was separated from that ambient, and from that I learned that one should please who have the power. Luckily for me I was sold to a devil, and I became a paladin, serving that devil that ruled his underling but obeyed the order of who was above him, an ideal system without a queen that choose what she want. The more I learned , the more I knew that I should serve the best of the devils Asmodeus! I have his mark on my heart! How I had the opportunity to be recognized? This is for another time , is another long story that you will listen later by me or from one of these Damned Masters . Oh you ask what punishment would you have if you ignore my request , and why I stink like a ghoul? Well Jack come out. Then from the terrain, a pale figure come a spectre one could say , and it seems that he listens the orders of the paladin You see, this was Jack, and it was quite similar to you, rebellious and not listening to the contract he had with a devil, and the price was something worst than the dead as he died but then he became bond with me until his destruction, so do you want to become like him, becoming one more of the undead that are around me and that ,I think, are the cause of the stench I have? If you want you only need to say , your finger can be a good piece in my collection of trophies , each one from a different creature I killed and bond to me you should have seen the faces of their allies when it happened. Now that you learned so much about me you will continue my biography, right?

OFF Character The author of these builds doesn’t want to offend the builds of the 18° round of this competition, and no real people was harmed in the process.

Spoiler: Build “My growth as I said in my background”

Show

Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Swashbuckler	+1	+2	+0	+0	Total 22(4+int)*4+2 (apprentice) Intimidate 4 Knowledge (religion) 2 Diplomacy 4 Sense motive 4 Bluff 4 Knowledge local 2	Apprentice soldier, Weapon finesse (bonus)	Weapon finesse
2nd	Paladin of tyranny	+2	+4	+2	+0	Total 3 (2+ int) Intimidate 5 Knowledge (religion) 2 Diplomacy 5 Sense motive 5 Bluff 4 Knowledge local 2		Smite good 1/day, Holy warrior ACF, Aura of Evil, Detect good
3rd	Paladin of tyranny	+3	+5	+2	+0	Total 3 (2+ int) Intimidate 6 Knowledge (religion) 2 Diplomacy 5 Sense motive 5 Bluff 5 Knowledge local 2	Brand of the nine hells (asmodeus)	Divine grace, deadly touch
4th	Paladin of tyrannyl	+4	+5	+3	+1	Total 3 (2+ int) Intimidate 7 Knowledge (religion) 4 Diplomacy 5 Sense motive 5 Bluff 5 Knowledge local 2		Aura of despair, divine health
5th	Paladin of tyranny	+5	+6	+3	+1	Total 3 (2+ int) Intimidate 8 Knowledge (religion) 5 Diplomacy 6 Sense motive 5 Bluff 5 Knowledge local 2	Extra turning (bonus)	Rebuke undead, bonus feat from holy warrior
6th	Paladin of tyranny	+6	+6	+3	+1	Total 3 (2+ int) Intimidate 9 Knowledge (religion) 5 Diplomacy 6 Sense motive 5 Bluff 5 Knowledge local 2 Skill trick Never Outnumbered	Mark of Nessus	Stand fast ACF,Smite good 2/day

Class skills like this are cross class for the level
Epic feats

• 1° Force of personality

• 2°Death devotion

• 3° Supernatural trasformation (death devotion)

• 4° Life drain

• 5°Create spectral spawn

• 6° Snatch trophy

• 7° Bloodsoaked intimidate

• 8° Imperious command

• 9° Frightful Presence

• 10° Stench of Dead

Spoiler: Tactics “How I beat the Hell from my enemies"

Show

Spoiler: Level 1 “I was a novice at the time”

Show

I remember when I still was among other fey, instead of pursuing the path of the tyranny as I had done later I was dueling and learning how fight, without knowing how the winter was around me and that the enemies hated that. From that experience I learned how fight with dexterity instead of strength using a shortsword without any problem, and the social skill that I learned from the fey were useful later.
This level is only the prologue for this build but is still a good level if we consider that it helps us in various way, but first let’s see the race and the template that is applied to this dwarf. The race (without template) is lesser maeluth, a Planetouched from fiend folio that as base give +4 constitution and -2 dexterity, with each trait of the dwarfs and the bonus that 1/day for 1 minute our weapon will become unholy. As the race of this dwarf is a planetouched and with a level adjustment it was applied the lesser template from Player guide to faerun. It seems it wasn’t enough so the template “Unseelie fey” from Dragon compendium was applied, giving various stat modifier ,that combined with the lesser maeluth resulted in -2 strength +2 constitution +2 charisma. These modifier are quite good, but the unseelie fey isn’t only this as there are other various ability. A note of the author of this build says that “I ignored everything that was casual assuming the worst result” so this dwarf will not be able to fly, but there are two other mainly abilities . The first is the future damage reduction that will help us ignoring the damage, while the second is the season power of this dwarf, winter chill. This is a penalty on the saves of every living nonfey creature around this dwarf, that is the same as his charisma modifier so -4 on the saves of the living nonfey creature around him. At the first level this aura is not useful as the swashbuckler doesn’t have any effect that require a saving throw and was took only for these three motives. Weapon finesse as bonus feat, the good hit dice, and the number of skills , especially social as the paladin doesn’t have many of them. For this motive apprentice soldier was taken to give intimidate as class skill to the paladin

Spoiler: Level 2-5 “Learning from a Tyrant”

Show

From the devils I started to learn a way to the paladinhood, becoming a a paladin of tyranny, working below the tyrants to let the law respect even if the evil have to spread for it. Thanks to my hard work I even obtained a mark from Asmodeus, is said that this mark has the power to command the people, let’s try “I command you to write my biography!”
Here I start to write the biography of this dwarf, hoping that I will not die, it’s better if I continue even when the command finish , I don’t want to die. From what I learned from the dwarf in these level he gained various useful abilities, from smiting the good people, detecting the good people, having a big bonus that is the same of his charisma to his save , becoming immune to any disease, exerting an aura that is similar to winter chill but with the double range, and they stack at giving a malus that was the motivation why I failed my saving throw, maybe luckily as if I didn’t failed I would have to meet his deadly touch that is quite difficult to half as damage for the same auras, and finally the ability to rebuke the undead, I don’t know for what he want to use that , but he didn’t gain any divine spell , instead he used the variant “Holy warrior” to gain a bonus feat , that is extra turning. The feat he chose at his 3rd level was brand of the nine hells , the one made by Asmodeus. This brand gives the dwarf a spell like ability of command as a swift action three times in a day, and is quite lethal if done with who is in melee against him, especially halt or drop as commands. As for the skills he aimed at gaining synergy bonus while empowering his intimidate that is already empowered by his template and by the apprenticeship he had with the soldiers. Even his diplomacy is not so bad

Spoiler: Level 6, Epic 1 “The Symbol”

Show

I obtained the mark of Asmodeus, I was quite honored in this, so I will have to continue in my missions, with my slave writer that will continue my biography, he will not rebel I think, and even if he would do this I’m quite sure he would not be able to kill me
The dwarf hoped for the mark , it seems that now it will be more difficult to hit him, as one will need to pass a saving throw to hit him, or he will have to do something else, so it’s a problem. Somehow the dwarf helped me, a wizard was trying to kill us with a spell , and he boosted my reflexes to avoid the spell. He said that was with his new feature Stand fast , from the Cityscape Web enhancement. Basically that feature permit him to give his charisma to his allies, seems like a counter to his winter chill aura but stand fast help allies as long as 20 feet from him so it’s not bad. I have noticed that from when he obtained the mark his will faltered less, I think he obtained the feat Force of personality to boost his Will save , to be at least on par with the other saves. His lack of wisdom was one of his weakness, and now he can intimidate a group of creature with the trick he learned never outnumbered...How I hope someone will kill this dwarf

Spoiler: Epic 2-5“Deaths in the Hells”

Show

Damn that writer , today I was fighting a group of adventurers , and he said each one of my abilities, and that I hoped he would do not. I beated the adventurer’s party even if they knew my points of strength have to pay. One of the devil I knew made contract that would have the contractors become undead under his command maybe I could do something similar
HELP! I hoped that the party of adventurer would kill him, but he didn’t faltered , and now I have a big problem, I hired others adventurer to help me I hope they will kill him. “In a later date” Damn they failed...and now I have even a bigger problem it seems that his adventures gave him enough experience to let him gain some feats, and now the adventurers I send against him were raised as spectres against me . I can only think that or he became a spectre or he has the feat Create Spectral Spawn, but it ask to have a supernatural energy drain how he obtained that… Wait he had the feat extra turning so he must have planned to take death devotion, so he could gain more use with his turning attempts, and then taking Supernatural trasformation so he could have the energy drain required...and with life drain he would not die from wounds as he could use his temporary hit points… Wait what is this sound damn damn DAMN! HELP ME! HE IS NEA” And so this poor author writing finish”

Spoiler: Epic 6-8 “Example for a good Tyranny”

Show

”Finally that damn Jack is dead, I don’t know how many enemies there was but now he is dead raised as a spectre under my command with other creatures, but now I’m lacking a writer how I could do…I will take a part of Jack as trophy so other writers will be intimidated . The act of taking his finger was quite good I should do it with each enemy I kill, a spectre doesn’t need the finger. I continued to do it, learning that far away there was a contest for paladins, I should go here to spread the word of my liege, and to gain some fame, surely a writer would be here no? If he doesn’t want to come I only need to kill someone, taking a trophy as a free action, and each creature 10 feet from me (thanks to never outnumbered) will have to surpass my intimidate (bloodsoaked intimidate), or being cowered by fear for one entire round and then shaken after (imperious command) , the training I had with the soldiers was quite useful for this , without that I would not be able to do this, the others paladins of tyranny lack an intimidating presence. Not that many paladins can have so many spectre empowered my rebuking attempt and with stand fast when we need to avoid some spells. I can be quite a good commander I think .

Spoiler: Epic 9-10 “The ideal aura of a Tyrant”

Show

As recently I have seen a dragon with his frightful presence I tried hard to imitate that, not that I like so much the dragons, they are or too much chaotic or good generally. As a difference with the dragons I noticed that if the spectre attack the enemies, or when I hit them with a death devotion infused weapon, they will fail more against the saves that they need to do against me, power of negative levels, and against characters that use class level (maybe even monsters) frightful presence can work later if they have enough negative levels. But it’s not the only thing that it seemed to awaken inside me, especially after I fought that arcane gish, many of my so said allies say that I have a bad stench quite difficult to resist, but I think that is only better for me, as the enemies that will come in melee will have to resist this stench while having a problem with my aura of despair and the winter chill , and if they don’t resist they are even weaker when they make other saves against me. These are some very good aura if I want to dominate the combat , like a tyrant. “

Spoiler: Stub “How I am”

Show

Unseelie fey lesser maeluth
Medium Fey (planetouched)
Strength 10 (12 base -2 template)
Dexterity 16 (15 base +2 template -2 maeluth+1 4th level)
Constitution 16 (14 base -2 template +4 maeluth)
Intelligence 12 (12 base)
Wisdom 8 (8 base)
Charisma 18 (16 base +2 template)
Hit points 1d8+5d10+18 (53.5)
DR 5/cold iron
I have two smite good at day
Saves Fortitude +15 (4 paladin+2 swashbuckler+2 apprentice soldier+3 constitution +4 divine grace)
Reflexes +10 (1 paladin +3 dexterity+4 divine grace)
Will +9 (1 paladin+4 charisma (force of personality) +4 divine grace)
At each save I have a +2 if against magical effect , and a +2 bonus on fortitude against poisons as I have the dwarf traits , and I am immune to any disease
Main skills: Intimidate +23 (9 ranks+2 apprentice soldier +2 brand of the nine hells +4 unseelie fey+4 charisma+2 bluff synergy) Diplomacy +14 (6 ranks +2 synergy bluff +2 synergy sense motive +4 charisma)
If you want to attack me , you need to pass a will save DC 17 (10+half level+charisma) or don’t attack me , if you pass you are unaffected for 24h thanks to mark of nessus
When I attack every creature with less hit dice or class levels than me need to pass a will save DC 17 (10+ half level + charisma) or being shaken for the rest of the combat, if they pass the save they are unaffected for 24h thanks to frighful presence
Every living nonfey creature in 5 feet from me have a morale penalty on their saves of 4 (my charisma) thanks to winter chill from the unseelie fey template
Every enemy in 10 feet from me have a -2 untyped penalty on their saves , thanks to the aura of despair of the paladin of tyranny.
Every creature around me must make a fortitude save DC 16 or being sickened , gaining even another penalty on every thing. This is thanks to stench of the dead
When I hit an enemy with death devotion activated (each combat I will active death devotion) they need to pass a fortitude save DC 17 (10+half level+charisma) or gaining a negative level that remove 9 hit points instead of 5, and I gain 9 temporary hit points (life drain) .
I have 11 use of rebuke undead (3 + charisma+4 (extra turning)
When I drop a creature to negative hit point as a free action with a free hand and a light slashing or piercing weapon I can recover a trophy (snatch trophy) then as a swift action I can intimidate an enemy adjacent that has seen me (bloodsoaked intimidate) 1/combat I can even intimidate each enemy in 10 feet thanks to never outnumbered and generally will be made in combination with bloodsoaked intimidate.
If I successfully demoralize an enemy in combat he cower for 1 round and then become shaken in the following round (Imperious command). As frighful presence remain for the combat instead of becoming shaken again in the round following the demoralization he should be panicked
Each creature that die from negative levels instead of becoming a wight it become a spectral creature, under my control in 1d4 round for the most races, or becoming a spectre for humanoid enemies (create spectral spawn)

Spoiler: Sources “Where I learned”

Show

Swashbuckler :Complete warrior page 11
Paladin of tyranny : Unearthed arcana page 54
Stench of the Dead :Unearthed arcana page 94
Maeluth: Fiend folio page 136-137
Lesser planetouched : Player’s guide to faerun page 191
Unseelie fey : Dragon compendium page 222-223
Apprentice (soldier) :Dungeon master guide II page 176
Brand of the nine Hells : Fiendish codex II page 81
Mark of Nessus: Fiendish codex II page 84
Extra turning: Player handbook page 94
Death devotion :Complete champion page 57
Supernatural trasformation :Savage species page 39
Life drain: Libris mortis page 28
Create spectral spawn: Dragons of Faerun web enhancement page 6
Spectral creature template: Dragons of faerun page 109
Snatch trophy : Champions of ruin page 22
Bloodsoaked intimidate: Champions of ruin page 17
Imperious command: Drow of the Underdark page 50
Frightful presence :Draconomicon page 106
Weapon finesse :Player handbook page 102
Stand fast ACF : Cityscape web enhancement
Never outnumbered :Complete scoundrel page 87
Force of personality:Complete adventurer page 109

[Zaq]

There you go! Seven builds for your judging pleasure! I enjoyed reading these.

[MinimanMidget]

A ninja, two paladins, one paragon, and three prestigious folks...walk into a bar, I guess? That's an interesting spread.

[PanosIs]

I participated in this one but felt that it suffered from an inverse case of "restrictions breed creativity" in the sense that unlike most instances, it wasn't very restrictive. Even now going back to the 29 previous ingredients I have a ton of ideas and none that particularly stand out.

[Quentinas]

I participated in this one but felt that it suffered from an inverse case of "restrictions breed creativity" in the sense that unlike most instances, it wasn't very restrictive. Even now going back to the 29 previous ingredients I have a ton of ideas and none that particularly stand out.

Yeah I know the problem , for example in this round I had an idea of doing a swashbuckler /factotum but the main problem with this build that i didn't have a clear ingredient in mind as the swashbuckler was useful for weapon finesse , high bab and intelligence to the damage of finessable weapon, while the factotum would had intelligence to dexterity and strenght check that were useful for swashbuckler and giving more versatility thanks to inspiration. But I wasn't sure if it could work so i didn't even started at building that character

[Xei_Win_Toh]

Crap, I just noticed not one but two wrong numbers/typos/wrong calculations in my entry. Oh well...

[H_H_F_F]

Well done, everyone!

I participated in this one but felt that it suffered from an inverse case of "restrictions breed creativity" in the sense that unlike most instances, it wasn't very restrictive. Even now going back to the 29 previous ingredients I have a ton of ideas and none that particularly stand out.

I tend to agree. I came in quite late, and mainly because Zaq was asking for more builds.

The inexorable pace of life has been prohibitive of me finishing what i think may be my finest work, and so, I am here to implore, oh so kind and gentle arbiters of all that is e6 optimization to grant a significant extension, like a week or so, that I can submit.

Dare, did you end up not participating? Nothing here seems very "you".

Assuming you didn't, would you like to share your idea, or does it have componnents you'll use another time?

[Zaq]

I've got a regular class lined up for the next contest. Then probably another conceptual one unless I think of something funnier.

Do we have any judges yet?

[Beni-Kujaku]

Hello everyone. There seems to not be a judge willing to rate the entries for this round, and this is a shame, considering how intriguing the premices are. If you accept, then I will try my best to judge this round.

I am not an expert of E6, far from it (in fact I never even built an E6 character), and I do not promise to judge all of them today, or even this week-end, but I should be able to rate all these paladins and forsakers by the end of next week. Please be gentle, it's my first time ^^

[H_H_F_F]

Greatly appreciated, Beni!

[Beni-Kujaku]

Hello, everyone ! Here are your wonderful builds, rated by yours truly ! I hope you enjoy ! I may have seemed harsh sometimes, but don’t take it personally, all these are still really good.

Spoiler: MERCUTIO

Show

Elegance:
• I love this build ! Attacks of opportunity have a lot of support spread throughout the books, and seeing them used is refreshing. You know what you want to do, and you do it well, with nothing out of place. This almost looks like a compilation of everything that would make a sneak attack opportunist good (sad that Defensive Opportunist isn’t in Dragon Compendium, btw).
• Congratulations not getting lost with your skill points, but next time, please make it clear where you put your points, like make the skill names bold, or put an asterisk. Same for cross-class skills, like spellcraft that is just lost among other names.
• Your build relies heavily on being able to AoO several times people who try to hit you when you’re using Combat Expertise. That’s commendable. Alas, it is sadly not possible. Sheathing the quickrazor after an attack is a free action, not « not an action ». Which means you can’t do that during the opponent’s turn. I also checked if the quickrazor was published before the invention of immediate actions (mentioned in Miniatures Handbook, 2003, but really implemented in Expanded Psionics Handbook, in April 2004), but it was published in Races of Stone, in August 2004. So soon after EPH, if they wanted to make it take no action at all, they would have.

○ There is still a possibility that the authors of RoS didn’t know about immediate actions, and that RoS was already in writing when the other books were published. The ‘at the end of your action, you must stow the quickrazor in order to use it properly again on your next turn’ wording might make it equivalent to the Feather Fall spell, which was initially a free action usable between turns. This is arguable, so that is why I will rate the build as if it worked, and only remove .5 points from Elegance for it. But know that RAW, there is a high chance it doesn’t work like that.

•Also, you’re… Not a drow. You can’t take a Drow Fighter ACF. Really nothing else to say, why would you choose this ACF ? Did I miss something ? What you could do is be a lesser drow. You then have touch of fatigue 1/day. If you cast it but hold the charge indefinitely, you are threatening but still have free hands (you won’t discharge the touch of fatigue by grabbing your blade since its targets are only creatures).
• Score: 2.0 Apart from the ruling contention, the build is pretty neat, with just the skills being hard to read, and the seemingly random choice of classes (I get that there theoretically is an XP penalty, but if you’re not going to be able to get rid of it entirely, don’t make the build more messy just to make it come up later). But the Drow Fighter level just made me pause for a moment. It is good, yes, but you just can’t take it.

Originality:
• Optimized opportunity (OpOp, if you will) isn’t something you see that often. Ninja is something you see never. And Kenku is a race I even forgot existed. All those combined make for a character that I really didn’t see coming, even less so with all the PrC and paladins of the round.
• Quickrazor is sometimes used in optimization, granted, mostly with factotums, but using it with Mercurial Strike is really novel. I laughed out loud when I saw that (after I spend a little while wondering why you needed Quickrazor if you already had Quick Draw).
• Apart from this combo, however, none of your feats really struck me as particularly original, just standard AoO and Sneak Attack bonuses. Also, you hyped the kenku’s voice imitation at the beginning, but you made nothing of it. I was disappointed.
• Score: 6.5 The concept and premises are very original. The execution… less so.

Power:
• It is pretty hard to rate this build. If the opponent just ignores him, he arguably only has 2 low-damages talons (granted with a lot of d6s attached if you have a friend), or one talon and a quickrazor, to deal damage. And that is not that bad, but not that good. You might be able to force the opponent to attack you with that damage, but I’m not confident. You are very vulnerable to casters, and even the very late Mage Slayer doesn’t change that that much, and you can’t do anything against Undeads and Constructs (granted, that’s the case of most rogue-types). Ghost Step is very good to go assassinate casters, if they are still on the ground, though.
• If people are attacking you, on the other hand, you can do a lot more alone. Up to 5 Mercurial Strikes can really mess up people. In the end, if you don’t use Expertise and the opponent attacks you, that hurts. If you use Expertise and the opponent doesn’t attack you, you just lost some to-hit bonuses. If you use Expertise and the opponent attacks you, there you can shine. I’m not really sold on a build relying on the actions of the opponent to be efficient, even so powerful when it works, but that’s maybe a bias from my part.
• Score: 3.5 One-Trick Pony. The trick works, it works well. Any other case and you are subpar.

UoSI:
• You used the first level of the Secret Ingredient. You took 4 levels, but really, the last three could have been more Sneak Attack Fighter levels that the build wouldn’t have changed much. You didn’t even mention Ghost Step in your Breakdown. I feel like replacing all ninja levels by rogue levels in masterwork studded leather would better the build in almost every way. Neither poison use nor great leap are used to any extent, and hit-and-run seems to be more essential to the build than Sudden Strike.
• Score: 2.0 Just taking levels in the Secret Ingredient is not enough for it to be used well. And here, it is definitely not used well. Having Wis to AC is good, but it does not mak the build really unique.


Final Thoughts:
• I was pretty excited for this character, and was a bit disappointed. Between the illegal choices, the secret ingredient of questionable utility and the generic feats, it doesn’t live up to my expectations for the premises (which were quite high, I won’t lie).
• Total: 14.25

Spoiler: Laerlor

Show

Haley : ‘Hey, wait a minute. Aren’t all dark elves evil ?’
Laerlor : ‘Well, that will just have to be one more arbitrary mold I won’t fit in.’


Elegance:
• It pains me to penalize such glorious cheese (I love cheese), but the glory of a cheese is measured by it’s accordance to the rules. And being able to cast 2nd level divine on some days and 2nd level arcane on others do not qualify you for Mystic Theurge. If it did, the Chameleon and its adaptable feat would qualify for every prestige class that requires any feat. You would only be able to use the abilities of the Mystic Theurge when you complete the prerequisites, and that is never the case. You would have to use Mad Faith/Precocious apprentice shenanigans for that.

○ You could go the bigender approach, but that would be reaaaaaaally questionable. Beyond the issues that you already stated, the RAWness of it is pretty obviously illegal. The Player’s Handbook clearly has a little paragraph (page 109) stating « Your character can be either male or female. » (yes, that’s the whole subsection on gender). You could say that ‘or’ can be inclusive, but that’s not how it is used in the vast majority of D&D. There are things that allow you to change gender pretty easily, but even the BoEF doesn’t have rules for bigenderism/hermaphroditism (Yes I read it just for that. Yes it was insufferable.)

• The rest of the abilities are pretty interesting. They are pretty centered on defense, be it mobility or illusions and enchantment. That fits pretty well with the concept of the character, who has been discriminated their whole life. Not that focused, but pretty thematic.
• Lots of cross-class skills. That’s not pretty.
• Score: 2.5 A component essential to the build is illegal. That stings. The rest is not that bad, but nothing particularly elegant either.

Originality:
• This is a gender-fluid neutral good drow living on the surface changing their spellcasting specialty according to the gender they unwillingly lean to each morning ! Need I say more ?
• I do ? He is a conjurer based on flexibility and uses it to get out of sight, with enchantment and necromancy as his forbidden schools, his whole schtick is moving away and calling people to fight in his stead. She is a cleric who has always been cloistered, with this assigned gender being seemingly a burden, making her necropolis-born, and more centered on necromancy and beating/cursing her enemies in close quarters. And finally, they have a fey heritage (by their mother, I assume ?) giving them a lot of enchantment based on charisma. That’s what they use to conceal their nature (all of it), when they do not feel like it. Three parts, three ability scores, two genders sticking to each other by the heritage. Of course, that is only assumption based on the three domains and the choice of feats, but having this choice of banned schools on wizard to have these as SLAs is pretty interesting.
•A lot of the feats you took (take one of your SLA, give it more versatility) are not seen often, and push forward the theme of a magical jack-of-all-trades.
• Sadly, no spell list, and next to no use of the god of trades that you chose.
• Score: 9.5 The concept itself is extremely unique, uses some very interesting cheese (that doesn’t work, but still) and is very well backed-up. Congrats !

Power:
• There are a lot of very good (some would say broken) ACF here, from abrupt jaunt to cloistered cleric dip, and your Devotion feats are really good too in this kind of build.
• The immense versatility granted by your multiple SLAs means you will shine in social situation, and that your utility will be very good.
• However, the 3rd level is a very good one, especially for wizards, and losing out on it hurts the character quite a lot. Even without the 6th level, which you can’t take, I don’t think Laerlor will be comparable to a 5th level wizard or a 5th level cleric in terms of pure oomph.
• Plus, dozens of low-level spells do not an effective caster make. You will be action-starved all the time, and you don’t have anything to do with all those spell slots. Also, you’re MAD. Between all three mental attributes. Illusion, enchantment and necromancy casters really like their DC to be high, so having low-level spells keyed on a low attribute is not really good. That’s a bit better for the wizard, but still, the 2 most powerful lv 2 conjuration spells (Web and Glitterdust) require saving throws.
• Score: 2.0 Laerlor is versatile. They can cast spells all day long and trick half an army. But when it comes to combat (on which a good part of the build is focused), it is a bit lackluster, and I fear they might get ambushed and killed at the first succeeded saving throw from the opponent.

UoSI:
• That is good. Very very good. All three levels taken, of course, but the fact that the whole concept of the character is based on the paragon drow gender-dependant ability is very interesting. You use the abilities of the paragon class (and of the race, since with that kind of ingredient, it is hard to distinguish the two) throughout the build with the multiple feats giving more uses per day or versatility to your SLAs. All in all, a very good Secret Ingredient giving its flavor to an already good dish.
• Score: 4.5


Final Thoughts:
• A really nice build, interesting through and through, with some nice interactions, and built upon a ridiculous but hilarious class feature. Really very good.
• It really is a shame that the last class level doesn’t work like that. I would have loved to see this build expanded upon just a little bit more. Also, a bit more focus in your SLAs would have been appreciated. What do you want to do in combat against something with a high Will save ? What spells do you typically prepare ?
• In any case, it is pretty engaging and thought-out, and I love the premises.
• Total: 18.5

Spoiler: Alaric the Exiled

Show

Yooo, I heard you liked Forsakers, so we put more Forsaker in your Forsaker so you could forsake while forsaking !


Elegance:
• You took a flaw, so you lose a point. I don’t want to do this, you understand. Making people lose points is the least of my favorite things to do, but rules are rules are rules, and losing a point is the rule right now.
• Very clean build, with simple feats going very well with one another (but the feat is just Sunder at level 6, Improved Sunder is another feat that has Sunder as a prerequisite). The build has a clean goal, is well explained and is well-organised. Plus, I like how the flaw is bought back in the end. What is there more to be said ?
•Well, there is your skills I have something to say about. You… Know you can’t have more than 9 ranks in a skill at level 6, right ? That doesn’t affect anything else, but that’s the kind of things that grinds my gears. Also, 2 skill points for being litterate is even less useful for you than for anyone else. You learn to read at level 2 ! And it’s unlikely you’ll have to read dozens of scroll as a level one character ! Just be patient and increase Listen instead ! That would allow you to get a bit more Survival or Tumble.

• Score: 3.5 Minus one for the flaw, minus 0.5 for the skill rank and the name of the feat.

Originality:
• ‘Who are you ?’ ‘I’m a Forsaker.’ ‘And what do you like and dislike in life?’ ‘Forsaking, and magic.’ ‘And… do you have any hobby ?’ ‘I kill mages.’ ‘Yeah, but how ?’ ‘By forsaking magic.’ ‘But with what ?’ ‘Non-magical means !’
• This character is just the quintessential forsaker, so perfectly what is expected of the class that it becomes unexpected and gives a personnality to the character.
• Pierce Magical Concealment is indeed hilarious, and really can be useful at any level. You’ve got some nice mage-killing combos there.
• Still some pretty bland feats, like your four last epic feats.
• Score: 6 ‘So expected it’s unexpected’ is funny and interesting, but can only get you so far.

Power:
• Why did you not take Shape Soulmeld (Spellward Shirt) ? Whyyyyyy !? No, really, your primary feature is a Spell Resistance that explicitly stacks with every other source, and to boost it, you take a feat that is meant to increase a normal spell resistance that doesn’t stack. Spellward Shirt would have given you +10 instead of +2, without the alignment restriction. Boost spell resistance could have been good if you had another source of spell resistance elsewhere, but with your inability to use magic items, I can’t even assume that ! This choice single-handedly makes your SR from almost unbeatable to around 60% protection. That’s not good.
• A number of really unoptimal feats. Improved natural armor ? That is really underwhelming. Frail on a melee character is generally not something you want, and as I said, boost spell resistance is lackluster.
•That said, Alaric does his job well. More than well in fact. Fast movement and SR, plus the Mage Slayer/Pierce X line make for a terrifying opponent for a caster. They can’t (if they are unlucky) prevent you from coming close and once you are, they can’t escape.
•You’ll have to rely on your allies for some of the most heavy-hitters non-casters, who will have magic items and weapons, and will probably beat you 1v1. Sunder helps for that, but i twill not turn the tide single-handedly.
• Score: 2.5 You are pretty strong, but really, not using any source of SR except Boost Spell Resistance is just sad. And being a pretty one-dimensional character who will not do much against non-casters also hurt a bit.

UoSI:
• Perfect use of the Secret Ingredient, hands-down. Taken as soon as possible, 5/6 levels in it, most, if not all of your abilities are based on those of the Forsaker to increase them as much as you could…
• That line of thought made you make some unoptimal choices power-wise, but the result is just a forsaker cranked up to eleven. Even Sunder goes in the mold of improving on the forsaker’s magic item destruction schtick. Nothing more to say.
• Score: 5 If you could lose a point for putting too much of the secret ingredient, you might have, but as it is now, it is the perfect example of a secret ingredient built and improved upon.


Final Thoughts:
• The build is simple, very focused, and doesn’t lose its way. That makes it pretty good at what it wants to do, being a Forsaker that kills mages, but maybe it would become a bit boring to play in a campaign without too many spellcasters.
• Taking a flaw was a bold move. It probably would have been more accepted to have a moderate amount of taint (Heroes of Horror), with Gum Swells/Dead Eyes (which would have combo’ed with PMC) and Skin Thickens/Bone Thicken as your corruption effects. Plus that goes well with the forsaker idea that magic eventually corrupts everything it touches.
• Total: 17

Spoiler: Dhrun the Thunderhead

Show

Being GOD is good, but being GOD with a big armor is better !


Elegance:
• The build is very enjoyable to read, with a clear goal in mind, helping your allies perform well in combat and elsewhere. The class levels are simple and ordered, with the marshall being both good to allow entry in Runesmith and to improve on the concept of the build with his aura.
• The various parts of the build are well explained and justified, and they all make sense. Good points.
•That said, some of the feats and epic feats are questionable/illegal inside the build.

○ I understand that it was necessary for bolstering voice, but really, Leading the Attack is pretty ridiculous on a character with 8 Str and +2 BAB (which reminds me that the BAB on your build table is messy. That’s a shame, it was the only mistake on that table).
○ Did you not read Magic of the Land or did you mess up your skill points ? Because MotL requires a Knowledge (Nature) check, that you can’t even attempt without ranks in it. That’s too bad, that’s one of the rare Knowledge skills in which you didn’t invest points.
○ Did you think Uncanny Forethought worked in heavy armor ? It doesn’t. Since you don’t prepare the spells, you can’t prepare them on runes. And since most of the usage of UF is in combat, the feat becomes nigh-unusable on this build. It comes late in the build so it’s not that bad, but still.
○ And finally, I’m not a big fan of taking a Planar Touchstone in the middle of Mechanus, a Plane with which your character has no connection, or any way to go there by himself, and whose Planar Touchstone is hidden behind a test that Dhrun has only a 13% chance of succeeding at. Plus, you don’t qualify. You need 8 ranks in Knowledge (the Planes) and you only have 6. Really, taking another feat instead would have been much better.

• Score: 3 The feats have some issues, and failure to prerequisites is a big no-no, but overall the build is very elegant. I like it.

Originality:
• The concept of the GOD wizard isn’t new. In fact, it wasn’t new ten years ago. And your character is some of the most textbook definition of this concept. Transmutation-oriented wizard with more spell slots at level 6 than some bards have at level 20, giving the win to their teammates without taking the spotlight is really something that has been used and abused in all kinds of colors and flavors. That said, Dhrun manages to have some unique things he does well :
• The most obvious part, the armor, and other ways to boost your defenses. Not having to cast mage armor and still getting more AC and HP than a regular wizard can go a pretty long way to give you more versatility on 1st-level slots, especially with Focused Specialist. That is not often taken since you have to lose a level to enter Runesmith, but in E6 that is a far less important issue. Good thinking.
• Marshall and Bolstering Voice. Buffing without a spell. Adventuring days can be long, especially at low levels, and not having to put in a spell for will saves (and even then, I don’t know of a 3rd or less level wizard spell giving +2 to will saves for the entire party).
• Score: 3.5 Yeah… A bit too standard to my taste. There are a few nice things, but nothing made me go ‘Oh, that is nice !’ apart from the Prestige Class itself.

Power:
• Dhrun is a wizard. He’s obviously powerful, even at lower level. The question is if it is more powerful than a pure wizard with generic feats of the same level.
• Well I think yes. He helps his teammates masterfully, with the whole build working for this goal, and even if the DM puts you in so many encounters that you don’t have any spell slot left, you can still contribute with Marshall and Martial Stance. Toughening Transmutation is honestly excellent, and Magic of the Land (if you switch the Knowledge (the Planes) to Knowledge (Nature) will really help your party if they have no designated healer.
• Too bad for Uncanny Forethought, though.
• Score: 4.25 A strong build almost all-around, with lots and lots of utility, in and out combat. I also really like Ironthunder Horn (how is that Transmutation and not Evocation) and Dweomer Vortex.

UoSI:
• The Secret Ingredient fits inside the build pretty well, especially thematically. You make good use of its ability. But only one level of this class doesn’t give you much of its personnality. In fact, removing Runesmith and casting mage armor instead would change little to the build, and arguably even make it stronger since you’d be able to use Uncanny Forethought more efficiently.
• Score: 2.25 Not much to say here, there’s just not enough of the ingredient to give flavor to the menu. There is really nothing you can do with Runesmith that you couldn’t without, and that is pretty sad.


Final Thoughts:
• That is a very good build, and it would probably be pretty fun to play in a campaign. Really, it was very enjoyable and you could feel the theme behind the crunch. But I don’t think it fits in this kind of contest, where the Secret Ingredient is so important, especially not in a high-originality round, when your concept is something that has been expanded upon countless times in the past.
• Also, the multiple issues with the feats and the illegal Planar Touchstone pull it down. That’s a shame. Check your prereqs, folks.
• Total: 13.0

Spoiler: Noma Gic

Show

Thank you Zaq for that Looney Tunes reference, I chuckled ^^

Evil spellcasters attacking you ? Just say no. Wizards can’t legally kill your family without consent.


Elegance:
• Nothing crazy here, and nothing that made me cringe. It is just a good build, with everything in its place.
• The build is well organized, but the order in which the feats are gained is pretty random, and some of them really don’t go anywhere. Vow of Poverty doesn’t interact with much else, and even overlaps with the Forsaker ability. Shifter Instinct, notably, is pretty bland and doesn’t synergize with anything else. It seems like you took it just because it was a shifter feat.
•I… feel like the three parts of the build (Shifter, Barb and Forsaker) are almost completely separate from one another. Their class features don’t really complement each other, and even clash sometimes (whirling frenzy and its -2 don’t mesh well with the -5 from Ragewild fighting). Also, what kind of shifter are you !? I of course understood that you chose longtooth, but I had to go to Tactics for that. I would have preferred if you put it directly in the description of your race, that would have been easier to read.
• Why Swim ? Why put 2 points to be literate when you automatically become literate with your 4th level ? I’m not sure what you want to do with that.
• Score: 4.0 Nothing really bad here, but nothing incredible either. Bonus points for being the only completely legal build today.

Originality:
• Shifter Barbarian is pretty common, but shifter forsaker is not. I appreciate that you put that together, and that is pretty thematic too. However, there really isn’t much unique combo between feats and/or class features to really speak of (the spellward shirt is pretty well-known on a forsaker and all the other feats are really just used in their intended way). However, there are some really cool specific points that I loved :
• Tribe shifting. That is the kind of bold claims that I like. You don’t really make much of it, but the mere idea that you can switch your totem mid-progression is worth a lot. Thank you for that.
• And of course, Vow of Poverty. When you think about it, it’s pretty obvious, but this feat is so often skipped before even giving it a thought that it really was a surprise to me. It is interesting to see how you tried to patch its obvious weaknesses with Blind Fight and high Spell esistance.
• You success in having almost only interesting feats when your primary class requires very bland ones, and that is commendable. Congratulations.
• Score: 7.5

Power:
• Why is the Spellward Shirt so late !? It single-handedly makes you nigh-immune to spells, even without investing Essentia inside it. And since you can shape a soulmeld, extra essentia gives you 2 essentia, or a final almost-impassable SR of 31 ! That really helps a build like this who has not many ways to deal with casters. Same thing with extra rage. With your Vow and the Forsaker’s DR, what you need in low epic is not defense as much as offense, and Extra Rage will give you that much more efficiently than 3 shifter feats.
• Having Ragewild fighting really will not help that often for the will save effect, as you say you wanted to use it. If you are close enough to a caster to hit them with your immediate action attack from Ragewild, then chances are that you already killed them, or that they won’t be able to cast because of your attack of opportunity. And if they blast you from afar with will saves, ragewild will not help you and you will fall the same way. Your first priority should be to increase your Spell Resistance. It specifically stacks, use it !
• Ironically, for most of your career, your Forsaker will be very good at fighting mundane, with his good defense, his multiple attacks and his improved movement speed from barbarian. But he won’t be able to fight casters effectively. Pretty fast, your magical enemies will be able to fly or to teleport, and your poor Will saves will leave you vulnerable to the first Save-or Suck coming your way.
•The final result seems pretty good, though. As soon as you take Spellward Shirt, you become a juggernaut, impervious to most magical attacks, with enough attacks and Str to plow through enemies. You’ll still have difficulties against caster, but whatever if they can’t hurt you back.
• Score: 3.5 Overall a pretty solid build, that will be hard to pass for enemies. The lack of magic items is still a liability, of course (E6 with 10 epic feats is roughly equivalent in terms of XP to lv 12, and that’s the point where magic items really start to take off and make up a good part of a build) but the rest of the build seems to almost make up for it.

UoSI:
• The forsaker… is really not at the center of the build. It’s not just that you didn’t really use the forsaker, you seem to have tried to replicate its abilities with other things, making it almost useless except as a constraint. It’s defensive capabilities are not useful if you have so much AC, and Tough armor is even useless with beasthide and beasthide elite, since different sources of natural armor do not stack. The Natural Weapons ability overlaps with Vow of Poverty, and you don’t improve on its Spell Resistance until your 9th (!) epic feat !
• If you count which class or race your feats improve (except for the 3 prereqs, which improve the build on a whole), the Forsaker has less of them than the Shifter ! The shifter has five : Ragewild fighting, Healing factor, Shifter instinct, Extra shifter trait and Beasthide elite. The Forsaker only has Shape Soulmeld and Bonus Essentia, and arguably the vows, even though some of the abilities of Vow of poverty replace those of the forsaker instead of improving on them.
• At least, there are 3 levels of Forsaker, the maximum you could do without shenanigans.
Score: 1.75 I feel like you built this character around the forsaker instead of incorporating it. And like the good appetizer that is mayonnaise, the taste is really good only if it is well-mixed.


Final Thoughts:
• This build was a mixed bag. On the one hand, the result was pretty powerful, with a good use of what you chose and some great thinking, like the tribe thing. And in the end, you have a character with spell resistance, AC, HP, and offense off the roof.
• On the other, that comes at the price of the Forsaker just… being there until the very end of the build. It wouldn’t have taken much to really make use of it, but right now, if you didn’t tell me what was the secret ingredient, I would have answered ‘shifter’ without a moment’s notice.
• Total: 16.75

Spoiler: Balnar

Show

A paladin of Mystra who can’t cast spells. Those… are some interesting premises.


Elegance:
• A nice little build, pretty centered on what Balnar wants to do, well-organized and readable.
• Not that many double duties (prerequisites that work for several things), but nothing really useless, even though there are a few questionable choices.
• There is a problem with your skill points, at level 6, you gain 4 skill points instead of the normal 3. Furthermore, you can’t take Knowledge Devotion at level 1, since it requires 5 ranks in Knowledge. You would have to switch with Power Attack, which really doesn’t change much to the character, but is still an error.
•A bigger mistake is that you can’t have more than 2 Domain feats on the same character (Complete Champion, p52). The protection domain is not integral to the build, but that will be another penalty.
• Score: 2.25 Overall very enjoyable build to read, with everything neatly folded. The few errors are not integral to the build and can be easily fixed (except for Protection Devotion), which means the malus is reduced.

Originality:
• A paladin striving to be MAD on Wisdom instead of Charisma is really non-standard. And while mage slayer is an uncommon but not unseen playstyle, using Earth Devotion for that is something I have never seen. I appreciate that.
• A paladin of Mystra, goddess of magic, without spells, and focusing on killing mages is something that tickled my interest, both mechanically and story-wise. I reaaaally would have liked some backstory as to how he has gotten to this career. (Of course you’re not obligated to give one, and it won’t make you lose points, but I would have liked)
•Apart from Earth Devotion, Serenity and Ancestral Knowledge, the chosen feats and ACF are pretty standard. Lots of interesting things, but pretty standard. No very unque interaction either.
• Score: 8 The whole build got me hooked from the beginning, with the Wis-MADness and mage slayer build, and the rest was pretty interesting too. Overall a pretty unique paladin you’ve got there.

Power:
• I appreciate you wanting to be more MAD, I really do, but… Was it really necessary ? You can’t dump Intelligence, since you have Combat Expertise, and Wisdom really doesn’t give you much by itself, since you have no spells. Just keeping your paladin abilities on charisma and your knowledges on Intelligence would have saved you two feats without costing that much. Yes, you have a better Will that way, and +2 or +3 on Knowledge checks, but is that really worth 2 feats ? Also, I’m not sure if you realized that, but the demolishing smite of Awesome Smite, which would have helped you kill things that are not casters and given you more versatility, is still keyed on Charisma. It improves your smite, but bypassing DR is still an ability from the feat, and is not modified by Serenity. A small thing, but it is still important.

○ If you still wanted to play a dwarf without Ancestral Knowledge and the Charisma hit worried you, there are other kinds of dwarves, like the desert dwarves from Races of Faerun who have a penalty to Dexterity instead.

• Good to have noticed that you would need more smiting, but I think I would have doubled-down on it instead of Extra Smiting. Most of your devotion abilities last for an entire encounter, while you would like to be able to smite every round or so.
• Also a bit of nitpicking, but Earth Devotion will lose in interest pretty quickly. As soon as casters start to be able to fly, you will want to win Initiative every round to pin them before they get away, and putting difficult terrain around them will not change that. You might want to take Improved Initiative earlier
•Apart from that, the build seems functional. You trip well (Awesome Smite + Improved Trip is pretty nasty), you slay mages, you have a pretty good protection, even without using Combat Expertise that much. Really, you are pretty good at what you do.
• Score: 2.75 : The build does what is advertised, and it does it pretty good. It blocks casters who are in contact with earth, while being sturdy enough to not get killed in the process. The issue is that this kind of encounters might become less common as you level up (as in ‘in epic feats territory’), and investing a lot of the build in knowledge, which is all in all pretty situational (you’re not going to fight undeads and outsiders every day) may hurt a bit.

UoSI:
• 6 levels : good. Nothing more to say here, you can’t use a Secret Ingredient much more than that.
• Pretty good use of Turn Undead with the devotions, very good use of smite with the Awesome Smite, overall you gave justice to the paladin.
•Nothing for Aura of Courage and Lay on Hands, but that’s really splitting hair.
• Score: 4.5 : Really not much to say, just a very good use of a paladin, with its ACF and all.


Final Thoughts:
•Very cool character concept, intriguing and pretty well-built.
• Some questionable choices power-wise and not a lot of versatility, but it seems pretty enjoyable to play.
• I still wanna know how he got where he is.
• Total: 17.5

Spoiler: The Tyrant

Show

One of the worst enemy I would like to face. First because I dislike fear effects, but above all because of the sheer number of saves I would have to do each fight. The Tyrant lives to his stenchy glory by rebuking even IRL people.


Elegance:
• I'm sorry to start like that but... No. It doesn't work like that. The Death Devotion feat doesn't give you an Energy Drain ability, not more than an Enervating weapon would. The term "energy drain" is not mentioned, and the feat explicitly states that only the weapon is shrouded in negative energy. That invalidates a lot of the build by itself.
• You don't fulfill the prerequisites for Brand of the Nine Hells, and hence not for Mark of Nessus. You have to be a devil to take the Brand, so except if I missed an errata, that doesn't work either.
• Also, I don't know where the +2 Reflex at level 2 comes from. Is that a typo that you repeated for the next levels? Did you initially think the Swashbuckler had good Reflex, then only corrected the first level?
• Also your ability scores are... messy. With the race and the template that have opposite effects on some scores, that doesn't look really min-maxed to me, and I find myself wondering why you chose lesser Maeluth in the first place, except for the backstory. Did you think they would qualify for Brand of the Nine Hells ? (Just to be clear, they don't, they do not have the [Law, Evil] subtype nor devil traits, and the lesser version isn't even an Outsider. Being half-devil in the lore doesn’t give them any mechanical advantages)
• Score: 1 There are too may weird things here, and with flat-out illegal choices, I cannot give you any more than that.


Originality:
• Ah, the usual « Be a paladin, pump your charisma, then use it for as many things as possible ». It is quite strong, but not the most original by itself, and using one of the most famously (infamously ?) strong LA+0 template for a Cha-based character doesn’t help your case that much. Neither do the two ACF, that are pretty classic all things considered.
•There are not so many unique combos between your abilities, notably intimidate and negative levels seem like two entirely separate parts of the build, with no synergy beyond reducing the saves for intimidate with negative levels.
•That said, going Intimidate in the first place was pretty unexpected. This is not an often used playstyle, and having it on a paladin was pretty refreshing. Especially the snatch trophy line, which was both fluff and crunch, and that I haven’t seen in a long time.
•Apprentice soldier and especially the Brand/Mark feats were also very unexpected (the Brand and Mark mostly because they are illegal, but still). I do not know if what you got from these was worth three feats, but they were not-often-seen feat that really fit well with your lore and your vision of the character. I like it !
•I also liked the use of supernatural transformation, even though I very much dislike what you thought you could do with it.
• Score: 5.5 Nothing really mind-blowing here, and some over-used choices, notably the template. However, most of the build made sense thematically, and a lot of your feats were pretty interesting and rarely seen, even though the use you made of them was pretty standard. Overall a pretty original build. The backstory and the time invested in it are paying.

Power:
• I’m really glad I don’t have to rate Create Spectral Spawn. Giving unlimited control on creatures killed and giving them a LA+7 (!) template with flight, intangibility and 2 negative levels on touch ? While keeping their class levels ? That is so obviously broken that it would turn the whole build on its head. I even had difficulties understanding how this could have been WotC-approved, until I saw the name of the author of the book it’s in. Eric L. Boyd, infamous for having given us the perfectly balanced Serpent Kingdom, and pun-pun with it.

○ That said, even if Death Devotion did count as energy drain, you really did not optimize it’s use with your build. Death Devotion only allows you to inflict one negative level to a given creature (since you’re max level 6), which means you have to wait for your spectral servants to weaken an opponent until they only have one HD left before you can finish them off with Death Devotion and turn them into a spectral creature. Plus it prevents you from using snatch trophy on them, since they die without getting reduced under 0 HP. Putting so much of the build on a feature that you won’t be able to use more than once per opponent is really unoptimal. There are other, better, more unambiguously legal ways to get Energy Drain, like a dip in Soul Eater.

•Apart from that, the build is okay. You definitely put a lot of effort into getting a useful Intimidate, and stacking save-or-suck will probably drop a lot of opponents, even with good saves. However, most of these abilities only affect people adjacent to you, or 10 ft apart. And you have no good mobility option and a 20 ft movement speed. You will have a lot of problems with anything ranged, and get kited pretty easily.
•Some of your feats seem also under-used, like Mark of Nessus (even if itw as legal), where you almost totally skipped the second ability, since you have no natural attack, and Frightful presence. With so many epic feats, nigh on every challenge you will encounter will have at least your number of HD, so Frightful Presence will be useless 99% of the time.
• Score: 2.25 : Not an inherently bad build, if you skip the illegal things, but a lot of things are not used to their full potential, and it still has a lot of weaknesses that are difficult to patch with items. The lack of mobility is also a big issue.

UoSI:
• Very good use of the Secret Ingredients, with a Cha-based build and Stand Fast to improve on Divine Grace, good use of Rebuke Undead to boost Death Devotion, 5 of your 6 levels being paladin, good use of aura of despair for the intimidate build… Still, there are some abilities that are not really expanded upon, like the deadly touch or the Smite. Still a good use of the ingredient.
• Score: 4


Final Thoughts:
•The character is ruined by the illegal choices in it.
• Two concepts (Drain and save-or-suck) well expanded upon but with little synergy, especially since you can’t really drain a lot.
• Good lore, and good lore-mechanics relevance, well integrated within the paladin chassis.
• Total: 12.5

[Zaq]

Thank you very much, Beni-Kujaku! Quite enjoyable to read.

[H_H_F_F]

Many thanks for judging, Beni-Kujaku! No dispute from me.

Also:

you can’t have more than 2 Domain feats on the same character (Complete Champion, p52).

...Huh.

Excuse me, I have to go fix a bunch of NPCs.

[PanosIs]

No disputes from me either~

Builds were a bit rushed sadly, hence mistakes.

[MinimanMidget]

I have some disputes, but nothing worth slowing things down for. Thanks for the judgements!

[Zaq]

One response here!

Hi! Thanks a lot for judging. I realize I made a lot of mistakes, but I believe you made one too, and that's why I'm writing this.

You're wrong on Improved Sunder. In the 3.5 PHB (and SRD), it's called Improved Sunder, and prevents AoOs and gives a +4 to the roll. There was a feat called just Sunder in the 3.0 PHB, which only prevented the AoO, and feats also called Improved Sunder in Deities and Demigods, Enemies and Allies, and Sword and Fist - all 3.0 books - which doubled damage on a successful sunder attempt. I kinda wish I could take that version of Improved Sunder as well, but I didn't because same name and 3.0 material. Anyway, it's just Improved Sunder in 3.5. Check the SRD.


Since I'm already sending a thing in, I might as well reply to some other comments:

Spoiler: Comments

Show

Elegance:
-Well, the skill is unforgivable. I guess my head went "ok so I could put 4 points on level 1, then I have 6 levels, so that's 10". I had versions where I had 5 ranks in more different skills, but that's not the version I sent or the version you're judging.
-The literacy thing made sense with the backstory in my head, and I wasn't sure if PrCs counted for "taking levels in other classes", so I played it safe.
-I knew exactly what I was doing when I was taking a flaw, and it worked since you gave me full marks in UoSI. Don't feel bad about penalizing that in exactly the way you should here.

Power:
-I'm aware Shape Soulmeld (Spellward Shirt) exists. I didn't take it because while I guess it's teeechnically probably RAW-legal, and would be very strong indeed, it's obviously magical and not at all in character for a Forsaker to even consider. The book is called Magic of Incarnum, for crying out loud. So I went with the other thing I found that adds SR non-conditionally. I felt like Spellward Shirt would've lost points in originality or elegance for being dubious, but maybe it wouldn't have in this case? Oh well...
-Improved Natural Armor was more of an UoSI pick than a pure power pick, I suppose. Though I didn't look very hard for other options that might've increased AC more.
-Frail is a straight power loss, I'll admit that. But with it, Alaric is still a D12 HD guy with effectively 14 CON for HP. Of flaws that might've been less impactful, I didn't want to take Shaky because I wanted to have the ranged option, and Murky-Eyed would've felt weird given I wanted Blind-Fight - i have no idea how they'd interact if I was fighting something with non-magical concealment. And I thought the "buying off" trick with Frail was cute. Glad you agreed on that part at least!
-As for fighting non-mages, I suppose they might indeed have bigger numbers than me; I'm not experienced enough to tell.

Sorry, I got a bit rambly on some of the things. The main thing is the Improved Sunder thing.

Thanks again!

[Beni-Kujaku]

One response here!

You are right about Improved Sunder‚ of course. I tend to not check editions when I look things up. I have to keep an eye for that. Your score doesn't change‚ though. I really didn't make you lose points for that‚ and only included it with the skill point mistake for completeness.

About Boost Spell Resistance and Shape Soulmeld (Spellward Shirt) ‚ two things would have made the SS(SS) not a problem. This is soul magic‚ granted. But using souls to create a shirt protecting you from magic is not that different from making a deal with devils (who are magic entities and feed on souls) to protect you from magic. It's not like you use actual spells‚ and accepring to use a little bit of magic to be more effective at destroying real magic can be a part of the build‚ after all. Some forsaker canonically travel and ally with wizards after all.
And the second reason is that the Iron Chef is initially an optimization challenge. If one part of the build contradicts a little bit the backstory‚ without even betraying it completely‚ but is integral to the build's power‚ I don't think any judge would penalize you.

[H_H_F_F]

Are we expecting any other judges?

[Zaq]

We are not, so let's get this show on the road!

Build	Stub	Ingredient	Score (place)	Chef
Mercutio	NE kenku ninja 4 / swashbuckler 1 / sneak attack fighter 1	Ninja	14.25 (5th)	MinimanMidget
Laerlor	NG gender-fluid drow cloistered cleric 1 / conjurer 1 / drow paragon 3 / mystic theurge 1	Racial paragon classes	18.5 (1st/gold)	H_H_F_F
Alaric	CE human barbarian 1 / forsaker 5	Prestige classes	17.0 (3rd/bronze)	Xei_Win_Toh
Dhrun	LN gold dwarf marshal 1 / wizard 4 / runesmith 1	Prestige classes	13.0 (6th)	PanosIs
Noma Gic	CG shifter totem barbarian 3 / forsaker 3	Prestige classes	16.75 (4th)	Quentinas
Balnar	NG dwarf paladin 6	Paladin	17.5 (2nd/silver)	Panosis
The Tyrant	LE unseelie fey lesser maeluth swashbuckler 1 / paladin of tyranny 5	Paladin	12.5 (7th)	Quentinas

Thanks as always to all contestants and to our judge! Congrats to H_H_F_F (for a well-deserved win with a concept that blew me away), PanosIs, and Xei_Win_Toh!

Watch this space for a new contest up soon. It'll be a lot more traditional!

[Zaq]

New round here!

[Xei_Win_Toh]

Alaric is CE, it says so right at the start of the summary, before the spoiler blocks.

Obviously, I'm happy to medal on my first attempt. Imagine the amount of bricks I shat when I saw there was another Forsaker, though...

[Zaq]

Table updated

[H_H_F_F]

Yay, a gold medal! I'm very happy with this result, I didn't really expect much. Thanks for the compliment, Zaq!

Beni, I'm really glad you liked my submission. I also agree with your criticism - I felt like I couldn't take theurge, but I couldn't articulate why ("well, technically I CAN cast second level spells of both kinds, so... why not?) So I went for it. Your chameleon example was an excellent explanation as to why that doesn't work. I do think some of Laerlor's SLA's give them a bit more combat prowess than you verbally gave them credit for, but a 2 still seems like a fine score.

Well done, fellow contestants! I really enjoyed your work, though I can't lie - I was really looking forward to daremetoidareyou's "finest work". Still, the competition we ended up with was fun and interesting. Thank you all for participating!

Thanks again to our judge, Beni-Kujaku, and thanks as always to our chairman, Zaq!