Iron Chef E6 Appetizer Edition, Round XXXV

[Zaq]

I mean, I've legit referred to "taking a one-level dip in Naberius" without meaning to, so Big N's probably right.

Bulgy, the Child of Eurynome
True Neutral Anthropomorphic Weasel Druid 1/Binder 5

Spoiler: Introduction

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6Once upon no time, there were beings that were not living, nor dead, nor undead. They were not at all, except in an indefinite, shredded and lingering way. If they were anywhere, it was in a place that could not be, and was not. Nevertheless, even beyond the reaches of life, death and undeath, beyond the gates of reality and madness, a desperate cry echoes.

“THHHHHHHHHAXTTTTHHHH!”

Amon howls a fiery curse. There are many things he hates about his narrow nonexistence, but the sound of Zagan trying to hiss through his perpetual lisp is almost enough to earn him a place among those five roommates he loathes most fiercely.

“THHHHHHHHHAXTTTTHHHH!” Zagan calls for the storm giant again.

Shax rises, leaving puddles of sea water behind her. “Are you out again?” she asks the closed toilet door.

“Yetthhhhhhhh…”

Shax produces a roll of toilet paper, which starts to go soggy in her grasp as she demands her usual price per sheet.

“That’s why I be usin’ me teabags,” says Aym. She squints as she pulls a thread from a sock that already appears on the brink of total structural collapse, then starts darning a hole in her… multipurpose teabag. Not even Ipos claims to know what she uses for tealeaves, or whether they have, in all the nontime they have persisted in this nonplace, ever been changed.

“Oh,” Aym adds after a moment. “I have a call. At least, I think it be a call.”

Several pairs of eyes turn to her, as well as lamprey mouths, teeth and gems. They are jealous, even those who have no way to display it. Binders do call, their voices and magic reaching to these thin wisps of being unable to fade by some means only the highest initiates in the esoteric secrets of the telecommunications industry pretend to understand. It is the only chance for escape, however fleeting, from this twisting unplace.

Naberius speaks with the one of his heads that is neither chewing on one of Malphas’s doves nor licking his nethers. “They probably meant to call me. Most people do, you know.”

People who dwell in places fixed in actuality might find it difficult to imagine how a fountain of blood might sniff, let alone in a manner that conveys disdain. To these beings, however, it is as familiar as Focalor’s sniffling, and almost as irritating. “If,” Karsus says, “you think warlocks are people.”

Naberius laughs at him with all three mouths.

Aym winces. “This be… I canna say I ever heard anythin’ like this.” Nevertheless, she is suddenly absent from where she was not.

Time does not reach these beings, nor touch them, but they are all agreed that Dahlver-Nar takes too long in the bathroom. Would they prefer he stopped brushing his teeth? Dalver-Nar asks in his wordless, tortured moan. They would not, but they would also prefer he dealt with it in his room, and they are sick of tripping on endless loops of dental floss. Dahlver-Nar moans again, this time in weary protest, and is beginning to coil his floss onto a spool larger than he is when Aym’s jewellery gleams in something that is not light.

She is laughing. “It was a weasel,” she says. “Wee scrap of fur barely worth roasting. And he be suckin’ his thumb the whole time!”

“So far are we reduced,” Chucoclops says, grooming its pedipalps. “Only the beasts remember us, and when they, too, forget, we will remain here as fading voices and echoes of madness. All that is created will be consumed, and all shall be still and endless void; but we will remain, thin and wailing scraps of what we once were, and Paimon will still be Caramelldansen.”

A muffled, electronic ‘ooh-ooh-ooh-owah-owah’ sounds from another room in this unplace, punctuated with the slashing of swords.

Aym receives other calls she claims to be from the weasel, the way it sometimes happens when a binder new to their power grows used to calling upon one of them.

“If it would only call me,” Agares coughs. “Then I would know if she speaks the truth of this binder.”

“I believe her,” says Geryon. Geryon has also believed that Orthos made the place which isn’t and chose them to fill it; that Haures is not mad, but sees more than he can; that Ronove is photosynthetic; and that he could stop Savnok from putting saucepans on his head.

Focalor is blowing his nose on one of Andras’s sheets again when he hears the call that Aym heard, and his grief lessens as much as a drop in all the oceans that ever were or will be. The call is fragmentary, weak, a faltering and broken thing almost entirely useless… but it is enough. He goes.

He weeps himself into a space parallel to the binder, who is indeed a weasel sucking his thumb. The pact is made, and the weasel cries Focalor’s tears as the outside place draws the tattered, weeping remnant back to itself. There is no laughter in Focalor, no surcease from sorrow; it is one grief among many that so small a creature would look to a broken thing like him for aid.

Besides, the others scoff at him just like they had at Aym.

Andromalius starts a rumour that Focalor tells this story to win his way into Aym’s good graces, that Focalor weeps for love of the once-queen. Geryon believes it.

Finally, Eurynome hears a call that should never have reached her. She sees the weasel for herself. It is a wet weasel now, fur dripping constantly with water and with poison sprayed from its attendants. It sucks poisoned blood from its own thumb, throwing her hammer and its thoughts at its foes. She would not, in the time before all things, have foreseen such a creature.

She means to confirm Aym and Focalor’s wild story, but when she is once more in a place that is not, she finds that Aym is sitting in the oven counting coins again and Focalor has taken up hysterical keening. She decides, instead, to leave clammy handprints on Amon’s clean underwear.

Spoiler: Ability Scores

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Abilities	Initial	Race / Template	Level 4	Total
Str	11	-4		7 (-2)
Dex	14	+2		16 (+3)
Con	17		+1	18 (+4)
Int	8			8 (-1)
Wis	16	+4		20 (+5)
Cha	8	-4		4 (-3)

Spoiler: Build

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Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Reflex Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Druid (Deadly Hunter)	+0	+2	+0	+2	Concentration 4, Handle Animal 4, Survival 4	Great Fortitude, Track (B), Weapon Finesse (B)	Animal companion, nature sense, wild empathy, AC bonus
2nd	Binder	+0	+4	+0	+4	Concentration 5, Handle Animal 4, Survival 4		Soul binding (1 vestige)
3rd	Binder	+1	+5	+0	+5	Concentration 6, Handle Animal 4, Survival 4	Poison Healer	Pact augmentation (1 ability), suppress sign
4th	Binder	+2	+5	+1	+5	Concentration 7, Handle Animal 4, Survival 4
5th	Binder	+3	+6	+1	+6	Concentration 8, Handle Animal 4, Survival 4	Improved Binding (B)
6th	Binder	+3	+6	+1	+6	Concentration 9, Handle Animal 4, Survival 4	Throw Anything	Pact augmentation (2 abilities)

Epic Feats
Zen Archery
Point Blank Shot
Far Shot
Wild Cohort
Shape Soulmeld (beast tamer circlet)
Bonus Essentia
Open Least Chakra (crown)
Wild Talent
Psionic Shot
Psionic Meditation

Spoiler: Levels 1

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Being a Binder with just about the lowest Charisma score you can have will pay off eventually, but it's going to be rough in the early levels. Starting as a Druid helps a lot, shoring up Bulgy's AC and providing an animal companion to help him out. His buddy of choice is a swindlespitter named Cuspu, a cute little dinosaur whose main ability is a cone of blinding poison. His 3 orisons will usually all be the always useful Detect Magic, while his go-to first level spells (like most Druids) are Lesser Vigor and Entangle. Still, like a lot of low level characters, most of his actions in combat will be plinking away with a crossbow.

Spoiler: Level 2

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At this point, Bulgy starts binding. His favourite vestige, at least for the time being, is Aym. Aym provides him with a melee touch attack for 1d6 fire damage - not exactly overwhelming, but a reliable combat strategy at low levels, especially since Halo of Fire also deals damage to enemies who attack him in melee. He doesn't make much use of Aym's other abilities, but fire resistance 10 is certainly nice to have.

Spoiler: Level 3

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Once Bulgy hits level 3, he picks up the Poison Healer feat. When Bulgy is in melee with an enemy, Cuspu can get a nice two-for-one with his poison spray. As for pact augmentation, it'll generally go towards attack bonus, unless Bulgy knows in advance that he'll need something specific.

Spoiler: Level 4

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A new set of vestiges becomes available at this point, but none of them are especially compelling options for Bulgy. As with his pact augmentation, if he knows of a specific need in advance, he can pick a vestige with that in mind, but mostly he'll stick to Aym.

Spoiler: Level 5

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Improved Binding lets Bulgy access the third set of vestiges, and this one includes a good alternative to Aym in Focalor. Lightning Strike is better damage than Halo of Fire, even when the enemy makes the saving throw. Of course, with Bulgy's pathetic Charisma score, the DC is underwhelming, but Aura of Sadness can help with that, while simultaneously making enemies in melee more susceptible to Cuspu's blinding poison.

Spoiler: Level 6

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At last, the vestige that it's all about. Eurynome offers a varied and somewhat weird array of abilities that Bulgy is going to take full advantage of. First and foremost, we have Poison Blood. As an anthropomorphic weasel, Bulgy has a bite attack, and automatically attaches to whatever he bites, dealing his bite damage automatically each round (and losing his Dex bonus to AC). So by biting his own hand, he ingests his own poisonous blood every round, causing him to make a saving throw against his own blood, and a secondary saving throw 1 minute later. This means that, once he has bound Eurynome and bitten himself, he makes a saving throw against poison every round for the first minute, then 2 saving throws against poison every round after that. Although he'll fail these saving throws on a natural 1, they only deal hp damage, not ability damage, which will be vastly outweighed by the 8 hp he heals every round with Poison Healer. The actual bite damage will be taken care of by the damage reduction Eurynome provides. Eurynome's Maul is an even better weapon for a Small creature than it is for a Medium one, since Large size is effectively two damage upgrades instead of one. Since it can be summoned as a swift action, it makes a great throwing weapon, allowing Bulgy to use his Dexterity score to hit instead of his decidedly subpar Strength.

Spoiler: Zen Archery, Point Blank Shot, Far Shot

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Throwing Eurynome's Maul is nice, but it needs some work to be effective. Zen Archery upgrades the to-hit bonus, and because of the low range, Point Blank Shot is an always-on boost to hit and damage. Speaking of the low range, Far Shot increases it from 10 feet to 20.

Spoiler: Wild Cohort, Shape Soulmeld, Bonus Essentia, Open Least Chakra

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Another swindlespitter, Caetum, joins the party. You may have wondered why Bulgy picked a swindlespitter rather than a snake to take advantage of Poison Healer - it's because a snake's poison comes in the form of a bite, so Poison Blood would end up killing them, even with Bulgy's low save DC. It's also important that his animal companions have a ranged attack, because he will always make a bad pact. Eurynome's influence will forbid him from attacking an enemy until one of his allies does, so allies that can attack from range will make it a lot easier to deal with. On a related note, Beast Tamer Circlet boosts Handle Animal checks, which makes animal companions easier to utilise. Once bound, it lets Bulgy talk to his animal buddies directly, so it should be even easier for them to coordinate. Beyond that, though, Eurynome makes wild animals automatically friendly towards Bulgy, so the ability to talk to them directly is particularly useful for him.

Spoiler: Wild Talent, Psionic Shot, Psionic Meditation

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As much as I hate to admit it, even with Eurynome's Maul, Bulgy's damage isn't much to speak of. Psionic Shot offers reliable extra damage that fits perfectly with throwing a weapon once per round.

Spoiler: Sources

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• Anthropomorphic Weasel: Savage Species
• Swindlespitter: Monster Manual III
• Binder, Improved Binding, Aym, Focalor, Eurynome: Tome of Magic
• Poison Healer: Fiendish Codex I
• Throw Anything, Zen Archery: Complete Warrior
• Wild Cohort: Web
• Shape Soulmeld, Bonus Essentia, Open Least Chakra, beast tamer circlet: Magic of Incarnum
• Everything else: SRD content

[Zaq]

I feel like this build is just pandering to me, but technically MY old beloved build also had incarnate in it.

Chami TN Human binder 5/chameleon 1

So a binder can change vestige each day… so it can change role each day. Why not combining with the chameleon to adhere to a role each day or mixing roles with many of the vestiges that benefit from the focuses of the chameleon?

Spoiler: Stub

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Stats
Strength 12
Dexterity 14
Constitution 12
Intelligence 14
Wisdom 14
Charisma 14 (+1 at the 4th level)

Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Binder 1	+0	+2	+0	+2	Bluff 4, Intimidate 4, Disguise 4, Spellcraft 2, Search 2 Sense motive 4	Able learner , City slicker	Soul binding (1 vestige)
2nd	Binder 2	+1	+3	+0	+3	Bluff 5, Intimidate 5, Disguise 5, Spellcraft 2, Search 2 Sense motive 5, Knowledge (arcana) 1		Pact augmentation (1 ability) , Suppress sign
3rd	Binder 3	+2	+3	+1	+3	Bluff 6, Intimidate 6, Disguise 6, Spellcraft 3, Search 3 Sense motive 5, Knowledge (arcana) 1	Improved binding
4th	Binder 4	+3	+4	+1	+4	Bluff 7, Intimidate 7, Disguise 7, Spellcraft 3, Search 3 Sense motive 7, Knowledge (arcana) 1	Expel vestige	Bonus feat
5th	Binder 5	+3	+4	+1	+4	Bluff 8, Intimidate 8, Disguise 8, Spellcraft 4, Search 4 Sense motive 7, Knowledge (arcana) 1		Pact augmentation (2 abilities)*
6th	Chameleon 1	+3	+4	+1	+4	Bluff 8, Intimidate 8, Disguise 8, Spellcraft 4, Search 4 Sense motive 8, Knowledge (arcana) 5 Skill trick Second impression	Skilled pact making	Aptitude focus 1/day
1st epic	-	+3	+4	+1	+4	Bluff 9, Intimidate 9, Disguise 9, Spellcraft 4, Search 4 Sense motive 8, Knowledge (arcana) 5 , Skill trick Assume quirk	Open minded
2nd epic	-	+3	+4	+1	+4	Bluff 9, Intimidate 9, Disguise 9, Spellcraft 4, Search 4 Sense motive 8, Knowledge (arcana) 5 Disable device 4, Knowledge (nature) 1	Open minded
3rd epic	-	+3	+4	+1	+4	Bluff 9, Intimidate 9, Disguise 9, Spellcraft 4, Search 4 Sense motive 8, Knowledge (arcana) 5 Disable device 4, Knowledge (nature) 2 ,Hide 4	Open minded
4th epic	-	+3	+4	+1	+4	Bluff 9, Intimidate 9, Disguise 9, Spellcraft 4, Search 4 Sense motive 8, Knowledge (arcana) 5 Disable device 4, Knowledge (nature) 3 ,Hide 4, Move silently 4	Open minded
5th epic	-	+3	+4	+1	+4	Bluff 9, Intimidate 9, Disguise 9, Spellcraft 4, Search 4 Sense motive 8, Knowledge (arcana) 5 Disable device 4, Knowledge (nature) 4 ,Hide 4, Move silently 4, Knowledge (the planes) 2 Skill trick Never outnumbered	Open minded

The list of the epic feats is
From the 1st to the 5th Open minded (they are in the table), Intimidating strike, Imperious command, and the last three are each one Animal devotion

Spoiler: Tactics

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Spoiler: Level 1-2

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The first two levels are the hardest for Chami as she doesn’t have many choices as her feats were taken to increase the class skills and to gain a good way to doesn’t spend many skill points for cross class skills. Being human helped as the extra skill point for level were quite helpful for Chami. Probably in these level Chami is behind fighting with a bow while bound to Leraje, as this is the best option for the combat , while for social situations Naberius is excellent as the bonus to bluff is good and even the disguise self (this is boosted with our disguise so Chami will be good at disguising)

Spoiler: Level 3-5

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With improved binding the fight of Chami change as now she has some good options even for the melee. First Andromalius with his sneak attack that will do enough then Paimon that gives weapon finesse and some useful abilities, then Malphas similar to Andromalius but weaker at the end, then Focalor that doesn’t need to be melee but she can be to give a malus to the enemies.These levels are quite interesting not only for improved binding, but even for Expel vestige (that help in changing role in the middle of the day) , and for the 2nd pact augmentation that boost Chami in various ways for example boosting her attack or giving more defense that is not bad. The 5th has another boost that are the 4th level vestiges that are quite useful, but see later as some of them will have a big boost later (the most useful for now are Tenebrous if fighting undead, Arete for defense, Andras for Offense, but even Agares and Eurynome are somewhat acceptable

Spoiler: Level 6

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With this level Chami is the essence of a binder , because she can change what she does each day and she combines different powers to do something unique (even if she doesn’t combine two vestiges she can combines vestiges with aptitude focus to make something different each time). But this level is complicated because with so many choices it isn’t easy choosing which one is better, so for this Chami will cover the role which is missing or she will imitate a target and she will infiltrate somewhere with her abilities. Our wisdom and our intelligence were so high (for a binder) because with a 14 Chami gains a bonus spell per day when she uses the arcane or the divine focus ,which is necessary and quite useful. The skills change from the last level as now she boosts her knowledge (arcana) and her sense motive, the first because she need a boost to spellcraft to copy spells, while the second because sense motive will be useful each time and the other skills will be increased again within few experience points. Disguise is useful to impersonate and even to cover the sign of the vestiges, whie search is needed for the Stealth focus, while bluff and intimidate are for social encounters (with bluff empowered by Naberius)

Spoiler: Epic feats from 1 to 5

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These feats are mainly used to boost preexisting skills to the maximum ranks,to gain skill tricks, or to gain skills that for the lack of skill points were missing and are necessary to use at the best one of the aptitude focus, the stealth focus. Without these it would be quite difficult with some checks but with the ranks it will be easier. The knowledge skills are taken to be used with Astaroth for the crafting feats, or to imitate in a better way a wizard or an archivistas they will have some knowledges. The skill tricks that she obtained until now are used to be better at social situation (second impression), and to improve our disguise (maybe while we are binding Naberius) as familiar figures (to who we want to imitate) could detect us without this trick

Spoiler: Epic feats 6, 7

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One of the skills that was increased before these feats was intimidate at the start for the improved binding requisite but later because Imperious command is a way for Chami to be useful each time even when the choice were done in an awful way. The intimidate is not low, so it can be used , and to boost it there is the last trick (never outnumbered) that help and intimidating strike so that it can be used while attacking if for that day Chami is being melee

Spoiler: Epic feats 8-10

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Chami is quite versatile but many times there will be need of a boost for example a flying speed, while another time another boost. So she needs a feat that is versatile and what is better than Animal devotion? This feat has various choice each time is used which is perfect for Chami to adapt at each situation, maybe sometimes she will need to be fast as a monk , or having a similar ability to the barbarian rage, and so on. The option that will be chosen will depend on what she is doing in that moment so even here is not easy to choose the most useful. For example with Focalor the Hawk flight would not be so bad, while with Paimon the cheetah sprint is interesting combined with dance of death . The less useful among these option is the Serpent strike

Spoiler: Vestiges and focus ,some ideas

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Amon is good but is quite generic so there isn’t an aptitude specific for him he could go either with the martial aptitude or the rogue aptitude maybe He is not the best (the breath weapon is quite interesting but that is )
Aym martial focus or divine /arcane focus if we go on the gish route (but we only have 1 level 2 spell slot so it’s not easy)
Leraje Martial focus or the skill focus (but the bonus of hide from leraje is higher) or the wild focus to pass as a low level ranger
Naberius With any focus (maybe not the wild focus) as it is perfect to pass as a member of that class (silver tongue will be used mainly for bluff)
Ronovoe Martial focus or arcane focus for the far hand ability
Dalver nahr One focus among arcane focus, divine focus or martial focus , it can be good with any of these
Hagenti Not so good . But martial focus even here
Malphas Mainly stealth focus but sometimes martial focus
Savnok Martial focus or divine focus
Andromalius Stealth focus and martial focus (when we want to be focused on damage rather on skills)
Focalor A good vestige that is useful with divine focus, martial focus , and arcane focus (but here is more a problem going melee with a good armor. Still the at will 3d6 are useful and similar to a spell)
Karsus Divine focus as it will be the best vestige to use wands and having two spell list is not bad
Paimon Martial focus or stealth focus (but the stealth focus rarely paimon is more of an offensive vestige)
Agares divine focus or martial focus. Even the arcane focus could work here
Andras Martial focus or divine focus if we want to become a paladin
Arete Any focus , arete is a defensive one so any of the focus can work with her (and thanks to her we can pass as a psion/psychic warrior/lurk sometimes)
Astaroth Oh well now this vestige require a spoiler for how many options it give us especially after the open minded feats but I know that not in each campaign there will be the time to craft and to give grafts. These are possibilities as we can do many things with this crafting . The other abilities of Astaroth aren’t so bad , probably we will want to use the stealth focus to imitate a bard but is a good social vestige (other than being a very good vestige for the crafting)

Spoiler: Versatile crafting with Astaroth

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This is quite funny as we can choose between Craft magic arms and armor, brew potion , scribe scroll craft wand, craft wondrous item ,craft cognizance crystal (under magic psionic transparency rule ) We can even give some grafts as we qualify for eldeen plant grafter and elemental grafter. These are from Magic of eberron . This vestige become quite powerful as we combine it with the divine or arcane focus. The divine focus is better as we doesn’t have to search for scrolls while for the arcane yes. The graft that could be used are Healing nodules (cure serious wound is a 2nd level spell for the runescarred berserker even if can’t exists in an e6 universe the divine focus can recover divine spells without scrolls ,and remove disease for the healer), Fatigue spores (this one was easy with touch of fatigue), Perception seed (this is arguable as owl wisdom is easy but a seed from an awakened tree is not), Breath of the waves (cure moderate wounds is easy), Buffeting fist (even protection from arrow is easy) Dust form (as the last two spells gust of wind is easy) , Hand of flame (with flame blade being a 2nd level druid spell and stop) Scorching gaze (scorching ray is a classic spell of 2nd level) and stop. There are so many possibilities when we goes talking about wands and wondrous items, if Chami has access to crafting it will be a power up especially when arcane focus or divine focus or Karsus are used , but even other vestiges or other focus have a power up thanks to craft wondrous items. Astaroth crafting at the end seems to use the binder level as caster level or to totally ignore it during the crafting (as it only says that we need to spend Experience and gold , and all spell but not the caster level)

Buer As the bonus on the skills seems an untyped bonus Buer could be the only occasion where the wild focus could be interesting and it will be the best when we want to imitate a ranger skills (for the ranger fighting leraje could be better)
Cabiri If there would be scrying spells that are usable and that require a saving throw she could be useful but there aren’t so she is not useful
Eurynome Martial focus , this is easy
Kas Martial focus or stealth focus to imitate a rogue without sneak attack
Tenebrous Well… this one can be for martial focus (for the touch of the void), divine focus (so we can turn or rebuke undead depending on who we are imitating), or stealth focus for the deeper darkness. This is a good vestige but we are more dependent on our abilities instead of other vestiges.

Remember that other than the focus and the vestige choice there is even the Pact augmentation that is another boost that work well on changing role each day depending on who we are imitating and it’s quite impossible analyze each one of the 22 (number of vestiges)*8 (options of pact augmentation)*2 (second pact augmentation)*5 (aptitude focus ) =1760 possible setup .There is quite the freedom to choose among one of these setup even changing one each day one would need near 5 years to change on each one Chami will be more focused on covering roles, or infiltrating so among these many combinations probably there will be the best combination for Chami to do her work

Spoiler: From where each element come from

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The binder, many vestiges, Improved binding, skilled pact making, and expel vestiges are from Tome of magic
Human is from player handbook
Chameleon , able learner and city slicker are from Races of destiny
Assume quirk, never outnumbered, and second impression are from Complete Scoundrel
Open minded is from Complete Adventurer
Animal devotion is from Complete Champion
Intimidating strike is from Player Handbook II
Imperious command is from Drow of the Underdark
Arete is from Web
Astaroth is from Web
Craft feats except for the two grafter feats are on the SRD

[Zaq]

They'll jack up the monsters without even jacking up the price!

Spoiler: Lore

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Do you have a problem that needs creative solutions? Something that can’t just be solved with a simple sword? Do you need help that can adapt on the fly, to any situation? Then look no further, and hire Jacks Adventuring Solutions today!
- Posting found in local tavern

”I only ever met one of them at a time, but they have a wide variety of skills. Very impressive! I’m definitely going to be a repeat customer.”
- Odric Puresteel, guard captain

”The Jacks are so mysterious, but they get the job done.”
- Ceria Bitterblossom, elf merchant

”They’re a little unnerving, but polite and professional. 4.5/5”
- Reginald Jeneson, steward

”What in the nine hells is a testimonial?”
- Og, orc farmer

Spoiler: Build

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Jack, leader and every member of Jacks Adventuring Solutions

Source: https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/f/t/Job%20system

N Silverbrow Human Binder 5/Chameleon 1

Racial Traits:

• +2 Disguise; Disguise always a class skill
• Feather Fall 1/day, 2/day at level 5

Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Reflex Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Binder	0	2	0	2	16: {+4} Bluff: 4; {+4} Disguise: 4; {+4} Intimidate: 4; {+4} Spellcraft: 4;	Able Learner, Improved Binding	Soul Binding (1 vestige)
2nd	Binder	1	3	0	3	4: {+1} Bluff: 5; {+1} Disguise: 5; Intimidate: 4; {+1} Spellcraft: 5; {+1} Sense Motive: 1;		Pact Augmentation (1 ability), Suppress Sign
3rd	Binder	2	3	1	3	4: {+1} Bluff: 6; {+1} Disguise: 6; Intimidate: 4; Spellcraft: 5; {+1} Sense Motive: 2; {+1} Diplomacy: 1;	Jack of All Trades
4th	Binder	3	4	1	4	4: {+1} Bluff: 7; {+1} Disguise: 7; Intimidate: 4; Spellcraft: 5; {+1} Sense Motive: 3; {+1} Diplomacy: 2;	Expel Vestige	Bonus Feat
5th	Binder	3	4	1	4	4: {+1} Bluff: 8; {+1} Disguise: 8; Intimidate: 4; Spellcraft: 5; {+1} Sense Motive: 4; {+1} Diplomacy: 3;		Pact Augmentation (2 abilities)
6th	Chameleon	3	4	1	4	6: Bluff: 8; Disguise: 8; Intimidate: 4; Spellcraft: 5; Sense Motive: 4; {+2} Diplomacy: 5; {+4} Use Magic Device: 4;	Practiced Spellcaster	Aptitude Focus 1/day (+2)

Epic Feats
Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Double Crossbow)
Rapid Reload
Weapon Finesse
Martial Study (Shadow Jaunt)
Martial Stance (Child of Shadow)
Shadow Blade
Entangling Exhalation
Healing Devotion
Divine Defiance
Trickery Devotion

Level	Class	Maximum Vestige Level	0th	1st	2nd
1st	Binder	2	-	-	-
2nd	Binder	2	-	-	-
3rd	Binder	3	-	-	-
4th	Binder	3	-	-	-
5th	Binder	4	-	-	-
6th	Chameleon	4	4	2	0

Spoiler: Breakdown & Tactics

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Jack’s biggest advantage is his flexibility. On any given day, he can select the Vestige and Aptitude Focus that will allow him to fill the role he needs to fill. Between the 5 Aptitude Focuses and the 20 vestiges he has access to, there are 100 different combinations he can choose from.

Naturally, most of those will be rather useless, or at least not synergistic, but there are still a lot of options. I will do a breakdown by level and party role for some of Jack’s go-to options. Jack can still use lower-level options at higher level, of course, and some of them stay relevant throughout his adventuring career.

Levels 1-2:

• Caster - Amon provides an AoE attack useable all day, and darkvision which is a nice bonus for a human. The horn attack is going to be a bit of a dud, due to Jack’s poor strength score, but it’s not really necessary anyways.
• Combat - Leraje provides some nice abilities at low level for enhancing ranged attacks, and also gives some stealth boosts. Dahlver-Nar gives some interesting debuffs and tanking ability, with Maddening Moan and Shield Self.
• Social - Naberius is the go-to here, of course. Will likely be Jack’s main vestige on non-adventuring days.
• Stealth - Malphas is the obvious choice here, giving exceptional scouting and some nice bonus damage, in addition to short duration invisibility.

Levels 3-4:

• Caster] - Focalor gives a lightning strike that does decent damage, and a debuff aura. Karsus can dispel and use magic items.
• Combat - Paimon is a solid winner here, with weapon finesse, Dance of Death, +4 Dexterity and Whirlwind Attack. Paimon will be a mainstay melee vestige.
• Stealth - Andromalius gives Sneak Attack and some detection abilities, which are nice.

Levels 5-6:

• Caster - Astaroth Is a good downtime vestige, due to the free crafting feat, and also gives some solid reusable debuffs. Tenebrous enables Divine Defiance (and Healing Devotion), which is very nice, considering that, with the Arcane Aptitude Focus, Jack has access to Dispel Magic as a 1st level spell, via Trapsmith. Buer gives fast healing and can heal slowly out of combat.
• Combat - Tenebrous is a powerhouse, granting the ability to turn undead, enhancing melee damage, and a nasty darkness effect.
• Stealth - Tenebrous is good again here, with the darkness effect, and with the flicker mystery.

Spoiler: Epic Feats

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Regarding Jack’s Epic feats, the order presented here is not particularly fixed. None of the feats are particularly critical to the build (though some are certainly very useful), and their order is dependent on what will be more useful at which point in the campaign. I will break them down roughly by what role they help fill, and what specific options they synergize with.

Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Double Crossbow) and Rapid Reload enhance Jack’s ranged combat. The Double Crossbow allows Jack to effectively do Rapid Shot, without requiring the feat (explained in the article here: http://archive.wizards.com/default.a...d/we/20060420a)

Martial Training, Martial Stance, and Shadow Blade enhance Jack’s melee combat. They synergize especially well with Paimon: the miss chance helps with Dance of Death’s AoOs, and the dex bonus enhances damage.

Weapon Finesse allows Jack to do melee when not binding Paimon

Entangling Exhalation gives Jack some battlefield control with Amon, which is quite nice.

Healing Devotion and Divine Defiance both synergize incredibly well with Tenebrous, as explained above.

Trickery Devotion is useful, and quite flavorful for what Jack does.

Spoiler: Sources

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Feature	Source
Silverbrow Human	Dragon Magic, p. 6
Binder	Tome of Magic, p. 9
Chameleon	Races of Destiny, p. 111
Able Learner	Races of Destiny, p. 150
Improved Binding	Tome of Magic, p. 74
Expel Vestige	Tome of Magic, p. 73
Practiced Spellcaster	Complete Arcane, p. 82
Jack of All Trades	Complete Adventurer, p. 110
Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Double Crossbow)	http://archive.wizards.com/default.a...d/we/20060420a
Divine Defiance	Fiendish Codex II, p. 83
Entangling Exhalation	Races of the Dragon, p. 101
Martial Study (Shadow Jaunt)	Tome of Battle, p. 31
Martial Stance (Child of Shadow), Shadow Blade	Tome of Battle, p. 32
Healing Devotion	Complete Champion, p. 59
Trickery Devotion	Complete Champion, p. 63

[Zaq]

"Why are you hitting yourself? Why are you hitting yourself?! Stop hitting yourself! Ow! Ow! For the love of the gods, please, stop hitting yourself!" --this build's foes, probably

Stuffy Doll
CE Warforged Binder 5/Crusader 1

“Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else.” –Buddhaghosa (paraphrased)

“Let me tell you something about electricity. A big enough charge can overload any insulator.” – Static Shock (direct quote)

Stats (with racial mods, stat increase to Con)

Spoiler

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Str 16
Dex 14
Con 15 (18)
Int 14
Wis 10 (8)
Cha 8 (6)

Build

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Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Binder 1	+0	+2	+0	+2	Bluff 4, Craft (Armorsmithing) 4, Intimidate 4, Sense Motive 4	Adamantine Body	Soul Binding (1 Vestige)
2nd	Binder 2	+1	+3	+0	+3	Bluff 5, Craft (Armorsmithing) 5, Intimidate 5, Sense Motive 5		Pact Augmentation (1 Ability), Suppress Sign
3rd	Binder 3	+2	+3	+1	+3	Bluff 6, Craft (Armorsmithing) 6, Intimidate 6, Sense Motive 6	Combat Reflexes
4th	Binder 4	+3	+4	+1	+4	Bluff 7, Craft (Armorsmithing) 7, Intimidate 7, Sense Motive 7	(B) Expel Vestige	Bonus Feat
5th	Binder 5	+3	+4	+1	+4	Bluff 8, Craft (Armorsmithing) 8, Intimidate 8, Sense Motive 8		Pact Augmentation (2 Abilities)
6th	Crusader 1	+4	+6	+1	+4	Craft (Armorsmithing) 9, Intimidate 9, Tumble 4	Shocking Fist	Furious Counterstrike, Steely Resolve 5, Skilled City Dweller (Ride to Tumble)

Epic Feats
Stone Power
Combat Expertise
Midnight Dodge
Karmic Strike
Shape Soulmeld (Lightning Gauntlets)
Open Least Chakra (Hands)
Bonus Essentia
Expanded Soulmeld Capacity
Inured to Energy
Martial Study (Wall of Blades)

Maneuvers: Crusader’s Strike, Stone Bones, Foehammer, Mountain Hammer, Charging Minotaur, (B) Wall of Blades
Stance: Martial Spirit

Playtips

Spoiler

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This build is going to spend the majority of the time bound to one vestige: my man Dahlver-nar. Maddening moan is a fun way to disrupt your enemies and the natural armor boost is a great help especially with your meaty Constitution. The real star of the show here is shield self: an unlimited duration effect you can activate every round and has endless uses per day. As long as this is up and running, you take half of all hp damage dealt to you, and your target takes “the rest.” For bonus fun, because you round down, whenever it’s an odd number, they take the extra 1. Just like the legendary card that lends its name to this build, this is ripe for abuse optimization. This is the rock upon which we will cook our entry. The general concept is high survivability and sharing the pain. Let’s get into how.

A quick note on skills. This build has no set skill requirements, so you can spend them however. I’ve chosen to invest in craft because, as per Eberron Campaign Setting pg 46, Craft can be used to repair a warforged of damage, and you can do it yourself. Something to do with downtime if you want.

From the start Adamantine Body adds to survivability with a big armor boost and damage reduction. Every bit counts, especially at low levels. Combat Reflexes lets you make more AoOs, including when flatfooted, and Shocking Fist is where things really start to come together. It allows you to deal a small amount of damage to yourself to charge up your slam with a larger amount of electricity damage. You can of course use the slam on your enemy, but we’re going to attacking ourselves. No need to get up close and personal with the enemy when you can safely keep them in range while attacking yourself. Now enters a perk from binder that doesn’t get much attention: pact augmentation. It’s a very nice little boost to almost any part you want to focus on. For this build, I’m naturally suggesting we choose energy resist twice.

Half of the damage you take to activate shocking fist goes to your enemy, your damage reduction protects you against your half of damage from the slam, and the electricity resistance from pact augmentation protects you from your half of the shocking fist. That’s the basic setup. Now let’s stack on it.

Crusader provides a number of healthy additions to the build. The first is Martial Spirit, which heals you of damage every time you strike, a stance you will be in forevermore. It’s also got some cool maneuvers. Crusader’s Strike gives more healing, Stone Bones pumps your DR higher, Charging Minotaur moves your enemies around the battlefield, and Mountain Hammer and Foehammer are for if you get the wild urge to attack your enemies instead of yourself. Taking this late means we have a higher initiator level for better maneuvers, including when we take Martial Study to learn Wall of Blades. There’s some things you don’t want to get hit by, and this will protect you from them. Because you know stone dragon maneuvers, you can take stone power, which lets you gain (for this build) up to 8 temporary hp per round, which we will use to soak damage. This pairs beautifully with steely resolve, letting damage you take get reduced once by stone power, then parking the remainder in the delayed damage pool until next round, when your stone power is refreshed to take it again. Does this mean that it also gets divided twice by Dahlver-nar? Maybe.

Now for the final elements covered by our remaining feats. Combat Expertise pumps up your AC even higher, as does Midnight Dodge, though they are more here to qualify for Karmic Strike. This lets you make an attack of opportunity against anyone who strikes you. Of course, you can use this to retaliate against enemies that strike you, but it’s funnier to use it against yourself. Combat Reflexes comes in here to make sure that you still have AoOs to use against your enemies after using one on yourself. Lightning Gauntlets deal electricity damage with a touch. When you bind it to your hands, you can channel this damage into an attack, in this case I’ve chosen the slam. Bonus Essentia and Expanded Soulmeld Capacity mean, along with the extra essential from Midnight Dodge, you can keep it fully juiced. Inured to Energy lets you increase your electricity resistance to a hearty 20.

Demonstration

Spoiler

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Let’s crunch the numbers to see this in action.

Slam 1d4+3
Shocking Fist 4d4 (+4 to activate)
Lightning Gauntlets 4d6
Slam AoO 1d4+3

Adamantine Body -2 (per strike)
Stone Power -8
Pact Augmentation and Inured to Energy -20
Martial Spirit -2

For demonstrative purposes, let’s use maximum rolls. Total damage is 14 bludgeoning, 4 untyped, 40 electricity. Of this 58 damage, Dahlver-nar sends 29 of it to your enemy. Your energy resist completely negates the electricity, adamantine body cut down on the slam, and stone power eats the rest, leaving you with an extra 3 points of temp hp and 2 points of healing going all out. Do this every turn, use crusader’s delayed damage pool to park your half of the damage from enemy attacks, and grind them down until there’s nothing left.

Sources

Spoiler

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Warforged, Adamantine Body: Eberron Campaign Setting
Binder, Dahlver-nar, Expel Vestige: Tome of Magic
Crusader, Martial Study, Stone Power: Tome of Battle
Shocking Fist: Player’s Guide to Eberron7
Shape Soulmeld, Open Least Chakra, Midnight Dodge, Bonus Essentia, Expanded Soulmeld Capacity, Lightning Gauntlets: Magic of Incarnum
Karmic Strike: Complete Warrior
Inured to Energy: Savage Species
Skilled City Dweller: Cityscape web enhancement
Combat Expertise, Combat Reflexes: Player’s Handbook
Stuffy Doll image

[Zaq]

Yo dawg, I heard you like elans.

Terae Elan LG Paladin 1/Binder 4/Knight of the sacred seal 1

Who said that every binder is evil and spooky? There are even binders that use the vestiges for the good of the people, paragon of virtue, even if hunted by other good people because the pact magic is something of which many people have fear. Terae is one of these people who fight while using the pact magic to empower himself and his race ability binding the first of his race, Arete

Spoiler: Build

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Ability scores(number in brackets is points spend from point-buy)
Strength 16 (10)
Dexterity 12 (4)
Constitution 14 (6)
Intelligence 10 (2)
Wisdom 13(includes +1 from level up) (4)
Charisma 12 (includes -2 from the race) (6

Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Paladin	+1	+2	+0	+0	Concentration 4 ,Knowledge religion4	Weapon focus (warhammer)	Aura of good, Detect evil, smite evil 1/day
2nd	Binder	+1	+4	+0	+2	Concentration 4,Knowledge religion5, Intimidate 1		Soul binding (1 vestige)
3rd	Binder	+2	+5	+0	+3	Concentration 5,Knowledge religion5, Intimidate 2	Ignore special requirement	Pact augmentation (1 ability), suppress sign
4th	Binder	+3	+5	+1	+3	Concentration 6,Knowledge religion5, Intimidate 3
5th	Binder	+4	+6	+1	+4	Concentration 7,Knowledge religion5, Intimidate 4	Improved binding	Bonus feat, pact augmentation (2 abilities)*
6th	Knight of the sacred seal	+5	+8	+1	+4	Concentration 9,Knowledge religion5, Intimidate 4	Elan resilience	Aligned strike, patron vestige (Arete) , Soul binding +1

*This ability is obtained one level before thanks to the variant Heterodoxy and Heresy

Spoiler: Epic feats

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1° Power attack
2° Psionic weapon
3° Greater psionic weapon
4° Steady concentration
5° Psionic meditation
6° Expel vestige
7° Skilled pact making
8° Psychic meditation
9° Deep psychic meditation
10° Deep psychic meditation

Spoiler: Choice and tactic explanation

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Spoiler: Level 1-5

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First level as a paladin because the full base attack at the start and the d10 as hit dice is quite useful and the armor proficiencies will be quite useful as Terae will be a tank. Another motivation is because this variant exists.

A paladin who goes against the will of her deity with regard to pact magic again, by taking levels as a binder cannot use the divine grace ability. If she takes enough binder levels to gain the pact augmentation ability, she can add her
cleric level to her binder level for the purpose of determining its effects. As with clerics who associate themselves with binders, a paladin might be ostracized, excommunicated, or hunted by her own church if she continues the relationship with the binder

so by doing paladin 1/binder 4 there isn’t the lost BAB from binder 5, and there is a bonus to the fortitude save and to the hit dice. So let’s choose a deity (depending on the setting) that doesn’t see the binder in a good way( and neither in a terrible way) and Terae will use the power of the binder to do lawful good act (Terae would only lose divine grace at the end). This character could be even done with the paladin of tyranny but among the stories of the vestiges there are more vestiges that could be seen bad from a lawful good point of view instead of a lawful evil point of view.
The vestiges at these levels will be mainly limited to level 1 and 2 as improved binding is took at level 5 thanks to the bonus feat. Some vestiges that could be useful are Dalver nahr , Naberius ,Savnok and Amon. Dalver nahr and Savnok mainly for their defensive abilities, (one for more AC, one for a DR), Naberius because his regeneration can be quite useful , and Amon for the damage. Malphas it will be useful only rarely because the main thing would be the crow used as a scout. For the 3rd level vestiges, Andromalius , Focalor and Paimon , Andromalius for more damage while flanking, Focalor for the aura and the lighting for when Terae will be behind, and Paimon for area damage with the weapon thanks to whirlwind attack and dance of death. The skills are nothing so exceptional and for the low intelligence as 3rd level feat was chosen ignore special requirements so there aren’t problem with binding some vestiges. Weapon focus was took with a one hand weapon for two reasons mainly because it will be possible to change from using the shield to using the weapon with two hand basing on the situation and the enemies (if the enemy will do not so much damage the shield will not be used)

Spoiler: Level 6

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Thanks to the first level with full Base attack Terae can enter in the prestige class of the Knight of the Sacred seal, that while in a non E6 universe is something quite different from a binder (as it want every time one vestige) in E6 it is the same as the normal binder, as no abilities of the prestige class are sealed if the patron vestige isn’t bound. In Terae case the patron vestige will be Arete, because it’s the best to be a tank, but he can choose any other role using other vestiges, his main tactic at then end only require 1 power point, and he has the racial power points. Arete is quite interesting combined with the Elan race, as it gives many power points to be used for the abilities of the elan, an absolute DR, and a bonus to the saving throw. The bonus at the saving throw probably is better if is given to the Will save as the reflex save is quite low, and it will fail even with a +4 . The power points of Arete aren’t used to use the powers but to reduce the damage took (the only useful of the three power is body purification for the emergency, if not the next day Naberius can be binded to recover the damage). To boost the damage absorption the feat took is Elan resilience so is easier. Note that weapon focus (warhammer) was took in the rare case Eurynome should be used as it has an higher damage than Arete and a DR even if Eurynome is weaker than Arete, while to use at the best the detect evil Andras can be bound and it’s not bad if one is sure to fight evil enemies.

Spoiler: First 5 epic feats

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Thanks to the Knight of the Sacred Seal Base attack 5 was reached so thanks to the Elan race and to Arete the chain of feat to use greater psionic weapon can be used , even if Arete is not bound . Greater psionic weapon become the base damage so even while not bound to an offensive vestige Terae will be able to do damage. There will be vestiges better than others, but greater psionic weapon cover the damage while the double soul binding on the attack roll can cover the not full Base attack . Thanks to the 4th level stat point Psionic meditation can be took, while each rank in concentration was to use steady concentration , so there will be not any problem with regaining the focus each turn

Spoiler: Epic feats number 6 and 7

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Now that the base damage is covered some day Terae could need another vestige, so Expel vestige is taken to increase the versatility and to use even vestiges with a niche use like Cabiri for the sensor or Agares for the ability to read languages (these are only examples). To do the unbinding check in a better way Skilled pact making is took to boost our check , because is not so high , and with this feat is around a 50% for many of the vestiges. Depending on the DM ruling it could be even interesting binding Arete and when the power points gave by the vestige are used unbinding and rebinding Arete to gain other 13 power points (but it depends on the ruling and 42 damage reduced are enough for a single day so this is only a note)

Spoiler: Last three epic feats

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With Expel vestige Terae gained some versatility during the day, and these feats combine the need for versatility and the psionic powers. We gain three abilities that can be used 4/day but no one more than two times. Probably the psychic focuses unlocked will be the Crown(to boost the AC), the Solar plexus (to boost the saves again and combined with Arete one save can obtain up to +6 in a single day), and the base (to boost the physical stats). While the throat psychic focus isn’t interesting the other three are interesting because they refer to a manifester level, and the only manifester level Terae has is while Arete is bound, and is the same as the binder level. So the bonus could be 10 temporary hit points, 5 temporary power points (so 20 damage reduced), or 10 of Power resistance. What would happen if we unbind Arete during that hour is unknown but except for the temporary power points the other two aren’t so useful so the Solar (plexus), the Crown and the Base will be used as psychic focus

Spoiler: Variable numbers of Terae

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Hit points 10+4d8+1d10+12=45,5 that can become 51,5 with the Base psychic focus, or 55,5 with the heart psychic focus and Arete , or 55,5 with the double soul binding. So at the maximum 65,5(heart psychic focus and double soul binding on hit points), but the heart psychic focus is not so useful
To hit +8 (up to +12 with weapon focus (warhammer), double soul binding on the attack roll, and the base psychic focus)
Damage if the warhammer is wield with one hand 1d8+3+4d6 with greater psionic weapon +5 (with power attack) +1 with the base psychic focus. Probably power attack will not be used with 5 as penalty but with 1 or 2 depending on the situation and the setup
Damage if the warhammer is wield with two hands 1d8+4 +4d6 with greater psionic weapon +10 (with power attack) +2 with the base psychic focus. If used at two hand the penalty on power attack could be higher than before
AC=10+1 (dex)+8 (full plate) +3 )Crown psychic focus) +3 (if the heavy shield is used)=25
Saves Fortitude +9 , Reflex +2, Will +5 (with the solar (plexus one save will be boosted of 2 while the other 2 of 1)
No vestiges was included in these number because it would become quite difficult to says the number, but if Arete is included will become +9, and the total of power points goes to 15 with a possible 20 if the third eye focus

Spoiler: Sources

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Paladin, weapon focus, power attack : Player handbook
Psionic weapon, greater psionic weapon , psionic meditation, elan race : Expanded psionic handbook
Binder, Knigth of the sacred seal, expel vestige , skilled pact making, improved binding, ignore special requirement, variant heterodoxy and Heresy : Tome of magic
Steady concentration: Races of stone
Psychic meditation and deep psychic meditation ;Web
Arete :Web

[Zaq]

Five! Five binders for your judging pleasure! Ah ah aaaah!

Judges, you may begin!

[Zaq]

Name	Alignment / Race	Class Levels	Chef	Judge 1	Judge 2	Judge 3	Total	Place
Bulgy	TN Anthro Weasel	Druid 1 / Binder 5
Chami	TN Human	Binder 5 / Chameleon 1
Jack's Adventuring Solutions	TN Silverbrow Human	Binder 5 / Chameleon 1
Stuffy Doll	CE Warforged	Binder 5 / Crusader 1
Terae	LG Elan	Paladin 1 / Binder 4 / Knight of the Sacred Seal 1

[daremetoidareyo]

I'll begin actually judging tomorrow, im just reading them tonight, letting them trickle through the ole brain aquifer.

[MinimanMidget]

Random points of interest:

- If you count Knight of the Sacred Seal, everyone took 5 levels of Binder. No more, no less.

- Improved Binding was taken at 1st, 3rd, 5th, 5th, and never.

- How is it possible that it's taken me 35 rounds to notice that Zaq posts the builds in alphabetical order?

[Analytica]

I love how many Binder tricks revolve around hurting yourself for some benefit.

[ATHATH]

Question about the Terae build:

A paladin who goes against the will of her deity with regard to pact magic again, by taking levels as a binder cannot use the divine grace ability. If she takes enough binder levels to gain the pact augmentation ability, she can add her
cleric level to her binder level for the purpose of determining its effects. As with clerics who associate themselves with binders, a paladin might be ostracized, excommunicated, or hunted by her own church if she continues the relationship with the binder

I'm AFB right now; is this a direct quote from the book? If so, it looks like by RAW, a Paladin who gains the pact augmentation ability can only add her CLERIC level to her binder level for the purposes of pact augmentation, not her PALADIN level.

[Zaq]

Yup, there's some bad copypasta in the book. Official ruling: The paladin part of that rule should reference your paladin level and not your cleric level.

[loky1109]

I'll try to judge, but I can't promise anything.

[daremetoidareyo]

I am on the otherside of a week of nonstop toothpain, (thank you root canal!) So now i have much more focus to put towards judging. I should be done by the end of the weekend at the latest

[Quentinas]

Thanks for the work dare and loky

[loky1109]

Judging criteria.

Originality. Starting from 3. Highly subjective category. Are your classes, feats, combos, and tricks obvious and expected? Did I see something similar before? Or were you able to surprise me?

Power. Starting from 0. Before you built your build it was able to do nothing. With every level, every feat, ability and spell it was starting to do more. I'll be evaluating not only raw power, but utility, survivability, flexibility, and other parameters.

Elegance. Starting from 5. Till you place the first brick in your build there were zero mistakes. Guaranteed. Each mistake which I can find will take away some part of this five.

Use of the Secret Ingredient (latter UotSI). Starting from 0, for obvious reasons. How well you use SI? Do it something for your build or you took it just because you need? What would happen if it'll be removed?

It will take one-two days if nothing will not happen.

[loky1109]

Here we go!
Thanks for all participants! This round is sometimes hard to judge. All works are good. Some with clever cheesy trick, some with more regular solid builds. You all are greate!

We have no-one full binder. It's a shame.
To evaluate Originality for this round is a thing. I read one good Binder handbook and there are most of useful combos. And I'm very glad that I saw some new here!

Spoiler: Bulgy (13.25)

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Story is funny, but only barely connects with character. Build itself is very Wild: Wild empathy, Wild Cohort, Wild Talent. )))

Spoiler: Originality (4.25)

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Ok. Elephant Weasel in the room. Antro-Animals are nonoriginal (-0.5), but Weasel and a way, you use it definitely is (+1)! Clever trike!
Druid isn't something what I expected (+0.5). Double Animal companion, too (+0.25).
Using of Soulmelds well known thing (-0.5), but Beast Tamer Circlet is very obscure Soulmeld for me (+0.5).
Psi... This isn't wow, but it isn't the first idea, too (0).

Spoiler: Power (2)

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Offensive: On early levels... Druid helps. After and until 6th level there are nothing impressive. Your weak Charisma, that will be good from 6th, before hurts very much. But then 6th comes and situation changes. Even more on epic levels. You have +11-+12 to hit and 4d6 damage (if you beat DC 20 with +13 Concentration). Plus two swindlespitters. This still isn't very much, and your animals will die fast if somebody will want to kill them, and you can't prevent this. But this is something. With first level druid casting it maybe evaluate as +0.5.

Defensive: Normal AC (19 if I didn't mistake). DR 2. Very good 37-72 (average ~54) hp. Infinite healing. Nearly useless for defense, but existed Poison Blood. Saves 12/4/11 - Reflex is weak, but other are substantial. And during all way most part is in game.
It all looks like +1.

Utility: You can do something. Track, Handle Animal, Wild empathy, speak with animals, Animal Friend. One-sided. I give you +0.25.

Mobility: 20 ft speed, no other speed modes. Nothing exceptional. Eurynome's Water Dancing maybe, but very situational. Only +0.25.

And, because you are focused in single vestige, I can't give you some bonus for flexibility.

Spoiler: Elegance (4.25)

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Good first. Nice tables, nice snapshots, favorite spells, full sources. I like how your entry looks.
And you took drawback (racial Cha penalty) and convert it into merit! I rarely give bonuses in this category, but you take +0.5 for this.

Now about bad news. There aren’t that many, by the way. But some are.
Your main trick. Poison Healer + free Poisons. It works but there are some issues.

This means that, once he has bound Eurynome and bitten himself, he makes a saving throw against poison every round for the first minute, then 2 saving throws against poison every round after that. Although he'll fail these saving throws on a natural 1, they only deal hp damage, not ability damage, which will be vastly outweighed by the 8 hp he heals every round with Poison Healer.

When you say this about Eurynome's poison damage - all right. But your dinos. Their poison do blindness and 1d4 Con. This isn't good for you (-0.25).

The actual bite damage will be taken care of by the damage reduction Eurynome provides.

Second issue. You need blood. But DR prevents damage. RAW by vestige's text you still take poison, but RAI there are variants.
And you anyway should bypass your own DR. It is good for your trick, but you'll take some damage (-0.25).

What about your favored enemy? As I see you forgot it (-0.25).

Your Shape Soulmeld, Bonus Essentia, and Open Least Chakra feats. You definitely can take them, but what do they give you? +4 to Handle Animal and wild empathy? Continuous speak with animals? Yes, it means some action economy with your animals, but really you took nothing new in price of 3 feats. Speak with animals you can cast as Druid. Need more HA? Take Skill Focus, yes, it +3 against +4, but only one feat! I don't like this waist of feats (-0.5).

Spoiler: UotSI (2.75)

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You have 5 of 6 levels as Binder (+0.75). Your main defense and main attack based on vestige using, but can be emulated, maybe not fully, by other ways (+1). Pact augmentation gives you valuable bonus (+0.5). If I'll take your binder's abilities out... Well, you'll still be able do your things. +2 less to hit, worse weapon and damage (about 3d6 instead 4d6), more risky and less speedy healing, but you anyway shouldn't use it in fight (+0.5).

Fun Weasel! I like it. Yes, this build isn't powerhouse, but it has very clever trick and does all to get it to work.

Spoiler: Chami (12.25)

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I'll not give you bonus for that, but your table was very original! I needed quarter minute to understand! Like it!
But you have no story for me. (

Spoiler: Originality (3.5)

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Chameleons. Here too many Chameleons... (-0.25)
Five times Open minded? I didn't expect (+0.5).
Triple Animal devotion - not expected, too (+0.25).
City Slicker - I see this feat first time (+0.5).
Never Outnumbered + Imperious command - well known (-0.5).

Spoiler: Power (3.25)

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Offensive: You are Chameleon with 2nd levels in both Arcane and Divine spells. Not simultaneously, but in E6 it anyway is very much. (+0.25) Plus, you have Animal Devotion and many of vestiges can add something to your offensive capability (+0.5). And your fear abilities are always with you. Never Outnumbered + Imperious command well known with a reason (+0.25).

Defensive: You are Chameleon with 2nd levels in both Arcane and Divine spells. Not simultaneously, but in E6 it anyway is very much. (+0.25) Yes, I say this again. Plus Chameleon gives you All Armor Proficiency. Good (+0.25). And vestiges of course can give some for your protection (+0.25). Saves aren't very good, especially Refl (-0.25).

Utility: Chameleon, okay? (+0.25) And your skills! Very impressive (+0.5)!

Mobility: You are Chameleon, you know? (+0.25) And Animal Devotion gives you fly or speed bust (+0.25)

Versatile of your entry is obvious. This is more strategical versatile, than tactical, but it still is good (+0.5).

Chameleon is very hard to evaluate in my manner.

Spoiler: Elegance (3.5)

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I see good tables, good level tips, full source's list. Okay.
Issues.
I don't like part "Vestiges and focus, some ideas". It was hard to read and it gave me too little.

Savnok Martial focus or divine focus.

Ok, but why do you thing that Savnok synergies with Martial and Divine focuses? What good them do to each other? Yes, you wrote some details for several vestiges. And if you wrote only about them I'll not say any word. But you did what you did. (-1)

Suggestion. It can be more more easy to read your tips if all vestige's names are bold. And if there are dots at the end of the all sentences.

it’s quite impossible analyze each one of the 22 (number of vestiges)*8 (options of pact augmentation)*2 (second pact augmentation)*5 (aptitude focus ) =1760 possible setup

Why second pact augmentation has only 2 options? O_o
And what is asterisk in table (5th level, Class Features)? No penalty.

I don't like 5 Open minded if we talk about optimization. Yes, it good for you, but you really need so much and have no other options? For example, you have good, always work fear tactics, why did you not take Skill Focus (Intimidate) instead one of OM? (-0.25)

Table has some problems. Skill tricks appears only when they taken. It is confusing (-0.25).

Spoiler: UotSI (2)

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You have 5 of 6 levels as Binder (+0.75). You do much with binder's abilities, but I don't see any that you depend on. Astaroth is good for you and with Chameleon's spellcasting works well, but this is more about Chameleon, than about Binder. Yes, first five levels all on Binder, but I don't see in Chami the spice (+0.5). Pact augmentation gives you some bonuses, but not defining (+0.25). If I take Binder out... Actually you still be Chameleon, and many of Binder's abilities can be substituted. Not all and not in one build, but you didn't base on some unique. I harm you, but far not kill (+0.5).

Yes, such versatile you has due SI, but why do you need be so versatile? And you talk about 1760 possible setups (7040 actually), but really there are only 110. Pact augmentation did not much drastic changes. 110 is good, even if half of this options are dysfunctional. But I can't see character behind this options.

Spoiler: Jack's Adventuring Solutions (12.25)

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Jack is funny! Story is short as a dagger and do enough sense!

Spoiler: Originality (3)

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Second Chameleon (-0.25).
Jack of All Trades isn't feat that I expected to see (+0.25)
Practiced Spellcaster + Chameleon is obvious choice (-0.25).
Double Crossbow? See first time. Good (+0.5).
Healing Devotion and Divine Defiance with Tenebrous is very obvious combo. I glad to see it, but in originality this is minus (-0.25).
Entangling Exhalation plus Amon isn't obvious. Interesting (+0.5).
Silverbrow Human? Shall we have at least one round without Silverbrow Human (-0.5)?
Martial Study, Martial Stance, Shadow Blade. These guys are welcome guests and I always expect them (-0.25).
Trickery Devotion is very obscure (+0.25).

Spoiler: Power (3.75)

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Offensive: As Chameleon you have good options to attack (+0.25). Out of Chameleon you have valuable options, too. You can fight in melee, in ranged, have control option or energy damage (+0.5).

Defensive: Chameleon gives you +0.25, I don't want repeat why. )
Child of Shadow, Healing Devotion, Divine Defiance, All Armor Proficiency. I see strong defense (+0.5). But saves... Aptitude Focus, yes, but even with its bonus your saves aren't big (-0.25).

Utility: Chameleon - +0.25. Jack of All Trades, Trickery Devotion, good skills (+0.5).

Mobility: Chameleon - +0.25. Out of Chameleon you have: Shadow Jaunt, Flicker from Tenebrous, and... I can't see any more mention in your entry (+0.25).

Your flexibility gives you +0.5.
And I need to give a special points for Practiced Spellcaster - +0.25. It helps in all respects.
I like Divine Defiance + Tenebrous + Arcane Aptitude Focus combo - +0.5.

Spoiler: Elegance (3)

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Your tables are good and clear, your Breakdown & Tactics section are good, too. Your Sources table is very nice.
Go to bad news.
You forgot abilities - -1.5.
You didn't mention source for Astaroth (-0.25).
RAW Amon's Fire Breath doesn't work with Entangling Exhalation (-0.25).

In your Sources table you wrote:

Martial Study (Shadow Jaunt)

Tome of Battle, p. 31

this is slightly wrong. Page 31 for feat Martial Study, but Shadow Jaunt itself is on page 79. No penalty.

Spoiler: UotSI (2.5)

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You have 5 of 6 levels as Binder (+0.75). Your binder's abilities combine with Chameleon's and with feats. Nothing unique and inimitable, but I see good synergy (+0.75). Pact augmentation gives you some bonuses, but you even didn't talk about it (+0.25). Without SI... Some things don't work. Some work worse. Build isn't collapsed, but has problems (+0.75).

Very nice Chameleon with fun fluff. You have mistakes, but I like this entry.

Spoiler: Stuffy Doll (11.75) (HM)

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Hilarious! Story is absent. Sadly.

Spoiler: Originality (4.5)

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Warforged, Adamantine Body, Shocking Fist - not expected (+0.5).
Stone Power and Inured to Energy aren't expected, too (+0.5)
Martial (-0.5) and Incarnum (-0.5) opposite expected every time.
You didn't take Improved Binding! Wow (+0.5)!

Your main trick! Wow! I can't expect something like this (+1)!

Spoiler: Power (2.75)

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Offensive: If your Dahlver-nar trick works (it doesn't, but this latter) you can do big amount of damage to enemy in 50 ft. But initial Will save with your low DC isn't great for you as like as standard action to activate Shield Self. But potential is very impressive (+0.5). Without trick you still can do some damage and Martial Maneuvers help you, but this isn't your thing (+0.5).

Defensive: But this is your! High AC, ~55 hp, 2 DR, healing, temp hp, Karmic Strike, 20 electricity resistance. Impressive (+1.25)!

Utility: Not good. Some social skills, craft to repair self, nothing non skill abilities. Yes, you have many vestiges, but you build around single. Ok, I give you some points for Expel Vestige (+0.5)

Mobility: It's a shame. Only 20 ft land speed. Nothing more. Enemies can literally walk out from your main trick (0).

Spoiler: Elegance (1.25)

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Tables, sources - good. Lack of level-by-level, not good (-0.25).
First to main.
Dahlver-Nar's Shield Self.

As long as the subject creature remains within range, you take only half damage from all effects that deal hit point damage, and it takes the rest.

You need to take damage, but you don't. DR and energy resistance prevent you from damage, so you have nothing to share with enemy. Yes, Stone Power and Steely Resolve are in game, but this is only 13 and it not work with electricity if you don't take it (-1.5).
Skills on 6th ECL have problem (-0.25).
For what reason you took 4 ranks in Tumble? With your Adamantine Body you can't use it (-0.25). I can understand 5 ranks for skill synergy, but not 4.

You can dive, roll, somersault, flip, and so on. You can’t use this skill if your speed has been reduced by armor, excess equipment, or loot (see Table 9–2: Carrying Loads, page 162).

Expel Vestige. Why you take it? You build is around single vestige, you don't need to change it (-0.25).
Martial Study (Wall of Blades)... It is dead feat. Lets math.
Your AC: 10+8(Adamantine Body)+1(Dex)+2(1/2 Con)+4(Combat Expertise)*+2(Defense)*+2(Shield)=23-29
Your to hit: +4(BAB)+3(Str)+1(Furious Counterstrike)-4(Stone Power)-4(Combat Expertise)*-4(Defense)*=-4-+4, +8 if you don't use Stone Power, but I don't reasons not to use it. And we have AC 23/to hit +4 without Expertise, or AC 27/to hit +0 with it. Very bad feat choice (-0.5).
Martial Spirit. You need to strike opponent for this stance. Hit yourself doesn't work (-0.25).

Let’s crunch the numbers to see this in action.

Slam 1d4+3
Shocking Fist 4d4 (+4 to activate)
Lightning Gauntlets 4d6
Slam AoO 1d4+3

Adamantine Body -2 (per strike)
Stone Power -8
Pact Augmentation and Inured to Energy -20
Martial Spirit -2

I don't like this formatting. DR is one thing, Energy resistance other thing, temp hp - third, healing - fourth. In your demonstration all this things are same (-0.25).

Your damage. I can't understand you use both Shocking Fist and Lightning Gauntlets on the first strike or one on first, second on AoO? If both on first, you can do some damage yourself (-0.25).

Slam 1d4+3

You forgot about Furious Counterstrike, Slam damage should be 1d4+4. (0)

Spoiler: UotSI (3.75)

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You have 5 of 6 levels as Binder (+0.75). You main trick can't work without SI (+2). You need Pact Augmentation (+0.5). Without Binder... Well, you loose main trick, but you still can strike somebody out of yourself (+0.5).

Nice! I very like this Doll! My HM. I’m really sorry that trick doesn't work.

Spoiler: Terae (13.5)

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You definitely do good job. Always glad to see PrC that designed specially for SI.

Spoiler: Originality (4.75)

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Paladin. Not expected (+0.5).
Elan. Too (+0.25).
Go so deep into Psi don't expected at all. Psi vestiges are... Not so good, let's be polite. Psionic weapon is ok, but Psychic meditation feat line is surprise (+0.75).
Knight of the Sacred Seal is surprise, too (+0.25).

Spoiler: Power (2.25)

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Offensive: You have good options. +8-+12 is good enough (+0.25), significant damage with option to use or not to use () Power Attack (+0.25). Aligned strike may be useful (+0.25). But except this all your offensive options there are in non-main vestiges.

Defensive: Good AC, good hp, DR 5/-, saves... not so brilliant especially Reflex (+0.5). And our star - elan's damage absorption with up to 33 pp. This is big deal (+0.5)!

Utility: I'm not impressed by your skills (+0). Yes, other vestiges and Expel vestige, but this is very limited (+0.25).

Mobility: You have only 20 ft land speed (full plate has its cost), and have no over move modes (+0).

I don't know in which category place this: Steady concentration is very good catch, you really need it (+0.25)!

Change my calculation mistake.

Spoiler: Elegance (4)

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Good table, good level-by-level tips, good sources.
Heterodoxy and heresy is good finding, I give you bonus +0.25 for it.

We gain three abilities that can be used 4/day but no one more than two times.

Hm... Actually five and 5/day (-0.25). And "no one more than two times" isn't fully true, real mechanics is different (No penalty).

Saves Fortitude +9 , Reflex +2, Will +5 (with the solar (plexus one save will be boosted of 2 while the other 2 of 1)

But you up all 3 by +1 (-0.25).

Ignore special requirement doesn't do so much for you. I know, other vestiges, but all vestiges you mention has no any hard requirements for you (-0.25).

Cabiri is from magazine (-0.25).

Arete as patron vestige of The Knight of the Sacred Seal is very in theme, but gives you litterally nothing (-0.25).

I don't like that there aren't numbers of class levels in the table, but I wont penalize you for this.

pact augmentation (2 abilities)*

O! I see asterisk. )))

Spoiler: UotSI (2.5)

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You have 4 of 6 levels as Binder (+0.5). But you have special binder PrC (+0.25). You use pact augmentation and even do some work to take second (+0.25). Your main defense comes from Arete (+0.5). And you can't imitate this fully without Binder. Psychic Warrior? Yes, but it hasn't such amount of pp. Only 14 (+ race and feats) against 13*2. Psion? Pp it has, but not armor, BAB and hp (+0.25).

Without Binder... You can hit. But your main defense turn into a pumpkin (Halloween ) (+0.75)

I see good work (Did I say it before?) and I very appreciate it. Paladin-Binder synergy is very interesting.

[Quentinas]

Thanks for the judgement Loky later I will re read it , but for now with a tired mind I didn't see anything too much wrong or that would change something at the end .
Here is a table for now

Name	Alignment / Race	Class Levels	Chef	Loky1109	Judge 2	Judge 3	Total	Place
Bulgy	TN Anthro Weasel	Druid 1 / Binder 5	???	13.25	18.75		32	1st
Terae	LG Elan	Paladin 1 / Binder 4 / Knight of the Sacred Seal 1	???	13.50	18		31.5	2nd
Jack's Adventuring Solutions	TN Silverbrow Human	Binder 5 / Chameleon 1	???	12.25	17.25		30	3rd
Stuffy Doll	CE Warforged	Binder 5 / Crusader 1	???	11.75	17.75		29.5	4th
Chami	TN Human	Binder 5 / Chameleon 1	???	12.25	16.5		28.75	5th

[AsuraKyoko]

It tickles me that the two chameleon builds also both got the same score. (though they came about it differently)

[loky1109]

It tickles me that the two chameleon builds also both got the same score. (though they came about it differently)

I’m surprised at it myself.

[daremetoidareyo]

One entry finished.

Sorry about the delay, I'm moving through the entries faster now after a series of medical issues that affected my cognition.

I'll try to wrap up soon.

[H_H_F_F]

Glad to hear you're doing well, dare. Get better soon.

[daremetoidareyo]

2 down, 3 to go. I appreciate your patience

[Zaq]

Dispute from Jack:

RAW Amon's Fire Breath doesn't work with Entangling Exhalation (-0.25).

Entangling Exhalation does not have any special requirements for it to be used with a breath weapon (unlike Metabreath feats, though those would still work with Amon's Fiery Breath, due to its round-based cooldown). Amon's breath weapon is referred to as such by the name of the ability, and also in every instance where it is mentioned in his entry, so it is definitely a breath weapon. The only ambiguity there is is the word "vomit" here:

Fire Breath: You can vomit forth a line of fire as a standard action. The line extends 10 feet per effective binder level (maximum 50 feet) and deals 1d6 points of fire damage per binder level to every creature in its area. A successful Reflex save halves this damage. Once you have used this ability, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds.

However, given that the ability is referred to as a breath by its name (and everywhere else in the vestige description), it is clearly a breath weapon, and thus works with Entangling Exhalation.

And something from Terae:

Thanks for your work but there is something wrong in your judgement at least for me and I know that I could stay silent and appreciate the bonus of 1.5 poin but it wouldn't be correct without an explanation

[SPOILER=Terae (15)]You definitely do good job. Always glad to see PrC that designed specially for SI.

Spoiler: Power (3.75)

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Offensive: You have good options. +8-+12 is good enough (+0.25), significant damage with option to use or not to use () Power Attack (+0.25). Aligned strike may be useful (+0.25). But except this all your offensive options there are in non-main vestiges.

Defensive: Good AC, good hp, DR 5/-, saves... not so brilliant especially Reflex (+0.5). And our star - elan's damage absorption with up to 33 pp. This is big deal (+0.5)!

Utility: I'm not impressed by your skills (+0). Yes, other vestiges and Expel vestige, but this is very limited (+0.25).

Mobility: You have only 20 ft land speed (full plate has its cost), and have no over move modes (+0).

I don't know in which category place this: Steady concentration is very good catch, you really need it (+0.25)!

First here is the part where you gave me a big bonus because +0.25 (BAB) + 0.25 (damage)+ 0.25 (aligned strike)+ 0.5 (ac hp dr saves) + 0.5 (elan damage absorption) +0.25 (expel vestige) +0.25 (steady concentration) it make 2.25 , so if ac hp DR and saves were separated the 3.75 would be okay , but for how you wrote together they count only 0.5 so there is 1.5 point missing

Spoiler: Elegance (4)

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Good table, good level-by-level tips, good sources.
Heterodoxy and heresy is good finding, I give you bonus +0.25 for it.


Hm... Actually five and 5/day (-0.25). And "no one more than two times" isn't fully true, real mechanics is different (No penalty).


But you up all 3 by +1 (-0.25).

Ignore special requirement doesn't do so much for you. I know, other vestiges, but all vestiges you mention has no any hard requirements for you (-0.25).

Cabiri is from magazine (-0.25).

Arete as patron vestige of The Knight of the Sacred Seal is very in theme, but gives you litterally nothing (-0.25).

I don't like that there aren't numbers of class levels in the table, but I wont penalize you for this.


O! I see asterisk. )))

One minor thing , deep psychic meditation increase the cost in activation of 1 for each time you already activated that center so one center after it was activated could be activated only one more time (still I had a brain fart on the number of active center and it was a no penalty mistake)

Then the minor mistake . Solar (plexus) from the table gives
Solar (Plexus) +2 morale bonus on saving throw of choice, +1 morale bonus on remaining two
So while what I wrote was written bad probably ( missing a ")" and I could have avoided using others) one of the save receives a +2 bonus and not each save only a +1 bonus. Maybe it was remade later but what I found had that effect

For the patron vestige is not like that any vestiges would give something, one would avoid a bad pact with the vestige so one would avoid the influence (in the case of Arete the research thing) but as the main vestige is Arete it would be rare to be bound to another vestige (still possible but as you said without Arete my defense become a pupmkin)

[loky1109]

Hello Jack!

Spoiler: Jack

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Amon's breath weapon is referred to as such by the name of the ability, and also in every instance where it is mentioned in his entry, so it is definitely a breath weapon.

However, given that the ability is referred to as a breath by its name (and everywhere else in the vestige description), it is clearly a breath weapon, and thus works with Entangling Exhalation.

I agree with you, and in real game with sentient DM this definitely should work, but language of the Entangling Exhalation refers to breath weapon. Breath weapon is the name of specific Special Attack, that has its own section in Glossary. And Amon's Fire Breath has different name.
Precisely because it should work I penalized you for only 0.25.

No change.

Hello Terae!

Spoiler: Terae

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Thanks for your work but there is something wrong in your judgement at least for me and I know that I could stay silent and appreciate the bonus of 1.5 poin but it wouldn't be correct without an explanation

First here is the part where you gave me a big bonus because +0.25 (BAB) + 0.25 (damage)+ 0.25 (aligned strike)+ 0.5 (ac hp dr saves) + 0.5 (elan damage absorption) +0.25 (expel vestige) +0.25 (steady concentration) it make 2.25 , so if ac hp DR and saves were separated the 3.75 would be okay , but for how you wrote together they count only 0.5 so there is 1.5 point missing

Oops. I'm so embarrassed. I don't know how I did so big mistake. I should be 2.25, yes. Sorry for that.

One minor thing, deep psychic meditation increase the cost in activation of 1 for each time you already activated that center so one center after it was activated could be activated only one more time

Yes, you are almost right about result, but your wording was slightly inaccurate.

Then the minor mistake . Solar (plexus) from the table gives
Solar (Plexus) +2 morale bonus on saving throw of choice, +1 morale bonus on remaining two
So while what I wrote was written bad probably ( missing a ")" and I could have avoided using others) one of the save receives a +2 bonus and not each save only a +1 bonus. Maybe it was remade later but what I found had that effect

Yes, Solar (plexus) should give you +2/+1/+1 (or +1/+2/+1, or +1/+1/+2), but let's look at your numbers:
In table:

+8 +1 +4

In "Variable numbers":

Saves Fortitude +9 , Reflex +2, Will +5

I can't see any +2 here, but see three +1.
My math of course was worse, but this definitely is mistake.

For the patron vestige is not like that any vestiges would give something, one would avoid a bad pact with the vestige so one would avoid the influence (in the case of Arete the research thing)

I wouldn't penalize you for this, if you aren't elan. For elan Arete's influence means only -1 pp. Another vestige... I would penalize you for this, too. This is gambit.
The research thing, yes. With single Knowledge skill this doesn't look very significant, so penalty is still here.

I very appreciate that you point me about my bad math. It isn't for your benefit, but is honest. Thank you!

-1.5

[daremetoidareyo]

Thank you for your patience. I enjoyed all of these builds.

Some rough judging guidelines:

Spoiler

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Originality:

Show me something new and clever and flavorful, get a 5. This is a category in which i navigate by gut feeling more than any other category.

Elegance:

I've been told that elegance is my dump stat. And I think that that shows. I don't care about favored class, cuz ive never played a game that does. I like seeing what the game inspires in your mind. I perceive this contest as: Here's a bunch of ikea instructions on how to make different fantasy 'hero', and here's a pair of scissors and a gluestick. We'll Judge the collage of what you did as a piece of art. Just get it arguably right, and I won't sweat it.

Power:

For power, I'm gonna compare the t3 binder builds to a couple of other switchblade type tier 3s: the crusader and the incarnate. This will allow me to compare combat utility focus (crusader) to plot resolution/multi-trick pony focus (incarnate). So if your build competes with an incarnate for utility but can't hurt a fly, you'de get a 2.5. If you can go toe to toe with whatever a crusader can for 3 rounds and perform comparably well, but you must bind one vestige all of the time, and just limp on by otherwise, do not expect a 5 here, unless what you've found is absolutely amazing.

Use of Special Ingredient:

This is another category that operates on hunches. Basically I ask myself how important the SI is to the build and then eyeball a score. I try not to focus entirely on mechanics here, as you know, narrative is part of the class system, but I know i have a bias in this regard, now you do too.

Bulgy: 18.75

Spoiler

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Originality: 5
I didn't see the anthroweasel coming into play and why should anyone? its a nice little find. The poison healer ouroborous (sans snakes!) with the eurynome poison blood while self attached, (Just bite your own tongue to keep it running!) is a fantastic little trick. The write up tho, I never bothered to think of the vestiges of co-habitating as churlish roommates, let alone as ones with personalities that kind of represent them. My only longing is that i don't really know about the animus that drives this anthro-weasel. We have some tantalizing clues: constant bloodsuckling, True neutral alignment. An ability to beckon forth the spirits of the other realm for a little R&R. But what are Bulgy's dreams?

Elegance: 5
Skill points check out and you qualify for all of your feats. No prestige classes. No glaring mistakes. I Have got to say, your level breakdowns are charmingly concise.

Power: 4.25
I let my mind wander a bit about that druid level at level 1. You get the animal companion which is a neat way to crusader's strike, simply outsource it to your kinda-fragile mostly-ignorable dinobuddy. And you list some solid tactics of leaning on that druid level for a good AC, You focus on a late vestige, and i appreciate how you brachiate through the vestige options through the levels. And late game, you're kind of a banging archer with leraje bound. So your feat support can pull double duty. Wild Cohort is more powerful for this character than taking natural bond.

Was there a more effective other way to supe up your ranged attack damage with that large hammer than to throw 3 feats at it for a total of 2d6? And im not convinced that you needed zen archery either, it seems like a +2 to hit for a feat isn't worth it. 4 feats for +2/+7damage: I'd just change your stat array a bit, take weapon focus and dead eye, but when i tried to build around it, i couldn't beat the +2/+7, so i guess you did as well as could be done. the only thing that keeps you from getting a higher score here is the fact that you cannot expel your vestige early to tap into your versatility of binding a new vestige for on the fly adaptability.

So, I feel like once you get to Eurynome, you're powerful, but you've sacrificed a lot of versatility. You have an excellent ability to heal, and you have two buddies to help. I do wonder how you manage the blindness part of the swindlespitter allies though. I think you compare favorably well to a crusader, and your constant healing trick is hard to imagine in practice in a real game, but it's probably really effective.

UOSI: 4.5
As a focused binder, im really glad that someone did Eurynome. Those abilities are weird. So the constant healing trick is pretty neat way to leverage the poison blood, which then went into your race selection so you can feast on yourself. The hammer is wildly out of place in the abilities list, but you're right it does obviate the size difference for the race choice. The only weird ability of Eurynome that is left out on this build is the ability to walk on water, which you know, is classically difficult medium to throw a hammer into. If you found a way to add piercing damage to the hammer, you could then use aquatic shot and be able to hammer-fish. Its hard to imagine a situation other than the apocryphal shooting fish in a barrel situation that seems to never present itself in real life. But maybe sauhagin teens bite you for a buzz or something, and you need to rain hammers down on them as they dive away. Well, ive taken the long way to say that i understand why you didn't feel the need to devote build resources to the weird water walk ability. Strangely enough, the choice to focus on eurynome limits your ability to have your feat selections jive with any of the other 4th level vestiges you have access to. It also drives off the utility of binding earlier vestiges as well, with the possible esception of Leraje. This was enough to not award full points, but not enough to punish severely because the vestige that you can bind, you bind really flipping well.

Chami: 16.5

Spoiler

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Originality:3.5

Right off the bat, there's an issue, 40% of the builds in this contest used chameleon prestige class to show off the binder. It seems unfair to hold that against the build, so i will try my best. Afterall, the binder is a jack of all trades and so is the chameleon, so they go together like peanut butter and carbohydrates. It's bold to use open minded 5 times and animal devotion thrice. The astaroth crafting focus is an astute observation; it is quite the potent force multiplier. I don't penalize for going human on an e6 build, feats are awesome. To be honest, I don't know how to approach the multi use of the feats for more skill points. Like, it takes guts to choose the same feat 5 times, so i don't want to dissuade that approach, but it does feel to me like it's not particularly original. And like any jack of all trades styled build, it's difficult to get a sense of personality for the character.

Elegance: 5

All feats are qualified for, as is the prestige class. Do i need to write more here? I don't think that i need to write more. Thank you for your elegance, I guess?

Power: 3.54.0
So you are definitely weak at the lowest levels. -.25. You are as versatile as an incarnate, and you have this crafting adaptability that sets you up as a budget artificer. The synergy between the chameleon casting and the ability to craft scrolls or wands makes you quite the planner. I wonder if you could use astaroth to scribe martial scripts. So you're definitely on par with an incarnate. I do feel however that committing 5 feats to get 25 skill points is a thematic choice that has a steep opportunity cost that pulls from your combat ability. It does make you stealthier though. So if I were eyeballing this build for power, I am comfortable putting it at 3.5. Better than a binder without a chameleon level, but not the hardest melee combatant.

Update: I finished the rest of the build judgments but came back here, because i suspect that I didn't properly account for the crafting focus hack that you built. I presume that you get yourself those items of transference from that web add on so all the crafting XP isn't coming from yourself, in which case I think that it's fair to up this score by a half point.

UOSI: 4.0
This one is hard. You definitely stretch out the class features of a binder very well. What I am missing is some direction with some spell combos that work with each bind. I know option fatigue is real when building with a chameleon as part of one's entry, but theres hundreds of first and second level spells, so im sure there's some neat tricks that you envisioned using. The assassin and ranger spell lists seem potent for some of the ranged attack vestiges. You don't commit to any single vestige, which is one of the two prime ways to optimize this base class. I'm going to eyeball this at a 4, finish the rest of the judgments and reassess.

The lack of feat support for your versatility hurts you here. I just don't think 25 skill points out competes the stuff you could use to synergize better.

Stuffy Doll: 17.75

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Originality 4.5
Dalver nar focus is a really fun approach to this, and you leverage your racial feats really well. There is a central mechanical hook that I do believe is pretty original. So Eyeballing this as a solid 4.5. This is more fun than a straight binder and has its own unique flavor.

Elegance: 4.0
The central trick of this build is likely to be nerfed a bit by some more dictatorial style DMs. But all in all, everything seems applied for.

Your damage trick with Dalver-Nar requires that you take HP damage, so using resistances and whatnot to reduce damage makes the damage that you share smaller. Lots of other parts of the combo seem to work, like the delayed damage pool.

Power: 4.5
This is a pretty powerful slugger, at the expense of some of the inherent capacity for variance available to a binder. Expel vestige is there if you need to retool out of combat mode for a day. Crusader does quite a bit of the heavy lifting for your combat versatility while you have a non-dahlver nar bound however. So, I am comfortable putting a 4.5 here. You're a melee slugger who can change it up and only suffer a bit as your crusader strikes can do the healing to compensate for your shocking fist. Early game adamantine plating is great and really helps a binder survive level 2.

UOSI: 4.75
This is the first time I've seen a damage redirect build that is outside of psionics, so in a way, that is a unique capacity for the binder. Specializing in a single vestige, you lose the emphasis of variability for a traditional binder build, but what you did create is an interesting case study. And interesting case studies are fun.

Terae 19

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Originality 5:

Look, If you want more elan on your elan: http://archive.wizards.com/default.a.../frcc/20070620 There's a regional feat that makes you elan-ier. I really like how you captured something narratively rich here and though it's not the most powerful thing ever done, it is really plot productive to have the first elan get bound by a late heir. I'm gonna throw a 5 up here because this is pretty darn original. And I loved the hurdle jumping you did to get into sacred seal.

Elegance 5:
I thought i caught something, but the oxford comma on KoSS does indicate that you qualify with just one knowledge skill. All in all, I am not seeing any problems here.


Power: 3.0 4.0
Remember all of those nice things I said already, well...they have a cost. The cost being that you’re kind of weak in combat, and thus are a bit of a second liner. You have great durability, which is weird to calculate. If you had an alternative way to use your extensive PP, i think you would have something… And you take expel vestige, but it with KoSS in the mix, you lose the pact augments and your durability trick. So, in a way...youre kinda a normal binder.

EDIT: Changed to 4.0. It's a fiddly little build, but in the right hands, it is absolutely a 4.0

UOSI: 5
You leverage a weird vestige to do something that only a binder can: massive temp PP without a psionic class level. And the flavor part of this build is narratively rich. KoSS counts as a binder level in my book. And you used the paladin level to advance some binding, so i don’t think a penalty for not having binder 6 is necessary.

Jack:17.25

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Originality: 4.0
Alright, I decided to do this one last because i did the other chameleon entry early in my judging process. I wanted to make some space so I could be fair to both. I love that you’re a one-person adventuring company. You took an approach of nabbing a couple feats that will help with various vestiges rather than a single out a specific one. The testimonials were fun.

Elegance 4:
Entangling exhalation and Amon is a cool little combo. It appears that you qualify for everything, though you do have a bit of an ability score situation. It appears you have an int of 13 to qualify for jack of all trades. But then wouldn’t you have more skill points? I’m gonna deduct big here, and i know that it's probably an oversight error, but it affects the ability to score the rest of elegance, and to some degree, power.

Power 4.25:
You’re versatile and you manage to get little power bumps for various abilities through feats. It looks like this follows an incarnate trajectory, plus you have ½ in every craft skill for astaroth. It looks like you can hold your own against some enemies that youve prepared for. Your tenebrous optimization on top of the amon trick and your synergy with leraje all boost you up here.

UOSI 4.75:
You used the heck out of the SI. I really appreciated your tricks and tips, because they helped elucidate what you could do. What is missing is choosing a handful of chameleon spells that would help you along. Its a black box of potential that you omitted.

[Zaq]

Thank you for judging, dare! One dispute here:

I do wonder how you manage the blindness part of the swindlespitter allies though.

I'm guessing you meant to ping me for this rather than Stuffy Doll.

You get the animal companion which is a neat way to crusader's strike, simply outsource it to your kinda-fragile mostly-ignorable dinobuddy.

In a similar vein, I think you might've given me credit for a trick I don't have - the dinobuddy is me, but I don't have crusader's strike.

I will say that I am so proud of the multiple disputes here that seem to be designed to cede back unearned points. You're all the best.

[Quentinas]

I updated the table , if there will be dispute I will update again

[Zaq]

One more incoming!

Thank you for your patience. I enjoyed all of these builds.

Some rough judging guidelines:

Power:

For power, I'm gonna compare the t3 binder builds to a couple of other switchblade type tier 3s: the crusader and the incarnate. This will allow me to compare combat utility focus (crusader) to plot resolution/multi-trick pony focus (incarnate). So if your build competes with an incarnate for utility but can't hurt a fly, you'de get a 2.5. If you can go toe to toe with whatever a crusader can for 3 rounds and perform comparably well, but you must bind one vestige all of the time, and just limp on by otherwise, do not expect a 5 here, unless what you've found is absolutely amazing.

Terae 18

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Power: 3.0
Remember all of those nice things I said already, well...they have a cost. The cost being that you’re kind of weak in combat, and thus are a bit of a second liner. You have great durability, which is weird to calculate. If you had an alternative way to use your extensive PP, i think you would have something… And you take expel vestige, but it with KoSS in the mix, you lose the pact augments and your durability trick. So, in a way...youre kinda a normal binder.

Thanks for the Judgement Dare but are you sure that I can't compare to a crusader for 3 round at least in damage and in defense (not in healing I will admit this because the crusader can heal the team while Terae can't)? I'm assuming this compared to the strikes as full attack derived from BAB is impossible for a Binder in E6
Assuming same equipment (so same base AC same magic items and same weapon) , same strenght dexterity and constitution after base psychic centre (and this can be false as for a Crusader the only that could be not interesting is Wisdom but charisma is more interesting for him than Terae, but I'm assuming same stat so that they can be annulled during the math)

Hit points 12+5d12 for the Crusader +Con*6 vs 10+4d8+10 + Con*6 for Terae so we are at 44,5 vs 33,5 Let's say one pact augmentation goes there so there are 6 more hit point for the crusader
To hit (assuming a weapon focus even for the crusader) 6 (BAB)+1 (weapon focus) + STR for the crusader vs 5 (bab) +1(weapon focus) +STR for Terae so with a pact augmentation that boost the attack roll Terae has the same number to hit

Then let's assume the martial spirit stance for the Crusader and these three maneuver that are the strongest on the damage side if i'm not wrong (only one could be know but there are feats for that)
Bonecrusher +4d6 so same damage as greater psionic weapon
Revitalizing strike no more damage but heal 3d6+6 which are 2.5 more than greater psionic weapon
Foehammer (or mountain hammer is the same on the damage side) ignore RD and +2d6 so it ignore DR 5 but it does 7 damage less than greater psionic weapon

Assuming every strike hit the crusader at the first round has a 50% to gain steely resolve 10 , while in the remaining two round he has the damage reserve . The average damage of Terae is more than 10 so steely resolve will be full every time , that means the crusader has a +2 to attack and damage roll , so with power attack a +4 on damage for a total of +6 compared to Terae (let's say that they are using two handed weapon if you want a crusader with shield stone power has the same influence on the math as it would still be 4 point which is the same of elan resilience), and for each hit he heals of 2 thanks to martial spirit stance. Terae on the other side has a DR 5 (except for foehammer) and a -4 to damage for each single strike so our DR + elan resilience does 1 more than the bonus of steely resolve and martial spirit so in two strike 2 damage less

With foehammer the DR 5 is ignored so for that strike there is only the -4 of elan resilience but foehammer does 7 less on average (2d6 vs 4d6) So the damage is 2d6 foehammer + 2 steely resolve +4 power attack -4 elan resilience vs 4d6 greater psionic weapon -2 martial spirit becomes 2d6+2 vs 4d6-2 so on average 9 vs 12 so is more damage still with greater psionic weapon . And the 2.5 of healing from revitalizing can be added here to let the two number become the same .

So the only thing I can't compare is the 6 more hit point of the crusader but for each hit that the crusader and Terae take the DR and elan resilience cover 1 more which means after 6 it's the same amount of life I think the save are comparable as the multiclass help Terae to be similar to divine grace (except on reflexes where the crusader will be higher ) .
I assumed that each one hit as with the same base AC so the math could become easier (but with the same AC and to hit the damage per round should be similar), but to be honest there is a little advantage to Terae as he can use elan resilience when he is about to take damage while the martial spirit stance ask to hit (but for this there is the roots of the mountain that give the same effect instead of healing a DR 2/- ) and the steely resolve would go away after 1 round where Terae didn't hit . So can you explain how can't I compare to a crusader on damage? Terae sure is a sponge on taking damage but it's not like he can't do damage and greater psionic weapon can be done each turn thanks to steady concentration.

Sure Terae can't heal like a crusader , and it doesn't give a bonus to allies like the Crusader but it's near a stone dragon crusader as abilities to do damage and to take damage, I'm not expecting a 5 because these things can only be done while he is bound to Arete but a 3 with saying that Terae is weak and a second liner? It seems strange for me but maybe you are thinking in a different way so can you explain something more where are you seeing Terae weak ? I'm happy you enjoyed my build in each case and thanks for the info on the regional feat for elan if ever I will play this character probably I will take that with a flaw

[daremetoidareyo]

Bulgey
"I do wonder how you manage the blindness part of the swindlespitter allies though."
"I'm guessing you meant to ping me for this rather than Stuffy Doll."

Well, that's a bit embarrassing. Yes, I apologize for the copy paste error.


"In a similar vein, I think you might've given me credit for a trick I don't have - the dinobuddy is me, but I don't have crusader's strike."

You Don't have crusader's strike, but you do have a source of doing damage while healing from your dino-chorus, which is like having a crusader's strike...in general oeuvre.

This is just a poetry-of-language thing. It's an ADHD thing where I travel a little too far out on a thoughtwhale and I lose sight of the audience. Pandemic made it worse.

No change in scores.



Terrae

If I understand the nature of your dispute correctly, it's that you feel you should have a higher power rating.

Terrae is a really cool tank. Big HP and Hard to make a lot of damage stick on. For this, you sacrificed one of the main optimization pathways for the Binder: the versatility offered by binding other vestiges. When not bound to Arete, Everything else is bog standard binder.

So that leaves me with observing that when it comes to lasting a long old time in a fight, You're fantastic. What I'm not seeing is damage output that ends fights. So Let me dig deeper into that, as in retrospect, perhaps I didn't dig deep enough.

The character is spending move actions to charge up psionic focus. So you're dealing this +4d6 on a bad guy that you moved to attack while focused. If they stay there, you can move action regain focus, and psionic smite them again. And if they run away to try to kite you, you can absorb a lot of that, so long as you have pp. So you can move towards them. So in combat, you're a striker who needs to get up to one or two opponents and keep them still with your one AoO. Then you can keep psionic focusing while smiting as they rain down blows on you that you mitigate.

Already, I can see that I didn't spend enough time on the intricacies of this. 3.0 is too low of a score. Played proficiently, it is absolutely a 4.0. I will edit the change into my judgement.