Iron Chef E6 Appetizer Edition, Round XXXVIII

[Zaq]

Welcome back to the Iron Chef Optimization Challenge E6 Appetizer Edition! It's time for another conceptual ingredient, so I hope you're ready for this!

The form of this challenge is to take a particular D&D 3.5 game element (our "secret ingredient," or SI) and turn it into a functional E6 build, which must feature the SI as heavily as possible. (The only hard rule about this is that you must take at least one level—where applicable—in the SI, though judges are encouraged to look favorably on builds that take as many levels as possible in said SI or that otherwise use it as heavily as possible.) Your final build submission should consist of your 6 regular levels and your first 10 epic bonus feats, though providing a snapshot at earlier points through the progression is heartily encouraged. Entries are to be PM'd to the Chair (that would be me!), and they will be posted anonymously; our volunteer judges will then grade each build on a 1-5 point scale in four categories: Originality, Power, Elegance, and Use of the Secret Ingredient. The builds with the highest three scores will be awarded medals, with the Honorable Mention award going to the non-medaling build that the Chair likes best and/or that receives the most votes for HM in this thread. (HM may not always be awarded, particularly if the number of builds is very small.) And then we all have cake!*

*Note: You must provide your own cake.

This is basically like the regular Iron Chef, and let's be brutally honest with ourselves here: this isn't a gargantuan community, and we basically all know what we're talking about at this point. Make the builds, send 'em in, post some scores, and have fun. If you've got questions, lemme know. Still, let's lay out a few rules!

• Cooking Time: Builds must be submitted via PM to the Chair by 4:59 PM GMT - 9 on Monday, May 16, 2022 (1:59 AM GMT on Tuesday, May 17). The reveal shall be on the first evening the Chair has free following the cooking deadline, which is hoped to be that evening or the immediately subsequent one—I'll do my best, anyway. Judging is then encouraged to go as quickly as possible; if multiple judges volunteer, we'll set about a two-week window, but if we only get one judge, we'll try to wrap up as soon as possible after that judge presents scores. (I will admit that the deadline time may not be an exact science, but don't hide from me and we'll probably be cool.)
• Kitchen: Let's break this one down a bit.
  
  
  Spoiler: Let's talk about sources

  Show

  
  

  • ALLOWED: Almost all D&D 3.5 material published by WotC: Core, Completes, monster books, Races Of books, alternate power source books (Expanded Psionics Handbook, Magic of Incarnum, Tome of Battle, Tome of Magic, etc.), Spell Compendium, Book of Exalted Deeds, Book of Vile Darkness, Eberron material, Forgotten Realms material, and other WotC-published 3.5 material. (This list is NOT exhaustive and there are many other legal books that I did not mention by name!)
  • ALLOWED: Material from the 3.5 archives of the Wizards of the Coast website (including, but not limited to, the Mind's Eye articles). If you use it, link it.
  • ALLOWED: Official errata from WotC. If you're relying on this in a material fashion, it's a good idea to link it and to discuss it.
  • NOT ALLOWED: Unofficial errata, including "class fixes" (regardless of the source, including from the original author if not published in a WotC book) or fan-created content.
  • ALLOWED: Unupdated WotC-published 3.0 material (e.g., Sword and Fist, Masters of the Wild, etc.) except for 3.0 psionics. No 3.0 psionics allowed. If you are using 3.0 material, use the general-purpose skill updates (Wilderness Lore becomes Survival, Innuendo becomes Bluff, etc.) and the general-purpose rules updates (spells with a casting time of "1 action" become "1 standard action," etc.) when appropriate.
  • NOT ALLOWED: 3.0 material for which a direct 3.5 update exists. Use the updated material instead.
  • ALLOWED: Dragon Compendium and its errata.
  • NOT ALLOWED: Content from Dragon Magazine and/or Dungeon Magazine unless said content appears in an otherwise allowed source.
  • ALLOWED: Oriental Adventures, including the 3.5 update to Oriental Adventures from Dragon Magazine #318. This is a specific exception to the "no Dragon" rule!
  • NOT ALLOWED: Pathfinder content, regardless of whether it is "D&D 3.5 OGL" or not. If it didn't come from WotC, we don't want it.
  • ALLOWED: From Unearthed Arcana: racial paragon classes, alternate class features/variant classes, spelltouched feats, and variant races. (Traits and flaws are technically legal, but traits warrant a -0.5 point penalty in Elegance, and flaws warrant a -1 penalty in Elegance.)
  • NOT ALLOWED: Other Unearthed Arcana content, including (but not limited to) bloodlines, LA buyoff, fractional BAB/saves, alternate casting systems, alternate skill systems, item familiars, prestigious character classes, generic classes, gestalt, etc. When you're wondering if UA content is allowed, err on the side of caution and don't mess around with it.
  • NOT ALLOWED: Leadership, regardless of source. Game elements functionally equivalent to Leadership (including, but not limited to, Dragon Cohort, Undead Leadership, and Thrallherd) are similarly banned. (Familiars, Improved Familiar, animal companions, Wild Cohort, psicrystals, elemental envoys, and similar game elements are allowed, and they are not considered to be "Leadership." If the difference isn't obvious, feel free to contact the Chair with specific questions.)
  • NOT ALLOWED: Third-party content, homebrew, or other non-WotC content.
  • NOT ALLOWED: Epic feats from the Epic Level Handbook. Just because you're "epic" in E6 after 6th level doesn't mean that you're that kind of epic.
  • NOT ALLOWED: Any race or template with a level adjustment other than +0. (Or any other source of LA other than a race or template, if any such things exist.) However, as a specific exception for round 26, see below.
  • NOT ALLOWED: For our judges: penalizing solely based on legal sources used, regardless of whether those sources are plentiful, sparse, common, obscure, or something in between. If the material is legal, then it doesn't matter how many or how few books it came out of.
  • ALLOWED: Also for our judges: penalizing for using a source (other than material in Core; don't be vindictive about genuinely obvious stuff) that isn't listed in the build writeup. The chef may choose to present the sources in-line with the text, in a consolidated source list, or somewhere else, but if the source is listed (and is otherwise legal), it counts. If the source is not listed, you may choose to penalize for that.

  
  If you have questions about anything in this section (or hell, in this ruleset), feel free to ask the Chair.
  
• Character Creation: 32 point buy is assumed. For the purposes of this contest, Level Adjustment greater than +0 is banned. (This may be revised at a later point, but I don't feel that the E6 LA rules are conducive to fun in the context of this contest.) No more than two entries per chef per contest, please; if you submit two builds and somehow are so overcome with inspiration for a third that you can't help yourself, PM me and tell me which two you care about the most.
• Highlighted because of past issues: It is not enough for your build to end with a level adjustment of +0. You must be +0 from start to finish. No using ANY build elements with a level adjustment above +0, even if they then get mitigated or reduced somehow. However, note that a special exception is in place for round 26...
• Speculation: Please do not post any form of speculation before the reveal. Just don't do it, guys. It's not cool. This means NOT posting any of the following or anything substantially similar: what you think is going to be common, significant elements of your planned build or of other potential builds, or anything else that could directly influence someone else's build choices for good or for ill. (It's acceptable to ask for rules clarifications as appropriate, but try to avoid tipping your hand too much.) Speculation is bad because it can discourage people from posting builds and can also "taint the judging pool" when it comes to Originality, so please just try to be aware of how other people might react to your speculation.
• E6: Here's how E6 works for the purposes of this contest. Build your character normally for the first six levels. After you reach level 6, you stop gaining levels and start gaining bonus feats every time you would gain 5,000 XP. Since we aren't actually tracking XP, you'll basically list your first ten epic bonus feats in the order that you take them, and we think of them as being kind of like levels. We will not use the LA-equals-reduced-point-buy rules, instead preferring to just ban races with LA, at least for now. We will not use the "capstone feats"; all feats that you take must be normal legal 3.5 feats, not homebrew E6 ones. You may not use the Epic feats from the Epic Level Handbook, though if for some reason there are non-Epic feats from the ELH that you qualify for, you may take those. (I don't think there are any, but I'm sure someone will prove me wrong.) It is up to the discretion of each judge whether this is a "hard E6" (magic above 3rd level spells is simply beyond mortal reach, items that have a listed CL above 6th are just plain not available, etc.) or a "soft E6" (if you can somehow get the magic on your character, it's yours, regardless of level), though I honestly don't expect it to come up. Don't go crazy with making assumptions about items and we probably won't have to find out.
• Presentation: Please use the table found below in the spoiler. List your epic bonus feats (in clear order) after the table. If you find a clever way of formatting that that isn't annoying and that doesn't break anything, have fun; if it's portable, I may steal it for the next round. When sending your build or any disputes to the Chair, clearly include your build's name in the subject of the PM, and please present your build exactly as you want the Chair to copy and paste it into the thread.
  If you're using a picture, cite the source and follow any relevant citation rules. Because we have had issues with this in the past, when listing your skills, please make it very clear how many ranks you have at each level. There are multiple ways to do this and we do not wish to cramp anyone's individual style by dictating exactly how this must look, but make sure that somewhere in your entry there's an explanation of how many actual skill ranks you have. It's still fine to list total skill bonuses, if that's your style, but don't only list bonuses; make sure that there is a clear listing somewhere of your ranks alone. You are allowed, but not required, to use this extremely spiffy tool that mattie_p cooked up (thanks, mattie_p!).
  Spoiler

  Show

  Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
  1st	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	Feats	New Class Abilities
  2nd	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	Feats	New Class Abilities
  3rd	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	Feats	New Class Abilities
  4th	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	Feats	New Class Abilities
  5th	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	Feats	New Class Abilities
  6th	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	Feats	New Class Abilities

  Code for the table:

  Spoiler

  Show

  [TABLE="class: head alt1 alt2"]
  [TR]
  [TH][B]Level[/B][/TH]
  [TH][B]Class[/B][/TH]
  [TH][B]Base Attack Bonus[/B][/TH]
  [TH][B]Fort Save[/B][/TH]
  [TH][B]Ref Save[/B][/TH]
  [TH][B]Will Save[/B][/TH]
  [TH][B]Skills[/B][/TH]
  [TH][B]Feats[/B][/TH]
  [TH][B]Class Features[/B][/TH]
  [/TR]
  [TR]
  [TD]1st[/TD]
  [TD]New Class Level[/TD]
  [TD]+x[/TD]
  [TD]+x[/TD]
  [TD]+x[/TD]
  [TD]+x[/TD]
  [TD]Skills[/TD]
  [TD]Feats[/TD]
  [TD]New Class Abilities[/TD]
  [/TR]
  [TR]
  [TD]2nd[/TD]
  [TD]New Class Level[/TD]
  [TD]+x[/TD]
  [TD]+x[/TD]
  [TD]+x[/TD]
  [TD]+x[/TD]
  [TD]Skills[/TD]
  [TD]Feats[/TD]
  [TD]New Class Abilities[/TD]
  [/TR]
  [TR]
  [TD]3rd[/TD]
  [TD]New Class Level[/TD]
  [TD]+x[/TD]
  [TD]+x[/TD]
  [TD]+x[/TD]
  [TD]+x[/TD]
  [TD]Skills[/TD]
  [TD]Feats[/TD]
  [TD]New Class Abilities[/TD]
  [/TR]
  [TR]
  [TD]4th[/TD]
  [TD]New Class Level[/TD]
  [TD]+x[/TD]
  [TD]+x[/TD]
  [TD]+x[/TD]
  [TD]+x[/TD]
  [TD]Skills[/TD]
  [TD]Feats[/TD]
  [TD]New Class Abilities[/TD]
  [/TR]
  [TR]
  [TD]5th[/TD]
  [TD]New Class Level[/TD]
  [TD]+x[/TD]
  [TD]+x[/TD]
  [TD]+x[/TD]
  [TD]+x[/TD]
  [TD]Skills[/TD]
  [TD]Feats[/TD]
  [TD]New Class Abilities[/TD]
  [/TR]
  [TR]
  [TD]6th[/TD]
  [TD]New Class Level[/TD]
  [TD]+x[/TD]
  [TD]+x[/TD]
  [TD]+x[/TD]
  [TD]+x[/TD]
  [TD]Skills[/TD]
  [TD]Feats[/TD]
  [TD]New Class Abilities[/TD]
  [/TR]
  [/TABLE]
• Contest houserules: Nearly the same as the main contest's rules here: all creatures are proficient with natural weapons they have or may acquire, bonus feats that are explicitly granted without meeting prereqs are usable even without those prereqs, and feats that affect which skills are class skills for you and/or how you spend your skill points (Able Learner, Martial Study, Truename Training, Apprentice, etc.) apply immediately at the level at which you take them (even though you normally spend skill points before taking a feat). When taking Open Minded as an epic feat, any skill that has ever been a class skill for you (including through your class, your race, your feats, or similar game elements, though please don't muck around with retroactively making something stop being a class skill for some stupid reason) is a class skill when determining how the 5 granted skill points may be spent. All usual rules about HD-related skill caps apply. When taking Open Minded as a non-epic feat, treat it as normal; the class skills of the class you took at the level you gained Open Minded (plus race, feats, etc.) are your class skills for those skill points, similar to if Open Minded's skill points came straight from your class.
• Judging guidelines: The minimum score in a category is 1, and the maximum is 5 (except in high-Originality rounds, wherein the maximum in Originality is 10). Judges are expected to be fair, consistent, and open-minded, and they are expected to make a good-faith effort to engage with any reasonable disputes that arise, especially when RAW is in question. That said, contestants are asked to not dispute more than necessary; let's do everything in good faith and really only dispute when a judge is being inconsistent, being unfair, or is otherwise grossly misinterpreting a build.
  Judges may not penalize Originality solely because a build is a tribute or homage to an existing creative work (in or out of D&D canon; note that this is not the same thing as penalizing Originality for using well-known optimization tactics), nor may judges penalize based solely on sources used (whether those sources are plentiful, sparse, common, obscure, or something in between, you should judge the build elements and how they work together rather than what book or what books they came out of, as long as those books are legal for this contest and are cited in the entry).
  As with the main contest, we will follow the "One Mistake, One Penalty" guideline, and it is very important that the judges adhere to it. I'm going to directly copy and paste this from the main thread, and hopefully the original author won't mind too much:
  
  Spoiler

  Show

  Judges are only allowed to penalise once for a given mistake. If someone messes up their skills and doesn't qualify for a PrC, ding them as hard as you like. Once. In one category. You don't then get to declare that because they didn't qualify for that PrC, they don't get those levels, and thus don't qualify for anything else. If Ranger is a common ingredient, ding them for Originality. Once. Don't also take off points for Two-Weapon-Fighting being a common ingredient.
  
  Non-exhaustive list of examples:
  
  Skills

  Allowed:
  

  • Giving a penalty for miscalculating the number of skill points gained
  • Giving a penalty for not having enough ranks to meet a prerequisite
  • Increasing the harshness of a skill miscalculation penalty if it affects critical skills including prereqs

  
  
  Not allowed:
  

  • Giving separate penalties for miscalculating skill points and for non-qualification where the non-qualification is solely caused by the miscalculation

  
  Prereqs

  Allowed:
  

  • Giving a penalty for not meeting prereqs
  • Scaling the penalty depending on how important the item that the build failed to qualify for is
  • Giving minimum score in UotSI for not qualifying for the SI
  • Not giving credit for (note: not the same as penalising for) tactics using feats or classes other than the SI that were not qualified for (but see below)

  
  
  Not Allowed:
  

  • "Cascading" failures to qualify - declaring that because a build doesn't qualify for a feat, for example, it also doesn't qualify for anything using that feat as a prereq
  • Treating a build as having fewer levels than it does because of FtQ for classes

  
  Other general things that are no longer allowed:
  

  • Penalising because someone has chosen to build a tribute to an existing creative work
  • Deciding that a backstory has not met a fluff prerequisite well enough, or because its method of meeting it is "unrealistic". You may penalise if a fluff prereq is not addressed at all, but not for how well it is addressed.

  
  
  Note that these are protections, not licenses. Deliberately taking a feat that you know you don't qualify for hoping to just suck up the judging penalty for a feat that you couldn't normally take is not okay, and may lead to your build being disqualified.
• Dispute guidelines (NEW, PLEASE PAY ATTENTION): Disputing is long, annoying, and emotional. It's also sometimes necessary, but it's often not actually something that makes everyone have more fun. Let's go into a little more detail here.
  
  Spoiler

  Show

  • Do NOT dispute to make an argument that goes fundamentally beyond what's in your write-up. It is the responsibility of the chef to make sure that the write-up is complete and contains their best arguments for what the build does and why it's awesome. If you didn't explain your tactics well or didn't spell out something that a judge misses, just do better next time. Don't drag it out after the fact.
  • Do NOT dispute just to be clever or witty or cheeky. Please. We're all adults here and so I assume you know what that means. Don't treat the build as a setup and your oh-so-clever dispute as the punchline. It's not as funny as it is in your head. Trust me. I've been down that road.
  • Do NOT dispute just to say "oh yeah, my bad, I missed that" or some equivalent. If you're not directly challenging the judge, save the commentary until after the reveal. I 100% get that the urge to respond to commentary is very strong, but type it out and sit on it for a while if you've gotta.
  • Do NOT dispute just to try to wheedle more points out of the judge. Note that this is different from saying that the judge is being truly unfair or is being truly wrong by black-and-white RAW. A dispute is NOT the place to try to scrape together a few last quarter-points. If you didn't put it in your write-up, that's on you. This also means that a dispute is really not the place to have long back-and-forth tit-for-tat arguments. That's a surefire way to get people grumpy. It's a contest on a D&D board, guys, not the results of a federal election.
  • Do NOT dispute to tear down another build. That's just plain not cool. If you entered the contest, it's not on you to judge the other builds.
  • DO dispute if the judge is being blatantly biased by giving you a substantially different ruling on a build element compared to another chef who used the same build element in nearly the same way. (Note that position in a build may affect if you're using that element in "nearly the same way" or not.) Please reserve this for the truly blatant examples. I mean it. Remember, it's the contestant's responsibility to make their best argument in the original write-up.
  • DO dispute if the judge is actively going against the contest rules. Note that there are relatively few ways in which a judge can go against contest rules (we intentionally give very wide discretion to our judges), but examples include truly breaking One Mistake One Penalty, penalizing just because of number of sources of (legal) material, and so on.
  • DO dispute if the judge is clearly ignoring unambiguous RAW. Note that this is for unambiguous RAW; if the RAW is shady and you're making an argument that isn't completely clear and that it wouldn't be strange for a GM to frown on, the judge has every right to frown on it as well. (You generally know when you're indulging in shady RAW. Be mature about this.) But if the judge is saying you didn't hit a prereq that you clearly did hit (and included in your write-up!), saying you can't do something that the plain text of the ability says you can do, or anything like that, by all means, call 'em out.
  • Do NOT dispute if the judge doesn't agree with your interpretation of ambiguous RAW. Yes, this is a retread of the previous bullet point; this is that important. If you're relying on ambiguous RAW, it's on you to lay out clearly why it should work the way you want it to work. Again, be mature and act in good faith: you really know when you're pushing things like this. If they don't like it, they don't like it. Move on.

  
  
  Disputing is a privilege, not a right. In the Chair's sole discretion, disputes that do not meet these guidelines and/or that do not seem to be offered in good faith may be suppressed. The Chair reserves the right to choose to post all, some, or none of a dispute if appropriate.
  
  
• Other bits and bobs: If there's something major and relevant I haven't mentioned, assume that the way I handle it will probably be the same as the main contest unless stated otherwise or unless doing so would be an obviously absurd result. If you've got questions, I'll give you answers.

This round's secret ingredient:
FIRE!

• Your build must revolve around the use of fire and fire damage.
• This can be magical, mundane, something in between, whatever!
• Things that have "fire" in the name (spellfire, rimefire, etc.) count as fire, but you will still want a way of dealing fire damage if your preferred fire-like thing doesn't necessarily do it.

Allez Optimizer!

The Builds:

Name	Alignment / Race	Class Levels	Chef	MinimanMidget	H_H_F_F	Total	Place
Blaise deForrest	?? Jermlaine	Planar Spiritual Connection Wildshape Ranger 6	Macabaret	12.25	10.10	22.35	7th
Carsus Tall	LG Lesser Aasimar	Paladin 6	loky1109	12.50	12.10	24.60	5th
Charles M. Ander	CG Lesser Aasimar	Paladin of Freedom 4/Hit and Run Tactics Fighter 1/Master Thrower 1	RaiKirah	11.50	6.00	17.50	9th, Hon. Mention
Firefist	CG Human	Ardent 2/Shaman 4	daremetoidareyo	11.50	13.05	24.55	6th
Simon the Fire Lance	LN Human	Psychic Warrior 6	loky1109	13.50	14.90	28.40	1st
Spirit of Fire	LE Lesser Fire Gensai	Shugenja 6	thorr-kan	12.00	10.00	22.00	8th
Steamy Romancer	NG Shalarin	Druid 1/Sorcerer 1/Cleric 3/Beastmaster 1	ciopo	16.50	10.00	26.50	2nd
Uanafaira Worldfire	CE Illumian	Cleric 5/Wizard 1	ciopo	15.75	9.80	25.55	3rd
Aara	TN Human	Evoker 3/Master Specialist 3	Venger	12.75	12.70	25.45	4th

Spoiler: Contest History

Show

Round 4: Knight
Round 5: Ninja
Round 6: Racial Paragon Classes
Round 7: Hexblade
Round 8: Shugenja
Round 9: Swashbuckler
Round 10: Crusader
Round 11: Soulknife
Round 12: Factotum
Round 13: Prestige Classes
Round 14: Mountebank
Round 15: Sorcerer
Round 16: Dragon Shaman
Round 17: Lurk
Round 18: Paladin
Round 19: Scout
Round 20: Incarnate
Round 21: Shadowcaster
Round 22: Dragonmarks
Round 23: Fighter
Round 24: Pets
Round 25: Warlock
Round 26: Monsters
Round 27: Ardent (exhibition round)
Round 28: Rogue
Round 29: Signature Spells
Round 30: Any Prior Ingredient
Round 31: Ranger
Round 32: Tanking
Round 33: Psychic Warrior
Round 34: Flight
Round 35: Binder
Round 36: Skill tricks
Round 37: Barbarian

Spoiler: Way Old Stuff (2012 and earlier; Amechra's run as Chair)

Show

Round 1: Divine Mind
Round 2: Monk
Round 3: Marshal

[Zaq]

Here's a few gentle recommendations that are intended to improve scores and make things easier for the judges. As always, THE RECOMMENDATIONS IN THIS POST ARE NOT RULES. Judges and contestants are free to honor them or ignore them; my intent here is only to help, and NONE of what I'm saying here is required. (That said, did you see the new dispute guidelines? Those ARE rules, so please go read them. And I'm even going to be better about enforcing them this time.)

Recommendations:

• Double-check ALL of your prereqs. Every. Single. One. Feats, PrCs, whatever. You might even go so far as to spell out when you meet each one, but again, that's not a requirement. But one of the single biggest causes of point loss is failure to meet prereqs.
  
• Tell the judges what's cool about your build! You spent hours or days on this (y'know, probably) and know it inside and out, but the judges are getting a whole bunch of these dishes all at once and don't know the build history of each one. You're significantly more likely to score well if you spell out exactly what makes you awesome than if you try to just let it stand on its own.
  
• Make it easy to read! Skill tables are awful, though they're an incredibly necessary evil. Full Monster Manual-style statblocks are occasionally useful but are also insanely dense if not formatted well. Judges are very likely to miss something if you aren't careful with how you present your info. Remember that judging takes a lot of time, energy, and focus, so don't rely on the judge being willing/able to decode something in order to see what makes you interesting!
  
• Be memorable. Remember that we've all seen these ingredients used at least once before. What makes you different?

Since this is a conceptual ingredient, you aren't required to have a certain number of levels of anything in particular in your build, so the field is wide open. Maybe you deal a lot of fire damage. Maybe you light things on fire in a wide area. Maybe you use fire for something that isn't directly related to attacking and causing harm! Maybe you simply embody the concept of fire in a way that no one else does. Light it up and let's get it hot!

[H_H_F_F]

Hmm. A bit too broad for my taste, but if inspiration strikes I might submit something.

[loky1109]

I have one idea...

[thorr-kan]

Huh.

We've been dealing with the Flamedeath Fellowship and the Brotherhood of the True Flame in the Friday Night Gaming Group recently. I've been dreaming of pyromancers. It appears to be portentous.

[MinimanMidget]

I don't have any particular ideas, but I'm definitely going to try and come up with something.

[MornShine]

I was very enthused for this!

... Aaand the (fairly weak) combo I found can't come online until level 14.

We'll see if I can finalize one of the other ideas.

[ciopo]

anyone would like to collaborate?

[loky1109]

I maybe need an extension. Day-to-three. I have unfinished entry's decoration, an have no time right now.

[loky1109]

No need extension for me anymore. I have had time.

[NinjaGuy]

I had a really busy week/end, but can likely get it all finalized tonight or tomorrow if that's alright. It's all the minutia that's left, build's been done. Wish I had more time for fluffery, but it'll be fluffy enough.

[Zaq]

Hahahaha! I totally forgot that the deadline was nominally this past Monday. In my head it's always been this coming Monday, 2022-05-16. Keep those builds coming!

[MinimanMidget]

How are we looking in terms of number of builds? I could probably get one done over the weekend, but I'm not super motivated.

[loky1109]

Are we waiting for somebody still work on?

[Zaq]

I've been asked for another extension! I'll probably post in a few days. If anyone is actively still working, please continue to do so and please also let me know!

[AsuraKyoko]

In that case, I'll try and bang out my build idea tonight.

[daremetoidareyo]

As a non judge, the more the merrier

[loky1109]

Agree with daremetoidareyo!

[AsuraKyoko]

Ah, unfortunately, things didn't really come together, and so I won't be submitting anything. Sorry for holding things up.

[Zaq]

I live!

I could make excuses, but they don't matter. I'm just bad at budgeting time and focus. But I have a whole bunch of builds all ready to crank up the heat! Here we go!

[Zaq]

All we are is dust in the wind, and by "wind" I mean a searing hot blast of flame and by "we" I mean you.

Blaise deForrest
Jermlaine (Planar/Spiritual Connection/Wildshape) Ranger 6
Chaotic Neutral

Spoiler: Stats

Show

Str....13.....-8.....05
Con...10....-2.....08
Dex...17...+6.....23
Int....14.....-2.....12
Wis...14....+6.....20
Cha...08....-6......04 (as per the SRD chart)

4th: +1 Dex

Spoiler: Build Table

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Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features	1st lvl Spells
1st	Ranger 1	+1	+2	+2	+0	C:alchemy 4 Jump 4 K:theplanes 4 Listen 4 Spot 4 Survival 4 Tumble 4	1st: Martial Study (Blistering Flourish); B:Track	Fast Movement; Favored Enemy: Elementals+2; Speak With Animals/Plants 3/day	--
2nd	Ranger 2	+2	+3	+3	+0	C:alchemy 5 Jump 5 K:theplanes 5 Listen 5 Spot 5 Survival 5 Tumble 5	--	--	--
3rd	Ranger 3	+3	+3	+3	+1	C:alchemy 6 Jump 5 K:theplanes 6 Listen 6 Search 1 Spot 6 Survival 6 Tumble 6	3rd: Desert Wind Dodge; B: Endurance	--	--
4th	Ranger 4	+4	+4	+4	+1	C:alchemy 7 Jump 5 K:theplanes 7 Listen 7 Search 2 Spot 7 Survival 7 Tumble 7	--	Urban Companion	0(+2)
5th	Ranger 5	+5	+4	+4	+1	C:alchemy 8 Jump 5 K:theplanes 8 Listen 8 Search 3 Spot 8 Survival 8 Tumble 8	--	Favored Enemy: Outsider (fire)+4; Wildshape 1/day	0(+2)
6th	Ranger 6	+6/1	+5	+5	+2	C:alchemy 9 Jump 5 K:theplanes 8 Listen 9 Search 5 Spot 9 Survival 9 Tumble 9	6th: Martial Stance (Flame's Blessing)	Wildshape 2/day	1(+2)

Epic Feats:

• Scorching Sirracco
• Planar Touchstone (CoE: Celerity domain)
• Quick Reconnoiter
• Keen-eared Scout
• Grenadier
• Mad Alchemist
• Swift Tumbler
• Skill Focus: Tumble
• Mobility
• Elusive Target

Spoiler: Levels and Feats

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Spoiler: 1st

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Ranger with high dex and low strength. Ranged weapons are prefered. Darts aren't heavy; neither is a sling. The hand crossbow is your friend. Spears will be useful at later levels, so perhaps get used to them now?
Light armor (or no armor) is best to keep your load light and your dex bonus useful.

Fast Movement makes your already speedy movement speedier. Use move actions to stay out of melee, standard actions to make a ranged attack.

Favored Enemy of Elementals because, well, why not? Some of them are immune (or resistent) to fire, so the damage bonus may be helpful at later levels when fire is the main damage source. But this choice can (and should) be changed depending on the campaign.

Speak with Animals and Speak with Plants aren't gamebreaking, but they can be useful in the right situation(s).

Track is a thing Rangers do. Feel free to let your DM utilise it to advance the plot.

Now, for the elephant in the room. Yes, a non-initiator can take Martial Study at first level, even with an initiator level of 0. There are no pre-reqs to taking the feat, and the only requirement is that you must meet the prerequisites of the maneuver chosen. Blistering Flourish doesn't have a prerequisite. Blaise can't use the maneuver until his initiator level is 1 (which will happen at 2nd level), but he can still take the feat.

Likewise, Blaise can't use Craft: alchemy until he becomes a spellcaster (at level 4). He is, never-the-less, capable of spending skill points on it.

Spoiler: 2nd

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Nothing to see here, really. Just skill improvement. Craft (alchemy) for making vials of alchemist's fire and frostfire (Savage Species p.47-8) (albeit at later levels). Jump for the synergy bonus to Tumble (which will be appreciated much more later on). Knowledge: theplanes is a prereq later. Listen and Spot for the scouting aspect of Rangerhood. Survival for more Rangerness.

Spoiler: 3rd

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Endurance comes as a freebie. Keep running around enough, and it'll be useful eventually? (Or... probably not, really.)

Desert Wind Dodge brings fire damage. Okay, so nobody's lighting the world on fire with this feat, but still.... This is why throwing spears is a good plan. Hit someone with a vial of oil in one round, throw a spear at 'em in the next. And in between, take your bonus to AC for running around the battlefield.

Spoiler: 4th

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Urban Companion (instead of Animal Companion) grants the Alertness feat when the companion is within arm's reach. Talk to your DM about alternative Companions for Tiny characters. Perhaps a worm, or a grub, or a ladybug. Tuck the Companion away in a pocket to keep it safe during combat, and bring it out to play with it in non-combat situations. Instant de-stresser after a hard day and fun for all the party (assuming, of course, that the party sorcerer doesn't have a hungry toad as a familiar.)

1st level Ranger spells. Remember, too, that wands are now available as well. Accelerated Movement, Longstrider, Ice Skate, Surefoot, Surefooted Stride, Waste Strider, Webfoot are all spells that should be of interest in various situations, though that certainly isn't an exhaustive list.

Spoiler: 5th

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Favored Enemy: Outsider (fire)... see FE above (at 1st level)

Wildshape can make Blaise Small or Medium. Various 'shapes can be useful for faster speeds or movement modes, not to mention disguise and infiltration. Be creative!

Spoiler: 6th

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The Desert Wind Stance will be needed later.

Spoiler: Feats

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Spoiler: Scorching Sirracco

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This is why we're here. It's [fire] time.
Scorching Sirracco offers three combat options (one of which is useless to Blaise). The set-up happens thusly:
Round 1:

• swift action to initiate Desert Wind stance: Flame's Blessing
• move action to move at least 10 feet
• standard action to... whatever. Cast a buff spell, perhaps. Or throw a vial of oil, or alchemist's fire, or frostfire, or a spear. Or initiate Blistering Flourish, if that seems fun.

This meets the Dance of Flames ability for next round. If the standard action dealt fire damage to an opponent, Fan the Flames is also set-up as an option for next round.

Round 2:

• swift action to initiate Desert Wind Stance: Flame's Blessing
• move action to move through the battlefield, Tumbling to avoid AoOs along the way to use Dance of Flames. (Remember that Blaise is a Tiny creature, so he can move through occupied spaces without penalty.) Blaise has a Tumble check of: 9 (ranks) + 7 (dex) + 2 (Jump synergy) + 2 (Dance of Flames bonus) + 1 (min. roll on d20) = 21. He can auto-succeed avoiding attacks of opportunity from 4 opponents, with a fair bet of risking a few more.
• If Fan the Flames was set-up with the standard action of the previous round, a move action here will auto-succeed on the Tumble check. Otherwise, use a standard action to... whatever (as before). Or use another move action to Dance of Flames through more enemies.

Round 3:

• Repeat

1d6 fire damage to each of multiple enemies in a move action without damage to friends. No attack role vs AC. No saving throws. No SR. No miss chance.

Spoiler: Planar Touchstone

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Planar Touchstone: Catalogues of Enlightenment (Planar Handbook p.166) (Celerity Domain) gives another +10 feet movement. Untyped, so it stacks with Fast Movement. This brings Blaise's land speed to 60', plenty to get across the battlefield and dance through threatened squares.

Spoiler: Quick Reconnoiter

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It can't be all about setting enemies on fire. Free Spot and Listen checks each round is what you want on your most perceptive party member.

Spoiler: Keen-Eared Scout

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Combos beautifully with Quick Reconnoiter. Enemies are hiding? Invisible? There's a good chance Blaise can hear them and find the square(s) their in. He doesn't need to see them, just needs to know where to Tumble. And this feat tells him all he needs to know.

Spoiler: Grenadier

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Blaise should be no stranger to splash weapons. Alchemist's fire works well with the theme of this round; so too does Acidic Fire (Eberron Campaign Setting p.120).
But if Blaise is facing fire resistant or immune creatures, a bit of Frostfire (Savage Species p.47-8) can get the job done. (And it fits the contest's theme nicely, too.)

Spoiler: Mad Alchemist

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Remember earlier when I said "standard action...whatever"? Well, here are a few more 'whatever's. Using Distracting Blast to mess with enemy actions isn't the worst thing to do. (It can, actually, be a life saver.)
Fiery Blaze is more on theme. Flasks of oil and alchemist's fire should be in supply, and Desert Wind Dodge will deal fire damage with a spear attack. So now Blaise can set folks on fire from range.

Spoiler: Swift Tumbler

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This feat is poorly written. Someone apparently didn't realise how tumbling through combat works. I'd suggest talking to the DM to rework the feat to mesh better with how the math works. But the concept is easily understood here: make Tumbling less taxing on movement speed. And that's something Blaise will happily get behind!

Spoiler: Skill Focus: Tumble

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+3 to Tumble, simple as that. Which makes for one (and a half) more enemies Blaise can auto-succeed at Tumbling past during a move action.

Spoiler: Mobility

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When Blaise tests the limits of his Tumbling, eventually he'll miss the roll. When he does, a little added AC just might be appreciated.

Spoiler: Elusive Target

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Thematic and useful. If Blaise is going to be in the thick of things in combat, the abilities granted by this feat will come in handy eventually.

Spoiler: Sources

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• Everything is found in the SRD except:
• Jermlaine -- Monster Manual II p.131 (see also the 3.5 update)
• Planar Ranger ACF-- Unearthed Arcana p.55
• Spiritual Connection ACF-- Complete Champion p.50
• Wildshape Ranger ACF-- Unearthed Arcana p.58
• Martial Study feat -- Tome of Battle p.31
• Desert Wind Dodge feat -- Tome of Battle p.29
• Urban Companion ACF -- Cityscape Web Enhancement
• Martial Stance feat -- Tome of Battle p.31
• Scorching Sirracco feat -- Tome of Battle p.35
• Planar Touchstone feat -- Planar Handbook p.41-2
• Catalogues of Enlightenment -- Planar Handbook p.166-7
• Celerity Domain -- Spell Compendium p.271
• Quick Reconnoiter feat -- Dungeonscape p.46
• Keen Eared Scout feat -- PHBII p.80
• Grenadier feat -- PHBII p.79
• Mad Alchemist feat -- PHBII p.94
• Swift Tumbler feat -- Cityscape p.64
• Elusive Target feat -- Complete Warrior p.110

[Zaq]

No, not that kind of paladin.

Some people think paladins have no fear. Well, maybe it's true about some other paladins, but Carsus Tall, one of the Westmarch Knights wasn't one of them. He knows fear very well. There were frightening signs. Something's coming, something very very bad. Great evil raising his head upon all Sanctuary. Carsus sees it sharp and clear. Somebody needs to do something before it's too late. His younger brother went to the Khanduras. It was rumored that something happened in the city of Tristram. Demons, undead, rogues. Rumors often are exaggerated, but it shall be checked.
Meanwhile, Carsus is searching. Any helpful information. He knows about Great evils. Long years ago powerful demons were defeated and trapped. But... Why trapped? Why not destroy it? Did even ancestors can't do it? Then what hope do we have? Carsus looking for some help or advice. He looked in the tomes and from the sages. And he found something. One word. Name of warrior or maybe order. This word is Nephalem. He was somebody so powerful as all demons themselves afraid of it. Carsus needs to find him. Or at least something more in-depth. He continued his research. More books, more wise men. He found it. Answer was unexpected. Nephalem... The offspring of Lilith and Uldyssian, demoness and angel. First humans. All Sanctuary's humanity's forebears. Why are you looking for the Nephalem outside, then he abideth inside you? Carsus realized this and was reborn as Nephalem himself. With angelic powers and wings. With bright nimbus above head emanating from circlet belongings of one of Nephalem, maybe Carsus’s direct ancestor - he found it with the book and with fury fire emanating from his weapon.

Spoiler: Tables

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LG Lesser Aasimar Paladin 6

Spoiler: Stats

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Abilities	Initial	Race/Template	4th	Total
STR	13			13
DEX	12			12
CON	14			14
INT	12			12
WIS	8	2		10
CHA	17	2	1	20

Spoiler: Levels

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Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Reflex Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Paladin-1	1	2	0	0	16: {+4} Diplomacy: 4; {+4} Heal: 4; {+4} Knowledge (religion): 4; {+4} Tumble: 4;	Nymph's Kiss	Might
2nd	Paladin-2	2	3	0	0	4: {+1} Diplomacy: 5; {+1} Heal: 5; {+1} Knowledge (religion): 5; {+1} Tumble: 5;		Prayer
3rd	Paladin-3	3	3	1	1	4: {+1} Diplomacy: 6; {+1} Heal: 6; {+1} Knowledge (religion): 6; {+1} Tumble: 6;	Shape Soulmeld (Lucky Dice)	Sacrifice
4th	Paladin-4	4	4	1	1	4: {+1} Diplomacy: 7; {+1} Heal: 7; {+1} Knowledge (religion): 7; {+1} Tumble: 7;
5th	Paladin-5	5	4	1	1	4: Diplomacy: 7; {+1} Heal: 8; {+1} Knowledge (religion): 8; {+1} Tumble: 8; {+1 CC} Use Magic Device: 0.5;		Holy Fire
6th	Paladin-6	6	5	2	2	4: Diplomacy: 7; {+1} Heal: 9; {+1} Knowledge (religion): 9; {+1} Tumble: 9; {+1 CC} Use Magic Device: 1;	Ancestral Relic (Circlet of Persuasion)	Thorns

Epic Feats
Open Least Chacra (Crown)
Celestial Bloodline
Outsider Wings
Nimbus of Light
Holy Radiance
Light to Daylight
Eyes of Light
Improved Flight
Air Heritage
Hover

Spoiler: Build explanation

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The first and foremost. This isn't the paladin from PHB. This is paladin from Diablo 2: Diablerie. It's a completely different class. And this handbook was published by WotC, so it's legal.

All humans in the Sanctuary are descendants of demons and angels, so I think aasimar matches the theme very well. Lesser version... Well, I don't like lesser planetouched, but for E6 they work.

D2 Paladin doesn't look like a very powerful class. His abilities don't scale (if we talk about Holy Fire it's only 2d6 in 15 ft), but with some optimization he can spam with it all day. And being aasimar, Carsus has access to some exclusive feats. Fly in E6? It's cool! Some anti-undead abilities? Useful, either.

Well. To be able to spam with Holy Fire, Carsus needs to have at least +13 Cha check. I did it. +5 from Cha 20. +1 from Lucky Dice. +3 from Circlet of Persuasion. +2 from Nymph's Kiss. +2 from binding Circlet of Persuasion to Crown Chakra (Suggested Effects table, MoI, p. 111). Precisely +13.

Carsus has Prayer, Might and Thorns auras in addition to Holy Fire. It are useful more or less. Prayer means free full hp healing after every fight. Might and Thorns for deal with enemies who have protection from fire.

Plus to never-end fire and 60-ft good fly, Carsus's +13 Cha checks means high social skill checks. Even without skill points investing.

Spoiler: Sources

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Type	Name	Book	Page
Race	Lesser Aasimar	MM, PGtF	209, 191
Class	Paladin	D2D	15
Feat	Nymph's Kiss	BoED	44
Feat	Shape Soulmeld	MoI	40
Feat	Ancestral Relic	BoED	39
Feat	Open Least Chacra (Crown)	MoI	39
Feat	Celestial Bloodline	Races of Faerun	162
Feat	Outsider Wings	Races of Faerun	167
Feat	Nimbus of Light	BoED	44
Feat	Holy Radiance	BoED	44
Feat	Light to Daylight	Races of Faerun	166
Feat	Eyes of Light	Races of Faerun	163
Feat	Improved Flight	RotW	151
Feat	Air Heritage	PlH	37
Feat	Hover	MMV	204
Soulmeld	Lucky Dice	MoI	77
Item	Circlet of Persuasion	DMG	252

[Zaq]

I appreciate the level of commitment.

Charles M. Ander
Race: Aasimar (RoD p92), Lesser (PGtF p191) --> Dragonborn (Heart) of Bahamut (RotD p5)
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Stub: Paladin of Freedom (UA p53) 4/Hit and Run Tactics (DotU p58) Fighter 1/Master Thrower (CW p58) 1

Spoiler: Background

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Charles M. Ander had always known that he was different from the rest of his family and friends, and indeed everyone in his village knew that he had been born with a touch of Other, that his unsettlingly jade eyes and slightly amber-cast skin pebbled with small scales signaled some Outsider heritage that meant he would never quite fit in with those who should have been his. And if that had been that it is quite possibly that Charles’ life would have been much like anyone else’s, for who isn’t a little Other in some way? However, not only was Charles indelibly marked as different from his peers to all with eyes, but deep inside, before he even had words to describe what the feeling might be, Charles knew that something was missing and his life would be spent in the search of the parts of himself he had yet to find, until he could be the very best version of himself.

When a wandering magician had taught Charles to call a small flame into his hand something settled into place in the aching void within. The fire, dancing warm at the tip of his finger felt right in a way nothing had before, lessening the hollow ache of whatever fundamental essence he had been born without. Thinking that perhaps this, the fire and the magic, were what would fuse the broken and missing pieces of his self together sought instruction from the only local organization that might be able to teach him how to harness these forces; the Mystic Fire Knights, Chivalric Order of Mystra, Goddess of Magic. Seeing the young man’s fervor and small facility with the Arcane Arts, the Order took him on as a squire and began his training.

However, despite Charles’ dedication and hard work in pursuit of joining the Mystic Fire Knights over the years he found that he was missing not just the ineffable portion of himself he sought, but he also fundamentally lacked any true facility with the Arcane Arts. And thus, though he was eventually anointed as a Sword of the Arcane Order upon his majority, Charles was denied a place as a Chevalier of the Order of the Mystic Fire Knights. Though a disappointment, the young man sought consolation through further study of the fires that were such a balm to the aching hole within, though this time through the lens of the Divine and backed with the resources of the ecclesiastic side of the Order. Through long years of effort, delayed by his martial responsibilities to the Order, Charles managed to master fire, able to keep a flame alive continuously with no fuel save for his faith and body. Seeing experiencing the flames dancing upon his hand continuously felt right in a way that soothed the missing pieces of his self in a way Charles had not dreamed of as a youngling, and for a time he was content.

And yet a certainty grew that still not all was right with him, and Charles spent much time contemplating his being. While his contemplation and communion with the flames had stilled his internal dissidence, Charles soon discovered that his external self no longer satisfied, and perhaps never had though the discontent had been masked by the aching void that the flame had soothed. The bright green eyes and deep amber skin met with his approval. The scattered scales felt right strewn across his face and body, though he wished perhaps that they were more all-encompassing. The hands were fine, though the fingers and nails perhaps a bit lacking in substance. The body entire seemed largely agreeable, though Charles felt nonetheless that in some particular he was lacking, though he had no words with which to define it.

It wasn’t until Charlies accompanied a contingent from the Order to a conclave of the Knightly Sects and he saw amongst the members of the Platinum Cadre the Dragonborn that he knew what was missing, what he was meant to be. Through long discussion with the Paladins of the Platinum Cadre Charles learned of Bahamut and his Rites of Rebirth through which any deemed worthy might be reborn in His image. Charles wished desperately to be amongst that number. The God of Dragons looked upon Charles and understanding his plight gladly granted his blessing. Charles passed through the Rite of Rebirth and emerged transformed, fire held within his heart. Lighting upon his newly formed tail the eternal flames that had been such a comfort through all the long years of striving Charles lifted his head and roared fiery joy to the sky as the disparate pieces of his self, found and coaxed over a lifetime of striving, settled within and around him, wholly himself and complete for the first time.

Spoiler: Ability Scores

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Ability	Score	Racial	Lvl 4 Increase	Final Aasimar	Final Dragonborn
Strength	13			13	13
Dexterity	15			15	13
Constitution	10			10	12
Intelligence	12			12	12
Wisdom	17	+2	+1	20	20
Charisma	8	+2		10	10

Spoiler: Build Progression

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Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Paladin of Freedom 1	+1	+2	+0	+0	Knowledge (Religion) 4, Sleight of Hand 2(4cc), Spellcraft 2(4cc)	Human Heritage (F) (RoD p152), Point Blank Shot (F), Magical Training (Wizard) (PGtF p41)	Aura of Good, Detect Evil, Smite Evil 1/day, Dragonscale Husk (DrM p12)
2nd	Paladin of Freedom 2	+2	+3	+0	+0	Sense Motive 3, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Sleight of Hand 2, Spellcraft 2		Divine Grace, Lay on Hands
3rd	Paladin of Freedom 3	+3	+3	+1	+1	Sense Motive 4(1), Sleight of Hand 3(2cc) , Knowledge (Religion) 4, Spellcraft 2	Precise Shot	Aura of Resolve, Divine Health
4th	Paladin of Freedom 4	+4	+4	+1	+1	Sense Motive 5(1), Spellcraft 3(2cc) , Knowledge (Religion) 4, Sleight of Hand 3		Turn Undead (3+Cha/day)
5th	Fighter, Hit and Run Tactics 1	+5	+6	+1	+1	Ride 1, Sleight of Hand 4(2cc) , Knowledge (Religion) 4, Sense Motive 5, Spellcraft 3	Weapon Focus (Ranged Spells) (CAr p72)	Bonus Feat, Hit and Run Tactics (Lose Tower Shield and Heavy Armor Proficiency, get +2 Initiative and Dex to Damage vs Flat Footed)
6th	Master Thrower 1	+6	+6	+3	+1	Sleight of Hand 7(3), Spellcraft 4(2cc) , Knowledge (Religion) 4, Ride 1, Sense Motive 5	Quick Draw (B), Rapid Shot	Quick Draw (Gain Quick Draw as a Bonus Feat), Thrown Weapon Trick (Palm Throw)

Spells Per Day

Wizard Spells: ECL1+: 3/day Cantrips
Paladin Spells: ECL4+: 2/day 1st Level

Spells Known:

lvl0: Dancing Lights, Flare, Prestidigitation
lvl1: Burning Hands
lvl2: Produce Flame
lvl3-9: Resist Energy (cold or fire only), Wall of Fire, Fireshield, Fire Seeds, Fire Storm, Incendiary Cloud, Elemental Swarm (cast as fire only)

Epic Feats:

1: Sword of the Arcane Order (CoV p34)

2: Arcane Disciple (Fire) (CD p79)

3: Spontaneous Healer (CD p84)

4: Versatile Spellcaster (RotD p101)

5: Extend Spell

6: Persistent Spell (CAr p81)

7: Divine Metamagic (Persistent Spell) CD p80)

8: Extra Turning

9: Practiced Spellcaster (Paladin) (CAr p82)

10: Two Weapon Fighting

Dragonborn Rite of Rebirth (RotD p10):

Human Heritage --> Dragon Tail (RotD p98)
Magical Training --> Prehensile Tail (SK p147)
Arcane Disciple --> Shape Soulmeld (MoI p40) (Claws of the Wyrm (DrM p83)
Two Weapon Fighting --> Multiweapon Fighting (MM p304)

Spoiler: Build Write-up

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Look, Charles is a Charmander and I have no excuse. It takes literally the entire build to get there, and the build is inconsistent and takes a long time to bring fire in at all, but this amused me enough to submit it anyways. Hopefully you’ll forgive me. Now, on to the build!

Levels 1-4: Paladin

In these levels Charles is beginning to try – and failing rather spectacularly – to get in touch with his inner fire. This takes a couple of forms: mechanically we’ve got access to wizard cantrips 3/day from Magical Training (qualified for with Human Heritage, since according to Races of Destiny p150 the default without DM adjustment is that Aasimar are outsiders and not humanoids despite being described as “humans”) which are only fire-adjacent. Prestidigitation should let him light his finger on fire I think, but that's about it. Not terribly impressive. Narratively we’ve picked up the first hints of fire missing from his being and are attempting to join the ranks of the Mystic Fire Knights, though we won’t actually as we need the Turn Undead charges later on. We’ve taken the Dragonscale Husk ACF here because it’s not terrible in E6, and it starts Charles down the road of eventual Dragonness. In these levels we’re working as a ranged combatant with Point Blank Shot and Precise Shot, and that’s about it. From Class features we have the standard Paladin things providing a little utility, but our skills are almost entirely wound up in prereqs. At level 4 we get access to Paladin spellcasting and have two level 1 slots from a high Wisdom modifier. Paladin spells are quite good, and are excellent in wands if you can get them. Through these levels we’re a pretty normal combat dude, and that’s about it.

Level 5: Fighter

This level is mostly taken to get a bonus feat, which we use to pick up Weapon Focus (Ranged Spells). Complete Arcane specifically notes this category including such spells as Fire Shuriken which means that it should count as Weapon Focus for Thrown Weapons, which becomes important next level. We’re taking the Hit and Run Tactics ACF for additional Initiative and Dex to Damage vs Flat Footed because there’s no reason not to, and moving on.

Level 6: Master Thrower

Master Thrower is setting us up for having fire in about 8 Epic feats, so in the near term it’s only ok. Full BAB, Quick Draw, and Rapid Shot give us some more options with our ranged combat style (bow and/or daggers now), but since our Weapon Focus is in Ranged Spells we don’t benefit from our Thrown Weapon Trick yet. Once we can though, Palm Throw will double our attacks with small thrown weapons for which we have Weapon Focus. A variant build would have WF (Dagger) taken here, and later swap out Practiced Spellcaster for WF Ranged Spells, or take Spell Thematics (Daggers) and get to arguing with your DM.

Epic Feats:

E1:Sword of the Arcane Order lets us use Paladin spell slots to cast from a wizard spell book, which we conveniently have from Magical Training.

E2:Arcane Disciple allows us to add the Fire Domain spells to our spell book, which we can then cast due to Sword of the Arcane Order, which makes us finally somewhat fiery with 2/day usage of Burning Hands. Note that the feat doesn’t actually require you to worship the deity associated with the domain you’re grabbing, which lets us do this while still qualifying for Sword of the Arcane Order (neither Mystra nor Azuth have the Fire domain). If this squicks you out it is possible to pick up Heretic of the Faith here to make it unambiguous and not take Practiced Spellcaster later. The next few feats are dedicated to making fire actually central to our combat style.

E3: We qualify for Spontaneous Healer due to having Cure Light Wounds on the Paladin spell list. This is taken solely to qualify for:

E4: Versatile Spellcaster allows us to use two spell slots to cast a spell of a higher level we know. This allows us to burn our two level 1 Paladin spells to cast Produce Flame from our Wizard spell book. This will become our go-to fire in a couple more feats.

E5: Now that we can cast Produce Flame, we need to make it last for more than a couple minutes once per day. Extend Spell is the first step in a well-trod persistomancy chain

E6: Step two of the cheese is getting Persistent Spell, and

E7: Step three is picking up Divine Metamagic (Persistent Spell). Since Sword of the Arcane Order never explicitly states whether the wizard spells you cast with your Paladin spell slots are arcane or not, we’re going to choose to have them be Divine so we can apply Divine Metamagic. Sadly 32 point buy was not enough to get a 16 Charisma score, so we need one more feat.

E8: Now that we have 7 Turn Undead uses per day we can Persist Produce Flame to use as our weapon of choice. The damage isn’t all that high (1d6+2), but we can full attack with rapid shot for three attacks a round (+8/+3/+8; +6 BAB +2 Dex +1 PBS +1 WF -2 RS) vs touch AC, and each time we can Palm Throw to double the number of projectiles for a total of 6d6+12 damage. Now, Produce Flame reduces the remaining duration by 1 minute each time you attack, which when persisted to 24 hours means we have a maximum of 24*60=1440 attacks. Now, we are obligated to sleep for 8 hours a day to get spells back, which is 480 attacks we can make without cutting into our 16 hour uptime, or 80 full attacks, which should be plenty. We should never run out of Produce Flame at this rate (unless it’s dispelled, but that’s what Rings of Counterspelling are for, as well as Persisting the night before you dungeon dive so you can re-apply fire once if needed. This is a weakness however, and I didn’t want to gloss over it.).

E9: Practiced Spellcaster caps out Produce Flame’s damage at 1d6+5 each for a total damage potential of 6d6+30

E10: Two Weapon Fighting should give us another attack (not entirely clear if we can use Produce Flame for these attacks, though I sure hope so) and sets us up for our next trick

Dragonborn Rite of Rebirth:

Charles is feeling pretty good at this point; having a continuous flame on him at all times is filling a lot of the void inside, but he’s still missing something. It turns out that this is an issue of form rather than function, and Bahamut has his back here. Undergoing The Dragonborn Rite of Rebirth allows Charles to become his truest self, coming out the other side as draconic as he can be.

The Rite of Rebirth has some weirdness in how it lets you do feat shuffling. There are three clauses that address feats, the first of which is not relevant as Lesser Aasimar doesn’t provide any bonus feats. The second is:

If you no longer qualify for a feat due to the transformation you lose the feat and immediately select a new feat for which you qualify in it’s place. You must also replace any feat for which the lost feat was a prerequisite.

This will become relevant after the third and final clause which states that:

Ordinarily, only a 1st-level character can select certain feats requiring the dragonblood subtype. However, upon becoming a dragonborn, you can elect to replace one (and only one) of your existing feats with one of these feats…The feat to be replaced cannot be a prerequisite for any prestige class, ability, or other feat.

This lets us, upon becoming a dragonborn, choose to replace Human Heritage with Dragon Tail. While Human Heritage is not itself a prereq, now that we no longer count as human (baseline assumption of Lesser Planetouched is not human descended, hence the need to take Human Heritage in the first place) we don’t qualify for Magical Training, and the second clause kicks in, allowing us to replace Magical Training with Prehensile Tail. Since we no longer are an arcane caster we don’t qualify for Arcane Disciple, which we replace with Shape Soulmeld (Claws of the Wyrm). We still have our Wizard Spellbook which we can access with Paladin spell slots due to Sword of the Arcane Order so our persisted Produce Flame combo is still online. Similarly, our Dex is now only 13 so we no longer qualify for Two Weapon Fighting which is replaced with Multiweapon Fighting. And now we are a dragonborn with a breath weapon at 3d8 fire damage in a 30’ line every 1d4 rounds (we took the Heart Aspect) and a tail that we can light on fire with persistent Produce Flame and throw fire off of. We have achieved our final form of a Charmander able to use Flamethrower and Ember all day long!

NOTE THAT ALL SOURCES NOT EXPLICITLY CALLED OUT ARE IN THE PLAYERS HANDBOOK

Spoiler: Build Variations

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If we have access to items unreservedly then we don’t need to take Extra Turning or Practiced Spellcaster, which opens up a couple feat slots. There aren’t really bad options here, though Entangling Exhalation and Manyshot are probably what I would go for, or another Weapon Focus to make you a little more versatile with Master Thrower’s Palm Throw. If you’re running into Fire resistance, Arcane Thesis and Searing Spell could be good to mitigate that as well. Craft Wand to make sure you have access to everything you need is also a good idea.

[Zaq]

Devotion, more like dev-OCEANS! Of fire! That's how we talk about large quantities of fire, right? Oceans? Pretty sure that's how it's done.

Firefist

Human
Ardent 2/Shaman 4
CG

I had fluff, and I used it as kindling.

Abilities	Initial	Level 4
Str	13	13
Dex	15	16
Con	11	11
Int	8	8
Wis	16	16
Cha	14	14

Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Reflex Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features	PP
1st	Ardent (comp Psi p.6)	0	0	0	2	Psicraft (+4) 4; k. architecture (+4) 4;	Pyro (song and silence p.40), Practiced Manifester (Comp psi p.57), Improved sunder (When focused)	Assume Psionic Mantle (Fire Mantle) (minds eye), Destruction Mantle (comp psi p.68)	2
2nd	Shaman (OA p.23)	0	0	0	4	Psicraft 4; Concentration (+3) 3; Profession (arsonist) (+1) 1; k. architecture 4;	Fire Devotion (Comp Champ p.53&58), Improved unarmed strike	Spells, Domains (flame + nature (p.88) domain), improved unarmed strike, animal companion	2
3rd	Shaman	1	0	0	5	Psicraft 4; Concentration (+3) 6; Profession (arsonist) (+1) 2; k. architecture 4;	Mortalbane (BOVD p.49)	Spirit sight	2
4th	Shaman	2	1	1	5	Psicraft 4; Concentration (+1) 7; Profession (arsonist) (+1) 3; k. architecture (+2 CC) 5;		Turn undead	2
5th	Shaman	3	1	1	6	Psicraft 4; Concentration (+1) 8; Profession (arsonist) (+1) 4; k. architecture (+2 CC) 6;	Combat Reflexes	Bonus Feat (Combat Reflexes)	2
6th	Ardent	4	1	1	7	Psicraft 4; Concentration (+1) 9; Profession (arsonist) 4; k. architecture (+1) 7;	Weapon Focus: Unarmed Strike (conflict mantle), Circle Kick (Sword and fist p.5)	Assume psionic Mantle (Conflict Mantle)	6

Feat#	Epic Feats	Source
1	expanded knowledge (energy missile),	(Xph p.46 & comp psi p.88)
2	privileged energy (fire)	(comp psi p. 57)
3	paraelemental power (fire)	(Comp psi p. 63)
4	strength devotion	(Comp champ p.62)
5	improved natural attack (strength devotion slam)	(MMV p.204)
6	clever opportunist	(DotU p.47)
7	stand still	(XPH p.51)
8	Extra turning
9	animal devotion	(Comp adv p.111)
10	Close Quarter fighting	(Comp warrior p.97)

Powers:
1st: Control flame, elemental steward
3rd: Dispel Psionics.

Spells:
0: Guidance, Mending, Virtue
1: Endure elements, Attraction
2: Hold Person, Ghoul Touch, invisibility to spirits

Level 1: Firefist is an ardent with two mantles: the elemental mantle and the destruction mantle. When psionically focused, Firefist deals 1 extra fire damage with melee attacks and can use the improved sunder feat. An ardent begins play knowing two of the first powers available to her based on her choice of mantles. We choose both powers from the elemental mantle. Control flame and pyro make for a fantastic combo. Just carry a firesource around and use control flame to solve your problems. We throw practiced manifester up in here early so that we don’t have to worry about psicraft crossclass ranks. For levels 1 and 2, elemental stewards are going to be the way you survive combat encounters. Just for the energy rays or psionic dazes.

Level 2: Firefist spent all that time psionically studying fire and destruction and managed to get into contact with some fire spirits. Next thing you know, you’re a shaman with the flame domain traded out for fire devotion and the nature domain. Nature domain is providing 5 rebukes to power more fire devotions. Of the weird things that shaman grants you, including an animal companion and improved unarmed strike, the fire devotion trade out made available by complete champ (Page 53) is a nice discovery, compounded by and turn/rebukes to power it.

If you are a cleric (or any other character class who gains access to a domain), you
can choose any domain feat corresponding to the list of domains offered by your deity, even if you do not have access to those particular domains.

The sidebar on the same page lists domain equivalencies, and seeing as how the shaman’s flame domain is almost identical to the clerics fire domain, it is reasonable to assume they are equivalent.

So with fire devotion, we gain this ability:

Any foe injured by this fire ignites and burns for an additional ld4 points of fire damage per round unless it succeeds on a Reflex save (DC 10 + 1/2 your character level + your Cha modifier). A burning creature can take a move action to automatically douse the flames.

Paired with the pyro feat, that’s a DC 18 reflex save vs catching on fire. We now deal a total of 2 additional points of fire damage with melee attacks. If your opponent is on fire, they take an additional 2 points of damage (1d4+1d6 +1 per die.)

Level 3: Time to add some mortalbane to that thar fire devotion. Your punches deal
1d6 +str +3 (arguably mortalbane’s +2d6) fire damage and force a DC 19 Ref save vs fire or suffer the following:

The damage dealt after setting an opponent aflame is
1d4 (fire devotion)
+2d6 (mortalbane)
+1d6 (catching fire)
+4 (pyro’s 1 per die rolled)
With a move action necessary to extinguish the flames.

Did we mention that, arguably, you may be able to use the sunder rules and that improved sunder feat to not only set your opponent on fire, but set their equipment on fire. And that is just worth its weight in debuffs. Here is why:

Under the rules for catching fire, there is this little diddy
“If a character’s clothes or hair catch fire, he takes 1d6 points of damage immediately. “

And under the rules for sunder, there is this little diddy

Sundering a Carried or Worn Object: You don't use an opposed attack roll to damage a carried or worn object. Instead, just make an attack roll against the object's AC. A carried or worn object's AC is equal to 10 + its size modifier + the Dexterity modifier of the carrying or wearing character. Attacking a carried or worn object provokes an attack of opportunity just as attacking a held object does. To attempt to snatch away an item worn by a defender (such as a cloak or a pair of goggles) rather than damage it, see Disarm, page 155. You can't sunder armor worn by another character.

So if you sunder the opponents clothing with your fiery fist, they immediately take 1d6 damage and now have to contend with this.

In each subsequent round, the burning character must make another DC 15 (+5 for pyro) Reflex saving throw. Failure means he takes another 1d6 points of damage that round. Success means that the fire has gone out. (That is, once he succeeds on his saving throw, he’s no longer on fire.) A character on fire may automatically extinguish the flames by jumping into enough water to douse himself. If no body of water is at hand, rolling on the ground or smothering the fire with cloaks or the like permits the character another save with a +4 bonus. Those unlucky enough to have their clothes or equipment catch fire must make DC 15(+5) Reflex saves for each item. Flammable items that fail take the same amount of damage as the character.

So if you light their clothing on fire, they have to make saves for each item, or each item targetted? Probably the latter. Flammable items that fail take the same damage as the character …would?

So if you get them and their gear on fire, they need at least two move actions to extinguish the fires on their turn.

In case you are worrying on how we are applying mortalbane on fire devotion? Here is a little text from complete champion’s description of devotion feats:

Unless otherwise noted, the benefit granted by any domain feat is a spell-like ability with a caster level equal to your character level. All such effects are subject to spell resistance, and you can dismiss any continuing effect as a free action.

Level 4: Now you can fire devotion 6 times a day. That should be adequate. Plus you can both rebuke animals and turn undead. So that’s a cool little bonus in case it ever becomes relevant. Plus, you unlock an entire new level of shaman spells. We are choosing a fort save and will save opponent control spells, so that way we can just use the control flame power on them while they’re stunned.

Level 5: Bonus feat! Combat reflexes. We need to hit people more because we set them on fire when we hit them. And if we already set them on fire, maybe we can set their clothes on fire with a sundering AOO. This level you can trade your animal companion for something helpful. My choice is brixashulty, a Races of the wild goat with knockback, which is helpful if you’re creeping up on people with your control (privileged paraelemental) flames power. An ape is also a great animal companion because they can throw lantern oil at opponents and then you can use the control flames power.

Level 6: A new mantle delivers weapon focus. Further, we take the circle kick feat, which allows us to spread more fire around by adding an additional attack. Maybe circle kick and sunder someone’s armor, if that counts as a different opponent. With the additional level in ardent, we now have Manifester level 6, which is plenty enough to consider taking a 3rd level power. Add a 4th point of extra fire damage onto your fire devotion powered unarmed strikes. I’m gonna be honest, all of the 3rd level powers available are lunkers. I reckon dispel psionics is the strongest and most utilitarian (transparency applying). But, i would contend that the first level power of the conflict mantle, offensive prescience, grants +2 insight bonus to damage rolls, and that doesn’t specify which damage rolls. If you’re setting stuff on fire, does that count?
__________________________________________________ __________________
Epic 1-3
We spend these feats buffing control flame with privileged energy and paraelemental power. Additional lingering fire damage after you use psionics to move a flame into and out of your opponents squares multiple times with the 30’ movement the power provides should get that hot lava all over your opponents. Plus, now you have ranged energy missiles of the fire type, which is way on theme. 3d6+3 damage to 5 targets for 3 pp isn’t bad. Plus the lava effect.

Epic 4-5
Next, we buff our unarmed strike with strength devotion and improved natural attack. This helps a few things.
1: you can sunder with fire lots of stuff now because you can ignore hardness. Melt their weapons or set something ridiculous on fire.

2: you now deal 2d6+2 with your unarmed strikes before you add strength and fire damage effects. And you may, arguably, be able to add mortalbane to strength devotion, Adding 2d6 to your 2d6+2 for a total of 4d6+2.

3: You have the rebukes to do this.

This brings your damage per punch to
4d6+2 +str +4 fire damage +2d6 mortalbane fire damage
DC 20 Ref save (10+3 CL +2 cha mod +5 pyro) or take 3d6+1d4+4 damage on the next turn.

Epic 6-8
These levels leverage 8 more turn attempts with the extra turning feat. Also, we continue to build off of the combat reflexes part of the build, getting our flame inducing fists into the flammable faces of the enemy. Stand still gives you an AOO to keep an opponent from moving out of their shared space with your controlled flames.

Clever opportunist allows you to switch spots with people you hit with AOOs. If you’re standing in a big old fire (thanks to your shaman spell endure elements), Then maybe this has tactical advantage. Getting into place for other attacks of opportunity is smart. Plus, if you used circle attack as your full attack action, you might, arguably be able to move yourself into position to attack someone else who didn’t cause the attack of opportunity.

A successful unarmed attack roll allows you to make a second attack roll against a different opponent that is within the area that you threaten. This feat requires the full attack action.

If you full attacked on your turn, but then you had a successful unarmed attack roll not on your turn…can you make a second one against another opponent you threaten.

Epic 9-10
Now we add animal devotion. This feat has an extra bite attack, which deals no hp damage, but deals 1d3 con damage. With mortalbane strength devotion on there and mortalbane on itself, that’s 1d3+4d6 con damage, +2d6+4 fire (con?) damage.

And it’s a secondary natural attack form, so that’s another chance to set someone on fire.

Close quarter fighting adds to the number of things we can opportunity attack for.

[Zaq]

Maybe we'd better listen to what this guy says.

Spoiler: Portrait

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Ricardo Quintero

Young Simon liked to listen to his grandfather's stories. Grandpa was an adventurer and had a lot of stories. But one was Simon's favorite. Story about the Explosion in the Frog City. All other stories are good, too, but... They were too ordinary. Magics, assassins, orcs and elves. Everybody can go and find something like, but in the Frog Temple... There was something extraordinary! Living humans with metallic parts inside. Fire wand without magic! Strange force changing bodies! Wow! Grandpa even had one this... Blaster! But it didn’t work. Grandpa said it's out of ammo, and nobody can't make new ones, all who could have perished in that great Explosion.
He wasn't totally honest actually. Orc bandits happened once. There were five of them. They almost kill Frank the smith. Toyed with him. It was a matter of a couple of minutes when he became absolutely exhausted and the orcs killed him. Grandpa came. Raised this blaster and pushed the button. One of the orcs fell with a steaming hole in his armor. Grandpa fired six times more - one orc was too dodgy, another too diehard, both needed two shots - and all bandits were dead. "These were the last shots," - he said. Simon saw punishment and he realized - when he grows up, he will have such a weapon. He didn't know how, but it was already decided.

LN Human Psychic Warrior 6

Spoiler: Stats

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Abilities	Initial	4th	Total
STR	12		12
DEX	13		13
CON	14		14
INT	12		12
WIS	17	1	18
CHA	8		8

Spoiler: Build

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Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Reflex Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Psychic Warrior-1	0	2	0	0	16: {+4} Autohypnosis: 4; {+4} Concentration: 4; {+4} Jump: 4; {+4} Knowledge (psionics): 4;	Psionic Prodigy, Hidden Talent (Extend Range), Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Heavy Blaster)*, Weapon Focus (Heavy Blaster)	Soulbound Weapon
2nd	Psychic Warrior-2	1	3	0	0	4: {+1} Autohypnosis: 5; {+1} Concentration: 5; {+1} Jump: 5; {+1} Knowledge (psionics): 5;		Soulbound Weapon
3rd	Psychic Warrior-3	2	3	1	1	4: {+1} Autohypnosis: 6; {+1} Concentration: 6; Jump: 5; Knowledge (psionics): 5; {+2} Extreme Leap;	Zen Archery
4th	Psychic Warrior-4	3	4	1	1	4: {+1} Autohypnosis: 7; {+1} Concentration: 7; {+2} Jump: 7; Knowledge (psionics): 5; Extreme Leap;
5th	Psychic Warrior-5	3	4	1	1	4: {+1} Autohypnosis: 8; {+1} Concentration: 8; {+1} Jump: 8; {+1} Knowledge (psionics): 6; Extreme Leap;	Point Blank Shot	Bonus feat
6th	Psychic Warrior-6	4	5	2	2	4: {+1} Autohypnosis: 9; {+1} Concentration: 9; {+1} Jump: 9; {+1} Knowledge (psionics): 7; Extreme Leap;	Psionic Shot

* - there are no mentions in the Return to the Temple of the Frog what type of weapon Heavy Blaster is. Saint Stephen uses lighter version without proficiency feats and penalties being fighter, but he has alien human subtype. If you think Blaster and Heavy Blaster are martial or even simple, just change EWP with Up the Walls and Wall Walker power with Detect Hostile Intent or Animal Affinity.

Level	Epic Feats
E1	Rapid Shot
E2	Psionic Meditation
E3	Bind Vestige
E4	Bind Vestige, Improved
E5	Narrow Mind
E6	Skill Focus (Concentration)
E7	Precise Shot
E8	Heavy Armor Optimization
E9	Deflective Armor
E10	Psionic Body

Level	Class	1st	2nd	PP
1st	Psychic Warrior-1	Call Weaponry, Extend Range (feat)		0+2+2
2nd	Psychic Warrior-2	Vigor		1+4+2
3rd	Psychic Warrior-3	Force Screen		3+6+2
4th	Psychic Warrior-4		Hustle	5+10+2
5th	Psychic Warrior-5		Darkvision, Psionic	7+12+2
6th	Psychic Warrior-6		Wall Walker	11+15+2

Spoiler: Leveling

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Spoiler: 1-2

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Here we begin. I have the most powerful ranged weapon ever. On the first level. Yes, it isn't always with me - my PP too low, but at least ammo isn't problem:

If you call a projectile weapon, it comes with 3d6 nonmagical bolts, arrows, or sling bullets, as appropriate.

Vigor give me some durability. Benefit of Extend Range for shooter is obvious. It doesn't need every fight, but when it needs it works.

Two words about Psionic Prodigy. Yeah, it's cursed 3.0 psionics! But... There is nothing 3.0 in this feat. It clearly works. If you still think it's prohibited... Well, let's count I took Wild Talent.

Spoiler: 3-4

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Zen Archery and rising BAB give me at least +9 AB. With touch attack. Yeah!
I think it's obvious what to do with Force Screen and Hustle.
Extreme Leap for somebody in full plate is +50% of speed!

Spoiler: 5-6

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Two more valuable feats. PBS mostly prec, but it's prec for so many needed feats... and +1 to attack and damage are never excessive. Psionic Shot, in turn, gives me extra 2d6 damage. 10d6 fire damage with a single shot. Wow!
Darkvision is good if darkness is around. Wall Walker is nice mobility option. Walk on the tree and shot from branch.

Spoiler: Epic

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What did I do here? Three things.
1) Improve my shots and shot options. Rapid Shot and Precise Shot, yes. It's a shame I can't take Greater Psionic Shot - +5 BAB prerequisite. Sadness.

2) I improve my psi focus skills. I work with Psionic Shot and Deflective Armor simultaneously, of course I need to regain psi focus quickly and reliably. With final numbers I fail Concentration only on natural 1.

3) And I take some defense. I’m talking about Savnok’s Armor. Free +1 full plate! +10 regular and touch AC. If armor disappears when Savnok is over, well, I’ll bind Savnok every day. But if armor is with me forever... I guess I'll bind Dahlver-Nar instead. My Wisdom is very important to me.

And the icing on the cake - Psionic Body. +10 hp. For my average 42 hp it's a significant boost.

Spoiler: Sources

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Type	Name	Book	Page
Race	Human	PHB	12
Class	Psychic Warrior	XPH	24
Class variant	Soulbound Weapon	Expanded Classes, Part One	link
Feat	Psionic Prodigy	Psionic Potpourri	link
Feat	Exotic Weapon Proficiency	PHB	94
Feat	Weapon Focus	PHB	102
Feat	Zen Archery	CW	106
Feat	Point Blank Shot	PHB	98
Feat	Psionic Shot	XPH	50
Feat	Greater Psionic Shot	XPH	47
Feat	Psionic Meditation	XPH	50
Feat	Bind Vestige	ToM	72
Feat	Bind Vestige, Improved	ToM	73
Feat	Narrow Mind	XPH	48
Feat	Skill Focus	PHB	100
Feat	Precise Shot	PHB	98
Feat	Heavy Armor Optimization	RoS	141
Feat	Deflective Armor	RoS	137
Feat	Psionic Body	XPH	49
Skill Trick	Extreme Leap	CS	86
Weapon	Heavy Blaster	Return to the Temple of the Frog	30
Power	Call Weaponry	XPH	82
Power	Vigor	XPH	108
Power	Force Screen	XPH	140
Power	Hustle	XPH	90
Power	Darkvision, Psionic	XPH	111
Power	Wall Walker	XPH	140

[Zaq]

"Three wishes? No no no, I said you get three ashes. Hold still."

A fire gensai from Calimshan, Spirit was trained by the church of Kossoth to wield fire in pursuit of the church's aims. He has embraced his fiery nature and used it to master the divine magic he channels.

Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Shugenja 1	+1	+1	+1	+2	(Skill points, ability bonues, and racial bonuses, 4/level/shugenja) Concentration (Con) +5, Iaijutsu Focus (Cha) +5, Knowledge (arcana) (Int) +4, Spellcraft (Int) +4	Simple Weapon Proficiency, Martial Weapon Proficiency (short sword), Bloodline of File	Element Focus, Sense Elements (3/day)
2nd	Shugenja 2	+2	+1	+1	+3	(Skill points, ability bonues, and racial bonuses, 4/level/shugenja) Concentration (Con) +6, Iaijutsu Focus (Cha) +5.5, Knowledge (arcana) (Int) +5, Spellcraft (Int) +5	Simple Weapon Proficiency, Martial Weapon Proficiency (short sword), Bloodline of File	Element Focus, Sense Elements (3/day), Elemental Recognition
3rd	Shugenja 3	+2	+1	+1	+3	(Skill points, ability bonues, and racial bonuses, 4/level/shugenja) Concentration (Con) +7, Iaijutsu Focus (Cha) +6, Knowledge (arcana) (Int) +6, Spellcraft (Int) +6	Simple Weapon Proficiency, Martial Weapon Proficiency (short sword), Bloodline of File, Armor Proficiency (light)	Element Focus, Sense Elements (3/day), Elemental Recognition
4th	Shugenja 4	+3	+2	+2	+4	(Skill points, ability bonues, and racial bonuses, 4/level/shugenja) Concentration (Con) +8, Iaijutsu Focus (Cha) +6.5, Knowledge (arcana) (Int) +7, Spellcraft (Int) +7	Simple Weapon Proficiency, Martial Weapon Proficiency (short sword), Bloodline of File, Armor Proficiency (light)	Element Focus, Sense Elements (3/day), Elemental Recognition
5th	Shugenja 5	+3	+2	+2	+4	(Skill points, ability bonues, and racial bonuses, 4/level/shugenja) Concentration (Con) +9, Iaijutsu Focus (Cha) +7, Knowledge (arcana) (Int) +8, Spellcraft (Int) +8	Simple Weapon Proficiency, Martial Weapon Proficiency (short sword), Bloodline of File, Armor Proficiency (light)	Element Focus, Sense Elements (4/day), Elemental Recognition
6th	Shugenja 6	+4	+3	+3	+5	(Skill points, ability bonues, and racial bonuses, 4/level/shugenja) Concentration (Con) +10, Iaijutsu Focus (Cha) +7.5, Knowledge (arcana) (Int) +9, Spellcraft (Int) +9	Simple Weapon Proficiency, Martial Weapon Proficiency (short sword), Bloodline of File, Armor Proficiency (light), Fiery Burst	Element Focus, Sense Elements (4/day), Elemental Recognition

LE Lesser Planetouched (dragonblooded, fire gensai, FR Campaign Setting & Races of Faerun) Shugenja 6 (Order of the Consuming Flame)
S-12
D-12
C-12
I-10
W-12
Ch-17 (+1 at 4th level)

HP: 30 (6 +6(Con bonus) +(5*3.5) +1 (Dragontouched))
AC: 11, flat-footed 10, touch 11
Init: +1

(Skill points, ability bonues, and racial bonuses, 4/level/shugenja)
Concentration (Con) +10, Iaijutsu Focus (Cha) +7.5, Knowledge (arcana) (Int) +9, Spellcraft (Int) +9, Listen (Wis) +2, Search (Int) +1, Spot (Wis) +2

Spoiler: Spells Known

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Level	0th	1st	2nd	3rd
1	Order - Flare (fire) Element - Detect Magic (all), Disrupt Undead (fire) Other - Guidance, Resistance	Order - Burning Hands (fire) Element - Hypnotism (fire)) Other - Shield of Faiths
2	Order - Flare (fire) Element - Detect Magic (all), Disrupt Undead (fire), Light (fire) Other - Guidance, Resistance	Order - Burning Hands (fire) Element - Hypnotism (fire) Other - Shield of Faith
3	Order - Flare (fire) Element - Detect Magic (all), Disrupt Undead (fire), Light (fire) Other - Guidance, Resistance	Order - Burning Hands (fire) Element - Cause Fear (fire), Hypnotism (fire) Other - Shield of Faith
4	Order - Flare (fire) Element - Detect Magic (all), Disrupt Undead (fire), Light (fire) Other - Ghost Sound, Guidance, Resistance	Order - Burning Hands (fire) Element - Cause Fear (fire), Hypnotism (fire) Other - Shield of Faith	Order - Produce Flame (fire) Element - Flaming Sphere (fire) Other - N/A
5	Order - Flare (fire) Element - Detect Magic (all), Disrupt Undead (fire), Light (fire), Read Magic (all) Other - Ghost Sound, Guidance, Resistance	Order - Burning Hands (fire) Element - Cause Fear (fire), Hypnotism (fire) Other - Shield of Faith, Silent Image	Order - Produce Flame (fire) Element - Flaming Sphere (fire) Other - Resist Energy (all)
6	Order - Flare (fire) Element - Detect Magic (all), Disrupt Undead (fire), Light (fire), Read Magic (all) Other - Ghost Sound, Guidance, Resistance	Order - Burning Hands (fire) Element - Cause Fear (fire), Hypnotism (fire) Other - Shield of Faith, Silent Image	Order - Produce Flame (fire) Element - Flaming Sphere (fire) Other - Resist Energy (all)	Order - Searing Light (fire) Element - Fire Wings (fire) Other - N/A

Spoiler: Feats

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Simple Weapon Proficiency (Player's Handbook)
[General]
You understand how to use all types of simple weapons in combat (see Table 7–5: Weapons, page 116, for a list of simple weapons).
Benefit: You make attack rolls with simple weapons normally.
Normal: When using a weapon with which you are not proficient, you take a –4 penalty on attack rolls.

Martial Weapon Proficiency (short sword)(Player's Handbook)
[General]
Choose a type of martial weapon, such as a longbow (see Table 7–5: Weapons, page 116, for a list of martial weapons). You understand how to use that type of mar*tial weapon in combat.
Use this feat to ex*pand the list of weapons with which you are proficient beyond the basic list in your class description.
Benefit: You make attack rolls with the selected weapon normally.
Normal: When using a weapon with which you are not proficient, you take a –4 penalty on attack rolls.

Bloodline of fire (PGtF)
[Regional]
You are descended from the efreet who ruled Calimshan long ago. The blood of these fire spirits runs thick in your veins.
Prerequisite: Human (Calimshan) or planetouched (Calimshan),
Benefit: You receive a +4 bonus on saving throws against fire effects. In addition, you cast spells with the fire descriptor at +2 caster level.
Special: You may select this feat only as a 1st-level character. You may have only one regional feat.

Armor Proficiency (light) (Player's Handbook)
[General]
You are proficient with light armor (see Table 7–6: Armor and Shields, page 123).
Benefit: When you wear a type of armor with which you are proficient, the armor check penalty for that armor applies only to Balance, Climb, Escape Artist, Hide, Jump, MoveSilently, Pick Pocket, and Tumble checks.
Normal: A character who is wearing armor with which she is not proficient applies its armor check penalty to attack rolls and to all skill checks that involve moving, including Ride.

Fiery Burst (CM)
[Reserve]
You channel your magical talent into a blast of fire.
Prerequisite: Ability to cast 2nd-level spells,
Benefit: As long as you have a fire spell of 2nd level or higher available to cast, you can spend a standard action to create a 5-foot-radius burst of fire at a range of 30 feet. This burst deals 1d6 points of fire damage per level of the highest level fire spell you have available to cast. A successful Reflex save halves the damage. As a secondary benefit, you gain a +1 competence bonus to your caster level when casting fire spells.


Blistering Spell (PH2)
[Metamagic]
Your fire spells sear the flesh from your enemies' bones, leaving them wracked with pain.
Benefit: This metamagic feat can be applied only to a spell that has the fire descriptor. A blistering spell deals an extra 2 points of fire damage per level of the spell. In addition to the spell's normal effect, any creature that fails its save against a blistering spell takes a -2 penalty on attack rolls and checks until the beginning of your next turn. A blistering spell uses up a spell slot one level higher than the spell's actual level.

Fiery Spell (Sandstorm)
[Metamagic]
Your fire magic is bolstered, further scorching your enemies.
Benefit: A fiery spell deals an extra 1 point of fire damage for each die of damage the spell deals. This feat can be applied only to spells with the fire descriptor. For example, if a 9th-level wizard with this feat casts a fiery fireball, the fireball deals 9d6+9 points of damage. A fiery spell uses up a spell slot one level higher than the spell's actual level.

Healing Flames (RoF)
[Genera]
You can draw energy from open flames to heal yourself.
Prerequisite: Base Will save +3, fire genasi or tanarukk
Benefit: When you use your control flame spell-like ability, you instead may touch the flame and heal yourself a number, of hit points of damage depending upon the size of the fire. This counts as a use of your control flame ability for the day. Touching the flame causes you no harm when you use this ability, but if you enter the flame, touch more than just its edge, or remain in contact with it for more than 1 round, you take damage from the fire.

Nonlethal Substitution (fire) (CA)
[Metamagic]
You can modify an energy spell to deal nonlethal damage.
Prerequisites: Knowledge (arcana) 5 ranks, any metamagic feat.
Benefit: Choose one type of energy (acid, cold, electricity, or fire). You can then modify any spell with the chosen descriptor to deal nonlethal damage instead of normal energy damage. The nonlethal spell works normally in all respects except the type of damage dealt—for example, a nonlethal fireball has the same range and area, but since it deals nonlethal damage instead of energy damage, it will not damage objects or set fire to combustibles in the area.
A nonlethal spell uses a spell slot one level higher than the spell’s normal level.

Searing Spell (Sandstorm)
[Metamagic]
Your fire spells are so hot that they can damage creatures that normally have resistance or immunity to fire.
Benefit: A searing spell is so hot that it ignores the resistance to fire of creatures affected by the spell, and affected creatures with immunity to fire still take half damage. This feat can be applied only to spells with the fire descriptor. Creatures with the cold subtype take double damage from a searing spell. Creatures affected by a searing spell are still entitled to whatever saving throw the spell normally allows. A searing spell uses up a spell slot one level higher than the spell's actual level.

Transdimensional Spell (CA)
[Metamagic]
You can cast spells that affect targets lurking in coexistent planes and extradimension al spaces whose entrances fall within the spell’s area.
Benefit: A transdimensional spell has its full normal effect on incorporeal creatures, creatures on the Ethereal Plane or the Plane of Shadow, and creatures within an extradimension al space in the spell’s area. Such creatures include ethereal creatures, creatures that are blinking or shadow walking, manifested ghosts, and creatures within the extradimension al space of a rope trick, portable hole, or familiar pocket (see page 106).
You must be able to perceive a creature to target it with a transdimension al spell, but you do not need to perceive a creature to catch it in the area of a burst, cone, emanation, or spread.
A transdimensional spell uses up a spell slot one level higher than the spell’s actual level.
Normal: Only force spells and effects can affect ethereal creatures, and no Material Plane attack affects creatures on the Plane of Shadow or in an enclosed extradimension al space. There is a 50% chance that any spell other than a force effect fails against an incorporeal creature.

Versatile Spellcaster (RofD)
[General]
You can use two lower-level spell slots to cast a spell one level higher.
Prerequisite: Ability to spontaneously cast spells,
Benefit: You can use two spell slots of the same level to cast a spell you know that is one level higher. For example, a sorcerer with this feat can expend two 2nd-level spell slots to cast any 3rd-level spell he knows.

Dragontouched (Dragon Magic)
[General]
You have a trace of draconic power, a result of dragons in your ancestry or a spiritual connection between you and the forces of dragon kind.
Prerequisite: Cha 11.
Benefit: You gain the dragonblood subtype. You gain 1 hit point, a +1 bonus on Listen, Search, and Spot checks, and a +1 bonus on saving throws against paralysis and sleep effects. In addition, you can select draconic feats as if you were a sorcerer of your character level.

Accelerate Metamagic (Transdimensional Spell) (RotD)
[General]
You can apply a selected metamagic feat to your spells more quickly than normal.
Prerequisite: Dragonblood subtype, Spellcraft 4 ranks, any metamagic feat, ability to spontaneously cast 1st-level spells.
Benefit: Choose a metamagic feat you know. You can apply the selected metamagic feat to any spontaneously cast spell without increasing the casting time.
Special: You can gain Accelerate Metamagic multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time you take the feat, it applies to a new metamagic feat.
Normal: Without this feat, metamagic spells with a normal casting time of 1 standard action take a full-round action for spontaneous casters. Metamagic spells with a casting time of longer than 1 standard action take spontaneous casters an extra full-round action to cast.

Accelerate Metamagic (Searing Spell) (RotD)
[General]
You can apply a selected metamagic feat to your spells more quickly than normal.
Prerequisite: Dragonblood subtype, Spellcraft 4 ranks, any metamagic feat, ability to spontaneously cast 1st-level spells.
Benefit: Choose a metamagic feat you know. You can apply the selected metamagic feat to any spontaneously cast spell without increasing the casting time.
Special: You can gain Accelerate Metamagic multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time you take the feat, it applies to a new metamagic feat.
Normal: Without this feat, metamagic spells with a normal casting time of 1 standard action take a full-round action for spontaneous casters. Metamagic spells with a casting time of longer than 1 standard action take spontaneous casters an extra full-round action to cast.

Spoiler: Elemental Focus

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Element Focus: See Complete Divine.

Spoiler: Sense Elements

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Sense Elements (Sp): See Complete Divine.

Spoiler: Elemental Recognition

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From http://archive.wizards.com/default.a.../cwc/20070227x
Elemental Recognition (Su): Starting at 2nd level, a shugenja can identify creatures with an elemental subtype during an encounter from any distance. The shugenja gains a +2 bonus on Knowledge (the planes) checks to identify such creature types, but gains no insight about their special powers or vulnerabilities. See Knowledge on pg. 78 of the Player's Handbook. Moreover, the shugenja can make these Knowledge (the planes) checks untrained. This bonus increases by +1 for each shugenja level the character takes after 2nd level.

Spoiler: Lesser Planetouched Fire Gensai

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From FR Campaign Setting and PGtF:
Fire genasi are hot-blooded and quick to anger, proud and unafraid to take action. They are most often neutral. They appear mostly human, with one or two unusual traits reflecting their quasi-elemental nature, such as skin the color of burnt coal, red hair that waves like flames, or eyes that glow when the genasi is angry. They prefer to dress simply and elegantly, although their fashions can be more flamboyant than the most outrageous trend.
Regions: Fire genasi are most common in Calimshan, for much of that land was long ago ruled by efreet. They are also found in Chult, the Lake of Steam, and Unther, which are all lands near volcanoes.
Racial Abilities: Fire genasi have the following racial traits:
+2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma: Fire genasi have bright minds, but are impatient and quick to anger.
+1 racial bonus on saving throws against fire spells and effects. This bonus increases by +1 for every five class levels the genasi attains.
Size: Medium.
Base Speed: 30.
Darkvision up to 60 feet.
Control Flame (Sp): Fire genasi can cause a nonmagical fire within 10 feet of them to diminish to the level of coals or flare to the brightness of daylight and double the normal radius of its illumination. This ability does not change the heat output or fuel consumption of the fire source, lasts 5 minutes, and may be done once per day. They use this ability as 5th-level sorcerers.
Humanoid (planetouched): They are susceptible to spells that specifically target both humanoids or outsiders.
Automatic Languages: Common, home region. Bonus Languages: Any (except secret languages, such as Druidic).

[Zaq]

They've got a regular engine going.

Spoiler: Intro

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Fire, fire you say!? What is fire, what is this fascinating brightness? Here in this wet place, you bring fire!?


The original idea was to sing you the refrain "bears on fire!", but from there it became seas of fire, and so we are here.

Anyway, entry theme : I like the spell Balor nimbus a lot, there's something viscerally satisfying with the concept to set yourself on fire as a way to deliver pain to your enemies, so here I am turning that up to eleven

"But what about bears? and what's with the aquatic!?" Well, If I'm making a grappler, I want that little octopus, so here we are playing around in water.

Plus, it makes fire all that more "impactful", storywise! The contrast!

I need to work smoke on the water in somewhere, or even heaven's on fire

Spoiler: Steamy romancer

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NG Shalarin^{MoF p. 76 , 3.5update}, druid 1 / Sorcerer 1 / Cleric of Eadro 3 / Beastmaster 1
Str 20 (15+ 4 racial +1 level), Dex 18 (14 +4 racial), Con 14, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 12
HP 8 + 1d10 +3d8 + 1d4 + 12 (41)
naked AC 14, or 18+ with the aquatic equivalent of chainshirt which is conveniently made of pearl/coral/notmetal. plus relevant other bonuses from spells or equipment
naked saves for 11 refl 9 will 11 with only conviction, add resistance to taste

Grapple bonuses, assuming enlarged for the occasion : BAB 3 + STR 6 +size 4 + octopus 3 + soulmeld 6 = +20
Gargantuan Dinograpple : BAB 7 + STR 9 + size 12 + soulmeld 6 = +34
Lil octopus grapple : BAB 3 + STR 2 + size 0 + soulmeld 6 = +11
Clearly we'll dino>us>octopus, easy peasy staying within 5 feet of the gargantuan dino for sharing the soulmeld bonuses

Spoiler: leveling table

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Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Spontaneous Druid 1	+0	+2	+0	+2	Handle animal +4, Spellcraft +4, Spot +4, Survival +4	Skill focus(handle animal)	Animal companion, Nature sense, Wild empathy
2st	Druid 1 / Sorcerer 1	+0	+2	+0	+4	Handle animal 4+1(2CC), Spellcraft 4, Spot 4, Survival 4		DrakkenDM p. 12 familiar
3rd	Druid 1 / Sorcerer 1 / Cleric of Eadro 1	+0	+4	+0	+6	Handle animal 5+1(2CC), Spellcraft 4, Spot 4, Survival 4	Natural bondCAdv p. 111, Rapid swimmingsto p. 93, bonus	Turn undead, Turn fire/Rebuke water, Water Domain, SeafolkSto p. 110 Domain
4th	Druid 1 / Sorcerer 1 / Cleric 2	+1	+5	+0	+7	Handle animal 6+1(2CC), Spellcraft 4, Spot 4, Survival 4
5th	Druid 1 / Sorcerer 1 / Cleric 3	+2	+5	+1	+7	Handle animal 7+1(2CC), Spellcraft 4, Spot 4, Survival 4
6th	Druid 1 / Sorcerer 1 / Cleric 3 / Beastmaster 1CAdv p. 26	+3	+7	+3	+7	Handle animal 8, Spellcraft 4, Spot 4+4, Survival 4	Extend Spell	Animal companion, Wild empathy

Epic feats in order of acquisition:

1. Persistent Spell^{CA p. 81}
2. Divine Metamagic(persistent spell)^{CD p. 80}
3. Extra turning
4. Sudden Maximize^{CA p. 83}
5. Sudden Empower^{CA p. 83}
6. Companion Spellbond^{PHBII p. 77}
7. Enspell Familiar^{DrC p. 97}
8. Shape soulmeld(Girallon's arms)^{MoI p. 40, 68}
9. Share soulmeld^{MoI p. 41}
10. Bonus Essentia^{MoI p. 35}

Spoiler: spells, animal companion, familiar

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I'm skipping orisons and cantrips because other than the usual suspects of detect magic, know direction and so on, they're not much cared about
We are a first level druid withenough wisdom for one bonus slot, so
Prepared : Produce flame, Speak with animals

We are a first level sorcerer, this means, with our charisma
4 1st level slots
2 1st level spells known: Enlarge person, Fist of Stone^SC

We are a third level cleric, this mean, eventually, with our wisdom
3+1 1st level slots
2+1 2nd level slot

prepared
2nd level: 1x balor nimbus^SC, 1x veil of shadow^SC, domain Fins to feet^Sto
1st level: 1x conviction^SC, 1x divine favor, 1x entropic shield, domain quickswim^Sto

Animal companion:
at ECL 1-2 Squid , if you subscribe to the school of thought that we're allowed to change the default feat, he'll have improved unarmed strike and improved grapple
at ECL 3-5 : that same squid but so advanced : 5HD, DEX 18 CON 12, BAB 3
at ECL 6 and epic : enter the arena Elasmosaurus, again if we can change the default feats, he'll pick: Snatch, Improved snatch^{Drc p. 71}, Multisnatch^{Drc p. 72}, Combat reflexes.

Familiar:
dragonblooded Octopus with 20 HP and a 1/hour breath weapon that does 15ft fire cone for 1d6+2 damage

Spoiler: short features recap and build decision expounded on

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Shalarin: this is an acquatic (they have gills, and also a nose) humanoid race with no land speed, 40ft swim speed, 60ft darkvision, racial ability modifiers of +4 STR, +4 DEX and, of course, LA 0 :)
Drakken familiar ACF from dragon magic gives our little octopus the dragonblood subtype, and exchange the deliver touch spell feature for a breath weapon usable once per hour (yes, it's fire!)
Natural bond: +3 to our "equivalent druid level / EDL" to adjudicate what kind / how strong our animal companion is
water domain granted power: turn fire/rebuke water pool of alternative turning
seafolk domain granted power : rapid swimming as a bonus feat
rapid swimming : + 20ft to the innate swim speed
beastmaster : grants 4 EDL that are specifically allowed to go above our HD, thus we're allowed an animal companion from the EDL-6 list, joy!
Persistent spell: a metamagic costing +6 for making any personal or fixed range spell last 24 hours
Divine metamagic(select): you can spend turn attempt to apply the chosen metamagic without actually increasing the spell slot, 1+metamagic increase turn, so 7 for persisting
Sudden maximize and sudden empower : can apply maximize and empower for free , 1/day each
Companion spellbond: the share spell feature of your companion works up to 30ft. touch spells become close range when the target is your companion. can "deliver touch" up to 30 ft.
Enspell familiar: the share spell feature of your familiar works up to 1 mile.
Shape soulmeld(select): you can shape the selected soulmeld
Girallon arms: +2 bonus to climb/grapple checks, plus another 2 per essentia invested
share soulmeld: you can share the effect of your soulmelds with your animal companion and familiar so long that they are within 5ft.
Bonus essentia: +2 essentia


There's.. not really much to say about build decisions, I think. The fire theme made me think of balor nimbus, the build simply flowed from there with this simple train of thought:
I'll have to persist it to properly be on theme of FIRE, FIRE ALL DAY LONG!, so cleric is mandatory.
It is known that bears are the grapplers, so let's go druid+beastmaster, it's not like beastmaster NEVER EVER sees use in this E6 IC laughs self deprecatingly
Oh frell balor nimbus is 2nd level cleric, druid 1/cleric 4/beastmaster 1 it is
massive facial tick at taking 4 level of a prepared spellcaster
Oh hey! if I tack on sorcerer, I could get an extra 3 to grappling with the octopus, and that's even a third creature I can set on FRIENDLY FIRE!
But octopus is aquatic, what am I to do with bears in water, I guess I'll go aquatic
flips out about that damn dinosaur
Ok, we got the persist, now let's pump those fire numbers up!
Freedom of movement! (of a sort)
let's be better at grappling, 3 feat for +6 to me and my critters sounds fair

Spoiler: tactics

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Level 1: with those stats, we can happily melee, and we got a little grappler to boot.
given the aquatic enviroment, I feel that animals will be 80% of our encounters, so speak with animal is a solid "problem solving" spell that will probably never stops being relevant

level 2: we're lucky we got the strength to pick up the slack from our bab staying at 0 until level 4. And hey, triple effectiveness with fist of stone since we'll be sharing it with our companions. It'll be a bit tricky staying within 5ft all the time, but doable since we all act "in the same turn"

level 3: more spells! the juicy thing is our lovable squid jumping up 2HD

level 5 : our first little taste of balor nymbus. FIRE! FIRE IN THE WATER, WHAT IS FIRE? I would give it a big circumstance bonus to intimidate here, because fire is scary and it's extra scary when it's not where it belongs

level 6 : dinoshenanigans, who woulnd't love a huge and occasionally gargantuan animal companion!?

E3 : finally on fire all day long! and with the pool of water turning we can persist a second spell, too. Maybe that produce flame? for practically infinite amount of ranged spell attacks for you and your critters? Or maybe veil of shadow for all day long 20% miss chance? juicy.

E4-5 : "sudden X" are usually deemed bad feats because doing the metamagic 1/day is not that great, since you can do the same with rods. But gods forbid we use magic items in these competitions wink wink, and the spell we persist is 1/day anyway, so these are great here, making our ( triple!) balor nimbus do 54 damage instead of 6d6, and x3!

E6-7 : fire! fire from 30ft or 1 mile away!

E8-10 : we end our tale with making grappling better, and ironically locking us on staying within 5 feet of our animal companion for that first grapple... Which is easy, he's frigging gargantuan when it counts, this means if we are riding our dino , we can be up to 35ft away from enemies and they will still be grappled by the Dino

Spoiler: Possible controversies

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Let's talk about divine metamagic. the two big controversies I'm aware on the topic are :

• "You can't DMM something you wouldn't have the higher slot for"
• "You can't use turn attempts from alternate pools of turning to fuel divine metamagic".

I don't have much to say about the first, it's a somewhat reasonable limitation, but nothing on the wording of the feat suggests that this is the case. In the context of E6, we're persisting spells that *would* be persistible the normal way, eventually, if the game was not E6. it's not like we are persisting divine power that would not be persistible in a normal game/normal way. I feel it's reasonable to allow DMM:persist

The second is a valid, if restrictive, read of the feat. One I don't subscribe to, obviously, but the topic is much contested/discussed on this forum now and then, it's as simple as picking a different domain instead of water. Staying with Eadro I see three possible picks : animal domain, because the 1/day speak with animal SLA would free us up to prepare a different druid spell, or using the Complete Champion ACF that let us pick devotions in place of the domain. Animal devotion or protection devotion feels like interesting choices here.
Of course we don't "need" the seafolk domain if the campaign is 100% aquatic without a "need" to occasionally venture on land, 3hours at a time


Another thing that might be contested is "can we share an enlarge person we are casting on ourselves". This would be contested because the line "At the druid’s option, she may have any spell (but not any spell-like ability) she casts upon herself also affect her animal companion" and the line "A druid and her animal companion can share spells even if the spells normally do not affect creatures of the companion’s type (animal)" are in different paragraphs. I am of the school of thought that it works.
If not, then enlarge person loses much of it's appeal within the context of making your animal companion a bigger grappler. Perhabs you'd like to have a different spell known then? Personally I'm a sucker for light of lunia/mercuria/venya when doing manypets shenanigans, 6d6 ( or 12d6 against undeads) ranged touch damage is solid ofr a 1st level slot. for this contest I'd pick shield honestly.

Fire and water : Stormwrack codifies that spells with the fire descriptor can work underwater if you make a spellcraft check, and they do "steam" instead of the usual fiery effect.
luckily for us, balor nimbus doesn't actually have the fire descriptor, so we can coast on it and have "real" fire underwater, ha!

Spoiler: noncore sources

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CA: Complete Arcane
CAdv: Complete Adventurer
CD: Complete Divine
Drc: Draconomicon
DrC: Dragon Compendium
DM: Dragon Magic
MoI: Magic of Incarnum
MoF: Monsters of Faerun
PHBII: Player's Handbook 2
SC: Spell Compendium
Sto: Stormwrack

[Zaq]

Every now and then I flirt with Perm. Emanation
Something something total eclipse of the bard

Spoiler: Intro

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Every now and then I flirt with permanent emanation feat.

Fire theme made me think of that, but it's kind of very very hard to get an epic feat on E6 :D

So I'll simply try to go "close enough" to that in some other means.

Lore blurb.... something something fire is beautiful, meditate on the beauty of fire, make plans to have a world on fire, as our cabal demands! I'm here to optimize, not to creative writing!

Spoiler: Uanfaira worldfire

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CE Naenhoon Illumian^{RoD p. 53} Cleric 5 / Wizard 1
Str 8, Dex 16, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 16 (15 +1 level), Cha 12
HP 8 + 4d8 + 1d4 + 12 (40)
AC 13, plus whatever equipment/spells
Saves fort 6 reflex 4 Will 9, plus equipment/spells

Fire:Persisted "Corona of fire" dealing 42-45 fire damage per round in a 20ft emanation, DC 21-22 to negate, rider effects are -2 to STR, +2 to dex, half movement and -2 to attack rolls and "checks", that ignore resistance and still deal half damage to immune creatures. "invisible" fire so we're not immediately focus fired, and it's doubled up because we share it with our familiar ( which we keep well away from ourself!)

Spoiler: leveling table

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Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Cleric 1	+0	+2	+0	+2	Concentration +4, Knowledge(Arcana) +4, Spellcraft +4	Extra turning, Extend spellbonus	Hoon Power Sigil, Rebuke undead, Domains: PlanningSC p. 278, MeditationDCS p. 103
2nd	Cleric 2	+1	+3	+0	+3	Concentration 4+1, Knowledge(Arcana) 4+1, Spellcraft 4+1		Naen Power Sigil, Naenhoon Power Word
3rd	Cleric 3	+2	+3	+1	+3	Concentration 5+1, Knowledge(Arcana) 5+1, Spellcraft 5+1	Persistent SpellCA p. 81
4th	Cleric 4	+3	+4	+1	+4	Concentration 6+1, Knowledge(Arcana) 6+1, Spellcraft 6+1		Ability Score Increase WIS +1
5th	Cleric 5	+3	+4	+1	+4	Concentration 7+1, Knowledge(Arcana) 7+1, Spellcraft 7+1
6th	Cleric 5 / EvokerUA p. 62 specialist Wizard 1	+3	+4	+1	+6	Concentration 8+1, Knowledge(Arcana) 8+1, Spellcraft 8+1	Energy Substitution(fire)CA p. 79, Scribe Scrollbonus	Summon familiar(bat), Overcome Resistance

Epic feats in order of acquisition

1. Enspell Familiar^{DrC pg. 97}
2. Invisible Spell^{Cs pg. 61}
3. Sudden Maximize^{CA pg. 83}
4. Sudden Widen^{CA pg. 83}
5. Metamagic School Focus(Evocation)^{CM p. 45}
6. Searing Spell^{Snd pg. 53}
7. Blistering Spell^{PHBII pg. 91}
8. Extra Turning
9. Heighten Spell
10. Divine Metamagic(Heighten)^{CD p. 80}

Spoiler: noncore stuff recap and spell slots table

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Illumian : Very cool race with a customizable suit of bonuses and from 2nd level, a special daily power depending on the combination of sigils we picked, in our case :
Hoon Sigil : +2 to wisdom checks, constitution checks and skill checks based on either of these two ability score. Some says this apply to fort and will saves too, I disagree with that but you do you. this bonus is +1 at 1st level and increases to +2 at second level.
Naen Sigil : +2 to intelligence check and INT based skill checks
Naenhoon power word : 2/day swift action can spend turn/rebuke attempts equal to a metamagic cost to apply that metamagic when casting a spell, without increasing the slot
Planning Domain power : extend spell as bonus feat
Meditation Domain power : 1/day apply the effect of empower metamagic when casting a spell, "no action"
Persistent Spell : +6 metamagic power that make a personal or fixed range spell last 24 hours
Energy substitution : +0 metamagic spell that change the energy damage type and spell descriptor to the chosen element
Evoker variant : count as specialist and chose among features, we chose overcome resistance, which substitutes the specialist bonus slot
overcome resistance : 3/day free action when casting a spell, that spell ignores 10 point of energy resistance
Enspell familiar : while it's within 1 mile of you, familiar is considered to be touchign you for hte purpose of share spell
Invisible spell : +0 metamagic that removes all visual effects of a spell
Sudden maximize : 1/day apply the effect of maximize metamagic when casting a spell, "no action"
Sudden widen : 1/day apply the effect of widen metamagic when casting a spell, "no action"
Metamagic school focus : 3/day reduce by 1 the metamagic cost of a metamagic you're putting on a spell of the chosen school
Searing spell : +1 metamagic, spells with fire descriptor only, spell ignores fire resistance and deals half damage to creatures immune to fire. double damage to creatures with the cold subtype
blistering spell : +1 metamagic, spells with fire descriptor only. spell deals 2 more damage per spell level. affected creatures has -2 malus to attacks and checks for 1 minute
Divine Metamagic : free action can spend 1+metamagic adjustment to apply the chosen metamagic when casting a spell

Spell slots Table
C is a cleric slot, D is a domain slot, W is a wizard slot. Cantrips and orisons are omitted. bonus slot from high WIS/INT are included
Wizard banned schools are Necromancy and Enchantment

Character Level	1st level slots	2nd level slots	3rd level slots
1	2C+1D	-	-
2	3C+1D	-	-
3	3C+1D	2C+1D	-
4	4C+1D	3C+1D	-
5	4C+1D	3C+1D	2C+1D
6	4C+1D+2W	3C+1D	2C+1D

Spoiler: build decisions

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Once I settled on the core idea of "permanent" emanation, the build kind of wrote itself, here's the evolution anyway:

• start as a cleric 6 for consistency
• mandatory grumbling about energy substitution and "why isn't this a default property of energy-descriptor magic"
• "let's persist it!" for all day long being banned from cities
• add "all the suddens" because we only really need to cast it once a day anyway
• add metamagic school focus to apply those juicy fire-specific metamagic
• convert yourself to illuminianism for the "racial" DMM , misreading the swift action and so using it for both persist and heighten
• add a wizard level to avoid the school focus tax
• rejoice the foresight of the wizard level : you can spellshare that emanation! you can go back to cities and still do your gimmick! you can even do your gimmick remotely!
• re-get divine metamagic because you can't naenhoon two metamagics in the same round

Spoiler: tactics

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Level 1: We do what all clerics dumping STR do : hang back and occasionally crossbow!
Prepared spell : 2x lesser vigor^SC, Domain comprehend language

Level 2: Naenhoon comes online, which for now means we can freely extend two spells per day, it could be the lesser vigor themself, but some reads the duration as being hard capped to 15 rounds, alternatively Conviction^SC is a staple and 40 minutes duration is solid

Level 3: 2nd level slot and we can even persist one thing, yummy
Prepared spell :

1. 1x lesser vigor, 1x convition(estended), 1x divine favor(persisted), domain Comprehend language
2. 1x divine insight^SC, 1x resist energy, domain Augury

Level 4: it's just more spells prepared, a cleric ogtta do what a cleric gotta do
+1 lesser vigor, +1 divine insight

Level 5: we don't have energy substitution yet, so we don't go nova yet!
but we do have the option of extending or persisting some other kind of third level cleric spells, some examples :
extended mass conviction^SC

Prepared spells :

1. 2x lesser vigor, 1x shield of faith, 1x divine favor(persisted), domain Comprehend language
2. 2x divine insight^SC, 1x lesser restoration, domain Augury
3. 1x mass conviction^SC(extended), 1x mass resist energy^SC, domain Clairaudience/Clairvoyance

Level 6: Wizard level brings us good old staples like Shield and mage armor, and the bat familiar to deliver pain, we could tecnically go "corona of fire" now, but I would wait for

E1: Enspell familiar makes the build work, because it allows us to do the combo and merrily send the familiar onward, while we stay within the protection of our party, we don't want to set our own party on fire, right? Some way to deliver fire away from us is therefore mandatory.
Prepared spells :

1. 1x Shield, 1x Mage armor, 2x lesser vigor, 1x shield of faith, 1x divine favor, domain Comprehend language
2. 2x divine insight^SC, 1x lesser restoration, domain Augury
3. 1x mass conviction^SC(extended), 1x Energy substitution(fire) Corona of coldFire^SC(persisted), domain Clairaudience/Clairvoyance

the whole plan is using the Naenhoon power to persist Corona of fire, have it shared with our bat familiar, dismiss it from ourself, and happily send the familiar on his merry way.
still, at E1 this makes the familiar quite the target, because of course it's going to be focus fired when creatures within 10 ft of it start taking fire damage and there's this conspicious bat with some kind of magical effect around it, making it obvious what the cause is.

Therefore, E2 is preparing our signature spell not only as energy substituted, but also as invisible, so now the bat is "just a bat" :) . You haven't forgotten to empower it with the meditation domain power, right? and of making it bypassing 10 point of resistance, right? good thing that ACF is applied/declared when you cast the spell, not when the spell does damage, so one application covers the whole duration!

E3-E4 are self explanatory, 18 damage are better than 1d12*1.5, and double the area is double the area.

E5-E6-E7 are likewise self explanatory. Amusingly school focus would technically let us extend the corona, for 48hours of fire! But perhabs you'd rather do some sillier shenanigans? what happens if you extend+invisible a darkness or deeper darkness spell you cast on "the necklace" your bat wears? It's invisble, so it's not evident that there is this "blob of darkness" moving about, but anyone clipping inside the area if they don't have darkvision are nominally "in total darkness", I personally find it hilarious, but I caution you from doing this kind of bork at an actual table.

So, since two out of three free evocation metamagic reduction are, obviously, to prepare a energy substitution(fire), blistering, searing, corona of coldfire (persisted, widened, empowered, maximized), what other evocation 3rd or less cleric spell or 1st level wizard spell could we extend or searing or blistering for free? Putting aside making invisible spells that depend on visual to have their effects.

Corona of fire currently doing (12+6)*1.5 = 27 damage per round in a 20ft emanation centered on our bat, or both us and our bat if we're traveling solo, careful not to clip your bat in your aura! it's yikes!

E8 Getting another extra turning before the closing act means that for a while, we have enough turns to persist a second spell! Maybe it will be shield, maybe it will be divine favor, but probably shield, since unlike divine metamagic we aren't limited to divine spells

E9-E10 heightening our corona doesn't only mean an higher DC, it also mean more damage from blistering metamagic.
Sadly, naenhooning it is a swift action, so we can't naenhoon two different metamagics on the same round. thus divine metamagic.
if we don't have any charisma boosting item, we have 12 total turn undeads, 6 are gone for persistinc, so we can heighten corona by 5, that's 5 more DC and 10 more damage before empower! On the other hand, even the most basic cloak of charisma would allow us to bring corona up all the way to 9th slot! that's (12+18)*1.5 = 45 damage! per round in a 20ft radius! around the bat AND us, AND it's not evident that such an effect is in effect! THE WORLD SHALL BURN!

Little noncore spells recap:
lesser vigor : 10+caster level (max 15) rounds of fast healing 1, single target
conviction : 10min/level of +2 morale bonus to all saves, single target
divine insight : 5+caster level insight bonus to one skill check, useful for spellcraft to copy spells into our wizard book
corona of cold : 10ft radius emanation dealing 1d12 cold damage for round/level with rider -2 to STR, -2 to DEX and half movement. fortitude negates. damage is "all other creatures in the area" . it's cleric and druid only

Spoiler: Possible controversies

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Big one I can think about is how the metamagic order of application is adjudicated. This is simply not codified anywhere other than that one FAQ answer that was a suggestion to "generally, use the worst possible combination for the caster". Which is kind of not what get done anyway whenever empower is involved, because applying empower before dice get rolled is disfunctional.
Anyway, I had been a long time player of magic:the gathering, and "the user controls the order of the effect he generates" is most intuitive to me.
Under that reading, we are of course applying the heighten first, because that comboes nicely with blistering, since blistering wording is "+2 damage per spell level" and heighten changes the actual spell level.
"worst possible combination for the caster" is otherwise disfunctional for a different reason : it makes energy substitution not comboable with any of those metamagic that says "apply only to spells with the Y descriptor", because taking the FAQ at face value is a catch-22 :"we can't apply blistering/flash frost before energy substitution, because the spell stops being fire/frost/X, thus being invalid for blistering/flash frost" , and for the same reason "we can't apply blistering/flash frost after energy substitution, because the spell wasn't fire/frost/X". a reading of "apply metamagic in whatever order is worst" means energy substitution simply stops working despite specifically changing the energy descriptor of the metamagicked spell. I mantain the caster can damn well control how he chooses to twirl his fingers, and so we are heightening before energy substituting before etctera etcetera, with empower being the last.

cleric domains : I generally dislike being "godless", and nominally following a specific deity is one of the few area where I actually care about RP. I was considering not taking invisible spell metamagic, just suck it up and take sudden empower, and be a follower of one of these : Vecna (planning+magic), Chronepsis ( plkanning+time), Gond (planning + fire). Problem is, none of these really lend themself to the concept of "I want ot see the world burn", so I'm biting the bullet and going for a "ideal" cleric. "Fire is beautyful, fire is eternal" would be the ideal and if we were to go contemplative the other domains I would tack to our cabal would be : fire, glory, destruction, time. Nothing wrong with us going meditation+planning, I just don't like it much, but optimization is optimization and it's legal outside of faerun to not have a deity, which we nominally are since meditation is a dragonlance domain, and also appears in eberron (City of Stormreach supplement). Going for planning+fire domains would mean having a second pool, for possibly persisting a second spell, maybe shield?

Spoiler: Sources

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Cs: Cityscape
CA: Complete Arcane
CD: Complete Divine
CM: Complete Mage
DrC: Dragon Compendium
DCS: Dragonlance Campaign Setting
PHBII: Player's Handbook 2
RoD: races of Destiny
Snd: Sandstorm
SC: Spell Compendium
UA: Unearthed Arcana

[Zaq]

I never said eight builds. There have always been nine builds. You're seeing things.

Aara yr Rashila el Katraz yi Keltar: Luminary of Seminarcane

Spoiler: backstory

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Aara entered the lecture hall. She was the first one there and wasted no time picking a seat on the flat, sandstone benches that made up the amphitheater. When she’d received her acceptance sending from the Seminarcane, she’d tracked down a blueprint of the buildings where she’d have her lessons and pinpointed the optimal point to hear the lecturer geometrically. You never knew which professors had banned evocation, after all, and would be speaking unassisted by magical amplification.

A perfectly preserved human corpse sat propped in a chair at the front of the hall.

A member of Aara’s cohort appeared in the place next to hers.

“What do you think that’s for?” he asked.

“I don’t know. Something for demonstrations. You know, instead of using a member of the professor’s staff. I’m Aara.”

“Lastar.” He tipped his hat at her. It was wide and had a brim. A foreigner, probably here on exchange.

“I thought the halls were warded against teleportation for safety,” Aara said.

Lastar unpacked his bag and laid out a pen and book.

“I mean, I figure that’s the first test, right? See if you’re clever enough to punch through the wards. Plus I’ll do anything I can to avoid walking over. A few extra minutes of sleep a day adds up, you know?” He vanished from the bench and reappeared at the front by the corpse.

“What’re you doing?” Aara asked.

“Figure it can’t hurt. Nose around and see what’s going on to lay a little groundwork before the stragglers drift in. I hear some bonediggers send corpses in to do their lectures for them.” Lastar held up a stone with a smooth hole worn through it and peered at the corpse.

“Is that possible?” Aara asked.

“Guess you banned necromancy.” He picked up the corpse’s arm at the wrist and let it drop onto the desk with a quiet thud. “They use mindless ones and just jam their spirit in while they stay in bed. That’s the dream, huh?”

“Had to ban something,” Aara murmured. A few more students walked or teleported in. A hippogriff pecked at the window and someone inside unlatched it so the passenger could disembark. The beast screeched.

“Does anyone have any corn? My ride doesn’t like what I packed for lunch.”

Lastar teleported back by Aara’s side and leaned in to whisper to her.

“Looks like someone banned conjuration.”

“Amazing,” she said. Someone had to fill the bottom of the curve. A pinprick of white flame in her palm blossomed into a bag of corn. She hucked it over.

“You’ve got a soft heart, huh?” Lastar sat down and made some notes in his book in a language Aara didn’t understand.

“I just like animals,” she said lamely as the rider nodded thanks to her and fed the beast. The hall was about full now.

“Nothing wrong with that. I’m putting together a study group. I figure we can carry water for each other, so to speak. I know you’re stuck in necro even though you banned it but you’re still responsible for the theory stuff. I know I find it helpful to have someone who can actually do the stuff walk me through it. I’m useless with invocation otherwise,” he said.

“Evocation, you mean?” she asked.

“Ha, you see what I mean? If you stick around for a minute after lecture, I’ll give you the details.”

The clock in the room chimed and the window shut itself.

“Wonder where the professor is,” Aara said.

The corpse in the chair at the front of the hall rose to its feet.

“Damnit,” Lastar said and tried to shrink nonmagically into his seat as low as he could.

“Good morning, everyone. Welcome to ‘the language of wishing.’ I know many of you come from fine families and have been trained in Calishíte etiquette from birth, but you can dispense with the annuv here.” The corpse made the motion with its wrist.

“Your lives are short enough; I’d rather spend that time on the material. Since this institution has banned magical amanuensis, I’m sure your joints will thank you by the end of the term.” A few polite laughs.

“What should we call you?” the hippogriff rider asked.

“You may address me as Professor el Azuth. I can tell from the looks on some of your faces that you’re curious about my situation,” the corpse said, its eyes rheumy and unblinking, their surfaces white and opaque.

A few students cleared their throats.

Professor el Azuth stood utterly immobile. With no breath, his chest didn’t need to rise or fall. With no sensation, his muscles could never get sore from being in one position too long. He could quite literally wait forever.

“You have no breath. How are you speaking? I don’t smell any sonic spells on you,” someone in the back said, tastefully amplified with a gorget that glowed with quiet power as she spoke.

“Excellent question. At this stage, I don’t have a perfectly concrete answer for you. One of the leading theories is that it’s an illusion-like extraordinary ability I am performing unconsciously at all times. If you are to do well in this class, never be afraid to ask questions. Regardless of what school you have chosen to specialize in, each and every one of you will be able to make wishes eventually.” The professor didn’t pace the room or gesture as he spoke. His mouth moved, but nothing else Aara regarded as being native to speech occurred.

“Mr. el Oqul, you’ve had rather a thorough examination of the party in question. What do you think?”

Lastar swallowed dryly and stood up so he could be heard. He couldn’t amplify his voice since he’d banned evocation. He did nothing to hide the redness in his cheeks or the cold, waxy sweat gathering at the crown of his head. Perhaps he’d banned illusion as well.

“Well, if I encountered a circumstance like this out in the world and I wasn’t able to observe any magical effect on the party in question directly with my own expertise or through the use of my tools, and I wasn’t able to perform a dissection—“

“Are you unable to perform a dissection? I believe that at this stage in your studies, you have achieved a satisfactory mark in humanoid anatomy in order to be present in this class, Mr. el Oqul?”

A few laughs.

“First in my class, actually,” Lastar muttered.

“I can’t hear you, Mr. el Oqul.”

Lastar spoke up. “Then I can conclude you’re probably not a lich.”

“Very good; that happens to be true. If you are in fact capable of performing a dissection, why would you assume it is not a technique in your repertoire you could use you advance your knowledge?”

“Well, I imagine taking a knife to one of my professors is discouraged here by the Guild Arcane.”

One or two students laughed but stifled it with their sleeves or quickly cast spells.

“If you care to attend my office hours and don’t mind cleaning up afterwards, you’re welcome to dig around.” The professor made a tasteful section of his robe invisible and revealed staples and stitch marks of stout twine marring the dead flesh of his chest, presumably from prior explorations.

More students laughed.

“My point, Mr. el Oqul, is that when it comes to craft, one should never make assumptions. You may sit down.” He did.

“I’ll spare the rest of you the suspense,” the professor continued.

“I speak from painful experience. When I was around your age, I made one of the classic wishes you should never make. What did I try to wish for? Shout it out.”

“Infinite riches.”

“Unlimited power.”

“That no one could hurt you.”

“To live forever,” Aara guessed.

Professor el Azuth raised his open palm and silenced the others.

“Miss el Katraz. Very good. That is what I meant to wish for. Would you care to hazard a guess as to what I actually wished for?”

Aara thought it over and looked but tried not to stare at the corpse in front of her. It wasn’t a zombie, lich, or mummy. It wasn’t anything she recognized. Perhaps that itself was an answer.

“Never to die,” she said.

Professor el Azuth laughed, though the muscles in his cheeks didn’t move.

“Never let it be said I won’t admit my own mistakes. I’ll give this class the same proposition as the ones who’ve come before. Some of you may have already heard about it and gotten a head start. For the rest of you, anyone who is able to free me from this condition will receive full marks. This one time, I will say please don’t take class time to ask questions about what’s been tried: I’ve kept records in my office you are welcome to go through. Now we can get to today’s lesson. Let’s say the wisher is an artist who wishes to improve their ability. I would like three potential pitfalls of a wish they may make. Whenever you’re ready, class.”

Aara sat down and touched her fingertip to her book, burning a path of script into the page.

***

She spoke the pass phrase and entered the Leomund’s tiny hut where Lastar’s study group was meeting. She was the last one there. The hippogriff rider from earlier was here as well, as were a few others who hadn’t given Aara a reason to remember them.

“Ah, good, you’re here. We’re just splitting up the classes. We were about to discuss the advantages of breaking it up further by unit if anyone wanted to trade around inside a class,” Lastar said. A small clockwork on his lap dipped its neck to his book. Its motions were echoed by a pattern of light projected on the wall. It had Aara listed under evocation.

“I lost the draw, huh?” she joked with a nod at the chart.

“Oh, it’s not like that,” said the hippogriff rider. He introduced himself as Taman.

“We just all banned it,” Lastar said. “If you know anyone who hasn’t banned enchantment, please invite them.”

“I will if I find anyone,” Aara said. She traced a circle on the floor with her toe and heatless flame followed her tread. A small pouffe rose from it and she sat down.

“Hey! Careful with that!” Taman scooted his chair back.

“Oh, it’s just a facsimile. It’ll go away on its own by the time we’re done here,” Aara said.

“I meant to ask about that. Are all your spells fire?” Lastar asked.

“Yeah,” Aara said.

“Why?”

“They just… are, I guess. I’m planning on doing my arcane thesis on it down the line. How all magic is energy, so it might go the other way. Like all magic can be made by fire,” she said.

“Neat. You really kicked my ass in wishing today. I don’t figure you can handle it all and evocation too, but you think you might take a unit or two from that? I feel like we’d all benefit from your expertise,” Lastar said.

Aara thought it over and scanned his chart. He was down as providing notes for necromancy.

“I’ll take sentence diagramming from wishing if you take monster anatomy from transmutation. That’s big, I feel like we’ll need at least two people splitting that up, right?” Aara asked.

“Oh, thank Azuth,” said Lastar. The chart updated itself.

“I’ll do the ecology unit,” Taman said.

“Nice,” said Lastar. “Did you tame that thing you rode in on today, or was it a first year you’re experimenting on?”

“I just saw it heading in the right direction,” Taman said. He sat on his knapsack and set a toad on his lap.

“You got a familiar?” Lastar asked.

“Hm? Nah. I’ve got a knack for curse reaving.” Taman kissed the toad and ate a mint. It remained a toad, perched stonily in his lap. It blinked and turned toward the chart, like it was reading.

“Guess it’s not a sure thing, huh?” Aara joked.

“It takes a while sometimes. I think he stays like this the longer he’s been a toad.” Taman patted the toad.

“Never heard that before,” Aara said.

“Yeah. It’s my thesis safety if I can’t break the old man’s curse,” Taman said.

“Good luck,” Lastar said. “I think I’d have been better off if I’d crapped my pants today. Azuth, I can’t believe I went over and poked around at the professor just because I didn’t see any spellwork on him.”

“So you’re not going to his office later with a sharp knife, huh?” Taman asked.

“I’m pretty sure he was joking,” Lastar said.

“Didn’t he tell you not to assume?” Taman asked.

“Huh. I guess he did. I think that’s enough for today. We can fill in the holes in the schedule in a tenday.” Lastar shut his book. Aara did the same. Taman picked up his toad and turned to leave.

“Aren’t you going to write anything down?” Lastar asked.

“Oh, I don’t need to. I was cursed by a witch to ‘never forget what I saw’ when I stumbled on her diabolical sacrament.”

“Didn’t define her terms. Rookie mistake. What kind of witch doesn’t know how to curse?” Aara said.

“Have you ever tried to break it? Sounds like it might be a better thesis than kissing toads.” The toad had climbed onto Taman’s shoulder.

“Uh, no offense,” Aara added.

“Nah. I’ve learned to work with it. It’s kind of helped me like, conceptualize what is and isn’t a curse, you know?”

“Sure. See you later.” Aara unzipped the wall of the hut with a streak of flame and went home to study.

***

At the end of term, Aara approached the arena. The remaining members of her cohort cheered her on from the stands.

Professor el Azuth sat at a long table at the head of the arena with a handful of others.

“Miss el Katraz, are you ready?” Professor el Azuth hefted a pair of sandstone dice in the dead flesh of his hand.

“Yes, sir. Through my study, I have discovered that all things can be made, unmade, and changed alike by the correct application of the subtle flame that burns throughout the universe. The existence of all of us, the planes themselves, carries on through the motion of the essence that makes us up.” Professor el Azuth sat immobile. “Even if it’s not perceptible to the eye,” Aara added. Professor el Azuth made a note.

“This is what I will be showcasing.” She waited to see the form her challenge would take. She had opted for combat since it seemed the most straightforward means of demonstrating her ideas.

Professor el Azuth nodded and rolled the dice. Their faces were projected out above the table in blue light for all to see.

“Looks like you’re fighting the snake,” Professor el Azuth said.

“Snake! Snake! Snake!” Aara’s friends chanted.

Aara took a fighting stance as the creature was conjured. Once the bell rang, she looked over the snake’s skin.

“It doesn’t have any spells on it,” she said and tossed a conjured stone to one side to see if it tracked heat or motion.

It uncoiled and spat venom at her. A shield that cocooned itself around her boiled the venom and shot a gout of flame at the snake. It didn’t seem affected, but she couldn’t see any indication of whether it was the energy itself or merely the meager quantity.

The snake lunged at her and she created a burst of flame in the space between them. The flicker reflected itself in the snake’s eyes and it pulled away.

Aara circled the arena. Taman cheered, as did the nearly-human princeling next to him. His skin was only slightly damp by now. One of his eyes followed the action. The other followed a stray fly, largely out of habit. His tongue had shrunk enough it couldn’t catch them anymore, but not quite enough to speak. He would be himself again by graduation. Probably.

Aara conjured a bolt of lightning formed by white fire and launched it at the snake’s back. It lunged forward by instinct and butted up against the wall of the arena and the timer went off. The snake disappeared and Professor el Azuth stood up.

“Thank you, Miss el Katraz. Will the next student please approach?”

Taman stood up. The princeling patted him on the back and only took a second to peel his finger pads off his robe.

“That’s me.” Taman clutched his papers to his chest and dragged a sailor’s bag over his back.

He walked down into the arena, reached into his bag, and unfurled a tarp.

Aara climbed up into the stands and took his seat. Professor el Azuth walked down into the arena by Taman’s side. Had he changed his mind? Was he going to fight him?

“Stand on the X if you please, sir,” Taman said. The professor complied.

“Walk me through your approach,” the professor said.

“From my research, the tie between the self and the spirit is much stronger than the one between the self and the body. It’s my hypothesis that the wish that keeps you from dying is functioning more like a curse.”

“Very interesting. And this is the topic of your thesis?”

“Not solely, no. If that’s the case, you aren’t actually an undead. That’s why no one’s been able to successfully identify you. I believe that if you consent to a temporary spirit swap, what the curse considers ‘you’ will be in my body. Once I’m in your body, it should be able to die. While you’re animating me, you can evaluate the rest of my notes my body is holding. When the spell wears off, you should be off to your reward,” Taman explained breathlessly.

“I see. And you’re willing to do this?” Professor el Azuth said.

“Yes, sir.”

“And the tarp is to contain the magic? I don’t see any runic markings on it.”

“No, it’s just to, ah, make cleanup easier.”

Professor el Azuth laughed. “All right, go ahead.”

Taman set his notes under his arm and opened his mouth wide, emitting a low drone far deeper than any words he normally spoke. The arena darkened and Taman shot black light out of his eyes and fingertips. He aimed it at the professor’s chest and it suffused him, spilling out through the cracks and seams of his dead flesh, in the deep fissures in his skin.

The light died away and the clouds within the room disappeared. The professor’s body staggered, but stayed on the tarp. It collapsed inward on itself in a pile of dust and bones.

Taman’s body changed its bearing, its posture becoming far more regal.

“Esteemed colleagues, please open the sealed envelope in my valise by your side. Inside are the necessary forms to file with the bursar to amend Mr. al Ratak’s marks with the registrar. You will find all the documents regarding my bequeathments in my old office. Once the spell elapses, it is his to use as he sees fit.” Taman’s body conjured a disc to lift itself out of he arena and sat by the other students. With a flick of its fingers, it conjured a magnificent feast on the empty row of seats before them. Something from Taman’s banned school, in case there was any doubt about his identity from the professor’s colleagues.

“I’m not sure precisely how long I will linger.” The professor leafed through the notes in his hand, scarcely seeming to read them since the effect had gone off so well. He picked up a bottle of wine and poured a stream of it directly into his mouth. Some of it spilled out onto his robe and into his lap.

“Please ask Mr. al Ratak for his forgiveness when he returns.” He picked up a pastry and took a bite. “If there are no objections, I would request a brief recess before the next presentation. Please help yourselves.” He passed around glasses and raised one.

“To your health,” said Lastar.

The professor, relishing the opportunity to move the muscles in Taman’s face smiled and let out a laugh.

Spoiler: stub

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TN human evoker 3/master specialist 3

Spoiler: abilities

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str 8
dex 14
con 14
int 18 (increase at 4 here)
cha 8

Spoiler: table

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Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Evoker 1	+0	+0	+0	+2	concentration 4, k (arcana) 4, k (dungeoneering) 4, k (nature) 4, k (religion) 4, k (planes) 4, spellcraft 4	bloodline of fire, spell focus (evocation), scribe scroll	immediate magic (counterfire), specialization (ban enchantment and necromancy)
2nd	Evoker 2	+1	+0	+0	+3	concentration 1 (5), k (arcana) 1 (5), k (dungeoneering) 1 (5), k (nature) 1 (5), k (religion) 1 (5), k (planes) 1 (5), spellcraft 1 (5)
3rd	Evoker 3	+1	+1	+1	+3	concentration 1 (6), k (arcana) 1 (6), k (dungeoneering) 1 (6), k (nature) 1 (6), k (religion) 1 (6), k (planes) 1 (6), spellcraft 1 (6)	enlarge spell
4th	Master Specialist 1	+1	+1	+1	+5	concentration 1 (7), k (arcana) 1 (7), k (dungeoneering) 1 (7), k (nature) 1 (7), k (religion) 1 (7), k (planes) 1 (7), spellcraft 1 (7)		skill focus (spellcraft)
5th	Master Specialist 2	+2	+1	+1	+6	concentration 1 (8), k (arcana) 1 (8), k (dungeoneering) 1 (8), k (nature) 1 (8), k (religion) 1 (8), k (planes) 1 (8), spellcraft 1 (8)		Expanded spellbook (fireball)
6th	Master Specialist 3	+2	+2	+2	+6	concentration 1 (9), k (arcana) 1 (9), k (dungeoneering) 1 (9), k (nature) 1 (9), k (religion) 1 (9), k (planes) 1 (9), spellcraft 1 (9)	greater spell focus (evocation)	minor school esoterica

Spoiler: epic feats

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1 spell thematics (fire)
1st lesser orb of fire
2nd scorching ray
3rd fireball
2 snowcasting
3 primitive caster
4 fiery burst
5 energy substitution (fire)
6 energy substitution (cold)
7 lord of the uttercold
8 mastery of ice and fire
9 calishíte elementalist (fire)
10 genie lore

Spoiler: playtips

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The mission was to inflict fire damage. Fire damage is what I inflict, among other things. Evoker comes in hot and provides access to the wizard list. Bloodline of fire boosts your cl by 2 for [fire] spells and gives you +4 to your saves against fire as well. Spell focus and greater spell focus bolster your DCs for evocation spells by 2. Enlarge spell doubles the range of all spells with ranges of short, medium, or long. Mastery of ice and fire means you don’t have to pay the surcharge and allows you to do the same for [cold] spells.

You have energy substitution available to turn any energy spell into either a [cold] or [fire] damage inflicting spell. On that front, snowcasting allows you to add the [cold] descriptor to any spell. Once the [cold] descriptor is on there, you can change it to [fire] with energy substitution, which lets any spell benefit from all the stuff you have that boosts [fire] spells. Primitive caster allows you to boost the caster level of spells by +1 for every component you add to it which isn’t normally present.

Fiery burst, a reserve feat, allows you to dole out bottomless fire damage as long as you keep a [fire] spell level 2 or higher uncast. It also boosts your caster level for [fire] spells by 1.

For additional versatility, such as when fighting enemies who are immune to fire, energy substitution (cold) unlocks lord of the uttercold, which allows you to do half of the damage as negative energy damage, adding this to your repertoire despite banning necromancy.

Energy substitution (cold) also synergizes with snowcasting since if you snowcast a spell which already has the [cold] descriptor, it boosts the effective spell level by 1.

Calishíte elementalist boosts your caster level with [fire] spells by 1 again and adds a couple of spells to your book for free, namely flare, burning hands, pyrotechnics, and the ever popular fireball.

Speaking of fireball, it’s one of the spells I’ve selected as one of my thematic spells, alongside lesser orb of fire and scorching ray. Calishíte elementalist also lets you break damage caps for spells it grants you.

Genie lore grants a further +1 to the dcs of your [fire] spells. By the end of your epic feats, you have a total of +4 to the caster level of your [fire] spells, +2 to the dcs of your evocation spells ( +3 to ones which are [fire]).

Defensively, when you are targeted with ranged attacks, you can bring your immediate magic to bear with the counterfire ability and deal 1d6 fire damage to visible foes in 60 feet with no limitation on uses per day.

Spoiler: sources

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srd: evoker, human, scribe scroll, enlarge spell, spell focus, greater spell focus, skill focus

complete mage: master specialist, fiery burst

player’s handbook 2: immediate magic (counterfire)

complete arcane: energy substitution, lord of the uttercold

races of faerun: genie lore (fire), calishíte elementalist (fire)

player’s guide to eberron: mastery of ice and fire

player’s guide to faerun: bloodline of fire, spell thematics

frostburn: snowcasting, primitive caster

[Zaq]

That's all of them! Judges, do your thing!