Villainous Competition XLVIII: Zealot!

[H_H_F_F]

Cold-hearted crooks lurk in shadowy streets. Evil masterminds plot the demise of civilizations. Terrible abominations rise to slaughter and devour the innocent, and grim tyrants plan their next move. Welcome… to the Villainous Competition!

Each round of the villainous competition, our conniving contestants need to build a villain showcasing a different theme, and following a different set of associated limitations. This round's villain is the psychotic and fanatical…

Zealot!

Limitations:

• Chosen: The Zealot's powers stem from their fanaticism. They must have features that arise from their alignment or their faith. (Having an alignment restriction isn't enough – there must be a good case for the power to come from the devotion to said alignment)
• Mindless Devotion: The Zealot is devoted to their cause to a fault. They must be immune to either fear or compulsion. The more encompassing and reliable the immunity is, the better. No malus for meeting both, of course - but no bonus, either.
• Die, Heretic!: The Zealot has zero tolerance for anyone that doesn't live up to their standards. They must be first and foremost focused on dealing damage and/or death effects, above all else.
• Extremist: Must be CE, LE, CG or LG.

Let the carnage begin!

Rules of the Competition:

Contestants:
It is highly recommended for a new contestants to look over a few entries from past rounds to understand what's the expected presentation. We're a little bit different than most optimization competitions. We use CR, not ECL. Each entry presents a villain going up to CR 20, with ability scores based on the elite array (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8).
The contestant is to give a stub of the build (EG "Drow weretiger ranger 4/ Cleric 10"), flesh out the full build progression using the table(s) found in the submission and deadlines section, give notes on what the villain does and how it is to be used throughout its CR range, and fully source every aspect of the build that can't be found in the SRD. But what are the allowed sources?

Secret Laboratory:
Competitors will be free to use any official 1st party (WotC) 3.5 rulebook in constructing their builds. Dragon Compendium is allowed, but individual copies of Dragon magazine are disallowed. Unupdated 3.0 materials, as well as web exclusives by WotC are expressly allowed, but take care to verify that an updated version did not appear in print elsewhere. Unearthed Arcana is allowed but limited: The variant character options (such as Wildshape Ranger and Thug Fighter) should not be penalized. Flaws carry a 1 point elegance penalty, and traits carry half of that. Item familiars, gestalt, alternate skill systems, alternate magic systems, alternate crafting rules, generic base classes, LA buyoff, fractional saves/BAB, and bloodlines are banned. Anything not mentioned here is up to individual judges.
Builds that are fully monstrous are allowed at no penalty. All class levels are to be added on as associated class levels – meaning, each class level adds 1 CR, with the exception of NPC classes. See clarifications for more details.
Leadership and similar abilities are completely banned. Undead Leadership and Dragon Cohort are likewise banned. Wild Cohort and Obtain Familiar are allowed. If you are not sure if a specific feat violates the 'no leadership' rule, err on the side of caution, or ask me.

Epic Rules:
We do not use epic progression for BaB and saves in this competition. Remember that four iteratives are still the maximum amount granted by BaB, even if it gets to 21 or more.
A villain is eligible to Epic feats from HD 21 and above, as normal, but Epic Spellcasting and all other Epic feats that affect spells, psionic powers, or item creation are not permitted. For Incarnum characters, Epic Open Chakra feats are allowed; other Epic Incarnum feats are not. The Essentia Capacity increases for Epic capacity as described on p. 212.

Submission and deadlines:
Contestants will have until August 25th, 10:00 GMT to create their builds and PM them to the Chair (H_H_F_F).
Put the name of your build and "Villainous Competition round n" as your PM subject. You may ask for an extension if required. The villains will then be posted anonymously – make sure that your PM does not include any identifying details. While waiting for the builds to be posted, please avoid speculation (see speculation rules below). A contestant may submit up to 2 entries.

Spoiler: Build Table

Show

CR	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	Feats	New Class Abilities
2	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	Feats	New Class Abilities
3	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	Feats	New Class Abilities
4	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	Feats	New Class Abilities
5	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	Feats	New Class Abilities
6	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	Feats	New Class Abilities
7	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	Feats	New Class Abilities
8	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	Feats	New Class Abilities
9	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	Feats	New Class Abilities
10	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	Feats	New Class Abilities
11	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	Feats	New Class Abilities
12	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	Feats	New Class Abilities
13	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	Feats	New Class Abilities
14	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	Feats	New Class Abilities
15	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	Feats	New Class Abilities
16	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	Feats	New Class Abilities
17	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	Feats	New Class Abilities
18	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	Feats	New Class Abilities
19	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	Feats	New Class Abilities
20	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	Feats	New Class Abilities

Code immediately below (spoiler).

Spoiler

Show

[table="class: head alt1 alt2"]
[tr]
[th][B]CR[/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]1[/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]2[/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]3[/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]4[/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]5[/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]6[/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]7[/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]8[/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]9[/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]10[/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]11[/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]12[/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]13[/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]14[/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]15[/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]16[/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]17[/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]18[/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]19[/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]20[/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]

Spoiler: spell table

Show

Spells per Day/Spells Known
Spells per Day/Spells Known

Level	0lvl	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th
1st	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2nd	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3rd	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
6th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
7th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
8th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
9th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
10th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
11th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
12th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
13th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
14th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
15th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
16th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
17th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
18th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
19th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
20th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Code Immediately Below,

Spoiler

Show

[B]Spells per Day/Spells Known[/B]
[B]Spells per Day/Spells Known[/B]
[table="class:head alt1 alt2"]
[tr]
[th][B]Level[/B][/th]
[th][B]0lvl[/B][/th]
[th][B]1st[/B][/th]
[th][B]2nd[/B][/th]
[th][B]3rd[/B][/th]
[th][B]4th[/B][/th]
[th][B]5th[/B][/th]
[th][B]6th[/B][/th]
[th][B]7th[/B][/th]
[th][B]8th[/B][/th]
[th][B]9th[/B][/th]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]1st[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]2nd[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]3rd[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]4th[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]5th[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]6th[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]7th[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]8th[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]9th[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]10th[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]11th[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]12th[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]13th[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]14th[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]15th[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]16th[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]17th[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]18th[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]19th[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]20th[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]

More useful tables can be found here, made by the immaculate Mattie_p.
Once the villains are posted, judges should strive to finish their judgement until September 8th.

Judging:
It is highly recommended that prospective judges read through some past judgements. Judges are to give scores between 1-5 in the following four criteria: Originality, Power, Elegance and Memorable Villainy. Judges are not to use alternative criteria or score ranges. A 0 in elegance is permitted for strictly illegal or incomplete builds, but a score lower than 1 in other categories is generally not allowed.
Originality: Is the build creative? Was it surprising in the context of this round? On the other hand, does it use expected or well-known methods?
Power: Is it a powerful and threatening villain? On the other hand, does it have any glaring weaknesses?
Elegance: Is it mechanically pretty? Is it clever? On the other hand, does it have rules or presentation issues? Does it rely on shaky interpretations of text? If you find that you have trouble with this category, remember: "no issues" doesn't have to be a 5! Like all others, this category has positive criteria to follow, not just negative criteria to be avoided.
Memorable Villainy: Is this a villain with style and presence? Is it interesting to face against? Does it live up to the established theme and the spirit of the round? On the other hand, does it feel more like an encounter-of-the-week than a true BBEG?
Please try to follow the following judging guidelines:

Spoiler: Legal Sources: Always Allowed, Never Mandatory

Show

This rule means that every source that has been declared legal for this competition is fair game. Using obscure sources, or a large amount of sources, is not by itself subject to a penalty in elegance; Similarly, using only a small amount of sources, or sources that are very well known, is not by itself subject to a penalty in originality.

Spoiler: One Mistake, One Penalty

Show

One Mistake, One Penalty
Judges are only allowed to penalize 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

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.

Spoiler: More Power To You

Show

An important note on power, cheese, and CR appropriateness:
Being "too strong for your CR" is not by itself something a judge should penalize here. Using poorly supported cheese or cheese that isn't doing anything interesting in the build can and should get an elegance penalty. Using well-known or otherwise obvious and boring tricks can and should be penalized in originality – but power level by itself is not to be addressed anywhere other than the power category. Same goes for being too weak – that should not affect memorable villainy or anything outside of power by itself. If it helps, you can imagine low-powered villains used against low-op groups, high-powered villains against high-op groups, and TO nonsense villains pitted against TO nonsense PCs.

Speculation:
Please don’t post or speculate on possible builds until the reveal, in order to avoid spoiling the surprise if a particular competitor is producing a build along those lines.
Once builds are revealed, please do not comment on errors or rules issues on entries unless you are a judge. If you have such a comment, wait until the final reveal to post it.

Spoiler: Previous Rounds

Show

Round One: Leader of Armies
Round Two: Nature's Avenger
Round Three: Double Agent
Round Four: Grave Keeper
Round Five: Crime Lord
Round Six: Ultimate Predator
Round Seven: Wicked Witch
Round Eight: Master of the Tundra
Round Nine: The Power of Villainous Thinking
Round Ten: Henchman Are Villains Too
Round Eleven: The Higher They Rise The Harder They Fall
Round Twelve: Power Comes at a Price
Round Thirteen: The Gadgeteer - You Are Not Batman
Round Fourteen: The Thing That Should Not Be
Round Fifteen: The Horsemen Are Drawing Nearer
Round Sixteen: Burn Baby Burn
Round Seventeen: It's Alive!
Round Eighteen: This is Heresy
Round Nineteen: He Slimed Me!
Round Twenty: Elder Evil
Round Twenty-One: Yarr!
Round Twenty-Two: I Am The Night!
Round Twenty-Three: Two Heads Are Better Than One!
Round Twenty-Four: Wrong For The Right Reasons!
Round Twenty-Five: Keeper of the Gate
Round Twenty-Six: Get In MY BELLY (Swallow Whole)
Round Twenty-Seven: Multiple Personality Disorder
Round Twenty-Eight: Tiny Only!
Round Twenty-Nine: Halloween Special
Round Thirty: One Feat to Rule Them ALL
Round Thirty-One: In Cold Blood
Round Thirty-Two: oh HELL NO!
Round Thirty-Three: The Do Over
Round Thirty-Four: Sword and Board
Round Thirty-Five: I Shall Call Him Mini Me!
Round Thirty-Six: The Broken Man
Round Thirty-Seven: Yin and Yang
Round Thirty Eight: Spooks and Spectres
Round Thirty Nine: Sorta Psuedo
Round Forty: Negative Nancy
Round Forty One: Gojira!
Round Forty Two: Caine?!
Round Forty Three: The Big Dumb Brute
Forty Four: The Sheriff
Forty Five: The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing
Forty Six: Nemesis!
Forty Seven: Fairy Queen!

[H_H_F_F]

Clarifications

Monster Advancement and Challenge Rating:

• Unless granted by a template or other unusual means, advancement through racial HD is only allowed for monsters with an advancement clause allowing it, and must comply with the rulings and limitations thereof. For example, an Aboleth can only advance up to 24 HD through normal advancement, an Aranea cannot be advanced that way at all, and an Assassin Vine has no limit for such advancement.
• Class levels always come after racial HD, unless using non-standard means of gaining HD (Acquired templates granting HD, monsters with special advancement rules or fluff, etc.) If you're not sure, comply with this rule or PM the chair for guidance.
• CR increase from HD advancement happens at the first HD of each CR bracket. For example: fey add 1 CR for each 4 HD, so adding 1 HD to an unadvanced fey creature would increase its CR by one, while the following 3 HD would not. Adding a fifth HD would increase CR by another step, and so on.
• While all PC classes increase CR on a 1 to 1 ratio, NPC classes follow the rules set out in the DMG. NPC class levels increase CR by n-1 (at least 1) when n is the total number of NPC class levels. That is, adding a single adept level to an entry would increase its CR by 1; Adding a warrior level, or another adept level, would not increase its CR; and adding further levels in any NPC class would increase its CR on a 1 to 1 ratio.

3.0 content updates:
Official Errata and 3.5 updates to 3.0 content are considered valid regardless of whether their sources would otherwise be legal. This includes the 3.5 update of Oriental Adventures given in Dragon Magazine.

Deriving Ability score modifiers:
For monsters or races that don't have explicit racial ability scores, remember that the system assumes monsters start with three 11s and three 10s. Simply decrease 10 from even ability scores and 11 from odd ability scores, and you'll have your modifiers! Watch out for monsters that explicitly already use the Elite Array, though – those are handled differently, of course.

Miscellaneous House Rules and clarifications
We'll be using the following Iron Chef house rules:

• All creatures are proficient with any natural weapons they may have or acquire.
• Bonus feats that are granted even if you do not meet the prerequisites do not require you to meet the prerequisites in order to use.
• Feats that affect class skills or the buying of skill ranks apply to the level you take them.
• Weapons from soulmelds are considered to be magic weapons for the purpose of overcoming DR.
• Unarmed Swordsage grants Improved Unarmed Strike at level 1.
• One dispute per entry (per judgement). Submit disputes by PM to the Chair.
• Ghostwalk ghost is banned
• Gold, silver, and bronze are awarded regardless of ties (e.g., 2 silvers does not preclude bronze)
• Spelltouched feats are legal and can be taken just like any other feat when you meet the prerequisites and have the feat slot available.

[Thurbane]

Interesting round. I had an idea when Deus Vult was first mentioned, but it will need tweaking to meet the exact round requirements.

[zlefin]

The set of limitations feels somewhat weird; in that some of them seem a bit extreme for fitting the definition. I mean, getting immunity to compulsion and fear isn't exactly easy without type-based immunities; and categorically forbidding debuffs means anything with a debuff based class feature is ineligible. It seems to rule out a lot of things that really fit the flavor of the competition very well otherwise.

[GreatWyrmGold]

The set of limitations feels somewhat weird; in that some of them seem a bit extreme for fitting the definition. I mean, getting immunity to compulsion and fear isn't exactly easy without type-based immunities; and categorically forbidding debuffs means anything with a debuff based class feature is ineligible. It seems to rule out a lot of things that really fit the flavor of the competition very well otherwise.

The debuff restriction is a bit odd, in my humble opinion, but there are plenty of options for fear immunity—including one base class and one semi-well-known template that both fit the theme well, off the top of my head. Compulsion immunity, though...a bit trickier. There are spells and magic items and one weird feat that I came across that would work.

Hopefully, this is vague enough to not count as "speculation," since it's intended as "helping people figure out how TF to fulfill contest requirements".

[loky1109]

"They are immune to fear and compulsion."
Does immune to all mind-affecting count?

[Doctor Despair]

"They are immune to fear and compulsion."
Does immune to all mind-affecting count?

Although all fear attacks are mind-affecting, not all fear effects are mind-affecting, so it may not depending on the judge.

[H_H_F_F]

"They are immune to fear and compulsion."
Does immune to all mind-affecting count?

Yes. EDIT: this ruling was under the previous version of the limitations, and no longer applies.

The set of limitations feels somewhat weird; in that some of them seem a bit extreme for fitting the definition. I mean, getting immunity to compulsion and fear isn't exactly easy without type-based immunities; and categorically forbidding debuffs means anything with a debuff based class feature is ineligible. It seems to rule out a lot of things that really fit the flavor of the competition very well otherwise.

I think immunity to fear and compulsion fits the theme and forces contestants outside of some obvious comfort zones.

Debuff prohibition is meant to push away from some obvious directions as well, while creating a challenge that is mechanic, not just thematic. However, I recognize that as-is, it is aa bit harsh and a bit vague. How about this:

"always on" debuffs, like (standard) gaze attacks and (some) auras, are allowed. "Activated" debuffs aren't allowed, but having access to them (i.e being a prepared caster that could technically prepare them, or having a class feature that gives one) is - just don't use them.

EDIT: this ruling was under the previous version of the limitations, and no longer applies.

Hopefully this is better. I get that this round is somewhat harsh. I'm hoping our conniving contestants can rise to the challenge.

[loky1109]

"just pure damage and death"
How about ability damage/drain and energy drain?

[H_H_F_F]

"just pure damage and death"
How about ability damage/drain and energy drain?

I guess ability damage Is damage, after all, so it's legal. Drain isn't damage nor a death effect, so it isn't. Con drain is kind of in a limbo... I guess I'll be permissive and call it legal.
EDIT: this ruling was under the previous version of the limitations, and no longer applies.

[loky1109]

I guess ability damage Is damage, after all, so it's legal. Drain isn't damage nor a death effect, so it isn't. Con drain is kind of in a limbo... I guess I'll be permissive and call it legal.

How about energy drain?

[H_H_F_F]

How about energy drain?

No on that one. Sorry.
EDIT: this ruling was under the previous version of the limitations, and no longer applies.

[Tohron]

Does the immunity to fear and compulsion have to be fully in-effect by CR 5?

[AvatarVecna]

Been beating my ahead against this for awhile. I'm not sure I can bring myself to build.

[H_H_F_F]

Does the immunity to fear and compulsion have to be fully in-effect by CR 5?

No. Though some judges might penalize your memorable villainy for meeting limitations "too late" in their mind, there are no hard rules to when you have to meet a positive limitations like this one.

Been beating my ahead against this for awhile. I'm not sure I can bring myself to build.

Using this comment as a placeholder for the entire discussion around the limitations.

I'll be honest, gang: I thought that zealot was a very cool archetype to explore, but too broad and not crunchy enough, as well as leaning too hard in the direction of advantaging boring PC-like T1 builds. The Fear&Compulsion limitation felt like a way to strengthen the theme, while the damage&death limitation felt like a way to encourage more interesting things than "monster divine caster".

However, I still thought that these limitations, especially when combined with the unusually permissive alignment restriction, would help breed creativity rather than stifle it. If it feels more like a grueling chore than like a tough puzzle, that's not what I want.


So, I'm opening this up to discussion; It's early enough in the round to play with the limitations, I think - and let it not be said that I am not a kind tyrant. How do you feel about the restrictions? What would you like to see changed? Do you have suggestions you'd like to put forth?

[pabelfly]

The first, third and fourth points are great. I'm not sure about immunity to fear and immunity to mind-control, but I've only just started digging myself to see if i think a build is interesting enough to put the effort in to make.

[AvatarVecna]

No. Though some judges might penalize your memorable villainy for meeting limitations "too late" in their mind, there are no hard rules to when you have to meet a positive limitations like this one.



Using this comment as a placeholder for the entire discussion around the limitations.

I'll be honest, gang: I thought that zealot was a very cool archetype to explore, but too broad and not crunchy enough, as well as leaning too hard in the direction of advantaging boring PC-like T1 builds. The Fear&Compulsion limitation felt like a way to strengthen the theme, while the damage&death limitation felt like a way to encourage more interesting things than "monster divine caster".

However, I still thought that these limitations, especially when combined with the unusually permissive alignment restriction, would help breed creativity rather than stifle it. If it feels more like a grueling chore than like a tough puzzle, that's not what I want.


So, I'm opening this up to discussion; It's early enough in the round to play with the limitations, I think - and let it not be said that I am not a kind tyrant. How do you feel about the restrictions? What would you like to see changed? Do you have suggestions you'd like to put forth?

Speaking personally, I agree that the theme is just too broad. Like "an umbrella them that encompasses multiple contests worth of material" broad. And that, rather than making multiple contests of it, we're just kinda lumping them all together all with the same ruleset, and it's just not working. Think of a cause. Any cause at all. Got one? That cause has zealots. Small-minded idiots with no room for an iota of nuance, and everybody who isn't already on board is either a traitor, a sheep, or an outright enemy. This...doesn't play well with the alignment restriction. I'm honestly not sure there's any alignment that doesn't have room for zealots. True Neutral, probably? There's some people who will be dedicated to maintaining neutrality, but for the most part I'd imagine true neutral folks as just not picking a side or feeling strongly enough on things to pick a side.

In comparison, it's not the corners, but the sides, that I feel where the deepest zealots lie. Lawful Good is someone seeking moral outcomes, but only through a system of laws and traditions; it's also somebody who upholds the law, but only if it leads to justice. It's inherently built around making compromises. Contrast that with an NG peacemonger, who will use any method other than violence to get people to stop fighting, up to and including mind control or just drowning everybody in nonlethal damage. Lock them all up, break their minds, travel back in time to give their parents a condom, anything to literally defeat death itself. Contrast that with...okay so, awhile back, I was reading Elder Evils. One of the EEs is this...alien...crystal...thing...which eats gods, and also worlds. It got tricked with a fake deal and split up, the parts wer thrown in different cells, and the keys were all thrown away. The problem is...a deal was struck. The Elder Evil kept its end of the bargain, but the rest of the multiverse didn't. So Mechanus spawned an Inevitable whose sole purpose is freeing the Elder Evil from its prison. He's been destroyed and rebuilt many times, in pursuit of this goal, and Mechanus will keep churning out upgrades until he succeeds. This robot man is 100% dedicated to freeing a creature capable of unmaking the universe, on the sheer principle of the thing. Tell me he's not a zealot, just because he's Lawful Neutral.

I don't necessarily disagree that zealots in general should have a tactical restriction - zealotry isn't just about the ends, but about the means, after all. But it's not a one-size-fits-all solution. Certainly that Peacemonger up there is a zealot, but not one who's purely violent and has no other approaches. Quite the opposite! This is part of why I think they're better as separate rounds, rather than all lumped together - a tactical restriction makes sense, but this one for all of them? It's gonna exclude some really interesting villains.

In fairness, it's also just a really, really broad limitation. You can't debuff someone to make them easier to kill? You can't mind control or even just persuade somebody into not being a heretic? Anyone who even mildly disagrees with you just needs to die immediately? Frankly, it's a little better now: since the thread started, you have clarified that merely possessing alternate methods is not disqualifying as long as you don't use them. But frankly, I was previously finding it basically impossible to find a monster who didn't automatically invalidate themselves just by having the wrong SLA. I had reached the point where I was basically just making a CE brute that murders everyone it ever sees. Which...isn't interesting. It's a demon with no interest in doing anything other than murder non-demons. Anything I do to give it more interesting options would be disqualifying. The kind of person who rejects all non-murder options of problem-solving isn't a particularly interesting character, to write, read, or fight.

As far as attempting to make restrictions that reward noncasters...I get it. I really do. But it can't be done. If it's not forbidden, then the answer to "what's the strongest, most interesting build that can fulfill this theme" is always going to be 20 levels in a T1 class. If the theme lends itself well to both caster and noncaster approaches, one of those is just gonna be more powerful, and any roadblocks you put in the way of casters are gonna feel kinda arbitrary. Pound for pound, nothing is more worth its CR. Several contests ago, I glued a CR 10 creature to a CR 50 creature and called the creation CR 12 - which it technically was. But even as I did that, I knew in my heart that, because it was a beatstick with no casting, it would always be second fiddle. It's numbers were big enough that I don't think most lvl 10 casters could've really given it any trouble...but there's basically nothing an artificer 8 can't do, with enough resources.

MM has monsters that are CR X that have CL X-1 sorcerer casting, and while they get stuff besides casting - big attributes, special abilities, special movement types - every single time there was a voice on my shoulder whispering "yeah, but wouldn't you rather have that next spell level? Wouldn't you rather have a few more slots? Wouldn't you rather have another 5% chance of piercing spell resistance?" That voice is always gonna be there, unless it's straight-up illegal. The best you can do is put in some sensible, thematic restrictions, that maybe hinder casters a bit more than non-casters, and then just trust the judges to punish blatant power-grabbing in the originality section.

[H_H_F_F]

Thanks very much for the elaborate response, AV. I have some stuff to say, but I'll think of it before I do. In the meantime, I encourage anyone and everyone to join the conversation on this round.

[Thurbane]

Is there a line in the sand somewhere between "Save or lose" and "Debuffs". Is a stun effect SoL or debuff? Paralysis? Daze? Nauseated?

Must admit, the restriction on debuffs may have thrown my first couple of ideas in the bin.

[AvatarVecna]

Honestly like...there's a rule this contest makes that flagrantly deviates from RAW for the sake of balance, but I feel if we're gonna go that direction, why not go all the way? I'm talking, of course, about Associated Class Levels. Normally, if you have a Giant beatstick who is CR 10/HD 20, wizard levels are unassociated until you have 20 Wizard HD. The problem here tends to be that a Human Wizard 20 is CR 20, but a Giant Wizard 20 is also CR 20? And it's only kind of sensible because Wizard 20 outweighs trivial things like 10 racial HD. But this contest has made all PC class levels associated.

If you're looking for controversial opinions, I'd say if we're rebalancing the Associated Class Levels rules anyway, may as well go further, may as well make it more comparable to how the racial HD advancement works: to get CR +1, you need to take [X] levels in a Tier [X] class. I can perfectly understand how that could get...complicated really quickly, because nobody ever really fully agrees during a tier discussion, but if I'm building a character, and I get to choose between Wizard 1 and Monk 1, of course I'm gonna go Wizard unless there's a pile of contest restrictions that make wizard bad. But if I have to choose between Wizard 1 and Monk 5...idk suddenly that's a more attractive option. This probably would need further workshopping (like, I can already imagine it causing the contest to gravitate towards T2 classes instead of T1 classes), but that's already a step in a better direction, and we could probably tweak it? Maybe T1/T2 is +1 CR per level, T3/T4 is +1 CR per 2 levels, etc? I think that would work out great. That'd be an awfully big change though.

[pabelfly]

If you're looking for controversial opinions, I'd say if we're rebalancing the Associated Class Levels rules anyway, may as well go further, may as well make it more comparable to how the racial HD advancement works: to get CR +1, you need to take [X] levels in a Tier [X] class. I can perfectly understand how that could get...complicated really quickly, because nobody ever really fully agrees during a tier discussion, but if I'm building a character, and I get to choose between Wizard 1 and Monk 1, of course I'm gonna go Wizard unless there's a pile of contest restrictions that make wizard bad. But if I have to choose between Wizard 1 and Monk 5...idk suddenly that's a more attractive option. This probably would need further workshopping (like, I can already imagine it causing the contest to gravitate towards T2 classes instead of T1 classes), but that's already a step in a better direction, and we could probably tweak it? Maybe T1/T2 is +1 CR per level, T3/T4 is +1 CR per 2 levels, etc? I think that would work out great. That'd be an awfully big change though.

It's one thing if you personally like making caster characters, but the question I'd ask is whether past competitions tend to favour casters or not. I haven't seen any noticeable evidence of this in other comps, and my anecdotal observation would be that Tier 1 casters tend to be get good Power scores and find it harder to get good originality scores.

[H_H_F_F]

It's one thing if you personally like making caster characters, but the question I'd ask is whether past competitions tend to favour casters or not. I haven't seen any noticeable evidence of this in other comps, and my anecdotal observation would be that Tier 1 casters tend to be get good Power scores and find it harder to get good originality scores.

I was going to say that.

I think the current system means there are often two scores (Originality and memorable villainy) that work against "just straight wizard lol", and 1 category working in favor.

However, I felt that without guidance this round in particular could find itself in trouble here, given how closely the theme would naturally align with some very obviously powerful casting classes. That led me down the path I took. I don't think a radical path like the one you're currently offering has proven to be necessary, AV. I'll keep your suggestion in mind, though, if I ever find that the competition is truly in need of such a shake up.


I'll also say in regards to the entire discussion on zealotry, that my choice to start giving bolded names to the limitations isn't just a style preference; it's a tool to clarify the theme. In this case, "Die, Heretic!" is meant to pinpoint exactly the kind of zealot we're talking about, and it isn't a pacifist. There are never perfect translations, and קנאי carries a historical weight in my culture that clarifies it immediately in a way "zealot" never can, but the specific restrictions can get the point across. We're not talking about any old zealot for a cause here, we're talking about the "anyone who disagrees with me deserves death" type.

However, again - I'm willing and able to rework the particular mechanical limitations of the round. I think the theme itself - mindless devotion, extremist, die heretic type of zealot - can still work.

[Thurbane]

In regards to changing how associated class works for Villainous Comp - please, no. Just no.

However, again - I'm willing and able to rework the particular mechanical limitations of the round. I think the theme itself - mindless devotion, extremist, die heretic type of zealot - can still work.

100% agree, it's a great theme.

The only sticking point for me was the ban on debuffs - because, IMHO, debuffing someone to make them easier to destroy fits pretty well with a fanatical zealot's agenda.

[AvatarVecna]

It's one thing if you personally like making caster characters, but the question I'd ask is whether past competitions tend to favour casters or not. I haven't seen any noticeable evidence of this in other comps, and my anecdotal observation would be that Tier 1 casters tend to be get good Power scores and find it harder to get good originality scores.

I don't disagree as far as evidence from actual rounds. But OP expressed the caster Supremacy thing as a concern, and if we're talking solutions...we could take a thing we're already doing and take it further. I don't think we have to, that's just realistically the kind of thing I see solving that problem if it's believed to be one.

[Elves]

CR increase from HD advancement happens at the first HD of each CR bracket. For example: fey add 1 CR for each 4 HD, so adding 1 HD to an unadvanced fey creature would increase its CR by one, while the following 3 HD would not. Adding a fifth HD would increase CR by another step, and so on.

it's "+1 per 4 HD added", so adding less than 4 HD doesn't incur an increase

While all PC classes increase CR on a 1 to 1 ratio

make sure you're aware of the nonassociated class levels rule

[GreatWyrmGold]

make sure you're aware of the nonassociated class levels rule

Not to be snarky, but...make sure you're aware that the rule you're quoting is explicitly saying that we're not using that rule in this contest.

Okay that's a lie, I wanted to be snarky.

[Thurbane]

make sure you're aware of the nonassociated class levels rule

The intent of the rules is clear, but the ruling on what should, and should not, be an associated class for any given monster is highly subjective, and often murky. The only clear cut case is the NPC classes. I also vaguely recall a rule somewhere that prestige classes are always considered associated class levels for CR.

That's why I think the ruling that VC has, about all class levels being associated, helps to minimize confusion and disputes. I can see any two judges having a different take on what is, or is not, associated for a monster - particularly some of the weird monsters that don't slot easily into "melee brute", "caster with innate casting" or "skillmonkey with innate sneak attack".

Side note: as a sometimes R@tb@st@rd DM, I have been known to throw monsters at the party that, using the non-associated class levels rule, are way tougher for their CR than is reasonable.

[H_H_F_F]

it's "+1 per 4 HD added", so adding less than 4 HD doesn't incur an increase


make sure you're aware of the nonassociated class levels rule

That's why the clarifications, rulings and houseruless are there, Elves. They're to be followed.

[H_H_F_F]

Okay friends, how do you feel about this?

Proposition for new limitations:

Mindless Devotion: The Zealot is devoted to their cause to a fault. They must be immune to either fear or compulsion. The more encompassing and reliable the immunity is, the better. No malus for meeting both, of course - but no bonus, either.

Die, Heretic!: The zealot has zero tolerance for anyone that doesn't live up to their standards. They must be first and foremost focused on dealing damage and/or death effects, above all else.

These limitations would supersede and replace the previous limitations, and all clarifications and rulings thereof

I feel that these "softer" limitations would allow more maneuvering space, while keeping the theme clear and still rewarding those who have already started working. The choice to go for what you should focus on first and foremost, rather than a hard ban on everything else, relies on the success of this approach in the "melee" limitation back in the Big Dumb Brute round.

What do y'all think?

[Lionheart]

Okay friends, how do you feel about this?

Proposition for new limitations:



These limitations would supersede and replace the previous limitations, and all clarifications and rulings thereof

I feel that these "softer" limitations would allow more maneuvering space, while keeping the theme clear and still rewarding those who have already started working. The choice to go for what you should focus on first and foremost, rather than a hard ban on everything else, relies on the success of this approach in the "melee" limitation back in the Big Dumb Brute round.

What do y'all think?

Sounds good to me, though I was happy with the limitations anyway, so no complaints!