Villainous Competition L: L-O-V-E!

[H_H_F_F]

How about races with Warrior 1 stats and listed CR? What CR will have Elf Fighter 1 (Warrior 1 has 1/2)? Drow Fighter 1 (Warrior 1 has 1)?

If warrior 1 is CR <1, fighter 1 is CR 1. If warrior 1 is CR >1 (or=1), fighter 1 is CR n+1.

Might submit a build but haven't come up with anything too exciting so far (aside from one idea that feels too obvious).

With such an open round, I don't know if anything is really "obvious". You do you, of course.

[H_H_F_F]

Reveal scheduled for next week! How's everybody doing?

[FactualArcher]

I've made some good progress this weekend. I might submit today, but I should have it finished within the next couple.

[FactualArcher]

My entry is finally in. I can't believe the amount of work that went into this round, but it was definitely worth it. I look forward to the reveal.

[H_H_F_F]

Okay, folks. Reveal is scheduled around the corner, and my inbox is... pretty empty.

Do we have people currently working on entries?





I know that this is a demanding round, but I thought round 50 deserved something special.

However, I worry that it's not just about this round being so demanding and open-ended. I'm always worried that the forums are over-saturated with competitions, but I've always thought the VC offers something very unique. Perhaps that is less so the case nowadays, with Monster Mash being up?

So, that leads me to a question: should the VC go on hiatus after this round? It's one of my favorite things on this forum, and it'd be a shame to have it go away, but I don't want to see it just drag on for months at a time, either.

What do y'all think?

[Inevitability]

I love these competitions, and I try to get something in for most of them, but I'm currently simply very busy with university. In 1-2 months I expect this to abate.

I think it's fair to blame the lack of entries on increased complexity and unfortunately timed competition. With some luck, after iron chef submissions end, people will try and get something in here?

[loky1109]

I'm working on. Shall send my entry tomorrow.

So, that leads me to a question: should the VC go on hiatus after this round? It's one of my favorite things on this forum, and it'd be a shame to have it go away, but I don't want to see it just drag on for months at a time, either.

VC is my favorite competition on the GitP. I'll always vote for continue!

[daremetoidareyo]

This particular round is time intensive. So that might be an issue. It’s a likely a caster and spells are huge option paralytic

A new round could be more brutish.

Something like Goblin king
Or 4 orcs
Traps!

[Thurbane]

This particular round is time intensive. So that might be an issue. It’s a likely a caster and spells are huge option paralytic

A new round could be more brutish.

Something like Goblin king
Or 4 orcs
Traps!

I loooove the idea of a Goblin King round!

[H_H_F_F]

I have a few martial-oriented themes written down. Goblin King wasn't one of them, but is perhaps wirth exploring.

[loky1109]

Simple theme could be good.
If somebody asks me I want simple theme "Snake".

[H_H_F_F]

Okay, hopefully the small amount of entries is indeed due to increased complexity and timing. The comp will live on.

Question: do we have anyone who'd like to submit an entry, if given more time?

[loky1109]

Question: do we have anyone who'd like to submit an entry, if given more time?

I had the second idea, but now I dislike it. But if we really need one more entry I possibly could make it.

[H_H_F_F]

I've heard word from one competitor that they'd like an extension. New deadline: June 12th.

If anyone else is thinking of cooking: you now have the time! Good luck.

[H_H_F_F]

And... Here comes the reveal!

As usual, no posting in the thread until I give the all clear.

[H_H_F_F]

Hell, you might just be the best damn girl in Khyber.

Spoiler: Stubs and Abilty Scores

Show

Artificer 4/Fighter 2/Devoted Defender 2/Warblade 1/Devoted Defender 1/Artificer +5/Warblade +1/Living Breastplate
Succubus Totemist 2/ Justicar 8/Marshal 1/Tentacle Whip
Derieth is always two CR behind Efeade, meaning the pair is first encounterable at CR 8.

Derieth stat spread:
Str 10 Dex 13 Con 14 Int 15 Wis 12 Cha 8
Points at 4th, 8th and 12th go to intelligence. 16th goes to dex.

Efeade stat spread:
Str 17 Dex 16 Con 15 Int 18 Wis 12 Cha 26
All stat increases go to strength

Spoiler: Story

Show

Spoiler: Derieth

Show

Derieth d’Deneith was born and raised in Breland as a lesser scion of house Deneith. Though his family was low ranking in the house, Derieth developed a Dragonmark. Despite his house and his mark, Derieth despised a fair fight. He sought to become an artificer and craftsman instead. House Deneith paid for his studies in the most prestigious craft school in Sharn, though when he graduated they immediately tried to recruit him for the Blademarks guild. Derieth tried to avoid the assignment, but his family enrolled him in the Deneith military academy and he wasn’t brave enough to desert. He worked just hard enough to graduate, and was immediately attached to a company of Blademark mercenaries to serve as their artificer and mechanic. A year before the Last War’s end, Derieth and his company were hired by Breland. On their very first assignment against Aundair, the company was cut down by a mage’s summoned demons, and Derieth and the few other survivors were captured.

Spoiler: Efeade

Show

Efeade was created in Ashtakala as a servant for a Lord of Dust, and for millennia, at her master’s behest, worked to destabilize Khorbaire and weaken the kingdoms of humanity. After a dozen centuries, Efeade became tired of serving a master, and resolved to find a way out. Her opportunity came when the Lords of Dust dispatched Efeade along with a company of fiends to serve under a reckless Aundairian wizard. At the first opportunity, Efeade attempted to teleport away. Unbeknownst to her, however, the wizard was less reckless than he appeared. He had put in place wards to prevent his demonic servants from deserting, so as soon as Efeade tried to teleport, she found herself bound with chains that stifled her powers. When the other fiends realized her attempted betrayal, she was thrown into a prison cell to be executed permanently when the fiends returned to Ashtakala.

Spoiler: Both

Show

As chance would have it, the mage who had imprisoned Efeade was the same who had annihilated Derieth’s company, and the two were imprisoned within yards of each other. Using her telepathy, Efeade contacted each surviving Deneith soldier in turn. All of them however, recognized her as a fiend and refused to work with her, figuring they would be released sooner or later. Derieth however, was desperate enough to escape to bargain with her. Efeade agreed to take Derieth with her if he could break her out. The two hatched a plan for both to escape. The chains only suppressed her ability to teleport and turn ethereal, so when a guard came within her sight, she suggested he return Derieth’s lockpicks and tools to him. Once his lockpicks were returned, Derieth was able to break out of his cell. Before he did, however, he imbued an item with the power to shrink himself, both to help his hiding, and to allow Efeade to teleport while carrying him. Derieth broke out of his cell and snuck to Efeade. Once the dimensional shackles were broken, Efeade teleported the pair away.
In the weeks that followed, several fiends tried to chase the pair down, and though neither originally planned to stick together, they were forced to cooperate time and time again to fight off pursuers. Eventually, the two went undercover in Sharn and decided to work as assassins for hire. At this point, the two started to genuinely care for each other, but their alliance was tenuous, until during one of their first contracts, Efeade was knocked out by guards when their target was alerted to their presence. Derieth could have run, but he instead fought off a half dozen guards to give her a chance to recover so they could escape together. Once the two decided to stick together permanently, they started to develop a reputation. Efeade’s thousands of years of practice, combined with her inborn magic, made her a better infiltrator than any changeling, and though Derieth lacked combat skill before joining with Efeade, he quickly started to become a better fighter, learning how to combine his Deneith mark with defensive tactics that allowed him to strike quickly and effectively.
When the duo was between missions, Derieth crafted magical items to aid in their bounty hunting. He created a bag of holding light enough for Efeade to teleport with, but that could contain unconscious creatures to collect the bounties on. He also created necklaces to allow the people in the bag to breathe freely, despite the lack of air. When the pair had to withdraw, Derieth used the necklaces and bag to teleport with Efeade. While Derieth crafted his magic, Efeade sought to find a way to free her soul from the Lords of Dust, for if she was ever slain, her soul would fall under the power of the Rakshasas. To this end, Efeade studied accounts of the mysterious soul magic known as Incarnum. Though her efforts in freeing her soul were unsuccessful, Efeade did gain a measure of control over soulstuff, enough to manifest ghostlike claws to augment her own. Disappointed by her lack of progress, Efeade eventually abandoned her studies while the pair focused on their hunting. As their fame grew, the attacks by Deneith and demons alike began to grow more frequent, though after losing several dozen soldiers the house gave up. The Lords of Dust, however, realized how dangerous it was for them to allow a servant to escape. Fiends and adventurers hired by either disguised fiends or their surviving victims constantly harassed the pair.
Two years after the two met, the pair received an employment contract from a powerful Cult of the Dragon Below. Though neither wanted to accept, they were soon forced to reconsider. A strike team of a dozen elite Rakshasa soldiers had managed to locate the pair’s hideaway and launched an attack. Efeade’s mindsight gave the pair enough warning to fight back, and though they killed several, Derieth was struck down and lay within inches of death. Efeade had no way of healing him, and in her desperation teleported with him to the base of the Cult. The leader of the cult realized the weakness of Efeade’s position and demanded a high price for healing. Efeade agreed to work for the cult, and in addition, the pair were outfitted with Symbionts to prevent them from deserting the cult. Unknown to them, Derieth’s martial studies gave him the strength to resist his symbiont, but out of fear for Efeade’s well being, he stayed with the cult, still trying to research a way to free her in secret. While Derieth worked, the cult unleashed the pair on the world, on a bloody campaign to weaken the leadership of Khorvaire’s nations.

Spoiler: Level Tables+Subsystems

Show

Spoiler: Efeade levels+Meldshaping

Show

CR	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Reflex Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features	Soulmelds	Essentia	Chakra Binds
7	Succubus	6	5	5	5	Use Rope 9 (+9), Search 9 (+9), Bluff 9 (+9), Gather Information 4 1/2 (+4 1/2) CC, Listen 9 (+9), Spot 9 (+9), Diplomacy 9 (+9), Hide 9 (+9), Move Silently 9 (+9), Survival 9 (+9), Escape Artist 9 (+9), Knowledge Arcana 9 (+9)	Mindsight, Track, Skill Focus (Gather Information)	Change Shape, Tanar'ri Traits, Spell Like Abilities, Energy Drain, various Subtypes	-	-	-
8	Totemist 1	6	7	7	5	Gather Information 5 (+1/2) CC, Listen 10 (+1), Spot 10 (+1), Survival 10 (+1), Knowledge (Arcana) 10 (+1), Knowledge (The Planes) 3 (+3)		Illiteracy, Wild Empathy	2	1	0
9	Totemist 2	7	8	8	5	Listen 11 (+1), Spot 11 (+1), Survival 11 (+1), Knowledge (Arcana) 11 (+1), Knowledge (The Planes) 7 (+4)		Totem Chakra Bind (+1 Capacity)	3	2	1
10	Justicar 1	8	8	8	7	Gather Information 12 (+7), Use Rope 10 (+1)	Multiattack, Exotic Weapon Proficency (Manacles) (B)	Bring 'em Back Alive, Nonlethal Strike +1d6	3	2	1
11	Justicar 2	9	8	8	8	Gather Information 13 (+1), Use Rope 13 (+3), Survival 13 (+2), Hide 11 (+2)	Improved Grapple (B)	Crippling Strike	3	2	1
12	Justicar 3	10	9	9	8	Gather Information 14 (+1), Use Rope 14 (+1), Survival 14 (+1), Hide 14 (+3), Move Silently 11 (+2)		Street Savvy +2	3	2	1
13	Justicar 4	11	9	9	9	Gather Information 15 (+1), Use Rope 15 (+1), Survival 15 (+1), Hide 15 (+1), Move Silently 15 (+4)	Bonus Essentia	Nonlethal Strike +2d6	3	2	1
14	Justicar 5	12	9	9	9	Gather Information 16 (+1), Use Rope 16 (+1), Survival 16 (+1), Hide 16 (+1), Move Silently 16 (+1), Diplomacy 12 (+3)		Hog Tie	3	2	1
15	Justicar 6	13	10	10	10	Gather Information 17 (+1), Use Rope 17 (+1), Survival 17 (+1), Hide 17 (+1), Move Silently 17 (+1), Diplomacy 15 (+3)		Street Savvy +4	3	2	1
16	Justicar 7	14	10	10	10	Gather Information 18 (+1), Use Rope 18 (+1), Survival 18 (+1), Hide 18 (+1), Move Silently 18 (+1), Diplomacy 18 (+3)	Darkstalker	Nonlethal Strike +3d6	3	2	1
17	Justicar 8	15	10	10	11	Gather Information 19 (+1), Use Rope 19 (+1), Survival 19 (+1), Hide 19 (+1), Move Silently 19 (+1), Diplomacy 19 (+1), Knowledge Arcana 13 (+2)		Improved Hog Tie	3	2	1
18	Marshal 1	15	12	10	13	Diplomacy 20 (+1), Use Rope 20 (+1 CC), Listen 20 (+1), Spot 20 (+1), Knowledge Arcana 16 (+3)	Skill Focus Diplomacy (B)	Minor Aura (Motivate Dexterity)	3	2	1
19	Tentacle Whip	15	12	10	13	No change			3	2	1

Spoiler: Derieth levels+Maneuvers

Show

CR	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Reflex Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features	Maneuvers Known	Maneuvers Readied
1	Artificer 1	0	0	0	2	Use Magic Device 4 (+4), Search 4 (+4), Spellcraft 4 (+4), Disable Device 4 (+4), Concentration 4 (+4), Open Lock 4 (+4), Craft (Metalworking) 4(+4)	Least Dragonmark (Sentinel), Alertness (HB), Scribe Scroll (B)	Artificer Knogledge, Artisan Bonus, Disable Trap, Item Creation
2	Artificer 2	1	0	0	3	Use Magic Device 5 (+1), Spellcraft 5 (+1), Disable Device 5 (+1) Concentration 5 (+1), Open Lock 5 (+1), Craft (Metalworking) 5(+1), Spot 1/2 (+1/2) CC	Brew Potion (B)
3	Artificer 3	2	1	1	3	Use Magic Device 6 (+1), Spellcraft 6 (+1), Disable Device 6 (+1) Concentration 6 (+1), Open Lock 6 (+1), Craft (Metalworking) 6 (+1), Spot 1 (+1/2) CC	Exotic Weapon Proficency (Spinning Sword), Craft Wonderous Item (B)
4	Artificer 4	3	1	1	4	Use Magic Device 7 (+1), Spellcraft 7 (+1), Disable Device 7 (+1) Concentration 7 (+1), Open Lock 7 (+1), Craft (Metalworking) 7 (+1), Spot 2 (+1) CC	Legendary Artisan (B)	Craft Homunculus
5	Fighter 1	4	3	1	4	Spot 4 (+2) CC, Sense Motive 1 (+1) CC	Weapon Focus (Spinning Sword) (B)
6	Fighter 2	5	4	1	4	Sense Motive 4 (+3) CC	Lesser Dragonmark (Sentinel), Combat Reflexes (B)
7	Devoted Defender 1	6	6	3	4	Search 10 (+6)		Harm's Way
8	Devoted Defender 2	7	7	4	4	Search 11 (+1), Spot 9 (+5)		Defensive Strike
9	Warblade 1	8	10	4	4	Concentation 13 (+6), Tumble 2 (+2)	Ironheart Aura	Battle Clarity, Weapon Aptitude	Disarming Strike, Leading the Attack, White Raven Tactics, Absolute Steel (Stance)	3
10	Devoted Defender 3	9	10	4	5	Search 12 (+1), Spot 12 (+3), Listen 2 (+2)		Deflect Attack +1	-	3
11	Artificer 5	9	10	4	5	Use Magic Device 14 (+7), Spellcraft 1 (+1)	Craft Magic Arms and Armor (B)	Retain Essence	-	3
12	Artificer 6	10	11	5	6	Use Magic Device 15 (+1), Spellcraft 15 (+7), Concentration 8 (+1)	Stormguard Warrior, Craft Wand (B)		-	3
13	Artificer 7	11	11	5	6	Use Magic Device 16 (+1), Spellcraft 16 (+1), Concentration 15 (+7)		Metamagic Spell Trigger	-	3
14	Artificer 8	12	11	5	7	Use Magic Device 17 (+1), Spellcraft 17 (+1), Concentration 17 (+2), Disable Device 12 (+5)	Attune Magic Weapon (B)		-	3
15	Artificer 9	12	12	6	7	Use Magic Device 18 (+1), Spellcraft 18 (+1), Concentration 18 (+1), Disable Device, 18 (+6)	Robilar's Gambit, Craft Rod (B)		-	3
16	Warblade 2	13	13	6	7	Use Magic Device 19 (+1) CC, Spellcraft 19 (+1) CC, Concentration 19 (+1), Disable Device 19 (+1) CC, Craft Metalworking 9 (+2)			Moment of Perfect Mind	3
17	Living Breastplate	13	13	6	7	No increase			-	3

Spoiler: Derieth Infusions (including bonuses from high Int)

Show

CR	Class	1st	2nd	3rd	4th
1	Artificer 1	3	-	-	-
2	Artificer 2	4	-	-	-
3	Artificer 3	4	2	-	-
4	Artificer 4	4	3	-	-
5	Fighter 1	4	3	-	-
6	Fighter 2	4	3	-	-
7	Devoted Defender 1	4	3	-	-
8	Devoted Defender 2	4	3	-	-
9	Warblade 1	4	3	-	-
10	Devoted Defender 3	4	3	-	-
11	Artificer 5	4	4	2	-
12	Artificer 6	4	4	3	-
13	Artificer 7	4	4	3	-
14	Artificer 8	4	4	4	2
15	Artificer 9	4	4	4	3
16	Warblade 2	4	4	4	3
17	Living Breastplate	4	4	4	3

Spoiler: Tactics by Level

Show

Spoiler: CR 8

Show

This is when the pair first becomes encounterable. Here, they lack direct combat abilities and are much better as chessmasters. Efeade is a great face and can easily spy or scout. Derieth keeps her safe with his Deneith Mark and can do some decent damage if he has time to enhance his weapon. Generally, he imbues a +1 Spinning Sword with Earthbound and himself with Bull's Strength. He wears plate armor and a shield to make him a somewhat difficult target.
If the pair are beaten, Derieth can flee by shrinking himself using a Spell Storing Item he always has ready and having Efeade teleport both away. Generally, they assassinate using disguise at this level and avoid direct combat if possible.

Spoiler: CR 9-11

Show

As Efeade takes levels in Totemist, she becomes more able to contribute to combat. Usually Derieth stays back while Efeade throws all of her essentia into a totem-bound Girallon Arms and attacks in melee. Efeade’s damage reduction, Shield Other, and the Wormtail Belt soulmeld make hurting her a very difficult prospect.If Derieth is attacked, he can defend himself competently, but his offense remains fairly lackluster. When he’s not in melee, he’ll use wands of Vigor to keep himself up. Outside of combat Efeade is still a great mobile scout and face, skilled at finding people and bringing them in. Her spell-like abilities help a lot with this, etherealness allowing her a great degree of access and detect thoughts and charm monster making it much easier to get information. Change Shape allows her to hide her incarnum use as well as greatly aid her disguise abilities. She usually binds Kruthik Claws to aid her stealthy abilities. She can also take people down nonlethally once she gets the first level of Justicar. Derieth is a great crafter and spends his downtime crafting potions for himself and Efeade.

Spoiler: CR 12-16

Show

CR 12 is the sweet spot of the build, and it marks a huge shift in the tactics of the pair as Efeade gets Improved Grapple and Derieth learns maneuvers. Now, the primary tactic of the pair is for Efeade to locate enemies using Mindsight, then teleport in during a surprise round. Once combat begins, Derieth uses White Raven Tactics to allow Efeade a second full attack against a flat footed target. At the end of her attack, Efeade tries to grapple the target. With luck, Crippling Strike will have severely limited the target’s strength, and between Girallon Arms, Improved Grapple and Bull’s Strength from Derieth, her grapple check is around +26, enough to grapple all but the heartiest fighters. Once she gets a hold, her energy draining kiss makes it even harder for the target to escape. While Efeade is grappling, she’s vulnerable. Of course, at CR twelve Derieth has two levels of Devoted Defender, the best prestige class for defending her.
Once Efeade is engaged, he follows along, using Absolute Steel to keep up. He uses his Strikes while he circles her using Harm’s Way to protect her and Combat Reflexes plus Defensive Strike to give her cover. His Spinning Sword helps him attack anyone next to her and expands his guarded area. Derieth continues using Bull’s Strength and weapon enhancers to help both him and Efeade in battle. At higher levels, Derieth picks up Deflect Attack and later Stormguard warrior, both of which help his guarding abilities. He uses Channel the Storm on the enemies first few attacks on Efeade to enhance his later counterattacks. On the first turn of combat he uses Combat Rhythm to build up to a big payoff in the next. At higher levels, Efeade gets Hog-Tie, allowing her to finish with grappled foes earlier. The ability leaves her foes helpless until they make a DC 28 strength check, effectively removing them from the battle.
Against foes with freedom of movement, she uses manacles (as a justicar) as well as her claws to make 5-6 attacks against an opponent. Each attack also has bonus damage from Non Lethal Strike giving her solid damage output. Also at these levels, Derieth crafts a bag of holding and two Necklaces of Adaptation to give the pair better escape/kidnapping abilities. (Efeade’s teleport works with up to fifty pounds of objects, including a bag of holding, and the necklace allows someone inside the bag to breathe.) To help his defenses, he can use Greater Armor Enhancement to let him turn ethereal while still helping Efeade with ghost touch weapons either crafted by him or infused with Personal Weapon Augmentation.

Spoiler: CR 17-20

Show

The tactics of the pair remain mostly the same through to the end, but each of these levels brings new tricks for them. By the beginning of this sweep of levels, Efeade’s grapple check when buffed is +39, and it goes up a few more points throughout. At CR 17, Derieth gains Item Alteration, which he uses to change the bonus types of two of his bulls strengths to, say insight and morale, allowing Efeade to stack three of them and get her strength up to true Bruiser levels. At CR 18, Efeade gets Improved Hog Tie, potentially allowing her to grapple a foe, Hog Tie that foe, and then grapple a second on the same turn. At CR 19, Efeade takes a one level dip in Martial, allowing her to add her +8 Charisma bonus to both of their dexterity checks, including initiative. This also greatly increases her stealth abilities and her Use Rope skill check, making her Hog Ties even harder to resist. Finally, at CR 20 each gains a symbiont. Derieth’s Living Breastplate gives him DR that is quite hard to break and provides a good armor base. The constitution enhancement also helps make Derieth harder to kill. Efeade gets a Tentacle Whip, which helps her in two important ways. First of all, its Channel Touch Attack ability allows her to start grapples from up to fifteen feet away, making it easier to do so from hiding. Second, and potentially most scary, a Tentacle Whip can choose to act on its own. This means that against a foe rendered helpless, say by Hog Tie, the Whip can perform coup de graces. On its own, its damage is pathetic, but with a few infusions to make it a +2 Icy Burst Shocking Burst Thundering Weapon, save Dcs of around 40 are possible, enough to fell even the most doughty PCs.

Spoiler: Use in a Campaign

Show

Derieth and Efeade are interesting in that though they are clearly villainous, being assassins for hire, they are not completely unreasonable. Thus, it is possible for them to be either the main villains of a campaign, or temporary allies, or enemies of the PCs. With that in mind, here are a few sample encounters involving the pair. None of these have to happen, but they show the various ways in which Derieth and Efeade can be encountered:

CR 8- Evil vs. Evil
The PCs are on the road when they witness a fight between two humans (EL 8 Derieth and Efeade in disguise) and a pair of Babau. If they try to help the humans, the Babau tell the PCs that Efeade is a succubus who serves another fiendish master (This isn’t true, but the Babau think it is more likely the PCs will believe it). If the PCs try to attack or question Derieth and Efeade, Derieth shrinks and the pair teleport away. The Babau also teleport away when they are badly wounded.

CR 10- Bodyguard Duty
The PCs are hired to defend a nobleman traveling by lightning rail who has cause to believe he is in danger. The EL 10 version of Derieth and Efeade have indeed been hired to kill him, and are ensconced on the train he is traveling on. The PCs can try to find Derieth and Efeade by leaving the nobleman’s private car, or they can wait and defend him as a group. If they stay and defend, Efeade tries to create a distraction by charming passengers until at least two of the PCs go to check out the disturbance. Once that happens, Derieth slows down the PCs that left the car while Efeade teleports in to try to kidnap the noble. If she succeeds, she stuffs him a bag of holding and teleports back to Derieth to flee as a group. Tracking her down is difficult, but it should be doable for an optimized group of PCs, and rescuing the noble from their hideout brings great rewards.

CR 12- Hideout Raid
The PCs themselves have been hired by a government official to track down a pair of assassins who have been plaguing the city. Unbeknownst to the PCs, the official who hired them is a disguised rakshasa who is trying to capture or kill Derieth and Efeade. The couple’s base is a rundown house in the slums of the city, protected by a few homunculi and traps. Inside, the house is small but fairly nice and contains Derieth’s workshop as well as several texts on magic. The pair try to defend the hideout but flee quickly unless dimensionally anchored. Before they leave, Efeade realizes who hired the PCs and tells them they were hired by a demon. If the PCs believe her, this could lead into another adventure.

CR 16- Target Acquired
A recurring enemy of the PCs has hired Derieth and Efeade to assassinate/kill the PCs. While the PCs are at an inn, the pair comes in to monitor their movements. If they are undetected, they wait till the PCs go to sleep and then attack whoever’s on guard. Efeade keeps the strikes first, trying to kill the watch while Derieth attacks whoever wakes up. As always, if they are badly injured, the pair teleports away, this time by Derieth leaping into the bag of holding.

CR 20- Final Battle
In this scenario, Derieth and Efeade are under the command of the Daelkyr and using symbionts. They have been ordered to defend a group of high level cultists (five mind flayer sorcerers and a seventeenth level warlock), while they attempt a ritual that will summon a Daelkyr. When the PCs attempt to stop the ritual, Efeade strikes from the shadows with her tentacle whip to grapple a party caster and take them out nonlethally. Derieth is in the center of the room guarding the cultists, who are focused on casting the ritual. During the battle, the warlock (a possible recurring villain) taunts the PCs that they are too late, and that the release of the Daelkyr will end the world. When he hears this, Derieth offers to switch sides to the PCs, since he realizes that he doesn’t want the end of the world. He uses Moment of Perfect Mind to control the symbiont for long enough to finish the fight. Derieth also tells the PCs that if they can free Efeade from the control of her symbiont, she will join them as well. If they succeed at freeing her (it only requires a protection from evil), she will join their attempts to stop the ritual. Unless the PCs do all of this within a couple rounds, the ritual is completed and the Daelkyr is summoned, bringing a horde of Dolgrim and Dolgaunts along with it. The human warlock is consumed by the ritual, but the surviving mind flayers join the Daelkyr against the PCs, Derieth and Efeade, who are all probably damaged from the fight. At the end of the battle, hopefully the PCs and the couple part ways peacefully, but if the PCs are feeling especially vicious it can go straight into round three.

Spoiler: Source List

Show

Source List:
PHB- Fighter, skills, feats and spells not mentioned elsewhere.
DMG- Weapon and armor enhancements not mentioned elsewhere, magic items.
Eberron Campaign Setting- Artificer class, Artificer Infusions, Dragonmarks, Least Dragonmark, Lesser Dragonmark, Attune Magic Weapon, Legendary Artisan, Symbionts, Earthbound Weapon Property
Secrets of Sarlona- Spinning Sword
Magic of Incarnum- Totemist class, Essentia, Soulmelds, Girallon Arms, Kruthik Claws, Wormtail Belt, Bonus Essentia
Monster Manual- Succubus, Multiattack
Tome of Battle- Warblade, Maneuvers, Ironheart Aura, Stormguard Warrior.
Complete Warrior- Justicar
PHB II- Robilar’s Gambit
Devoted Defender- Sword and Fist
Lords of Madness- Darkstalker, Mindsight

[H_H_F_F]

Can't even come up with a quip for this one. Read at your own discretion.

Spoiler: Content warning: implied sexual assault

Show

- Hello, beautiful lady! - a shining silhouette appeared right before Aribeth.
- What are you? Ghost? - A young adventurer drawn her sword.
- Oh, no, no. Sorry, I must've scared you. I'm not one of these undead! Actually, I'm the complete opposite - Glimmerskin creature of pure light, born on the Positive Energy Plan. It’s a shame that I’m constantly being mistaken for a ghost, - humanoid shaped cloud of light seem to be upset.
- I’m the one who should be sorry, I don’t mean to offend you, I just... Well, your appearance really was too abrupt.
- No need to apologize, I’m used to this, - but in the glimmerskin's speech Aribeth clearly felt delight... And this speech was unusual...
- How you talk with me, your voice, it's in my mind! - Aribeth looked with suspicion at the shining silhouette.
- Yes, it is. I have no corporeal body and therefore can't speak with sounds, only by my telepathy. But don't worry, I only speak, I can't read your thoughts. I'm Spangle by the way. My real name consists of play of light and has no direct translation, but I like Spangle!
- I'm Aribeth. What do you do here Spangle? One on the road. Why did you speak to me? - adventurer asked.
- Oh, yes, yes! I wanted to warn you! The road you’re walking is dangerous! Further ahead a giant evil lizard man lives! He is an outlaw! He attacks travelers, robs and kills, and... you don't want to know more. You shouldn't go there! - Spangle told.
- Thank you, Spangle, but I know about this lizardfolk! I’m going to punish him for his crimes! - Aribeth replied decisively.
- But... How... You're sole! And he is so large! - Spangle was astounded.
- Don’t look at me as a woman, I'm a warrior and this bandit will not be my first! - The girl bravely answered.
- But... I don't know... Let me help you at least! - Spangle proposed.
- I’m sorry, but what can you do? You're, you know, incorporeal.
- Don’t look at me as an apparition, I could give you the power of mighty warriors and ability to heal your wounds by bonding with you, - shining creature boasted.
- Bonding? What do you mean? - Aribeth asked Spangle skeptically
- I could... mmm... envelope corporeal being and through it give warrior skills and powers, - Spangle explained.
- Hmm... - Aribeth was doubtful, - Will it be comfortable for you? I don’t want to bother you.
- Oh! It's okay! I like take part in battles very much!
- Well... I gratefully accept your help!

...

- Criminal known as Tessai, I'm here to punish you! Come out and embrace your destiny! - Aribeth said, standing before the grotto.
- Who have you brought me, my love? - there was a low and rough voice from the cave and right after it a big reptile humanoid came out. He was deep blue in color, with scaly skin and carapace on his back.
- What?.. - Aribeth was discouraged, - What do you...
- He wasn’t talking to you, honey, - Spangle suddenly answered, - Hello, my sweet, I brought you this vessel of my love!
- What are you talking about? You are together, aren't you? Spangle, you lied to me! - Aribeth slowly retreated with a sword in front of her.
- Oh, no, honey, all I told you was true. I warned you, remember? About my husband and his danger. And like I promised, I'll give you all the healing that you'll need. - Spangle said.
- What? Healing? - The adventurer didn't understand.
- My Spangle, my beloved wife, she is incorporeal as you already know. And we need some, you know, mediator, - Tessai explained.
- You are monsters! I will fight you! - Aribeth waved her sword.
- Of course you will, it's part of the fun...

CE Skindancer Warblade 4

Spoiler: Tessai

Show

Spoiler: Stats

Show

Abilities	Initial	Race/Template	16th	20th	24th, 28th	Total
STR	12	12			2	26
DEX	8	6				14
CON	13	18		1		32
INT	15	-6	1			10
WIS	10	4				14
CHA	14	-4				10

Spoiler: Build

Show

CR	HD	Class	BAB	Fort	Reflex	Will	Skills	Feats	Class Features
11th	15th	Base HD	15	5	9	9	30: {+12 CC} Jump: 6; {+18} Spot: 18;	Willing Deformity (1), Deformity (Teeth) (3), Combat Reflexes (6), Reckless Offense (9), Stand Still (12), Skill Focus (Diplomacy) (15)	Adaptive energy resistance, damage reduction 15/special (see text), darkvision 90 ft., low-light vision, reactive skin, scent, trip
12th	16th	HD	16	5	10	10	2: {+1 CC} Jump: 6.5; {+1} Spot: 19;
12th	17th	HD	17	5	10	10	2: {+1 CC} Jump: 7; {+1} Spot: 20;
12th	18th	HD	18	6	11	11	2: {+1 CC} Jump: 7.5; {+1} Spot: 21;	Improved Critical (Morningstar) (18)
13th	19th	HD	19	6	11	11	2: {+1 CC} Jump: 8; {+1} Spot: 22;
13th	20th	HD	20	6	12	12	2: {+1 CC} Jump: 8.5; {+1} Spot: 23;
13th	21th	HD	21	7	12	12	2: {+1 CC} Jump: 9; {+1} Spot: 24;	Vexing Flanker (21)
14th	22th	HD	22	7	13	13	2: {+1 CC} Jump: 9.5; {+1} Spot: 25;
14th	23th	HD	23	7	13	13	2: {+1 CC} Jump: 10; {+1} Spot: 26;
14th	24th	HD	24	8	14	14	2: {+1 CC} Jump: 10.5; {+1} Spot: 27;	Weapon Focus (Morningstar) (24)
15th	25th	HD	25	8	14	14	2: {+1 CC} Jump: 11; {+1} Spot: 28;
15th	26th	HD	26	8	15	15	2: {+1 CC} Jump: 11.5; {+1} Spot: 29;
15th	27th	HD	27	9	15	15	2: {+1 CC} Jump: 12; {+1} Spot: 30;	Overwhelming Critical (Morningstar) (27)
16th	28th	Warblade 1	28	11	15	15	4: {+4} Jump: 16; Spot: 30;		Battle clarity (Reflex saves), weapon aptitude
17th	29th	Warblade 2	29	12	15	15	4: {+4} Jump: 20; Spot: 30;		Uncanny dodge
18th	30th	Warblade 3	30	12	16	16	4: {+4} Jump: 24; Spot: 30;	Devastating Critical (Morningstar) (30)	Battle ardor (critical confirmation)
19th	31th	Warblade 4	31	13	16	16	4: {+4} Jump: 28; Spot: 30;

Spoiler: Martial

Show

Level	Class	Initiator Level	Maneuvers Known	Maneuvers Readied	Stances Known
28th	Warblade 1	14	Pouncing Charge, Claw at the Moon, Sudden Leap	3	Leading the Charge
29th	Warblade 2	15	Pouncing Charge, Claw at the Moon, Sudden Leap, Rapid Counter	3	Leading the Charge
30th	Warblade 3	16	Pouncing Charge, Claw at the Moon, Sudden Leap, Rapid Counter, Diamond Defense	3	Leading the Charge
31th	Warblade 4	17	Pouncing Charge, Claw at the Moon, Sudden Leap, Rapid Counter, Diamond Defense	4	Leading the Charge, Tactics of the Wolf

TN Glimmerskin Marshal 1/Unarmed Swordsage 2/Fighter 6

Spoiler: Spangle

Show

Spoiler: Stats

Show

Abilities	Initial	Race/Template	ASI	Total
STR	8	-		-
DEX	13	2	1	16
CON	12	4		16
INT	14			14
WIS	10	4		14
CHA	15	6	1	22

Spoiler: Build

Show

CR	ECL	Class	BAB	Fort	Reflex	Will	Skills	Feats	Class Features
8th	12th	Base HD	12	8	8	8	150: {+15} Bluff: 15; {+30 CC} Concentration: 15; {+15} Diplomacy: 15; {+15} Intimidate: 15; {+15} Knowledge (arcana): 15; {+15} Knowledge (the planes): 15; {+15} Sense Motive: 15; {+15} Spellcraft: 15; {+15} Spot: 15;	Power Attack (1), Improved Bull Rush (3), Brutal Strike (6), Mindsight (9), Cleave (12)	DR 5/magic, energy touch, heroic bond, incorporeal subtype, outsider traits, plane shift, SR 15, telepathy
9th	13th	Marshal 1	12	10	8	10	6: {+1} Bluff: 16; Concentration: 15; {+1} Diplomacy: 16; {+1} Intimidate: 16; {+1} Knowledge (arcana): 16; Knowledge (the planes): 15; {+1} Sense Motive: 16; Spellcraft: 15; {+1} Spot: 16;	Skill Focus (Diplomacy) (B)	Skill Focus (Diplomacy), minor aura (Master of Tactics)
10th	14th	Unarmed Swordsage 1	12	10	10	12	6: {+1 CC} Bluff: 16.5; {+2} Concentration: 17; Diplomacy: 16; Intimidate: 16; Knowledge (arcana): 16; Knowledge (the planes): 15; {+1} Sense Motive: 17; Spellcraft: 15; {+2 CC} Spot: 17;	Improved Unarmed Strike (B)	Quick to act +1, discipline focus (Weapon Focus) (Tiger Claw)
11th	15th	Fighter 1	13	12	10	12	4: Bluff: 16.5; Concentration: 17; Diplomacy: 16; Intimidate: 16; {+4} Jump: 4; Knowledge (arcana): 16; Knowledge (the planes): 15; Sense Motive: 17; Spellcraft: 15; Spot: 17;	Great Cleave (15), Shock Trooper (B)	Bonus feat
12th	16th	Fighter 2	14	13	10	12	4: Bluff: 16.5; Concentration: 17; Diplomacy: 16; Intimidate: 16; {+4} Jump: 8; Knowledge (arcana): 16; Knowledge (the planes): 15; Sense Motive: 17; Spellcraft: 15; Spot: 17;	Leap Attack (B)	Bonus feat
13th	17th	Fighter 3	15	13	11	13	4: Bluff: 16.5; Concentration: 17; Diplomacy: 16; {+2} Intimidate: 18; Jump: 8; Knowledge (arcana): 16; Knowledge (the planes): 15; Sense Motive: 17; Spellcraft: 15; Spot: 17; {+2} Never Outnumbered;
14th	18th	Fighter 4	16	14	11	13	4: Bluff: 16.5; Concentration: 17; Diplomacy: 16; {+2} Intimidate: 20; Jump: 8; Knowledge (arcana): 16; Knowledge (the planes): 15; Sense Motive: 17; Spellcraft: 15; Spot: 17; {+2} Clarity of Vision, Never Outnumbered;	Improved Sunder (18), Cometary Collision (B)	Bonus feat
15th	19th	Fighter 5	17	14	11	13	4: Bluff: 16.5; Concentration: 17; Diplomacy: 16; {+2} Intimidate: 22; Jump: 8; Knowledge (arcana): 16; Knowledge (the planes): 15; Sense Motive: 17; Spellcraft: 15; Spot: 17; {+2} Point it Out, Clarity of Vision, Never Outnumbered;
16th	20th	Fighter 6	18	15	12	14	4: {+3 CC} Bluff: 18; Concentration: 17; Diplomacy: 16; {+1} Intimidate: 23; Jump: 8; Knowledge (arcana): 16; Knowledge (the planes): 15; Sense Motive: 17; Spellcraft: 15; Spot: 17; Point it Out, Clarity of Vision, Never Outnumbered;	Combat Brute (B)	Bonus feat
17th	21th	Unarmed Swordsage 2	19	15	13	15	8: {+6 CC} Bluff: 21; Concentration: 17; Diplomacy: 16; {+1} Intimidate: 24; Jump: 8; Knowledge (arcana): 16; Knowledge (the planes): 15; {+1} Sense Motive: 18; Spellcraft: 15; Spot: 17; Point it Out, Clarity of Vision, Never Outnumbered;	Resounding Blow (21)	AC bonus

Spoiler: Martial

Show

Level	Class	Initiator Level	Maneuvers Known	Maneuvers Readied	Stances Known
14th	Swordsage 1	7	Shadow Jaunt, Action Before Thought, Moment of Perfect Mind, Bonecrusher, Overwhelming Mountain Strike, Stone Dragon's Fury	4	Island of Blades
21th	Swordsage 2	11	Shadow Jaunt, Action Before Thought, Moment of Perfect Mind, Bonecrusher, Overwhelming Mountain Strike, Stone Dragon's Fury, Moment of Alacrity	4	Island of Blades, Hearing the Air

Spoiler: Pair EL

Show

Tessai's CR	Spangle's CR	Total EL
11	8	12
11	9	12
12	10	13
13	11	14
14	12	15
15	13	16
16	14	17
17	15	18
18	16	19
19	17	20

Spoiler: Snapshots

Show

Spoiler: EL 12

Show

We have here two base monsters with slightly modified feats, skills and stats. They fit together perfectly! Glimmerskin's feats compliment skindancer very well. Skindancer's adaptive energy resistance and great Fort turn glimmerskin's energy touch explosion into a good AoE weapon. Slightly unpredictable, but powerful. Heroic bond also improves AB, AC and gives free healing.

Spoiler: Teeth trick

Show

Deformity (Teeth) gives Tessai a bite attack.

Bite: The creature attacks with its mouth, dealing piercing, slashing, and bludgeoning damage.

Bite is iirc the single weapon in the game with all three types of damage. Add it to skindancer's adaptive DR and free healing from Spangle and receive almost always active DR 15/-.

Spoiler: Marshal skill focus trick

Show

At the same EL Spangle got 1st level of Marshal class. Marshal has this class feature

Skill Focus (Diplomacy): Because a marshal has a way with people, he gains this feat as a bonus feat. If the marshal already has the feat, he can choose a different one.

Heroic Bond has this wording.

Heroic Bond (Su): A glimmerskin bonds by enveloping its host. A bonded host gains a +4 bonus on melee attack rolls, a +2 armor bonus to AC, access to the glimmerskin’s feats (with the prerequisite Strength score of at least 13), and any class features the glimmerskin may have.

Tessai already has Skill Focus (Diplomacy). We have two options here. First, I call it "I win", every time when Spangle bonds Tessai, he gets a new feat in place of Skill Focus (Diplomacy) and this new feat is his feat, not the Heroic Bond effect and this feat will not disappear when the bond is broken.
Second option is more sparing. Tessai just has one floating feat while it is bonded with Spangle and could exchange it every time when bond is re-established. It also is a powerful enough feature, but first of course is better. Even the second option could give +6 ranks in jump - Tessai could get Martial Study (any Tiger Claw) at every level up time starting from 16HD.

Spoiler: EL 12

Show

Both lovers got only one more CR at this moment, but this is an important milestone. Spangle has the Island of Blades now. With Master of Tactics minor aura it's +5 (+6 later) to damage of every Tessai's attack. Plus, Tessai gets access to good variety of Swordsage maneuvers.

Spoiler: EL 17

Show

Spangle got more feats to gift her husband (let me draw your attention, while Shock Trooper, Leap Attack and later Combat Brute don't have Strength prerequisite, Spangle has them as class abilities and this means Tessai has access to them). Tessai got all possible HD and good feats, plus first level of Warblade. He has almost a full feat line for using weapon aptitude (and could get a better weapon than morningstar) and his own maneuvers and stance.

Spoiler: Overwhelming Critical prerequisites

Show

Tessai needs Power Attack, Cleave, and Great Cleave to get this feat (and Devastating Critical later). And thanks to Spangle he has access to these feats!

Spoiler: EL 20

Show

Slightly more feats, more maneuvers and stances. Tactics of the Wolf plus Island of Blades is an alliance made in heaven! Hearing the Air is good for Tessai if he needs to strike somebody invisible. Moment of Alacrity and Diamond Defense are just good big numbers. Devastating Critical one of really epic feats.
Never Outnumbered one of the ways for Spangle to utilize her actions.

Spoiler: Books

Show

Type	Name	Book	Page
Race	Skindancer	MM3	158
Race	Glimmerskin	MM2 + Update Booklet	114
Class	Warblade	ToB	20
Class	Marshal	MH	11
Class	Swordsage	ToB	15
Class	Fighter	PHB	37
Class variant	Unarmed Swordsage	ToB	20
Feat	Willing Deformity	HoH	125
Feat	Deformity (Teeth)	HoH	121
Feat	Combat Reflexes	PHB	92
Feat	Reckless Offense	XPH	51
Feat	Stand Still	XPH	51
Feat	Skill Focus	PHB	100
Feat	Improved Critical	PHB	95
Feat	Vexing Flanker	PHB2	85
Feat	Weapon Focus	PHB	102
Feat	Overwhelming Critical	Draconomicon	72
Feat	Devastating Critical	Draconomicon	68
Feat	Power Attack	PHB	98
Feat	Improved Bull Rush	PHB	95
Feat	Brutal Strike	PHB2	76
Feat	Mindsight	LoM	126
Feat	Cleave	PHB	92
Feat	Improved Unarmed Strike	PHB	96
Feat	Great Cleave	PHB	94
Feat	Shock Trooper	CW	112
Feat	Leap Attack	CA	110
Feat	Improved Sunder	PHB	96
Feat	Cometary Collision	PHB2	77
Feat	Combat Brute	CW	110
Feat	Resounding Blow	BoED	45
Skill Trick	Point it Out	CS	88
Skill Trick	Clarity of Vision	CS	85
Skill Trick	Never Outnumbered	CS	87
Maneuvers and Stances	All	ToB	Varies

[H_H_F_F]

If you will tell me I'm the only one that you love - life could be a dream, sweetheart.

Spoiler: Encounter Table

Show

Enc. Lvl	Mixed CR	Glomoira Adv	Vhordreth Adv
10	7+9	devious Gloura 7	Juvenile Shadow, drow-dragon 9
11	8+10	Bard 1	Assassin 1
12	10+10	Ardent Dilletante 1 / Void Disciple 1	—
13	12+10	Sublime Chord 1 / Void Disciple 2	—
14	13+11	Void Disciple 3	+2 Dragon RHD
15	14+12	Void Disciple 4	Devoted Defender 1
16	15+13	Ardent Dilletante 2	Soul Eater 1
17	15+15	—	Young Adult, Xorvintaal dragon
18	17+15	Sublime Chord 2 / Ardent Dilletante 3	—
19	18+16	Ardent Dilletante 4	+2 Dragon RHD
20	19+17	Shadow Adept 1	Adult dragon

Spoiler: Glomoira Presentation

Show

Glomoira Ur'Sidriune, Queen of Dreams
The Somnolentress, Lady of Mirrors
Female devious Gloura
Bard 1 / Void disciple 4 / Sublime chord 2 / Ardent dilettante 4 / Shadow adept 1
NE Medium Fey

Init- +5 (+10 w/ Sylph's Ploy)
Senses- darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Listen +18, Spot +17
Languages- Common, Draconic, Elven, Sylvan, Undercommon

AC- 29 T 24, FF 24
(+5 dex, +5 armor, +9 deflection)

HD- 14d6+4d8+1d4+76
148 avg, 196 max (19HD)

Saves- +17 / +29 / +28

Speed- 30ft., Fly 60ft. (good)
Abilities- 8 Str, 20 dex, 18 Con, 16 Int, 14 Wis, 24 Cha (28)

Special actions- Bardic music, clarity of vision,, countersong, enthrall, fascinate, false theurgy, inspire awe, joie de vivre, listen to this, lore song, moment of clarity 2/day, sense link, sense void 2/day, song of arcane power, spells

Special qualities- Damage reduction 10/Cold Iron, darkvision 60ft., heightened senses, lore, low-light vision, prodigy, unearthly grace

Feats- dreamtelling, heighten spell, improved oneiromancy, insidious magic, oneiromancy, penumbra bloodline, pernicious magic, practiced spellcaster (sublime chord), shadow weave magic, tenacious magic.

Skills- concentration +19, know arcana +20, know planes +15, listen +18 (trick: listen to this), lucid dreaming +10, perform (string) +20, profession (astrologer) +8, sleight of hand +24 (trick: false theurgy), spellcraft +19, spot +17 (trick: clarity of vision), truespeak +27. Special: Lore; 1d20+17.

Glomoira Sample equipment:
worn- Sylph's Ploy (+1 feycraft warning dagger of sudden stunning), +1 mithral chain shirt of displacement, rod of splendors, circlet of rapid casting, veil of allure, periapt of the sullen sea, shadow cloak, bracers of entangling blast, mesmerist's gloves, anklet of translocation, ring of theurgy, ring of enduring arcana
carried - headband of the lorebinder, greater amulet of the silver tongue, gloves of object reading, thought bottle, golden lion figurines pair, mirror of suggestion, empowered spellshard (willing sacrifice), aroma of dreams, bottled night, dust of disappearance, elixir of love, fairy dust (3).



Spells / day- 3 / 6 / 5 / 3 / 6 / 6 / 4 / 4 / 3
Spells known list-
0th- detect crossroads, detect magic, mending, minor disguise, prestidigitation, summon instrument
1st- distort speech, improvisation, instant diversion (s), stay the hand (i), +obscuring mist
2nd- mesmerizing glare, nightmare lullaby, reflective disguise, suggestion, +darkness
3rd- charm monster, dweomer vortex*, glibness, nightmare terrain, willing sacrifice (s)*,
+nondetection (m)*
4th- dream walk*, modify memory, ruin delver's fortune (i), +black tentacles
5th- dreaming puppet*, endless slumber, friend to foe, +shadow evocation
6th- dream casting, empyreal ecstasy, freezing glance, probe thoughts, +shadow walk
7th- limited wish (x), mirror walking, truename binding (t,x) +plane shift (f)
8th- dream travel, mystic shield (m), +greater shadow evocation
*spell known swap on level-up.
caster level: 20th. Spell save DC: 19+spell level.


Moment of Clarity shortlist (via Extra spell)
Alt spell list-
1st- hideous laughter, immediate assistance (i), insidious rhythm (i), mimicry
2nd- bothersome babble, detect thoughts, invisibility, mirror image
3rd- alter fortune (i,x), deep slumber*, enduring scrutiny, magic circle, shrink item
4th- dimension door*, manifest desire / nightmare, mirror sending (f), voice of the dragon
5th- greater blink, greater dispel, haunt shift, remorseless charm (m)
6th- gemjump (f), shalantha's delicate disk (m), smoky confinement (f), truename dispel (t)
7th- arcane spellsurge, gem tracer (f), instant summons (m), spell turning
\*spell known swap on level-up.
Special: fey curses: *blindness / deafness, lesser geas, bestow curse, feeblemind, familial geas,
expunge the supernatural (t), trait removal (via limited wish), greater bestow curse.

Extra feat shortlist (via MoC)-
Extra spell
Open minded
Obscure Lore
practiced spellcaster (bard)
minor utterance of the evolving mind
quick recovery (self or granted)
draconic knowledge (granted)
heighten breath (granted)
recover breath (granted)
+metamagic (any), +divinations (any)
Special: Alertness, Weapon Focus (PRC prereqs granted via MoC)*

Spoiler: Glomoira Progression Table

Show

Stub:
NE Female Devious Gloura
Bard 1 / Ardent dilettante 4 / Sublime chord 2 / Void disciple 4 / Shadow adept 1 - CR 19

CR	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills		Class Features
	Fey RHD (1)	+0	+0	+2	+2	6+3*4:	Penumbra bloodline (DrC)	Unique NPC Trait: Prodigy: Int (DMG2)
	Fey RHD (2)	+1	+0	+3	+3	6+3:
	Fey RHD (3)	+1	+1	+3	+3	6+3:	Spell penetration
	Fey RHD (4)	+2	+1	+4	+4	6+3:
	Fey RHD (5)	+2	+1	+4	+4	6+3:
	Fey RHD (6)	+3	+2	+5	+5	6+3:	Heighten spell
7	Fey RHD (7)	+3	+2	+5	+5	6+3: (90) Listen 10, Perform (string) 10 cc: Know planes 5, Know arcana 5, Profession (astrologer) 5, Lucid dreaming 5, Sleight of hand 5, Spellcraft 5, Truespeak 4 trick: listen to this (CS)		Medium Fey, 30ft, Fly 60ft. (good), darkvision 60ft. low-light vision, DR 10/cold iron, bard spells, unearthly grace
8	Bard 1	+3	+2	+7	+7	6+3: listen 11, sleight of hand 8, spellcraft 10		Bardic music, ACF: Loresong 1/day (DS), countersong, fascinate, ACF: inspire awe (DrM)
9	Void Disciple 1 (CD)	+3	+2	+9	+9	2+3: arcana 9, profession (astrologer) 6	Dreamtelling (HoH)	Sense Void (physical senses, 1/day)
10	Ardent Dilettante 1 (PLH)	+3	+2	+11	+9	6+3: arcana 13, listen 13, lucid dreaming 8		Heightened senses, lore
11	Sublime Chord 1 (CArc)	+3	+2	+11	+11	4+3: spot 5, trick: false theurgy		Bardic lore, bardic music
12	Void Disciple 2	+4	+2	+12	+12	2+3: concentration 5	Oneiromancy (HoH)	-
13	Void Disciple 3	+4	+3	+12	+12	2+3: concentration 10		Sense Void (2/day)
14	Void Disciple 4	+5	+3	+13	+13	2+3: concentration 15		Moment of Clarity (2/day)
15	Ardent Dilettante 2	+6	+3	+14	+13	6+3: sleight of hand 11, truespeak 10	Improved oneiromancy (HoH)	Enthrall
16	Sublime Chord 2	+7	+3	+14	+14	4+3: spot 12		Song of arcane power
17	Ardent Dilettante 3	+7	+4	+14	+15	6+3: sleight of hand 15, truespeak 15		Joie de vivre
18	Ardent Dilettante 4	+8	+4	+15	+15	6+3: sleight of hand 19, truespeak 20	Practiced spellcaster (sublime chord) (CArc), Shadow weave magic (PGtF)	Bonus Feat, Sense link
19	Shadow Adept 1(PGtF)	+8	+4	+15	+17	2+3: know planes 8, trick: clarity of vision	Insidious magic, pernicious magic, tenacious magic (PGtF)	Shadow Feats

Spoiler: Vhordreth presentation

Show

Vhordreth Auvenket, First Blade of the Jaezred
Ebonmaw, The Nightmare Drake
Male adult shadow, drow-dragon Assassin 1 / Devoted defender 1 / Soul eater 1
CE Large Dragon / Medium elf (drow)

Init- +4 (surprise: -10 foes; S&A)
Senses- blindsense 60 ft., darkvision 120 ft., keen
senses; Listen +20, Spot +26
Languages- Common, Draconic, Elven, Giant, Sylvan, Undercommon; telepathy (see text)

AC- 36; touch 14, flat footed 32
(-1 size, +4 dex, +22 natural, +1 dodge)
HP- 253 avg, 364 max (22HD)
DR- 10/magic
Immune- divination (see text), energy drain, paralysis, sleep
Saves- Fort +23, Ref +24, Will +21

Speed- 80 ft. (16 squares), fly 150 ft. (poor);
Melee-
bite +27 (2d6+6) plus dragon toxin (15)
2 claws +22 each (1d8+3) plus dragon toxin (15)
2 wings +22 each (1d6+3)
tail slap +22 (1d8+9)
\*plus energy drain; 1 level (all attacks)
Space- 10 ft.; Reach 5 ft. (10 ft. with bite)
Base Atk +21; Grp +31
Atk Options- death attack, energy drain, frightful presence, sneak attack +1d6+22
Special Actions- assassin spells, breath weapon, harm's way, robilar's gambit, staggering strike
Spell-Like Abilities-
at will- charm monster (exarchs only) CL 14th
3/day - scrying (exarchs only), mirror image
2/day - dimension door
Assassin spells-
4/day - ebon eyes, shock and awe (i)
-----
Abilities- 22 Str, 18 dex, 20 Con, 23 Int, 18 Wis, 20 Cha
SQ- alternate form (unique drow), create exarchs, lifemate, shadow blend

Feats- combat reflexes, craven, create spectral spawn, darkstalker, entangling exhalation, favored in guild: Jaezred Chaulssin, Robilar's gambit, staggering strike.

Skills- Bluff +30, Diplomacy +17**, Disguise +10 (+12 to act in character*, tricks: assume quirk, second impression), Hide +29, Intimidate +32* (trick: never outnumbered), Know arcana +8, Listen +20 (trick: listen to this), Move silently +29, Open lock +6, Search +10, Sense motive +25, Spot +26 (tricks: point it out, spot the weak point), Tumble +16 (tricks: back on your feet, nimble stand), Use magic device +30. *synergy bonuses.

Vhordreth sample equipment:
worn- Assassin's dagger, Harbinger's armor (+1 fearsome studded leather), scout's headband, brooch of disguise, bracers of murder, gloves of the shadow hand; island of blades, belt of battle, trackless boots, fanged ring, ring of mind shielding*. carried- *drow house insignia (death grimace), drow poison (3), elixir of sneaking, masterwork thieves tools, gems and coins worth 350gp.* misc- *Spirit companion (5th-tier); magical storage, shroud.

Breath weapon (Su)
enervating shadows. 40ft. Cone. Bestows three negative levels (Ref DC 26; half [rounded down]).
Recharge: 1d4 rounds

Frightful presence (Ex)
charge or attacks: 180ft. Radius (Will DC 26) 22hd or less; 5+ HD; shaken, 4<HD panicked: 4d6 rounds

Alternate Forum (Su)
Vhordreth may assume the form of a unique drow at-will. Vhorhreth may remain in this form indefinitely.

Spoiler: Vhordreth Progression Table

Show

Stub:
CE Male Adult drow-dragon
Assassin 1 / Devoted defender 1 / Soul eater 1 - CR 17

CR	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills		Class Features
	Dragon RHD (1)	+1	+2	+2	+2	6+5*4:	Darkstalker (LoM)	Unique NPC trait: Lifemate: Glomoira (DMG2)
	Dragon RHD (2)	+2	+3	+3	+3	6+5:
	Dragon RHD (3)	+3	+3	+3	+3	6+5:	Entangling Exhalation (RotD)
	Dragon RHD (4)	+4	+4	+4	+4	6+5:		Energy drain immunity, blindsense 60ft., darkvision 120ft., keen senses, immune to sleep and paralysis
	Dragon RHD (5)	+5	+4	+4	+4	6+5:
	Dragon RHD (6)	+6	+5	+5	+5	6+5:	Create spectral spawn (Web)
	Dragon RHD (7)	+7	+5	+5	+5	6+5:		Shadow blend
	Dragon RHD (8)	+8	+6	+6	+6	6+5:
	Dragon RHD (9)	+9	+6	+6	+6	6+5:	Combat reflexes
	Dragon RHD (10)	+10	+7	+7	+7	6+5:		mirror image 3/day
	Dragon RHD (11)	+11	+7	+7	+7	6+5:
	Dragon RHD (12)	+12	+8	+8	+8	6+5:	Robilar's gambit (PHB2)
	Dragon RHD (13)	+13	+8	+8	+8	6+5: (176) Diplo 8, Hide 16, Intimidate 16, Listen 16, Move silently 16, Sense motive 16, Spot 16, Use magic device 16 cc: Bluff 8, Disguise 5, Tumble 8. tricks: assume quirk, second impression, listen to this, never outnumbered, point it out, spot the weak point.		Juvenile: Medium, 80ft., Fly 150ft. (poor), breath weapon: 30ft. cone of shadows (2 negative levels), +16 natural armor, bite (1d8), 2 claws (1d6), 2 wings (1d4)
9	Drow-dragon (template) (DoF)	+13	+8	+8	+8	-		Alternate form (unique drow), Elf blood
10	Assassin 1	+13	+8	+10	+8	4+5: Bluff 16, Open lock 1		Death attack, Poison use, Sneak attack +1d6, Spells
11	+2 Dragon RHD (15)	+15	+9	+11	+9	6+5*2: Know arcana 2, Hide 19, MS 19, Search 4, Intim 19, UMD 19. cc: Bluff 18	Craven (CoR)
12	Devoted Defender 1 (SnF)	+16	+11	+13	+9	2+5: Sense motive 19, tumble 9. trick: nimble stand		Harm's way, AC bonus +1
13	Soul Eater 1 (BoVD)	+17	+13	+15	+11	4+5: Hide 21, MS 21, Intim 20 cc: Bluff 20	Staggering strike (CAdv)	Energy Drain (1 level)
15	+1 Dragon RHD (16); Xorvintaal (template) (MM5)	+18	+14	+16	+12	6+5: Hide 22, MS 22, Sense motive 21, Spot 19, UMD 21 cc: Bluff 21		Young Adult; +2 Str, DR 5/magic, frightful presence 150ft., +19 natural armor, immune to divinations, telepathy, create exarchs, charm monster-at will (exarchs), scrying 3/day (exarchs), dragon toxin (10)
16	+2 Dragon RHD (18)	+20	+15	+17	+13	6+5*2: Hide 24, MS 24, Intim 22, UMD 23 cc: Bluff 24, Tumble 12 trick: back on your feet	Favored in guild: Jaezred Chaullsin (Web)	-
17	+1 Dragon RHD (19)	+21	+15	+17	+13	6+6: Hide 25, Intim 25, Move silently 25, Spot 22, Use magic device 25 cc: Bluff 25		Adult; Large size, +2 Str, +2 Con, +2 mental (all), breath weapon: 40ft. cone of shadows (3 negative levels), frightful presence 180ft., +22 natural armor, bite (2d6, 10ft. reach), 2 claws (1d8), 2 wings (1d6), 1 tail slap (1d8), dimension door 2/day, dragon toxin (15)

***

Spoiler: Boxed Text-Player Read

Show

You don't remember arriving home, but as you enter you notice that all of the curtains and furnishings have been replaced. Now festooned and adorned with red silks and purple fabrics of exquisite make that you wonder how you could scarcely afford, to say nothing of the opulent tastes they portend.

From your bedroom, there is the low sound of music, haunting yet beautiful, emenating from it and the presence of candlelight streaming from the opening. Broaching the doorframe, you are assaulted by the fragrant scents of cinnamon, mir, and the familiar coppery taste of blood.

Sitting languidly upon a divan where your bed used to be, is a bejeweled woman of extravagant silken red dress with fiery orange hair, dusty silvered skin and piercing green eyes that rise to meet you. Her crimson lips hide the barest of sharpness to her teeth as she removes them from a glass of stark-red wine as you enter, setting it on the table beside her. At her feet are a pair of male golden savannah lions, resting idly on the floor, who barely raise their heads to your entry.

Behind her, A dark elven rogue with charcoal-gray skin and stark white, shoulder length hair in leather armor with ornate black brocade cloak clasped about the shoulder leans against the wall. With his arms crossed, his chest rises slightly to your entrance, as he watches you unerringly. His presence somehow seems larger than his otherwise thin, lithe body would surmise. He bides your arrival with a confident ease that belies hidden depths.

Returning to the divan, every instinct tells you that you are in the presence of a predator, but your senses defy you in locating any obvious source of danger. The woman speaks, her voice sultry and melodic, hanging as if it had substance and weight in the air, and assailing your senses much like the fragrances, as the words intrude on your mind.

"Well it's about time, darling."

Introductions:
Glomoira Ur'Sidriune, the Queen of Dreams is the headmistress of the Gloura's Wings, a festhall located in the bustling underdark city of Sshamath. Along with her two sisters and her consort Vhordreth, an upstart drow-dragon of considerable skill, guildmaster to a local chapter of the Jaezred Chaulssin, an assassins guild. Glomoira is also the matriarch of the Court of Whispers, a loose cabal of exiled fey that operate a criminal consortium throughout the Underdark, and have recently joined forces to expand their collective interests.

Vhordreth of House Auvenket is a callous and devious drow assassin who delights in the psychological torment and anguish of his victims. Born of a nascently royal, shadowy draconic heritage, his line is cursed with a sly conceit, a love of mind games, espionage, and a taste for sentient flesh in his native form. While a cold, contemptful drow guise obscures only the truer monster underneath.


Lore & Background:
Far from her current days as rising power in the Underdark, Glomoira was once a soothsayer on the shores of the western Glimmersea, living in the remains of a ruined watchtower astride the isthmus of a peninsula broaching the Sea of Starry Night. She and her sisters were sought for their blessings and magic by the various subterranean races, with piled-stone and cobbled shrines, built mostly by svirfneblin and deurgar petitioners, lining the cragged shores of their seaside home. Gifts of food, rare lichens, trinkets, colored stones, and geocaches were placed upon them by those seeking healing, divination, or other boons from the fey sisters.

The eldest and most gifted oracle of the three, Glomoira came to be entreated by drow nobles and matrons, duergar commanders, and other powerful denizens of the underrealms for her insights. Much more enamored with finery and jewels than her sisters, the 'donations' for an audience with the oldest Ur'Sidriune would eventually grow to be competitive and exorbitant. Shortly thereafter, the Sybil of Starry Night would become the Sybil of Sshamath, having purchased the deed to the then-dark festhall with her newly accumulated royalties, and thus moving her burgeoning operation to the epicenter of underdark commerce to further her rising entriprises and ambitions. It was Vhordreth's favors in Sshamath and involvement in the transaction that first convened the pair. After a brief courtship and the 'removal' of a few competing suitors on Vhordreth's behalf, the nascent pair have aligned their interests and respective shadow groups along the dividing lines of power and a claim to fey blood kinship.


Glomoira & Vhordreth in the world:

Glomoira and Vhordreth have since built a powerful clandestine organization that is embroiled in underdark intrigues and influences the many power struggles throughout the subterranean realms. Officially, the Somnolentress herself remains avowedly neutral in the political machinations of the various city-states and warring factions, offering her services to all-comers and profiting equally from each side of an entrenched conflict. The Jaezred in Sshamath too, remain on their face open to all patrons, even if they secretly have aligned with the fey queen's court.

In truth, the Court of Whispers is a fey court in name only. In reality it is a shadowed cabal of rebellious and exiled fey who are unwelcome in the other fey realms. The Court conists largely of banished clans of Banshrae enforcers and Gruwaar provocateurs, along with their Shadovig spies, jaebrin, and redcaps. Along with Vhordreth's drow allies and informants, and a few rogue shadar-kai and those of other, minor fey blood, a requirement for membership. The organization answers to either of the duo by proxy, but ultimately to Glomoira herself, who maintains her Court variously from the back rooms of the Gloura's Wings, accessed via hidden fey crossroads that allow the Court's members and Vhordreth's newly consecrated assassins to come and go unseen into the cities center.

The Lady of Mirrors herself is concerned with power primordial, and procuring it by the very means that brought her this far; that of prophecy. As a dreamwalker and exultant descryer, glomoira traverses the dreamscape to seek out sages and doomsayers alike, visiting them via their nightly somnolences and 'acquiring' their prophetic dreams, by any means that proves expedient. Sometimes it is enough to witness the prophetic dream of another by itself, other times it is best to procure it in it's entirety, lest it fall into other hands.

Via her various memory altering magics, charms, and collection of thought bottles and memory crystals, she steals everything she needs to profit immensely, and most importantly solely, well before her rivals. The deaths of kings, and the fall of rival houses, the coming of scions, and the tumults of war, Glomoira sees them all through the eyes of the chosen messengers. At her core, she is an interloper, a stalker in the minds of dreamers, spurning the gods' oracular interventions in mortal affairs, and thieving the gifts of prophecy from others to fuel her schemes.

While Vhordreth, for his part, is content to concern himself with the temporal and tangible aspects of the joint cabal's endeavors; those of murder, profit, and territorial expansion. Preoccupied with gaining an edge in the Great Game and making a name for himself among the Jaezred in Chaulssin. He has taken to sending his new assassins along Glomoira's fey crossroads, or physically into the dreams of his marks with her help, to commit otherwise impossible assasinations, he has amassed with a cadre of nigh unstoppable death dealers. He now stalks the nightmares of his enemies as a great winged shadow, earning him his moniker of The Nightmare Drake, while his spectral exarchs haunt their dreams, appearing as departed loved ones, hatred foes arisen again, and other terrors of the night.


How to use them:

The players are likely to hear of Glomoira during any excursion to the underdark, where her power is waxing, or else they may encounter members of her court in the midst of one of their covert plots. The Whispered Court can be found inserting agents into areas where great change is about to occur, according to the Somnolentress' prophetic inventories, seemingly always in the right place at the right time. This might mean the death of a prominent noble, the changeover of heirs that risks a civil upheaval, or the onset of war between neighboring tribe or kingdoms. Anywhere significant events are about to unfold, The joint cabal and it's profiteers stand ready to prosper.

If the players seek out the Sybil of Sshamath or her sisters for divinatory services, perhaps at the recommendation of someone with ties to the group, an appropriate donation is always 'a gift that could equal their beauty', thus alluding to a mirror, the more finely crafted the better. Glomoira has made a habit of collecting them, as another avenue of espionage via her mirror walking magicks. They may even find an unlikely ally in the Jaezred, with their holy mission of opposing the spider queen's influence in the Underdark, that would lead them directly into Glomoira and Vhordreth's clutches.

The disappearance of normally sequestered sages, the haunted dreams of the local bard or shaman, tend to be telltale signs of the Queen of Dreams' interests. Less common, are the impossible murders that occasionally occur. Persons who died with the doors locked, sound in their beds, with the only clue to their fates the horrible grimaces of terror etched on their faces, or as a shrivelled husk, barely recognizable. These are typically the work of Vhordreth and his elaborate hunter-prey nightmare walks, or the results of one of his spectral exarchs or haunt shifted infiltrators, telepathically controlled by Vhordreth himself.

Looking too closely into these cases is likely to have sleepwalking killers at the player's heels, perhaps the local barkeep who knows where they sleep at night, armed with his trusty mallet that he keeps under the counter for rowdy patrons, visits their rooms in a somnambulistic state and murderous intent. Geased monsters, mirror doppels and simulacra who melt into puddles if taken prisoner are not far behind for those who can't leave the Lady of Mirrors' affairs alone. Dead foes and departed lovers, along with nightmarish assassins who chase them through empty city streets, and a shadowy winged horror that hunts them in their dreams from above, backlit a burning sky. Such terrors are only the beginning, should the players earn the ire of the pair.

Roleplaying Glomoira:

Glomoira has a penchant for showing up on her own terms, which for her can be almost anytime or place. Anything from a somnolent dream visitation, a mirrored sending, or even snatching a fallen, already unconscious player from afar into a dreamscape to parley them with utmost leverage. Timing, it would seem, is always on the Somnolentress' side.

In the rare event that she appears in person, and if she chooses when in a dreamscape, Glomoira always casts an inky black shadow, as if she's been spotlit in stark relief against reality itself. Her shadow will often act of its own accord, though it remains bound to her. It's actions are usually innocuous, and it can typically be found pantomiming seemingly unchosen actions to her own, such as picking up the shadowed equivalent of a different glass, or choosing a different seat, or being seen languidly smoking her long tobacco holder while Glomoira herself is not, reflecting her chaotic nature and umbral heritage.

It will occasionally engage in violent overtures, silently throwing or breaking shadowed objects, or reaching out along a surface to attempt to strangle others in her presence, while Glomoira herself remains in repose. The phenomenon is ultimately harmless, but can be deeply unsettling to onlookers. Glomoira herself pays it no mind, acting unaware of it's actions and dismissive of the subject if questioned, while turning quickly to other topics at hand.

Glomoira herself is extremely well read and versed in mortal affairs, in contrast to most of her kind. She considers it a point of pride to know everything about anything (or anyone, but that's better left unsaid) that she considers to be of import. To her, If she doesn't already know it, then it clearly isn't worth knowing. Glomoira has in her power the oracular tools to appear nigh-omniscient, and the wherewithal to maintain that posture.

She prefers omissions and cryptic answers to lies, being ever the ostensibly diplomatic empress. She considers blackmail to be brutish and uncouth, and beneath one befitting her station. Thus, Glomoira is surprisingly honest about her intentions to the players, for she fears little from mortal interferences. She has no temper to speak of, instead delighting in her own equipoise. In the face of hostilities, she responds with banter and diffusion, or forced acquiescence via her charm and sleep magicks. In the face of real violence, she will depart quickly via planar travel, leaving her minions to fend for themselves.


Roleplaying Vhordreth:

Vhordreth is a creature of quiet menace, and few words. A confident posture, a well placed glare, and an exuding presence of fear. These are the tools of a dragon, and they carry over even into his drow form. He possesses an air that seems somehow larger than his elven frame would suggest. When the mood for conversation strikes, Vhordreth is amiable, if a bit terse in his answers (or lack thereof).

He does however, enjoy dropping morsels of information, whether the hidden secrets of his foes, gained through one of his many exarchs or risen spawn spies, or sowing the seeds of fear and doubt in his enemies or their abilities. If forced to negotiate, he's unlikely to offer the 'food' any more then their lives, a fair trade in his opinion.

At his core, Vhordreth is a predator, a creature of extremes, unable to see any other natural order to things. He is irredeemably evil, but he delights in psychic victories as much as physical ones. Thus, he is not a creature of destruction, like many dragons. Rather, he's methodical and patient. His obsession with Xorvintaal best reflects this, as does his penchant for manipulation and intrigue.

Spoiler: Meta analysis

Show

Spoiler: design goals (theme)

Show

The goal of this build was to make sense of the multitude of dreamscape rules and really crack the feel of the 'dream mage', which despite being wonderfully thematic is exceedingly difficult to do mechanically. This is due not only to the disparate rule systems for dreamscapes as they exist, but also due to the fact that many of the needed spells are spread across wide ranging spell lists, or locked behind feat chains. Further, the thematic flexibility of such a character to conjure up nearly any effect or ability on demand is rather difficult to replicate, outside of the standard *wish* array.

Vhordreth was born out of thinking about possible consorts to an underdark fey queen. it would have to be a powerful, intelligent, similarly devious creature, and thus, a shadow dragon seemed like a logical choice here. But to take it a step further, i decided to tie it in to the fey and umbral bloodlines even more. Both dragons and fey are insular and bloodline obsessed creatures typically, so having the blood ties work on both the umbral side as well as the elven-fey side, felt really solid in mating the pair. The vast mind of the queen also makes for an excellent mental parity with a Xorvintaal playing dragon, with both being mastermind style villains.

Spoiler: making sense of dreamscapes (so many rules, so little clarity)

Show

Let's face it, the dreamscape rules are a mess. There are basically two sets of rules here, those found in the Manual of the Planes, and those found inside Heroes of Horror. For the sake of this build exercise, we are using both rulesets independently. That is, there are the Lucid dreaming rules, which cover being safe in your bed and visiting someone ephemerally, following the rules that no real damage is done via this method (we are not using the dreamheart here, as it's so easy a trained bear could do it).

Next, there are the HoH rules, which allow one to *physically* enter people's dreams, and which also covers nightmare realms, though they are poorly defined. For the sake of this exercise, *physically* dream walking into someone's dreams *can* harm them, as alluded to in HoH. Whether that manifests as ability damage, or psychic harm that manifests physically on the body, as suggested in HoH is left to the DM. Suffice it to say, by physically entering someone's mind you can kill them, as it's clearly the rule intent here. Okay, got it.

Spoiler: ruling from on high (portraying phenomenal cosmic power)

Show

The next challenge was to accurately portray a being of awesome power, I.E. a true archfey. This is accomplished via a confluence of powers, most notably through Moment of Clarity, Improvisation, and Willing Sacrifice, as well as prodigy and lore song. By the early-mid teen levels, Glomoira can make any attack, skill check, or save with basic impunity, on demand.

Skill checks in particular can approach DC 40+ with relative ease, with Moment of clarity granting access to Open Minded for free ranks and trained checks if needbe. Thus, Glomoira has effectively every knowledge skill at 40 whenever she wants, can maximize Dreamtelling for oracular power, plus has the bardic knowledge of a full bard. She knows everything about anything, no matter how obscure, past, present, and even future with enough dream subjects.

Via MoC: Extra Spell, she has access to nearly any sorcerer, wizard, or bard spell on demand, at least twice a day, enough to make every encounter feel unique and unpredictable, as well as a shortlist of other tricks she can grant herself or her consort, detailed above. Glomoira is truly a primordial creature, able to pull out any whim she desires from her vast all-encompassing mind. Through feat granting, she also relieves Vhordreth of his needs for Alertness and Weapon Focus to qualify for his prestige classes, which is a minor benefit. it could also be accomplished via items such as an ioun stone and war domain draught, but for the sake of the exercise here, its a more elegant solution.

Spoiler: its good to be queen (subverting player expectations)

Show

The final pillar in the design goals for this build was that fighting a fey queen should break all the rules, or at least, as many as possible. Nothing about battling an archfey should be standard caster fair, if it can be helped. The extraordinary should be de rigeur for such a being. Thus, Glomoira's spell list and extra spell shortlist contains an extreme departure from the norms.

Crucially, the truename spells give her the ability to strip player's of core or class abilities through things like Spurn/Expunge the Supernatural, and Truename Dispel. Stripping the CoDzilla in one fell swoop, or taking away the Paladin's Smite Evil is sure to raise some eyebrows at the table. Shadow weave magic makes her magic feel alien and obscure. Mirror magic is dripping with weirdness and fey flavor, allowing impossible access to places, unlimited range dominate monster in dreaming puppet, surreptitious charms via dream casting, the potential to alter alignment via remorseless charm, memory wipes and thought probes, all of which function perfectly inside a dreamscape, make for a fearsome foe. With additional MoC: Extra spell access to a host of geases, curses, and the like for roleplaying a queen spurned.
Additional touches like utilizing the Sleight of Hand rules out of Races of Stone to conceal spellcasting behind massive spot checks further throws the players off their game, making Glomoira seem even more supernatrually deft. Everything about her should feel alien and not as expected.

Spoiler: That old black magic (the real nasty stuff)

Show

The Bread and butter:
Improvisation + Willing sacrifice + (optional) Moment of Clarity + Lore Song + Prodigy

The gateway to anything you want, whenever you want it. Improvisation is a bucket of luck points up to +10 to any roll, check, or save. willing sacrifice provide a second floating pool of up to 10, and can be empowered with spell shard for up to +15, and has no CL cap on applied limits either. Moment of clarity can be utilized for up to +10 ranks via Open Minded, or a flat +5 via univeral aptitude in Minor Utterance of the Evolving Mind feat for capped skills. Lore song and prodigy crucially apply to *any* check, meaning they can boost Bardic Lore checks, and Moment of Clarity can fish for Obscure Lore for a total of +26-28 to lore checks.


Getting in their heads:
Void sense + Dream Walk + Delay spell

The Dream Walk spell has a specfic line that states "You must either be able to see the dreamer whose dreams you wish to enter or be within 30 feet of her." The hard OR there is critical. If i can see you, I can planeshift into your dreams, period. Void sense makes that doable within 1000 miles, completely undetectable. Using Moment of Clarity to grant yourself Delay Spell solves the issue of leaving your body, because while you must make all the targeting choices ahead of time for a delayed spell, if you look closely at Dream walk, the target is the person *you're sending*, not the dreamer you want to enter, which is part of the spell's resolution text.

Dream casting (charm) + Mirror Sending + Enduring Scrutiny (optional)

This is a fun one. Charming someone latently via dream casting at unlimited range for 1/day level is already nasty. But what it really needs is a way to leverage that effect from afar, say, infinitely far. Ala, mirror sending, which for us is also totally on brand. Mirror sending has no limitations on range, distance, or even planar boundaries. It's also strangely an Evocation spell, which means it isn't hedged out by most things that block effects. Charm someone, then ring them up with a mirror sending to get them to do your bidding, as much as you want. You can add in a no save enduring scrutiny if you'd also like to know anytime your mark sees a reflective surface. The possibilities are endless, and thematic as hell too.

Modify memory / Probe Thoughts + dreamscapes

There's some interesting caveats around memory altering spells when cast within dreamscapes. Probe thoughts in particular works on sleeping subjects, which any dreamwalker should qualify for, even if you're casting it at his/her dream self. Modify memory similarly can persist through a dreamscape visitation without issue for things like false memories, erasing a mind control session after the fact, or altering the events of a dream. Modify memory is a particularly useful and otherwise hard to acquire spell here (brd 4).

Create spectral spawn + exarch telepathy + haunt shift (optional) OR revive undead

The ultimate spy network for Vhordreth. Create spectral spawn technically has no upper limit (but should probably HDx2), and with Glomoira's extra spell help can haunt shift them into mundane objects for infiltration and espionage. If the exarch rituals are performed then Vhordreth has constant communication with all of his spectres to report back to him instantaneously. Finally, defeated spectres can dump their tokens to be brought back to Vhordreths lair, and while they're still destroyed at 0hp, their remains can still be targeted with a Revive Undead spell, making key Exarchs into recurrent threats.

Truename binding + mirror mephits OR Verra (Fiend folio)

Access to all of the mirror creatures via a single spell, as well as another excellent reason to take truespeak here. While the Summon Mirror Mephit spell isn't useful for simulacrums, truename binding has no such limitation. Also, being able to call them as spies or messengers for days at a time can certainly come in handy, as well as Verra for more lethal missions. Definitely another on brand acquisition that helps justify truespeak. While planar binding is available, it's less versatile in calling specific individuals, and truename binding *compels* service, there's no negotiation involved, which is much more on brand.

Caster level increasers + shadow weave magic + dream thralls

shadow weave magic makes most of your dream charms and dominates detectable only with a 15+CL check, coupled with song of arcane power and a moment of clarity extra practiced spellcaster, Glomoira can easily push her CL to 28, necessitating a DC 43 check to even detect the presence of her enchantments. depending on if you're plot revolves around mystery of the Queen of Dreams' involvement, this is an excellent way to preserve a plot point or increase the difficulty for your players if they've taken to attempting to break the enchantments of every geased or dominated threat sent their way.

Spoiler: Tactics and strategies

Show

Spoiler: a note on Somnolent visitations

Show

Portraying the duo (and Glomoira in particular) is unlike many traditional villains, and requires the Dungeon Master to have a firm understanding of narrative, storytelling, and a fair bit of inventiveness in order to leverage the pair to the fullest. An encounter with the Queen of Dreams can take place anywhere, at almost any time. From a late-night visitation, to a vision-quest sequence, or an in-person abduction into the dreamworld by her or her consort-assassin.

The above player read intro sequence provides an example of how to introduce the duet, by providing a familiar environment (the player's stronghold) where nonetheless, things are alien and surreal, and most importantly, new again. This is the theme for the pair, the familiar unfamiliar, where nothing is what at it first seems. The example sequence isn't interested in how the player's arrive, nor does it need to. Perhaps the heroes have all been kipnapped unbeknowst to them off-screen via *sleep* spells with a few hidden Will saves, or perhaps they've been *dream walked* to a shared dreamscape furtively by the pair for Glomoira's opening parley. The explanations of such transitions can come later when the player's awaken, either safe in their beds, or already in the clutches of the duo.

Spoiler: Combat tactics

Show

in a combat scenario, Vhordreth will stick close to Glomoira, leveraging his combination of Harm's Way and his Shadow blend ability, to make attack rolls against the pair extremely difficult without first nuetralizing the Shadow Blend. In addition, Glomoira does possess both Darkness and Heighten Spell, in combination with Vhordreth's Ebon Eyes spell. So you can vary the difficulty of an encounter by how much of a countermeasure you want to the duo to put up against any attempts to bring down the Shadow Blend ability.

Glomoira, for her part, will attempt to neutralize any casters with a combination of her tongues spells to grant spell failure, as well as stay the hand, instant diversion, and dweomer vortex or mystic shield to negate threats to her person, and buff the pair with Empyreal Ecstasy, doubling their longevity. She will then proceed with charm or sleep magic on the most potent threats. Failing that, a well timed sleep spell can also provide an escape mechanism through her dream walk ability, jumping herself and her companions (or even foes if they're in range) into the mind of a sleeping player. Taking the fight to a nightmare realm and possibly dividing the party in this way is another way to challenge the players.

Vhordreth is designed primarily to be a thorn wall for the players. He shields Glomoira with his Harm's way and Shadow Blend, and can Shield Other her, but also provides staggers via AOO through robiliars, robbing the players of actions after absorbing blows. This ensures that the party can't simply pile on and full attack Vhordreth, instead turning it into a game of tit-for-tat while his dragon toxin, and cumulative negative levels do their work. He can additionally stack entangles via his breath weapon to limit player mobility even further, and his energy drains allow Glomoira's charms and sleep magic to be even more potent as the fight goes on. Vhordreth can also Hide Another with his absurdly high Hide skill, gaining a +40 while Shadow Blend is active, giving Glomoira full concealment, should she already have any already from darkness or other conditions, such as Nightmare Terrain. Finally, Glomoira can grant Vhordreth a metabreath feat such as heighten breath should he want to open with a potent breath weapon and strip the party of nearly all of their highest level spell slots immediately.

Spoiler: Obscure Sources & Lore References

Show

Sources notes: <citations> [the where]
Obscure sources:
devious gloura (alternate). Underdark p.89
drow-dragon (template). Magic of Faerun p.44 sidebar
Jaezred Chaullsin (organization), Create spectral spawn (feat), Favored in guild: Jaezred Chaullsin (feat). Dragons of Faerun web enhancement (pt.3: City of Wrmshadows. By Eric L. Boyd)

Additional ideas and options:
Dragon #287 Dreamlands. p.## by Jeff Grubb

Lore references:
The Deep Queens (mention only). Drizzt's guide to the Underdark. TSR publishing, p.## by Eric L. Boyd)
Sshamath fosterage (Jaezred). Brian R. James, Eric Menge (August 2012). Menzoberranzan: City of Intrigue. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 71, 109. ISBN 978-0786960361.

Special note: the Deep Queens are mentioned in reference only in Eric's work, but as I was already using his Jaezred, it felt appropo to retroactively tie Glomoira in with the Deep Queens. To my knowledge, they've never been statted anywhere, so the incarnations are my original representations of the characters, as is Vhordreth.

[H_H_F_F]

And that's that for round 50! Three pairs of villains for your enjoyment and consideration, just enough to fill a podium.

Judges, on to you!

If you're thinking of judging, but fill insecure that you could - we should have a Judges' Handbook coming up right around the corner, to give a starting point for new or otherwise insecure judges.

[ciopo]

I will assimilate them later, gotta session right now!

My silly idea was a something something beast heart adept 10 (with many blink dogs), paired with a shapeshift variant druid 16 + hierophant 1, to get power of nature and therefore giving out shapeshift to all the doggos.

my first go at it was something like a petal and grig combo, calling them Maxine Mischief and some punny name around "enabler"

I just coulnd't grok it in a way I liked

[loky1109]

I had idea of satyr (maybe) wu jen 17 (maybe) with Eternal Hero epic destiny in pair with reason stealer binder (maybe) who contains in it personality of his beloved queen, who was prisoned at fast time demiplan and almost died when he found her.
And using his Body outside Body spell and epic destiny feat he manages to save her personality in the body of reason stealer.

But there are too many issues. I couldn't find really fitted race for Her. Binder with Zceryll is powerful option for reason stealer, but it looks slightly alien. They start work at 20 EL only. Other stuff out of core concert... I just can't make it good enough in my eyes.

[Stormwolf69]

Interesting Contest I have never thought of using this style of villain in my campaigns. Normally I like to use Mindflyers or devils trying to puppet master things from the shadows. might have to change that.

[H_H_F_F]

Interesting Contest I have never thought of using this style of villain in my campaigns. Normally I like to use Mindflyers or devils trying to puppet master things from the shadows. might have to change that.

That's great to hear! To me, that's a lot of the appeal of the Villainous Competition; Beyond getting to play with races/templates we don't usually get to optimize, and beyond optimizing CR and not ECL, there's the simple fact that 3.5 discourse usually only looks at things from the player's side. We all know how to build interesting, diverse, and mechanically robust characters - but this competition lets us think of new ways to design interesting, diverse, and mechanically robust villains. Getting accustomed to thinking about all the ways a villain can play an unusual role in an encounter or a campaign is one of the main upsides here.

[loky1109]

Table.

Name	Alignment / Race	Class Levels	Alignment / Race	Class Levels	Chef	Judge 1	Total	Place
Derieth and Efeade	?E Succubus with Tentacle Whip	Totemist 2/Justicar 8/Marshal 1	?? Human with Living Breastplate	Artificer 9/Fighter 2/Devoted Defender 3/Warblade 2
Tessai and Spangle	CE Skindancer	Warblade 4	TN Glimmerskin	Marshal 1/Unarmed Swordsage 2/Fighter 6
Glomoira and Vhordreth	NE Gloura	Bard 1/Void Disciple 4/Sublime Chord 2/Ardent Dilettante 4/Shadow Adept 1	CE Drow-Dragon	Assassin 1/Devoted Defender 1/Soul Eater 1

[OracleofWuffing]

A man can love a dog and a dog can love a man, but if you've presented a man-dog duo here you've done something wrong.

Now that the reveal has been made, I just want to admit that there was a part of me that was picturing some sort of werewolf-ish and wolf-ish duo, just to dance on that suggestion. Something like the regular-form is a wolf hunter, but is actually the wolf's mate when transformed, unbeknownst to the regular-form's mind. It's the quest giver, surprise twist, and final boss all in the same package!

Didn't have the slightest idea how to give it substance, though.

[Buufreak]

It just now occurred to me that I could have snuck in an homage to Faust and Eliza from Shaman King... damnit.

[Inevitability]

I shall judge, but it might be a while. Guidelines soon, actual judgement within 1-2 weeks.

[H_H_F_F]

I shall judge, but it might be a while. Guidelines soon, actual judgement within 1-2 weeks.

Thank you, Inevitability! Greatly appreciated.

[Inevitability]

Spoiler: Judging Criteria

Show

All scores start at 1.

Originality
Up to 1 point for the race(s) used (including templates if any). If you stick with boring no-LA no-RHD PHB fare, expect no points here. If you get beyond the most obvious of monster choices, you'll probably get maximum points.

Up to 1.5 points for classes. Level distribution will be taken into account: warlock 1 is novel but still seen sometimes, warlock 13 is innovative.

Are your feats (+ possible skill tricks, skill ranks), surprising to me? Up to 1 point; generally I want at least half of your freely chosen feats to be truly surprising for a perfect score here.

Finally up to 0.5 points for your overall tactics. I'm expecting played-out stuff like buffer/healer + heavy hitter, or a pair of flanking rogues; let's see if you have anything more innovative than that thought up.

Power
How does this encounter stack up against a monster of the same EL, or a pair of monsters trying to do approximately the same thing? How well are you doing the thing you want to be doing (assuming that's a reasonable thing to aim for). Do you avoid leaving obvious power boosts on the table? 2 points for your overall prowess.

Are there any notable weaknesses in either your offense or defense? Are there common PC archetypes (stealthy rogue, charger, grappler, healbot, buffer, debuffer, summoner, druid) that you just can't touch, or that you fear to face? Do you talk big game about facing down wizards while having only +7 to will at level 20? Up to 1 point.

Action economy is a big issue for monsters always: is it for you? Do you have any reasonable means to even the odds in this aspect, or to at least prevent single-target spells from giving the PCs a disproportionate advantage (beyond those offered by being two monsters)? Up to 1 point.

Elegance
Are the mechanics and presentation of the build legal? Do they conform to competition standards? Do any DMs running the monster have to commit to rulings that have implications for large parts of the broader game? I don't care if a monster ability is ambiguous and you suggest DMs interpret it some way, but 'rebuke earth creatures can fuel divine metamagic' is the kind of thing you can't easily declare even if you're the DM. 1.5 points to be obtained here.

Are the characters efficient? Are feats and skills used for multiple purposes, or used to qualify for a single thing and then left by the wayside? Are little mechanical tidbits such as subtype or favored class relevant for the greater build? 1 point here.

Is the build synergistic? Do the different elements fit together, or is it torn between wanting to do 2-3 very different things? Are features from unrelated sources working together to do something greater than they could individually? Think an undead monster heading into dread necromancer, or a creature that can speak to animals boosting Summon Nature's Ally. Similarly, if you've oriented a build to be extremely SAD, expect points here. 1 point is the maximum here. If the two villains have good synergy between them, that's fine too, but that alone will earn you half a point at most.

Does the build make sense from a fluff perspective, or do we have CE wizard-haters sneaking their way into Ruby Knight Vindicator? 0.5 points for preventing any raised eyebrows on my part.

Memorable Villainy

Simple questions first: do you meet the criteria? Is your build a pair of monsters with the right CR balance? Are they romantic lovers? Is one of them evil? 1 point for unambiguously meeting all criteria listed in the OP.

How much do your villains want to fight together, rather than alone? Do they play to each other's strengths, and cover for each other's weaknesses? Is a party that could subdue one of them with ease going to have trouble with the other? Do they have unique combos that require them both to contribute? 1.5 points.

Are these villains villains, or just an encounter of the week? Can they make their presence felt long before any actual confrontation, or can they easily escape to wreck havoc another day? 1 point here.

How fragile is the pair? If one dies, could the other bring them back? Can you guarantee the safety and endurance of the pair? 0.5 points for preventing tragic bereavement.

[Inevitability]

Spoiler: Derieth and Efeade (10.00)

Show

Originality (2.25):
So Derieth is a human (I assume: you never spell it out anywhere but the Sentinel mark does narrow things down), which is not something I like to see in any build competition. Efeade is a bit more original, but in a format where monsters are the norm, a succubus is still pretty tame. Throwing in symbionts does help some, though. 0.5/1

Fighter 2/warblade 2/devoted defender 3 really does not surprise me in a round based around teamwork. Perhaps I should've seen artificer coming, but I didn't, so that's saving Derieth from a minimum score. Efeade, however, takes the standard totemist 2 dip, the standard marshal 1 dip, and 8 levels in the moderately popular justiciar, dropping out at the expected point. When your characters have seven classes between them, five of which are incredibly standard dips and two of which are decently popular PrCs, I don't think we're being all too original. 0.25/1.5

Mindsight, prerequisites, multiattack, darkstalker... when the least expected feat that Efeade brings to the table is Bonus Essentia, that's not a good sign. Fortunately, Derieth jumps to the rescue with investment in an uncommon dragonmark and feats enhancing an unusual weapon choice, even though Stormguard Warrior and Robilar's Gambit aren't quite cutting edge. 0.5/1

A fighter who tanks... but that's not all! We also have a totemist... who grapples! If the sarcasm isn't coming through, I'm anything but impressed by the originality of those tactics. 0/0.5

Power (3):
Efeade is respectable: totemists/justiciars make for great grapplers and getting energy drain on top isn't half bad. That's one scary grapple modifier when all goes according to plan, and hogtie is as nasty as always; her main flaw is a lack of versatility in tactics. Derieth, though... He's a tank, but I'm sceptical on whether his partner needs him to tank. Until you get the breastplate, Derieth has worse HP and I'm fairly sure worse AC than Efeade, and if things go south he cannot escape as easily. Artificer items are useful, but artificer is one of the best classes in the game and using it does not automatically guarantee free points in power. I'm also unsure why you took Devoted Defender 3 with such a low Reflex score, especially because you seem perfectly willing to just dip good melee classes. Warblade 3 would've boosted your weak reflex save by two points, boosted critical confirmation, and given you a new maneuver, crusader 1 would've given you a stance that meshes well with the tanking concept, and surely some easily-entered PrC could have enhanced the build? 1/2

Freedom of Movement is online at the first benchmark you give and throws a huge wrench into grapple-based strategies (Derieth can theoretically try to brew up a countermeasure with spell storing, but really doesn't have the CL for dispels). Derieth's strategy requires him to stick close to Efeade, so any BFC or threatened areas he cannot pass through will either cripple her survivability or negate her excellent mobility. This leaves Efeade unable to comfortably pick her targets. 0.5/1

Magic item / spell storing shenanigans can even the action economy some, I suppose, as does the element of surprise, but outside of that you're just as vulnerable to save-or-dies or action denial as any two-monster encounter. 0.5/1

Elegance (2):
Where to begin... well, maybe with the fact that Justiciar is Lawful-only, and Efeade wants to enter as a [Chaotic] outsider? Sure, demons can, in time, in extremely rare cases, shift alignment to a staunchly opposed one, but I'd like you to at least acknowledge how big of a deal that is. Even if this was a honest mistake, and you really meant for Efeade to be LE from the get-go, I'd still like to see it addressed in the text.

You suggest Efeade gets EWP (Manacles) at Justiciar 1, but she gets them at Justiciar 3 instead.

Dereith's least dragonmark presumably grants him Shield Other, and his Lesser mark grants... what exactly? You don't seem to list it anywhere, which is kind of an odd oversight.

I'm not sure how Efeade is taking in-class ranks in diplomacy during her Justiciar stint, but it seems to me that those should be double-cost cross-class ranks.

Your skill presentation makes it hard for me to determine how many ranks you have at a given level, especially when listed ranks are non-alphabetical. I'd have liked to see a table where every level lists all your skill points, even the ones that weren't updated that level.

Stormguard Warrior requires 'two Iron Heart maneuvers' but as far as I can tell Dereith only knows one.

You can't take the Absolute Steel stance at your first warblade level. The rules explicitly say that 'you begin play with knowledge of one 1st-level stance from any discipline open to warblades'.

Your suggestion to shrink Dereith down "to allow Efeade to teleport while carrying him" seems straight-up illegal by the rules, as Efeade can teleport only herself and 50 pounds of objects. Using a bag of holding is somewhat less problematic, but you make it sound like a character could easily crawl in within a round or so, while engaged in combat: that's far from obvious to me, and with how often the issue comes up a lot of tables might already have ruled against such an interpretation. Not to mention the awkward issue of pulling out the bag in combat at all; cloth isn't the sturdiest material.

All in all, there's enough here for me to be very disappointed with the formatting and legality here. 0/1.5

I'm not really seeing structural efficiency in the builds: both have mostly-dead qualification feats that are clearly relevant only to get you into PrCs, skills are used for one thing and one thing only, no real use is made of their specific unique heritages... Using Concentration for warblade maneuvers and artificer infusions both would be neat, but to what degree do you actually use infusions in combat? 0/1

Dereith is really torn between his martial and artificer halves, and his justification for this is little better than 'anyone likes magic items, so if I can make magic items that synergizes with whatever my other levels are, right?'. Reach + Devoted Defender + Robilar's Gambit + Stormguard Warrior is cute (even if getting only 2 AoOs for most of your career leaves it less potent than you'd have liked). Efeade is focused, but synergistic? I guess her many attacks play kind of nice with justiciar, and totemist+justiciar has obvious synergy, but not all that much to impress me here, to be honest. 0.5/1

No real conflicts of fluff and crunch, aside from the Lawfulness thing I already mentioned. 0.5/0.5

Memorable Villainy (2.75):
I hate to be annoying like this, but in a round where 'at least one villain has to be evil' is one of four clearly outlined requirements, the least you can do is actually tell me what your character's alignments are. I'm willing to believe both are LE or something, but tell me. 0.75/1

So Derieth can make magic items for the pair and provides support with buffs and Shield Other, while Efeade... gives an initiative bonus from CR 18 on? Bit of a one-sided relationship! It doesn't help that the bonuses are pretty generic: why does a succubus totemist specifically want to get protected by a Devoted Defender? Sure, grappling takes away a few points of AC, but is that everything? There's no real unique combos, nothing that makes me think these two are meant to be together. Worse, the pair seems vulnerable to area attacks: they love to cluster together, have only so-so hit points, and have mediocre Reflex saves (Efeade is resistant to energy, but not by enough to invalidate blasting strategies). I'm just not convinced that these two builds specifically want to be working together. 0.5/1.5

The pair has okayish out-of-combat skills (mostly Efeade) and might certainly return to fight another day, but their scope is quite heavily constrained to specific jobs against specific targets, and they struggle to affect large-scale change. I don't know; I wouldn't be surprised if it takes PCs two or three encounters to figure out that these are supposed to be recurring villains, not quirky minibosses. Solid out-of-combat utility does help some, though. 0.5/1

I already touched on this, but Derieth's longevity seems... less than assured. His escape route has a number of flaws, his mobility is bad, and his role in combat involves actively redirecting attacks to what is, ultimately, a very so-so humanoid frame, hampered by multiple weak saves. Efeade's outsider nature also makes it tricky to bring her back if the PCs get off a lucky save-or-die, which is troublesome as well. 0/0.5

Final Verdict:
The core of this build's problems are really just that Derieth gets pushed in a tanking niche that Efeade doesn't need him to be in. He doesn't have social skills, his martial prowess is lacking, and his infusions are clunky to use in-combat, which leaves his ability to contribute to the pair largely limited to out-of-combat crafting support... which is, of course, something that a large portion of his build got redirected away from. Even simply making him a full artificer would've cut down on the cookie-cutter dips, helped define his niche in combat, made his build a more coherent whole, and helped to give the pair more of a greater villainous scope.

I don't know, I don't like this build, and I think the score reflects that. The factory-standard optimizations rammed through are painfully obvious, and the fact that the build clearly doesn't pay prerequisites enough heed (Stormguard Warrior's prerequisites, the alignment issue) does not make matters better. Villainous competition allows more material to be used than any other build competition on this site: do something with that! Don't just give me two human-shaped minibosses whose stubs wouldn't be misplaced in a handbook. You don't have to go completely crazy, but try to push the envelope at least a little, I promise you the build will be the better for it.

To stick with the cooking theme these competitions tend to have: you tried to serve me a standard surf-and-turf, but went and spoiled half the dish.

Spoiler: Tessai and Spangle (11.00)

Show

Originality (3.25):
Skindancer and Glimmerskin? Not just two very original and rarely-seen monsters, but thematically resonant ones to boot! Full marks. 1/1

Warblade isn't exactly revolutionary to slap on a big melee brute, and 4 levels is a typical place to hop off. Marshal 1 is one of the most obvious dips for a high-charisma character, especially in this round, and swordsage 2 is hardly groundbreaking, but six levels in fighter are more investment than I'd expect to see. 0.75/1.5

Having your incorporeal buffer take all sorts of ubercharger feats doesn't change the fact that they're just ubercharger feats. A few things, like Stand Still or Reckless Offensive are slightly unexpected, but if I googled a list of Best Melee Feats I'd see most of your lists on there. 0.25/1

Buffer + Damage Dealer isn't the most innovative combo, but the glimmerskin's unique mechanics put a bit of a mechanical twist on the whole concept. 0.25/0.5

Power (2):
So obviously, Tessai is a monstrously powerful charger, dealing incredible damage and forcing ridiculous saves vs instant death. He's got his pick of floating feat, which gives him a bit of customizability that martials usually lack (though I'd have liked to see a few examples). Reach and Stand Still make him non-trivial to approach, DR 15/- is significant (though the mental image of Tessai having to chomp down on his wrist every sixty seconds is quite amusing) and 32 Constitution with 31 HD give him a hit point total in the high 400s.

Spangle is a source of incredibly useful feats... and little else. I could imagine a number of ways for an incorporeal pseudopossessor to still make some kind of active contribution to combat, but you don't really seem interested in such a thing. Even Imperious Command, played-out as it is, would at least have made it clear what she's doing. She does massively help out outside of combat, which is something, but that has its own issues (more on that later).

Did you leave obvious power on the table? I think so. You suggest using Energy Touch's explosion effect as an AoE: but then why not take Endurance and Steadfast Determination? Combined with a slightly higher Fortitude save, it'd have allowed you to rack up arbitrary amounts of excess HP and discharge it all in one enormous burst. I'm also not sure why Spangle is a fighter 6 instead of a fighter 2 / psychic warrior slash bonus feat rogue 2 / something 2, because she doesn't seem to actually need the BAB.

I feel weird about this section: Tessai is a beast, but Spangle is forced down to a power level I don't think suits a CR 17 monster, and both builds could probably be improved with a critical eye and a bit of restructuring. Still, half points. 1/2

Tessai definitely has some mobility issues going on: no flight, no teleportation, nothing but charges and the odd Sudden Leap (which can be refreshed, but not without cutting down on your damage that round). You've got a monstrous amount of RHD: surely some cross-class ranks in Balance and Tumble would've been worth more than Spot, given that they let you pick up Twisting Charge and Nimble Charge? Given that both of your villains rely on Tessai beating face, it's a tad concerning that low-level spells like Web or even Mount can completely eat your turn. 0/1

Remember that bit where I said both of your villains rely on Tessai getting attacks off? Yeah, that's not a great thing from an action economy perspective either. If the party figures out a way to neutralize Tessai, the fight might as well be over. 0/1

Elegance (2.25):
The idea of using temporary feats in order to get class skills during levelup only is... somewhat inelegant, as it relies on exploiting the rules-level abstraction of discrete levels in order to gain narrative-level benefits. And that's with me pointedly ignoring your suggestion to get infinite feats, which you should probably be happy about.

Tessai cannot take Tactics of the Wolf, as he lacks the prerequisite White Raven maneuver.

Tessai has 9 intelligence for his first 15 HD, and should thus have (2 - 1) x 14 + (2 - 1) x 4 = 18 skill points from those levels, not 30 (15 x 2?).

Spangle cannot put 15 ranks in Concentration during her first 12 HD, because cross-class skills are capped at half the normal skill cap. She'd be restricted to 7 (well, 7.5) ranks. 0.5/1.5

Everything here seems to have a single use. Feats are either part of your straightforward melee strategy, or they're prerequisites for something that is. The closest thing to a feat, skill, or class feature doing multiple independent things would be Spangle's intimidate ranks, which qualify her for Never Outnumbered and Resounding Blow both. 0/1

The skindancer's tripping slams seem abandoned completely in favor of two-handed power attacks, and there's a bit of a struggle for Tessai's swift action between 3 maneuvers that all want it. Hearing the Air on Spangle seems really weird if you've had mindsight from the get-go and grab Clarity of Vision sometime later. You really want Spangle to be attached to Tessai at all times for feat qualification purposes, but you also want her to be the pair's face (something presumably complicated if she's forced to do so attached to a hulking brute). Tessai has some intelligence-based features from warblade, but lacks the modifier to make use of them, and his Skill Focus feat is obviously only here for a single reason (and it's not boosting diplomacy checks). The synergy between the pair is unquestionable, but the builds themselves have ugly fraying ends. 0.5/1

Fluff is mostly in order, with one notable exception: Spangle is listed as TN. I understand that this is the default glimmerskin alignment, and I understand that by default glimmerskin are already empowering arbitrary warriors through somewhat harmful positive energy infusions, but the stuff your little fluff section hints at is on a whole different level, and seems wholly incompatible with any kind of non-evil alignment. I really don't see why you chose to list Spangle as TN; Glimmerskin aren't even particularly beholden to that alignment! 0.25/0.5

Memorable Villainy (3.5):
CR checks out, romantic love checks out, I already had my say about Spangle's alignment but at any rate Tessai is unambiguously evil. 1/1

Tessai obviously benefits from his partner's free feats and buffs, while Spangle is all but harmless without him. In fact, Tessai relies on Spangle to keep most of his feats around, which is anglerfish-levels of romantic entanglement. Little seems able to resist huge piles of damage and fortitude save-or-dies and spangle's plane shifts. Spangle is also unimpeded by most of the BFC that Tessai struggles against, though things like Ectoplasmic Web or Wall of Force remain reasonably low-level ways of dealing with the pair. Still, I can't really argue that both your villains really want to fight by one another's side. 1.5/1.5

While Plane Shift makes for a pretty impressive escape route, and Spangle in particular is really hard to pin down, the scope of the pair leaves something to be desired, and makes it hard to hook the PCs in before the actual battle starts. Your own fluff blurb can hardly come up with something better than 'Spangle initiates peaceful contact using social skills, lures PCs into ambush'. A burly guy harrassing locals is fine adventure material at low levels, but at mid- to high CR I expect a bit more of an overarching threat.

Worse, the mechanics of the pair inherently prevent even such simple banditry-adventure setups! Spangle must return to the Positive Energy Plane every 8 hours, which either separates her from Tessai (very bad) or forces Tessai to self-mutilate a bit, get shifted along, survive 1-2 rounds on the PEP, and shift back... up to 500 miles away from their original location. You literally cannot justify your villains remaining in the same spot for most of a day, which is an incredibly large obstacle if you want them to establish any sort of presence.
0/1

Spangle is a bodiless outsider and thus cannot be resurrected, and if Tessai dies she cannot move his corpse. If half of the pair is slain (or even if one is separated from the other), they will find it near impossible to reunite. 0/0.5

Final Verdict:
We started off so strong! A very cool pairing of two monsters with resonant names and complementary abilities, a squicky yet creative bit of flash fiction, a solid amount of thought put into class levels... and then the build falls flat, a victim of lackluster double-checking and a failure to think things through to their logical consequences.

There's a very 'double or nothing' energy to the build: everything is focused on making Tessai stronger... and unfortunately, when he falls in the same traps that 1st-level orc barbarians fall into, you're left with pitifully little. I'm not looking at a pair of compelling villains, I'm not looking at an innovative new archetype, I'm not even looking at a particularly interesting encounter.

This build is a fifty-pound hunk of beef smothered in whiskey sauce: impressive, undercooked, and obviously not meant for actual consumption.

Spoiler: Glomoira and Vhordreth (15.25)

Show

Originality (4.25):
Glouras are good enough to see play as PCs, so to see someone engage with the even more cheaply usable monster version is hardly surprising. That said, I'd never even heard of drow-dragons before this point, and Xorvintaal rarely gets used, so that cranks up your score again. Bringing in lifemate is enough for the final stretch to a perfect score, in spite of the rocky start here. 1/1

Soul Eater is always an expected dip in VC, Devoted Defender is an expected dip in this round, and Assassin while less conventional is hardly untrodden ground. Glomoira is a bit better here: though Bard dip into Sublime Chord has never surprised me, you bring in rarely seen classes in Void Disciple, Ardent Dilettante, and Shadow Adept. 1/1.5

Penumbra Bloodline is nice to see, the Dreamtelling line of feats is very rarely touched, and Shadow Weave Magic is similarly ill-explored. On Vhordreth's side of things, I'm less impressed; he picks the top feats for rogues and tank fighters and throws on Entangling Exhalation; only Create Spectral Spawn deserves mention here. 0.75/1

While at first glance just another caster + meatshield combo, there's enough unique little tricks for both of those builds that I'm going to be awarding full points. 0.5/0.5

Power (4):
Well, you set out to create a terrifying foe able to subvert all sorts of assumptions, and I think you've succeeded. Between the wizard/sorcerer 8ths with arbitrary spell access, the dream assassins, the actual assassins, and the long-distance social manipulation, there's very little that Glomoira cannot do. At the same time, you haven't gone overboard: the party retains real means to flee or kill her, even if it'll be difficult. I like Vhordreth: while he's obviously not as powerful as Glomoira, his tanking/debuffing/buffing actions all meaningfully increase the difficulty of a mixed encounter, and fought by himself he's still a dragon with near-permanent total concealment and a ton of ways to wear foes down. All in all, I'm looking at a pair of exceedingly well-optimized villains with lots of capabilities, both rewarding careful preparation and pulling out one or two insane tricks anyway. Full marks. 2/2

Glomoira focuses on mind-affecting spells, Vhordreth on stuff that Death Ward blocks; they're by no means useless against such defenses (and Glomoira is a single standard action away from grabbing Greater Dispel Magic) but it leaves me a bit confused why Greater Dispel isn't on your default list to begin with. You could've made it work thematically! At any rate, the nice thing about enchantments is that they get you muscle that doesn't care about wards, and the nice thing about assassins is that you never see them coming, so only a mild penalty. 0.5/1

You're neither particularly vulnerable nor particularly resistant to action economy shenanigans. 0.5/1

Elegance (2.75):
Although you correctly source Drow-Dragons in your build table, your 'obscure sources' table lists Magic of Faerun instead, which threw me for a loop. Worse, you don't list a source for shadow dragons themselves at all.

Yes, you're the DM and can give NPCs whatever gear you want... but at the same time, a DM unwilling to give the players Sudden Stunning weapons or Fearsome armor is hardly free to give them to their NPCs either.

Yes, the DMG2's NPC traits are technically free in this contest. That doesn't mean I want everyone to use all of them, so I will smack down their usage with an elegance penalty.

Your skill table makes it hard for me to see what's going on at every given level. The skill rank totals are appreciated, but I keep having to look back and forth to figure out what you increase and by how much. I know racial dragon skills are a mess, but where are you getting from that shadow dragons get Hide and Move Silently as class skills?

Your spell table includes a lot of shorthand notation and footnotes that are not at all clear. What does it even mean for a spell on your Moment of Clarity Extra Spell shortlist to be 'swapped on level-up'?

I don't think the Exarch + Revive Undead trick works: it requires that 'the body of the undead to be revived must be whole' and forces you to touch the destroyed creature. A spectre doesn't leave anything upon death; there's nothing to touch.

Most damningly, I really don't like using temporary benefits to qualify for permanent PrCs, and a lot of tables will already have a policy on such cheese. More to the point, how are you pinpointing the moment of assassin entry to within a handful of rounds? Like, do you imagine Vhordreth getting a couple pats on the shoulder before running off to complete his Devoted Defender Entry Exam within the next few seconds? 0/1.5

You're good at milking your levels for maximum effect. Void Disciple isn't just taken for the notorious 4th-level ability, and Bard actually qualifies you for Ardent Dilettante via the proficiencies it grants (Ardent Dilettante, on the other hand, seems to mostly exist as a full-casting way to get a bonus feat). Skills regularly qualify you for multiple things. Heighten Spell also does double-duty as a qualification tool, and I would also give you points for entering Soul Eater and Devoted Defender with the same pair of feats, but you don't actually take them. Grabbing Entangling Exhalation via the dragon type is cute, and using assassin for Death Attack + Sneak Attack + Ebon Eyes gets you points, but Vhordreth still feels a bit less efficiently built than his better half. 0.75/1

You list a ton of interactions between spells, class features, and feats for Glomoira, while supplementing everything she wants to do with free-floating skill boosts. Vhordreth is a bit more split in his focus, torn between defending Glomoira and going on the offense with Energy Drain and his breath weapon, but I won't mistake versatility for a lack of consistency. 0.75/1

You don't have 15 wisdom on Glomoira, so to qualify for Shadow Weave Magic you need to worship Shar, which is... not acknowledged anywhere. I really think the fluff on this would've been a lot cleaner if you just splurged on the extra point of wisdom, and if you don't even make an attempt to resolve the awkward religious component then I'm going to assign a minor penalty. The issue is compounded by Ardent Dilettante, which introduces an incongruous planescape element in its flavor requirements. At the same time, props for entering Jazred Chaussin as one of the most fitting races fluff-wise. 0.25/0.5

Memorable Villainy (4.25):
CRs work out, they're lovers, they're evil. 1/1

Glomoira obviously benefits from having a 270 HP tank around, especially if it can buff her with Shield Other and concealment, or lower enemies' saves. Vhordreth's benefits are more subdued, and I don't see an obvious reason why he'd want to work with Glomoira specifically. Sure, she can cheat him into his prestige classes (you claim), and Darkness helps with keeping his Shadow Blend up, but is that it? When you have all the power of a void disciple / sublime chord at your command, surely you could've listed a few combos that uniquely synergize with Vhordreth's own abilities? 0.75/1.5

Can the dreamwalking fey queen who's one standard action away from grabbing any wizard spell and has 1000-mile ESP, and the minionmancing dragon assassin by her side, make their presence felt? Yeah, I think so. 1/1

I had to look it up, but resurrecting fey is doable. Top of my head, Vhordreth can UMD a scroll and Glomoira can Limited Wish herself a Raise Dead, and that's before getting into the possibilities afforded by dominated minions. Killing one of the two should definitely not spell doom for the couple. 0.5/0.5

Final Verdict:
An insanely well-crafted pair of characters: as far as I'm concerned, you've achieved the feel you were going for. I can imagine an entire campaign built around combating Glomoira's organization, fighting off bigger and bigger threats while getting to slowly glimpse her seeming defiance for all the laws of magic. She's powerful without being overpowering, impressive without being smothering, and most importantly memorable.

Vhordreth, while a great consort power-wise and flavor-wise, is somewhat of an afterthought: I could see Glomoira having a number of equally capable consorts with no real impact on her and her own strategies (and perhaps that's the point). Still, devoted defender is one of the more boring ways to force synergy (we've got two of them in a three-entry round, for crying out loud!) and his tricks seem generally less thought-through than Glomoira's.

This build is an eight-course meal: splendorous, beautifully presented, but a bit messy for all its fine details. While we're sure to have room for the drow-shaped dessert, it's perhaps a bit overshadowed by what came before.

That was an absurdly difficult judging: having to go back and forth across two builds and consider all their modes of interaction took a lot of time. Still, here we go, bring on the disputes: I'd just like to pre-emptively announce that if there's going to be another doubles round, y'all will have to look for some other schmuck to write the judgements.

(in all seriousness, I do love those builds and I had fun exploring them; I'm just glad it's over)