Iron Chef E6 Appetizer Edition, Round XLVI

[Venger]

Hello, all, from your new Chair. Welcome back to the Iron Chef Optimization Challenge E6 Appetizer Edition! It's time for round forty six: let's make some friends.

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

*Note: You must provide your own cake.

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

• Cooking Time: Builds must be submitted via PM to the Chair by 4:59 PM GMT - 9 on Tuesday, November 14, 2023. The reveal shall be on the first evening the Chair has free following the cooking deadline, which is hoped to be that evening or the immediately subsequent one—I'll do my best, anyway. Judging is then encouraged to go as quickly as possible; if multiple judges volunteer, we'll set about a two-week window, but if we only get one judge, we'll try to wrap up as soon as possible after that judge presents scores. (I will admit that the deadline time may not be an exact science, but don't hide from me and we'll probably be cool.)
• Kitchen: Let's break this one down a bit.
  
  
  Spoiler: Let's talk about sources

  Show

  
  

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

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

  Show

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

  Code for the table:

  Spoiler

  Show

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

  Show

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

  Allowed:
  

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

  
  
  Not allowed:
  

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

  
  Prereqs

  Allowed:
  

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

  
  
  Not Allowed:
  

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

  
  Other general things that are no longer allowed:
  

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

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

  Show

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

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

This round's secret ingredient:
MAKE NEW FRIENDS, BUT KEEP THE OLD...


In light of the time of year, let's go into our deep freezes, cellars, junkyards, or the local poorly guarded cemetery to put a little something together. The specific nature of these critters is up to you, so let your imagination run wild and deliver whatever feels appropriate: golems, zombies, robots, or something I haven't thought of. While it is not forbidden to have access summoning/calling spells, this cannot be your sole means of creating your minions. Your character must create one (or more) creatures from whole cloth (so to speak) that continue to exist outside of your immediate presence and do not necessitate your continuous attention or concentration. Same goes for mind control/diplomancy/possession, etc. This is about building a modern Prometheus out of metal/dead flesh/moon rocks/etc and creating new life/unlife, not hypnotizing a consciousness that already exists.


Allez Optimizer!

The Builds:
Coming soon!

Spoiler: Contest History

Show

Round 4: Knight
Round 5: Ninja
Round 6: Racial Paragon Classes
Round 7: Hexblade
Round 8: Shugenja
Round 9: Swashbuckler
Round 10: Crusader
Round 11: Soulknife
Round 12: Factotum
Round 13: Prestige Classes
Round 14: Mountebank
Round 15: Sorcerer
Round 16: Dragon Shaman
Round 17: Lurk
Round 18: Paladin
Round 19: Scout
Round 20: Incarnate
Round 21: Shadowcaster
Round 22: Dragonmarks
Round 23: Fighter
Round 24: Pets
Round 25: Warlock
Round 26: Monsters
Round 27: Ardent (exhibition round)
Round 28: Rogue
Round 29: Signature Spells
Round 30: Any Prior Ingredient
Round 31: Ranger
Round 32: Tanking
Round 33: Psychic Warrior
Round 34: Flight
Round 35: Binder
Round 36: Skill tricks
Round 37: Barbarian
Round 38: Fire
Round 39: Bard
Round 40: Poison
Round 41: Light and Darkness
Round 42: Let's Move
Round 43: Plants
Round 44: Illusions
Round 45: Unusual Weapons

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

Show

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

[Venger]

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

Recommendations:

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

[daremetoidareyo]

Already brainstorming

[Inevitability]

Interesting to see creature creation in E6, of all places. Let's see what I can come up with.

[loky1109]

I have at least one idea, but not sure about it

[AsuraKyoko]

Ooh, this sounds cool, let's see if I can come up with something!

[thorr-kan]

Shoot, Effigy Master is off the table. Craft 10 is just not accessible in E6. Phooey. I'll have to see what I can come up with.l

[Inevitability]

Shoot, Effigy Master is off the table. Craft 10 is just not accessible in E6. Phooey. I'll have to see what I can come up with.l

You say that, but if you get bitten by a bunch of were-animals at level 1, and put all the skill ranks you gain in craft, you can hit 10 ranks just in time to get disqualified from the competition for violating the no-LA rule!

[loky1109]

Entry sent.

[Inevitability]

How's everybody's entries coming along? I've got two I'm feeling pretty good about.

[AsuraKyoko]

I have a (hopefully) clever & unique idea, but I haven't been able to actually center a build around it in a meaningful way. I might figure something out in time to make an actual build, but I'm not sure...

[daremetoidareyo]

I have one idea, but like...There's 8 feats left

[H_H_F_F]

I have one idea, but like...There's 8 feats left

Toughness, Toughness, Toughness, Toughness, Toughness, Toughness, Toughness, Toughness.

[Inevitability]

Toughness, Toughness, Toughness, Toughness, Toughness, Toughness, Toughness, Toughness.

How about toughness, roll with it, roll with it, roll with it, roll with it, roll with it, roll with it, roll with it?

[H_H_F_F]

I got an idea a couple of days ago, and managed to submit it in time. I don't think it'll score very well, but I hope it'll be worth your while. Looking forward to seeing what everyone else came up with!

[daremetoidareyo]

I need to Thursday night to finish my write up, may I have a short extension

[Venger]

In the interest of a full podium and since I know we have a few chefs still working, I'm happy to grant an extension. I'll check in again say Friday the 17th and see where everyone is.

[daremetoidareyo]

Make space on the podium, my entry is sent

[H_H_F_F]

Do we have prospective judges for this round?

[Venger]

How's it going? Anyone still working?

[Quentinas]

I'm on my second build but is still too messy, and probably anyone has thought about that, other than possibly having problem with the rules of this context on the crafting , so for me we can procede maybe after the reveal i will talk about it if it didn't exit among the builds

[daremetoidareyo]

I'm on my second build but is still too messy, and probably anyone has thought about that, other than possibly having problem with the rules of this context on the crafting , so for me we can procede maybe after the reveal i will talk about it if it didn't exit among the builds

Yeah we can talk shop

[H_H_F_F]

So like... we schmooving?

[Venger]

We are indeed. Thank you for your patience, everyone. Without further ado, the reveal! Please refrain from posting until I give the all clear.

[Venger]

"Better to light a candle than curse the darkness."

Adro, the Lamplighter



CG Desert Half-Elf Healer 4 / Warlock 1 / Visionary Seeker 1

Spoiler: Story

Show

Spoiler: Idyll

Show

The grove was beautiful.

The canopy rustled gently in the wind, sending filtered light down onto the forest floor in ever-shifting sunbeams. Birds chirped in the higher branches, flowering vines snaked up gnarled trunks. A sense of overwhelming age pervaded it all, like this little grove had always been around, like it'd come across a hot and molten primordial earth and decided to move in, and all the woods around it were just crude matter attempting to approach its beauty.

Standing in its center, naked but for a skirt of oversized flower petals, human-looking if not for the goatlike horns and purple eyes, was the grove's keeper. Someone forced to estimate his age might've said twenty, twenty-five, and then immediately appended some reservation.

Something rustled in the foliage. The keeper smiled, fluidly strode over, lifted the final few branches out of the way. Stumbling through was a a figure in a dark cloak - a quick movement and the cloak was off, carried by a breeze to a rock at the clearing's edge. Underneath it was a half-elf; ears pointy, features soft, eyes sea green, who seemed a mix of elated and embarrassed.

"What's with the cloak, darling? I really don't think black's your color." crooned the fey.

"As you recall, I'm still not supposed to be here. Though with how murky-eyed Seeker Urðr is getting, I'm starting to think I should just stop bothering with the disguises," came the reply.

"Don't let my teasing get you caught, I'd miss you too much~"

What happened after wasn't terribly important. There was some more good-natured back-and-forth. A fruity scent wafted through the air. Long strands of grass wove themselves into a comfortable mat. The birds sang their most beautiful songs.

Afterwards, surrounded by rainbow-colored flowers that hadn't been there before, the pair fed on the purest water and sweetest honey, hearts brimming with love for one another.

The road goes on.

Spoiler: Elegy

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The ceremony had been brief and practical. A word of prayer to Fharlanghn, the ceremonial burning of a splinter from a bedpost, the annointing of the forehead with holy water, and Adro was sent off. Oaths were for the temple-bound, for those taking in orphans and hosting weary travelers. To the pilgrims, there was but a single guiding principle: to forsake all home, and walk the road, that we may do good along its length.

And so Adro, who owned nothing but a pair of leather sandals, a silver holy symbol, and a set of white robes, walked through the forest. To where? First a hamlet, two leagues down the path, then on to a village, and then... then Adro would be further from home than ever before, and

The slightest rustle issued from the bushes as something violently burst out of them. A heavy, hairy shape crashed into Adro, sent the half-elf crashing face-down into the mud. The attacking beast leapt on top, panting heavily - Adro could feel its hot breath. It growled, a primal, savage sound that reverberated through the trees and sent small animals scurrying to their burrows.

"You're not scaring me. I know it's you."

Adro's voice was filled with the calm resignation found only in the enlightened and death row inmates.

The weight lifted, and Adro rose. Standing two paces ahead on the path was a familiar face, purple-eyed, horned, conspicuously clean before the muddied half-elf. The fey seemed vaguely annoyed - which meant he was absolutely furious.

"I know you know, Adro. What I'm trying to do here is give you an excuse to go back. You wouldn't be the first initiate to go out, realize just what kind of things dwell out there, and come crawling back to the abbey. Endure a few months of ribbing, pick up your normal life again, and grow old and happy popping blisters for passing pilgrims."

"I'm not going to go back."

"WHY?" came the roaring response. "I know you, and I know you're just as miserable as me! I love you, you love me, and you're throwing it all away for what? A lifetime of sleeping in ditches, thirsting during summer, shivering when winter comes? Just explain to me why you left without saying a word."

Adro looked pained, turned away, relented.

"The Seeker told me. I never was much for other magic, but healing... I'm the greatest healer she's ever seen. I'm the greatest healer as far as the temple records go back. And not just in degree, in kind. There's things out there that leave eternal scars - scars time cannot heal, magic cannot heal... but I can. I need to go there, need to find the people only I can help."

"And then? You just said so, you never were much for other magic. You can't defend yourself. If I'd been an actual beast, you'd be dead by now."

The fey's face was a mask.

"I..." began Adro, then stopped. The fey looked different now, eyes streaked with red and gold, mouth stretching open too far, too-sharp teeth glinting inside.

"Adro Foster," an inhuman voice intoned. "You have eaten at my table, and drunk from my cup, and slept in my bed. You have given me power over you by laws that were old when those trees were still young. Those rights, which I forfeited out of love, I invoke now."

Adro wanted to run, scream, but invisible chains prevented all movement. The wind picked up. A branch was wrenched loose from its tree and crashed down nearby, sending leaves and sticks flying.

"I and I alone forge this bargain, and bind you by it. I and I alone choose what to take from you. I and I alone choose what to give in return."

The ground shook. Shadows shifted in the treetops. A faint wail echoed in from far away. Sweat trickled down Adro's muddy brow.

"And so I take from you this: all the heartbreak, all the loss, all the sorrow that you feel at this parting, all that which would otherwise poison your memories of our love. And I give you this: my own love, so that you may be loved, and kept save from all who would harm you. And by this, I fulfill the pact, and forfeit all further exercise of my rights. So vow I, Hibiscus of the Horned."

The wind died down. The wailing ceased. The shadows melted away. Adro stared ahead, blankly, not truly understanding what just happened, noting only a strange lightness in his heart. He still loved Hibiscus - but different now, calmer, like a widow might love her long-dead husband. Acceptance he hadn't expected to feel for years had blossomed within him in an instant, and his pack seemed much less heavy now.

The fey, his expression one of pain, muttered something. A gust of wind blew dust in Adro's face - the half-elf flinched, looked away for a moment - and Hibiscus was gone.

The road goes on.

Spoiler: Lyric

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In a small clearing older than time itself, blue flowers bloomed half-heartedly. Their keeper languished on a gnarled trunk, as he had for some time now. Perhaps he would remain there, rot as the trunk did, fade away, let the grove make a new keeper for itself. These thoughts, and little else, played through his head.

A disturbance. Something formed nearby: magic woven in perfect geometry, symmetrical words of straightforward power, as unlike the grove as could be. Something pushed through, invoked a great authority, declared its location to be here, and appeared. It was a small ball of light.

Hibiscus slowly rose and inspected the strange intruder, then noticed it'd brought something. A scroll, bound with twine, smelling of distant lands. He unfurled it, and began to read.

My love,

I write you earlier than I expected and far later than I'd have liked.

The road is unforgiving, as I knew it would be. Heat and cold have worn away at me. My sandals have been ruined, and I now walk on calloused feet. My hair is unkempt, my white robes soiled with mud, and at many doors I am turned away, for the good people think me some manner of beast in human form. I was forced to trade my silver holy symbol away, and carved a simple one from wood to use in its stead.

Once, I arrived in the domain of a wicked noble, who would send out riders to harass travelers and rob them blind, and who refused all audience with me. In the end, I persuaded a servant to lend me her garment, and so snuck into his home in the guise of a maid. Upon hearing the words of Fharlanghn, he saw the error of his ways, and offered to build a grand temple and make me its high priest, but I told him to grant that favor to another, for the road still called to me.

Your sacrifice has been of unimaginable value to me, and not a day goes by that I do not pray for your sake. Every day I asked Fharlanghn if any traveler could lift your spirits, and if so to send them your way, and every time the reply was no. Until today, when I was sent this being, who may travel a thousand miles in a single step, and so bring you the one thing you desire: news of me.

From now on, I shall write you every day, no matter where I may be. I shall tell you of all I encounter, of the people I meet, and when those I heal ask me for the source of my strength, I shall name you first and my god second.

I beg you to draw your strength from mine in turn, and live and rejoice as you always have.

Remember that for you, too, the road goes on.

-Adro

Spoiler: Build

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Ability scores: 10 STR / 10 DEX / 12 CON / 14 INT / 13 WIS / 17 CHA
ASI: +1 charisma
Patron Deity: Fharlanghn
Membership: Visionary Seekers

Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Healer 1	+0	+2	+0	+2	24+1: Bluff 2cc, Concentration 4, Diplomacy 4, Handle Animal 1, Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) 2cc, Sense Motive 4, Survival 4	Nymph's Kiss	Healing Hands
2nd	Warlock 1	+0	+2	+0	+4	4+1: Bluff +3 (5), Concentration 4, Diplomacy 4, Disguise +2 (2), Handle Animal 1, Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) 2, Sense Motive 4, Survival 4	-	Eldritch Blast 1d6, Invocations (Beguiling Influence)
3rd	Healer 2	+1	+3	+0	+5	6+1: Bluff 5, Concentration +2 (6), Diplomacy +2 (6), Disguise 2, Handle Animal 1, Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) 2, Sense Motive +1 (5), Survival +2 (6)	Skill Focus (Diplomacy), Skill Focus (Heal)B	-
4th	Healer 3	+1	+3	+1	+5	6+1: Bluff 5, Concentration +1 (7), Diplomacy +1 (7), Disguise +2cc (4), Handle Animal 1, Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) 2, Sense Motive 5, Survival +1 (7)	-	Cleanse Paralysis
5th	Healer 4	+2	+4	+1	+6	6+1: Bluff 5, Concentration +1 (8), Diplomacy +1 (8), Disguise +1cc (5), Handle Animal 1, Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) 2, Sense Motive 5, Survival +1 (8), Assume Quirk +2	-	Remove Disease
6th	Visionary Seeker 1	+2	+4	+3	+6	6+1: Bluff 5, Concentration 8, Diplomacy +1cc (9), Disguise 5, Handle Animal 1, Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) +3 (5), Sense Motive 5, Survival 8, Assume Quirk, Second Impression +2	Complementary Insight	Divination Expertise +1

Epic Feats
Sacred Vow
Vow of Nonviolence
Vow of Peace
Sociable Personality
Negotiator
Trustworthy
Nimbus of Light
Stigmata
Master Manipulator
Wanderer's Diplomacy

Spoiler: Spells

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Spells per Day

Level	0lvl	1st	2nd	3rd
1st	4	4	-	-
2nd	4	4	-	-
3rd	4	5	-	-
4th	5	5	3	-
5th	5	5	4	-
6th	5	6	4	3

Typical spells prepared (Epic levels)
0: Create Water, Cure Minor Wounds, Cure Minor Wounds, Detect Magic, Detect Magic
1: Cure Light Wounds, Cure Light Wounds, Goodberry, Speak with Animals, Vision of Punishment, Vision of Punishment
2: Cure Moderate Wounds, Lesser Restoration, Luminous Armor, Remove Blindness/Deafness
3: Create Lantern Archon, Create Lantern Archon, Restoration

Spoiler: Spotlights

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Level 3
The fundamentals of a diplomancer build are present by this point. We have an impressive +26 to our diplomacy check already (6 ranks, 4 synergy, 3 charisma, 2 racial, 2 nymph, 3 skill focus, 6 beguiling influence) so we always succeed on the check to turn unfriendly creatures friendly and can make a rushed check that has a 85% chance to calm down hostile creatures. Ideally, we end any combat a round after it begins, patch up anyone who got hurt, and move ahead with the plot.

In E6 where a Wand of Lesser Vigor can only be crafted by a handful of high priests, having a party member to cast mundane CLWs (with our charisma added to the heals!) isn't the worst thing (and note that our CMW cantrips still heal 4/5 points of damage a pop!). Eldritch Blast is a nice way to contribute to damage from the back rows, and 1d6 touch attacks are probably better than the wizard's backup crossbow. In just one level, casting is going to really get going with nice options like Vision of Punishment and Luminous Armor coming online.

Note that we're not a warlock just for Beguiling Influence (in that case, we might as well be a DFA), but also for the in-class Disguise ranks. Remember: the best way to fight a diplomancer is to not get within earshot, so how do you fight that? By investing in the skill best-suited to letting you talk to people without them realizing you are talking to them. I am not kidding when I say this is a major expansion of our capabilities over 'conventional' high-diplomacy builds, which gives us a lot more versatility in who we can actually get close enough to to persuade.

Level 6
We can remove Paralysis and Disease for free once per day; note that Remove Disease is a DC 17 save-or-die versus 'parasites' which can end up including quite a bunch of stuff.

Visionary Seeker is one of the few classes to grant Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) while also advancing a caster level and being enterable without 3rd-level spells or prereq feats. It also gives us a +1 to our CL for divinations, which lets us cast Status on twice as many creatures as before and extends the duration of Vision of Punishment by a round.

Our diplomacy has advanced quite a bit: between our charisma increase, the extra ranks, a new synergy bonus, and the upping of all synergy bonuses to +3, we're looking at a modifier of +35 (9 ranks, 4 charisma, 9 synergy, 2 racial, 2 nymph's, 3 skill focus, 6 beguiling influence). We can instantly make hostile creatures indifferent, make indifferent people helpful, and have a 80% shot at making unfriendly creatures helpful. Note that Complementary Insight also boosts our Intimidate and Disguise checks! And speaking of Disguise, Assume Quirk and Second Impression make us very good at concealing ourselves, which helps us get within speaking range of anyone who's trying to avoid talking to us.

But we're here for minion creation, aren't we? And healers happen to be the best E6 users of the most interesting minion-creation spell in the game (in my opinion): Create Lantern Archon, which creates a Lantern Archon that performs a nonhazardous task for 1 hour before disappearing off to your deity's plane... at the cost of 1d2 constitution drain. Nothing in E6 can actually recover ability drain, so the spell is dead in the water.

...except for Healers, which get Restoration as a 3rd-level spell (and Naberius binders, but that route would leave us unable to dip warlock and pick up Beguiling Influence).

And that bit where the archon 'is magically transported to your deity's home plane'? Annoying for most optimizers, but irrelevant to us - because we worship Fharlanghn, and his home plane is the prime material (Complete Divine, page 126). Even if the archon gets zapped away to a random location (which isn't supported by the spell), it's just a standard action away from returning to our side.

Which leaves us only with the restriction on activity, and this is where the diplomacy comes in. We can already turn the Friendly lantern archons Helpful, which presumably includes them using their Greater Teleport to ship items/deliver messages, or them casting Aid on everyone in the party between battle (enjoy 11 temporary hp, guys), or using Tongues for translation services, or providing an endless supply of everburning torches.

But we're not even in Epic yet, so of course we have bigger plans.

Low epic
A +2 Perfection Bonus (do those show up anywhere else?), a +4 Exalted bonus, and a +2 generic bonus combine to pump our diplomacy to +43. Combined with the reroll from Sociable Personality, we now have a 36% chance at... the DC 60 check to turn friendly creatures fanatic. This state lasts for 5 days, and we can create 10 lantern archons in that time (slightly more if we only use Restoration on alternating days), so by this point we can assume we'll have 3 devoted archons with us at all times.

That's significant! In addition to the aforementioned boosts to utility and survivability, we're now also commanding six 1d6 light rays per round, making for a very impressive damage output, we're exposing foes to multiple Auras of Menace that debuff AC, saves, and attacks, and we can now assume the entire party is warded by Magic Circles Against Evil even within combat. And that's if diplomacy fails: ideally our DC 17 Calm Emotions Aura and sky-high diplomacy should put a stop to combat before it even starts. Also, note that our beloved Vision of Punishment gets its DC massively buffed against humanoids and monstrous humanoids thanks to Vow of Nonviolence!

And what about the archons who we make Helpful, but who won't follow us into combat? Shaking up the fundamentals of international trade is one way; a single lantern archon working for 8 hours a day could ship in sufficient food to sustain a metropolis (25000 people). Illumination is a solved problem as well: a few weeks of work should produce enough everburning torches to light an entire city.

Or why not honor our god and make the roads safer to travel? One archon that alternatingly moves and casts Continual Flame can illuminate 24 miles of road in 8 hours. If we have five archons on this job at any given time, within ten years they'll illuminate 438000 miles of road, which is longer than the entire road network of the roman empire. Maybe take the time to mark some good camping spots with small clusters of flames, or mark routes between desert oases or mountain passes - you'll probably run out of roads before you run out of time.

Our minions aren't just turning us from ultra-passive diplomancer into an assured combat force - they're changing the face of the world itself, which is something very few E6 builds can claim they're capable of.

High epic
Another boost on Diplomacy with the obscure Trustworthy, one that only works against good-aligned creatures via Nimbus of Light, and we're now looking at a +47 archon-wrangling check with a 64% success rate: enough to assume we'll have six archons with us at all times. Our damage output is up to 12d6 points of ranged touch attack per round, our defenses are sky-high, our utility is great, and our rushed diplomacy checks are enough to make nongood hostile creatures friendly.

(Some of our spells are mostly picked because they help us talk to more people. This includes Speak With Animals, but also the less obviously useful Remove Deafness)

Spells worth slotting in if you're not archon-creating are Status (to monitor your teleporting minions), Remove Curse and Neutralize Poison for obvious reasons, Celestial Aspect to grant flight or fire/holy damage, Path of the Exalted as a nice plot hook dispenser, and Telepathy Tap to listen in on private conversations.

We grab Stigmata because we're already going to be restoring our Constitution to full once per day, and we might as well get a little more healing out of that moment. Master Manipulator is mostly picked because it lets us use Diplomacy (chance of succes: yes) to make our disguises harder to pierce. Our final feat is Wanderer's Diplomacy, to allow for easier communication and some item tracking ability (and we aren't limited to looking for stuff we find useful - if anyone anywhere needs anything, we can grab it and send it via archonpost).

Death
Obviously this isn't part of the build, but I thought it'd be fun to work out.

The starting age for a half-elf healer is not given, but let's assume it's the highest category (which is where clerics and druids fall anyway). In that case, we're about 30 when we embark on our adventuring career. Our expected maximum age is 156 (we remain capable of casting two Create Lantern Archons a day even as our constitution drops).

We can expect to spend about 125 years as a 6th-level adventurer, creating two lantern archons a day, which stick around even as they stop being fanatic to us. Specifically, over the course of our career we expect to create 91250 archons, who are still beings of pure Good even if they're not willing to fight and die for us specifically. And as shown above, even a single archon can fundamentally change the economics of a giant city - who knows what tens of thousands of them can do to the world?

Spoiler: Skills

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Some final numbers for our social skills:
Diplomacy: +45 (+47 vs good creatures) + reroll
Bluff: +17
Intimidate: +15 (we don't even have ranks in this)
Disguise: +11 (+14 when acting in character) (see skill tricks)
Gather Information: +10 + reroll
Sense Motive: +10

Spoiler: Sources

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Healer - Miniatures Handbook
Warlock - Complete Arcane
Visionary Seeker - Planar Handbook
Assume Quirk, Second Impression - Complete Scoundrel
Nymph's Kiss, Sacred Vow, Vow of Nonviolence, Vow of Peace, Nimbus of Light, Stigmata - Book of Exalted Deeds
Complementary Insight, Sociable Personality - Races of Destiny
Trustworthy - Song and Silence
Master Manipulator, Wanderer's Diplomacy - PHBII

Vision of Punishment, Create Lantern Archon - CoV
Other sanctified spells - BoED

[Venger]

If from speed, you get your thrill, take precaution; make your will. Burmashave

Musketball, the Drive-By Daredevil



(Knight Squire) TN Jungle Halfling Urban Druid 6

Spoiler: Backstory

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Long before his birth, our hero's parents were isolated halflings, living in the gloomy jungles of Chult, farming and hunting to support their small village. Everything changed, however, when slavers from Calimshaw came in their raiding-ships. Most of the village was taken captive and taken across the sea, torn from one another at slave markets, and sent across the country.

But when all seemed darkest, a band of knights in service to Tyr appeared. The Janessar, those noble warriors that raid across the Calimshan border to free the oppressed and protect the downtrodden! They subdued the caravan's guards and freed the slaves, taking them to neighbouring Tethyr and securing them a place to live in the great city of Zazesspur. Shortly after, the halfling who would become known as Musketball was born.

His mother taught him the ways of their people, and his father regaled him with tales of the noble knights that delivered them from slavery. And so upon reaching his teen years, he sought to serve at the hand of a knight, and became a faithful squire for a number of years.

But then tragedy struck! The small horse the lad had learned to care for died, and he was overcome with grief. At once, he abandoned his knightly training for the pursuits of alchemy and blacksmithing, vowing to never again force any living thing into battle.

But then, something changed. Perhaps his studies hit a breakthrough, perhaps his grief drove him to madness, perhaps the city itself really did start speaking to him in dreams. The halfling disappeared into his workshop for days on end, pausing only to grab some food with oil-stained fingers, explaining only that he was creating his 'masterpiece'. When the work was done, he refused to show it, and in time even ceased to speak of it - to all, it was as if his madness had subsided, and he had returned to the calm life of a blacksmith.

But from that time on, those that would do evil found themselves facing down a strange new adversary; a cart faster than any horse, propelled by unnatural forces, manned by a short man wielding strange alchemies. Men that tried to stop it were flung away, spells and swords bounced off of its body, and some swear they saw it jump barriers as tall as two men.

What might drive this tireless defender?

Spoiler: Abilities

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9 - 2 = 7 STR
14 + 2 = 16 DEX
12 CON
14 INT
10 WIS
17 CHA

At level 4 a +1 increase is applied to charisma for a final total of 18.

Spoiler: Build Table

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Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Urban Druid 1	+0	+2	+0	+2	Concentration +4 (4), Craft (Alchemy) +4 (4), Craft (Poisonmaking) +4 (4), Diplomacy +4 (4), Sense Motive +4 (4), Ride +4cc (2)	Saddleback, Martial Weapon Proficiency (Throwing Axe, Handaxe, Shortbow)B	City Sense, Favored City (Zazesspur), Urban Companion
2nd	Urban Druid 2	+1	+3	+0	+3	Concentration +1 (5), Craft (Alchemy) +1 (5), Craft (Poisonmaking) +1 (5), Diplomacy +1 (5), Knowledge (Local) +1 (1), Sense Motive +1 (5), Ride 2	-	Crowdwalk
3rd	Urban Druid 3	+2	+3	+1	+3	Concentration +1 (6), Craft (Alchemy) +1 (6), Craft (Poisonmaking) +1 (6), Diplomacy +1 (6), Knowledge (Local) 1, Sense Motive +1 (6), Ride +1cc (2.5)	Fiery Burst	Alley Fighting
4th	Urban Druid 4	+3	+4	+1	+4	Concentration +1 (7), Craft (Alchemy) +1 (7), Craft (Poisonmaking) +1 (7), Diplomacy +1 (7), Knowledge (Local) 1, Sense Motive +1 (7), Ride +1cc (3)	-	Disease Immunity, Favored City (Calimport)
5th	Urban Druid 5	+3	+4	+1	+4	Concentration +1 (8), Craft (Alchemy) +1 (8), Craft (Poisonmaking) +1 (8), Diplomacy +1 (8), Knowledge (Local) 1, Sense Motive +1 (8), Ride +1cc (3.5)	-	Urban Shape 1/day
6th	Urban Druid 6	+4	+5	+2	+5	Concentration +1 (9), Craft (Alchemy) +1 (9), Craft (Poisonmaking) +1 (9), Diplomacy +1 (9), Knowledge (Local) 1, Sense Motive +1 (9), Ride +1cc (4)	Mounted Combat	Urban Shape 2/day

EPIC FEATS:
1: Mounted Casting
2: Mounted Archery
3: Shaped Splash
4: Grenadier
5: Mad Alchemist
6: Pyro
7: Point-Blank Shot
8: Precise Shot
9: Two-Weapon Fighting
10: Heighten Spell

Spoiler: Urban Companion

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After a brief stint with a pony at low levels, our urban companion becomes a medium animated object at ECL 4. We pick one with the wheeled trait for 70 ft. land speed. It is made out of iron, giving it hardness 10 (though if your DM lets you get away with mithral or adamantine or riverine, obviously do so), and it has 42 HP, 16 AC, and all construct immunities.

Our effective druid level is 3rd (6-3) so it has Link, Share Spells, Evasion, and +1 strength and dexterity. If the bonus HD qualify it for an ability increase, this is put in strength to get up to a +2 modifier; otherwise this does not matter. It knows the heel and stay tricks.

Because an animated object urban companion is (unintentionally?) still unintelligent, we do not select skills or feats for it. As we only need it for its speed and defenses anyway, this is just fine.

Spoiler: Spells

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Spells per Day

Level	0lvl	1st	2nd	3rd
1st	3	2	-	-
2nd	4	3	-	-
3rd	4	3	2	-
4th	5	4	3	-
5th	5	4	3	2
6th	5	4	4	3

Prepared (pre-epic 10):
0: Create Water, Cure Minor Wounds, Detect Magic, Mending, Read Magic,
1: Cure Light Wounds, Jump, Jump, Longstrider
2: Heat Metal, Heat Metal, Locate Object, Rope Trick
3: Charm Monster, Glibness, Stinking Cloud

(apply fluff as desired: Locate Object could be renamed Satnav, Stinking Cloud to Broken Tailpipe, and so on - the various enchantments are better presented as the sheer charisma that comes with definitionally driving a better car than your target)

At epic 10, Heightened Heat Metal may be prepared in lieu of Glibness - in such a case I recommend replacing a 2nd-level Heat Metal with Eagle's Splendour.

Spoiler: Strategy

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Out of combat, we're an insanely competent face with access to spells like Glibness, Charm Monster (which otherwise requires Fey Presence to get in E6), Speak With Dead, Detect Thoughts, Tongues, Enthrall, and Suggestion, in addition to having generally useful utility magic like Rope Trick, Remove Disease, Shrink Item, Locate Object, and Knock. We can also turn into any humanoid with Urban Shape, or assume the form of an innocuous pony or dog to scout.

Straight away from level 1, we can simply ride up to foes, shoot a (poisoned?) arrow, maybe throw an alchemical item, and dart right back out, letting the poison or fire take its toll if we have time for that. Saddleback (we qualify by taking the Knight Squire regional background; it's no different from all those people taking Celestial-Attended Birth) shores up our weakest save by letting us substitute a Ride check and buffs those Ride checks by letting us take 10. Eventually, with a masterwork tool we're up to checks of 19, which should be sufficient to autosucceed on any reflex saving throw that comes our way and block a few attacks that'd otherwise hit our mount.

Once we get our animated object, we're moving 90 feet (70 base + 10 from longstrider + 10 from spurring), attacking (with the size bonus and our halfling bonus and our medium BAB and feat bonuses, against touch AC), and moving 90 feet again. Ideally, we should be able to put ourselves behind some kind of cover or difficult terrain in doing so, to deter chargers, but even if we cannot, almost no creature can move over 90 feet and still attack.

(note that our cart has hardness 10, and can thus be spurred four rounds in a row before taking any damage - this also means our overland speed is 8 feet higher than it seems)

Stopping us from exercising this movement is quite hard: Urban Druid's second-level feature gives us +4 on all checks to move through spaces blocked by creatures, letting us make overrun attempt's with a big bonus on top of our mount's superior size and strength. Obstacles we can simply vault: with a +20/24 bonus for speed and a +20 from Jump, our cart is automatically making the DC 40 check to cover 40 feet horizontally or get up on 10 ft. tall ledges.

(This also takes care of the awkward 'stairs' question)

Ideally, we'd install a sort of howdah-like contraption on the companion, and try and derive the Alley Fighting +1 bonus from it, but that's more of a nice-to-have and by no means required for our functioning.

So we've got the 'run' part of hit-and-run down, what about the hitting?

Well, poison can be as nasty as your funds and craft checks allow, of course, and greatly benefits from you being able to dip out of combat for a while. Fiery Burst gives us a reliable 2d6 of AoE fire damage from level 3 on, and the Heat Metal fueling it can deal 8d4 damage over time to multiple armor-wearing targets.

Heading into Epic levels, we bulk-craft alchemist's fire where the fighter would buy a magic sword. With Grenadier, Mad Alchemist, Shaped Splash and Pyro, our combat routine now looks like this:

-Move in, throw vial of alchemist's fire at two adjacent creatures for 1d6+1 and 2 splash damage to everyone near them, move out.
-Any creatures we hit take another 1d6+1 fire damage as their turn starts: the only way around this is wasting their entire turn, possibly dropping prone, and succeeding on a DC 20 Reflex saving throw.
-Next turn, target the hit creatures (who are guaranteed to be near each other if they tried to put out the fire and thus did not move) with a Fiery Burst, dealing another 2d6 damage and re-igniting the alchemist's fire per Mad Alchemist for another 1d6, and then another 1d6+1 for catching on fire.
-Every subsequent turn, the burning creatures must make a DC 20 Reflex saving throw or take 1d6+1 fire damage, getting a +4 if they spend their turn rolling around on the ground.

And it can take quite a while before that save is made! Looking at some CR 6 enemies (Average Xorn, Digester, Girallon, Lamia, Wyvern), I'm seeing Reflex saves in the +5 to +10 range; even odds at best, unless a creature is willing to spend a turn and a subsequent move action just for a +4 bonus. Humanoids fare no better: a 18 dexterity rogue 6 has +9, a 10 dexterity fighter 6 only +2.

But sure, let's assume creatures fail one save on average. That's a total of 6d6+3 fire damage to two creatures that took two actions and a single cheap alchemical item on your end, might've left your targets prone, and dealt 2d6+2 to some odd nearby foes as a bonus. For something that consumed no spell slots, allows no saving throws, and took place entirely at range, that's very solid.

We can further enhance this routine by replacing the alchemist's fire with Oleum (Sandstorm), which applies a -4 penalty on Reflex saves to put out the fire during the first 4 rounds. It's more time-consuming and less reliable to use, so it should only be employed in situations where time is not of the essence and foes can safely be disengaged and re-engaged with. Forcing a creature to desperately try and make DC 24 Reflex saves while it slowly burns to death is horrifying yet impressive.

Liquid Embers (MotP) are essentially super-alchemist's fire, dealing 3d6+1 on the initial hit and 3d6+1 on the followup, with an augmented DC of 22 to put out the fire; they don't work with Mad Alchemist by RAW, but that just means you can throw another flask on your next turn. However, the enormous cost makes this less than viable in any but the most important battles.

Our remaining feats are there to make everything more reliable: precise shot to snipe people in melee, two-weapon fighting to toss multiple flasks a turn if we're so inclined. Heighten Spell ups the Fiery Burst damage to 3d6 and makes Heat Metal harder to resist.

So here you have it: a mad mechanic, driving around in a self-built car with a top speed around 41 mph, flinging bottles of homebrewed alchemist's fire and shooting poisoned arrows, then rushing off and circling back to do it all over again. Perhaps not the most powerful blaster, but certainly one of the most flavorful.

Spoiler: Sources

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The Janessar are mentioned on page 105 of CoV. Knight Squire is from page 24. I would like to stress that regional backgrounds are an assumed feature of Faerun campaigns (never have I seen any judge slap down regional feats) and this is merely a modification of them.

Urban Druid is from the Dragon Compendium.
Jungle Halfling is from Unearthed Arcana.

Saddleback is from the Player's Guide to Faerun.
Fiery Burst is from Complete Mage
Mounted Spellcasting is from the Miniatures Handbook
Shaped Splash is from the Eberron Campaign Setting.
Grenadier and Mad Alchemist are from the second PHB.
Pyro is from Song and Silence

Fun fact I thought of naming this guy 'Cannonball' and then realized that hey, if he's small-sized I should scale down the nickname too.

Unspecial unthanks for the GitP forums automatic censor that didn't let me use the official adjective for 'Calimshan'.

[Venger]

"Revenge is a dish best served fried."

Mercenary was a, y'know, mercenary when was live. He had no troubles with conscience or ethic. Somebody paid - he killed. Doesn't matter who. Who paid and who should be killed. The ending was not surprising. Ambush. Captivity. Lingering torture. And burning alive.
But it wasn't ending actually. His death was so cruel that he could not rest. He became a vengeful ghost. He didn't work with constant companions previously. Now he understands - he needs a company. Troopers to fight for him and die instead him. He doesn't want die again.

CE Ghost Human Sneak Attack Skilled City-Dweller Thug Fighter 3/Eidolon 3

Spoiler: Tables

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Spoiler: Stats

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Abilities	Initial	4th	Total
STR	8		8
DEX	14		14
CON	14		14
INT	13		13
WIS	10		10
CHA	17	1	18

Spoiler: Build

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Level	Class	BAB	Fort	Reflex	Will	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Sneak Attack Skilled City-Dweller Thug 1	1	2	0	0	24: {+4} Bluff: 4; {+4} Gather Information: 4; {+4 CC} Hide: 2; {+4} Intimidate: 4; {+4 CC} Sense Motive: 2; {+4} Tumble: 4;	Combat Expertise (1), Improved Feint (H)	Sneak attack +1d6
2nd	Fighter 2	2	3	0	0	6: {+1} Bluff: 5; {+1} Gather Information: 5; {+1 CC} Hide: 2.5; {+1} Intimidate: 5; {+1 CC} Sense Motive: 2.5; {+1} Tumble: 5;
3rd	Fighter 3	3	3	1	1	6: {+1} Bluff: 6; {+1} Gather Information: 6; {+1 CC} Hide: 3; {+1} Intimidate: 6; {+1 CC} Sense Motive: 3; {+1} Tumble: 6;	Maiming Strike (3)	Sneak attack +2d6
4th	Eidolon 1	4	3	1	3	4: {+1} Bluff: 7; Gather Information: 6; {+1} Hide: 4; {+1} Intimidate: 7; {+1} Sense Motive: 4; Tumble: 6;	Corrupting Touch (G)	Ghost feat, free multiclassing Low-Light Vision, Disembodied Soul, No Discernible Anatomy, Ectoplasmic Body, Incorporeal, Sense Physical Body, Ghost Weakness, Face of Death (Gruesome)
5th	Eidolon 2	5	3	1	4	4: {+1} Bluff: 8; Gather Information: 6; {+1} Hide: 5; {+1} Intimidate: 8; {+1} Sense Motive: 5; Tumble: 6;	Enervating Touch (G)	Ghost feat
6th	Eidolon 3	6	4	2	4	4: {+1} Bluff: 9; Gather Information: 6; Hide: 5; {+1} Intimidate: 9; Sense Motive: 5; Tumble: 6; {+2} Never Outnumbered;	Create Spectral Spawn (6)

Epic Feats
Agony Touch (Cha) (E1)
Ghost Hand (E2)
Improved Deflection*8 (E3-E10)

Spoiler: Snapshots

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Spoiler: Level 3

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Mercenary is feinting sneak attacker now. His strength is low, but with full BAB, masterwork weapon, good Bluff, Improved Feint and two sneak attack dices he is competent melee fighter.

Spoiler: Level 6

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Mercenary was tortured to death before his 4th level and now he is Ghostwalk ghost with damaging and energy drain touch attacks. And he can create Spectral Spawns with his Enervating Touch. Now he has his own army of spectres.
Plus, because of his kind of death Mercenary has Gruesome Face of Death (Ghostwalk, p. 11-12). This means –10 penalty on Bluff, Diplomacy, Gather Information, Perform, and Charisma checks to influence NPC attitudes (not for feint!), but also +10 bonus on Intimidate checks. +25 Intimidate check is a great, almost unbeatable in E6. It works even better with Never Outnumbered skill trick.

Spoiler: Epic "levels"

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Agony Touch (Cha) (with applied sneak attack of course) is backup weapon if enemy has low Cha (and can't became a spectral anyway), or his Charisma is too dangerous (he is sorcerer, for example), or enemy is undead, or Mercenary needs eliminate him quickly, plus it synergies with Maiming Strike.
Eight Improved Deflections... Well, it's hard to overestimate +8 deflection bonus to AC. Total AC will be 24 without any items and it could be improved to 32 priced at -9 to AB (Combat Expertise + fight
defensively), which isn't free, but isn't overprice for Mercenary who uses incorporeal touch after feint. Total AB will be -1 against average 10 AC.

Spoiler: Sources

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Type	Name	Book	Page
Race	Human	PHB	12
Template	Ghost	Ghostwalk	163
Template	Spectral Creature	Dragons of Faerun	109
Class	Fighter	PHB	37
Class	Eidolon	Ghostwalk	16
Class variant	Sneak Attack Fighter	Unearthed Arcana	58
Class variant	Thug	Unearthed Arcana	51
Class variant	Skilled City-Dweller	Web Enhancements	Cityscape, Part 1
Feat	Combat Expertise	PHB	92
Feat	Improved Feint	PHB	95
Feat	Maiming Strike	Exemplars of Evil	25
Feat	Corrupting Touch	Ghostwalk	29
Feat	Enervating Touch	Ghostwalk	31
Feat	Create Spectral Spawn	Web Enhancements	Dragons of Faerun, Part 3
Feat	Agony Touch	Ghostwalk	28
Feat	Ghost Hand	Ghostwalk	33
Feat	Improved Deflection	Ghostwalk	35
Skill Trick	Never Outnumbered	Complete Scoundrel	87

[Venger]

The mother of monsters.

"What in the name of Chaos is going on?!" I cursed.

None of us were all that wounded, really. It's been spooky in these caves, but not too spooky. The thing – all claws and teeth and glowing red eyes – threw some darkness around and then jumped us, and managed to do some damage. I didn’t see Clara (Paladin of Virtue! Follower of the Oath and the Measure! Knight of Solamnia!) get hit – yet evidently, something was wrong with her. She was kneeling by the wall of the large cavern, where just moments ago she smashed the life out of the vile creature, clasping her hands to her chest and rocking back and forth, staring at the stain of blood on the wall. Inistias, having rushed to her side to provide medical assistance, looked like he was about to lose his breakfast.

I rushed to their side. Usually, that close to Clara, I could feel… A presence. A guiding light. Chills went down my spine as I realized I feel nothing at all. Clara, rocking. Inistias, pale. A splat of blood on the wall.

No corpse.

"What the hell happened?" I repeated, more quietly. Clara looked at me, and saying nothing, opened her hands. Within her palms nestled a blooded creature, barely the size of newborn chick, gentle mucus still covering its eyes. Clearly, still an infant – if that.

Tiny claws, like miniscule versions…

Of the thing we just killed.

"What happened to it?" I whispered.

"He was cursed, half-elf" Echoed a raspy voice in reply. "Taken out of his egg before he could even breathe, curses upon curses layered on his poor, innocent soul. A tormented, confused newborn. And you murdered him."

Inistias vomited. I felt on the verge of doing the same. Clara, staring forwards muttered under her breath. "Est sularus oth mithas, est sularus oth mithas, est sularus oth mithas…"

"We didn't know!" I shouted. "We wouldn't have harmed him if we would've known! Never!"

"But you know now" the voice rasped back. "You know now".

From all around the cavern, hundreds upon hundreds of red eyes started to glow.

Mylf

For kobolds, any obstacle can be defeated by strength of numbers

(very) NE (very) female Desert Kobold Sorceress 6.

Attribute	Point Buy	Desert Kobold	Level 4
Strength	8	4	4
Dexterity	14	16	16
Constitution	14	14	14
Intelligence	12	12	12
Wisdom	8	6	6
Charsima	18	18	19

(Yeah, the Charisma increase ain't that exciting, but there's nothing I'd rather these 3 points do than make sure her DC is higher at level 1. Besides, she might reach middle age someday.)

Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Reflex Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Sorcerer 1	0	0	0	2	Concentration 4, Knowledge (Arcana) 4, Spellcraft 4	Fiendish Bloodline	Summon Familiar, Draconic Rite of Passage (Color Spray)
2nd	Sorcerer 2	1	0	0	3	Concentration 5, Knowledge (Arcana) 5, Spellcraft 5	-
3rd	Sorcerer 3	1	1	1	3	Concentration 6, Knowledge (Arcana) 6, Spellcraft 6	Draconic Reservoir
4th	Dragonblood Sorcerer 4	2	1	1	4	Concentration 7, Knowledge (Arcana) 7, Spellcraft 6, Use Magic Device 1		Spell Like Ability: Mage Armor
5th	Sorcerer 5	2	1	1	4	Concentration 8, Knowledge (Arcana) 8, Spellcraft 7, Use Magic Device 1
6th	Sorcerer 6	3	2	2	5	Concentration 9, Knowledge (Arcana) 9, Spellcraft 8, Use Magic Device 1	Versatile Spellcaster	Exchange Spell Like Ability: Ghoul Glyph, Greater Draconic Rite of Passage

Epic Feats
Arcane Thesis (Bestow Curse)
Iron Will
Reserves of Strength
Arcane Thesis (Summon Monster III)
Spell Focus (Conjuration)
Augment Summoning
Imbued Summoning
Invisible Spell
Repeat Spell
Practical Metamagic: Repeat Spell

Spoiler: Spellcasting

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Spells per day, not including Cha

Sorcerer Level	0 per day	1st per day	2nd per day	3rd per day
1st	5	3	-	-
2nd	6	4	-	-
3rd	6	5	-	-
4th	6	5	2	-
5th	6	5	3	-
6th	6	6	4	2
Greater Rite of Passage	6	6	5	3

Spell Level	Spells Known
0	Mage Hand (1), Detect Magic (1), Prestidigitation (1), Daze (1), Ghost Sound (2), Mending (4), Message (6)
1	Grease (1), Mage Armor (1), Nerveskitter (3), Ebon Eyes (5), Babau Slime (GRP), +Protection from Good (Bloodline)
2	Heroics (4), Ghoul Glyph (5), Wings of Cover (GRP) + Darkness (bloodline)
3	Summon Monster III (6), Mass Snake's Swiftness (GRP) + Sepia Snake Sigil (bloodline)
4	Bestow Curse (Bloodline)

[Kobolds] mate regularly. The impulse for doing so, however, is mostly instinct tempered with a sense of duty… Sex itself has little emotional value to kobolds.

Oh, you have no idea. Content warning: this is going to be gross.

Mylf starts her life as a spunky evil sorceress, seven or eight years of age. She's not dragonwrought, she doesn't have all of the fancy new slight build and natural weapons and weapon familiarity of those uppity web enhancement kobolds. She's a good old desert kobold, suffering no Con penalty and no light sensitivity. With a pretty standard array of cantrips at her side, she uses grease and a once/day Color Spray SLA to bring in some combat utility. She also has a familiar, which is a minion that stays with you, from level 1. Defensively, she has good dex, access to mage armor, and to protection against good, which is an excellent spell for an EVIIIL character. Level 3 adds nerveskitter to the list, and changes color spray to being 3/day.

Level 4 brings a few changes. Darkness from the bloodline (ebon eyes coming next level to help with that), and heroics as a main buff. It also lets her transform mage armor into an SLA for a couple of levels, at the cost of a couple of spell slots (already included in spells per day table). Level 5, as mentioned, brings Ebon Eyes, but also the very fun ghoul glyph, which can shore up excellent defenses.

Level 6 is when the build comes together. Sepia snake sigil keeps helping with fortifications, but mage armor is back to being a spell, while ghoul glyph just became a standard action 3 times per day – which makes it usable in combat as a screw-you-no-save paralysis. She can still spam it like hell on non-combat days.

More importantly for our purposes here, this level is a double level, thanks to the draconic greater rite of passage. Babau's slime, wings of cover, and third level spells: summon monster III and Mass snake's swiftness. Also, versatile spellcaster. With Cha, Mylf has 4 spell slots of third level, which can be fused to cast a 4th level spell she knows up to 2 times a day. That 4th level spell? Thanks to her bloodline, it's bestow curse. Bestow curse is a truly excellent combat spell, and a massive hassle to deal with. On top of that, it's extremely versatile. Book of Vile Darkness, page 28, offers numerous excellent curse effects for the spell. The seventh of them moves the target to the beginning of the next age category.

Kobolds, per races of the dragon page 40, are extremely fertile little creatures. A female lays an egg within 2 weeks of being fertilized, with a 10 percent chance of twins! So long as she can keep herself fertilized, she can lay an enormous amount of kobolds every year. She becomes fertile at the age of 6, and only enters middle age at the age of 60.

The problem? We rely on outside help for fertilization. That won't do. We're supposed to be creating minions "whole cloth". The solution? Summon something that can explicitly mate with humanoids. Luckily, Summon Monster III offers us the dretch. Monster Manual page 147 clarifies that fiends can mate with almost anything. This article further clarifies that this sentence doesn't refer to certain fiends, but to any fiend.

Summon a dretch, get fertilized. Ewwwwww. Lay an egg, with a tiny little adorable half-fiend desert kobold embryo inside.

From fertilization by dretch to laying an egg, Mylf has to carry the egg (10% of the time, it's two) for 2 weeks. Once those have passed, she can puncture the egg and age the embrio to a wyrmling by casting bestow curse, and cast summon monster to be fertilized again. If she laid two eggs, Mylf will care for one of them for a single day if she can afford the time. If she can't, she'll turn both into wyrmlings, and wait an extra day before being fertilized again.

From the wyrmling stage, it's four castings – two days of spell slots – to bring the spawn to the young adult stage. It should be noted that by this stage, female descendants can be fertilized themselves. Since it only takes three days of castings out of fourteen to mature the embryos, Mylf can mature many generations of her descendants between births – though the genetic impact of a breeding fiends with half-fiends over generations could be ruled by a DM for fluff reasons. RAW, they'll still just be half fiends.

Even ignoring the possibility of breeding her young, Mylf can spew out 28.6 half-fiend kobolds per year once things get going, but remember: it's very likely that one of the first few children will be female, and that she can be bred as well. Even within the first year, it's mathematically trivial to be maturing descendants at a much higher pace. A year of full capacity production should yield over 100 matured babies.

Each matured descendent is still a cursed child for 6 years and two months post its emergence. At any moment, therefore, a somewhat conservative estimate is that Mylf can have around 600 minions who are unthinkable to kill by any good-aligned foe. All of which can cast darkness as an SLA, by the way, so its good that Mylf has access to ebon eyes. Even against evil foes… well, there are hundreds of them. Many of whom actually have years of experience to gain class levels and other such abilities in. Besides, against evil foes, Mylf would send the ones that are already adults underneath the curses. Why waste good human kobold shields as cannon fodder?

That's all under the assumption that the curse would age the kobolds in accordance with kobold age categories. If they just jump straight to adulthood, that obviously over triples her maximal output – though it'd take a bit longer to get to maximal output, under these assumptions.

So, how do the good-aligned foes this NE monster is fighting deal with the descendants? Dispelling is the obvious answer, but the CL of the curses she's casting on them is 12 (level 6 sorceress, greater rite of passage, arcane thesis, reserves of strength) which should prove very hard to dispel in combat. Remove curse would be the more potent answer, though they still get to use their spell resistance and a will save against that. The book calls it harmless, they don't care. And even if they de-mature a couple back to the juvenile age category – they're getting pumped out like coca cola bottles. There's thousands of them.

No, the only real answers are dying, running away, or turning NE by murdering cursed babies. Win-win-win for Mylf.

So, the main components of the strategy are there immediately upon level 6, while the first 3 epic feats fortify the curses to make them virtually undispellable in an E6 context. One of the third level spells is there for fertilization (while still being an excellent spell in combat) while the other is the main buff with unlimited target a sorceress can access. Stack ya'boys, and give a whole heaping bunch of them an extra attack, no silly CL limitations. Nice!

So, we'll use the remaining spells to capitalize on the spells Mylf already has in use. Mainly, summon monster III. Arcane thesis makes it CL 9, Augment summoning is great. Imbued summoning is huge with arcane thesis. Summon a single SM3 monster (or 1d3 SM2's, or 1d4+1 SM1's) and give them (all) the benefit of a touch-range spell. As funny as it'd be to summon a creature just to curse it so all its money will be stolen within a week (another banger from BoVD), more credibly Mylf would use protection against good, mage armor, babau slime, or heroics – all depending on the scenario.

Invisible spell arguably makes the monsters she summons invisible. I SAID ARGUABLY, STOP THROWING BOOKS AT MY HEAD. More importantly, it's a free +1 metamagic through arcane thesis. So Mylf takes repeat spell, so she can double-cast summon monster in combat.

To sum up, Mylf is a powerful and versatile sorceress with excellent spell access and a boosted CL / spells known / spells per day, that also happens to be able to breed entire armies of half fiends in the span of mere months.

Source	Features
Races of the Dragon	Kobolds, Draconic right of Passage, Dragonblood Sorcerer substitution levels, Practical Metamagic.
Dragon Compendium	Fiendish Bloodline,
Player's Handbook II	Arcane Thesis, imbued summoning
Dragonlance Campaign Setting	Reserves of Strength
Cityscape	Invisible Spell
Complete Arcane	Repeat Spell
Spell Compendium	Non-SRD spells.

[Venger]

When nine lives isn't enough.

The cat of Death
Any evil Tibbit Ranger 5/ Soul eater 1

This tibbit once was good and a member of the fangshield , but revenge, and his life in danger moved him toward the evil side , with him becoming a soul eater who creates various spectral spawn without doing any damage.

Spoiler: Stats

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Stat	Point Buy	Final
Strength	8 (0 point)	6 (-2 racial)/3 (while in cat form)
Dexterity	16 (10 point)	18 (+2 racial)/20 (while in cat form)
Constitution	14 (6 point)	14 (no change )
Intelligence	14 (6 point)	14 (no change)
Wisdom	12 (4 point)	12 (no change)
Charisma	14 (6 point)	14 (no change)

4th level point goes to Charisma

Spoiler: build

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Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Ranger 1	+1	+2	+2	+0	Knowledge arcana 2 (cross class) Knowledge religion 1 (cross class) Hide 4 Move silently 4 Listen 4 Spot 4 Survival 4 Handle animal 4 Knowledge nature 2	Alertness, Track	Arcane Hunter ACF , Track, Wild empathy
2nd	Fangshield Ranger 2	+2	+3	+3	+0	Knowledge arcana 2 Knowledge religion 1 Hide 5 Move silently 5 Listen 5 Spot 5 Survival 5 Handle animal 5 Knowledge nature 4	Multiattack	Combat style
3rd	Ranger 3	+3	+3	+3	+1	Knowledge arcana 2 Knowledge religion 1 Hide 6 Move silently 6 Listen 6 Spot 6 Survival 6 Handle animal 5 Knowledge nature 5 Knowledge geography 2	Weapon focus (claw), Endurance	Endurance
4th	Ranger 4	+4	+4	+4	+1	Knowledge arcana 2 Knowledge religion 1 Hide 7 Move silently 7 Listen 7 Spot 7 Survival 7 Handle animal 5 Knowledge nature 5 Knowledge geography 5		Distracting attack ACF
5th	Ranger 5	+5	+4	+4	+1	Knowledge arcana 2 Knowledge religion 1 Hide 7 Move silently 7 Listen 8 Spot 8 Survival 8 Handle animal 5 Knowledge nature 5 Knowledge dungeoneering 5 Knowledge geography 5		2nd favored enemy (construct)
6th	Soul eater 1	+6	+6	+6	+3	Knowledge arcana 2 Knowledge religion 1 Hide 9 Move silently 9 Listen 9 Spot 9 Survival 8 Handle animal 5 Knowledge nature 5 Knowledge dungeoneering 5 Knowledge geography 5	Weapon finesse	Energy drain 1

We have 1 spell for day from the ranger spell list from fourth level
Favored enemy Arcanist +4 , Construct +2

Spoiler: Epic feats

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1° Don’t mind me
2° Create Spectral spawn
3° Necromantic presence
4° Necromantic might
5° Darkstalker
6° Shape soulmeld (astral vambrace)
7° Open chakra (hands)
8° Improved multiattack
9° Life drain
10° Improved energy drain

Spoiler: Why each level up and how we create beings

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The base class of this tibbit is the ranger, because it give us full base attack (which we need later), many skills, and there is even a combat style that can boost our natural attacks and an ACF that can let us flank even if we are of tiny size.

At the 1st level the main utility of this tibbit is being a scout between the skills and scent in cat form. To fight sometimes we will use the bow while in the normal form , not the cat form, because our damage is quite low, even against the arcanists for which we took some ranks in knowledge arcana (because we need them later).
At the 2nd level the rank in knowledge religion we took let us enter the fangshield which give us the multiattack feat which is quite useful for our claw and bite but we doesn’t do damage so it will not be used for now. We still are a scouts with wild empathy boosted by the synergy bonus of handle animal now , our survival now is being boosted with a synergy from knowledge nature

At the 3rd level we still insists in boosting our claws with weapon focus, and we gain endurance, not so much but still something

At the 4th level we can do something, now there is the distracting attack ACF that will boost our ally, why not taking the animal companion or the fangshield animal companion which is boosted? About this later. Survival is being boosted now even from knowledge geography and we even gain a 1st level spell slot , which could be for alarm, or magic fang, or delay poison, Nothing too necessary to fight but still useful

At the 5th level we gain another favored enemy which we put as construct here but it can change depending on the campaign , the important thing is that we are boosting favored enemy arcanist so we can use better skills against them. And we gain knowledge (dungeoneering) that will boost again survival (to be honest knowledge dungeoneering and knowledge nature can be exchanged if the campaign is underground)

Now at the 6th level there are big changes, somewhere between this and the 2nd level the tibbit became evil (maybe is unwilling to become a soul eater, maybe not , didn’t made the background because I don’t have enough time), and now there is the true damage that this tibbit can does , the energy drain from the soul eater. The full bab, alertness and weapon focus where all necessary for this prestige class, that is good, because the energy drain only ask for a successful attack not doing any damage so while in cat form , we can use our high to hit bonus to strike the enemies not doing many damage (maybe they will think we are petting them) and giving a negative levels for each one of our natural weapons that hit, so for that we took weapon finesse . To not provoke an attack of opportunity because we doesn’t have any reach we use the feline feat Don’t mind me , so we can enter while not provoking and strike easily. And for each level we gain temporary hit points which are quite useful as our AC is dependent on equipment that still give bonus while in cat form so no armor no shields and no robes

After having resolved our problem with hitting we pass at making allies, with the create spectral spawn feat that we can use thanks to the Soul eater, so now who will die from the energy drain will rise as a specter(if humanoid) or as a spectral spawn if not , which means we have a possible infinite army of spectres with us because they are loyal until we die. We even has some feats to empower them necromantic presence and necromantic might, and with distracting attack we can flank him with our spectres even if we are in the space of the enemy, they will help even when fighting undead and constructs , because these two types are immune to energy drain which is our main way to fight and to create new beings that help us. We didn’t take an animal companion because every spectre and spectral spawn has an unnatural aura that doesn’t help with animals.

As the spectres are enough sneaky as they are incorporeal we need darkstalker to be sneaky and avoiding senses that could detect us , so it is necessary
But why doing only 3 attacks when there is the possibility to gain another two attack with two simple feats? For that we take shape soulmeld (astral vambrace) and open least chakra (hands) to shape them , even when we are in cat form. Probably now we can hit with the paw? Something similar? It is strange to see but the astral vambraces have another function , they give a DR 2/magic, which means that now our natural attack are considered magic even without items so we can hit incorporeal enemy which is good. We can now fight even while not in cat form as the slam of the astral vambraces give us a natural weapon to use the energy drain, but while we gain in AC , we lose many attack in that form

Improved multiattack is another way we have to hit more, to took away the penalty on the secondary natural weapons.

The last two feats are used to empower even more our energy drain , using the point of the 4th level to charisma to qualify for improved energy drain that give us a good bonus (we will bestow negative levels easily) and for each negative level now we gain even more temporary hit points 7 without any item.

Spoiler: Final stats

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Monstrous humanoid Ranger 5 /soul eater 1
Initiative :+5
Hp 42 (8+5d8+12) with a DR 2/magic from astral vambrace
AC It is a bit difficult say how much it is because is quite dependent from items, but in cat form should be 17 (+2 size+ 5 dexterity) while in human form it could be around 19-20 with a chain shirt , size and our 18 of dexterity
Saves Fortitude +8, Reflex +11 (10 while non in cat form) ,Will +4
Stats in cat form Strength 3, Dexterity 20, Constitution 14, Intelligence 14, Wisdom 12, Charisma 15
To hit Claw +14 (6 bab +5 dexterity +1 weapon focus+ 2 size) Damage 1d2-4+ energy drain If we aren’t in cat form we have the slam 1d4-2 from the astral vambraces with a +11 (6 bab+ 1 size +4 dexterity) to hit
Full attack Order of attacks Claw Claw Bite Slam Slam (+14/+14/+13/+13/+13) Damage of claws is 1d2-4 Damage of bite 1d3 -4 Damage of slam 1d3 -4 Each attack does energy drain
Skills Knowledge (arcana) +4 ,Knowledge (religion) +3, Knowledge (geography)+ 7 , Knowledge (nature) +9 (+2 synergy survival), Knowledge (dungeoneering) + 7, Survival +10* , Move silently +14, Hide +22 (with +8 from size), Listen +13 (alertness), Spot +13 (alertness) , Handle animal +7
Survival has various bonus from knowledge geography (+2 to checks made to keep from getting lost or avoid natural hazards) Knowledge nature (+2 to checks made in aboveground natural environments), Knowledge dungeoneering (+2 to checks made in underground)
There is wild empathy which has a bonus of +9 (5 level of ranger +2 charisma +2 handle animal synergy)
While in cat form we have scent that is quite useful to scout.
Against arcanist there is a bonus of +4 to damage and to each skill
Against construct there is a bonus of +2 to damage and to each skill
Whenever we bestow a negative level upon a creature we gain a +1 bonus on skill checks, ability checks, attack rolls, and saving throws for 1 hour from improved energy drain.

Spoiler: Sources

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Tibbit: Dragon compendium
Ranger: Player handbook
Arcane Hunter: Complete mage
Track: Player handbook
Fangshield Ranger: Champions of Valor
Multiattack: Monster manual
Endurance Player Handbook
Alertness Player Handbook
Weapon focus Player Handbook
Distracting Attack ACF: Player Handbook 2
Weapon Finess Player Handbook
Soul Eater: Book of vile Darkness
Don’t mind me : Fabuluos cats article (https://web.archive.org/web/20140924...ools/20030401c)
Create Spectral Spawn :Dragons of Faerun web article part 3 (https://web.archive.org/web/20161031...d/we/20070425a)
Spectral Spawn template: Dragons of faerun.
Necromantic Presence : Libris Mortis
Necromantic Might: Libris Mortis
Darkstalker : Lord of madness
Shape soulmeld: Magic of Incarnum
Astral vambraces: Psionics of Incarnum (https://web.archive.org/web/20161031.../psm/20060217a)
Open least chakra (hands): Magic of incarnum
Improved multiattack: Draconomicon
Improved energy Drain: Libris Mortis
Life drain: Libris Mortis

[Venger]

Intelligence is knowing Forgenstein is the doctor. Wisdom is knowing Forgenstein is the monster.

Doctor Forgenstein

Prototype: soulboundfortificationcomforteager

NG Lesser Gray Dwarf Savant 2/Incarnate 2/Ironsoul Forgemaster 2

Spoiler: Race and Ability Scores

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Abilities	Initial	Race	1st	4th
STR	12		12
DEX	14		14
CON	14	+2	16
INT	17		17	18
WIS	11		11
CHA	8	-4	4

Lesser Duergar (PGTF 190) have the following racial traits in addition to the standard dwarf abilities, except where noted:

+2 Constitution, -4 Charisma: Lesser duergar are extremely withdrawn and guarded. These adjustments replace the ability adjustments given for dwarves.

Weapon Familiarity: Unlike other dwarves, lesser duergar do not have weapon familiarity with the dwarven waraxe or dwarven urgrosh.

+2 racial bonus on saving throws against poison, phantasms, and paralysis: This trait replaces the dwarf's +2 racial bonus on saves against poison.

+2 racial bonus on Hide and Move Silently checks: Lesser gray dwarves excel at stealthy movement.

Spell-Like Abilities: 1/day - enlarge person. Caster level equals twice the lesser duergar's class levels (minimum 3rd). These abilities affect only the lesser duergar and whatever he carries.

Light Sensitivity: Lesser duergar are dazzled in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.

Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Reflex Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Savant (Dragon Compendium 45)	0	0	0	2	36: {+4} Craft (weaponsmithing): 4; {+4} Craft (Armorsmithing): 4; {+4} Knowledge (Arcana): 4; {+4} Disable Device: 4; {+4} Search: 4; {+3} Knowledge (planes): 3; {+3} Move Silently: 3; {+3} Hide: 3; {+3} Use Magic Device: 3; {+1} Handle animal: 1; {+3} K. psychology: 3;	Mercantile Background (PGTF 41)	Academic lore, skill assistance (5 feet), trapfinding
2nd	Incarnate (Magic of Incarnum 20)	0	2	0	4	5: {+1} Craft (weaponsmithing): 5; {+1} Craft (Armorsmithing): 5; {+1} Knowledge (Arcana): 5; Disable Device: 4; Search: 4; {+1} Knowledge (planes): 4; Move Silently: 3; Hide: 3; Use Magic Device: 3; {+1 CC} Handle animal: 1.5; K. psychology: 3;		Aura, detect opposition, 2 soulmelds, 1 essentia
3rd	Incarnate	1	3	0	5	5: {+1} Craft (weaponsmithing): 6; {+1} Craft (Armorsmithing): 6; {+1} Knowledge (Arcana): 6; Disable Device: 4; Search: 4; {+1} Knowledge (planes): 5; Move Silently: 3; Hide: 3; Use Magic Device: 3; {+1 CC} Handle animal: 2; K. psychology: 3;	Favored (cityscape 61): Heroic Organization (craft (weaponsmithing))	Chakra bind (crown), 3 soulmelds, 2 essentia, 1 chakra bind
4th	Savant	2	3	0	6	10: {+1} Craft (weaponsmithing): 7; {+1} Craft (Armorsmithing): 7; {+1} Knowledge (Arcana): 7; {+1} Disable Device: 5; Search: 4; Knowledge (planes): 5; {+1} Move Silently: 4; {+1} Hide: 4; {+3} Use Magic Device: 6; Handle animal: 2; {+1} K. psychology: 4;	Primary Contact (cityscape 61) +1 rank Craft Weaponsmithing	Talent lore
5th	Ironsoul Forgemaster (Magic of Incarnum 126)	2	5	0	8	6: {+1} Craft (weaponsmithing): 8; {+1} Craft (Armorsmithing): 8; {+1} Knowledge (Arcana): 8; Disable Device: 5; Search: 4; Knowledge (planes): 5; Move Silently: 4; Hide: 4; {+2 CC} Use Magic Device: 7; Handle animal: 2; {+1 CC} K. psychology: 4.5;		Shield bond
6th	Ironsoul Forgemaster	3	6	0	9	6: {+1} Craft (weaponsmithing): 9; {+1} Craft (Armorsmithing): 9; {+1} Knowledge (Arcana): 9; Disable Device: 5; Search: 4; Knowledge (planes): 5; Move Silently: 4; Hide: 4; {+2 CC} Use Magic Device: 8; Handle animal: 2; {+1 CC} K. psychology: 5;	Craft Magic Arms and Armor, Magical Artisan (PGTF 41)	Secrets of the forge , 3 essentia

	Epic Feats
1	Extraordinary Artisan (Eberron Campaign Setting, p. 53)
2	Wild Cohort (Web)
3	Heavy Armor Proficiency
4	Dwarven Armor Proficiency (Races of Stone 138)
5	Exceptional Artisan (Eberron Campaign setting 52
6	Legendary Artisan (Eberron Campaign Setting 56)
7	Craft Wondrous Item
8	Ritual Transference (PHB2 Web)
9	Cerulean Reflexes (Magic of Incarnum 35)
10	Lightning Reflexes

Spoiler: Build Mechanics

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I have a charisma of 4. I get to be nuts and bolts about things.

Lesser Duergar dwarves have a caster level of 12 for the enlarge person SLA that they get as a racial feature at level 6.

Ironsoul Forgemaster’s “effective caster level for the purpose of crafting magic arms and armor is three times their ironsoul forgemaster level. For example, a 5th-level incarnate/2nd-level ironsoul forgemaster is treated as a 6th-level caster for the purpose of creating magic arms and armor. These effective levels also stack with any other caster levels that might apply.”

This E6 crafter has an effective caster level of 18 for the purpose of creating magic arms and armor.

To create an intelligent item, a character must have a caster level of 15th or higher. Time and creation cost are based on the normal item creation rules, with the market price values on Table: Item Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, and Capabilities treated as additions to time, gp cost, and XP cost. The item’s alignment is the same as its creator’s. Determine other features randomly, following the guidelines in the relevant section.]

Looking at Table: Item Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, and Capabilities, it becomes apparent that for an extra 15,000 gp added onto the cost of creating a magic suit of armor or weapons, you can get an item that is NG, treated as a construct, created by a dwarf so of course for an extra 600 gp they can be made dwarvencraft (Races of Stone 159), with two mental attributes of 19, 4 lesser powers (including 10 ranks in skills), 3 major powers or 2 major powers and a dedicated purpose, darkvision, blindsense, and hearing, with an Ego Score of 21 (assuming dedicated purpose).

The will save to resist an intelligent item is equal to its Ego score.

The intended purpose of a crafted intelligent item is, I think, randomly rolled.

Meaning that the 15k cost upcharge for some huge power boosts is well worth it, as there is no direction to add the costs of these additional abilities to the base cost when creating the item, and the directions for creating a magic item simply directs you to a single table, with instructions to roll the rest randomly.

Most any armor can have spikes added, So if those spikes can be enchanted as weapons, intelligent weapons, with ego scores of 21 as spikes +1.[

Most suits of heavier armor come with helmets and gauntlets as part of their descriptions, so the presence of the horned helmet in Races of faerun (page 156) indicates that you might be able to add more intelligent magic items to a single suit of armor. The fact that gauntlets are weapons that can have weapon enchantments placed on them also frees up another 21 EGO to add to a suit of armor.

All of these weapons and the armor itself have slots for weapon or armor augment crystals, which can be crafted with craft magic arms and armor. Therefor they can be intelligent too.

Each of these highly sentient beings then vie for control of a subjects body
That is a total of 8 DC 21 will saves against stated action that a wearer of this armor must take. (Armor, gauntlets, armor spikes, horned helmet, and 4 weapon crystals)

There are a number of lesser and greater powers that are quite powerful for e6. Cloudkill, for example. And it doesn’t say that you choose them

And this leads to a conversation about if you have to pay the GP cost of those powers in the base price calculation, which leads to variable crafting time as an issue, (oh sorry, you’re crafting a +1 magical item, you’re gonna need 80,000 additional gold due to random rolls that i was instructed to make)

Now these 8 ego scores have average bell curve chances of being in charge. And they’re all Neutral good, so they are prone to work together.

So getting the right synergy of special purpose powers becomes a psychology game

For example: Like all dragonhide armors of +1 armor ability based on dragons with dragonbane spikes +1, and dragon bane gauntlets and skillful dragon bane horned helmet, and dragon bane boot blades. Is highly likely to create an insane dragon slayer: The host body would always be in some state of dragonslaying

Wild cohorts can then be animal test subjects for these armors. Ideally, apes would be an option, but we cannot get to a character level high enough for them, but horses can get barding.

So the question becomes this: if special abilities on the armor contribute to the psychology of the item and the following passages seem to indicate that this is the case

Note that intelligent weapons already have alignments, either stated or by implication.
(A weapon made to kill chaotic outsiders would hardly be chaotic itself; it would be lawful.) If you’re generating a random intelligent weapon, that weapon’s alignment must fit with any alignment-oriented special abilities it has (such as the holy special ability).

An item’s purpose must suit the type and alignment of the item and should always be treated reasonably.

[All magic items with personalities desire to play an important role in whatever activity is underway, particularly combat. Such items are rivals of each other, even if they are of the same alignment. No intelligent item wants to share its wielder with others.

An intelligent item is aware of the presence of any other intelligent item within 60 feet, and most intelligent items try their best to mislead or distract their host so that she ignores or destroys the rival. Of course, alignment might change this sort of behavior. A holy avenger, for example, would certainly not allow destruction of any other lawful good item and might encourage their discovery, even at the risk of having to face grim odds to do so.All magic items with personalities desire to play an important role in whatever activity is under way, particularly combat. Such items are rivals of each other, even if they are of the same alignment. No intelligent item wants to share its wielder with others.

All of these facets together establish that the armor in question has a good chance of taking over a person, and moving them towards its intended purpose, and thus, there is reason to believe that the shared NG alignment of the items and synergies of intended purpose could have a character ruled by an intelligent item commitee.

Obviously, all of these rolls are untenable at the table top. So some simplification of rules may be necessary, and it is likely that the committee of magic items create a gestalt personality comprised of each of the elements involved. For this reason, choosing the right combinations of magic item personalities is an excercise in psychology. Fortunately, page 10 of Sword and Fist says the following: "With your DM’s approval, you can invent other new areas of knowledge."

Savant is unique in its class skill description which reads as the following, "The savant's class skills are all skills." This means that the savant is privy to "knowledge: psychology." If this seems inelegant to the reader or judge, simply replace the skill ranks with Profession: psychologist. These ranks will empower Dr. Forgenstein to create the intelligent armor gestalt personality with some success.

Now, this suit of armor is a stand alone entity and thus fills the spirit and letter of the e6 competition, assuming that we all accept that parasitism is a viable life strategy for a magical organism. The armor is parasitic on a being capable of wearing armor and can routinely take over the being to which it has been donned to achieve its overarching Neutral good goals.

This brings us to the use of the ritual of transference feat. The armor can be privy to a ritual that allows it to transfer XP for the comission of a new magic item. So if the gestalt personality was one that would return to the forge, it could supplement the NG goal of transferring XP towards the commission of new great suits of armor.

If, you wanted to use Dr. Forgenstein to create a completely independent intelligent item, the creation of an intelligent weapon with the viper enchantment (serpent kingdom 151) allows the blade of a weapon to become a serpent capable of making its own attacks, but it doesn't have a listed move speed and its butt is the pommel of a sword. The flying enchantment (Magic of Faerun) or fly enchantment (OA) allow the viper to move and attack. Further, you can make custom armor for the sword that will ironman onto the viper sword viper with all sorts of new personalities and abilities to round it out.

Spoiler: Description

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Dr. Forgenstein begins play as a rich savant lesser duergar who can sell his later crafted items for 75% of their base price. This grants a bunch of skill ranks and some roguelike utility. At level 2 and 3, we add 2 incarnate levels, lending all of the versatility of the incarnate chassis. The level 3 feat is cityscape’s Favored (heroic guid) which grants a bonus to weaponsmithing checks. The favored benefits are poor, but we need the skill rank. Ideally, if you find a custom favored organization that grants the favored benefit of an arcane guild, you can deduct 5% from your magic item crafting costs. At level 4, the talent lore savant class feature adds a bonus feat, primary contact, which can be used to push up one skill rank to 8. This allows Dr. Forgenstein to enter into ironsoul forgemaster early. At level 6, Dr. Forgenstein gets craft magic arms and armor as a bonus feat, and we begin taking feats that limit our expenses when crafting. We wind up with two 25% gp cost reductions, a 25% xp cost reduction, and 25% item crafting time reduction.

With Epic feats, we can get animal test subjects via wild cohort. Dwarven armor proficiencies are mostly flavor, but they do add significant dwarfiness, AC bonuses, and background identity as a dwarf. Craft wondrous item CL is provided by the lesser duergar SLA and allows Dr. Forgenstein access to the XP transference abilities of PHB2.

Rounding out the last two epic feats, we buff the reflex save and add an essencia to the character, lending aid to survivability.

Mostly, this character is a home base builder, ideally near a magical forge (as described in races of stone) who crafts items of such supreme power that he is likely to be banned from fully functioning as a dedicated crafter in an e6 environment. See the spoiler above for a run down how all of that works.