Iron Chef E6 Appetizer Edition, Round XXXVII

[AsuraKyoko]

Build Submitted!

[daremetoidareyo]

I’m out. Work takes precedence

[Zaq]

Exactly. Minus. It should be 7:59 AM GMT on Monday, Mar 14, 2022. 1:59 AM GMT on Tuesday, Mar 15 is +9. Or I'm wrong?

UPD: Yeah, I'm wrong. My mind doesn't work good with USA Civilian Time format at all.

Also, I'm a dumb American and I'm just not good at this kind of thing

Anyway, pencils down, team! Builds incoming!

[Zaq]

Are we in for a stickerbush symphony?

Bramble Wolfsoul
Chaotic Good Jungle Halfling

Spoiler: Character Portrait

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Image Source

Spoiler: Race

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Jungle Halfling
-2 Strength, +2 Dexterity
Small
Speed: 20ft
Weapon Prof: Throwing Axe
Weapon Prof: Handaxe
Weapon Prof: Shortbow (Composite)
+2 Climb, Jump, Listen, Move Silently
+2 bonus on Fort save vs Poison
+1 to hit with thrown weapons
Poison Use
Favored Class: Barbarian

Spoiler: Ability Scores

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Source:	Strength	Dexterity	Constitution	Intelligence	Wisdom	Charisma
Point Buy (32)	15	14	14	12	10	14
Jungle Halfling	-2	+2	+0	+0	+0	+0
Level 1	13	16	14	12	10	14
Level 4	13+1 (14)	16	14	12	10	14

Spoiler: Class Build

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Character Sheet for Completed Build

* = Denotes requirements for Fist of the Forest
^ = Denotes requirements for Hellreaver

Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Barbarian 1	+1	+2	+0	+0	[20 points] Climb +1 (1), Craft: Poison +1 (1), Handle Animal +4 (4)*, Listen +2 (2), Know:Planes +2cc (2), Survival +4 (4)*, Spot +2cc (2)	Power Attack*^	Ferocity 1/day, Spiritual Wolf Totem, Illiteracy
2nd	Battle Dancer 1	+2	+2	+2	+0	[5 points] Know:Planes +0.5cc (2.5), Swim +1 (1), Tumble +3 (3)	Improved Unarmed Strike*	AC Bonus (Cha), Unarmed Strike
3rd	Warblade 1	+3	+4	+2	+0	[5 points] Tumble +2 (5), Concentration +3 (3)	Great Fortitude*	Battle clarity (Ref save), Weapon aptitude
4th	Barbarian 2	+4*	+5	+2	+0	[5 points]Climb +1 (2), Craft: Poison +1 (2), Know: Planes +1cc (3.5), Swim +1 (2)	Improved Trip	Wolf Totem Bonus Feat
5th	Fist of the Forest 1	+5^	+7	+4	+0	[5 points] Craft: Poison +2 (4), Know: Planes +0.5cc (4)^		AC Bonus (Con), Fast Movement, Feral Trace 1/day, Unarmed Damage, Primal Living
6th	Hellreaver 1	+6/+1	+7	+4	+2	[4 points] Craft: Poison +2 (6), Know: Planes +1 (5)	Weapon Finesse	Holy Fury (3), Furious Strike +2/+1d6

Spoiler: Maneuvers Known

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Level	Discipline	Manuever	Type	Summary
1st	Tiger Claw	Wolf Fang Strike	Strike	Attack target twice
1st	Diamond Mind	Moment of Perfect Mind	Counter	Use Concentration in place of a Will Save
1st	Iron Heart	Steel Wind	Strike	Attack two different targets
2nd	Shadow Hand	Cloak of Deception	Boost	Greater Invisibility until end of turn
1st	Stone Dragon	Stonefoot Stance	Stance	+2 Str Checks, +2 AC, cannot move more than 5ft
1st	Shadow Hand	Isle of BLades	Stance	Being adjacent with ally counts as flanking

Spoiler: Epic Feats

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Epic Feats	Feat Name	New Feature	Essentia Pool	Soulmelds	Soul Binds
1st	Martial Study	Learn Maneuver: Cloak of Deception	0	0	N/A
2nd	Martial Stance	Learn Stance: Isle of Blades	0	0	N/A
3rd	Shadow Blade	Dex to damage (Shadow Hand weapons or in Stance)	0	0	N/A
4th	Shape Soulmeld (Totem Avatar)	+3 HP, +X Natural Armor	0	1	N/A
5th	Bonus Essentia	+2 Essentia	2	1	N/A
6th	Open Least Chakra (Feet)	+1 to Balance/Move Silently, bonuses vs grapple/overrun/etc	2	1	1
7th	Snap Kick	Bonus Unarmed Strike, but -2 all attacks	2	1	1
8th	Shape Soulmeld (Enigma Helm)	Divination resistance, +X Will Saves	2	2	1
9th	Open Least Chakra (Crown)	+1 insight to Will Saves, Immune to Charm	2	2	2
10th	Iron Will	+2 to Will Saves	2	2	2

Spoiler: Background & Level Summary

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Spoiler: Level 1:

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Bramble gets her start out as a member of a tribe of Jungle Halfling living on the outskirts of the jungle and the plains that border open ocean, her home located on the high cliffs that overlook the bay. She had always been a scrapper since she was a child but never one to lose her temper. Instead, she'd have these flashes of intense hyper-focus that quickened her reaction time and let her muscles surge with power. It always left her queasy afterwards, but never fatigued like the others. She was also fairly strong and hardy for a member of her race, and learned early on how to trade off accuracy for power.
As she grew, matured and began contributing to her tribe, she became a fairly accomplished hunter, favoring ambushes, poisons that fatigued the target, and pack tactics to swarm over the target and bring down even the larger ones. She had little experience with magic growing up, the only form she was aware of was the spiritual magic of the shaman who represented their connection to their wolf totem spirit. It was this inexperience with magic that was the cause of so much tragedy that followed.

Spoiler: Level 1 Summary:

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Our skill choices were made to meet the skill requirements of Fist of the Forest as early as possible, to take advantage of the 4x skills level 1 offers. Power Attack was chosen here because it is required for both prestige classes and offers an early source of damage increase to offset the lower strength and smaller damage die halflings have to use.
Jungle Halfling was chosen to enhance the flavor of the recipe. A typical halfling would give us better saving throws and not double up on weapon proficiencies we already have, but wouldnt have the same wild and feral feel, something we can carry over into Fist of the Forest and guide our choices of feats/abilities. The poison use ability comes in handy too.

Spoiler: Level 2:

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Tragedy struck early into Bramble's adult life. Having ventured a bit too far from the relative safety of the jungle to pursue the target of her hunt, she caught the attention of some slavers that had been passing by. She never noticed them, too intent on her hunt, but they were able to follow her trail and track her down through the use of divination magic, eventually locating and raiding her home. Most of her tribe scattered and got away, but Bramble and a large handful of others were captured and hauled off to be sold.
Bramble ended up being sold and served on board a merchant ship. This was mostly due to the fact that she simply did not know how to swim and couldn't easily escape while at sea. She was very adapt at wiggling free of bonds, often having her strength underestimated.
She spent about a year at sea, though it may have been longer. She was not literate in any sense of the word and couldn't read the calendars or logs. It was during this time that she had to learn how to defend herself without any weapon or armor. Luckily, there were others like herself serving and between them, they were able to learn a method in which to use their natural charisma to 'feint' their opponents. Over time, Bramble's fists and limbs grew dense from the constant impacts and she was able to use them as effective weapons. Also... she learned to swim... a little. And to Tumble. That was an important skill.

Spoiler: Level 2 Summary

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Some narrative flare is required to introduce a class that is not a perfect compliment with Barbarian, but hopefully one that pairs well with it as the recipe simmers. Battle Dancer was chosen to get access to Improved Unarmed Strike, as Monk was simply not an option, and we did not have a feat free to pick it up in time to qualify for Fist of the Forest. Due to this level of Battle Dancer, the ability score distribution was altered to make use of a higher charisma and not let an ability go to waste. Also, that +2 to reflex saves is nice.

Spoiler: Level 3:

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It was not long after her first year of slavery that her ship encountered tragedy. And when she tells the tale, Bramble makes it quite clear that the tragedy was not an accident. Simply put, Bramble had slowly been sabotaging the ship just enough that the next big storm would cause a series of failures that would leave the ship at the mercy of the storm. Bramble did not take well to being a slave and she was not one of to be domesticated.
When the ship eventually was claimed by a storm, Bramble and some of the other slaves absconded with a row boat in the middle of the worst of the storm, willing to risk drowning than what was going to follow (slow death by starvation and thirst). They had no control on where they ended up but were eventually picked up by warship after about a week at sea.
Bramble chose to enlist rather than being forced into service of another kind and spent the next four years training and fighting for this foreign nation. They fought in a very different manner than she was used to and she struggled to adapt to it. But she was never one to submit or give up. She persisted and developed her own method of utilizing their techniques to fight. She even understudied with the more mysterious assassins as their sneaky methods appealed to her style more, but some of their interests and focuses left her with a distasteful feeling.
Once or twice, she thought she recognized a shore line that they passed. It always left her wondering about home and if she would ever find it again. Then, after her four years of service were up, she left to seek her home again.

Spoiler: Level 3 Summary

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First, we took Great Fortitude to finish off the feat requirements for Fist of the Forest. Narratively, it is to reflect the intense training that Bramble had to undergo in order to learn a fighting style so different from her own and the endurance she had to build up in order to make use of the maneuvers she learned. The skills were to round off the Tumble skill and pick up Concentration so that we can at least do something about that abyssal will save at least once per combat.
Then, the choice of Warblade. It is a class that offers quite a bit to round out Bramble's capabilities. It boosts her Reflex save (from Int score) and lets her keep her full BAB. On the surface, it doesn't seem like it would pair well with either Barbarian or Battle Dancer, but it works for one very specific reason: Wolf Fang Strike. We get to weave her Wolf Spirit/Totem Barbarian flavor into the selection of this maneuver. It is this remembrance of her home that sends her back to her roots.

Spoiler: Level 4:

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Bramble returns home to find her tribe scattered and fractured, in the midst of conflict with neighboring tribes of other races and facing their own kind of internal struggle. Some want to leave the jungle and make their own way in more civilized lands while others want to return to the deeper areas of the jungle, to reclaim ancestral territory and ways of life. Having just returned from the outside world, she is looked on as a symbol of hope from one side and a dire warning that the outside world poses a very real risk to their tribe.
She slowly reintegrates with the tribe, and through sharing her experiences, she is able to help reunite the two opposing factions though mostly by satisfying the desires of those wanting to leave with her tales and displays of new fighting styles. However, it is the more reserved side that has the hardest time accepting her back and to help this along, she seeks out some of their wilder kin in order to prove herself. These particular people adopt the most feral side of their spirit totem and live as the wolves do, shunning artificial dwellings and hunting for their own food, relying on themselves and their companions to help bring down the kill.

Spoiler: Level 4 Summary:

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We see Bramble return home and renew her connection with the land and wolf totem spirit. This re-dedication to her roots is reflected in the bonus feat she receives and focus more on the 'natural' side of her capabilities (Climb, Swim, Poison) with just a touch of learning about the Planes.
This is our last level of the special ingredient (and just enough to meet the minimum two level requirement), but not the last level that utilizes fury and anger to get the job done. Hopefully, you feel (as I do) that the trade offs are worth it.

Spoiler: Level 5:

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Peace never lasts long enough. Just as Bramble felt she was settled back in and thriving, trouble gets stirred up when the more progressive halflings set out to see the world and a select few of them decided to be foolish enough to bring outsiders into the jungle to trade. This created a great amount of resentment and many broke off from the tribe, descending deeper into the jungle to avoid what they expected was another impending raid by outsiders. Bramble tried to neutral in the matter, serving as a go between for the two groups until the raids actually happened.
Bramble withdrew from the conflict, not wanting to be captured again and turned to fully embrace the primitive lifestyle of her ancestors. She began to live as the wolf does, adopting its ways as her own. Lacking the natural weapons of the wolf, she kept those she had grown used to wielding while strengthening her natural abilities. This lifestyle well suited her current needs and she called the wilds of the jungle her home. This was the way of things for a good amount of time, until she stumbled across remnants of her tribe in the deepest parts of the jungle. Something wicked and evil had torn threw them, and she began to hunt it.

Spoiler: Level 5 Summary:

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This is where we see Bramble completely shed the trappings of civilization she was forced into earlier in her life. She doesn't forgo using tools, weapons, or skills she's acquired, but she does adopt the lifestyle of the wolf. She taps into another form of rage and begins to fight so viciously that she even uses her teeth as weapons. She finally gains the fast movement class feature.

Spoiler: Level 6:

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Bramble enters into this stage of her life after slaying the fiend that tore open so many of her tribe. She literally tore out its throat with her teeth while in the throes of a Ferocious Feral Trance that somehow tapped into a fury that transcended simple rage. Before, the anger was always a wild, chaotic frenzy that she held in check through force of Will. This time, it was a consuming Wrath that burned with righteous vengeance and ... it felt right. It opened her eyes to a greater battlefield that lay beyond her mortal framework, and her training in spiritual ways finally made sense to her.
From that point forward, Bramble became a kind of ghost in the jungle, moving from place to place and targeting anything supernatural that she found that threatened the harmony of the jungle. She first became more adept at hiding and moving quietly, striking from the shadows and disappearing without a trace. Then she became like the wind whipping debris with great force, learning to turn her quick movements into precise momentum that sank her axes deep into flesh and her fists into even softer places. Eventually, she became sensitive enough to the spiritual forces around her that she began to shape them to her will, crafting them into quasi-real equipment she could wear.

Spoiler: Level 6 Summary:

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The culmination of her class progression introduces a new kind of rage, that of Holy Fury. Now, she has a per encounter source of damage increase and something to fall back on before she initiates a Ferocity moment, or a Feral Trance. Combining all three at once is a serious threat to whatever she faces. The acquisition of Weapon Finesse here turns her into a straight up melee combatant that only uses ranged weapons to stalk her target, thrown weapons when she gets closer, and pummeling fists when shes right on top of them.

Spoiler: Epic Feats Explanation

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Martial Study - Greater Invisibility for a round is good (especially when we need better position or a quick GTFO moment) but we need a Shadow Hand maneuver...
Martial Stance - To qualify for this feat, which helps us flank even more often and let's us take ...
Shadow Blade - This feat, which nets us dexterity to damage.
Totem Avatar - Picking up late but this is to show some connection with the spiritual realm, which otherwise doesn't manifest except for flanking bonus and a bonus feat. Reflavor this to be the image of a large wolf, and we get some bonus HP and natural armor increases but also...
Open Least Chakra (Feet) - Bonus to some skills BUT binding Totem Avatar to our feet let's us get some rather substantial resistances to combat maneuvers, trip being one of them. We don't want to be tripped in response to a failed trip attempt of our own.
Snap Kick - Because we like more attacks and our main melee attack is an unarmed one.
Enigma Helm - Resistance to divination is fun (and important due to backstory reasons), but we really are here for the Will Save increase from invested Essentia.
Open Least Chakra (Crown) - Helps us with our Will save and let's us bind our Enigma Helm, making us immune to charm.
Iron Will - Finish up our boosting of the Will saves.

Spoiler: Misc Information

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Spoiler: Typical Equipment/Tactics

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Weapon(s) of choice: Fists, Throwing Axes, and Comp Shortbow. And Poisoned arrows.
Armor: None, just her Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma between her and the enemy.
Magic Items: Typical stuff (deflection AC boosts and saving throw boosts). Braces of Armor are good too.
Variants: If you get access to an item to boost your saves and Natural armor by +2, consider trading off Totem Avatar & Enigma Helm soulmelds for Worg Pelt and Diadem of Purelight. You'll get thematic appropriate exchanges to keep the flavor of a wolf-like spiritual totem and not have to deal with duplicate bonuses to saves/armor.

Spoiler: Areas to Focus

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Saving Throws: Will save is, by far, the most important ability score to boost. We net a +7 to any Will saves we make (2 Base, +1 insight, +2 Enhancement, +2 Iron Will) and can replace a will save with a concentration check outside of a rage (ferocity/feral trance), but I'd prefer that to be higher.
Armor Class: Unlike most Barbarians, we have a fairly decent AC bonus due to being a Dex focused (CON/CHA too) without ANY armor on. We can wear armor without any real penalty but between CON and CHA, we are effectively wearing Hide armor already.
To Hit/Damage Bonuses: This character needs zero help with attack bonuses. Between the size bonus, the racial bonus, weapon finesse, flanking boosts, predisposition to tripping everything and full BAB, this character has an abundance of accuracy to trade off for power attack at most opportunity. With Shadow Blade, she gets her dex bonus to damage with her unarmed strikes. The use of poisons is also something to consider when damage is taken into account.

Spoiler: Sources

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Races:
Halfling (Jungle)- Player's Handbook (Unearthed Arcana)

Classes/Substitutions:
Barbarian - Player's Handbook
Ferocity - Cityscape
Spiritual Totem (Wolf) - Complete Champion
Totem Barbarian (Wolf) - Unearthed Arcana
Battle Dancer - Dragon Compendium
Fist of the Forest - Complete Champion
Hellreaver - Fiendish Codex II

Feats:
Power Attack - Player's Handbook
Great Fortitude - Player's Handbook
Improved Trip - Player's Handbook
Weapon Finesse - Player's Handbook
Marital Study - Tome of Battle
Martial Stance - Tome of Battle
Shadow Blade - Tome of Battle
Shape Soulmeld - Magic of the Incarnum
Bonus Essentia - Magic of the Incarnum
Open Least Chakra - Magic of the Incarnum
Snap Kick - Tome of Battle
Iron Will - Player's Handbook

Other:
Maneuvers (All) - Tome of Battle
Soulmelds (All) - Magic of the Incarnum

[Zaq]

Anyone who thinks archery isn't for brawny folks has never tried to shoot a bow.

Spoiler: Face

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Susanna Harle ~ MonsterMyrr

Gromorth is a half-orc who was born and raised in the middle of the Hordelands in a human barbarian tribe who has "Eagle Who Watching from Above" as their totem. His childhood wasn't easy. Half-orc amongst human children, what can go wrong? If he wasn't so strong, even more than regular half-orcs are, he maybe wouldn't be able to survive, but he was. And when strength wasn't enough he ran and nobody can't overtake him. It was a surprise, but despite strength his first and favorite weapon became a bow. He shoots with high accuracy and his arrows pierce the hide of almost any animal. When his tribe's camp was attacked by several ogres, he was in the front line of defenders. He killed his first enemy that day. Two arrows right in the eye. But he didn't become a warrior, he chose the way of the hunter. More importantly, come to think of it. Warriors fight only when it is needed, hunters ensure tribe's live everyday.
But his destiny wasn't to be a hunter and nothing more, no. His destiny was darker and valorer. One day he returned with prey and found his tribe all dead. Tents were destroyed, bodies burned and striped off with sand jets or ripped with huge claws. It was a yellow dragon. Destroyed by sorrow and anger Gromorth prayed to any God with desire for vengeance and his prayers were answered. Bahamut the Great Platinum Dragon gave Gromorth the Call. Of course Gromorth unserved "Yes!"

Spoiler: Tables

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CG ex-Half-Orc Dragonborn Eagle Totem Hunter 6

Spoiler: Stats

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Abilities	Initial	Half-Orc	Dragonborn	4th	Total
STR	16	2			18
DEX	15		-2	1	14
CON	14		2		16
INT	12	-2			10
WIS	12				12
CHA	8	-2			6

Spoiler: Build

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Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Reflex Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Eagle Totem Hunter-1	1	2	0	0	16: {+1} Craft (Bow): 1; {+4} Jump: 4; {+3 CC} Spot: 1.5; {+4} Survival: 4; {+4} Tumble: 4;	Tireless	Eagle's vision, favored enemy (giant), illiteracy
2nd	Eagle Totem Hunter-2	2	3	0	0	4: Craft (Bow): 1; {+1} Jump: 5; {+1 CC} Spot: 2; {+1} Survival: 5; {+1} Tumble: 5;	Rapid Shot (B)	Archery combat style, uncanny dodge
3rd	Eagle Totem Hunter-3	3	3	1	1	4: Craft (Bow): 1; {+1} Jump: 6; {+1 CC} Spot: 2.5; {+1} Survival: 6; {+1} Tumble: 6;	Point Blank Shot, Lightning Reflexes (B)
4th	Eagle Totem Hunter-4	4	4	1	1	4: Craft (Bow): 1; {+1} Jump: 7; {+1 CC} Spot: 3; {+1} Survival: 7; {+1} Tumble: 7;
5th	Eagle Totem Hunter-5	5	4	1	1	4: Craft (Bow): 1; {+1} Jump: 8; {+1 CC} Spot: 3.5; {+1} Survival: 8; {+1} Tumble: 8;		Favored enemy (dragon), uncanny bravery
6th	Eagle Totem Hunter-6	6	5	2	2	4: Craft (Bow): 1; {+1} Jump: 9; {+1 CC} Spot: 4; {+1} Survival: 9; {+1} Tumble: 9;	Improved Rapid Shot, Manyshot (B)	Improved archery combat style

Epic Feats
Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Footbow)
Improved Flight
Precise Shot
Far Shot
Plunging Shot
Ready Shot
Woodland Archer
Aerial Reflexes
Improved Favored Enemy
Weapon Focus (Footbow)

Spoiler: Tips by levels

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Spoiler: Levels 1 to 4

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Gromorth was a Hunter Barbarian variant with Eagle Totem. He has giants as his first favored enemy, but this is very campaign related. Also good options are animals, humans, and vermin. With Tireless feat and all about archery feats his main tactics is to exhaust enemies and shoot them. But now there is nothing special. +6-+9 AB, d8+4-+5 (composite longbow (+4 Str bonus) is needed) one time, about 40 hp, about 16 AC.

Spoiler: Levels 5 to 6

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Gromorth became the winged Dragonborn of Bahamut. Now he can fly and due Tireless feat this fly is unlimited in time. Archery and flying are created for each other. This is a natural union.
With Improved archery combat style Gromorth not just gets free Manyshot feat, but also possibility to take Improved Rapid Shot feat that has Manyshot prerequisite, but doesn't have Manyshot's Dex 17 prec that is unreachable for half-orc dragonborn in E6. Improved Rapid Shot means three attacks with +8/+8/+3 without any bonuses.

Spoiler: Epic

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Gromorth is developing his flying and archery skills.
First, he takes Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Footbow) for another +2 to damage.
Precise Shot, Far Shot, Plunging Shot, Ready Shot, and Woodland Archer are natural choices for archers.
Improved Flight and Aerial Reflexes are good feats for fliers.
Improved Favored Enemy and Weapon Focus (Footbow) give not so much, but still are good.

Spoiler: Sources

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Type	Name	Book	Page
Race	Half-Orc	PHB	18
Race	Dragonborn of Bahamut	Races of the Dragon	5
Class	Barbarian	PHB	24
Class variant	Hunter	Unearthed Arcana	58
Class variant	Eagle Totem Barbarian	Unearthed Arcana	48
Alternative Class Feature	Uncanny bravery	Dragon Magic	14
Alternative Class Feature	Skilled city-dweller	Cityscape WE	link
Feat	Tireless	Player's Guide to Faerûn	46
Feat	Rapid Shot	PHB	99
Feat	Point Blank Shot	PHB	98
Feat	Lightning Reflexes	PHB	97
Feat	Manyshot	PHB	97
Feat	Improved Rapid Shot	Complete Warrior	101
Feat	Exotic Weapon Proficiency	PHB	94
Feat	Improved Flight	Races of the Wild	151
Feat	Precise Shot	PHB	98
Feat	Far Shot	PHB	94
Feat	Plunging Shot	Races of the Wild	152
Feat	Ready Shot	Heroes of Battle	99
Feat	Woodland Archer	Races of the Wild	154
Feat	Aerial Reflexes	Races of the Wild	148
Feat	Improved Favored Enemy	Complete Warrior	101
Feat	Weapon Focus	PHB	102
Weapon	Footbow	Races of the Wild	164

[Zaq]

A well-fed animal is less dangerous than a hungry and desperate one, after all.

I was 12 year old when I made the dumbest decision of my life.

My home, a tiny hovel near the Shadowcrags, had experienced losses to what seemed like attacks by a mountain lion – but our Druid advisor was worried. Things, he warned, were not as they seemed. Something managed to slip through the labyrinth. He hurried away to seek help, begging us to stay put and stay safe.

Two nights later, I took my pocketknife and headed into the forest, determined to slay the demon that haunted my home. It was near complete darkness, and I had no abilities as a tracker, so I couldn't even tell that I was getting close. That is, until the very moment when the shimmering form of the hellcat leaped towards me from between the trees. Only at that moment, did I realize how completely unmatched I was. I screamed in complete terror, pissed my pants, and waved my poor rusty knife desperately.


To my utter surprise, the terrible demon wailed in fear, turned on its heels and ran away.

I… made it run away?

"You alright, kid?" I heard a voice in the dark. A match was lit up to ignite the contents of what I could not yet recognize as a Xen'Drik fire-leaf pipe.

The dim light revealed a tall figure, gaunt and skeletal as can be. Two pitch-black eyes stared at me, from a hauntingly beautiful face of delicate green scales – the like of which I've never seen before or since. The face was decorated with a fresh wound, a deep scratch that bled in magnificent silver – but as I watched, the wound closed, leaving no trace behind. He was wearing the garb of a gatekeeper, but he didn't seem like one, and was covered head to toe in memorabilia from all over the world. At his hip, alongside his shield, rested a beautiful one-handed sword, with an elegant, narrow blade of Breland steel.

I initially wanted to step closer, to take some comfort in the presence of another person, especially one of such strange beauty. But another glance made me instinctually step back instead. Despite being completely monochromatic, his eyes still… burned, burned with a passion I found too intense to bear. I wondered how that slender body could even hold such fire.

"I'm… I think I'm okay. Shouldn't we go? That, that – that thing might come back." I shuddered.

"The demon? Nah, it's alright. You scared it off." I could hear it now – the casual tone was strained, a thin façade that could be torn away at a moment's notice.

"How could I scare it off?"

Sharp white teeth flashed through the dark. "Anything can scare it off, now. It'll run as fast as it can, as far as it can. It'll run away from common folk, from children, from mice baring their teeth. And it won't stop running – not for a century or so, I hope. Hard to say – I'm not sure how long my kind lives. I don't have the patience to research such things. Come, child. Let's take you home."

The confusing jumble of statements left me baffled. I started walking alongside him, at a safe distance, and latched onto the last part of his little speech. "What does your lifespan has to do with anything?"

He glanced at me as we walked, his face covered in shadows cast by the gleaming pipe. "It can feel my wrath, you see. Like a fire burning its tail, wherever it goes. We're connected, now, me and it. No matter how far it goes, he can never escape my anger."

I thought about it for a moment. "But… what happens when you calm down?"

He smiled. "Clever." He inhaled deeply from his pipe and exhaled with a sickly cough. Once his breathing calmed, he spoke again:

"That's my secret, kid.

"I'm always angry."

Ka'assani, the Emaciated Hulk

Spoiler: Ka'assani

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NG (exalted!) middle-aged male Unseelie [DC, p.222] Spellscale [RotD, p.23]. Druidic avenger deadly hunter druid 1/ Berserker Strength [PHB2, p. 33] boar totem barbarian 4/ crusader [ToB, p. 10] 1.
Season's Power: Winter Chill.

Attribute	Point Buy	Spellcasle	Unseelie Fey	Middle-Aged	Level 4 ASI	Berserker Strength	Final
Strength	17		-2	-1		4 (also, +2 to all saves and DR 2/-)	18
Dexterity	9		2	-1			10
Constitution	8	-2	-2	-1			3
Intelligence	8			1			9
Wisdom	10			1			11
Charsima	18	2	2	1	1		24

Ka'assani was born to orcish parents, living on both sides of the Shadowcrags. His mother belonged to the ancient tradition of the gatekeepers, and to a bloodline tainted by the fey who slip from Thelanis into the Towering Wood. His father was a Ghaash'kala sorcerer, believing his power came from the dragon Eberron himself – an extension of the progenitor wyrm's will to bind the children of Khyber. He saw proof to that thought in the birth of his son, who was clearly more dragon than orc. But the child was far too frail and would surely perish in the hardships of the Demon Wastes. His mother took him to grow up in the relative safety of the Eldeen Reaches, where he would be protected and cared for.

From his mother, Ka'assani inherited the fickle and terrifying darkness of Thelanis, tamed by the teachings of the Great Druid on the sanctity of all natural life. From his father, he inherited wrath and fire, bound by utter determination to fight for what is right. From both, he inherited the absolute conviction to fight back against evil, and to push away the terrible things coming from the depths – whether those be demons or aberrations.

His mother took care of him from the moment she birthed him until the day she died, at the marvelous age of 56. Despite spending his entire life completely sheltered and cared for, those legacies have helped him overcome his innate weaknesses to slowly find his way. At the age of 37, he started advancing towards a path of adventure and glory. His rage, once it was ignited by witnessing the terrors of the world outside his mother's domain, would not be quelled – though he eventually learned to keep the flame low, controlled by his devotion to do good, to never unnecessarily take a life. He ended up fighting against evil wherever it is found – amongst the schemers in the cities of the five nations, the monsters roaming the Talenta Planes, the cursed abominations in Xen'Drik or the eternal enemies emerging from the Dragon Below, near his home. His rage, once his downfall, became his power – Mystically burning away the minds of the evil beings he faced, leaving them unable to do anything but run.

Spoiler: Tables

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Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Reflex Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Druid 1	0	2	0	2	Intimidate 4, Ride 4, Survival 4	Intimidating Strike [PHB2, p. 79], Track (b)	Fast movement, Favored enemy (undead) +2, Rage 1/day, Wild empathy,
2nd	Barbarian 1	1	4	0	2	Intimidate 5, Ride 5, Survival 5	Diehard (b, only while raging)	Berserker Strength
3rd	Barbarian 2	2	5	0	2	Intimidate 6, Ride 6, Survival 6	Righteous Wrath [BoED, p. 45]	-
4th	Barbarian 3	3	5	1	3	Intimidate 7, Ride 7, Survival 7	-	Extended rage (3 rounds total)
5th	Barbarian 4	4	6	1	3	Intimidate 8, Ride 7, Survival 7, Never Outnumbered [CS, p. 87]	-	-
6th	Crusader 1	5	8	1	3	Intimidate 9, Ride 9, Survival 7, Never Outnumbered.	Intimidating Rage [CW, p. 102]	Furious Counterstrike, Steely Resolve 1

Maneuvers Known	Stances Known
Crusader's Strike, Foehammer, Mountain Hammer, Shield Block, Vaungard Strike.	Martial Spirit

Epic	Feats
1st	Stone Power [ToB, p. 32]
2nd	Skill Focus (intimidate)
3rd	Iron Will
4th	Hardened Criminal [City of Stormreach, p. 95]
5th	Aberrant Dragonmark (cause fear) [ECS, p. 47]
6th	Dragonmark Rage [Dragonmarked, p. 138]
7th	Lesser Aberrant Dragonmark (Scare) [Dragonmarked, p. 141]
8th	Supernatural Transformation (scare) [SS, p. 39]
9th	Blazing Berserker [Sand, p. 49]
10th	Frozen Berserker [FB, p. 48]

Spoiler: Build Breakdown

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So, let's talk about Berserker's Strength. It's a fascinating ACF – a rage-like state which activates any time you have below 5*(Barb level) hp, and only stops when you heal beyond it. It's hard to optimize with, because it's not that impressive by itself, and you need to keep your pure barbarian levels very high in order to benefit from it, and even then it's not up to you when and where it kicks in. If you have a problem with running out of rage uses, just take extra rage.

However, Berserker Strength's potential for very long durations becomes interesting when we consider the last line of its description:

Any effect that would normally apply only during your rage applies whenever your Berserker Strength is active.

That would include a lot of interesting and useful feats and class features, some of which might enjoy a duration that is longer than 10 or 20 rounds. How long? Well… forever sounds good, doesn't it? But since we can't do that, how about "as long as your character lives"?

There is an elegantly simple way to achieve that goal: just be unable to heal beyond the threshold. Have your maximal hp be lower than 5 times your barbarian level, and you're done – you can have whatever effect you find particularly useful on at all times.

So, tanking your Con to 3 with a race, a template, and middle age. All of these lower our Con while Raising our Cha, the huge importance of which will make more sense later. Not something I thought I'd do when I first encountered the Barbarian round, but it makes sense. And just like that, within a few levels you'll be Berserking at all times. You'll eat, drink, sleep and go to the bathroom with terrifying rage.

Unfortunately, Berserker's Strength doesn't actually qualify you to take any feat that'd be useful with it, as it doesn't count as rage or frenzy for the purposes of any qualification. That'd mean you'd have to get your hands on actual rage. We do that with Druidic Avenger, which also lets us start the game with some spellcasting to make up for our atrocious con score and utilize our blood quickening meditations from our race. Assuming average hp rolls, you're berserking full time from level 3 onward, and that wouldn't change for as long as you live. I took some leeway here, because I didn't want to have to rely on average rolls: the odds of this build finishing with 20 hp or more (which would mean the trick fails) are 30%. If that's too high for you, you could go for the quick trait: that'd reduce the probability to just 9.3%, but 30% seems low enough. And if we're willing to assume average rolls (like we usually do here – nobody says "oh I survive despite my low con by rolling very high") we're just fine.

Let's look at level 3's feat, and its effects. We start combat by using our 1st level feat, intimdating strike, making them shaken. The moment the results of the attack (damage and intimidation effect) are resolved, the enemy needs to make a save against the rider effect of the damage: righteous wrath. Thematically, this feat lets you roleplay coherently, despite being in an eternal state of rage, and to explain your wish to non-lethally deal with your enemies despite your rage. Mechanically, this is a DC 20 (by level 6) will save, which would already be no joke for anything you're expecting to fight at these levels. But it's much worse: since they're adjacent to you, they have a -7 to all saves because of winter chill, and they're already shaken, which is another -2. A DC 20 will save with a -9 is virtually impossible to make. If they fail, they're frightened of you for the encounter.

This racial aura is actually one of your strongest assets: you give any enemy adjacent to you a -6 to saves from level 1, and it escalates to -7 at level 4. This makes you an incredibly potent debuffer, even if nothing else you do works.

Once they fail that saving throw, it's time for the final coffin in the nail. At level 6, the core feat of the build arrives: intimidating rage. Intimidating rage lets you demoralize an opponent within 30 ft as a free action while raging. You get to do that once per encounter, and the shaken condition lasts for as long as you're raging. For you, that means one permanent level of fear for an opponent you've demoralized that way.

That wouldn't be all that impressive, if it wasn't for a crucial line from heroes of horror, the primary source for fear rules in D&D 3.5:

The duration of the different fear effects are not relevant. If a creature is subject to doom becomes panicked as a result of a cause fear spell, It is panicked for the full duration of cause fear, even if the doom spell's duration expires before the cause fear spell's duration does.

For anyone in the cheap seats, let me say that again: If you use the permanent demoralization trick on someone who's already shaken, they'll be frightened of you for life. That's nice: they'll withdraw whenever they see you, which would make it very hard to mess with you again.

But if you use the trick on someone who's already frightened… They're panicked for life. They will never stop running away from where they think you may be, probably only collapsing to sleep or stuff something in their mouth. They can't do anything else, they drop whatever they're holding, and they'll run from any other danger as well. It's not just that they can't mess with you again – they can't mess with anyone, ever again, as long as you're raging. Meaning, as long as you live.

We've arrived at the heart of the build: non-lethally defeat the evil opponents you face, and put Eberron's immortal fiends out of commission for a far longer period than killing them would achieve. This isn't fear as debuffing, not even fear as an encounter-ending debuff. This is a wholly new approach: fear as a permanent solution. The whole build will be centered around twin principles: doing that as effectively as possible on the one hand, and somehow surviving epic E6 adventures with 15 hit points, less than a decent first level barbarian would get, on the other hand.

So, how do we do these things? Let's start with the offensive, and then go to the defensive.

Our core combo is rushed to right as we arrive at level 6: make an opponent panicked forever in one round. We close on an opponent, and strike with an intimidating strike. With a +20 (9 ranks, 7 cha, 4 unseelie racial) to intimidate without any items and without taking penalties (and +23 once skill focus comes online as our second epic feats) we should be easily beating the modified level check of 99.9% of appropriate and semi-appropriate opponents. Intimidating strike, like daunting presence from Libris Mortis, doesn't affect already shaken opponents, but that's fine: we're using it as our baseline, not as our escalator.

Against multiple opponents, you might want to wait with the demoralization for a later turn: your intimidating strike and righteous wrath should last for the encounter anyway, and never outnumbered works on top of intimidating rage. The only issue is managing to keep the frightened and non-frightened enemies within 10 ft of each other and within your movement's reach, but be conscious of this option. Of course, the enemy will still be panicked even if righteous wrath is the last applied debuff, but the language on that is less decisive.

During epic feats, you keep improving your offensive capabilities. You first enhance your intimidate modifier, and then use your experience adventuring on the hard streets of Stormreach to be able to take 10 on intimidate checks. This sets the DC of your modified level checks to 33. Later, you use supernatural transformation on your lesser dragonmark to be able to cast Scare twice a day, despite being in a rage. This is your anti-horde tactic. Approach a large group of enemies, and force them to make a DC 19 saving throw, with at least some of them making them with -7 (Su abilities don't provoke, so no need to worry about activating it in melee.) Follow up with intimidating rage + never outnumbered, and they're all non-lethally dealt with for as long as you live. Scare leaves anyone who saves shaken, which still helps you. This is all made possible by the unique exception lent to spellscales, which lets them take aberrant draogonmarks despite not belonging to a dragonmarked race. See "spellscales in eberron" in Races of the Dragon, page 36.

When dealing with enemies immune to fear, you offensively rely on your abilities as a debuff monkey, providing your steady -7 to saves to your foes. You also have your maneuvers, especially the ever-useful mountain hammer. The reason for taking foe-hammer as well has to do with the granted maneuver system – you want to make sure you have a decent damage dealing maneuver available to you as often as possible, and they both do the same extra damage and ignore DR. Undead will be the most common enemy you face which you won't be able to scare, so having them as a favored enemy is helpful to make up for that. Additionally, you'll be able to provide some healing here and there, but likely nothing major – your resources will usually be devoted to keeping yourself alive.

Speaking of which, let's talk defense. Your first important ability here is DR. You have DR 2/- from your perma-rage, but usually you'll be able to ride on your DR 5/cold iron from your unseelie nature. DR 5 may not be very significant in a 20 level build, but it's a huge help in E6, and lets you survive in melee. +2 to all saves from berserker strength is also helpful.

From your class levels, first comes the diehard bonus feat from the boar totem. That greatly expands your survivability, adding 10 more hitpoints to your tiny pool. When things become truly difficult, you can rage once a day for three rounds (thanks for that as well, boar totem!) to keep yourself alive just a bit longer, as well as pack some extra umph to your punch. Just make sure you only use it when there's no risk of getting healed above 20 hp. If you only rage once your Die-hard kicks in, you should be fine.

Level 6 and your first epic feat, however, is when your defensive capabilities really turn on. Martial spirit and crusader's strike can help you maintain your hp pool, and steely resolve gives you some breathing space, and becomes far more effective once stone power comes online. 5 BaB is the best possible spot to have stone power in: you can fully utilize it, and you don't take penalties for secondary attacks for no added benefits. As an intimidating strike and maneuver-based build who isn't relying on power attack, Stone power is your bread and butter. The numbers are very impressive in an E6 context, and they're backed up by DR and steely resolve. The crusader dip and stone power lift you up to an actual survivable melee character, despite having atrocious HP. The math here works very well.

Iron will and hardened criminal offer some minor defensive boons, of course, but the next big thing is Dragonmark rage. This feat grants you fast healing 1 (improved to 2 one feat later) while you're angry. And as you recall…

Finally, you finish out the build with the common Blazing-Frozen-Berserker trick, to become immune to both fire and cold damage. While other barbarians can use instantaneous rage to avoid these types of damage during encounters, their permanent nature for you opens up other options; you could adventure in hostile planes, manifest zones, inside volcanos, in the heart of a storm in Frostfell, and other pulp-adventure environments Eberron often includes.

To sum up: this build features a way to utilize an often-derided ACF to achieve a completely unique (as far as I'm aware) way of permanently dealing with enemies non-lethally. It does so by being an on-the-face-of-it anti-synergic barbarian with 3 Con and investing mostly in Cha.

Spoiler: Variations

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First, if your DM lets you pick your random unseelie fey effects, take wings 100%. I'm personally a fan of dragonlike wings for Ka'assani, of course. Darkvision is also good, and complements your existing low light vision well.

If your DM believes that SLAs can be used in a rage, supernatural transformation becomes less necessary. I think a cool and thematic feat you could take in that case would be ToB's Avenging Strike. It's very situational, but the math is good and it fits the character well. A more conventional choice would be Nymph's kiss, which I considered for this build (at first level, giving up skill focus) but decided I wanted the full trick on as early as possible. Having both would pump the intimidate roll to 35, and would give you some skill points to invest.

[Zaq]

Never approach Anubis with a heavy heart.

Knut Longclaw: Guardian of the Pack

Spoiler: Shifter Walks into a Bar

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Knut found the place easy enough. Outside the tavern was a sign of a serpent’s head, mouth open, fangs bared. Beneath was probably the place’s name written, but it could’ve said anything as far as he was concerned. He couldn’t read it.

Knut nudged open the saloon doors with his hip. Inside, the place was comfortably busy. A big lump of young people and their various hangers on, spear carriers, and companions hovered around the bar. The ones closest to it leaned in and addressed the barman. Their garments were dyed a thousand different colors, the sleeves and belts and hems gravid with bells and jewels and tiny decorative skulls.

The barman glanced between a gap in a few shoulders and looked Knut in the eye.

“With you in a moment, sir,” he said and pointed the crowd over to an urn at the end of the bar.

Knute came closer to the bar.

“I can wait if you need to serve these people first. I’m not in a hurry.” Everyone got out of his way, something he was plenty used to, but they just seemed in a hurry, not to be moving out of fear.

They lined up and poured water from the enchanted urn into cups on their belts, their cupped hands, and into each others’ mouths with great haste.

“It’s fine, we get a lot of cataclysm magi in here.” The barman gestured and a stool pulled itself out. Knute sat down.

“That doesn’t bother you?” he asked and glanced at the pictures of the apples on the barrels of cider lining the wall behind the bar.

“Way I can see it, I could get upset or realize they don’t tend to come alone. If they insist on making a special trip to come here with their friends or bodyguards or the little lords they rescued, the others will want to stay to have a drink or slice of pie or what have you.”

Knut nodded and pointed at a barrel adorned with a glistening red apple mottled with flecks of gold.

“Tell me about that one,” he said.

The barman chuckled and reached for a small glass. He glanced at Knut’s snout, performed a quick mental calculation and substituted it for a broad, squat jar. He poured a little cider in it and nudged it over to Knut.

“Are you sure? It’s a very long story.”

Knut tapped the glass against the bar and lapped at the liquid inside. It tasted of honey and sunlight.

“I got time.”

“All right. Name’s Andraias, by the way,” the barman said.

“Huh. Kind of old-fashioned, isn’t it? I’m Knut.”

“I suppose. Anyway, a while back, I carried water for one of these adventuring crews. I’d had a map in my family for some time that led to a cursed apple tree.”

“I’m guessing you left that part out.” Knut emptied the jar. “That’s wonderful. I’ll have a pint of that.”

“In my defense, no one ever asked. You know how some sorts get around treasure maps.” Andraias made a note in a ledger behind the bar and started Knut a tab.

“So what did you need them for?” Knut asked.

“Back then, I wasn’t in any shape to get past the tree’s guardians on my own.”

“But you are now?”

“Well, I don’t like to brag . . .”

“Sure you do. Everyone does.”

“You’ve got me there. As far as the tree went, there were other things there to satisfy my companions. I forswore my share of gold and jewels in exchange for one of the apples.”

“And they didn’t get suspicious?” Knut took a sip of his cider.

“I mean, as far as they were concerned, they were cursed, they figured I was either crazy or hadn’t heard the stories about them. Either way, they felt like they were getting one over on me so they weren’t about to set me straight.”

“I think I heard something about cheating and honest men once, but I forget how it goes. What was the curse on them?”

“They enflame anyone who’s exposed to them with desire.”

“That doesn’t sound so bad. Don’t humans of a certain age pay a lot of money for things that’ll enflame their desires?”

“Ha, it’s not exactly like that. It overwrites anything else on your mind. Anything and everything comes second to getting your hands on the apple and eating it.”

“Hm. So that was it? You went on the adventure and ate an apple?

“Not exactly. I’d had some time to think about it, so I was able to get it home in one piece without eating it.”

“What’d you do?” Knut asked.

“Oh, who remembers? It was so long ago. Something involving pulleys and ten foot poles. I got it home after a while.”

“It didn’t go bad?”

“No. Part of the curse on it. You could fight your best friend to the death for it only for it to roll out of your hand and sit in a cave for a hundred years only for someone else to find it. That kind of thing.”

“Wait a minute, I think I have heard of these things. Once the skin got broken people would fly into these insane bacchanals and kill everyone around them. If the juice from one fell on the ground, you’d fall to your knees and eat the dirt, right?”

“Yeah, that’s the one.”

“So what’d you want with it? Chuck it off a cliff and have your enemy chase after it?”

“Only if I wanted to follow. What I figured I’d do is, ah, not to be indelicate,” Andraias began in that special tone usually employed by people who were about to say something they’d regret.

“Careful.” Knut finished his cider and pushed the jar over to be refilled.

Andraias passed the new pint over. “Well, you know how you people are descended from were-thises or were-thats?”

“My uncle’s a were-that,” Knut joked.

“You know what I mean; over time, the were-blood became dilute enough that the specific magic of lycanthropy wasn’t present in a given creature’s descendants. If you bit me right now—not to say you would, of course—I wouldn’t turn into anything other than a man crying on the floor.”

“All right. So how’d you find someone to start a family with this, ah, poisoned apple? Did you go to a matchmaker and find it a dryad or something?”

“Would that it were so simple. This thing was magical, but it was still an apple. It could only mingle with other apple trees.”

Knut finished his cider and motioned for another, which he got.

“Huh. How long’s an apple tree take to bear fruit anyway?” He’d never had cause to think about it.

“A lot longer than you’d think. And it wasn’t just one apple tree I had to grow. One generation out and these things would still be dangerous. Even when they were safe to eat, I had to start selecting for things like taste, how well they’d travel, you know, all that.”

“Wouldn’t they still keep forever?” Knut asked.

“Afraid not. As they lost their magic, it means little things like that got lost too. For every one I was able to get into the press, there were about ten thousand that didn’t make the cut. But I can’t complain about the results.” Andraias tapped the side of the cider barrel, which sounded disappointingly empty.

“How’d you swing that, anyway?” Knut asked. The barman looked about forty and smelled human. If he’d bred that many apple trees, he’d be much older.

Andraias laughed. He poured the last of the barrel into a glass for himself and drained it. He waved a wand and the other stools started turning themselves over on the bar. Knut was the only one still sitting here. The other patrons must’ve left while Andraias was telling his tale.

“You know, it really is lucky you came here today. I’m having a kind of private party here after closing. Normally it’s just for VIPs, but why not, life’s too short. It’s more fun with more people there.” He flipped open part of the bar and beckoned Knut over. He crossed that invisible line and followed Andraias toward the back. On his way, tore out the page in the ledger with his tab.

“Yours isn’t, is it?” Knut asked.

“Ha! Quite right.”

“How’d you swing that anyway?”

Andraias opened a secret door in a wall behind the barrels and started down a staircase. “Do you need a torch? I always forget if your kind can see in the dark.”

“Better than you.”

Andraias lit a torch anyway. The further down they went, Knut heard a low buzz of many voices.

“There’s this theory amongst certain religious scholars. The Flame would call it blasphemy—“

“The Flame calls everything blasphemy.”

“Ha, too right. Anyway, the same way my cider apples are distant scions of something born of the divine, the thinking goes that’s where the shifter race, and even the lycanthropes themselves arose.”

Knut trailed his hand along the stone wall as they descended the stairs to keep his balance. His claws scraped along the stones, growing rougher as they went down. He absently counted them with every step.

“From some curse, you mean?” Hardly out of keeping with the Flame’s genocidal propaganda.

“Oh, far from it. Somewhere far from Khorvaire, there were gods with heads like truedives and beasthides and all sorts of things. I’ve seen depictions of them on the walls of ancient temples, ones the Flame hasn’t managed to burn. The resemblance is uncanny.”

“And knowing this helps keep you young, does it?”

“Not . . . exactly. You know the old theories about finite divine power. If the gods can have children, and those children can have children, each with some small spark of divinity, then it can really hardly be called finite, can it? Especially since gods never have to grow old, even if they do sometimes die.”

Knut’s free hand balled into a fist.

“What are you saying?”

“I should think it would be obvious. You are descended from a predator of some persuasion, aren’t you?”

“We all are. Can’t even call it a lucky guess.”

“I mean you don’t share humanity’s lack of pragmatism about these things: kill or be killed. Eat or be eaten.” Knut’s heartbeat quickened.

“The same way minerals build up in salt, these crumbs of divinity stick behind in me. It’s what keeps me young.”

Knut drew close behind him. “And you aren’t worried about reprisals from these gods?”

Andraias laughed again. “They don’t exactly keep a close eye on all their bastards, now do they? Even if they wanted to, there’s not enough hours in the day. Besides, I should think many of them would understand it’s the way of things. There are ones with the heads of hawks and lions in the murals I’ve seen. It looks like there’s just something a rung above them, eh?”

“I suppose so. And you’re just sharing this with me out of the goodness of your heart?”

They got to the bottom of the staircase. “Something like that. These feasts of mine, they tend to attract scavengers. I figure the less l have left over, the less I have to worry about.”

They came to a small, cramped little room, full of salivating beasts, albeit ones that walked on two legs. Knut even saw a few shifters among their number and muscled back a wave of bile.

A swiftwing lay bound on a low dais on a bed of carrots, onions, and potatoes. He was still breathing.

“Thank you everyone for waiting. I just had to lock up. Knut here is the newest addition to our little club.” Andraias drew an ancient stone knife from his belt with symbols in a language Knut didn’t recognize and passed it over to him by the blade.

“Care to do the honors?” he asked.

Knut accepted the knife. “Do you mind if I shift?”

“Oh, please, make yourself comfortable.”

Knut dropped the knife. His muzzle elongated and his claws grew from his fingertips. He stopped holding back the rage that had been building in him all evening and let it deepen his change. He shifted his footing into a ragewild stance. Knut’s form shifted into something much more like his distant godly ancestor. He met Andraias’s gaze and the power of his fury turned him to stone.

Someone standing to the front or back of Knut could see him as he was, while to someone at his side, he was almost invisible. Every facet of his body was infinitely sharp, which made bringing his claws through Andraias’s neck easy work. Whatever strength had built up in his body from preying on Knut’s people didn’t carry over to a lump of stone.

The knife fell to the floor and shattered.

“I have been hunting this man, this scourge on us. I came here as a ploy to be brought in to his good graces to find out what he was doing and put a stop to it. I am certain all of you who are members of our people were here for the same reason, and those who are not were here solely to aid them in this. For this, I thank you. After all, there’s no other reason any of you would want to be here, is there?” Andraias’s head had turned back to flesh. It dripped blood as Knut made a fist in its hair. His headless body slumped against the dais.

“Nope.”

“No.”

“Yeah, you’ve got us pegged.”

Knut passed his hand over the ropes binding the swiftwing and cut them. Knut handed over his coat to cover him up.

“I’m taking his head. I intend to sacrifice it to Anubis to let him know no one is going to be hunting his sons and daughters any longer. Everyone knows there’s no meat on a head anyway. If you came here intending to eat, I lay no claim to the rest of him.” Any members of the crowd who seemed uneasy with the benefit of Knut’s doubt seemed to forget their compunctions as they advanced toward Andraias’s leftovers to start undressing them and light the coals under the dais.

Knut led the swiftwing upstairs before any of them could change their minds.

“Th-thank you. I didn’t know what I was gonna do,” the kid said.

“Forget it.” Knut opened the pantry, cut a few slices of ham with his claws and tossed them on a plate with an apple he cored with his thumb. He opened a bottle of cider with his teeth and set it on the bar.

“Go ahead and eat. I figure if he was planning on roasting you whole, he’d been starving you a couple days.”

The kid nodded and wiped his upturned snout with a napkin. He sipped the cider and coughed, having underestimated its strength. “Hey, that’s pretty good. What’s in this stuff?”

Knut piled barrels in front of the door to the cellar and began searching for a match.

“You know, it’s a funny story . . .”

Spoiler: stub

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TN razorclaw shifter totemist 2/barbarian 4

Spoiler: abilities

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str 18 (increases here), +2 when shifting, +4 from raging
dex 12 +2 racial
con 14 +4 from raging
int 12 -2 racial
wis 10
cha 8 -2 racial

final stats while in combat (raging, shifting)
str 25
dex 14
con 18
int 10
wis 10
cha 6

Spoiler: table

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Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Totemist 1	+0	+2	+2	+0	handle animal 4, k (arcana) 1, k (nature) 1, k (planes) 1, listen 1, spot 4, tumble 4	wild cohort (wolf)	Wild empathy, illiteracy
2nd	Totemist 2	+1	+3	+3	+0	handle animal 1 (5), listen 1 (2), spot 1 (5), tumble 1 (5)		totem chakra bind +1 capacity
3rd	Barbarian 1	+2	+5	+3	+0	intimidate 4	share soulmeld	spiritual totem (lion), illiteracy (again),
4th	Barbarian 2	+3	+6	+3	+0	intimidate 3 (7), tumble 1 (6)		uncanny dodge
5th	Barbarian 3	+4	+6	+3	+1	Skills		spell sense
6th	Barbarian 4	+5	+7	+3	+1	intimidate 1 (8), never outnumbered, tumble 1 (7)	destructive rage	Rage 2/day

Spoiler: epic feats

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1 power attack
2 open chakra (hand)
3 shifter mulitattack (1 shifter feat: 4+con rounds, 1/day)
4 shifter savagery (2 shifter feats: 5+con rounds, 2/day)
5 extra shifter trait: longtooth (3 shifter feats: 6+con rounds, 2/day)
6 longtooth elite (4 shifter feats: 7+con rounds, 3/day)
7 wolf berserker
8 raging luck
9 ragewild fighting
10 improved trip

Spoiler: playtips

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In order to showcase barbarian’s cool powers, we are complementing it ever so slightly with some totemist. It provides access to the entire totemist list of soulmelds. Every single one of these soulmelds can be bound to your totem chakra to provide a variety of cool effects. Going into every single one would take too long, but they will for the most part provide a bonus to two skills equal to 2+2 for every point of essentia invested, and/or a utility effect such as render you immune to flanking, allow you to fight on even when dying, or bottomlessly detect magic.

The totem bind for most melds is to provide a natural attack to supplement the ones already provided by shifter: claws and bite. If your GM is overly restrictive and won’t allow you to have more than one bite or more than two claws despite RAW not actually forbidding this, no worries, you can always bind something like the unicorn horn that will not provide any possible conflict with your longtooth bite or razorclaw claws. Totem binds can also provide unique effects such as unlimited short range teleportation with the blink shirt or the ability to breath underwater with the kraken mantle.

All of these great effects aren’t yours alone, though. You can handily share them with your wild cohort, a wolf. A capable flanking buddy with a great trip ability, everything you can do, it can do as well. Of particular note is the basilisk mask, which I’d like to draw your attention to.

Normally, this meld is somewhat difficult to derive benefit from, since the petrification on an enemy only lasts for 1 round, but performing the actual petrification consumes a full round action. Your wild cohort capably comes to the rescue. When this is bound to your totem, it can use it as well to petrify enemies for you. Once they are turned to stone, you can use your prodigious strength (with the aid of the oft-overlooked destructive rage) to destroy the inanimate statue in one fell swoop, instantly killing any adversary who is susceptible to petrification without the need for a combat where they could retaliate. It can also do the things it’s traditionally employed for such as destroy doors, manacles, et al.

When you aren’t doing this, barbarian, the main course of this dish, bolsters all your other powers through its indispensable class features such as pounce through the lion totem, allowing you to move and attack with all your weapons at once. You leave your hands free by attacking with armor spikes as your weapon and then using your natural attacks (bite from longtooth, 2 claws from razorclaw, and any you may have from totemist). These attacks are made at a higher bonus than normal thanks to shifter multiattack.

Pounce being provided through barbarian allows you to use your opened hand chakra’s bind for things aside from the sphinx claws, letting you access cool things like the worg pelt, whose hand bind gives you a free trip attempt whenever you hit with a bite. This is useful both before you get improved trip as your final epic feat and even after, giving you an extra free trip without using an attack itself.

Shifter savagery boosts your bite and claws’ damage by two steps and doubles their crit threat ranges. You have enough shifts and rages to do this more often than not in combat. Longtooth elite makes all bites which deal damage deal 1 point of con without a save which adds up quickly and will help defeat enemies from a thousand cuts. It also lowers their fort save versus other effects, such as the rattle the weakling ability from the ragewild fighting tactical maneuver which dazes enemies.

Wolf berserker and improved trip help immobilize enemies and provide another source of extra attacks, plus making you better at tripping. Raging luck gives you a free action point every time you rage. You can do all the standard cool things with this action point and one extra one, the brutal charge maneuver from ragewild fighting. If you spend an action point on it, you can add your str bonus an extra time when charging an enemy on top of all the damage you already deal. Its final maneuver, instinctive strike, lets you make an immediate melee attack against enemies any time you fail a will save.

The spell sense acf grants your bonus to the far more generally applicable threat of spells and slas instead of traps. The skilled city dweller acf lets you swap out ride for tumble on both your skill lists. Never outnumbered lets you demoralize multiple enemies at once with intimidate.

In addition to standard pouncebarian things, you can petrify enemies and destroy them in addition to deal extra damage through a steady source of extra action points. These bonuses and additional rider effects present on the feats and special abilities of this build provide a bit more variety versus the bog standard two handed fighting ubercharger, in addition to shoring up some of those weaknesses with additional utility such as the ability to teleport through the blink shirt and fly to circumvent obstacles like marbles, bypass difficult terrain, and charge in places that are not a perfectly straight line on a flat plain of land with melds like the pegasus cloak, phase cloak, or kraken mantle.

Spoiler: sources

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srd: barbarian, power attack, improved trip
eberron campaign setting: shifter mutiattack, raging luck
magic of incarnum: totemist, shape soulmeld, share soulmeld
races of eberron: shifter, shifter savagery, extra shifter trait, longtooth elite, ragewild fighting
unapproachable east: wolf berserker
skilled city dweller: cityscape web enhancement

[Zaq]

I wouldn’t have been able to resist slipping "da ba de da ba di" into that name somewhere.

Schakri Sililos Sepa ux Sidhyarion tiathar Vutha Amuul
Neutral Good Dragonborn (Duskling)

Spoiler: Character Portrait

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Image Source

Spoiler: Race

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Duskling
Fey (Extraplanar, Incarnum)
Speed: 30 ft (+5ft per essentia)
+2 Con, -2 Int
Low-Light Vision
Essentia Pool: 1

Dragonborn Duskling
Speed: 30ft
Humanoid (Extraplanar, Incarnum, Dragonblood, Fey)
Speed: 30ft
+2 Dodge AC vs dragon types
Immune to Frightful Presence of Dragons
Draconinc Aspect: Wings
Gliding
Flight: 30ft (average) (limited)
Dive Attack (piercing weapons only)

Spoiler: Ability Scores

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Source:	Strength	Dexterity	Constitution	Intelligence	Wisdom	Charisma
Point Buy (32)	16	15	14	12	12	8
Duskling	+0	+0	+2	-2	+0	+0
Level 1	16	15	16	10	12	8
Level 4	16	15+1 (16)	16	10	12	8
Dragonborn (Level 6)	+0	-2	+2	+0	+0	+0
Final Scores	16	14	18	10	12	8

Spoiler: Class Build

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Character Sheet for Completed Build

* = Denotes requirement for Spell Sense
^ = Trades off all Armor Proficiency for Dragonscale Husk

Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features	Essentia Pool	Soulmelds	Soul Binds
1st	Duskling Barbarian 1	+1	+2	+0	+0	[16 points] Climb +4 (4), Jump +2 (2), Listen +2 (2), Spot +1cc (1), Survival +4 (4), Swim +2 (2)	Shape Soulmeld (Rage Claws)	Beserker Strength, Incarnum Speed, Illiteracy	1	1	N/A
2nd	Barbarian 2	+2	+3	+0	+0	[4 points] Climb +1 (5), Jump +1 (3), Spot +1cc (2)		Uncanny Dodge	1	1	N/A
3rd	Barbarian 3	+3	+3	+1	+1	[4 points] Know: Arcana +1cc (1)*, Know: Religion +1cc (1)	Cobalt Charge	Spell Sense +1	2	1	N/A
4th	Barbarian 4	+4	+4	+1	+1	[4 points] Jump +2 (5), Know: Arcana +0.5cc (1.5), Know: Religion +0.5cc (1.5)			2	1	N/A
5th	Fangshields Barbarian 5	+5	+4	+1	+1	[4 points] Know: Arcana +0.5cc (2), Know: Religion +0.5cc (2), Spellcraft +1cc (1)		Awesome Charge	2	1	N/A
6th	Crusader 1	+6/+1	+6	+1	+1	[4 points] Concentration +4 (4)	Bonus Essentia	Furious Counterstrike, Steely Resolve 5, Dragonscale Husk^	3	1	N/A

Spoiler: Manuevers Known

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Level	Discipline	Manuever	Type	Summary
1st	Devoted Spirit	Martial Spirit	Stance	Heal 2 HP per attack
1st	Devoted Spirit	Crusader's Strike	Strike	Damage Enemy; You or ally heal 1d6+3 HP
1st	Devoted Spirit	Vanguard's Strike	Strike	Allies get +4 to hit struck target
1st	White Raven	Douse the Flames	Strike	Struck target can't make AoO's
2nd	White Raven	Battle Leader's Charge	Strike	Charge and make attack; if successful +10 dmg
2nd	Stone Dragon	Mountain Hammer	Strike	Attack does +2d6 damage, ignores DR/Hardness

Spoiler: Epic Feats

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Epic Feats	Feat Name	New Feature	Essentia Pool	Soulmelds	Soul Binds
1st	Stone Power	-X to hit, +2X temp HP	3	1	N/A
2nd	Shape Soulmeld (Threefold Mask)	Cannot be flanked, +X to Search/Spot	3	2	N/A
3rd	Open Least Chakra (Crown)	+1 insight to Will Saves, Extra Move Action	3	2	1
4th	Iron Will	+2 to Will Saves	3	2	1
5th	Midnight Dodge	+X dodge to AC	4	2	1
6th	Shape Soulmeld (Impulse Boots)	(Imp) Uncanny Dodge, +X to Reflex	4	3	1
7th	Open Least Chakra (Feet)	Evasion, +1 Balance & Move Silently	4	3	2
8th	Expanded Soulmeld Capacity	Invest 3 Essentia into one soulmeld	4	3	2
9th	Travel Devotion	Once per day, for one minute, Swift action to move speed	4	3	2
10th	Travel Devotion	Once per day, for one minute, Swift action to move speed	4	3	2

Spoiler: Background & Level Summary

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Spoiler: Level 1:

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Sidhyarion was born to a tribe of Dusklings living deep within the Silver Marches, his birth notable only due to the steel-blue hue of skin and the dragon shaped birthmark over his heart. He was a quiet sort of child, more contemplative and reserved than most of his siblings and peers. Slow to anger and long suffering in patience, but when he was pushed over the line, it was as if some inner beast would uncoil itself and roar in challenge. Those times, it was always after he had been physically harmed in some way. A few times Sidhyarion lost himself in that rage and could not be brought out of it until he was physically subdued or, once they better understood his condition, when his mind was soothed through the use of healing magic. Then, his inner beast would stand down, allowing his reason to reassert itself. Because of this, Sidhyarion was taught how to shape the incarnum within himself into a soulmeld that would channel his rage into a fighting frenzy that only death itself could take from him.

Spoiler: Level 1 Summary:

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Duskling Barbarian is taken for several reasons:
1) Our eventual goal of getting Awesome Blow on charges requires a nonhumanoid race in order to take the Fangsheilds Barbarian Substitution 5th level. Dusklings are Fey type, not humanoid, and still count as Dusklings even after being reborn as a Dragonborn.
2) The Duskling racial increase to speed doesnt stack with the Incarnum Speed of the substitution level and will be lost when the character eventually is reborn as a Dragonborn. This ensures we still have an increase to our base speed, which is a hallmark of the Barbarian class. Also, that boost to initiative.
3) It gives us a narrative reason to begin our adventuring career with essentia and the magic of the incarnum soulmeld of Rage Claws.

Why learn to shape Rage Claws?
1) Berserker Strength is a very dangerous method to initiate a Rage for a barbarian, requiring them to be low on HP in order to make use of it. Any method to extend their effective HP and allow them to act when below 0 HP (and even act normally) is worth its weight in gold.
2) Upon rebirth as a Dragonborn, we can retrain our first level feat to something else. I have chosen NOT to do so in this presentation, but it is a way to reallocate the feat to something more useful once we have a buffer of 25hp, Steely Resolve 5, and ways of healing ourselves in battle. I prefer the extra 10 to 19 HP.

Spoiler: Level 2:

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It was about this time that Sidhyarion became active in the ongoing battles that raged in the Silver Marches between the Fangshields and their numerous enemies, most notably the clashes between followers of Tiamat and servants of a black dragon that neighbored their lands. Why? Sidhyarion couldn't really tell you, other than feeling a sort of call or desire to do so. He was welcomed without the usual hesitancy that is reserved for the more humanoid appearing races, as his otherworldly fey nature was immediately apparent. Sidhyarion was trained in the ways of the Fangshields and learned how to always be alert, ready to move at a moments notice and how to avoid the clever tricks of those that attempted to remain unseen. It was also here that Sydhyarion was introduced to the first dragonborn he had ever laid his eyes on. Without even knowing the person, Sidhyarion felt as if he knew them and what they were.

Spoiler: Level 2 Summary

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Uncanny dodge is the perk of this level, and is useful, sparing us from being flat-footed in most occasions. When we eventually begin to wear heavier armor, it will be well worth the investment.

Spoiler: Level 3:

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Despite what Sidhyarion thought he knew about these dragonborn, he felt a call and desire to know more. Due to his Illiteracy, he was forced to rely on the knowledge of those willing to speak to him and their particular interpretations of the relationship between Bahamut and the dragonborn. This stunted his immersion into the faith and delayed his eventual conversion. It did, however, ring true enough in his mind that he learned a way to defend himself better against spells, having learned to recognize bits of the magic and react slightly faster when he was the target. It certainly saved his life on more than one occasion. Especially the time he first encountered Vutha Amuul, a young dragon with black scales and a particular love of watching things perish while they dissolved in its acid spittle. Known as 'Black Void' in the Common tongue, this juvenile Black dragon was a scourge to the scouts and often performed surprise raids that left many permanently scarred.

Spoiler: Level 3 Summary

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Much of the character's attention is focused on learning what dragonborn are and how they relate to Bahamut, which is reflected in the skill choices at this level. Also, Spell Sense requires at least one rank in Knowledge Arcana, so this makes the perfect level in which to integrate the two choices. We choose Cobalt Charge as our feat for this level as charging is going to be one of our staple abilities later, and we could use the extra essentia later (especially since we lose one point due to the racial change). We can also use it now, putting both one point in the feat and in Incarnum Speed, with the option to swap the new point from speed to Rage Claws if we need that extra 3 hp. Bonus to hit and damage is always good.

Spoiler: Level 4:

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Sidhyarion devotes a little less time to his research on dragonborn and Bahamut then previously, but still picks up what he can in passing. Instead, he focuses more on his ability to leap over obstacles and down from higher places. Black Void is becoming more of a problem and Sidhyarion feels more and more a compulsion to deal with the dragon before it becomes too powerful. This single minded focus leaves him little room for other improvements.

Spoiler: Level 4 Summary:

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Nothing exciting happens here except for an increase in base Fortitude save. Normally, a Barbarian gets their second daily use of Rage but since we are using the Berserker Strength alternative, this just becomes a dead level for class abilities. The increase in Jump is to help offset future armor check penalties to the checks.

Spoiler: Level 5:

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Sidhyarion finds himself joining up with an adventuring group that had been sent to help deal with the scourge that was Black Void. This group also happened to hold within its members a dragonborn Paladin of Bahamut who, upon learned of Sidhyarion's interest in the subject matter, eager shared what he knew of the Dragon deity and the rituals involved with devoting themselves to Him. This dragonborn offered to help Sidhyarion with his religious journey once they had vanquished Black Void, as the ritual involved required a good deal of time. Sidhyarion eagerly agreed, learning what he could from the dragonborn as they traveled to the juvenile dragon's lair. It was during this time that Sidhyarion was able to display his battle prowess to the dragonborn, going as far as showing off his ability to enter a Berserker rage and crashing into smaller creatures to send them flying.
Eventually, they found the lair of the dragon and after a battle that nearly killed Sidhyarion several times over, they managed to vanquish the foul dragon. Sidhyarion claimed the final blow by leaping down from a high point and splitting its skull with a overhead chop of his heavy weapon. To be honest, the dragon was not much larger than himself but it had put up an incredible fight none-the-less, so Sidhyarion had somewhat mixed feelings of disappointment but also of respect for the dragon.

Spoiler: Level 5 Summary:

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We gain the ability to deliver an Awesome Blow at the end of the charge while we are in a rage (Berserker Strength), even if we do not meet the requirements for the feat. This lets us launch any creature smaller than ourselves away 10ft and knock them prone. Their reflex save is equal to the damage we deal, and we can deal a lot depending on our weapon choice. Right now, that is limited to small creatures because we don't count as a humanoid until our transition to dragonborn, locking us out of Enlarge Person spells.

Spoiler: Level 6:

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Sidhyarion commits himself to Bahamut and undergoes rebirth, becoming Schakri Sililos Sepa ux Sidhyarion tiathar Vutha Amuul (which roughly translates into "Noble Purple Soul 'born as' Steel Heart 'slayer of Tiamat's servant' Black Void". He spends the next year or so of his life traveling with his dragonborn mentor, learning what he can of his new nature and learning to fight as part of a group of adventurers. He develops skills to serve as a skirmisher, leading the charge into battle and forcing opening to allow for a swift retreat. He learns to fly for brief periods of time and incorporates the ability to send his foes flying with his ability to fly into them. Sidhyarion never becomes what you would call truly religious, but takes to this new life with passion and zeal. He might not be the first Duskling to undergo the rite of rebirth, but he is certainly one of the few that carry the indigo scales of the incarnum dragon that his rebirth allowed him to manifest.

Spoiler: Level 6 Summary:

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The transition to 6th level is marked first by our transformation into a dragonborn, reducing our Dex and bumping up our Con. We lose our broad immunity to charm effects (since we were fey and not a humanoid), our racial boost to speed and one point of essentia. We gain much, much more. Wings, gliding and a dive attack! Humanoid type (yeah, enlarge potions!), Immunity to Frightful Presence of dragons, and a new language. We also get options for being dragonblooded, letting us make use of trading off heavy armor for dragon scale armor (see below). We can also retrain our first level feat but I opted not to do so.
The actual entry into level 6 is into Crusader. This deviates from the special ingredient more as an homage to Bahamut and the dragonborn race, blending the Lawful Good nature of the deity with the Chaotic rage of the Barbarian. We settle on a Neutral Good middle ground that allows us to fortify our melee defenses, sharpen our battle tactics, and give us the ability to heal ourselves out of a Berserker Strength rage. We trade away the Crusader's proficiency with Heavy armor (and proficiency with all armors, actually) to get the Dragonscale Husk ability.
The choice of Bonus Essentia is important. First, this is the first level we can take it. Secondly, we can shape Rage Claws, so we get 2 points. And lastly, we need all the points we can get since we lost one in the rebirth.

Spoiler: Epic Feats Explanation

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Stone Power - This is purely to help us avoid taking more damage than necessary in (and out of) Berserker Strength so that we can maintain some semblance of control over our ability to function in battle. It is essentially (up to) DR 15 if we are fighting something easy to hit (10 Temp HP + 5 Steely Resolve). During Berserker Strength, we also get an additional DR 2/-.
Threefold Mask of Chimera - It effectively gives us Improved Uncanny Dodge (cannot be flanked). We double up on that later but ... we also want to for other reasons. Plus, this is to allow us greater mobility and action economy, since we have to spend a full round action to Dive (or charge). Getting into ideal placement for that action is key. We need the following feat to make it work...
Open Least Chakra (Crown) - This immediately fortifies our Will Save and lets us bind Threefold Mask to our Crown Chakra. Now, we can zip around the battle field.
Iron Will - Fortify that Will Save, enough said.
Midnight Dodge - Mostly for the bonus point of Essentia but to give us an option for +2 Dodge AC when we might need it.
Impulse Boots - Doubled up on 'Improved' Uncanny Dodge. Just in case, you know, the Threefold Mask gets unshaped somehow. Also, boost that Reflex saves. And ...
Open Least Chakra (Feet) - Bonus to some skills BUT binding Impulse Boots to our feet give us Evasion. This gives us a greater ability to get away from spells that go after our HP, especially important while in Berserker Strength and it helps with dragon breath weapons.
Expanded Soulmeld Capacity - This is strictly to help offset the penalties from using Threefold Mask's bonus move action. Reducing the penalties to -2 instead of -5 is significant.
Travel Devotion - Because why not? If Threefold Mask is unshaped, this helps us still use our tactic of repositioning for best outcome. And...
Travel Devotion - Taking it twice means that we can do it in more than one battle.

Spoiler: Misc Information

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Spoiler: Standard Layout

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Weapon of Choice: Halberd +1 (Reach, Slashing or Piercing)
Backup weapon: Sword + Shield
Armor: Dragonscale Husk
Magic Items: Just your typical items to boost AC, Saves, attack, etc, etc

Threefold Mask gets effect of Expanded Soulmeld Capacity (can invest 3 essentia)
Invest 2 Essentia in to Incarnum Speed and Impulse Boosts unless otherwise needed (+20ft move, +4 initiative, +2 reflex saves)
Enlarge Person to be cast on you or drink a potion of such.
Martial Spirit Stance is always active (+2 hp healed per attack)
Battle Leader's Charge is only used to close the distance to each enemy ONCE, otherwise it is saved for Berserker Strength period
Douse the Flames is to be saved for retreat of self or others (see when Berserker Strength is triggered)
Use Stone Power to keep buffer of HP in combination with Steely Resolve (and DR2/- when Berserk)
Use a combination of Threefold Mask and Travel Devotion (as needed) to move into tactical positions for charge/diving attacks.

Spoiler: Areas to Focus

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Saving Throws: Like all barbarians, the Reflex and Will saving throws are an area that could use improvement. Anything to boost them is useful, though enhancement bonuses to Reflex saves do not stack with the Impulse Boots. Enhancement bonuses to Will saves, however, will as there is a +1 insight bonus from the Crown Chakra being open and a +2 type less boost from Iron Will.
Armor Class: Any sort of Natural, Deflection, Dodge or typeless increase will be helpful. The Dragonhusk cannot be enchanted as a typical set of armor (as it does not count as one to be enchanted). Avoiding blows is not the point of this character, as receiving damage to trigger Berserker Strength is required. Instead, it is to reach that 25 HP threshold and stay there, mitigating the rest of the damage through use of temporary HP and self-healing.
To Hit Bonuses: The character has a respectable to hit bonus though makes use of accuracy reducing techniques in order to mitigate damage received and maximize damage dealt. Anything to boost his accuracy is welcome.

Spoiler: Sources

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Races:
Duskling - Magic of the Incarnum
Dragonborn - Races of the Dragon

Classes/Substitutions:
Barbarian - Player's Handbook
Duskling Barbarian - Magic of the Incarnum
Fangshields Barbarian - Champions of Valor
Berserker Strength - Player's Handbook II
Spell Sense - Complete Mage
Crusader - Tome of Battle
Dragonscale Husk - Dragon Magic

Feats:
Bonus Essentia - Magic of the Incarnum
Cobalt Charge - Magic of the Incarnum
Expanded Soulmeld Capacity - Magic of the Incarnum
Iron Will - Player's Handbook
Midnight Dodge - Magic of the Incarnum
Open Least Chakra - Magic of the Incarnum
Shape Soulmeld - Magic of the Incarnum
Stone Power - Tome of Battle
Travel Devotion - Complete Champion

Other:
Maneuvers (All) - Tome of Battle
Soulmelds (All) - Magic of the Incarnum

[Zaq]

Ba ba ba ba ba BA-rbarian

Spoiler: Introduction

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“Another Caravan in the Talenta Plains was attacked last week. The identity of the perpetrator has still not been confirmed, but the survivors of the attack say that they were attacked by a single dinosaur-riding halfling. This marks the third such attack this month, and the largest caravan attacked so far. Travelers through the Talenta Plains are advised to stick to the established trails, and to only travel in large groups, with at least 10 trained guards..”
- the Korranberg Chronicle, Mol issue, 9th day of Dravago, 998 YK

Spoiler: Build

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Mario


(Image Source: http://drmcninja.com/)

CN Strongheart Halfling Barbarian 5/Beastmaster 1

Ability Scores:

Abilities	Initial	Race / Template	4th	Total
STR	17	-2	1	16
DEX	16	2		18
CON	14			14
INT	11			11
WIS	8			8
CHA	8			8

Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Reflex Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Barbarian	1	2	0	0	16: {+4} Handle Animal: 4; {+4} Ride: 4; {+4} Survival: 4; {+4} Climb: 4;	Skill Focus (Handle Animal), Quick Draw	Illiteracy, Whirling Frenzy 1/day, Climb 10 ft.
2nd	Barbarian	2	3	0	0	4: {+1} Handle Animal: 5; {+1} Ride: 5; {+1} Survival: 5; {+1} Climb: 5;		+2 Intimidate
3rd	Barbarian	3	3	1	1	4: {+1} Handle Animal: 6; {+1} Ride: 6; {+1} Survival: 6; {+1} Climb: 6;	Mounted Combat, Power Attack	Bonus Feat (Power Attack)
4th	Barbarian	4	4	1	1	4: {+1} Handle Animal: 7; {+1} Ride: 7; {+1} Survival: 7; {+1} Climb: 7;		Whirling Frenzy 2/day
5th	Barbarian	5	4	1	1	4: {+1} Handle Animal: 8; {+1} Ride: 8; {+1} Survival: 8; {+1} Climb: 8;		Climb 20 ft.
6th	Beastmaster	6	6	3	1	4: {+1} Handle Animal: 9; {+1} Ride: 9; {+1} Survival: 9; {+1} Climb: 9;	Boomerang Daze	Animal Companion, Wild Empathy

Epic Feats
Natural Bond
Point-Blank shot
Rapid Shot
Brutal Throw
Mounted Archery
Power Throw
Boomerang Ricochet
Two-Weapon Fighting
Far Shot
Improved Mounted Archery

Spoiler: Alternate class features

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• Whirling Frenzy - Not very original, but it’s pretty important for the build, since it gives an extra attack, allowing Mario to hit more targets with Boomerang Daze. (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/c...WhirlingFrenzy)
• Ape Totem - Exchanges Fast Movement, Uncanny dodge, Trap Sense, and Improved Uncanny Dodge for a climb speed, a bonus to intimidate and Power Attack as a bonus feat. (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/c...mClassFeatures)

Spoiler: Build Breakdown and tactics

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At early levels, Mario’s primary strategy is to skirmish on a normal mount, varying between melee and ranged attacks as necessary. At these levels, Mario doesn’t do anything particularly unique, and mostly just does some of the standard barbarian things.
This all changes when Mario reaches level 6. He gets the 2 things that bring his build together. First of all, he takes a level in the Beastmaster class, which gets him his mount and partner: a Fleshraker named Yoshi. The other key component of the build also comes at level 6: the feat Boomerang Daze. Mario’s primary strategy is now to hurl his boomerangs at every enemy he can see, dazing them while Yoshi does leaping charges at them.
Due to the mounted combat rules, Mario can make full attacks while Yoshi charges. This gives good mobility, and allows Mario to consistently hit multiple enemies with save-or-sucks every turn.

Epic levels -
Natural Bond is an important feat, since it bumps Yoshi into the next bracket for animal companion advancement, giving an increase to Str, Dex, HD, and Natural Armor, greatly increasing capability and survivability.

Beyond that, feats are geared towards increasing the number of attacks Mario can get in a round, thus allowing him to disable more enemies at once with Boomerang Daze. On top of that, increasing accuracy and damage improves the reliability of the daze effect.

The order of the feats can be changed to suit the needs of the build - the Rapid shot feat line can be moved up or moved back, or Brutal/Power Throw can be moved up. Extra Rage (Complete Warrior, p. 98), can also be substituted in if necessary.

Spoiler: Items

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The most important item for the build is the Talenta Boomerang. Mario can use it as a martial weapon, because he is a halfling from the Talenta Plains (Eberron Campaign Setting, p. 26), and he can also use a Talenta Sharrash, which makes a good backup weapon.
Beyond that, items which improve Yoshi’s performance in combat are particularly useful, along with the standard items for improving his own combat abilities.

Spoiler: Sources

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Feature	Source
Talenta Boomerang	Eberron Campaign Setting, p. 119
Strongheart Halfling	Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, p. 18
Whirling Frenzy	SRD
Ape Totem	SRD
Boomerang Daze	Races of Eberron, p. 108
Boomerang Ricochet	Races of Eberron, p. 108
Beastmaster	Complete Adventurer, p. 26
Natural Bond	Complete Adventurer, p. 111
Fleshraker	Monster Manual III, p. 40-41
Brutal Throw	Complete Adventurer, p. 106
Power Throw	Complete Adventurer, p. 111
Improved Mounted Archery	Complete Warrior, p. 101

[Zaq]

Imagine shuffling your feet on the carpet in winter, but, like, as a fighting style.

Spoiler

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Ruben Alvarez

Warforged are forged for war, you know. There are many types of them. Psiforged, druids, even arcane casters, but most popular models created for close, face-to-face fights. There are differences inside this group, too. Some are good with weapons, some with bare hands, but anyway most of them are about martial arts and discipline of some sort. Most but this one. He is about endless scorching wrath!!!

Spoiler: Abilities

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Abilities	Initial	Warforged	4th	Total
STR	17		1	18
DEX	12			12
CON	16	2		18
INT	9			9
WIS	12	-2		10
CHA	8	-2		6

Spoiler: Table

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CE Warforged Bear Totem Barbarian-6

Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Reflex Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Bear Totem Barbarian-1	1	2	0	0	12: {+4} Climb: 4; {+4} Craft (Armor): 4; {+4} Jump: 4;	Adamantine Body, Toughness (B)	Illiteracy, berserker strength
2nd	Bear Totem Barbarian-2	2	3	0	0	3: {+1} Climb: 5; {+1} Craft (Armor): 5; {+1} Jump: 5;	Improved Grapple (B)
3rd	Bear Totem Barbarian-3	3	3	1	1	3: {+1} Climb: 6; {+1} Craft (Armor): 6; {+1} Jump: 6;	Shocking Fist, Great Fortitude (B)
4th	Bear Totem Barbarian-4	4	4	1	1	3: {+1} Climb: 7; {+1} Craft (Armor): 7; {+1} Jump: 7;
5th	Bear Totem Barbarian-5	5	4	1	1	3: {+1} Climb: 8; {+1} Craft (Armor): 8; {+1} Jump: 8;		+4 bonus on grapple checks when raging
6th	Bear Totem Barbarian-6	6	5	2	2	3: {+1} Climb: 9; {+1} Craft (Armor): 9; {+1} Jump: 9;	Second Slam

Number	Epic Feats
E1	Draconic Aura (Vigor)
E2	Improved Fortification
E3	Mad Foam Rager
E4	Martial Study (Mountain Hammer)
E5	Stone Power
E6-E10	Improved Damage Reduction*5

Spoiler: Level by Level

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Spoiler: ECL 1-3

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Wrath isn't so wrathful so far. He gets in a rage only when his hp is 15 or less. This is too close to destruction and Wrath doesn't have enough options to prevent it, but destroy the enemy first. His main offensive weapon now and forever is his slam. His damage is d4+6 (9 when berserker strength is active) + up to 3d4 electricity due Shocking Fist.

A creature’s primary natural weapon is its most effective natural weapon, and the creature uses its full attack bonus with that weapon. It applies its full Strength modifier on damage with its primary weapon—or 1-1/2 × its Strength bonus if it has only one natural weapon.

Shocking Fist also is a method to decrease Wrath's hp to activate berserker strength. Now it works not so fast and always being within 3 hp of activation isn't a good idea - only 18 hp, but if the enemy hit Wrath and there is already 18 hp - decreasing to 15 is better than not decreasing.
Also do not forget about the grapple. In E6 without FoM it is good tactics. And Wrath can slam grappled target as well.

Spoiler: ECL 4-6

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Most improvements in these levels are just numbers. More BAB, more saves, more skills. The most notable changes are +4 bonus on grapple checks from Bear Totem and Second Slam. Wrath tries to grapple the enemy and slams him to the death. Now berserker strength's threshold is 30 hp of 69 (or 71 depends on count decimals or not) total, this is much better.

Spoiler: ECL Epic

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Things are getting together. Vigor lets Wrath heals up to 1 hp more than his half (35 or 36) and this number is within 6 hp of berserker strength's threshold, so Wrath can easily say: "I'm Always Angry".
Improved Fortification not only gives its benefit, but its drawback, too, and now nobody can heal Wrath and stop Wrath's rage with this.
Berserker strength lets Wrath use the Mad Foam Rager feat many times in one fight. Theoretically he even can delay one single effect for an unlimited period of time. With active Vigor and every round activating Shocking Fist he can enter in berserker strength every round again, so...
Mountain Hammer while in most is a prec, but it is useful prec.
Stone Power is another option to manage hp. With only -3 AB, Wrath now can give full Shocking Fist's charge without limitation.
+5 to DR for total 7/adamantine isn't solution to all problems of course, but some problems with it (and immunity to sneak attacks and crits from Improved Fortification) are fully solved.

Spoiler: Books

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Type	Name	Book
Race	Warforged	Eberron Campaign Setting
Class	Barbarian	PHB
Class Variant	Bear Totem Barbarian	UA
ACF	Berserker Strength	PHBII
Feat	Adamantine Body	Eberron Campaign Setting
Feat	Toughness	PHB
Feat	Improved Grapple	PHB
Feat	Shocking Fist	Player's Guide to Eberron
Feat	Great Fortitude	PHB
Feat	Second Slam	Races of Eberron
Feat	Draconic Aura	Dragon Magic
Feat	Improved Fortification	Eberron Campaign Setting
Feat	Mad Foam Rager	PHBII
Feat	Martial Study	Tome of Battle
Feat	Stone Power	Tome of Battle
Feat	Improved Damage Reduction	Eberron Campaign Setting
Draconic Aura	Vigor	PHBII
Maneuver	Mountain Hammer	Tome of Battle

[Zaq]

And there you have it! Twelve seven angry men PCs for your judging pleasure!

Judges, over to you!

[Mero]

Interesting bunch at first glance, for sure!

None doing quite what I had in mind, so I'll keep the idea for now. Hopefully another ingredient will fit the idea. Anyway, I had fun just getting my mind to churn and some of the build onto the page.

I saw that there's often an effort to get judges. I don't have the experience that best leads to judging besides reading a bunch of the old threads for the assorted comps, but if I have the time this weekend (no guarantee), then I'll take a shot. I found this round fascinating. Well, I'll at least see how long it take me to get through one build and reassess then.

[MinimanMidget]

Very nice batch! Always great when someone else submits a better version of the build you didn't. The only idea I had that's not on display was "do something with Roof-Jumper", and AsuraKyoko covered that with Kate only 3 rounds earlier.

I'll get started on judging tonight - it'll be good to give my hands a break from the demands of Elden Ring anyway.

[AsuraKyoko]

Very nice batch! Always great when someone else submits a better version of the build you didn't. The only idea I had that's not on display was "do something with Roof-Jumper", and AsuraKyoko covered that with Kate only 3 rounds earlier.

I'll get started on judging tonight - it'll be good to give my hands a break from the demands of Elden Ring anyway.

I got a lot of reminders of Kate for this round; mostly when looking at ACFs. I'm glad that someone else remembers her, too! She was a lot of fun to make


Some pretty interesting builds all around, here. A good variety of things, it looks like.

[Eldonauran]

I'm impressed with the builds submitted. Good job everyone!

Also, if it was easier to get a damnable bite attack without having to be a kobold... Well, it would have been epic. Satisfied with what I ended up submitting.

[loky1109]

Table!

Name	Alignment / Race	Class Levels
Bramble Wolfsoul	CG Jungle Halfling	Wolf Totem Barbarian 2/Battle Dancer 1/Warblade 1/Fist of the Forest 1/Hellreaver 1
Gromorth	CG ex-Half-Orc Dragonborn	Eagle Totem Hunter 6
Ka'assani	NG Unseelie Spellscale	Druidic Avenger Deadly Hunter 1/Boar Totem Barbarian 4/Crusader 1
Knut Longclaw	TN Razorclaw Shifter	Totemist 2/Barbarian 4
The Incarnum Dragon	NG ex-Duskling Dragonborn	Barbarian 5/Crusader 1
Mario	CN Strongheart Halfling	Ape Totem Barbarian 5/Beastmaster 1
Wrath of the Tempest	CE Warforged	Bear Totem Barbarian 6

[loky1109]

We have 6 different totem animals (including Spiritual Totem) from 7 builds. Nice!
7 if consider that standard barbarian "has" Jaguar totem. )

I expected more Barb-6 builds.

Also, if it was easier to get a damnable bite attack without having to be a kobold... Well, it would have been epic.

Deformity (Teeth).

[H_H_F_F]

Great builds all around. Worth the wait.

[H_H_F_F]

Interesting bunch at first glance, for sure!

None doing quite what I had in mind, so I'll keep the idea for now. Hopefully another ingredient will fit the idea. Anyway, I had fun just getting my mind to churn and some of the build onto the page.

I saw that there's often an effort to get judges. I don't have the experience that best leads to judging besides reading a bunch of the old threads for the assorted comps, but if I have the time this weekend (no guarantee), then I'll take a shot. I found this round fascinating. Well, I'll at least see how long it take me to get through one build and reassess then.

Hey, thanks for intending to judge, Mero!

My first direct involvment with a comp was judging too (psion uncarnate, in the main Iron Chef competition). I'd say as long as you've read through the entries carefully and have a good grasp on the different categories, you should be fine - no reason to worry about lack of experience.

[thorr-kan]

Nice list of barbarians!

I just couldn't get anything off the ground. The shoal halfling possibility had Ape Totem, so that would at least have followed the unofficial theme.

The half-orc racial paragon class/scout without a level of barbarian titled, "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better" was *not* in the spirit of the competition. So I regretfully stomped on that idea.

I'm looking forward to our results!

[loky1109]

I'm looking now on my entry... I could make better, I see it.

[Eldonauran]

Deformity (Teeth).

Ah, I should have been more clear. Two feats and an alignment restriction is not what I consider to be 'easier' to get a bite attack then just being a kobold. I'd rather eat the ability score penalties than lose two feats and be forced to be evil.

Honestly, what I wanted to do with the bite attack simply wouldn't have worked in the E6 format competition unless I took flaws to get extra feats and I'm not willing to eat the judging penalty for doing so.

[loky1109]

Ah, I should have been more clear. Two feats and an alignment restriction is not what I consider to be 'easier' to get a bite attack then just being a kobold. I'd rather eat the ability score penalties than lose two feats and be forced to be evil.

Honestly, what I wanted to do with the bite attack simply wouldn't have worked in the E6 format competition unless I took flaws to get extra feats and I'm not willing to eat the judging penalty for doing so.

Ok. Laika from Savage Species WE. LA +0, bite 1d4, +2 Con, -2 Int, Track (B), +2 Listen and Survival, LLV, Speak with Animals (canine only) (Sp) 1/day (CL 1)

[MinimanMidget]

Ok. Laika from Savage Species WE. LA +0, bite 1d4, +2 Con, -2 Int, Track (B), +2 Listen and Survival, LLV, Speak with Animals (canine only) (Sp) 1/day (CL 1)

Or just Darfellan (from Stormwrack). Better bite, comparable stat modifiers, much more straightforward.

[daremetoidareyo]

My build revolves around optimizing illiteracy. Which means I needed exploding runes and sepia snake sigil and illusory script.

Which meant Neanderthal arfificer 3/barb 3. But like Neanderthal did the heavy lifting and barbarian, despite being the orinal node of the concept, became irrelevant

[Zaq]

I was really hoping someone could optimize trapkiller and somehow argue that they could turn their opponents into mechanical traps and then smash them.

[daremetoidareyo]

If you can turn them into a mechanical trap you don’t need to disarm them

[Venger]

Ah, I should have been more clear. Two feats and an alignment restriction is not what I consider to be 'easier' to get a bite attack then just being a kobold. I'd rather eat the ability score penalties than lose two feats and be forced to be evil.

Honestly, what I wanted to do with the bite attack simply wouldn't have worked in the E6 format competition unless I took flaws to get extra feats and I'm not willing to eat the judging penalty for doing so.

You can always revere an elder evil and get them for free.

[H_H_F_F]

How are we doing, judgement-wise?

[MinimanMidget]

How are we doing, judgement-wise?

I haven't even found time to start yet. Hoping this week will have more space in it.