Iron Chef Optimisation Challenge in the Playground LXXIX

[Heliomance]

We all know frogs go "pop" in the microwave...

Gorblurp the Insatiable

Image Source: Matthew Starbuck(Faxtar)

Background

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I'll have the Roasted Stuffed Whole Tom Tallfellow, Pineapple-Honey-Gazed Smoked Sam, Southern Shire Cornbread Dressing, Creamy Mashed Potatoes, Baked Brown-Sugar Beans, Spiced-Raisin Applesauce, and Lemon Iced Tea. Yes, that will do for the first course. - Gorblurp the Insatiable at the Devouring of Rosemary Shire

Gorblurp is a terrifying tale told at many Halfling hearths. It's said that he was once a man whose appetite was nearly equal to that of even the most hearty Halfling. He was a wanderer known to frequent the numerous eateries in Rosemary Shire, never quite able to sate his hunger, and always eager to try newer and increasingly exotic cuisine. It didn't take long for his appetites to take a turn to grim gastronomy. He began to wonder about these small folk. Would they make as fine a meal as they, well, made? He found one of the shirefolk fishing alone by the river, and decided to try what he found to be the sweetest of meats. Whilst savoring his meal by that babbling brook, Gorblurp had at last found the taste he craved. But wanted more, always more. And so he stalked his new favorite prey, picking off one here, two there, slowly escalating in frequency. The townsfolk didn't suspect him until too late. Some of them fled for their lives, but he hunted them down. The few that remained banded together to defend themselves, but they were too few, and Gorblurp's appetite too great. In one night of malicious mastication, Gorblurp ate the last of Rosemary Shire out of house and home.

Build

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Gorblurp
CE (Human)Natural Were Dire Toad Ranger 1/Sorcerer 1/Warshaper 3/Black Blood Hunter 8

Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Ranger 1	+1	+2	+2	+0	Hide 4, Jump 4, Knowledge(Nature) 4, Listen 4, Spot 4, Survival 4, Swim 4	Power Attack, Improved Unarmed Strike, Track	1st Favored Enemy(Halflings), Wild Empathy
8th (5 HD)	Lycanthrope Template (Were Dire Toad)	+4	+6	+6	+4	Jump 8, Survival(cc) 8	Gape of the Serpent, Iron WillB, Weapon Finesse(Bite)B	+2 Natural Armor (+3 in Hybrid or Animal form), Iron Will, Weapon Finesse(Bite), Bite Attack (1d4), Tongue(10ft. Reach), Poison(1d6 Con damage initial and secondary), Swallow Whole, Curse of Lycanthropy, DR 10/Silver, Lycanthropic Empathy, Low-Light Vision, Scent
9th (6 HD)	Warshaper 1	+4	+8	+6	+4	Jump 10, Survival(cc) 8.5	Improved Natural Attack(Bite)	Morphic Weapons
10th (7 HD)	Sorcerer 1	+4	+8	+6	+6	Knowledge(Nature)(cc) 5, Survival(cc) 9		Spellcasting, Summon Familiar
11th (8HD)	Warshaper 2	+5	+9	+7	+7	Jump 11, Survival(cc) 10		Morphic Body
12th (9HD)	Warshaper 3	+6	+9	+7	+7	Jump 12, Survival(cc) 11	Vile Natural Attack	Morphic Reach
13th (10HD)	Black Blood Hunter 1	+6	+11	+9	+7	Jump 13, Knowledge(Nature) 6, Listen 5, Spot 5, Survival 12		Greater Curse of Lycanthropy, Lycanthropic Spell, Wild Items
14th (11HD)	Black Blood Hunter 2	+7	+10	+7	+7	Jump 14, Knowledge(Nature) 7, Listen 6, Spot 6, Survival 13		Animal Aspect 1/day, Wild Empathy
15th (12HD)	Black Blood Hunter 3	+8	+11	+7	+7	Jump 15, Knowledge(Nature) 8, Listen 7, Spot 7, Survival 14	Improved Grapple	Improved Hybrid Form
16th (13HD)	Black Blood Hunter 4	+9	+11	+8	+8	Jump 16, Knowledge(Nature) 9, Listen 8, Spot 8, Survival 15		Animal Aspect 2/day, Improved Vile Natural Attack (1d4)
17th (14HD)	Black Blood Hunter 5	+9	+13	+8	+8	Jump 17, Knowledge(Nature) 10, Listen 9, Spot 9, Survival 16		Improved DR (15/Silver)
18th (15HD)	Black Blood Hunter 6	+10	+14	+8	+8	Jump 18, Listen 10, Spot 10, Survival 18	Shape Soulmeld(Girallon Arms)	Animal Aspect 3/day, Faster Change
19th (16HD)	Black Blood Hunter 7	+11	+14	+9	+9	Jump 19, Listen 11, Spot 12, Survival 19
20th (17HD)	Black Blood Hunter 8	+12	+15	+9	+9	Jump 20, Listen 13, Spot 13, Survival 20		Animal Aspect 4/day, Improved Vile Natural Attack (1d6)

Ability Scores

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Starting Ability Scores (including racial adjustments):
Str - 16
Dex - 14 (18 in hybrid or animal form)
Con - 14 (18 in hybrid or animal form)
Int - 10
Wis - 14
Cha - 12

Final Ability Scores:
Str - 20 (All level adjustments go here)
Dex - 14 (18 in hybrid or animal form)
Con - 14 (18 in hybrid or animal form)
Int - 10
Wis - 14
Cha - 12

Spells per day/Spells Known

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At 10th level, Gorblurp takes a level of Sorcerer. With his Charisma of 12, this lets him cast 5 0-level spells per day and 4 1st-level spells per day. He knows the following spells:

0-Level:
Detect Magic, Ghost Sound, Prestidigitation, Read Magic

1st Level:
Enlarge Person
Hoard Gullet

Breakpoints

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Level 8

Being a natural Lycanthrope, Gorblurp really tastes life starting at 8th level. Before that he still resembles his 8th level self, but let's start the sample here. At this point Gorblurp is already an expert in the gastronomical delights that Halflings can provide. He can track them to their underground homes, raid their simple larders, and feast upon the rather, er, "short" long pork. In his animal form he is already capable of devouring a small creature whole, and can, given an extra round, choke down a medium sized portion should the opportunity arise (thanks to Gape of the Serpent). His lycanthropic DR comes in handy when dealing with swallowed prey, as dealing the requisite amount of damage to cut their way out is made extremely difficult by having to get through the DR.

Level 15, "Sweet Spot"

At this point, Gorblurp's main trick is fully online. He can now Swallow Whole creatures while in Hybrid form (thanks to Improved Hybrid Form). He'll start of any fight he knows is coming by casting Hoard Gullet (which lasts for an hour/CL) and Enlarge Person (minute/CL) on himself before wading into combat and immediately trying to swallow an opponent whole. If multiple likely targets for swallowing present themselves, he'll happily swallow the first one into his Hoard Gullet for eating later (and if they try to cut their way out, then they suffer the fate of the contents of a ruptured bag of holding - they are lost forever), then swallow another for immediate satisfaction. After that he'll use his Morphic Weapons and Morphic Reach to lay into his opponents, or his Bite to spread his poison around. If his DM allows a liberal interpretation of Warshaper, then Gorblurp has N natural weapons, and thus plenty of attacks to deliver. If a very strict reading of the ability is used, then he only uses it to enhance his bite (in order to continue to qualify for Vile Natural Attack), and thus only uses his bite and Unarmed Strikes to attack. His DR makes him capable of front-lining for a few rounds if needs be, but his skills are better spent on his rather unique form of battlefield control (swallowing foes to take them out of the fight), and then skirmishing to assist his party. Thanks to Lycanthropic spell, Gorblurp can still use these tactics prior to level 15 while in Animal form.

Level 20

At the height of Gorblurp's might, these last few levels make him better at everything he does. His DR increases again, making it very difficult for anything that doesn't overcome his DR to cut their way out until the end of the fight when they can be focused on. He gets a slight boost to his grappling ability with the Girallon Arms soulmeld, and with a liberal reading of Morphic Weapons, Improved Vile Natural Attack renders him able to put some serious hurt on.

Sources

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Player's Handbook (Ranger, Sorcerer, Enlarge Person, Improved Grapple, Improved Unarmed Strike, Iron Will, Power Attack, Track, Weapon Finesse)
Complete Warrior (Warshaper)
Monster Manual (Lycanthrope, Improved Natural Attack)
Monster Manual II (Dire Toad)
Player's Guide to Faerun (SI)
Savage Species (Gape of the Serpent)
Dragon Magic (Hoard Gullet)
Magic of Incarnum (Shape Soulmeld)
Book of Vile Darkness (Vile Natural Attack)

[Heliomance]

Character names! They go in the subject line of your PM! *fistshake*

-- Tomothy Darkpaw the Neutral Evil Strongheart Halfling Werecat Rogue 3 / Totemist 2 / Incarnate 2 / Warshaper 2 / Black Blood Hunter 9 --

Spoiler: Background

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Waterdeep, Sword Coast, 1458 DR
In the tavern 'The Dancing Cat'

"Gather 'round kits, and let me tell you a true story" the elderly Tom of the Tibbit community spoke warmly, and all the young Tibbit kittens of the city crowded around the pillow, that he was sitting on.

"It is often said, specially to other races that our race was created from some uncertain evolution from wizard familiars several hundred years back, but that the small amount of us and our preference to staying unnoticed, made it so we're largely unspoken of in the annals of time..." the Tom said while looking at the young kittens whom all nodded agreeing that that was the story that they had been told by their queens.

"And that story" the Tom continued looking surprisingly severely at the kittens "is what we want them to keep believing and, if at all possible help along, the reason being that the truth would see us chased out of our dens and out of the cities, if not killed out of fear."

"The Story of our race begins about 100 years ago, when a young petty thief Halfling through a number of accidents, caused the death of a high ranking Priest of Malar. Thereby causing, by sheer coincidence due to being at the wrong place at the right time, to scuttle a Malarite plot."

"Malar was of cause quite peeved by the fact, and when the gods were banished to walk the realms, he found the young thief and cursed him to become a werecat, an as inconsequential animal as Malar thought that he should have been. This through, broke the Halflings mind and he saw it as a direct order from a deity and a blessing as it made him even better at skulking along without anyone noticing him. Hence it was his holy duty to spread it far and wide, traveling from Luskan to Luiren, from Chult to Thay, infecting people and litters with his Lycanthropy, having a special preference for Halflings such as himself" All the kittens gasped, with wide eyes and their heir puffed out.

"But not all of those infected was equally as willing to follow Malar, and one young Werecat, who happened to be the thief's grandnephew, whom had been bitten as a child, grew up to join the Selûnites and started tracking him down, and after many years he managed to put him down, and with the help of his goddess managed to petition the gods to transmorph their curse into becoming Tibbits. Over the years most of us have become more and more inclined to follow Sharess, with the blessing of Selûne, but the nephew is still heading the Selûnite Tibbits and I will do so till the end of my days."

Spoiler: Statline

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Ability	Base	Racial	Total(Base)	-	Werecat	Morphic Body	Total(Animal/Hybrid)
Strength	15	-2	13	---		+4	17
Dexterity	16	+2	18	---	+4		22
Constitution	16		16	---		+4	20
Intelligence	12		12	---			18
Wisdom	8	+2	10	---			10
Charisma	8		8	---			8

All ability score increases is to be placed in Dexterity

Spoiler: Build Progression

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Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Wilderness Rogue 1	+0	+0	+2	+0	Balance +4 (4), Climb +4 (4), Hide +4 (4), Jump +2 (2) Knowledge (Nature) +2 (2) Listen +4 (4), Move Silently +4 (4), Spot +4 (4), Tumble +4 (4), Use Magic Device +4 (4)	Power Attack, CravenB	Sneak Attack 1d6, Trapfinding
--	Level Adjustment 1	+0	+0	+2	+0
--	Level Adjustment 2	+0	+0	+2	+0		Weapon FinesseB, Iron WillB	Low-Light Vision, Scent, DR 5/Silver
2nd	Totemist 1	+0	+2	+4	+0	Survival +5 (5)		Wild Empathy,
3rd	Totemist 2	+1	+3	+5	+0	Control Shape +2 (2), Knowledge (Nature) +2 (4) Survival +1 (6)	Multiattack	Chakra Bind (Totem)
4th	Incarnate 1	+1	+5	+5	+2	Control Shape +3 (5)		Aura, Detect Good
5th	Incarnate 2	+2	+6	+5	+3	Control Shape +3 (8)		Chakra Bind (Crown)
6th	Wilderness Rogue 2	+3	+6	+6	+3	Balance +1 (5) Climb +1 (5), Control Shape +1 (9), Hide +2 (6), Listen +1 (5), Move Silently +1 (5), Spot +1 (5), Tumble +1 (5)	Open Least Chakra (Hands)	Evasion
7th	Wilderness Rogue 3	+4	+7	+6	+4	Control Shape +1 (10), Hide +2 (8), Listen +1 (6), Move Silently +2 (7), Spot +1 (6), Tumble +2 (7)		Sneak Attack 2d6, Penetrating Strike
8th	Warshaper 1	+4	+9	+6	+4	Control Shape +1 (11) Jump +2 (4)		Morphic Immunities, Morphic Weapons
9th	Warshaper 2	+5	+10	+6	+4	Control Shape +1 (12) Jump +2 (6)	Vile Natural Attack	Morphic Body
10th	Black Blood Hunter 1	+5	+12	+8	+4	Control Shape +1 (13) Hide +1 (9), Move Silently +2 (9), Tumble +1 (8)		Greater Curse of Lycanthropy, Lycanthropic Spells, Wild Items
11th	Black Blood Hunter 2	+6	+13	+9	+4	Control Shape +1 (14) Hide +2 (11), Move Silently +1 (10), Tumble +1 (9)		Animal Aspect 1/day, Wild Empathy
12th	Black Blood Hunter 3	+7	+13	+9	+5	Control Shape +1 (15) Hide +1 (12), Move Silently +2 (12), Tumble +1 (10)	Underfoot Combat	Improved Hybrid Form
13th	Black Blood Hunter 4	+8	+14	+10	+5	Control Shape +1 (16) Hide +2 (14), Move Silently +2 (14)		Animal Aspect 2/day, Improved Vile Attack 1d4
14th	Black Blood Hunter 5	+8	+14	+10	+5	Control Shape +1 (17) Hide +2 (16), Move Silently +2 (16)		Improved Damage Reduction +5/Silver
15th	Black Blood Hunter 6	+9	+15	+11	+6	Control Shape +1 (18) Hide +2 (18), Move Silently +2 (18)	Confound the Big Folk	Animal Aspect 3/day, Faster Change
16th	Black Blood Hunter 7	+10	+15	+11	+6	Control Shape +1 (19) Hide +1 (19), Listen +1 (7) Move Silently +1 (19), Spot +1 (7)
17th	Black Blood Hunter 8	+11	+16	+12	+6	Control Shape +1 (20) Hide +1 (20), Listen +1 (8), Move Silently +1 (20), Spot +1 (8)		Animal Aspect 4/day, Improved Vile Attack 1d6
18th	Black Blood Hunter 9	+11	+16	+12	+7	Control Shape +1 (21) Hide +1 (21), Listen +1 (9) Move Silently +1 (21), Spot +1 (9)	Giantbane	Quick Change

Spoiler: Soulmelds

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Level	Soulmelds	Essentia	Chakra Binds
2nd	2	1	0
3rd	3	2	1
4th	5	3	1
5th	6	4	2
6th	6	4	3

My Default Soulmelds would be:

Slot	Type	Meld
Crown	Bound	Crystal Helm
Hands	Bound	Sphinx Claws
Totem	Bound	Heart of Fire
Arms	Shaped	Bloodwar Gauntlets
Soul	Shaped	Incarnate Avatar
Feet	Shaped	Worg Pelt

Spoiler: Notes

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There is no Racial Hit dice from the base animal as Cats only have ½HD, and as you always round down, that counts as a fancy-looking 0.

Qualification for Vile Natural attack is done by binding Threefold Mask of the Chimera, Ankheg Breastplate or Brass Mane to Totem, and use Morphic Weapons to count as if I were 1 size Larger.

Spoiler: Breakdown

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Level 3rd:
Tomothy at this point is a competent Rogue who between Hybrid form, Sneak attack, Weapon finesse (all Natural weapons count as light unless explicitly stated otherwise, all light weapons can be finessed, unless explicitly stated otherwise), Multiattack and Binding Lamia Belt to his Totem (up until level 8 where Morphic weapons is enabled), is able to have an attack routine, against SA-able opponents, of +7/+7/+5/+5/+5 of 2 times 1d3+1d6+4 (2 Claws from Hybrid, being primary weapons) 1d4+1d6+3 (Bite from Hybrid), and 2 times of 1d3+1d6+3 (2 claws from Lamia Belt). In addition to this fairly impressive attack routine, the Cat form is quite innocuous, and together with his Skill points he's an effective sneak and scout.

Only weak part is that his Health is less than impressive, through that is partially negated by the Damage reduction and his fairly strong AC and that he would have some consistency issues changing his forms

Level 8th:
At this point, we gain Open Least Chakra (Hands) which are used to gain access to Pounce (via Sphinx Claws) which make it much more likely to get the number of attacks that Tomothy have access to (helped by Morphic Weapons, which gives him a even higher amount of natural weapons). From Incarnate, Tomothy gain access to bound Crystal Helm (able to fight incorporal enemies, or similar), Bloodwar Gauntlets which is simply a +1 Morale Attack, and Incarnate Avatar which is a lot of additional melee damage which gains a much from having several weapons.
At the same point the soulmeld choices from Totemist changes slightly with Heart of Fire replacing Lamia Belt in the totem slot, giving Tomothy a handful of 1d4's on all natural attacks, and Worg Pelt which boosts his stealth capability. It is also at this time that, due to Morphic weapons giving him all the natural attacks he might like to have, that fighting in animal form becomes a semi-viable option, as the base dice from weapons is a very small part while the better size modifier from being Tiny makes Tomothy hit more often. Many individually somewhat unimpressive attacks wins the day due to stacking dices and bonuses on top of them.

Meanwhile the additional Rogue levels gives Tomothy Evasion, which together and his reflex saves should make it possible to dodge a number of magical attacks, and Penetrating Strike, which makes Sneak Attack (and hence Craven) viable to a lot more enemies.

Level 13th:
Warshaper 2 gives us Mophic Body which raises our damage (slightly), and our Constitution (and hence Fortitude Saves and Health Points), and from here on out it is Black Blood Hunter. Greater Curse of Lycanthropy fits nicely with the fluffy side of being on a mission to infect as many as possible. Wild Items make popping back and forth between forms much more viable. Animal Aspect is useful in the few cases where its preferable to stay in Halfling form, while Wild Empathy stacks with Totemist.

Improved Hybrid Form doesn't give anything as cat doesn't have any Special attacks which Hybrid form can gain anything from. As per Chair ruling, Improved Vile Natural Attack adds a bonus to all natural weapons instead of only weapons that give 1d8 or better, which again fits nicely with Morphic Weapons.

Finally the Feat gained from Lvl 12 is Underfoot Combat which makes it much easier to get into opponent tiles which make it harder to be targeted, and gives Tomothy soft Cover, which in turn makes it possible to hide (as I'm not longer 'in plain sight'), even from the creature whose square he's hiding in.

Level 18th:
More Animal Aspects which, while not quite needed is potentially nice to have qua the same reason as mentioned in the previous listed level, an higher DR /Silver makes Tomothy even more resistant to regular damage and Improved Vile Natural Attack is even more damage. Finally from the class ability front, speeding up the Change, first to Move actions and later on to Free actions also make it easier to change form as need be.

On the feat front, Tomothy gains Confound the Big Folk, from which the important parts are Knee Striker (which enable Sneak Attack and hence Carven) and to a certain extent Underfoot Defense, in the case of having multiple enemies at the same time, which can't be fled from. Furthermore, at the last level Tomothy gains Giantbane, which gives him the ability to Climb Aboard, which makes it easier to stay in contact with the opponent so he can't flee from Knee Striker.

Spoiler: Resources

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Source	Material Used
Book of Vile Darkness	Vile Natural Attack
Complete Warrior	Giantbane, Warshaper
Dungeonscape	Penetrating Strike
Monster Manual	Lycanthrope, Cat, Multiattack
Forgotten Realms - Campaign Setting	Strongheart Halfing
Forgotten Realms - Champions of Ruin	Craven
Forgotten Realms - Players Guide to Faerun	Black Blood Hunter
Magic of Incarnum	Totemist, Incarnate, Open Least Chakra
Races of the Wild	Underfoot Combat, Confound the Big Folk
Unearthed Arcana	Wilderness Rogue

[Heliomance]

Feed chickan to your serval so it can an grow

The Hellcat
CE Natural Were-Serval Silverbrow Human Duskblade 1/Swashbuckler 4/Black Blood Hunter 3/Swordsage 1/Black Blood Hunter 10

Stats

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Str 14

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Dex 14
Con 14
Int 16 (increases here)
Wis 8 (10 with Lycanthrope Template)
Cha 12

Stats in Hybrid/Animal Form
Str 16
Dex 20
Con 16
Int 16
Wis 10
Cha 12

Build

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Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Duskblade 1	+1	+2	+0	+2	Concentration 4, Knowledge (Nature) 4, Sense Motive 4, Survival 4, Tumble 4	Apprentice (Woodsman), Shape Soulmeld (Dragon Tail)	Arcane Attunement, Armored Mage (Light), Skilled City Dweller
2nd	Serval 1	+1	+4	+2	+2	Jump 5	Iron Will (B), Weapon Finesse (B)	Lycanthrope traits, +4 on Balance, Climb, Hide and Move Silently, +8 on Jump and Listen, use Dex for Jump
3rd	Swashbuckler 1	+2	+6	+2	+2	Balance 3, Bluff 1, Diplomacy 1, Jump 6, Tumble 4, Survival 5	Power Attack	Weapon Finesse
4th	Swashbuckler 2	+3	+7	+2	+2	Balance 5, Bluff 2, Diplomacy 2, Survival 6, Tumble 6		Grace +1
5th	Swashbuckler 3	+4	+7	+3	+3	Bluff 5, Diplomacy 4, Tumble 8		Insightful Strike
6th	Swashbuckler 4	+5	+8	+3	+3	Bluff 9, Diplomacy 6, Tumble 9	Vile Natural Attack	Seduction
7th	Black Blood Hunter 1	+5	+10	+5	+3	Bluff 10 (2), Hide 1, Jump 10		Greater Curse of Lycanthropy, Lycanthropic Spell, Wild Items
8th	Black Blood Hunter 2	+6/+1	+11	+6	+3	Bluff 11(2), Hide 3, Jump 11, Move Silently 3		Animal Aspect 1/day, Wild Empathy
9th	Black Blood Hunter 3	+7/+2	+11	+6	+4	Bluff 12(2), Hide 7, Jump 12, Move Silently 6	Earth Bloodline	Improved Hybrid Form
10th	Swordsage 1	+7/+2	+11	+8	+6	Hide 11, Jump 13, Move Silently 11	(B)Weapon Focus	Quick to Act +1, Discipline Focus: Weapon Focus (Tiger Claw)
11th	Black Blood Hunter 4	+8/+3	+12	+9	+6	Bluff 13(2), Hide 14, Move Silently 14		Animal Aspect 2/day, Improved Vile Natural Attack 1d4
12th	Black Blood Hunter 5	+8/+3	+12	+9	+6	Bluff 15 (4), Hide 15, Jump 15, Move Silently 15	Martial Stance (Dance of the Spider)	Improved Damage Reduction 15/Silver
13th	Black Blood Hunter 6l	+9/+4	+13	+10	+7	Bluff 16 (2), Hide 16, Jump 16, Move Silently 16, Survival 9		Animal Aspect 3/day, Faster Change
14th	Black Blood Hunter 7	+10/+5	+13	+10	+7	Bluff 17 (2), Hide 17, Jump 17, Move Silently 17, Survival 12		:(
15th	Black Blood Hunter 8	+11/+6/+1	+14	+11	+7	Bluff 18(2), Hide 18, Jump 18, Move Silently 18, Survival 15	Martial Study (Death From Above)	Animal Aspect 4/day, Improved Vile Natural Attack 1d6
16th	Black Blood Hunter 9	+11/+6/+1	+14	+11	+8	Bluff 19(2), Hide 19, Jump 19, Move Silently 19, Survival 19		Quick Change
17th	Black Blood Hunter 10	+12/+7/+2	+15	+12	+8	Bluff 20(2), Hide 20, Jump 20, Move Silently 20, Spot 2, Twisted Charge		Animal Aspect 5/day, Improved Damage Reduction 15/silver and magic
18th	Natural Lycanthrope LA 1
19th	Natural Lycanthrope LA 2
20th	Natural Lycanthrope LA 3

Spells

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Spells per Day

Level	0lvl	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th
1st-20th	3	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Spells Known

Level	0lvl	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th
1st-20th	5	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Spells Known
0: Acid Splash, Disrupt Undead, Ray of Frost, Touch of Fatigue
1st: Ray of Enfeeblement, True Strike, Enlarge Person (with Earth Bloodline at 9)

Maneuvers

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1st: Distracting Ember, Sudden Leap
2nd: Cloak of Deception, Shadow Jaunt
3rd: Soaring Raptor Strike, Shadow Garrote
4th: Death from Above (at 15)
Stances: Assassin’s Stance, Dance of the Spider (at 12)

Backstory

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Dastan, High Priest of Lathander, let out a satisfied sigh as he laid back in his bed, head still floating slightly from the wine and from the night’s activities. Delilah curled up beside him, positively purring with contentment.

“Oh lover, that was positively sinful.”

“Hush, Delilah, don’t spoil the moment. Lathander is present at every birth, how could he look down on the act that leads to such birth?”

“But aren’t the high priests supposed to be celibate?” Her tone was innocent, but her coquettish gaze from beneath her heavy lashes was anything but.

“No need to worry yourself about the little rules and traditions of the priesthood. I know what is and isn’t allowed for the high priest.” Dastan knew the code for the high priesthood well, and celibacy was very clearly a requirement. But even the most dedicated man could not have resisted when propositioned by such a woman. She had seduced him, after all. If anything, this was just a moment of weakness, like being unable to defend oneself when attacked by thieves. Yes, just like that. He was the victim here, led astray by this girl from outside of town. He could use this as an opportunity to lead her to the right path, perhaps? But that would be a process, surely requiring much time and frank discussion.

“Dastan?”

“Hm? Sorry, sweetness.”

“You’re a hundred miles away, and I want you right here with me. Aren’t I enough to keep your attention?”
She shifted so that he might appreciate the view that should command such attention. Oh yes, Dastan would have to meet with Delilah many times to cure her of her ways.

---
It was two weeks before he saw Delilah again, and she was as ravenous for him as if she had been away for months. The scratches on his back still stung when she returned from her next trip a few days later.

He asked where she went and what she did that she disappeared so suddenly and returned so unexpectedly. She smiled her smile and said he would value her quite so much if she weren’t so mysterious and her time so rare. He laughed at that and was forming another question when she quickly deflected the conversation to Dastan’s favorite subject: gossip from the town.

“You must have heard that the smith’s wife is stepping out on him.” She said in that breathy whisper of hers.

“What?! No I’ve heard nothing of the sort. He would knock the lights out of any man who talked to her too long at the market. Now if it’s cheating going on, you need look no further than the tanner’s wife. And who can blame her? What woman would stay with a man who stunk like that from his work?”

“The tanner’s wife? How can you be so sure?”

“Well I heard it straight from her confessions. And you wouldn’t believe the sorts of things that they got up to…” Dastan stumbled as he remembered such things were told in the confidence he would guard them.

“Dastan you naughty thing!” Delilah shrieked in mock horror. “My innocent ears are already burning while you talk about such things!”

“Well then I’ll stop talking and give you something else to think about.”

---

Delilah left after a blissful night, and was gone for some time. After a while Dastan began to ache for her. Then he realized he was simply aching. He looked at the scratches on his back that still were troubling him. After some twisting in the mirror he saw them, long shallow gashes on his back and sides like he had just survived wrestling a tiger. He inexpertly applied salve to it, too embarrassed to ask for anyone’s help on the matter.

He tried to distract himself by going about the town and speaking with those he met, including the tanner’s wife. The rumors of her being unfaithful were still running around, and there was beginning to be talk her lover was involving her in something more extreme. He needed to talk with her.
She looked guilty and hurried when she came to the door to answer him, asking him to come back another time. He heard a voice from the other room, too quiet to make anything out but the tone, sultry and impatient. The tanner’s wife blushed, apologized quickly and shut the door. Dastan couldn’t help but chuckle to himself as he walked away. For a moment he was struck on how similar it had sounded to Delilah. No, it really didn’t, he told himself after thinking it over. You’re just missing her.

After a few more days Delilah returned, and Dastan was joyed to see her, though with a twinge of regret as he had decided it was time to break it off.

“Delilah I have cherished our time together more than anything, but I can’t keep denying it anymore. I am a man of the cloth, and my duty is to administer to the people. I couldn’t take you as a wife, and you deserve a man who can give you all of himself.”

She turned away from him, trembling soundlessly.

“Delilah, please don’t cry. Look at me.”

She only shook all the more, until at last she could not keep silent and erupted. Into peals of cruel laughter.

She whirled to him, her face contorted in a mask of demoniacal glee.

“Cry? Over you, Dastan? You self-righteous, pompous hypocrite! You think you can just end this? I am the greatest pleasure you have ever known in your wretched life! You’re going to turn your back on all this for the good of the people, because you’re such a good and holy man? You’re selling me a bigger lie than I ever told you.”

“What? I don’t understand.”

“Of course you don’t little man, because you’re stupid. You never meant anything to me, and you never will. I was just seeing if I could wrap you around my finger hard enough that you would break your precious holy code. And you did! You did again and again, and as eagerly as I have ever seen. You were a trifling pastime, Dastan. You were a game I bet on, and I won. I’m done with you. Now it’s time to finish you.” As she spoke the last line her body twisted and grew, sprouting fur and fangs until she stood revealed before him as a lycanthrope. She stepped toward him, slavering and reaching with her clawed hand

“Please!” screamed Dastan, falling to his knees. “Please don’t kill me! I’m a good man, I promise!”

“You were never a good man, Dastan. But you’ve got it wrong once again. I’m not going to kill you. I’m going to undo you.” The words were twisted and mangled by her toothy muzzle as she cut short his protests with a single vicious swipe, clawing shallow gashes into his face that burned like she had set him on fire. Then she stood him up, and shoved him out the door into the crowded market street. He fell to his hands and knees, and picked himself up in time to see her resume human form and tear her clothes before running into the street after him, wailing at the top of her lungs.

“Help! Please somebody help! Save me!”

The townspeople quickly gathered around and calmed her down enough to get her story out, punctuated as it was by wracking sobs.

“It’s Dastan… He … He and the tanner’s wife had taken me to his house where they were going to…do things to me. They said they were going to sacrifice me to Loviatar in some horrible ritual after they finished with each other. Oh god the things they…did to each other, and they were happy doing it! Look if you don’t believe me, look at him he’s covered with the marks from their perversions!”

The townspeople seized Dastan and saw the mark on his face. They pulled his robe up over his body to reveal his back covered with gashes, all raw and bloody as if acquired seconds ago. At this they quickly became a mob. They seized the tanner’s wife and found her similarly marked. She and Dastan tried to explain, stumbling over themselves and each other as they protested that Delilah was behind this, and that she had done it. She had seduced them and brought them to this. As he spoke he realized how it all sounded, how innocent she seemed and how this was all his fault.

Delilah fled in tears and the mob was upon them. Dastan was pilloried until his trial, when the townsfolk found him guilty of taking another man’s wife, of abandoning his code, and of practicing forbidden worship. He was sentenced to die, and he did not object. Dastan was led to the gallows a broken man. He had nothing left to live for. As they fit the noose around his neck he looked up at the crowd one last time. Movement in the far alley caught his eye. A lithe, long necked cat crept from the shadows to sit patiently at the edge of the crowd, and the last thing Dastan saw was the wicked, self-satisfied gleam in its eyes.

ECL 5

Spoiler

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Welcome to the rough and tumble life of the Hellcat. At 2HD you’re going to have to watch yourself. Duskblade makes for a strong opening argument, utility SLAS and two easily usable offensive spells. These are always nice, but will have a greater punch at these low levels. Feats are all tied up in terms of qualifying, but they can still help you out. Dragon tail deals 1d8 damage (you see where I’m going here) and you don’t need any essentia for it, so there’s little reason not to keep it shaped all the time. It doesn’t quite function exactly like a natural weapon, so talk with your DM about that strength bonus not turning into half when you use it as a secondary attack.

Now let’s talk Serval and Natural Lycanthrope. As per the entry, animal can’t be your first HD, so we’re applying it second even though this is a case of natural lycanthropy. Serval has many neat advantages. It’s small, so if you need stealth you can always shrink down for the bonus, but your hybrid stays medium. Because of the way feats break down, weapon finesse is a bonus feat, so yay free! Racial Bonus on sneaking helps, but the real interesting one is Jump. With a +8 bonus you’ll move around more easily. I’m assuming the ability to use Dex instead of Str on jump also applies, which pumps it even higher (which will come back later). Serval has the natural “stealth” like ability of being an unassuming cat, not abnormal to find wandering the wilderness or near towns, and cats staring at things isn’t out of the ordinary at all. Plus people won’t necessarily try to hunt them like wolves to protect livestock, so bonus. As a serval you can pounce, which is always fun, and the faster speed means you can charge and jump a good distance. Humorously, Dragon tail deals the same damage in any size, but I’d stick to medium shapes for most combat. At this point DR 10/silver will help more than you might think, but don’t lean on it too much.

Apprentice Woodsman is mostly here for skills, but it has a cute extra benefit which works with the class. It allows you to track whenever the DC is 20 or lower, which means you have Track for most situations, but also means you can use your Scent ability from Lycanthrope to track things by scent, which provides lower DCs in most cases. Whenever tracking do both to give yourself an extra chance to catch things.

ECL 10

Spoiler

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Now that we actually have some more levels under the belt we can talk more fun tactics. At 7HD the difference is mattering less, but you still shouldn’t be reckless. You can talk about trading this Weapon Finesse away if you like, but I didn’t need to so I left it. In hybrid form your dex is high enough that you can probably afford do use power attack a bit, but don’t feel obligated (remember it can apply to nat attacks but not other light weapons). Vile Natural Attack is taken at the first opportunity, using the Dragon Tail, so you are qualified in any form.

Swashbuckler has a few neat tricks, and you harvest most of the good stuff in your 4 level foray. Full BA helps you qualify, different skills helps prepare you for the SI and your life in it. Grace won’t win the game, but it’s always on and it’s free so enjoy it. Insightful strike is the stronger argument, enjoy Int to damage with all finesse-able weapons (including nat attacks) with your strength mod. Seduce is the other reason we’re here, to provide the Hellcat’s modus operandi. Seduce uses bluff and some adult activities to extract information from people, the more you win by the less naughty you have to be (but having fun doesn’t interfere). Most importantly, it has flat DCs so if you juice your mod, you get the result, no argument.

Now that that’s done, welcome to the SI. We’ll be stopping in for a few levels, but at this point we only have the one. First your DC for curse of lycanthropy goes up, which we have to be natural to reap the benefit for. Wild items makes your life much easier, this way your gear doesn’t melt into your form when you change shape provided you attach the clasps, but little more spending is way better than not having access. The real bonus right now is Lycanthropic spell, meaning you can cast in hybrid (your default combat form from now on) or animal (making sneaking easier) forms. Remember when casting in animal it seems as if you’re just a cat meowing and batting at a fly, so you don’t look conspicuous.

ECL 15(Sweet Spot)

Spoiler

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More levels in the SI, with a brief stopover in swordsage. We take up to 3 in the SI first for those sweet special attacks. We’ll first pickup wild empathy, which may not seem great, but you can use it to gather a group of cats to blend into when you need to disappear. Animal Aspect is I think best used for the big bonus to Dex when you have to do something Dex related (including jumps and some combat) in humanoid form, but it would increase your strength or con if you wanted to as well.

Now the main event: special attacks. Pounce, Improved Grab, and Rake are the three you get, and they’re all good. Pounce is as we all know pretty much necessary for most melee builds, and this one is no exception. Improved Grab triggers on your bite, and like most is for 1+ size category smaller. That’s where Earth Bloodline comes in! By adding enlarge person to your duskblade list, you can now make yourself large (cast it after changing to hybrid form) so you can grab medium foes and bring up your rakes.

Remember that the damage for those goes up just like your claws to d4 in hybrid form, d6 when Large. They’re for more damage when pouncing mostly, so don’t feel compelled to keep the grapple up in subsequent rounds. However if it’s the type of foe who would really be inconvenienced by the grapple and you can hold (like many spellcasters who aren’t prepared) then keep a hold and on subsequent rounds make 1 grapple check to deal bite damage, and follow up with the rakes. Remember, rakes still are natural attacks, so add Int to damage there, too.

Let’s take a break from the SI to discuss swordsage. I put the level here because I thought having natural attacks was a good pause point, but you can move it earlier and later, it doesn’t really alter the build. Swordsage’s maneuvers are the main interest here, but +1 to init and attack with tiger claw weapons (including your claws!) is always helpful.
As for the maneuvers, Distracting Ember flanks an enemy for you to use sneak attack on, Sudden Leap with your very high jump mod means you’re flying across the battlefield, Shadow Jaunt is straight up teleport when places are hard to reach with jumps, Cloak of Deception gives greater invisibility for quick sneaking and applying sneak attack, and Shadow Garrote is for when you want to smack someone from a distance. On an amusing note, you can execute maneuvers as a cat, so you can shadow garrote someone while hiding out or hanging out as a small cat (No one suspects the cat). Move quick once you do, since they’ll see the shadow flying off you. I’m pretty sure you can apply SA to the garrote itself.

Soaring Raptor Strike and Death from Above are similar. For both you make a jump check to deal bonus damage. Soaring Raptor needs an opponent larger than you and uses jump vs their AC, and Death from Above works on any, is jump check vs dc 20, and the opponent is flatfooted, so sneak attack. Use Soaring Raptor as a cat, and use Death from Above whenever you want (as soon as you get it at ECL 18)

As for stances, you have two to use, dance of the spider (always on spider climb) and assassin’s stance (always on 2d6 SA). They’re pretty straightforward, use the first for mobility and sneaking, use the second when it’s time to fight, it’ll make a full pounce a real damage dealer, and give you all the more reason to be stealthy.

Once out of swordsage we pick up higher DR, which still helps cushion in combat. This brings up another reason you would want to grapple. Your enemy might have a big ol’ silver greatsword in his bag, but that can only pierce your DR if he can use it! In a grapple everyone’s restricted to lights (and even then at a penalty except for you) and if your foe isn’t prepared they could very easily be trying to damage you with regular armor spikes or a dagger, which just won’t cut through DR 15/silver. Obviously it doesn’t apply to everybody, but you’d be surprised how many enemies aren’t prepared.

Improved Vile Natural Attack now is online, which (I hope) will bring this build together in a way that makes my madness make sense. As our chair has gracefully ruled, this vile damage applies to all natural attacks. That means the tail, claws, bite, and the rakes, because yes rakes are natural attacks. Much like precision damage, you want it to apply in as many vehicles as you can, so a full pounce becomes all the more devastating. You can now alter your combat strategy to more harassment, winnowing down health or light skirmishes, breaking off if it gets too heavy for you. The harder it is for your enemy to access consecrate or hallow, the longer you can make this process.
Vile damage on a rake has one more use, if you bear with me. While you’re using your seduce ability from swashbuckler and learning secrets, you’ll more likely than not engage in some… adult activities. If being locked in the passionate embrace of another isn’t grappling I don’t know what is. In seriousness, just start a grapple check if your DM says you need it, just start with the regular version, with a touch attack. Your enemy will be (ahem) unarmed, so they don’t threaten anyway. Anyway, once “grappling” make a quick shift to hybrid form, and hit your opponent with the rakes (you should hit against their unarmored AC) and pass them off as you just getting a little too enthusiastic. Your enemy is marked now if you want to shame them like in the story, or you could make several visits to shave off health, or if you’re confident, make several rakes in one session. Who knows, you might kill them then and there. The faster you can change the better this strategy becomes, so it’s a good thing the SI speeds that up.

ECL 20

Spoiler

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Wrapping up the SI, Faster Change and then Quick Change make it very easy to switch forms, especially in combat, so use that at every opportunity. More vile damage on all your natural attacks mean you’re that much meaner and hit and run tactics become that much more viable.

Finally, your DR is now 15/magic and silver, which means enemies pretty much have to explicitly plan to go after you for them to do real damage when fighting you in a grapple, so use it to your every advantage.

At this point your DC for curse of Lycanthropy is a beefy 25, so you can spread it much more easily and cause a lot of havoc.

Sources

Spoiler

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Serval: Sandstorm
Duskblade: Players Handbook II
Swashbuckler: Complete Warrior
Silverbrow Human, Dragon Tail: Dragon Magic
Shape Soulmeld: Magic of Incarnum
Apprentice: Dungeon Masters Guide II
Swordsage, Martial Study, Martial Stance, Maneuvers: Tome of Battle
Vile Natural Attack: Elder Evils
Seduction: Dead Levels II
Earth Bloodline: Dragon Compendium
All else: srd

[Heliomance]

False advertising - I'm not seeing any way he can use those tails to fly.

Tails

Chaotic Evil Silverblood Human Were-Nifern
Barbarian 1 / Hexblade 4 / Cleric (Malar) 1 / Black Blood Hunter 10

Starting Abilities: STR 18, DEX 10, CON 14, INT 10, WIS 10, CHA 12
All lvl increases to STR
Lycanthropy WIS +2
Were-Nifern Adjustment: STR +6, DEX +4, CON +4
Final Abilities: STR 28, DEX 14, CON 18, INT 10, WIS 12, CHA 12

Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Barbarian 1	+1	+2	+0	+0	Survival 4(4), Jump 4(4), Know(Nature) 2(4), Intimidate 4(4)	Multiattack, Dragon Tail, Willing Deformity(E)	Lion Totem(pounce), illiteracy, rage 1/day
2nd	Nifern Animal HD 1	+1	+4	+2	+0	Survival 5(1), Jump 4.5(1), Know(Nature)2, Intimidate 4	Track(B), Iron Will(B)
3rd	Nifern Animal HD 2	+2	+5	+3	+0	Survival 6(1), Jump 5(1), Know(Nature)2, Intimidate 4	Power Attack
4th	Level Adjustment 1	+2	+5	+3	+0	Survival 6, Jump 5, Know(Nature)2, Intimidate 4
5th	Level Adjustment 2	+2	+5	+3	+0	Survival 6, Jump 5, Know(Nature)2, Intimidate 4		Curse of Lycanthrope, Alternate Form, Damage Reduction 10/silver, Lycanthropic Empathy, Low-Light Vision, Scent
6th	Hexblade 1	+3	+5	+3	+2	Survival 6, Jump 6(2), Know(Nature)2, Intimidate 4		Hexblade's curse 1/day
7th	Hexblade 2	+4	+5	+3	+3	Survival 7(2), Jump 6, Know(Nature)2, Intimidate 4	Abominable Form(E)	Arcane resistance
8th	Hexblade 3	+5	+6	+4	+3	Survival 8(2), Jump 6, Know(Nature)2, Intimidate 4	Vile Natural Attack	Mettle
9th	Hexblade 4	+6	+6	+4	+4	Survival 9(2), Jump 6, Know(Nature)2, Intimidate 4		Dark Companion
10th	Cleric 1	+6	+8	+4	+6	Survival 9, Jump 6, Know(Nature)4(2), Intimidate 4	Strength Devotion(D)	Rebuke Undead, Animal domain
11th	Black Blood Hunter 1	+6	+10	+6	+6	Survival 10(1), Jump 7(1), Know(Nature)4, Intimidate 6(2)	Shape Soulmeld (Dragon Tail)	Greater curse of lycanthropy, lycanthropic spell, wild items
12th	Black Blood Hunter 2	+7	+11	+7	+6	Survival 11(1), Jump 8(1), Know(Nature)4, Intimidate 8(2)	Deformity(tall)(E)	Animal Aspect 1/day, wild empathy
13th	Black Blood Hunter 3	+8	+11	+7	+7	Survival 12(1), Jump 8, Know(Nature)4, Intimidate 9(1), Never outnumbered(2)		Improved hybrid form
14th	Black Blood Hunter 4	+9	+12	+8	+7	Survival 13(1), Jump 8, Know(Nature)4, Intimidate 12(3), Never outnumbered	Power Lunge	Animal Aspect 2/day, improved vile natural attack 1d4
15th	Black Blood Hunter 5	+9	+12	+8	+7	Survival 14(1), Jump 8, Know(Nature)4, Intimidate 15(3), Never outnumbered		Improved DR (+5/silver)
16th	Black Blood Hunter 6	+10	+13	+9	+8	Survival 16(2), Jump 8, Know(Nature)4, Intimidate 17(2), Never outnumbered		Animal Aspect 3/day, faster change
17th	Black Blood Hunter 7	+11	+13	+9	+8	Survival 18(2), Jump 9(1), Know(Nature)4, Intimidate 18(1), Never outnumbered	Bind Vestige, Deformity(skin)(E)
18th	Black Blood Hunter 8	+12	+14	+10	+8	Survival 19(1), Jump 11(2), Know(Nature)4, Intimidate 19(1), Never outnumbered		Animal Aspect 4/day, improved vile natural attack 1d6
19th	Black Blood Hunter 9	+12	+14	+10	+9	Survival 20(1), Jump 13(2), Know(Nature)4, Intimidate 20(1), Never outnumbered		Quick change
20th	Black Blood Hunter 10	+13	+15	+11	+9	Survival 21(1), Jump 15(2), Know(Nature)4, Intimidate 21(1), Never outnumbered	Improved Binding	Animal Aspect 4/day, improved DR (magic & silver)

Hexblade Spells per Day

Level	1st
9th-20th	0

Hexblade Spell list
1 - Detect Magic, Karmic Aura



Cleric Spells per Day

Level	0lvl	1st
10th-20th	3	1+1

Spoiler: Level 5

Show

Your standard Pounce Barbarian, but he is a were-Nifern which has 2 claws (1d6), bite (1d8), and sting (1d4 + poison(DC13 paralysis 1d10 round, 1d4 STR secondary)) which hit more often due to multiattack. He has an additional tail due to his draconic heritage and a bonus to intimidation from serving Zargon the Elder Evil.

Spoiler: Level 10

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He's picked up some levels in Hexblade to help shore up his resists, get the required BAB, and get a dark companion which help make his poison sting a little less unreliable. He also can gain a slam attack and increases the damage of all other natural weapons using Strength Devotion. He also gets an abominable form from serving Zargon which shake any creature with less HD and again helps his poison land more often.

Spoiler: Level 15

Show

He gets a third tail composed of incarnum and starts to get the fun SI abilities. He does some nice vile damage with his 7 natural attacks and usually stays in hybrid form which better displays his abominable form and still get his poison sting in that form. Power Lunge lets his charge damage increase to 2x STR rather than 1/2 STR on each attack at the cost of taking an attack of opportunity which could be partialy or fully mitigated with his +5ft reach from deformity(tall) and his improved DR. If he choses to use intimidate it now effect everyone within 10ft rather than just a single enemy he threatens.

Spoiler: Level 20

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He gets more vile damage on his attacks, improves his DR to magic, and gets another point of natural AC to stack with the 2 from lycanthropy. He can also now bind Focalor and stack Aura of Sadness with his other debuffs to make his sting and curse of lycanthropy land more often.

Spoiler: Use of SI

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Greater curse of Lycanthropy - use debuffs and take all levels of SI so it afflicts more often.
Lycanthropic spell - only have a few spells per day, but while fighting in full animal from before Improved hybrid is available can self heal without changing forms.
Wild items - getting item effects in all forms is nice.
Animal aspect - truthfuly I see little use in this feature as he's spending most of his time in pure animal or hybrid form.
Wild empathy - I can have a little influence over all those foes I turned with my greater curse of lycanthropy.
Improved hybrid form - I can now stay in hybrid form most of the time and still get my sting attack, bonus to track, blindsight and hold breath abilities
Improved Vile natural attack - However you read this (applying to all natural attacks or only ones 1d8 +) I have 7 attacks per round (2 claws, bite, 3 tails, slam) which benefit from this extra, hard to heal damage
Improved DR - taking less damage is always good especialy when drawing attacks of opportunity on charges.
faster/quick change - great for those times when I'm tracking a foe and have to switch from sight to blindsight/scent or vise versa.

Spoiler: Sources

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Complete Champion - Strength Devotion
Complete Scoundrel - Never outnumbered
Complete Warrior- Hexblade
Dragon Magic - Shape soulmeld(dragon tail)
Elder Evils - Serving and elder evil and vile feats
Ghostwalk - Power Lunge
Player's Handbook 2 - Dark companion
Races of the Dragon - Dragon tail
Serpent Kingdoms - Nifern
Tome of Magic - Bind Vestige, Improved Binding
Unearth Arcana - Lion Totem barbarian

[Heliomance]

And that appears to be everyone. Bigger round than we've had for a while - hopefully it doesn't scare off our judges!

[Thurbane]

So...the build I was tinkering with was Quasi-Lycanthrope Human Battle Dancer 4/Crusader 5/Black Blood Hunter 10. Using Able Learner, Apprentice (woodsman) and Knowledge Devotion to meet the skill reqs; and using the Battle Dancer's unarmed strike to qualify for Vile Natural Attack (although I'm not 100% sure that works by RAW?).

Other than that, it would have been a pretty bog standard Leap Attack build, with secondary focus on skills. Charisma focused to fuel AC bonus and Crusader abilities.

It really didn't make much use of the SI, to be honest...

...well done to all who got an entry in!

[Inevitability]

I briefly considered a were-horned lizard who somehow got damage-dealing blood (Monster of Legend seemed the easiest way) and could spray it infinite times per round at no harm to himself. However, it'd leave me only a few levels to use in the build, so I eventually just abandoned the concept.

[Sian]

tried getting a Dire Weasel+Souleater to work, but failed.

Bit surprised only 2 Warshapers ... guess Vizzini was strong

[Amphetryon]

EDIT: [redacted] to avoid influencing any judges.

[Thurbane]

Just out of curiosity (as I don't see any in the entries, unless I'm missing something) - would Quasilycanthrope actually satisfy the reqs for BBH?

My argument for the affirmative would be as follows:

Size and Type: The base creature's type does not change, but the creature gains the shapechanger subtype. The lycanthrope takes a few characteristics of some type of carnivorous or omnivorous creature of the animal type (referred to hereafter as the base animal).

[MisterKaws]

Welp, my count was spot-on, exactly nine weirdos builds.

I can guess nearly half of the competitors, though. Won't that be a problem for the judges?

[Deadline]

Welp, my count was spot-on, exactly nine weirdos builds.

I can guess nearly half of the competitors, though. Won't that be a problem for the judges?

Unlikely, and you'd be surprised at how many of your guesses might be wrong. Some of us will change up our submission template rather drastically every once in a while just to keep you on your toes. I've actually done it with two different submissions in the same round before. When you also add in the fact that we've shared submission templates around, it can sometimes be quite difficult to guess which entries belong to which chef.

At any rate, I'm delighted to see such remarkable variation, and to see that each one appears to be unique in its "weird" factor. Looks like plenty of delicious entries to read. Do we have any judges who have volunteered to step up? I think there was some rumbling to that effect earlier in the thread.

[Darrin]

I can guess nearly half of the competitors, though. Won't that be a problem for the judges?

I don't think so. Even when I think I have identified a chef, after the reveal I find that about half the time I guessed wrong. Even though my scoring criteria is more subjective, I like to think I give everybody the benefit of the doubt.

Also, I find it helps if I just tell myself that WhamBamSam submitted all the builds. That way, there's no favoritism, right?

My best idea was a were-cheetah using wild shape, Cheetah's Speed, Drunken Master, and Roof-Jumper to charge 100x, using Death From Above for 600ish-d6 damage. Only works once per hour. This was similar to my Zahnik Bhoom build. However... it works largely without Black Blood Hunter, and I couldn't really see how the secret ingredient improved it.

Another idea involved a were-bison and some Trample tricks. But the damage was very underwhelming. Still... Stampede (Ex) might have some interesting possibilities, but I hadn't quite worked out how to manage the random direction.

Do we have any judges who have volunteered to step up?

In a strange break from tradition, I have started judging before the actual judging deadline expires. I do not have an ECD to be vaguely noncommittal about yet.

I don't see any herbivores... so I am disappointed. I haven't quite decided how I feel about quasilycanthropes (haven't gotten to that build yet).

[Sian]

I was looking at making a Fleshraker, but vizzinied myself out of it...

[daremetoidareyo]

I kept on trying to find a way to pimp out entomothrope.
My three main contenders were

ectoplasmic vermin from ghostwalk: Made of ectoplasm. But I couldn't figure out how to use that. They aren't ghosts per se so i couldn't put ghost feats onto them. I wound up with spit venom, deadly spittle, and improved spit used to generate a 30' cone of ectoplasmic contact poison...which I couldn't figure out how to use for anything...except ghost hunting.

hoard scarab from the dragonomicon: that burrow ability is amazing

leechwalker from MM2: blood drinking ability.

[Deadline]

I kept on trying to find a way to pimp out entomothrope.

I feel you. I had a couple of ideas for something like a "King of the Ettercaps" and a "Were-phase spider" type deal, but neither of them really went anywhere interesting. That Hoard Scarab idea is neat, but the whole "destroyed by any effect that would cure a disease" thing seems problematic.

[daremetoidareyo]

I feel you. I had a couple of ideas for something like a "King of the Ettercaps" and a "Were-phase spider" type deal, but neither of them really went anywhere interesting. That Hoard Scarab idea is neat, but the whole "destroyed by any effect that would cure a disease" thing seems problematic.

I was thinking divine counterspell cleric and caster level boosting shenanigans...

[Deadline]

I was thinking divine counterspell cleric and caster level boosting shenanigans...

That's surprisingly difficult to squeeze in with all the other things you need for this SI and still have room left over for the SI. It looks like several chefs ran into that issue this round. It's a surprisingly strict set of entry requirements, even if you limit yourself to low RHD animals. The fact that Animal HD only give medium BAB certainly gave me fits.

The dishes look pretty great so far, although honestly it feels like this ingredient is like a fish fillet filled with bones. Even if we think we've gotten them all, one is likely to get through and lodge in the judges throat. Still, I have to applaud my fellow chefs, the creativity alone that is on display this round is pretty fantastic.

[MisterKaws]

That's surprisingly difficult to squeeze in with all the other things you need for this SI and still have room left over for the SI. It looks like several chefs ran into that issue this round. It's a surprisingly strict set of entry requirements, even if you limit yourself to low RHD animals. The fact that Animal HD only give medium BAB certainly gave me fits.

Though in exchange, we do get a lot more freedom of choice and customization with this ingredient than we would get with Risen Martyr or something like that. I think that's why there are so many entries too. I was waiting for a long time for an ingredient that had so much customization to enter the contest for my first time, and I was really upset that Legacy Champion - the one thing that triggered my creativity - came at such a bad time. At least I managed to squeeze the time this round, even though college is just as bad right now.

[Heliomance]

Tails has asked to withdraw on grounds of using 3.0 lycanthropy rather than 3.5. Personally I'm of the opinion that going to the effort of entering a build deserves feedback even if the build is illegal.

[Thurbane]

Tails has asked to withdraw on grounds of using 3.0 lycanthropy rather than 3.5. Personally I'm of the opinion that going to the effort of entering a build deserves feedback even if the build is illegal.

I'd concur - a lot of work has gone into that build.

Sure, the judges are likely to ding it for using the wrong edition lycanthrope rules, but I personally feel it's still a worthy entry.

[Sian]

... wait, the lycanthrope rules are significantly different between 3 and 3.5? ... how?

[MisterKaws]

... wait, the lycanthrope rules are significantly different between 3 and 3.5? ... how?

From what I'm seeing, 3.5's got an increased LA, because balance.

I'd say keep it, though. As long as that's the only mistake, it can still get quite a nice score.

I'll discuss more about it after the round is over, because any more could influence the judges.

[The Viscount]

Tweaked LA and same DR for natural and afflicted, from what I can see.

I agree that Tails should be able to stay.

[Amphetryon]

Is it my imagination, or have folks been announcing which build isn't theirs?

[daremetoidareyo]

Is it my imagination, or have folks been announcing which build isn't theirs?

They can self advocate in the thread and sabotage themselves versus PM if they have nerves after reading how RAW compliant the rest of the entries are.

[Darrin]

From what I'm seeing, 3.5's got an increased LA, because balance.

Tails still has LA +2, so it's the equivalent of an afflicted lycanthrope. So that would mean Black Blood Hunter requires 8 ranks in Control Shape, but I don't really see that as a serious flaw. (I got the gold last round with an "illegal" build. It happens.) It might make a difference if my initial scoring winds up tied with another build and I'm looking for a tie-breaker. I'd say keep the build in as-is, and I'll score it with the benefit of the doubt.

[MisterKaws]

Is it my imagination, or have folks been announcing which build isn't theirs?

Pretty much. There's enough builds here to still hide their identities, even if it did nearly confirm my guess on that build's owner.

[WhamBamSam]

I had thought all my ideas were too close to my actual build to post, but it turns out I did have something that was unrelated and no one else did it.

Strongheart Halfling Were-Tiny Viper Pouncebarian 1/Battle Dancer 4 with Improved Natural Attack (Unarmed Strike) can take Vile Natural Attack as an Elder Evil feat at its 5th HD (ECL 7 or 8 with the 1/4 HD of the tiny viper rounding down). In fact any 5 levels of full BAB that can meet the skill requirements should work with Power Attack and Improved Natural Attack (Unarmed Strike) at 1st level and Superior Unarmed Strike at 3rd.

I couldn't really think of what to actually do with the early entry besides full attack with some poison and vile damage though, and even Afflicted Lycanthrope LA prevents it from reaching 16 BAB because Black Blood Hunter has medium BAB for some ungodly reason, so I didn't bother pursuing the idea.

I had one other trick that I considered as well, but decided to save it for a different ingredient.

[Troacctid]

From what I'm seeing, 3.5's got an increased LA, because balance.

I'd say keep it, though. As long as that's the only mistake, it can still get quite a nice score.

I'll discuss more about it after the round is over, because any more could influence the judges.

LA wasn't a thing in 3.0. You just weren't supposed to play monsters.

I believe the alternate form ability worked differently under 3.0 rules. Also, the damage reduction was higher. Probably some other differences too. You can find the 3.0 version here.