Since VT did his judging twice in half the time it took me to do mine, I felt inspired to get it finished. I think we are only waiting on Dubious Pie at this point.
Dolgan Whurard
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Originality: 3, Divine Mind, a terrible class. None the less, it does fit in, and the Guardian Mantle is pretty fitting. I like the Battlesmith splash, too.
Power: 3.5, very tanky. Strong start and strong finish, but the middle (8-12ish) looks a bit saggy. Things are scaling fast in this range, but your defenses seem to cap out while waiting for other features to kick in. Could have benefitted from a bit of Law Devotion for a sacred bonus to AC if you had TU to power it.
Elegance: 3.5, Divine Mind is a lot smoother than PsyWar2/Pal2/Whatever1, and is still decently strong for what you want it for. I don’t see the real need for Hidden Talent at 1 other than the extra PP, since Divine Mind qualifies you for War Mind.
Use of Secret Ingredient: 4, excellent use of the more defense aspects of War Mind. You didn’t really capitalize on using Sweeping Strikes, the coolest feature, by expanding your reach but you did focus on most of it.
Esha Two Bears
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Originality: 3, nothing to profound, but nonetheless effective.
Power: 4, Expansion is usually a winner. Could have traded Powerful Charge (a crappy feat) for Practiced Manifester (Warmind) and started instantly with a ML of 5. This would have given him more bonus PP from Wisdom, as well as the ability to augement powers faster. Destructive Rage is pretty crappy too. Still, a resilient, powerful, and dangerous foe.
Elegance: 5, I like the simplicity of the build. Acknowledges the limitations of both Barbarian and Fighter, utilizing both to maximize early level strength while War Mind makes up for mid-level strength. Taking Education while Illiterate is kinda goofy, but technically legal.
Use of Secret Ingredient: 4, use of Expansion from War Mind is pretty much par for the course. It makes Sweeping Strikes more worthwhile. Nothing too creatively utilized other than this fact though.
Khalanatari
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Originality: 4, Atavist is a really unique way of showcasing Warmind’s Sweeping Strikes feature. Very nicely done.
Power: 3, a monk that doesn’t suck completely! Of course, Tash more than makes up for it, but still. I like how you have 17/20 monk progression on nearly everything. It’s a bit saggy at first, since it’s what, 7th level till you at least get 1d8. Also, the Str gained and Dex lost from Expansion is counter to a build based off Expansion, which gives you funny results. All in all, blooms rather late with a kind of saggy middle. Not terribly saggy, but pretty lackluster. Starts a bit slow as well, since it doesn’t qualify for Finesse at the start, so it would have to be swapped with Versatile UAS. Could really use Standstill or some other control feat to round out the build.
Elegance: 3, I told you I was gonna mark builds down for not posting their PP totals. Other than that, build flows ok, escapes from monk after 2 frontloaded levels. Doesn’t really have anything to tie in the large reach and lockdown abilities though.
Use of Secret Ingredient: 4, War Mind comes a bit late, but Atavist’s Aggressive Spirit Lineage really helps it out. 20’ reach with unarmed strikes is pretty impressive, especially with Thicket and Defensive Sweep.
Daken
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Originality: 5, Half-orc paragon into Totem Rager is something I’d never thought of. I like it. It’s simple yet elegant. Deepspawn is also a nice addition.
Power: 3.5, Sweeping Strikes comes a little late, and I think some of your power choices are a bit lackluster. Painful Strike? Granted, you have a lot of natural attacks, but it’s hardly worth the action. Also, with all of those natural attacks, encountering DR is gonna be a bummer, especially exotic DR like that of high level Demons and Devils.
Elegance: 4, build progresses well from HOP to Totemist to Totem Rager. War Mind feels a little tacked on, but still adds nicely to the build. It would have been nice if War Mind could have been bumped forward, at least till level 5, so that sweeping strikes could be enjoyed for more than 6 levels.
Use of Secret Ingredient: 3, while I like the Totemist aspect, if feels like War Mind kinda takes a back seat to it. The build primarily uses the War Mind abilities to augment his Totemist abilities, rather than the other way around.
Xepher Lod
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Originality: 4, Illithid Grapple is fun, and combines well with Sweeping Strikes as indicated.
Power: 3.5, Very slow start. Lowish HP and doesn’t even get first BAB until level 3. Adds up nicely from there, though. Spectacular grappling optimization, especially with (Improved) Multigrab to be able to overcome the biggest difficulty that grapplers have: multiple targets! Has Dispel Magic, but by the time it gets it, using it to clear FoM buffs is probably a wasted action and won’t be successful.
Elegance: 3, seems to start off very clumsily with a few base classes that have little synergy. The wizard dip would have most likely been beneficial at ECL 10 after bumping Warmind down a full level. This gets you Sweeping Strikes a level earlier as well. PsyWar2 also gets you lots of bonus feats and the skills and PP you need to get into War Mind. Good cutoff point.
Use of Secret Ingredient: 4, one of the best uses of Sweeping Strikes in this competition. Combining it with Improved Grab is genius and really allows you to blenderize foes you scoop up into square.
Tanis
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Originality: 3, Ape totem is unique/interesting, but that’s about it.
Power: 2, I see a lot of conflicting abilities. There is a focus on ranged attacks, yet martial strikes which can only be initiated in melee. Eventually BSB allows you to make strikes at range, but only Iron Heart ones, of which you only have 1 of, which ironically doesn’t work with Thunderous Throw due to having the additional qualifier of requiring that you threaten both foes. Almost whole build concept is at war with itself.
Elegance: 1, doesn’t qualify for Sudden Leap. You need 1 other TC maneuver known to take Sudden Leap. Also, Sweeping Strikes doesn’t work with Bloodstorm Blade’s Returning Weapon ability. You don’t threaten foes outside of your reach. Sweeping Strikes requires that you threaten the squares you use it on.
Use of Secret Ingredient: 1, Bloodstorm Blade and War Mind have conflicting abilities. You can’t combine them in any way. Synergistically, there is really nothing special going on here.
Violet Rose
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Originality: 3, taking advantage of half giant size is good, even if it’s not terribly unique. Perfect Riposte is pretty much awesome here though.
Power: 2.5, terribly MAD. I see Str, Int, Con, Wis, and Dex. Likely to be woefully short on PP, and only halfass benefiting from +Int to damage and +Wis to AC due to the need to split stats. Interesting use of powers though, which redeems you a little bit. Decent Knowedge Devotion use though.
Elegance: 4, relatively streamlined build. Probably could have bumped PsyWar level down at least one level to even out your IL before that 3rd or 4th SS level. War Mind also comes in a bit late, would be nice to enjoy Sweeping Strikes for more than the last 7 levels. Other than that, not bad.
Use of Secret Ingredient: 3, doesn’t REALLY take special advantage of Sweeping Strikes other than through Expansion. Practiced Manifester does help add some PP nicely, though.
Krelb the Canny
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Originality: 2.5, Venerable Dragonwrought kobold is not a unique or special snowflake. Like Iron Mind though.
Power: 4, pretty strong stacking of DR. War Mind, Iron Mind, Roll With It, Greater Resilience, and Endure Blows DR all specifically stack with other types of DR/-. Practiced Manifester + Ardent is also a strong combo to make up for dead levels, especially when you come back into it with Iron Mind to reap some higher level powers.
Elegance: 1, massive point markdown here for Wyrm of War. Even if it might be technically legal, good luck passing that off in a real game. The IO competition is about making awesome playable characters. Sovereign Archtypes are not supposed to be used like that. The golf bag full of weapons idea seems nice on paper, but you can’t exactly switch weapons in combat when the tactic is required. This requires some pretty extensive foreknowledge to have the most optimum weapon ready. You’d be best off just soaking your cash into one really good weapon and forcing it to be the best weapon in all circumstances. Also, while most of your DR stacks, Armor Specialization and Biofeedback don’t. You’d have to choose one to be your base to stack all the others on.
Use of Secret Ingredient: 4, makes excellent use of the class’ DR, on top of the other abilities, including Sweeping Strikes. A nice tankalicious tank.
Sublime Mind of War
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Originality: 1, not even trying. Nothing unique or amazing here. Not even a hint of story either.
Power: 3, whatever maneuvers you pick, you can’t help but be decent. Power selection is ok. Since it’s a buff based build, could have SERIOUSLY benefitted from Link Power to cut down buff time. Linking Expansion and GCA would turn 2 rounds of power buffing into one.
Elegance: 2, no mention of which maneuvers would make this build go, or which ones would synergize with your War Mind abilities. The only redeeming point is that you spaced out the levels appropriately to maximize IL to get a new maneuver of the given level at the earliest point possible. Almost no technical write-up and no suggested equipment.
Use of Secret Ingredient: 2.5, other than slight mention of Wis synergy and a brief mention of Sweeping Strikes, build seems to focus more on Swordsage abilities than War Mind. This begs the question, why War Mind? Other than the fact that it was the SI…
Ultimo Tarrasco Jr
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Originality: 5, great story, great abilities. I kept hearing a voice shouting “Sunday Sunday Sunday!” the whole time while reading it. Totemist groping abilities are also awesome.
Power: 4.5, very strong grappler, check-wise. Grapple damage is pretty pitiful though. 1d4 at large size, or 1d8 when Expanded to huge. Still, 2 sources of Constrict help even this out and grapple is primarily a lockdown ability anyway. Great combination of Improved Grab and Sweeping Strikes. Grab brings foes into your square(s), which stacks them up so you can Sweeping Strikes everyone in the pile. Ouchies!
Elegance: 4, my only really big beef is that you waited SOOOO long to take that 2nd Totemist level. Binding Girallon Arms to your Totem is so awesome. It would have been better to take that instead of the 2nd Fighter level before heading into War Mind. Small beef is regarding Weapon Focus Grapple. This wouldn’t increase your grapple checks, since Weapon Focus only increases attack rolls and a grapple check isn’t an attack roll. It would only increases the touch attack to start a grapple, which you don’t make due to Imp Grab.
Use of Secret Ingredient: 5, one of the best uses of Sweeping Strikes due to the Imp Grab ability. Also makes excellent use of powers and other abilities.
Bosleigh Eddon
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Originality: 4.5, Incarnate adds a ton here, and using Tash with War Mind is a great idea. This one took a long time to fully grasp, but is actually remarkably simple despite its complexity.
Power: 5, versatility is king here. This character can do a little of everything. Impossible to lock down, painful to ignore, and full of nasty surprises, this characters diverse abilities converge with one purpose…to make your life uncomfortable with big meaty damagefists.
Elegance: 5, well optimized. Utilizes a TON of power break points to get the best frontloaded abilities while avoiding pesky things like multiclass penalties. Tash bleeds the Monk together with the War Mind to reach the all important 12th level effective Monk level for Greater Flurry. Mauling Gauntlets on top of size stacking meatfists make for a load of damage and snagging Improved Trip from Passive Way while circumventing Combat Expertese (and its Int requirements) negates MAD. Practiced Manifester on Ardent allows the late level Soul Manifester levels pick up some great endgame powers and Open Chakra at the top of War Mind along with Practiced Manifester, Invest Power, and a couple other ML boosters/cost reducers allow you to hit ML17 fully augemented Open Chakra to get access to Throat and Waist Chakras, as needed. Both Practiced Manifester feats also increase your PP pool by a significant margin, which is useful in all circumstances.
Use of Secret Ingredient: 3.5, I can see how War Mind is important here, but you didn’t really showcase it as well as you could have. More description!
As always, I tried to be as diligent as possible. If I missed something, please use the proper channels to petition.