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Re: Iron Chef Optimization Challenge in the Playground XXIII
Zaq,
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One of the Seven Deadly Sins domains? If so, they're meant or an alternate monotheistic-ish setting anyway, so assume you live there. Maybe grab the favored weapon of one of the dualistic gods in Deities and Demigods.
Incidentally, while this is unlikely, if you're doing Swallow Whole Optimization with the Gluttony Domain I will love you forever.
Ssertrous. Is Ssertrous a deity? Does it matter?
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Re: Iron Chef Optimization Challenge in the Playground XXIII
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Zaq
Argh. I'm trying to be evasive and not make it immediately obvious which domain I'm using.
Assuming that there is, in fact, such a domain that doesn't actually have any associated deities, what then?
If a domain explicitly has no deities (such as the Transformation Domain), a Divine Crusader can't take it. Unlike a Cleric, you can't just worship the forces of Lawful Neutrality to suit your domain/alignment/general skeeze needs. All the Spell Compendium Domains have sources, and in those sources those domains have gods that provide them.
I've been tempted while building things to try to argue that the God of XYZ has the XYZ domain even though he doesn't actually have it (due to it being from a different obscure source than the god), but that'll probably provoke massive deductions so I'm avoiding it.
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Re: Iron Chef Optimization Challenge in the Playground XXIII
Psst. What happened to the Side Dish competition? Where the entrants statted popular characters?
Is anyone willing to run a Dessert Competition as well? Where a homebrew class from here on GitP is the secret ingredient?
We could have 3 competitions at once: Main course (This), Side Dish (Spin-off, can't find it), and Dessert (Spin-off, not existing yet).
Or have people run multiple IC competitions at once and found it too hard to handle?
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Re: Iron Chef Optimization Challenge in the Playground XXIII
Competing. Gonna be interesting to see what I can do with it.
EDIT: Got most of my build sorted. Kind of exciting, and I'm pretty convinced it's basically unique.
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Re: Iron Chef Optimization Challenge in the Playground XXIII
Quote:
Originally Posted by
DeAnno
If a domain explicitly has no deities (such as the Transformation Domain), a Divine Crusader can't take it. Unlike a Cleric, you can't just worship the forces of Lawful Neutrality to suit your domain/alignment/general skeeze needs. All the Spell Compendium Domains have sources, and in those sources those domains have gods that provide them.
I've been tempted while building things to try to argue that the God of XYZ has the XYZ domain even though he doesn't actually have it (due to it being from a different obscure source than the god), but that'll probably provoke massive deductions so I'm avoiding it.
A fair argument . . . but what if it explicitly says "None. Clerics of any deity may take this domain." instead?
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Re: Iron Chef Optimization Challenge in the Playground XXIII
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Originally Posted by
Zaq
A fair argument . . . but what if it explicitly says "None. Clerics of any deity may take this domain." instead?
Well that's pretty clear. You chose a deity, and that deity can offer that domain.
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Re: Iron Chef Optimization Challenge in the Playground XXIII
I'd agree that in that case you're all set (and in fact in great position, not being hedged into one alignment/deity.)
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Re: Iron Chef Optimization Challenge in the Playground XXIII
Hate spellcasters in general and want to judge. This seems like a no-brainer; count me in as a judge. No criteria yet, I'll just make it up as I go along.
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Re: Iron Chef Optimization Challenge in the Playground XXIII
Quote:
Originally Posted by
flabort
Psst. What happened to the Side Dish competition? Where the entrants statted popular characters?
Is anyone willing to run a Dessert Competition as well? Where a homebrew class from here on GitP is the secret ingredient?
We could have 3 competitions at once: Main course (This), Side Dish (Spin-off, can't find it), and Dessert (Spin-off, not existing yet).
Or have people run multiple IC competitions at once and found it too hard to handle?
Psst. Hey buddy I got your back. It is right here, got what you need I made it a really long competition as I recognized that it is a spin off so in order to get a lot of applicants for a first time I would need to extend the deadline a bit.
Z3ro: It would be kinda nice to see what you want so we can try to customized a bit or stay away from barbarian as you hate it. No, I don't know what your feelings towards ragers are, if any.
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Re: Iron Chef Optimization Challenge in the Playground XXIII
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Originally Posted by
BobVosh
Z3ro: It would be kinda nice to see what you want so we can try to customized a bit or stay away from barbarian as you hate it. No, I don't know what your feelings towards ragers are, if any.
Even beyond that, it's nice to give the competitors an idea of your judging rubric for two reasons:
- It gives them an idea of WHY you gave a certain deduction, even if your notes don't make it explicitly clear.
- I've found that, as a judge, abiding by my posted rubric ensures that my scores are more consistent across the board.
Not saying that you have to, just my 2 cp on why I think even a quick set of criteria is a good thing.
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Re: Iron Chef Optimization Challenge in the Playground XXIII
Since it has been requested several times, here's some criteria.
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OriginalityThis category has two main components; was your build similar to any of the other builds submitted, and was it similar to any well-known builds. In addition, I will penalize your build if it uses obvious tricks in obvious ways or well-known exploits in expected ways. Bonus points for things that haven't been thought of before (or at least with respect to the secret ingredient) and for using known tricks in unusual ways.
PowerHow does your build stack up, power wise, to other builds focusing on similar objectives. Power in this category includes flexibility and versatility as well as straight combat power. This category will also measure power from level 1-20; a build will be penalized if it is excessively weak or unplayable at lower levels but ramp up later. Bonus points will be given if most or all of a build's power come from tricks involving the secret ingredient.
EleganceThe toughest category to judge and assess, I judge elegance as how well the build flows together. Dipping will be penalized, but dips that make thematic sense (ranger dipping barbarian) will be penalized less than dips that do not (rogue dipping paladin). More importantly, the build should make sense at all levels, 1-20. Abilities that are useless at the level they are taken, but come on line later, will be penalized. Maintaining flavor and flow through the build will be rewarded.
Use of the Secret IngredientIf elegance is the hardest to judge, this is probably the easiest. Did your taking the secret ingredient make sense? Did you take all 10 levels? How many of the abilities granted did you use, and how essential are they to your build? And probably most importantly, would your build be better off with another class, rather than the secret ingredient?
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Re: Iron Chef Optimization Challenge in the Playground XXIII
My build is finally coming together :smallbiggrin:
It should be done by today, or maybe tomorrow. I have to say it's turning out better than I initially expected.
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Re: Iron Chef Optimization Challenge in the Playground XXIII
This competition has truly proven to me that if you want to solve a problem in 3.5e, all you have to do is throw hours and hours of research at it.
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Re: Iron Chef Optimization Challenge in the Playground XXIII
I've just stumbled across my two build ideas. Neither one is going to wow anyone, but I'm just hoping that I'll make up for it in style points.
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Re: Iron Chef Optimization Challenge in the Playground XXIII
My build's done and formatted, I just need to write up the fluff. Maybe I'll even have time to put together a second!
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Re: Iron Chef Optimization Challenge in the Playground XXIII
Done, just fluffing. Remarkably snazzy, if I do say so myself. My only issue is if a different class could do it better....but I don't know of any others that could get me 9ths, and the correct spells.
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Re: Iron Chef Optimization Challenge in the Playground XXIII
I've got two builds, trying to decide between them.
I predict a whole awful lot of one base class this time around. Let's see if I'm right.
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Re: Iron Chef Optimization Challenge in the Playground XXIII
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Originally Posted by
gbprime
I've got two builds, trying to decide between them.
I predict a whole awful lot of one base class this time around. Let's see if I'm right.
Are you predicting one particular class will show up a lot, or mono-class entry? I could see both being true.
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Re: Iron Chef Optimization Challenge in the Playground XXIII
I'd like to try my hand at this. Do we also include crucial items in the build?
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Re: Iron Chef Optimization Challenge in the Playground XXIII
Quote:
Originally Posted by
kestrel404
Are you predicting one particular class will show up a lot, or mono-class entry? I could see both being true.
One particular class. I'll withhold further comment until the builds are posted.
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Re: Iron Chef Optimization Challenge in the Playground XXIII
It would be best if you include the required items and a wish list of any other items the character would like. However if your character needs something that is not very common to function with whatever trick(s) you are using then most judges will penalize you somewhere.
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Re: Iron Chef Optimization Challenge in the Playground XXIII
If your character needs something to function no matter how common, it seems that they get punished. I recall a drunken master build that was penalised half a point by most judges for not being very effective without any stat boosting items.
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Re: Iron Chef Optimization Challenge in the Playground XXIII
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Originally Posted by
term1nally s1ck
If your character needs something to function no matter how common, it seems that they get punished. I recall a drunken master build that was penalised half a point by most judges for not being very effective without any stat boosting items.
Obviously, this doesn't always apply in the case of mundane or items necessary to the PrC. You wouldn't penalize a Drunken Master because it needs lots of mundane booze, now would you?
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Re: Iron Chef Optimization Challenge in the Playground XXIII
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Vandicus
I'd like to try my hand at this. Do we also include crucial items in the build?
Absolute dependency on items can take a hit, either in power or elegance.
Absolute dependency on an item to qualify for something (for example, using a Ring of Evasion to qualify for a PrC that requires evasion) is at least a full point off elegance, if not more, as it is very rules-dodgy, and some GM's won't let you get away with it...
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Re: Iron Chef Optimization Challenge in the Playground XXIII
I've got two builds sketched out (one kinda risky, one a little blander and a little safer). Hopefully, I'll get one or both in submittable form by the deadline, but since I'm going out of town on Saturday, no guarantees. (Of course, I might have some free time while I'm there, but who knows?)
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Re: Iron Chef Optimization Challenge in the Playground XXIII
Build submitted. It's pretty awesome and I think it'll be fairly unique thematically.
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Re: Iron Chef Optimization Challenge in the Playground XXIII
Are you still looking for judges? I'm not sure I have time to finish a build, but I would definitely be willing to judge.
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Re: Iron Chef Optimization Challenge in the Playground XXIII
Writing the backstory took a while longer than expected (English is not my first language) but I'm almost done. I'll submit it later today. I hope no one else had the same idea. :smallbiggrin:
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Re: Iron Chef Optimization Challenge in the Playground XXIII
I'm still judging this, after an inability to think up a build that wouldn't be better off taking some other prestige class.
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Re: Iron Chef Optimization Challenge in the Playground XXIII
If I don't manage to finish by the deadline, is there a chance that I can still judge, or is that something I have to declare before the deadline?
It's still a toss-up as to whether I'll finish, since I am, as I said, out of town. Not out of the question, but far from guaranteed.