My favorite competition happens to be the one I'm worst at, I think. Still, I'm quite proud of the work I've done here, both as a chef and as a judge. Without further ado, here are my medal winning builds and my history of judgments.
Medalists:
In the Atavist round:
Kalshtar Jones, bronze medal and
Anidina the Mad, silver medal.
The competition had very low participation, which is why I managed to sneak away with two medals. If we're being honest neither of these is very good - they're very early work, and I've learned a
lot since the time I created these. Then again, I keep learning every day I'm on these forums, and hopefully I'll see my current work the same way some day. I'm still a big fan of the fluff on both of these though, especially Anidina. I think it's worth a read.
In the Tattooed Monk round:
Captain O, bronze medal.
Mechanically, this is probably my least favorite build I've ever created. It is basically the result of me being salty about my on inability to create a build that could score well
and be interesting at the same time. I guess you could find something to like about this build, but to me, it is like the fluff I wrote for this one says: Captain O has no soul. Still, it won a medal, so it gets to be here, while Frough-Gee and Faderyn have to stay out. Such is life. As I'm writing these letters, this is the third and last build on the list for this competition; hopefully, there'll be more in the future.
In the Thayan Gladiator round:
Five-Punch Man, bronze medal
Very happy to have edged out a medal here, and so close to silver, too! This round was huge, the biggest in many years, with 20 entries. I feel honored to have placed here, and this is one of my favorite builds I've done. I thought it was creative and effective, though not super powerful by any means. It started with asking myself how I could get a metal natural weapon, to combine thayan gladiator with disciple of dispater, and kind of grew from there.
In the Imaskari Vengeance Taker round:
Alkathira Hamerubot, bronze medal.
Can't complain about bronze! I was pretty happy with Alkathira, though I did mess up by not having 5 levels of Abjurant Champion - I misremembered martial arcanist as applying to the class that AC was advancing, and I ended up with 19 CL when I could have had 30. Oh, well. I probably would've scored lower with only 9 levels of the SI, anyway, but see my post
here for cool mid-op gish builds. As I said, I like this entry, and think it deserved the spot it got. I truly feel like I'm getting slightly better at this.
In the Arcane Duelist round:
Whitefeather, silver medal.
Bah, I really thought I had something nice going there with dervish, but I was misreading the ability. This really turned me off from the build, because there's not one big clever idea here: what I thought was clever about it were the 100 little synergies, and if those break apart... Well, it still won silver, best I've done since my very first round participating (in which I only beat out one competitor) Good for me! One of these days I'll get gold.
In the Berserk round:
Anvil, silver medal
My most fun Iron Chef entry, I think. I owe a lot of its success to Zaq and Daremetoidareyo, as I explained in the post-reveal discussion. It's an undead dragonborn ex-azurin who lives their life as a giant whale just to mess with the rules, and it ends up being the best tank I've ever designed - though I've since figured out less shenanigans-prone ways to achieve the same goal. I was really, really close to finally getting gold with this one, but Whambamsam won out by a quarter of a point. One day. EDIT: Unfortunately, I've since found out that rules compendium clarifies "spellcasting creature" in a way that pretty much cancels this idea. Damn. The boring alternative is still viable, but this build unfortunately doesn't work.
In the Ballisteer round:
Goliath of Gath, gold medal, and
Queequeg, Silver Medal
My first gold in Iron Chef! Goliath is a sling user throwing colossal++++ damage boulders and doing double damage on a full attack, while Queequeg is meant to be the ultimate harpoonist. Both of these builds have a lot of issues. I ****ed up big time reading expansion for Goliath, and I messed up the order of operations on Queequeg prrtty bad. Still, as of writing these words, I'm happy with both of them. On a 10-entry round, gold and silver isn't bad, too.
In the Demonologist round:
Aries Darantas, Honorable Mention!
This entry got last place, but it's my first honorable mention! Well, first one to not be disqualified by winning another medal. It's
wild, even if I do say so myself. I bent spellthief backwards in order to be able to enter demonologist with no other classes, which allowed me to create a build that can summon demons, and steal their spells to summon more of those demons, ad infinitum! I'm very happy with Aries, even though it's probably the messiest build I ever submitted. Give it a read!
Judgments:
Judging Psion uncarnate: This was my first time actually engaging with the competition. I had very little knowledge of the system at this point outside what has been translated to Hebrew (only the 3 core books and 4 of the completes) but I like to think I managed to do a good job despite it all. This competition featured 3 excellent builds, including Zaq's Tapestry Whale, which remains one of my favorite dishes ever submitted.
Judging Disciple of Mammon: Judging solo is very stressful, and that was a big competition. This ingredient didn't really bring out the best the chefs can do, in my opinion, but it did get us wide participation and a very diverse group of builds. I had to rank my favorite builds pretty low, and there was one incomplete entry I got genuinely upset with - partly because had it been completed, it would have swept the competition in my opinion. It also brought to my attention the urgent need for financial education among many of our esteemed chefs. How could you guys miss INFINITE MONEY as a class feature?
Judging Crimson Scourge (
Part 2 is here): This was an excellent round, in my view, though I was not a fan of a couple of the builds. A lot of creativity on display. I recommend reading through these entries.
Judging celebrant of Sharess: This was an excellent ingredient, mechanically, though it has very disturbing implications. There was some good work on display here. This was a less thought out judgement than my usual style, and I'm unhappy with the way I treated one of the builds - but such is life. I think I should work on something in between my usual style and this one, if I want to judge more.
Judging Shining Blade of Heironeous: But then, everything changed when The Viscount attacked.
Extremely difficult round, that managed to get many inspiring entries in. This was an incredibly tough nut to crack, and many tried and failed - hence the terrible scores I handed out left and right. This was a huge amount of work, but I'm glad to have done it.
Judging Dragon Descendant: A very contentious judgement of mine.
Judging Umbral Disciple: I didn't know what to do with this as an ingredient. I've considered slapping 3 levels of UD on plenty of builds before, but I truly felt lost when faced with it as a challenge. Yet our competitors rose to the challenge! Shout out to Loky1109's Catoichi, my fave entry in this excellent round.
That's it for the Iron Chef (for now). Coming up next: