[tuggyne]

So, I had the idea to have a sort of vote for the absolute worst of the worst in 3.x: stuff that makes you really blanch on sight. I'm keeping track of the top ten by vote in a short table, and all the other suggestions in a much longer one.

Everyone gets up to ten votes, and you can put up to three of them on the same suggestion (yours, or someone else's), or put up to one negative vote per suggestion you disagree with, which counts as one of your ten total; you can redistribute votes at will. Also, try to keep suggestions as tight and self-contained as possible: rather than saying "Sarrukh", try "Manipulate Form"; rather than "Wizard", try "Shapechange". Finally, please try to make all votes clear, to reduce the possibility of misinterpretation.

The Top Ten

#	Name	Type	Votes
1	Truenamer	Base Class	31
2	PaO duration/Alter Self/Polymorph/Shapechange	Spell	26
3	Iron Heart Surge	Maneuver	25
4	dust of sneezing and choking	Item	21
5	epic spellcasting	Rule	16
6	alignments	Rule	15
7	Cancer Mage	Prestige Class	13
8	drowning	Rule	13
9	Sarrukh's Manipulate Form	Ability	13
10	candle of invocation	Item	12

13 dishonorable mentions (at least 5 votes):

Spoiler

#	Name	Type	Votes
11	Diplomacy	Skill	12
12	Paladin code	Class Feature	10
13	Monk	Base Class	9
14	Manyfang Dagger	Item	9
15	Shivering Touch	Spell	7
16	Void Disciple	Prestige Class	7
17	Tainted Scholar	Prestige Class	6
18	Monstrous Crab	Monster	5
19	Hulking Hurler mountain-tossing	Class Feature	5
20	Precocious Apprentice	Feat	5
21	Leadership	Feat	5
22	flat-footed	Combat	5
23	Adamantine Horror	Monster	5

96 additional suggestions:

Spoiler

#	Name	Type	Votes
24	CW Samurai	Base Class	4
25	Invisible Blade prereqs	Class Feature	4
26	Thought Bottle	Item	4
27	Balor sword	Ability	4
28	Trap Sense	Class Feature	4
29	bloodlines	Variant Rule	4
30	Challenge Rating	Combat	4
31	PrC prereq	Rule	4
32	Opalescent Glare	Spell	4
33	Abrupt Jaunt	Alternate Class Feature	4
34	Vow of Poverty	Feat	4
35	Ex/Su/SLA/Na	Rule	4
36	Feinting	Combat	3
37	Dread Necromancer's fear aura	Class Feature	3
38	Persistent Spell	Feat	3
39	Genies	Monster	3
40	Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil	Prestige Class	3
41	Gate	Spell	3
42	Mercurial Strike	Feat	3
43	Mountebank	Prestige Class	3
44	Lucid Dreaming	Skill	3
45	Dragonwrought	Feat	3
46	Dragonblood subtype	Rule	3
47	Incorporeal subtype	Rule	3
48	Forsaker	Prestige Class	3
49	Prone Shooter	Feat	2
50	Ride-By Attack	Feat	2
51	dead	Combat	2
52	grapple	Combat	2
53	Level Adjustment	Rule	2
54	soulmelds	Rule	2
55	Practiced Manifester	Feat	2
56	LA/RHD	Rule	2
57	multiclass XP penalties	Rule	2
58	Ur-Priest	Prestige Class	2
59	Jump	Skill	2
60	Planar Bubble	Class Feature	2
61	Sublime Chord	Prestige Class	2
62	Fiery Fist	Feat	2
63	Favored Soul	Base Class	2
64	Synthesist Summoner	Base Class	2
65	traps	Rule	2
66	spell component pouch	Item	2
67	Contact Other Plane	Spell	2
68	Elemental Weird	Monster	2
69	Pazuzu	Monster	2
70	Monkey Lunge	Feat	1
71	Naztharune Rakshasa sneak attack	Ability	1
72	Antagonize	Feat	1
73	Fighter	Base Class	1
74	Divine Metamagic	Feat	1
75	Vorpal	Item	1
76	Legion of Sentinels	Spell	1
77	Incantatrix	Prestige Class	1
78	magic device traps	Rule	1
79	SLAs ignoring components	Combat	1
80	Planar Ally/Planar Binding	Spell	1
81	Heroes of Horror	Book	1
82	Healer	Base Class	1
83	Dvati	Race	1
84	Jack of All Trades	Feat	1
85	Forced Dream	Power	1
86	Haunt Shift	Spell	1
87	Freedom of Movement	Spell	1
88	swift/immediate action movement	Class Feature/Item	1
89	Clever Wrestling	Feat	1
90	Versatile Spellcaster	Feat	1
91	Choker extra standard action	Ability	1
92	Festering Hate	Disease	1
93	Arrow Demon	Monster	1
94	Damage Reduction stacking	Rule	1
95	Wish	Spell	1
96	Feral	Template	1
97	Diehard	Feat	1
98	free actions	Combat	1
99	Beholder Mage	Prestige Class	1
100	Planar Shepherd	Prestige Class	1
101	Apocalypse from the Sky	Spell	1
102	Dirge Singer	Prestige Class	1
103	Tracking	Rule	1
104	White Raven Tactics on initiator	Maneuver	1
105	Complete Psionic	Book	1
106	Mindsight	Feat	1
107	Monk proficiencies	Class Feature	1
108	Shaedling's Shadow Gossamer	Ability	1
109	Ebon Eyes	Spell	1
110	Guidance of the Avatar	Spell	1
111	Greater Mirror Image	Spell	1
112	nightsticks	Item	1
113	Exemplar	Prestige Class	1
114	Ice Assassin	Spell	1
115	Illumian power words	Ability	1
116	Erudite	Base Class	1
117	CPsi Mind Blade	Feat	1
118	Reincarnate	Spell	1
119	Flaws	Variant Rule	1
120	Locate City	Spell	1

6 proudly negated suggestions:

Spoiler

#	Name	Type	Votes
121	chicken-infested	Flaw	0
122	Malconvoker	Prestige Class	0
123	Factotum	Base Class	0
124	ML limit on augmentation	Rule	0
125	Love's Pain	Spell	0
126	Wizard	Base Class	-1

Votelog:

Spoiler

Poster	Votes	Total
Acanous	candle of invocation (1)	1
allenw	Monkey Lunge (1), Prone Shooter (1)	2
Amoren	Naztharune Rakshasa sneak attack (1), CW Samurai (1), Truenamer (1), Invisible Blade prereqs (1), Monstrous Crab (1)	5
Amphetryon	Shivering Touch (1)	1
Answerer	Sarrukh's Manipulate Form (1), Truenamer (1)	2
Antonok	Paladin code (3), dust of sneezing and choking (3), alignments (1), Feinting (3)	10
Aricandor	Sarrukh's Manipulate Form (1), Truenamer (1), candle of invocation (1), dust of sneezing and choking (1), Iron Heart Surge (1), Cancer Mage (1), Tainted Scholar (1), drowning (1), epic spellcasting (1), PaO duration/Alter Self/Polymorph/Shapechange (1)	10
Arutema	Antagonize (1)	1
Ashtagon	Fighter (1), Wizard (1), Divine Metamagic (1)	3
avr	Ride-By Attack (1), Iron Heart Surge (3), alignments (3), epic spellcasting (1), PaO duration/Alter Self/Polymorph/Shapechange (2)	10
Azernak0	Truenamer (1)	1
Batou1976	Truenamer (1), candle of invocation (1), Vorpal (1), alignments (-1), drowning (1)	5
BCBrammer	Void Disciple (1)	1
ben-zayb	Hulking Hurler mountain-tossing (3), Precocious Apprentice (2), Thought Bottle (2), Cancer Mage (3)	10
bobthe6th	Balor sword (3), Dread Necromancer's fear aura (3)	6
BRC	Legion of Sentinels (1)	1
Cruiser1	Persistent Spell (3), Iron Heart Surge (1), Genies (3), Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil (3)	10
Curmudgeon	Monk (2), Leadership (1), Manyfang Dagger (3), Incantatrix (1), epic spellcasting (1), Diplomacy (1), PaO duration/Alter Self/Polymorph/Shapechange (1)	10
Devmaar	Trap Sense (2), dust of sneezing and choking (2), Iron Heart Surge (2), dead (1), drowning (2), Shivering Touch (1)	10
Doorhandle	chicken-infested (1), Iron Heart Surge (1), Monstrous Crab (1), Cancer Mage (1)	4
Doug Lampert	candle of invocation (-1), dust of sneezing and choking (1), drowning (1), grapple (1), magic device traps (1), SLAs ignoring components (1), Diplomacy (1), Gate (1), PaO duration/Alter Self/Polymorph/Shapechange (1), Planar Ally/Planar Binding (1)	10
Doxkid	Heroes of Horror (1)	1
Dragonborn	Healer (1), alignments (3), epic spellcasting (2), flat-footed (1), Level Adjustment (1), soulmelds (1), Shivering Touch (1)	10
Draz74	Sarrukh's Manipulate Form (1), Monk (1), Adamantine Horror (1), epic spellcasting (1), Diplomacy (2), Gate (1), PaO duration/Alter Self/Polymorph/Shapechange (1), bloodlines (1), Dvati (1)	10
dspeyer	Practiced Manifester (1), Iron Heart Surge (1), PaO duration/Alter Self/Polymorph/Shapechange (1)	3
EatAtEmrakuls	Truenamer (3), Iron Heart Surge (3), Cancer Mage (3), drowning (1)	10
eggs	Jack of All Trades (1), Practiced Manifester (1), Forced Dream (1), Malconvoker (-1), Challenge Rating (3), Haunt Shift (1), bloodlines (2)	10
Ernir	Factotum (1), Truenamer (1), Iron Heart Surge (1), drowning (1), Freedom of Movement (1)	5
Eugenides	Diplomacy (3), Monk (3), Iron Heart Surge (2), Manyfang Dagger (1), dust of sneezing and choking (1)	10
Featherman	swift/immediate action movement (1), LA/RHD (1), multiclass XP penalties (2), PrC prereq (3), PaO duration/Alter Self/Polymorph/Shapechange (3)	10
Gavinfoxx	Clever Wrestling (1)	1
GnomeGninjas	Mercurial Strike (3)	3
Grim Reader	Versatile Spellcaster (1), Ur-Priest (1)	2
Grytorm	Tainted Scholar (1)	1
HeadlessMermaid	Invisible Blade prereqs (1), Trap Sense (-1), Iron Heart Surge (2), alignments (3), flat-footed (1), Diplomacy (1), PaO duration/Alter Self/Polymorph/Shapechange (1)	10
Jade Dragon	Mountebank (3), candle of invocation (3), Diplomacy (2), Jump (1), alignments (1)	10
JaronK	Opalescent Glare (1)	1
jaybird	Iron Heart Surge (1)	1
karpik777	Iron Heart Surge (2), Adamantine Horror (1), Tainted Scholar (1)	4
Kazyan	Sarrukh's Manipulate Form (3), Truenamer (3), Tainted Scholar (1), epic spellcasting (3)	10
Khosan	drowning (1)	1
killianh	Planar Bubble (1)	1
Kira_the_5th	Choker extra standard action (1), Abrupt Jaunt (1), Festering Hate (1), Antagonize (-1), Cancer Mage (1), Malconvoker (1), Sublime Chord (2)	8
Knaight	Balor sword (1), Truenamer (3), Paladin code (2), Void Disciple (2), Lucid Dreaming (2)	10
Ksheep	Truenamer (1), Paladin code (1), Ride-By Attack (1), Vow of Poverty (1), Adamantine Horror (1), Arrow Demon (1), Monstrous Crab (1), Cancer Mage (1), alignments (1), drowning (1)	10
Kurald Galain	Monk (3), Precocious Apprentice (3), drowning (-1), Shivering Touch (3), ML limit on augmentation (0)	10
Kuulvheysoon	Truenamer (1), Dragonwrought (1)	2
LordDrakulzen	Paladin code (1), Vow of Poverty (2), dust of sneezing and choking (2), Manyfang Dagger (2), Damage Reduction stacking (1), Wish (1), Feral (1)	10
lunar2	Wizard (-1), Diehard (1), Fiery Fist (2), alignments (3), Dragonblood subtype (3)	10
Madara	Truenamer (1), Trap Sense (2), dust of sneezing and choking (2), Iron Heart Surge (1), Monstrous Crab (2), PaO duration/Alter Self/Polymorph/Shapechange (1), Shivering Touch (1)	10
Malimar	Truenamer (1), Dragonwrought (1), Leadership (1), Iron Heart Surge (1), drowning (1), epic spellcasting (1), free actions (1), grapple (1), PrC prereq (1), Diplomacy (1)	10
Mithril Leaf	candle of invocation (1), Ex/Su/SLA/Na (1)	2
molten_dragon	Sarrukh's Manipulate Form (1), Truenamer (1), Persistent Spell (1), Thought Bottle (1), Iron Heart Surge (1), Beholder Mage (1), Planar Shepherd (1), Tainted Scholar (1), Ur-Priest (1), LA/RHD (1)	10
mootoall	Sarrukh's Manipulate Form (3), Void Disciple (1), Apocalypse from the Sky (1)	5
Morph Bark	Truenamer (1), Hulking Hurler mountain-tossing (-1), Iron Heart Surge (-1), epic spellcasting (3), Ex/Su/SLA/Na (1), PaO duration/Alter Self/Polymorph/Shapechange (3)	10
NeedsAnswersNao	bloodlines (-1), Tainted Scholar (1), dust of sneezing and choking (1), Truenamer (1)	4
NikitaDarkstar	Favored Soul (1), Dirge Singer (1), Challenge Rating (1), Level Adjustment (1)	4
Novawurmson	Synthesist Summoner (1), Antagonize (1), traps (1)	3
Palanan	Tracking (1)	1
Phaederkiel	Manyfang Dagger (3), Incorporeal subtype (3), Factotum (-1), White Raven Tactics on initiator (1), Abrupt Jaunt (2)	10
Psyren	spell component pouch (1)	1
QuickLyRaiNbow	Truenamer (1), Ex/Su/SLA/Na (2), Diplomacy (1), Lucid Dreaming (1), Contact Other Plane (2), PaO duration/Alter Self/Polymorph/Shapechange (3)	10
randomguy	dust of sneezing and choking (1), Iron Heart Surge (1), Adamantine Horror (1), Elemental Weird (1)	4
Rubik	Complete Psionic (1)	1
Salbazier	alignments (1), epic spellcasting (1), Paladin code (1)	3
ShriekingDrake	Mindsight (1)	1
Sith_Happens	Opalescent Glare (2)	2
sonofzeal	Truenamer (1), Monk proficiencies (1), candle of invocation (2), Pazuzu (2), Void Disciple (3), alignments (-1)	10
sreservoir	Shaedling's Shadow Gossamer (1)	1
Stallion	Truenamer (1)	1
suddo	bloodlines (1)	1
Telok	Ebon Eyes (1)	1
Telonius	Truenamer (1), Paladin code (2), candle of invocation (2), dust of sneezing and choking (1), Iron Heart Surge (1), alignments (2), Guidance of the Avatar (1)	10
The Dark Fiddler	Truenamer (2), Invisible Blade prereqs (2), Trap Sense (1), chicken-infested (-1), Cancer Mage (2), drowning (2)	10
TheGeckoKing	Sarrukh's Manipulate Form (3), Truenamer (3), Heroes of Horror (1), candle of invocation (1), drowning (1), PaO duration/Alter Self/Polymorph/Shapechange (1)	10
TheOOB	Gate (1), PaO duration/Alter Self/Polymorph/Shapechange (1)	2
tiercel	Abrupt Jaunt (1), Greater Mirror Image (1), PaO duration/Alter Self/Polymorph/Shapechange (3)	5
togapika	Wizard (-1), Hulking Hurler mountain-tossing (3), dust of sneezing and choking (3), Forsaker (3)	10
Togo	flat-footed (3)	3
Tr0ll	Truenamer (-1), PaO duration/Alter Self/Polymorph/Shapechange (1), dust of sneezing and choking (1), Thought Bottle (1), traps (1), Leadership (3), Persistent Spell (-1)	9
tuggyne	Planar Bubble (1), candle of invocation (1), dust of sneezing and choking (1), nightsticks (1), spell component pouch (1), Iron Heart Surge (1), Adamantine Horror (1), Elemental Weird (1), drowning (1), epic spellcasting (1), Love's Pain (0)	10
Vaz	Opalescent Glare (1), dead (1), Exemplar (1), Jump (1), CW Samurai (3)	7
Vinyadan	Ice Assassin (1)	1
willpell	Illumian power words (1), Erudite (1), Favored Soul (1), Heroes of Horror (-1), CPsi Mind Blade (1), Dragon Disciple (1), alignments (-1), soulmelds (1), PaO duration/Alter Self/Polymorph/Shapechange (1), bloodlines (1)	10
Wonton	Prone Shooter (1)	1
Zaq	Truenamer (1)	1
Zerter	Synthesist Summoner (1), Dragonwrought (1), Vow of Poverty (1), dust of sneezing and choking (1), Cancer Mage (1), epic spellcasting (1), PaO duration/Alter Self/Polymorph/Shapechange (1), Reincarnate (1), Flaws (1)	9
Zonasiy	Locate City (1)	1

Statistics:

Spoiler

Type	Suggestions	Votes
Rule	15	58
Spell	18	54
Item	7	50
Base Class	10	50
Prestige Class	14	44
Feat	19	40
Combat	8	31
Class Feature	7	29
Maneuver	2	26
Ability	6	21
Monster	6	18
Skill	3	17
Variant Rule	2	5
Book	2	2
Template	1	1
Disease	1	1
Power	1	1
Class Feature/Item	1	1
Race	1	1
Flaw	1	0

---

Dust of Sneezing and Choking: A serious status condition inflicted for an absurd duration, no save, no SR, by a cheap cursed item.

Chicken-Infested: Probably one of the wondrous deeds of writing that earned Dragon Magazine its remarkably dubious reputation for balance. This is a flaw that acts more like a cheesily-written spell, and has about the same level of common sense. (I.e., none.)

I'm putting one vote for each of these, er, fine vintages.