Luc
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Originality
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Hmm, where do I start? I like your style. Rolling Stones, Sympathy for the Devil…classy.

What’s not that classy is having a gnome bard. Well sure, it’s good that you didn’t gun for Shadowcraft Mage or any of the classical Gnome tricks, but you went with the classical Bard tricks: Dragonfire Inspiration for damage, for example, using a race for the one explicit purpose of shifting the damage type. It’s kinda boring if you think about it.

Fiend of Corruption, on the other hand, is classy. It’s one of the few builds that thinks about its new progression a bit further, ending up with a powerful PrC even if you weren’t meant to get it by normal means. It’s definitely chock-full of powers, and fits your build idea very nicely. It’s evident you were gunning for it.

Gnome Paragon…well, it’s a bit of both. Paragon classes are not usually my cup of…well, I don’t drink coffee and much less tea, so we’ll go with “yogurt” for now…, but they don’t see a lot of use. It’s a class meant to make a particular race stronger (and I despise the fact that the Tieflings get a paragon race, but Aasimar don’t), and since you entered as a Bard, it’s obvious that it guns for bardic progression. Thus, it’s not something that’s refreshing or obvious, since you’re gunning to take advantage of the paragon class at its fullest, so that you get more advantage of the class itself.

One odd surprise was to take the devil’s path, which is a lawful path, with a class that’s mostly known for being chaotic in nature. By all means, you’re going NE from what I can see, but it’s interesting to see the juxtaposition between the devil’s lawful nature and penchant for guile and bargain with the “devil’s musician” feeling of passionate music.

Score: 3 (it’s not surprising, but it’s not boring either. Some of the choices are pretty obvious, but the fluff’s inclination towards ethical neutrality and how a creature with a bit of chaos in its heart can end up being a master bargainer definitely surprises. A refreshing twist on the “devil’s musician” and “deal with the devil” tropes by becoming the dealer yourself. By the way, did the poor gnome’s psyche broke entirely, did it merge, or did it simply mimics the fiend’s psyche but exists nonetheless?)

Power
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For being a Bard, you get a surprising set of power. The first indication of something done right is the Gnome Paragon granting you Mirror Image as an SLA. You get it at the same level as a Wizard, and even if it lasts less than the norm, you get a solid defensive capability right there. Dragonfire Inspiration is also a brutal choice, because it adds extra damage to yourself and allies, and being acid damage, that means it’s not very easy to resist.

On the middle, however, your progression somewhat halts. The spells you get are better suited for non-battle purposes (save for Improvisation and Glitterdust), which means you don’t focus that much on battle rather than on preventing battles in the first place or get unlikely allies in the case battle can’t be prevented. Against certain creatures, you’re limited to Dragonfire Inspiration (which doesn’t seem to increase: it stays at 1d6, usable only once per day, and with no Inspirational Boost/Song of the Heart to make it stronger), which means you get killed easily. True story. At least you have Invisibility in case you need to escape… The Devil-Touched feats (particularly Devil’s Sight) are nice boosts to power, but Devil’s Flesh appears a tad too late, something that could have boosted that part of the build a bit better (more NA which stacks with your own, plus a stronger Intimidate for Imperious Command).

Then, when you get to Fiend of Corruption, you get powerful all of a sudden. You get something like Alter Self at will, but with a caveat: it only works with humanoid forms. That’s no problem, as since you’re an outsider now, that means you can eventually get Alter Self to turn into outsider forms, or Alternate Form to gain humanoid forms. Fiend’s Favor ensures you get a load of followers with some time, because they’ll get dependent on your buffs and thus you can blackmail them. Eventually, with Grant Wish, you gain the ability to cast 1/day one of the most powerful spells around, though only for others. You can, though, indirectly use this power for yourself, so that means eventually you can get many things for your own. I mean, you can get someone to request a Manual of Health +5, and then claim its soul before it uses the manual, which ends up with a Soul Gem and a free item. That kind of ability is pure evil, if used correctly.

But again, there’s a gap in power right in the middle, coincidentally where the Acolyte of the Skin lays. Fiendish Glare is there, and fully extended it can be pretty powerful; with Imperious Command, a bit more so (and it has some solid DC because of your high Charisma), and with Devil’s Flesh, you get a pretty decent Intimidate. Glare of the Pit is somewhat boosted, which means you get a decent attack whenever you need it; your spells improve, and you eventually get to become an Outsider, which is the core of becoming a Fiend of Corruption. However, from the strong start and the strong end, it feels like the middle is just lacking. That’s a problem that may reflect on Use of Secret Ingredient, but we’ll see about that.


Score: 3.5 (the build starts pretty strong, what with Mirror Image and Dragonfire Inspiration, then stagnates a bit, only supported by Fiendish Glare and spells. However, when you get into Fiend of Corruption, you slowly recover that power, until Grant Wish all of a sudden grants a great deal of power. Luc is the kind of guy you want on your side, not against; however, it’s a creature that can’t fight on its own, so you depend a lot on how well you can manipulate others)

Elegance
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I’ve begun to groan every time I see that the prereqs for Acolyte of the Skin are not followed. I was trying to figure how you did it. Thanks a lot for clearing that out. That’s a creative way to enter, because while you don’t have full access to all your spells at the higher CL, you get a good deal of them. I have to mention that it’s borderline cheesy because it depends on how the DM interprets the entry requirement, but for all purposes you have an increased caster level for (some of) your arcane spells, so it’s not wrong to consider you qualify because of this. The cheesiness of early entry to the class is what makes it somewhat inelegant, but its legal nonetheless, and I just happen to like how it’s managed; technically, you could have entered at 3rd level because your spellcasting level would have been 5th right there, but you went the extra mile for the 3rd level of Gnome Paragon and thus delayed the entry somewhat.

A valid concern brought by the Chairman and spectators is the entry requirement for Fiend of Corruption, and the need for an Evil subtype. Having no access to the ritual can be harmful, because that way you have 6 levels lacking something. It’s such an important part of your build, that negating Savage Species essentially kills it. You depend a lot on it.

Thing is? Screw it: I’ll allow it. It’s a clever entry trick for Fiend of Corruption, it fits the build so badly that negating that ritual essentially negates your entire progress thus far, and it only makes sense. Gaining a subtype should have been part of the capstone, if only because you’re slowly corrupting yourself with the skin until eventually you become a reasonable facsimile of the fiend whose essence is bound to you. If by that moment you aren’t completely depraved and evil, I dunno…it makes little sense to get all those powers and whatnot. The idea is to turn you, slowly, into a fiend, so… It’s there to complete something in order to get into a specific PrC which is the apex of your fluff, so it’d be unfair to negate that.

The use of Devil-Touched feats, particularly Devil’s Flesh, is classy. Devil-Touched feats are part of that second generation of feats that scale based on how many you have, so having three feels only natural. It’s interesting to see how it boosts Intimidate, meaning it’s perfect for Acolyte of the Skin (I’d dare say it’s meant to be used with it). Another classy thing is to use a Chain Devil, because unlike others, you have a reliable way to boost it (DFI + Mirror Image), which fits pretty well with its defenses.

I appreciate that you refrained from using flaws or LA buyoff, because despite how cheesy it feels to have early entry, you took the initiative to finish all three PrCs you entered. I don’t like that much to see something like the gnome bard racial substitution level without earning something important out of it, because Counter Fear is pretty much the opposite of what you’ll eventually do, and you can only go so far with the cantrips.


Score: 4 (it’s nice to see a build that’s well-thought, delivering the correct answers to all of the potential issues, but I just can’t happen to take the bitter aftertaste of early-entry cheese. It’s nothing to punish, but nothing to praise either, so the score relies on how you dealt with everything else, and for that, the only qualm is that some choices could have shifted. It doesn’t feel heavy or chaotic, but lacks only a bit of organization to make it really classy)

Use of Secret Ingredient
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Obviously, you NEED Acolyte of the Skin. You want to become a fiend, and what better way to do so than absorbing a fiend’s essence through their skin? Becoming an Outsider is entirely necessary to get into Fiend of Corruption, so it’s not like you could have replaced it. However, the question then becomes: how does Acolyte of the Skin helps you become a better fiend beyond that single point? Or rather, what else can you draw?

For starters, the bonus to Dexterity and Constitution don’t boost that much, at least compared to others. Gnomes get a healthy Con score, so you get lots of hit points and Fortitude; Dexterity, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to influence a lot. It’s a shame the class doesn’t boost Charisma, but Gnome Paragon provides for that.

I like that you took some consideration for the supernatural abilities. Extend Su Ability works wonders for Fiendish Glare, as it makes the stunning effect last for a long while, whereas Empower Su Ability works wonders for Glare of the Pit in order to deal more damage than a Scorching Ray while aiming all three rays, against two people (or, if you feel nasty, concentrate all against one).

For what it doesn’t see too much use…well, the resistances are there and you don’t have native resistances (and Bard doesn’t offer Resist Energy), so it’s not something extremely potent but nothing unnecessary. Poison is where I’m a bit ambivalent. You mention using Fiend’s Favor on yourself, but I’m not entirely sure the ability is meant to work that way. It’s meant to be an ability used on others, so it’s not used creatively on yourself (particularly after the penalty kicks in, since you depend a lot on Charisma). I feel that Poison could be used in a different way , one that you might not have considered: how about using Poison to hasten the death of those you’ve made bargains with? Give them a boost to Constitution, then when they get into Con junkies, grant them the wish in exchange for you touching them twice (maybe grant them a Manual of Health, instead of a direct inherent bonus?). Plead for them to let them honor the end of your bargain first, before they use their boon, and finally see if you can kill them before they use their boon. Between the penalty and their desperation, you might get a way to kill them before they can even take advantage of your perks. I see no mention of this, given that most of your abilities are geared towards the function of “tempter” and not the function of “warrior”, so I have to take a few notches from here.

However, that gives an interesting insight. Your use of Acolyte of the Skin supports your combat functions pretty well, something that contrasts with the feel of empty levels right in the middle. It boosts your combat capabilities only a bit, so it feels like the build stagnates there, but on the other hand, it offers a series of capabilities that you’d otherwise lack. You take some advantage from the class features, so it’s not like it’s entirely lost.

Score: 4 (the main goal of using Acolyte of the Skin was to get into Fiend of Corruption, but that doesn’t mean it’s largely ignored. I see a lot of great applications for many of the class features, such as the ability to summon a kyton and the glares. The lack of support for Poison is what makes it falter a bit.)

Overall: 14.5 (3.625)
This build is interesting because it takes the original fluff of the class (gain the powers of a fiend) for an ulterior purpose, which is essentially to do unto others what the fiend that gave its essence did to you. Basically, you’re the closest to a fiend there is. It’s a clever and nice little build, marred only because the PrC itself hinders you a bit. Some of the moves done with the build are good, the others not that much. It’s at its terrain when being the tempter, so your power and finesse lies on manipulating others. Alone, your weakness emerges and you get into serious trouble. That said, the fluff leads you to play as the manipulator, so it fits quite a lot with the mechanics used.


Baby the Bearbarian
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Originality
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After the initial shock, I have to word this carefully.

So, we got a Half-Vampire (nasty template), Voidmind (another NASTY template) Goliath (well-known race) Barbarian (expected for Goliath)/Spellthief (completely out of the blue for Goliath)/Acolyte of the Skin?

Ow, my brain…

Seriously, though: it was a fun little read. The story, that is. Just the part where it mentions a bloodthirsty berserker with a literal taste for blood sounds great, but then you overload it with a mixture of a fiend that willingly offers to aid you and then a trio of Illithids that make you their b…espectacled servant. Yeah.

Interesting to know that you began your life as a spellthief, but the story mentions little of how you ended up as one. It only felt natural that you ended up as a Barbarian, and it’s interesting to see anything BUT a Spirit Lion Totem; no Pounce, but you’re aiming for a superior grapple technique, which goes the extra mile with Powerful Build and Mountain Rage. It makes Spellthief all the more unusual, because it’s not there entirely for the fluff and much less for the power (what it gives is just too small to, well…matter).


Score: 4 (while a Goliath Barbarian is about as common as you might see, the mixture of Half-Vampire, Voidmind and the Bear Totem make your build unique. There’s a little bit of a problem in how Spellthief mingles into here, tho)

Power
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Evidently, what you get from Spellthief and Barbarian is not enough. The best thing to consider is how the templates boost the build, because it’s obvious that you get most of your power from the templates.

Let’s start with Half-Vampire. You get three bonuses to important ability scores, those being Strength, Dexterity and Constitution; you get Blood Drain (Con damage to the enemy and temporary HP to you is good) and some minor immunities. You get a crippling weakness, which is the blood dependency, but it’s evident as we can see later that you’re attempting to be a master grappler, so that’s not much of an issue.

Next comes Voidmind. Voidmind offers a pretty nasty set of abilities such as the cone of slime (acid damage, -2 to Will saves, stunned for 1d4+1 rounds), the ability to constrict (once again, suggesting grappling as a main technique), improved grab (ditto), sentient tentacle (yet again, ditto), SR and immunities, such as immunity to mind-affecting abilities (aside from those used through the mind flayer host quality), ability damage/drain and energy drain. You get yet another crippling weakness (being bound to a trio of squid-faces), but at least you can free yourself of that one. Oh, and that sweet, sweet tentacle.

Now, after analyzing these, let’s go a bit further. It’s obvious you’re gunning for grappling, because between Mountain Rage (bonus to Strength and Large size), Bear Totem (Improved Grapple), Half-Vampire (Blood Drain + Str bonus) and Voidmind (Constrict + tentacle + improved grab + Str bonus) you’re aiming for a reasonable +13 to grapple (+17 with the tentacle) and constrict damage, then pin for blood drain. It’s a nasty little technique were it not for the two biggest flaws I can see: first, the BAB. Oh, the BAB! It’s way too little to matter, so eventually your main ability will begin to falter until it’s entirely useless. It really sucks when your BAB acts against you. The second, of course, is anything that has at least a bit of Freedom of Movement or a jaunting ability that requires no movement. That’ll cramp your style real fast.

So, does it has any other nifty tricks? Well, between Fiendish Gaze and Cone of Slime, you get two ways to stun enemies, but stunned enemies don’t make you apply for sneak attack. I have to mention Sneak Attack, because once you enable grapple you can SA them at your leisure, but unfortunately you can’t usually rely on grapple. Aside from that, you’re relying mostly on grapple and having as many feats as possible apply to that grapple, so that you can end up stunning the enemy and then land lots of damage. It feels like a one-trick pony, which it isn’t (you get Fiendish Gaze, Glare of the Pit and Cone of Slime as secondary attacks), but it makes you seem less powerful when you’re not in your terrain (aka, not facing creatures with blood vessels, as your story proves) once they’re consumed.

Ultimately, what hurts you more than anything is the loss of BAB. Being a martial character, having so little BAB hurts so badly it’s not fun, but that’s what happens when you lose six levels because of level adjustment. It hurts even more when you have two crippling weaknesses. It feels like you’re playing a Paladin, but you’re not a Paladin and you get even worse penalties for fa(i)l(l)ing.


Score: 3 (it feels like a one-trick pony, but fortunately it isn’t. It has the swarms, elemental and natural attacks to help, but in the end you finish with grappling techniques, which can be countered easily, and which are affected by your severe lack of BAB. You need a lot of Strength to compensate, even if you have the size and technique to make it matter, but once you’re unable to grapple the enemy, you’re screwed. Or when you’re facing creatures with no blood vessels. Plus you need to depend on blood AND you’re the puppet of three Illithids, which is just as bad.)

Elegance
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Once again, I see a pattern here. Where, if I may ask, do I see a proper arcane CL in order to enter Acolyte of the Skin? This seems to be a pandemic in this competition! I feel I must be doing something wrong because I’ve seen a few builds that don’t qualify. You don’t take 5 levels of Spellthief, and your templates don’t grant spell-like abilities, so your only claim to fame is the Detect Magic SLA from Spellthief, which is based on your SPELLTHIEF class level; ergo, it’s not a valid entry method. That’s enough to net a bad score…

…but it goes further than that. You also assumed you had all THREE of the special abilities from the half-vampire? I wish you had all three, because that way you could have gotten a bit more power. The story suggests all three, but the template reads differently. Essentially, you can only choose one of the three; either you drink blood, or you have a charming gaze, or you can call creatures 1/day. Not all three. That’s bad, because it’s hard to pin which would be more useful: the gaze works nicely with your other glares, the blood drain is the apex of your grappling mastery, and the ability to call swarms makes you less of a one-trick pony and merges well with your other summoning ability. All three are valuable, so it would have been awesome to have them. I would be tempted to make an exception for you, but sadly, the fact that you weren’t specific with that means I have to get the axe sharpened for more points.

There’s also a discrepancy between your story and your build. In the story, Baby gets infused with the Fiendish Skin first, and THEN becomes a Voidmind creature. In the build, it’s the opposite: you get brain-devoured first, and then you get to become an Acolyte. In theory, you become an Acolyte the moment you get the skin, so you should have been an Acolyte first and THEN a Voidmind creature, because rectifying the choice wouldn’t have made a difference in the story’s outcome, instead making a bit more sense.

Finally…tsk, tsk, tsk. You assumed I’d pay a blind eye to WBL? Yes, it’s an useful tool, but I want to see your character without assuming you get Manuals or Tomes for free, or heaven forbid, grafts! You already have a free graft (the skin, namely), but assuming you can become a patchwork of grafts is a big no-no in my book. Sure, they might make a difference…but what if you lose them? Fortunately the “shopping list” is not so big, but it does have an assumption, so that’d be a reason why points are lost. If you had any more points after this, anyways.

Oh wait, one more thing…since I do this as a stream of thought, after doing UoSI, I noticed something else. Since you’ll be reading this before reading UoSI: HOW DO YOU QUALIFY FOR STUNNING FIST, ANYWAYS!? Stunning Fist requires a Wisdom of 13, while you have a Wisdom of 8. That’s one feat you could easily replace. Note how that cripples you even further?

Score: 1 (between not qualifying for AotS, the slight dependence on WBL, and not paying attention to Half-Vampire, I’ve seen many a mistake. There’s even a fluff-born mistake, which leads me to think this was done a tad hastily, which is never good. It’s almost a miracle, and something I’d shed points for, that you didn’t decide to apply LA buy-off, but the penalties are too severe in order for me to grant it.)

Use of Secret Ingredient
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So, here’s the big question. How does AotS help a non-caster class? I’ve seen a tendency over here, and it definitely shows: trying to strong-arm martial prowess to AotS doesn’t work at all.

For starters, with such a pitiful BAB, the acolyte’s medium BAB hinders your main trick, which is grappling. Furthermore, the Acolyte offers absolutely NO boons to grapple, save for Poison (which can be coupled with Blood Drain and Stunning Fist in order to finish a creature just through Con damage).

However, it goes a bit further. The worn skin only offers a minimal improvement to your scores, because you’re not so reliant on Dexterity; Constitution is far more important because it defines the duration of Rage, plus the DC of your Cone of Slime), but the bonus to NA is pitiful at best. The DR is nice, though, because you have two sources of DR applying at once: you need to have a magic, good-aligned silvered weapon to get slain. Oh wait, you don’t: you missed that last level, so no DR (or spellcasting progression) for you!

Regarding Fiendish Glare, Poison and Glare of the Pit, they’re not specifically improved, they don’t seem to pay a key part of your build’s development, but they see some synergies. Poison, of course, works well with Stunning Fist and Blood Drain, as in between the three you can lower Con enough to lock the enemy. Sadly, they rely on Charisma (mostly because, had you gotten the right amount of CL, you’d have depended on Charisma for spellcasting), which is not your strong point, and you have poor Wisdom which means a poor saving throw for Stunning Fist (which leads me to question HOW YOU GOT STUNNING FIST IN THE FIRST PLACE!?).

And we end up with Summon Fiend, which is…largely unmentioned. Oh wait, you use them as vampire chow. That’s certainly a creative use of the Secret Ingredient, but not the best one. They’re weak, but as it stands, they could be more than a match for you. Still, vampire chow?


Score: 1.25 (some abilities see some use, but you don’t get too much power from the PrC itself. The 6 lost levels don’t help much, and you don’t get the last level. Seriously, with a way to get Imperious Command + Never Outnumbered from some other means, you could have skipped AotS entirely and the build would have been oodles better. Seriously. It feels tacked. The only reason you get cookie points is because of the hilarious use of Summon Fiend)

Overall: 9.25 (2.3125)
Definitely, Acolyte of the Skin doesn’t seem to be a worthy class for martial characters. Baby shows no exception to the rule. The class really doesn’t do anything for him, as the templates are what carry most of the build’s weight. The loss of 6 LA hurts like no tomorrow, but it’s the loss of BAB that hurts the most. Those 10 levels could have been used for something else, and that could have meant at least 1 or 2 points of extra BAB, which would have been nicer. I mean, as it stands, you could have taken Barbarian to 10 and Spellthief to 6 and you could have gone much better than currently so. I won’t say you should feel ashamed of your build, because it has some nifty tricks, but Acolyte of the Skin is just not cut for Baby.


The Rag and Bone Man
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Originality
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Certainly a creative way to enter! Using a spontaneous specialist might be an expected entry point, but not one with conflicting themes. I mean, a Warmage certainly can feel like worthwhile because of fiends’ destructive impulses (tanar’ri, mostly) and a Beguiler because of the fiends’ malevolent guile (baatezu, mostly). But a Dread Necromancer? I can see it if you were a follower of Orcus (who revels on undead), but you clearly went the path of the baatezu, so it’s obvious you were gunning for something entirely different than the expectatives. That’s nice.

I also like the “balance” between fiendish power and undeath, and what little care you have for your birth body, because you first wither it, then add a fiendish skin, then take one of your arms and graft an undead version into the stump. That’s pretty gory if you ask me.

If there’s something I dislike, was that you chose a kyton. I know, the reference to cenobites and whatnot gives it a “Hellraiser” vibe (kudos on that one; given the horror references, though, I might suspect who of the competitors you are…), but I feel that the chain devil wasn’t the one that could have suited you. I mean, why oh why you didn’t go for the osyluth!? That’s a fiend that looks like a shriveled undead creature; the least you could have done is try to get as little skin as it could and take advantage of your shriveled body in order to look even more fiendishly undead! Bad competitor! Points drop!


Score: 4.5 (a fiendish undead theme that doesn’t rely on Orcus is wonderful, and gives a whole new dimension to playing a Cenobite in D&D, almost equaling all references. What really made me cringe was that you could have gone for the bone devil; if you’re going for a theme, go for it as deep as you can! I mean, the bone devil is higher in hierarchy than a chain devil, so it makes sense that you could summon a chain devil as your lackey. Those bits count, after all.)

Power
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Just looking from your scores, you’re pretty balanced for a spellcaster. Having a decent Strength score, an excellent Constitution score and the all-important Charisma score really make it pretty decent. Aside from Intelligence (which you make little use of), all scores are over the average, and in order of importance. Well, you don’t use that much Wisdom, but hey, Arcane Disciple? Totally worth it.

That said, the power of the build comes from what it can do, and much like another competitor, yours is focused on the sheer amount of creatures you can manipulate. You went for undead, which have a whole suit of resources, such as energy drain and ability damage/drain, incorporeality and others.

Evidently, the core of your power is spellcasting, and it’s nice to see how much you focused on incrementing the small list of the Dread Necromancer with more choices. Spirit Worm is particularly nasty at any levels (Con damage per round!), and between Advanced Learning and the Deathbound Domain, you get a nifty amount of spells beyond what you’d normally get. It’s a shame about Arcane Disciple spells only usable once and only being capable of casting up to 4th level spells when you can cast 7th level spells: had you gotten your Wisdom to 17, you’d have gotten Revive Undead (to restore one of your super-undead to life), Awaken Undead (intelligent undead!? Sure, it can come bite you in the end, but if you know how to use them…) and Avasculate (touch the enemy, scrape half of its hit points, and a chance to stun for 1 round). That doesn’t mean you don’t have good 7th level spells (Destruction instead of Disintegrate, Finger of Death, etc.) or 6th level spells (Acid Fog, Circle of Death, Harm, Planar Binding) or 5th level spells (Cloudkill, Greater Dispel Magic, Lesser Planar Binding), but those would have been awesome spells to add. Then again, you did mention to seek ways to boost it up, so… Erm, it’s not an Elegance thing, but it’s a Power thing. Let’s just say that the drop was cushioned a bit, alright?

So, what about Pale Master? For starters, Deathbound domain doesn’t apply here, so you don’t get the extension to Animate Dead, but you get two cool spells usable as 1/day abilities: your meat and bones spell (Animate Dead) and your “oh snap, something got wrong; need fixing!” spell (Control Undead). The latter is particularly nice, because you reduce the duration to less than 1/10th of normal to make it irresistible. At least it lets you run away, though some way to initiate diplomacy with the undead would be nice. The undead armor thing, as you clearly mentioned, isn’t as awesome as the rest. Now, the Paralyzing Touch? Nice move, because you’re stacking all kinds of debuffs and status effects here and there.

Which is what leads to the big advantage of this build: between all the debuffs, the free healing/damage thing (Charnel Touch is especially beautiful), the status effects, and the myriad of undead creatures at your command, not to mention all those tasty save or die effects, you’re a threat to behold in the battlefield. Given that you have a series of innate resistances as well and not-bad scores (which are protected by your DN resistances to ability damage/drain), you’re one tough cookie (who can wield a mean martial weapon in case things get up-close and personal).

Oh, and I couldn’t forget about this. I was this close to lambast you because you couldn’t get the most iconic thing a necromancer who dabbles in fiendish lore could do: Vile Death. That closeness became a big stomping WHOOO!!!! when I noticed Dread Necromancer gets it two (spell) levels earlier. I mean, not only you are an unholy blend of fiendish power and undeath, but your undead creatures are as well. That’s going beyond classy: nothing can be more frightening than having a 10-headed fiendish hydra skeleton and its pals, or ravenous fiendish ghouls, which could later be awakened and turned into the hapless population.

Oh, did I forgot about UMD? How could I!? That’s yet another boost of power right there, even if it’s not as powerful as the norm as you need to dedicate some effort towards it. It’s at least good for Alter Self, tho.


Score: 5 (spells, sound front-line combat skills, debuffs, status effects and fiendish undead. Alright, that bought me in. I can’t say that much; it’s a rich and varied build with a lot of options that are actually useful. If you can’t do it, let your awakened fiendish undead pals do the work for you.)

Elegance
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If there’s one thing that most judges like, is that everything is explained and dealt with. It saves a lot of problems.

For example: I was gonna deck you the hardest for entering early. Then you mentioned Spell Thematics. SPELL THEMATICS! I actually despise that feat from the bottom of my heart because it was justifying the idea of making custom-looking spells, so I wondered how it was important for an optimal build. Then I notice the little “thematic spell cast at +1 CL” and how that makes you enter at 5th level, and then I notice “darn, it’s an early entry trick enabler!”, so it made me reconsider the feat. It went from “ugh, that feat!?” to “wait, how did THAT feat did that!?” in the blink of a second.

Another thing was the entry point of Pale Master. Being a Dread Necromancer, it’s evident you want to have undead minions as soon as possible, likely after your fighting skills start to lag behind. Pale Master could have felt like a needless interruption, but Animate Dead is clearly part of your build (a key part of it, to be precise), so delaying that would have dented your overall power. Even once per day, getting Animate Dead earlier than usual (and without material components) allows you to get minions early on, which you can then heal through Charnel Touch (though you can’t buff). The spell progression doesn’t seem to bump or delay that much, as you get spellcasting progression at exactly the same rate as you would with Acolyte of the Skin, so it feels natural.

It’s somewhat refreshing to see every trick carefully explained, such as how Fiendish Glare blends well with the Dread Necro’s plethora of fear spells, or how your acquisition of fire and cold resistance makes you less dependent on Resist Energy (which you don’t actually have…), or the reasons why you dipped into Pale Master before finishing Acolyte of the Skin and then AFTER finally finishing PM. The build rundowns are fun enough, and a chuckle is always nice to have.

If there’s something I don’t like, though, is the lack of options. I mean, while I do appreciate that you have no dependence on items or flaws or LA buy-off, I could have liked to see a suggestion on how to alter your build a bit more. You have a lot of buffs for your animated creatures, but there’s no mention of how to snatch Corpsecrafter by exchanging a feat (likely Sickening Grasp), which would have made your undead creatures even MORE dangerous, as you’re an undead spellcaster. There’s a big difference between “optional” and “required”. It’s minimal, because there IS some use for Sickening Grasp, but sadly I could have seen a nod to better undead minions over here.


Score: 4.75 (the build flows well and is well explained, with the most controversial choices carefully indicated. At first the lay-out seems confusing, but it eventually has everything in its place. The only thing I didn’t like was the lack of options for build variety, particularly one to make your undead minions even MORE dangerous…)

Use of Secret Ingredient
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With a nice build and a nice flavor, how does the Secret Ingredient flare? Well…truth be told, I see very little advantage from it, aside from following the trend of another build that had it as a necessary part of its fluff. As I said to that competitor, the PrC is making you no justice in that regard.

Let’s start with the things you take advantage of. The skin, of course, is the first thing I can peg off: you have darkvision twice as long (first from AotS, then from Pale Master), a boost to Dex and Con (which eventually blends with a boost to Dex), natural armor bonus (making your skin tougher), and a source of DR that’s much better than the DR you have (although bypassed by good-aligned weapons, you still nudge a bit of them from your Dread Necro’s DR). Fiendish Glare also sees some use, because you’re a charismatic person who has ways to extend that fear effect WITHOUT using Imperious Command. I should salute you for that.

However, the rest…doesn’t see too much use. Poison, as you mention, is only one more of your bag of tricks, but you don’t do something amazing with it: you could have at least mentioned that Sickening Grasp and your fear spells made it harder for the target to succeed on their save, then add Spirit Worm for a massive loss of Con. Twice per day, you could make one creature die a sorry death; if it had some awesome resistances and whatnot, you could end up with a brutal undead minion! I see this as a lost opportunity. Glare of the Pit is another ability you pay no attention to, which is bad because it gives the idea that you really paid no attention to the class abilities other than the skin and perhaps the summoned creature. Sure, you mention that you break the damage “cap”, but only if you do it 1/day and only if you aim both beams at the same creature, shortly before getting the even more powerful Harm and Greater Harm spells.

Which leads us to the summoned fiend ability. I didn’t knew that Chain Devils were so hard to beat, but I do know that it’s no Babau, so that’s at least nice. It’s twice as nice that the theme of your build, and the fiend you took the skin from, is actually a relative of a Chain Devil, so bonus points for that thematic link. However, aside from that, the Chain Devil will feel like a mook to your best undead minions, particularly once Vile Death comes on-line at 20th level. Given that you have a few summoning spells, you could have found a way to boost summoning in such a way that you could end up with a menacing Kyton as a pal, plus make those summoned creatures even stronger. I speak, of course, of Augment Summoning.

In the end, while it’s thematically appropriate (for the shock factor of guy + fiend + undead = fiendishly undead-ish guy but still not entirely fiendish or undead), the amount of feats you get betray you. With so many options at your disposal, trying to make them all useful would have been mad. This isn’t something to harshly punish you, but I feel that you could do something with, at least, Poison.


Score: 4.25 (thematically, it’s necessary for you to enter AotS. Mechanically, it offers some nice perks but the core of your build doesn’t need it. You do a lot with what you get from the PrC, but I see some lost opportunities that could have made Poison a very deadly weapon at your disposal. Then there’s Glare of the Pit which sees only a modicum of utility when you have far more dangerous spells at your disposal.)

Overall: 18.5 (4.625)
This build is really creative in many ways, taking an already awesome class and adding it some punch. While it has a great deal of power within, it is the fluff that really takes the award here. Right from the start, I saw this combo would have been a great winner, and while it was short from the goal, it ended up as a nice, strong build nonetheless. It didn’t betray, but delivered what I expected. There were times where I felt that the PrC didn’t offered you what you truly needed, but you managed to rescue some of the PrC’s features from the slump.