Originality
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Very well, let’s see where this build will…UR PRIEST!?
Quick, hand me the lansoprazole! No, you dolt, not omeprazole; that gives me the heebie jeebies!
…seriously speaking, it’s obvious you aimed for power while using Ur-Priest. I mean, the name says it all: it’s the ur-priest…erm, that needs more explanation. You know how the term “ur-example” has entered the English lexicon, as in “the first example”. However, it is often misinterpreted as “THE definitive example that has to be given” (which is not wrong; the first example is the one that MUST be given so that something makes sense). The Ur-Priest is not the first priest, but it is THE definitive example…of a prestige class that has great flavor but it’s never used for it, rather being used for power and power alone. What really kicks it in is when you mix the second ingredient of the damned: Mystic Theurge. As you may know, if you’re trying to pull off a proper dual-casting build, one of the classes has to progress faster than the other, and thus Ur-Priest follows that example. I wish Apostle of Peace had the same love, but they have to swear a vow of peace, so…
Generally, the third and fourth legs of the journey (Bard and Sublime Chord) are expected, so it’s natural to cringe at seeing one-fourth of the expected build (Bard, but as its savage incarnation) also making its appearance. By all means, this is a Ur-Priest/Sublime Chord/Mystic Theurge build without Sublime Chord. That’s as least original as you can get. Now, I would have understood if you had a good class and went with Apostle of Peace for 9th level spells, but unfortunately the theme of the class is evil, so it’s more than expected that you want that quick path to power.
That could be fixed depending on how well the story is developed, which is where I can see a glimpse of hope. The backstory is filled with..erm, midwifery connotations (phew, that was close), but having a distinct style hearkening to…say, La Celestina (hooray for Spanish Golden Age classics being pretty spicy but also distinctively brutal!), where the character brokers a deal that eventually goes wrong (the “deal with the devil” trope) but specialized towards a single trait (midwifery). However, the story somehow has nothing to deal with the build at all, because we don’t see any idea of how she does combat (other that she leads a group of “wolf-warriors” and that she chants using drums (which would suggest a performing act but also a ritual act that doesn’t require a specific form of performance), much less how that ends up with Ur-Priest or Mystic Theurge. It feels like the story and the build are divorced from each other and need a…well, cupid…to bind back.
1.5 (it’s a Ur-Priest/Sublime Chord/Mystic Theurge build without the Sublime Chord. It’s obvious what you’re gunning for, but it’s predictable nonetheless. The story could have rescued it, but didn’t. It’s great on its own, and it has a lot of stuff I like, but it doesn’t feel like it explains the build at all.)
Power
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Anything that gets 9th level spells (and a decent amount of them) is automatically powerful. Just getting 10 effective levels of Ur-Priest should lead to an automatic 5 to the category, because getting Miracle is as close as getting anything. Adding Mystic Theurge to it means you get even MORE spells, and a whole different variety of them.
That said…compared to the typical build (Ur-Priest/Sublime Chord/Mystic Theurge), it manages to be weaker. For starters, you sacrifice bard spells to become a Savage Bard, which gets a fraction of ranger and druid spells in replacement of a fraction of the bard’s arcane spells (particularly those that deal with written language, minor tricks, emotional control and detection) for natural spells related to traps, animals and movement. How that is supposed to help the build…well, I believe it’s more the flavor than anything else. I don’t see how summon nature’s ally is better in your case than summon monster, particularly when you don’t care about summoning spells in either case.
Then we get into how Acolyte of the Skin fits in, and while there’s a strong thematic link to the PrC, there is no instance of power flowing through it. The SLA/SuAs and abilities you get don’t help your build or your story (or perhaps they help your build, but that’s best left for UoSI).
As another competitor, you went for the “embrace” of an Elder Evil for more (vile) feats, this time with Ragnorra (instead of Pandorym), and what you got…quite frankly, what scares me of all them is Dark Speech, because it’s quite varied and fits the bardic theme nicely. The others are mostly defensive in nature (bonus on saving throws against divine spells, against good spells, and a mini-Death Knell effect if you coup-de-grace the enemy), but aren’t really all that hot (useful if you meet a good divine spellcaster, not so good otherwise) aside from the mini-Death Knell one.
4.5 (all I can say is: it gets 9th level spells. That alone makes it supremely powerful. On the other hand, compared to the sheer power of a Ur-Priest/Sublime Chord/Mystic Theurge build, I find it lacking, and the servitude to Ragnorra really doesn’t seem to aid that much.)
Elegance
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After seeing so many blunders with early entry, it’s good to see the last few actually work. This one is a great example, having enough Enchantment spells to really matter. At the same time, in case I were another, much more unflinging judge, you offer the alternative of how it should be handled, hurting your build a bit more, but ensuring you get to enter the class nonetheless.
While there are some entries that are compact and some that are descriptive, and some that claim both, yours happens to be a pretty compact and descriptive one; succinct is the term I’d use, a word whose root happens to resemble (but not equate) that of the succubus that the build’s essence binds with.
That last comment offers a slight example of the problem I see: being an alteration of a cookie-cutter build, there’s little to remark regarding Elegance. I could speak about how you used Acolyte of the Skin to eventually enter Ur-Priest, or how most of the chosen feats follow a theme, but the build feels very vanilla, nothing that deserves a proper mention. That’s not bad, but it’s not good either.
3.5 (it’s a vanilla build, and might seem a tad boring, but it’s succinct where it’s needed. There’s little in where the build can really show off, something that could become exemplary of build-making. Maybe the way you use one PrC to enter another and boost it, maybe…)
Use of Secret Ingredient
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So Morrigna has made a pact with Malcanthet but really follows Ragnorra…how does this work with Acolyte of the Skin? Is there something that can be drawn from this class?
For some reason, I think not. I really don’t see the PrC offers anything.
The first thing that comes to mind as expertly used is how you apply a fast-improving class such as Ur-Priest to advance based on half-casting. That was creative, if I may say so myself, because that means you don’t need classes with all those levels, and you can take advantage of what truly matters without sacrificing spellpower: the class features.
However, a cursory look reveals that…well, it’s not really the class that would fit the build. For starters, the build starts with poor Dexterity and Constitution, and those boosts really feel as minor. The natural armor also feels minor, and even the DR and ability to turn into an outsider through Alter Self feel minor. Wonder why…? Oh yeah, because Ur-Priest really seems to make that redundant (the DR/good comes MUCH earlier through Righteous Might, for example, and judicious use of Practiced Spellcaster makes it reach the top much earlier).
The offensive features? Glare of the Pit really doesn’t seem like that powerful compared to others (even if by itself it’s hilariously weak), and Poison/Fiendish Glare doesn’t seem like they are any powerful either…but one thing changes everything. I mean, you’re yet another individual who uses Imperious Command (and nothing else…), but what really chilled me to the bone was Doomspeak. I mean, WHAT IN HEATHENLY TARNATION THEY WERE THINKING OF!? The DC for the ability is based on FULL character level! That’s basically a DC 20 at 10th level! Then, you get a -10 to a lot of things, including saving throws…which both Poison and Fiendish Glare depend on. Sure, it’s a 2-round thing, but if done correctly, you can end up making the class features actually work better, which is a plus. What’s NOT a plus, though, is that it’s not clearly mentioned. That trick would have gotten nice points in Elegance, mind you.
Oh, yeah, and the Babau that doesn’t work as intended. Though you’re VERY fortunate you can buff that Babau, the fact that you get Planar Ally which essentially invalidates the Babau’s power sorta ruins it (not to mention you get all Summon Monster spells, even though the Babau counts as a 7th level summon…yeah, right). No focus on boosting these summoned entities, either, which could have helped the Babau even more.
However, the biggest offense is how the build doesn’t seem to need Acolyte of the Skin in any case. The build really felt like it could use another PrC, but the book was not allowed. The way Morrigna works, it reeks of having stuff drawn from the Book of Erotic Fantasy, but of course that’s not allowed. The story could have saved it (particularly how and why Malcanthet agreed to make a pact with Morrigna when the latter doesn’t give a darn because she follows someone else, and even wears the skin of her daughters/servants but doesn’t care about her appearance), but the way the story was written, I could have seen some other PrC (and the wealth of options in that book) take the levels Acolyte of the Skin occupy.
1.5 (really, of all the builds, this is the one that least feels like needing Acolyte of the Skin. You made a good effort to address some of the options, but the build could have gone better with some levels in another PrC. The story saved the choices of other builds, but in your case, that event didn’t happen)
Overall: 11 (2.75)
I won’t lie; the build showed some promise before I got deep into it. However, between just redressing a well-known build and forcing fluff without making that much sense, the build faltered. The name and the image are quite impressive in first place, but I wasn’t truly satisfied with the end result. It is quite probably one of the most powerful builds in the entire competition; it didn’t made the proper use of the secret ingredient, though, and relied on a well-known build to focus on power without providing enough twists to make it original enough or explain why such a difficult ingredient was necessary. Show it to me again after you read the BoEF and tell me whether Acolyte of the Skin was a good choice compared to the wealth of content the book offers a midwife character.
Re: Iron Chef Optimization Challenge in the Playground XXXVI
Retooler of D&D 3.5 (and 5e/Next) content. See here for more.
Originally Posted by firebrandtoluc
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