Entry number 2:

Quote Originally Posted by Humperdink d'Kundarak
Humperdink d'Kundarak

Alignment: CE
Race: dwarf
Classes: wu jen 6 / oozemaster 10 / thrall of Demogorgon 1 / runesmith 3
Member of House Kundarak

Spoiler: Humperdink d'Kundarak
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HD Class BAB F R W Skills Feats Class Features
1st Wu jen 1 0 0 0 2 20 points
Swim 2 cc, Craft (alchemy) 4, Knowledge (arcana) 2, Knowledge (religion) 2,
Knowledge (dungeoneering) 2,
Concentration 4,
Craft (stoneworking) 2		 Least Dragonmark of Warding (Elder Evil: Willing Deformity)
 Watchful spirit, bonus feat: Silent Spell
2nd Wu jen 2 1 0 0 3 5 points
Swim 2.5 (+0.5 cc), Concentration 5 (+1), Craft (stoneworking) 5 (+3)
3rd Wu jen 3 1 1 1 3 5 points
Swim 3 (+0.5 cc), Concentration 6 (+1), Craft (stoneworking) 6 (+1), Knowledge (dungeoneering) 4 (+2)		 Great Fortitude Spell secret (hail of stone permanently made Silent)
4th Wu jen 4 2 1 1 4 5 points
Swim 3.5 (+0.5 cc), Concentration 7 (+1), Craft (stoneworking) 7 (+1), Knowledge (dungeoneering) 6 (+2)
5th Wu jen 5 2 1 1 4 5 points
Swim 4 (+0.5 cc), Concentration 8 (+1), Craft (stoneworking) 8 (+1), Knowledge (dungeoneering) 8 (+2)		 (Elder Evil: Thrall to Demon)
6th Wu jen 6 3 2 2 5 5 points
Concentration 9 (+1), Knowledge (dungeoneering) 9 (+1), Knowledge (arcana) 5 (+3)		 Lesser Dragonmark of Warding Elemental mastery (Water)
7th Oozemaster 1 3 4 2 5 7 points
Concentration 10 (+1), Disguise 6		 Minor oozy touch (gray ooze)
8th Oozemaster 2 4 5 2 5 8 points
Concentration 11 (+1), Disguise 11 (+5), Spellcraft 2		 Oozy glob, slithery face
9th Thrall of Demogorgon 1 5 7 2 5 8 points
Concentration 12 (+1), Bluff 5, Knowledge (arcana) 7 (+2)		 Scribe Scroll Scaly flesh +1, hypnosis
10th Runesmith 1 5 9 2 7 6 points
Concentration 13 (+1), Appraise 5		 (Elder Evil: Deformity: teeth) Rune magic
11th Oozemaster 3 6/1 9 3 8 8 points
Concentration 14 (+1), Disguise 14 (+3), Spellcraft 6 (+4)		 Minor oozy touch (ochre jelly)
12th Oozemaster 4 7/2 10 3 8 8 points
Concentration 15 (+1), Disguise 15 (+1), Spellcraft 8 (+2), Second Impression skill trick		 Greater Dragonmark of Warding Oozy glob 2/day, malleability
13th Oozemaster 5 7/2 10 3 8 8 points
Concentration 16 (+1), Disguise 16 (+1), Spellcraft 10 (+2), Assume Quirk skill trick		 Major oozy touch (green slime)
14th Oozemaster 6 8/3 11 4 9 8 points
Concentration 17 (+1), Disguise 17 (+1), Spellcraft 12 (+2), Collector of Stories skill trick		 Oozy glob 3/day, indiscernible anatomy
15th Runesmith 2 9/4 12 4 10 6 points
Concentration 18 (+1), Knowledge (arcana) 10 (+3), Magical Appraisal skill trick		 (Elder Evil: Deformity: tongue) Empower Supernatural Ability Stonecraft expertise
16th Runesmith 3 9/4 12 5 11 7 points
Concentration 19 (+1), Knowledge (arcana) 16 (+6)		 Share runes
17th Oozemaster 7 10/5 12 5 11 9 points
Concentration 20 (+1), Disguise 20 (+3), Spellcraft 15 (+3), Swift Concentration skill trick		 Major oozy touch (black pudding)
18th Oozemaster 8 11/6/1 13 5 11 9 points
Concentration 21 (+1), Disguise 21 (+1), Spellcraft 21 (+6), Craft (stoneworking) 9 (+1)		 Grenadier Oozy glob 4/day, slime wave
19th Oozemaster 9 11/6/1 13 6 12 9 points
Concentration 22 (+1), Disguise 22 (+1), Spellcraft 22 (+1), Craft (stoneworking) 15 (+6)		 Major oozy touch (yellow mold)
20th Oozemaster 10 12/7/2 14 6 12 9 points
Concentration 23 (+1), Disguise 23 (+1), Spellcraft 23 (+1), Craft (stoneworking) 21 (+6)		 (Elder Evil: Deformity: clawed hands) Oozy glob 5/day, one with the ooze


STR 8
DEX 12
CON 14 + 2 = 16
INT 16
WIS 12
CHA 15- 2 = 13


Level-up points to INT. Oozemaster applies progressive penalties to CHA. Because of level-up bonuses, skill points per level increase at 8 and 16.

On the build table, a bold entry means that a prereq for a PrC has been reached.

Oozemaster:
4 Swim
4 Craft (alchemy)
Great Fort
3rd level spells

Thrall of D-dawg:
2 K: Arcana
2: K: Religion
2 K: Other
BAB 4
1st level spells
Willing Deformity
Thrall to Demon

Runesmith:
5 Concentration
8 Craft (stoneworking)
1st level spells
Proficient with heavy armor
Scribe Scroll

Lesser Dragonmark:
9 ranks, any two skills
Least Dragonmark

Greater Dragonmark:
12 ranks, any two skills
Least Dragonmark
Lesser Dragonmark

(Remember that skill points are spent before feats are chosen, so it's legal to take a feat at the same level that your skills let you qualify for it. PHB pgs. 58-59)


Spoiler: Intro
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"So what's your friend's deal, anyway?" The barkeep gestured over at the heavily armored dwarf sitting on the floor at the end of the bar. "Something wrong with the chairs in my establishment?"

"Who, Humperdink?" replied the halfling. "He's got some weird habits. Something about how sitting on a wooden chair is 'taboo' or what have you. Maybe it's a dwarf thing? You know how those spellslingers get. I just sneak around and shank people. I know better than to question the magicians too much." A quick glance at Humperdink to make sure he was occupied with his drink, and the speaker added quietly, "especially the ones who're prone to ranting about the 'mother of monsters coming' given any opportunity. I try to keep my discussions with Big H over there strictly business."

The half-orc looked at Humperdink again and raised his eyebrows. He'd been running a bar in Fairhaven long enough to not be too worried about the cultish rantings of any particular adventurers, but there was another, more mundane matter that got his attention.

"What's that puddle forming around him? Your friend appears to be leaking. Is he, er, housebroken?"

"Housebroken? HOUSE BROKEN?" came the voice from the floor, clearly not drunk but also clearly not balanced. "I'll tell you what house is broken! KUNDARAK! KUNDARAK is a broken house!"

The halfling's long-suffering expression of you-see-what-I-have-to-put-up-with-these-days resonated with the barkeep like an unbreathed sigh. Another glass of brandy showed up on the counter. The good stuff, this time.

"I… have no idea what that goo is, but I don't think it's what you're thinking of. I'll make sure it's gone by the time we are. H's biology don't work like most folks's. He's convinced that he's preparing the world for some kind of flesh-warping apocalypse. He's got enough magic to start with himself. I don't understand it. I don't want to understand it. Maybe he just thinks that everyone's as messed up as he is. We used to have a priest with us, y'know. They bailed after H mentioned the sacrifice. Me, I'm just happy I need less sleep than he does. Magic must tire you out."
"Seems like your own form of challenge." The dwarf was still yelling some conspiracy theory about House Kundarak and how its choice to keep the demons out was an affront to the natural order, but the barkeep was fairly practiced at communicating through cacophany. "What makes you put up with it?"

"Heh. My goals aren't his goals. A means to an end of a greater mission, if you know what I mean. And I'll admit that he's really effective when he's laying traps for people who aren't me, or when doing his 'one-man slime-throwing team' trick, or when getting into places that he just shouldn't be. And at least he shuts up when doing his impression of an ooze. Those times are a nice relief…"

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Spoiler: Early game
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Humperdink d'Kundarak is pretty much like any other wu jen here. Your mark of warding gives you fire trap once per day, which is mostly amusing because it's a 4th level spell on a 1st level body. But hey, it's permanent and free for you while it's expensive for everyone else, so it's something. It's not your ultimate goal, anyway. Humperdink has a propensity for boom spells, but honestly, wu jen spells are sufficiently varied that you can probably solve your problems with careful selection. At least you've got better-than-average fortitude between your feat choice (that was totally a choice) and your dwarf heritage!

Humperdink is devoted to Ragnorra, the mother of monsters. He's way down with her flesh-twisting ways and is all about her arrival on the prime material and the resulting explosion of body horror. This will be relevant soon. His fascination with demons may have earned him the disfavor of his House, but what do they know, anyway?


Spoiler: Mid-game
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Your dragonmark is up to glyph of warding, which is an amazingly abusable ability when it's a SLA instead of a spell (standard action casting time, no material component, life is good!) Use it to target things weirdly, to store up extra spell slots, to make a lair horrible, to take advantage of action economy, and so on.

A flurry of PrCs hit the table all at once here for a very specific trick. First, oozemaster gives immunity to the effects of gray ooze, which is about to be important. Thrall of Demogorgon gives a buttload of proficiencies, including proficiency with heavy armor, so get a nice suit of plate mail or something! That heavy armor proficiency lets you into runesmith, which lets you prep your spells as runes instead of as normal spells. This is thematically appropriate for someone spamming glyph of warding all over the place and also very mechanically useful, since not needing somatic components helps a lot when you transform into something without thumbs. Something like, say, a gray ooze. Hello, polymorph! It's like I timed this spell to come online right here. And, you know, you can also use it for its originally intended purpose of being an arcane spellcaster in heavy armor. With a big old shield, even! Thrall of Demogorgon gives proficiency with shields. It doesn't even specify non-tower shields, so you might be able to get away with a tower shield! But even a heavy shield puts you ahead of most casters, since AC actually does matter and since using armor and a shield means that you have a place for your friends to put buffs (like magic vestment or for you to potentially spend gold to get upgrades.

Anyway, back to polymorph. Did I mention that you're immune to the effects of gray ooze? You're immune to the effects of gray ooze. So while you're in gray ooze form, you're immune to your own effects.

This means that not only can you stand in your own horrible areas of effect without problem, but you can also cast spells that would ordinarily have bad effects on you without worrying, so long as you do so in ooze form. Corrupt spells are your friends here. Just time things such that you happen to be a gray ooze when the corruption cost comes due. If you rely more on spells that have durations, you can just shift into ooze form at the end of the duration. If you want to actually cast while in ooze form (which will let you cheese around the corruption costs of instantaneous spells!), just make liberal use of Silent Spell, scribe your runes on stones (gray ooze acid can't melt steel beams stone runes), drop your desired spells on the ground prior to polymorphing and slither over them to pick them up, and then never worry about components again. You can try arguing that since you still have the benefit of feats when you polymorph, you still have the bite attack granted by Willing Deformity: Teeth and therefore still have a mouth and therefore can make verbal components, but the build is still 100% functional if that doesn't fly. Ragnorra gave you that feat for the low cost of your immortal soul, after all, and you got that for free anyway.

Malleability is weird on a caster, but it's amusingly appropriate on someone who likes to turn into oozes the way you do. It's never bad to have some breaking-and-entering ability without spell slots, and your spells can help you get out of trouble that you slither your way into.

Worth noting is that you can also turn into and become immune to ochre jelly if being Large is advantageous to you, but gray ooze tends to be more manageable.

Start picking up skill tricks just to have something to spend your skill points on across a build that only ever keeps one skill as a permanent class skill. They won't turn you into a god, but they make you a little more interesting than you might be without them.

Around this time you start becoming really good at using Disguise. You've already had disguise self as a spell on your list since the beginning, but why spend spell slots when you don't have to? Plus, the spell stacks with your skill ranks and your slithery face bonus, so that's nice. When in ooze form, if you're dealing with genre-savvy enemies, you might be able to get away with being ignored as long as you act like an ooze and don't "aggro" on them (an ooze that isn't interested in you isn't your problem), potentially getting some scouting in or overhearing a conversation or something? Maybe not. But when you pretend to be an ooze, you're a lot more convincing than the average caster, so that's something.


Spoiler: Sweet spot
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Things get even stupider once you hit 7th level wu jen spells and we get the crown jewel of abusable magic: body outside body. After all, you're basically an ooze, and what do oozes do? They split. They split into copies of themselves with obnoxious action economy advantages. This is about the most thematically appropriate spell an oozemaster could possibly want.

There's no saving throw on the oozy glob for green slime. Getting hit with one glob of 1d6 CON damage is going to make something unhappy. Getting hit with a whole bunch from an army of clones, on the other hand, is going to absolutely wreck something's day. You don't have to give a damn about the daily use limit when your clones are the ones burning through their uses per day. Same goes for Empower Supernatural Ability—your clones have your feats, so each one can Empower their first oozy glob shot. That's a lotta slime. You're like Marc Summers or something. Or an entire splattering platoon, a phrase which we might end up shortening to save time at some point.

Clones have dragonmarks, too. You're up to greater glyph of warding. Getting one for free each day is nice. Getting one per day per clone can lead to some freaky shenanigans. All kinds of 6th level spells (or lower) make great fits here. Firestride exhalation (Dragon Magic) is silly when put into a glyph, for example, as long as you're prepared to teleport back to fight whoever activated your trap card. (And the way glyph of warding works, it can be a literal trap card!) Stick that firestride exhalation on your spellbook to keep it really safe. But really, any kind of obnoxious boom spell is just multiplied when you've got the action economy advantage like this.

Shared runes probably don't work with clones, but they do work with friends. Action economy is worth your effort most of the time. Ask your GM if it's "you" casting the spell from a shared rune if your friend is the one actually spending actions, because either answer will result in some kind of new trick for you. If it is "you" casting the spell, then you're immune to the effects (which means that you can still let your friends target big old cones—including classic booms like shout—if you're already in ooze form), but if it's not you casting the spell, then your friends can gain the benefits of personal-only spells this way. You come out ahead either way!

Oh, by the way! Major oozy touch makes you immune to green slime. Did you know that there's a corrupt spell (touch of Juiblex) that turns an opponent into green slime? You can absolutely just turn someone into a form that literally can't hurt you anymore. Cast it directly, put it into a glyph, whatevs. Hilarity awaits. It's even a 3rd level spell, so it'll fit in your smaller glyph if that's your thing.

Wu jen have access to a reasonably large number of spells that can force someone to move into the area of a glyph of warding, if you feel like doing that. Just as a few examples, magnetism, repel wood, telekinesis, and repel metal or stone are all on the list. The most important one is magnetism because it's low-level (so you don't have to wait forever and a day to get access to it!) and because it can draw in, not just push away. I'm assuming, at least, that targeting metal armor would draw the wearer closer, given that you can't traditionally disarm someone of armor, but nothing says you can't target armor with it. I mean, if your GM prefers to let you rip someone's armor off with magnetism rather than letting you use it to draw people in, that might even be more powerful in some cases. Aren't you glad you're a wu jen? But if you're drawing people to you, just set up a glyph of warding in an obnoxious location, reel 'em in with that magnetism, and watch the fireworks. If you're using an AoE boom spell that could target you,, shift into ooze form first to become immune. Magnetism is a good spell. And remember that glyphs of warding can be set up well in advance!


Spoiler: Endgame
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Slime wave is a spell-like ability, so your clones can all use it at once. That's messy as hell, ain't it? It is. Lots of ability damage to go around. And just because stat damage is nasty, Grenadier actually adds up when you've got an oozy glob bomb rush going on.

Skills get a little weird at the end because we basically run out of things to take, but the fundamentals are covered.

Humperdink ends with 8th level spells. Not too shabby. I was hoping to get transcend mortality and then shift into ooze form to become immune to it before it ran out, but that wasn't in the cards with 10 levels of oozemaster. So I guess we'll just have to settle for, like, polymorph any object (another inherently broken spell) as a capstone. Or death by thorns, or whatever other high-level spells you like. Casting is fun.

Being one with the ooze means that spells affect you as though you had the ooze type, so at the very end, it's cheaper than ever to go into ooze form—you just need alter self rather than polymorph. A small difference at the tail end of the game, perhaps, but an amusing one nonetheless.


Spoiler: Use of secret ingredient
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  • Minor oozy touch: This is basically the focal point of the build. Oozy touch makes you immune to specific kind of ooze and therefore immune to yourself while in ooze form, so you can now get into all sorts of mischief with unfriendly spells, Corrupt spells, etc. Much of the build is devoted to making this combo tick.
  • Oozy glob:This combines hilariously with body outside body to turn into a massive amount of no-save CON damage all at once. Before you get your favorite spell, it's a nice backup ranged option. Nothing says it can't be used while polymorphed, either. Empower Supernatural Ability is fun when used 1/day and extra fun when used 1/day/clone. Grenadier makes both the base damage and the splash damage more dangerous (every point of CON damage hurts!).
  • Slithery face: Since you love using polymorph (which itself gives you a bonus on Disguise checks), this feature helps you become really good at pretending to be an ooze. Plus, you know, it stacks with other, less intense spells like disguise self and alter self, both of which you have access to. And, of course, you've got high ranks in Disguise for much of your career, and you even manage to snag the synergy bonus from Bluff during the single level you have Bluff as a class skill! Nice work!
  • Malleability: Full casters who can get into places they shouldn't be able to get are amusing. You can use wu jen spells like wall of stone and stone shape to create fortifications with small one-inch-wide holes that only you can easily enter, if that appeals to you. The oosy touch options that work on stone, wood, or metal (depending on what you're up against) might be useful, when combined with malleability, to let you gain passage somewhere that people don’t want you go. Also, technically, you can use this while under the effects of another signature wu jen spell, namely giant size. You know, if you felt like it. Tell me that doesn't make you giggle.
  • Major oozy touch: You're immune to green slime. You can turn people into green slime. This is a one-step method of making people stop being your problem. Or, you know, a several-step method if you feel like getting glyphs of warding and similar stuff involved.
  • Indiscernible anatomy: Passive defensive feature is passive and defensive, but you've got low enough HD that protection against the occasional lucky shot just might save your bacon.
  • Slime wave: See oozy glob. Clones make everything better.
  • One with the ooze: Immunities! As with indiscernible anatomy, passive defensive feature is mostly passive and defensive, but since you can now alter self into a gray ooze instead of needing to use polymorph, becoming immune to your own effects is both cheaper and longer-lasting.



Spoiler: Why these non-SI pieces?
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  • Wu jen is here for the free Silent Spell, for access to polymorph, for access to body outside body. for very limited but still nonzero boost to CL for a small number of spells, for the ability to permanently Silence a spell, and for access to a reasonably wide spell list overall. I chose water as the element to master because it has the widest variety of useful spells (blasts, BfC, weird stuff), because it seems thematically appropriate with ooze, and because it has a remarkably large number of low-level spells that come with no verbal component. Oh, and magnetism. That spell is hilarious.
  • Thrall of D-Dawg is here for a way to get access to heavy armor proficiency without losing CL.
  • Runesmith is here for the ability to permanently Still (effectively) any spells we choose.
  • Mark of Warding is chosen because it combines well with body outside body shenanigans and because it fits the theme of wu jen being unusually well-suited for stockpiling stuff during downtime. Oh, and because it's another way to work around being in ooze form.
  • Grenadier is here for making oozy glob better. Same with Empower Supernatural Ability.
  • Dwarf is chosen for access to runesmith and Mark of Warding.
  • Deformity feats, other than the prereqs for ToD, are chosen mostly for flavor and also potentially for arguments about what body parts you might be able to keep in ooze form. Mostly for flavor, though. They aren't the build's primary source of power.
  • The class structure was designed to minimize the disruption to casting progression, to get oozy touch, runesmith, and polymorph together ASAP, and then to get major oozy touch and body outside body together ASAP.



Spoiler: Magic
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Eff CL HD 0th 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th
1 1st 3 1 - - - - - - -
2 2nd 4 2 - - - - - - -
3 3rd 4 2 1 - - - - - -
4 4th 4 3 2 - - - - - -
5 5th 4 3 2 1 - - - - -
6 6th 4 3 3 2 - - - - -
6 7th 4 3 3 2 - - - - -
7 8th 4 4 3 2 1 - - - -
8 9th 4 4 3 3 2 - - - -
9 10th 4 4 4 3 2 1 - - -
9 11th 4 4 4 3 2 1 - - -
10 12th 4 4 4 3 3 2 - - -
10 13th 4 4 4 3 3 2 - - -
11 14th 4 4 4 4 3 2 1 - -
12 15th 4 4 4 4 3 3 2 - -
13 16th 4 4 4 4 4 3 2 1 -
13 17th 4 4 4 4 4 3 2 1 -
14 18th 4 4 4 4 4 3 3 2 -
14 19th 4 4 4 4 4 3 3 2 -
15 20th 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 2 1



Spoiler: A partial list of low-level wu jen and corrupt spells with no verbal component
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1st:
Cobra's breath
Secret signs

2nd:
Ice blast
Ice knife
Hypnotic pattern
Devil's tongue
Fangs of the vampire king

3rd:
Corpse candle
Gaseous form
Serpents of Theggeron

These are not the only spells you'll cast, of course. You aren't in ooze form 24/7 and don't need to prepare ONLY spells that function in ooze form. You'll be casting plenty of normal spells, or at least normal runic spells once you have runesmith. Use your ooze form to take advantage of targeting, to take advantage of cheesing past corruption costs, and to just be kind of entertainingly surprising, but the build is not intended to ALWAYS be an ooze, and we understand that. And remember that preparation is your friend; you can put a nice boom spell in a glyph of warding and arrange for someone to trigger it while you're in ooze form, no Silent Spell required. You're remarkably flexible. Just about anything CAN be made Silent to make it ooze-compatible, but relatively few things REQUIRE the metamagic. You can do both! Don't get locked down!


Spoiler: Sources
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Complete Arcane: wu jen, spells
Complete Mage: spells
Dragon Magic: spells
PHB2: Grenadier
Eberron Campaign Setting: dragonmarks
Book of Vile Darkness: thrall of Demogorgon, corrupt spells, Willing Deformity, Deformity (clawed hands), Thrall to Demon
Elder Evils: Ragnorra
Heroes of Horror: Deformity (tongue), Deformity (teeth)
Tome of Magic: Empower Supernatural Ability
Masters of the Wild: oozemaster
Races of Stone: runesmith
PHB: dwarf, spells, Great Fortitude, Silent Spell, skills, etc.
Complete Scoundrel: skill tricks