Quote Originally Posted by WinWin View Post
I could easily say that you are thinking of small spaces. If the DM adapts encounters so that monsters are at a disadvantage, then of course the PC's abilities will always be effective. Can you honestly say that in every game, large monsters are only going to be encountered in a confined space? You may as well say that flying monsters do not have an advantage, because they will only be encountered in a dungeon.

That does not help honestly assess the strengths of a PrC. Any character is powerful if the DM caters to their strengths.
Umm...correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this a test to measure the optimization skills of people more than a test to measure the effectiveness of a PrC? If you're claiming that Sweeping Strike is pointless against a certain category of creatures or larger, when positioned in specific places, then that's an attack to the PrC itself. The whole point of the competition is to prove what you can pull off while using that "ingredient" (which includes Sweeping Strike).

Also, that means you're attempting to see what you can pull off with the rest of the class abilities. Sweeping Strike is but one of the things that War Mind offers: Chain of Personal Superiority, Chain of Defensive Posture, Chain of Overwhelming Force, Enduring Body, the stunted progression of psionic powers and full BAB is also part of the system. That in conjunction is the extent of the competition; what you can do with the PrC that is elegant, yet powerful enough, measuring how well you use the PrC (if it's a dip or if your build really takes on the strengths of the class and minimizes the weaknesses, you know, optimizing), and just how original can it be that it isn't prone to cookie-cutting. Or at least, that's what the points are given for. If the ability is weak per se, but you can do something great with it, then it should merit; not always assume that all creatures will either be on small spaces and ready to use SS on them, or the opposite. At one moment, you should assume that at least one encounter will have both situations, and situations in-between (such as creatures in large spaces but that decide to fight nearby, or a Large creature with martial maneuvers and, say, Island of Blades), and measure just how good it is when the ability can be activated. Else, it would be a critique to the PrC itself, something that would be best left for a thread and not a competition...

Now, that doesn't mean I'm forcing you to determine how to judge or not, but it's something that I presume everybody had in mind: when reaching Sweeping Strike, no one thought "let's ignore it because it's useless vs. Large creatures or larger because they'll always fight smart"; I bet everyone thought "how can I implement this in my build?" I can tell because, on ICOC X I was attempting to think of that and how the rest of the classes would fit the concept I was developing. Note to mention, I was using the worst possible combination EVER of the six options, which ended up with me dead last because the concept was simply horrible. I can request Keld to tell just how horrible that might have been, if he desires to expand on that. Regardless of how that worked, everyone probably thought the same: "well, I have this, so how can I make it so that it's elegant, original, powerful, but also using all parts of the PrC?" Using that may imply a hit on Power, but not using it means a hit on UoSI, and the margin between the loss in Power and the loss in UoSI is simply too much to ignore it; even then, at times, the judges will probably won't think as you and may still nick points on UoSI because of one thing or another, but that's a case-by-case basis with each judge.