Junkyard Wars in the Playground V: Dread Witch + Reaping Mauler - Fighter

[Sian]

evening at which time? ... GMT or?

[WhamBamSam]

EST. Sorry, I can be a little egocentric at times.

[WhamBamSam]

Well, it took longer than expected, but here's my judging. I was judge B. We're a little past the judging deadline, but that's due to the late reveal, so I'm sure you guys will be able to get your disputes in.

The Lady In Red – 13.5

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Originality – 4. 5

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I expected people to dip Battle Dancer. I didn’t expect anyone to stay for much longer than a level, but I’m not seeing enough reason for the levels beyond first unless your DM houserules Superior Unarmed Strike to work for Battle Dancers the way it does for Monks, and it doesn’t feel right to give you originality points for something that’s just there for the sake of being there. Scorpion’s Grasp is well known for grappler monk-types, though I was kinda expecting people to just go Feral with the exp cushion for LA buyoff. Vigilante and the Bloodline feats were certainly surprises though. I’ll give you a little boost here. (+0.25)
No one else went the Battle Dancer route or thought to use Vigilante, and Scorpion’s grasp grappling and the Necromantic Bloodline stuff was distinct as well. (+0.5)
Vigilante for fearomancy with Necromantic Bloodline grapplemancy was actually sort of nifty. Not quite earth shattering, but enough to get you a solid bonus for being mechanically original. (+0.5)

And hey, I liked your story, so you get a little bump for fluff. (+0.25)

Power – 2.5

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I would peg the build as being T4. You have some social and stealth capability with your spells, but not enough, and you’re going to have trouble contributing in combat against enemies that are too big to grapple, which is a lot of them, and includes a lot of the ones with the highest Fort saves, so Ghoul Touch will likely not solve the problem. Dread Witch getting your fear abilities through normally immune things is a saving grace here, and you’ve got enough decent spells on your list to keep away from the T5 boundary. (0)
Unfortunately, with medium size and not much by way of optimizing your grapple checks, you’re going to have trouble as a grappler. Reaping Mauler’s usual problems are rearing their ugly head. Your fearomancy also has problems, as most of your spells either do not have visual manifestations, or do not target enemies, though you start getting into the higher level spells that do work for Dread Witch by the time you actually start taking levels in the class. Ultimately, you come out looking like you should be optimized harder for your main tricks. (-0.5)

Elegance – 3.25

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Most DMs will let you get away with it, but you do not qualify for Scorpion’s Grasp by strict RAW. Reaping Mauler only gives you the benefit of the Improved Grapple feat, not the feat itself. (-0.5)
Vigilante requires 8 ranks in Knowledge (Local). You only have 4 when you enter. (-0.5)
The build avoids ubercheese and questionable rules interpretations, as you note that Superior Unarmed Strike only works with Battle Dancer without houserules. (+0.5)
Yes, yes. 5/5/5/5 is very elegant, though the Battle Dancer levels beyond first still seem like they need more reason to be there. (+0.75)

Use of Secret Ingredient – 3.25

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You take both SI classes to completion. (+1)
You put some emphasis on grappling, and I suppose Ghoul Touch does potentially give you time to finish targets off with Devastating Grapple (though if they’re stunned you could just CDG them anyway). You’re also stuck with the usual size problems of Reaping Maule. (+0.5)
You get a few nice spells for Dread Witch, but nothing about your use of the class really wows me. (+0.5)
There’s not much synergy between Dread Witch and Reaping Mauler here. The only spells that you can use both to inflict fear and when starting grapples are Displacement (which is actually sort of funny, as it will look like you’re sitting a few feet away from your target rather than on top of them) and maybe Shadow Conjuration. Fear does make opponents easier to grapple, but everyone has that going for them. (+0.25)

Judge’s Commentary

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I’d have dropped all but 1 or 2 of the Battle Dancer levels to fit in things like Spirit Bear Totem Barbarian 1 and Paladin of Freedom 2. Most of your required skills come from feats, and most classes that would help your concept (like the ones I mentioned) either have Tumble natively, or can get it through Skilled City Dweller (which is thematically appropriate). Like it or not, dipping is how melee gets things done. That would have saved you a feat (and a qualification issue) on Scorpion’s Grasp, and would have netted you a bit of extra power.

That would’ve increased your score a bit, so between that and checking Vigilante’s entry requirements more carefully, you could’ve ended up with a good deal higher score.

El-Chupacabra – 15.75

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Originality – 3.25

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While Wizard grapplemancy is pretty well known, and War Mind grappling isn’t exactly revolutionary, I expected more Cha focused classes what with the Dread Witch’s emphasis on fear. I also somehow didn’t predict Powerful Build as a means of circumventing the limitations of Clever Wrestling, though I did see Girallon Arms and Imperious Command/Never Outnumbered coming. (+0.25)
Your wizardry, Sweeping Strike grapples, and somehow even Imperious Command were unique this round but there was another entry with Powerful Build shaping Girallon Arms. (+0.25)
You use standard grapplemancy and fearomancy spells. Sweeping Strike grapples, Abrupt Jaunt wizards, Imperious Command, and most of your other tricks are pretty standard as well. (-0.5)

Your fluff was a bit sparse, but it had a voice to it (even if it was a voice you didn’t come up with yourself). There may come a day when I grow tired of Luchador themed grapplers, but it is not this day. Enjoy your fluff bonus. (+0.25)

Power – 4

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You have enough options and versatility through your Wizard casting that I can’t imagine the build dropping below T3. (+0.5)

It’s sad to not see Improved Grab in the build. You can Polymorph for it I guess, and share the polymorph with your Psicrystal, though you don’t mention it in your typical spells and would have limited uses/day. Still, it’s hard to argue with your grappling numbers, and have a bit of fear-op and other casting to fall back on as well, though like the Lady in Red, you tend toward buffing yourself, which means your use of frightful empowerment is mostly limited to fueling Absorb Fear. Unfortunately, arcane spell failure makes Fearsome Armor less of an option for you than it would ordinarily would be, which is a shame, as having things to do with your move action would be really nice when in a grapple. But whatever, you’re pretty good at what you do. (+0.5)

Elegance – 4.75

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You qualify for everything. (+0.5)
You avoid ubercheese and questionable rules interpretations. (+0.5)
Another clean progression at 4/5/5/5. You’re a little unfocused what with all the different subsystems. I really don’t want to penalize you for that, as I firmly believe that anything should be fair game in any build, but I think it does cause you to fall just slightly short of perfect marks. (+0.75)

Use of Secret Ingredient – 3.75

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You take both SI classes to completion. (+1)
You focus pretty hard on grappling, and Powerful Build helps the usual crippling weakness of Reaping Mauler that is Clever Wrestling’s size requirement, At ECL 20 you can use Sleeper Lock to set up Sweeping Strike CDGs against multiple enemies. Devastating Grapple is there as well, but isn’t doing much, but that’s sort of always the case when Sleeper Lock+CDG is an option, as it is for most grapplers. (+1)
You do less with Dread Witch, though Imperious Command does help you eke a little bit extra use out of that massive Intimidate bonus, and you have a decent selection of spells that work well with the class on your list, even if the usual list of prepared spells really just has Fear and things that you can use on yourself for Absorb Fear. (+0.75)
I don’t really see any particular synergy between the SI classes beyond the usual thing of fear making things easier to grapple. Without Improved Grab you can’t even use Fearful Empowerment touch spells and start grappling at the same time unless you take an extra action beforehand to hold the charge. (0)

Judge’s Commentary

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The chairman gave an exp cushion for LA buyoff. You probably should have used it. Other than that, I actually quite like this build.

Ga-Ryn – 14

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Originality – 4

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Cleric and by extension Ordained Champion were unexpected. I honestly thought Dread Witch was Arcane only until I went back to check for the purposes of judging your build. Divine Magician to get yourself into Dread Witch was clever. Swordsage wouldn’t have been the first ToB class I’d have guessed to show up in this competition, and Soul Eater was a surprise as well. I expected Totemist, Spirit Bear Totem Barbarian, though and I’m surprised we didn’t see more persist cheese with all the good grappling buffs that are rounds/level. Powerful Build somehow slipped my mind though. (+0.25)
Girallon Arms to boost grapple checks and Powerful Build to circumvent the size limit of Clever Wrestling were used by another build, but other than that you stand out from the pack. (+0.25)
Being able to channel a debuff (possibly with an additional fear effect) into an enemy with an improved grab attack is just the sort of thing I’ve been looking for in this competition. It didn’t come up in the recent Spellsword IC round either (though I did think about it for my Area Attack idea), so I’m comfortable calling it fairly mechanically unique, even if a lot of the components are standard optimization fare. (+0.5)
Your fluff is enough to tell me who the character is, and justify the multiclassing that he gets up to, but it’s not enough for a fluff bonus. (0)

Power – 4.25

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You’ve got enough casting and other abilities that you’ll never dip below T3. (+0.5)
You’ve got an excellent grapple mod with Improved Grab and extra damage through Balor Nimbus, Rageclaws, and Crushing Weight of the Mountain, and have DMM Persist to keep your grappling buffs up all day. You’ve got some good spells for Frightful Empowerment both on the self-buffing through Absorb Fear side, and the frightening enemies side, and the latter fits in snugly with your usual grappling. What you do, you do well. (+0.75)

Elegance – 1.5

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You do not qualify for Soul Eater, as it requires Weapon Focus with a natural weapon. Your Weapon Focus is with a manufactured one. Swordsage’s Discipline Focus only gives you the benefit of the feat, not the feat itself. (-0.5)
You lack the 4 ranks in Spellcraft to qualify for Practiced Spellcaster. (-0.5)
By my understanding, unarmed strikes are not a natural weapon unless you have the Monk’s unarmed strike ability or similar. So it takes a questionable rules interpretation to qualify for Multiattack. There’s also the issue of whether Soul Eater’s energy drain applies on all natural attacks/unarmed strikes, or is just a standard action melee touch attack. As you don’t qualify for Soul Eater anyway, and it’d be a small penalty, I’m not going to double dip you. I’m not going to take off any points, because the unarmed strike thing is so easily fixed by using the Unarmed Swordsage variant, but I’m not giving you your bonus points for avoiding questionable rules interpretations either. Small distinction, I know, but there you go. (0)
Your progression is kinda on the diptastic side. This isn’t so bad in and of itself (hell, I encouraged the Lady in Red to be dippier), but in the process of your dipping, you’ve run into alignment issues. You need to start as a non-lawful alignment to be a Barbarian, then become lawful to be a Cleric of the Red Knight. (-0.5)

Use of Secret Ingredient – 4.25

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You take both SI classes to completion. (+1)
You put a lot of emphasis on grappling, and get around the usual limitation on Reaping Mauler through Powerful Build. You don’t really do anything special with Sleeper Lock/Devastating Grapple, which keeps you from getting the full point, but you do very well here. (+0.75)
You’ve got some good spells for Frightful Empowerment in its various applications, so that’s a decent use of Dread Witch, but the Intimidate boost is shoring up your check rather than boosting it to the crazy levels that some accomplish with the class. (+0.5)
You’ve got the best ability of the competition to deliver fear spells as part of your grappling in this competition, and your DMM Persisted Divine Power allows you to deal with the problems of Dread Witch having ½ BAB on a grappler build. (+1)

Judge’s Commentary

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I really liked where you were going with this build. You just made some qualification mistakes. I’m not sure you can avoid the alignment shift unless the adaptation mentions another deity with the Planning Domain, but using the Unarmed Swordsage variant to qualify unambiguously for Multiattack is an easy fix which really costs you nothing. You might have to drop Soul Eater, for something else that you actually qualify for. Another level of Cleric would get you 5th level spells if you can get another point of Wis from somewhere. Between that, and making sure your skill ranks shake out, this might’ve been my highest scoring build.

Nyan – 16

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Originality – 5

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Sorcerer was expected, but Tibbit and Master of the Unseen Hand were completely out of left field. The surprises outweighed the expected. Have a quarter point. (+0.25)
You were certainly completely unique from the rest of the competition. (+0.5)
I’m not about to fault a cat that telekinetically grapples people into submission holds for a lack of mechanical originality. The points. Just take them. (+1)
It also makes for some charming fluff. And hey, since I made my originality criteria such that it’s theoretically possible to get a 5 without fluff points, this gets you up to a perfect score despite the expectedness of Sorcerer. (+0.25)

Power – 3.75

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Assuming your grappling trick works (see Elegance) you’re T3. Immunity to mind-affecting can shut down a lot of your casting, even if you do punch through immunity to fear, but ranged grapples and some good buff/utility spells offset that. (+0.5)
You have a decent grapple mod with a favorable ruling (again, see Elegance), and the ability to grapple from range is snazzy. Your fear-op is potent even with the penalties to intimidate from being tiny sized, though non-spell based fear is unwieldy in combat without the standard tricks. You’re decent at what you do, but I don’t feel right showering you with points here. (+0.25)

Elegance – 3.75

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You qualify for everything. (+0.5)
While it seems, morally speaking, like you shouldn’t use your regular size category for Telekinesis grappling, I can’t see a clear-cut RAW reason for that to be the case. It kinda screws you over if you are stuck with the -8 for being tiny, as the trick is right at the crux of your build, so I’ve got to hit you pretty hard for reliance on a questionable rules interpretation. You also disqualify yourself for Clever Wrestling when in cat form, as it requires small or medium size. Some DMs might argue that this disqualifies you from Reaping Mauler as well, though I’m pretty strongly on the side that says you only need the feat itself, not its benefit to maintain qualification, so I’m not dinging you for that one. (-0.75)
Your progression is clean and straightforward. Full marks. (+1)

Use of Secret Ingredient – 3.5

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Both SI classes are taken to completion. (+1)
You can grapple pretty well, (again, assuming a favorable ruling on Telekinisis) and pinning from a distance feels like a reasonable use of Sleeper Lock/Fearsome Grapple. (+0.75)
You’ve got a few good fear spells for use with Dread Witch, and some are decent enough options for Fearful Empowering I suppose, even if they already have the descriptor part. Shame that tiny size eats up so much of the intimidate bonus. (+0.5)
There’s not much synergy between the classes here. All you really have is Telekinisis getting you around the poor BAB from Dread Witch. (+0.25)

Judge’s Commentary

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If it’s ruled that your size does matter for the purposes of Telekinesis grappling, then Primordial Half-Giant with its LA bought off would be a reasonable choice for a less cuddly take on the same schtick.

[dysprosium]

Thanks for judging WhamBamSam!

[Deadline]

Yay! Judging! Is this a one-judge contest?

[dysprosium]

It might be unless Kazudo decides to get/acquire/press into service a second judge. I don't think the two week time limit has been reached but this competition has been known to end early.

[Kazudo]

Well, if I had the kind of pull on this site that I do elsewhere and in person, I probably would have threatened, conscripted, or otherwise voluntold requested someone else add to the judging, but frankly I'm just glad I got entrants and a judge at all. Not to mention plenty of words of encouragement which have really helped. (plus some pretty neat recommendations on future contests that I'm gonna HAVE to use).

I'm gonna let it sit until Friday, then we'll just go with what we have and move on from there. Hopefully Episode VI isn't TOO bad.

[WhamBamSam]

So is this one over then? Did I really make it out with no disputes as a solo judge?

[Sian]

don't believe that since I know that i sent in a few disputes

[Anlashok]

Hopefully Episode VI isn't TOO bad.

I think you might be better off going with a more traditional combination. Episodes 1 and 2 were sort of "make a fairly standard build without the standard component", which I thought was pretty cool.

Dread Witch + Reaping Mauler on the other hand honestly just looks like two darts on a dartboard.

[dysprosium]

I thought that Kazudo was going for the dartboard look this round.

I know I didn't send in any disputes--the judging was spot on for my entry.

I hope our Chairman is ok.

[OMG PONIES]

I thought that Kazudo was going for the dartboard look this round.

I know I didn't send in any disputes--the judging was spot on for my entry.

I hope our Chairman is ok.

Kazudo and I were PMing about his selection for next round. As always, I'll offer my assistance to keep this thing going without ruffling any feathers. If two weeks go by without another check-in from our Chair, I offer to call this round where it is and chair the next round. How does that sound?

[dysprosium]

I'm ok with Ponies suggestion.

I would hate to see this competition fall by the wayside.

[Sian]

Two weeks from last log-on i'd suggest ...

[OMG PONIES]

Two weeks from last log-on i'd suggest ...

That's only 4 days away; I'd like to give our chairman more time than that.

[Deadline]

Has anyone heard word from the chairman? I sure hope Kazudo is ok.

[Telonius]

Life does happen. This was a particularly rocky installment for a bunch of people.

To that point - just finished the move! I'll probably be up for judging next time around.

[OMG PONIES]

Indeed, I hope he's okay as well. If we don't hear from him by next Wednesday (8/27), I'll post the Reveal here and start up the next round. Entrants, please PM me with which build was yours.

[sakuuya]

Any chance of a reveal? I know Ponies is busy judging IC, and Kazudo hasn't logged back in, but I don't want this competition to disappear.

[dysprosium]

Thanks for the reminder. I forgot to PM OMG Ponies which one was my build.

[Sian]

same same Dys... forgot it as well (or rather, i missed the request from him)

[Deadline]

Assuming everyone has PM'd PONIES, hopefully we can get a reveal this week?

And Kazudo, I hope things are ok with you!

[OMG PONIES]

And now, it brings me great pleasure to reveal...

• In first place, taking home one million happy thoughts...Nyan, by Muggins!
• In second place, taking home 30,000 hugs...El Chupacabra, by Deadline!
• In third place, taking home the pride of a job well done...Ga-Ryn, by Sian!
• In fourth place, taking home a renewed sense of purpose in life...The Lady in Red, by Dysprosium!

Now what else do you kids want? Go home! Get off my lawn! New round to begin Monday, 9/1/14.

[Sian]

actually kinda sad that noone caught onto the stealth pun in my entry. Ga-Ryn is an anagram for Angry

[dysprosium]

The judging was spot on for the Lady in Red.

I don't know what I was thinking with the skill requirements and I thought I had it mapped out right.

I guess dipping other melee classes would have helped my power but I've been dinged for too much dipping in other competitions before. Thus my staying in Battle Dancer for as long as I did. I also liked that the spread was 5/5/5/5. Plus I hate the reliance that the optimizers have on the Pouncebarian. I really dislike that alternate class feature. What did people do before Complete Champion?

Any hints on the next round?

I also hope Kazudo is ok. I know the rudisplorkers miss you!

[WhamBamSam]

The judging was spot on for the Lady in Red.

I don't know what I was thinking with the skill requirements and I thought I had it mapped out right.

I guess dipping other melee classes would have helped my power but I've been dinged for too much dipping in other competitions before. Thus my staying in Battle Dancer for as long as I did. I also liked that the spread was 5/5/5/5. Plus I hate the reliance that the optimizers have on the Pouncebarian. I really dislike that alternate class feature. What did people do before Complete Champion?

Any hints on the next round?

I also hope Kazudo is ok. I know the rudisplorkers miss you!

I recommended Spirit Bear Totem for Improved Grab, not Spirit Lion Totem for Pounce. Or did you mean that you dislike the Spiritual Totems in general?

Different judges do things differently. I like to see choices justified. Admittedly, a shameless elegance grab is somewhat less of a thing than a shameless power grab or originality grab, but it still doesn't sit right to see levels that aren't there for any reason other than to not be dips.

None of that's to say that I disliked the Lady in Red though. I honestly thought everyone performed admirably given the dartboard nature of the ingredients.

[dysprosium]

Since your judging was so long ago, I had to reread it to see.

I remember now thinking in my own head canon that you said lion totem, but I see now you said bear totem. It does make more sense but my brain saw spirit and totem and put lion there all on its own. (It's the lion totem I'm not too keen on because it seems like everybody takes it.) So I apologize for that.

I would definitely consider your recommondations if I was going to play the Lady in Red in a campaign, even though I liked how she came out the way she did.

It was a good round and I think everyone did a good job with the dartboard assignment.

[DeAnno]

So are we going to see Round 6? I know OMG Ponies is already hard at work judging one Iron Chef, so clearly he needs to work harder so he can organize this one as well!

[Troacctid]

I wanted to submit a build for this one, but I had trouble finding a way to make the pieces fit together and never finished it. The best I came up with was Half-Ogre LA 2/Spirit Bear Totem Favored Enemy Barbarian 1/[Some casting class] 4/Dread Witch 5/Leviathan Hunter 3/Reaping Mauler 5 with the character gaining the Lost template halfway through the build to connect the grappler half to the fear half.

[WhamBamSam]

So are we going to see Round 6? I know OMG Ponies is already hard at work judging one Iron Chef, so clearly he needs to work harder so he can organize this one as well!

Ponies said September 1st (Monday) in his post.