Villainous Competition XX​I: Yarr!

[InvisibleBison]

I'm sorry for sparking such a controversy, everyone. I'll make sure to comply with the competition rules in the future.

[Yklikt]

I'm sorry for sparking such a controversy, everyone. I'll make sure to comply with the competition rules in the future.

It more my fault since I told you wrong thing to do

[Florian]

I'm not stressed as such, just getting frustrated with a couple of forum users.

Don´t fret. Cool competition so far, amusing, educating and a good read. Job Well done. (Now get over your PF bias :D)

[Baby Gary]

PS are the forums acting really glitchy for anyone else recently? In the last couple of days, some threads won;t load, or won't load a reply screen properly?

yep! I have had that happening to me in the last couple days, it is soooo annoying

[Deadline]

Don´t fret. Cool competition so far, amusing, educating and a good read. Job Well done. (Now get over your PF bias :D)

You know, you could always step up and be the Chairman of your very own Pathfinder Optimization contest!

Not sure what you'd call it. Iron Chef Optimization - Pathfinder edition? Who knows? But there's plenty of room to explore. For reference, here are the various optimization contest that run or have run here in the past:

• Iron Chef Optimization - Take the ingredient (a crummy Prestige Class) and make a good build out of it.
• Zinc Saucier - Try to make a build that functions identically to the ingredient without actually using the ingredient.
• Junkyard Wars - Use Ingredient A & B, but you cannot use Ingredient C. (For an example, use Conjuration (Healing) spells + Ruby Knight Vindicator, but you can't use Cleric).
• Scrap Iron Chef - I think this one involved a required ingredient and ... a theme?
• Villainous Competition - Build a Villain that fits the theme and has the required elements. Runs on CR.

I feel like I'm missing one more, but can't recall at the moment.

I don't know Pathfinder well, but I'm sure there's an option that could work.

[Yklikt]

But then he cannot compete

[Deadline]

But then he cannot compete

Hmm, good point.

Florian, if you are interested in an Optimization Comp that features Pathfinder, I'll make you a deal. Help me set it up, and I'll chair it. Given my lack of Pathfinder knowledge, I'd make a terrible contestant or judge, but I could probably manage the Chairman seat. Spin off a separate thread to discuss it (and let folks chip in) if you are interested.

[Thurbane]

Disputes part two:

Hey, so someone apparently started PMing judges that my admission doesn't work by the rules. I don't want to post anything directly in the thread because I don't want to mess up the blind judging, so I thought maybe I would PM you? As stated in my entry, The Sea Dirge was created by an epic spell. I didn't go into the specifics of the spell or the caster as I thought that was outside the bounds of the competition, but as you can see here:

http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Life_(Epic_Spell_Seed)

according to the second and third paragraphs it works just fine. I don't know the rules here that well but if you passing that along to the thread is allowed, I'd appreciate it, since someone already broke the rules (I think that is against the rules?) by talking to judges about rules issues with my entry.

Just confirm in the thread that my monster (The Sea Dirge) has a legitimate way of working by the rules, and that the person who claimed otherwise was both mistaken and that it was against the rules for them to PM judges about it. I'm hoping that's all that is necessary, as the only person who has judged thus far lowered my score after getting a PM from someone claiming my entry was no good.

...a note to entrants, if you want me to post disputes, please post verbatim what you want me to post. Thanks.

[Thurbane]

Don´t fret. Cool competition so far, amusing, educating and a good read. Job Well done. (Now get over your PF bias :D)

Thanks.

I hear your pain about PF, but as others have suggested, maybe start up a comp for a PF equivalent.

[Yklikt]

Sea Dirge:

Im sorry Sea Dirge, all I can see is some fluff about great spells, but you didnt say that that is the spell you are using in the actual entry. If you dont give me the way your build gets intelligent in the entry itself I should think it doesn't count for you to put it in a dispute.

Unless if missed it. Then please quote the part where it say you are using this epic spell from the entry.

Just asking, why did you do two disputes at once

Chairman I am assuming this way, not letting dispute add new info, is correct? From what I have seen in past it is consistent.

---

I also want to add, whether or not the person who pm me is against rules or not, if he is correct about the rule I do not feel as judge I can ignore it.

Since judge must try be fair

[Thurbane]

The two disputes/posts is due to a reply to me, so don't hold it against the entry.

It's up to individual judges, but generally speaking if the info wasn't present at time of posting, the judge will base judgement only on what was in the reveal post.

[Gellhorn]

Apologies- I'd hoped to get all of the judging done today, but due to travel difficulties (turns out when the bus company say one stop, they really mean another), I'll be doing it piece by piece on mobile. So yeah, if I miss something, which I probably will since first time and mobile is a fun combo, definitely do call it out in a dispute.

As for my judging criteria, I'm shamelessly cribbing them from Inevitability and Greydeath.

Spoiler: Originality

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-Start at 1.
-If the race is something I've never really seen before? Up to +1.
- Would I expect the classes in a normal game? Another +1 is up for grabs here.
- Are the classes, race or fluff something I'd expect given the competition criteria? Differs from the first two points in that something can be uncommon in regular games, but still be expected given the theme. I'll give up to 0.75 for each of the three for a maximum total of 1.5.
- Does it do a trick that's not something you'd normally see? Room for another 0.5 here.

Spoiler: Elegance

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Starting at 3 here.

Up to +2.0 for "Single Class+Prestige Class Build, fully legal, no cheese. Note that taking multiple prestige classes is fine so long as you take them fully.
Up to +1.0 for "not overly complicated, fully legal, no cheese)

Up to -1 for excessive Dipping (more than 2, and for obvious, always done things) Taking large amounts of multiple classes is better than taking small amounts of lots of classes.
Up to -1.5 for Illegalities of any colour that are not explicitly forbidden in the rules if it was theoretically possible for the build to work without them.
-0.1 for each flaw, with a maximum penalty of -0.25 in this area.

Auto 1.0 if there is an Illegality that is explicitly forbidden in the rules and the build does not work without it.

(Yup, pretty much copy and pasted from Greydeath. Hope he doesn't mind, but I feel like this is the criteria that makes the most sense - for me I'll be focusing on it mechanically in this section. Note that while you might get penalised for dipping, if you do it in an original way (so, for example, not a 2 level dip in Barbarian) I'll probably end up giving points back with the originality section)

Spoiler: Power

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First off, a disclaimer. Power is one of those things that both varies from table to table, and concept to concept. I'm predominantly going to judge this off of how well you achieve what you set out to do. In other words, mundanes typically have a lower bar here.

Starting score is 3, minimum score of 1.

-Requiring specific magic items is up to -1 unless you can either craft said items yourself. If it's a magic weapon, so long as the weapon is fairly interchangable (eg your entire strategy isn't centered around specific enchantments), that's fine and will not incur a penalty.
-Glaring weaknesses that aren't intentional as part of the concept are up to -1. If you're the wicked witch of the west, melting when a girl throws a bucket of water at you won't be penalised here, if you catch my drift.
- Can't do what you set out to do? Up to another -1 here. If you're a fighter I expect you to be able to hold your own in a fight. Casters are expected to be able to cast, and so on.
-Did you aim too low? While it's fine to have intentional weaknesses due to your concept, and I'm not expecting you to be Pun Pun, you do need to be a threat in some way. Up to -1 for this.


- Able to be a threat in multiple ways? Up to +1.5 here. Being threatening both in combat and outside of combat will score highly here.
-Able to do what you set out to do? Up to another 0.5 available here, depending on how high you set that bar for yourself.

Spoiler: Memorability

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Largely based off of how likely it is I'd remember your villain a while from now if I were to play in a campaign against them. Starts at 1 here, as always a minimum of 1 point.
- Got an interesting trick to prevent it from just being another fight? Up to +1 here.
- Got interesting fluff? Up to 2 points here.
- Am I going to remember why I fought them, or will it just be because they were there? Up to + or - 1 point, depending on the answer.

[Yklikt]

Nice to have fellow judge, but your elegance is put as power

[Gellhorn]

Whelp, don't know how I did that. Fixed!

[Yklikt]

So, how soon to expect first judging?

[Deadline]

So, how soon to expect first judging?

I was just about to ask you how your judging is coming along, as it looks like you still have about 6 to go.

[Yklikt]

I was just about to ask you how your judging is coming along, as it looks like you still have about 6 to go.

Slow as quite busy, here is one.

Spoiler: Ebbeth Unyak

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• Originality: 3. You are good at this storm theme, but that is not an original one. Races and classes are pretty expected, except maybe Druid. The backstory is just explaining how she is getting her abilities, but not clear drives and motivations.
• Power: 5. As a caster, Ebbeth is just okay, definitely not great. The same goes for the bard abilities. This is what happen with the large amount of multiclassing. However, that is still a significant amount of power, and what Ebberth really stands out for is storm themed abilities. Reading this entry feel everything flow together in a distinct way that retains full power, so I give a full score here.
• Elegance: 5. Qualifies for everything, no dips, generally all goes together.
• Memorability: 4. Here is an amazing storm themed villain with many dramatic powers, but unfortunately I must say her motivations are not clear enough.
• Total: 17

​Comments: I like the feel of this villain very much, but despite a decently written backstory I am not really feeling much of a character in her. That is what hurts her concept as a whole.

[daremetoidareyo]

Judges so slow and unreliable now

Don't discourage new judges.

[Yklikt]

They should be inspired to be better than Novolin

[Buufreak]

Judges so slow and unreliable now

Obviously it is because we no longer have your greatness and guidance to help all of us see the way.

[Venger]

Oh wow, novolin deleted a post before I could report it, what a shock! Thanks for quoting, people.

[daremetoidareyo]

Oh wow, novolin deleted a post before I could report it, what a shock! Thanks for quoting, people.

I reported it

[GrayDeath]

I do not mind Gellhorn, rather the opposite.

Also I.will have.time.to.judge tomorrow and.sunday, all.should be up then unless.i run into something.really strange...;)

[Yklikt]

I hope I can finish then also.

Gray death, why so many period

[Buufreak]

I hope I can finish then also.

Gray death, why so many period

Because some of us post from a phone, and at times it is hard to differentiate between the space and period button, and once it is typed it is hardly worth the effort to fix it when no meaning is lost.

[Yklikt]

That makes sense

What I surprised actually is that not more disputes.

[Buufreak]

That makes sense

What I surprised actually is that not more disputes.

Now allow me to counter with my own question. Instead of using the edit button, like it is designed for, why do you delete your post, then repost it mildly changed?

[Yklikt]

Now allow me to counter with my own question. Instead of using the edit button, like it is designed for, why do you delete your post, then repost it mildly changed?

I dont really know what is counter meaning in this, but because if I have something new to say it look more ugly to have two post next to each other from same person.

If someone already has post after then it looks okay to just post

[danielxcutter]

I dont really know what is counter meaning in this, but because if I have something new to say it look more ugly to have two post next to each other from same person.

If someone already has post after then it looks okay to just post

Just use the edit button. That's what it's for.

[Yklikt]

Just use the edit button. That's what it's for.

Well, I find it same. I use edit anyway if want to change what already have say