Iron Chef Optimization Challenge: E6 Appetizer Edition (IV)

[Zaq]

Interest? Check.
Clean PM inbox? Check.
Ingredient? Check.
Free time? Eh, we can't have everything.

Awright, chums. Let's do this. LEEEEEEEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOY—!


Welcome to the reborn Iron Chef Optimization Challenge E6 Appetizer Edition! This owes a heavy debt to our myriad hard-working Chairpersons of the main Iron Chef Optimization Challenge, along with a special debt to Amechra, who pioneered and chaired the first three rounds of the E6 Appetizer Edition six freaking years ago (wow, I feel way older than I expected to feel right now). I'm going to be shamelessly borrowing a hell of a lot of the format, but I do ask that everyone nonetheless read the rules, as there may be some elements that you don't expect.

The form of this challenge is to take a particular D&D 3.5 base class (our "secret ingredient," or SI) and turn it into a functional E6 build, which must feature the SI as heavily as possible. (The only hard rule about this is that you must take at least one level in the SI, though judges are encouraged to look favorably on builds that take all or almost all of their levels in said SI.) Your final build submission should consist of your 6 regular levels and your first 10 epic bonus feats, though providing a snapshot at earlier points through the progression is heartily encouraged. Entries are to be PM'd to the Chair (that would be me!), and they will be posted anonymously; our volunteer judges will then grade each build on a 1-5 point scale in four categories: Originality, Power, Elegance, and Use of the Secret Ingredient. The builds with the highest three scores will be awarded medals, with the Honorable Mention award going to the non-medaling build that the Chair likes best (and/or that receives the most votes for HM in this thread). And then we all have cake!*

*Note: You must provide your own cake.

This is basically like the regular Iron Chef, and let's be brutally honest with ourselves here: this isn't a gargantuan community, and we basically all know what we're talking about at this point. Make the builds, send 'em in, post some scores, and have fun. If you've got questions, lemme know. Still, let's lay out a few rules!

Cooking Time: Builds must be submitted via PM to the Chair by 11:59 PM GMT - 7 on Thursday, December 07, 2017 (6:59 AM GMT on Friday, December 08). The reveal shall be on Friday, December 08. Judging is then expected (*cough*) to take no more than two weeks: judges will have until 11:59 PM GMT - 7 on Thursday, December 21st, 2017 to submit judgments.

Kitchen: Almost all first-party 3.5 sources are legal. Dragon Magazine is disallowed, but Dragon Compendium (and its errata) is allowed. Online material from the WotC website is legal except for unupdated 3.0 psionics, which are banned. (If you use online material, please provide a link to the source.) Unearthed Arcana is legal for paragon classes, alternate races, and alternate class features, but not for fractional BAB/saves, item familiars, generic classes, prestigious character classes, gestalt, bloodlines, LA buyoff, or similar rule variants. We will borrow the existing standard for traits and flaws; they are legal, but traits warrant a –0.5 point penalty in Elegance, and flaws warrant a –1 point penalty in Elegance. Leadership is banned, as is any other feat or class feature that gives you something equivalent. (Familiars and improved familiars are fine, Wild Cohort is fine, psicrystals and elemental envoys are fine, animal companions are fine, but Thrallherd is not fine, for example.) Official errata is considered to be in play. Judges are not to penalize for the use of a large number of sources, nor are they to penalize for using an "obscure" source in one's build. Judges may, however, penalize for using a source without listing it, so please provide a list of sources! It is up to the discretion of each judge whether it is inelegant to "cross setting lines" (by using, for example, Forgotten Realms and Eberron material in the same build). Pathfinder is not allowed. Unupdated 3.0 material is allowed, and the general-purpose 3.0-to-3.5 skill updates (Wilderness Lore and Intuit Direction become Survival, Read Lips becomes Sense Motive, etc.) should be used when appropriate. If 3.0 material has been updated to 3.5, use the 3.5 version instead. If you have questions about anything in this paragraph (or hell, in this ruleset), feel free to ask the Chair.

Character Creation: 32 point buy is assumed. For the purposes of this contest, Level Adjustment greater than +0 is banned. (This may be revised at a later point, but I don't feel that the E6 LA rules are conducive to fun in the context of this contest. If you have a major problem with this, I'm happy to discuss that after the first round, but I want to try at least one round without it to see how confining it is.) No more than two entries per chef per contest, please; if you submit two builds and somehow are so overcome with inspiration for a third that you can't help yourself, PM me and tell me which two you care about the most.

Speculation: Please do not post any form of speculation before the reveal. Just don't do it, guys. It's not cool.

E6: Here's how E6 works for the purposes of this contest. Build your character normally for the first six levels. After you reach level 6, you stop gaining levels and start gaining bonus feats every time you would gain 5,000 XP. Since we aren't actually tracking XP, you'll basically list your first ten epic bonus feats in the order that you take them, and we think of them as being kind of like levels. We will not use the LA-equals-reduced-point-buy rules, instead preferring to just ban races with LA (at least for now). We will not use the "capstone feats"; all feats that you take must be normal legal 3.5 feats, not homebrew E6 ones. You may not use the Epic feats from the Epic Level Handbook, though if for some reason there are non-Epic feats from the ELH that you qualify for, you may take those. (I don't think there are any, but I'm sure someone will prove me wrong.) It is up to the discretion of each judge whether this is a "hard E6" (magic above 3rd level spells is simply beyond mortal reach, items that have a listed CL above 6th are just plain not available, etc.) or a "soft E6" (if you can somehow get the magic on your character, it's yours, regardless of level), though I honestly don't expect it to come up. Don't go crazy with making assumptions about items and we probably won't have to find out.

Presentation: Here's a table for you to use. List your epic bonus feats (in clear order) after the table. If you find a clever way of formatting that that isn't annoying and that doesn't break anything, have fun; if it's portable, I may steal it for the next round. When sending your build or any disputes to the Chair, clearly include your build's name in the subject of the PM, and please present your build exactly as you want the Chair to copy and paste it into the thread.

Spoiler

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Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	Feats	New Class Abilities
2nd	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	Feats	New Class Abilities
3rd	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	Feats	New Class Abilities
4th	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	Feats	New Class Abilities
5th	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	Feats	New Class Abilities
6th	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	Feats	New Class Abilities

Code for the table:

Spoiler

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[table="class: head alt1 alt2"]
[tr]
[th][B]Level[/B][/th]
[th][B]Class[/B][/th]
[th][B]Base Attack Bonus[/B][/th]
[th][B]Fort Save[/B][/th]
[th][B]Ref Save[/B][/th]
[th][B]Will Save[/B][/th]
[th][B]Skills[/B][/th]
[th][B]Feats[/B][/th]
[th][B]Class Features[/B][/th]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]1st[/td]
[td]New Class Level[/td]
[td]+x[/td]
[td]+x[/td]
[td]+x[/td]
[td]+x[/td]
[td]Skills[/td]
[td]Feats[/td]
[td]New Class Abilities[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]2nd[/td]
[td]New Class Level[/td]
[td]+x[/td]
[td]+x[/td]
[td]+x[/td]
[td]+x[/td]
[td]Skills[/td]
[td]Feats[/td]
[td]New Class Abilities[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]3rd[/td]
[td]New Class Level[/td]
[td]+x[/td]
[td]+x[/td]
[td]+x[/td]
[td]+x[/td]
[td]Skills[/td]
[td]Feats[/td]
[td]New Class Abilities[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]4th[/td]
[td]New Class Level[/td]
[td]+x[/td]
[td]+x[/td]
[td]+x[/td]
[td]+x[/td]
[td]Skills[/td]
[td]Feats[/td]
[td]New Class Abilities[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]5th[/td]
[td]New Class Level[/td]
[td]+x[/td]
[td]+x[/td]
[td]+x[/td]
[td]+x[/td]
[td]Skills[/td]
[td]Feats[/td]
[td]New Class Abilities[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]6th[/td]
[td]New Class Level[/td]
[td]+x[/td]
[td]+x[/td]
[td]+x[/td]
[td]+x[/td]
[td]Skills[/td]
[td]Feats[/td]
[td]New Class Abilities[/td]
[/tr][/table]

Contest houserules: Nearly the same as the main contest's rules here: all creatures are proficient with natural weapons they have or may acquire, bonus feats that are explicitly granted without meeting prereqs are usable even without those prereqs, and feats that affect which skills are class skills for you and/or how you spend your skill points (Able Learner, Martial Study, Truename Training, Apprentice, etc.) apply immediately at the level at which you take them (even though you normally spend skill points before taking a feat).

Judging guidelines: As with the main contest, we will follow the "One Mistake, One Penalty" guideline. I'm going to directly copy and paste this from the main thread, and hopefully the original author won't mind too much:

Spoiler

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Judges are only allowed to penalise once for a given mistake. If someone messes up their skills and doesn't qualify for a PrC, ding them as hard as you like. Once. In one category. You don't then get to declare that because they didn't qualify for that PrC, they don't get those levels, and thus don't qualify for anything else. If Ranger is a common ingredient, ding them for Originality. Once. Don't also take off points for Two-Weapon-Fighting being a common ingredient.

Non-exhaustive list of examples:

Skills

Allowed:

• Giving a penalty for miscalculating the number of skill points gained
• Giving a penalty for not having enough ranks to meet a prerequisite
• Increasing the harshness of a skill miscalculation penalty if it affects critical skills including prereqs

Not allowed:

• Giving separate penalties for miscalculating skill points and for non-qualification where the non-qualification is solely caused by the miscalculation

Prereqs

Allowed:

• Giving a penalty for not meeting prereqs
• Scaling the penalty depending on how important the item that the build failed to qualify for is
• Giving minimum score in UotSI for not qualifying for the SI
• (Trial, may be disallowed later)Not giving credit for (note: not the same as penalising for) tactics using feats or classes other than the SI that were not qualified for (but see below)

Not Allowed:

• "Cascading" failures to qualify - declaring that because a build doesn't qualify for a feat, for example, it also doesn't qualify for anything using that feat as a prereq
• Treating a build as having fewer levels than it does because of FtQ for classes

Other general things that are no longer allowed:

• Penalising because someone has chosen to build a tribute to an existing creative work
• Deciding that a backstory has not met a fluff prerequisite well enough, or because its method of meeting it is "unrealistic". You may penalise if a fluff prereq is not addressed at all, but not for how well it is addressed.

Note that these are protections, not licenses. Deliberately taking a feat that you know you don't qualify for hoping to just suck up the judging penalty for a feat that you couldn't normally take is not okay, and may lead to your build being disqualified.

Other bits and bobs: If there's something major and relevant I haven't mentioned, assume that the way I handle it will probably be the same as the main contest unless stated otherwise or unless doing so would be an obviously absurd result. If you've got questions, I'll give you answers.

This round's secret ingredient: The KNIGHT, from PHB2! Allez Optimizer!

Here are the builds, for quick and easy reference:
1: Sir Svarak Steelskin [SILVER]
2: Sir Meowx-Aww-Lots [HM]
3: Guardian [GOLD]
4: Sir Markum [BRONZE]
5: Izzik Temple-Guard

[bean illus]

6 levels and what else? 10 feats for levels 7-16?
I'll take a look and see if i get an idea.

[Venger]

Oh boy.

So just to be clear:

You cook something that feels like a knight either through 6 levels of knight or something else that what, "feels" like a knight, or replicates its abilities through mimicry like junkyard war?

[Zaq]

Treat the SI here the same way as the SI in the base contest. You don’t HAVE to take all 6 levels if it’ll help the build to ease off of it, but there’s a good chance that doing so will cost you in UoSI. The only reason I mentioned a rule about requiring levels in the SI was because some jokester in the Monk round submitted a build with no Monk levels and ended up with an awkward disqualification.

[Inevitability]

Definitely gonna try and get a build in.

[Thurbane]

I'll try to get an entry in, but if I don't, should be able to judge.

[ATHATH]

Fortunately for me, I recently read the Knight Handbook and really liked a character concept that was touched on in it.

Since this is an E6 contest, it'll likely be much easier for me to motivate myself into actually writing up a proper statblock for my character, so that's nice.

[Zaq]

First build's in already! That's half the fun of the E6 Appetizer Edition, though—it's usually much easier to put together 6 levels and a handful of feats than 20 levels, so there's a much lower barrier to entry. (You're significantly less likely to need to balance atop a Jenga-tower of prereqs, for example.) I foresee good things coming out of this.

[jdizzlean]

i will just observe this round, and vote on HM :)

[Zaq]

Right now we don't have enough builds submitted to run a proper contest. I won't start panicking until we get closer to the wire, but to be honest, I was expecting more to come in over the weekend (especially since this is a long weekend for many people in the United States). Everyone just working down to the buzzer this time?

[jdizzlean]

all of these comps seem to be in purgatory.

I don't think it's just a holidays issue, although that could be a factor :/

assuming you have at least 3 entries, why not just publish them, it might take awhile for this and JYW to build up some steam like IC and VC

[ATHATH]

I'm working on my entry still.

[Demidos]

Considering writing up a build --

Question: What is wealth by level? Assuming a 16th level wealth by level seems insane, but a 6th level wealth by level is fairly small for someone of such renown that they are 10 "levels" past the level cap.

[Zaq]

Considering writing up a build --

Question: What is wealth by level? Assuming a 16th level wealth by level seems insane, but a 6th level wealth by level is fairly small for someone of such renown that they are 10 "levels" past the level cap.

Just like in the main contest, how to handle items is up to the discretion of each judge. Historically, the safest bet is to minimize the build's reliance on magic gear (unless you can craft/create it yourself) and only list magic gear as sort of a sidebar thing (if at all), but if you feel like you can show off the build better by displaying a full load of items, you're welcome to take that risk. I'm not going to tell the judges how to treat that.

[Zaq]

We still don’t have enough builds. I’ve decided to extend the deadline by a week to compensate.

What’s going on, folks? Not interested in the contest? Not interested in the ingredient? Something else?

[Inevitability]

We still don’t have enough builds. I’ve decided to extend the deadline by a week to compensate.

What’s going on, folks? Not interested in the contest? Not interested in the ingredient? Something else?

I'm interested, and I submitted a build. I'd even have sent another one if time permitted it.

[Thurbane]

I've got too much other stuff going on (DMing prep work, work stuff, personal commitments) to get an entry into any of the open comps at the moments, but I'm certainly happy to put my hand up as a judge.

[jdizzlean]

i just want to see how this works (by seeing other folks submissions) before i attempt to tackle one myself.
never messed w/ any of these types of things in games before

[Deadline]

I'm working up a build. Quick question, does E6 modify the normal feat progression for levels 1-6? I'm away from the E6 materials at the moment and am going to need this info in order to plan my feats.

[Zaq]

Nope, levels 1-6 are handled basically normally. LA races are handled differently, but since I’ve chosen to ban races above LA 0 for this competition, that shouldn’t come up.

[Deadline]

Nope, levels 1-6 are handled basically normally. LA races are handled differently, but since I’ve chosen to ban races above LA 0 for this competition, that shouldn’t come up.

Excellent, thanks!

[Jormengand]

So I've submitted something. It's new! It's inspired! It's really dumb! But it's something.

[Zaq]

So, like, I've got two builds submitted right now. I'm hoping that I'll get a flurry of last-minute entries that will make the issue moot, but if tomorrow dawns and I've still only got two submissions, would everyone prefer that I post them and have a teeny little two-entry round, or would everyone prefer that I hang onto them until we get at least one more entrant?

[Deadline]

So, like, I've got two builds submitted right now. I'm hoping that I'll get a flurry of last-minute entries that will make the issue moot, but if tomorrow dawns and I've still only got two submissions, would everyone prefer that I post them and have a teeny little two-entry round, or would everyone prefer that I hang onto them until we get at least one more entrant?

Egads! I misread the OP and thought we had until Dec. 21! I'll have time in the morning to finish it, assuming you can wait.

[Zaq]

The whole point of this is to have fun. If such an entry is promised, I believe that we'll have more fun by waiting for your last-minute entry than by being super strict about calling "PENCILS DOWN" at the buzzer. This might be different if we had entrant crawling out of the woodwork (and also routinely submitting builds a full day or more late), but I'm totally willing to be chill when considering our actual situation on the ground.

That said, thank you for making it clear to me that I need to separate the "cooking time" and "judging time" lines in the main post. I can totally see how it's easy to make that mistake.

[ATHATH]

Unfortunately, I will NOT be able to submit a valid build, since I recently realized that the combo that the build is built around doesn't work properly.

[daremetoidareyo]

I'm totally going to try to squeeze one in before Deadline!

[Deadline]

Alright, entry is in. Thanks for waiting!

[Zaq]

Alright boys and girls, pencils down for real this time. Nothing like a ticking clock to motivate you, huh? Here comes the reveal!

[Zaq]

Do one thing, and do it well. Really well.

Sir Svarak Steelskin, the Invincible Law



And the Prophet stayed with the Justicemaker for a day and a night, and was embraced by Him, and clad in His mantle, and fed with His blood, and taught His words. And the Prophet returned to the heathens below, and taught them the words, and brought them Law.

Spoiler: Build summary

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TN -> LG Dragonborn Neanderthal Bear Totem Whirling Frenzy Barbarian 1/Knight 5.

Spoiler: Ability Scores

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Base array:

STR: 16
DEX: 12
CON: 16
INT: 10
WIS: 8
CHA: 14

Post-racial modifiers:

STR: 18
DEX: 8
CON: 20
INT: 8
WIS: 8
CHA: 14

Post-ability increases:

STR: 19
DEX: 8
CON: 20
INT: 8
WIS: 8
CHA: 14

Spoiler: Build table

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Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Barbarian 1	+1	+2	+0	+0	Intimidate 4, Literacy 2, Ride 4, Survival 2	ToughnessB, Roll With It*	Bear Totem (Toughness), Draconic Aspect (Wings), Illiteracy, Whirling Frenzy 1/day
2nd	Knight 1	+2	+2	+0	+2	Intimidate 5, Ride 5	-	Fighting Challenge +1, Knight's Challenge, Knight's Code
3rd	Knight 2	+3	+2	+0	+3	Intimidate 6, Ride 6	Mounted CombatB, Roll With It	Shield Block +1
4th	Knight 3	+4	+3	+1	+3	Intimidate 7, Ride 7	-	Bulwark of Defense
5th	Knight 4	+5	+3	+1	+4	Intimidate 8, Ride 8	-	Armor Mastery (Medium), Test of Mettle
6th	Knight 5	+6/+1	+3	+1	+4	Intimidate 9, Ride 9	Iron WillB, Roll With It	Vigilant Defender

*Svarak's original feat is Heroic Destiny, which he replaces with Roll With It after undergoing the Rite of Rebirth.

Svarak's ten epic feats are all Roll With It.

Spoiler: Story

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From where did the Prophet come? The people of the Frozen Lands do not agree on that. Some state he traveled here from a distant realm: others maintain that Bahamut personally created him here.

The truth is that he was once a regular neanderthal reaver, living off hunt and plunder. Perhaps by chance, perhaps by some destiny then fulfilled, Bahamut chose him to bring his religion to the scattered tribes of the Frozen Lands.

With a ritual the Platinum Dragon taught him, Svarak abandoned his old humanoid body for an even more intimidating winged draconic shape, and set out to convert the heathens and teach them Bahamut's ways.

There can be no peace without law.

Such was the first commandment of Bahamut, and so Svarak unified the tribes by besting their chiefs. His legendary endurance and resilience allowed him to win battles simply by outlasting his foes. False idols burned and evil priests fled where he went.

There can be no law without scripture.

Such was the second commandment of Bahamut, and so Svarak found his mind opened to writing: a revolutionary concept that proved to be the key to advancing stagnant neanderthal culture. He shared this invention freely, though not all mastered it.

There can be no scripture without wisdom.

Such was the third commandment of Bahamut, and so Svarak lived according to the principles of honor and fairness. He did not mistreat those he ruled over, refused to ambush his adversaries, and applied the law uniformly.

Follow these commandments, and you shall be invincible.

And Svarak, being a dutiful and obedient follower of Bahamut, was indeed given this promised power. His resilience, already legendary, swelled to incredible levels, and his followers regularly beheld their leader be struck by hundreds of arrows, get blasted by powerful magic, or be torn into by cruel claws without as much as a scratch. Even as the goliath he unified the realm with grew old and died, he remained vigorous, unassailed by time itself.

Svarak, Invincible Law, lived to the age of five-hundred and twenty-six years before dying. During the centuries of his rule, uncountable neanderthal tribes had been unified into a strong empire dedicated to Bahamut, and on the day of his death thousands of loyal followers wept. No king who came after him approached his magnificence and glory, so let it be know.

Bahamut be praised.

Spoiler: Level breakdowns

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Level 1:
Svarak is a fairly typical barbarian, albeit one with an overabundance of constitution. Enjoy twenty hit points and high damage as you demolish encounter after encounter, while applying Heroic Destiny's bonus to important rolls. Outside of combat, Svarak can contribute with his survival skills and ability to intimidate others.

Level 1.5:

Somewhere before reaching level 2, Svarak has a change of heart, begins worshipping Bahamut, and undergoes the Rite of Rebirth. His alignment shifts to Lawful Good (Whirling Frenzy, unlike Rage, doesn't care), and he exchanges his mostly useless racial traits for a sweet pair of wings.

Because he no longer qualifies for Heroic Spirit after losing Human Blood (which is a neanderthal racial trait after all), Svarak swaps the feat out for Roll With It, making him even bulkier.

Also, Svarak loses his neanderthal illiteracy! As he already bought off the barbarian illiteracy he can now read and write both common and draconic.

Level 2:

Svarak's first level in Knight is quite featureless. He does, however, gain the ability to challenge foes for a minor boost in damage, which is nice at least.

Level 3:

Free Mounted Combat (I'm not saying you should buy a cool frostfell mount, but you should), another iteration of Roll With It, and the near-useless Shield Block.

Level 4:

Bulwark of Defense, a class feature that single-handedly stops enemy advances, is quite welcome. Nothing else of note though.

Level 5:

Test of Mettle is awesome: it forces foes to attack our heavily armored, damage-resistant self rather than the squishy wizard ten feet over. It can be used four times per day: once per encounter.

Level 6:

Another iteration of Roll With It (DR is starting to add up), Iron Will to patch up our second-weakest save, and Vigilant Defender to stop these pesky rogues from tumbling out of reach. A creature with 18 dexterity and the obligatory 5 ranks of Tumble still only has a 50% chance to get past us without getting hit in the progress.

Furthermore, Svarak can now fly for short distances. This ability is greatly strengthened by his high constitution modifier, allowing for up to half a minute of continuous flight.

Finally, Svarak gains a second attack. This is either a nice source of extra damage, or, if your party has DPR covered, a second trip attempt per turn.

Epic levels:

That's right: all epic feats are Roll With It! Combined, they increase Svarak's DR to the incredible height of 26/-, which combined with Test of Mettle may cause many fights to end without any damage taken by the party at all. If Svarak does get hurt, 75 HP should see him through for a while.

Svarak's own offensive abilities are somewhat behind those of a damage-dealer, but by efficiently and safely tanking hits he can keep most of an encounter focused on him while the party picks off their foes one by one.

Spoiler: Some numbers

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Svarak has 75 hit points. A 6th-level barbarian with 16 constitution would have 63, an equally-leveled fighter 56. Meanwhile, something like a rogue with 12 constitution has a mere 30 HP.

Svarak also has DR 26/-. To put this into perspective, I randomly selected a number of CR 8 MM monsters and analyzed their ability to damage Svarak should they be affected by his Test of Mettle.

Spoiler: Examples

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Athach: maximum morningstar damage 26 (3d6+8), which is fully nullified. A PA-enhanced attack that rolls well can damage Svarak, but is extremely unlikely to deal more than single-digit damage.

Dark Naga: bite attack insufficient to deal damage or deliver poison. Spells can harm Svarak, but no single spell deals more than half his HP on average, making death unlikely.

Destrachan: claws are incapable of dealing damage, even strongest ability hitting for max damage won't reduce Svarak's HP by more than half.

Dire Tiger: strongest attack deals at most 16 damage, which is easily resisted. Bite attack can still damage on a crit; claws are harmless even then.

Efreeti: 1d6 rider fire damage can damage Svarak, regular attacks are too weak. Scorching Ray and Wall of Fire can deal damage but are no true danger.

Giant Octopus: attacks are powerless even on crits. Improved Grab might be a threat, but is arguably negated as well.

Gray Render: attacks boosted heavily with PA might deal single-digit damage. Otherwise no threat.

Seven-Headed Pyrohydra: bite attacks are powerless, but fire jets can significantly damage or even kill Svarak. However, this monster is notoriously overpowered and in my opinion the fact that this build has a better-than-even chance of survival is admirable enough.

Juvenile Green Dragon: Attacks are incapable of dealing damage. Breath Weapon can harm but not significantly injure Svarak. 1st-level sorcerer spells, if used right, may cause temporary inconvenience or minor harm, although flight and high saving throws render most typical strategies ineffective (including, but not limited to, Fengut, Grease, Wall of Smoke and Blockade).

Ogre Mage: attacks are only dangerous on crits, Cone of Cold (usable 1/day) can deal significant damage but will on average remove about a third of Svarak's health, and is altogether incapable of slaying him outright.

Treant: both Trample and Slam attacks are incapable of harming Svarak unless Power Attack or critical hits boost damage.

Young Adult Red Dragon Skeleton: the tail slap is theoretically capable of dealing a single point of damage. Outside of that, only crits are threatening.

Spoiler: Weaknesses

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Enemies with high Will saves and lots of mobility or ranged attacks are dangerous to Svarak, as they can evade Test of Mettle and attack allies behind him.

Foes with AoE effects can attack Svarak's allies even when under the effect of Test of Mettle. Note that if Svarak has the room to fly into the right position, this advantage of theirs disappears.

Reflex-based save-or-suck spells like Bands of Steel are also problematic, but fortunately rare.

Spoiler: Gear

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No gear is required for this build. However, should your DM let you pick and choose, try to get stuff that increases DR, such as adamantine armor.

If you want to focus on damage, a greatsword is the obvious choice. For more defensive characters I suggest a guisarme: it has both reach (large Defensive Bulwark-area!) and trip capability. Incidentally, this also is a good defense against uberchargers: with a guisarme you can trip them before they get you within their reach and leave them prone and damaged in difficult terrain. On your next turn, 5 ft-step closer and unleash a full attack.

Spoiler: Categories

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Originality: Neanderthal is a very underused race, and I believe Svarak's uber-defensive strategy is quite nonconventional as well. Last of all, this is a barbarian without Spirit Lion Totem.

Power: Decent damage output (two attacks per round, 19 strength, full martial proficiency), a smattering of out-of-combat abilities (intimidate, ride, flight, survival), and insane defensive abilities.

Consider this: Svarak has DR 26/-, +8 Fortitude, +5 Will, and over 70 hit points, as well as the ability to draw in enemy fire and complicate their movement. That's as crazy a defensive powerhouse you can get without templates.

Elegance: Yes, that's a barbarian dip. Sue me. No multiclass penalties, cross-setting material, or illegal feat choices, though: I took special care to make sure my level 1 Roll With It is legal at the time I pick it.

UoSI: 5/6ths of Svarak's levels are in the SI, its special abilities are heavily relied upon, and the overall build is in line with the 'feel' of the class.

Spoiler: Sources

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Anything not listed is from the PHB.

Frostburn: Neanderthal
PHB II: Knight (duh)
Races of Destiny: Heroic Destiny
Races of the Dragon: Dragonborn
Savage Species: Roll With It
Unearthed Arcana: Totem Barbarian, Whirling Frenzy