Junkyard Wars XIX: IB + EWM - SC

[jdizzlean]

I used to just copy the build code into a separate word document and transfer it across that way. But after discovering the a/A button finally, i've taken to just doing it in the browser as it's much much faster.

the good thing about revising it for now the 5th time in browser is that i caught an error in skill points, that while minor, offends my sense of OCD and had to be fixed.

right now i'm down to background, so should be done by this morning when i get off work.

[PunBlake]

I do all my formatting (and character brewing, for that matter) in Notepad, mostly because it works everywhere and most of my work is on a thumb drive.

Mechanical formatting complete. I'm down to backstory. I'll try to finish this within the next 10 hours because of how close the deadline is.

Edit: Tactics/magic items/citations complete; too tired to write backstory. Will submit tomorrow.

[daremetoidareyo]

In well before the deadline. May the competition be fierce.

[Falontani]

Just got mine in! Looking forward to the judging. Hoping it is slightly swifter than last time, however if anyone does judge then it will be much appreciated!

[PunBlake]

Submitted. C'mon, no Vizzinis, no Vizzinis...

[Macabaret]

[chime]
Approximately 6 1/2 hours until the deadline.
[/chime]

I will say, however, that I've got company coming tonight and we're going out. I don't know when I'll return and I don't know how tired I might be when I do. So, it's likely that postings won't be made until tomorrow morning. I will allow entry until such time as submissions get posted, of course.

TLDR:
The deadline has been extended by an unknown period of time. Feel free to play with fire, if you'd like....

[Falontani]

Submitted. C'mon, no Vizzinis, no Vizzinis...

that has been the hardest part about this round! I found that designing a character around this one lied almost solely on weapon choice and how to pimp that weapon, which makes Vizzini come about much more often it seems. That said I eagerly await the reveal

[PunBlake]

that has been the hardest part about this round! I found that designing a character around this one lied almost solely on weapon choice and how to pimp that weapon, which makes Vizzini come about much more often it seems. That said I eagerly await the reveal

I kinda want the builds to be posted just so we can make jokes about the weapons involved. I considered two or three weapons while I was brewing, all of them joke-worthy.

[Venger]

[chime]
Approximately 6 1/2 hours until the deadline.
[/chime]

I will say, however, that I've got company coming tonight and we're going out. I don't know when I'll return and I don't know how tired I might be when I do. So, it's likely that postings won't be made until tomorrow morning. I will allow entry until such time as submissions get posted, of course.

TLDR:
The deadline has been extended by an unknown period of time. Feel free to play with fire, if you'd like....

That would be great. Thanks.

[Zaq]

I kinda want the builds to be posted just so we can make jokes about the weapons involved. I considered two or three weapons while I was brewing, all of them joke-worthy.

I once had a villain encounter called the League of Silly Weapons where each one used a more stupidly ridiculous (but RAW) weapon than the last one. The leader, naturally, had a gyrspike.

. . . The party didn't think it was as funny as I did, but oh well.

[Macabaret]

Okay, kids. This is it.
Please refrain from posting until the submissions are up.

[Macabaret]

Fianin
Chaotic Good Wood Elf Ranger 6/Revenant Blade 5/Incarnum Blade 5/Warblade 1/Eternal Blade 1/Exotic Weapon Master 2

Spoiler: Stats

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Stat	Base	Racial	Level Up	Final Total
Strength	16	+2	12, 16	20
Dexterity	14	+2	20	17
Constitution	14	-2	4, 8	14
Intelligence	10	-2		8
Wisdom	12			12
Charisma	12			12

Spoiler: A tale

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On the horizon lies a single mounted elf. Usually nothing to fear, however this was just a scout. Like all of the elves of this region their horses are fast, faster than any but the Vadalis bred horses. There was no way I was going to catch him, keep him from reporting. So I reported to our officer, Deadbolt. A Warforged Mage. However did it turn out like this, those soulless slaves holding positions of authority over normal soldiers like me. I sighed, as I headed towards him. He’d be where he always is. Not in a commander’s tent, no, nothing like that. He stands stock still in the mess hall. He says “It makes the fleshed ones more at piece,” gorgon crap.
“Report.” No questioning what he means by that.
“The Valenar are coming, I saw one of their scouts.”
“You did not intervene.” A statement, not a question, no inflection of any emotion in his voice.
“He was too far afield, mounted on one of their ancestral mounts.”
“You and Lucky scout.” You know, I understand why he talks like that, it's efficient, but its down right annoying.
“Yes sir.”
Lucky the warforged warrior with entirely too much luck on his side was already ready. I haven’t slept in 33 hours. By the Host I’d just like to sleep, I don’t think that Deadbolt remembers that we “fleshed ones” require sleep. Thank the Host my uncle in Sharn knows how to get stuff. I go to my tent telling Lucky, “I need 5 minutes to get my gear.” I grab my mug. It’s cold now, but that is okay. I drink some of my dreamlily tea from the day before. Then I brace myself. I cut my palm. As usual there is only a vague tugging sensation. I put some of the powdered Luhix on the wound, and then quickly bandage it up. Immediately I have to suppress a scream. Damn this stuff burns. The dreamlily finishes taking effect, and the pain subsides. See now I feel like I’ve slept a full night. I slowly grab my crossbow, a case of bolts, and my riding cloak. I walk out of my tent. Lucky can tell something is up, but as usual he stays silent.
I mount up and he jogs aside my horse. Damn forged, why can’t they ever get tired? We head to where I saw the scout, and begin moving forward. At least luck is on my side, I might not die today. After a half hours run we make out the dust cloud.
“By the host…”
“There are roughly… four thousand calvary. This does not bode well.”
“Dhurinda’s nuts you’re telling me! We have all of five hundred of us, and another camp of forged east a few miles. We’re going to be killed!”
“You are correct. We must warn Deadbolt.” And he’s off. When a forged sprints at full speed you know that there is trouble somewhere. Well screw this. I’m getting out of here. Maybe Karnath will take a defector. I doubt it. Sharn is too far. The Talenta Plains! Maybe I’ll be able to find a nice halfling lass… Yea that’s good. I begin riding away from incoming horde. Damn Valenar. Huh.. that mist is coming in fast.
“By the Ho-”
I look towards Deadbolt.
“I knew Aren was using, unfortunately this node did not garner any new information. Other than Lucky the others are still lost.”
“Yup, and to think that Aren thought he could defect to Karnath. He’d have been a blood bank in Atur within the week, and I doubt he’d have even minded.”
“Amaranth, do we need this one’s body anymore? I am really hungry,” explains the ghoul needlessly.
“You are always hungry Garen. Go ahead.”

Spoiler: Stub

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Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Ranger	+1	+2	+2	+0	Handle Animal +4, Ride +4, Hide +4, Survival +4, Move Silently +4	Bladebearer of the Valenar	Favored Enemy: Giant, Track, Wild Empathy
2nd	Ranger	+2	+3	+3	+0	Handle Animal +5, Ride +5, Hide +5, Survival +5, Move Silently +5	Two Weapon Fighting(B)
3rd	Ranger	+3	+3	+3	+1	Handle Animal +6, Ride +6, Hide +5, Survival +6, Move Silently +5, Knowledge History +1	Weapon Focus: Valenar Double Scimitar	Endurance
4th	Ranger	+4	+4	+4	+1	Handle Animal +7, Ride +7, Hide +5, Survival +7, Move Silently +5, Knowledge History +2		Animal Companion
5th	Ranger	+5	+4	+4	+1	Handle Animal +8, Ride +8, Hide +5, Survival +8, Move Silently +5, Knowledge History +2, Concentration +2		Arcane Hunter
6th	Ranger	+6	+5	+5	+2	Handle Animal +9, Ride +9, Hide +5, Survival +9, Move Silently +5, Knowledge History +2, Concentration +4	Improved Two Weapon Fighting(B), Mounted Combat
7th	Revenant Blade	+7	+5	+5	+4	Handle Animal +10, Ride +10, Hide +5, Survival +10, Move Silently +5, Knowledge History +2, Concentration +4		Ancestral Guidance (Power Attack), hero of the Vales Tairn, Ranger Class Features
8th	Revenant Blade	+8	+5	+5	+5	Handle Animal +11, Ride +11, Hide +5, Survival +11, Move Silently +5, Knowledge History +2, Concentration +4		Shadow of the Past
9th	Revenant Blade	+9	+6	+6	+5	Handle Animal +12, Ride +12, Hide +5, Survival +11, Move Silently +5, Knowledge History +2, Concentration +4, Craft Weaponsmithing +2	Valenar Trample	Ancestral Guidance (Improved Critical: Valenar Double Scimitar)
10th	Revenant Blade	+10	+6	+6	+6	Handle Animal +13, Ride +13, Hide +5, Survival +11, Move Silently +5, Knowledge History +2, Concentration +4, Craft Weaponsmithing +2		Giant Slayer
11th	Revenant Blade	+11	+6	+6	+6	Handle Animal +14, Ride +14, Hide +5, Survival +11, Move Silently +5, Knowledge History +2, Concentration +4, Craft Weaponsmithing +3		Ancestral Guidance (Weapon Specialization: Valenar Double Scimitar), Legendary Force
12th	Exotic Weapon Master	+12	+8	+6	+6	Handle Animal +14, Ride +14.5, Hide +5, Survival +11, Move Silently +5, Knowledge History +2, Concentration +4, Craft Weaponsmithing +3	Ride by Attack	Flurry of Strikes
13th	Exotic Weapon Master	+13	+9	+6	+6	Handle Animal +14, Ride +15, Hide +5, Survival +11, Move Silently +5, Knowledge History +2, Concentration +4, Craft Weaponsmithing +3		Double Weapon Defense
14th	Incarnum Blade	+14	+11	+6	+6	Handle Animal +14, Ride +15, Hide +5, Survival +11, Move Silently +5, Knowledge History +2, Concentration +5, Craft Weaponsmithing +3		Shape Blademeld, Blademeld Chakra Binds
15th	Incarnum Blade	+15	+12	+6	+6	Handle Animal +14, Ride +15, Hide +5, Survival +11, Move Silently +5, Knowledge History +2, Concentration +6, Craft Weaponsmithing +3	Two Weapon Pounce	Blademeld Chakra Binds
16th	Incarnum Blade	+16	+12	+7	+7	Handle Animal +14, Ride +15, Hide +5, Survival +11, Move Silently +5, Knowledge History +2, Concentration +7, Craft Weaponsmithing +3		Rebind Blademeld, Blademeld Chakra Binds
17th	Warblade	+17	+14	+7	+7	Handle Animal +14, Ride +15, Hide +5, Survival +11, Move Silently +5, Knowledge History +2, Concentration +10, Craft Weaponsmithing +3		Battle Clarity, Weapon Aptitude
18th	Incarnum Blade	+18	+15	+7	+7	Handle Animal +14, Ride +15, Hide +5, Survival +11, Move Silently +5, Knowledge History +2, Concentration +11, Craft Weaponsmithing +3	Two Weapon Rend	Blademeld Chakra Bind
19th	Incarnum Blade	+19	+15	+7	+7	Handle Animal +14, Ride +15, Hide +5, Survival +11, Move Silently +5, Knowledge History +2, Concentration +12, Craft Weaponsmithing +3		Dual Chakra Bind, Blademeld Chakra Bind
20th	Eternal Blade	+20	+17	+7	+7	Handle Animal +14, Ride +15, Hide +5, Survival +11, Move Silently +5, Knowledge History +2, Concentration +13, Craft Weaponsmithing +3		Blade Guide, Eternal Training 1/day

Spoiler: Level 5

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At level 5 we’ve already busted open the gate. We’re running around on a Valenar Riding Horse¹. We are using the Valenar Double Scimitar with weapon focus, proficiency, and two weapon fighting. We have ranger spells, and the skills to make us an effective tracker. Using Handle Animal we have trained our Valenar Riding Horse for war, granting it the Warbeast Template.

Spoiler: Level 11

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Alright, we have finished both ranger and Revenant Blade, and we have some fun things to play around with! First of all we are effectively an 11th level ranger for animal companion and spells, however we didn’t gain additional spells/day past 6th. It’s a shame but we’ll live! Now for the actual fun. We got to ignore prerequisites on 3 bonus feats. We got Power Attack, Improved Critical: Valenar Double Scimitar, and Weapon Specialization: Valenar Double Scimitar. But most importantly we got Legendary Force. Legendary Force counts both ends of the Valenar Double Scimitar as two handed weapons for purposes of power attack and str. We are dual wielding two handed (albeit low damage dice) weapons! Best of both worlds.

Spoiler: Level 15

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Ah, it's coming together. With Valenar Trample, Ride By Attack, and Two Weapon Pounce we get to have some fun! When our Valenar Riding Warhorse makes a Trample attack the enemy can’t choose to get out of the way. If they are knocked down then both me and my horse gets a free attack with a +4 bonus due to attacking a prone target. Regardless of whether it succeeds or not I get to make an attack due to Ride By Attack. Since this is part of a charge Two Weapon Pounce comes into play allowing me to make an offhand attack as part of the charge. So when we overrun an enemy I get to swing main hand twice, offhand once, and hoof em in the face all with a +4 bonus! And then after the attacks are through we keep on running out of the way. Now this is all fine and dandy, but as a swift action we cast Rhino’s Rush on ourself, giving us 2* damage on our first main hand attack. Exotic Weapon Master gives us some bonuses when we stand our ground, which will happen whenever we are facing large and larger enemies, because trampling isn’t as fun then. At this point we will usually be running the Arms Blademeld, giving us +4 to confirm critical hits, because we have a 30% chance to critically hit in any given swing.

Spoiler: Level 20

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We haven’t stopped gaining things by any measure of the word! We have gained Two Weapon Rend, which allows us to get an additional automatic hit whenever we have hit a creature twice in one round. We gained Sapphire Nightmare Blade, Rapid Counter, and Ruby Nightmare Blade. Sapphire and Ruby Nightmare Blade are both for when we move (whether mounted or not) and do not charge Rapid Counter allows us to have a chance at Two Weapon Rend just from a single provoked attack. With our Incarnum Blade finished we get two blademelds, one of them obviously being Hands or Feet Chakra. +1 damage or +2 initiative is nothing to scoff at. Finally we end it all with a level of Eternal Blade, much more for completing thematics than power, however completing with full BAB is lovely. Also we wear green light armor and name our horse Epona? Wait wrong character...

Spoiler: Sources

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Eberron Campaign Setting - Valenar Double Scimitar, Valenar Riding Horse, Valenar Riding Horse animal companion (page 37)
Races of Eberron - Bladebearer of Valenar, Proficiency with Valenar Double Scimitar (page 81)
Player’s Guide to Eberron - Revenant Blade, Valenar Trample
Player’s Handbook II - Two Weapon Pounce, Two Weapon Rend
Magic of Incarnum - Incarnum Blade
Tome of Battle - Warblade, Eternal Blade
Player’s Handbook - Ranger, Two Weapon Fighting, Endurance, Weapon Focus, Improved Two Weapon Fighting, Mounted Combat, Ride by Attack, Power Attack, Improved Critical, Weapon Specialization
Complete Mage - Arcane Hunter
Complete Warrior - Exotic Weapon Master
Monster Manual 2 - Warbeast

[Macabaret]

Tog Tordus

Racial Goodness

Spoiler

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LG DWK Kobold Fighter4/Swashbuckler1/Kobold Paragon2/Incarnum Blade5/EWM3/Kensai 5

Venerable Dragonwrought Desert Kobold – change type to Dragon, retain subtypes, immune to magic sleep/paralysis. Small - +1 AC, +1 to attack, +4 Hide Darkvision 60ft, lowlight vision. +2 racial bonus to a skill on page 103 (Platinum Dragon +2 Concentration). -4 STR, +2 DEX, +3 INT, +1 WIS, +3 CHA

Draconic Rite of Passage – choose any 1st lvl Sorceror spell, castable 1/day as SLA, CL = Char lvl (Mage Armor +4AC 1hr/lvl)

Wrym of War archetype 1 bonus feat/4HD (fighter or combat-related draconic). Simple/martial proficient, all armor/shields proficient.

Point Buy:
S 14, D 16, C 14, I 12, W 12, C 10
Racial:
S 10, D 18, C 14, I 15, W 13, C 13
Class changes:
S 12, D 18, C 16, I 15, W 13, C 13

4-DEX, 8-20-STR

18d10+2d6+58+(40) HPs

Weapons:
Shortspear
Spear
Dwarven Double Spear

Build Table

Spoiler

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Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Kobold Paragon	+0	+0	+2	+2	Concentration 4, Craft (weaponsmithing) 4, cc-Diplomacy 2, cc-Ride 2, cc-Tumble 2, cc-UMD 2	Dragonwrought	Manual Expertise, Tunnel Defense
2nd	Kobold Fighter	+1	+2	+2	+2	Ride 5, Craft 5	(B) Dodge	Spear Focus (Weapon Focus)
3rd	Kobold Fighter 2	+2	+3	+2	+2	Craft 6, cc-Diplomacy 3, Ride 6	Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Dwarven Double Spear)	CON +2
4th	Kobold Paragon 2	+3	+3	+3	+3	Concentration 6, Craft 7, Escape 2, Spot 1	(B) Combat Expertise	Darkvision +30
5th	Swashbuckler	+4	+5	+3	+3	Concentration 7, Diplomacy 5, Escape 3, Tumble 3	(B) Weapon Finesse	-
6th	Kobold Fighter 3	+5	+5	+4	+4	Craft 9, Ride 8	Two Weapon Fighting	-
7th	Incarnum Blade	+6	+7	+4	+4	Concentration 9, cc-Diplomacy 6	-	Blademeld (crown,feet*,hands)
8th	Exotic Weapon Master	+7	+9	+4	+4	cc-Concentration 10, cc-Diplomacy 7	(B) Improved Two Weapon Fighting	Stunt (Double Weapon Defense)
9th	Kensai	+7	+9	+4	+6	Concentration 12, Diplomacy 9, cc-UMD 3	Combat Reflexes	Signature Weapon (Dwarven Double Spear)
10th	Kensai 2	+8	+9	+4	+7	Concentration 13, Diplomacy 12, cc-UMD 4	-	Power Surge
11th	Kensai 3	+9	+10	+5	+7	Concentration 14, Diplomacy 13, cc-Tumble 4, cc-UMD 5	-	-
12th	Kensai 4	+10	+10	+5	+8	Concentration 15, Diplomacy 15, Ride 10, cc-Tumble 4.5	Draconic Aura - Resistance, (B) Melee Evasion	Ki Projection
13th	Kensai 5	+10	+10	+5	+8	Concentration 16, cc-UMD 6, cc-Spot 2, cc-Tumble 5	-	Withstand
14th	Kobold Fighter 4	+11	+11	+6	+9	cc-Concentration 17, Ride 12	-	STR +2
15th	Incarnum Blade 2	+12	+12	+6	+9	Concentration 18, Craft 10, cc-UMD 7	Double Hit	Blademeld (arms*,brow,shoulder)
16th	Incarnum Blade 3	+13	+12	+7	+10	Concentration 19, Craft 11, cc-UMD 8	(B) Two Weapon Rend	Rebind Blademeld (throat, waist**)
17th	Exotic Weapon Master 2	+14	+13	+7	+10	Concentration 20, Craft 12, cc-UMD 9	-	Stunt (Trip Attack)
18th	Incarnum Blade 4	+15	+14	+7	+10	Concentration 21, Craft 13, cc-UMD 10	Steady Concentration	Blademeld (heart**)
19th	Incarnum Blade 5	+16	+14	+7	+10	Concentration 22, Craft 14, cc-UMD 11	-	Dual Blademeld (soul)
20th	Exotic Weapon Master 3	+17	+14	+8	+11	cc-Concentration 23, cc-Spot 3	(B) Greater Two Weapon Fighting	Stunt (Flurry of Strikes)

Misc Build Stuff

Spoiler

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Feats:
1-Dragonwrought
2- (B) Dodge: +1 AC vs single target
2- (B) Weapon Focus (Spear Focus): +1 to attack
3-Exotic Weapon Proficiency –Dwarven double spear: no penalty to attacks
4- (B) Combat Expertise: Power attack for dodge bonus
5- (B) Weapon Finesse: with light/rapier/whip/spiky chain, use DEX instead of STR to attack
6- Two Weapon Fighting: lessen penalty by -2/-6 (meaning its now -2/-2 for both)
8- (B) Improved Two Weapon Fighting: gain a 2nd offhand attack at -5
9- Combat Reflexes: Extra AoO/round
12- Draconic Aura – Resistance: grants resistance to elemental damage, 10 at 7th, 15 at 14th, 20 at 20th
12- (B) Melee Evasion: d20+BAB = AC vs specific attack
15- Double Hit: can make AoO’s with both weapons
16- (B) Two-Weapon Rend: if hit w/ both weapons in a round, deal 1d6+1.5xSTR bonus damage
18- Steady Concentration: can always take 10 on checks
20- (B) Greater Two Weapon Fighting: Gain a 3rd offhand attack at -10

Build Explained:
At first level, a DWK enters the game. As a DWK, he’s an example of what a kobold should be, so clearly he’s a Paragon. Unfortunately, we’re not taking advantage of the bonuses to spellcasting, or building upon the skills that Manual Expertise grants us in this build. Rite of Passage however will grant Mage Armor that will scale with the build. Kobold Fighter loses out on 3 bonus feats from straight Fighter, but Wrym of War gives us back 5. Kobold Fighter does however grant Spear Focus, which is essentially Weapon Focus for EVERY spear weapon in the game, and also counts as qualifying for things that require weapon focus (EWM). As the character progresses we’ll pick up +2 CON/STR from Kobold Fighter as well, and push Darkvision out an additional 30ft. Swashbuckler is strictly speaking better overall than another rank in Fighter, it grants full BAB, and a bonus feat. Weapon Finesse doesn’t hurt or hinder this build, but might grant another option if we need to unlimber another weapon if we’re disarmed, options are never bad. Beyond that, a better skill selection, and more points to spend on them for 1 level are also not bad.

6-10: start off both SI’s, and get into Kensai which allows for relatively low cost weapon enhancements up to +5 to our signature weapon, the dwarven double spear. The *’s in the build table for Incarnum Blade represent which ‘bind we’d favor when it becomes available, and ** denotes what will be active full time once it’s available. Power Surge allows a DC 15 concentration check (auto succeed the first time) as a move action, if successful, gain +8 STR for ½ class levels rounds (1-2). Each successive activation is at a +5 DC in the same 24 hour period. Later on pairing this with Flurry of Strikes will negate the penalty from that ability.

10-15 pick up Draconic Aura, granting scaling Resistances, a +2 bonus to Diplomacy checks (ki), and replacing the REF save (the bane of all fighters everywhere) with a straight concentration check instead via Withstand. At the point this becomes available, our Concentration modifier is 16 ranks + 3 (CON) +2 racial. Withstand + Draconic Aura essentially means most AoE spells will be outright ignored damage-wise. I laugh at your maximized, twinned, empowered (etc, etc) fireball. Of course, single target spells will then face the resistance. Melee Evasion grants a d20 +full BAB to apply to AC vs any 1 melee attack/touch attack each round while fighting Defensively. Double Hit allows both ends of the double spear to be used on any AoO’s. 13 is our Sweet Spot.

16-20: Finishing off both SI’s as well as picking up Two Weapon Rend, which when both ends of the spear hit in a round deals bonus damage (this pairs w/ double hit!). Steady Concentration means that more often that naught, Withstand will be an auto success REF save (35). (Think Luke Skywalker vs a fleet of Imperial Walkers) Greater TWF grants a 3rd iterative offhand attack. Finishing off we’re at BAB +17/+12/+7/+2 main hand, and -2/-5/-10 offhand (+15/+12/+7). Flurry of Strikes adds another bonus full attack at -2 (as well as all other attacks). Near Diplomancer level of persuasion, and a better than naught chance of using UMD. An additional +5 in weapon enhancements (to each end of the spear imbuing double weapons!) to what will likely be at least a +5 dwarven double spear at this level as well means a whole lot of room for adding bonus damage, or other abilities, to every single attack.


some weapon enhancements from Kensai to use:
+1: Chargebreaker, Corrosive, Magebane, Rusting, Screaming, Shattermantle, Sure Striking
+2: Eager, Energy Aura, Fierce, Metalline, Subjugating
+3: Clouting, Force, Marrowcrushing, Speed, Weakening
+4: Souldrinking
+5: Vorpal

Background

Spoiler

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I was raised in one of Moradin’s Temples. My egg was found by an initiate of the Anvil of Creation, and I was raised as one of their own. From birth, I was treated as just another member of the church, perhaps the platinum sheen to my scales led weight to this ideal. I was indoctrinated into the church of course, and took a natural aptitude for tinkering with things, and applied it to the creation of weapons for the church and myself.

Of particular note, my Temple’s guardians all used an exotic weapon known to them as simply a Double Spear. I was trained in its use, and would carry one with me for the rest of my days. Often when an agent outgrew his Double Spear, he would exchange it for a stronger one from the armory. Thus were they able to maintain growing pressure on the enemies of the church.

In time, I was granted leave to myself pursue the enemies of the church beyond our borders. As I stood in the Oath Chamber surrounded by my Brothers and Sisters, I let the sound of the oath wash over me.

“… as you go out into the world, to take the long walk, and bring the law of the church to the faithless and abhorrent…”

It has been many years since I first left home. Word of my deeds has spread throughout the Anvil, and wherever my wanderings take me, I’m never far from home.

Whenever I need a few days of rest, the hammer and anvil call to me, as they did in my youth. There is something magical about the rhythmic work that soothes me.

Anvil of Creation

Spoiler

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at level 20, base affiliation score of +15 prior to any role playing applications from leveling up. Perhaps a quest to cleanse a Cold Forge of Moradin might be in the party’s early future, which of course would boost this score dramatically.

Affiliation bonus’s:
Rank 1 (4-12) Initiate of the Forge: 1/day gain +5 land speed for 1 minute
Rank 2 (13-21) Tempered Steel: +1 bonus on saves against chaotic spells and effects
Rank 3 (22-29) Adamantine Shield: Ready a shield as a free action
Rank 4 (30+) Mithral Hammer: 1/day +2 attack/dmg against an enemy of the Church for 1 min. +4 if orc, goblinoid, or giant.

Sources

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Complete Champion – 7, 152
Complete Warrior – 11, 30, 49
Dragons of Eberron – 31
Dragon Magic - 86
Magic of Incarnum – 121
Miniature’s Handbook - 25
Players Handbook – 38, Feats
Players Handbook II – 81, 84
Races of the Dragon – 39, 43, 100, 108
Races of Stone – 144, 155
Unearthed Arcana - 13
http://archive.wizards.com/default.a...d/we/20060127a Kobold Paragon
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/combat/spe...WeaponFighting : meaning the offhand end of the double spear is considered a light weapon, reducing the original penalties by 2 each (primary to -4, offhand to -8.)

[Macabaret]

Drek Vril
Lawful Good Vril Barbarian 7/Incarnum Blade 4/Justicar 8/Exotic Weapon Master 1

Spoiler: Stats

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Stat	Base	Racial	Level Up	Final Total
Strength	16		4, 8, 16, 20	20
Dexterity	12			12
Constitution	16	+2		18
Intelligence	14	-2	12	13
Wisdom	10			10
Charisma	8	-2		6

Spoiler: stub

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Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Barbarian	+1	+2	+0	+0	Craft Weaponsmith +4, Handle Animal +4, Survival +4, Gather Information +2, Use Rope +2	Power Attack	Bear Spirit Totem Improved Grab, Berserker Strength, Illiteracy
2nd	Barbarian	+2	+3	+0	+0	Craft Weaponsmith +4, Handle Animal +4, Survival +5, Gather Information +2.5, Use Rope +2.5, Concentration +1		Uncanny Bravery
3rd	Barbarian	+3	+3	+1	+1	Craft Weaponsmith +4, Handle Animal +4, Survival +6, Gather Information +3, Use Rope +3, Concentration +2	Dazing Shriek	Spell Sense +1
4th	Barbarian	+4	+4	+1	+1	Craft Weaponsmith +4, Handle Animal +4, Survival +7, Gather Information +3.5, Use Rope +3.5, Concentration +2, Search +1
5th	Barbarian	+5	+4	+1	+1	Craft Weaponsmith +4, Handle Animal +4, Survival +8, Gather Information +4, Use Rope +4, Concentration +2, Search +2	Blazing Berserker(B)	Blazing Berserker
6th	Barbarian	+6	+5	+2	+2	Craft Weaponsmith +4, Handle Animal +4, Survival +9, Gather Information +4.5, Use Rope +4.5, Concentration +2, Search +3	Skill Focus Gather Information	Spell Sense +2
7th	Barbarian	+7	+5	+2	+2	Craft Weaponsmith +4, Handle Animal +4, Survival +10, Gather Information +5, Use Rope +5, Concentration +2, Search +4	Track(B)	Wolf Totem
8th	Incarnum Blade	+8	+7	+2	+2	Craft Weaponsmith +4, Handle Animal +4, Survival +10, Gather Information +5, Use Rope +5, Concentration +3, Search +5		Shape Blademeld, Blademeld Chakra Binds
9th	Justicar	+9	+7	+2	+4	Craft Weaponsmith +4, Handle Animal +4, Survival +12, Gather Information +7, Use Rope +6, Concentration +3, Search +5	Great Shriek	Bring em Back Alive, Nonlethal Strike +1d6
10th	Justicar	+10	+7	+2	+5	Craft Weaponsmith +4, Handle Animal +4, Survival +13, Gather Information +9, Use Rope +8, Concentration +3, Search +5		Improved Grapple, Crippling Strike
11th	Justicar	+11	+8	+3	+5	Craft Weaponsmith +4, Handle Animal +4, Survival +14, Gather Information +11, Use Rope +10, Concentration +3, Search +5		Street Savvy +2, Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Manacles)
12th	Justicar	+12	+8	+3	+6	Craft Weaponsmith +4, Handle Animal +4, Survival +15, Gather Information +13, Use Rope +12, Concentration +3, Search +5	Weapon Focus (Manacles)	Nonlethal Strike +2d6
13th	Justicar	+13	+8	+3	+6	Craft Weaponsmith +4, Handle Animal +4, Survival +16, Gather Information +15, Use Rope +14, Concentration +3, Search +5		Hog-Tie
14th	Exotic Weapon Master	+14	+10	+3	+6	Craft Weaponsmith +5, Handle Animal +4, Survival +17, Gather Information +15, Use Rope +14, Concentration +3, Search +5		Uncanny Blow
15th	Justicar	+15	+11	+4	+7	Craft Weaponsmith +5, Handle Animal +4, Survival +18, Gather Information +17, Use Rope +16, Concentration +3, Search +5	Quick Draw	Street Savvy +4
16th	Justicar	+16	+11	+4	+7	Craft Weaponsmith +5, Handle Animal +4, Survival +19, Gather Information +19, Use Rope +18, Concentration +3, Search +5		Nonlethal Strike +3d6
17th	Justicar	+17	+11	+4	+8	Craft Weaponsmith +5, Handle Animal +4, Survival +20, Gather Information +20, Use Rope +20, Concentration +3, Search +6		Improved Hog-Tie
18th	Incarnum Blade	+18	+12	+4	+8	Craft Weaponsmith +5, Handle Animal +4, Survival +20, Gather Information +20, Use Rope +21, Concentration +4, Search +6	Pulverize Foe	Blademeld Chakra Binds
19th	Incarnum Blade	+19	+12	+5	+9	Craft Weaponsmith +5, Handle Animal +4, Survival +20, Gather Information +20, Use Rope +22, Concentration +5, Search +6		Blademeld Chakra Binds, Rebind Chakra
20th	Incarnum Blade	+20	+13	+5	+9	Craft Weaponsmith +5, Handle Animal +4, Survival +20, Gather Information +20, Use Rope +23, Concentration +6, Search +6		Blademeld Chakra Bind

Spoiler: From Slavery 1-7

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Drek Vril was born a slave. He worked hard and never thought of anything. This was as the drow wanted Drek. Drek at times despised his slavers, and at other times resented them. Drek’s slavers were killed and he was freed by a group of adventurers. A halfling thief, a human paladin, a dwarf priest, and an elven monk. It was lucky for the Vril that the halfling spoke Goblin.
The halfling spoke to the vril, and freed them, “Even goblinkind deserve freedom,” she said. Drek admired this halfling and her mates.
Drek as naive as one kept in slavery from birth asked the halfling, “Are there slaves elsewhere in the world? Do they require freedom?”
The halfing replied to Drek’s curious question, “There are in fact slaves all across the world, and there are not enough heroes to save them all, be grateful we were able to save yourself.” The halfling obviously trying to collect more loot as ‘gratuity’.
Drek took this to mean that there needed to be more heroes in the world, and responded, “Teach me to be a hero, so I may save the other slaves of the world. I beg of you.”
The paladin took the time to notice the halfling chatting with the Vril, and chose that time to ask what the Vril was saying. The halfling having never lied to the paladin’s face before answered honestly. “An evil goblin wishes to be a hero. I may regret my decision, but we will teach him ethics and heroism. We will show him the ways of a good civilization.”
And so Drek Vril accompanied the group of heroes. He worked hard and did as the halfling instructed. The halfling translating everything. From time to time the halfling would try to twist their words, however that stopped quickly enough. The goblin was a natural tracker, and great with a club. The monk attempted to teach the goblin meditation, but learned quickly that the goblin lacked even concentration. The Vril traveled with this group for three long years, before they finally left the Underdark. A strange new world awaited Drek.

The first 7 levels Drek is your standard barbarian. Using a greatclub he bludgeons creatures to death. He is a willing learner, and very impressionable. He will put his shriek to use infrequently, mainly when he is in danger at this point. He uses his skinshift whenever he believes a major fight is about to be joined, which to say the least means that he used it nearly every encounter during the beginning of his training.

Spoiler: Comes a Hero 8-14

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The surface world is a strange place for the Vril, a glaring ball of blindness in the sky all the time. The halfling quickly learned of the problem that Drek was having. By this point Drek owned only the armor and weaponry that he had been given to learn heroism, not a copper to his name. The halfling consulted the group, and they were all in agreement. They traveled to a city, and taught Drek what a true city was. While in town they picked up a Pearl of Speech and Sundark Goggles. (really this is more for storytelling than actual needed equipment, Drek is able to function without these, however his story makes less sense) Drek now able to speak and tolerate the sunlight began speaking more fully to the monk and paladin. They taught him law, taught him order, and taught him inner reflection. Drek focused inward, to learn of himself, his true desires, and his soul. After their teachings Drek learned to harness his soul’s energy and imbue it into the weapon he is wielding, causing it to glow. The party very much enjoyed Drek now, he was no longer an outsider, and a true addition to the group.
Drek went by Drek Vril, as most didn’t know what a Vril was and he had no family name, which he learned was required in many legal forms. Drek was taught about prisons. He learned that if he kept prisoners and brought them to human settlements he could bring justice to the world. The group took his idea in stride, and began taking prisoners whenever they could. For a solid three months the group was able to not have to kill a single person.
The group was sought out by an Aasimar by the name of Elindel. Elindel explained to the group that he was a Justicar, and that the actions of the group had garnered attention from the upper planes. Many of the prisoners taken changed their ways. They were actually having an impact on the planar scale. Drek was in awe.
Impressionable little Drek learned the ways of the Justicar and began adopting their methods. He swung a pair of manacles around like a flail, great at knocking people out.

At this point Drek Vril gets to have some fun. He gets his weapon of choice, a magical pair of manacles (magical due to blademeld). Using Uncanny Blow we two hand our manacles (which albeit considered a “light” flail is still a one handed weapon and not a light one handed weapon) smacking people for 3d6+2x str mod non lethal damage. Immediately after hitting someone we get to use our Improved Grab. If you have additional iterative attacks after you use your improved grab you may immediately attempt to pin using your next strike. If you succeed in pinning your opponent you may use a final iterative to attempt to Hog-Tie. Hog-Tie is a special grapple check that uses your Use Rope or your Grapple check, your preference. It is opposed by their grapple or escape artist as usual. If you succeed with Hog Tie then they are tied up and helpless!

Spoiler: To the Present 14-17

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Story… this is honestly where I would feature Drek Vril. His prime. And I’ll admit, I’m stumped on where to progress his story from this point.

Combat wise he only improved these last three levels. He now has quick draw allowing him to grab rope or manacles as a free action as needed. He now only needs two iteratives in order to hog tie.

Spoiler: And for the Future 18-20

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We finally get to the Blademeld Chakra Bind that we like the most! An effective +40 hit points teaches Epic Toughness, Toughness, and Improved Toughness that toughness isn’t where it’s at.

Spoiler: SOURCES

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Vril - Drow of the Underdark & The Errata http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dnd/20070504a
Drow of the Underdark: Great Shriek, Dazing Shriek
Complete Warrior: Justicar, Exotic Weapon Master
Champions of Ruin: Pulverize Foe
Magic of Incarnum: Incarnum Blade

Barbarian Alternate Class Features Used:
Spirit Bear Totem - Complete Champion
Berserker Strength - Player’s Handbook II (note that since it is not the Barbarian Rage class feature it is not lost upon changing to Lawful)
Spell Sense - Complete Mage
Blazing Berserker - Sandstorm
Totem Manifestation - Complete Champion
Uncanny Bravery - Dragon Magic

[Macabaret]

Garou Tuh

Spoiler

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Chaotic Neutral kalashtar

Soulbound weapon psychic warrior 5/crafty hunter bear totem barbarian 2/exotic weapon master 1/incarnum blade 1/ psychic warrior +1/exotic weapon master +1/incarnum blade +4/ totemist 1/ psychic warrior +2/soul manifester 2

Abilities
Str 16
Dex 10
Con 13
Int 10
Wis 17
Cha 8
Level 4: +1 wis
All other ability bonuses go to Strength

+2 racial bonus on saving throws against mind affecting spells and abilities, including possession: The kalashtar's dual spirits help them resist spells that target their minds.

+2 racial bonus on Bluff, Diplomacy, and Intimidate checks: Kalashtar are masters of social interaction, influencing others through their commanding presence and subtle psychic powers.

+2 racial bonus on Disguise checks made to impersonate a human: Kalashtar have a close physical resemblance to humans.

Kalashtar sleep but they do not dream. As such, they have immunity to the dream and nightmare spells, as well as any other effect that relies on the target's ability to dream.

Naturally Psionic: Kalashtar gain 1 extra power point per character level, regardless of whether they choose a psionic class.

Psi-Like Abilities: Mindlink (1/day). This ability is like the psionic power manifested by a wilder of 1/2 the kalashtar's Hit Dice (minimum 1st level).

Spoiler: table

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Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1	Soulbound weapon psywar	0	2	0	0	8: concentration 4, knowledge psionics 4,	B: exotic weapon proficiency(locking garrote), B: weapon focus locking garrotte, 1: Hidden talent synchronicity	Bonus feat, manifesting, Bonus feat (Weapon focus), manifesting
2	soulbound weapon psywar	1	3	0	0	2: concentration 5, knowledge psionics 5		Soulbound weapon, +1 level of manifesting
3	soulbound weapon psywar	2	3	1	1	2: concentration 6, knowledge psionics 6	3: Linked Power	+1 level of manifesting
4	soulbound weapon psywar	3	4	1	1	2: concentration 7, knowledge psionics 7		+1 level of manifesting
5	soulbound weapon psywar	3	4	1	1	2: concentration 8, psicraft .5	B: psionic meditation	Bonus feat, +1 level of manifesting
6	Crafty hunter bear totem barbarian 1	4	6	1	1	4: craft (weaponsmithing) 3, psicraft 1	6: Brutal throw B: Toughness	Favored Enemy, Toughness
7	Crafty hunter bear totem barbarian 2	5	7	1	1	4: psicraft 3	B: rapid shot B: Improved grapple	Archery Combat Style (rapid shot), improved grapple
8	exotic weapon master 1	6	9	1	1	2: psicraft 4		exotic weapon stunt: Throw Exotic Weapon
9	incarnum blade 1	7	11	1	1	2: concentration 10	9: practiced manifester	Shape blademeld, blademeld chakra bind (crown, feet, hands)
10	psychic warrior 6	8	12	2	2	2: concentration 12		+1 level of manifesting
11	exotic weapon master 2	9	13	2	2	2: concentration 13		Exotic Weapon stunt: Uncanny Blow
12	incarnum blade 2	10	14	2	2	2: concentration 15	12: azure talent	Blademeld chakra binds (arms, brow, shoulders)
13	incarnum blade 3	11	14	3	3	2: concentration 16, knowledge psionics 7.5		Rebind blademeld, blademeld chakra binds (throat, waist)
14	incarnum blade 4	12	15	3	3	2: concentration 17, knowledge psionics 8		Blademeld chakra bind (heart)
15	incarnum blade 5	13	15	3	3	2: concentration 18, jump 1	15: psycarnum infusion	Dual chakra binding, blademeld chakra bind (soul)
16	totemist	13	17	5	3	4: knowledge the planes 4		Wild empathy
17	psychic warrior 7	14	17	5	3	2: concentration 20		+1 level of manifesting
18	pyschic warrior 8	15	18	5	3	2 concentration 21, autohypnosis 1	18: psicrystal affinity B: psicrystal containment	Bonus feat, +1 level of manifesting
19	soul manifester 1	15	18	5	5	2: autohypnosis 3		Psionic investment 1, +1 level of meldshaping/manifesting classes
20	soul manifester 2	16	18	5	6	2: autohypnosis 5		+1 level of meldshaping/manifesting classes

Level	PP from class	PP from race	PP from feats	PP from Wis	Total PP	Essencia
1	0	1	2	1	4	0
2	1	2	2	3	8	0
3	3	3	2	4	12	0
4	5	4	2	8	19	0
5	7	5	2	10	24	0
6	7	6	2	10	25	0
7	7	7	2	10	26	0
8	7	8	2	10	27	0
9	7	9	2	10	28	0
10	11	10	2	12	35	0
11	11	11	2	12	36	0
12	11	12	6	12	41	1
13	11	13	6	12	42	1
14	11	14	6	12	43	1
15	11	15	6	12	44	1
16	11	16	6	12	45	2
17	15	17	6	14	52	2
18	19	18	6	16	59	2
19	23	19	6	18	66	3
20	27	20	6	20	73	3

Powers:
1st: call weaponry, grip of iron, expansion, synchronicity (complete psionics p.103)
2nd: Hustle, Perfect Archery (complete psionics p.83), Animal Affinity, dissonant touch (Players guide to eberron p.149)
3rd: exhalation of the bronze dragon (complete psionic p.89), Hostile Empathic transfer (complete psionics p.85)
4th: Open Chakra (MoI p.107)

Background
Years ago, neogi slavers kidnapped and young kalashtar boy and sold him into inter-planar slavery. He wound up as part of an inter planer Zoo controlled by a slaadi Lord. Unfamiliar with the biological needs of humanoids in general, and kalashtar in particular, this young boy was locked in a small demiplane that had a small Forest with a river running through it. To feed the young boy, this zookeeper provided him with one live Goblin per day, probably because the cost of goblin slaves was extraordinarily cheap. The Zookeeper was proud of the young boy and thought he was thriving as he had to kill the only other sentient creatures he could interact with in order to eat. The boy spent his time looking inward. During these years he developed his psionic talent to manifest the weapon capable of silencing the shrieks of pain and dismay as they were slain for food. The Locking garrote. He had to kill those goblins everyday, or they would outnumber him and eat him instead. Eventually The Zookeeper Bored of is now adult kalashtar and he simply released him Into the Wild.

Separated from social interaction, true social interaction, for years of his development, the boy struggled to interact with other people. The only thing that kept him from the maws of Madness was his two spirit duality with his quori host.

Garou slowly reintegrated in a cosmopolitan town on a prime material world. Psychologically, he cannot abide slavery or confinement and will fight to the death to free those in bondage or to prevent his own capture. He has a long lasting and the biting fear of capture, an extraordinarily poor social graces. Seemingly incapable of lying, Garou just speaks the truth as he sees it and requires significant coaching to lie with any believability.

Foreground
When I read exotic weapon master (Complete Warrior p.30) and incarnum blade (Magic of Incarnum p.121), I immediately gravitated to the incarnum blade’s ability to bind a Soulmeld called the blademeld to the heart and soul chakra. This opens up some incarnum feat benefits. But when you look up those feats that get a benefit from an open soul or heart chakra, they aren’t very good. As a side note, azure talent (Magic of Incarnum, p. 34) grants extra pp if you can bind a soulmeld to your brow chakra, and as noted before, the incarnum blade’s blademeld is described as a soulmeld.

But what I did notice was the curious text about binding the blademeld to the heart chakra. You gain and lose real hit points. My first idea that revolved around this was using persisted sadism (BOVD p.103) and masochism (BOVD p.99) spells to gain benefits from dropping up to 40 hp a round when you unbound and rebound the blademeld to your heart chakra. That also opened up the possibility to combining with pain mastery (savage species p.37). The problem with all of this was that it didn’t really address what to do with exotic weapon master. Also, the loss of hitpoints from rebinding the chakra wasn’t “hp damage” per se. It was hp point loss. And when you look up the definition of hit points and damage in the SRD, it has this curious line of “The most common way that your character gets hurt is to take lethal damage and lose hit points.” That clearly was not the wiggle room needed to pull this off: Because this exploit is definitely a case of hp loss that isn’t lethal damage. I even had a stub that used the chameleon and spelldancer with peristent spell to get into incarnum blade. But that was too gaping of a RAW hole to build around.

Also, although it probably won't be featured in this build, did you know that psionic feats are supernatural abilities? That means the supernatural boosting feats from tome of magic are applicable. That's neat.

The other idea that caught my eye was the incarnum blade’s ability to grant more hardness and hp to the blademelded weapon. I thought, what weapon would actually benefit from that?

The Lasso (BOED p.34, Races of Faerun p.156) of course. It’s limited to being rope or if you have expedition to undermountain, that desmodu cable, which you can use use rope to turn into a lasso. If you boost your lasso’s hp and hardness, the enemy won’t be able to slice their way out. But they could use their strength score to burst their way out. I scoured the sources I could, but there are no rules about increasing the break DC of an item with a list break DC...even if you increase its hp and hardness. And even though, unlike the last idea, the lasso would get some weird neat benefits from exotic weapon master, (you could throw it, or flurry with it, or channel stuns through it) the static Burst DC to escape was not a good enough option.

So, obviously, I needed a more integrative approach to the two classes. When I look at this challenge, I notice that exotic weapon master is really offering ONE thing to incarnum blade. A blademeld can only be made with a melee weapon. An exotic weapon master can turn a melee weapon into a ranged weapon. So really, this is a challenge of finding the best possible exotic weapon to turn into a thrown weapon and then building around that. The first thing I thought was justicar, with their manacles exotic weapon proficiency, but that pushes the use of the ingredients back by 5 levels and it still has the burst dc problem. Maybe miser’s fortune (Complete Scoundrel, p. 80) is the way to go to make that work, forcing the opponent to reroll those strength checks. But it seems like a non-starter.

So back to the drawing board. Is there another weapon that would benefit from increased hp and hardness? Yes. the locking garrotte from song and silence (p.52) with Garrotting special attack actions being on page 86. You may have a hard time grappling with it if you encounter a grapple built monster, but an exotic weapon master can throw it, and the additional hp and hardness make it really rough to get off. It has a hardness of 7 and 2 hp to start. But with 5 incarnum blade levels, it gets a hardness of 12 and 27hp. It leaves the opponent stuck in a state of grapple, taking damage each round that it doesn’t beat your optimized grapple check. One idea that is on the back burner is to further increase the hp of the garrotte with uncanny trickster or legacy champion.

So I started building that. I looked up grappling handbooks. I decided on psychic warrior with the soulbound weapon acf from the mind’s eye article. Psychic warrior gets bonus feats, grapple boosters from psychic powers, armor proficiency, and with the soulbound weapon ability, the opportunity to put cool weapon enchantments on your locking garrotte depending on your needs. Conjure up a smoking (Lords of darkness p.180) garrotte to nauseate your opponent. Nauseated creatures are unable to attack, cast spells, concentrate on spells, or do anything else requiring attention. The only action such a character can take is a single move action per turn. That’s fantastic, cuz fighting the grapple check is a standard action. So just choke on 1d8+1.5 X str bonus per round. Exotic weapon master allows us to increase that to double your strength bonus. But. BUT! Locking garrotte is a light weapon. But to use it, the text calls out the fact that you get a two handed bonus on your damage. Anyways, here are some soulbound enchantments that you can put on your garrotte at level 5.

If you want the enemy to die faster while you fight them, just manifest a bane (DMG p.230) locking garrotte specific to whom you’re facing, with the following exceptions
*use a dragondoom (MIC p.33) garrotte against dragons,
*use a last resort weapon (CW p.135) against creatures 3 sizes larger than you
*use a magebane (MIC p.38) against an arcane caster or invocation users
*use shadowscourge (Power of Faerun p.60) against creatures native to the plane of shadow

Use a binding (MIC p.29) weapon for creatures that are skittish.
A bloodstone (MIC p.29) locking garrote yields you one maximized vampiric touch hp bonus, so use it if you need 20 hp or so. Call multiples to heal yourself.
Brutal surge (MIC p.30) is hilarious as it initiates a bull rush every round it deals damage.
A dispelling (MIC p.33) locking garrotte is useful in it’s own right.
A ghost strike (MIC p.35) locking garrotte is useful against ghosts and stuff, but incorporeal binding (MIC p.38) is better.
Intercepting (Forge of War p.120) is good for getting garrottes on those who charge you.
Use a morphing (MIC p.39) weapon if you don’t want to garrotte your enemies for some reason.
Use a shrinking (A&EG p.98) garrotte to sever their heads?
A soulbound (MoI p.111) weapon is neat because you can bind it to your chakra for lame bonuses, and if you have essencia, you can up the enchantment bonus.
Use the throwing (DMG p.226) ability at level 5, before you get it permanently from exotic weapon master.
Whirling (MIC p.46) is amazing. You can garrotte everyone you reach with the same locking garrotte.

So. Let’s start building this guy. Let’s do kalashtar (Races of Eberron p.55) for an extra pp per level. At least for now, we might change race later.

Soulbound psychic warrior 2. First level feats, exotic weapon proficiency locking garrote, weapon focus (locking garrotte), and Hidden talent (XPH p. 67)(Syncronicity (complete psionic p.103)). We get call weapon (XPH p.88) for first level, synchronicity for extra standard actions, and at second level take grip of iron (XPH p.111) as your second power.

Let’s do 3 more levels of psychic warrior to get the sweet +1 bonus abilities added to our locking garrote. At level 3, take expansion (XPH p.105) power and the linked power (Complete Psionic p.62) feat. Sweet mighty. Now you can call weapon linked to syncronicity, and use bonus standard action to expansion link grip of iron. You’ll be buffed up by round 2! At fourth level, get hustle (XPH 111) so you can preserve your full attacks and move towards your opponent. At fifth level, take psionic meditation (XPH p. 50) so that you can get your psionic focus on a move action. But as for the power you select at 5th level, you have some real options. Pick one and get power stones or dorjes of the others.
*Strength of my enemy activates on hits, not damage, so it isn’t great with a locking garrotte. But if you have a morphing locking garrotte…
*animal affinity can yield you a +2 to grapple, or other ability scores i guess
*feat leach is amazing. If you have a psionic buddy on your team.
*constrictors touch pairs super well with a power storing garrotte
*power weapon obviates the need for ghost touch gear.
*concealing amorpha is great for just watching them choke to death. And avoiding that garrotting attack of Opportunity the opponent gets that can spoil your attack.

So, now we are at a crossroads. We need 5 BAB to get into either incarnum blade or exotic weapon master. We need to get the throw exotic weapon ability so that we become awesome. Throwing the locking garrotte nixes the attack of opportunity issue somewhat. We also want to get the improved grapple feat. That leaves two options: monk or bear totem barbarian. Two levels of monk would net us the ability to get improved grapple and stunning fist if we use OA monk rules as well as flurry and wis to AC. the problem is that we need that BAB! A crafty hunter (UA p.58) bear totem (UA p.48) barbarian gets improved grapple at level 2, rapid shot at level 2, toughness at level 1, and enough BAB, but no stunning synergy or flurry with exotic weapon master. We are getting rid of rage with the crafty hunter variant because you can’t manifest during a rage. The barbarian also gets favored enemy. If you can further swap that for favored enemy arcanist (complete mage p.32), that is a better trade. But if not, no sweat.

On analysis, flurry and rapid shot will ultimately be the same thing, -2 to attacks as a full round action for 1 extra attacks. So it comes down to a choice of stun attacks but later entry, or a flurry that only works on ranged attacks and early entry? At level 6, you have a choice between brutal throw (MMV p.134) or zen archery (Complete Warrior p.106) as your sixth level feat. Brutal throw makes way more sense, and it is easier to boost your str score. So let’s do that. Zen archery offers a plausible narrative explanation on how the heck a thrown locking garrotte can grapple the opponent from a distance: it’s done psychically. Use that if you're worried about accusations of minmaxing.

At level 8, we take exotic weapon master to get the throw exoric weapon ability. Incarnum blade at 9 grants some hardness and go to the garrotte. Here, we take practiced manifester (Complete psionic p.97) for the ability to spend more pp per power.

Prestige classes that progress manifesting all kinda screw with psychic warrior, and the best prestige classes for psywar don't advance manifestation, they instead grant duplicate psychic warrior manifestation. So war mind, the best of the options is lamely redundant in the powers department. So...
At level 10, another level of psychic warrior boosts our manifester level to 10! This opens up call weapon augments for weapon enchantment of a +2 bonus! This is probably the peak of the build. Here’s a list of +2 enchantments that are good enough to consider blowing pp on.

Fleshgrinder (MIC p.35)
strength sapping (BOVD p.112)
illusion theft (MIC p.37)
Subjugating (Heroes of Battle p.130) pair with throat chakra blademeld ability
Transmuting (MIC p.45) deal with damage reduction greater than 7 here, otherwise use bane.

While we're here, does the soulbound weapon ability have boundaries on simple cost increase magic weapon enhancements? We are going to assume they are off limits…

At level 11, we take our second level of exoric weapon master for uncanny blow. So, let's talk. The locking garrotte is a light weapon. A garrotte special attack has language about needing two hands to be used for choking. So...uncanny blow then becomes a neat way of boosting damage.

I've considered adding a level of binder for 2 levels now. Mostly for lerajes ricochet ability. Choke two opponents for the price of one! The problem is elegance, and how necessary is that? Especially if you just get a whirling garrotte instead. The cool thing about leraje is the precise shot feat too. So one could add ranged grapple to pin your opponents to the ambient terrain...but that is feat intensive and a bit redundant...especially if you have called a whirling locking garrotte…

So now we have to contend with feat choice paralysis. Feats for 12, 15, and 18 levels need to decided. Battle jump offers another +4 grapple bonus, but we are also a bit anemic on power points per day (roughly 30ish at level 10). We are also going to be weak against opponents with high DR. Additionally, the only incarnum blade use we are enjoying is the bonus to weapon hp and hardness.

If we finish up incarnum blade, that leaves 5 more levels, which is probably best to just fill in with psychic warrior. The problem with that is that what we’ve done is make a weak, weird psychic warrior. So we need to come up with a plan.

So...read the entries again.

At each level, an exotic weapon master learns a special trick that he can use with any exotic weapon for which he has the Weapon Focus feat

So we could blow feats on weapon focus and exotic weapon proficiency. Or, we can dip warblade and use their aptitude ability to switch our reliance on exotic weapon stunts on the locking garrote onto other exotic weapons.

If you look at the soulbound weapon ability really slantwise:

You must choose a soulbound weapon at 1st level and you gain the Weapon Focus feat with this weapon. Also, the first power you learn must be call weaponry. You can summon your chosen soulbound weapon to your hand using call weaponry.

You can argue that the soulbound weapon ability is tied to that weapon focus bonus feat. So theoretically, all that work you saw above, cherry picking the best +1 enchantments and whatnot, could be redone everyday on a different exotic melee weapon of your choice, if you are convincing your DM to allow you to use the warblade’s aptitude to shift your soulbound weapon around.

Either way your DM rules on that, a warblade dip that rounds out your exotic weapon mastery optimization. And it helps with some of the garrotte tactics: take bonecrusher for a nice standard action damage booster and to have a stone dragon maneuver. Take wall of blades, because you can use it every round that you aren’t using a full round action or initiating a maneuver, especially when the waist chakra guarantees that you always have dex to AC. Take iron heart surge for the helpfulness of it all. The stonefoot stance allows a +2 to str if you don’t move more than 5’ during a round. That’s fine and all, but if you take martial stance, you can get crushing weight of the mountain, and if you really wanted to get weird with it, you could find a way to get ranged pin and do extra grapple checks against the same opponent that you garrotted by throwing riitiks or harpoons at them. If we are getting initiator levels, we could also do psionic renewal and instant clarity to abuse the heck out of reduced action psionic focuses... We are going to call that, option A…

We still have to contend with incarnum blade and how we are using but a single class ability, and just passively accepting the other weird nonbonus bonus class features. The waist chakra is handy for the dex to AC even when flat footed. We could use legacy champion or uncanny trickster to get even more garrotte hp...but that seems ridiculous.

So azure talent is the obvious choice, as it would grant 4 pp because you capable of binding your blademeld onto your crown or brow chakra. Considering that we also have psychic powers and a nice concentration score, psycarnum infusion will allow us to get up to 8-10 temporary pp, by just blowing our psionic focus, depending on character level, This will really help with the anemic number of pp this character has. If we link hustle to our power use, we can just get that focus back for some more psycarnum infusion shenanigans. And psychic meditation reduces the time to get psionic focus down to a move action, so you can supplement your powers during combat if you hit rock bottom of pp. We’ll call that option B. With that last feat, you could get instant clarity and get a focus back after a strike if you have a martial strike.

If we can shape two more soulmelds, and free up some skill points, we can go into soul manifester, which allows us to increase the save DC on the throat chakra bind, while also getting more powers and power points. Although if we really wanted to be ironclad, we would have to take shape soulmeld twice so that we don’t have any meldshaping base classes. We’ll call that option C.

Actually, looking back, is there any reason to be a crafty hunter for two levels and not a warblade? Like, is the +4 of improved grapple worth that side route? The other question is, does the non-occurrence of an attack of opportunity for initiating a grapple check that you get from the improved grapple feat, does that protect against the attack of opportunity for the garrotte attack? Cuz that’s worth the effort. Oooh it falls in the grey zone. Let’s do a grapple check analysis for level 10:

+4 str
+5 or +10 expansion at 1 or 7pp
+4 or +6 grip of iron at 1 or 5 pp
+BAB
So at level 10, the grapple check is +22, with improved grapple it would be +26. Contrasting with that wild chart in the grapple handbook, 26 is preferable for CR10 monsters.

Ugh. This build decision rests upon how to read the improved grapple feat in relationship to the garotte special attack entry in song and silence. Errrg. Negating attacks of opportunity for using the garrotte is a really sweet get, especially without having to sink point buy into raising dex.

Nevermind, we’re sticking to the crafty hunter. But let us not forget the warblade dip that almost was!

So let’s do the azure talent and psycarnum infusion cheese with our 12th and 15th level feats. That uses the incarnum blade’s ability to bind to the crown chakra

To keep up with the grapple issues, the most obvious solution is to dip totemist to get access to girallion arms and the kraken mantle. If we have psycarnum infusion anyway, we can get another +10 for the girallion arms. And if we’re dipping totemist, soul manifester becomes a better option...we just have to figure out the skill point allotment and what powers to add. Incarnate adds more essencia for those levels, but doesn’t have the relevant soulmelds.

The problem that arises with soul manifester is the loss of BAB, which, in turn, affects our grapple checks. What we'll do is split the difference with psychic warrior to get a bonus feat, and we'll get 4th level psywar powers to open our chakras to allow the kraken mantle to be bound to our arms. That will offset the loss of BAB pretty well, and with the two psionic foci thanks to our psycrystal focus, we can just use psycarnum infusion to lift our girallion arms.

We'll get the bronze dragon exhalation power to limit our choking victims to run away for up to 4 rounds and then we can hit them with the shaken effect of our incarnum blade throat chakra bind. Hostile empathic transfer works in tandem with binding your blade meld to your heart chakra. Lose up to 40 hp, spend 8 PP, and make them lose 40 hp or 20hp if they make their save. Get all your hp back when you rebind to the heart chakra.

Further, girallion arms gives us extra arms, and therefor extra shoulders and or arms chakras. As per page 170 of magic of incarnum

A creature’s access to chakras depends on its current physical form, not its natural form. Thus, a character who uses polymorph to turn into a snake loses access to his hands chakra. If he takes on a form that lacks a chakra to which he currently has a soulmeld bound, that bind is lost until the character assumes a form that allows it. At that point, the character must unshape and reshape the meld in order to bind it to the chakra again.

So arguably, you could open multiple arm chakras with your psycarnum infused temporary power points from psycarnum infusion in the morning and bind multiple kraken mantles to them. Or bind your blademeld to your shoulder chakra twice, as it may stack with itself to give you a 50% fortification against crit fishers. Only make this argument if you have the social lattitude to actually make it. If you've been accused of being a munchkin or something roughly parallel in the last year, don't do it.


Ok. Now we need a backstory and a level 18 feat. Do we want a psicrystal? Sure, let’s get a psicrystal and then let’s make it hold a psionic focus. That’ll allow us to use a linked power and psycarnum infusion in the same round. We’ll just move some psychic warrior levels around. And that is that!

For backstory: we need to address the kalashtar thing, the fact that this guy has specialized in choking the life out of people to death, and the fact that he summons these garrottes to choke people to death, and then he specializes in choking people to death through weapon training in addition to using the energy of souls to help strengthen his ability to choke things to death. Can’t be lawful due to the barbarian levels. Intense self reflection to the point of developing psychic powers… And let’s not go whole hog and make him evil. All tallied, That looks like a traumatic backstory. I’m going to go to the top, hunt down a vaguely relevant pic and write this traumatic backstory about a chaotic neutral psychic warrior kalashtar who prefers to choke people to death rather than use a sword.

Done. You, probably couldn't even tell that I wrote the backstory last, unless you're really really smart and perceptive (give me points!)

A couple of notes. I'm gonna put favored enemy goblinoid in there for the crafty hunter levels. That is completely arbitrary, so feel free to change that depending on the campaign. Remember, always ask the DM which favored enemies are likely to be useless in their campaign, so that way you dont choose them. For example, when i run the game as DM, i rarely use undead. I don't like them. Change the backstory to reflect any changes in favored enemy that you need to actually utilize the class feature.

[Macabaret]

Lin-Tao, the Dread Blue-Blade Sage
Race: Human
Build Stub: Monk 1 / Unarmed Swordsage 1 / Monk +1 / Unarmed Swordsage +2 / Assassin 3 / IB 1 / EWM 2 / Assassin +4 / IB +4 / EWM +1
Multiclass Penalty: No
Languages: Common, Undercommon, Draconic
Alignment: LE

Spoiler: Ability Scores (32pt-buy)

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Ability	Base	4th	8th	12th	16th	20th	Total
Str	14	-	-	-	-	-	14
Dex	14	-	-	-	-	-	14
Con	14	-	-	-	-	-	14
Int	14	-	+1	+1	+1	+1	18
Wis	10	-	-	-	-	-	10
Cha	14	+1	-	-	-	-	15

Priority for Stat Increase with Items: Int > Con > Str/Dex > Cha (+1 only); Ignore Wis

Spoiler: Level Progression

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Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Base Fort Save	Base Ref Save	Base Will Save	Skill Ranks per Level	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Monk 1	+0	+2	+2	+2	7*4	Balance 4, Concentration 4, Disguise Self 2 (4cc), Hide 4, Jump 4, Move Silently 4, Tumble 4	Carmendine Monk (1st), Darkstalker (Human), Improved Unarmed Strike (Monk), Stunning Fist (Monk)	Flurry of Blows -2/-2
2nd	Unarmed Swordsage 1	+0	+2	+2	+4	9	Balance +1 (5), Concentration +1 (5), Intimidate 3, Hide +1 (5), Jump +1 (5), Move Silently +1 (5), Tumble +1 (5)	Discipline Focus (Tiger Claw): Weapon Focus (Kama)	Quick to Act +1, Adaptation: Unarmed: Gain Monk Unarmed Damage Progression, Lose Armor Proficiency; Unarmed Monk Damage 2
3rd	Monk 2	+1	+3	+5	+5	7	Concentration +1 (6), Craft Weaponsmithing 1, Hide +1 (6), Jump +1 (6), Move Silently +1 (6), Tumble +1 (6), Disguise Self +1 (3, 2cc)	Adaptive Style (3rd), Flensing Strike (Monk)	Unarmed Monk Damage 3, ACF: Invisible Fist, lose Evasion
4th	Unarmed Swordsage 2	+2	+3	+6	+6	9	Concentration +1 (7), Hide +1 (7), Intimidate +3 (6), Move Silently +1 (7), Tumble +1 (7)	-	Unarmed Monk Damage 4, AC Bonus*
5th	Unarmed Swordsage 3	+3	+4	+6	+6	9	Concentration +1 (8), Disguise Self +1 (4, 2cc), Hide +1 (8), Intimidate +2 (8), Jump +1 (8), Move Silently +1 (8), Tumble +1 (8)	-	Unarmed Monk Damage 5
6th	Assassin 1	+3	+4	+8	+6	7	Concentration +1 (9), Hide +1 (9), Intimidate +1 (9), Jump +1 (9), Move Silently +1 (9), Tumble +1 (9), UMD 1	Imperious Command	Sneak Attack +1d6, Death Attack, Poison Use
7th	Assassin 2	+4	+4	+9	+6	7	Concentration +1 (10), Hide +1 (10), Intimidate +1 (10), Jump +1 (10), Move Silently +1 (10), Tumble +1 (10), UMD +1 (2)	-	+1 saves vs poison, Uncanny Dodge
8th	Assassin 3	+5	+5	+9	+7	7	UMD +4 (6), Jump +1 (11), Hide +1 (11), Move Silently +1 (11)	-	Sneak Attack +2d6
9th	Incarnum Blade 1	+6	+7	+9	+7	5	Craft Weaponsmithing +2 (3), Intimidate +2 (12), Jump +1 (12)	Craven	Shape Blademeld, Blademeld Chakra Binds (crown, <feet>, hands)
10th	Exotic Weapon Master 1	+7	+9	+9	+7	5	5 Intimidate +1 (13), UMD +1 (7, 2cc), Skill Trick: Never Outnumbered	-	Stunning Blow
11th	Exotic Weapon Master 2	+8	+10	+9	+7	5	Intimidate +1 (14), UMD +1 (8, 2cc), Skill Trick: Extreme Leap	-	Twin Exotic Weapon Fighting
12th	Assassin 4	+9	+10	+10	+7	8	Hide +1 (12), Move Silently +1 (12), Tumble +2 (12), UMD +4 (12)	Reaping Talons	+2 saves vs poison
13th	Assassin 5	+9	+10	+10	+7	8	Hide +2 (14), Jump +1 (13), Move Silently +2 (14), Tumble +2 (14), UMD +1 (13)	-	Improved Uncanny Dodge, Sneak Attack +3d6
14th	Assassin 6	+10	+11	+11	+8	8	Hide +2 (16), Jump +1 (14), Move Silently +2 (16), Tumble +2 (16), UMD +1 (14)	-	+3 saves vs poison
15th	Assassin 7	+11	+11	+11	+8	8	Hide +2 (18), Jump +1 (15), Move Silently +2 (18), Tumble +2 (18), UMD +1 (15)	Snap Kick	Sneak Attack +4d6
16th	Incarnum Blade 2	+12	+12	+11	+8	6*	Intimidate +2 (16), Jump +2 (17), Tumble +1 (19, 2cc)	-	Blademeld Chakra Binds (crown, <feet>, hands, arms, brow, shoulders)
17th	Incarnum Blade 3	+13	+12	+12	+9	6*	Intimidate +2 (18), Jump +2 (19), Move Silently +1 (19, 2cc)	-	Rebind Blademeld, Blademeld Chakra Binds (crown, feet, hands, arms, brow, shoulders, <throat>, waist)
18th	Incarnum Blade 4	+14	+13	+12	+9	6*	Intimidate +2 (20), Jump +2 (21), Hide +1 (19, 2cc)	Sun School	Blademeld Chakra Binds (crown, feet, hands, arms, brow, shoulders, <throat>, waist, heart)
19th	Incarnum Blade 5	+15	+13	+12	+9	6*	Concentration +1 (12), Intimidate +2 (22), Jump +1 (22), Move Silently +1 (20, 2cc)	-	Dual Chakra Binding, Blademeld Chakra Binds (crown, feet, hands, arms, brow, shoulders, <throat>, waist, <heart>, soul)
20th	Exotic Weapon Master 3	+16	+13	+13	+10	7	Intimidate +1 (23), Jump +1 (23, 2cc), Hide +1 (20, 2cc), Skill Trick: Acrobatic Backstab	-	Show Off

*Note: AC Bonus from Swordsage applies only in light armor by RAW, so this is not applicable.
*Skill Ranks: Currently calculated without items. Assuming use of Tome of Clear Thought, spend additional ranks on CC Hide or Move Silently (if even) or Craft Weaponsmithing (if odd).

Spoiler: Special Abilities

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Spoiler: Swordsage Maneuvers

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Swordsage Maneuvers

Level	# Known	Max Level Known	List Known
2	6	1	Sapphire Nightmare Blade (DM 1 strike), Burning Blade (DW 1 strike), Distracting Ember (DW 1 boost), Sudden Leap (TC1 boost), Wolf Fang Strike (TC1 strike), Mighty Throw (SS 1 strike)
4	7	1	+ Shadow Blade Technique (SH1 strike)
5	8	2	+ Emerald Razor (DM 2 strike)

Swordsage Maneuvers Readied

Level	# Readied	Default Readied List
2nd	4	Burning Blade, Distracting Ember, Wolf Fang Strike, Sudden Leap
4th	4	Burning Blade, Distracting Ember, Wolf Fang Strike, Sudden Leap
5th	5	Burning Blade, Distracting Ember, Wolf Fang Strike, Sudden Leap, Emerald Razor
8th+	5	Burning Blade, Distracting Ember, Mighty Throw, Sudden Leap, Emerald Razor

Swordsage Stances

Level	# Known	Max Level Known	List Known
2	1	1	Island of Blades (SH 1)
4	2	1	Island of Blades (SH 1), Flame's Blessing (DW 1)
5	2	1	Island of Blades (SH 1), Flame's Blessing (DW 1)

Default Stance: Island of Blades

Spoiler: Assassin Spells

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Assassin Spells per Day

Level	1st	2nd	3rd	4th
6th	0+1	-	-	-
7th	1+1	-	-	-
8th	2+1	0+1	-	-
12th	3+1	1+1	-	-
13th	3+1	2+1	0+1	-
14th	3+1	3+1	1+1	-
15th	3+1	3+1	2+1	0
16th+*	3+1	3+1	2+1	0+1

*Hopefully by this point I will have used at least one Tome of Clear Thought to learn spells.

Assassin Spells Known

Level	#	Spells Known, in Order Learned
1st	4	Ebon Eyes, Shock and Awe, Feather Fall, Obscuring Mist
2nd	4	Alter Self, Invisibility, Fire Shuriken, Undetectable Alignment
3rd	3	Find the Gap, Sadism, Deeper Darkness
4th	2	Dimension Door, Freedom of Movement

Spoiler: Backstory

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Lin-tao started life as an unnamed orphan. Raised at a Carmendine order monastery, she trained in both unarmed and armed combat, trying to follow the teachings of Zealots of the Written Word. The Zealots, however, pushed their good philosophies a little too hard. Lin-Tao was found to be training herself to master the Flensing Strike, a dual kama attack that skins flesh from an opponent, and this both shocked and disgusted her good masters. For the crime of perverting the texts of Carmendine, she was banished from the monastery.

Luckily, Deneir does not want information lost; one of her former masters met with Lin-Tao outside the temple and sent her to her future mentor, Ekard, a hardened ex-monk (and unknown to her masters, an assassin with underworld contacts). Ekard appreciated Lin-Tao's talents and decided to train her as his successor while travelling the countryside.

Every assassin remembers their first kill. Lin-Tao's was a bandit leader who, with a band of 20 brigands, was terrorizing a small village encountered on her travels. Ekard set up payment from the frightened villagers; she snuck past the guards and slit his throat in the night, leaving a note: "If you keep threatening the village, your next leader will die in one week." The panic the following day was fun to watch. The brigands retreated. The village celebrated and paid what was due. Once a week passed with no attacks from the brigands, they moved on.

Ekard trained Lin-Tao in the art of using intimidation and wit to see the best way to profit from bad situations. After Ekard's untimely demise (a hit on a noble gone terribly wrong), Lin-Tao taught herself mastery of her chosen weapons, dual scorpion kamas, and joined a thieves' guild in Waterdeep. Here, she learned a bit of the art of incarnum, adding a bit of her soul to one of her one blades, but again, she twists the teachings of the Warriors Eternal to her own ends; she just wants power and plans to never join herself with the Eternal Host.

The thieves' guild gives Lin-Tao assignments and pays well enough, but Lin-Tao keeps her distance and calls herself a freelancer. When the guild inevitably collapses (Lin-Tao's killings are easily linked to her; flensing is considered uncommon and cruel), she has enough underworld reputation to set herself up as an assassin for hire. Maybe Lin-Tao will one day leave the city to found or usurp a dark monastery of the Long Death, but for now, torturing and killing hard targets is what she enjoys.

Spoiler: Mechanics by Level

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Spoiler: Levels 1-5

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In the early game, the goal is to (1) get up close and flurry or (2) throw shuriken / use a light crossbow. After level 1, maneuvers help a lot with the "get close" part, and adding Flensing Strike is cruel, cold gravy. An Invisible Flensing Strike into Stunning Fist can kill things; don't forget that if you're weilding two Kamas, you get +2 on the Flensing Strike DC, and this can be used with Wolf Fang Strike for a std-act flurry. Levels 4-5 mainly are to gain a couple more maneuvers, the best of which is Emerald Razor; however, it will not come into play until we become an assassin.
Aside: Invisible Fist + Sudden Leap gives us one round of flurry sneak attack out of every four, and Distracting Ember + Island of Blades gives us a second. The other rounds will be spent debuffing with Stunning Fist (drop a kama to do this) or Flensing Strike or moving and full attacking with Wolf Fang Strike. We're no front-line fighter early (14 AC; I hope we have friends with wand of mage armor), but we are a brutal damage-dealer.

Spoiler: Levels 6-10

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We now begin prestiging with Assassin. We take a lot of ranks in UMD to play catch-up, while using Assassin's BAB to qualify for the SIs. Use Emerald Razor to make Death Attacks. Each spell brings utility, with Ebon Eyes, Shock and Awe, and Alter Self being stand-outs. Alter Self can be cheesed for +6 NA, bite, and multiattack (troglodyte) or 50' avg fly speed (Avariel, winged elf).
By Assassin 3, our Kamas should have wand chambers for easy use of wands of spells on your Assassin list (Wraithstrike, Alter Self, others); later, when UMD gets higher, we'll go for more interesting spells. Island of Blades stance makes it easier to get into flanking for sneak attacks. The first level of IB gives chakra bind (feet) for a boost to initiative, which is nice, and allows entry into EWM. EWM allows us to stun without dropping a Kama with Stunning Blow. We take Imperious Command now for tricks later, but using it with Never Outnumbered is not a bad use of a standard act. We are starting to come into our own as a combination debuffer and striker; flensing strike into imperious command into a stunning blow full attack is brutal lockdown.

Spoiler: Levels 11-15

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Now EWM gives TWF via Twin Exotic Weapon Fighting. We use this to qualify for Reaping Talons and to use Gloves of the Balanced Hand (for ITWF) later. Reaping talons gives us a nice bonus in [Cornered Predator]; after hitting with both kamas, we get +2 to attack for each adjacent foe. We can also Fight Defensively to use [Talon Shield] for effective -4 atk / +4 AC Combat Expertise to trigger [Focused Assault] in the following round, but this doesn not seem likely to be used.
Given the terrible class skills of EWM, it is only reasonable to use these levels for skill tricks. Back into Assassin, we work our way up to Snap Kick for more attacks. By 15, we should be using dual Assassination Virulent Scorpion Kamas with a triple Weapon Capsule Containers for holding Wyvern Poison; this is for stubborn foes. The goal is to flensing strike and imperious command to drop saves, then force a bunch of saves via full attacks with poison, death attacks, etc until the target is dead. New spells: Find the Path is great for setup / making maneuvers / flensing strike / stunning blow / death attacks hit. We're good enough at hide and move silently that with darkstalker, we can afford to scout with invisibility, set up death attack and cast Find the Path in the surprise round.
We can even Dimension Door to people; at this point, we may want to get a wand of DD for later. It would also be nice to have a slotless monk's belt; I'll talk about that in the items section.

Spoiler: Levels 16-20

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We start taking capstones here. Blademeld (brow, shoulders) are both situationally useful. Once we can rebind chakras, we can do this from hiding when necessary before combat. However, level 17 provides the main reason I took Imperious Command in the early game: Chakra Bind (throat) is an AoE demoralize that doesn't have the once per encounter limitation of frightening prescence. Let that sink in. We can intinitely [fear] people as long as they fail a high-DC fort save. Sun School at 18 provides an even more deadly death attack: Start watching your target, cast Find the Path, use a Wand of Dimension Door in you poisoned Kama's wand chamber, get a free touch-death-attack. Use a wand of Greater Invisibilty before this if you don't want the crowd to notice. Dimension Door away assuming the target is dead.
Note: Because of how Sun School is written, any teleportation effect, even magic items, may trigger [Flash of Sunset] (at DM's discretion). Level 19, the capstone of IB, gives a free ~38-40 HP; we can unbind and rebind the chakra to get it back as well. We take those. Level 20 gives Show Off as an even more unbeatable demoralize: 1d20 +16 BAB +23 ranks +2 Cha-Mod +items. We also hit BAB 16 for the last iterative here, along with (another) 4th level spell.

Spoiler: Sweet Spot: 15

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Choosing a sweet spot here is hard. Once an Assassin, everything consistently gets better every level. I think level 15 serves, though; we get BAB 11 here for iterative #3; snap kick, bite (alter self), and ITWF grow that to 7 on a full attack. A use of a wraithstrike wand here means a big chunk of damage from a flanked enemy.

Spoiler: Gear

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Ideally, we're upping AC to stay competitive with Bracers of Armor early. After UMD access, this changes to a Wand of Greater Mage Armor. After we're rich, this changes to a black robe of the archmagi.
Increasing Sneak Attack Dice: Bracers of Murder +1d6, Rogue's Vest +1d6, Assassination Weapon Quality +1d6,
Ring of Int +6 as early as possible.
Tome of Clear Thought +1 at around 16th.
Custom Item: Slotless Monk's Belt. Remember the Monk's Tatoo from Magic of Faerun? It's way overpriced. A Slotless Monk's Belt should cost 26000g. Call it a magical tattoo for fluff.
Weapons of Choice: dual Scorpion Kamas, which will eventually deal 2d6 from our unarmed strike of monk 12 (unarmed monk 5 + slotless monk's belt 5 + Carmendine feat bonus 2).
Weapon add ons (in order) Wand Chambers (City, 100g), Least Crystal of Return (MIC, 300g), Triple Alchemical Weapon Capsule (CAdv, 450g, swift act poison weapon), Shadow Hand (+1, Discipline in use +3), Assassination (+1, +1d6 sneak attack, bonus to poison DC = weapon enhance bonus), Toxic (+1, Each poison use takes 2 hits to be consumed), Shadowstrike (+5000g); One gets Illusionbane; Other gets Warning. Alternate adding +1 enhancement and extra effects.

Spoiler: End-Game Items

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Slot	Item	Cost
Head	Scout's Headband (MIC)	3400g
Face	Third Eye Clarity (MIC)	3000g
Throat	Collar of Umbral Metamorphosis (ToM)	22000g
Torso	Rogue's Vest (MIC)	18000g
Body	Black Robe of the Archmagi (DMG)	75000g
Waist	Belt of Hidden Pouches (MIC) +4 Con	5000(1.5)+16000 = 23500g
Shoulders	Shadow Cloak (DotU)	5500g
Arms	Bracers of Murder (DotU)	8000g
Hands	Gloves of the Balanced Hand (MIC) +4 Str	8000(1.5) +16000 = 28000
Ring 1	Ring of Anticipation (DotU)	6000g
Ring 2	Ring of +6 Int	36000g
Feet	Boots of Big Stepping (MIC)	6000g
Slotless	Monk's Tattoo (Slotless Monk's Belt)	26000g
Slotless 2	Tome of Clear Thought +1 (DMG)	27500g

The remainder will be spent on consumable items (additional tomes, poisons, wands) and utility (haversack, bag of holding, troll gut rope, silent portal disc, ect).

Default Wands in Wand Chambers: Wraithstrike, Dimension Door
Secondaries, in belt for swapping: Golemstrike, Gravestrike, Vinestrike, Whirling Blade, Enlarge Person, Phantom Assailant (DotU), Cursed Blade, Remove Fear
Eternal Wands: Greater Magic Armor, sold once bought black robe of the archmagi
Late-Game Poison: Wyvern Venom, likely via a milked adult wyvern from a paid NPC handler (in a vain attempt to save money).

Spoiler: Citations

Show

Carmendine Monk: Champions of Valor
ACF: Invisible Fist: Exemplars of Evil p21
Adaptation: Unarmed Swordsage: Tome of Battle p20
Darkstalker: Lords of Madness
Flensing Strike: Eberron Campaign Setting
Imperious Command: Drow of the Underdark
Assassin: Dungeon Master's Guide
Craven: Champions of Ruin
Adaptive Style, Reaping Talons, Snap Kick: Tome of Battle
Sun School: Complete Warrior
Troglodyte: MM1
Avarial (Winged Elves): Races of Faerun
Non-Core Assassin Spells: Spell Compendium, except Sadism: Book of Vile Darkness
Assassination Weapon Quality: Cityscape Web Enhancement 3
Other Items: See Items Section

[Macabaret]

And that's what my inbox holds for you today.
If you submitted something for entry and don't see it here, speak up and we'll try to figure out what went wrong and get your build in for judging.
If you didn't submit something for entry, please feel free to judge!

Speaking of judging... I'll be out of internet connection range starting on the 21st and running through the 29th. Hopefully, we'll have some judges post judgements during that time; and, probably, knowing these contests, we'll have some disputes. Obviously, I won't be able to post such disputes until after I'm back online, so don't freak out in my absence.

[daremetoidareyo]

Lin-Tao - Kamas
Garou Tuh - Locking Garrotte
Drek Vril - manacles
Tog Tordus - Dwarven double spear
Wood elf ranger - Valenar Scimitar

[PunBlake]

I'll be out of internet connection range starting on the 21st and running through the 29th. ...don't freak out in my absence.

Have a nice trip and/or vacation!

All I have to say otherwise is... Woo! No Vizzinis! Good job, everyone! We even used (almost completely) different classes as entry points.

EDIT: Let the weapon jokes begin.
Let me just start with how sexual our weapons are. Manacles? Garrote? Double spear? I hope I'm not the only one who sees this.

[Thurbane]

Nice entries all!

My build stub was looking like Warblade 2/Martial Rogue 2/Warblade +1/Master of Masks 2/Incarnum Blade 5/EWM 3/Warblade +5; getting all EWPs through MoM. Then using Ancestral Relic or similar to have a Shifting weapon that could change into different forms...

[daremetoidareyo]

Nice entries all!

My build stub was looking like Warblade 2/Martial Rogue 2/Warblade +1/Master of Masks 2/Incarnum Blade 5/EWM 3/Warblade +5; getting all EWPs through MoM. Then using Ancestral Relic or similar to have a Shifting weapon that could change into different forms...

That's solid. It's like the quintessential build for this round also. Why settle for one when you can have All of the exotic weapons!

[Macabaret]

Of note to judges (and all other viewers):
The first entry does have a name: Fianin. This information was, unfortunately, left out of the post above. Edits will be made.

[Darkcouch]

I didn't have time to write it up, but my idea revolved around extending the fear effect of Show Off by getting more levels of Exotic Weapon Master (EMW) via Legacy Champ. The problem I ran into was that I also had to make the tricks I got from EMW relevant and ended up taking only 5, Uncanny blow, exotic sunder, show off, trip attack, and throw exotic weapon. The build was rather feat starved needing Sunder, Fear, and Trip feats, so the final build was Fighter 2/ Psychic Warrior 2/ Warblade 3/ EWM 3/ Incarnum Blade 5/ Ronin 2/ Legacy Champ 3. I used Shishi-O as my legacy weapon replacing charm animal with returning to help when dropping the weapon during a trip and when it's thrown. I went back and forth between EWM 2 + Legacy Champ 4 vs EWM 3 + Legacy Champ 3, but figured using the 3rd level of EMW was better for Use of SI than the extra Legacy feat was for my power score.

[Sian]

Had two weapons that i were considering, but simply couldn't get enough value out of the ingredients that i felt it was worth it in terms of showcasing them. First was Ramhammer from Planar Handbook paired with Dungeoncrasher Fighter, since that's one of the few weapons where you get a bonus to Bull Rushing, the other weapon that i was considering was the Eagle Claw (from Sandstorm) and using that to stack as many attacks as possible (via Eagle's Fury, gaining extra attacks)

[RaiKirah]

Really like what everyone presented! Really wish I'd liked my builds enough to fully write them up.

I had three ideas that I found interesting, but the builds wouldn't come together in a way that was at all compelling - mostly they all needed to do too many things.

One idea was to focus on a Whip as my weapon, specifically the pyrokineticist's fire lash. Using a Warforged gets rid of the need to sleep, so you can have the lash out always to shape it as your Blademeld, and later levels of Kensai can make use of the same thing.

The second idea was to use the Longstaff with the Waist Chakra bind to be immune to SA and Sudden Strike, with Spinning Defense to deflect all missiles, throw in Elusive Target to get rid of Power Attack. Then it required Roof Jumper to get full attacks while using Combat Expertise, but I couldn't get that to come online before lvl18.

Final idea was to use the Monk unarmed strike as your Blademeld (a la Fistbeard Beardfist) to get an additional 25hp and +5 to saving throws. But then I had to tack on an EWP and it felt awkward.

Next time!

[daremetoidareyo]

Final idea was to use the Monk unarmed strike as your Blademeld (a la Fistbeard Beardfist) to get an additional 25hp and +5 to saving throws. But then I had to tack on an EWP and it felt awkward.

Lol. Monks aren't proficient in their unarmed strikes, so if you took exotic weapon proficiency (anything) and dipped warblade, you could redirect the exotic weapon proficiency to your unarmed strike through the battle aptitude ability. And then you could literally throw your fists as weapons.

And if you took the trip attack stunt, you would automatize your own fists if you failed your trip attack. You'de be like the black knight from monty pythons holy grail! The weird thing is, you're proficiency is in unarmed strikes, so you could still kick or headbutt, or whathaveyou.

What a glitch!

[RaiKirah]

Lol. Monks aren't proficient in their unarmed strikes, so if you took exotic weapon proficiency (anything) and dipped warblade, you could redirect the exotic weapon proficiency to your unarmed strike through the battle aptitude ability. And then you could literally throw your fists as weapons.

And if you took the trip attack stunt, you would automatize your own fists if you failed your trip attack. You'de be like the black knight from monty pythons holy grail! The weird thing is, you're proficiency is in unarmed strikes, so you could still kick or headbutt, or whathaveyou.

What a glitch!

Heh, I like that. Not sure if it quite works as I can't tell if Weapon aptitude allows you to make illegal target selections (unarmed strikes are not exotic), but I'd like to think you could!

[Falontani]

Do we have any judges yet?

[jdizzlean]

bump for a new week

[Thurbane]

I'd love to judge, but my downtime is very limited right now. I'm in the middle of building two competition entries, among other things...