Iron Chef Optimisation Challenge in the Playground C

[Venger]

Thanks for the update.

[Hiro Quester]

Yeah. Thanks for the update (it will save me obsessively reloading the page a few times a day to check).

And thanks again for making the time to judge even though it's a busy time.

Better to take the time to be thoughtful and careful. Take your time.

I know we took extra time to get builds written, And I appreciate the time. So it's only fair, IMHO, to be very forgiving on the judging end too.

[Efrate]

Aye, take your time judging. Holiday season slows stuff down at the best of times on top of any other RL stuff.

[Zaq]

Honestly I wouldn’t even have time to read and properly digest the judgments this week anyway.

The update is appreciated, but no need to sweat it!

[RaiKirah]

While The Viscount has been doing us all a solid and slogging through judging the 14 builds we collectively submitted, my brain has been stuck on the Swiftblade and all the other ways I could have used it. I've come across an Iaijutsu Focus build (two variations actually) that I thought was kinda fun and I would share. If anyone else has Swiftblade ideas that didn't make the final cut I'd be interested in seeing them as well.

Build Stub #1:

Race: Kalashtar
Classes: Savant 1/Fighter 1/Soulknife 6/Swordsage 1/Trapsmith 1/Swiftblade 9/??? 1
ACFs: Drow Hit and Run Fighter, Sneak Attack Fighter, Unarmed Swordsage

Feats:
1: Weapon Finesse
F: Expeditious Dodge
F: Mobility
3: Craven
6: Psionic Meditation
9: Psychic Renewal
11B: Spring Attack
12: Staggering Strike
15: Shadow Blade
17B: Bounding Assault
18: Snap Kick

The full trick here comes online at Swiftblade 9, with Perpetual Options. Basically, each turn you can manifest two Mindblades into your empty sheathes as a free action, use Bounding Assault to get two attacks as a Standard Action, allowing you to use Sapphire Nightmare Blade for the first one to force Flat Footed on the target to trigger Iaijutsu Focus and Sneak Attack, Staggering Strike then makes the target Flat Footed for the second attack, triggering Iaijutsu Focus and Sneak Attack again. Once you've done that, you can expend your Psionic Focus as a Swift action to recover Sapphire Nightmare Blade with Psychic Renewal (Kalashtar gives you the pp to use this trick reliably) and then use your extra partial action from Perpetual Options to become Psionically Focused as a move action through Psionic Meditiation. Rinse and Repeat. You also get Dex to damage twice from Hit and Run Tactics and Shadow Blade (if your DM allows you to take Assasin's Stance, do so (I don't believe you can personally), otherwise Child of Shadows will do just fine), Sneak Attack damage from Craven and any additional SA you can pick up, and Snap Kick can give you extra attack(s). All in all, not too shabby, and actually makes use of Spring Attack/Bounding Assault in a manner that is preferably to a full attack since you cannot use a Martial Strike on a full attack. I used Soulknife here because i like the flavor of the class, and finding ways to reliably trigger iaijutsu Focus without Gnomish Quickrazors is somewhat difficult. However, if you're not adverse to the Quickrazors and standard CharOp cheese, this can get quite a bit better:

Build Stub #2:

Race: Kalashtar
Classes: Savant 3/Monk 2/Swordsage 1/Trapsmith 1/Swiftblade 9/Barbarian 2/Fighter 2
ACFs: Cobra Strike Monk, Wolf Totem Barbarian, Crafty Hunter (you can't use Iaijutsu Focus while raging), Drow Hit and Run Tactics Fighter

Feats:
1: Weapon Finesse
F: Psionic Meditation
F: Combat Reflexes
2B: Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Gnomish Quickrazor)
3: Staggering Strike
4B: Dodge
5B: Mobility
6: Shadow Blade
8B: Spring Attack
9: Psychic Renewal
12: Craven
14: Bounding Assault
15: Elusive Target
18: Knock Down
18B: Improved Trip
19B: Snap Kick
20B: Open

This version comes online earlier at lvl 16, and has many more ancillary bits on the top end. Getting Knock Down means that depending on how you read everything, you might get up to eight attacks out of Bounding Assault (Sapphire Nightmare Blade Strike into Snap Kick into Knock-Down into Improved Trip attack into Snap Kick, followed by Bounding Assault second attack, etc.) assuming that you don't allow Knock-Down and Snap Kick to iterate to infinity. Elusive Target helps make you even harder to hit (Swiftblade's 50% miss chance, plus DEX primary and twice WIS to AC can add up). This version is just generally better, but I still like the Soulknife version, if only because it doesn't rely on equipment to function.


Anyways, I wanted to get this out of my head/computer onto the page so that it would hopefully stop keeping me up at night. If anyone else has builds they didn't submit that are ready to share I would be interested in seeing them!

[DeTess]

Hey, Viscount! First of all, a happy new year to you (as well as everyone else that's part of this competition). Do you have any updates on how the judging is going, even if it's just a 'still working on it, but life is stil getting in the way so it'll take a while still'?

[The Viscount]

You've essentially got it right there. I am still committed to and working on judging this round. Unfortunately I haven't made much progress since last update with the holidays and me getting sick getting in the way. I am hoping to be more productive in the near future; I can't give a good estimate on when I'll be done though. Thank you for checking in, and thank you for your patience.

[Zaq]

No pressure, mate. It's worth the wait! Thanks for the update! (This didn't originally rhyme but now it's too late. Don't hate.)

[Hiro Quester]

The site is back from hiatus. I’m partly posting to bump this back onto the first page for ease of finding it again.

I expect while the outage gave our judge time to work on scoring the entries, it probably also made it impossible to access them. So I’m guessing it could still be a while.

No pressure either way. But some news about how things are progressing would be welcome.

[Zaq]

Feels good to be back!

[Wolfem]

Apologies for not posting this much sooner. Haven't visited the site in awhile.

ICO Spreadsheet has been updated with the dishes from this cook.

[The Viscount]

The site is back from hiatus. I’m partly posting to bump this back onto the first page for ease of finding it again.

I expect while the outage gave our judge time to work on scoring the entries, it probably also made it impossible to access them. So I’m guessing it could still be a while.

No pressure either way. But some news about how things are progressing would be welcome.

Unfortunately, the outage did hinder my work. I'm at 3 entries completed right now, but I'm still working on them. I appreciate everyone's patience with how long this is taking.

[remetagross]

Courage, mate :) thanks for the ongoing effort!

[Zaq]

The fact that you’re alive and kicking is enough for me!

[Quentinas]

If judges are needed i can try i have a lot of free time for now

[DeTess]

If judges are needed i can try i have a lot of free time for now

More judges are allways welcome!

[The Viscount]

I'm back! Thank you everyone for you patience over this. I'm sorry it took me so long. I love all of you. Be proud of what you did. Don't let my criticisms detract from that. Check my math.

My criteria are found here

Myra Dale 17.25

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Originality 3.5
1. Nice story, and I like the idea of using time stop for theft. I wish there was more of it, though. +0.25
2. I can’t say I see a lot of Tieflings, that’s worth something. +0.25
3. I’m not seeing anything particularly special going on here. -0.5
4. Normal stuff, nothing crazy. +0.5

Power 5
1. Your tricks are all legal and feasible. Using extra actions to buff is a sensible and good use of your actions. +0.5
2. Beguiler’s got a healthy amount of spells, and maneuvers are of course bottomless. +0.5
3. You don’t need anything but the basic gear. +0.5
4. You’ve got all three areas covered. +0.5

Elegance 4
1. You qualify for Jade Phoenix Mage; thank you for tagging your maneuvers. +0.5
2. I’m sorry, but no. Weapon Finesse requires a BA of +1, which you do not have at level 1. -0.5
3. Everything clear and straightforward. +0.5
4. Only the one dip with warblade, and there’s a clear reason. +0.5

UotSI 4.75
1. You qualify for the ingredient. You can use midnight dodge’s essentia for your impulse boots and that’s something. I wish there was more. +0.25
2. You completed the SI, a wise choice. +0.5
3. You make use of the time stop to steal, which is a nice way to do stuff during the freeze. Using your improved speed to run bigger circles with ring of fire is a nice touch. +0.5
4. Speed is definitely the focus here, and Jade Phoenix Mage certainly fits the gish nature. +0.5

Fëanáro Swiftfoot 16

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Originality 2.25
1. We’ve got the settings of a scene here, but I need more to get an idea of who this is. It’s not nothing, but it’s not enough. -0.5
2. Wizard is a very standard entry. Not using a Full BA class is surprising, but you probably should have. Martial wizard for feats makes clear sense but isn’t the first thing I think of. Elf for martial weapon proficiency is neat. Plus and minus on this one.0
3. Fire elf and burning rage is a small combo, but a nice one. +0.25
4. Abjurant Champion is the first class you think when you hear gish. I’d be kinder if it did something for you, but it’s just progressing BA and casting with a bit of health. It’s a filler class without its capstone (which I understand that you don’t need), and ending on filler is like polenta for dessert. -0.5

Power 4.75
1. You make reasonable statements about your abilities. I appreciate you pointing out favorites and combos to help me gauge what you’re like. +0.5
2. There isn’t really anything single use here, but as a wizard you’re not exactly made of spell slots. You’ll survive just fine for most of the day, but I could see a long adventuring day with a few encounters draining your resources. You’ve got persist and extend of course, but that means you’re running out of high level slots for lower level buffs. +0.25
3. The only equipment you mention is a sizing weapon, which it’s not like you need to make the gimmick work. Worst case scenario you can find swords that big. +0.5
4. You’ve certainly got offense and defense covered as a focused transmuter, and even though you’ve banned illusion (which I took a hard look at) you’ve still got conjuration to fill in the cracks with defense and utility. I appreciate you explaining why you chose to keep necromancy over illusion. It makes my job easier when I don’t have to guess what you’re thinking. +0.5

Elegance 5
1. Abjurant Champion is your only other class and you certainly qualify. +0.5
2. You qualify for your feats. Not penalizing, but I’m confused at what Guerilla Warrior is doing for you. Are you prioritizing spot/listen to avoid ambush or just as a place to put your points? While I’m whining, please cite your sources. +0.5
3. I was getting ready to ding you for specializing with elven wizard, but you only do it at level 3 and it surprisingly allows you to do this. Sneaky. +0.5
4. Clean and dry, no dips here. +0.5

UotSI 4
1. You do use the prerequisite feats to get you in to elusive target, but I’m not sure how often you’re really going to be using it. +0.25
2. You complete the SI. I’d be sad if you didn’t. +0.5
3. You helped yourself by talking about specific spells you use, but there isn’t much here that would set you apart from another wizard/swiftblade. -0.25
4. I can’t say abjurant champion doesn’t go with swiftblade, it’s the gish your gish wishes it could be like. Wizard goes because it doesn’t have an overriding flavor. Looking from afar the straight wizard entry is a little weird, but martial feats help add in those gish aspirations, and the build comes together once you’re in the SI. This is a build about going fast and hitting hard, and that’s swiftblade. +0.5

The Whispering Wind 18.75

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Originality 4.25
1. I love this backstory. Concept is clearly presented and cool. Top marks. +0.5
2. Beguiler’s not necessarily obvious, but it makes a little too much sense to give you a lot of credit for using it. You get a little credit for toughing it out waiting to enter instead of tossing in a level of something brutish. -0.25
3. Using your speed as a method of evading detection is clever, and it ties back into your concept, too. +0.5
4. Nothing overused here. +0.5

Power 4.5
1. You’re certainly a good sneak, but maybe not quite as good as you say. You have Darkstalker, but you start needing it basically from level 1. Beguiler’s spell list won’t help you enormously offensive-wise, and you’re struggling a little for oomph when you hit your foes. +0.25
2. You’re not using your nova trick often as you explain, and beguiler has the slots to last you through the day. +0.5
3. Nothing you need besides the absolute basics. +0.5
4. You’ve got defense and utility down, but offense is lacking. Beguiler has almost no damaging spells, and a distressing number of enemies will be immune to all the mind affecting spells you have. You do still have options for dealing with them as you discussed, but your hits don’t have much behind them. UMD could have helped you cover this if you had invested in it, which I’m surprised you didn’t. +0.25

Elegance 5
1. You put your skills to good use qualifying for Unseen Seer. +0.5
2. You qualify for all your feats. I cry for you being unable to trade unseen seer’s superfluous silent spell. +0.5
3. You are very fastidious with your rules, especially the bit about skirmish. For what it’s worth, I would give you the extra die from Unseen Seer. +0.5
4. You don’t dip, and it pays off. I don’t love going back into beguiler at the last level, but you have a very compelling reason to do so. +0.5

UotSI 5
1. You qualify for the SI, and your build is centered around the hit and run tactics of the Spring Attack line, which is good enough for me. +0.5
2. You complete the SI, the only sane choice. +0.5
3. You center your build around the speed. Using the increase in movement speed is hard to showcase, but you did it. Well done. +0.5
4. This certainly feels like a Swiftblade. Move fast as hell, and never stop. +0.5

Socko, the Wind Sock 12

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Originality 1.75
1. You didn’t really give me anything, so I can’t really give you anything. This character is evil and spreads curses, which isn’t really different from the default phaerimm fluff. They’re even described as looking like windsocks in their entry. I’m not trying to shame you here, you clearly did a lot of hard work on other aspects, but I wished you’d devoted some attention to this part of your build. -0.5
2. Sorcerer is not much more distinctive than wizard when it comes to starting classes, and sorcadin is such a well-known gish setup it has a portmanteau. It was at least a non-vanilla paladin, and phaerimm is certainly not a common starting race. I would have given you more points if you could use your phaerimm casting alone to enter swiftblade, but you still need levels in sorcerer to qualify, so I can’t give you much. -0.25
3. Spell flower actually making use of Phaerimm’s form and not just its casting is pretty nice, and you do heavily emphasize it in your build. A lot of the rest of this is very standard “optimized spellcaster” fare. 0
4. Phaerimm is notoriously odorous cheese, and Unseelie Fey is also well known for being pretty cheesy. You knew this was coming. -0.5

Power 4.25
1. Yes and no. You can cast your spells and debuff enemies. However, in talking about how hard you are to hit, you kind of gloss over getting hit with area spells, which will remain a problem since you’re always 2 HD behind. You give it brief attention when you say you’ll negate it with a ring of evasion, but that’s kind of dodging the issue. I’ll give you that miss chance goes a long way for protecting you, but it’s not as impenetrable as you say. There are ways of negating miss chance, especially if your enemies have magic (and many will at higher levels). You’re very focused on making contact with your enemies to use touch spells, which I will remind you is not a given. Some enemies will have abilities or spells to hinder you from moving in close. If you had some spells in your spells known list to address these I could be more forgiving, but you didn’t fill in most of your spells known. To use the cooking analogy, I can’t taste what you didn’t plate, even if I could imagine what you might have placed there. More pressingly, your to-hit suffers from a significant strength penalty. You talk about means of getting Weapon Finesse, all of them pretty cheesy. Regardless, they’re not on the table for the early levels, when you need bonuses the most. Your junk only works if you hit your enemies. 0
2. You’ve got enough spells per day to make for good survivability, and you don’t talk about spending too many spells per encounter. +0.5
3. You don’t need any items or templates to qualify, but your writeup discusses specific magic items (particularly grafts) as a given, which they aren’t in this contest. +0.25
4. You’ve discussed well how the SI helps you in both offense and defense, and limited wish will cover most utility. I’m not deducting anything, but I’d be happier if I had a full spells known list to judge. +0.5

Elegance 2
1. You qualify for arcane duelist. I agree with your reading that the bit about weapon proficiency is a 3.0 quirk, meaning you don’t need to waste a feat on it. +0.5
2. Rapid Metamagic requires 12 ranks in spellcraft, which you do not have. You similarly don’t have the ranks for Residual Magic if you took that as an option. I’m not inclined to give you Practical Metamagic without you telling me what the appropriate rituals or spells to grant you dragonblood subtype would be. You can’t leave the remainder as an exercise to the reader; I can’t judge you based on what things I might think of. Finally, please don’t give me multiple choice for your feat at level 20. I’m judging one build, not a theoretical multi-build. -0.5
3. Your casting is doing some strange things. I’m having difficulty deciphering exactly how your progression goes, but in 12 levels you gain 9th level spells. It seems to me that you’re advancing your casting every level, and then at levels where casting is advanced adding another level. This is, I’m assuming, based off the fact that phaerimm has racial casting as a sorcerer that stacks with other sorcerer levels. I do not agree with your interpretation that states this means you advance it with every level you gain, and I think a significant percentage of DMs would also not agree. Your caster level increases, certainly, but not necessarily your effective sorcerer level. The book states that “a Phaerimm’s innate magical ability develops with age.” You seem at least partially prepared for this problem, and you tell me to evaluate as if a race with a natural attack, saying it functions the same. Firstly, as I’ve said, you don’t get points for making me come up with things to make your build work. Secondly, your spell flower trick is based around you having multiple arms to begin with, which I know you can simulate with girallon’s blessing, but the level of debuffing you talk about assumes phaerimm’s multiple arms. Thirdly, without Phaerimm you tell me to sacrifice all the other classes besides sorcerer, which now leaves you without a martial weapon proficiency for entry. This is a significant revision, not just a minor adaptational quirk to preface the build with. I’m judging the build you wrote up for me. -0.5
4. Two levels of Arcane Duelist and one of Warblade are dips, and as you mentioned you don’t really care about them, they just have a goody or two you like. That’s a dip not just in name, but in spirit. -0.5

UotSI 4

1. You make use of your dodge and mobility to enter Arcane Duelist, which is good using every part of the buffalo. I’ve already penalized you for the Phaerimm casting, so I can’t ding you again here. +0.5
2. You complete the SI, because it’s the right thing to do. +0.5
3. Swiftblade helps you load up your debuff touches and deliver them well, and you have more to spend those extra actions on than most, but there’s not much about what you’re doing that’s really using swiftblade to stand out.0
4. This is the hardest one to really define why it works or why it doesn’t, but this just doesn’t feel all the way Swiftblade to me. You talk a lot about the miss chance it gives you, but that’s only one aspect. It moves and it casts spells in combat, but the approach is very much about the spells, and swiftblade’s kind of helping rather than carrying the build. It’s not nothing, but it’s less than what I want. 0

Chad the Fur(r)y 13

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Originality 2.25
1. Your backstory is the premise of an anime, same names and everything. I suppose that the brackets are there to indicate that’s the “joke”, but I’m not laughing. It’s also so short that I barely get a concept from it. You did at least cite it in your sources. -0.5
2. Fighter is a very bland starter indeed, especially without ACFs to spice it up. Wu jen is a nice change of pace. I know it may be “wizard but OA” but it’s different enough for me. Expeditious Dodge works as an alternative and fits mechanically. Call it more good than bad. +0.25
3. This is all standard fare, and you seem to know that. -0.5
4. Abjurant Champion on gishes is pretty well known, but it’s not cheese. The charging this does is again not egregious but very by the numbers. 0

Power 4.25
1. I don’t have any objections to your abilities as you stated them. +0.5
2. You’re not shooting all your bolts at once, but the limited spells per day of your highest levels means you’ll be running out of your coolest tricks before the day is through. -0.25
3. You don’t need any gear to pull off your tricks or qualify for anything. +0.5
4. Offense and defense are handled pretty well by the SI, and Wu Jen will give you sufficient amounts of all three. +0.5

Elegance 3.5
1. You qualify for Abjurant Champion. +0.5
2. You qualify for your feats as well. +0.5
3. You have leap attack in your build for more damage when you charge, but you also talk about using mounts regularly. These two don’t go together. As for the bit about using alter self to change to a hybrid form wereboar, you cannot do this. Alter self cannot give you templates (like lycanthropy) and even if it could, it would give you a special quality like alternate form. -0.5
4. The dip in fighter at the beginning stands out. I’m presuming you put it first to represent your characters beginnings, but it means sacrificing skill points. That makes me very sad, and it just isn’t pretty. 0

UotSI 3
1. You qualify for the SI, and you do at least get expeditious dodge to fire off with all of your charging. I suppose mobility helps when charging foes with big reach, but I don’t see it coming up all the time. +0.25
2. You completed it, as everyone should. +0.5
3. You use the time stop for buffstacks, which is the most direct and common use of it. You charge as your default combat, and you can’t spring attack or bounding assault when charging. The class features get token mention, if that. -0.25
4. Can’t exactly put numbers behind it, but this doesn’t feel like a Swiftblade. It’s a gish, and Swiftblade helps, but it seems like this would work just as well with other classes that advance casting along with full BA. The central setup works just fine, if not better, with eldritch knight. -0.5

F.A.S.T. 17.75

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Originality 4.75
1. The idea of using truenamer for swiftblade is utterly insane. I’m in. Your backstory as a capsule summary of concept is neat. I’m going to sound greedy because I keep saying this, but I just wanted more. +0.25
2. Cobra Strike for Dodge and Mobility certainly makes sense. Truenamer to enter is so out of left field it’s practically out of right field. You earned this. +0.5
3. Illumian is fairly rare but always good. Optimizing around Word Given Form is hard, especially since you aren’t using Disciple of the Word, and I can count on one hand the times I’ve seen it discussed. That bit in Complete Arcane isn’t something I think I’ve seen used in a very long time, if at all. You definitely earned this. +0.5
4. Nah, you’re good. Cobra Strike monk is common, but not overused. Goodness knows I’ve used it plenty. +0.5

Power 4.75
1. You make reasonable claims, and you make sure to explain everything you’re doing, along with relevant excerpts. I really appreciate that, it makes reading and judging much easier. This must have been a lot of work, and it pays off. +0.5
2. You don’t really have limited abilities, though the law of resistance will start nipping at your heels if you adventure too long. +0.5
3. Ancestral relic means you make your own stuff, and I can’t ding you for that. +0.5
4. You’ve got offense covered, and you’ve got defense front and center. Utility suffers given that you’ll be understandably stingy with your utterances, but 2 out of 3 ain’t bad. +0.25

Elegance 3.5
1. You only take base classes and the SI, and without any alignment hang-ups you qualify. +0.5
2. You qualify for your feats. +0.5
3. The very specific reading you take for entering the class is funny, and you’re exploiting their wording. I have no problem with that. I don’t agree with your wording for innervated speed. You can’t not have 3rd spell slots, but then also have 6th spell slots. I get the feeling you knew this was coming, and it was a valiant try, but since it’s presented in your main writeup and not in an optional sidebar like the sparring dummy, I’m going to have to penalize you. I did watch that video. It was great. Thank you for that. You were wise to avoid Arcane Reflexes, because I wouldn’t have given it to you. Picking up other initiative bonuses to fake it is really going the extra mile. 0
4. The rest of your build is so tight, it makes those two single-level dips stand out all the more. You didn’t need the fighter for martial weapon proficiency given that monk provides with handaxe. The swordsage level I’m more understanding of as it plays into your concealment game. Your fighter level does more for you than I initially realized, especially since you cannot go back into monk. -0.25

UotSI 4.5
1. Your entry method, though wild, passes muster. You qualify for the SI in an audacious manner. You make good use of the prereq feats with other feat choices and combat style. +0.5
2. You complete the SI. You may be mad, but you’re no fool. +0.5
3. Everything in this build weaves together to return to the core concept. It’s very impressive and displays attention to the class not everyone took. You tied in the miss chance and managed to showcase defensive features, which is damned hard to do. That deserves credit. However, I can’t overlook the fact that you cannot make use of the Swiftblade’s casting. You wisely knew not to try to argue it progressed your truespeaking, but that is still a chunk of the class you left off the plate. 0
4. You’ve certainly got the speed and elusive quality down, and you can hit hard, too. You’ve got buffs through Truenamer to rope in that magical quality of the gish. I’m satisfied. +0.5

Quick Man 16.75

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Originality 4.25
1. Recreating an existing character is always risky. You did tell a story in your entry, and it even tied into abilities, so I’m satisfied. I respect you using Talenta boomerangs for conceptual fidelity instead of going for that extra damage. +0.5
2. Wizard is kind of the default entry casting wise. Warblade’s better than fighter, but I’m not exactly electrified. -0.25
3. It’s always nice to see warforged, and it does tie in to your concept. Boomerang daze with a warblade actually being used on the boomerang instead of transferred to other weapons is more refreshing than the alternative. Making Bloodstorm Blade throw things you’re supposed to throw is pretty interesting. Using it to not need shot on the run is neat. +0.5
4. No cheese, you’re fine. +0.5

Power 4
1. I can’t gauge this as effectively as I want to because your entry doesn’t have your stats in it. I have enough to tell that your build is legal, but you do need to include that. You do make reasonable statements about your power and explain how to use your build. I appreciate the inclusion of some important spells in your build. It helps me. 0
2. You don’t have nova tricks, but you will have to parcel out your abilities. With only 3 time stops in a day, you can’t run as far or as long as other characters. Endurance matters as well as speed. 0
3. Your discussion of items is all in the conditional. There’s nothing you need beyond basic equipment. +0.5
4. You’ve obviously got offense and defense through the SI, and the wizard spells you discuss provide sufficient utility to satisfy me. +0.5

Elegance 4
1. You qualify for Bloodstorm Blade, and wizard and warblade don’t have restrictions. +0.5
2. As you helpfully lay out, you do. +0.5
3. You tried to pull a fast one here, but it didn’t evade my gaze. You talk about charging up with Stormguard warrior on a foe after using time stop. Unfortunately, time stop says “While the time stop is in effect, other creatures are invulnerable to your attacks and spells; you cannot target such creatures with any attack or spell.” Touch attacks are still attacks. No dice. -0.5
4. One level in warblade, but it does do multiple things for you, so it’s more palatable. +0.5

UotSI +4.5
1. You qualify for the SI, but you don’t do too much with the prereqs. Yes Dodge and Mobility benefit you, but you’re more suited to full attacks than spring attacking. +0.25
2. You completed the SI. We’d need to have words if you didn’t. +0.5
3. The trick that you do with Time Stop and Stormguard Warrior is a unique spin, even if it doesn’t technically work. Using Swiftblade for ranged combat instead of melee is not something I would have thought of. +0.25
4. It’s Quick Man; of course it feels like a Swiftblade. +0.5

Persephone Scourge 17.5

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Originality 5
1. Great story. I got a very Addams Family vibe from it, and I love me some Addams Family. Full marks. +0.5
2. I certainly didn’t expect a cleric entry into this class. Not using any brute classes for the martial weapon proficiency or BA was a pleasant surprise. +0.5
3. I don’t recall ever seeing Ordained Champion being used. I’ve only glanced at the class previously, and you extract a lot of goodness out of it.+0.5
4. Nar Demonbinder may be powerful, but not crazy, and it requires significant investment to enter. For once, a cleric isn’t a cloistered cleric! +0.5

Power 4.75
1. Your playtips make sense, and you don’t claim to do anything outside your capabilities (other than legalities, but this isn’t the place for that) +0.5
2. Nar demonbinder’s a bit short on spells per day, especially at the higher levels, which will limit your most powerful spells. +0.25
3. You don’t mention needing any equipment to do your tricks. +0.5
4. The SI covers you for offense and defense, supplemented with your own abilities. Nar Demonbinder covers everything. +0.5

Elegance 4.5
1. You qualify for both Nar Demonbinder. I’m not so sure about Ordained Champion with you throwing in Heretic of the Faith. You traded your deity’s favored weapon for the greatsword, but the wording of the feat doesn’t make it entirely clear what that means. I could see some people agree with you that when Ordained Champion checks it would check against Heretic of the Faith, but I can also see some disagreeing. That’s a walk into some thorny territory for not much benefit. The flail’s one handed so you can still 2 hand it for better power attack returns. +0.25
2. You qualify for your feats. I’m a little puzzled by the little dance you do taking Spring Attack and making Swiftblade give you Spell Focus. I know it means it helps you enter Nar Demonbinder, but you could have just taken Spell Focus at that level and let the SI give you it’s bonus. Not penalizing, just strange. +0.5
3. Your dual casting pulls your casting stats in different directions, compounded by the fact that you take arcane disciple. In order to cast haste in a 6th level slot you’d need a Wis of 16 as per arcane disciple, which you don’t have or address. +0.25
4. One dip into Nar Demonbinder, but it’s got your build centered around it, so it’s not like it’s meeting one prereq and then gone. +0.5

UotSI 3.25
1. As per changes to qualification by the Chairwoman, you do qualify for the SI, though I'm not seeing much done with the requirements.0
2. You complete the SI, the only logical choice. +0.5
3. You certainly get use out of Swiftblade, as does everybody, but it’s more supporting than being highlighted here. -0.25
4. Story-wise, Swiftblade is given lots of attention and you see how the character slides into it. I don’t see the same in the mechanical side. This build uses haste to be more effective, but it just isn’t shouting “Swiftblade” to me. 0

Rukamuk 11.5

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Originality 2
1. You didn’t give me anything for concept or backstory. -0.5
2. Using Battle Sorcerer is an interesting way to enter the SI single classed, and expeditious dodge instead of dodge is nice. +0.5
3. This is a lot of standard op stuff. Nothing’s really surprising me as neat new tricks. -0.5
4. This build is like a greatest hits of cheese. -0.5

Power 4.5
1. You list an honestly overwhelming amount of options for what your character can do, but you make your point. +0.5
2. You’ve got a pretty good number of spells per day, but I don’t know that you have enough to be doing all of the various things you do to use up your slots. 0
3. You pull a lot of things from a lot of sources, but that’s not grounds for penalties. You draw on your own power, and you don’t have to go to other places for it, which is the point. +0.5
4. The SI provides, abjurant champion also strengthens attack and defense, and sorcerer goes a long way toward fulfilling these. +0.5

Elegance 2.5
1. You qualify for Abjurant Champion and Paragnostic Apostle. +0.5
2. We’re encouraged to take a stern view on flaws, and I’m going to do just that. You’re giving yourself a bonus feat, and don’t even do me the courtesy to choose one. I realize it doesn’t really matter, but you did a lot of work you didn’t “need.” You could have done a little more. It wouldn’t have saved you, I’m just whining. -0.5
3. Dragonwrought Kobold is infamous for the amount of controversy it generates. They say if you say it three times in a thread, a moderator will appear and scold you. Many DMs would not let you treat yourself as a true dragon, which you do for the purpose of loredrake. More minor, but you took Imbue Familiar with Spell Ability, but you don’t have a familiar. Your divine companion is specifically unable to be affected with any spell, so this trick doesn’t work. -0.5
4. You have a dip in Paragnostic Apostle for a boost on caster level, which does very little for you. 0

UotSI 2.5
1. As presented you only qualify via Loredrake, which we’ve discussed isn’t above board. You could qualify if you shuffled your levels. Your prerequisites aren’t given much attention. 0
2. You complete the Secret Ingredient, as well you should. +0.5
3. You are aided by Swiftblade, because it’s so good, but you don’t showcase it, and kind of breeze past its features. -0.5
4. This build is an extremely optimized sorcerer that happens to have taken levels in Swiftblade. I’m not feeling it. -0.5

Zagzag the Lightning Lizard 17.5

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Originality 4.5
1. A manic and evil swiftblade dedicated to freeing Pandorym. That’s distinctive. I appreciate you including Thrall of Demogorgon and devotion to an elder evil in your story. The story’s brief, but I can get enough from it that I have a picture of what this character is like. Having a picture is a pleasant addition. Sweet basilisk gif. +0.5
2. Battle Sorcerer’s a pretty neat way to enter the SI, and single class entry just looks nice. +0.5
3. A Dragonwrought Kobold that isn’t trying to be treated as a true dragon is sadly pretty rare, and you actually do stuff with it besides just getting free points from venerable. Maybe I’m just running in the wrong optimization circles, but I haven’t seen huge use of Greater Draconic rite of passage. That’s nice. +0.5
4. Using venerable on Dragonwrought Kobold is cheesy, but not noxious. That and dedication to an elder evil are starting to wear out their welcome. I’m especially leery of dedication to an elder evil when you’re also a thrall to a demon lord, pleasant as it is to see a blast from the IC past. 0

Power 4
1. Yeah, you’ve got some strong stuff going on here. +0.5
2. You’ve got the spell slots to deal with a full adventuring day. +0.5
3. As presented, you require the use of the Otyugh Hole, a special location I lump in with “other add-ons.” I recognize that you presented an alternative in adaptations, but I judge what you presented in the main writeup. You had the sense to keep out loredrake, I wish you had done the same here. -0.5
4. The SI plus sorcerer 8ths mean you’ve got all fields covered. +0.5

Elegance 4
1. You qualify for Dragonslayer and Thrall of Demogorgon. +0.5
2. You qualify for your feats. +0.5
3. Nothing that I haven’t penalized you for elsewhere. The bit with martial study has a whiff of the old fromage, but since you self-qualify when heroics elapse, I’ll let it slide. +0.5
4. Two one-level dips, and dragonslayer’s really just there to keep up your BA and casting, as you said. -0.5

UotSI 5
1. You qualify for the SI, and you use the prereqs and features to qualify for Dragonslayer and Rapid Blitz. That’s using every part of the buffalo. +0.5
2. You complete the SI. Your character may be nuts, but not that nuts. +0.5
3. The trick with Rapid Blitz is, as you said, hard to pull off. I respect it. +0.5
4. Slippery? Irritating? Gets everywhere? That sounds like sand Swiftblade to me! +0.5

Glozar Dunal 12.75

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Originality 2.75
1. Backstory gives me the setup, explains your class choice, and links the SI in. I’m satisfied. +0.5
2. Bard isn’t exactly unexpected (after all it’s mentioned in the SI writeup), but it’s little different from wizard, and binder is especially different. +0.25
3. Not as such, no. This is familiar stuff. -0.5
4. Anima mage is fairly tired, and sublime chord is on the same level. Sure they’re good, but everyone knows it. -0.5

Power 2.75
1. Some of your tricks aren’t as neat as you make them out to be. Otto’s irresistible dance may not offer a save, but it’s a short duration and like most enchantment spells is mind effecting. You demonstrate yourself how common immunity becomes with mind blank or type immunities. Diplomancy is good, but not this good. Firstly, moving a character to unfriendly when you’re already facing off might not end the encounter, especially if you or your allies have already attacked them or theirs, to say nothing of a situational penalty for using this in combat. Furthermore, it’s not a matter of the DM objecting, the text for diplomacy says “even if the initial Diplomacy check succeeds, the other character can only be persuaded so far.” Focalor’s debuff aura hits all adjacent characters, which makes cramped combat hard for your friends. Dantalion’s ability might be no save, but the enemy is still able to move, use non-targeted spells, or attack your allies. Flicker only offers a 50% miss chance when used as a “nope” and you can only use it once per day. -0.5
2. You say yourself that your spells per day are limited, especially at higher levels. Low level survivability is a problem for you, which you yourself make clear. 0
3. You make numerous and varied references to specific items, and you make clear that you take them as given. You don’t need them to qualify for everything, but you make clear how much you rely on them to cover your weaknesses and buoy your build. -0.25
4. The SI, mid level spells, and vestiges cover all three reasonably enough. +0.5

Elegance 3.75
1. You use precocious apprentice to enter Anima mage, which requires the ability to cast 2nd level spells. Setting aside for a moment that you can only cast a single 2nd level spell and not multiple, the more important piece of text is in the feat itself, namely “when you become able to cast 2nd level spells.” This indicates that precocious apprentice doesn’t mean you can cast 2nd level spells, or else it would use this language. -0.5
2. Yes. I’m not going to go after using Shedu crown for Mindsight; it’s clear it’s giving you the telepathy ability, same wording as the srd. I’m not that mean. +0.5
3. Not that I haven’t already dinged you for. +0.5
4. You’ve got a one level dip in Sublime Chord, but you do base your casting off it from here on, so it’s something. +0.25

UotSI 3.5
1. You qualify for the SI, but the prereqs aren’t put to much use. 0
2. You complete the SI, and just in time. +0.5
3. Not particularly. You use the abilities to cast and fight better. You use it to advance two different classes, which is something. 0
4. It sure is gishy, and swiftblade’s a gish. But not much attention is given to your swiftblade powers, and it’s side dish more than main course. 0

Caerulean LaRue, the Cloudthief 17.5

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Originality 4.75
1. Swiftblade as thief is cool, and something that doesn’t immediately spring to mind. The backstory gives me a pretty good idea of what this build is about, but I’m a little unclear as to her goals. Is she a highway raider? A targeted thief? A little more in the story and I would have given you full points. +0.25
2. Beguiler’s a nice class, and it’s distinctive enough to be more than just “not wizard.” Midnight dodge is a pleasant alternative, and Azurin makes it more than just a token “not dodge.” +0.5
3. Azurin’s rare enough to be refreshing. Using freedom of movement to run through your own fog clouds is a neat trick. You’ve given a solid concrete reason to have mindsight rather than the general anti-stealth. +0.5
4. Nothing really overused here. +0.5

Power 4
1. I’m not fully convinced this works as well as you claim. I don’t see a means of negating the miss chance from solid fog here. Funnily enough, diadem of purelight would have helped you, which I think Lewis is using? Mindsight only acts as blindsense, not blindsight. Furthermore, there are mindless foes that you won’t be able to spot using this. Your trick with master pickpocket only works so far as the enemy has stuff to steal. Against many undead, you’re having a rough time. Also, darkstalker is something you should be moving up. Enemies start having scent at level one, and you don’t have it until 6. -0.25
2. Nothing really nova based here. +0.5
3. You sequester your items to an optional section, and even then you make some pretty reasonable statements. You work well without needing anything. +0.5
4. You’ve got good defense and utility from the SI and beguiler. The master pickpocket trick is cool, but I hesitate to call it offense. You can strip down your foes, but if you need to actually hurt them, you’re going to have some problems. No weapon finesse hurts me, and it hurts your ability to make touch attacks. +0.25

Elegance 4
1. You qualify for Mindbender and Unseen Seer. +0.5
2. You qualify for your feats. +0.5
3. Not that I haven’t already gotten you for. I’d give you Unseen Seer boosting pseudo-skirmish, for what it’s worth. +0.5
4. You’ve got two dips in your build. Mindbender might as well be a level long for all the 1 level dips it gets. -0.5

UotSI 4.75
1. You qualify for the SI, and you center around spring attack, which I’ll count as using the prereqs. You can also use midnight dodge’s essential to power the theft gloves. +0.5
2. You complete the SI. This round, you kind of have to. +0.5
3. Using Spring Attack to pull off hit-and-run theft is neat, and you use the perpetual options for a nice blitz of action. You can’t make use of the pseudo-skirmish in your operations since you can’t deal precision damage to foes that have concealment against you. +0.25
4. Fast, elusive, magical, and roguish. I like it. +0.5

Caelum Swyft, the Eldritch Storm 12

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Originality 4
1. Neat story. He’s terribly mysterious, but I can see what he’s about. +0.5
2. Duskblade into Wyrm Wizard was not something I expected to see. +0.5
3. Multitasking isn’t common, because it’s so hard to get. It is pretty neat. +0.5
4. Hellfire Warlock and Strongheart Vest are an infamous cheese pair. I’m more for binding Naberius. -0.5

Power 1.75
1. Multidexterity doesn’t let you act as you claims it does. It’s a 3.0 feat that interacts with 3.0 rules. The 3.0 to 3.5 conversion book states this feat was folded in to multiweapon fighting and improved multiweapon fighting. Due to your low Con score you can only shape 2 melds, missing out on what Totemist can give you. You mention that you can find other ways of flight by the time you trade invocations, but your character as presented can’t fly without ditching Girallon arms, which you’re obviously not going to do.-0.5
2. Your Duskblade caster level is 1, so haste only lasts for a single round every time you cast it. Once per day you can extend it to 2 rounds. You’re going to run out of uses very fast with that. Warlock and Totemist of course last all day, but that’s a lot you’re missing. -0.25
3. Flaws comfortably fit into the “add-on” territory, and you knew I was penalizing you for them. -0.5
4. You’ve got offense covered well, but to the exclusion of the others. Without haste running much of your defense from Swiftblade is out, and your invocations are too few to cover much for utility. 0

Elegance 2.75
1. You qualify for Wyrm Wizard, but you lack the ranks in Intimidate or Knowledge (the Planes) to enter Hellfire Warlock. -0.5
2. I’m not comfortable using Girallon Arms to qualify for multiweapon fighting, which calls for you to have 3 or more hands. We don’t get any information about the claws being able to be used for anything but making natural attacks. It’s not clear-cut, and I’m not going to cascade it down to multitasking, but I still can’t award full points. +0.25
3. Not that isn’t penalized elsewhere. A stray observation: with how much you’re hurting for eldritch claws, I’m curious as to why you didn’t take eldritch glaive to make use of your iteratives. +0.5
4. Two two-level dips and a one-level dip. -0.5

UotSI 3.5
1. As per the changes to prerequisites by the Chairwoman, you qualify for the SI, though I don't see use being made of the prerequisites 0
2. You didn’t finish the SI. Not being able to benefit from the capstone is a fairly compelling reason, if made less so by the fact that it’s a consequence of the entry you chose. I’m not mad, just disappointed. 0.25
3. You make very good use of perpetual options. That’s impressive damage output. However, openly admitting you can’t do anything with the feats except trade them away wasn’t the best choice. 0.25
4. The hard-hitting aspect is there, but the embracing of the mobility and speed isn’t. 0

Pahika Kanikani, the Wardancer 16.25

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Originality 5
1. I love this concept. D&D can be kind of bad at representing non-European roles and characters, but this refluffing works great. Incorporating the Wu Jen taboos, which are often neglected, is a very nice touch. +0.5
2. Wu Jen is always a welcome alternative to wizard when we talk about qualifying, especially given the effort you put in to make it mesh with your concept. +0.5
3. Body outside body to keep your copies benefitting from your casting is a neat trick. +0.5
4. Some of these options are talked about for bard, but they’re just good choices. I wouldn’t say they’re overused. +0.5

Power 4.25
1. You are capable of some pretty neat stuff. As written, your dragonfire inspiration would actually be fire, not cold. I’d give you that the multiple copies of Apparition would count as separate effects for stacking on an enemy. Your fear stuff has the problem of all fear stuff, in that immunity to it or to mind-affecting effects seriously cramps your style. +0.25
2. Your bonus spells only go so far, especially for higher slots and if you don’t have the items you discuss. You’ll hold up pretty well, but your highest level stuff could certainly run out during a day. +0.25
3. You don’t need anything extra to qualify for things, but I’m not a fan of the assumption that you’ll have all these pieces of gear peppered in to the playtips. +0.25
4. You’ve got Wu Jen 7ths on top of the SI. That’ll cover you. +0.5

Elegance 2.25
1. War Weaver requires 3rd level spells, which you do not have at level 3. -0.5
2. You qualify for your feats. +0.5
3. Arcane Disciple requires you have the wisdom score sufficient to cast the spells from your selected domain. You do not have this. You also add the entire domain to your spell list when you take the feat, for future information. -0.5
4. You’ve got 2 dips here, but one is at least central to your concept. -0.25

UotSI 4.75
1. You qualify for the SI, but I don’t see much use being made of the prereqs, especially since you can Dance of Death rather than Spring Attack. +0.25
2. You complete the SI. I mean, you gotta. +0.5
3. Using the time stop ability to buff more than one character efficiently is indeed an impressive insult to the action economy. I like it. +0.5
4. Focusing on buffing is an interesting spin, but it’s still a gish about moving fast, hitting hard, and looking cool. +0.5

[Venger]

Worth the wait. Thanks for judging. No disputes from me. Can't wait for the next round.

[DeTess]

Thanks for judging, Viscount! No disputes from my end.

[Quentinas]

I'm at 2.5/12 builds (with something different for example on F.A.S.T) but do you want that i continue , or do you want to go at the next round( the thing about F.A.S.T i will explain later if i stop the judgement)

[Venger]

I would like to go to the next round.

[WhamBamSam]

I'm at 2.5/12 builds (with something different for example on F.A.S.T) but do you want that i continue , or do you want to go at the next round( the thing about F.A.S.T i will explain later if i stop the judgement)

I would like to go to the next round.

Yeah. I appreciate the offer, but I think we've let this round go long enough. I'm ready to move on to the next one, especially as I suspect a lot of us would benefit from having something to do.

[Efrate]

Minor disputes viscount, I PMed. Thanks again.

[Wonton64]

New here. Is there a vote for next contest, or does The Viscount decide?

[The Viscount]

The chair for the contest decides which ingredient to use for every round, but people can always make suggestions for what they want to see.

[Thurbane]

My request: Dragon Samurai!

[RaiKirah]

My request: Dragon Samurai!

Gods that's terrible. I have some ideas already :P



Edit: Also, no disputes!

[Zaq]

Thank you very much, Viscount! One small dispute has been sent to Helio.

[Piggy Knowles]

Thanks for judging, Viscount! No disputes here.

[jdizzlean]

no dispute