Iron Chef Optimization Challenge: E6 Appetizer Edition (Round XXII)

[Zaq]

Welcome back to the Iron Chef Optimization Challenge E6 Appetizer Edition! Credit to DeTess for suggesting a really oddball but very intriguing theme for this round.


The form of this challenge is to take a particular D&D 3.5 game element (our "secret ingredient," or SI) and turn it into a functional E6 build, which must feature the SI as heavily as possible. (The only hard rule about this is that you must take at least one level—where applicable—in the SI, though judges are encouraged to look favorably on builds that take as many levels as possible in said SI or that otherwise use it as heavily as possible.) Your final build submission should consist of your 6 regular levels and your first 10 epic bonus feats, though providing a snapshot at earlier points through the progression is heartily encouraged. Entries are to be PM'd to the Chair (that would be me!), and they will be posted anonymously; our volunteer judges will then grade each build on a 1-5 point scale in four categories: Originality, Power, Elegance, and Use of the Secret Ingredient. The builds with the highest three scores will be awarded medals, with the Honorable Mention award going to the non-medaling build that the Chair likes best and/or that receives the most votes for HM in this thread. (HM may not always be awarded, particularly if the number of builds is very small.) And then we all have cake!*

*Note: You must provide your own cake.

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

• Cooking Time: Builds must be submitted via PM to the Chair by 4:59 PM GMT - 9 on Thursday, January 23, 2020 (1:59 AM GMT on Friday, January 24). The reveal shall be on the first evening the Chair has free following the cooking deadline, which is hoped to be that evening or the immediately subsequent one—I'll do my best, anyway. Judging is then encouraged to go as quickly as possible; if multiple judges volunteer, we'll set about a two-week window, but if we only get one judge, we'll try to wrap up as soon as possible after that judge presents scores. (I will admit that the deadline time may not be an exact science, but don't hide from me and we'll probably be cool.)
• Kitchen: Let's break this one down a bit.
  
  
  Spoiler: Let's talk about sources

  Show

  
  

  • ALLOWED: Almost all D&D 3.5 material published by WotC: Core, Completes, monster books, Races Of books, alternate power source books (Expanded Psionics Handbook, Magic of Incarnum, Tome of Battle, Tome of Magic, etc.), Spell Compendium, Book of Exalted Deeds, Book of Vile Darkness, Eberron material, Forgotten Realms material, and other WotC-published 3.5 material. (This list is NOT exhaustive and there are many other legal books that I did not mention by name!)
  • ALLOWED: Material from the 3.5 archives of the Wizards of the Coast website (including, but not limited to, the Mind's Eye articles). If you use it, link it.
  • ALLOWED: Official errata from WotC. If you're relying on this in a material fashion, it's a good idea to link it and to discuss it.
  • NOT ALLOWED: Unofficial errata, including "class fixes" (regardless of the source, including from the original author if not published in a WotC book) or fan-created content.
  • ALLOWED: Unupdated WotC-published 3.0 material (e.g., Sword and Fist, Masters of the Wild, etc.) except for 3.0 psionics. No 3.0 psionics allowed. If you are using 3.0 material, use the general-purpose skill updates (Wilderness Lore becomes Survival, Innuendo becomes Bluff, etc.) and the general-purpose rules updates (spells with a casting time of "1 action" become "1 standard action," etc.) when appropriate.
  • NOT ALLOWED: 3.0 material for which a direct 3.5 update exists. Use the updated material instead.
  • ALLOWED: Dragon Compendium and its errata.
  • NOT ALLOWED: Content from Dragon Magazine and/or Dungeon Magazine unless said content appears in an otherwise allowed source.
  • ALLOWED: Oriental Adventures, including the 3.5 update to Oriental Adventures from Dragon Magazine #318. This is a specific exception to the "no Dragon" rule!
  • NOT ALLOWED: Pathfinder content, regardless of whether it is "D&D 3.5 OGL" or not. If it didn't come from WotC, we don't want it.
  • ALLOWED: From Unearthed Arcana: racial paragon classes, alternate class features/variant classes, spelltouched feats, and variant races. (Traits and flaws are technically legal, but traits warrant a -0.5 point penalty in Elegance, and flaws warrant a -1 penalty in Elegance.)
  • NOT ALLOWED: Other Unearthed Arcana content, including (but not limited to) bloodlines, LA buyoff, fractional BAB/saves, alternate casting systems, alternate skill systems, item familiars, prestigious character classes, generic classes, gestalt, etc. When you're wondering if UA content is allowed, err on the side of caution and don't mess around with it.
  • NOT ALLOWED: Leadership, regardless of source. Game elements functionally equivalent to Leadership (including, but not limited to, Dragon Cohort, Undead Leadership, and Thrallherd) are similarly banned. (Familiars, Improved Familiar, animal companions, Wild Cohort, psicrystals, elemental envoys, and similar game elements are allowed, and they are not considered to be "Leadership." If the difference isn't obvious, feel free to contact the Chair with specific questions.)
  • NOT ALLOWED: Third-party content, homebrew, or other non-WotC content.
  • NOT ALLOWED: Epic feats from the Epic Level Handbook. Just because you're "epic" in E6 after 6th level doesn't mean that you're that kind of epic.
  • NOT ALLOWED: Any race or template with a level adjustment other than +0. (Or any other source of LA other than a race or template, if any such things exist.)
  • NOT ALLOWED: For our judges: penalizing solely based on legal sources used, regardless of whether those sources are plentiful, sparse, common, obscure, or something in between. If the material is legal, then it doesn't matter how many or how few books it came out of.
  • ALLOWED: Also for our judges: penalizing for using a source (other than material in Core; don't be vindictive about genuinely obvious stuff) that isn't listed in the build writeup. The chef may choose to present the sources in-line with the text, in a consolidated source list, or somewhere else, but if the source is listed (and is otherwise legal), it counts. If the source is not listed, you may choose to penalize for that.

  
  If you have questions about anything in this section (or hell, in this ruleset), feel free to ask the Chair.
  
• Character Creation: 32 point buy is assumed. For the purposes of this contest, Level Adjustment greater than +0 is banned. (This may be revised at a later point, but I don't feel that the E6 LA rules are conducive to fun in the context of this contest.) No more than two entries per chef per contest, please; if you submit two builds and somehow are so overcome with inspiration for a third that you can't help yourself, PM me and tell me which two you care about the most.
• Highlighted because of past issues: It is not enough for your build to end with a level adjustment of +0. You must be +0 from start to finish. No using ANY build elements with a level adjustment above +0, even if they then get mitigated or reduced somehow.
• Speculation: Please do not post any form of speculation before the reveal. Just don't do it, guys. It's not cool. This means NOT posting any of the following or anything substantially similar: what you think is going to be common, significant elements of your planned build or of other potential builds, or anything else that could directly influence someone else's build choices for good or for ill. (It's acceptable to ask for rules clarifications as appropriate, but try to avoid tipping your hand too much.) Speculation is bad because it can discourage people from posting builds and can also "taint the judging pool" when it comes to Originality, so please just try to be aware of how other people might react to your speculation.
• E6: Here's how E6 works for the purposes of this contest. Build your character normally for the first six levels. After you reach level 6, you stop gaining levels and start gaining bonus feats every time you would gain 5,000 XP. Since we aren't actually tracking XP, you'll basically list your first ten epic bonus feats in the order that you take them, and we think of them as being kind of like levels. We will not use the LA-equals-reduced-point-buy rules, instead preferring to just ban races with LA, at least for now. We will not use the "capstone feats"; all feats that you take must be normal legal 3.5 feats, not homebrew E6 ones. You may not use the Epic feats from the Epic Level Handbook, though if for some reason there are non-Epic feats from the ELH that you qualify for, you may take those. (I don't think there are any, but I'm sure someone will prove me wrong.) It is up to the discretion of each judge whether this is a "hard E6" (magic above 3rd level spells is simply beyond mortal reach, items that have a listed CL above 6th are just plain not available, etc.) or a "soft E6" (if you can somehow get the magic on your character, it's yours, regardless of level), though I honestly don't expect it to come up. Don't go crazy with making assumptions about items and we probably won't have to find out.
• Presentation: Please use the table found below in the spoiler. List your epic bonus feats (in clear order) after the table. If you find a clever way of formatting that that isn't annoying and that doesn't break anything, have fun; if it's portable, I may steal it for the next round. When sending your build or any disputes to the Chair, clearly include your build's name in the subject of the PM, and please present your build exactly as you want the Chair to copy and paste it into the thread.
  If you're using a picture, cite the source and follow any relevant citation rules. Because we have had issues with this in the past, when listing your skills, please make it very clear how many ranks you have at each level. There are multiple ways to do this and we do not wish to cramp anyone's individual style by dictating exactly how this must look, but make sure that somewhere in your entry there's an explanation of how many actual skill ranks you have. It's still fine to list total skill bonuses, if that's your style, but don't only list bonuses; make sure that there is a clear listing somewhere of your ranks alone.
  Spoiler

  Show

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

  Code for the table:

  Spoiler

  Show

  [table="class: head alt1 alt2"]
  [tr]
  [th][B]Level[/B][/th]
  [th][B]Class[/B][/th]
  [th][B]Base Attack Bonus[/B][/th]
  [th][B]Fort Save[/B][/th]
  [th][B]Ref Save[/B][/th]
  [th][B]Will Save[/B][/th]
  [th][B]Skills[/B][/th]
  [th][B]Feats[/B][/th]
  [th][B]Class Features[/B][/th]
  [/tr]
  [tr]
  [td]1st[/td]
  [td]New Class Level[/td]
  [td]+x[/td]
  [td]+x[/td]
  [td]+x[/td]
  [td]+x[/td]
  [td]Skills[/td]
  [td]Feats[/td]
  [td]New Class Abilities[/td]
  [/tr]
  [tr]
  [td]2nd[/td]
  [td]New Class Level[/td]
  [td]+x[/td]
  [td]+x[/td]
  [td]+x[/td]
  [td]+x[/td]
  [td]Skills[/td]
  [td]Feats[/td]
  [td]New Class Abilities[/td]
  [/tr]
  [tr]
  [td]3rd[/td]
  [td]New Class Level[/td]
  [td]+x[/td]
  [td]+x[/td]
  [td]+x[/td]
  [td]+x[/td]
  [td]Skills[/td]
  [td]Feats[/td]
  [td]New Class Abilities[/td]
  [/tr]
  [tr]
  [td]4th[/td]
  [td]New Class Level[/td]
  [td]+x[/td]
  [td]+x[/td]
  [td]+x[/td]
  [td]+x[/td]
  [td]Skills[/td]
  [td]Feats[/td]
  [td]New Class Abilities[/td]
  [/tr]
  [tr]
  [td]5th[/td]
  [td]New Class Level[/td]
  [td]+x[/td]
  [td]+x[/td]
  [td]+x[/td]
  [td]+x[/td]
  [td]Skills[/td]
  [td]Feats[/td]
  [td]New Class Abilities[/td]
  [/tr]
  [tr]
  [td]6th[/td]
  [td]New Class Level[/td]
  [td]+x[/td]
  [td]+x[/td]
  [td]+x[/td]
  [td]+x[/td]
  [td]Skills[/td]
  [td]Feats[/td]
  [td]New Class Abilities[/td]
  [/tr][/table]
• Contest houserules: Nearly the same as the main contest's rules here: all creatures are proficient with natural weapons they have or may acquire, bonus feats that are explicitly granted without meeting prereqs are usable even without those prereqs, and feats that affect which skills are class skills for you and/or how you spend your skill points (Able Learner, Martial Study, Truename Training, Apprentice, etc.) apply immediately at the level at which you take them (even though you normally spend skill points before taking a feat). When taking Open Minded as an epic feat, any skill that has ever been a class skill for you (including through your class, your race, your feats, or similar game elements, though please don't muck around with retroactively making something stop being a class skill for some stupid reason) is a class skill when determining how the 5 granted skill points may be spent. All usual rules about HD-related skill caps apply. When taking Open Minded as a non-epic feat, treat it as normal; the class skills of the class you took at the level you gained Open Minded (plus race, feats, etc.) are your class skills for those skill points, similar to if Open Minded's skill points came straight from your class.
• Judging guidelines: The minimum score in a category is 1, and the maximum is 5. Judges are expected to be fair, consistent, and open-minded, and they are expected to make a good-faith effort to engage with any reasonable disputes that arise, especially when RAW is in question. That said, contestants are asked to not dispute more than necessary; let's do everything in good faith and really only dispute when a judge is being inconsistent, being unfair, or is otherwise grossly misinterpreting a build.
  Judges may not penalize Originality solely because a build is a tribute or homage to an existing creative work (in or out of D&D canon; note that this is not the same thing as penalizing Originality for using well-known optimization tactics), nor may judges penalize based solely on sources used (whether those sources are plentiful, sparse, common, obscure, or something in between, you should judge the build elements and how they work together rather than what book or what books they came out of, as long as those books are legal for this contest and are cited in the entry).
  As with the main contest, we will follow the "One Mistake, One Penalty" guideline, and it is very important that the judges adhere to it. I'm going to directly copy and paste this from the main thread, and hopefully the original author won't mind too much:
  
  Spoiler

  Show

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

  Allowed:
  

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

  
  
  Not allowed:
  

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

  
  Prereqs

  Allowed:
  

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

  
  
  Not Allowed:
  

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

  
  Other general things that are no longer allowed:
  

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

  
  
  Note that these are protections, not licenses. Deliberately taking a feat that you know you don't qualify for hoping to just suck up the judging penalty for a feat that you couldn't normally take is not okay, and may lead to your build being disqualified.
• Dispute guidelines (NEW, PLEASE PAY ATTENTION): Disputing is long, annoying, and emotional. It's also sometimes necessary, but it's often not actually something that makes everyone have more fun. Let's go into a little more detail here.
  
  Spoiler

  Show

  • Do NOT dispute to make an argument that goes fundamentally beyond what's in your write-up. It is the responsibility of the chef to make sure that the write-up is complete and contains their best arguments for what the build does and why it's awesome. If you didn't explain your tactics well or didn't spell out something that a judge misses, just do better next time. Don't drag it out after the fact.
  • Do NOT dispute just to be clever or witty or cheeky. Please. We're all adults here and so I assume you know what that means. Don't treat the build as a setup and your oh-so-clever dispute as the punchline. It's not as funny as it is in your head. Trust me. I've been down that road.
  • Do NOT dispute just to say "oh yeah, my bad, I missed that" or some equivalent. If you're not directly challenging the judge, save the commentary until after the reveal. I 100% get that the urge to respond to commentary is very strong, but type it out and sit on it for a while if you've gotta.
  • Do NOT dispute just to try to wheedle more points out of the judge. Note that this is different from saying that the judge is being truly unfair or is being truly wrong by black-and-white RAW. A dispute is NOT the place to try to scrape together a few last quarter-points. If you didn't put it in your write-up, that's on you. This also means that a dispute is really not the place to have long back-and-forth tit-for-tat arguments. That's a surefire way to get people grumpy. It's a contest on a D&D board, guys, not the results of a federal election.
  • Do NOT dispute to tear down another build. That's just plain not cool. If you entered the contest, it's not on you to judge the other builds.
  • DO dispute if the judge is being blatantly biased by giving you a substantially different ruling on a build element compared to another chef who used the same build element in nearly the same way. (Note that position in a build may affect if you're using that element in "nearly the same way" or not.) Please reserve this for the truly blatant examples. I mean it. Remember, it's the contestant's responsibility to make their best argument in the original write-up.
  • DO dispute if the judge is actively going against the contest rules. Note that there are relatively few ways in which a judge can go against contest rules (we intentionally give very wide discretion to our judges), but examples include truly breaking One Mistake One Penalty, penalizing just because of number of sources of (legal) material, and so on.
  • DO dispute if the judge is clearly ignoring unambiguous RAW. Note that this is for unambiguous RAW; if the RAW is shady and you're making an argument that isn't completely clear and that it wouldn't be strange for a GM to frown on, the judge has every right to frown on it as well. (You generally know when you're indulging in shady RAW. Be mature about this.) But if the judge is saying you didn't hit a prereq that you clearly did hit (and included in your write-up!), saying you can't do something that the plain text of the ability says you can do, or anything like that, by all means, call 'em out.
  • Do NOT dispute if the judge doesn't agree with your interpretation of ambiguous RAW. Yes, this is a retread of the previous bullet point; this is that important. If you're relying on ambiguous RAW, it's on you to lay out clearly why it should work the way you want it to work. Again, be mature and act in good faith: you really know when you're pushing things like this. If they don't like it, they don't like it. Move on.

  
  
  Disputing is a privilege, not a right. In the Chair's sole discretion, disputes that do not meet these guidelines and/or that do not seem to be offered in good faith may be suppressed. The Chair reserves the right to choose to post all, some, or none of a dispute if appropriate.
  
  
• Other bits and bobs: If there's something major and relevant I haven't mentioned, assume that the way I handle it will probably be the same as the main contest unless stated otherwise or unless doing so would be an obviously absurd result. If you've got questions, I'll give you answers.

This round's secret ingredient:
DRAGONMARKS, from Eberron Campaign Setting and similar!
Allez Optimizer!

Hang on, run that by me again:

This round's ingredient is a dragonmark. You must have a dragonmark (at a minimum, Least and Lesser) and your build will be judged on how well you use and showcase that dragonmark. Which means that the ingredient is not a class and not even a specific category of feats: it's a game element that has an awful lot behind it. You are required to have at least two feats, but of course, going above and beyond is likely to be a much better choice than not doing that.

RULINGS SPECIFIC TO ROUND 22:

• Q1: Which text is primary, the sidebar in PGtE pg. 47 that says "the bloodlines of the dragonmarked houses only manifest in the most common subraces" (e.g., you can't be a wood elf and take Mark of Shadow since only a high elf is considered the most common subrace) or the text in other books (including but not limited to Unearthed Arcana and Dragon Magic) that says, paraphrased, 'members of this subrace are otherwise identical to the race found in the PHB'?
• A1: For the purposes of this contest and to keep things interesting, I'm making the determination that it's more fun to let members of subraces that have language like "identical to the PHB version except as stated here" to still qualify for dragonmarks. That's not likely to be RAW, but considering how hard I had to work to find the citation on pg. 47 of PGtE anyway, I think it'll be more fun to keep it open.
• Q2: What about changelings with Racial Emulation?
• A2: Ugh, really? Can you not, please? Let's just cut off the arguments and say that for the purposes of this contest we won't let Racial Emulation qualify you for dragonmarks because I'm sick of those arguments and don't want to deal with them. I don't care if it's RAW.
• Q3: Are we doing the whole action point thing?
• A3: You're just making this difficult on me, aren't you? And by "you" I mean the imaginary version of you who might theoretically ask such a thing. Basically, here's the skinny: action points are a very fluid and GM-dependent thing, so it's hard to be elegant about assumptions regarding how many you'll have (and how many you'll need) in the format of a contest dish. The only reason I'm even mentioning it at all is because there's a few well-known dragonmark-related game elements that mention action points, so I'm anticipating the discussion. Basically, if you don't have any game elements that explicitly mention AP, you'll likely be best off just not making a big deal about them. If you do have such game elements and therefore kind of can't avoid talking about AP, we'll acknowledge that it's a thing, but since the GM's XP schedule determines when you refresh AP, it will probably be in your best interest to not act like you can blow 4 AP a day and keep that sustainable. The judge or judges are who you need to impress with your argument, not me.
• Q4: Do aberrant dragonmarks count as a valid iteration of the secret ingredient?
• A4: Yeah, sure, go for it.

The Builds:

Build	Race	Final Stub	Dragonmark	Score	Author	Position
Gareth d'Orien	Human	Monk 4/Dragonmark Heir 1/Blade of Orien 1	Passage	15.5	MinimanMidget	First
Avia Tharashk	Human	Human Paragon 2/Beguiler 2/Watch Detective 2	Finding	15	DeTess	Second
Movedb Yothers	Human	Human Paragon 1/Crusader 3/Dragonmark Heir 2	Sentinel	14.5	Quentinas	Third
Mikael Jorasco	Strongheart Halfling	Crusader 6	Healing	14	DeTess	Fourth
Taelan d'Thuranni	Dragonborn Elf	Rogue 1/Scout 4/Fighter 1	Shadow	14	MinimanMidget	Fourth
Ursula d'Tarkanan	Strongheart Halfling	Druid 4/Child of Khyber 2	Aberrant	14	Falontani	Fourth
Uskollinen Koira	Hound Archon	Hound Archon 6	Aberrant	13	thorr-kan	Seventh

Spoiler: Contest History

Show

Round 4: Knight
Round 5: Ninja
Round 6: Racial Paragon Classes
Round 7: Hexblade
Round 8: Shugenja
Round 9: Swashbuckler
Round 10: Crusader
Round 11: Soulknife
Round 12: Factotum
Round 13: Prestige Classes
Round 14: Mountebank
Round 15: Sorcerer
Round 16: Dragon Shaman
Round 17: Lurk
Round 18: Paladin
Round 19: Scout
Round 20: Incarnate
Round 21: Shadowcaster

Spoiler: Way Old Stuff (2012 and earlier; Amechra's run as Chair)

Show

Round 1: Divine Mind
Round 2: Monk
Round 3: Marshal

[DeTess]

Yes! I'm (obviously) down to cook for this one!

[MinimanMidget]

I have an idea, but I don't really like it. It'll definitely work, it's just...eh. Hopefully I'll come up with something to make it more appealing or something completely different.

[Quentinas]

This round will be difficult for me it is not an easy ingredient i never used the dragonmark

[Falontani]

You've entered my domain, how can I not enter? But geez there are so many good options here! I was just looking through weird combos with these again due to a homebrew thing (that I unfortunately can't use here) that I made related to the Dragonmarks. Gahhhh should I do

[REDACTED] with the Dragonmark of [REDACTED] and abuse [REDACTED]?
or should I try to do
[REDACTED] with the Dragonmark of [REDACTED] and just go crazy?

[thorr-kan]

Shiny.

I like the aberrant qualification.

E6 and the Least/Lesser requirements mean no Siberys shenanigans. I'm looking forward to this.

[thorr-kan]

As a side note for anyone who's interested, Keith Baker (Eberron's creator), has A LOT of homebrew dragonmark stuff that's fascinating. Not useable at all for this Challenge, but worth reading for its own sake.

[MinimanMidget]

Does anyone else keep finding that they need just one more level to make things work?

[thorr-kan]

Does anyone else keep finding that they need just one more level to make things work?

Work? No.

Work *better?* *Always.*

[daremetoidareyo]

my trouble is choosing a dragonmark to focus on. So many seem so wimpy, even with additional feat support and due to the nature of dragonmarks, my workarounds for the skill rank issues simply cannot operate.

[DeTess]

I've got one build in, now let's see if I can find the time to make a second one.

[Zaq]

Reminder: deadline is this coming Thursday!

[MinimanMidget]

Build submitted. I have 2 other ideas, but I doubt either of them will coalesce into a build by Thursday.

[Zaq]

Roughly 72 hours remain!

How’s it going? Reaching the final stages?

[Zaq]

Level with me, folks. I don’t have enough entries. How long do you need?

[MinimanMidget]

I can put another build together tonight.

[Falontani]

Prooooooooooocrastination! Build submitted. And I have an hour to spare! But no, for realsies, I'm sorry Zaq. I said I'd get it done and I should have just did the whole thing when I said I was going to, not send it in just barely before the deadline.

[Quentinas]

Of you give me 12 hours or about that i can submit a build

PS build submitted inspiration has struck and i had some free time to create the build

[Zaq]

Sorry. My schedule has exploded. I’ll check back on the contest in probably a few(?) days. Keep sending builds if you like. I legit don’t even know if I have enough right now. Love you all. I’ll be fine—just kinda swamped right now.

Just a few more months until I finish grad school...

[Zaq]

Weeeee're baaaaaack!

Sorry I didn't post immediately as soon as the forums returned, folks! I was out playing the taiko at Matsuri all weekend (well, trying to, at least; the rain interfered on Saturday) and then recovering dead on Monday. But here we are!

No witty commentary this time, sorry. Just wanna get this show on the road. Here we go: seven builds incoming!

[Zaq]

Build the first!

Avia Tharashk, Inspector Extraordinaire

Spoiler: Fluff

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“Read all about it! Read all about it! Gentleman Inspector Hildibrand Tharashk foils theft of the pink dragonshard and catches Phantom Thief!”

Avia cursed the newspaper peddler under her breath, prompting a questioning glance from her companion. “As you well know, I was involved in that case. In fact, it was me that first identified the Phantom Thief’s next target, it was me that determined when he’d make his attempt to steal it, and it was me that set up the ambush to finally catch the crook!”

“And then that.. that Imbecile just waltzes in, mucks up all my careful planning and allows the Thief to geta way from the auction house, prompting a needlessly tiring rooftop chase. Yes, He managed to ‘catch’ the Thief eventually, if suplexing the guy from a second-story building counts as ‘catching’, but if he’d just stayed out, it wouldn’t even have been necessary and it would have been my name being celebrated by the newspapers, not his!” Her companion wisely kept his silence. He’d heard tirades like these many times before.

“Or do you remember the red mask gang? I’d put in months of work tracking down their various hideouts and getting the city watch and a small mercenary company ready to move in and take them all down. Meanwhile, that idiot decides he wants to infiltrate the gang. As big and oafish as he is, you’d think he’d feel right at home. But then, first raid he joins as a member, he decides to try to talk the entire gang out of it once he finds out there’s an old lady on board the stage-coach. And then he succeeds and the entire outfit disbands. Disbands, taking all their loot with them, of course. And does the idiot get blamed for that? Is he forced to repay all the lost goods that I would have recapture in merely two more days? No, the idiot gets praised and gets a medal for dealing with the gang.” Avia took a deep breath, trying and failing to regain her composure.

“And then, last year at the Miskar wedding? The one with the doppelganger thief intending to steal the great Xen’drik Emerald worn by the bride. I’d determined that the Miskar family’s butler had been replaced by the Doppelganger and was standing ready to make the arrest the moment he made his move during the introduction of the bride. And what does the oaf do? He somehow convinces the bride’s father to let him take her place to unmask the thief. As if he was going to fool anyone by just putting on a dress. And when the groom-to-be reacts in horror, he immediately accuses the man of being the doppler, because ‘the real groom hadn’t met the bride yet, so wouldn’t know anything was off’!”

Her companion let out a reproachful bark.

“Well, yes, he was actually right that time, and the butler was innocent, but still!”

Spoiler: Build

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Stub
LG Human human paragon 1/beguiler 2/human paragon+1/ watch detective 2
Ability scores
str 10
dex 16 (includes +1 at level 4)
con 14
int 14
wis 12
cha 14

Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1	human paragon 1	0	0	0	2	search 4, gather information 4, knowledge (local) 3, craft(painting) 2, spot 4, move silently 4, bluff 4, handle animal 3	track, wild cohort (dog)	adaptive learning (craft(painting))
2	beguiler 1	0	0	0	4	search 5, gather information 5, knowledge (local) 4, craft(painting) 3, spot 5, move silently 5, bluff 5, sense motive 2, handle animal 3		armored mage, trapfinding
3	beguiler 2	1	0	0	5	search 6, gather information 6, knowledge (local) 5, craft(painting) 4, spot 6, move silently 6, bluff 6, sense motive 4, handle animal 3	favored (city watch (government) guild, +2 competence bonus on gather information)	cloaked casting (+1 DC), surprise casting
4	human paragon 2	2	1	1	5	search 8, gather information 7, knowledge (local) 6, craft(painting) 5, spot 7, move silently 7, bluff 7, sense motive 4, handle animal 3	primary contact (+1 rank in search) (bonus feat)
5	watch detective 1	2	1	3	7	search 8, gather information 8, knowledge (local) 7, craft(painting) 6, spot 8, move silently 8, bluff 8, sense motive 7, handle animal 3		city watch training
6	watch detective 2	3	1	4	7	search 9, gather information 9, knowledge (local) 9, craft(painting) 6, spot 9, move silently 9, bluff 9, sense motive 9, handle animal 3	combat expertise (bonus), least dragonmark of finding (locate object)	obsessive specialty(knowledge(local)), profile

Spoiler: Epic feats

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lesser dragonmark of finding(locate creature)
weapon finesse
urban tracking
dragonmark prodigy (instant search)
dragonmark adept (circle dance)
investigate
nightborn dragonmark
shape soulmeld: truthseeker goggles
bonus essentia
favored in house

Spoiler: Build breakdown

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levels 1-2
We start out with a level in human paragon. Human paragon was taken first over beguiler despite beguiler getting more skill points because we need a couple of ranks in skills that aren't beguiler class skills. Human paragon will make craft(painting) a permanent class skill, while Avia only needs 3 ranks in handle animal to be able to make a DC15 check to teach a trick while taking 10. Speaking of animals, we get a dog from wild Cohort to help with tracking criminals.
The level in beguiler gets us some spellcasting that'll be useful in our job of finding and catching criminals.

Levels 3-4
Another level in beguiler and a 2nd level in human paragon gets us spellcasting equivalent to a 3rd level beguiler. In addition, the bonus feat at 4th level allows us to cheat our search skill 1 rank higher for a single level, allowing for early entry in the watch detective PRC. Technically, 'search' isn't listed as an associated skill with a government guild, but the list is stated to not be exhaustive, and I think it makes sense that the top skill required to be a detective would be an associated skill of the city watch.

levels 5-6
Here we finish the build with two levels in the watch detective PRC, which is a delightful PRC full of stuff that isn't useful in traditional adventuring, but is very nice if you're actually building a detective. This is also where we start picking up Avia's dragonmark, which is the mark of finding. The least dragonmark gets us 'locate object'.

Sidebar: watch detective and detection magic
The Watch detective's 'rule of evidence' states that magical evidence needs to be backed up by mundane evidence. That doesn't mean detection magic is less useful though, it just means that you need to slightly more. Rather than just presenting the fact that you used locate object to find the stolen diamond to be in the criminal's possession, you also need to have the criminal empty their pockets so the diamond falls out. I know, so much extra work :P

Sidebar: the goodest boy
Our wild cohort picked up three bonus HD, gaining them another 3 skill points and a feat. The skill points are all invested in survival to help them with their job as tracking doggo, and the feat will be skill focus (survival) for the same reason. This brings their bonus on tracking by scent up to +11.

Epic feats
Lesser dragonmark of finding: This adds locate creature to our list of magical tracking abilities
Weapon finesse: Because sometimes you need to fight, and I didn't have room to take this feat earlier.
Urban tracking: it's tracking, but in urban environments and keying off of the 'gather information' skill. Tracking in other environments is what the good boy is for, this feat allows Avia to do the tracking down of criminals herself as well. Her gather information check si also high enough that it'll be very hard for anyone to hide from her
Dragonmark prodigy and dragonmark adept: These feats give an extra use to our least and lesser dragonmark abilities, as well as two additional SLA's. Instant search allows us to really, really quickly go through an area, which is useful if the suspect is being uncooperative with our entirely reasonable request of properly searching them and or their place of residence. Circle dance is useful in getting a starting point for searching for the suspect or a missing person as it gives their direction irrespective of range.
Investigate: Adds more uses to the search skill, related to us being a detective, which is nice.
Nightborn dragonmark: The conclusion of a thrilling detective adventure always occurs at night, likely while some ominous weather pattern is going on as well. This feat gives us a small bonus to pretty much everything while it's night.
Shape soulmeld (truthseeker goggles) and bonus essentia: The truthseeker goggles give a +2 bonus to search, gather information and sense motive, also known as the detective's most important skills. Two points of essentia move that up to a +6 bonus.
Favored in house: its useful for a detective to be liked and owed some favors by the house of people specializing in finding stuff.

Spoiler: Numbers and other stuff

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HP:20+2d6+3d8(average 40 hp)
AC: 17 (mage armor)
to-hit: +6
spell save DC: 12+spell level
languages: Common, draconic, dwarvish
saves (fort/ref/will): +3/+7/+8
skills
search: +18
gather information: +21
knowledge(local): +13
craft(painting): +8
spot:+12
move silently:+12
sense motive: +16
handle animal:+5

Spoiler: Sources

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'Masters of the Wild: A Guidebook to Barbarians, Druids, and Rangers': watch detective
city scape: favored, primary contact, ubran tracking
eberron campaign setting: investigate, dragonmarks, favored in house
magic of incarnum: shape soulmeld, bonus essentia, thruthseeker goggles
web article: wild cohort
phb2: beguiler
unearthed arcana: human paragon
Eberron - dragonmarked: dragonmark prodigy, dragonmark adept, nightborn dragonmark
magic of incarnum: truthseeker goggles, shape soulmeld, bonus essentia

[Zaq]

Build the second!

Gareth d'Orien, Monk of the Emerald Claw
Human LE Monk 4/Dragonmark Heir 1/Blade of Orien 1

Spoiler: Introduction

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The Order of the Emerald Claw was the only family Gareth d'Orien ever knew. They raised him, and trained him from an early age to spy for them. His masters' investment paid off more greatly than they could have predicted when he manifested the Mark of Passage. The Order sent him to infiltrate House Orien, where he joined the Couriers Guild and worked dilligently. Now working as a trusted courier, he relays the contents of the messages he carries to his masters in the Order as well as to their intended recipients.

Spoiler: Ability Scores

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Ability	Score	Modifiers	Final Score
Strength	17	+1 (Level 4)	18 (+4)
Dexterity	14	-	14 (+2)
Constitution	14	-	14 (+2)
Intelligence	10	-	10 (+0)
Wisdom	13	+1 (Mark of Twelve Moons)	14 (+2)
Charisma	8	-	8 (-1)

Spoiler: Build

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Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Monk 1	+0	+2	+2	+2	Bluff +4, Hide +4, Listen +4, Move Silently +4, Gather Information +2, Spot +4	Least Dragonmark of Passage (dimensional leap), Apprentice (criminal), Stunning Fist (monk)	AC bonus, flurry of blows, unarmed strike
2nd	Monk 2	+1	+3	+3	+3	Bluff +5, Hide +5, Listen +5, Move Silently +5, Gather Information +2, Spot +5	Fiery Fist (monk)	Evasion
3rd	Monk 3	+2	+3	+3	+3	Bluff +6, Hide +6, Listen +6, Move Silently +6, Gather Information +2, Spot +6	Favored in House	Still mind
4th	Monk 4	+3	+4	+4	+4	Bluff +7, Hide +7, Listen +7, Move Silently +7, Gather Information +2, Spot +7	-	Ki strike (magic), slow fall 20 ft.
5th	Dragonmark Heir 1	+3	+6	+6	+6	Bluff +8, Hide +7, Listen +7, Move Silently +7, Gather Information +6, Spot +7	Lesser Dragonmark of Passage (dimension door)	House Status
6th	Blade of Orien 1	+4	+6	+8	+6	Bluff +8, Hide +7, Listen +9, Move Silently +8, Gather Information +6, Spot +9	Quicken Dragonmark	Heir's mark, Improved dimension leap

E6 Feats:

1. Sun School
2. Dragonmark Prodigy (benign transposition)
3. Wild Cohort (wolf)
4. Dragonmark Adept (baleful transposition)
5. Quicken Dragonmark
6. Mark of Twelve Moons (Wisdom)
7. Superior Unarmed Strike
8. Improved Natural Attack (unarmed strike)
9. Shape Soulmeld (incarnate avatar)
10. Bonus Essentia

Spoiler: Level by Level Breakdown

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Spoiler: Level 1

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Build-wise, Gareth is a pretty normal monk (for now), albeit with some unusual skills he picked up from Apprentice (criminal), representing his training as a spy. Additionally, unlike the other apprentice feats, Apprentice (criminal) doesn't come with any tithes - instead, it gives 100 gp. Why does this matter? In Gareth's future, he's going to need to buy a Siberys shard (50 gp) to enable the Quicken Dragonmark feat. No-one likes equipment dependence in an IC build, but hopefully this will help everyone (including me) look past it. Neither his Least Dragonmark of Passage nor Stunning Fist do a ton for him right now, but they will.

Spoiler: Level 2

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At level 2, Gareth picks up the Fiery Fist feat, letting him spend his Stunning Fist uses to boost his damage for the round. Evasion is as handy for him as anyone else, (hopefully) allowing him to avoid a lot of damage over his lifetime.

Spoiler: Level 3

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Favored in House is mostly a pre-req feat, but it represents Gareth becoming a trusted courier of House Orien, which is a huge mistake on their part. Still Mind isn't worth much, but it's something.

Spoiler: Level 4

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This is mostly a dead level, but it does kick Gareth's unarmed damage die up a notch, and allow him to bypass DR/magic without requiring magic items.

Spoiler: Level 5

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Into Dragonmark Heir, where the class skills are a bit unfavourable, so most of Gareth's skill points go into shoring up Gather Information. The Lesser Mark gives him dimension door, which is currently a lot more useful outside combat than in, but we'll fix that, too. House Status isn't exactly amazing, but Gareth is spying on House Orien, so the bonus should come into play often enough to be worth something.

Spoiler: Level 6

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Blade of Orien is a fantastic class, and the biggest problem with it is that Gareth can only take one level in it. That one level lets him use dimension leap with much more finesse and gives him 2 more uses per day. He also picks up Quicken Dragonmark, which changes dimension leap from standard action teleportation (okay) to swift action teleportation {great).

Spoiler: Sun School

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Sun School brings the build together, as the Flash of Sunset option means that every teleportation ability will now allow Gareth to attack. Note that this includes dimension door - while it prevents actions, the attack granted by Flash of Sunset isn't an action, and furthermore, dimension door is one of the examples given. The Inexorable Progress of Dawn option will also sometimes come in handy for repositioning enemies (and Gareth himself), although only in specific situations.

Spoiler: Dragonmark Prodigy

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An extra use of dimension leap, and benign transposition (note that this is also a swift action thanks to Quicken Dragonmark).

Spoiler: Wild Cohort

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Gareth has benign transposition, so he needs a buddy to swap places with. He also needs the +2 flanking bonus, and where possible, the wolf's ability to trip enemies will definitely help him out as well. The wolf gains a feat from advancement, and the feat he needs is Improved Initiative. This will give him a +7, significantly higher than Gareth's +2. This means that he'll (usually) go first, allowing him to move into position adjacent to an enemy before Gareth swaps places with him.

Spoiler: Dragonmark Adept

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An extra use of dimension door, and 2 uses of baleful transposition. Gareth's save DC is basically worthless, so he'll stick to using baleful transposition as extra uses of benign transposition. Note that according to the Rules Compendium (pg 112), you can choose to fail a saving throw, so this should work without any issues.

Spoiler: Quicken Dragonmark

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Gareth's dimension door and baleful transposition are now swift actions as well.

Spoiler: Mark of Twelve Moons

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Hey, free stat point! This helps alleviate the build's MADness, although it would have been nice to have earlier.

Spoiler: Superior Unarmed Strike, Improved Natural Attack

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These feats, working in tandem, boost the damage of Gareth's unarmed strikes from 1d8 to 1d10 (Superior Unarmed Strike) to 2d8 (Improved Natural Attack).

Spoiler: Shape Soulmeld, Bonus Essentia

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Incarnate avatar (lawful) with 2 essentia points gives Gareth a much-needed +2 to attack. Now there is an interesting argument that could be made that, as a lawful evil character, Gareth should benefit from the lawful and the evil aspects of incarnate avatar, which would give him +4 to damage as well as +2 to attack. The build doesn't rely on it, but it'd certainly be nice to have if the (hypothetical) DM could be talked into it.

Spoiler: Putting it all together

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A typical turn for Gareth will generally consist of one of two situations - either he'll be in melee range with an enemy (or able to 5-foot step into melee range), or he won't. If he's not, he can use his swift action teleport (and possibly also a 5-foot step) to get into melee range, getting a free attack from Flash of Sunset, then attacking. If he's already in melee range, he could still use a swift action teleport to generate a free attack, but rather than waste his limited resources, he'll generally instead use Fiery Fist to boost his damage. Either way, he'll be able to use flurry of blows, as long as the enemy's AC isn't too high.

Gareth:

Hit Dice: 5d8+20 (42.5 hp)
Initiative: +2
Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares)
Armor Class: 14 (+2 Dex, +2 Wis), touch 14, flat-footed 14
Base Attack/Grapple: +4/+8
Attack: Unarmed strike +10 melee (2d8+4) or 2d8+8 if allowed to benefit from both lawful and evil aspects of incarnate avatar
Full attack: 2 unarmed strikes +8 melee (2d8+4)
Flash of Sunset + flurry of blows: Unarmed strike +10 melee (2d8+4), 2 unarmed strikes +8 melee (2d8 + 4)
Flurry of blows (with Fiery Fist): 2 unarmed strikes +8 melee (2d8 + 1d6 + 4)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Saves: Fort +8, Ref +10, Will +8
Abilities: Str 18, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 8
Skills: Bluff +7, Hide +9, Listen +11, Move Silently +10, Gather Information +5, Spot +11
SLAs: dimension leap 4/day, dimension door 2/day, benign transposition 1/day, baleful transposition 2/day

Wolf:

Hit Dice: 5d8+10 (32.5 hp)
Initiative: +7
Speed: 50 ft. (10 squares)
Armor Class: 18 (+3 Dex, +5 natural), touch 13, flat-footed 13
Base Attack/Grapple: +3/+5
Attack: Bite +6 melee (1d6+2)
Full Attack: Bite +6 melee (1d6+2)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Trip
Special Qualities: Low-light vision, scent
Saves: Fort +6, Ref +7, Will +2
Abilities: Str 14, Dex 16, Con 15, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 6
Skills: Hide +5, Listen +3, Move Silently +5, Spot +3, Survival +1
Feats: Track, Weapon Focus (bite), Improved Initiative

Spoiler: Sources

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• Least Dragonmark, Favored in House, Dragonmark Heir, Lesser Dragonmark: Eberron Campaign Setting
• Blade of Orien, Quicken Dragonmark, Dragonmark Prodigy, Dragonmark Adept, Mark of Twelve Moons: Dragonmarked
• Apprentice: DMG II
• Fiery Fist: PHB II
• Sun School: Complete Warrior
• Wild Cohort: Online
• Superior Unarmed Strike: Tome of Battle
• Shape Soulmeld, Bonus Essentia: Magic of Incarnum
• Everything else: SRD content

[Zaq]

Build the third!

Mikael Jorasco

Spoiler: Portrait

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Spoiler: Tables

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Stub
LG strongheart halfling crusader 6
Ability scores
str 16 (includes +1 at level 4)
dex 10
con 16
int 10
wis 11
cha 12

Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1	crusader 1	1	2	0	0	diplomacy 4, inimidate 4, balance 4, knowledge (history) 4	least dragonmark (healing, cure light wounds), power attack	steely resolve 5, furious counterstrike
2	crusader 2	2	3	0	0	diplomacy 5, inimidate 5, balance 5, knowledge (history) 5		indomtiable soul
3	crusader 3	3	3	1	1	diplomacy 6, inimidate 6, balance 6, knowledge (history) 6	extra granted maneuver	zealous surge
4	crusader 4	4	4	1	1	diplomacy 7, inimidate 7, balance 7, knowledge (history) 7		steely resolve 10
5	crusader 5	5	4	1	1	diplomacy 8, inimidate 8, balance 8, knowledge (history) 8
6	crusader 6	6	5	2	2	diplomacy 9, inimidate 9, balance 9, knowledge (history) 9	lesser dragonmark (healing, restoration)	smite 1/day

Spoiler: epic feats

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dragonmark prodigy(lesser vigor)
dragonark adept(vigor)
protective mark
quicken dragonmark
mark of the dauntless
adaptive style
improved bullrush
shocktrooper
martial study (steel wind)
martial stance(absolute steel)

Spoiler: Maneuvers and stances

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Stances
Iron guard's glare
martial spirit
absolute steel(feat)
Maneuvers
vanguard strike
charging minotaur
douse the flames
shield block
battle leader's charge
revitalizing strike
white raven tactics
steel wind(feat)

Spoiler: Build writeup

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Mikael Jorasco was blessed with the magical ability to heal wounds. So naturally, eh did the only sensible thing possible and went out there to stab monsters and bandits and other nasty beings in the face.

Mikael is a fairly straightforward build. You're a crusader, with all the offensive and defensive abilities that entails. Your two stances either force enemies to attack you by lowering their to-hit against your allies(iron guard's glare), or helps heal you and your allies (martial spirit). Your maneuvers have a mix of offensive attacks, defensive counters and utility int eh form of the ever useful white raven tactics.

Mikael's dragonmarks further add to the classes already impressive survivability with a couple of spells. quickened cure light wounds provide some pot healing where necessary, while lesser vigor and vigor give some more healing. Finally, restoration allows for a lot of the more nasty effects you could run into to be neutralized.

In addition to the active dragonmark effects, protective mark and mark of the dauntless add some DR and immunity to being dazed and stunned respectively.

Rounding out the epic feats, shocktrooper and its prerequisite improved bullrush add some more offensive power, while the absolute steel stance (which requires learning one iron heart maneuver as a prerequisite) fixes the halfling's issue with limited mobility by adding a third stance that increases our movement speed for when we need to close with an enemy.

In combat Mikael has two general styles. One is a defensive style using the classic shield and longsword combination to defend himself and his allies. When employing this style Mikael will generally have the revitalizing strike, shield block, white raven tactics, douse the flames and steel wind maneuvers readied. When employing the other style, Mikael will use a greatsword instead, focusing on hard-hitting charges, with the revitalizing strike, white raven tactics, vanguard strike, charging minotaur and battle leader's charge maneuvers readied instead.

Outside of combat, Mikael can contribute using his social skills and knowledge of history.

Spoiler: numbers

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HP:28+5d10 (55 average)
AC: 19 or 21 (full plate+small+heavy shield in defensive style)
DR: 5/magic
basic attacks (assuming full delayed damage pool for +2 to hit and damage)):
long-sword: +12/+7 to-hit, 1d6+5 damage
great-sword charge (max power attack, sunk into armor using shocktrooper): +14 to-hit, 1d10+18 damage (becomes 1d10+28 when using the battle leader's charge maneuver).

Spoiler: Sources

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Tome of battle: crusader, adaptive style, martial study, martial stance and extra granted maneuver feats, all maneuvers and stances.
PHB: power attack, improved bull rush
Eberron campaign setting: least and lesser dragonmark
Eberron - dragonmarked: dragonmark prodigy, dragonmark adept, protective mark, quicken dragonmark, mark of the dauntless
compelte warrior: shocktrooper

[Zaq]

Build the fourth!

Lord Movedb Yothers of House Deneith
LN human Human Paragon 1 /Crusader 3 / Dragonmark heir 2
I tried to make this build with the focus to protect the team as a sentinel and as a bodyguard

Spoiler: Stats

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Stats	Point buy
Strength	Strength 15 8 points
Dexterity	Dexterity 10 2 points
Constitution	Constitution 16 10 points
Intelligence	Intelligence 12 4 points
Wisdom	Wisdom 12 4 points
Charisma	Charisma 12 4 points

The 4th level point go to strength

Spoiler: Background

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This is the story of lord Movedb , his mother want so much from him, so while he escaped at the start becoming a bodyguard as a member of house Deneith after some time he had to return becoming an heir , a dragonmark heir , because he could not oppose to his family for his sense of honor. He became good at using the dragonmark, gaining more abilities from them and be able to even protect another people at the same time he was attacking but then there was the disgrace.. The tale tell that he was killed during an expedition against some aberration , and this is the same thing that the house tell to the other because it would never appear again, but for someone he is still alive between us even if disfigured
*At this moment the door of the inn where you are open and there is the figure quite high, robust with a full plate armor and a shield, with some strange long arms and a weapon with a chain. On the shield the symbol of House Deneith with an X above, and the strange one says *
Someone search a bodyguard I’m quite able even if I’m disfigured by the aberration now, I’m Movedb Yothers

Spoiler: Build

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Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Human Paragon 1	+0	+0	+0	+2	Sense motive 4, Spot 4, Intimidate 4, Listen 4, Diplomacy 4, Profession (bodyguard) 4	Favored in the House , Least Dragonmark (sentinel)	Adaptative learning (Listen)
2nd	Crusader 1	+1	+2	+0	+2	[td]Sense motive 5 Spot 4 Intimidate 5, Listen 5, Diplomacy 5, Profession (bodyguard) 5		Furious counterstrike, steely resolve 5
3rd	Crusader 2	+2	+3	+0	+2	Sense motive 5 Spot 5 intimidate 6, listen 6, Diplomacy 6, Profession (bodyguard) 6	Adaptative Style	Indomitable Soul
4th	Crusader 3	+3	+3	+1	+3	Sense motive 5 Spot 6 Intimidate 7, Listen 7, Diplomacy 7, Profession (bodyguard) 7		Zealous surge
5th	Dragonmark heir 1	+3	+5	+3	+5	Sense motive 8 Spot 6 Intimidate 8, Listen 8, Diplomacy 8, Profession (bodyguard) 7	Lesser dragonmark (sentinel)	Lesser dragonmark, House status
6th	Dragonmark heir 2	+4	+6	+4	+6	Sense motive 9 Spot 7 Intimidate 9, Listen 9, Diplomacy 9, Profession (bodyguard) 7	Exotic weapon proficiency (kusari gama)	Additional Action points, improved least dragonmark (another ability)

Skill like this are cross classed for this level

Spoiler: Epic feats

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1° Sentinel stance
2° Shield of Deneith
3° Shield Wall
4° Mark of Recovery
5° Dragonmark prodigy
6° Dragonmark adept
7° quicken dragonmark
8° quicken dragonmark
9° Aberration Blood (bulging eyes)
10° Inhuman reach

Spoiler: Level 5 and 6

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What happen now? We start in the dragonmark heir to boost our dragonmark so we first the lesser version which give us Lesser globe of invulnerability , basically a very good defense against spell in E6 , and for a strange thing is a level 4 spell so maybe is something that is unique, without the dragonmark. Then we have another use of protection from arrows from the lesser dragonmark and another ability for the improved least dragonmark. In the end we have gained so many uses of spell not so bad, but then there is a very good thing, the saves of this prestige class that help our low reflex save. We lose on BAB but we would not have gained enough so it’s not a problem. The exotic weapon proficiency is good because with iron glare guard we give the penalties to the enemy in the reach of our weapon so it’s not bad and we have a little boost with our house so it’s not bad. I ignore the action point boost because they are rarer so this build can be used even without the action point, if the DM permit the feat I have used

Spoiler: Epic 1 2 3 4

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I grouped these feats because they are a boost to our abilities and our tank role so here they are. The first sentinel stance is another boost to our allies that they are near us the same way of shield block so if they want protection they could stay near us, then there is shield wall if the allies have even only a buckler we boost our shield AC and the AC of his shield. This is another synergy with shield block because it add the shield AC to our ally AC and shield wall boost our Shield AC. Then there is Shield of Deneith and Mark of Recovery , a way to use the many uses of the dragonmark if we don’t want to cast them so we can boost our AC or stay alive if we need with mark of recovery (and maybe avoid death with steely resolve)

Spoiler: Epic 5 6

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Now we gain even more possibilities with our dragonmark other than more uses of them , so we can use as a fuel with shield of deneith and mark of recovery, warning shout is not so good for me , but mass resurgence is very useful especially because now if all the group fail a saves we can reroll with zealous surge then let them reroll with mass resurgence, talk is a free action so our spellcraf /psicraft guy can said which effect is, or we could say the last effect, or the enemy effect without saying the name if we don’t know that.

Spoiler: Epic 7 8

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These feat are fantastic, let think for one minute, we can attack and use a dragonmark power , if we think that will be useful, so they are very good, a lesser globe of invulnerability as a swift action , for example, mass resurgence and we strike, and if we want to use 2 spell like ability in the same round we can because the feat say that we can , not that they all become a swift action, so they are very good , we can boost our allies while attacking, using protection from arrows or shield other to prevent some damage, they are good and they are the final boost to the SI even if we could lose some fuel for the feats.

Spoiler: Epic 9 and 10

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This is the sad part of the history of this character because he has aberration blood so it can’t be an heir for the house probably, but is a mechanical boost that is very good between our weapon and our iron guard glare so we can reach an enemy 30 feet away , while aberration blood boost our spot that was behind at the end so they are good and they are a bonus to tank in a better way , and even if we have so much reach we don’t use a tactic to gain more Attack of opportunity because we don’t have a good dexterity and as bodyguard our work is to protect the others.

Spoiler: Numbers on this build

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Maximum AC = 10+3 (heavy shield)+ 8(full plate)+2 (wall shield)+ 2 (shield of deneith)=25
Saves
Fortitude 6 base +3 constitution=9
Reflex 4 base )=4
Will 6 (base)+1 (wisdom)+1 (indomitable soul=8
Hp=8+3d10+2d8+18(constitution)=51
AC bonus for the others: 2 (shield wall)+ (4 +Shield AC) (for shield block)+ 4 (iron guard’s glare if we count as bonus because is a penalty for the enemies)+2 sentinel stance=17 if we count heavy shield boosted by shield wall

Spoiler: Sources

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Crusader and maneuvers and stance and adaptative style : Tome of battle
Shield Wall :Heroes of battle
From Dragonmarked :
Dragonmark prodigy, quicken dragonmark, dragonmark adept, mark of recovery, stance of sentinel
From Player guide to Eberron
Shield of Deneith
From Lord of Madness
Aberration blood, inhuman reach
From Eberron campaign setting
Dragonmark heir, favored in the house ,least dragonmark, lesser dragonmark, house deneith
From SRD
Human race
From Unearthed Arcana
Human Paragon

[Zaq]

Build the fifth!

Taelan d'Thuranni
CN Dragonborn(Mind) Elf Rogue 1/Scout 4/Fighter 1

Spoiler: Introduction

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Sairee d'Phiarlan peered into the dark alley suspiciously. She had suspected this was a trap the moment she received the message, but the information her contact had offered was too tempting to pass up. Still, she was an hour early, and the alley looked empty. She took a tentative step forwards, and then another, and then the darkness rushed towards her. Before she could react, there was an arrow in her chest.

Spoiler: Ability Scores

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Ability	Score	Modifiers	Final Score
Strength	8	-	8 (-1)
Dexterity	18	+2 (elf) -2 (dragonborn) +1 (level 4) +1 (Mark of Twelve Moons)	20 (+5)
Constitution	14	-2 (elf) +2 (dragonborn)	14 (+2)
Intelligence	10	-	10 (+0)
Wisdom	12	-	12 (+1)
Charisma	12	-	12 (+1)

Spoiler: Build

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Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Rogue 1	+0	+0	+2	+0	Disable Device +4, Hide +4, Listen +4, Move Silently +4, Search +4, Sense Motive +4, Spot +4, Tumble +4	Least Dragonmark of Shadow(darkness)	Trapfinding, sneak attack +1d6
2nd	Scout 1	+0	+0	+4	+0	Disable Device +5, Hide +5, Listen +5, Move Silently +5, Search +5, Sense Motive +5, Spot +5, Tumble +5	-	Skirmish +1d6, trapfinding
3rd	Scout 2	+1	+0	+5	+0	Disable Device +6, Hide +6, Listen +6, Move Silently +6, Search +6, Sense Motive +6, Spot +6, Tumble +6	At Home in the Deep	Battle fortitude +1, uncanny dodge
4th	Scout 3	+2	+1	+5	+1	Disable Device +7, Hide +7, Listen +7, Move Silently +7, Search +7, Sense Motive +7, Spot +7, Tumble +7	-	Fast movement +10ft., srkimish(+1d6, +1AC), trackless step
5th	Scout 4	+3	+1	+6	+1	Disable Device +8, Hide +8, Listen +8, Move Silently +8, Search +8, Sense Motive +8, Spot +8, Tumble +8	Swift Ambusher
6th	Hit-and-Run Tactics Sneak Attack Fighter 1	+4	+3	+6	+1	Disable Device +8, Hide +9, Listen +8, Move Silently +8, Search +8, Sense Motive +8, Spot +8, Tumble +8	Blend into Shadows

E6 Feats:

1. Intensify Darkness
2. Darkstalker
3. Lesser Dragonmark (shadow conjuration)
4. Mark of Twelve Moons (Dexterity)
5. Improved Skirmish
6. Dragonfire Strike
7. Fade Into Darkness
8. Instinctive Darkness
9. Dragonmark Prodigy
10. Dragonmark Adept

[SPOILER=Level by Level Breakdown]

Spoiler: Level 1

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Taelan is a fairly typical Rogue, for now. I really dislike Dragonborn, but Taelan needs Darkvision and does not have feats to spare. Anyway, he'll spend his turns in combat plinking with a shortbow and looking for opportunities to trigger Sneak Attack. Outside of combat, he's a fairly typical scout/trapfinder.

Spoiler: Level 2

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And now he's a fairly typical (uppercase) Scout, too. Skirmish is a lot easier to trigger than Sneak Attack, helping him output consistent damage. It's not really feasible for him to trigger both, except during surprise rounds and when his not-insignificant initiative lets him act before an enemy.

Spoiler: Levels 3, 4, 5

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Not much changes through these levels. Numbers go up, darkness becomes a bit more usable, but not enough to reliably use in combat.

Spoiler: Level 6

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This is where Taelan picks up his signature trick. Hiding as a swift action allows him to move (triggering skirmish damage), hide (triggering sneak attack and hit-and-run damage), then attack (delivering said damage. He doesn't have enough darkness uses to do this often, but remember that in surprise rounds and the first round of combat, he hopefully shouldn't need to.

Spoiler: Intensify Darkness

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Deeper darkness lasts a full day, allowing Taelan to cast it on his bow at the start of the day and surround himself with darkness or not as he pleases (by storing it inside his clothes/pulling it out).

Spoiler: Darkstalker

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Love it or hate it, if you want to be stealthy, you have to take it.

Spoiler: Lesser Dragonmark

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Shadow conjuration essentially allows Taelan to 1/day be effective in a situation where he would normally have problems. His low caster level is a problem for a lot of round/level duration spells, and his save DC is nothing to speak of, but there are still good options. His go-to choice is web, with a nice 10 minute duration and an effect that is still strong against targets who make their save.

Spoiler: Mark of Twelve Moons

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Dexterity is everything to Taelan, powering his attack, his damage, his stealth, and his initiative, and he needs every point of it he can get.

Spoiler: Improved Skirmish

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Taelan triggers skirmish by moving normally, so Improved Skirmish is effectively free.

Spoiler: Dragonfire Strike

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Squeezing a little bit extra out of being Dragonborn adds a damage boost that works anytime Taelan is skirmishing, sneak attacking, or both.

Spoiler: Fade Into Darkness, Instinctive Darkness

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Extra darkness uses, and new uses for darkness. The bonus to Hide checks offered by Fade Into Darkness isn't generally a good use of Taelan's limited darkness uses, but in the right situations it'll be extremely handy. Instinctive Darkness is primarily useful in the event that he gets dispelled, but it has defensive potential (again, situationally).

Spoiler: Dragonmark Prodigy

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One more darkness use, and a new spell. Although net of shadows isn't exactly great for Taelan, he can use it to blind mooks when sneaking around.

Spoiler: Dragonmark Adept

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A second use of shadow conjuration is extremely handy, for all the reasons the first one was. The blindsight spell will only last a minute, but it'll allow Taelan to function against invisible creatures, as well as some other defences like blur, displacement, and so on.

Spoiler: Numbers

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HP: 4d8+1d10+18 = average 41.5 hp
Initiative: 5 (Dex) + 2 (Hit-and-Run Tactics) + 1 (Battle fortitude) = 8
Speed: 40 ft.
AC: 10 + 5 (Dex) + 2 (leather armor) + 1 (skirmish) + 2 (improved skirmish) = 20
Fort: 3 (base) + 2 (Con) + 1 (battle fortitude) = 6
Ref: 6 (base) + 5 (Dex) = 11
Will: 1 (base) + 1 (Wis) = 2

Attack: Longbow 4 (BAB) + 5 (Dex) = +9 to hit
Damage: 1d8 (longbow) - 1 (Str) = average 3.5 damage

Skirmish damage: 2d6 (skirmish) + 2d6 (improved skirmish) + 1d6 (Dragonfire Strike) = average +17.5 damage
Flat-footed enemy: 2d6 (sneak attack) + 1d6 (Dragonfire Strike) + 5 (Hit-and-Run Tactics) = average +15.5 damage

Total (flat-footed enemy + skirmish) : +9 to hit, 1d8 + 4 + 7d6 = average 33 damage

Skills: Disable Device +8, Hide +14, Listen +11, Move Silently +14, Search +10, Sense Motive +9, Spot +11, Tumble +13

Spoiler: Sources

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• Least Dragonmark, Lesser Dragonmark: Eberron Campaign Setting
• Mark of Twelve Moons: Dragonmarked
• Dragonborn: Races of the Dragonborn
• Scout: Complete Adventurer
• Swift Ambusher, Improved Skirmish: Complete Scoundrel
• At Home in the Deep, Blend into Shadows, Intensify Darkness, Fade Into Darkness, Instinctive Darkness, Hit-and-Run Tactics Fighter: Drow of the Underdark
• Darkstalker: Lords of Madness
• Dragonfire Strike: Dragon Magic
• Everything else: SRD content

[Zaq]

Build the sixth!

Ursula d’Tarkanan the Neutral Evil Strongheart Halfling Druid 4/Child of Khyber 2

Spoiler: Stats

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Stat	Base	Final
Strength	8	8
Dexterity	14	14
Constitution	14	14
Intelligence	12	12
Wisdom	16	16
Charisma	14	15

Spoiler: stub

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Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Druid	+0	+2	+0	+2	Concentration +4, Knowledge (Local: Sharn) +4, Handle Animal +4, Sense Motive +4, Tumble +4	Aberrant Dragonmark: Chill Touch, Child of Winter	Skilled City Dweller, Urban Sense, Voice of the City, Urban Companion
2nd	Druid	+1	+3	+0	+3	Concentration +5, Knowledge (Local: Sharn) +5, Handle Animal +5, Sense Motive +5, Tumble +5		Crowd Walker
3rd	Druid	+2	+3	+1	+3	Concentration +6, Knowledge (Local: Sharn) +6, Handle Animal +6, Sense Motive +6, Tumble +6	Winter’s Mark	Go to Ground
4th	Druid	+3	+4	+1	+4	Concentration +7, Knowledge (Local: Sharn) +7, Handle Animal +7, Sense Motive +7, Tumble +7	Strong Stomach(b)	Iron Constitution
5th	Child of Khyber	+3	+6	+3	+6	Concentration +7, Bluff +2, Knowledge (Local: Sharn) +8, Handle Animal +7, Sense Motive +8, Tumble +8	Lesser Aberrant Dragonmark: Poison(b)	Aberrant Affinity
6th	Child of Khyber	+4	+7	+4	+7	Concentration +7, Bluff +4, Knowledge (Local: Sharn) +9, Handle Animal +7, Sense Motive +9, Tumble +9	Mark of Madness	Additional Action Points, Improved Aberrant Dragonmark
7th	Epic						Mark of Xoriat
8th	Epic						Death Devotion
9th	Epic						Filth Eater
10th	Epic						Improved Familiar
11th	Epic						Favored: House Tarkanan
12th	Epic						Special Dispensation
13th	Epic						Master of Poisons
14th	Epic						Poison Spell
15th	Epic						Poison Immunity: Darkeye
16th	Epic						Primary Contact: Thora Tavin

[FONT=Verdana]

Spoiler: Ursula

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Ursula]
Ursula
Size/Type: Small Humanoid
Hit Dice: 6d8+12 (45 hp)
Initiative: +2
Speed:20 ft. ( squares)
Armor Class: 16 (+3 armor, +2 dex, +1 size), touch 13, flat-footed 13
Base Attack/Grapple: +4/-1
Attack: Touch +7 (Touch effect)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Spellcasting, Spell Like Abilities
Special Qualities: DR 5/Byeshk, Poison Immunity
Saves: Fort +9, Ref +6, Will +10
Abilities: Str 8, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 16, Cha 15
Skills: Concentration +9, Bluff +6, Knowledge (Local: Sharn) +10, Handle Animal +9, Sense Motive +12, Tumble +11
Feats: Aberrant Dragonmark: Chill Touch, Child of Winter, Winter’s Mark, Strong Stomach, Lesser Aberrant Dragonmark: Poison, Mark of Madness, Mark of Xoriat, Death Devotion, Filth Eater, Favored: House Tarkanan, Special Dispensation, Master of Poisons, Poison Spell, Poison Immunity: Darkeye, Primary Contact: Thora Tavin, Improved Familiar

Druid Spells:
0: Detect Poison, Detect Magic, Detect Poison, Detect Magic, Purify Food and Drink
1: Breath of the Jungle, Lesser Vigor, Charm Animal, Winter Chill
2: Estanna’s Stew, Summon Swarm, Winter’s Embrace

Spell Like Abilities:
3/day Chill Touch (cl 6, DC 13), Lesser Confusion (CL 3, DC 13)
1/day Poison (cl 6, DC 16)

“Poopsies”
Size/Type: Small Magical Beast
Hit Dice: ½d8 (33 hp)
Initiative: +2
Speed:30 ft. (6 squares) 30 ft climb
Armor Class: 16 (+3 natural, +2 dex, +1 size), touch 13, flat-footed 13
Base Attack/Grapple: +4/-3
Attack: Bite +7 (1d4-3 plus Poison)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Poison, Deliver Touch Spells
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft, Vermin Traits?, Improved Evasion, Share Spells, Empathic Link, Speak with other animals of its kind?
Saves: Fort +7, Ref +6, Will +7
Abilities: Str 5, Dex 15, Con 10, Int 7, Wis 10, Cha 2
Skills: Climb +10, Spot +10, Hide +14, Listen +2
Feats: Ability Focus: Poison, Weapon Finesse(b), Alertness(b)

Poison (Ex): DC 15 fortitude Initial/Secondary 1d2 dex

Spoiler: Strategy

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Ursula is adept at dealing with afflictions. Specifically delivering them upon her foes. Be it strength damage/negative energy damage from Chill Touch, Constitution damage via Poison, Dexterity damage from her Poopsies, Fatigue/Exhaustion from her spellcasting, or even negative levels she is fairly adept at delivering various afflictions. In combat her main strategy is user her Chill Touch and allowing Poopsies to deliver it via it’s own bite attack, and attempting to kill someone outright with her Winter’s Mark.

Spoiler: Strategy

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If she is aware that her opponent is a fair fight or a tough challenge then she will instead open with a Poison Spell Chill Touch applying a poison significant to the fight to all of her Chill Touch hits before sending it off to Poopsies. Then she will cast Breath of the Jungle and Summon Swarm to weaken the target before she attempts to close with her Death Touch. Her Poison spell like is reserved for only creatures that are a Dire Threat, often using the poison and then fleeing, otherwise it is only used upon Thora’s command.

She purchases her poisons from House Tarkanan, and uses any poison granted to her for missions by Thora.

She frequents the Nightshade in the Shae Lias district, and has a deal with the owners that gets her free drinks in exchange for being an innocuous bouncer. Since she is able to drink alcohol with impunity anyone not familiar with the Nightshade believes her to be just another alcoholic, anyone that poses a physical threat generally gets a poisoned drink or walked out by the weak looking halfling. She also enjoys the calm and peaceful environment of Upper Northedge. She has given her total allegiance to Thora Tavin leader of House Tarkanan, so long as Thora continues to be a powerful leader. To Ursula, Thora is the definition of “Survival of the Fittest” and likens Sharn to the wilds of the world, if you can’t find your way in the city then you aren’t needed in the world.

While there is a bounty out for Ursula, everyone knows not to attempt to collect, as those that do generally end up dead rather quickly, and anyone that actually hurts Ursula earns Thora Tavin’s and by extension House Tarkanan’s wrath, and who would dare cross a guild of assassins?

Spoiler: sources

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Too many to count…. FROM THE TOP
Aberrant Dragonmark, Child of Winter: Eberron Campaign Setting
Druid Alternate Class Features: http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a
Winter’s Mark, Lesser Aberrant Dragonmark, Mark of Madness, Mark of Xoriat and some information on House Tarkanan: Dragonmarked
Child of Khyber: http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ebds/20070416a
Death Devotion: Complete Champion
Filth Eater, Darkeye Poison, information on Sharn, and information on House Tarkanan: Sharn: City of Towers
Favored, Special Dispensation, Primary Contact, Strong Stomach: Cityscape
Master of Poisons, Poison Spell: Drow of the Underdark
Poison Immunity: Champions of Ruin
Improved Familiar: Complete Scoundrel
Strongheart Halfling: Races of Faerun

[Zaq]

Last but not least, build the seventh!

"Who's a good dog?"

Go ahead. Ask Uskollinen that question. Just be ready to have your head bitten off.

Uskollinen was a minor agent of the silver dragon Sur'kil, assigned to follow a group of adventurers tasked with finding The Altar of the Dragon's Eye. He stumbled into The Temple of Kha’shazul shortly after a climactic battle there. The backlash of magical energies forced an aberrant dragonmark onto Uskollinen. Fearing himself tainted, Uskollinen fled to Sharn.

As Uskollinen grew into his natural powers, he also continued to unlock further dragonmarked abilities. In Sharn, he tried to maintain a low profile. He served as a bodyguard and a troubleshooter in the undercity. But the Draconic Prophesy was not finished with Uskolline. Upon recover of Crimson Ruination, Uskollinen found himself again in conflict with agents of the Emerald Claw. From Sharn, he fled to Stormreach.

Uskollinen currently lives in Stormreach. He is regularly employed as a caravan guard. Between engagements, he studies his situation, hoping to somehow remove his taint and return to Syrania, the Azure Sky. But Uskollinen fears he and his crimson blade have another role to play in the Draconic Prophesy.

Spoiler: Table

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Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Base Fort Save	Base Ref Save	Base Will Save	Base Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Hound Archon 1	+1	+2	+2	+2	Concentration/4, Diplomacy/4, Hide/2, Listen/4, Move Silently/2, Sense Motive/4, Speak Language (Common), Spot/4, Survival/4	Power Attack (1st), Aberrant Dragonmark (resist energy) (bonus), Powerful Charge (bonus)	Bonus feat, darkvision 60', low-light vision, movement 40', subtypes (archon, extraplanar, good, lawful), bide 1d6, slam 1d3, +2 natural armor, resistance electricty 5, +4 bonus save vs poison.
2nd	Hound Archon 2	+2	+3	+3	+3	Concentration/5, Diplomacy/5, Hide/3, Listen/5, Move Silently/3, Sense Motive/5, Spot/5, Survival/5	N/A	Detect evil at will, message 3/day, +3 natural armor
3rd	Hound Archon 3	+3	+3	+3	+3	Concentration/6, Diplomacy/6, Hide/4, Listen/6, Move Silently/4, Sense Motive/6, Spot/6, Survival/6	Mark of Madness (3rd), Mighty Dragonmark (bonus)	Bonus feat, aid 3/day, continual flame 3/day
4th	Hound Archon 4	+3	+3	+3	+3	Same as Level 3; no new skill points this character level.	N/A	resistance electricity 10, tounges constant, +4 natural armor
5th	Hound Archon 5	+4	+4	+4	+4	Concentration/7, Diplomacy/7, Hide/5, Listen/7, Move Silently/5, Sense Motive/7, Spot/7, Survival/7	Least Legacy (Crimson Ruination) (bonus)	Change shape (canine), scent, +5 natural armor
6th	Hound Archon 6	+4	+4	+4	+4	Same as Level 5; but 5 extra skill points from Open Minded feat. Concentration/7, Diplomacy/7, Hide/5, Listen/9, Move Silently/5, Sense Motive/8, Spot/9, Survival/7	Open Minded	Bite 1d8, slam 1d4, +6 natural armor, message at will

Spoiler: Character Stats

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Male Hound Archon 6
NG Medium outsider (archon, extraplanar, good, lawful)
S-16 (+2 at 4th level)
D-16
C-17 (+2 at 2nd level, +1 at 4th level)
I-10
W-10
Ch-14

HP: 35 (8 + 11 (3 racial HD * 3.5) + 18 (Con) - 2 (WoL))
AC: 21 (10 +3 Dex +6 natural +2 deflection)
Init: +4 (+3 Dex +1 Fire Heritage)

BAB: +6 (+4 base +2 Str), +7 (Crimson Ruination), +6/+1 (bite/slam natural attacks)

Damage: bite 2d6+3+1(fire) (+3 Str +1 Fire Heritage)
slam 1d6+2+1(fire) (+3 Str +1 Fire Heritage)
Crimson Ruination 2d6+5 (+4 2-hand Str +1 magic)
Crimson Ruination 2d6+13 (+4 2-hand Str +1 magic +8 Power Attack)

DR: 5/byeshk

Fort: +9 (4 +3 Con +2 protection from evil)
Refl: +9 (4 +3 Dex +2 protection from evil)
Will: +8 (4 +0 Wis +2 protection from evil +2 Iron Will)

Skills: (Skill points, ability bonuses, feat bonuses, and racial bonuses)
Concentration/10, Diplomacy/11, Hide/7, Listen/9, Move Silently/7, Sense Motive/8, Spot/9, Survival/7

Special Qualities: Hound archon, aberrant dragonmarks, weapon of legacy (Crimson Ruination), spell-like abilities

Spell-like Abilities (Hound Archon): aid, 3/day, CL4; continual flame, 3/day, CL4; detect evil, at will, CL4; message, at will, CL4; tongues, at will, CL14, DC N/A

Spell-like Abilities (Aberrant Dragonmark): lesser confusion, 3/day, CL5, DC 13; rage, 1/day, CL7, DC N/A; resist energy, 2/day, CL7, DC N/A

Spell-like Abilities (Weapon of Legay): endure elements, constant, CL5, DC N/A; protection from evil, constant, CL5, DC N/A

Languages: Common, Celestial, Draconic, Infernal, Sylvan.

Feats: Power Attack (PH), Aberrant Dragonmark (ECS, EotLQ), Powerful Charge (ECS), Mark of Madness (DragMark), Mighty Dragonmark (DragMark), Least Legacy (WoL), Open Minded (XPH)

Epic Feats: Lesser Aberrant Dragonmark (rage) (DragMark), Greater Powerful Charge (ECS), Improved Natural Attack (bite) (MM3), Improved Natural Attack (slam) (MM3), Cleave (PH), Mark of Resilience (DragMark), Mark of Xoriat (DragMark), Iron Will (PH), Fire Heritage (PlHb), Great Cleave (PH)

Spoiler: Tactics

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Uskollinen is a melee character with a low number of hit points. At lower levels, charge first. Use natural weapons in melee. Power attack as the opportunity presents itself. Your superior movement allows you to engage on your terms.

At mid-level, your spell-like abilities give you some opitions. Aid increases your staying power. Lesser confusion and continual flame give you some battlefield control and a ranged attack.

At high levels, Crimson Ruination gives you a stronger weapon and more protection.

Off the battlefield, your social skills allow you to serve as the party face. The detect evil, message, and tongues spell-like abilities ease communication, and allow you to be a communications hub. Your movement and sense skills allow you to serve as a scout, or as a powerful backup to the scout.

At epic Lesser Aberrant Dragonmark (rage) gives a nova option for melee. Your natural weapons and charge option become stronger. Your dragonmark abilities grow stronger and more versatile. The Power Attack/Cleave/Great Cleave combo makes you a mook removal system.

[Zaq]

Whew! Worth the wait, I'm sure, but I'm very glad we're not waiting any more.

Whoooooooo's judging?

[MinimanMidget]

Wow! Five dragonmarks and two aberrant dragonmarks, and no double ups. That is a very nice spread.

[DeTess]

I've gone over the class sources, and there are a couple of things taken from the, unfortunately now defunct, WoTC archives. These pages have been archived on the wayback machine, which I'll list here for ease of reference for any judges.

Wild cohort(Avia Tharashk & Gareth d'Orien): https://web.archive.org/web/20190722...d/re/20031118a
Druid ACF(Ursula d'Tarkanan): https://web.archive.org/web/20190813...d/we/20070228a
Child of khyber(Ursula d'Tarkanan): https://web.archive.org/web/20180804...ebds/20070416a