Zinc Saucier XXV: Silver Anniversary Edition

[dysprosium]

Welcome one and all to the twenty fifth Zinc Saucier challenge, where Playgrounders come to test their skill in the art of beautiful and bizarre (and bizarrely beautiful) builds, summoning a savory dish of superb swordplay and sublime sorcery.

The challenge? To come up with a build that has the same abilities and feel as the Secret Ingredient WITHOUT actually using it!

For the twenty fifth challenge, celebrating the competition's silver anniversary from Faith's of Eberron it's the Argent Fist

Our challengers will have about 2 weeks to build a complete build up to Effective Character Level 20 using a 32 point buy and all official WOTC D&D 3.5 materials (excluding Dragon Magazine, but including any WOTC online enhancements) with the abilities and feel of an Argent Fist without actually using any levels in it.

Entries must be submitted by Monday, 11:59pm GMT, 23 June, 2014. As usual, please submit your entries via private message to the chairman, so as not to influence the other sauciers.

Judges will then have until Monday, 11:59pm GMT, 7 July, 2014, to post scores for all dishes.

Contestants will be judged and awarded a score out of 5 in each of 4 categories;

* Innovation (Uniqueness in character concept, race, class, etc)
* Power (How powerful and versatile it is compared to the base class)
* Elegance (What can only be described as how well the build "flows", i.e not using lots of 1-2lv dips, sacrificing flavour for power or using flaws)
* Ingredient (How well the build captures the abilities and feel of the base class)

Presentation would be best in the style of how the iron chef does their presentations, however any style is allowed so long as it is clear on how the build was made.

Recommended style:

Spoiler

Show

NAME OF ENTRY

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
7th	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	Feats	New Class Abilities
8th	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	Feats	New Class Abilities
9th	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	Feats	New Class Abilities
10th	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	Feats	New Class Abilities
11th	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	Feats	New Class Abilities
12th	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	Feats	New Class Abilities
13th	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	Feats	New Class Abilities
14th	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	Feats	New Class Abilities
15th	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	Feats	New Class Abilities
16th	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	Feats	New Class Abilities
17th	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	Feats	New Class Abilities
18th	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	Feats	New Class Abilities
19th	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	Feats	New Class Abilities
20th	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	Feats	New Class Abilities

Code immediately below (spoiler).

Spoiler

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[table="width: 1000, class: grid, align: center"]
[tr]
[td][B]Level[/B][/td]
[td][B]Class[/B][/td]
[td][B]Base Attack Bonus[/B][/td]
[td][B]Fort Save[/B][/td]
[td][B]Ref Save[/B][/td]
[td][B]Will Save[/B][/td]
[td][B]Skills[/B][/td]
[td][B]Feats[/B][/td]
[td][B]Class Features[/B][/td]
[/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]
[tr]
[td]7th[/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]8th[/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]9th[/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]10th[/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]11th[/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]12th[/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]13th[/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]14th[/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]15th[/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]16th[/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]17th[/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]18th[/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]19th[/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]20th[/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]

For entries with spellcasting, use the following table for Spells per day and Spells Known. (Spells Known only if necessary, i.e. Sorcerer or Bard, but not Wizard or Warmage)

Spoiler

Show

Spells per Day/Spells Known

Level	0lvl	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th
1st	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2nd	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3rd	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
6th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
7th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
8th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
9th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
10th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
11th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
12th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
13th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
14th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
15th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
16th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
17th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
18th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
19th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
20th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Code immediately below (spoiler)

Spoiler

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[B]Spells per Day/Spells Known[/B]
[table="width: 500, class: grid, align: center"]
[tr]
[td][B]Level[/B][/td]
[td][B]0lvl[/B][/td]
[td][B]1st[/B][/td]
[td][B]2nd[/B][/td]
[td][B]3rd[/B][/td]
[td][B]4th[/B][/td]
[td][B]5th[/B][/td]
[td][B]6th[/B][/td]
[td][B]7th[/B][/td]
[td][B]8th[/B][/td]
[td][B]9th[/B][/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]1st[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]2nd[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]3rd[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]4th[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]5th[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]6th[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]7th[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]8th[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]9th[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]10th[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]11th[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]12th[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]13th[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]14th[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]15th[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]16th[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]17th[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]18th[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]19th[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]20th[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[td]-[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]

Please do not post details of your build on the board before it is ready, so as not to spoil the surprise for others.

Sauciers may submit as many builds as they want but please don't use Leadership, as we don't want to overfeed the judges.

Previous challenges;

1. Soulknife
2. Bard
3. Monk
4. Assassin
5. Barbarian
6. Warlock
7. Paladin *
8. Warblade
9. Pyrokineticist
10. Ninja *
11. Druid
12. True Necromancer
13. Dervish
14. Whisperknife
15. Epic Infiltrator *
16. Master of Vipers
17. Ranger *
18. Flayerspawn Psychic
19. Totemist
20. Walker in the Waste
21. Drunken Master
22. Cleric
23. Duskblade
24. Psibond Agent

* Classes marked with an asterisk have had their original posts updated to reflect the final results.

This competition is inspired by the Playground Iron Chef Competitions and uses mostly identical rules.

Also it comes with double prize money. Why? Because we care!

Allez Sauciers!

[dysprosium]

A few administrative notes:

Competitors will be free to use any official 3.5 rulebook in constructing their builds. Dragon magazine is disallowed, and Unearthed Arcana is allowed; but see Elegance below. Web-exclusive 3.0 or 3.5 materials by WotC are expressly allowed, but take care to verify that an updated version did not appear in print elsewhere, as this may cause an Elegance deduction at the judges' discretion. Alternate rule systems from UA such as gestalt are not allowed, as they create a different playing field. Also, item familiars are forbidden because I hate 'em.

Power level is up to you. Cheese is acceptable, but should be kept to a sane level unless you're showcasing a new TO build you've discovered. In the words of one of my predecessors, a little cheddar can be nice, but avoid the mature Gruyere unless you're making a cheese fondue.

Elegance could bear a little elaboration. It basically measures how skillfully you put your build together, and whether you sacrificed flavor for power. We're cooking here - if your dish doesn't taste good, it doesn't matter how well-presented it is. Use of flaws is an automatic loss of one point per flaw in this category. Other things that will cause lost points here are excessive multiclassing, and classes that don't fit the concept - using Cloistered Cleric in a front-line melee fighter, for example, may lose you points. Please note the following: a legal source's relative obscurity should not be considered as penalizing Elegance, excepting the aforementioned issues with Unearthed Arcana. Using too many sources may be an Elegance deduction at the judges' discretion, but a book's relative obscurity may not.

So ECL 20. How much XP do I have? Having never played with XP multiclass penalties myself . . . Judges should consider that all entries have the appropriate XP to qualify for each level. This is a competition about the build itself and real game situations that could apply at one table may not apply at another.

What's the minimum score in a category? Assuming an entry is legal, the minimum score in any category is 1. If a judge is convinced that an entry is illegal by the RAW, the judge may give a 0 or decline to score a given entry. Because this contest focuses on Player Characters, an entry that is not technically allowed for a PC, but is viable as an NPC, counts as a legal entry, but may receive a minimum score at the judges' discretion.

Is Dragon Compendium Allowed? Yes, but individual issues of Dragon Magazine are not.

What about 3.0 materials? 3.0 materials, whether online or in printed form, are allowed unless they've been officially updated to a 3.5 edition.

Are Dragonlance, Ravenloft, Planescape, Dark Sun, or Kingdoms of Kalamar allowable sources? The Dragonlance Campaign Setting is allowed, but the subsequent books for Dragonlance are considered 3rd party, and are therefore not eligible, despite the "WotC approved" status of those books. The same holds for Oriental Adventures (1st party) and the subsequent Rokugan books (3rd party). Materials from Ravenloft, Planescape, Dark Sun, and Kingdoms of Kalamar are considered 3rd party for purposes of this contest, and are therefore not allowed.

What about online sources in general? If the online source is a) published by WotC, and b) not replaced by an updated version at a later time, it is eligible. Use it, link it.

Where's the line drawn with "acceptable/unacceptable" for Unearthed Arcana? This will likely vary a bit from Chairman to Chairman. Variant class features and variant character classes are espressly permitted. Item Familiars and Gestalt have always been verboten, since before IC migrated to GitP; don't expect that to change. Flaws have similarly always been noted as warranting a deduction; while I am Chairman, I'm extending that to Traits, though they warrant 1/2 the penalty in Elegance that a Flaw would because they're roughly 1/2 as useful. Alternate spell systems, alternate skill systems and alternate crafting rules all create an uneven playing field, and as such, will be disallowed for as long as I am Chairman. Bloodlines are ripe for abuse, and will be discouraged as long as I am Chairman. Note that judges are allowed to look askance at any use of Unearthed Arcana not specifically mentioned above, at their discretion, and otherwise penalize Elegance according to their preference.

What, exactly, does the ban on Leadership mean? As folks have started to try to work around the edges of this one, I'm forced to spell it out more plainly. No Leadership, Draconic Cohort, or Feats that grant a similar ability are allowed EXCEPT Wild Cohort while I am chairman. Any PrC you choose with Leadership or a Leadership-analog has that ability entirely ignored for this contest, as it may neither be used nor traded away via any means whatsoever.

What's the minimum score in a category? Assuming an entry is legal, the minimum score in any category is 1. If a judge is convinced that an entry is illegal by the RAW, the judge may give a 0 or decline to score a given entry. Because this contest focuses on Player Characters, an entry that is not technically allowed for a PC, but is viable as an NPC, counts as a legal entry, but may receive a minimum score at the judges' discretion.

How the heck do I even do this? Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to select a combination of race, templates, classes, alternate class features, prestige classes, skills, and feats, meld them into a single character that progresses from ECL 1 to ECL 20, that is as close as possible to the secret ingredient as possible in look, feel, class features. How you do it is up to you, I recommend you read previous competitions if you are interested in seeing how others have done it before you. Capture the essence!

A thread for your amusement/edification:

Handy Tips for the Iron Chef in the Playground Noob

So this is an Eberron prestige class. Do I have to be from Eberron?: No. Sauciers and Judges should note that although this class is used for that specific campaign setting, entries do not have to be from Khorvaire or worship the Silver Flame. Judges should not penalize Sauciers that flavor their entries with a different campaign setting.

[Sian]

Found the obivious way to do it ... going to try and see if i can find a better way to do it.

[Ikeren]

Interesting. Will probably judge. Probably build something and include it with my judging, as I did for the last Junkyard Wars.

[Phelix-Mu]

Happy 25th, Zinc Saucier! Here's wishing many returns of the day.

[Kuulvheysoon]

For the first time in a half dozen rounds, I've got an idea. Count me in.

[Muggins]

It's here! Even better, it comes with a fluff clarification!

I'm looking forward to the various builds this round. I'm sure we'll have at least one person without levels in monk.

[Sian]

After having fiddled a bit with trying to get everything to fit, I think i've gotten a build laid out ... Now to build it

[Humble Master]

Happy 25th Zinc Saucier!

Very interesting ingredient. I think I will judge this one.

[relytdan]

will the chairmain address the whole of experience ( AKA 190,000 ) in the information or FAQ at the top - in reguards to the last round.
thankyou

[dysprosium]

Thank you for all of the well wishes! I'm proud to say that I have been able to be a part of something on here that has lasted as long as it has.

This competition has some dedicated members but more are always welcome. These competitions can only survive by participation.

The XP issue is in the FAQ post (#2) in green. I hope it covers any issues. Let me know if it does not (or worse opens up news ones).

[dysprosium]

Hey Sauciers! How are we doing?

[Sian]

Fluff to go, but otherwise i'm all but done

[Humble Master]

Judging criteria for the contest.

Spoiler: Judging Criteria

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Innovation: This is based on what I would expect to see based on the SI (In the Psibond Adgent round for instance I expected Psion (Telepath), Psionic Rouge, Mindbender ect.) and what the other contestants put forth. You also get points in this if you find some cool way to combine abilities (Like Wild Shaping into a monster that's a cloud of super-heated death gas and using Control Wind to blow yourself around at 300 MPH for flight).

Power: I judge this as power in relation to the SI. Basically, how powerful is you character compared to one that took 10 levels of the SI. If your character exceeds the power of the SI you'll get a higher score. A low score would be given to a character that is weaker than the SI. Power is also not limited to combat. An out of combat character that does really well at out of combat tasks is still powerful. For this competition I will be comparing your build to a Monk 2, Paladin 8, Argent Fist 10. If someone would like to suggest a better "base" for my judging I am all ears.

Ingredient: This score is based on two things. First, how many abilities of the SI you emulated. The emulations need not be perfect but they should achieve the same effect. Similar fluff for abilities will also get rewarded. I will be looking for emulation of things such as hit dice and skills as well. Getting the prerequisites of the SI would certainly not hurt either but I won't put a huge emphasis on it. Second, the feel of the SI. In other words, making a character that does similar stuff in a similar way. For Psibond Agent, that would be a character who is adept at subterfuge and spying with their mind-controlling powers.

Elegence: Things that will get you a hit to Elegence are lots of dips, flaws, anything that requires you spend GP to get it (Be it a service or magical items. The exception to the magic item rule is if your character can make the magical item themselves.), high levels of cheese or questionable rules interpretation. Finally, you will be penalized or rewarded based on how well the various class/feat choices work together in terms of flavor.

[Ikeren]

Judging Criterion:

I'll be judging. My explicit goal for judging this competition is to increase peoples enjoyment of this competition. My judging criterion is here. I might make a build anyways, and just not submit it, and spoilerblock it with my judging once I submit my judging. I find while I enjoy the building, the judging generally consistently reduces my enjoyment of the competition, and I suspect the same is true of other competitors, so I'll attempt to change that.

Spoiler: Judging Criterion

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Originality: 5 points: Of these 5 points, approximately half will be in relation to other builds in the competition, and approximately half will be in relation to the canon of optimization. If the build is a gish, and I open the gish handbook, and your gish build is comprised of nothing but the best options from the handbook strung together, that's not a high originality score.

Fighter1/Wizard6/Spellsword1/Abjurant Champion 5/Eldritch Knight 7 is not original: something involving paladin/bard/sublime chord is slightly more original. Something involving suel aranachmech, runescarred berserker and fochlucan lyrist is very original.

But a challenge here is that sometimes original things will be less powerful; sometimes the best known options are best known because they are powerful. Look for balance here, or a way to put in a particularly clever or original twist on a traditional option. If your classic gish (above) goes fighter 2 dungeoncrasher + lockdown feats with a crusader dip and persisting repelling shield at high levels, that's more original.

Power: 5 points, of which, half the score is raw power and half the score is versatility. Raw power more or less follows tiers, with 2.5 = Tier 1, 2.0 = Tier 2, 1.5 = Tier 3, 1.0 = Tier 4, and 0.5 = Tier 5 or lower, with exceptions for things that can clearly remove enemy NPC's at a rate of 1+/round. Versatility applies to in combat options (melee, ranged, casting, defense, offenses) and out of combat (skills, social encounter spells, crafting, transport, movement minigames). A character with a lot of power in one trick (an uber-charger, say) would score high for raw power (2.0) but lower for versatility (0.5 or 1) for a score of 2.5 or 3.0/5.

Resemblence to Secret Ingredient: 5 points:
BAB: 12+
Hit Dice: d10
Saves: Fort + Will Good
Skills: 4+int, with the same class skills as possible. 4 ranks of knowledge religion
Lawful Good
Improved Unarmed Strike
Turn Undead
Evasion
The ability to make smites stunning first attacks, and boosting the DC
The ability to use some-stat-to-AC in armor/shield/loads
Unarmed Strikes counting as Magical, Silver and Cold Iron
Smite 3/day
Mettle
Cast the Daylight spell
Give an aura that damages and debuffs Lycanthropes, Undead, and Evil outsiders. --- Note; I will count abilities that provide debuffing auras/damaging auras against everyone as success here.
Autocrit with unarmed strikes on Lycanthropes, Undead, and Evil Outsiders. --- Note; I will count abilities that provide auto-critical with unarmed strikes on anyone as a success here. Partial points for huge boosts to crit confirm.
Crit undead.

For the --- Spend Turning section, I'll count "Spending some other daily pool" as most of a success.
Spend Turning Attempts to greatly increase effectiveness of healing spells
Spend turning attempts to augment unarmed strike damage
Spend turning attempts to gain fast healing
Spend action points to gain move actions


Having all these will result in a perfect score here.


Elegence: Mostly I'm looking for debated rulings, excessive dipping (2 or 3 dips is expected. 4+, less so), dropping casting progressions part of the way through, dropping prestige classes or base classes at atypical points, using variant rules or systems together (impulse boots to qualify for evasion), and exceptionally common cheese. Expect me to be more lenient in this category than the average judge. You people seem to care excessively much about alignment shifts/refluffing/etcetera, especially for an optimization competition.

[Muggins]

A little bit of judge criterion dispute.

Knight Training or Monastic Training and Improved Unarmed Strike
...
Make Paladin+Monk levels stack for unarmed damage
Make Paladin+Monk levels stack for Smite Evil
Make Paladin+Monk freely multiclassible

So you're forcing builds to take levels in Monk, Paladin or both? We must choose between points in Originality and points in the Secret Ingredient?

The Ki Focus Special ability

This ability is easily replicated through the use of WBL.

The ability to make smites stunning first attacks, and boosting the DC
The ability to use monk wisdom-to-AC in armor/shield/loads
...
Spend Turning Attempts to greatly increase effectiveness of healing spells
...
Spend turning attempts to augment unarmed strike damage
...
Spend turning attempts to gain fast healing
Spend action points to gain move actions
...
Give an aura that damages and debuffs Lycanthropes, Undead, and Evil outsiders.
Autocrit with unarmed strikes on Lycanthropes, Undead, and Evil Outsiders.
Crit undead.

These abilities cannot be emulated (in part or in whole) outside of the Secret Ingredient. Go figure that a prestige class has some unique class features.

[Kuulvheysoon]

These abilities cannot be emulated (in part or in whole) outside of the Secret Ingredient. Go figure that a prestige class has some unique class features.

Actually I can think of ways to emulate about half of those with classes/feats/WBL off the top of my head. And I'm sure that if I can do it, the great minds here at the Playground can do better.

Spoiler: Minor Speculation

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The Action Boost feat from the ECS lets you spend 2 action points for an extra move/standard action for example.

[Muggins]

Good find, but my point was that the "spend turning attempts" part of "spend turning attempts to augment unarmed strike damage" (as an example) feels unnecessary and/or too specific. It's not possible to get full marks for criterion like this because there are no other classes (to my knowledge) which allow this specific exchange of turning attempts to unarmed damage.

The criterion could just as well be "can expend a resource to increase its unarmed strike damage," possibly with half marks for having flat bonuses to unarmed strike damage. There are also some, like the ability to exchange smite attempts for stunning fist attempts, which are simply impossible to achieve. Shouldn't a theoretical perfect build be capable of achieving 5/5 in Use/Mimicry of the Secret Ingredient?

[Kuulvheysoon]

Good find, but my point was that the "spend turning attempts" part of "spend turning attempts to augment unarmed strike damage" (as an example) feels unnecessary and/or too specific. It's not possible to get full marks for criterion like this because there are no other classes (to my knowledge) which allow this specific exchange of turning attempts to unarmed damage.

The criterion could just as well be "can expend a resource to increase its unarmed strike damage," possibly with half marks for having flat bonuses to unarmed strike damage. There are also some, like the ability to exchange smite attempts for stunning fist attempts, which are simply impossible to achieve. Shouldn't a theoretical perfect build be capable of achieving 5/5 in Use/Mimicry of the Secret Ingredient?

Oh, you misunderstand - I agree completely with the sentiment behind your post. I mean, if I can replicate, say, the unarmed strike progress using a random monkish PrC without actually taking levels in monk, good on me. But that'd apparently be penalised.

[Ikeren]

Shouldn't a theoretical perfect build be capable of achieving 5/5 in Use/Mimicry of the Secret Ingredient?

I'm uncertain about this, actually. I thought the theoretical perfect build was Paladin4/Monk6/Argent Fist 10 (or whatever), and that all builds are judged in relation to their ability to mimick this. Given the rules of D&D and the unique nature of prestige classes, it seems reasonable some prestige classes cannot be perfectly mimicked, and thus can't be given perfect mimics scores?

That being said, I'll go through and loosen up some of those, specifically.

The ability to use monk wisdom-to-AC in armor/shield/loads
Spend Turning Attempts to greatly increase effectiveness of healing spells
Spend turning attempts to augment unarmed strike damage
Spend turning attempts to gain fast healing
Spend action points to gain move actions
Give an aura that damages and debuffs Lycanthropes, Undead, and Evil outsiders.
Crit undead.

These things are all things that I see as having not-super-obscure ways to accomplish.

[relytdan]

as it seems there are abilities within this SI that are unique to the PRC I would say that anything that came close to those should count for something but failure to get them should not count against either- just my 2 coppers worth

[Curmudgeon]

I won't be competing in this round. That's a shame, because Argent Fist has some characteristics that are hard to match and I greatly enjoy a challenge. I probably won't be competing in the foreseeable future, either. The reason is that Ikeren's style of judging just sucks all the fun out of the competition. Glossing over build errors and rewarding Tier-ranked Power rather than a close match to the Secret Ingredient means that the recipe for most any ZS contest starts with a Tier 1 character. Just plug in an oddball race and PrCs for Innovation, select spells to match the Ingredient, and you're done in a couple of hours, likely with a score that's comparable to that of a contestant who put in ten times the effort trying to get the best possible match to the SI.

I'm not claiming that such a formulaic approach would win the contest with Ikeren-style judging, but I'm of a mind that it shouldn't be that easy to place near the top. A dish that's been carefully crafted to match the SI ought to distinguish itself in the scores. Yet a Tier 1 spellcaster automatically wins in the Power category when Ikeren's judging, on both raw power and versatility, irrespective of what recipe is desired. (In the past I've judged a minimum score in Power for a dish that greatly exceeded that of the SI.) So why shouldn't a contestant take the approach, knowing that picking spells is almost the only work required for a decent ZS score?

As I said, it's just no fun to compete anymore.

[relytdan]

I would tend to agree with curmudgeon on the whole of how Zinc builds should be judged better for matching the specifics of rather than if the build is anywhere near tier 1 and like curmudgeon when I judge I go with the build that gives me the closest to exactly the SI gets the highest score

[WhamBamSam]

I disagree with scoring Power based entirely on how closely it matches the secret ingredient, but I agree that overkill should be penalized. This ingredient is T4 on a good day (a Monk/Paladin PrC that doesn't progress Paladin casting or Special Mount? Eww), but I'd say that a solid T3ish build should score well in Power. It's a separate category from Emulation for a reason. A T1 or T2 build should get dinged though.

I have the rumblings of an idea. I may compete, or I may judge. Depends on the SI for the next IC round and how I do with some of the minor abilities.

[Humble Master]

I actually in the Duskblade round argued that people should not be penalized for exceeding the power of the SI (In retrospect, it was probably because that was were my build was dinged the most). However, the points Crumudgeon and WhamBamSam makes are both good ones. Part of the reason Archivists, Artificers, Clerics, Druids and Wizards are Tier 1 is because they can do everything. Wizard 20 should not be a build that can score highly in Power and Emulation 90% of the time. Because of this idea, here is my revised Power criteria.

[Sian]

how many builds have been submitted as of yet?

[Ikeren]

@Curmudgeon: You're welcome to judge and mitigate my scores then, with your own style, but I'll note that we agreed perfectly on the rankings last time, as did the third judge, so I think your concerns are exaggerated. But as pointed out, power is only 5/20 points, and only 2.5 out of 20 is tier based; the other part is versatility and ability to play in non-spell based categories: "Versatility applies to in combat options (melee, ranged, casting, defense, offenses) and out of combat (skills, social encounter spells, crafting, transport, movement minigames)..."

Given that the difference between each placing in the last competition was substantially greater than the 2.5 range I allocate to pure power, I remain unconcerned. And the reason I don't submit builds is because of your judging style, so the irony here is pretty incredible.

[Curmudgeon]

... power is only 5/20 points, and only 2.5 out of 20 is tier based; the other part is versatility and ability to play in non-spell based categories: "Versatility applies to in combat options (melee, ranged, casting, defense, offenses) and out of combat (skills, social encounter spells, crafting, transport, movement minigames)..."

There is no "other part", because I can list spells that facilitate every single item you listed as "non-spell based categories", from Divine Power (melee) to Knight's Move (movement minigames) — or Tenser's Transformation (melee) to Baleful Transposition (movement minigames). From the Tier System for Classes:

Tier 1: Capable of doing absolutely everything, often better than classes that specialize in that thing.

Because that's the very definition of versatility, you're thereby proclaiming you'll award a Tier 1 character top marks for Power — regardless of the contest.

Spoiler: versatile

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versatile
-adjective

1. capable of or adapted for turning easily from one to another of various tasks, fields of endeavor, etc.: a versatile writer.
2. having or capable of many uses: a versatile tool.

[dysprosium]

I have three entries as of this post.

When I DM I like to make sure that everyone is having a good time. When players of mine voice a concern I try to listen and see what I can do to make things better. So it pains me to read that participants here are not having fun. Some things I might be able to fix, others things I might not.

[Sian]

I have three entries as of this post.

Probably to low for me to start cooking my second dish, which i got the idea the other day ... would probably wait creating a second dish untill there's at least 5 dishes going on