Iron Chef Optimisation Challenge in the Playground LXXX

[Heliomance]

This might just be the highest powered build we've seen on Iron Chef

Black Sparrow



Race: Hengeyokai Sparrow
Build Stub: Ardent 7/Shapeshifter 1/Master of Many Forms 8/Ardent +2/Warlock 1/Master of Many Forms +2
Multiclass Penalty: No.
Languages: Common, Hengeyokai
Alignment: NE
Ability Scores: (32 Points)

Ability	Humanoid Form	Hybrid Form	Sparrow Form	Racial	Points	4th	8th	12th	16th	20th
Strength	10	10	1		2
Dexterity	11	13	23	+2 (Hybrid)	3					12
Constitution	14	14	10		6
Intelligence	10	10	10		2
Wisdom	15	15	15	-2	13	16	17	18	19
Charisma	14	14	14		6

Spoiler: Backstory

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Black Sparrow stepped into the tavern and immediately noticed something was wrong. Too many candles. She knew the owner, Stilgor Stumpshanks, had a touch of duergar on his mother's side and a fondness for pinching pennies, so he liked to keep the place dim. She tried shifting to shadesteel form, but as the intricate pattern of unfolding magical energies flooded her mind, she felt them almost instantly wither and die. Anti-magic field, she realized, almost a second too late. She managed to get invoke magic out, and tried to dimension door away, but that fizzled as well. Dimensional lock, she suspected. Angry red orbs of fire smashed into her from multiple directions, and white-hot pain wracked through her body, threatening to overhwhelm her natural fire resistance. Panic and terror ripped it's way through her as she tried to focus... multiple spellcasters, well-prepared. She managed to get a small clay pot out of her component pouch, and threw it down on the ground at her feet. A burst of bright light enveloped her, wrapping her into a protective globe of scintillating colors.

The prismatic sphere bought her a few seconds, just enough to get time stop cast. First she tried shifting into earth elemental form, but discovered a wall of force just underneath a thin layer of dirt and straw. She pulled out three scrolls and cast them on herself: greater arcane sight and two copies of heroics. Just as the time stop came to an end, she shifted to will'o'wisp form. The swirling colors flickered as the protective shells were stripped away. As the last one disappeared, she was ready. She concentrated on the natural pulsing of her life energy in her spherical body, finding the natural rhythms within her own mind that connected her to the natural world around her, finding the patterns and overlapping resonances until she felt the sharp contours of the Iron Heart mantra lock in place, and then sent a surge of energy into the field around her.

As the anti-magic field crackled and faded, she glanced around her. At least twelve spellcasters closing in. The room was bathed in a sparkling emerald glow, the dimensional lock that kept her from teleporting out. She could try dispelling it, but with twelve or more spellcasters surrounding her, there was a high risk of counterspelling, not to mention anticipate teleportation. She needed to get out of the kill zone and move the battlefield to another location, where her ambushers didn't have such a significant advantage. The wall of force was still under her feet, so down was out. Doors and windows likely had glyphs or symbols to deal with. She looked up, wondering if she had enough time to blast through the ceiling. What about... the chimney? She quickly glanced at the fireplace. No magical auras there!

She darted into the fireplace and shot up through the chimney. But just as she got to the top, she saw a mesh of wires had been thrown over it. Panic suddenly gave way to white-hot anger. If they wanted a fight, well, she might as well give them one. As she shifted into her cryotyryn form, the chimney exploded, showring the roof of the tavern with bricks and mortar. She landed lightly on a tile roof, twenty-four heads full of snapping fangs swirling around, trying to find her enemies.

Then the arrows hit her, easy enough to ignore in her present form, but they were coated with something. Poison, she realized, trying to shift into another form, shadesteel golem to counter the poison, but there was something else... not poison. Drugs, and then... blackness...

* * *

She awoke with a start, her twenty-four heads all staring at a cold stone floor or the brick walls of a large dome-like cell. Glowing purple bands of magical energy encircled her body, her necks, her wings, everything she could possibly move was tied down. Several of her heads to could see a circle of glowing blue symbols on the stone floor around her. Just outside this circle stood a stout man in a burgundy robe trimmed in gold brocade. He had a polished bald head and a tawny well-groomed beard. His sky-blue eyes regarded her coldly. Behind him, she could see a wooden door, barred and also covered with glowing magical symbols.

The bearded man spoke: "Assume a human form and I will remove the bonds." His voice was calm but carried the iron timbre of command.

Black Sparrow tried shifting, but nothing happened. She tried focusing her thoughts, but something heavy was weighing them down, like a huge wet blanket, disturbing her concentration... were the drugs still in her system? Then she felt a sudden flicker of clarity, and she shifted to human form. The robed man made a gesture with his hand, and the purple bands of magic winked out of existence. She sat up, rubbing her muscles to drive away the lingering pain of being held in one position for so long. The man made another flick of his wrist, almost too quick for her to notice, and she felt the heavy blanket feeling intensify, but her thoughts were starting to catch up and make more sense. She recognized some of the symbols in the circle around her: Magic circle against evil, antimagic field, dimensional lock, but there were a few she didn't recognize.

The bearded man spoke: "I am Othar Sevenstaves, Archmage of the Stormfire Guard. Do not attempt to cast any spells, use any powers, or change forms again. Do you understand me?"

Black Sparrow nodded, rubbing her arms to drive away the tinging in her muscles.

"Is this your natural form?" asked Othar.

Black Sparrow shrugged and tried a weak smile. "A long time ago, perhaps... Close enough."

"What... who are you?" demanded Othar.

She locked eyes with him. "No one of consequence."

Othar said with a sneer, "Three dead archmages, thirty-seven royal knights, five war galleons, half of the winter palace reduced to rubble, and two dead crown princes might argue otherwise!"

Black Sparrow rolled her eyes. "They got in my way. Are you short on diamond dust? I suppose I could raise them, if you're all that upset about it."

Othar's brow furrowed. "And yet you spared the queen consort. Why?"

Black Sparrow narrowed her eyes. "A twelve year-old girl, still more child than queen. What, you would consider me such monster?" Then she smirked. "Well, not that sort of monster. Whatever these depravities you acuse me of... are they so much worse than that mockery of a man you call a king?"

"Silence!" shouted Othar, his face reddening with rage. "You still draw breath by my will alone, until such time as I squeeze your last gasp from whatever wretched body your black soul clings to!"

Black Sparrow smiled. "Of all the souls you should concern yourself about, Othar Sevenstaves, perhaps you should worry more about your own. Tell me, archmage, how would you prefer to die? My sisters and I can be quite accomodating, if you catch us in the right mood."

A loud smashing sound came from the door, followed quickly by another, and then the door splintered inward with a bright flash of light as the magical wards broke down. Othar turned, dark words of arcane power just beginning to form on his lips, but it was too late. The first sparrow had already flown into the room, followed by a few hundred more of her sisters. The magical light arcing from Othar's fingers fizzled and died under the rising crescendo of high-pitched chirping from the cloud of sparrows. More sparrows flew into the room, until the entire swarp resembled a swirling smudge of venemous ink. Othar reached inside his robe for something, but the cloud suddenly reached down like an inky black hand, enveloping the archmage. There was flash of light deep inside the cloud, and then the sparrows dispersed, leaving only dustmotes behind.

The cloud of sparrows swirled once around the magic circle, which flashed brightly once, and then faded. The swarm of sparrows then streamed out of the open door. Black Sparrow stepped out of the circle followed them out.

Spoiler: Build Progression

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Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Ardent 1	+0	+0	+0	+2	Autohypnosis 2, Concentration 4, Psicraft 2	Alertness	Energy Mantle, Freedom Mantle
2nd	Ardent 2	+1	+0	+0	+3	Autohypnosis 2, Concentration 5, Psicraft 3		Natural World Mantle
3rd	Ardent 3	+2	+1	+1	+3	Autohypnosis 2, Concentration 6, Psicraft 4	Midnight Augmentation
4th	Ardent 4	+3	+1	+1	+4	Autohypnosis 3, Concentration 7, Psicraft 4
5th	Ardent 5	+3	+1	+1	+4	Autohypnosis 4, Concentration 8, Psicraft 4		Magic Mantle
6th	Ardent 6	+4	+2	+2	+5	Autohypnosis 5, Concentration 9, Psicraft 4	Endurance
7th	Ardent 7	+5	+2	+2	+5	Autohypnosis 6, Concentration 10, Psicraft 4
8th	Shapeshifter 1	+5	+4	+4	+7	Autohypnosis 6, Concentration 10, Psicraft 4, Spellcraft 4		Wild Shape 3/day, Extra Shifting
9th	Master of Many Forms 1	+5	+6	+6	+7	Autohypnosis 6, Concentration 11, Hide 1, Listen 1, Psicraft 4, Spellcraft 4, Spot 1	Shape Soulmeld: Strongheart Vest	Shifter's Speech, Improved Wild Shape (Humanoid)
10th	Master of Many Forms 2	+6	+7	+7	+7	Autohypnosis 6, Concentration 12, Hide 2, Listen 2, Psicraft 4, Spellcraft 4, Spot 2		Improved Wild Shape (Giant; Large)
11th	Master of Many Forms 3	+7	+7	+7	+8	Autohypnosis 6, Concentration 13, Hide 3, Listen 3, Psicraft 4, Spellcraft 4, Spot 3		Fast Wild Shape, Improved Wild Shape (Monstrous Humanoid)
12th	Master of Many Forms 4	+8	+8	+8	+8	Autohypnosis 6, Concentration 14, Hide 4, Listen 4, Psicraft 4, Spellcraft 4, Spot 4	Bonus Essentia	Improved Wild Shape (Fey; Tiny)
13th	Master of Many Forms 5	+8	+8	+8	+8	Autohypnosis 6, Concentration 15, Hide 5, Listen 5, Psicraft 4, Spellcraft 4, Spot 5		Improved Wild Shape (Vermin)
14th	Master of Many Forms 6	+9	+9	+9	+9	Autohypnosis 6, Concentration 16, Hide 6, Listen 6, Psicraft 4, Spellcraft 4, Spot 6		Improved Wild Shape (Aberration; Huge)
15th	Master of Many Forms 7	+10	+9	+9	+10	Autohypnosis 6, Concentration 17, Hide 7, Listen 7, Psicraft 4, Spellcraft 4, Spot 7	Dark Speech	Extraordinary Wild Shape, Improved Wild Shape (Plant)
16th	Master of Many Forms 8	+11	+10	+10	+10	Autohypnosis 6, Concentration 18, Hide 8, Listen 8, Psicraft 4, Spellcraft 4, Spot 8		Improved Wild Shape (Ooze; Diminuative)
17th	Ardent 8	+12	+10	+10	+11	Autohypnosis 8, Concentration 18, Hide 8, Listen 8, Psicraft 4, Spellcraft 4, Spot 8
18th	Ardent 9	+12	+11	+11	+11	Autohypnosis 10, Concentration 18, Hide 8, Listen 8, Psicraft 4, Spellcraft 4, Spot 8	Expanded Knowledge (psychic reformation)
19th	Warlock 1	+11	+11	+11	+13	Autohypnosis 10, Concentration 18, Hide 8, Listen 8, Profession: Euthanasianist 4, Psicraft 4, Spellcraft 4, Spot 8		Eldritch Blast 1d6, Least Invocation (Summon Swarm)
19th	Master of Many Forms 9	+12	+11	+11	+12	Autohypnosis 10, Concentration 18, Hide 8, Listen 10, Psicraft 4, Spellcraft 4, Spot 10		Improved Wild Shape (Elemental)
20th	Master of Many Forms 10	+13	+12	+12	+12	Autohypnosis 10, Concentration 18, Hide 8, Listen 12, Psicraft 4, Spellcraft 4, Spot 12		Evershifting Form, Improved Wild Shape (Dragon; Gargantuan)

Spoiler: Powers and Spells

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Ardent Powers

Level	Power Points	Powers Known	New Powers (Mantle)
1st	3	2	Energy Ray (Energy), Dimension Hop (Freedom)
2nd	8	3	Chameleon (Natural World)
3rd	14	4	Hustle (Freedom)
4th	23	5	Energy Push (Energy)
5th	32	6	Dispel Psionics (Magic)
6th	44	7	Energy Wall (Energy)
7th	56	8	Metamorphosis (Natural World)
8th	56	8
9th	56	8
10th	56	8
11th	56	8
12th	60	8
13th	60	8
14th	60	8
15th	60	8
16th	60	8
17th	72	9	Psionic Fly (Freedom)
18th	90	11	Psionic Freedom of Movement (Freedom), Psychic Reformation (Expanded Knowledge)
19th	114	11	Replace Psionic Freedom of Movement with Psionic Earthquake (Natural World) and Psychic Reformation with either Fusion or Astral Seed (Expanded Knowledge)
20th	114	11

Sorcerer Spells

Spell Level	Spells Per Day	Spells Known	Spells
0th	6	9	Acid Splash, Detect Magic, Light, Mage Hand, Prestidigitation, Read Magic
1st	7	5	Benign Transposition (Spell Compendium), Instant Diversion (Races of the Dragon), Kelgore's Fire Bolt (PHBII), Nerveskitter (Spell Compendium), Ray of Enfeeblement
2nd	7	5	Cloud of Bewilderment (Spell Compendium), Cloud of Knives (PHBII), Glitterdust, Scorching Ray, Wings of Cover (Races of the Dragon)
3rd	7	4	Greater Mighty Wallop (Races of the Dradon), Hailstones (Spell Compendium), Haste, Heart of Water (Complete Mage)
4th	7	4	Enervation, Evard's Black Tentacles, Ruin Delver's Fortune (Spell Compendium), Shadow Conjuration
5th	7	4	Arcane Fusion (Complete Mage), Break Enchantment, Magic Jar, Teleport
6th	7	3	Acid Fog, Disintegrate, Greater Dispel Magic
7th	7	3	Arcane Spellsurge (Dragon Magic), Greater Shadow Conjuration, Limited Wish
8th	7	3	Greater Shadow Evocation, Mind Blank, Polymorph Any Object
9th	7	3	Gate, Shapechange, Time Stop

Spoiler: Levels 1-5

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Black Sparrow starts play as a Blaster Ardent, spending most of her time in sparrow form. As a fine-sized flyer with Dex 23, she has a +14 attack bonus (+8 size, +6 Dex) when using any ranged touch attacks, such as her energy ray. Midnight Augmentation gives her a free +1 PP when augmenting energy ray, so she can spend only 2 PP for 3d6 energy damage. Fine size also gives her a +16 Hide bonus on top of the +10 bonus from chameleon, which makes her almost visually undetectable at low levels, making her a capable scout/sneak and allowing her to disappear from the battlefield if she runs out of power points. Dimension hop allows her to get out of any grapples or entangling effects that try to tie her down. Hustle increases her mobility, energy push enables her to bull rush opponents out of formation or into terrain features, and dispel psionics (via the Magic mantle) allows her to debuff any magic or psionic effects. In hybrid form, she has a 30' fly speed (20' + 10' from the Freedom mantle), but still has a humanoid shape for anything that might require it.

Spoiler: Levels 6-10

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Black Sparrow picks up energy wall, giving her a few battlefield control options, and then finishes off with metamorphosis. She's still primarily a blaster, but if she's running low on PP, this power allows her to switch into a more durable meatbag form, such as a brown bear, dire wolf, troll, treant, remorhaz, etc. She already qualifies for Shapeshifter as a hengeyokai, where she picks up Wild Shape 3/day as a class feature. While this isn't as powerful as metamorphosis (only small and medium animals to start with), Wild Shape lasts at least 1 hour and doesn't cut into her PPs. It also qualifies her for Master of Many Forms, where she picks up humanoid, giant, and large-sized forms via Improved Wild Shape.

There are some quirks to the Shapeshifter Wild Shape ability that should probably be noted. Dragon #318 updated this prestige class as part of the 3.5 Update, so I'll provide an excerpt:

"Wild Shape (Su): At 1st level, a shapeshifter gains the ability to change into a Small or Medium animal and back again three times per day. This ability works exactly like the druid's wild shape ability.

The shapeshifter can use wild shape one more time per day at 4th and 8th level, as noted on the table. In addition, the shapeshifter gains the ability to take the shape of Large animal at 3rd level, a Tiny animal at 5th level, and a Huge animal at 9th level. The new form's Hit Dice can't exceed the shapeshifter's character level.

(bold text marked for emphasis)

The duration is problematic, but as per the Chair ruling, Shapeshifter counts as one druid level, so the duration is at least 1 hour. The biggest difference with the druid's Wild shape is the maximum HD is set by character level rather than by druid level. Master of Many Forms doesn't add to the duration, but does add to number of uses. Since max HD scales by character rather than class level, the errata for Master of Many Forms is redundant when combined with Shapeshifter levels.

When Black Sparrow decides to get her claws dirty in melee, the increased HD and larger size allows her to take advantage of stronger animal and troll forms without burning into her PPs.

Spoiler: Levels 11-15

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Black Sparrow is still a blaster, but Midnight Augmentation + Bonus Essentia is now augmenting her energy rays with +3d6 damage. At 11th level, Fast Wild Shape allows Black Sparrow to shift as a move action, and hustle allows her to upgrade this into a swift action. Monstrous humanoid, fey, vermin, aberration, and plant forms mostly add flexibility and utility when she wants to save PPs. At level 15, (Ex) special qualities are unlocked, which finally offers our Wild Shape forms an advantage over metamorphosis. At 15th, she picks up Dark Speech, which isn't all that immediately useful, but will become much more important a few levels later.

Spoiler: Levels 16-20

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At 16th level, Black Sparrow gets access to ooze forms. She starts with a black pudding, which has the Split (Ex) ability: Black Sparrow can stab herself with a slashing weapon and create duplicates of herself. The duplicates can heal themselves back up to full HP and repeat this as often as necessary, so we can create an entire army of Black Sparrows if we like. This is essentially the "Sweet Spot", because all the rules wankery after this kinda goes off the rails. But before things get really wacky, we need a few more things... like a couple Ardent levels, picking up psionic fly (mostly redundant, but our only remaining 4th level power), psionic freedom of movement, and Expanded Knowledge to pick up psychic reformation. Then she grabs a level of Warlock and the Summon Swarm invocation.

We get things started with just a pair of duplicates: Black Sparrow 'A' and Black Sparrow 'B'. 'A' uses her summon swarm invocation to call up a swarm of bats. These are diminuative fliers, so the size of the swarm is 5000 creatures in a 10' x 10' cube. While 'A' concentrates on maintaining the swarm, 'B' starts using Dark Speech on them to create a hivemind (Book of Vile Darkness p. 33). 'B' has her Strongheart Vest powered up with 3 essentia, so she can ignore the 1d4 Con damage from using Dark Speech. If they are worried about the bats attacking, then they can either tie down a sacrificial animal for them to chew on, or they can turn into bats themselves via Wild Shape or metamorphosis. Dark Speech only works on 100 animals at a time, but there's no daily limit so 'B' can either keep using it over and over again in 100-bat chunks, or she can Black Pudding herself into 49 more duplicates and have them all Dark Speech them together on the same round. The "chunk" method is preferable, as 'B' can make "suggestions" to the hivemind about what skills, feats, and spells to take as it gets larger.

The hivemind's Intelligence starts at 5, gains +5 Int at 150 creatures, and then gains +1 Int for every 50 creatures beyond that. The entire swarm of 5000 winds up with 107 Intelligence. For every point of Intelligence bonus, each bat gets 1 skill point and 1 feat per Hit Die. Now there may be some wonky math here with a creature that only has 1/4 HD individually, but based on the example in the book, a fractional Hit Die apparently counts as 1 Hit Die. And rather than give the hivemind as a whole 240,000 skill points and 240,000 bonus feats, let's just treat the hivemind as a single creature and give it 48 skill points and 48 bonus feats. But that's not really what we're here for, because Cha increases as well, and the hivemind gains a level of Sorcerer casting for each point of Charisma past 17. The bats start out with a Charisma of 4, so the hivemind winds up with 106 Charisma and 89 levels of Sorcerer casting. 'B' offers "suggestions" as the hivemind gains Charisma, and the hivemind's Will save is an underwhelming +2 against a save DC of 15 (60% chance of failure), and even if the save succeeds, she can keep trying until it works, and then spend the next hour or so (caster level isn't clear) offering "helpful advice". 'B' also has a rather significant negotiating position with the hivemind: if 'A' stops concentrating for any reason, the hivemind ceases to exist. The upshot of all this is they get a 89th level Sorcerer who needs a permanent body. So 'B' will suggest the following:

They're going to need another duplicate in a little bit, so they either grab a spare sister standing around or one of them splits off 'C'. 'B' manifests psychic reformation on 'C'. They spend 275 XP each, and 'C' repicks her last eleven levels of powers and feats to pick up Frozen Wild Shape (9th), Practiced Spellcaster (12th), Practiced Manifester (15th), and Expanded Knowledge (18th). This allows her to pick up psionic earthquake as a 9th level power and fusion via Expanded Knowledge. 'C' wild shapes into a 12-headed cryohydra, and then 'B' cuts off all her heads so that 'C' is now a 24-headed cryohydra.

'B' convinces the hivemind to cast magic jar on her, providing a 100 GP gem as the arcane focus. The hivemind then casts shapechange to turn their new body into a chronotyryn. With the hivemind now residing in a single body rather than a swarm, 'C' can target it with fusion. The hivemind and 'C' fuse into a single 24-headed chronohydra/cryotyryn creature. 'A' then manifests psychic reformation on the fused creature, spending 50 XP each to swap fusion with astral seed. The fused C-Hivemind creature manifests astral seed and commits suicide (via poison or 24 buckets of water). 'C' loses her level in Warlock, but ten days later gains a new permanent body with 24 heads, Dual Actions, 89 sorcerer levels, 48 hand-picked bonus feats, and 9th level powers. The hivemind gains a permanent body along with 'C'. 'B' no longer has a body so she goes to the big birdhouse in the sky, although with 89 sorcerer levels 'C' can bring her back (cast gate to call up something with a couple of wish spells) without too much trouble. 'A' is free to go off and repeat the entire process with however many duplicate sisters she likes.

...and anything after that is pretty much going to be a let-down. But for her last two levels, Black Sparrow finishes off Master of Many Forms. MoMF 9 gets her elemental forms, which she doesn't have available via metamorphosis (trumped by shapechange, of course), and MoMF 10 gets her immunity to transformation effects, which at least is something she didn't have before.

So, to sum up everything she gets from Master of Many Forms:

Alertness/Endurance: Black Sparrow has some points in Listen and Spot, so she can act as a spotter. As a sneaker/scout in owl form, she gets a +8 racial bonus on Listen checks, +8 racial bonus on Spot checks in shadowy illumination, and +14 on Move Silently checks, which helps make up for her lack of Move Silently ranks. As for Endurance... neither metamorphosis or Wild Shape have a long duration for her, so she has to sleep in one of her hengeyokai forms. Ardents are proficient with all forms of armor, so Endurance allows her to sleep in medium/heavy armor while she's in human or hybrid form.

Shifter's Speech: Allows her to speak in any form, including her sparrow and metamorphosis forms. Later on, when she has sorcerer spellcasting, this allows her to continue to cast spells with verbal components when shifted into different forms that normally don't allow speech.

Improved Wild Shape: Black Sparrow spends most of her early/mid levels in sparrow form as a blaster, and while metamorphosis allows her to switch to different forms for melee, movement modes, or various specialist roles, her wild shape abilities give her sturdier forms she can rely on when PPs are running low. Unfortunately, duration can't really be improved, but she does wind up with 13 hours of use. Later on, access to huge and ooze forms becomes the lynchpin for the entire build: she can get Split (Ex) from black pudding and 12-24 bite attacks as a standard action from cryohydra.

Fast Wild Shape: Since her wild shape doesn't last as long as most other wild shapers, she's likely going to need to shift either at the start or in the middle of combat. Her hustle power allows her to turn this move action into a swift action, preserving her full attack if need be.

Extraordinary Wild Shape: Black Sparrow mostly uses this for the Split (Ex) trick. And while having an infinite number of fine-sized sparrows flying in a swarm, dishing out Nd6 energy damage as a ranged touch attack with a +14 attack bonus sounds quite powerful, this is barely scratching the surface of the possible (Ex) abuse.

Evershifting Form: After using astral seed + fusion to create a 24-headed chronotyryn/cryohydra, I can't really say that "aging penalties" was really a concern. However, the immunity to transmutation effects is pretty nifty.

Spoiler: Variations

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In an earlier draft, I had a different method of putting together the hivemind without the summon swarm or Warlock level. This trick can actually be done just with duplicates of Black Sparrow, if you switch the mantles around a bit and take the Corruption and Madness mantle instead of Freedom. This allows her to take mindwipe. Create 1600 duplicates, and have them switch into a fine-sized sparrow form with metamorphosis rather than their racial alternate form ability. This changes their type to animal. They can't actually pick up the swarm template, but they can squeeze together into a 10' x 10' cube. As per the PHB, 100 fine-sized creatures can fit into a 5' x 5' square. If they squeeze, they can double this to 200. Eight sqaures x 200 sparrows = 1600. To form a hivemind, though, they all need to be 1 HD. So each of them hits each other (or themselves if need be) with mindwipe x9, voluntarily failing the saves. Once they're all at 1 HD, they can Dark Speech each other into a hivemind. Intelligence only gets up to 39, which only gets us 14 skill points and 14 bonus feats. Charisma gets a little boost in that they can start from 14, but only gets up to Charisma 48. Sorcerer casting only gets up 31st level, but since I haven't really specified the spells known/spells per day beyond what an 18th level Sorcerer would get, it's functionally the same as an 89th level Sorcerer for our purposes here. If she needs more than 31 caster levels, there are plenty of other ways to do that.

For the purposes of brevity, I have not included details on what the hivemind selected for skill points or bonus feats. With 48 feats to choose from, assume Black Sparrow will suggest feats to restore the soulmelds/essentia and Dark Speech she lost in the transformation, then a typical feats expected on a high level sorcerer: Quicken Spell, Rapid Spellcasting, Maximize/Extend/Empower/Sculpt, Versatile Spellcaster, and then finish out the rest with Extra Slot/Extra Spell.

Spoiler: Sources

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Book of Vile Darkness: Dark Speech, Hivemind
Complete Arcane: Warlock, Practiced Spellcaster
Complete Psionic: Ardent, Mantles, Practiced Manifester
Dragon Magic: Spells
Expanded Psionics Handbook: Expanded Knowledge
Fiend Folio: Chronotyryn
Frostburn: Frozen Wild Shape
Magic of Incarnum: Midnight Augmentation, Shape Soulmeld, Strongheart Vest, Bonus Essentia
Oriental Adventures: Hengeyokai, Shapeshifter
PHBII: Spells
Races of the Dragon: Spells
Spell Compendium: Spells

[Heliomance]

I certainly did not expect to see undead feature in this contest.

(Here we go, hope this works, I'm not that computer-literate.)

The Eater of Forms does not remember its human life very well. Did it have parents? A gender? It must have, it supposes. When it was alive. But “alive” means less to it now than gender does. It can be alive, dead, and then alive again in much, much less time than it takes to think the words. Nothing else in the universe is like it there, being dead or alive as it choses.

What it remember from its human days is the oaths it made, and the promises. The responsibilities and the duties. And a burning sense of inadequacy.

And the Fall. It remembers the Fall very, very clearly. Sometimes it tries to eat those memories, but it cant quite manage to bite its own soul properly. Unlike other souls.

The Eater of forms was a Druid once. A member of a brotherhood. It walked within the natural order of thing, revered and respected the cycle of life and death. It just… it remembers not being very good at it. Mediocre. Even then, people sensed that there was something not quite right with it. It remembers people assuring it was charming and likable…and leaving. There were no friends, no lovers… just a duty carried out middling well. Spells, slowly learned, powers growing a bit too slowly. They did not do much for it. It could call down lightening or speak with plants. But plants had so little to say. “Don’t blast me” mostly.

It had a face then. A face it doesn’t remember any more. It just remembers that the face slowly fell apart as the years grew many and heavy. And back then, it feared death. So much. That makes it laugh sometimes. If it is digesting someone’s voice or laughter.

In the end it was not hard to tempt. The void called and offered youth and immortality. Such a classic temptation. The golden oldies. With death at its heels, it fell so eagerly, like it had waited to be tempted all its life. And it turned its back on all it had held dear. Betrayed the brotherhood to the fire. Betrayed the forest. Betrayed the cycle of life and death, to step outside it, and become an abomination. Aberration. Elan.

In its new-made youth, as a young Elan it made its way around the world, indulging itself. Working as a man-at-arms, or a bandit, or a mercenary. No more spells and little talent of mind. It did things it had never even contemplated before. But nothing felt quite right. The Fall gnawed inside it. Or maybe it was still falling. The old grove whispered in its memories. It shouted at the memories to shut up, but they didn’t. Not until it used all of its old and new craft, and for the first time ate life. A small patch of ground, turned cold and quiet and silent. Turned into power.

For years, that was what it did when the memories grew too loud. Creating little lifeless patches where it walked. Devouring life. Then souls. It does not remember the first soul it ate. Because around then it learned to turn into something else.
Something dead.

It was a revelation. To set asides all the regrets, all the voices, all the memories. To be something else, quiet, skeletal and decayed.
The Eater of Forms left its own form as soon as it could, and forgot it almost immediately. Human again, then giant, fey, insect… it was all the same. Mostly dead things, though it found it did not have to be dead to be something else.

In the last days, it learned to eat not just life and souls, but beings entire. At last, it feels, it is truly someone else. It just doesn't... last.

Build rundown, including features not possessed by the standard Master of Many Forms.:

Level 5: This basically plays as a mediocre front-liner. Elan racials and Hidden Talent adds to survivability. Level 6 sees an at-will 5d6 area attack, level 7 a limited number of 3rd level spells. Level 7 also adds the unique ability to become Undead as a standard action. Or revert to life. Lots of immunities come online with this.

Level 10: Multiple energy draining attacks is online, as is various giant forms. The build can still do a frontliner with a number of form-based options such as movement modes. At level 12, spells drained can be cast by the eater.

Level 15: At this point, the eater can turn into a Giant Octopus or Darktentacle for massive numbers of natural attacks, draining levels (and spells if any.) Changing forms is a free action, allowing instant access to a large number of immunities. Note that the Eater at this point can also change between being Undead and alive as a free action. Extraordinary abilities are online.

Level 20: The Eater can now eat all aspects of its victims. Through Soul Radiance it can Shapechange as the spell into anything it drains to death.

By preference, all the Eaters forms are undead and skeletal, weather a hulking skeletal giant, a desiccated aberration, fey or beast. If an ability such as flying or constitution is desired, MoMFs improved wildshape should override the Blighters restriction.

Sweet spot: Level 13 lets the Eater turn into a Giant Octopus and attack with 8 level and spell- draining tentacles, in addition to othe MoMF forms.

Special note: I never got clear on if the wild shape amulet works off druid level or effective druid level. If the latter, the sweet spot can with an amulet be accessed at level 9, minus the spell drain.

(OK, I cant figure out how to put the table in here, I uploaded it, here is a link: https://www.scribd.com/document/3237...Eater-of-Forms )

[Heliomance]

And that's all of them! Get judging!

[Sian]

The lack of Warshaper surprises me.

The build that I never felt inspired enough to flesh out was Changeling Totemist 2 / Ranger 3 / Warshaper 3 / Shapeshifter 1 / Natures Warrior 1 / MoMH 10 ... but it simply felt to similar in style (if not detail) to my Black Blood Hunter build

[Kaje]

I had briefly toyed with a halfling ranger/ stoneblessed/ barbarian/ hulking hurler/ momf, but I realized it was really just a hh build that used momf to get bigger, rather than a build that allowed momf to shine.

[Inevitability]

Okay, let's do this.

I haven't yet looked at the builds, but here are my judging guidelines!

Spoiler: Guidelines

Show

All scores start with 1 and are modified from there.

Originality.
-How unexpected are the used classes? Up to 1 point may be added here.
-Does the build introduce any new tricks? Is it a bland 'turn into a beast and maul stuff' dish, or is it bringing completely novel strategies to the table? Up to 1 point may be added here.
-How unexpected are the nonsuperficial parts (feats, skills, spells) of the build? Up to 1 point may be added here.
-How unexpected is the used race? Up to 0.5 points may be added here.
-Is the fluff unprecedented and novel, or predictable and cliched? Up to 0.5 points may be added here.

Power.
-How much raw power does the build have? In an encounter tailored towards its specialities, just how strong is it? Up to 1.5 points may be added here.
-How versatile is the build? In an encounter not specifically playing to its strong points, how well will it perform? Up to 1.5 points may be added here.
-How flexible is the build's power level? Is it locked into being really strong or really weak (both raw power and versatility-wise), or does it have some ability to move between those states? Up to 1 point may be added here.

Elegance.
-Lack of flaws increases the score by 1. Every flaw reduces the score by 0.5.
-Lack of dips increases the score by 1. Each dip (with 'dip' defined as taking 1 or 2 levels in a class with 5 or more levels) reduces it by 0.25.
-How many questionable rulings are used? Up to 1 point may be added here.
-How much sense does the build make fluff-wise? How much is excessive refluffing used? Up to 0.5 points may be awarded here.
-How nicely is the build put together? Are class progressions suddenly broken off and resumed later on? Does the level order make sense in-universe? Up to 0.5 points may be awarded here.

Use of Secret Ingredient.
-How much interaction is there between the secret ingredient and the rest of the build? Does it fulfill any prerequisites, or does it enhance other class features? Up to 2 point may be added here.
-How much levels have been taken in the ingredient? 10 levels are good for 1 point, each level less than that reduces the score by 0.25 (minimum 0 points).
-How much have the entry requirements been used in the main build? Are they just tacked on, or has something interesting been done with them. Even something as simple as the same feat qualifying you for two things may already net you points here. Max point bonus is 1.

[Inevitability]

And, just for fun, let's share my own build stub.

I was thinking about a dragonwrought earth kobold Sorcerer 5/Wildshape Ranger 5/MoMF 10. Fluff-wise, he'd be living seed bank. If civilization ever got destroyed by extraplanar threats he'd remain in a hidden bunker, and with him the genes of every living creature. He'd then be able to use magic to turn into all those creatures whose genetic code has been imprinted into him.

The kobold could then remove a few flesh samples from forms he'd want returned (which as per the alternate form rules, doesn't change back), transform into a Deepspawn and eat the flesh, then create spawn to repopulate the world. If necessary, a quick transformation into a troll would let him regrow the removed flesh.

The kobold race and sorcerer levels were partially there for self-buffs (up to 3rd-level with the Greater Draconic Rite of Passage, and 4th with loredrake added on), but mainly because of Hidden Strength: a nifty Dragons of Eberron feat that arguably grants huge untyped strength and constitution bonuses when in wildshape.

[KrimsonNekros]

Other than wild shape ranger being used by two entries doesn't look like there's any overlap between dishes for ingredients.

[GnomishPride]

Great entries by all!
I was planning an entry similar to Whod'at Agin, but I just couldn't pull it together. Something along the lines of Divine Minion Human MoMF 10/Chameleon 9 - capable of being anyone, anytime.

[Grim Reader]

I had to sacrifice power to keep the flavor going.

[erok0809]

You might want to edit/delete that post, Grim Reader; you don't want to give away which build was yours, or which builds aren't yours.

[Thurbane]

I'll do my best to commit to judging - my scoring might be a little "basic" compared to some judges, but I'll use the same system I did back when I judged Shadow Sentinel.

[ben-zayb]

Nice entries all around, one of which reminds me of my own entry from a different comp. I was supposed to make an entry, but the laptop went kaput (and a rules clarification seems to have been unanswered from the RAW thread).

Also, congrats to evil overlord Thurbane!

[Kelb_Panthera]

holy crap, those last two. I don't even...... What??!

[Inevitability]

holy crap, those last two. I don't even...... What??!

Welcome to GitP, where TO is our condiment of choice.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Welcome to GitP, where TO is our condiment of choice.

I know, I know, still.

Black sparrow is full-tilt in spite of an ingredient that doesn't advance spellcasting and the Eater of Forms is just truly horrific in a way you rarely see. My money's on those two for first and second unless Sparrow gets dinged hard for well known TO with the form/astral seed abuse.

[Thurbane]

OK, so unless I've missed anything we've got:

• Weohstan LN Changeling Spirit Shaman 6/Abolisher 4/MoMF 10
  
• Whod'at Agin NE Human Urban Wildshape Ranger 5/MoMF 2/Zhentarim Spy 1/MoMF +8/ZS +4
  
• Silus White LN Changeling Ranger* 5 /MoMF 10 /Chameleon 5
• Lyonesse CG Frostblood Half-Orc Barbarian 1/ Scout 3/ Ranger 5/ Daggerspell Shaper 2/ MoMF 9
  
• Black Sparrow NE Hengeyokai Sparrow Ardent 7/Shapeshifter 1/MoMF 8/Ardent +2/Warlock 1/MoMF +2
  
• Eater of Forms Elan Fighter 4/Blighter 3/Soul Eater 1/MoMF 7/Soul Eater +5

It's certainly a mixed bag. Assuming I can complete judging, some of those builds are going to test my systems knowledge quite a bit. Psionics and incarnum, especially, really aren't my thing - but I'll do my best.

[Bucky]

My money's on those two for first and second unless Sparrow gets dinged hard for well known TO with the form/astral seed abuse.

Sparrow is Tier Zero even without Astral Seed, thanks to the ability to form a hivemind from copies of herself.

[Zaq]

Interesting set of builds! I'm glad that I didn't enter, because everything I was coming up with was really half-assed compared to what we've got on display here.

My thought process basically revolved around leveraging the fact that MoMF gives you way more uses of WS per day than most other sources of WS (by which I mostly mean Druid and WS Ranger) do. I was thinking that no one ever takes [Wild] feats because it's usually a losing trade to give up a use of WS for whatever minor benefit the feat offers, but when you've got way more WS uses than you know what to do with, they might be interesting, right? That led me to stumble upon Savage Grapple (which has the [Wild] tag but which doesn't actually require you to expend a use of WS, merely to be in a different form as a result of WS), which basically gives you free Sneak Attacks when you grapple something while Wild Shaped. Since Wild Shape and grappling go together very nicely anyway, I thought that might be a fun avenue to pursue, but I couldn't find a non-stupid way of getting Wild Shape and non-negligible Sneak Attack at the same time (Hunter's Eye was absolutely a non-starter) without using Divine Minion, and I reeeeeeally didn't want to use Divine Minion. (I'm pleasantly surprised that no one else did, either.) I did think a little bit about trying to mix Divine Minion, some kind of source of SA, Black Blood Cultist (which is different from the Black Blood Hunter class we just saw), and MoMF, but there was absolutely no way in hell to make everything come online within 20 levels, so I just gave up on that.

Interesting that we didn't see too many [Wild] feats at all, though. I only noticed one on a very quick skim, but that was just a skim, so I may have missed another one or two. I guess they're still not very strong feats even when you've got the WS uses to fuel them.

Also, no Druids. Just straight up. I'm not surprised that WS Ranger was by far the most common source of WS, but I'm a little surprised that we literally didn't get a single normal Druid. I mean, yeah, using Druid in Iron Chef always invites an immediate "why are you in the SI instead of just being more Druid?" question, so I don't blame folks for shying away from it, but it's still a little surprising to me that we didn't get anyone at all trying to justify using a Druid.

I am making no promises yet, but I'm contemplating judging. I think I'm basically going to do a preliminary judging-style read (as opposed to a spectating-style read) of the builds and try to gauge how tricky it would be to do a full judgment. I repeat, no promises. But maybe something will grab me and refuse to let me go without writing more about it, and we'll just have to see what happens then.

[Darrin]

Since Wild Shape and grappling go together very nicely anyway, I thought that might be a fun avenue to pursue, but I couldn't find a non-stupid way of getting Wild Shape and non-negligible Sneak Attack at the same time

Hmm. Marrulurk has Sneak Attack 2d6 as an (Ex), but that's not really a form you want to be grappling in. Swordsage or Martial Study/Stance gets you +2d6 with Assassin's Stance... just getting Craven in there for +1 damage per character level might have been decent enough. How about:

Wildshape Ranger 5/SA Fighter 1/Rogue 3/Nightsong Enforcer 1/MoMF 10.

That's 4d6 to start with, add Assassin's Stance and Craven for 6d6 + X per char level. That should be pretty decent damage-wise.

As far as getting Wild Shape, Shapeshifter and Abolisher can be dipped for 1 level, but that limits your duration to 1 hour. Still, 9 levels to play with... maybe:

SA Fighter 1/Rogue 3/Nightsong Enforcer 1/Swordsage 1/HotWM 3/MoMF 10

Not much room for Black Blood Cultist, though.

Also, no Druids. Just straight up. I'm not surprised that WS Ranger was by far the most common source of WS, but I'm a little surprised that we literally didn't get a single normal Druid. I mean, yeah, using Druid in Iron Chef always invites an immediate "why are you in the SI instead of just being more Druid?" question, so I don't blame folks for shying away from it, but it's still a little surprising to me that we didn't get anyone at all trying to justify using a Druid.

I considered a Simple Druid dip to pick up Track, but wound up going in a different direction. The problem with Druid is Wildshape Ranger is better at shoring up the weaknesses of MoMF... notably, better BAB, better skill points, better HP, and you don't care so much about losing caster levels. The only advantage Druid 5 has over Wildshape Ranger 5 is 2nd and 3rd level spells, but the ranger can still use wands if need be.

[WhamBamSam]

My major ideas basically began and ended with "get Metamorphic Transfer," which interestingly, no one else bothered to do (there's one Dragon Wild Shape which is sorta similar). Using a host feat to meet the ML would open up whatever race I wanted instead of being restricted to Kalashtar.

I was going to go Frostblood Half-Orc Druidic Avenger/MoMF /Warshaper using Int damage poison from wherever (or maybe the Sirene's Int damage ability from MMT) to bring dragons down to Int 6 so they could be handled with the Dragon Tamer feat. Then I realized that the Half-Orc Druid sub-level makes Wild Empathy Str based rather than Handle Animal like I'd thought. I considered doing Int damage/Dragon Tamer shenanigans with a high Cha Silverbrow Human instead (which would have also worked with the save DCs for the 'all the (Su) abilities, ever' schtick from Metamorphic Transfer), but it just didn't feel as cool and I got caught up in real life stuff.

[Amechra]

I was going to enter with Human Archivist 4/Human Paragon 2/Master of Many Forms 10/Archivist +4, using the Initiate of Horus-Re feat to get my hands on Wild-Shape, but ended up not having the time to finish.

[KrimsonNekros]

I was going to enter with Human Archivist 4/Human Paragon 2/Master of Many Forms 10/Archivist +4, using the Initiate of Horus-Re feat to get my hands on Wild-Shape, but ended up not having the time to finish.

How were you planning to qualify for Initiate of Horus-Re?

[Thurbane]

If I had've been inclined to do an entry, I was leaning towards Druid* 5/MoMF 10/Warshaper 5, and just loading up on feats that boost or add options to Wild Shape. Not very original.

*Was going to use Fangshields Druid levels to try and make the build semi-interesting, but couldn't find a base creature with listed LA that I was happy with or that met reqs.

Question: would the 5th level Fangshields ability Wild Shape Hands allow you to add hands to a Wild Shape form that lacked them, or only to expend Wild Shape to give your native form hands?

[One Step Two]

If I had've been inclined to do an entry, I was leaning towards Druid* 5/MoMF 10/Warshaper 5, and just loading up on feats that boost or add options to Wild Shape. Not very original.

*Was going to use Fangshields Druid levels to try and make the build semi-interesting, but couldn't find a base creature with listed LA that I was happy with or that met reqs.

Question: would the 5th level Fangshields ability Wild Shape Hands allow you to add hands to a Wild Shape form that lacked them, or only to expend Wild Shape to give your native form hands?

Answer: Yes. The text of Wilshape Hands even points this out specifically. "She can make this change whenever she uses her wild shape, even when she assumes another form. For example, a unicorn druid could take the form of a wolf with functional paw-hands."

[Thurbane]

Answer: Yes. The text of Wilshape Hands even points this out specifically. "She can make this change whenever she uses her wild shape, even when she assumes another form. For example, a unicorn druid could take the form of a wolf with functional paw-hands."

Can't believe I missed that - makes it very clear.

I have a mental image of Wild Shaping into a squid or similar with hands on the end of every tentacle.

[One Step Two]

Can't believe I missed that - makes it very clear.

Yes it's quite clear in how it wo-

I have a mental image of Wild Shaping into a squid or similar with hands on the end of every tentacle.

.
..
...
Do not want!~

[Inevitability]

Yes it's quite clear in how it wo-



.
..
...
Do not want!~

You think that's freaky? Imagine how it looks after a few sunder attempts.

[One Step Two]

You think that's freaky? Imagine how it looks after a few sunder attempts.

... Screw it! *Engages turning into the spin with puns mode*

That was a pretty good picture to have on hand, did it take time to thumb through your collection to find it?

Some people find my puns unsettling, but I consider this simple Squid pro quo. That said, others find that my puns tentacle their funny bones.

[ben-zayb]

Can't believe I missed that - makes it very clear.

I have a mental image of Wild Shaping into a squid or similar with hands on the end of every tentacle.

You sure this wasn't a hypothetical, "if-I-wasn't-chair", Villainous Competition entry instead?