Iron Chef Optimization Challenge In The Playground #XXVIII

Amphetryon · 12-30-2011, 07:27 PM

Welcome, contestants, judges, and guests to Iron Chef XXVIII. Here in Optimization Colosseum, contestants will endeavor to create an optimized and flavorful character using a specified D&D3.5 prestige class as a "Secret Ingredient".

Contestants: You will need to present a write-up of your build at at least one of the following points: 5th level, 10th level, 15th, 20th, and a "sweet spot" that you feel is the high point of the build, as well as presenting a fully-fleshed out 20-level build in the table below. Feel free to present as many of these as you like, and please give a rundown of the build's abilities and playability at all of the levels you didn't show. The rules are as follows:

Menu: For most challenges, the "special ingredient" will be drawn from Core plus Completes. There will, from time to time, be special challenges that showcase secret ingredients from other books--for example, the XPH.

32 point-buy is the presumed creation method, but we have generally allowed other levels of point-buy.
If you do use a different point-buy, please make your case for its necessity in your entry. Keep in mind that for using exceptionally large or small point-buys may warrant deductions in elegance and/or power.

Kitchen: 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. This comes up often enough to bear mention in the rules: Dragon Compendium is allowed.

Cooking Time: Contestants will have until 11:59PM GMT on Friday, January 13th, 2012 to create their builds and PM them to the Chairman, Amphetryon. Builds will then be posted simultaneously, to avoid copying. Judges will have until 11:59PM GMT on Friday, January 27th, 2012 to judge the builds and submit their scores. If no judges have scored by that point, only the scores of the first judge to submit will be counted. If you do not have access to the current challenge's Secret Ingredient, please do not volunteer to judge this round.

Judging: Judging will be based on the following criteria, with each build rated from 1 (very poor) to 5 (exemplary) in each area: Originality, Power, Elegance, Use of Secret Ingredient.

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, will lose you points. Please note the following change: 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.

Presentation: Builds will be posted anonymously, in order to avoid the potential of bias towards a particular competitor. For this reason, please don't put your name in the build, as I'm likely to miss it when reviewing the entries!

Due to concerns about standardizing entry format, I'd like everyone to try to use the following table for their entry.

Spoiler

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	New Feats	New Class Abilities
2nd	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	New Feats	New Class Abilities
3rd	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	New Feats	New Class Abilities
4th	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	New Feats	New Class Abilities
5th	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	New Feats	New Class Abilities
6th	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	New Feats	New Class Abilities
7th	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	New Feats	New Class Abilities
8th	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	New Feats	New Class Abilities
9th	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	New Feats	New Class Abilities
10th	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	New Feats	New Class Abilities
11th	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	New Feats	New Class Abilities
12th	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	New Feats	New Class Abilities
13th	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	New Feats	New Class Abilities
14th	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	New Feats	New Class Abilities
15th	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	New Feats	New Class Abilities
16th	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	New Feats	New Class Abilities
17th	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	New Feats	New Class Abilities
18th	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	New Feats	New Class Abilities
19th	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	New Feats	New Class Abilities
20th	New Class Level	+x	+x	+x	+x	Skills	New Feats	New Class Abilities

Code

Spoiler

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

For other systems (Psionics, ToB, Incarnum, etc.) keep track of PP/maneuvers/essentia separately, preferably in a nice neat list.

Speculation: Please don't post or speculate on possible builds until the "reveal," in order to avoid spoiling the surprise if a particular competitor is producing a build along those lines.

Leadership is banned; we're producing a meal, not a seven-course banquet for a hundred diners. If your entry includes a prestige class or ACF that grants Leadership or a Leadership-like ability as a bonus feat, the feat should be ignored and is not eligible to be traded away for another feat of ACF through any means.

So! Who wants to sign up as a contestant, and who wants to sign up as a judge? Looking for as many contestants and judges as feel like playing!

This week's special ingredient is:
Frostburn's Cryokineticist!
We will have trophies for 1st through 3rd places, as well as a special trophy for honorable mention. The honorable mention prize is given to the most daring or unexpected build. Judges, contestants and guests alike are invited to vote for honorable mention via PM.

Allez optimiser!

Contestants

Judges

The Builds

Past Competitions

Iron Chef I: Entropomancer
Iron Chef II: Psibond Agent
Iron Chef III: Cancer Mage
Iron Chef IV: Stonelord
Iron Chef V: War Chanter
Iron Chef VI: Master of Masks
Iron Chef VII: Green Star Adept
Iron Chef VIII: Pyrokineticist
Iron Chef IX: Animal Lord
Iron Chef X: Mythic Exemplar
Iron Chef XI: Blade Bravo
Iron Chef XII: War Mind
Iron Chef XIII: Vigilante
Iron Chef XIV: Seeker of the Song
Iron Chef XV: Drunken Master
Iron Chef XVI: Assassin
Iron Chef XVII: Ardent Dilettante
Iron Chef XVIII: Unseelie Dark Hunter
Iron Chef XIX: Dread Pirate
Iron Chef XX: Incandescent Champion
Iron Chef XXI: Ghostwalker
Iron Chef XXII: Dervish
Iron Chef XXIII: Divine Crusader
Iron Chef XXIV: Tactical Soldier
Iron Chef XXV: Scion of Tem-Et-Nu
Iron Chef XXVI: Shadowdancer
Iron Chef XXVII: Mindbender

Thurbane · 12-30-2011, 07:39 PM

Interesting...psionics isn't my bag, but this could be an interesting secret ingredient.

dextercorvia · 12-30-2011, 08:19 PM

Deadline is Friday the 13th -- how lucky.

I'm shivering with anticipation to try something such a cool secret ingredient. I'm taking the mittens come off, but I hope to not receive an icy reception from the judges.

Zipding · 12-30-2011, 08:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dextercorvia

Deadline is Friday the 13th -- how lucky.

I'm shivering with anticipation to try something such a cool secret ingredient. I'm taking the mittens come off, but I hope to not receive an icy reception from the judges.

I saw what you did there.

I may or may not be judging this round. Most likely though, I will just lurk and comment on what is going on.

The Gilded Duke · 12-30-2011, 09:10 PM

I dunno, so far secret ingredient is striking me as very so-so.

Amphetryon · 12-30-2011, 09:22 PM

As you've no doubt noticed, I've been unable to find someone interested in creating our trophies. Any of you with interest in that area or a friend with said interest, please let me know.

Amechra · 12-30-2011, 10:11 PM

I'm participating, by the way...

Zaq · 12-30-2011, 11:24 PM

This one makes me sad that realistically, I'm highly unlikely to have the time this really needs. If something changes at work, I'd probably come up with something, but being honest with myself, it's not very likely.

Nifty ingredient, though. I approve.

Gotterdammerung · 12-30-2011, 11:35 PM

wow... that is one of the worst prestige classes I have ever read...

This will be interesting. I will try to compete. I need to mull it over and if I don't get hit with a clever idea for pulling that horrible monstrosity out of the fail zone then I will judge instead.

Piggy Knowles · 12-30-2011, 11:42 PM

Huh. Nothing all that groundbreaking springs to mind right off the bat. Hopefully I come up with something, because I'd like to compete, but I'll have to think on this one!

Zaq · 12-30-2011, 11:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gotterdammerung

wow... that is one of the worst prestige classes I have ever read . . .

Heh. I might regret saying this (on the off chance that I compete at all), but this isn't bad at all by IC standards. Compared to, say, Tactical Soldier? Offhand, it hardly looks bad at all. No, I expect some good things to come from this.

Gotterdammerung · 12-31-2011, 12:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zaq

Heh. I might regret saying this (on the off chance that I compete at all), but this isn't bad at all by IC standards. Compared to, say, Tactical Soldier? Offhand, it hardly looks bad at all. No, I expect some good things to come from this.

I only wish I had known about IC when you did tactical soldier. That is an easy one to work with. Without even thinking about it hard half elf 3 hexblade/2 paladin of slaughter/5 outcast champion/10 tactical soldier seems cool.

But this class..... let me put it this way.This class makes me wish that authors signed their prestige classes... just so I would know where to send the hate mail.

TravelLog · 12-31-2011, 12:26 AM

I'm thinking this one is going to cause some people trouble in the Power department (especially if they take all 10 levels) seeing as it totally drops any manifesting progression. 0/10 ML has to hurt.

gbprime · 12-31-2011, 02:01 AM

Not only a 0/10 advancement of the prerequisites that got you there, but I love the fact that at 5th level they get +2 to hit and damage things that are otherwise totally immune to everything they do. Awesome.

Can't wait to see how this one turns out. In fact, I think I'll judge it.

I'll post judge criteria soon.

ShneekeyTheLost · 12-31-2011, 02:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gotterdammerung

wow... that is one of the worst prestige classes I have ever read...

This will be interesting. I will try to compete. I need to mull it over and if I don't get hit with a clever idea for pulling that horrible monstrosity out of the fail zone then I will judge instead.

Fundamentally identical to Pyrokeneticist, except for the Powers requirement. Oh, and polar ray rather than flame lash. Other than that... file off the serial numbers, change the flavor, and call it a done deed.

Gotterdammerung · 12-31-2011, 03:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ShneekeyTheLost

Fundamentally identical to Pyrokeneticist, except for the Powers requirement. Oh, and polar ray rather than flame lash. Other than that... file off the serial numbers, change the flavor, and call it a done deed.

Hardly,

Pyrokineticist can be entered without any psionic class lvls.

Lets compare abilities

flame whip- unique weapon with a good reach that has synergy with the rest of the classes abilities.

vs

Polar ray- at the capstone you can freeze a jug of milk and 2 glasses worth of water... or do 1d12.

hand of fire- 2d6 fire dmg to unarmed strikes, stacks with current unarmed strike damage allowing the possibility of a unarmed strike build.

vs

Frozen fist- 1d6 blunt +1d8 cold damage (later 2d8 cold if you spend 2 move actions). Specifically replaces unarmed dmg. You could have 20d12 unarmed damage but the moment you use frozen fist your punches do 1d6+1d8...

weapon afrost vs aflame- flame does more dmg.

Pyro also gets Nimbus (nifty buff), Heat death (an extra save or die).

Cryo gets a a wall of ice instead (at a set in stone low caster level).

but other than those small differences... sure, just file of the serial numbers.

Little Brother · 12-31-2011, 03:45 AM

Also, the flight is worse.

Three months! If frostburn had been done three months earlier, we could use this better, though still awful, Cryokineticist.

motoko's ghost · 12-31-2011, 05:35 AM

I try and see if I can submit a build

OMG PONIES · 12-31-2011, 07:27 AM

I'm in, and let me just say I'm glad we decided to chill with all the cold puns

. Also, should Roman Numerals be proceeded by an octothorp?

TheGeckoKing · 12-31-2011, 09:32 AM

I have a plan. Not a very good one, but a plan. I'll do my best to throw something together.

BobVosh · 12-31-2011, 04:17 PM

I would love to judge this, but I have to see if I can drum up a copy of frostburn. Mine got water damaged and I never felt like replacing it. Pretty sure a friend has a copy of it floating around. Will let you know if I can further on.

Thurbane · 12-31-2011, 08:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BobVosh

I would love to judge this, but I have to see if I can drum up a copy of frostburn. Mine got water damaged and I never felt like replacing it. Pretty sure a friend has a copy of it floating around. Will let you know if I can further on.

If it had been Stormwrack that got water damaged, it would have been quite ironic.

gbprime · 12-31-2011, 08:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thurbane

If it had been Stormwrack that got water damaged, it would have been quite ironic.

It still could be. Freeze it.

Skelengar · 12-31-2011, 09:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OMG PONIES

I'm in, and let me just say I'm glad we decided to chill with all the cold puns

. Also, should Roman Numerals be proceeded by an octothorp?

Quote:

Originally Posted by gbprime

It still could be. Freeze it.

This is just going to be the entire thread, isn't it? Should we get Ahnold in here?

Zaq · 12-31-2011, 11:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OMG PONIES

Also, should Roman Numerals be proceeded by an octothorp?

It's not typical, and it's certainly not a choice that I would make, but I don't think that the GitP boards have an official manual of style, so even I can't get that worked up over it.

Thumbs up for knowing the word "octothorp," though. It's an excellent word, and it's shameful how few people use it.

gbprime · 01-01-2012, 12:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zaq

Thumbs up for knowing the word "octothorp," though. It's an excellent word, and it's shameful how few people use it.

I used it in scrabble the other week. Does that count?

BobVosh · 01-01-2012, 12:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thurbane

If it had been Stormwrack that got water damaged, it would have been quite ironic.

And I would have had a great pun without changing any of the words.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ME!

Pretty sure a friend has a copy of it floating around.

Amphetryon · 01-01-2012, 12:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zaq

Thumbs up for knowing the word "octothorp," though. It's an excellent word, and it's shameful how few people use it.

People are often disincentivized from using the larger or more esoteric words these days, sadly. Octothorp is slightly less well-known than ampersand, and needs more love.

ShneekeyTheLost · 01-01-2012, 06:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amphetryon

People are often disincentivized from using the larger or more esoteric words these days, sadly. Octothorp is slightly less well-known than ampersand, and needs more love.

Considering the ampersand is found within the title of the game these boards are dedicated to, one would assume that a higher than normal percentage of individuals who are familiar with it are present.

But yes, the use of multisyllabic words tends to brand you as verbose rather than eloquent these days. In particular, on the internet, it is apparently the mark of an erudite to simply use proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Indeed, insistence on such is seen as pure snobbery and rather gauche. Pity, of course, but such are the times we live in.

I suppose I should follow this up with some witty repartee, perhaps a pun, so as to not leave the majority out, and in a manner in which they could easily comprehend.

tl;dr version: I need to chill out

motoko's ghost · 01-01-2012, 06:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ShneekeyTheLost

Considering the ampersand is found within the title of the game these boards are dedicated to, one would assume that a higher than normal percentage of individuals who are familiar with it are present.

But yes, the use of multisyllabic words tends to brand you as verbose rather than eloquent these days. In particular, on the internet, it is apparently the mark of an erudite to simply use proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Indeed, insistence on such is seen as pure snobbery and rather gauche. Pity, of course, but such are the times we live in.

I suppose I should follow this up with some witty repartee, perhaps a pun, so as to not leave the majority out, and in a manner in which they could easily comprehend.

tl;dr version: I need to chill out

...Did anyone else get a flashback to V's speech to Evey in the beginning of "V for Vendetta"?