A Tournament of Cosmic Propotions! (Immortal's Handbook Rules)

[Neoiceshroom]

Did someone say Epic Weeaboo Fightan Magic rules? These ones were written for my IH variant, which has a number of houserules (no unfinished PrCs, no multiclass exp penalties under any circumstance, LA may not exceed HD under any circumstance, no double portfolios, no custom divinity templates, no divine handicaps, no more than 4 distinct abilities on any artefact, no more than 4 sub-epic items worn by any creature that has artefacts, no Esoteric abilities unless the DM feels like it, the DM never feels like giving your character Esoteric abilities, and nerfs about 25% of the DvAs) to blunt the power curve compared to normal IH games, so they might be a bit weak for any setting where Lesser Deities are running around with Cosmic Abilities on their artifacts.

O.O Wow that's a ton of house rules. Most of those don't seem entirely necessary in my campaigns, at least not from my experience gaming at these levels, but my experience is fairly limited past level 130+. I'll take some of them into Consideration for my campaign, but I can't see any of them as needed for the ruleset i'm trying to test.

My experience also shows that you want a houserule to increase randomness. I have a script to roll all my dice which multiplies everyone's Divine bonus by a random number between 0 and 2 (rounding up) before every d20 roll, which seems to solve the problem of rolls falling in a 20-point range when bonuses are in the hundreds.

Again, seems unnecessary in my opinion, but if it works for you, good on ya. Might try this rule in my next campaign just to see how it works in combat. Mind sending the script via e-mail/PM?

My ECL 120 tournament suggests that no arena is ever big enough. My no-full-casters rule did nothing to stop teleport hax, and four of the six entrants all had means of crossing the 1000-foot arena in a single action without expending any significant resources. For ECL 190, you'll want a two-mile wide arena at least. And probably full of dangerous terrain. Otherwise it's the equivalent of a fight between two low-level characters in a 10x10 room.

Ahhh... I'm glad you mentioned the Arena because It's high time I go ahead and mentioned the rules of the actual plane itself. You may need to refer to the Manual of the planes for some of the rules mentioned below.

The Graveyard of Swords (Demiplane)
Physical Traits:
Gravity:Heavy Gravity (Extreme): Characters with a strength score of less than 30 cannot move at all due to the extreme gravity, without aid of Freedom of Movement or similar effect. Equipment Carried by any character entering the plane quadruples in weight. Characters with wings with a strength score of less than 50 cannot fly due to the extreme gravity, without magical aid. All other flying creatures have their maneuverability lowered one category unless their flight is somehow better than perfect, it brings it down to "good" for most flying creatures. Balance, Climb, Jump, Ride, Swim & Tumble checks all suffer a -14 circumstance penalty on this plane. The required strengths for movement increase by 10 for each size category above medium the affected creature is.

Time: The plane itself is timeless. The effects of time are greatly diminished so that even mortal creatures entering the plane may not feel the effects of hunger,thirst or even aging.

Shape and Size: Self-Contained: The Graveyard of Swords is only 5080 ft in Radius. Exactly the Radius of Alabaster's Evil eye. It is a circular graveyard, whose edge is simple the beginning of the opposite side of the graveyard. In effect, you can teleport or run an infinite distance in the same direction and still wind up in the same spot you were standing in. The Citadel of Steel (Alabaster's Fortress) takes up a radius of 3120 ft. and is also circular in design. The rest of the Graveyard is just that, a graveyard of buried gods and champions of War. The Fortress lies in the perfect center of the Plane.

Morphic Traits:
Static: Visitors to the plane find that even barring the extreme gravity here, altering objects requires a DC 90 Strength Check, and altering living (or undead) denizens of the plane is nigh impossible. This is similar to the effect when a time stop spell is cast, except that if a denizen of the plane attacks you you may defend yourself and damage them normally.

Elemental and Energy Traits
Insanely Negative Dominant: Living visitors must make a DC 85 fortitude save each round or gain a negative level. A creature slain by this effect rises as a vampire spawn under Alabaster's control. Creatures immune to negative energy are immune to this effect. Undead in this plane gain fast healing 5 (in addition to any existing fast healing).

Alignment Traits:
Strongly Evil & Chaos Aligned: Non-chaotic evil visitors to the plane suffer a -14 circumstance penalty to all intelligence,wisdom and charisma based skill checks. Lawful Good visitors suffer a -28 penalty instead.

Magic Traits:
The Graveyard: The Graveyard is a dead magic zone in which all magic ceases to function, save Alabaster. He is unaffected by the dead magic here and all his equipment and spell-like abilities function normally. Divine & Cosmic abilities function normally, but Alabaster may make use of his God-slayer abilities to deal with them.
The Citadel of Steel: Ironically, the magic inside the Citadel is merely impeded, due to the fact that the use of magic is required to support the structure under the plane's immense gravity. Casters inside the citadel must pass a successful caster level check DC 85 + spell level to use any spell or spell-like ability. These are cast a -13 caster level even if the check succeeds.

Furthermore, the following spells and spell seeds cease to function regardless of where you are on the plane. No CL check may be made to try and cast them, they simply automatically fail:
Animate Dead, Animate Objects, Anti-magic Field, Banishment, Control Undead, Contact Other Plane, Commune with Nature, Create Undead, Any Non-epic Cure Spell (Epic spells may make CL check at -13 CL), Control Weather, Disrupt Undead, Dispel Chaos, Dispel Evil, Gust of Wind, Hallow, Holy Aura, Holy Smite, Holy Sword, Holy Word, Hide From Undead, Planar Ally, Planar Binding, Planeshift, Raise Dead, Resurrection, True*, Sunbeam, Sunburst (any-non epic light-based spell is assumed to fail. epic spells using light as a seed may CL check.), Undeath to Death, Zone of Silence & Zone of Truth.

*Even Epic spells using the resurrect seed fail. The only way to resurrect someone slain in the graveyard of swords is to slay Alabaster and become the new Amidah.

Yeah I believe that's pretty much it. Just imagine a giant graveyard with a circular fortress of vampires (some slain gods) under Alabaster's command. You can't leave from the graveyard, you have to somehow get inside the fortress (which has no visible entrance or exit) to leave the plane at all, and must still make a caster level check to plane shift, using an epic spell with planeshift as a seed.

Also: Buffing HP won't stop rocket tag. Withering, Diseased, and Negative Energy [Effect], or Ultra-Empowered Energy Drain can be easily used to no-save one-shot anyone not specifically designed to counter said effects (and immunity penetration means that's difficult) regardless of HP totals.

Epic spells using the "heal" seed cure all of that. Also you can ward off negative energy effects with Death Ward. Not banned in this realm.

As for the enormous mountain of Epic martial feats/divine abilities I stand in awe of them. They're utterly amazing and very impressive in the truest sense of the word. Brave good sir. However I can see immortals with the Nescient divine ability making sick usage of those feats.

[MENTION=80514]Bel[/MENTION] Yeah I know the formatting is terrible and sometimes hard to read, but I'm too lazy to reformat them at the moment. Perhaps when I get towards finishing the whole project I will reformat some of the entries.

Now I have to redo Tempus & Red Knight

*wanders off spouting curses*

 

[Buugipopuu]

The arena seems pretty brutal, to the point where Planar Bubble, and possibly a selection of ways of preventing it being dispelled is basically a necessity. You might want to clarify the rules on heavy gravity and how they interact with VSCs and orichalcum weapons. Making the strength requirements scale with size is probably a good idea (a Str 30 Huge Giant should have as much trouble moving in high gravity as a Str 10 Medium Human), so +20 Str over the average for a creature of your Size and Virtual Size. The Str requirements for wielding weapons increases by some number (+5 to +8 seems sensible) due to their increased weight.

O.O Wow that's a ton of house rules. Most of those don't seem entirely necessary in my campaigns, at least not from my experience gaming at these levels, but my experience is fairly limited past level 130+. I'll take some of them into Consideration for my campaign, but I can't see any of them as needed for the ruleset i'm trying to test.

A lot of them aren't really needed unless you're dealing with power-gaming players. Most of them exist because they stop a thing that's not that important flavour-wise and has the potential for several game-breaking exploits, and can be ignored if you can trust your players to avoid obviously overpowered things before the character sheet submission stage.

Again, seems unnecessary in my opinion, but if it works for you, good on ya. Might try this rule in my next campaign just to see how it works in combat. Mind sending the script via e-mail/PM?

I've found that without it, there are only two outcomes: Success on everything but a natural 1 or failure on everything but a natural 20. Because of this, it's either best to invest as much into something as you can or invest nothing at all, because against an AC of 200, an attack roll of +179 is as good as an attack roll of +0, despite the difference being less than 12%. One of the main reasons Epic is hard to balance is because the gap between automatic success and automatic failure is so small. If anything, I think my rule doesn't go far enough, and I was considering changing it to ±ECL/5 (but limited to being unable to reduce a bonus below the basic ability modifier of the check, to prevent the odd situation of high-level characters without Maven getting worse at easy tasks that they don't have skill ranks in as they level up) rather than ±DvR (which is ±ECL/10 in the extreme case of minimum-HD deities). Sadly the script is integrated into an IRC bot, and not easy to untangle from the bot's own aliasing language, so you'll have to make do with a random integer generator, or something.

EDIT: If you're using this rules with Divine Bonuses, it's probably a good idea to do it with every special quality that adds a bonus to most things, like an Amidah's luck bonus, or a Neutronium Golem's gravitational bonus.

Epic spells using the "heal" seed cure all of that. Also you can ward off negative energy effects with Death Ward. Not banned in this realm.

Healing them isn't really the issue. The issue is that they hit you with so much damage that you're either killed or rendered incapable of taking actions in a single turn. Death Ward and other immunities are a poor defence as most of the creatures with these abilities are getting them from their portfolios, and so also gain immunity penetration.

As for the enormous mountain of Epic martial feats/divine abilities I stand in awe of them. They're utterly amazing and very impressive in the truest sense of the word. Brave good sir. However I can see immortals with the Nescient divine ability making sick usage of those feats.

Thanks. I tend not to play with Nescient, as I haven't seen any uses for it that aren't just exploiting the wording of certain abilities to get abilities at a discount, usually by taking the last ability in a feat tree without the others, and because it takes away a tool that the DM can use to balance abilities, and if there's anything Epic 3.5 doesn't need, its fewer ways to ensure abilities are balanced.

 

[Belzamus]

I see now why you haven't been concerned about casters, Neo, those planar traits favor warriors pretty heavily. Which fits the feel of the tournament really well, I feel. I guess we'll see if they go far enough once the fights begin.

And, yeah, negative energy effects from the death portfolio can get pretty broken, too. With double death, it gets nearly into Omega Effect territory (that ability might as well be called ABROGATE ME OR DIE. Seriously... good thing it's not going to come up here.)

Anyway, I finished up at school today, I'm going to work on my guy tomorrow, hopefully shouldn't take that long since I still have his original stats. Looking over the plane's features, I have a feeling he's going to like it here.

 

[Neoiceshroom]

Anyway, I finished up at school today, I'm going to work on my guy tomorrow, hopefully shouldn't take that long since I still have his original stats. Looking over the plane's features, I have a feeling he's going to like it here.

Just don't forget to use your new method for calculating VSCs. Oh, and an epic martial study or two might help add a bit of flavor to him in combat. Whether or not you actually go for levels in an adept class is up to you friend.

Anyways, as for orichalcum equipment on the Graveyard of Swords, effectively it quadruples in weight just like any other carried item and therefore the required strength to use such an item increases by 10 (seeing as how one's carrying capacity also quadruples with the addition of ten strength). Simple.

Also, there is one more major reason why I'm not worried about Boccob sweeping the tournament and owning everyone. His name is Ryuushin Genji Ryo. Even at lower levels from what I've done of PVP in D&D, rogue/ninja types tend to assassinate spellcasters, even into epic levels. Just waiting on Kapi to actually make an Enworld account and post Genji, cause I'm totally not gonna do it for him. It's his character and his PRC.

 

[Belzamus]

Okay, Neo, he's all done. Have a look.


Vasthulthus

God-Breaker, The Ruin of Hosts

Paragon Death Giant Fighter 60/Rogue 60/Battle Ascendant 42
Huge Giant
Hit Dice: 60,036 hp
Initiative: +104, Always First
Speed: 450 ft., fly 1,350 ft. (good)

Armor Class: 347 Flat-Footed: 338 Touch: 157

Base Attack/Grapple: +159/+247
Space/Reach: 15 ft./15 ft.

Attack:

Disconsolate +435 (5 attacks) 720 +364 force +360 sneak attack +150 harm = 1,594 18-20/x11
AND
Phasma +435 (5 touch attacks) 720 +364 force = 1,084 18-20/x11

Special Abilities: Frightful Keening, Martial Lord 37 rounds/day, Martial Titan 37 rounds/day, Messiah of War, Reaping the Slaughterous Harvest 4/day, Sneak Attack +60d6, Spell-Like Abilities, Steal Soul

Special Qualities: Ages of Battle, Darkvision 600 ft., Evasion, Fast Healing 20, Guardian Souls, Improved Evasion, Improved Uncanny Dodge, Immunity to Fear and Energy Drain, Resist Fire and Cold 10, Rock Catching, Skill Mastery, Slippery Mind, Sold Soul, Soldier's Death, Soul Healing, SR 219, Trapfinding, Trap Sense +8, Uncanny Dodge

Saving Throws: Fort +211 Ref +168 Will +177

Abilities: Str 135 Dex 28 Con 108 Int 40 Wis 48 Cha 96

Skills: All skills (except Concentration, Heal, all Knowledge Skills except (Local), Spellcraft, and Survival) = 217 + relevant ability modifier. Vasthultus may take 10 on any skill check except for those mentioned above. He gains an additional +45 bonus on Listen and Spot checks.

FEATS AND ABILITIES

(All weapon feats are for Dire Pick) (Vasthultus has traded 30 feats for 5 divine abilities)

[sblock]Feats:Bounding Assault, Cleave, Combat Expertise, Dodge, Dual Strike, Endurance, Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Dire Pick), Great Cleave, Greater Two-Weapon Fighting, Improved Initiative, Improved Sunder, Improved Toughness, Improved Two-Weapon Fighting, Leap Attack, Melee Weapon Mastery (Piercing), Mobility, Oversized Two-Weapon Fighting, Power Attack, Rapid Blitz, Spring Attack, Steadfast Determination, Toughness, Two Weapon Fighting

Weapon Feats: Epic Weapon Focus, Epic Weapon Specialization, Greater Weapon Focus, Greater Weapon Specialization, Improved Critical, Improved Critical Multiplier, Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization, Weapon Supremacy

Epic Feats: Combat Mastery, Dire Charge, Double Standards, Epic Dodge, Greater Power Attack, Improved Combat Expertise, Improved Dodge, Light Eradication, Lingering Damage, Perfect Cleave, Perfect Two-Weapon Fighting, Power Attack Mastery, Preemptive Strike, Superior Cleave, Superior Initiative, Supreme Dodge, Two-Weapon Mastery, Two-Weapon Rend, Uncanny Power Attack, Uncanny Two-Weapon Fighting, Weapon Abatement

Divine Abilities: Abnormality (Wings), Celerity, Divine Toughness, Greater Critical, Greater Critical Multiplier, Moderate Eradication, Perfect Initiative, Perfect Weapon Focus, Perfect Weapon Specialization, Superior Power Attack, Slashing Deficiency, Spell Abatement, Threatening Critical, Uncanny Cleave, Uncanny Weapon Focus

Cosmic Abilities: Cosmic Weapon Specialization, Heavy Eradication[/sblock]

Alignment: Neutral Evil
Artifacts: Disconsolate, Phasma, the Ark of Thanatos, (Vasthultus has sacrificed his 4th soul object to give himself a +36 Profane Bonus to Strength, Constitution, and Charisma; he has also read +5 tomes of inherent power for all of his ability scores)
Non-Artifacts: +5 Ghost-Touch Orichalcum Full Plate of Heavy Fortification

ECL: 208
CR: 139

ARTIFACTS

[sblock]Disconsolate

This +60 Gargantuan Ghost-Touch Dire Pick of Speed has the following properties:

• It doubles the wielder's Sneak Attack damage
• It applies the wielder's Sneak Attack damage on every attack
• It ignores an opponent's Damage Reduction
• It casts Harm (156th level caster) on both the wielder and the target with each successful attack.
• It can be used to Power Attack as though it were a 2-handed weapon

Phasma

This +60 Gargantuan Ghost-Touch Dire Pick of Speed has the following properties:

• It grants the wielder a Deflection Bonus to Armor Class equal to his Charisma Modifier
• It cannot be Disarmed, and if Sundered, it reforms in 1d4 rounds
• All damage it deals in a given round takes effect again immediately at the beginning of the next round
• It can be used to Power Attack as though it were a 2-handed weapon

The Ark of Thanatos

This unholy phylactery holds the soul of the most powerful foe ever vanquished by the wearer. (A Great Wyrm Platinum Dragon for Vasthultus). It grants the wearer a Profane Bonus to Armor Class, Attack Rolls, Caster Level, Damage Rolls, Initiative Rolls, Save Dcs, Saving Throws, Skill Checks, and Spell Resistance equal to ¼th the Hit Dice of the soul retained. (Granting Vasthultus a +24 Profane Bonus in this case) [/sblock]

COMBAT DETAILS

[sblock]Vasthultus may move and take all of his attacks as part of a Spring Attack.

He receives a Full Attack at the end of any charge, and when charging, Power Attacks at twice his normal ratio.

He Power Attacks at a 4:1 ratio and automatically Power Attacks for the amount by which his Attack Roll exceeds his opponent's Armor Class. He may subtract a maximum of -159 from his Attack Roll, to gain a maximum of +318 to Damage Rolls, +736 on a Charge.

He receives an extra attack and may move his speed whenever he threatens a Critical Hit or drops an opponent, and automatically confirms all Critical Threats.

Whenever he strikes the same opponent with both weapons in a single round, he automatically Rends the opponent for 3,561 damage. He may only Rend a single opponent once each round, but may Rend any number of opponents per round.

He may use Combat Expertise at a 2:1 ratio, subtracting a maximum of -159 from his Attack Bonus to gain a maximum of +318 to his Armor Class.

He ignores the effects of the first spell and the first two weapon attacks to strike him each round.

Slashing weapons act as though they had no special weapon abilities beyond their base enhancement bonus when wielded against Vasthultus. Abilities above +21 in power ignore this effect.

Any Sneak Attack damage he deals takes effect again, at half the amount, at the beginning of Vasthultus' next turn.

He ignores an opponent's immunity to Critical Hits and precision-based damage.

He gains an additional attack with each weapon in the first round of any encounter.

He ignores all Armor and Shield bonuses to an opponent's Armor Class.[/sblock]


RACIAL ABILITIES

[sblock]Frightful Keening

As a Standard Action, Vasthultus may emit cause his Guardian Souls to wail with the chorus of the damned. This effect has a radius of 1,000 ft. Creatures in the area must make a Will Save (DC 181) or be Panicked. Those who succeed on the Save are merely Shaken. This is a sonic, mind-affecting fear effect.

Guardian Souls

Vasthultus is surrounded by a swirling cloak of all the hundreds of thousands of warriors he has slain, their spirits bound to him eternally. They provide him with a +43 bonus to Initiative rolls, Listen Checks, and Spot Checks. A successful Turning attempt (against a 183 HD Undead) will disperse the souls for 1d10 rounds, after which they reform and resume their protection. While dispersed, Vasthultus does not benefit from his Steal Soul and Soul Healing abilities.

Steal Soul

Those slain by Vasthultus cannot be returned to life by any means unless he himself is slain.

Sold Soul

When Vasthultus is slain, he is immediately, utterly destroyed and can never be returned to life by any means,

Soul Healing

While his Guardian Souls are active, Vasthultus is healed by Negative Energy, in addition to Positive Energy as normal. [/sblock]

CLASS ABILITIES

[sblock]Ages of Battle

Vasthultus has lived far longer than the average Death Giant, and shows no sign of aging whatsoever.

Improved Evasion

If exposed to an effect that allows a Reflex Save, Vasthultus takes no damage on a successful Save, and half damage on failed Save.

Improved Uncanny Dodge

Vasthultus cannot be flanked, except by opponents of ECL 212 or higher.

Martial Lord

As a Swift Action, Vasthultus may enter a trance, lasting until the beginning of his next turn, during which all die-rolls he makes are maximized. He may spend a maximum of 37 rounds per day in this state. Each round requires an additional Swift Action activation.

Martial Titan

As a Swift Action, Vasthultus may enter a trance, lasting until the beginning of his next turn, during which he takes minimum damage from all variable numeric effects. He may spend a maximum of 37 rounds per day in this state. Each round requires an additional Swift Action activation.

Reaping the Slaughterous Harvest

As a Swift Action 4 times per day, Vasthultus may enter a state of godlike martial skill, lasting for 20 rounds. In this state, he may move his speed as a Free Action every round and gains an additional attack with each weapon he is wielding, cumulatively, each round he Reaps the Slaughterous Harvest.

Slippery Mind

When subjected to an effect that allows a Will Save, Vasthultus rolls twice and takes the better of the two rolls.

Soldier's Death

If Vasthultus ever willingly retreats from combat, he takes a -42 penalty to Armor Class, Attack Rolls, Damage Rolls, Initiative Checks, Saving Throws, and Skill Checks for one week afterward.

War Messiah

Though he is not a god, Vasthultus has access to the Double War Portfolio, acting as though he was an immortal of Divine Rank 21.

Battle Hardened -- Vasthultus may use weapons of one size-category larger without penalty.
Battle Ready -- Vasthultus may use armor and shields without penalty.
Greater Scion of War -- Vasthultus gains a +42 Competence bonus on all Attack Rolls.
Greater Chink in the Armor -- Vasthultus completely ignores all Armor and Shield bonuses to his opponents' Armor Class.
Uncanny Force Mastery -- Vasthultus deals additional Force damage on all melee attacks.
Warrior's Spirit -- While in combat, Vasthultus has Regeneration 183.
[/sblock]

SPELL-LIKE ABILITIES

[sblock]CL 218th DC 90 + Spell Level

At Will, Quickened – Blade Barrier, Divine Power, Flame Strike, Greater Dispel Magic, Haste, Inflict Critical Wounds, Magic Vestment, Magic Weapon, Power Word Blind, Power Word Kill, Power Word Stun, See Invisibility, Spiritual Weapon, Unholy Blight [/sblock]

CALCS

[sblock]ECL: 24 (Death Giant) + 22 (Paragon) +60 (Fighter 60) +42 (Battle Ascendant 42) +60 (Rogue 60) = 208

HP: 183d20 +8,967 +2,196 +186 (x4) = 60,036

Initiative: (+15 dexterity, +45 Guardian Souls, +12 luck, +24 profane, +8 Superior Initiative)

AC: (+96 armor +40 competence, +45 deflection, +15 dexterity, +7 Dodge, +12 insight, +12 luck, +111 natural, +24 profane)

Str 18 (base) +24 (racial) +5 (inherent) +36 (profane) +15 (paragon) +32 (levels) = 135
Dex 18 (base) +2 (racial) +5 (inherent) +15 (paragon) -12 (VSC) = 28
Con 18 (base) +10 (racial) +5 (inherent) +36 (profane) +15 (paragon) +24 (VSC) = 108
Int 18 (base) +2 (racial) +5 (inherent) +15 (paragon) = 40
Wis 18 (base) +10 (racial) +5 (inherent) +15 (paragon) = 48
Cha 18 (base) +14 (racial) +5 (inherent) +36 (profane) +15 (paragon) +8 (levels) = 96

Fort 97(base) +49 (constitution) +24 (profane) +43 (guardian souls) = +211
Ref 92 (base) +9 (dexterity) +24 (profane) +43 (guardian souls) = +168
Will 73 (base) +37 (constitution [steadfast determination]) +24 (profane) +43 (guardian souls) = +177


Attack Bonus 159 (base) + 62 (strength) +24 (profane) +60 (enchantment) +82 (competence) +25 (luck) + 27 (feat) -2 (Monkey Grip)= +435

Attacks 1 (base) + 1 (speed) +1 (double standards) +2 (rapid blitz) x2 (dual strike) = 10

Damage 30d10 (base) +62 (strength) +24 (profane) +20 (luck) +60 (enchantment) +12 (feat) +42 (competence) +200 (cosmic weapon specialization) = (maximized) 720

SLA DCs 10 (base) +24 (profane) +13 (Luck) +43 (charisma) = 90 [/sblock]

 

[Neoiceshroom]

Looks good. One question, how is his CL for his spell like abilities so high when he only has 162 class levels? or is that from racial HD as well?

 

[Belzamus]

Racial HD, the Paragon bonus, and his Ark, believe.

Not that... I can see him using his SLAs at all in this tournament, really.

Edit: Actually, I almost think that the BA class shouldn't give access to the War portfolio's SLAs. Not only are they unnecessary, but they seem almost against the spirit of the class, not to mention not making sense in the context of a mortal warrior suddenly developing the ability to summon blade barriers and flame strikes by becoming a better swordsman.

 

[Neoiceshroom]

I noticed one other thing was missing from him. I see that he has Artifacts/soul objects for equipment, but what about regular equipment gained from wealth from adventuring? Also, I noticed his Strength was only 130, if you want him to be dishing out the kind of damage the rest of the gods in this tournament are gonna be dishing out I would advise bringing it up a bit. Legendary Strength would do the trick. Also I'm assuming his sneak attack is still based on d6s? I allow the divine ability that brings up the die type of the sneak attack. Sneaky Critical is also allowed.

One more thing, what are his weapons made from? I'm assuming Orichalcum? If not then cool, but you might want to consider having them made from it considering as 7 VSCs is nothing to take lightly.

Edit - I know I said I'm not gonna post Genji or his PRC, but I realized I need to do some slight modifications to the class so I'm going to go ahead and post the class. Still waiting on Kapi to post the actual character.

Enlightened Ninja

Prerequisites

Dexterity - 70 or higher
Sneak Attack - 35d6
Skills - Hide, Move Silently 63 ranks
Feats - Dodge, Improved Dodge, Epic Dodge

Abilities

1 - Enlightenment
2 - Supersonic
3 - Enlightened Strike
4 - Elusion
5 - Reactive Reflexes
6 - Punishment
7 - Swiftness of Action
8 - Descisive Strike
9 - Fists of Fury
10 - Unmatched Speed

Enlightenment (Su.) - 1/Day per Enlightened Ninja level, the Ninja can add his Wisdom or Intelligence bonus (Whichever is higher) to his saving throws as an immediate action.

Supersonic(Va.) - At 2nd level, the Ninja gains the Supersonic Cosmic ability, so long as he wears no armor, and is unencumbered. At 12th level and every 10 levels thereafter the enlightened ninja may gain a different cosmic ability from the following list for which he meets the prerequisites.

Abrogate, Anaretic, Apostasy, Cosmic Consciousness, Cosmic [Effect], Cosmic Firmament, Cosmic String, Cosmic Superimposition, Cosmic Toughness, Counter-Strike, Cursed Body, Cursed Mind, Cursed Soul, Daunting Body, Daunting Mind, Daunting Soul, Divine Inspiration, Dominance, Eight Sense, Exclusivity, Heavy Eradication, Inner Eye, Lord of Perfection, Nullification, Oblique Strike, Cosmic Weapon Specialization, Slipstream, Sneaky Critical, Underhanded, Unearthly Combat Expertise, Unearthly Weapon Focus

Enlightened Strike(Ex.) - At 3rd level, The ninja may add double his Enlightened class level to all attack rolls and damage rolls.

Elusion(Va.) - At 4th level, the Ninja gains the ability to avoid attacks with reflex saving throws, so long has he wears no armor, and is unencumbered. At 14th level and every ten levels thereafter the Enlightened ninja may instead gain a divine ability for which he meets the prerequisites.

Reactive Reflexes(Ex.) - At 5th level, the Ninja can avoid attacks with stunning successiveness. He gains a +10 bonus to reflex saves, per 2 Enlightened Ninja levels. (20 at 5th, 30 at 6th, 40 at 8th, and so on.)

Punishment(Su.) - At 6th level, the Ninja gains the ability to make a single attack against any opponent within his base movement area. This ability cannot be used to strike the same opponent twice. At sixteenth level and every ten levels thereafter, he can use this ability against one additional opponent within his base movement radius per round. Using this ability is a standard action.

Swiftness of Action(Va.) - At 7th level, the Ninja gains the Time Dialation cosmic ability (Twice as many actions per round), so long as he wears no armor, and is unencumbered. At 17th Level and every 10 levels thereafter the enlightened ninja may instead gain a cosmic ability from the above list for which he meets the prerequisites.

Descisive Strike(Su.) - At 8th level, the Ninja may add one debilitating effect to a strike 1/round (Stunning, Blindness, Deafness, etc.)

Fists of Fury(Va.) - At 9th level, the Ninja's unarmed attack never miss (As the ability Ultimate Weapon Focus) but only if the ninja is wearing no armor, is unencumbered. In addition, the Ninja must forsake using any other weapon aside from his bare fists. at 19th level and every 10 levels thereafter the enlightened ninja may gain a bonus divine ability for which he meets the prerequisites.

Unmatched Speed(Su.) - At 10th level, the Ninja gains the Superluminal Transcendental ability for a number of round per day equal to his Enlightened Ninja class level, but only while wearing no armor and unencumbered. At 20th level and every 10 levels thereafter, he gains one additional use of this ability per day.

The enlightened ninja may trade 6 divine abilities for a Cosmic, 6 Cosmics for a transcendental, etc. The enlightened ninja must still meet the prerequisites for any ability he takes. This class is available to gods and mortals alike.

 

[Buugipopuu]

Vasthulthus's sheet is full of errors.

Rapid Blitz modifies the Spring Attack feat, which cannot be attempted in heavy armour (the Battle Ready ability of the War portfolio doesn't mean you're not considered to be wearing armour), and the three attacks it grants must be made against different creatures. In addition, Double Standards lets you make two attacks as a standard action. Dual Strike lets you attack with both weapons as a standard action. They don't stack because they're different actions. The Speed property only comes into play on a Full Attack, so doesn't stack with Rapid Blitz, Double Standards or Dual Strike because none of them are full attacks. You don't get ten attacks as a standard action, you get two.

Your stat breakdown doesn't appear to include Dexterity or Constitution adjustments due to Virtual Size.

Disconsolate is massively under-costed. At ECL 208, a magic weapon can be worth: 10 kgp*(208/2)^2 = 108.16 Mgp

The Harm effect is Spell Level (6th) * Caster Level (156th) * 2 kgp * 10 epic premium * 1.5 multiple abilities on an item = 28.08 Mgp, however since the item's caster level is 180 at a minimum (three times enhancement bonus), this is actually 32.4 Mgp.

+60 Ghost Touch Speed costs 64*64*2000*10 = 81.92 Mgp

With those two abilities alone it's already over the cost limit.

Then, ignoring damage reduction, improving power attack damage, doubling sneak attack damage and applying it to every hit damage is equivalent to Perfect Embodiment of Destruction, Greater Power Attack, Superior Sneak Attack x3 and Underhanded, equivalent to a +67 cost modifier, costing 44.89 Mgp

Then there's the weapon itself, a Gargantuan Large Pick costs 8 times as much as a medium one, so this is only a mere 24.24 kgp, but 12.5% Orichalcum (the most a Gargantuan 130 Str creature can wield, although he might want to drop down to 1.5% Orichalcum to avoid being screwed by the graveyard of swords) costs 11.52 Mgp, octupled for a Gargantuan weapon comes to 92.16 MGp (and 24,240 gold for the weapon itself and the adamantine you're alloying it with).

The total price for said weapon, is 158.83 Mgp made from Adamantine, or 250.99 made from 12.5% Orichalcum. The former would be an appropriate weapon for an ECL 252 character, and the latter an appropriate weapon for an ECL 317 character.

Giving up an artefact for a +36 profane bonus to three stats is also dubious. Cost-wise it's 36*36*2000 (premium for bonus type other than Enhancement) * 10 epic premium * 2 slotless item (very significant, since it means it can't be disarmed, stolen or sundered) * 3 three ability scores = 155.52 Mgp

I'm going to assume that based on that breakdown, the other two artefacts are also significantly undercoated.

In the U_K system, all Epic items are artefacts, so a +12 suit of armour can't be taken as a non-artifact, and Gargantuan creatures need 145 Str to wear pure Orichalcum, which this guy doesn't have.

Actually, it seems that the Spider Queen has her slotless unsunderable items priced as if those abilities were free.

 

[Belzamus]

[MENTION=4139]Neo[/MENTION], his damage needs to go up? Really? I thought it seemed like it was getting too high...

@Buugi, that's a good point about those feats interacting. I *will* contend that there should be an epic or divine Spring Attack that allows exactly that, why there isn't I can't possibly imagine except an oversight on U_K's part. It's certainly less game-changing of an ability than the cleave or whirlwind attack trees. Not to mention that he'll be Reaping the Slaughterous Harvest any time he gets a turn anyway, so it's kind of moot.

And I may have forgotten that VSCs modify those two stats... It's been a long while since I played.

Going in reverse from the rest of your post -- he's Huge, not Gargantuan, would that not reduce the armor's strength requirement to 130? Also, you're telling me if I reduce it to +5 it's not an artifact then...? I thought artifacts were only those items keyed to your character and grew with them.

And the Ark I would assume is worth a simple +24 ECL since it's basically a Divine Bonus in all but name.

Also, his picks aren't Orichalcum -- if it says that somewhere, I forgot to remove it. They scale from his weapon specialization automatically to his virtual size.

Oh, and the +36 thing was calculated in a completely different way using the "How to build your own divinity template" section wear U_K states that a +2 to all scores is +1 ECL, and you can trade then at 2:1. So, a +3 to all scores should also be +1 ECL, therefore a +36 to three scores is +12 ECL, yes?

Not really sure what to say about his weapons. I stopped counting gold pieces the moment I bought Ascension. I tend to just go by ECL cost, so a +64 would be, what, 10.4 ECL? Add the other abilities as your said for a +67 bonus, so 11.2ish. And... might have eyeballed the Harm thing. Though, I see no reason why spells cast by artifacts shouldn't just use the wielder's CL at no "cost".

I guess my question is, does it actually seem in any way overpowered? I mean, he's at a horrendous disadvantage by being a mortal. And Neo thinks he doesn't do *enough* damage...

I'm not going to lie, I don't approach the IH with the mathematical exactness you seem to. For one, that's not something I'm terribly good at, and for another, the whole mess is so unbalanced, I find those precise formulae a little questionable in their effectiveness at balancing. Ascension, to me, has always seemed to require a certain bit of stepping-back and looking at the whole to judge the balance.

I guess, for me, bottom line, look at the guy, is he in any way out of place among this company? If anything, he's probably the weakest warrior entered.

His picks are probably overpowered by the book -- a quick ECL calc looks to peg Disconsolate around +130 when he should only have +104, and his Ark is +24 ECL when it should be +17, but that stat boost is under 1/4 of his equipment ECL, so that balances it out.

Out of curiosity, are Alabaster's six swords really appropriate for his ECL? I know he's 30 or so higher than V, but those are some crazy weapons, and just their base enchantments put many of them higher than V.'s weapons by quite a bit.