Telekinetic rapier-work, good sir!
Let me put it another way:
Tarrasque versus gelatinous cube just comes down to what you think is more amusing - a nigh-unkillable force of nature or a bizarre mobile dungeon trap.
Lady Bestine, the half-gold dragon/half-pixie isn't that bad on the face of it, but even though I love diversity and weirdness in D&D and don't balk at crazy multiclass combinations and special races I prefer a certain amount of
style. Compared to the marilith dervish - which is a scarily logical combination - it had no chance.
The exact same objection applies to Ellith'rin, the half-amethyst dragon/half-iridescent naga. Gee, that combines
two obscure creatures for no real reason. It's
also a druid/master of many forms, woohooo! Uh, no. The simplicity and elegance of the warforged ninja as a concept - whether or not you like the race or the class - makes it the clearly superior option.
Then we come to Jannys Shadowgaunt - apart from the overuse of drow and spiders, and the mechanically-dubious idea of the use of an iron golem as a lich's phylactery, it still falls under the category of Too Damn Much. It's not "unique" to throw everything you think is cool together in one big mess - the real trick to making weirdness interesting is to make it stylish. A beholder swashbuckler is all about style - he doesn't even need a rope to make a sweeping entrance.
Same reason I voted for the troll frenzied berserker - belkars are abstruse, and there's nothing particularly awesome about making one into a soul eater. A troll frenzied berserker, though, matches tone with tone - trolls
already fight with abandon because they're hard to destroy, so it makes sense to me.
The stone giant paladin is given a cooler backstory than the celestian unicorn paladin/sorcerer, and I bet you can guess what my problem with the latter is. At this point, it's coming down to the fact that I can see a stone giant paladin like that being an intriguing NPC in my game - what the hell kind of furry woodland fairytale are you telling with the unicorn?
On the flipside, the simplicity and deadly coolness of a psionic mindflayer beats a redeemed succubus paladin riding a vrock (!!) any day. And I'll vote for Meepo 'cause he's not some chump
summon monster I creature.
