Argument: The characters are obviously over-the-top powerful and insain (presumably "insane").
Answer: Actually, the contest said nothing baout making "reasonable" characters, quite the opposite! The criteria were:
Create 2 20th level build characters who create the "perfect" optimized duo. Together, this duo could adventure without anyone else and could face a plethora of challenges.
....
A poll will be created and you will be invited to vote for the characters you think:
1) Are the most versitile, effective duo
2) Are great builds and are very well optimized
3) Would be fun to play in a game
4) Would be fit to handle almost any encounter thrown at them.
At no time does the word "reasonable" enter into it. The goal was to design characters capable of handling any encounter thrown at them, not to design characters that could handle reasonable challenges of their level.
Argument: There are no custom items allowed.
Answer: That's puzzling, but completely false. In fact, the contest guidelines say:
No custom items unless you create them.
Argument: Fine, but you didn't create that item! An Efreet did!
Answer: While we could sit here and argue whether an effect generated by a creature generated by an effect generated by your own Use Magic Device skill and your own equipment right out of the book for quite a while - how about we cut the crap and point out that The Word has both Gate and Steal Spell-like Ability, and can jolly well just make the Ring for The Wish in three rounds whenever he wants.
Argument: You guys are losing and gaining levels, the contest says that you can only get 20!
Answer: Right. The contest actually says that you can only have enough XP to get to 20th level, and if you spend any XP it comes out of that total. While The Word does a lot of money laundering, at no time does he gain more than twenty levels worth of XP. The Thought Bottle lets you regain XP you've spent, so despite the impressive accounting tricks, he never ever gained more than 190,000 XP.
Argument: But even with the XP regained from the Thought Bottle, it still takes 500 XP to start the process, so you can't be 20th level!
Answer: Exactly. That's why The Word is 19th level.
And here are the Rules arguments:
Argument: You can't make a Ring of Infinite Wishes.
Answer: Yes you can, the XP cost of the item includes 50 expenditures of the spell, so it costs 262,960 XP to make a Ring of Infinite Wishes.
Argument: Wish has a maximum cost of item that it can make!
Answer: Not in 3.5 it doesn't. That's a 3rd edition rule, and it's a 3.5 contest. In 3.5 you can Wish for any item of any price, but the XP cost of the spell of any item over 15,000 gp is 5000 XP plus double the cost of the item. That means that the XP component of a Wish for a Ring of Infinite Wishes (CL 20) is 530,920 XP. That's pretty big, but you don't have to pay any of that if you use Wish as a Spell-like Ability.
Argument: Wish says that it can't produce a 9th level effect!
Answer: No it doesn't. It says it can duplicate an effect of up to 8th level. That's not the same thing. Wish allows you to perform any one action off a list. One of the things on that list is to gain a +1 inherent bonus to a stat, one is to replicate a spell of 8th level, one is to make any magic item, and one is to do anything more powerful than that, subject to DM approval. The one we are interested in is the magic item creation one, for which there are no prereqs. I would point out that Wish is always generating a 9th level effect - it's always a Wish. And Wish is, of course, a 9th level spell. So any effect it has is by definition a 9th level effect.
Argument: Well, Wish says that the DM can refuse any Wish.
Answer: Not exactly. It says that the DM is encouraged to opt to not grant a Wish that exceeds the guidelines, but creating a magic item is well within the guidelines of the 3.5 write-up.
Argument: Caster Levels from the Sublime Chord only add up the Sublime Chord and one other Arcane Class.
Answer: Right. We made an error about that in he first draft, but we fixed it.
Argument: But you are still adding the Sublime Chord and the Mage of the Arcane Order together. Mage of the Arcane Order is not a spellcasting class!
Answer: It sure isn't, but it counts as levels of Sublime Chord for the purposes of calculating Spellcaster Level, so we are good to go.
Argument: But the Ur Priest, unlike the Apostle of Peace, says "level in spellcasting class", not caster level. You can't add up the caster levels and have it spill over onto the Ur Priest.
Answer: Actually, yes we can. "Level of a spellcasting class" means "caster level". That's why the definition of "caster level" says that it is "equal to your level in a spellcasting class". If a calculation of caster level references the "level of a spellcasting class", that references items that modify caster level as well, because it's the same thing.
Argument: The Ritual of Vitality doesn't work like that, it screws you somehow. I just don't remember how.
Answer: Sigh. Here's how it works: You pay XP to perform the ritual. If you would spend so much XP that you would lose levels, you lose levels. Then you swap out your race and modify your ECL accordingly. Normally, this means that your ECL is now by definition very much higher than your XP total, so it's going to be a very, VERY long time before you get a new level. However, the Thought Bottle allows you to regain XP that has been lost or spent, so you can do the whole ritual and end up within 500 XP of where you started.
Argument: But the thought bottle uses up 500 XP, how come you haven't lost more levels?
Answer: The Thought Bottle uses 500 XP once, no matter how many times you use it. If you lose one XP from 20th level, you're 19th level. But until you lose over nineteen thousand XP, you're still 19th level. Since 500 is less than 19,000, we are good to go.
Argument: You lose feats when you lose levels.
Answer: You sure do, but the Emancipated Spawn's class feature "recall feats" gives you all the feats you had right before you died.
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Basically, the arguments against range from "I'm incensed that you made a more powerful character than I did" all the way down to "I couldn't be bothered to actually read the book, so I'll just assume you cheated".
Then, when it came time to actually come up with a reason to disqualify the entry, the official line was that it somehow "violated the spirit of the contest."
-Username17
