David Ludwig's page

Very excited to have made it as far in RPG Superstar as I did, now I've got a year to really read up on Pathfinder and Golarion and come back stronger. After so much great feedback on the Basilisk Eye Sight I did want to post my revised version here.

Good luck to all still in the running.

Basilisk’s Eye Sight
Aura moderate transmutation; CL 11th
Slot none; Price 19,000 gp; Weight 1 lb.
Description
Appearing as an iron cylinder with its outfacing lens resembling a slit reptilian eye, this sight can be attached to a single two-handed firearm. When this is done, the sight becomes part of the weapon, but can be removed from that weapon with a full-round action. A firearm wielder using a firearm that has this sight can choose to spend a full-round action to make a single shot once per day. A target hit by this shot must make a DC 19 Fortitude save or be petrified as by the flesh to stone spell.
When looking through this sight, the wielder may choose to keep their other eye closed. While looking through this sight in this manner the wielder has a 50% chance to avoid having to make saving throws against gaze attacks, but takes a -5 penalty on Perception checks. A wielder with at least 1 grit point instead has a 75% chance to avoid having to make saving throws against gaze attacks.
Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, break enchantment , flesh to stone; Cost 9,500 gp

I'm here very late, but I wanted to add my favorites to this thread as well. They are, in order;

1. Cloak of the Swashbuckler for raw panache and because there should be magic to support the build that would do those things anyway.
2. Charlatan Gloves because that’s fun, flavorful and useful magic all neatly packaged.
3. Spell Breaker Gauntlets. Punching spells? Yes please. I want it for so many of my frontline characters.
4. Feywhisper Crown for tight execution of a theme with flat awesome psychedelic mists.
5. Scent of the Savored Sting because I like the tight theme and have to admit a soft spot for magic perfume.

Though others like the Clockwork Conscience, Vexing Spirit Lamp, and of course my own Basilisk's Eye Sight are close.

Aw, I really liked this item until it ‘granted a taste of a flying raptor’s abilities’. Very cool to have the gloves built around commanding raptors, and having the option for summoning or enhancing but only one or the other per day.

I would’ve liked it this item better without the whole last paragraph though. I have a handful of characters with raptor companions who would love these, and could conceive even more who could make use of the summoning.

I like this one, very cool and creepy item to carry—plus fun to inflict terrors you’ve experienced on your enemies. Good attention to detail on the charging/charged mechanics for the item I think. I have several characters who would definitely love this item.

Not at all what I was expecting… I almost want a little more flavor text explaining the ‘why’ of the mantle, but the core idea is very cool. The price is too rich for me, but a lot of characters if they got ahold of one would find good use for it.

The bonus to caster-level for fire spells and the augmented summoning are my favorite parts of this item. Your description is very elegant too, though I have mixed feelings about the gold/ruby theme being exactly what I first thought of when I read the name. A few of my characters are pyro enough to want this, but honestly I think it would be a few of my more dedicated summoners who found the most use for it.

First off, I love that you specify that the shawl doesn’t let casters prepare their spells more than once per day. Very cool item, and I like how it plays with sleep mechanics. I like it, and could see it being a trademark of the handful of characters I have who’d want it.

I like it, the tankard holy-symbol that can be used as a cudgel would be popular with several of my characters including one I’m currently playing—in fact I think he wants one. There’s some wow factor missing for me that I can’t place, but am somehow inclined to believe that’s on me and not you or Cayden’s Cup.

Ooo, very cool! I like the scary shadow show. I think I’d be more likely to enjoy using this as GM than as a player, but I do have a handful of characters who would absolutely love this item—great for parties and social events!

I'm curious, does it have to be attached to the weapon to get the gaze protection? I think the way it's worded, you could argue that it only needs to be attached for the shooting quality. Otherwise I could see someone looking through the sight while scouting a la the characters on "Burn Notice."

I hadn't thought of using it without the gun... Actually, once gaze immunity is corrected to gaze protection I think I might approve of that--though probably leave the call in the hands of individual GMs.

Okay, that’s just cool! A recharging fragrance that doubles as recharging pepper-spray and in a pinch a pepper-spray/summon combo? Very nice. Price seems a bit steep even for recharging perfume though… Still, several of my characters wouldn’t mind having this item, and there are a few who would absolutely love it!

A few points from the comments I'd like to address; Your re-write of the item is vastly more appealing except for one aspect. I think letting the wasps out of the bottle should be a bad thing--the nuke in the original version if it does anything--since the item loses something for me if it creates wasps as opposed to just sustaining/enhancing them.
And then I like the pheromones--the magic is obviously going on with the wasps so I don't mind the fragrances effectively being magically enhanced science.

I’ll admit that I was planning on not liking your saddle for the same reason mounts aren’t always a great idea—dungeon crawling—but then you actually addressed that issue!

I love this as a way to take your mount with you into the dungeon and call them back when there’s room. I also like the saddle’s own morphability, but I’m not sure the interaction with the figurines of wondrous power sits quite right with me.

Still, any mounted character I have would love to have this item, and it would even prompt a few of my characters to consider mounts who would otherwise avoid them.

Afraid I must concede ignorance of the words of power system, so a lot of this makes limited sense to me. That said, the mechanics seem tight and I love the 24 hour compatibility of fire and healing effects. I have a few characters who would probably like this item once I understood the rules space it’s playing in.

Though reading the comments, I am now convinced to give words of power a serious read when I have some time to spare.

There’s a lot going on with this one, I like the thematic but honestly I think it does too much. Love the flamestrike/hallow leave-behind if the item is destroyed, which seems probable, but maybe it could do without some of the other abilities to bring the cost down?
I’ve got a handful of characters who’d appreciate the item, but if it were a little leaner I’d have more who genuinely wanted it. The three items you subsequently broke it into have a lot more appeal to me and mine, except I liked the flamestrike/hallow essentially being something you didn't want to happen because it meant you lost your expensive item (and were potentially in the middle of the flamestrike).

Name doesn’t do it for me; I almost want something evocative of the hornet—like Guardian Hornet, or something. That said, the effect really appeals to me, helping a character to stay in control of their own actions is very cool. Only a few forward thinking characters of mine would seek this out, but even fewer would turn it down if they happened upon it.

I’ll admit to being a bit confused by this one, but I like the core concept. Being able to invert positive/negative’s effects would be handy any time your energy affinity is in the party minority or you’re going into an environment heavy on the wrong type for your nature.

I really like these, they remind me of the anime Rune Solider in terms of punching spells, and that’s just cool. I like the potential for building a strongly anti-magic character who doesn’t cast spells themselves but can still dispel them. A lot of my front-line characters could find use for these.

First I’m immediately drawn to the lamp being terracotta, good choice there I think. I like the light pulling and even punishing opportunity attacks, and I love how low level this item is. Any of my characters with ki would want this item.

Cool and thematic item, though I would have actually liked it to affect undead as well as just haunts—though maybe not to the same extent? Maybe affecting haunts and mindless undead, or allowing a will save for undead other than haunts to see through the ruse? I don’t have many characters who would use this item, but I am tempted to design one specially for the purpose of playing this flute.

The description struck me as a bit overblown, but the utility of this item extending beyond simple extension of spell reach really grabbed my attention. The majority of my casters who like getting bang for their spell-buck would definitely want one of these.

There’s something very tantalizing here, the DR and low light vision are cool flavor, but exhaling thick memory altering mist is just awesome… I’m having trouble evaluating my opinion of the item as a whole because I like that mist effect so much. Definitely have characters who would make good use of it, and I’m quite intrigued by it in general.

So I’ll admit ignorance in terms of spellblights, but I like the flavor of this cage. Even if not using spellblights specifically I could see this being easily adapted to any prominent class of afflictions to feature in a campaign—which means I have a few campaigns where this item or a variant thereof could be extremely valuable.

Had to look up achkan, but very classy design for your item. Some details including more verbiage around what vulnerable to slashing damage means would’ve helped, but I do like the item. I’ve got a few characters who would enjoy this, and at least one player who would love it with any of his characters.

Love all the different time applications, and the deteriorating recharge as opposed to simply being single use. Only question is does exploding the bottle count as shattering it? I’d be inclined to guess yes. A lot of my more inventory conscious characters would enjoy managing one of these.

I like the ‘sticky’ debuff that once someone is afflicted the only way to get rid of it is to put it on someone else, I could see a lot of fun coming from this. Only my most mischievous characters would actually want one, but they would love it and as a GM I’d love throwing it at a party and seeing what they do with it.

Interesting, I was expecting some sort of artificial familiar—possibly for classes that don’t normally get one. Giving the familiar a secure hideyhole and an alternate form is kind of cool though… I don’t know how many of my characters would use one of these, but really maybe I should be posing the question to their familiars. The familiars say hideyhole is nice.

I like the concept of being able to play with your eidolon’s form, but unfortunately am not familiar enough with the class to say more.

Love the flavor on this one, and the idea of coating a weapon with the liquid. A few language issues I had were “sloshing about” makes the item seem less elegant to me and can be cut from the sentence with no ill effect—and in the case of the double weapon application I’d like it better if “Only one end of a double weapon can receive the benefits of a single flask of liquid sunlight.” In case somehow you have two flasks and want to coat both ends.
This is a great item that a lot of my characters would want from dungeon crawling to fighting undead.

Ooo, very nice. I like the Sleight of Hand trickery, especially working untrained, but the passing items within 100 feet if you and a friend each wear one glove is just cool! Could see a lot of my more theatrical characters with a pair of these.

I love the visual that goes with using these… But I’m not sure about the positive energy channeling. I think I’d like to see them less expensive and not affect channeling, but I may be in a minority there. I could definitely see all of my undead hunting characters with a pair of these.

Pretty cool getting around item, but somehow just doesn’t really grab me. Maybe because of the seven thousand blossoms from RPGSS 2010. The only characters I can immediately see getting these boots are the characters who have to have everything—which admittedly is better than no one wanting them.

Heck yeah! I’m on the fence whether I like the Stealth bonus or not, but it is nice the cloak does something when you’re wearing it. But being able to use it as a shield and for combat maneuvers? That’s just awesome, and I’m not aware of other magic items catering to that use of cloaks. Does need to explicitly take the shield slot when being used that way though-or at least the free hand.
My swashbucklers and any fighting characters with even a measure of panache want this item!

One little nitpicky detail, “shadow’s caster” sounds like spell casting to me. Perhaps save some ambiguity with alternate wording, like “said creature” instead?
Otherwise, I actually love this item for turning your opponent’s shadow against them, and above all for getting me to seriously consider building a character with Teamwork feats.

I like the attention to the different light conditions and interaction with glitterdust, though it does seem like a lot of mechanics for a consumable lasting a minute. That said, a few of my characters who dwell in darkness would love this item.

Thanks again for all the comments! I really appreciate the attention to my item, and I'll definitely be tweaking the gaze immunity way down before letting it in my own campaigns now.
As for walking around with the rifle shouldered and eye-plastered to the sight? Let's see how long they're allowed to do that in town or social situations that the domination gaze attack monsters so enjoy. Personally I like the option, but I also like messing with my players.

I love the interaction with the figurines of wondrous power, but at the same time this seems like an item you’d virtually need to build the campaign around. Most of my campaigns with dungeon crawling this would be too awkward, plus it’d be a shame to throw the vardo in without a handful of figurines over the campaign. So, I like it, but it’s just not my style.

I like the alternate name of “casing gloves” to allude to a different class of user in the description. Though I do think you could have left out "scouting a location they intend to rob" part, since that's what casing is. Let interested parties look it up if they're confused.

I could see a handful of my more roguish characters enjoying these.

Wow, thanks for all of the great feedback! I strongly felt that fire-arms needed more attention in Pathfinder because I love the way Pathfinder handles them.

I didn't intend for the Grit requirement to be so much a limiting (or balancing) factor as an added benefit. Holy guns or even any random PC toting a Lucky firearm could cover it--so if I was undervaluing the immunity to gaze attacks then that definitely would need attention.

Perhaps handling it more like averting your eyes and having a percent chance of not being subject to the gaze attack? I wanted something better for the magic than the effects of not looking, but maybe outright immunity to gaze attacks is too much.