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I'd chalk it up to Judges fiat, the more I read the comments, the more I realize how close I was. Next year I will make it.
I almost did a gauntlet reach type item this year also...reading the feedback from the people who made top32, I wonder if my item had made the keep pile if that would have done it.
Tempest of Abendego 2012:
Aura moderate abjuration and evocation; CL 9th Slot neck; Price 77,900gp; Weight 1 lb.
The wearer is constantly surrounded by moderate winds. The wearer is never checked by, or blown away by, winds of hurricane strength or less, and ranged attack rolls suffer a -2 penalty. This effect may be suppressed at will. The wearer may, upon command, surround himself in a cloak of winds, up to three times per day. While a cloak of winds is active, as an immediate action, the wearer may draw on the power of the storm within for one of the following effects. The user may either call a bolt of lightning from the amulet as lightning bolt for 3d10 damage (up to 9 bolts per day), or gust of wind up to three times per day. The wearer may choose to be pushed or lifted by the gust of wind, making a move of up to 60 feet in a straight line in any direction.
Judging by what they said during judging, they didn't get that the reason the bolts are 3d10 is because they're from the call lightning storm, the reason I use them as lightning bolts that do more damage is because they're being channeled through the amulet from the Eye of Abendego. I know I need to throttle back on the number of abilities. Rings of the Master 2011:
Rings of the Master Aura faint abjuration, necromancy, and transmutation; CL 5th Slot wrist; Price 41,500 gp; Weight 5 lbs. Description This set of ten mithral rings is engraved with mystical Tian characters. Mundane versions are known as chi sau rings, which are used in the monasteries of Tian Xia to condition the body through hours of form training; gaining power and speed from the extra weight on the arms. A wearer that has the Deflect Arrows feat may avoid two ranged attacks per round, instead of the standard one per round. He also gains the ability to deflect magical rays by making a DC20 reflex save, once per round, in lieu of deflecting normal missile weapons. Once per day, as a standard action, the wearer may use 2 points of ki to activate his inner reserves, gaining 10 temporary hit points for a duration of 10 minutes. Due to the mithral construction of the rings, unarmed attacks are considered silver for purposes of bypassing damage reduction. Construction Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, entropic shield, false life, haste Cost 20,750gp Perhaps a better name would have helped... The year before I entered this....lost formatting since I had to pull it from the archives. Ghostfire Torch 2010:
Ghostfire Torch
Aura moderate abjuration; CL 9th Slot -; Price 1,800 gp; Weight 1 lb. Description This polished birch torch flares to life with a pale green incorporeal flame when lit. Within the 20 foot bright illumination radius of the torch incorporeal creatures become almost corporeal. This near corporeal state negates movement through solid objects and their attacks do not surpass natural armor, armor and shields. In addition they lose their 50% reduction in damage from corporeal sources and they may be affected by normal weapons. Within the 40 foot dim illumination radius of the torch, incorporeal creatures are reduced to 25% reduction in damage from corporeal sources, but maintain the rest of their incorporeal abilities. Once lit the torch quickly burns out, only lasting for 10 minutes. Construction Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, dimensional anchor, ability to channel positive energy Cost 900 it was pretty similar to the Torch of Solidity from the previous year's top 32. And...(Clark said:We all unanimously felt that this is waaaay too cheap for which it does - which is totally cripples every incorporeal creature - even with the time limit. It's also just way too powerful, making some of the trickier creatures in the game pretty much pushovers for any character and severely hampered in their ability to deal out damage. Any group would be fools not to have a few of these with them at all times. Wes made a good point in another item that some design like players, some like fanbois and some like professional designers. This is designing like a player. If you make something everyone in the world has to have you need to step back and ask if you are making the right design choices. Wondrous items are limited.)
I will continue trying, I know I have good ideas, I know how to tweak the game rules, I can be creative, I just need to do all of it at once to make it superstar...I wish for once I could make it past the first round, because I truly believe this is the hardest design challenge. [Though monsters can be tough as well, since it's difficult to design something brand new in the realm of monsters.]
i was toying around with a dex based to hit system that had built in DR. Dex added to the To Hit, but Str added to DMG, surpassing the AC avoided the DR. So if you're accurate you can get around the DR, point for point. If you're not super accurate, you power through it...if you can hit. Makes for more balanced characters. Also consider adding base reflex saves to the AC. Should work quite well for E6.
Thanks for the feedback, great feedback, and now I know what to really avoid next year. I knew it was probably too many little SIACs.
I have been at it all 5 years as well, first year I dropped a stinker of course, but we had no guidelines other than 3.5 books. My closest so far was my ghostfire torch....I'll keep trying.
I have a feeling this year I went too big, and it was still too SAIC...but I'd like feedback anyway. I had a theme in mind and I just kept adding, which added more to the price....
The wearer is constantly surrounded by moderate winds. The wearer is never checked by, or blown away by, winds of hurricane strength or less, and ranged attack rolls suffer a -2 penalty. This effect may be suppressed at will. The wearer may, upon command, surround himself in a cloak of winds, up to three times per day. While a cloak of winds is active, as an immediate action, the wearer may draw on the power of the storm within for one of the following effects. The user may either call a bolt of lightning from the amulet as lightning bolt for 3d10 damage (up to 9 bolts per day), or gust of wind up to three times per day. The wearer may choose to be pushed or lifted by the gust of wind, making a move of up to 60 feet in a straight line in any direction.
This is basically a reworked Tankard of the Drunken Hero from the Pathfinder Chronicles - Gods and Magic. Pg 61. It's like a Cup of the Almost Drunk Kinda Heroic Guy...
Darkvision is nice, but it's not as great as it seems if you understand Low-Light Vision, which is more common. With Low-Light vision, if there is even starlight out, you see as bright as day and in color. Darkvision allows you to see in pitch black, but how common is that really? darkvision can see through a darkness spell...derro casting darkness in the Curse of the Crimson Throne Only averted TPK by the dwarf being able to see the derro...
Ouch, not a single one of mine made it...I feel left out...heh.
And then take community feedback as to what is broken, and what absolutely needs to be fixed, and what can be bandaged. Community feedback with examples for instance.
So basically you're running a 3.5P game...
yeah, I've done the calculations, I just need to extensively playtest it before I make it a solid house rule. I actually wrote I about it on my blog, with the full calculations heh.
Here's one, ask your players how their characters know about those items.... In Game knowledge? Knowledge checks ftw! If they want to take teh craft feats, make them have to roll to see if they know about those, or maybe they'll have to research it. (part of the research cost could be re-couped as being part of the cost to create items.) Once they know about a let's say, a "soulstealer weapon" they might need an exotic item to complete it. Perhaps they need the essence of a wraith to complete it. This is all old school of course, like when you needed to carry bat guano around to cast fireball...I personally LOVED that style of game play. I made spell books for my characters complete with spells I had failed to learn.
As for alignment as an objective force, I disagree. It causes more rules arguments than anything else and is played differently at every gaming table, and is therefore pretty clearly subjective. A prestige class for Cleric or Fighter? If a paladin starts murdering monster babies, he better be prepared to atone, that's all I have to say in my games.
This all could be easily settled with archetypes. The first thing that would change would be the alignment Champion of Shelyn (Paladin archetype) Alignment Restriction: A Champion of Shelyn must be of Neutral Good alignment. After that you go through the powers, determine what stays and what goes. There could be a Champion archetype for each god. Lawful Neutral and Chaotic Neutral might smite chaotic/lawful respectively. Some gods could possibly smite something else based upon their god's portfolios. A Champion of Nethys might be an arcane caster instead, that has spell resistance instead of smite. The beauty of archetypes is endless.
Oh I love this one...What a great example!
It's still an issue for SOME people who play Paladins.plenty of GMs love to throw difficult moral situations (the classic law or good decision especially) at the Paladin or cause the Paladin to fall over stupid stuff.This is a problem with the GM, not the Paladin. There, I fixed it for you... I have played paladins and they don't go all lawful stupid, I usually tailor the code of conduct to the deity I follow, a paladin of Iomedae is much different than a Paladin of Shelyn. Where the Paladin of Iomedae would be more about carrying out justice, Shelyn's Paladin would be about the goodness, the lawful part being the solemn vow they gave to Shelyn to carry out good acts in her name. Too many people do evil acts in the disguise of good. Murdering an innocent in a city without due process is not Lawful; no matter how evil that person was. However tracking down that criminal after he flees the city and bringing him to justice outside the laws of a city is just fine, though he should probably have any bounty rewards donated to the victims and their families. I had a paladin who got hold of a helm of opposite alignment once...
I'm working some house rules up to do away with the d20. Using 2d10 instead, as you use 2d10, you at least have some semblance of a curve. This of course causes an issue with criticals, which is what I'm working out. Notably, that 15+ criticals happen 21% of the time to the 1% chance of the natural 20 critical. (no confirmation rolls) This gives an average roll of 11, instead of 10.5. Criticals automatically cause max normal damage, plus roll the dice. Knowledge (local) and Perception are class skills for all classes. All classes have a minimum of 4+Int skill points (bump 4+ classes to 5+)
A class skill may be used even at 0 ranks but without the +3 trained bonus. (this is to off-set the x4 skill points from 3.5. With this house rule you can still use all your class skills, without having to worry about whether to focus on only 4 or 5 of them.) My fumbles work this way, when you fumble, you provoke an AoO. Characters with multiple attacks must fumble all the attacks with a single hand to fumble. So a TWF fighter would usually fumble more than a 1H fighter. Double ones on a skill check (using 2d10 mind you) is an automatic failure...[that's a 1% chance] I'm borrowing something from the Dr. Who RPG also,
I have been advocating 4+Int skill points for all the 2+Int classes since Alpha. That's a left-over flaw in the system. However, Fighters have enough feats to be able to take feats that allow them to do more out of combat, plus since they're not a MAD class, they don't NEED to dump CHA. A Fighter can be the face if they want. Having weapon familiarity means they don't NEED a 20 Str at 1st level. It's about choices, and most of the time people get too caught up in optimizing their characters and less about creating nice rounded characters, that can do more than sword a sword "reelz guud."
Maligor: I had a defensive reply all typed out, but I'm not going to get into a hostile or defensive discourse with you in open forums. If you'd like to contact me and have a civil discussion contact me at EpicRPGBlog@gmail My first reply in this thread was my answer, I wouldn't make wholesale changes to the classes. However I do have ideas but they don't have to deal with classes, but with making weapon specialization and focus be more than +1 to hit or damage. For example Weapon focus would give you access to a weapon mastery trick. Weapon Focus (Flail) would let you choose from several abilities, such as Disarm +2, Bell Ringer, etc. But Greater Weapon Focus (Flail) Plus Weapon Specialization (Flail) Might let you choose from more specialized tricks like critical stun, trip +4, disarm +4 etc. I haven't touched my original idea since Ultimate Combat came out, so I might actually make changes to it now.. I don't know why you need to make melee classes more attractive, people who want to play melee classes play melee classes, I've never had an issue with everyone wanting to play a caster, in fact a lot of times I'm lacking arcane casters more than melees.
Also having no deity means you have no favored weapon...including spells that enhance your deity's favored weapon...
1. rogues don't need to hide to be able to sneak attack...the other just needs to be denied their DEX bonus or flanked. 2. bleed damage on 16d sneak attack is 16??? ouch...talk about bleeding out. 3. You run your game your way...I'll run mine using mostly rules as written. Pathfinder as it is written is the least amount of house rules I've ever needed since I started in 1983.
My solution: I would embrace that level 13+ is the realm of super humans, 6+ is the realm of superior normal humans...Special Forces, Martial Arts masters, and ancient warriors that trained 10 or more hours per day. Lemme get this straight..So rogues would have 16d6 sneak attack at level 20??? EACH ATTACK...Can I please make a bow rogue in your game??? 80d6 damage just from sneak attacks in 1 round...yeah that's balanced... You do realize that
Meta magic items are only useable 3 times per day and meta magic spells that counter these generally have to be prepared ahead of time.
I wouldn't. (except for changing the skills, I would increase skill points all around, more skills the better.) Pathfinder and D&D in general are meant to be played as a cooperative group game. Wizards in the OD&D editions had 1-4 HP at first level and hit dice stopped before you got to those final 3 spell levels, so it took effort and lots of luck to reach those upper levels. They were all powerful back then because of said frailty. A Wizard's defense was making sure nothing lived long enough to damage him. A Wizard could 2 shot a dragon in 1e. Not at all likely now, since dragons have huge saves, hit points, and armor classes.
Wrong, hit point damage from spells has remained the same or gone down since 1st edition, as maximums have been instituted. Magic missiles did 1d4+level up to 10 missiles if I remember correctly without my 1e books with me. Monster hit dice/hit points have gone WAY up. Dragons that had 120hp in 1E, now have 400+ hit points. Save or die spells have been nerfed. The damage that melee fighters can do has steadily increased, remember a fighter in 1e, with an 18/00 strength did +6 damage, only male human fighters could have an 18/00 strength if memory serves. Only fighters got 2 attacks per round. Today they can do 4 or more attacks have a 24 str power attacking, for a whopping +14 damage.
Oh here's an idea, For players with black marks, they get a bad reputation score, the only way to log out is at an inn or your own fortification. The more black marks you have the more money it costs to stay at the inn, because no one likes you...Now, having a high disguise skill might help there as well...also this would prevent Charisma dump stating if the game is played that way. Reputation Feedback in PvP could be handled anytime someone initiaites combat with a LOWER level combatant. Initiating combat with higher level combatants would not suffer the reputation penalty, and might actually make your rep go up. If you are attacked by lower levels you could defend yourself without repercussion as well. Edit: With an appropriate knowledge roll, other players would be able to find out who a fortress belongs to, and what their reputation is...Camping a bad guys fortress...also one you reach a reputation low enough for a bounty, there would be no repercussions from killing you...no matter what level you are...thus high level bounty hunters can cash in on your evil ways...(and you would have your rep lowered slightly by your head being collected.)
People keep bringing up the hypothetical "GM" in reference to this game, and I honestly want to know, how in the blue hell does anyone expect a GMing mechanic to work in an MMO?The same way it works in every other MMO. When someone is exploiting a bug, harassing other players, griefing, or otherwise violating the terms of service of the game, you put in a ticket. GMs go down the ticket queue, investigate each one, and mete out a response as necessary. I was griefed by a notorious hacking gnome in Everquest that stayed at level 14 to attack the noobs, he would always log off for a couple days before any tickets were resolved. Over and over this one player did this for well over two years... Disappearing while running away was definitely not one of the powers...
Wielding a 2HW has no impact on flurry, you only deal your strength modifier, not 1/1-2 times your Str modifier. Sorry, 2 handed reach weapon, such as a glaive.
Don't forget Crusader's Flurry feat...letting you flurry with a 2H weapon...if you follow the right god... I really just want a monk that can use a short sword/light shield, like real life Shaolin Monks, without losing their bonuses....
Remember a rogue doesn't only sneak attack when flanking, they can also sneak attack anytime their opponent is denied DEX bonus... The rogue's attack deals extra damage anytime her target would be denied a Dexterity bonus to AC (whether the target actually has a Dexterity bonus or not), or when the rogue flanks her target.
Spells such as grease can cause checks that make cause enemies to lose Dex Bonus while moving through the grease...at Half speed...if they don't move they're not flat footed, but, then they're not closing either. Also Blinded, and stunned creatures lose their Dex bonus. If you have a rogue with a high UMD, a grease wand or glitterdust wand can really make a difference for them, or a multiclass sorc/rogue. How about a first turn ranged true strike sneak attack? Take the feat that lets you sneak attack from greater than 30feet and you're golden. Is it as powerful as some of the others? Nope, but it sure can be fun, and the game is about having fun...well except for the people trying to WIN!
It's amazing, many of the 3PP are the same professionals who freelance for Pathfinder... Perhaps others like their stuff because it's based upon their specific campaign world. S&S had some very cool ideas in their line of 3E books, just not everything was balanced... Monte Cook's work from 3.5's experimental and eldritch lines have inspired a lot of PRPG.... I get the 3PP stuff so I can data mine it for monsters and NPCs, I love other monster books, so do others or Complete Tome of Horrors wouldn't be selling so well. Some stuff isn't as awesome, but with the PDF revolution you don't need t spend $15 to buy it anymore... Was there a glut of products released for 3.0, by the gods yes, and those products ran from complete crap to amazing. There were just so many of them, it was insane.
The judges and developers have said they don't do this so they can steal our ideas. They all have enough talent to come up with their own awesome wondrous items. It's for legal issues in case they come up with something in the future that happens to be similar. They don't have time to search through the hundreds of submitted wondrous items to make sure they didn't accidentally come up with something along the same lines. So basically you submit Golden Torc of Antaaka. That name becomes the property of Paizo. The rest is basically crunch that is covered by the OGL and Paizo's Pathfinder Reference document. So if you really love your avatar's name and expect to use in in a future release of your own, DON'T use it in your submission.
#1 Hand Crossbows have no reason why they should be exotic except that it was a hold-over from it being a Drow hand crossbow. #2 Historically, crossbows had various crank mechanisms,from a simple foot pull, which allowed the person to use their entire strength to draw the string to full crank mechanisms, which even the weakest person could eventually draw. #3 I drop the dmg to 1d3 (small), 1d4 (medium) on a crossbow, then have the crossbow have a strength rating, say 100gp per bonus increase like a strength bow. However to draw it back would require the following character str - crossbow str
So a STR 8 could use a STR 14 cross bow with a windlass, while a STR 14 character could use a STR 14 crossbow like a bow; but he could use a STR 20 crossbow with a windlass. it would do d4+5 damage.
I run DMPCs occasionally, to me they're more expendable than the rest of the party, they might run a holding action while the others flee. They can be advisors, "This might not be a good idea". Sometimes they're experts, as many players don't realize the importance of knowledge skills, a bard DMPC can be used to introduce more of the lore of the game. The only DMPC I have currently is in the PbP I'm running. I took over the game because the DM dropped out; one player dropped out because the DMPC, but the others have no problem with her. I don't spotlight her, she's typically quiet, except when she was killing Gaedren Lamm...but, even then I let another player talk her down, because his sense of justice and my own vision of hers were different.
It would be easy enough to modify in a desert based game, a. Perhaps the intense heat evaporates the water unless it is in a suitable closed container.
Remember the water does go away after 2 hours if not used.
It's more like the fighter tries to break the leg with his swing, while the rogue attempts to collapse the leg at the knee joint. The fighter tries to lop off the entire head while the rogue aims for arteries. The fighter attempts to cave in the entire rib cage while the rogue attempts to eviscerate the opponent by cutting open his belly. The fighter is stronger and more able to penetrate armor (STR+Full BAB), while the rogue has to attempt to hit vital locations with deadly attacks (lower STR+3/4 BAB)
Rogues were fixed, while they can do significant amounts of damage, there are many things which circumvent that damage ability. Immunity to criticals is one. Unfamiliar anatomy is another... In 3.5 they were only effective as trap monkeys and against a small amount of mobs. If Rogues were limited to piercing only weapons, then we'd be right back at trap monkey dip class...
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