cwslyclgh's page

never mind, I got it taken care of by just calling Cosmo.

bumping this up so that I can be sure it gets seen.

Sorry to do this guys, but I am having a bit of financial hardship at the moment, so Cosmo, could you please cancel my pathfinder adventure path subscription (prior to the shipping of #25)

thanks.

C. Wesley Clough

one bump to get this closer to the top for the weekend visitors to potentially see...

I am going to start running a new 2e AD&D game (probably Saturday afternoons), I have 2 players already but a few more would be welcome... if you are in the greater Seattle area and would like to play shoot me an email at cwslyclgh@aol.com and I can give you some more details.

Wes

Personally I think the following spells are in the Spell Compendium are EXCELLENT, and highly encourage their use: chain missile, force chest, and shard storm, oh and greater floating disk isn't bad either.

it is certainly a decent 4th level spell for a bard or a sorcerer, but given it's limited duration, and given the fact that you only get one of those effects per casting, I don't see it as being vastly over powered... although it does not follow the 3.5 mantra that spells should not allow the caster to choose from a number of different effects (seriously, look at all the spells in 3.0 and earlier editions that let you choose from multiple effects, such as emotion, Otiluke's frozen sphere, flame arrow, and eyebite all were either removed, had their powers reduced to one spell effect or were split into individual spells per spell effect in 3.5), so I am surprised that this spell made it in as a single spell and not 4 different spells.

Nobody will ever be half the Rooster Cogburn that Wayne was.

Good job Neil.

I wouldn't mind being able to underline things... but all in all I am not to demanding of message boards I read.

I am currently DMing two games, one a 2e game and one a BECMI (Mentzer edition D&D) game, while playing in Runequest (current Mongoose edition) game.

Other then other white males like myself, a Black woman (my wife) and a Hispanic woman (another guys wife) commonly play in our games.

the debate between Sean and Mr. Morton is fun to watch.

personally I think that both of you are "right".

Sean is right based upon the spirit of the rules, while Eric is right based upon the letter of what is actually written.

Character: Trinite
Race: Elf
Class: Elf 1

Circumstance of death: Failed a poison save after being bitten by a giant crab spider

Module: B9 Castle Caldwell and Beyond (BECMI game)

cwslyclgh wrote:

*things*

[threadjack] ... how do you pronounce your handle? :) I love the Gaelic language to look at, but I never know how to SAY it ::laughing::[/threadjack]

cwslyclgh is just a screen name that I created for AOL consisting of my first initial and the rest of the letters in my name with out any vowels. I use it as a handle for various message boards because it is what my email address is if you just add @aol.com to it (although I only use aol to check my email any more, and not as a browser, I started the practice along time ago, and by now feel I have to keep it up so that people can continue to recognize me online). I do have a fair bit of Welsh in my ancestory, but the screen name looking like a celtic language is only a bit of fortunate happenstance.

Sean K Reynolds wrote:

Yes, because the core 3.5 rules are SO comprehensive when it comes for underwater rules. ;)

When it comes to movement rates you can use underwater, yes. Yes they are. :P

Of course, this is the same rule set that says a centaur can climb a wall...

I am currently waivering between this one, and Neil's entry.
Neil's is way ahead of you, in my opinion, in terms of presentation and idea, but I have seen the effect of that '32 page limit' on Clash of the Kingslayers and I am uncertain how easy it would be to get Neil's idea into 32 pages without making sacrifices.
I'm not clear on if you could achieve Neil's level of 'awesome', however, if you did win this; I wish you had identified that the main strength of your entry was as a Crucible of Chaos-esque (or Isle of Dread?) sandbox and presented accordingly.
My not knowing if you could present a sandbox more effectively than this entry suggests may be what in the end costs you my vote.

Suggestion:

I had an idea, and wanted to share it, good or bad. Maybe it will help decide what could be or what to avoid, but here it is:

Instead of Gnomes on Blink Dogs, How about a war party of Pixies (or generic tiny sized Fae.) riding in a war-basket on top of said Blink Dogs? Gnomes just seem to be kinda...blah for this scene.

I envision it looking like the scene from LOTR with the war elephants, only on a Fae sized scale. Imagine instead a basket strapped to a blinkdog of fae design where they can amass and launch tiny sized javelins, or balista bolts all the while blinking around whooping and hollering curses at the PCs.

This would change the chase scene into a chaotic hell ride when swarms of evil pixies threaten to overbear the PCs and unicorns

2) We replace the blink dogs with something similar that IS in the PF RPG that's similar, even if that's just regular riding dogs. Such a change would be made either because we ran into page count issues or (more likely) Me as the Editor-in-Chief really hates the idea of evil blink dogs and worked with the author to replace them with something else that coincidentally only uses a short stat block in the text of the adventure.

Maybe Yeth Hounds flying after the party and baying while pixies in howdahs (perhaps with ear-plugs to avoid the fear effect) rain javelins or arrows down on the fleeing party..

Jason Nelson wrote:

To read this thread, though, it looks like a landslide.

Ahh, but it's only exit polling. I'm expecting the final vote to be far closer, based both on what I've read and the quality of the submissions.

I voted for Neil, although honestly I didn't really like any of the module proposals (although all had some good points)... I found Neil's and Kevin's to be the two better proposals, and after thinking it over for a while I went with Neil based on the steady solidness of his previous work.

personally I would LOVE to see an adventure featuring Gulga or Bracht or the witchy-lich... but do not expect it from the next round... besides some of them (such as Gulga) I think would make a better villain for a whole Adventure Path, then for a single module.

my votes this round went to the lairs that I liked the best, with ties being broken by the body of work, not because I thought the people I voted for would produce an adventure with a villain I liked.

my votes this round went to

Kevin Carter—26 Paper Street
and
Matthew Stinson—The Abandoned Carnival at the Bumpy Apple Orchard

But honestly I could have voted for most of the entries this round, they were all good to excellent.

cwslyclgh wrote:

noxumbra wrote:

how wild would it be if all 8 chose the same villan ? that would be an apples to apples comparison!

couldn't happen, the author of the villain the other 7 chose would have to choose a different one.

Unless we all chose a villain by a superstar that didn't make it into the top 8.

heh, they should all choose the bard who makes heroes into legends :P

good job top 8, and the rest, better luck next time :)

Gulga seems more like the main villain of an entire Pathfinder adventure path then the villain of a single adventure. Although i don't think that should be held against him really.

He just doesn't seem like a villain to me, and that is why I did not vote for him... although I think that he would be a cool concept as an NPC. You also introduced several new rule elements most of which were pretty cool, and then chose to list probably the least cool one as your new rule element, which left me scratching my head.

Sorry and Good Luck.

let me start by saying I LIKE complicated villains that have a a lot of tricks in their arsenal... I can completely understand how that can make them harder to sue in a single adventure where they can't bring their full talents to bear, but as a DM it gives me much more flexibility with how I use them later on (assuming that they don't bite the big one in their first encounter with PC's, I love comic books and am a huge fan of the 'reocurring' villain). There for I cast my vote for Gulga this round, one of my two votes that carried over from the previous round. Although honestly the other carry over vote came because he made me much more interested in the villain, while Gulga's came from not letting my interest level slip. All in all I thought Gulga's new rule addition was weaker (as in not as well designed) than some of the others this round, but not so much so that it pulled my vote away.

Good Job, and Good Luck.

honestly the spymaster came very close to snagging one of my votes last round, but this re-working left me completely uninterested in the villain. 2 of my votes this round went to villains that had been reworked and interested me a lot more this round then they did last round (well 3 actually, but one of those three I did vote for last round although he was my least favorite of those who finally did get my vote). I was hoping to see something from the spymaster, tweaked a little and given a cool statblock that would elevate him to my top four, but this total re-write and somewhat confusing presentation just didn't do it for me.

Sorry, and Good Luck.

I suspect that might be what the message and whispering wind in her spell selection are for

message is language dependent and requires you to actually speak, turning the message spell into some sort of telepathic communication is beyond the power of the silent spell feat (or should be IMO at least). I missed the WW spell in the spell selection though, and that seems to provide a bit of a way for her to interact.

I voted for (in no particular order)

Sartel
Gulga
Count Falconbridge
Malgana

If her she lacks a tongue, her mouth is sewn shut and stuffed with oak leaves, how does she manipulate others and tell her minions what to do? I voted for Malgana anyway, but I would be interested in an answer to this (once voting ends and you are allowed to answer questions of course).

but for heroes like them... the Stalagmen or the Deep Crow are just foreplay... the real problem is distance of course...

It would be funny as all get out if you guys got a new office not more then a few blocks from WotC here in Renton. (Hey Renton rent has to be cheaper the Bellevue rent doesn't it)?

1) Neil Spicer
GULGA CENCH, Scion of Cyth-V’sug

2) Trevor Gulliver
Bracht Darkhouse, The Flesh Peddler

3) James FD Graham
Count Falconbridge, Fate's Adversary

4) Vladislav Rashkovski
Kardam, the Burning Khan

in order of how I voted.

Seems that I don't find defensive spells to be a big deal, but then what about greater magic weapon or magic vestment...

I would probably add a limitation against sharing personal spells (no true striking the entire group for instance), but other then that I like them.

I plan on voting for each round in isolation, not paying attention to whether the person wrote something else I liked in a previous round... that's the plan at least, whether or not I can truley stay that objective is another matter.

By the way, I really respect how cool everyone is being about feedback. You have to understand, most people arent this good about negative feedback. People dont like to hear how they didnt make it. It says alot about this community that we can have a discussion like this.

okay, I'll throw mine in, because I said on another thread I was going to, although after looking through the winners I think I can see why it didn't make the cut. (still feedback is always appreciated).

SPIRIT BOTTLE
Aura Strong Necromancy; CL 17th;
Slot --; Price 50,000 gp; Weight 2 lb.

Description

A delicate cage of mithral cradles this long-necked, gray glass bottle. A cork, capped with silver, is attached to the bottles cage by a fine mithral chain. The bottle can be used to store liquids (about one quart) but any liquid placed within quickly develops a rancid taste. By uncorking an empty spirit bottle and issuing a command the bearer can force an undead creature with the incorporeal subtype within 50 feet into the bottle. If the undead fails a will save (DC 23) it is sucked into the bottle (which automatically caps itself). An opponent that makes its save cannot be affected by that bottle for 24 hours. An incorporeal creature inside the bottle is trapped and cannot pass out of it. A trapped creature can be released only if the cork is removed or the bottle broken (hardness 2, 3 HP), a released creature cannot be trapped in that bottle again until at least 24 hours have passed.

Construction

Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, soul bind; Cost 25,000 gp

Can't say I am really disappointed... the top 32 are all pretty good items, and if they were chosen ahead of mine I have no reason to complain -- although had I known the judges were keen on magic bridges I would certainly have submitted something other then what I did, ;0)

Any way I am more happy for these that did make it then I am disappointed that I am not one of them.

I would say that my five favorites are:

Horn of the Dark Hunt
Helm of the Golem Master
Maw of Urgathoa
Dust of Heavy Burdens
and
Hammer's Bane Torc

But definitely congratulations to every one of the top 32 (and alternatives for that matter all though we haven't seen their items) all 32 of the items that were picked were very good.

Indeed, a big hand for the top 32 and the alternates. I am looking forward to the villians :)

heck I play mostly second edition (and traveller) currently, and that didn't stop me. (although to be honest I still keep up with 3.5 and Pathfinder's progress, because face it, there are not a lot of jobs out there for people wanting to write previous edition material).

right now it is 12:41 PM Pacific time, meaning 1 hour and 19 minutes to go.

Or maybe me and the best 31. : }

** spoiler omitted **
Clark could you give me feed back on this one. I did not have it fully ready at the deadline and as such used another entry.

you have a grammatical error in the second to the last sentence, nothing major but just enough to trip somebodies eye up and cause them to snap back for a moment. you use "anytime" early on in both the 4th and 5th sentences, you might want to consider changing the 5th sentence to remove it (perhaps to something like "If the corpse is ever raised..."), it would make it flow smoother when read.

As for the item itself, I think it is a nice item and would definatly consider using it in my home game. It has really nice flavor, (although I could see this as a little bit of a spell in a box type item, the "FX" as Clark calls them are very cool). I am unsure about the name though, key of vengance I expect to do something more vengeful... perhaps a more necromantic type name such as "key of the husk" or "Soul Key" or something along those lines.

Clark Peterson wrote:

But if you have a suggestion, bring it. We'd love to hear it.

Round 1: Design a new monster special ability.
Round 2: Create a monster stat block that includes your new ability, but don't name or describe the monster to which it belongs.
Round 3: Get assigned someone else's monster stat block; name, describe, and provide round-by-round tactics for that monster.
Round 4: Get assigned someone else's completed monster; design a lair for that monster.
Round 5: Get assigned someone else's lair; design an adventure that includes that lair.

I had two items that I was considering submitting to the contest... this is the one that I did not submit, I think it is a solid item (I would be interested in seeing if Clark shares this opinion or not plus his reasoning, so critique away... that goes for the rest of you too, in fact), but ultimately I thought it was too utilitarian, and didn't think it had that sexy cool factor that would allow it to advance, so I sent in the other one which did have more of that in my estimation... anyway, here is the item:

Parchment of Mapping
Aura Faint Divination; CL 5th;
Slot --; Price 18,000 gp; Weight --.

Description

Those that risk their lives in dark labyrinths and catacombs seeking gold and glory could do worse than to take this item with them. In appearance the parchment of mapping is a square sheet of thick parchment about a foot across. When set on the ground and commanded to map it immediately draws an accurate overhead map of the surrounding area in a 100 foot radius about where the map is placed (at a scale of 20 feet to the inch) up to three times a day. When used indoors or underground the map will be an accurate floor plan including the locations of obvious doors, but will not include non-obvious features such as traps or secret doors, although a character might be able to deduce location of a secret door based on what the map shows them. The map will remain on the parchment for up to 24 hours, or until the parchment is commanded to map a different area.

Construction

Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, clairvoyance; Cost 9,000 gp

The Word Limit is important... as a freelancer you will be given a firm word count for the vast majority of stuff that you write (not only with Paizo, but for any sort of magazine or publishing company in virtually any field for that matter). By giving a word limit on the wondrous item they are seeing if you can A) write succinctly enough to come in at or under a word limit, and B) follow directions (which is just as important when you are a freelancer)--in fact I would say that being able to write succinctly and follow directions are as important as being able to come up with great ideas and having a solid grasp of the game mechanics.