RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
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Star Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9
aka JoelF847
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I liked Sartel quite a bit last round. If I had had 5 votes, she would have gotten one from me. It's a shame however that you didn't take advantage of refining her this round. Nothing specific that I think was needed, but I'm sure you could have given more goodness. As it is, others did a great job updating and some at least have surpassed Sartel.
The stat block was well done, but there wasn't a lot of excitement. As a melee/magic threat, I'd have preferred to see Sartel take advantage of that with more buff spells. Mage armor, bull's strength, etc, would have been good. Also, switching her levels around to use eldrich knight would have helped a ton. Losing 1 level of spellcasting isn't a big deal since she'd still have 4th level spells. Yes, her tactics say she's there for spellcasting and lets her minions do the melee, but if that's the case, why even have a level of fighter and magic weapon? I'm also curious why she has enlarge person. Neither she nor her undead minions qualify, so who's she planning on enlarging? Finally, I'm not a big fan of animating dead opponents as a tactic in combat. At her CR, is adding a standard medium zombie really going to change things? Especially if the PCs have been fighting her zombies all day presumably and have gotten through them with no problems?
The new feat is a cool idea, but tragically flawed, as has been discussed. I'm not sure if it needs to be +2 spell levels(though I lean in that direction), but it definately needs to be only possible for a single target.
Honestly, I can say that I am liking this Villain. :)
The stat block needs tightened up, and this has the potential to be a TPK at normal levels for a CR 10 villain. But, I think that has more to do with already existing problems in the rules with "non-associated" classes & taking monsterous cohorts via Leadership.
But, when you decaptiate a Ghoul or Lamia - does that not destroy them? Would they not immediately become zombies?
Would manditory decapitation be a massive dis-incentive for followers coming to join the caravan?
The feat, as written, is overpowered. Looking at what it can do (adding ability damage to damaging spells), I do think that a +2 spell level might be more appropriate.
So I am on the fence with this entry. The concept is great. But there are a couple of rules issues that are bothering me.
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but now I am not clear on if the 7 Hag hit dice should be 2 feats or 3 and if the human bonus feat comes into it or not. Given that the Hag hit dice are not the 'starting' hit dice, I would think only two feats from the 7 Hag hit dice would make sense, and if the human bonus feat disappeared then suddenly Sartel now has too many feats...
Green Hags have 9 hit dice :) So, it's clearly 3 feats from monstrous hit dice.
Honestly, I don't even know what this "Elder Evils" is. Can you give me a link? The decapitated deity is straight out of the Pathfinder campaign setting (Golarion), as are all the personalities and place names except for Sartel and her cohort. So, if it's an homage, it's one fully supported by the setting.
Well, that's fair enough. I didn't know there was a decapitated snake god in Golarion. n.n;
Elder Evils was one of the last books put out for 3.5 by WotC. It essentially featured 'Apocalypse Beasts' and 'Eldritch Horrors' that could end the world. Sertrous was a snake-like demon lord (who existed in D&D before that book, I think,) who got decapitated but still managed to corrupt his holy slayer after "death." James Jacobs wrote that portion of the book, from what I remember.
And thanks for the info. I feel a lot better about this entry, knowing that.
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Fairly straight forward but as a minor quibble, the DM is left with no indication of just how many minions Sartel is likely to have with her
To be fair, the entrants were instructed not to detail anything that wasn't directly part of the villain's stat block, even alternate forms such as wild shape. Cohorts were just supposed to be mentioned by name and level as part of the Leadership feat. Minions are presumably part of the Lair round and not the stat block round. Obviously, there are at least 3 minions involved in the combat, since she retreats if there are fewer than that many. Presumably there are several more, since what kind of villain runs back home when a single zombie dies? :p
At this point I start wondering if headless zombies can 'see'?; if not then their opponents have a serious advantage in terms of 50% miss chances.
Of course they can. Skeletons can see with no eyes (or brain, for that matter), after all, and ghosts don't even have a physical presence.
Ghouls might be a different story, since they're more than simple animated remains. But then, they might not. Organs aren't really relevant to undead.
Ghouls might be a different story, since they're more than simple animated remains. But then, they might not. Organs aren't really relevant to undead.
Ghouls have an even bigger problem. A ghoul with no head cannot eat. A Ghoul's reason for being is the eating of human (or other secentient) flesh.
Also, remember that the ghouls would lose their bite attack.
(But then I still think that decapitating a ghoul would destroy it.)
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Thinking further on this issue, whilst Arcane Poison has been fun to debate, I think it could have made for a stronger entry to have had the 'new rule' tied to all the shambling undead attached to the caravan.
That's not a valid new rule entry though, because it'd have to be done as a template, and templates were specifically prohibited. In D&D, cutting off an undead's head does absolutely nothing, because D&D does not have location-based damage (the lone exception is a vorpal sword, and that, IIRC, specifically excludes undead).
Sorry I did not comment on this before.
This is amazing. I LOVE the feat (though it does need some tweaking) and it is very much in line with the villain's theme.
Also, to the people who think that a villain having an army is "too hard" of an EL or whatever...have you ever watched a movie or read a story with a villain in it? They almost always have lackeys and minions and armies. Obviously only a very powerful party could confront such a force head on, and it would be foolish to do so generally, which I think is a GREAT plus for having this villain in a game. It might take some *gasp!* planning and role-playing before rushing in and hitting things!
Anyway, this villain definitely gets my vote. Awesome work.
After reading the discussion on Arcane Poison, I'm of the opinion that it's over powered as written. While you may or may not think it's a good idea, the round to vote on ideas was round 2. Round 3 is about execution.
In addition, the feat isn't well matched with the villan. I would have prefered something that dealt with those severed heads she carries around. You said "Heads of scholars hang from her saddle ready to supply knowledge and offer council." How are they able to do this? Why would they want to offer advise?
I still like the headless army idea. However, this is probably not going to get one of my votes.
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 6
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Dedicated Voter Season 6
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Solid execution on a concept that was in my top half last round. The feat doesn't grab me - I don't particularly like spell-riders, and it potentially adds more die-rolling. But with a nerf or a boost in caster level, it could be a workable feat.
Sadly, I think this one's going to narrowly miss my vote again, but I expect to see you advance regardless.
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8
aka Tarren Dei
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I may regret saying this, but I still like Sartel. She got one of my votes in the last round and has only gotten better since.
Congratulations. I was worried that there would be a surprise and either you or I wouldn't be in this round, but I'm glad you're here.
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 4
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You can imbue your damaging spells with a deadly arcane venom.
Prerequisite: Caster level 3rd.
Benefit: Upon gaining this feat choose one ability score (strength, dexterity, etc.). Upon casting the spell, the caster chooses one, and only one, of the spell's targets to be effected by the arcane poison. If that creature takes hit point damage from the arcane poison spell, it also take 1 point of temporary ability score damage to the chosen ability each round for a total of four rounds. Each round of ability damage, the poisoned target gets a save to negated this and later rounds of poison delivered by this specific spell. The saving throw is a Fortitude save (DC equal to 10 + base spell level + spellcasting ability score modifier). Creatures cannot be effected by more than one arcane poison spell, that deals the same type of ability damage, at the same time. Spells that do not deal hit point damage are not affected by arcane poison. Creatures that are immune to poison are immune to the arcane poison. An arcane poison spell uses up a spell slot one level higher than the spell's actual level.
Special: You can gain this feat multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time you take the feat, it applies to a new ability score. You can, however, apply arcane poison multiple times to the same spell, so long as each application affects a separate ability score.
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 4
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After reading what everyone wrote above and some play testing on my own, this is what I have came up with to level out the Arcane Poison feat. Please read it closely and play test it a little and give me some more feed back. I really think this is a feat take players would want in there list of choices, not just a feat to give an one-time villain.
That said I would like to thank everyone for their comments, if you voted for me or not. Yes it would be nice to win this contest, but I also think we are here to learn how other gamers away from our personal gaming table work and think, and what they want. The more you comment, the more myself and the others in the contest can learn and grow as authors and designers. So again thank you.
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A friend of Matt's (Not me! I'm not that talented) drew up an image of Sartel and her caravan shortly after round 2, but he didn't want to post it before he was eliminated out of a desire to not skew the voting. Also, he wasn't able to get it scanned 'til just now. Anyway, here it is, and IMO is an amazing piece of concept art and really captures the character well: