Tom Phillips Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16, 2011 Top 32, 2012 Top 4 |
Troll Fingers
Aura moderate conjuration and necromancy; CL 6th
Slot neck; Price 1,000 gp per finger; Weight 1 lb.
Description
This simple leather necklace holds 1d4+1 shrunken, preserved fingers, each capped with a crooked gray nail. The digits are green and warty, somewhat rubbery, and have a tendency to twitch and writhe when touched. As the name implies, the fingers are culled from a troll.
The wearer must pluck a finger from the necklace and eat it for its magic to take affect. Unfortunately no amount of seasoning can make a troll finger palatable, so the eater must make an immediate DC 14 Fortitude save or be sickened for 1d6 rounds. Regardless of whether the eater becomes sickened or not, the magic takes affect and lasts for 1 hour. During this time, the eater heals 5 points of damage per round (including an equal amount of nonlethal damage) as long as he remains alive. This effect cannot heal acid or fire damage. The eater is also immune to bleed damage. Only damage taken while under the effect of the troll finger is healed. Although this healing resembles a troll’s regeneration ability, the eater does not regenerate limbs, organs, or other body parts. A character can only benefit from eating one troll finger per day. When all of the fingers are consumed the necklace becomes a nonmagical item.
While the magic is in effect, the eater suffers from mild hallucinations and an unpleasant mind-numbing sensation. This causes him to suffer a -6 penalty to all Perception checks. Additionally, for the next 1d3 days, his tongue and lips are stained green.
Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, gentle repose; Cost 500 gp per finger
F. Wesley Schneider Contributor |
This is pretty much just a gross potion. Although undoubtedly gaining the vaunted healing properties of a troll is cool, if you're in a pinch a potion of cure moderate wounds is pretty much always going to be favorable - especially since this doesn't heal existing damage.
Also, running a little math here, heals 5 hit points per round, 10 rounds in a minute (that's 50 hit points), lasts for an hour, that gets us a potential 3,000 hit points of healing. Unlikely that anyone's going to get all of that, but for the price, that ain't bad. Of course then you have to deal with the potential to be sickened, Perception penalty, and funky lips, all of which make that potion your cleric made look a lot more favorable.
I think the author did a fine job making this interesting and writing this using the formats and language of the game - in a pinch, I might even publish this someplace thematically appropriate after a few tinkers - but I just don't know that it's super appealing to a group of adventurers at the end of the day...
Sean K Reynolds Contributor |
The 1000gp cost is what did it for me. Fast healing 5 or regeneration 5 (and the item doesn't really clarify which one it is) for an hour for 1000gp is way too cheap. Regeneration in the hands of PCs is very powerful, and the reason why there's no cure minor wounds spell any more--unlimited healing, even in 1 point increments, means PCs are fully healed after every fight where they can rest for a couple minutes. Even the ring of regeneration only gives regeneration *1*, this gives 5.
Author needs to work on the difference between "affect" and "effect."
The item name "troll fingers" doesn't tell you ANYTHING about what this item does. It exactly describes what it LOOKS like, but gives no sense of what you'd use it for.
Clark Peterson Legendary Games, Necromancer Games |
I like this. I dont think this is a potion, but I see the issue. Consumables, like necklaces of missiles, particularly when they have to be eaten, seem like potions.
The cost concerns me. But the sickened condition is a nice tradeoff. Its a way more fun and flavorful (or not) approach to a ring of regeneration. You hate just giving out those rings because they are so powerful, but these fingers are limited and fun. PCs would LOVE these and would use them.
As for the name, it is exactly what it is. And when I read it I presumed it did something with regeneration. I dont mind the name.
I actually like this one. I'd keep this one.
Clark Peterson Legendary Games, Necromancer Games |
Neil Spicer Contributor, RPG Superstar 2009, RPG Superstar Judgernaut |
Troll Fingers, huh? Okay, the name immediately makes me start twitching and wondering where the design will take us. Will this involve regeneration, perhaps? Or are the fingers still alive and actually mobile in some way that the user can control them? Reading further, it seems we can have a number of troll fingers, but they're all on a necklace...and the power is consummable, in that, once the fingers are all gone, we have no more magic item. Okay, but that does give me pause and wonder why the item isn't called a necklace of troll fingers instead? It seems kind of like a necklace of fireballs in that regard.
From a flavor perspective, I dig the writing. From your description, it's obviously a very disgusting way to consume these things. But, with great power, we must make certain sacrifices, I suppose. I like the mechanical tradeoffs on the penalties to Perception and the sickened effect. However, if you make your Fortitude save, there is no drawback...and even if you don't make it, you only have to sacrifice 1d6 rounds. Given that each finger lasts an hour, this doesn't seem like an item that would get used in the middle of combat...so the sickening effect isn't really all that debilitating if you can outlast it and then carry on for the next 59 minutes free of the effect...and, again, that's assuming your massive Fortitude save (which should be really high for those warriors who'd want to use this item) doesn't bypass the potential for sickening someone from the get-go.
Lastly, I'll agree with Wes and Sean on the mathematical analysis. Spending only 1,000 gp for a chance to have fast healing 5 (or at least, I assume it's fast healing 5 since it can't restore limbs like regeneration 5), seems a little too good for the price. Also, I'm somewhat surprised to see the construction requirements only include gentle repose. Such a low-level spell will certainly keep the cost of this item down. But, why not use regenerate instead? Granted, that spell lets limbs grow back, but you're free to nerf that in the description of the wondrous item while still including it as the basis for the construction requirements. And that would have upped the price into a more acceptable range, too, I think.
Regardless, welcome to the ranks of RPG Superstar! Your item concept is strong. The flavor is tasty (well, the writing, not the troll fingers themselves). And, though there's maybe a few mechanical question marks here, you've got the rest of the competition to demonstrate your rules-fu. My advice would be to work on improving that as you go forward into the next round. Everyone will be watching for that in your future submissions. Best of luck!
Eric Bailey RPG Superstar 2009 Top 4 , Star Voter Season 6 aka raidou |
You kind of know what you're getting into when you come up with a "troll" theme for something. You're going to get regeneration, and the fire/acid duo will play some part.
So there are no particular surprises here. There are few available fast-healing effects so far in Pathfinder, so this item is indeed filling a niche. The author attempts to balance a really strong amount of healing with a sickened effect and a reduced perception.
I think that the perception penalty is probably outside the theme of this item, and I'd be more inclined to stay on the sickened --> nauseated track when consuming them. Also, as mentioned above, the total amount of healing is quite over the top. The item needs some numerical re-balancing, and another editorial pass, but overall this is a fine item concept.
What I like most about this particular item is the fun the author seems to have had with thinking through both the visual description and the side-effects of eating the disgusting things. This enthusiasm gives some life to the item and makes me think that this person will bring the same sense of fun to future designs.
Welcome to the contest!
Kevin Carter RPG Superstar 2009 Top 4 aka K. B. Carter |
Om nom nom nom! Troll fingers. You know, when I first read the name of this item, I thought, hmmmm, I bet you are going to eat these... so I'm at least as sick as you are :)
I'm with Eric on this one, I think you should have stayed on the sickened -> nauseated track, and then maybe even have a Fort save to avoid falling unconscious at the end of the duration. That way it's like a beneficial time bomb. The player regenerates as time goes on, but he's also getting sicker and sicker and he knows that eventually he may conk out.
I also think an hour is too long for a duration as the players could theoretically jam in a lot of encounters in during a single hour. I would have this an encounter use item, and have the duration be a minute or so.
Anyway, these are just my suggested tweaks. I think you have an interesting item and I always like it when someone goes for broke on the gross-out front. Congrats on making the top 32!
Matthew Stinson RPG Superstar 2009 Top 4 |
I like the idea of this item and like the flavor text. It seems to me that as vile as you made the item sound that the ill effects are a little light. At most you are sick for one minute, for a cheap fast healing 5 that last an hour. You could have made them vomit and be sickened every 5 or 10 minutes and it still would have been worth the cost of the fast healing 5! I did get really cool images of female troll shamans selling and trading their own hands and the hands of their followers as magic items.
Though the name troll fingers didn’t tell man anything about the item, when looking at the list of items and choosing one to read it did stand out. It made me want to read and find out want it did, though a necklace of at the beginning of the name would be better. A rod of wonder doesn’t really tell you anything about the item either besides it is a rod, we just know because it’s become a staple in the gaming cultural, like this necklace could be with a little playtesting and number refiguring. In the later rounds, please go with your ideas like this that are full of flavor, but be sure to check your math in a playtesting group if you can. Numbers become real at the table. Best of luck and welcome to the RPG Superstar 2010.
james knowles Star Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 9 |
Congrats on beating out the hundreds of us that didn't make the cut this year and making top 32. I'll get you next year, 'tho. lol
This is the first item i've reviewed thusfar that jumped out at me as being really cool.
Like the others, however, i'd drop the perception penalty and stick to sickened. I'd even go so far as to have the Imbiber(eater, chewer?) be sickened on a successful save and nauseated on a failed save (i think fast healing 5 for an hour is that powerful).
Dennis Baker Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16 |
Scott Williams 16 Dedicated Voter Season 7 |
Fern Herold RPG Superstar 2013 Top 8 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7 aka Demiurge 1138 |
Andrew Black RPG Superstar 2008 Top 16 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9 aka MythrilDragon |
Benjamin Bruck Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 8 aka Benchak the Nightstalker |
Brian Hoffman RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32 aka Madgael |
Congrats on making Top 32!
The best part of this is the use of the word "culled" in "fingers culled from a troll". That takes a lot of nasty mental images from the item in general and makes them that much more *urk*. Plus it makes me wonder now what criteria a troll finger wrangler uses to pick the best specimens for the necklace. Nicely done...
Ian Studebaker-Grey RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32 aka Grendel Todd |
James Martin RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16, 2011 Top 32 , Star Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8 |
James Martin RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16, 2011 Top 32 , Star Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8 |
Charles Evans 25 |
Flavour of the item is generally good (particularly the hallucinations), although frankly I think that you overdo it with saying 'there is no way to make a troll's finger taste good' and use that as a reason for your sickened condition - there are plenty of things out there such as dragons (some of whom are omnivores), demons, and quite possibly trolls whom I would contend eat things at least as 'gross' without batting an eyelid.
I'm a bit iffy on the side of the mechanics, as you're asking the GM to keep track of which damage is dealt by fire and acid in all combats, and raising questions of 'if a character drinks a potion of healing can it heal the fire and acid damage first, please, so the character can finish the job off with a troll finger?' I think you've tried to avoid causing one set of problems with your item, and walked straight into another set of issues instead. Selective damage healing is a minefield...
Congratulations on reaching the top 32, however, and if you raise your game I think you have the potential to go some way in this contest.
thunderspirit Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8 |
Mark Thomas RPG Superstar 2009 Top 16 aka Mark Thomas 66 |
Richard A. Hunt RPG Superstar 2010 Top 8 aka AWizardInDallas |
I really dig this item. Peanut butter or not, I have players that aren't going to touch these with a 10 foot tongue and some that probably would. That adds some priceless player reaction randomness you just can't buy. The sense of 'taint' about these could make for some real entertaining roleplay.
I can also imagine finding these with a bit of "troll gut rope" too. Icky! Nice job, Tom. Congrats!
Chris Mortika RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16 |
Jason Nelson Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games |
I actually love the concept of the item. It is gross and disgusting and yet a ton of fun, but here's my idea:
Make it a single item; feel free to upcost it if you like, and it works just as you've said above (though like others I would ditch the Perception penalty) but here's the catch. You have to make a save EVERY minute that it keeps working.
If you keep saving, you're okay. If you fail a save, you become sickened. If you fail two saves in a row you become nauseated. If you fail three saves in a row you barf up the troll finger and perhaps fall unconscious.
You just keep making a save once per minute; each time you fail your save, your condition gets one step worse; each time you make your save, your condition gets one step better.
So yeah, sure, you can get your fast healing, but that enchanted troll finger crawling around in your stomach isn't going to sit still.
Anyway, you get bonus points for being both gross and cool, and all in all I think this item is a disgusting winner. Good job and good luck!
Power Word Unzip |
Troll Fingers
I LOVE THIS ITEM. Seriously. And I don't think it's at all less appealing than a cleric potion. I use a lot of bleed effects in my games, and my PCs would love to have something like this to prevent that from happening. A good player will accept those potential drawbacks as good roleplaying opportunities.
Awesome job.
Power Word Unzip |
I actually love the concept of the item. It is gross and disgusting and yet a ton of fun, but here's my idea:
Make it a single item; feel free to upcost it if you like, and it works just as you've said above (though like others I would ditch the Perception penalty) but here's the catch. You have to make a save EVERY minute that it keeps working.
If you keep saving, you're okay. If you fail a save, you become sickened. If you fail two saves in a row you become nauseated. If you fail three saves in a row you barf up the troll finger and perhaps fall unconscious.
You just keep making a save once per minute; each time you fail your save, your condition gets one step worse; each time you make your save, your condition gets one step better.
So yeah, sure, you can get your fast healing, but that enchanted troll finger crawling around in your stomach isn't going to sit still.
Anyway, you get bonus points for being both gross and cool, and all in all I think this item is a disgusting winner. Good job and good luck!
All excellent adjustments, and I may adopt these alterations when I use these in an actual game. (This is why Jason is a Superstar - he's taken an awesome item and shown us all how it can be even better.)
I'd like to tie the hallucinations twist to a spell-like effect that could replace the Perception penalty, too. Hideous laughter, for example.
EDIT: Could another character attempt to ingest the finger after one character vomits it back up? Waste not, want not...
Jason Nelson Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games |
Jason Nelson wrote:I actually love the concept of the item. It is gross and disgusting and yet a ton of fun, but here's my idea:
Make it a single item; feel free to upcost it if you like, and it works just as you've said above (though like others I would ditch the Perception penalty) but here's the catch. You have to make a save EVERY minute that it keeps working.
If you keep saving, you're okay. If you fail a save, you become sickened. If you fail two saves in a row you become nauseated. If you fail three saves in a row you barf up the troll finger and perhaps fall unconscious.
You just keep making a save once per minute; each time you fail your save, your condition gets one step worse; each time you make your save, your condition gets one step better.
So yeah, sure, you can get your fast healing, but that enchanted troll finger crawling around in your stomach isn't going to sit still.
Anyway, you get bonus points for being both gross and cool, and all in all I think this item is a disgusting winner. Good job and good luck!
All excellent adjustments, and I may adopt these alterations when I use these in an actual game. (This is why Jason is a Superstar - he's taken an awesome item and shown us all how it can be even better.)
I'd like to tie the hallucinations twist to a spell-like effect that could replace the Perception penalty, too. Hideous laughter, for example.
EDIT: Could another character attempt to ingest the finger after one character vomits it back up? Waste not, want not...
"Don't touch that finger; you don't know where it's been!"
Except you DO know - ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!
I suppose for the sake of simplicity you could say the TF only works once a day, for as long as you can keep it down. I don't think it would be unreasonable for the save DC to escalate, either. DC 14 when you swallow it, then goes up by 1 every minute afterwards. That way, high-level fighters and barbarians aren't just sucking em down like candy. This could also be a limiter on using them sequentially - if you try eating a second troll finger the same day, your save DC starts where the last one left off. Your tummy just can't take too much troll!
One other wrinkle I had thought about to limit it is to assign the finger a certain number of hp, and it takes damage, say 1/minute, so if you keep it down, it slowly gets dissolved in the acid in your stomach, from which it doesn't regenerate. If you were going to have them be single-use consumables, I think this is an entirely plausible rationale for how you consume them (or just set an arbitrary duration and flavor text it that after that time they are digested).
In the end, though, I decided I liked better the idea of this immortal, possibly mummified troll finger that you had to keep choking down and eventually hurking back up so you could use it again the next day.
P.S. Thanks for the kudos - I always try to do my best.
roguerouge Star Voter Season 6 |
You have to make a save EVERY minute that it keeps working.
If you keep saving, you're okay. If you fail a save, you become sickened. If you fail two saves in a row you become nauseated. If you fail three saves in a row you barf up the troll finger and perhaps fall unconscious.
You just keep making a save once per minute; each time you fail your save, your condition gets one step worse; each time you make your save, your condition gets one step better.
Sounds like a pain to manage at the table, frankly. With rerolls, condition tracking and constantly trying to remember if it's been a minute in game. Computer games would handle that kind of thing better, imo.
cwslyclgh Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8 |
I think this item is gross, which can be a plus in certain situations... and I think it is probably under-priced for granting fast healing 5 (which is what it does if I am not mistaken)... Still it is so very evocative, and effective in its presentation that it is a very strong item despite the pricing problem.
Great Job making the top 32, Good luck in the future rounds!
Tom Phillips Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16, 2011 Top 32, 2012 Top 4 |
OK, now that I've turned in my entry for Round 2, I'd like to offer some responses. First of all, I'm honored and very humbled to have made it this far. So, thank you Judges, for making that happen. I will do my best to live up to your high expectations.
Again, THANKS EVERYONE! I'm sure I'll learn a lot from this experience.
Mike Welham Contributor , Star Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 9 |
Ick! But in a good way.
You'll have to be on your toes in the future (actually, in the past for round 2, since you've already submitted your monster). Another "affect" gaffe will cost you votes in the next round. :)
However, if you can match (or better) this item's visual presentation in the monster round, I'm certain you'll have a winner.
Congrats and best of luck in the contest!
Eric Hindley Contributor , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9 aka Boxhead |
Actually, what this brings to mind is a named character from the Warhammer universe- Grom, the Paunch of Misty Mountain, who once ate a plate of troll steaks (raw, no less!) and, after a battle with his digestive system, finally managed to acheive a balance with the regenerative meal...
Great flavour (fluff? I suppose the flavour is anything but great...) on these. They definitely seem like a good give-and-take item. Looking forward to future rounds.
Tom Phillips Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16, 2011 Top 32, 2012 Top 4 |
Tom Phillips Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16, 2011 Top 32, 2012 Top 4 |
Actually, what this brings to mind is a named character from the Warhammer universe- Grom, the Paunch of Misty Mountain, who once ate a plate of troll steaks (raw, no less!) and, after a battle with his digestive system, finally managed to acheive a balance with the regenerative meal...
Yikes--not familiar with Grom, but: Eww. But that's a good eww. ;-)
Great flavour (fluff? I suppose the flavour is anything but great...) on these. They definitely seem like a good give-and-take item. Looking forward to future rounds.
Thank you! I hope I don't disappoint! I really do feel fortunate to have made it this far, so I'm not taking anything for granted.
Joel Flank RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16 , Star Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9 aka JoelF847 |
Great job making the top 32! This is a nice wondrous item, with some good imagery. There were some relatively minor issues though, which could be fixed without too much work. First, as has been pointed out the sickened condition goes away before you'd really get the benefit of the item, so it doesn't really act as a penalty (unless some lurking enemy wait for just that moment to attack.) Instead, you could simply have the character become sickened (no save) each round that the healing kicks in, as the trollish power overcomes their body's natural processes.
The other thing that bothered me was the lengthy description of the effect. I see why you did this, since you wanted to give fast healing, but also wanted to keep the troll regeneration limit of no fire or acid damage. This could have been communicated instead as simply "During this time, the eater gains fast healing 5, except that it cannot heal fire or acid damage."
I'm not really getting the gentle repose connection to the healing (I see why you want to include it to keep the fingers alive), so I'd probably add a cure critical wounds requirement also.
Tom Phillips Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16, 2011 Top 32, 2012 Top 4 |
Great job making the top 32! This is a nice wondrous item, with some good imagery.
Thank you!
I'm not really getting the gentle repose connection to the healing (I see why you want to include it to keep the fingers alive), so I'd probably add a cure critical wounds requirement also.
Good catch, Joel. You know, I debated whether or not to add a cure spell to the construction cost. In fact, it was probably the thing I worried about most after I submitted the item. In hindsight, you're absolutely right. I think a cure critical would definitely have improved the item.
Also, just to clarify, I wasn't trying to keep the fingers alive with gentle repose just for the sake of creepiness. I was trying to suggest that the healing power of the troll was still somewhat active in the finger. So, with the troll's healing power still intact, I figured I didn't need to add a cure spell. Looking back though, I'm not sure if I did a great job selling that idea. I'm fortunate it didn't sink me!
Thanks for your comments!
Sean McGowan RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32, 2011 Top 4 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Marathon Voter Season 9 aka DankeSean |
Gross! And fun. I've had/known characters that would be too prissy to ever touch such a thing. Which would make it all the more fun to have them reduced to a few hit points and the cleric's out of healing, and the only thing available is a string left of these. Thank you for giving us the finger. :-)
Tom Phillips Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16, 2011 Top 32, 2012 Top 4 |
Gross! And fun. I've had/known characters that would be too prissy to ever touch such a thing. Which would make it all the more fun to have them reduced to a few hit points and the cleric's out of healing, and the only thing available is a string left of these.
Thanks Sean! Yep, some of my players have been more than a little stand-offish when it came to some of my creations. Anything that inspires good role-playing is a good thing!
Thank you for giving us the finger. :-)
Heck, I gave you FIVE fingers! ;-)