Tankard of the Cheerful Duelist.


Open Call: Design a wondrous item

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Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8

I really like this item, and can see using it in my games... and the Jackie Chan like image of the user fighting furiously with the tankard in his hand and never spilling a drop puts me into a good mood just thinking about it.

Grats on making the top 32 (again) and Good Luck in future rounds!

RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32 aka Hydro

It's worth noting that, while a good item for duelists, this is an even better item for arcane spellcasters. Like a duelist, a wizard will usually have a hand free, but unlike a duelist a wizard can usually afford to spend a move action to down a potion.

At high levels, this may be counterbalanced by the swift-action cost to make the potion in the first place (which hurts high-level casters more than fighters).

Sczarni RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32

Congrats and cheers to your luck holding true in future rounds!

Very great item that rewards a player choosing a fun character to play. And your notes on how you came to the idea are great too. I really like this.

Dark Archive Contributor , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9 aka Boxhead

I do enjoy this item immensely. It has a great flavour that ties heavily to Golorian. My only gripe at all would be:

If Golorian didn't have a drunken swashbuckler god, would this item stand up?

It might. I'd probably enjoy it just as much if I'd never known Cayden Cailean, but I love drunken characters of all stripes.

Star Voter Season 6, Dedicated Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Marathon Voter Season 9

Matthew Morris wrote:

Tankard of the Cheerful Duelist.

... change a full tankard of wine into a potion of cure light wounds. ...

Only wine can become a potion, beer does not? oversight or intentional? Also do non-alcoholic (come-on break the stereotypes!) beverages spill? OK not really an issues for me, but rules lawyers exist. Exist a lot in my current group :)

Great poem too!

This is a great item! I like the potion maker, that 'holding' is a bonus is inspired, but what really made this Top 32? Prestidigitation for the non-spill! lol

Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16, 2011 Top 32, 2012 Top 4

I ran a very entertaining Swashbuckling Adventures RPG campaign several years ago, and this item would defintely have been useful! (You've stirred up some good gaming memories for me--thanks!)

I love the relatively short, elegant description, plus the overall flair of the item is outstanding. I could defintely see duelist-type characters and worshippers of Cayden Cailean falling all over themselves for this thing.

Kudos and good luck!

Liberty's Edge 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 - again! I really like this item, it's a perfect blend of fun mechanics and being tied to Golarion. I can also easily see this in the hands of a monk/drunken master or bard. Bards unfortunately will have to sacrifice arcane strike the round they create a potion, but trade offs like that are part of the game.

This is easily one of my favorites, and I would definately want one for many characters.

Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 4

Congratulations again Matthew! You've inspired a lot of people to keep trying next year and that's an awesome thing.

Something about me; I can be a critical person.

Now here's the really good news, I can't find anything to be really critical about here. Oh, there are some trifles, which other people have covered, but nothing I feel like repeating.

Let me tell you what I liked instead:

1.) It rewards inconvenience. I love that you get a better reward for holding it in your hand. That's pure gold. I do look at the slots people decide to use and/or whether it is slotless; because frankly slots are a commodity.

2.) You gave it a small style/theme bonus by not sloshing your drinks around. Players love little touches like that along side the more meaningful bonuses and powers.

3.) If not directly, than certainly in a roundabout way you drew upon Golarion and/or iconic lore. That's risky, but when you pull it off correctly, it is awesome. I love risk-takers.

4.) I can be picky about introducing gonzo items in my own games. I would have no reservations about giving this to players, and I know they would love it! I can think of one player’s PC in particular (looking at Corso Firazi) who would use this item past the point when he could replace it with a more powerful item, just because he liked it so much.

I disagree that alcohol and healing is a theme/mechanic mismatch. For me, the item fits a sword and sorcery fantasy setting just fine.

Great job, looking forward to what you do next!


I'd add one caveat: the potion retains its alcohol content. :)

Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2009 Top 4

Welcome back Matt! Two years in a row is a feat in itself. I really like your item, it is the second best one this round I think. The off-hand slot is an under used slot in 3E and Pathfinder, so it's cool you've had more of a bonus while holding it. It would have been a lot easiler to just called the item "slotless" and been done with it, but that wouldn't have been very Superstar. Games like World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy have done a good job of showing how you can add cool bonues and flavor with the small detailed of a nonweapon off-hand item. Good luck with your monster, you seem really good at the small details and that will that you a long way the next round. Agian, welcome back.

RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32 aka Madgael

Matthew Morris wrote:
Overall, thank you everyone for critiquing my item. Those who use it in their games, I hope it goes over as well. Look soon for the ‘grease paint of leadership’ that when used to make eyebrows and a mustache gives the wearer a charisma bonus and a wisdom penalty.

And two hard boiled eggs.

*HONK*
Make that three hard boiled eggs.

Perhaps its a minor thing, but I love that prestidigitation is one of the crafting requirements. This is a vastly underrated spell and needs all the love it can get imho. Congrats on being awesome multiple years in a row...


Great stuff Matt,

This is so popular one of our patrons wanted to give it to a Npc he was stating up for a patronage projects (sans the Paizo IP)

So I came over to look at it. Great stuff.

Steve Russell
Rite Publishing


Also loves this item.

But what is the HP and Hardness of the tankard? Because I could easily see someone with Catch Off-guard using it as an off-hand weapon with a rapier or similar in the other hand.

Sovereign Court RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8 , Star Voter Season 6

Qwilion wrote:

Great stuff Matt,

This is so popular one of our patrons wanted to give it to a Npc he was stating up for a patronage projects (sans the Paizo IP)

So I came over to look at it. Great stuff.

Steve Russell
Rite Publishing

Wow.

That's kind of awesome and humbling. It's Paizo's baby now, so it falls to them to allow it, but... wow.

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

I absolutely love this one. Possibly my favorite from round one. Partly because I love Cayden Cailean (and who doesn't?) but unlike some items that just namedrop a deity in the background, this one fits to an absolutely perfect T. And it's FUN. And I absolutely love that it was inspired by a Marx Brothers film, of all things. And I was getting prepared to criticize while reading, because I thought 'yeah, but what happens to the booze while fighting? Cayden Cailean wouldn't approve it it being spilled'. And then you answered that in the last sentence. Perfect. This one takes the round, for me.

Liberty's Edge

Lucky me, I'm in the middle of building a treasure hoard right now. I believe I will stick this in it. I love this item, and it's perfect for the party's bard, and the party drunk. (That'll be a fun fight to watch.)

Dark Archive

Matthew Morris wrote:
That's kind of awesome and humbling. It's Paizo's baby now, so it falls to them to allow it, but... wow.

This item was passed as a boon to the cleric "Ben Caden" (wench master extrodinare, dashing and daring, instigator of merriment) in my regular Sunday game on the 14th from Wataxshyl the copper dragon of Oldfen for spinning a fine tale of Droskar's Crag and relenquishing to him the location of where the casks of dwarven ale lay hidden.

Sovereign Court RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8 , Star Voter Season 6

I wonder if 'real' designers get a warm fuzzy when they hear about their creations being used like I do. :-)

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