Usually every year a thread like this pops up. And, though I've seen some folks indicate their favorite items so far, I haven't seen a thread dedicated to compiling this kind of simple, effective feedback to the Top 32.
So, step up to the mic (or messageboard thread) and indicate your Top 5 favorite wondrous item submissions among the Top 32...and why. This kind of feedback goes a long way in encouraging designers to keep putting their best stuff forward.
Let's hear what you think...
Well I don't have a top 5 because I think all are fantastic, but I do have some favorites that I will post in no particular order
Iron Bands of the Blue Dragon
Assassin's Rose
Imp's Wishbone
Iron Collar of the Unbound Coven
well 4 out of 5 anit bad
1.- Nightmare Boots
2.- Phlemobist's Gloves
3.- Grim Howler
4.- Illusionist's Veil
5.- Mirrored Lantern of the Pious Seeker
My top 5, in order:
Eye of the Void - Evoking a Cthulhu feel trumps everything and the writing is definitely evocative, using only 15 words of one sentence to do this. Excellent item and something I would use, with a small tweak.
Bag of Holes - It's just so useful and practical. It is so innovative that it hits you over the head with 'why didn't I think of that?' The writing is very clear. You picture the item and its usage immediately.
Phlebotomist's Gloves - despite the slow start and tough name, the riff on the Hand of Blood power is so wonderfully evil. A great item for a great power. In the hands of a PC it is such a moral quandary especially since it does not differentiate between friend or foe.
Shadow Falconer's Glove - I have a soft spot for most anything illusion (shadow) based. The description is solid and I like the effect. I agree with the unseen servant comment though.
Imp's Wishbone - The description of the item had me hooked. I didn't need to read the effects, but those (with the tweaks mentioned) are pretty cool too.
Honorable mention - Corsage of the Captured Voice - A pretty complex item handled well mechanically. It feels a little stilted or passive voiced in the writing, but the idea is almost strong enough to bring it up to my top 5.
Here are my top five in not specific order.
Nightmare boots
I really liked the theme of this specific item, I believe boots were a good choice over like gloves or whatnot.
Pharasma's Death Sacrament
I liked what this specific item did, it was simple, and I thought this was a very useful type item.
Silver Skein
I found this item an ingenues item, thought it broke one of the rules but I would of overlooked it too due to the ingenuity used. I even thought of a few other ideas I could use the item for which just adds to it.
Shadow Falconer's Glove
Just a fun item, I liked the theme, I also liked what the item did. Very creative.
Assassins Rose
This was a clever idea, the assassins calling card which I found very unique. I also liked that the assassin could use this calling card as a delivery device to deliver a poison to his victim. Very creative.
I already posted these, but for the sake of completeness, here they are in order:
Joshua Stevens — Imp's Wishbone. Awesome flavor. A bit wordy perhaps.
Erik Freund — Corsage of the Captured Voice. Love the story potential. Will have to look a lot more sinister for use with my evil sorceress villain though!
Eric Hindley — Shadow Falconer's Glove. Clear, concise, and really really cool! But please, more story for the archetype!
Ethan Day-Jones — Eye of the Void. Scary, nicely brief, and great story device. Ratchet up the mechanical detail for round 2, maybe?
Sue Flaherty — Pharasma's Death Sacrament. Excellent niche thinking. I'd make these a temple staple in my campaigns, and would love being able to save a fellow party member from a fate worse than death.
Honorable mention goes to the Assassin's Rose, which I can see lots of rakish fun in, and the Iron Collar of the Unbound Cove, however creepy it may be.
In winners-list-but-not-necessarily-my-order-of-preference order, I think my favorites are:
Shadow Falconer's Glove: It's got style, it's interesting, and it's useful. I like that it's a good low-cost item.
Phlebotomist's Gloves: I was really struck by the unique mechanical niche of this item.
Cocoon Cloak: I can't put my finger on why (which I know isn't very helpful) but I just like this one.
Nightmare Boots: This has some style, but mainly I'm won over because I find it mechanically very unique/cool.
Pharasma's Death Sacrament: RPGSS often has a fair amount of cool consumable items; this is one of the few of those I felt like my players would actually value.
If anyone cares, in no particular order my next five would probably be:
Poisoner's Retort: The coolness of the antidote bit won me over.
Verdant Vine: Mostly on style points and its ability to conjure to mind the image of the item with its description of use.
Grim Howler: One of the most mechanically interesting bard items I can remember seeing.
Book of Night Without Moon: It just oozes cool/style.
Talisman of Synchronicity: I feel like I've seen items in this vein before and yet this one ends up being pretty interesting and cool in terms of its mechanics.
Edited my post to add the 'whys'.
RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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Champion Voter Season 6, Champion Voter Season 7, Champion Voter Season 8, Champion Voter Season 9
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Not in order:
Candle of Viscous Ephemera - great for Ravenloft or another undead adventure, i like haunts and this could make a good item to help with suspense
Cocoon Cloak - just awesome
Book of Night Without Moon - has a familiar feel, but still neat
Ampoule of False Blood - great for a sorcerer, kinda open to abuse though
Assassins Rose - my fav of he bunch, I like the prerequisites alot
Star Voter Season 6
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1)Assassins Rose- I would literally build a character around this item
2)Phlebotomist’s Gloves- said character would probably have this as well
3)Shadow Falconer’s Glove- or use this one on occasions
4)Eye of the void- or this one
5)Erinyes Braid- and this for good measure
Right, I guess I’m going to build this character then….
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I must be in a poisoning mood, I really like the assassin's rose and poisoner's retort.
1) assassin's rose... for its unique and great alternative way of poisoning. Great for a plot in an adventure or for use by some devious PC's.
2) poisoner's retort... All the more reason for a poisoner to go and get a creature's heart. Plus, the antitoxin aspect is great.
3) iron collar of the unbound coven... I like this, great alternative (works within the class) for good/neutral witches who do not want to deal with a hag, etc.
4) bag of holes... I wouldn't have liked it, but the added aspect of the make whole spell effecting the item. Perfect.
5) mirrored lantern of the pious seeker... I really like this one and I can easily grasp the concept, usability, etc... overall a nice item and nicely written if I recall correctly from memory... after reading all 32 last night.
Talisman of Synchronicity - Great item for gaining a battlefield advantage or performing a cunning maneuver.
Imp's Wishbone - Neat item with great flavor. Juicy.
Iron Collar of the Unbound Coven - Another super juicy item.
Eye of the Void - Wicked item, great for DMs and Players alike.
Mirrored Lantern of the Pious Seeker - New idea, cool effects and plenty of juice.
Current Ranking: (Amount of times Selected)
1ST: (6)
Shadow Falconer’s Gloves
2ND: (5)
Assassin’s Rose
3RD: (4)
Imp’s Wishbone
Mirrored Lantern of the Pious Seeker
Phlemobist’s Gloves
Eye of the Void
4TH: (3)
Cocoon Cloak
Pharasma's Death Sacrament
5TH: (2)
Erinyes Braid
Nightmare Boots
Bag of Holes
Iron Collar of the Unbound Coven
Again, in no particular order, but:
Erinyes Braid
This thing injects a whole new category of flavor, a whole new tactical twist, and an entire character concept - the condition-dealer - into the game, and does so without breaking the game.
Shadow Falconer's Glove
Just thematically, this item is concentrated awesomeness in an edible form, and again, does it without breaking the game. It feels like a cut scene.
Bag of Holes
From thematic brilliance to comedic possibility, the Looney Tunes kids are all over this one... and the "repair it = break it" component? That's just crazy clever.
Nightmare Boots
This item is something that a character will be known for. "That guy that scorches the grass where he walks" is going to be known for miles and miles around. Bards will have him so sung-up that, by the time he reaches a new town, all the kids will be trying to light their shoes on fire.
Imp's Wishbone
Trinkets and foci and baubles for some serious voodoo-smack-laying down... and completely stealing the spell right out of someone's entire repertoire? MAN, but that's mean.
I also really want the Phlebotomist's Gloves and the Eye of the Void, but the question is 5, not 7, right?
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 6
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Dedicated Voter Season 6
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No particular order...
Shadow falconer's glove
Poisoner's retort
Eye of the void
Phlebotomist's gloves
Pharasma's death sacrament
Hmm. Just noticed that not a single item formatted as "Adjective noun of the adjective noun" made my list :)
My Top 4, in no particular order:
Mirrored Lantern of the Pious Seeker
Book of Night Without Moon
Nightmare Boots
Talisman of Synchronicity
Tied for 5: the Plentiful Pouch, and the Verdant Vine. (Truth be told, I now want to make a druid PC who has both of these items.)
Just don't get the goodberries and the verdant vine berries mixed up. That would be a taste explosion like none other.
Tied for 5: the Plentiful Pouch, and the Verdant Vine. (Truth be told, I now want to make a druid PC who has both of these items.)
Hmm. Guess I shouldn't have taken the "Red-Green Color Blindness" drawback. :D
Just don't get the goodberries and the verdant vine berries mixed up. That would be a taste explosion like none other.
Tied for 5: the Plentiful Pouch, and the Verdant Vine. (Truth be told, I now want to make a druid PC who has both of these items.)
:::cue 70's music::::
Guy:"Mmmm. Goodberries."
Girl:"Mmmm. Verdant vine berries."
[BUMP]
Guy:"Hey, you got your goodberries in my verdant vine!"
Girl:"You got your verdant vine in my goodberries!"
Both: "What?... Delicious!"
Of course, the old peanut butter cups commercial didn't end with both parties writing in pain as spiky vines erupted from their stomachs.
Here are my favorites in no particular order:
Talisman of Synchronicity - I love clone effects.
Mirrored Lantern of the Pious Seeker - The name, description, and functiion all work so well together.
Seeds of the Spirit Totem - I'm not sure how much use this item would get, but it's a cool idea.
Silver Skein - This a very cool idea.
Coccoon Cloak - I really love the flavor in this item.
Pharasma’s Death Sacrament - This item is very simple but very useful. I'm surprised it wasn't created before this.
Poisoner’s Retort - This item has a cool function and the description is very well written.
Can't really put them in order, but my top picks are:
Pharasma's Death Sacrament -- clean, simple, and elegant; one of my favorites.
Bag of Holes -- innovative idea which seemed very well-presented.
Book of Night Without Moon -- loved the concept, though I saw some legitimate mechanical questions.
Mirrored Lantern of the Pious Seeker -- a good idea and a creative use of rules with some design holes.
Iron Collar of the Unbound Coven -- great notion and solid mechanics for an admittedly niche focus.
:::cue 70's music::::
Guy:"Mmmm. Goodberries."
Girl:"Mmmm. Verdant vine berries."
[BUMP]
Guy:"Hey, you got your goodberries in my verdant vine!"
Girl:"You got your verdant vine in my goodberries!"
Both: "What?... Delicious!"
Of course, the old peanut butter cups commercial didn't end with both parties writing in pain as spiky vines erupted from their stomachs.
Methinks you must've been watching the wrong channels then. ;-)
Bag of Holes: My absolute favorite of the 32. 'tho technically it's merely create pit/passwall in a can, the way this item uses and modifies those spells is very clever. The make whole bit was the icing on the cake.
Shadow Falconer's Glove: A ranged disarm or steal manuever once per day. Simple, with cool imagery.
Alchemist's Viper: I love the imagery. I love the drawback of having the snake actually bite you in order to gain the benefit. It's all good stuff.
Illusionist's Veil: Replacing Illusionary monsters with real ones is cool (altho i do agree that they must be the same type as the illusion). Replacing real spells with illusionary ones is even cooler. when i borrow this one for my campaign i'll probally drop the hat of disguise effect and increase it's daily useage to x3/day in any combination of the other 2 effects.
Eye of the Void: IMO, this had the most evocative imagery of the 32, and that alone made it awesome. However, i'm anxious to see how good Ethan's rules-fu is in the following rounds.
Honorable Mention
Iron Collar of the Unbound Coven: Tom was one of my favorites last year and i'm glad to see him back. Altho this item was far too niche for me to ever use, i want to see what he comes up with in later rounds.
Shadow Falconer's Glove - just cool.
Pharasma's Death Sacrament - neat... but Rest Eternal should have been a part of it. I'm putting this here because it reminds me of an auto reject item I created called Final Death.
Eye of the Void - fun.
Phlebotomist's Gloves - the names a stretch... sounds like someone over-thesaurused. However, raising your hand in the air and causing things to bleed is pretty epic.
Iron Bands of the Dragon - cool ability, name needs improvement.
Top 5? Sure, I'll bite.
Eric Hindley's
Joel Flank's
John Spalding's
Joseph LaMothe's
Tom Phillips'
That being said, congratulations to all of the Top 32 contestants - each of you did an admirable job. Well done!
These are the ones that stood out to me.
Pharasma's Death Sacrament - Having lost characters to various afflictions, including undeath, this is a "must have." The imagery is too cool.
Shadow Falconer's Gloves - Neat item with very specific applications and more cool imagery.
Phelobotmist's Gloves - Vicious, nasty item that doesn't have to be.
Bag of Holes - Very useful and good fun can be had by all. Equally disruptive to the GM and PCs depending on who's using them.
Poisoner's Retort - Another potentially nasty item that doesn't have to be.
All in all, I'm amazed, honored, and privileged to have made the Top 32 in such gifted company. :)
Ask A RPGSupersuccubus' favourite items of Round 1:
- Singing Bowl of Redoubled Clarity
(bronze bowl which multiplied makes army of supercharged monks)
- Flask of Five Fifths
(the 'drop it in a portable hole dimensional bomb')
- Verdant Vine
(the ultimate cheap battlefield control (or succubus non-dimensional strategic withdrawal coverer) for short skirmishes)
- Bag of Holes
(an end to siege warfare and castle-storming as we know it)
- Ampoule of False Blood
(ultimate school swapping for succubi sorceresses)
- Alchemist's Viper
(a very nice piece of jewellery (it has emeralds in it!!!))
- Imp's Wishbone
(ultimate, ultimate, ultimate spell customization for spontaneous casters, and it sets a VERY VALUABLE PRECEDENT opening the floodgates for more such items!!!!)
- Illusionist's Veil
(a very snazzy item of apparel)
The Veil and Viper because they're clothes/jewellery and are actually pretty (the most important thing), the Bag of Holes because Mr. Leaping Gnome and I have corresponded and he is a charming fellwo who entertains me, and pick any two out of the others I listed above at random.
As much as I like having someone finally say my item is one of their favorites...I don't think it would actually explode if you did that. That pretty specifically only happens with portable holes and bags of holding. You could make rum and coke though...or your paladin violently ill...
As much as I like having someone finally say my item is one of their favorites...I don't think it would actually explode if you did that. That pretty specifically only happens with portable holes and bags of holding. You could make rum and coke though...or your paladin violently ill...
I want to use it for my gin and juice (Snoop Dog reference). But great item.
As much as I like having someone finally say my item is one of their favorites...I don't think it would actually explode if you did that. That pretty specifically only happens with portable holes and bags of holding. You could make rum and coke though...or your paladin violently ill...
So it's still an explosion, of sorts.
I rescind my vote for Iron bands of the Dragon... having just read the Stormborn and reallizing that it's a Class in a Can ability.
(Ride the Lightning)
I rescind my vote for Iron bands of the Dragon... having just read the Stormborn and reallizing that it's a Class in a Can ability.
(Ride the Lightning)
Agreed. It was what I liked most about the item, and having read the Ride the Lightning ability I find I actually like it better than the the way it is in the Iron Bands.
My current top 5 are (in no particular order):
- Assassin's Rose
- Ampoule of False Blood
- Phlebotomist's Gloves
- Bag of Holes
- Pharasma's Death Sacrament
Hmm... and I'm becoming fond of the Smuggler's Collapsible Robe, too.
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Pretty much in order;
Bag of Holes - evocative, funny, shiny. Even useful, and creativity-inspiring, which aren't always common in 'fun' items. I like it.
Martyr's Tear - useful, and the obvious exploit is handled simply.
Plentiful Pouch - a somewhat overcomplicated example of what should be the most common druid-produced magic item in the game.
Verdant Vine - yet another low-level staple druid spell that should be commonly used to make items, and yet has been neglected.
Shadow Falconer's Glove - nice visual, could use a clearer mechanical description, but I was sold by the imagery.
The glove and bag are the only two that have any of that much-vaunted 'gonzo' feel to them, which, IMO, too many strive for and do not reach, only getting as far as 'weird,' or, regrettably, zipping right past gonzo to 'silly.'
Being such a slow reader it has taken me a while to get here :)
EH's Shadow falconer's glove. Great creativity in visuals that do not trump or trip the mechanics. Nice niche with CMB at range.
ID's Alchemist Viper Though a bit ruff, preparing a potion as a quick action is almost unique with attention to balance. Again visuals do not get in the way of the delivery, even though they were more than snap and crackle.
JT's Phlebotomist Glove. Again visuals were concrete and made sense with the mechanic. Something that a party will remember fighting against, and all clamber to have, probably for different reasons too--higly flexible in that regard.
JF's Plentiful Pouch. Nice niche with an underused spell. Underused because it is not worth the trouble... until now *grin* I also think a lot of us tend to ignore those cantrip/orison and looked what you miss when you do :)
KPB's Seeds of the Spirit Totem. Again an underused part of the game because it sucks... until now. Generally I do not like metagaming and railroading is almost as bad. But neither is as bad as not having fun playing the game. It is not fun to be dead or to derail the adventure for a somewhat common occurance. Problem solved as these will be in all my campaigns now :)
Edit: I have also ranked out who I think will make it to top 4 based on the creativity and balance of their item. Time to get my cixelsyd self to the archetypes and see how my favoreds did :)