Jar of Mottled Clay

[Tyler Cowart]

Jar of Mottled Clay
Aura faint transmutation; CL 3rd
Slot none; Price 600 gp; Weight 1 lb.

Description
These empty clay jars, suitable for holding a few ounces of liquid, smell of freshly tilled earth and change hues in sunlight. A jar of mottled clay can be thrown as a ranged touch attack with a range increment of 10 feet.

When one of these jars shatters, a mound of earth and clay rises into the air where it landed. The mound is 5 feet wide, 10 feet tall, and has hardness 2 and 40 hit points. A direct hit with a jar requires the target to make a DC 13 Reflex save or be pushed back 5 feet and knocked prone as the mound erupts where the target was standing. A successful save allows the creature struck to move 5 feet in any direction and avoid being knocked prone. A DC 18 Strength check topples the mound, requiring creatures in the 2 squares opposite to make a save as if struck directly. A mound created by a broken jar lasts for 1 round before losing its structure and collapsing into a pile. When a mound expires or is destroyed it creates difficult terrain in a 5-foot-radius around where it was created.

Jars of mottled clay can be filled with an alchemical item. Filling a jar requires a DC 15 Craft (alchemy) check, and when thrown, a modified jar will apply the effects of the alchemical item along with its own effect.

Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, soften earth and stone; Cost 300 gp

[Patrick Renie]

Should be written in singular, not plural.

Pretty cool ability, I guess. A little tricky to pull off, but the author gets it right for the most part. I like the fact that it doesn't deal damage.

The last paragraph is kind of a neat little addition.

weak keep

[Russ Morrissey]

Slightly odd, but in a good way. It doesn't blow me away with its awesomeness, but it seems solid.

Weak keep.

[Judy Bauer]

Not very exciting, but a useful item at a low price point. Being able to combine it with alchemical items adds versatility.

Weak keep.

[Tyler Cowart]

Thank you for the support, it means a lot to me.

It seems my moniker was used on the front page, Tyler Cowart is my real name, I'll see what I need to do to get that changed over.

[Steven Helt]

Full disclosure: Tyler Cowart is a personal friend of mine, and in my regular gaming group. Beyond basic critiques, I have nothing to do with his entry.

I like the jar because it kind of reminds me of the immovable rod, simple but useful for a variety of cool things. A battlefield control item is exactly whay I expect from Tyler.

Best of luck to you this, year my friend!

[Georgios Avate]

This item is really awesome!, Congrats and good luck!

[Jacob W. Michaels]

Congrats, Tyler. This was absolutely one of my favorite items that I saw while voting. Really thought it had a cool, fun ability with a lot of potential uses.

[Garrett Guillotte]

This one didn't make my like/keep lists, but I thought it was a fun item that was more balanced than it sounded on first glance. It seems to do quite a lot for the price--it might not do damage to people, but break it in a small enclosed space and it'll ruin your day--but the single-round effect tempers it a bit.

This does tickle my gonzo sense just a little, so I'll be looking forward to what you bring to the next round. Good luck!

[Monica Marlowe]

Congratulations and Good Luck in the next round!

[Mike Welham]

This is another item that grew on me as I saw it repeatedly during voting. At first, I thought this was an uninteresting item with a tacked on bit about alchemical items. Subsequent readings allowed me to realize that this had a lot of potential and the alchemical item inclusion really added to this potential. I promise to give your monster a bit more consideration when I first read it. :)

Good luck in the next round!

[frank gori]

I'll admit the name threw me on this item mostly because it was a little close to a 90's Christian band. Last paragraph indeed makes this entry.

Congrats and good luck

[Steven Helt]

"If I can't swim after forty days..."

[Thomas LeBlanc]

This was my favorite consumable. Battlefield control is always good. I was a bit thrown about mixing in an alchemical item though.

[Avatar-1]

Pretty cool alchemical consumable. I'm not sure what happens if the bad guy is packed into a corner, surrounded by enemies, and then hit with one of these? Hopefully nobody finds a reason to try that.

Difficult terrain is a cool addition.

[Kiel Howell]

I went back and forth on this. The name is absolutely brilliant.

At one point I loved this item because of its versatility and coolness and mojo-ness.

At one point I disliked it because it seemed to be too much for 600 gp to apply alchemical properties to it (Tanglefoot jar? Acid jar? Extract of XXX jar?)

But I wound up voting it up much more than I did down. Congrats and if you can manage to apply the same odd/fun/cool factor to your beastie then you'll be a shoe in for R3.

[Fern Herold]

These are weird, and fun. Instant pitcher's mound! Create a burst of cover for a second! Anything that opens up battlefield control to low-level characters is something I'm a fan of, so I love this item.

Congratulations, and best of luck in Round 2!

[Fiendish Dire Weasel]

Steven Helt wrote:

"If I can't swim after forty days..."

That song will be burned into my brain FOREVER.

[Curaigh]

Congratulations Tyler,

Earthbending for the win, I love the pushing pillar image this creates.

Good luck in R2!

[Oceanshieldwolf]

One of my favorites of the earth-moving items. I also like the appended alchemical utility at the end.

Not much else to say here - cool utility and flavorful erupting mound wave cinematics. Very fantastic.

Congratulations and let's see an equally groundbreaking monster and more! ;)

[Sean McGowan]

Another one that I saw way too few times during voting, because I'd have loved to contribute to its success more. My only real criticism is that, for me, the alchemical add-on effect was the big seller here, not the terrain modifier. I'd have loved a little more rules text expanding on that: when you lob one of these with, say, alchemist's fire, does the alchemical attack resolve separately? In other words, whoever takes a direct hit takes the fire damage for two rounds as normal? Or does the mound itself ignite so you can then topple the flaming mound onto someone?
Still, whatever the intended effect, I loved the versatility of this one. Good job, enjoy the contest.

[Kalervo Oikarinen]

I liked this one, should make for interesting situations on the battlefield.

Congrats!

[Joel Flank]

Never saw this in voting, but I like it - dirt bombs! I'm a fan of battlefield control effects as well as inexpensive consumables, so good job on both fronts.

As much as it's cool, I'm not quite sure how it combines with alchemical items. What happens if the jar is not a direct hit, or is targeted into a square and not a creature? Also, what happens if it hits a creature with a space larger than 5 feet, does it still affect it normally?

Finally, I felt that there was a missed opportunity to interact with elementals with the earth subtype, possibly healing them, or some other effect.

Overall, good job though, and I'm looking forward to your R2 monster.

[James Conder]

Battlefield control items are always fun, and this one’s no exception. I could certainly picture an earth-themed BBEG having a little arsenal of these and causing havoc! The combining alchemical properties adds some very interesting versatility as well.

I’m surprised theheadkase loves the name so much. I was unmoved. I think it should be called Tyler’s Tureen of Terrible Termite Mounds. Which probably makes my opinion null and void.