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Sticky Pugfoot
Aura faint necromancy; CL 5th
Slot -; Price 8,000 gp; Weight 1 lb.
Description
This tiny mummified foot is taken from a pugwampi gremlin and still twitches on occasion in a desperate bid for sympathy. It comes attached to a weighted leather cord that looks as though it has been inexpertly mended on numerous occasions.
The foot exudes a permanent aura of unluck to a radius of 5 feet. Any creature in this area must roll two d20s whenever the situation calls for a d20 roll (such as attacks, skill checks and saving throws) and take the lowest of the two rolls. This is a mind-affecting effect that doesn't work on animals, gremlins and gnolls. Any creature under the effects of a luck bonus is immune to this aura.
The cord allows the foot to be thrown as a ranged touch attack against another creature with a range increment of 20 feet. If the attack is successful the foot becomes stuck to the target creature, requiring a move action to pull it off. If the attack misses, or the foot was simply thrown away, the foot immediately ends up stuck to the last creature that possessed it, usually wedged somewhere unexpected. The foot can also be put down carefully (but not dropped), handed to someone, or placed in their possession without them knowing (using Sleight of Hand for example). Whenever a creature that is affected by the aura comes into contact with the foot (including having it in their backpack) they become the last creature to possess it. If the foot ever ends up more than 100 feet away from the last creature that possessed it, it mysteriously reappears on their person.
Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, animate dead, bestow curse; Cost 4,000 gp
Twitching in a desperate bid for sympathy? I got a laugh out of that. Not simply because a pugwampi gremlin is enduring such humiliation, but rather it struck me as an ironic analogy for those seeking admission into the Top 32.
So, let's see what we've got. I like the aura of unluck. It's in keeping with the misery pugwampis inflict upon the world. I like the automatic exclusion of those under a luck bonus, too. That's a nice touch.
The descriptive text gets a bit wordy and convoluted in the last paragraph. And, as described, it brings me around to viewing this item a bit more as a cursed item than a wondrous item. Perhaps, obviously so, considering the bestow curse spell included in the construction requirements. But, the item conveys its aura of unluck in a 5 ft. radius, so it could also be used as an offensive weapon...not to mention hurling it as a ranged weapon. So, it's a bit more than just a cursed item.
It might also be viewed as a bit of a monster ability-in-a-can, though. Still, there seems to be enough mojo here from a creativity level...with perfect execution and attention-to-detail in using the provided template...that it might warrant further consideration. For now, I'm going to say...
...Keep
It's a monster ability in a can.
And no PC is going to want to carry this unless they have a luck bonus from something, and even then the other PCs are going to want the bearer to STAY AWAY. So the PC throws it at an enemy, the enemy gets killed as part of the combat... and the lucky PC carries it around again, annoying the other PCs.
As much as players hate pugwampis, GMs are going to hate this item because it turns the pugwampiness back on the GM's creatures.
But the clincher for me is that it's almost a cursed item--it's hard to get rid of.
I think the person has some talent, but they chose the wrong item. A good designer needs to recognize that some things are better left out of the game because they make the players and GM act like adversaries.
Weak reject.
Sean I hear everything you are saying and yet I still absolutely LOVE this. This is a wondrous item. Maybe I am biased because I love Mona's intro adventure for Legacy of Fire, which features the annoying creatures. But dang I love this thing! This would be annoying in a fun way.
Maybe I am easily impressed, but this is one of those things where I say "dang, why didn't I think of that!" Oh this is fiendish fun!
See, this, to me, is mojo galore.
KEEP
Then put it in the keep pile, your honor. :)
This is a cursed, plot device, monster item.
I recommend that you do not vote for this designer.
Ryan, you are right, yet I love it.
Nice. This is well-written, especially the brief but flavor-oozing first sentence. And it will create lots of unusual, funny situations both inside of combat and outside of it, which is a rarity. The rules are well-written (I appreciate that you defined “last creature to possess” precisely), which is a necessity to properly enable the shenanigans. The one omission is that it’s not clear whether a newly afflicted creature knows that their luck is being damaged. I don’t know exactly how much rolling 2d20 take lowest affects your probabilities, btw, but my suspicion is that it’s quite significant.
It’s true that no PC would want to carry this all the time, but that’s what hirelings are for. The potential to slip this into the bag of a powerful foe before a confrontation or otherwise employ it for planning and sabotage is very high, and the people I play with would use and abuse it all day long with malicious glee.
Welcome to the Top 32!
I love the opening line. In fact, it's one of my favourite bits of descriptive text amongst this year's 32.
Unfortunately, I do not like the actual mechanics of the item. To me, it is first a cursed item that a player might be able to turn into a offensive tool later. I wonder if the thrower suffers the 2d20 curse while throwing the foot, making it less likely to land on another target. Of course there are ways around this (have the ranger's falcon carry it around), but how often will a party be built to properly handle it?
It's definitely a clever and flavourful item, but not quite a usable wondrous item to me.
Good luck with your organisation. I'm hoping for another cracker of an opening line.
What I like:
The first sentence just, literally, made me laugh out loud. Poor little pugwampi!
What I love:
This is skirting right up against the outskirts of being a cursed item; but I don't think it actually crosses that line. I mean, I doubt I'd relish having one on me, but it can clearly be useful to someone owning it as long as they make sure and pass the hot potato at the start of a combat. Whether I bother to pick it up again after combat is another issue, but I suspect there's a breed of players out there who'd do exactly that and absolutely love this item.
What needs a little sumptin' sumptin'...
I think there should be something in the write-up about ways to get rid of it without just passing it on to the next poor schnook. I realize you were coming up against the word limit here, but I'd really have liked to know if, say remove curse can set an owner free from the horrors of the foot. Or can it just be destroyed? I would have liked to see a rule for how to get rid of it without just having it be a hot potato.
All in all...
This is cute enough that, in spite of the fact that I'd almost never want one of these as a player (though as a DM I might get a kick out of inflicting it on my group...) I really love this little thingy. Anti-rabbit foot for the win! Congratulations and welcome to RPG Superstar!
edited to add...
It’s true that no PC would want to carry this all the time, but that’s what hirelings are for.
Sam, you're a sick, sick man.
Thanks for the feedback guys, it really is facinating to see how the item was judged.
Anti-rabbit foot for the win!
The anti-rabbit foot is exactly what I had in mind! :-)
Make the most of the opportunity, Andrew. This is the first year an alternate has been called up since the inaugural competition back in 2008. Russ Taylor was one of those alternates and he went on to place in the Top 6. So, it's anyone's game once you get into the competition. You just need to bring the awesome and win over the voters with your organization and take it from there. Best of luck to you. All eyes are on you... ;-)
Make the most of the opportunity, Andrew. This is the first year an alternate has been called up since the inaugural competition back in 2008. Russ Taylor was one of those alternates and he went on to place in the Top 6. So, it's anyone's game once you get into the competition. You just need to bring the awesome and win over the voters with your organization and take it from there. Best of luck to you. All eyes are on you... ;-)
I must have put my own sticky pugfoot in a heavy lead box if I got that lucky! All my focus is on the organisation now; I have an idea, I just need to think it through. Thanks
This seems more like a cursed item to me, and I would not buy it as a player, double-no.
Congrats are still in order since the judges gave you a thumbs up. :)
I kinda like it.
While I hate to see anybody drop out of the contest, in this case I'm consoled because the twitchy little pugfoot gets through. I loved this item and would have been distraught to see it languish as an alternate.
While I hate to see anybody drop out of the contest, in this case I'm consoled because the twitchy little pugfoot gets through. I loved this item and would have been distraught to see it languish as an alternate.
I'm curious what it was about this item that made you think it was worthy of being in the round of 32? Is it purely the mayhem and mirth it would potentially create in a game session? Of all the submissions this one seemed to play that card, a strategy that could have easily backfired. Maybe I don't see it but was there a chord that it struck that stands out over other jokey submissions?
I'm curious what it was about this item that made you think it was worthy of being in the round of 32? Is it purely the mayhem and mirth it would potentially create in a game session? Of all the submissions this one seemed to play that card, a strategy that could have easily backfired. Maybe I don't see it but was there a chord that it struck that stands out over other jokey submissions?
I didnt consider this a jokey submission. Believe me, I've seen them and this is not one.
This isn't the best item from some standpoints--its borderline cursed and borderline monster in a can.
BUT I felt it rose above those things.
You know why I like this? Because it is FUN.
You said it best: "mayhem and mirth." That is at times what our game is about. And a designer who gets that and who knows how to bring that is the kind of designer I want to give a shot to. Designing tight, rules perfect items that are stale don't excite me. Yes, I concede their technically excellent craftsmanship. But I'll take a flawed submission with heart and mojo and that shows all those things about our game we all play that I love--pure fun at the game table. This designer seems to have that. So I say, give the guy a shot in the contest!
That was my thinking anyway :)
Agreed. The writing is very good and while not perfect, it is very creative and fun. Actually, one of my favorites this round. It appeals to my own oddball sense of creativity.
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 6
,
Dedicated Voter Season 6
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Welcome to the competition! I happily pass on the torch of "last competing RPG Superstar alternate" to you, and wish you best of luck in the rest of the contest. You too could be working on two books on a Tuesday night :)
(Hmm. That's a lot of 2s!)
I'm amused that the price is so high for something that nobody would ever WANT to buy (perhaps it could come attached to 4,000 gp? Like a piece of gum in a pack of baseball cards?), but the flavor of this item is really great. The abundance of parentheses in the last paragraph was a little much for me, but overall a good showing.
What a roller coaster of a day for you! You're in, but as an alternate and what are the odds of someone...hey, wait, you've made it! Congrats and enjoy the ride!
Cleaver, you've just described the life of a freelancer. Get used to the rollercoaster, Andrew.
Oh, and Russ, that was nice of you to post :) From alternate to top 6 to actual freelancer. He is the man, and that could be you, Andrew.
The game is afoot, as they say...
I'm really glad this item made it into the contest, it's just plain FUN and having fun is the point of getting the game group together on Friday nights. Great job Andrew!
While I hate to see anybody drop out of the contest, in this case I'm consoled because the twitchy little pugfoot gets through. I loved this item and would have been distraught to see it languish as an alternate.I'm curious what it was about this item that made you think it was worthy of being in the round of 32? Is it purely the mayhem and mirth it would potentially create in a game session? Of all the submissions this one seemed to play that card, a strategy that could have easily backfired. Maybe I don't see it but was there a chord that it struck that stands out over other jokey submissions?
Well, Clark (the actual judge who helped put this into the top 32 as opposed to my purely spectator/commentator self) already replied with a lot of what I would have said. But I'll reiterate.
First- there is a big difference between a 'jokey' submission and a 'fun' one. Jokey, to me, implies gag item; if having a pugwampi foot attached to you made you smell like bad feet and your character was no longer able to get good seats in restaurants as a result, then it's a gag item and not worth consideration.
This, on the other hand, is fun without being the game equivalent of a rubber chicken and seltzer bottle. Like I said above, the very first line put a smile on my face, and not from Family Guy style humor; it gave this item a very distinct personality from the start. That, in my book, is pretty high class writing. The item was immediately fun to read as a result. Now, personal preferences come into play here, as they do with any subjective review of an item; I'm personally inclined towards things that bring some humor to the table without going overboard into gag territory. I mean, literally inclined towards; the item that got me into the contest back in 2010 was a wind-up monkey that, I like to think, carried a lot of the same fun overtones as this item does. So, personally, it hit a really strong opening note. It might not for someone else, but you have to allow for the fact that people will be drawn towards different things.
There are a lot of different styles of items that get in for a wide variety of reasons, this year and every year. Some items are really well written and evocative, from start to finish, while having satisfactory but not brilliant game effects. Some items are a lot more of a dry read, but do something really brilliant and clever. Some items are purely okay in terms of both writing and powers, but are really, really presented well, showing the writer's design abilities. But there is no item that's super strong in one category and falls completely flat in another; lopsided design shows, and isn't Superstar.
So, the sticky pugfoot, while having a strong theme & personality, doesn't end it's run at RPG Superstar there; it builds on it with abilities that, while potentially irritating to players at the table, are still well thought out and creative in use. If this was just a severed foot that you hung on your backpack and allowed you to, once per day, point at someone and give them bad luck, it wouldn't make it. if it were a cursed item that gave you bad luck with no potential benefit, it wouldn't make it.
Instead, Andrew strikes a balance with it, making it a luck-based hot potato that, ideally, an owner will try and foist off on an (literally) unlucky opponent at the start of combat. Now, what kind of style of player would use that? Presumably you'd be willingly taking a hit on skill checks for all the non-combat portions of your day (though there's still ways around that, if you have prep time) in return for hosing one opponent when the fighting starts. Even then, you have to succeed at a ranged touch attack, which of course usually favors the attacker, but it's not a sure thing. Miss, and you're the one who's hosed. So you're going to have to be a fairly gung-ho player who's willing to take risks. I feel pretty certain that there are a lot of players out there that fall into that category. I don't know that I'm even one of them, (though I might be; I had a blast playing a wild mage back in a 2E game once upon a time, even when something went very wrong and I wound up filling the battlefield with a swarm of rotten fish.) but in evaluating the 'fun' potential of this item (and the other items I got to review), I wasn't examining solely from my point of view, but trying to establish if an item had potential appeal to a reasonable segment of players. And I think this does.
And even besides that, potential appeal isn't always the point of a submission; like the judges always say, they're casting a net for design potential, not just a pack of items that could fit into the next book of wondrous items. Andrew here hit a number of right chords; higher marks in some areas than others, maybe, but he showed a broad enough range of skills that I have no question at all he's worthy of the top 32. I'm not defending his selection; he doesn't need defending. The judges picked him & he's earned his slot. But you did ask for my reasoning and opinion, so there it is. Hopefully it makes sense and isn't too rambling-prone.
I should be writing my organisation really, but I just wanted to comment on the pugfoot being a cursed item as that crossed my mind when creating it:
1. Give it to the heavy fighter and cast prayer on him. Any enemy standing adjacent to the fighter in melee suffers the effects, but the fighter doesn't.
2. Have the archer throw it at the enemy just before the casters unload control spells.
3. Sneak it into a rivals pack before a confrontation and he'll have no idea what's going on. You couldn't just place it in his house because of the distance, so there would be some risk attempting this. As soon as the target picks up his pack he takes possession. A thief could even reverse pickpocket it during combat, which was the reference to Sleight of Hand included in the description.
4. It can easily be handed around the party to free people up if they plan ahead.
In fact I was more concerned that the item was too powerful, especially if carried by someone with a Luckstone or used by a smart party. The balance was intended to be that the person carrying the item is affected outside combat even if they use it advantageously in combat. If I'd had more words for the submission I'd have stated that a Luckstone negates the effects if carried by the same person, lucky stone - unlucky foot, although that still makes it an effective thrown weapon or tactical device.
It is a lot like a cursed item, sure, but I do agree it sounds like it could be a fun one. I've tried building a character around using cursed items on enemies, and this is an item that he would have loved to have. Several of them, in fact.
Still, a lot of other characters would probably want to get rid of this item as quickly as possible. Which might be a good thing - because they could find it on an enemies body, and not realize the effects until after it's been identified...
So, I think I like this item. I'm just not totally sure yet. Good work regardless, and you clearly don't have one on your person, you lucky alternate, you.
I would never want this item. As a GM, I would never give it to a player because I don't want to deal with the headache from it.
I play with a guy who would love it. I am showing it to annother GM because he might give it to that player.
When I look at this, I see it as being likely to get tossed by a player before its potential is discovered. It's value depends on how much the GM is willing to reveal about it.
If a character picked this out of the treasure and was suddenly required to take the lower of two D20 rolls, the only thing on their mind would be "How do I get rid of this?" I think it would take full player/character knowledge of the item (by reading its full description) for its value to actually be explored.
So I can see players wanting to craft or purchase it, just not hold onto it if discovered.
I think he was trying to channel the mummy cat thing from a couple years ago. This is definitely not as creepy but sounds like a lot of fun, especially sticking it on someone without them knowing. That last paragraph was a little "thick", maybe could have used a re-write. Can't imagine having more than one of these in a game.
Good luck.
Sticky Pugfoot
Aura faint necromancy; CL 5th
Slot -; Price 8,000 gp; Weight 1 lb.
Description
This tiny mummified foot is taken from a pugwampi gremlin and still twitches on occasion in a desperate bid for sympathy. It comes attached to a weighted leather cord that looks as though it has been inexpertly mended on numerous occasions.The foot exudes a permanent aura of unluck to a radius of 5 feet. Any creature in this area must roll two d20s whenever the situation calls for a d20 roll (such as attacks, skill checks and saving throws) and take the lowest of the two rolls. This is a mind-affecting effect that doesn't work on animals, gremlins and gnolls. Any creature under the effects of a luck bonus is immune to this aura.
The cord allows the foot to be thrown as a ranged touch attack against another creature with a range increment of 20 feet. If the attack is successful the foot becomes stuck to the target creature, requiring a move action to pull it off. If the attack misses, or the foot was simply thrown away, the foot immediately ends up stuck to the last creature that possessed it, usually wedged somewhere unexpected. The foot can also be put down carefully (but not dropped), handed to someone, or placed in their possession without them knowing (using Sleight of Hand for example). Whenever a creature that is affected by the aura comes into contact with the foot (including having it in their backpack) they become the last creature to possess it. If the foot ever ends up more than 100 feet away from the last creature that possessed it, it mysteriously reappears on their person.
Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, animate dead, bestow curse; Cost 4,000 gp
This post constitutes the views of a (very advanced) CE aligned succubus. Being such, Ask A RPGSupersuccubus is at complete liberty to change her mind on anything without giving any notice whatsoever. For those of you who missed last year (or as a reminder for those whose memories have failed) Ask A RPGSupersuccubus subscribes absolutely to balance, fairness, and logic in these reviews – in the sense that balance is what a couple of mortals on opposite ends of a plank pivoted on a rocky spire above a drop of several hundred feet into a pool of molten basalt frantically try to do, fairness is a term used to assess hair coloration and logic is something which proves anything a demon of adequate status and charm requires it to demonstrate.
Fair is foul and foul is fair supposedly . Basically, though, does this item have any useful application in a spa?
A mummified pugwampi foot? No.
Assuming for a moment that it’s more convenient to pay taxes than to circumvent the system, does this item look likely to be a tax-deductible business expense for a succubus art-dealer?
Possibly. (See 'Other Comments' below.)
Is the item useful in a strawberries-and-cream-tea context?
Take a mummified pugwampi foot on a romantic date? Again, no.
Other Comments?
I'm almost tempted to revive last year's evil laughter rating for this insidiously powerful insanely cheap item. You put it on a bodyguard, and equip aforementioned bodyguard (if you're feeling generous) with an item which negates the unluck aura. Now the bodyguard doesn't suffer the penalties, but anyone that the (optionally expendable) hunk of muscle is in the immediate vicinity of, going toe-to-toe with is potentially at risk. (Unless, of course, they have aura negating items, too, but let's face it, a canny succubus has already cornered the supply side of such items and is thus making a huge profit before she even starts fitting out minions with these.) Oh, and it allows sophisticated bodyguards, capable of learning lines, to narrow their eyes and growl something along the lines of: 'The question you should be asking yourself, is do I feel lucky today? Because I feel exceptionally lucky, but you, my amigo, are in more trouble than you know if you don't...'
Gollum Rating:
The question you should be asking yourself, is do I feel lucky today?
Nice!
You know, I like this idea, and if he had enough words, I'm sure Andrew would have gone on to clarify the item a bit more, such as removing the item via remove curse. The only other thing that I really wonder about, is if the item can be stored in an extradimensional space, like a Bag of Holding or a Handy Haversack? If stored, does the unlucky aura still affect others? If it doesn't, is it considered within 100 ft of the possessor? If it can be stored and it can't mysteriously reappear in the possessors items, then this would be an easy way to mitigate the aura, especially in my party because they all consider Handy Haversacks as the singularly most useful item ever created.
Of the items I've read so far, this is the most likely to actually make it into one of my games. It's also an excellent talking point for why the narrowly-defined wondrous item design task may not be the best way to find new design talent - because one can easily argue labeling this as a cursed item, yet it's very innovative, simple, and fun to imagine bringing into play.
(The reverse-rabbit-foot theme reminds me of an episode of Supernatural where Dean finds the ultimate good luck charm - but if the owner throws it away or loses it, his luck becomes so terrible that he'll eventually die from his misfortune.)
Despite it not being cool for the player that has it, the rest of the party will love it - most of the time. The twitchy foot is awesome. :)
You know, I like this idea, and if he had enough words, I'm sure Andrew would have gone on to clarify the item a bit more, such as removing the item via remove curse. The only other thing that I really wonder about, is if the item can be stored in an extradimensional space, like a Bag of Holding or a Handy Haversack? If stored, does the unlucky aura still affect others? If it doesn't, is it considered within 100 ft of the possessor? If it can be stored and it can't mysteriously reappear in the possessors items, then this would be an easy way to mitigate the aura, especially in my party because they all consider Handy Haversacks as the singularly most useful item ever created.
If I was being mean I'd say that having a Pugfoot in your haversack meant that every time you went to retrieve an item from it you got the foot first, unlucky! But that would make it a truly cursed item and so yes, an extra-dimensional space should work fine. To be honest so would a well made, well sealed thick lead box, although that would be heavy and require an extra action to open in combat.
Allowing it to be left in odd boxes and haversacks does make the PCs day a little more risky though:
GM - "You find a well used haversack made of tan leather with brass buckles"
PC - "Awesome! I stick my hand inside, anything there?"
GM - "Unlucky!"
Also I cannot stop thinking about a peg-legged pugwampi left to die and hell-bent for revenge.
"I am Nugaz Phaq. You kill my foots. Prepare to die."
If I get to round 5... :-)
You know, I like this idea, and if he had enough words, I'm sure Andrew would have gone on to clarify the item a bit more, such as removing the item via remove curse. The only other thing that I really wonder about, is if the item can be stored in an extradimensional space, like a Bag of Holding or a Handy Haversack? If stored, does the unlucky aura still affect others? If it doesn't, is it considered within 100 ft of the possessor? If it can be stored and it can't mysteriously reappear in the possessors items, then this would be an easy way to mitigate the aura, especially in my party because they all consider Handy Haversacks as the singularly most useful item ever created.If I was being mean I'd say that having a Pugfoot in your haversack meant that every time you went to retrieve an item from it you got the foot first, unlucky! But that would make it a truly cursed item and so yes, an extra-dimensional space should work fine. To be honest so would a well made, well sealed thick lead box, although that would be heavy and require an extra action to open in combat.
Allowing it to be left in odd boxes and haversacks does make the PCs day a little more risky though:
GM - "You find a well used haversack made of tan leather with brass buckles"
PC - "Awesome! I stick my hand inside, anything there?"
GM - "Unlucky!"
It might be fun to have any item pulled from an extra dimensional space that contains a sticky pugfoot to have a chance that the pugfoot is "wedged somewhere unexpected" on that item.
I could add this item to my Friday night campaign and give you feedback on how it was received in our game group, if you're interested?
That would be very interesting. I've run through any number of scenarios in my head, but I can never truly create the reactions of a group of different people. I only play PFS locally, so I can't introduce it myself.
The pugfoot seems to be a Marmite like item; people either love it or hate it! But so long as they remember it I'll be happy...
Congratulations, and good luck further on.
I won't to make it through a lot of entries right now, so I'm afraid this will be kind of quick.
Analysis
Name: This must be the first name I really don't like. "Pugfoot" is the essence of why. I could kind of maybe guess it might be Pugwampi related, but that doesn't mean I like an impromptu monster name shortening. Also "Sticky" seems just a little silly.
Template: I think you´r "-" for the slot should have been an emdash (longer), or two -- or "none". I'm not sure, I can't quite decide if it looks a little short.
Effect: It's clever, but a little simple. And really, it's going to annoy people insane. It's probably also a monster ability, and a cursed item, but it is a neat idea.
Description: Looks fine. I don't see clear excess words. Work on a little less use of (...) for details, try to make your sentences simpler if this proves hard to do with your current sentence length.
Overall: I'm not among the fans, but I can see where you got the idea and why you chose it. That said, you'll need to amaze me a lot more to get a vote from here.
Good luck.
Also "Sticky" seems just a little silly.
Ah yes, I can tell you exactly where that came from. One of the ideas I had in the back of my head when creating this item is a scene from Tintin where Captain Haddock finds he has a sticking plaster (band-aid) attached to him and he can't seem to get rid of it. I've found part of the sequence here:
At other points in the sequence it looks like he got rid of it but on the next panel it's stuck to the back of his jacket, or shoe. I think at one point it gets stuck to Snowy's nose as well.
Its been about 20 years since I read the books and that scene is still in my head. The Sticky part of the name is my homage to that.
Thanks for the feedback, good or bad, I appreciate it all.
Congratulations Andrew,
Especially for being the first alternate since Year One to advance! I think the strongest aspect of your submission is the mugwampi-ness of it. Way to capture a part of Golarian into an item. The 2d20 is a simple mechanic my players love to use, so I am sure many of them will like to have its reverse as well. And yes, I expect it to be in a bag of holding until the scout gets his spring attack :) Nice job and good luck!
That would be very interesting. I've run through any number of scenarios in my head, but I can never truly create the reactions of a group of different people.
I added the sticky pugfoot to the game last night, as expected the party gave it to the player that made the least d20 rolls (lvl. 8 Witch) and the rest of the party gave that character a 5' buffer for the rest of the adventure. However, they did not choose to store it away in a haversack as they wanted to keep quick access to it if needed. That player never used the pugfoot in combat, simply because of economy of action, at lvl. 8 the Witch had too many useful spells for the pugfoot to be a viable option for a standard action in the encounters they faced. There was also concern that any attempt to throw it at a target would result in a poor roll that caused the pugfoot to be lost and they wanted to save it for the encounter with the big bad guy and use it against him (in time they'll learn that they can't lose it that way). It did create planning among the party and I suspect it will have an impact on the final encounter in the current campaign.
All in all, it was well received by the group and not viewed as a cursed item. The group has a plan to use it against a certain foe and it wasn't stored away to prevent the negative effect of the lower 2d20 during the course of adventuring even when a trap almost caught that character as a result. It does seem that it would be used more at a lower party level than our current campaign, and by that I do not mean that it would be more useful, simply that it would be used more as it would stack up better against the options for a lower level character. Hope the feedback helps, looking forward to seeing your Faction in the next round. Again, great job on the sticky pugfoot Andrew.
I can just picture the party rogue sneaking among the party's enemies to quietly attach one of these to a bad guy, all the while hoping said bad guy never notices it. This item has such an unusual and intriguing blend of benefits and penalties that I see a lot of amusing role-playing moments coming from it.
I like the connection to the goblin tribe, and the item's description. Really good visuals, and something that will confuse the heck out of characters when it is first discovered.
Good job!
This is a great entry. Great flavor, cool concept, good attention to detail, seems like it would be fun in play... all really good stuff. That said, I wouldn't allow this item at my table.
The utility of forcing rerolls on a 5-foot radius at this price is outrageous. Sneaky methods aside, simply throwing this thing on a fighter and having him base the BBEG would make just about any climactic battle vastly easier. It's not prohibitively difficult to get a luck bonus, and it'd certainly be worth doing for an effect this powerful. I see this turning into one of a party's most essential assets over time; it gets even more powerful as save-or-die spells become a bigger deal.
All that for 8,000 gp, which is the same price as an amulet of natural armor +2 or a hand of glory. I might allow this as some kind of consumable or a total plot device item, but as written, I'd never sign off on it, and that's a design failure.
I don't mean to be harsh about this item, but I criticize because I want to be helpful. This is one of the best item ideas of this year's batch, and you've clearly got creativity that will generate great stuff in future rounds. I honestly don't want to see you get eliminated later due to weakness on the mechanical side of your entries. So, my advice is to watch out for balance issues a lot more carefully in the future.
Good luck.
I added the sticky pugfoot to the game last night, as expected the party gave it to the player that made the least d20 rolls (lvl. 8 Witch) and the rest of the party gave that character a 5' buffer for the rest of the adventure. However, they did not choose to store it away in a haversack as they wanted to keep quick access to it if needed. That player never used the pugfoot in combat, simply because of economy of action, at lvl. 8 the Witch had too many useful spells for the pugfoot to be a viable option for a standard action in the encounters they faced.
Thanks, I really appreciate you trying that out. I was concerned that the Pugfoot would come to dominate the game, being so overpowered it became the de facto first action by the PCs. I could also see the PC carrying it calling on the cleric for a Prayer at the beginning of every single encounter and so dominating play for two characters at the table. That the Pugfoot didn't get used that way is very reassuring! I'd prefer the item to be slightly underpowered than over.
I find it interesting that the Witch carried it around openly. Carried like that the Witch was clearly using it as a defensive item, as it would mess up any raging half orc barbarians wielding greataxes that charged him/her. Conversely it would be a real problem if faced with Drow firing poisoned crossbows or Wizards with AoE or SoD spells. It's a calculated risk, and I'm glad the Witch decided to make it, especially given s/he had a haversack as an alternative. The defensive bonus may have also contributed to the Witch choosing not to use it offensively in combat.
In response to Owlbearrepublic I've had a quick scan through the posts again I've come up with the following tally:
Think it's cursed: 4
Think it's overpowered: 2
That's quite a difference of opinion (from cursed to overpowered) and just goes to show how much perception varies between players.
Thanks also to Russ for the support; I think I missed your post in my heady state of excitement!