Arawn Chen's page

Here's my limb and I'm going out on it: I have absolutely no issues with "The Crazy Wizard Did It" scenarios. Like Clark said, it's tried and true and (more importantly) it's something we can all understand and accept from the very get go. As a GM, I don't have to spend a year and a half explaining to my players what the hell's going on. A lot of the time, they don't care anyways. The McGuffin is, ultimately, irrelevant to GETTING TO THE GAMING and if that's because the Crazy Wizard Did It or because this demon wants to rule the world, that's totally fine by me. When can I stab something? Personally, I think Owlbears are some of the most ridiculous creatures ever thought up (I'd be curious to see how an Owlbear equivalent would have fared in a Superstar contest today; maybe I'll enter next year with my "VultureLion" and see what happens...) but they're so ingrained in the system these days that they're almost...comforting.

I feel the same way about the use of the bugbears. It's an interesting alternative and what I think it could do to my players is create a sense of misplaced comfort. "Whew! Just a bunch of bugbears. This'll be easy... Uh, Paladin, did YOU just make a growling yummy sound??" Maybe it is a little forced (spoken parts of adventures has been done before but I've always been somewhat ambivalent about actually speaking them out loud in the past), but it's the effect of that forcefulness that I like. I'd totally use that.

I do think that some of this adventure possibly assumes too much, like Wes pointed out; we're walking, leaving footprints, etc. But on the other hand, if all of my party is flying then its up to me to figure out something to either bring them to the ground or engage them in the air. I realize that's not what this competition is about, but I guess since I'm so used to tweaking adventures to fit the party I know I'll be running with I don't mind that so much... I wonder, if an encounter was laid out allowing for every possible party configuration, would it be judged as too vague?

I love puzzles. So do my friends that I play with. Some people don't but I do, even if I suck at some of them. This one is difficult until you see the answer and then it's almost a forehead slapper. I love that. And there's a backdoor with the skill checks. I don't see a problem at all with it. Well done.

The map and the parts of the adventure dealing with terrain are missing some elements, I think. Precisely, why can't we just go the freak around? How far North and South does this chasm go? How deep is it? What's at the bottom? I think besides those details and some others, the map's what the map should have been at this point. It gives me the idea of the adventure and let the cartographer make it prettier, more detailed, an isometric drawing or a plan view or what-have-you. It's a fifty-foot bridge, it's ten feet from the bridge to the gatehouse. Got it. Next?

I certainly don't disagree that some opportunities were missed here and what is here could be cleaned up a little more, but I like so much of what Jesse's done already that I want him to continue on just to see what else he comes up with. Game on.

Personally, I think this entry is a very good stat block. Yes, there might be other monsters out there with CR6s that have a higher AC or HP or what-have-you but so what? Until you start implementing CR6.5s or or other fractions, there's bound to be some discrepancy between different creatures having the same challenge.

Someone mentioned leaving out a rancid breath ability but in reading over the original description I couldn't find mention of it in the powers and abilities; it's mentioned in its description, not unlike the keening wail. To me, this was the statistics writer picking one over the other; possibly because including it would have put it up over a CR6. Not a big deal to me.

I also feel like this description and its stats lend themselves to a really good in-game set-up and description. The fact is, minor errors aside, I WANT to use this monster in a campaign. I want to pit my players against a pack of these things and watch them cringe in fear. It'd be awesome.

There are some proofreading errors in the stat block but frankly I totally forgive them in favor of what it could do in my campaign.

This one gets my vote, mostly because I wanna see what Jesse comes up with to maybe tie all these together.

This thing is creepy as hell. It's got a kind of Invasion of the Body Snatchers feel to it while at the same time being a little humane. The added intelligence exploits my fear of smart zombies, too (which, may not grant you points with the JUDGES but definitely scares the pants off me).

Even worse than FIGHTING one would be SEEING it do its dirty work. As a DM, to describe to my players as they round the wrong corner at the wrong time to watch the town's "serial killer" they've been hunting strike again only to then either enter combat or watch it flee would be a real treat. Man, the adventures practically write themselves!

I also love how it can tie into a greater type of creature (namely, the intellect devourers) and how it could be incorporated into a larger campaign with very little problem. Very cool. Allows for a kind of internal "In case of smart PC, break glass" kind of aspect, too. Even if there's a class or particularly smart player who finds a way to kill off one or two of these things at a lower level, once you've gotten to mid or higher and track the Intellect Devourers to their lair in the sewers then you find TEN of these things to fight! Take that!

Well done.

Personally, I find intelligent hive mind creatures some of the most terrifying of those out there. Maybe it's cause I grew up on the first Jurassic Park movie...I dunno. An intelligent monster with a kind of poison and natural attacks to boot make me want even more to equip every character of mine with a fire-based weapon and a decanter of endless water (take THAT dehydration!). I don't mind the tail at all, really. If anything, it takes me further away from thinking of it as a snow tiger kind of creature. In fact, it might be interesting to set the encounter up that way: "Just beyond the curtain of falling snow, you spot what looks like a single large cat." And that's when the attack comes. Not from the Chaitrakhan in front of you... but from the two...you didn't even know were there...

I, too, kind of had a problem originally with the tail, but in retrospect, I think it adds to the otherness of the creature. For mid-level PCs to happen upon these things for the first time and realize they're actually NOT dire snow tigers (or whatever) could be a great game moment.

I totally dig the name, too. "Khan" is Indian (Hindi?) for tiger, I know that much (...thank you, Jungle Book). I could easily surmise that "Chaitra" could mean snow or frost or poison or freeze-dried, for that matter... That it's name is somehow derived from something familiar yet is so NOT familiar adds something for me. That some can't help but see an 80s pop star in it isn't personally a problem to me.

As for writing prowess (pun intended), I think it's spot on. Just enough information to keep me wanting to read on but also enough to give me a clear picture of what it is. Like someone much earlier noted, this is a final draft, not something he thought up on his lunch break. The writing reflects that. I DO think you misspelled, "blizzard", though...

This one wins for me, hands down.